NCIS: LA - Forest for the Trees

Hello everyone!!! I am super tired because I wrote a 1,200 word essay over the weekend, and then wrote a misterm today, on 4 hours of sleep. What'd y'all do today?
I'm in desperate need of a nap...

Firstly, let me say I love the title of this episode. I love the phrase that title comes from. I love this show. I love everything. But maybe that's just the caffeine talking.

Sam and Callen are meeting some dude in a sketchy truck at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere ("Why do they never want to meet at Starbucks?" Callen asks) and then *poof* some smoke comes out from underneath the truck and it somehow blinds and/or deafens them and down they fall...


Deeks paid eighteen dollars for his lunch. I know everything is expensive in LA, but sheesh... Suddenly amongst the cute bickering over whether or not he can actually cook, he and Kensi notice that Callen and Sam are missing.

Granger finds out that he wasn't invited to the Christmas party. Know why? BECAUSE GRANGER ALWAYS RUINS THE FUN!!!

See, this looks like fun! And Granger is conspicuously absent...

Sam and Callen wake up from taking a nap on a dirt floor.  About time, boys, you need to escape! But seriously, how many times this season can the two of them be taken hostage/trapped somewhere?? First the submarine, then in Mexico... Other than Eric in the mole episode, nobody else has taken a turn. Oh, and I guess Callen in that office building episode - then Kensi and Deeks voluntarily made themselves hostages. But that's not the same.


Eric has problems staying on topic when he's worried. Me too, buddy. Also, this show has finally caught up to the real-world terrorist problems, and they're talking about ISIS.


Callen and Sam manage to open an escape hatch out of their prison, and after some quality married-couple-type banter, Callen needs to go get the screwdriver.

Turns out nobody tried to steal Sam's super-nice car after they were kidnapped, so Kensi and Deeks manage to easily find the location and the crucial evidence. Did the kidnappers lock up the car afterwards? What nice kidnappers.

Hetty and Granger have one of those tense conversations where she puts her people first and he puts the operation first, she says "I'm one step ahead of you Owen" and he goes "You always are, Henrietta." and she smiles like 'you know that's right'. Then he mentions that he might actually have feelings, and everyone at home does a collective *gasp*.

"I'm as concerned about them as you are. But my tone of voice will not change at all to reflect this."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch... Sam and Callen are walking around outside and they're in a forest. They see a fence and say 'it's too easy' and I called it - ELECTRIC FENCE!! Then a random handsome guy in a suit shows up behind them and yells 'don't move or you'll be dead'. AAH!
Not to worry, he's actually a GOOD handsome guy who (from 20 feet away) managed to spot that Callen stopped conveniently JUST brushing up against a tripwire. He's the missing NSA agent they were supposed to be getting info about - but he didn't go missing until that very morning. While on a Starbucks run.

This episode brought to you by Starbucks.
Starbucks: The best place to meet up with sources and/or get kidnapped.

Deeks and Kensi go to a trailer of a drug/weapons dealer or something purporting to be a 'management solutions' business, and Deeks starts quizzing the guy about importing fiddleheads and such. Then the guy runs and poor Deeks is forced to dive into some water that 'looks cold' to catch him. 

You'd think a surfer like Deeks would be more graceful with water... This reminds me of that scene from City Slickers where Billy Crystal has to rescue that cow.

Ops gets the information in on the NSA agent who was abducted - AND IT'S NOT THE SAME GUY FROM THE FOREST!!! UH OH!!!  Then Deeks and Kensi threaten to take the drug/weapon whatever guy into the middle of the sketchy part of town and loudly thank him for snitching to them. Which is a pretty genius plan if you think about it. Also allows for optimal sarcasm.

Still walking through the forest, then the handsome fake-NSA guy says 'Sorry guys nature calls' and he walks off into the forest. With a smile. And then they cut to commercial. Because that's not ominous at all... And then Sam just kinda follows him, clearly thinking something's up, and we notice that he's got a gun stashed in a tree trunk but can't grab it with Sam watching. Seriously dude? Peeing? That was your plan? Dudes pee next to other dudes all the time, if you weren't up to no good, you would have just picked a tree and told the other two to turn their backs!!

Callen and Sam find a crappy rundown building with the circuit breaker for the fence, and then Sam finds the REAL NSA agent tied up and bloody in the back room.

Deeks and Kensi are undercover at a restaurant where Granger is meeting some double-agent guy. The cooking sucks. Shocking.

Why did the bad guy let Sam go into that room where the real NSA guy was? Where the hell did Callen find that gun?? And why would he have told the NSA guy where the meeting was taken place? Even if they did trust him, why did he need to know where it was?? Why does it take 6 bad guys to storm a teeny restaurant to kill 2 guys?? There is so much logic missing here... BUT OHHH MAN they gave him the ole switcheroo - told him the wrong location for the meeting, so the ISIS agents that show up at the fake one were surrounded and gunned down, thank god. Granger and the informant and Kensi and Deeks are all safe.

Sam is a genius - instead of running after the fake guy when he took off, he runs back into the building and flips ON the electric fence, so he runs into it and explodes.
Apparently the bad guys left Sam and Callen's guns and phones just lying around in the building, and the fake guy didn't even move to stop them. And in the amount of time they were in the building, Callen texted the fake meeting location, they cleared the building AND set up the agents to swoop in? Playing it fast and loose with timing there, but ookaaaay...

Granger likes Deek's nachos. Everyone else lied about liking them, to be polite 'because it was Christmas' but now it's February and you can all be mean? Aww. I'm not sure who I feel bad for - Deeks because he can't cook, or Granger because everyone's laughing and he's not in on the joke.

OK we got a little more screentime for Eric and Nell this week, but over the last couple episodes were seriously lacking in Nellric banter. I NEED MORE NERD LOVE!!!