S13.E18: Hard for the Money

[thewhiteowl]

NCIS investigates the murder of a woman employed in the Navy’s missile defense program and its connection to stolen Navy missile technology. Also, a strict social worker stresses out Deeks, and Sam debates selling his boat.

[milkyaqua]

Another standard epi.  Still don't care about Deeks and Kensi and their family drama.

Erik Palladino fits on this show because he's always been an annoyant no matter what show he's on.

Enough with the Callen drama as well.  Now he's lying to Sam (not the first time) and going to some secret secure office looking for Katya and working with some mystery person?  Ugh.  Please let them finish this up by the end of the season but something tells me that probably won't happen since the season should pretty much be about done.

[Arthur Jury]

again ?? This is the second episode just about in a row where the victim's Navy commander is rotten and "did it". Lazy writing.  Repetitive.  Boring.  Are the implying they (the powers that be in NCIS LA la land) think all Naval officers are "bad" - very cynical and deplorable. 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Arthur Jury

[LadyIrony]

Would they really allow a husband x wife team? That doesn't seem very professional to me. How could you just allow your romantic partner take a hit to save someone else? The emotional conflict would be too great. 

Also, how well is NCIS (The actual entity) known in the USA? They approach civilians regularly and flash a badge and say "NCIS!" and the people answer all their questions. I would be asking "What is NCIS?!" 

This show has never made sense to me as a lot of what they investigate doesn't strictly seem to be Naval related the way the crimes on NCIS are. They seem to get involved with civilians a lot and even cross over into CIA territory. I don't understand what they are supposed to be and not one of them looks even remotely like a cop let alone military. 

[MissLucas]

The Goose references made me chuckle. Dammit Roundtree, get an update for your pop culture references - if only to be prepared when Top Gun: Maverick hits the screens.

People not knowing what NCIS meant was a running gag in the early days of the mothership but they dropped it which is probably better. I think folks on the franchise normally call out 'Federal agents' first, I can't recall folks on FBI related shows doing that, so maybe that's their way out of the question how many people really know what their letter salad means.

[LittlePeas3]

Again, a character away to give a deposition.  Seriously, the writers need to come up with another excuse,  surely, a training course, didn't want be on the episode, had to fly to the moon, all better examples than a deposition.  

Wow, that officer was broken so fast.  What a dumb storyline.  

It's nice to think fostering goes through a really thorough screening process, but seriously, who goes through someone's house when they come to pick up a sweater?  And honestly, do you really need a permit to rebuild a closet?  OMG.  Yes, I am fixating on this because the storyline in general was meh. I am also thinking the deep diving into their backgrounds to be a federal agent would be more intrusive in some ways than being a foster parent.

Sabatino was just not utilised well in this one.  

In terms of Callan, like he was going to the mountains with his sister.  Rather than drag out the deep fake crap, they should have just kept going.  

Edited May 11, 2022 by LittlePeas3
more thoughts needed to be added

[LadyIrony]

On 5/11/2022 at 7:23 AM, LittlePeas3 said:

Again, a character away to give a deposition.  Seriously, the writers need to come up with another excuse,  surely, a training course, didn't want be on the episode, had to fly to the moon, all better examples than a deposition.  

Wow, that officer was broken so fast.  What a dumb storyline.  

It's nice to think fostering goes through a really thorough screening process, but seriously, who goes through someone's house when they come to pick up a sweater?  And honestly, do you really need a permit to rebuild a closet?  OMG.  Yes, I am fixating on this because the storyline in general was meh. I am also thinking the deep diving into their backgrounds to be a federal agent would be more intrusive in some ways than being a foster parent.

Sabatino was just not utilised well in this one.  

In terms of Callan, like he was going to the mountains with his sister.  Rather than drag out the deep fake crap, they should have just kept going.  

Are there just too many characters on this show? It's like they can't come up with enough story lines to cater to all of them and then I guess actors get sick or want time off so they don't appear in an ep. A deposition is pretty lazy writing I agree. 

The foster thing is over the top I agree. Wouldn't having a job that puts you in danger be an automatic red flag anyway?

 

 

[CheshireCat]

On 5/12/2022 at 5:12 PM, LadyIrony said:

Are there just too many characters on this show?

I don't think it's the number of characters that is the problem. They have roughly the same number of characters that the other NCIS shows or the FBI shows have. The problem is that they have an active team of 6. That's two too many. The mothership has a team of 4 that goes in the field, the others are the boss, the forensic scientist and the ME, Hawaii has a team of 3 (I believe) plus their boss who goes into the field then they have a computer scientist, an FBI liason (or whatever Whistler's official title is) and an ME. The two FBI shows that I watch have a team of 4 that goes into the field and I believe Most Wanted has a team of 3 or 4 as well.

Four seems to be the average number and I'm assuming there's a reason for it. I'm also assuming that Fatima and Rountree were added because the actors are cheaper than the other 4 but like you said, it doesn't work. Or rather, I think it works best when Fatima and Rountree are in Ops, like Nell and Eric used to be. But 6 field agents is too many.

On 5/10/2022 at 5:23 PM, LittlePeas3 said:

Sabatino was just not utilised well in this one.  

I thought he was annoying.

I'm also wondering why they keep having extra characters in episodes where one actor or two are missing. Callen's absence seems to have planned, so the only thing that makes sense with regards to having someone else fill in for the other absense is that they were out due to Covid protocol. Otherwise, why not simply write a story for the remaining characters instead of writing one out and bringing another in?

On 5/10/2022 at 5:23 PM, LittlePeas3 said:

In terms of Callan, like he was going to the mountains with his sister.  Rather than drag out the deep fake crap, they should have just kept going. 

Yeah, aside from the guy whose name I've forgotten (the guy from the Institute), the story didn't really require Callen to do it alone. It's not that it didn't work but the Deep Fakes didn't need to be his arc, they could have been everyone's arc over a few episodes.

On 5/4/2022 at 8:07 AM, LadyIrony said:

Would they really allow a husband x wife team? That doesn't seem very professional to me. How could you just allow your romantic partner take a hit to save someone else? The emotional conflict would be too great. 

I guess, since the LA office doesn't exist in this way, they are taking a bit more liberties. I think it would have been okay with the original premise. They used to be a non-traditional investigative branch with all their undercover work. Now though...

[LittlePeas3]

22 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I guess, since the LA office doesn't exist in this way, they are taking a bit more liberties. I think it would have been okay with the original premise. They used to be a non-traditional investigative branch with all their undercover work. Now though...

This! I miss the original premise so much!  I loved the undercover personas.  If they aren't going to do undercover any more, they should be dressing more professionally and Deeks should get a haircut! The casual clothes and the fitting in with the "baseline" of the area was fine when they were undercover, but they don't even really needs ops and the boatshed anymore, they could do it all at ops as they never seem to be undercover.

[CheshireCat]

13 minutes ago, LittlePeas3 said:

This! I miss the original premise so much!  I loved the undercover personas.  If they aren't going to do undercover any more, they should be dressing more professionally and Deeks should get a haircut! The casual clothes and the fitting in with the "baseline" of the area was fine when they were undercover, but they don't even really needs ops and the boatshed anymore, they could do it all at ops as they never seem to be undercover.

I had the same thought.

Spoiler

I also had to laugh when the guy in the finale said Callen dressed like a cop. Seriously? What cop would be allowed to walk around this casually? Even the guys from Chicago PD don't look that casual. Callen always looks like a guy out for a weekend bar-b-q or something.

[LadyIrony]

On 5/26/2022 at 5:57 PM, CheshireCat said:

I don't think it's the number of characters that is the problem. They have roughly the same number of characters that the other NCIS shows or the FBI shows have. The problem is that they have an active team of 6. That's two too many. The mothership has a team of 4 that goes in the field, the others are the boss, the forensic scientist and the ME, Hawaii has a team of 3 (I believe) plus their boss who goes into the field then they have a computer scientist, an FBI liason (or whatever Whistler's official title is) and an ME. The two FBI shows that I watch have a team of 4 that goes into the field and I believe Most Wanted has a team of 3 or 4 as well.

Four seems to be the average number and I'm assuming there's a reason for it. I'm also assuming that Fatima and Rountree were added because the actors are cheaper than the other 4 but like you said, it doesn't work. Or rather, I think it works best when Fatima and Rountree are in Ops, like Nell and Eric used to be. But 6 field agents is too many.

Until you mentioned it I hadn't really noted the lack of a ME& Forensics on the show but I always felt there was something missing. I also never liked Hettie and don't think much of the current Boss. 

There is nothing special about the Field Agents either but then on the original once DiNozzo left the chemistry fell apart anyway. Everyone who came in afterward were just bland.

[catsitter]

The victim's ex said he had gone to her place and fought with her new boyfriend, but there was no follow-up on the new boyfriend. They could at least have shown us some of her colleagues so there were more than two suspects.