NCIS: LA - SEAL Hunter

This episode is already looking pretty interesting, because a) someone gets framed and b) Chris O'Donnell directed. Yaaaay! I would also like to applaud them for going 6 episodes in without any reruns. That's longer than pretty much any other show this season... which is kinda disappointing. But anyways...

Sam gets arrested, at gunpoint, by the FBI, on a bridge. For MUUUUURDER. (That was my Shawn-from-Psych voice, there).

Deeks is eating a superfruit that's part aphrodisiac and looks like a giant sea urchin. Then he hits on Kensi, because 'the fruit made me do it' is an awesome excuse... Right?
Who are all these random people who suddenly work in Ops?? Typical of Hetty to be all 'by the book' and then sneak around behind Granger's back.

Kensi made a Ghostbusters reference, and Deeks has the revelation that vegetarians don't tend to eat at delis. I'm still confused about what this case is and who the person is that Sam may have killed.
Callen is also sneaky and hides in the FBI agent's car. I love how, depending on the viewpoint of the show, FBI agents are either arrogant jerks (CSI), heroes (Bones, Criminal Minds) or incompetent morons (Chuck, NCIS).

But one thing's the same:

They. Always. Wear. Suits.

Eric just compared hacking to sex and Nell made a face I've never seen on her before. It was priceless. Hetty also had a comeback to his analogy, but I'm afraid I missed it because I was still laughing at Nell. (But seriously, does anyone know what she said?? Leave the answer in comments & I'll be forever grateful!!)

Apparently you can now compare DNA samples virtually. *Science*

According to Deeks, toupees can be formidable. Also Deeks claims to be an expert on Judaism because of dating Jewish girls? How does that work, exactly? Don't pretend like you actually listened to them, dude.

Callen shows up - disguised as a waiter - at the restaurant where the FBI agents go for lunch. And Sam's apparently 'disappeared' into the federal jail system. Callen's pissed. He took the FBI lady's gun. And he recommends the lobster. But BAM now Granger's there too. WHAAAAT!? How do they do that?

Deeks scales up a house to climb in the window, and Kensi was definitely looking at his butt. Aaaand now he's trapped. Smooth move, Deeks. "If you shoot me in the back, that's murder!'" So... he just keeps his back to the guy. Oh man I love Deeks. Kensi happens to save the day from outside. And toupee man was definitely staring at Deeks, too... But not his ass. His hair. 

This is relevant.

Toupee-man, when interviewed, says he doesn't trust SEALs, then after he lists all their sneaky accomplishments in that rhetorical-question manner that is OH SO annoying ('You know who did ____? SEALs') Deeks cuts him off by saying 'otters?' and I want to high-five the TV because dude read my mind. (But I didn't, because that would be weird. Not that that's stopped me before..)

This guy approved of that joke.

Toupee-man also claims to have endured 36 hours of 'self-induced' waterboarding, and Deeks is well aware that he's full of it. Well, come on, Deeks, you are the expert on being full of it. 

Surprise, non-surprise, the two FBI people (OK apparently one of them's a lawyer) are sleeping together, and Callen casually finds them, again. I'm cracking up. I think someone on the NCIS: LA writing team has been watching Psych, this is exactly how Shawn operates. Or maybe I've been watching too much Psych. That's also a possibility. (But you can never watch too much Psych.) Granger snaps some photos of them sneaking off together and tells them that it wouldn't bode too well for them if word got out - because he wouldn't be Granger if he wasn't spoiling somebody's fun!

BOOM, Sam is back. And now he's talking to toupee man, who is probably wishing he could pull off the chrome dome like Sam does. Product placement... They have a new Windows phone. It's shiny. My dad is a tech geek and he always pointed it out when Eric had the Surface tablet before they were publicly available. They always manage to get such nicely-framed shots of them, too.

Voila! Side note: check out that adorable selfie. 

Totally reminded me of when they did this on Chuck. Who holds a sandwich like that?

Apparently it's not a toupee, his hair is just really thick and - ooh! Explosion! The non-toupee man's boat blew up. But it was pretty far away. (He wasn't on it). Apparently Sam has a 'doppelganger' who must have been the one who actually committed the murder - but that guy barely looks like him. And Granger tells Callen to 'keep an eye on Sam', knowing fully well that SAM DOES WHAT HE WANTS!

Kensi and Deeks go undercover at a self-defense class, they mess up their over story about whether they're cousins or together (they settle on cousins from Kentucky, it's a good overlap) and the lady teaching the class is totally Hotchner's wife from Criminal Minds.

Hey, I've got an idea, let's play the 'how many other TV shows can Emily mention in one post?' game. So far, I'm up to six. And one movie. I feel like this would be a good game for me to play on all my other posts. Must remember that for later.

Every time self-defense lady makes a move on him, Deeks goes "Okay, that's happening" hahaha what a guy. Apparently she remembers him as a detective because she was a working girl and he helped her out. Say it with me now: Awwwe. But then he has to tell her he's investigating her boss, and she's sad. OH CRAP they use her to lure in her boss and then he has a laser beam trained on her. Crapola.

Sam has to play the hero and runs in front of her so that Deeks and Kensi can follow the guy she handed off the bag to - he was obviously wearing a vest, so he's fine - but then he just LEAVES her there and runs off after the sniper who could possibly still shoot at her... Where's the logic in that??

An abandoned theater is a great place for a showdown. What with the dramatic lighting and all. And I'm still bothered by the fact that THIS DUDE LOOKS NOTHING LIKE SAM!!!

Calm Sam is the scariest Sam. The guy (who is not scary, and looks nothing like Sam) starts crying so then Sam and Callen just start laughing, because real SEALs don't cry. 

No word on the otters, though.

And toupee-or-not guy took all the credit and then referred to Callen and Sam as his backup. Rude!

Update: that sea-urchin-looking fruit stinks. Hetty's not having any of that in her Ops!
Foolish Callen invites Granger for a drink with them - why would you do that! He will prevent you from having fun!

So, to sum up:
-Excellent banter this episode (although a little lacking on Nell & Eric again, what's up with that?)
-Deeks has a nice butt
-Don't mess with Sam
-Toupees are obvious
-Affairs with coworkers are also obvious *cough* Densi *cough*
-Callen is sneaky
-Otters are adorable
-The writers need to learn what 'doppelganger' means
-I wish Chris O'Donnell could direct every episode

And I managed to make six TV and one movie references. Not sure if that's a good thing...

NCIS: LA - Black Budget

It's a really odd and unfortunate coincidence that there are two of my shows which revolve around mass shootings this week, following the shooting in Ottawa last Wednesday - last night, preceding the new episode of CSI, CTV actually aired a modified warning that 'in light of recent events, this episode may be disturbing to some viewers'. I know it's pretty irrational (especially considering I'm from Canada), but mass shootings are one of my biggest fears. What a depressing world we live in.

Callen and Sam have to go to Mexico to find an accountant guy who managed to escape the shooting at his office, and then fled the country for some reason. And I love it when Hetty calls Eric and Nell 'you two', it's almost like she's their mother.

Such cuties. They're definitely the 'children' in this weird NCIS family.

Literally right after they pull up in Mexico, a bunch of gang guys come out of nowhere and steal their guns and keys and phones. Now that's just bad luck. HAHAHA it's ok, he's actually a DEA agent and he doesn't want the boys to compromise his operation, but at least he gives them some crappy 'untraceable' revolvers to use, and a lemon of a car.

Well, ok. It wasn't as bad as this one. Theirs had windows.

Kensi is capable of translating Deeks' words when he has food in his mouth.That takes some skill. I'm not sure I could do that.

Sam is capable of coming across as insanely creepy when he's 'in character'. Callen is a little surprised by this. And I don't think Sam pulling his gun at the obvious bad guys who just walked into a bar is really the BEST idea he's ever had... Not to draw attention to yourselves, or anything. Somehow they manage to miss him with their semiautomatics, but he has no luck with his revolver either (that's a new one).

One of the girls from the bar/brothel (barthel? Using that word now) was harbouring the escapee (Milton, what a typical accountant name) at her sister's house. And they tell Callen and Sam that he's engaged to the sister, and Callen gets extremely sarcastic, which is one of my favourite things ever - he even sounds a little like Shawn from Psych.

Girl: "He's my fiance. We're going to be married."

Callen: "Yeah, that's usually what 'fiance' means." Sarcastic Callen is the best Callen.

The girl he rescued from the barthel starts hitting on him once she finds out he's never been married, and Sam starts laughing. The accountant guy is still really suspicious of Sam and Callen.


Deeks tickles Kensi's 'conspiracy bone'... Which is an odd way of phrasing things.

The bad guys from the barthel naturally show up at the house - in big black SUVs, the obvious car of choice for bad guys. They've cut the phone lines and toss in a walkie for communication. Sam thinks they're the delta unit that Milton had figured out stole a lot of money from the government. Which is why they wanna kill him. And they have the typical military pissing contest of 'our guns are bigger than yours mwahaha'.

Conveniently, Hetty and the others at Ops manage to figure out the bit about the stolen money at about the same time as Granger figures out that the team in question is in Mexico. He pulls out some bureaucratic language on an uncooperative army sergeant, and then demands for a helicopter to Mexico.

Deeks knows a lot of words beginning with 'L' and he manages to act like a game show host/infomercial guy while talking about prison. But he and Kensi determine that Milton was actually working WITH the bad guys.

Deeks would make an even better salesman than this dude.

The mother of the two Mexican girls thinks Sam is sexy and asks 'who am I, Zorro?' when she's given a machete to defend herself. YES. BE ZORRO. ZORRO IS AWESOME.

When I was a kid, my Dad was Zorro for Halloween. His sword was a stick covered in tinfoil. True story.

Callen has a touching moment with the one girl, whilst the house is surrounded with bad guys. Now is totally the time for that sentimental crap. And then Callen and Sam reach the same conclusion as Densi - a moment too late cos Milton has a gun aimed at them.

Then the girls' grandmother pops out of nowhere and hits him over the head with a frying pan, because old ladies are badass.

I couldn't resist.

But even though the bad guys wait patiently outside while they tie Milton up and the girls kick him a few times for double-crossing them, the bad guys still want them to send him out. For some reason. And Sam tries to talk on the walkie-talkie in Spanish, as though the Delta guys wouldn't be able to understand him - c'mon Sam!! Use your head!!

OK I'm confused now. If Milton was working with the bad guys, why did he take off? Did he double-cross them? And if he didn't, and he just fled the country with his money before he was implicated as a thief, why did the bad guys come after him?? [Edit: it's later revealed that he was the one who transferred the stolen money, so they wouldn't be able to access it without him] Apparently Delta operatives are even scarier than Navy SEALS. Although I gotta say, the name 'SEAL' (even though I know it's an acronym) has never been the most intimidating word...

I MEAN LOOK HOW CUUUUTE!!!

Sam manages the shoot the ONE guy they sent to go through the door, and the girls throw homemade Molotov cocktails at a few more. And then the mother proves she is, in fact, Zorro (or at least has seen Friday the 13th) and takes another one of them out. Sam and Callen decide to have some playful banter in the middle of a firefight about who's the better shot, because that's what they do best. And I thought they'd be faster at reloading their weapons.

'Sexyman' (the mother's words, not mine) takes the machete so he uses Milton as a hostage and then just when things get tense - BAM! Granger shows up at just the right time, and the last guys are dead. Because the REAL Delta team showed up and killed them. One of them looks like Ryan Reynolds. I approve. You know, I should have known they were impostors when they had such bad aim at the barthel. And none of them had beards.

The Mexican girls (apparently not caring that their house had been DESTROYED) keep flirting with Callen and say that Sam informed them he was a very lonely man. I concur. But Granger cuts in and says Callen needs to get back to the States right away. Because he just wouldn't be Granger if he didn't suck the fun out of everything.

Granger's here to do two things: Kick some ass, and ruin your fun. And he's all out of asses to kick.

Also, that should be his catchphrase. Someone put that line, with his face, on a T-shirt.