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NCIS: Los Angeles Season 14 Rewatch: “Of Value”

The basics: The team works to save a married team of architects with DoD contracts who were kidnapped in front of their children and nanny

Written by: Kyle Harimoto wrote "Omni", "Merry Evasion", "Chernoff, K", "Command and Control" as episode 150, "Granger, O.", "Ghost Gun", "Kulinda", "767", "Se Murio El Payaso", "Assets"/"Liabilities", "Venganza", "Superhuman", "One of Us", "Let Fate Decide" (season 11 premiere), "Decoy", "Answers" , "Watch Over Me", "Cash Flow", "Fukushu", "Bonafides" and “Come Together” (season 13 finale). He co-wrote "Three Hearts", "Leipei", "Humbug", both ends of the "Matryoshka" two-parter, "Smokescreen" part two, "Searching", "A Fait Acompli" and "A Tale of Two Igors" (season 12 finale).

Directed by: Diana C. Valentine who directed "Lokhay", "Fallout", Three Hearts", "The 3rd Choir", "Forest for the Trees", "Beacon", "Unspoken", "Seoul Man", "Crazy Train", "Under Pressure”, "Better Angels" and “The Circle”. This is Valentine’s first episode with the series since season 11.

Guest stars of note: Bar Paly as Anastasia "Anna" Kolcheck and Duncan Campbell as NCIS Special Agent Castor are both back from “Come Together”. Gregory D. Gadson as Army Colonel Jackson Ladd, Sigrid Owen as Mila Curren, Regina Ting Chen as Navy Commander Cheng, Melanie Hawkins as Linsey Sandhagen, Lawrence J. Hughes as Emmett Sandhagen, Elester Lantham as Jerry, Dominic Zamprogna as Paul Figueiredo, Kaya Jackson as Sophia Sandhagen, Devin Looc as Ty Sandhagen, Matthew Law as Josh McCall, Alain Mora as Chito Aldana, Torshawn Roland as Jay and Glen Steele as Man.

Our heroes: Are oddly paired up in this episode.

What important things did we learn about: Callen: Wanted to be an architect when he was a kid. Sam: Taking Raymond to a specialist in Orange County. Kensi: Parent teacher meeting attendee. Deeks: Getting in required time at the range. Fatima: Likes the Lakers, especially Lakers games with her dad. Rountree: Running Ops like a boss. Kilbride: Searching for a friend.

What not so important things did we learn about: Callen: Misses Sam while teamed with Deeks. Sam: Absent. Kensi: Not a big sister to Fatima, certainly not a favorite aunt. Deeks: Writing essays and not doing calculus. Fatima: Using the entirely wrong skincare products according to her mom. Rountree: Arguing with Kilbride about college football. Kilbride: Arguing with Rountree about college football.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Not a mention.

Who's down with OTP: Kensi and Deeks spent almost no time together in this hour. The chatted about Rosa to start the episode and grabbed a bite with Callen and Fatima to end the hour. Callen and Anna had a nice coffee run to start the day and some wine in the garden at the end.

Who's down with BrOTP: Forget the bros, Kensi and Fatima were sisters doing it for themselves. They had a lovely chat in the Kensi’s Audi, worked hand in glove to save the day.

Fashion review: Callen wore a blue/green/white plaid button down shirt. A white with thin black stripes henley for Kensi. A grey long-sleeve tee for Deeks. Fatima is wearing a white turtleneck under a royal blue sweatshirt. A denim jacket with a pink tee-shirt for Rountree. A blue three piece-suit with a white dress shirt and red tie for the Admiral.

Music: Lots. This is season one level of music usage. “Collect Your Things and Run” by Hot Water Music opens the episode in the teaser. “L’enfant roi” by Noir Desir plays as Kensi and Fatima are taking out the bad guys. “Blue on Black” by Kenny Wayne Shepherd is playing at the bar where Col. Ladd is drinking. “Good Things Come with Time” plays while Callen and Anna are having a moment at the end of the episode.

Any notable cut scene: Not today.

Quote: Col. Ladd: “When I was a junior officer, I was a door kicker. First one through every time. Every time. Then I moved to Intel, where I protected and led some of the toughest, most well-trained men on the planet. And you know what happened on Sunday? I'm walking into the store. Old lady runs ahead of me opens the door, looks at me with those eyes. Like I was less than. I was a damn super hero, Hollace. And now I got some old lady's pity.”

Anything else: A young guy is skateboarding down a street with a friend recording him. As they wrap out this shot, a delivery robot, Yum Inside, tries to pass them. They think about stealing the food inside when an older neighbor tells them to not to steal. Things get tense until a van comes barreling down the street. It runs over Yum Inside (RIP) with food and beverages going everywhere. A woman runs to the older man and the skateboard crew yelling “stop that van!”

Callen and Anna are walking home from a great coffee shop near their new home. She has a job interview with the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group. Callen is bit surprised Anna is leaving law enforcement but remembers she made up a story about working in an area destroyed by fires when she was looking for Katya. They pass an older man gardening. Callen has a Pembrook flashback.

Updating Deeks by phone, Kensi is leaving a meeting with Rosa’s teachers, who are impressed with how well she is doing considering the turmoil she been through over the last six months. The teachers did notice that Deeks helped write one of her essays and that Rosa could use a math tutor. Deeks thinks they should be the people Rosa turns to when she has problems. Kensi agrees. She’s ordering a calculus text book and Deeks can start tutoring her immediately. For the sake of the economy, Deeks thinks they should hire a tutor.

Callen arrives to a nearly empty office. Fatima is there with news that Sam is taking his father to see a specialist in Orange County. She also mentions that Kilbride and Rountree are fighting over college football but she quickly tuned that out. Callen is surprised – Fatima said she was a sports fan. No, she’s a Lakers fan and a Lakers fan when she can go to a game with her dad. Callen asks about Fatima’s mother, who is doing well. So well, in fact, that she can focus her attention on all the things Fatima is doing wrong with her life. Starting with skincare. Callen finds this all interested so he’s joining them for the next family brunch. Rountree texts Fatima – he's in Ops and they have a case.

The case is the kidnapping of Linsey and Emmett Sandhagen from their Westwood home. The kidnapping was witnessed by their nanny, Mila Curren. The Sandhagens have two children – a boy and a girl - and are architects. Callen asks why NCIS is involved. Rountree explains that the Sandhagens specialize in designing secure facilities and are civilian DOD contractors working close with the Seabees. Callen details Kensi and Fatima to Port Hueneme to talk to the Seabees while he and Deeks will interview Mila Curren.

With Agent Castor, the Sandhagen children are playing a game in the interview room. Juice boxes for everyone. Curren is being interviewed in the boatshed’s main room. She was getting the kids ready for school when she heard Emmet yell. Three men with ski-masks were in the kitchen as she started down the stairs. Seeing the men, she ran back upstairs and put the kids in a secure safe room.

Deeks asks if the men went after the kids – they did not. Curren is confused since the house has a lot of pricy items, expensive pieces of art. The only thing the kidnappers wanted was the Sandhagens. Asked about any stress points in their lives, Curren is stunned – the Sandhagens are the nicest people. Everyone loves them. They took her on a family vacation with the kids to Hawaii. There were no money issues. Curren is upset for the children and Deeks looks worried too.

In Ops, the Admiral arrives, asking if Kensi and Fatima are at Port Hueneme yet. They are about 20-minutes out. He asks Rountree for information about a Col. Jackson Ladd. Rountree finds some info but it likely isn’t current. The address had Col. Ladd’s name removed from the utilities a while back. Rountree asks about Ladd. The Admiral calls Ladd the finest the man to ever serve in the Army in every conflict going back 25-years. In his last deployment, Ladd lost both legs in a door breech explosion. Ladd is struggling to figure out where he belongs in the world after being the best of the best and losing it all in an instant.

Driving to Port Hueneme, Fatima asks Kensi about “the whole parenting thing” – easier or harder than they thought it would be. Kensi says it isn’t easier or harder, just different. She was so worried about how Rosa would be emotionally after settling in with them but things are going really well.

Kensi asks about Fatima about Akhil. Fatima thinks they are solidly in the friend zone. Fatima isn’t sure what she wants. The last time she was dating, she was acting, partying, going out all night every night. After the accident, she changed everything about herself. Literally, everything except her family. Kensi thinks it is a good thing. Fatima agrees but New Fatima doesn’t know how to do relationships the way Old Fatima did. Kensi likes the New Fatima and is honored to consider her a friend. Fatima is happy since she admires Kensi. Kensi stops Fatima and tells her not to compare her to an older sister. Fatima wouldn’t, she thinks of Kensi more like a favorite aunt. That didn’t go well.

Exiting interrogation, Castor tells Callen and Deeks how much he likes the Sandhagen children. Callen thinks for their safety, Castor should take the kids and Curren to Seal Beach and have them guarded at the base. On the plasma, Rountree has the Sandhagens’s financials. No credit card debt, large savings and retirement accounts. There is a vacation home in Hawaii. Deeks thinks he and Kensi are just like the Sandhagens except for the vacation home, saving and retirement accounts and oh yeah, money.

Signing off with the boatshed, Rountree turns to a returning Admiral with questions about Ladd. Rountree hasn’t found any credit card or ATM activity in days. The Admiral wants LAPD to do a welfare check at Ladd’s home.

Finally at Port Hueneme, Kensi and Fatima meet with a Commander Cheng. Cheng supervises the work done by the Seabees. The Sandhagens were well-regarded by both the Seabees and the Navy staff. Kensi asks about what the Sandhagens did for the Navy. As soon as Kensi asks a question, Cheng stops and asks about the Sandhagen children. She is relieved to hear they are safe.

The Sandhagens are civilian contractors currently working with on three of the Navy’s top projects. Fatima explains that the SECNav has been in contact with Kilbride. The three projects all have enhanced security since the kidnapping. The three locations include a weapon depot at Camp Pendleton and an underground drone control base in the Mojave. The third location was the Sandhagens’s “masterpiece”. Kensi and Fatima were not briefed on that project and could only speak in person with Cheng about it.

The third location is a multiservice missile deterrence command and control center built directly into a mountain in a classified location. Cheng can’t share the location with Kensi or Fatima. The command center is responsible for over 300 missiles on US soil. If a hostile foreign government or terrorist get control of that location, they could “take out most of our domestic military operations with the ballistic missiles,” according to Cheng.

Back on the plasma, Rountree found a partner in the Sandhagens business. Paul Figueiredo has some money but it all pales in comparison to the Sandhagens fortune. And he has a ton of credit card debt. They are all equal partners in the firm. Deeks wonders if the Sandhagens are funneling company profits right into their accounts. Callen thinks they could be selling classified info to the highest bidder.

Paul Figueiredo is in the boatshed’s main room – Castor picked him up. He’s sick about what happened to the Sandhagens and will do whatever is needed to help. But first he asks about Ty and Sophia – the Sandhagen children. He’s also asking if Mila is with the kids. He’s relieved to hear they are all in a security location.

Callen asks about the business. Figueiredo owns a third, Linsey owns a third and Emmet owns a third. Looking at the Sandhagens’s financials and Figueiredo’s, Callen points out the difference. Figueiredo is a bit surprised he was being investigated but he has nothing to hide. He explains that while he is a partner in the military contracting business, the Sandhagens have a civilian business and he’s not a part of that.

It is Deeks’s turn to be surprised since there is no record of that business in any of the Sandhagens’s financials. That was intentional, according to Figueiredo. The business is held by a series of trusts so make sure nothing could be traced back to the family. The civilian jobs were safe rooms in houses and businesses, “bug out” cabins in the mountains. Wealthy people are willing to pay for safety.

Figueiredo was offered an equal share in that business but he wasn’t interested. Unlike the Sandhagens, he doesn’t live to work. Working allows him to camp, hunt, surf, do jujitsu – things he wants to do. Callen asks if he has any remorse about not joining with the Sandhagens when he saw the money coming in. He doesn’t because the Sandhagens worked 24/7/365 to get the business launched. And it was a huge accomplishment. While Figueiredo does not know who the Sandhagens’s private sector clients were, he knew all business was done from their home office.

Driving back from Port Hueneme, Kensi tells the Admiral they are about 40-minutes out. The Admiral is going to send Kensi and Fatima a list of the Sandhagens’s private clients. This makes more sense – anything the kidnappers could get from private clients would be a lot easier to sell than military items. The SECNav is still protecting the military projects.

Deeks is blown away by the Sandhagen home. Being an architect pays. Callen mentions wanting to be an architect as a kid. Deeks thought he’d like it too without the math and engineering. Near the door is a group of fun family photos of the Sandhagens – family events, skiing, bike riding, just living their happy lives. Deeks is horrified they were taken from their own home. Callen asks about Rosa. Deeks is in awe – Rosa fit in a like a champ though he’s pretty sure she’s really sick of him asking if there is anything she wants to talk about. “Well, I think we all are at this point,” Callen snarks.

Deeks asks about the engagement. Callen tells him that Anna is looking at life in Los Angeles without a career in law enforcement. Deeks is sorry that Anna wants out of law enforcement but understands better than anyone the downside of a “two badge family.” Deeks starts talking about future Callen-Anna kids but Callen is happy to have found the Sandhagen office.

With Rountree, Callen and Deeks get a list of the Sandhagen clients. The Admiral is now back in Ops. There are a lot of banks, stores and high net-worth individuals on the client list. Kensi-Fatima and Callen-Deeks are going to check clients near their locations, the FBI HRT will also help.

Rountree breaks the news to Kilbride that LAPD found nothing but some empty whiskey bottles and a lot of empty beer cans in Col. Ladd’s home. The Admiral is waiting for another bit of bad news but the empty bottles and cans were Rountree’s sad story. The Admiral is outraged. Long before meditation and mindfulness unleashed by Rountree’s generation, “many, many generations before you achieved the exact same result using a combination of whiskey and beer.” The Admiral storms out.

Kensi and Fatima checked out an armored truck depot and a fancy watch store. Next on their list is a Santa Monica bank, a place called Even Mavrik and a high-end cigar and wine place. Kensi wants to go back to Even Mavrik, which in Hebrew mean “brilliant stone.” They are diamond brokers.

As Callen and Deeks leave and Sandhagen home, Rountree calls. The client list was last downloaded a month ago. Callen thinks it could be for quarterly taxes but the Sandhagens were working on a project in Port Hueneme. Commander Cheng verified they were with her. Mila the Nanny becomes a suspect.

Castor brings Curren to the interrogation room. She notices it is a lot more cramp than the outside area where she was questioned earlier. Deeks want to clarify that Curren was working for the Sandhagens since she graduated from Harvey Mudd, one of the country’s top colleges for engineering. Curren explained that it took her a little longer to finish college because she didn’t have rich parents but she graduated with a computer science degree.

Deeks mentions the $230,000 in student loan debt. And while the Sandhagens pay well, with rent, cellphone bills, Wi-Fi costs and food, that doesn’t leave much for monthly student loan payments. But even with all money going out, Curren hasn’t missed a loan payment. She tries to explain that she’s worked hard but Deeks cuts her off. He knows it is hard to come up with spare cash like that every single month to buy a money order from the local 7-Eleven to pay for the monthly loan. Curren asks if that is a problem. It isn’t, Callen tells her, as long as she has records for the incoming cash. She sells clothes to Buffalo Exchange and they pay in cash. It’s not a problem for Deeks, he’ll just get the records from Buffalo Exchange.

Nervous, Curren explains that her parents were so excited when she got into Harvey Mudd. They just didn’t understand how much debt she’d wind up incurring by getting her degree. She actually makes more money as a nanny than she would working and using her degree. With a sick mother, Curren has to live in Los Angeles but it is impossible with the debt she has. Playing bad cop, Deeks wants to know who gave her the money. Good cop Callen knows that Curren doesn’t want to see the Sandhagens hurt and wants the kids to see their parents again.

Curren explains she met a man in a restaurant. He was so nice. She now owes him so much money there is no way to pay her back. The man wanted to rob a place the Sandhagens designed. She never thought they’d be kidnapped, she never thought anyone would get hurt. The man’s name is Josh McCall – Deeks is on the phone with Rountree trying to track McCall down.

Kensi and Fatima come up to the building – a very locked-up building - housing Even Mavrik. One of the vents has been removed. Kensi and Fatima go in.

Josh McCall, according to Rountree, has been in and out of the system his entire life. DUI, assault, grand theft auto to name a few of his crimes. LAPD RHD believes he is working with Chito Aldana, who runs a high-end heist crew. They robbed an art gallery in Beverly Hills recently. Callen and Deeks are going to check out McCall’s home.

Kensi and Fatima are checking out the insides of Even Mavrik. While they are looking around, Aldana is checking in with McCall. He wants to know what is taking so long. The diamond dealers locked themselves inside in their diamond vault. Since the Sandhagens built them, they can probably get into the vaults. Kensi and Fatima worry that once the Sandhagens get into the vault, they’ve outlived their usefulness. Kensi tries to call the office but there is no service. Without their cellphones or ability to use their guns (too much noise), Kensi and Fatima have to rescue the Sandhagens on their own.

Callen, Deeks and the tactical team go into McCall’s home. It’s empty. Deeks keeps talking and Callen misses Sam. Deeks finds some lottery tickets and is bothered that Callen misses Sam. He sends a photo of the tickets to Rountree.

The Admiral and Rountree are concerned that Kensi and Fatima are offline. Rountree goes back to when they last had cell service and found that McCall and Aldana have a scrambler. He has no idea where they are.

A guard is walking through Ever Mavrik when Fatima stun guns him. As she and Kensi hide his body, a co-criminal calls for the guard. Kensi puts him in choke hold. She drags him to the room with the guard. Taping both of the bad guys’ mouths closed, the women lock the men into a janitor’s closet.

Outside the vault, Kensi tells Fatima she sees the Sandhagens working on the vault. McCall starts yelling that Red and Bobby are gone. Kensi and Fatima hide while McCall and Aldana talk. Aldana thinks Red and Bobby ran but McCall has Red’s guard hat. It fell off during the struggle with Fatima. Aldana believes the facility has more real guards on duty. Aldana wants the guards found now. “You won’t leave this building alive.”

Rountree traced the lottery tickets to a gas station outside of Ever Mavrik. Callen and Deeks are on their way. Deeks asks if Kensi and Fatima are on their way. Rountree mentions they are missing and Deeks is not pleased. “Find them.”

As the Sandhagens manually drill through the vault, Aldana is getting impatient. When Emmett tells Aldana it will take as long as it takes, that gets Emmett a gun pointed at his chin. Fatima wants to go in but Kensi stops her – Aldana needs the Sandhagens. McCall returns with an extra goon. Extra goon is going to stay with the Sandhagens, Aldana and McCall are going to search the building. Kensi is going to distract Aldana and McCall while Fatima works to rescue to the Sandhagens.

Kensi breaks some glass on the first floor so Aldana and McCall are on the move.

Deeks tells Rountree he and Callen are five minutes out. When he asks about Kensi, Rountree doesn’t haven an answer.

Aldana finds a door ajar. Opening the door, he finds Red and Bobby. Kensi finds a pipe and whacks Aldana in the head. He joins Red and Bobby in the unexpected nap room.

While the Sandhagens are working, the goon hears some noise from a printer room. He find a copy machine making hundreds of copies of a smiley face. Fatima comes up from behind him and starts beating him with her baton. Several kicks to the head later, the goon is out cold on the ground.

On the first floor, McCall gets several shots off at Kensi. The two have a good old fashion fight. He tosses her around, she does the same. She gets him into a sleeper hold and the Rock would be proud as how quickly he went down.

Fatima gets the diamond brokers out of the vault. The Sandhagens are assured their children are safe. They are incredibly grateful.

LAPD is taking the bad guys away. The Sandhagens are facetiming with their kids, who are happy Agent Castor got them ice cream. LAPD is bringing them home.

The team recap the case. Fatima is thirsty. Deeks knows about a Cuban place nearby. Kensi is hungry and Callen is paying.

At a bar, Col. Ladd is drinking alone. The Admiral joins him, wondering why Ladd “no-showed” a job interview. Ladd is grateful for what the Admiral and “the guys” are trying to do for him but he’d rather “do a deep dive with a weight belt and no tank” than do phone sales in a cubicle. The Admiral admits the job wasn’t the best match for Ladd. Ladd explains that he was a door kicker as a junior officer – the first one in every time he was sent out on a mission. When he moved to Intel, he led the toughest, best trained soldiers in the world. On Sunday, he was going to the supermarket and an old lady ran to help him at the front door. He felt that she saw him as “less than”.

The Admiral agrees that Ladd was never meant for the private sector. Ladd was a soldier, always was, always will be. Getting him a job with people who don’t understand that was a mistake. And if Ladd puts his drink down, the Admiral will get him a job fit for a soldier. Ladd doesn’t want charity. This isn’t charity. Kilbride won’t be holding the door open for Ladd. The Admiral leaves. Ladd stands up with the help of a cane.

Callen and Anna are hanging out in their garden, sipping wine. Anna got the job but didn’t take it. She would be in the office all day and it wasn’t what she was trained for. Instead, she looking at a company that specializes in finding kidnapped children. She isn’t sure that what she wants either. Anna turns the conversation to Callen. She knows he thought he saw Pembrook earlier that day. He says he did. She understands that he needs to track Pembrook down. “But,” Callen says. So much had to go right for the two of them to wind up together, maybe they should just enjoy the good.

What head canon can be formed from here: The Kensi-Fatima scene during the ride up to Port Hueneme was terrific. The program did a great job over the year with the Kensi-Nell friendship and there, they were planting the seeds for a Kensi-Fatima friendship.

The Admiral’s whiskey and beer rant looked like it had Caleb Castille laughing just a bit.

Col. Ladd was a character this program needed years ago. In seasons one and two, Daniel Hugh Kelly popped up as an unnamed military person who knew things. The program needed that type of character. Kilbride was that character for a while until Nell decided running off with Eric was more fun than running the team.

Finally, this episode had a Covid season feel. Everyone was siloed with another team member and basically worked that that member only. Yes, Callen had a chat with Fatima but that was in a perfectly empty office. There was a short scene with most of the team (save Kensi) in Ops and the meet-up at the end. Not a bad episode but I like the team when they work together.

Episode number: Season 14, episode two. This is 304 overall.

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