S11.E20: Knock Down

[thewhiteowl]

The team assists the DOJ. Eric deals with the aftermath of Nell leaving the team.

[threebluestars]

This show really feels like it's winding down. With Hetty MIA most of the time, Nelle gone (although I doubt for good), Eric thinking of leaving, Kensi wanting kids, Deeks with a bar ... it just seems like none of them give a crap about actually staying with NCIS. Fatima is the only character that I am actively enjoying these days.

I wish the show had returned to the "deep cover" start it had initially. It could have given it a punch in the arm it needs. Also, Hidoko should've stuck around. Hidoko and Fatima would be one bad ass team.

[dirtydi]

4 hours ago, threebluestars said:

This show really feels like it's winding down. With Hetty MIA most of the time, Nelle gone (although I doubt for good), Eric thinking of leaving, Kensi wanting kids, Deeks with a bar ... it just seems like none of them give a crap about actually staying with NCIS. Fatima is the only character that I am actively enjoying these days.

I wish the show had returned to the "deep cover" start it had initially. It could have given it a punch in the arm it needs. Also, Hidoko should've stuck around. Hidoko and Fatima would be one bad ass team.

I agree with everything you said, except for Fatima.  I don't dislike her, I just don't care about her.  Maybe they are starting the transition from the old guard to the new.

[123BP]

Why does Jordana think she can write? Her episodes are awful. The beginning scene with Callen and Sam made me cringe. What has happened to Sam? He's always considered himself somewhat superior as a former SEAL, but lately he's just plain insufferable. He was so rude to Callen. Sam's always been trying to get Callen to "settle down" and now when Callen is finally willing to maybe share some of his "personal feelings," Sam shuts him down. I wanted to hear about Callen's vacation!

1 hour ago, dirtydi said:

I agree with everything you said, except for Fatima.  I don't dislike her, I just don't care about her.  Maybe they are starting the transition from the old guard to the new.

I liked Fatima when she first showed up, but I'm liking her less and less. She's gone from someone who was stunned by the carnage in Smokescreen to a sniper (when did that happen?). I get that she's a badass, but she should still be learning the ropes. She doesn't have anywhere near the experience of the team members; I wish they treated her more like the newbie she is. (Also noted that she had to be the sniper because of her head covering - that sort of limits the undercover work she can do.)

The plot - if you can call it that - was dumber than dirt. The FBI wouldn't be involved (the State Department handles asylum cases). And why was Agent Rush so silly? Is she still on hormone overload? Her boss wasn't any better (the FBI is under the DOJ, so why would there be a problem if the DOJ asked NCIS to get involved?).

I like Deeks and Beale, but together one of the other always goes off the deep end. This time it was Deeks. I found his hanging over Beale sort of creepy, and Nell's been gone a week, so I didn't get why he was focused on Beale now. Beale didn't seem to be acting any different, and just because Nell isn't at NCIS doesn't mean that she and Beale aren't still a couple. It's not like she left for another job (she could get work in L.A. easily or work remotely).

And I still don't like the Sam - Katherine relationship. To be honest, I'm really looking forward to S12 and more of the Callen - Anna storyline. I find those two much more interesting than any of the other couples lately.

[LittlePeas3]

This was a "Meh" kind of episode, and then I read Jordana wrote it and it explains a lot!  Her episodes are crap.  There is no other word for it.  I agree with the above comments, Sam has been pushing for something to happen and for Callen to settle down, and to just ignore it and not want to hear about it is absurd.  Why don't they get rid of her?  

This episode seemed to feel like yet another filler, it had no rhyme or reason to it either.  Let's hope the next one is better, but it seems that Deeks is still out of action as it had Kensi and Fatima teamed together again.  

[Rambler]

Well that was a bit of a train wreck.

The writing was so bad that I couldn't figure out if there was an actual FBI mole that NCIS just gave up trying to find, or lady FBI agent was so horrifically bad at her job that she let her protectee be followed everywhere she went. No mole found plus firefighters solving the arson means that the vast majority of this episode amounted to absolutely nothing.

Listening to Deeks giving Eric relationship advice was more painful than fingernails on a chalkboard.

Sam and the insurance lady have less than zero chemistry. There is better dialog in your average porn video than occurred in the final scene here. Or so I've heard.

They usually have a big shootout at the end to distract from the bad plotting but there wasn't even that this time.

Also the scene with Kensi and Fatima watching the FBI agent pump milk was udderly ridiculous.

[JayDub]

Time to put this show to rest.

[dirtydi]

On ‎4‎/‎14‎/‎2020 at 4:05 AM, LittlePeas3 said:

This was a "Meh" kind of episode, and then I read Jordana wrote it and it explains a lot!  Her episodes are crap.  There is no other word for it.  I agree with the above comments, Sam has been pushing for something to happen and for Callen to settle down, and to just ignore it and not want to hear about it is absurd.  Why don't they get rid of her?  

This episode seemed to feel like yet another filler, it had no rhyme or reason to it either.  Let's hope the next one is better, but it seems that Deeks is still out of action as it had Kensi and Fatima teamed together again.  

I personally didn't want to hear about Ana and Callen (don't like her at all), but Sam was being a jerk. The writer likes to write men as jerks.

[ymeagain]

This is from the review of "Knock Down" on wikiDeeks and says what was wrong better than I can.

https://wikideeks.com/2020/04/14/review-ncisla-knock-down-s11e20/

"Unfortunately, the opening bullpen scene with Callen returning from his staycation gave us an indication of the somewhat forced, somewhat awkward humor we saw through most of the hour. Sure, let Sam toy with Callen and pretend he doesn’t want to hear about his vacation. That would be cute. But Jaffe never let Sam pull back from that teasing to let Callen share what was apparently a great deal of happiness. The man was practically bursting to talk about his time away with Anna, and he never got the chance. Because the humor came at Callen’s expense, it just felt mean.

Callen’s clear desire to share, something Sam has encouraged him to do for, oh, I don’t know, about eleven years, made Sam’s repudiation feel cruel. And that made it feel completely out of character. Sam Hanna is a flawed human being, but he loves his partner, he’s always wanted him to be happy, and nothing I saw in the episode made me understand why he’d behave this way. Giving him a date with Katherine at episode’s end only made his behavior more confusing, for it seemed to remove jealousy as an excuse. (And I can’t see Sam ever allowing himself to be cruel out of jealousy.)"

[CheshireCat]

On 4/14/2020 at 12:59 AM, 123BP said:

Why does Jordana think she can write? Her episodes are awful. The beginning scene with Callen and Sam made me cringe. What has happened to Sam? He's always considered himself somewhat superior as a former SEAL, but lately he's just plain insufferable. He was so rude to Callen. Sam's always been trying to get Callen to "settle down" and now when Callen is finally willing to maybe share some of his "personal feelings," Sam shuts him down. I wanted to hear about Callen's vacation!

I think whenever Sam pokes Callen it's to challenge Callen to confront his own feelings since he has a tendency to avoid them and Sam knows it.

I felt that it was pretty much in character for Sam. He's always been a more general guy to me and he got all the information that he needed to know - that things went well - but I don't recall that he's ever been the guy who wanted all of the details.

Not sure what to make of the case/episode as a whole. It felt a little all over the place. What was the purpose of the FBI agent pumping milk or more specifically, why portray it almost as a caricature? And why did there have to be three stories with regards to the fires - arson, a potential mole and attempted murder. Okay, normally, you've have all of the plotlines connect at the end of the episode and create a bigger picture and I guess, they wanted to do the reverse but I don't think they did it well/it worked. A lot of the episode felt over-the-top and almost like a parody.

Did ECO injure himself or why did Deeks have to wear a boot? (For a broken toe no less).

 

[123BP]

On 4/18/2020 at 1:28 AM, CheshireCat said:

I felt that it was pretty much in character for Sam. He's always been a more general guy to me and he got all the information that he needed to know - that things went well - but I don't recall that he's ever been the guy who wanted all of the details.

I couldn't disagree more. This is the same guy who was so "concerned" about his partner not having a relationship that he set him up on a blind date  (and it probably would have been better for everyone if he'd minded his own business) and then got texts from her rating Callen as a date. The same guy who ribbed Callen mercilessly when he saw that Callen was interested in Anna. The same guy "imagining" Callen and Joelle having sex - and sharing it with Deeks (who was "saving" or "deleting" the images). The same guy who didn't want Callen and Joelle spending Christmas together. Sam has always been urging Callen to find someone, that a relationship is something he needs and butting in.

[CheshireCat]

47 minutes ago, 123BP said:

I couldn't disagree more. This is the same guy who was so "concerned" about his partner not having a relationship that he set him up on a blind date  (and it probably would have been better for everyone if he'd minded his own business) and then got texts from her rating Callen as a date. The same guy who ribbed Callen mercilessly when he saw that Callen was interested in Anna. The same guy "imagining" Callen and Joelle having sex - and sharing it with Deeks (who was "saving" or "deleting" the images). The same guy who didn't want Callen and Joelle spending Christmas together. Sam has always been urging Callen to find someone, that a relationship is something he needs and butting in.

Butting in, yes, but has he ever wanted to know more than how things are going?

I would have preferred had they turned it around a bit but I didn't think it was widely out of character. I always felt that Sam was a mixed bag. He likes to offer his opinion and - as you said - butts in but shares fairly little and doesn't much ask about details. Maybe he's afraid that people will pry too much into his personal life?

[123BP]

22 minutes ago, CheshireCat said:

Butting in, yes, but has he ever wanted to know more than how things are going?

The answer is YES, he has wanted to know whether or not Callen was happy in a relationship (after Callen broke it off with Sam, Sam specifically asked how he was doing). I'm not saying Sam is nosy like Deeks - who does pry into people's personal lives - and wants to know all the details, but Sam has ALWAYS been concerned about his partner settling down, putting down roots, being in a stable relationship. Now, when his partner suddenly IS in a stable relationship and went on a vacation with his girlfriend - something he hasn't done in 10 years - Sam is completely uninterested. Not only is he not interested, he's downright rude about it. That is NOT Sam Hanna.