S12.E08: Love Kills (1)

[thewhiteowl]

When NCIS investigates the murder of a man about to reveal the source of a massive counterfeiting operation, an old acquaintance becomes their prime suspect and reveals the true reason for her return. Also, Deeks struggles during training to become an official NCIS agent.

 

[LittlePeas3]

Sabatino's hair was special. I haven't really liked him before, but he was good for the most part. 

Deeks at FLETC was pathetic, seriously, who would let anyone behave that way and let them stay?  Did he have another hair cut?

Happy to see Sam and Callen back together.  That at least felt right. 

How convenient the phone was outside and they didn't need to break in.  Why would someone in protective custody have access to a phone?  Isn't that just plain stupid?

I have to say, I think this was the best episode of the season so far, even with Deeks carrying on at FLETC.  Not that there has been much to compare it to, however, I at least could watch this episode again.  There were some one-liners that were actually funny.  There was no Nell in crazy dresses pretending to be Hetty, no porn-star Eric pretending to be a Shakespearean actor (thank God) and my one major flaw was no one was in ops at the end to co-ordinate everything, there were small flaws, but I can live with them. 

[anna0852]

This one was definitely a better episode and felt a little bit more like our show.

Sabatino makes everything better

[wlk68]

It was painful watching Deeks. I know they always make him out to be the class clown / smart ass but there's a time and place. He knows how to be serious when required. Plus, all that whining and the constant stream of consciousness was annoying as f*ck. Dude, read the room and shut up. 

Also, he's in good shape and knows how to fight. This was stupid. 

Have to confess I turned it off because it was truly painful to watch. I was suffering from major second hand embarrassment.   

Maybe I'll try again and just FF through the Deeks stuff. 

Edited January 12, 2021 by wlk68

[HurricaneVal]

Callen and Sam and Sabitino's hair was comedy gold.  That was old school NCIS: LA and it showed.  The Deeks humor fell flat, mostly for the reasons stated above.  Deeks is annoying, but he is not dumb.  He might be a nervous motormouth when he's out of his element, but he's not dumb.  He's also not pathetic, he's a highly effective agent/officer in good shape.  20yo shape?  No.  But I'm sure FLETC has some accountants and computer geeks in his cadre going through the same federal agent training that would be struggling even more than Deeks is. 

Daniela Ruah's facial expressions during Kensi's phone call with Deeks were beautifully done.  You could see how her character was feeling bad for her husband, yet verbally trying to be encouraging and bright to keep him motivated.  Good thing that wasn't a Zoom call, or Kensi would be so busted!

I have always liked how the show is normalizing American Muslims every time they show Fatima always wearing her hijab scarf.  Maybe "normalizing" isn't the right word, but you know what I mean.  Showing a different culture, a culture that many profess a certain fear of, as just another character on a TV show.  A character who grew up in Bel Aire (or Beverly Hills?) who has decidedly plebian taste in TV shows and other things, and who just happens to be a devout enough Muslim to choose to wear a headscarf.  I like how it shakes perceptions up. 

[secnarf]

2 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I have always liked how the show is normalizing American Muslims every time they show Fatima always wearing her hijab scarf.  Maybe "normalizing" isn't the right word, but you know what I mean.  Showing a different culture, a culture that many profess a certain fear of, as just another character on a TV show.  A character who grew up in Bel Aire (or Beverly Hills?) who has decidedly plebian taste in TV shows and other things, and who just happens to be a devout enough Muslim to choose to wear a headscarf.  I like how it shakes perceptions up. 

I have always liked this too, but she is becoming increasingly annoying. I really liked her character - both the concept and execution - initially, but she is becoming annoying. I feel like they are taking it too far and making her like a stereotypical "blonde" character.

I do, however, really like Roundtree.

Edited January 12, 2021 by secnarf

[anna0852]

4 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I have always liked how the show is normalizing American Muslims every time they show Fatima always wearing her hijab scarf.  Maybe "normalizing" isn't the right word, but you know what I mean.  Showing a different culture, a culture that many profess a certain fear of, as just another character on a TV show.  A character who grew up in Bel Aire (or Beverly Hills?) who has decidedly plebian taste in TV shows and other things, and who just happens to be a devout enough Muslim to choose to wear a headscarf.  I like how it shakes perceptions up. 

Go watch 9-1-1:Lone Star and you'll see the same thing.

I love it!

[HurricaneVal]

14 hours ago, secnarf said:

I do, however, really like Roundtree.

Oh yes.  Definitely yes.  I meant to mention that....  He has good chemistry with the team.  Or at least with Fatima, Sam, Callen, and Nell.  I'm not sure I've seen a lot of scenes with him and Kensi and/or Deeks.  What I especially like about his character is that he is not only bad ass, he is extremely good at being bad ass, but doesn't have to brag about it or show it.  He's content with himself, and that's good enough.  His ego doesn't get in the way.  Like when Sam questioned why he didn't correct the FBI guy when he was kind of talking down to Roundtree like didn't know anything because he was just a Navy cop and not an FBI special agent and Roundtree said it wasn't necessary.  Sam just shook his head, but looked at Roundtree with admiration.  I really liked that whole scene between the two of them.

[123BP]

This episode was better than last week's. I didn't miss Beale or Nell at all. I love Sabatino, and the Callen-Sam-Sabatino scenes were great. The Deeks scenes were weak (he's not in the best shape, but a few weeks ago he was doing 200+ push-ups). I didn't really pay attention to those scenes. The case was more interesting and tighter than last week's. (While it's good that the show is taking on current events, I don't think NCIS has been in the thick of the "police reform" movement, probably because it's military.)  Rountree was good (I'd like to see him partner with Callen in the field). The ending reminded me of the season 10 finale when they were in the trailer; I'm not worried about anyone surviving.

I'm looking ahead to next week because I like the admiral and Sabatino is back, Hetty makes an appearance, Deeks gets a new job, plus there's a tvline article that says it's a BIG episode for Callen & Anna.

[EtheltoTillie]

Good comments. The good: no Eric.

the bad:  Deeks acting goofier than Eric.  

 

 

[CheshireCat]

I agree with a lot of the comments here; a lot of the episode felt like old school NCIS LA. I didn't miss Eric or Nell at all as characters but I did miss them with regards to the plot. In old episodes, Eric and Nell would have worked their magic and dug up some surveillance footage on one of the crime scenes.

I think the actress who plays Fatima needs to be careful with overacting. She's really good in scenes when she's in Ops, but I felt she was trying a bit too hard with Roundtree in the beginning.

Can someone from DOJ just order around an agency that is part of DOD? And why did no one call Lance Hamilton and tell him that someone from his own agency was obstructing their investigation?

This is why I've never been a fan of Deeks. It's just not my kind of humor. I also thought it was eye-roll worthy. Are they not having any fitness tests at NCIS? And why would a police officer who has been a liason with NCIS for a decade, I think, be so bad at hand-to-hand combat?

I really would have liked if they had used this opportunity to showcase the difference between theory and real life; there should have been things where Deeks maybe didn't follow the rulebook to the T but would still have accomplished the task and maybe even been more efficient or, when criticized, would have pointed out that yeah, it's nice that that's what the rules say but that's not how it would work in real life because there are always things you can't predict.

I had to laugh at Sam when he had the cell phone in his ungloved hand and announced it might be the killers... How long has he been an agent?

But those things aside, I really loved this episode and especially, Sam and Callen back together. Give me more of that!