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idristardis · 1 year

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SUPER Late Thoughts on S9 of NCIS: LA

Ok. So.

Just finished S9 and have started on S10 (I'm caught up through the cold open of S10 E6 - Asesinos), and I have....thoughts. Thoughts that were likely already thought and said and dissected on here literal years ago, but still. I has them.

Under the cut because they'll be a ramble and this way you can save yourselves if you want to!

This really focuses on S9 E16 - Warrior of Peace through S10 E1 - To Live and Die in Mexico with a few notes from S10 E 4 - Hit List and S10 E6 - Asesinos).

Moseley

Okay. I know that she was brought in as an antagonist figure - someone who was there until Hetty could be retrieved from Vietnam but who could never be Hetty. But man....they made her really hard to empathize with. Like, at all. And for a character who was a mother who would do anything for her son, it's kind of stunning that the writers made her so unlikeable. Like, there is not much there to latch on to.

Perhaps it's the fact that I binged most of the back half of the season in quick succession rather than waiting for it week to week, but seeing her trajectory of vengeance play out made it clear that she wanted what she wanted and she was going to get it - and she either didn't think about or didn't care about the consequences until it was too late. Perhaps she was arrogant and thought she could beat the odds and nothing bad would happen to her or her team, but...boy did she misjudge.

In S10 E1 when Killbride tells her "you got everything you wanted" and her retort is that that makes it sound "like a wish list off Amazon," I found it hard to disagree with him. The fact that Moseley couldn't answer him when he asked her if it was worth the price was incredibly telling - she couldn't say no, because that would devalue Hidoko's sacrifice, and she couldn't say yes because then that would make her seem monstrous.

But she did bulldoze over everyone and everything that stood in her way to get what she wanted. And she got it...but at the cost of Hidoko's life and nearly Deeks' and Callen's. Sam wasn't in that great shape either by the time all was said and done. She wanted to rescue her son from his father because she saw Spencer Williams as a monster (and he was no angel) but she sacrificed a lot of her moral high ground by the time she got Derek back.

Hetty, for all her machinations and behind the scenes dealings does understand the value of cultivating contacts and trust and working with a team when it's beneficial. Then, when you need them, the team will work with you and trust and follow you. Moseley showed why the lone wolf/smartest in the room/dictatorial leadership mindset has huge flaws.

I wrote everything above before I watched S10 E4 and S10 E6 (granted, only up to the cold open of the latter) and now that I have seen those as well...my impression still hasn't changed. Moseley's first instinct is to not trust Callen and the team, not rely on NCIS as an agency at all, but just go pick up Derek herself after hearing about the cartel hit list. This is AFTER everything the team did to get him back in Mexico...sheesh!

Rather than coming off as protective Mamabear, it still has a ring of high-handed, imperious, "only I know best" attitude - and other characters notice it, as evidenced when Ochoa tells her that she "started a personal war" to get Derek back in Mexico and she can't do that all over again. Yet...the opener of S10 E6 has her going lone wolf and killing a cartel hit man, then going off the grid. I'm not sure, maybe Hetty's mysterious disappearance is tied up in what's going on with Moseley, but to this point, it seems like Moseley is just continuing on a path of doing whatever she wants/thinks is best and damn the consequences. Perhaps at this point, it's fueled by fear over what being on the hit list means for Derek, but still...it seems very "it's my way or no way," and it makes it hard to sympathize with her.

I think the writers wasted an opportunity here with the character to give her more to work with and be more fully rounded. It's a shame.

Hidoko

One of the things I had been spoiled on prior to viewing this season was the fact that Hidoko died, and died in rather horrible and unfair circumstances. But nothing really prepared me for how it actually happened. The character and actress deserved far FAR better than that send off.

Sam and Callen

Callen first, actually. Starting with S9 E16 - Warrior of Peace and moving through the back end of the season, Callen experienced a profound shift in personal circumstances (letting his father go through with the exchange for the American photographers in S9 E16), but he never let it shake his cool as team leader.

Chris O'Donnell did a lovely job of expressing Callen's anger and grief in the silent final beats of S9 E16 as he watched his father go. The camera lingers on his face and he used every minute change of expression to mean so much. It was very well done...and though he never explicitly says it, I think that going through that experience is part of why he agrees to help Moseley (other than his sense of duty as team leader - i.e. if anyone from his team is getting involved, it's him). Having experienced the unjust loss of a family member to circumstances beyond his control, he doesn't want anyone else to have to go through that.

Sam does explicitly express that sentiment, when he notes that the loss of Michelle is what's driving him to go to Mexico despite his injury - he doesn't want to see another parent (i.e. Moseley) endure grief and pain when they don't have to.

The bantering between them...bickering, really...over whether or not Sam is able to go and able to keep up, is spot on classic Sallen. I particularly enjoyed the moment when they were already in Mexico and Callen snarked something about Sam's cane and Sam just threw it into the underbrush. Oh boys....

But for all of that, the moment when they thought they might die, and Callen tells Sam he can't talk anymore because of his collapsed lung was really powerful and moving. We knew as viewers they'd be okay since the show clearly had been picked up again by the time S10 E1 aired, but the scene was still done really well.

It's interesting that after they returned from Mexico, Sam appeared to be neutral/positive towards Moseley - reassuring her in S10 E4 that she'd find a way to be a good mother again, and offering to keep Derek on his boat for awhile for protection - but privately in conversations with Callen, Sam said that Moseley hadn't cared what happened to them in Mexico and implied distrust/dissatisfaction with her actions. In response, it was Callen who pointed out that she also hadn't asked any of them to actively go there either. Clearly, her actions are still affecting other team members' relationships even after the mission.

Densi

Oh gosh, where do I start?

This was a painful half season for them, but the writers telegraphed it so well and ECO and Dani played it so beautifully. It was clear that they needed to go through a crisis and have some Big Relationship Talks before they could fully get on the same page and really be ready to be married.

I feel like S8 ended with the engagement and they were just riding the buzz of that for the first half of S9, then there was Hetty and Vietnam and by the time the second half of S9 rolled around, Deeks had started having doubts about NCIS as a career path. This started off in S9 E16 when the plan to just offer up Kirkin instead of Callen's father was proposed.

Sam and Kensi were in without a moment's hesitation, but Deeks raised the ethical question of whether consigning Kirkin to the torturous existence that was surely waiting back in Russia, when he wasn't the one that had been requested in the trade, was really what NCIS was supposed to do. He knows Kirkin is no angel and doesn't care for him personally (though Kirkin clearly likes Deeks a lot), but it's still worth asking. But because it's Callen's Dad's freedom at stake and everyone else is in so easily, his objections are minimal and he tucks them away quickly.

But this is where the cracks really start to form...the back half of the season is peppered with commentary in the Densi scenes showing that they are on very different pages about what they want for their wedding. Most of these things are played for humor (they have different ideas about the ceremony and reception, the location, who to invite, haha haha) and are quickly resolved, usually with Deeks just saying he only wants what Kensi wants (which actually just means he's not really participating in the decision-making process). But there are other, bigger, things too.

S9 E17 - The Monster gives us that horrible case with the stitched together people, and at the heart of it, a victim who'd fallen in love with his partner while they were on the job, something that definitely resonates with Deeks...and soon after that, we first start hearing about him wanting to buy a bar. He's so serious about it over the next few episodes that he actually broaches it with Callen before talking to Kensi. Kensi, to her credit, does jump on board with the idea after her initial shock and surprise, and does so pretty quickly. I think she sees that having some sort of post-NCIS plan is important to him, but I think she misjudges/doesn't realize how soon he wants to make post-NCIS life a reality.

By the time S9 E23 - A Line in the Sand rolls around, these things have been weighing on Deeks for awhile, I think, but they keep getting shoved aside in favor of cases and more pressing concerns. I have to think, though, that seeing Sam get shot didn't help his line of thinking at all. And so we get to the point where he can't just follow along with the rest of the team when they insist on going to Mexico. He raises logical points about this being Moseley's custody battle that they should have no real part in. It may be a little cold, but it's not untrue - and unlike Hetty, unlike Callen, Moseley's done nothing to win their trust or allegiance (see her section above).

So. The Conversation. After Moseley's fired him and had him escorted from the building - she really had to rub that in, didn't she? That awful conversation in the parking garage. They're clearly talking past each other - Deeks wasn't trying to tell Kensi "don't be who you are" or "don't believe in what you believe in," and he knows how much the job is a part of her identity. But I think that's what she was hearing - an ultimatum. "We can't be married if you don't give up your job." But I think that what Deeks was really saying was that he wasn't sure that HE could do this anymore, actually, he's pretty sure he can't, and he's trying to remind her that while the job is part of each of them, and part of who they are together, it's not ALL of who they are as a couple.

Hard as it was for Kensi (and the audience) to hear, I think that the "I think we shouldn't be getting married" needed to be said...because they weren't facing up to the different things they wanted before that point. She had to then make him confront the fact she may never want to leave this job, she may never want to have kids (or she might want to and they might be unable), and he was trying to say not "quit this job or I won't marry you" but "we shouldn't be getting married when we're this far apart on some pretty big issues, so let's get that sorted out." Then, of course, there were goons (ahem, Moseley's escort officers) waiting and no time to finish the conversation so they left things in a horrible muddle...

...but of course Deeks showed up for the flight to Mexico anyway because he's "still your partner" and the team is, as Sam ironically put it, "one big happy family."

There was some resolution to the Densi issues in S10 E1, though not quite as explicitly stated as I would have wished. Deeks is unconscious for much of the episode...which gives Kensi a chance to contemplate the fear of losing him for quite a good chunk of time as she's hauling him through the desert. I think that prior to this, even up through their argument in S9 E23, there's a part of her that can't imagine living life any other way - she wants to do this job, and she wants to do it with him. Things have been (mostly) fine despite some of their near misses and scrapes before...they'll always find a way to get out of it, so why shouldn't she keep doing what she loves? But she has a looong time in this episode to think about what it would mean to keep doing that job without Deeks and what losing him would really be like. It's a long, slow, slog through the desert where she contemplates what she really values in life.

She doesn't get much dialogue to support her emotional journey here, but Dani's face said quite a lot in many of those scenes, and there was a piece of dialogue that I think spoke to her state of mind - where she tells him she'd carry him forever if he'd just wake up. This, and their episode closing exchange of vows to each give the other everything in this life, support a shift towards greater unity of purpose and being on the same page/ready to finally be married. They've figured out that each other comes first and they're not willing to put anything - jobs, kids, etc. - ahead of the other. It's just that the show allowed Deeks the dialogue to show this evolution - at the end, he says "I was wrong, I want to marry you." Kensi is not given any dialogue to show that she feels differently except vowing to give him everything. As is usually the case with this show, I want more Densi dialogue!!

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Okay...that was really tl; dr...but it feels good to be back!!

#ncis: la #ncisla #recap ramblings #metaaa #densi #S9 #S10 #sam hanna #g callen #marty deeks #kensi blye #hetty lange #shay moseley #harley hidoko #i've been away too long #i don't think future ramblings will be THIS long #had to get back in the rhythm

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