NCIS: LA - Citadel

I will admit, my new school schedule wherein I don't have class on Mondays or Fridays has really messed with my sense of time - as in, I never know what day of the week it is. Having said that, I very well might have forgotten to watch tonight's TV shows regardless, because instead I was watching a man do this:

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! IT'S SUPER-PILLAR!!!

But I digress. 

Oh hey, Talia's back! I still really want to go watch The Finder every time I see this actress (it's on Netflix, I highly recommend) but I know that will make me sad because 1) Michael Clarke Duncan is dead and 2) that brilliant show was cancelled after one season and that's a bummer. Anyway.

Her partner is a traitor and she's mad at him and he's trying to plead with her, but she's having none of it. Apparently he was blackmailed/extorted/coerced somehow to do it, and then a cop barges in and shoots the guy, and she shoots said cop. That was interesting. 

Deeks' house is having plumbing issues, and Kensi is bragging about things that she's eaten at an expensive restaurant, and then he has something to say about it that involves proposals and her face goes all bug-eyed. 

Kinda like this, but with less eye-rubbing.

Some security firm (named Citadel - roll credits!) had investigated the cop who shot Talia's partner, as well as the partner, and Deeks. Talia is antagonistic, as per usual, and her house is practically empty. Which is a good thing, because then it gets all shot full of bullets - how convenient that this happened right after Deeks and Kensi arrived. Timing! 

Eric and Nell hacked the system of the supposedly 'impenetrable' security firm. Good thing they work for the good guys, eh? Sam utters the phrase 'deja vu all over again' and I'm reminded of Yogi Berra and that makes me sad. 

Deeks and Kensi and Talia go to visit the partner's wife - who is named Emily! - and he starts talking about compartmentalizing personal and life stress, and jealousy over Talia, and that's just awkward. 

Callen ends up agreeing to fail the test to get Citadel approval, and he freaks out while in a dark room with electrodes attached to his head. 

Am I wrong in saying this looks like a sci-fi movie?!!

Sam passes the test and gets taken into a room with a nice smiley lady, while Callen goes into a weird cabinet-filled room with a steely-eyed creepy dude named Bennett who promises to pass him in exchange for 'I might ask you for a favour in the future'. Callen takes him down and says, somehow in an incredibly enticing way "Would you like to see how dangerous I am?" To which the dude just says "Not the face!"

Callen pulls a fire alarm, and for a highly secure evil company, the oldest trick in the book seems to work really well. But all they did was leave with the Bennett guy. Not sure why they needed a ruse for that, it's not like they needed people to leave so they could snoop around. 

His information was a DEA informant list and it was really really well hidden and being sold to a cartel. So they sorted the people they tested into 'good guys', failures and 'evil people'. And they asked the 'evil people' to do their dirty work. 

Deeks randomly staring at a lady's shoes and recognizing that they're really expensive = kinda creepy. Also, nice car name-drop in there. I hear you, Prius. But OH MAN he ruined the shoes in finding that thumb drive that her husband had hidden. 

Now I'm just thinking about shoes...

I might be getting sleepy now, because I'm finding it hard to concentrate on the big-bad complicated plot right now. 

So the smiley lady from earlier is really evil too, and she's the head of the whole program. Deeks refuses to go undercover with Kensi, and wants Talia to go with him. Kensi instead has to be a sniper and protect the two of them while they're carrying out the plan. 

Sam gives Kensi a pep talk that ends with the phrase 'more being less doing'. I'm sure it was very inspirational and all, but there I go getting distracted again. Bad Emily. 

We were just gifted with Callen in a hot-dog patterned bucket hat. You're welcome, world. Kensi carries on some profiling trying to figure out who the shooter in the crowd is. Talia is holding Deeks' hand and trying to use coupley-ness as their cover story, as they discuss the mission OUT LOUD and IN PUBLIC. I feel like that's not smart! 

The evil lady says she knew that Deeks would betray the LAPD and he gets all squirmy. Then Bennett gets sniped and evil lady just strolls off like it's no big deal. Callen and Sam and Deeks and Kensi can't for the life of them find the sniper, which is just not helpful. And then all the sketchy white men with coats & sunglasses that Kensi profiled earlier actually pull guns out and they take those guys down - I forgot that this is a TV show, and therefore the criminals actually all look the same. But the evil lady gets away. 

Or not... Because she tries using her phone back at her office, and it doesn't work, and then Hetty shows up all sneaky-like. Evil lady says she'd run a test on Hetty back in the day and she'd failed, but Hetty just does that little 'I'm smarter than you' speech she does and says that that was only 'whoever she felt like being that day'. Goddamnit I love Hetty. 

"But.. But... it's IMPOSSIBLE to outsmart the HL7 protocol!" Spare me the gobbledegook, lady, this is Hetty Freakin' Lange you're talking to. 

HOLY DAMN SHE WAS THE ONE WHO INVENTED THE TEST THAT'S WHAT THE HL STANDS FOR. THIS WOMAN, I SWEAR. 

*Continues to be a badass*

And Talia kisses Deeks RIGHT in front of Kensi. The stones on this one! 

I don't get why they make such a big deal out of Callen cutting his hair every season - Deeks' hair is waaaay longer, and so is Eric's, although he isn't a field agent. Hetty just likes things a certain way, I guess. 

Deeks' mom is actually who was at his house, and he brings Kensi home to meet her. And she approves of Kensi! Awww... But let's be honest, who wouldn't. Kensi rocks.