Hetty Lange: She's now everywhere

[greenbean]

I like seeing her in Washington, fighting in the political minefield. So I hope we get more of that at some point.

[greenbean]

Further to the discussion about Hetty's betrayal of Callen never being truly acknowledged by the show, while Joelle is called a bitch. This is something the show has done before; characters treat another woman negatively, while Hetty's duplicity is mostly untouched.

With Hunter, Callen was up in her face and she was treated as an antagonist for keeping secrets from him. The entire team was hostile to her. Yet Hetty had been sitting on all that information about Callen for years, and she was the one behind Hunter's appearance while she went off without bothering to tell the team. None of them directed the same amount of hostility towards Hetty. I enjoyed the tense dynamic between Hunter and Callen, but how was it ever Hunter's fault for being in that position? She too was just doing her job. 

This is why it's galling to continue seeing Hetty be so pious when her own behaviour towards Callen is the most questionable. If the show would acknowledge this, it would better. Like in La Femme Nikita, where the relationship between Madeline and Nikita was complex and conflicting.

Callen sort of challenged Hetty, but then it was dropped. If they'd done something similar to LFN it would have helped sustain the family storyline and given both Callen and Hetty more depth. Maybe the Joelle reveal would also then resonate. But the show is hell bent on deifying Hetty which I don't think is good for the character's development.

I actually have an idea that seeing as Hetty is a mother figure, it could be argued that Callen is displacing his anger onto safe targets such as Hunter and Joelle. What he really wants to say, is that Hetty has betrayed him. When he came after Hunter with such venom, he really wanted to direct that anger at Hetty. We've seen glimpses of it in a few confrontations, but he mostly bottles it up inside, for fear of losing or displeasing her.