S12.E09: A Fait Accompli (2)

[thewhiteowl]

While NCIS must track down an organized crime leader who is trying to buy stolen defense technology, Callen goes to Anna to ask the ultimate question. Also, Deeks is kicked out of NCIS training only to find that Hetty has a life-changing surprise for him.

[anna0852]

That felt like our show again. Only took half a season. 

[threebluestars]

The actor playing young Callan was really good - had some of the facial expressions down pat.

[mythoughtis]

So Hetty makes Deeks and Kensi think he’s washed out of the program so that he can find his badge in a drawer instead of graduating?  At least that’s what she implied by saying she couldn’t let strangers give him his badge.  Or was she lying and got him an override on the wash out?  Either way.... he’s been doing the same thing as the rest of the team  for years, and can obviously perform at the same level.  As long as you ignore the whole ‘killed a fellow cop’ thing.  I Know,  I actually tend to ignore it too.

please - can we have ‘normal’ Eric back rather than rich Eric with a mustache?  And where was Nell?  

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by mythoughtis

[Maverick]

Yes, Hetty got him pulled from graduation.  Deeks' said he had passed all the tests.  There was nothing left, not even a formality. 

 Look, I Iike Hetty/Linda Hunt but please stop pretending she's running the office. She hasn't been around for even a semi-regular basis in at least three years.  Bring in the Admiral--Kilbride or Chedwigen I don't care which.    Erik's been gone a lot the last few years too due to the actor's other commitments but at least they finally wrote him as not working there.  But I don't care for him popping in like a Kelly Girl every fourth episode. I don't know what's up with how they're writing Nell.  Does the actress not want to work full time either?  This show has had a lot of guest agents I would love to see added full time and I wish they'd cut the people who don't want to be there and bring them in. 

 The way they framed that scene in the car, I thought they were just going to use Hetty's voice and spare us.  But then BOO! there's creepy CGI young Hetty again.  

[HurricaneVal]

Oh man.  CBS needs to invest in better CGI people.  First there was that horrific Renesmee baby on Bull that lives in my nightmares, and now..........that.  It isn't as if there is no source material for the SFX people to pull from to show Linda Hunt as a younger woman.  You know, like from her speech when she won her Oscar for The Year of Living Dangerously.  I just did a Google image search that provided better starting points than that abomination we just saw. 

Wait.  Maybe what we just saw was someone in the production back room using the office printer to print out a life size photo of a young Linda Hunt, cutting it out, poking holes in it, then rubberbanding it to her face.  That might account for the shiny, immovable unnaturalness of it.

Young Callen was awesome though.  Either that was incredible casting, or they blew the entire budget on that CGI.  On the mothership, young Gibbs is played by Mark Harmon's son having the time of his life.  Does Chris O'Donnell have a son old enough to play his old man in his youth?

Never liked the Anna/Callen storyline.  I never thought she was playing straight with him.  Or anyone.  

Like I said in the thread for the last episode, I like the Fatima character.  But now I'm thinking the writers need to slow her roll.  She grew up rich!  She's a computer genius!  She used to be an actress on a popular teen show!  She's a bad ass field agent!  What's next?  She's a princess in exile?  Hetty's love child?  The Next Food Network Star?

 

[ymeagain]

3 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

As long as you ignore the whole ‘killed a fellow cop’ thing.

I like Deeks, but this bothers me. A lot. Like somebody else said, Deeks IS "white male privilege." He gets everything he wants & never gets punished when he does something wrong.

[ymeagain]

45 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

Like I said in the thread for the last episode, I like the Fatima character.  But now I'm thinking the writers need to slow her roll.  She grew up rich!  She's a computer genius!  She used to be an actress on a popular teen show!  She's a bad ass field agent!  What's next?  She's a princess in exile?  Hetty's love child?  The Next Food Network Star?

All of this. I'm really starting to get sick of Fatima. And Rountree does NOT come off as a kid who grew up in Texas spending time in the country. Where are the ADULTS in OSP? And just stop with Hetty being able to control things from wherever in the heck she is now. That is just dumber than dumb.

53 minutes ago, Maverick said:

This show has had a lot of guest agents I would love to see added full time and I wish they'd cut the people who don't want to be there and bring them in. 

Yep. I guess this is what happens when the cast becomes TOO much of a "family" - the "dad" (Gemmill) just lets the kids do what they want and the whole house goes to crap.

And did I miss what happened to Pieta and DOJ? Maybe I was getting a snack.

[MDL]

Quote

The way they framed that scene in the car, I thought they were just going to use Hetty's voice and spare us.  But then BOO! there's creepy CGI young Hetty again.  

I agree 100%. I thought that "young Hetty" was a bad Halloween mask. (no disrespect to Linda Hunt)

[123BP]

I'm still trying to figure out why they brought Pietra back in the preceding episode and if Lance at the DOJ is going to be mad that the DOJ is off the case.

The whole FLETC storyline made no sense if Hetty could just make Deeks an agent. What's wrong with her? I'm so not interested in another Hanna family abduction. How many enemies does the guy have coming after him? That is an old plot and uninteresting (Sam Hanna goes rogue again). Sabatino's been better (the preceding episode is an example). Did Nell take "personal" time? Okay, the idea that Callen would take "personal" time in the middle of a case is, I don't know, one of the most ridiculous ideas ever. The guy is the team leader, but he's going to say, "I'm taking a day. Go catch the bad guys who're printing near perfect super bills."

As for Callen, I agree with everything in this "review." Whatever Gemmill's plan is for Callen--and so far it sucks--they need to stop messing with his backstory. It doesn't make any sense. So much of the show doesn't make sense to me, right now.

https://ncislarandomthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/01/episode-9-season-12-fait-accompli.html

[MDL]

Quote

The whole FLETC storyline made no sense if Hetty could just make Deeks an agent.

The impression I got was that Deeks passed FLETC on his own, and that Hetty got him "tossed out" so that SHE could present him-(from afar) his NCIS credentials.

 

[wlk68]

1 hour ago, MDL said:

The impression I got was that Deeks passed FLETC on his own, and that Hetty got him "tossed out" so that SHE could present him-(from afar) his NCIS credentials.

 

That was the impression I got as well and it was a really mean thing to do. It's possible that he would've liked to participate in the graduation ceremony for his own sense of accomplishment, even if they didn't hand him his badge at that time. They could have just told him that Hetty has your badge and it will be given to you upon your return to LA. 

Agree that young Callen did a good job of duplicating his speech patterns and mannerisms. CGI Hetty was creepy AF. 

Never got the whole Anna thing. Not surprised that her story was a lie.  

In regards to Sam's daughter at the end. Considering who her parents are, the odds of her walking up to her car in an empty parking garage all distracted and gabbing on the phone are absolutely nil. You pay attention to your surroundings, get in the car, lock the doors and THEN you have your phone conversation. Even better, you do the call using hands free while you are already driving away.     

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by wlk68

[Bobbin]

Script aside, I wonder how a real Marty Deeks would feel about Hetty's "surprise" and not being able to graduate. A cheap plot twist.

All these characters/actors drifting in and out, with or without explanation or backstory, and on-again, off-again relationships clouded by doubt (is it real or a cover? Or just doomed?). It's getting so you can't tell the players without a giant scorecard.

And all of them straight. The complaint on the 'net is that EVERY show has LGBTQ characters "shoved down our throats." Tell me again, who in the entire franchise (on-screen) is LGBTQ? Come on, even in the real world, some people are gay.

The trope of higher-ups constantly wanting to take down the agency with the best success record for "not following the rules" is way overworked (and downright suspicious!). So is having the fate of mankind in the hands of the same half dozen overworked agents week after week. But I do love the rare exception when Hetty calls in the cavalry. Yee-haw!

[mythoughtis]

3 hours ago, Bobbin said:

And all of them straight. The complaint on the 'net is that EVERY show has LGBTQ characters "shoved down our throats." Tell me again, who in the entire franchise (on-screen) is LGBTQ? Come on, even in the real world, some people are gay.

If by franchise you mean all 3 flavors of NCIS... there’s Gregorio on NCIS New Orleans.  I think if  we add the current number of cast regulars on all 3 together... it’s about 20-25?  So there should be   at least 1 more?  I’m not coming up with another name though.   

Edited January 19, 2021 by mythoughtis

[MDL]

Quote

Tell me again, who in the entire franchise (on-screen) is LGBTQ? Come on, even in the real world, some people are gay.

 In the original series, Dornogan (spelling??) was gay. He was killed in the line of duty several seasons ago.

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by MDL
left out a sentence

[secnarf]

The entire Deeks storyline has bothered me. First, they show him really struggling at FLETC, even though he is a competent agent and should be okay, and then the next episode all is well and he is graduating, and then ten minutes later he is failing out, and ten minutes after THAT we find out Hetty tricked him into thinking he failed and missing graduation and he really did pass and do just fine.

Why do the storyline at all? Why not just have him gone at FLETC, show us none of him there - why show him struggle initially if we don't see him persevere and succeed - and, you know, maybe show his graduation ceremony with Hetty virtually there and giving him his badge?

Ugh to another Very Personal Case and abduction of a family member.

[HurricaneVal]

On 1/18/2021 at 8:03 AM, 123BP said:

The whole FLETC storyline made no sense if Hetty could just make Deeks an agent.

OMG.  I just totally misread this as "made no sense if Hetty could just make Deeks pregnant" and all of a sudden I was thinking we were off in some bizarro fanfic cul-de-sac of questionable plotlines.

Then I re-read it and all is well.

[CheshireCat]

On 1/18/2021 at 11:03 AM, 123BP said:

I'm still trying to figure out why they brought Pietra back in the preceding episode and if Lance at the DOJ is going to be mad that the DOJ is off the case.

I wondered why the DOJ agent suddenly disappeared. Did I miss something?

 

On 1/18/2021 at 11:03 AM, 123BP said:

The whole FLETC storyline made no sense if Hetty could just make Deeks an agent. What's wrong with her?

I took it to mean that he passed but she wanted to be the one to tell him/make it official.

 

On 1/18/2021 at 11:03 AM, 123BP said:

I'm so not interested in another Hanna family abduction. How many enemies does the guy have coming after him? That is an old plot and uninteresting (Sam Hanna goes rogue again).

I'm with you on that. Sam going rogue always makes me aggressive. There's just something about how they write it that I absolutely don't like and I can never sympathize with Sam. He always gives me the impression that he goes rogue because he thinks he doesn't need anyone else because he's that awesome, invincible super-hero seal whereas when Callen goes rogue, I always have the impression that he's doing it alone because he knows that it could cost him his job or more and he doesn't want that to happen to the others.

 

On 1/18/2021 at 11:03 AM, 123BP said:

Sabatino's been better (the preceding episode is an example). Did Nell take "personal" time? Okay, the idea that Callen would take "personal" time in the middle of a case is, I don't know, one of the most ridiculous ideas ever. The guy is the team leader, but he's going to say, "I'm taking a day. Go catch the bad guys who're printing near perfect super bills."

Compared to older episodes, I'm not under the impression he's team leader anymore. I know he is but there was a time when he would communicate with the boss and lead the team by telling them what to do. I miss that. I also miss a boss. I don't care if it's Hetty or Nell, but I would appreciate if they got a chain of command back.

As far as Anna is concerned, I'm not surprised but I can't say that I saw it coming. I hope she's just undercover and not spying because I really want Callen to get some happiness. Besides, if Anna were spying, she'd be the second girlfriend he's had who would be a spy and what reason would he have to ever trust a woman again if this relationship doesn't work out either?