123BP

Interesting he said this in this interview because his answer on an interview on TVInsider was a little less clear about who wrote the letter: Nell used subterfuge to bring Sam and Callen to Morocco for the mission to rescue Hetty. Was the letter from Hetty but the “side project” bit from Nell, or was it all Nell? That was basically Nell’s way of getting our boys to Morocco to help Hetty because they had wanted to go earlier, but Kilbride [Gerald McRaney] had sort of put the kibosh on that. So the whole plan was, Nell sort of got them under some sort of a little bit of false pretenses because Hetty was theoretically in trouble, but it was also a good excuse to bring back Nell and Sabatino and Nate and the young man who was there was actually Chris O’Donnell’s real son. https://www.tvinsider.com/1093566/ncis-la-series-finale-kensi-pregnant-callen-sam-rescue-hetty-nell/ Maybe Gemmill didn't know who wrote the letter. It wouldn't be the first time there was confusion in one of the episodes. I find his explanation--Hetty leaving a note with Nell, who was in Japan last we knew--pretty far out there. If she was gonna leave a note, why not leave it at OSP or with Sam or Kilbride? No matter who wrote it, it was impersonal and not the kind of note a mother would write to her "son" on his wedding day imo.

I found the finale meh. Too much time spent on the case nobody cared about. Switch and Mr. Carl should've gone undercover, not Switch with Nina--an unimportant character. Callen & Sam going undercover would've brought the show full circle--they went undercover in the very first episode. The letter wasn't from Hetty. It was from Nell (that's according to Gemmill), so the letter's message meant zilch. It was really impersonal anyway--a cliche statement about "family." The wedding was, like 3 minutes. All those scenes in earlier episodes about planning it were a waste (Gemmill planned on dragging the wedding planning stuff out in season 15--they weren't going to be married this season until the show was cancelled). OMG, and Arkady and Roberta would've been the worst! They would never be a couple, but Gemmill would do anything to make Arkady Deeks' father-in-law because there's no way he'd do any storylines about Callen and Arkady--even though Arkady is Callen's oldest friend and married to Arkady's daughter. (It seemed like Gemmill never liked Callen. That effort to make Pembrook into a guy who was sorry for what he did and suggested Sam as his partner was one of the the dumbest things ever.) Liked the characters, but the show's direction after season 8 has been way off.

This review said pretty much what I thought and it made me wonder if the budget for the show has been cut. https://ncislarandomthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/10/season-14-episode-4-dead-stick.html

Like last week's episode, not much of a case, but it mostly made sense. I miss having interesting cases, but there were some things I liked. What I liked most in this episode were the Callen & Anna scenes, especially the last one. They're good together. They seem very comfortable & natural as a couple imo. I hope that her mentioning Pembroke (and the earlier flashback) wasn't foreshadowing trouble for Callen down the line). Missed Sam, but like Callen & Deeks and Fatima & Kensi. Liked the action scenes, but wish the guys had had more to do than just talk. Everything & everyone still seems too casual to be working a case. There doesn't seem to be any urgency in their voices or body language. Didn't understand why Ladd was in this episode And who were the guys Fatima let out of the vault at the end? Next week those body stitchers are back. That was a creepy episode.

Yikes! Having a boring premiere is never a good idea. I found this episode super boring. I didn't mind the short scene with Rosa or the one between Sam and his dad, but the scene between Callen and Fatima came off as forced. First, she was being nosy, and second, those wedding theme ideas were so, so, SO awful. Fairy tale? For Callen? OMG, she doesn't know Callen at all--or Anna. And the case was a snooze fest. Plus the sniper scene was stupid: Deeks turns his back to a suspect AND puts on noise reduction ear muffs? I also didn't get why the bad guys drove their van filled with explosives into a shipping container at the end. Wouldn't there be a better target on a military base? Still like the cast, but the writing sucks. I would've loved to see this. I also agree that the writers need to try and stop FORCING stuff on viewers--like different partner pairings--that viewers don't want. They should stick with the old adage: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I don't think that scene was about viewers believing Anna had been shot. I think it was about whether Callen believed Anna had been shot, and with all the deep fake stuff, it was a 50-50 chance that was the "real" Anna. I didn't think she'd been shot. The episode was awesome, maybe the best episode this season. I missed not having Eve Harlow as Katya, but it is what it is. Everybody else did a terrific job, especially O'Donnell and LL. They are really good partners. And Joelle was back and helped the team and took out Katya (karma). And Kilbride was so calm and didn't make have any sarcastic comments (maybe because Deeks was missing). I liked that he was in Guatemala and not at the courthouse. The only thing that I might have done differently was not have Katya use another shipping container as a prison, but other than that, I liked everything else. The deep fake stuff was weird and sort of creepy, but it's even creepier that it really exists. Not sure I believe this. Callen might've been playing her. After Callen marries Anna, I wonder if he'll still go after Pembrook.

I'm in the minority here because I liked the Callen portion of this episode. It's different from the search for his family (that ended when he met Nikita, and then Alex and Jake). For the first time in awhile I'm interested in where a storyline goes. I hope the writers let him move ahead with Anna even if this Drona storyline goes into season 14. And I think the conversation (s) between Callen and Hetty once she returns to the show in season 14 could be really special. Loved seeing Nate again. This show really needs a resident operational psychiatrist. The scenes between Callen and Nate made the whole episode worthwhile. I hope he meets with Callen again because they have a great doctor-patient-friend vibe. Callen really started to loosen up and share things with Nate. And Chris O'Donnell was terrific. It's been too long since Callen's had scenes like this. Hope he has more scenes like these in season 14. The case with the Iranian scientist was boring. It seemed like it was a reason to bring Ali back (not interested in Fatima starting a relationship or Rountree). The writer moved the Densi adoption storyline forward (I think they're going to adopt her friend Pilar). The adoption stuff didn't interfere with the main storyline, so it wasn't as annoying as it has been in other episodes. I think the Sam-father storyline will be good, but to be honest I'm looking forward to the episode on May 15 that continues this Callen storyline.

Switch is still a viable uc persona? In somebody's dreams. lol

What an awful episode.

😁 Callen is a character I found really interesting when I started watching the show in 2009. I thought the same, but then "Imposter Syndrome" was more than 10 episodes ago, and since then Callen's been focused on being Subject 17, finding Katya and Hetty, and trying to get information from other proteges of Hetty, so maybe Callen just forgot about the deep fake. Besides, in "Imposter" the deep fake was only being developed, it hadn't actually been used and Callen's voice hadn't been added to it. It seems this might have been the first time it's actually been used to impersonate Callen. He was but I still didn't like him, and it's not a shock for a good-looking (even a successful) guy to resort to sexual assault or rape in real life.

I can see where you're confused if you've only started watching NCISLA recently. Callen's story was one of the things that attracted me to the series in the beginning. No, he doesn't have an evil twin. lol That's a computer-generated deep fake (introduced in "Imposter Syndrome" episode). His original backstory worked: he was born in Romania to an American mom & Russian dad, saw his mom murdered when he was 5 (about), sent to America with his older sister, they got separated & she drowned in an accident, he spent his youth in foster homes until he was 18, & later worked for the DEA, CIA, FBI, & finally NCIS. He was always a loner & moved around. He finally met his real dad & learned his name in season 7, & knows pretty much all about his family (he also has a half-sister & nephew). Anna, his girlfriend, is the daughter of one of Callen's oldest friends--an ex-KGB agent, Arkady Kolcheck, who's a womanizing charmer. Since Gemmill took over as showrunner, he's been making changes to Callen's backstory--and most of the changes have been pointless & some have been way out of character from the original character developed by Brennan. The latest change is that he learned in "Subject 17" that he was part of a CIA-funded program to identify children who might be useful as operatives, and that Hetty, his boss at NCIS, was involved in the program. This is a big deal because Hetty's always been like a mother to him (she was partly responsible for his mom's murder). Also, Katya is a Russian operative who's out to get revenge on Anna (& Callen, it seems) because Anna tricked her in an op back in season 10 or 11 ("The One That Got Away" was the episode with Katya & it was really good). This is probably more than you wanted to know. 😁

Maybe, but if the project was being run by the CIA in the 1970s & 1980s, the planning for it would have been earlier. There's no telling what he knew or what Hetty told him before their mission to SE Asia which was probably in 1974 or even later since their mission was to rescue covert operators from Laos & Vietnam who were left behind when the US pulled out. The timeline is tight but possible.

I actually enjoyed this episode more than most this season. Yes, there was STILL a baby story, but at least it wasn't the ONLY story. I'm more interested in who's behind the "deep fake" than in seeing Densi become parents because that story line's been dragged out since season 10 or 11. I'm so over it. Maybe they should just be happy with Monty. Anna has been with Callen all along. It's just the writers weren't interested in showing them together or any of their conversations after "Noble Maidens" which was really stupid. There have been comments about her and Callen made by some of the other characters (to let us know she was around), but TPTB made a big mistake imo by not having scenes between them. It's not surprising people wonder where she's been when her last appearance was almost a year ago. TPTB have a hard time with continuing story lines unless they're about a baby. One of the most important things said on their walk on the beach was when Anna asked Callen what made him feel safe and he said, "You do." I almost missed that. Liked that Nate was back and hope we see him again, next time with Callen. Dislike Kilbride a lot. His comments about the team are juvenile and sound like something you'd hear in middle school. Hetty might have been secretive, but she wasn't as petty or obnoxious as Kilbride. Won't see Anna or Nate in the next 3 episodes. Still wonder if Callen has the ring he bought for Anna back in season 12. Didn't miss Sam much. The case was so simple there wouldn't have been a lot for him to do. Like this review. https://ncislarandomthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/03/all-little-things-season-13-episode-11.html

I like her in Ops. I also think it's amazing that she can do the work of BOTH Nell and Beale.

The reason Callen and Rountree were absent was a joke: both agents just happen to need the same day off during the work week to talk to their sisters (who both live in L.A.) and Kilbride gives them the time because talking to their sisters after work or on the weekend just wouldn't work. And then he doesn't call either of them back in when Kensi goes missing? lol And Kensi was in danger--again--and of course, there was a heartwarming, emotional Densi reunion--again. Kilbride's attention to Fatima is sort of creepy.