#nivar | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

typingtess · 2 years

Video

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Daniela Ruah (@danielaruah)

instagram

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Rewatch: "Pandora's Box"

The basics: A robbery at an art storage facility is connected to Katya.

Written by: Chad Mazero & Lee A. Carlisle

Chad Mazero co-wrote “Internal Affairs”, “Revenge Deferred” and “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” and “The Noble Maidens”. Wrote “Tidings We Bring”, “Can I Get a Witness”, “All Is Bright”, “Diamond in the Rough”, “High Society”, “Murder of Crows”, "Overdue" and "Sorry for Your Loss".

Lee A. Carlisle wrote or co-wrote “Golden Days”, “Reentry”, “Into the Breach”, “Concours D’Elegance”, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and "Sundown".

Directed by: Daniela Ruah directed "Russia, Russia, Russia" and "Lost Soldier Down".

Guest stars of note: Both Beckett Gunderson as Young Callen and Duncan Campbell as NCIS Special Agent Castor return from “Bonafides”. Nicky Endres returns from “Provenance” in season 11 as Kim Cho. Kavi Ramachandran Ladnier joins the show as NCIS Reserve Agent Shyla Dahr. Gildart Jackson as Gerard Dupont, Adam Lustick as Hieronymus, Josie Nivar as Pilar, Czarina Mada as Elena Maldonado, Christine Horn as Elliot Reynolds, Aaron Coleman as Ross and Samantha Gangal as Teenage Girl.

Our heroes: Solve a heist.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen: Applied for the warrant and was deepfaked into its delay. Sam: Once again tending to his father. Kensi: Disappointed Rosa was not at the immigration facility when she and Deeks visited. Deeks: Watched vampire and zombie movies to bond with Rosa. Fatima: Working with Callen today. Rountree: Jealous of Shyla. Kilbride: Lied to his son about there being no monsters in this world

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen: Drives sitting down. Sam: Absent. Kensi: Not Keith. Deeks: Ab-normcore. Fatima: Bad at restraining Dupont. Rountree: Tried small-talk with Kilbride at the coffee machine. Kilbride: Has gluten issues.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Not a mention of Hetty but Callen’s Hetty-led Noble Maiden’s past ends the episode.

Who's down with OTP: Kensi and Deeks are working so hard to be foster parents and so hard to not live and die with every twist and turn in that journey.

Who's down with BrOTP: In one episode, the Rountree and the Admiral go from being a well-oiled machine working together to a lot of uncomfortable silences.

Fashion review: Callen is wearing a blue plaid button-down shirt. Sam isn’t around. Kensi has on a sweater that that is dark green about 10% down from the top with , down with of grey and pink before becoming off-white. The color distribution is reflected in the sleeves. Deeks is wearing a grey sweater. Pale blue oversized coat for Fatima with an aquamarine turtleneck. Rountree is wearing a pink sweater because on this show, pink was the color of choice for Deeks and Rountree this season. Charcoal grey three-piece suit for the Admiral with a crisp white dress shirt and a blue and red tie.

Music: “Oh Baby” by LCD Soundsystem is playing as Kensi and Deeks sit with Pilar.

Any notable cut scene: Again, more extended scenes.

After Callen and Fatima speak to Maldonado for the first time, they discuss the delivery and the plumbers showing up at the same time. Callen wonders if the plumbing company and the delivery company teamed up for the heist.

As Kensi and Deeks wait in the Admiral’s office, they talk about the only reason he’d call them in. Kensi sarcastically thinks he going to tell them they are doing a great job in an act of workplace transparency. Deeks thinks they are getting fired in the mahogany aquarium. Kensi can’t think of a reason he’d fire them unless he has a reason to fire them. Deeks will be fine since he always has the “solace of the ocean”. The Admiral arrives.

After the Rountree-Kilbride gluten-free fried chicken spot scene, Rountree runs into Shyla in the hall. She thinks he’s in a good mood. He denies that, “I’m not in a good mood. You’re in a good mood.”

Quote: Kilbride: “If this is what Katya went through, no wonder she turned out how she did. But why'd she want something like this back so bad? Hell, why keep it in the first place?” Callen: “Blackmail? Motivation for revenge? I'll send it to the lab, make sure we didn't miss anything.” Kilbride: “You know, my son could never sleep as a child. The dark. I lost count of the number of nights I spent trying to convince him that monsters aren't real. Worst part about this job …knowing it is a lie.”

Anything else: At an art storage facility, a female staffer is accepting a delivery of yet another balloon dog art piece. The art is a in a large wooden box. As the staffer directs the delivery company where to put the box, she gets a call. The plumbers are there. She asks the delivery man to unpack the box. Keeping his face obscured with a baseball cap and his head down, the delivery man is happy to help.

Opening the crate, there is no balloon dog art, there are two men wearing black from their ski masked covered heads to their boots. Both men immediately takes out the security camera. The delivery man orders his accomplices to “grab what you can” as the two run wild through the facility. The delivery man has special equipment – he’s stealing something in particular while the others are really just grabbing what they can.

Closing up the crate with the stolen goods and his accomplices inside, the delivery man almost makes a clean getaway when a male staffer from the facility stops him. The delivery man tries to explain that he was there to drop something off and to pick something up but without the proper paperwork, the male staffer needs to check out the crate. The driver shoots the male staffer in the shoulder instead. In decent shape, the male staffer is able to call for help on his two-way radio.

In the office, the Admiral is making his way to the coffee area. Rountree follows. The Admiral is not particularly pleased to be in LA. While the two listen to the coffee brew, Rountree tries some small talk. The Admiral is making a “concerted effort to forgive” him for that. As he leaves without his coffee, the Admiral starts talking to a woman who will bring him his coffee. Walking past Rountree, she notes he’s sort of Admiral Kill-joy before his morning coffee.

Rountree asks who she is and the woman replies Shyla Dahr, the Admiral’s new assistant, “sort of.” Rountree was unaware that Kilbride had an assistant. Shyla explains she was sent out by the Director to help the Admiral. Shyla doesn’t understand why Kilbride is anti-LA. Washington DC is “all backstabbing all the time”. In LA, you can fit in a Pilates class between betrayals. Rountree notices a box Shyla has. It is a humidor full of cigars. Rountree didn’t know the Admiral smoked cigars. Shyla thinks he should get to know Kilbride better.

In Ops, Fatima is having a tough conversation with someone who isn’t being helpful. Ending that conversation with “Warm thanks for nothing,” Fatima takes a call from Callen, asking if they have a case. Fatima tells him about the robbery at Crusciel & Crusciel, the art storage facility. Before Callen’s call, Fatima was talking to people at Crusciel & Crusciel and they weren’t helpful. With a lot of wealthy and powerful clients, Callen knows they will do everything in their power to keep the robbery quiet.

Fatima thinks it can’t be a coincidence the at facility was robbed just as Callen was getting a warrant for Katya’s storage space. Callen thinks this gets them into the facility without a warrant – it is a crime scene. Callen is on his way to Crusciel & Crusciel while Fatima tries to learn more about what happened. Fatima is about to contact Sam but once again, Sam is out of town tending to his father. Fatima asks if everything is OK. Callen isn’t sure but he’s good on handling this alone.

At an Immigration Center, a worried Kensi arrives with Deeks. She’s concerned that Rosa won’t want to talk anymore. Deeks has a back-up plan, binging as many vampire, zombie and sorcerer movies as he could find. Elliot Reynolds, Rosa’s case manager, approaches Kensi and Deeks. Rosa is out of the facility and living with an aunt in Barstow. Reynolds wanted to call Kensi – she and Deeks made arrangements two weeks ago to see Rosa – but is overwhelmed with cases. Kensi asks if Rosa is going to be OK. With a good case for asylum and family in the US, Rosa is going to be about as OK as it gets for someone who survived her trip to America Reynolds replies.

In the burn room, a stunned Rountree tells Fatima about the Admiral having an assistant. Checking out Shyla, Rountree learned while she technically works for Leon Vance, she is also an NSA Analyst. The two start back to Ops. As Rountree is talking, the Admiral walks up with Shyla for introductions. Fatima invites both the Admiral and Shyla into Ops to review their current case.

The start to the robbery security video from the storage facility shows what happened in the teaser. The team is running the delivery man through facial rec to get an ID. While the Admiral thinks it is a sad day for the art world – and he actually doesn’t think that – he wants to know why NCIS is involved. Art is used by criminals to finance crime and terrorism. Also, Katya was storing something there.

Shyla is aware of Katya as the “sociopathic powder keg with a murderous appetite for love?” The Admiral feels she’s more a “giant pain in my ass”. Crusciel & Crusciel will only provide client numbers for the crates, not the names of the clients or what’s inside. Katya’s crate was one of the ones stolen according to the crate number on the invoice Callen found in Katya’s safe deposit box. Rountree suspects Katya has someone in with the feds since she probably knew about the warrant. With the deepfake technology, Fatima thinks Katya could have posed as anyone to get information from the feds about the warrant. Shyla has been read into all the Katya deepfake business. So these three were either the unluckiest thieves ever or Katya is pulling out all the stops to get her stuff back.

When Fatima arrives at the art storage facility, she finds Callen is already there. With Shyla in Ops, Fatima is free to help Callen. He found nothing in Katya’s vault. Fatima is stuck on how the thieves wound up alone in the facility. Callen is stuck on that too. They approach Elena Maldonado, the woman who walked in with the delivery man earlier that morning. Maldonado already spoke to LAPD – one second she was taking a delivery, the next Ross is shot and everything is gone.

Noting that Maldonado was the only one registering new items that morning, Fatima wants to know if it was normal to leave a delivery man alone in the vault. It isn’t the right way to do things but they are understaffed and their bathrooms were underwater. When the plumbers arrived with the delivery people, she had to make a choice. Since the plumbers gave her a window for their arrival, she didn’t know they were coming at the same time as the delivery. While looking through her bag for something to calm her down, Maldonado has had enough – she has a board meeting in 20-minutes, a client call after that and she really needs a valium.

In the fishbowl, the Admiral walks in with Kensi and Deeks waiting for him. Kensi asks why they are there and is told by the Admiral that’s he’s old. He doesn’t want to chase the team around the office like a groupie for the Grateful Dead. Kensi and Deeks are up to speed on the case and since Katya can’t just sell the stolen art at a different gallery, the Admiral is looking for Kensi to get in touch with Kim Cho, her contact in the “off-market” artworld. Castor is going to bring Cho to the boatshed. Deeks talks about the wood in the Admiral’s office before realizing it is time to go. “Toodles!”

Both Rountree and Shyla are getting the runaround. He’s getting it from Maldonado’s plumbers, Shyla from the person holding the account to bring the fake box in to the storage facility. Shyla is sure the client is fake. Facial rec still has nothing on the delivery man. Shyla, however, knows why the warrant was on hold. “Callen” called the judge and asked her to hold the warrant until a related case is solved. Katya used a deep fake to delay the warrant.

Kensi and Deeks walk into the boatshed where Castor has Kim Cho. Cho recognizes Kensi as Keith, her former undercover persona and wonders who the normcore with her is. Kensi explains she’s a fed and normcore Deeks is her partner. Deeks considers himself ab-normcore. While unhappy they were played, Cho respects how Kensi worked. Kensi asks Cho for help. They ask if helping will put them in danger. Kensi assure Cho it will not. Cho seems disappointed.

Reviewing that happened at Crusciel & Crusciel (“C&C Art Factory” according to Cho), Deeks asks if Cho can help trace the art. Cho is not sure why Kensi and Deeks are asking for their help. Kensi reminds Cho that they did exactly that on the last case they worked. And if he doesn’t help again, they’ll have him arrested. “I hate you both and I love it,” Cho tells Kensi and Deeks before starting to help them.

Fatima has the unhappy task of telling Callen about the deepfake situation with the judge. “She’ll never stop,” Fatima worries aloud. Not if NCIS can make her stop, according to Callen. Whatever was in the vault was really important – personal. By delaying the warrant, Katya was able to buy herself some time to put together a crew to pull off the robbery since she could never show up. Rountree calls with news. After speaking to the plumbers, Rountree learned that Maldonado set-up the time for the work to be done, not the other way around. She paid double to make sure the plumbers would arrive. Maldonado gets on a big elevator to leave. Fatima and Callen follow. “Going down?” Maldonado asks. “One of us is,” Fatima replies.

Marching Maldonado to a far part of the vault area, Callen and Fatima accuse her of lying to them. Maldonado says she is under so much pressure – she’s responsible for the millions of dollars-worth of art by her pay is a joke. “I’m barely scraping by.” Callen asks about Katya but Maldonado was hired by “some guy” with $15,000. She stopped asking questions when she got the money. Her description of the “some guy” was Callen’s age, French – sexy French not angry French – with piercing blue eye. Callen finds that not very helpful.

Cho works the phones in the boatshed. They can’t find anything for sale. Kensi and Deeks thinks they came up dry but Cho disagrees – if what was stolen isn’t for sale. Whoever has the art is either sitting on it or it isn’t for sale. Either way, Kensi and Deeks will have to wait. When Fatima texts Kensi and Deeks the description of the man who paid Maldonado, Cho has someone who fits the bill – Gerard Dupont. Dupont was out of the game according to the scuttlebutt Cho heard. When Kensi asks if Cho knows where Dupont is, Cho reminds Kensi who is the federal agent.

In his office, the Admiral is going on about war and the money spent on the fight and that fight being the reason generations have gotten out of bed every day. Having survived bullets, bayonets and other artillery, the Admiral tells his doctor he can survive gluten. Rountree arrives for the end of the call. Kaleidoscope followed the van from the vault but lost it when it went into a tunnel. Kaleidoscope 2.0, however, was able to figure out the van driver switched with another vehicle. That vehicle is now behind a building downtown so Callen and Fatima are on their way.

Shyla has a lot on Dupont for Kensi and Deeks. In broad daylight, Dupont committed over 50 heists, all without violence. Dupont tried to steal a statuette of Mercury from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Belgium and was caught. Sentenced to five years in prison, Dupont served three and moved to LA to be near his daughter and her husband. Dupont just became a grandfather.

While never arrested for anything in LA, Dupont is a person of interest in a number of art theft cases including the successful heist of the statuette of Mercury. He’s been questioned but let go. Deeks wants to know if Dupont steals for profit or as an addiction. Shyla has an address so Kensi and Deeks are on their way. Cho thinks it all sounds so dangerous. Kensi tells Cho the only thing that’s dangerous in their future is Castor’s barely suppressed road rage. Castor feels it isn’t his fault that nobody in LA can drive.

In her tactical gear, Fatima enters the shop where the van was found. She sees a man in the back of the shop who makes a run for the back door. That’s where Callen is waiting. Fatima recognizes the man – it is Gerald Dupont/the delivery man.

Handcuffed by Fatima, Dupont is asked about Crusciel & Crusciel. Dupont knows they are a high end art storage company. Fatima asks if that’s why he stopped by that morning. Dupont claims to only know about them by reputation. Telling Dupont a highly-skilled Frenchman robbed the place that morning, Fatima sees Dupont take off his handcuffs and suggest Gerard Depardieu as a possible culprit. Fatima is stunned and not about Depardieu. Explaining there is always an escape, Dupont assures Fatima that handcuffs cannot hold him. Fatima has zip ties and uses them.

Callen returns. He did not find the stolen art. While not denying his past, Dupont tells Callen and Fatima that he’s been in the shop all day. He’s helping the owners open a pottery shop. Callen pulls out a pair of overalls that looks a lot like the one the delivery man was wearing. Dupont asks to see the jacket and puts out his hand. Fatima swears she double-checked Dupont was secured.

Dupont says they are generic overalls – thousands of them are floating around the city. Fatima now has duct tape. Callen brings up the male staffer – the dock master – who will survive his gunshot wound. He could ID the man who shot him. Fatima brings up Dupont’s past again – he never used a gun in the past. Dupont sticks to his story.

Pulling up to Dupont’s home, Kensi and Deeks have a warrant to go in. Inside the house is a lot of art all over every flat space.

Rountree updates the Admiral that Dupont isn’t talking and that Kensi and Deeks haven’t found much in his home. The Admiral doesn’t really thinks that’s an update. As he doesn’t leave, Rountree says “Pikunico”. The Admiral answers “bless you” (which is funny). Pikunico is a Japanese fried chicken place that is gluten-free. “Just as good as the real thing” and that means a lot coming from Rountree, a guy who grew up in Texas. The Admiral threatens to end Rountree if he shares the gluten diagnosis with anyone. “The last thing I need is for anyone to think this city has gone to my head.” He then thanks a departing Rountree.

At Dupont’s home, Kensi is angry. Dupont had no issue getting into the US as a convicted criminal but Rosa, who was a victim of a crime, is fighting to stay while locked up in a shelter. While Kensi and Deeks are talking, Deeks notices a hat on a little statuette. It is the stolen Mercury. Holding up a photo of Dupont’s daughter and grandchild, Kensi thinks they can leverage them to get him to cooperate or be sent back.

Claiming he picked up the Mercury statuette at a garage sale in Reseda, Dupont is still trying to get out of his duct tape handcuffs. Five years and an early release is a kind sentence but the Dutch government may not be as kind to a repeat offender. And of course it would be Belgium prison, taking him out of the life of his child and grandchild. Cooperation means he could stay with his family.

Dupont said he was a middleman in the robbery. He was hired by a woman named Irina Feodorovna. Callen confirms that is one of Katya’s aliases. Dupont was given very specific instructions on what vault to hit. Asked what he stole, Dupont said it was nothing he recognized. Asked where it was, Dupont is evasive. He admits that Katya was thinking small. He made a better deal. Callen tries to explain to Dupont just how tough Katya is.

Dupont give up the buyer, who uses the name “Hieronymus”. Callen wants Dupont to set up a meet with Callen playing a possible buyer. When Dupont tells Callen that Hieronymus would not just meet with Callen, Callen decided he would meet with Callen and Dupont. Rountree will be teamed with Fatima. He’ll also bring a suit for Callen to wear.

A suited Callen and Dupont go into a warehouse to meet Hieronymus. Fatima and Rountree are set-up in the roach coach. Callen goes in as Mr. Carl. Hieronymus is surprised to see Dupont so soon. Dupont agrees. Fatima warns Callen that the meet won’t be a private one. It isn’t – it is an auction. Crypto only. As a friendly warning, Hieronymus tells Callen to be aggressive. He expects big sales.

In the roach coach, Fatima and Rountree run facial rec on the others at the auction. Gang and drug cartel members are there. Rountree asks if they should move in but the Admiral has them hold off. Callen really hasn’t seen any of the art. The REACT Team is 15-minutes out, Kensi and Deeks are behind them.

As the auction begins, Dupont doesn’t recognize any of the art from the vault. One of the buyers calls the art “rubbish”. Hieronymus says one of the pieces is counterfeit. Dupont realizes he’s been exposed and starts with leave with Callen in tow. Pulling a weapon, Hieronymus stops them. He thinks it is odd that Dupont showed up at the auction with a complete stranger after trying to pass off “rubbish” as great art. At this point Rountree yells federal agents and all hell breaks loose. Callen wrestles the gun away from Hieronymus. Fatima jumps one of the bodyguards while Rountree ends a shootout by dropping some fancy rugs on the shooter.

The REACT Team gets most of the fleeing buyers. Dupont, however, disappeared. Callen hopes for they catch him before Katya finds him. Asking LAPD to bring Hieronymus over, Callen wants to know which piece was from Katya’s vault. None of them were – what was in the vault was worthless. He tossed it with the crating. Callen finds a film reel marked “Pembrooke”.

Back at the Immigration Center, Kensi and Deeks wait for Elliot Reynolds, who called them back with news. Reynolds arrives – Rosa is fine – but Rosa gave one of the other young girls something for Kensi. Pilar arrives with a Rosa’s gift, a Muñeca quitapena. It is a worry doll. They are made in the town in Guatemala where Pilar and Rosa grew up. That common background helped them become friends when they were at the Center.

Holding the doll, Pilar explains that if Kensi tells her troubles to the doll, it will help solve her problems. Pilar brought hers from home but lost it on the trip. Kensi offers Pilar the doll instead. Pilar asks Kensi if Rosa was telling the truth, that she was a superhero. Kensi smiles for the first time in the episode. Deeks is smiling too. Deeks explains on a slow day that Kensi can do what Superman does. Kensi and Deeks asks Pilar if she wants to hang out. She would like that. Pilar just saw a vampire-sorcerer-werewolf movie and Deeks has opinions.

With Dupont in the wind, Shyla put some protection on his daughter and grandchild in case Katya wants revenge. The Admiral is grateful for Shyla’s help. Shyla pushed the Admiral – he’s been in LA long enough that he doesn’t hate all of it. “Well, that will be a cold day in hell.” Seeing Callen in Hetty’s office, the Admiral sends Shyla on her way.

Loading up the projector, Callen and the Admiral watch what Katya stored so securely. Four teenage Noble Maiden are on the screen. When directed, one punches another before the other girls join in on pounding the one girl. When the beating knocks the girl to the ground, she’s ordered to stand up and take some more. She does.

The Admiral turns off the projector. This treatment goes a long way to explain how Katya wound up being the way she is. What he doesn’t understand is why she protected it so zealously. Why didn’t she burn it? Callen isn’t sure. Blackmail, maybe motivation for revenge. The Admiral remembers his son as child being afraid of monsters. While the Admiral assured the boy there were no monsters in this world, he knew he was lying.

After the Admiral leaves, Callen watches some more. He flashes back to being hit when he failed at an assignment he was given as Subject 17. He was called “17 and told the same thing the young women were told in the video – “pain is just a state of mind.”

What head canon can be formed from here: Not much of an episode. Shyla is a keeper but beyond that, it was a generic case and not a very good one. The personal scenes – Kensi and Deeks at the Immigration Center – were fine but nothing great here.

The Rountree-Kilbride scenes were weird. They were in near perfect sync in “Bonafides” but here it was awkward for no real reason. When did Rountree, who seems to only care about his sister, his job and sports – in that order – suddenly get interested in office gossip, chatting and managing up?

The final speech about monsters from Kilbride is another reminder on why this program has thrived with older actors who just bring so much weight to scenes like this. Linda Hunt is irreplicable but Gerald McRaney was the perfect addition.

Episode number: This is episode 14 of season 13. It is the 294th episode of the season

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: LA #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la

5 notes · View notes