NCIS: Los Angeles - Greed

Network: CBS
Time: Tuesdays, 9:00-10:00pm
Cast: Chris O'Donnell, LL Cool J, Linda Hunt, Daniela Ruah, Eric Christian Olsen, Barrett Foa, Renee Felice Smith

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary (from imdb.com): When a Navy ID is found on a dead body tied to a hazardous material smuggling case, NCIS is granted permission to investigate in Mexico and asked to help locate the missing materials.

Review: It's been a long time since I've reviewed an episode of NCIS: LA. I love this show; it's one of my most highly anticipated each week. But I rarely have anything to say about each individual episode. This season has been strong so far, particularly as we learned more about Callen's backstory (and Hetty's). This episode didn't stand out much from the others, but it had some wonderful moments.

Both NCIS: LA and its predecessor NCIS are very formulaic shows. In LA, each episode begins with some cute character interaction before diving into the case. This often becomes a recurring joke/theme in the episode, and it's often one of my favorite parts. I love these little moments, where the characters aren't super special agents; they're just normal co-workers. Well, okay, normal co-workers who are wittier and pithier than most. In this case, the episode began with Hetty teaching Deeks and Kensi how to waltz. This scene completely tickled me, and I have to admit I was disappointed that we didn't get to see Sam and Callen's turn.

The main plot of the episode began with a double murder south of the border in Mexico. The NCIS team was dispatched because one of the the bodies had a Navy ID on him. Through a cell phone video, they found out that there was a box missing, one that they believed was smuggled into Mexico from the Sudan.

Kensi and Deeks traced the box back into the U.S., while Sam and Callen met with the dead sailor's wife, who admitted she knew about the box. Her husband had planned to steal it because, as she claimed, it contained $8.5 million in gold.

Meanwhile, Eric traced the tire tracks they found to a truck owned by a Mexican drug cartel in the United States. Sam and Callen went to the garage, got into a shootout (because this is NCIS: LA and therefore there has to be gunfire every 15 minutes or so), and saved the life of one of the less-than-brilliant cartel members who'd gotten himself stuck under a car. He spilled his guts to the men who'd saved him, telling them that there was never any gold in the box. It was brown heroin. Obviously, since they were a drug cartel. Also, Jaime tells them that the guy who has the box wears red cowboy boots and has a wristband with a monkey on it.

Well, that's all Eric and Nell need, and they trace the wristband to its owner in downtown Los Angeles. Unfortunately, when our team arrives, he's already dead and the box is gone. However, they do meet up with Sam's buddy, Michael. Apparently, Sam's been working on an undercover operation for the CIA, and Michael is the CIA operative he's working with. Michael tells them that, nope, it's not brown heroin, it's uranium.

This is where I started to lose the story a bit, and I blame two reasons. For one, it got awfully complicated by this point. Somehow they narrowed it down to three men who were going to use the uranium to attack a convention center. Sam, Callen and Michael rushed in while the center was being evacuated and saved the day, but not before Michael got covered in uranium. He now has only a few months to live, so he returned to the Sudan to continue his work.

The other reason I lost the main story was because I was much more focused on the Eric and Nell subplot. Nell had received mysterious flowers, and Eric was feeling... competitive, so he sent a flower to himself as well (which Nell, not having fallen off the turnip truck yesterday, saw right through). However, it turned out that Nell had sent the flowers to herself as well, since she loves flowers and no one had sent her any in awhile. At some point, between wanting to give Nell a hug and smack Eric in the back of the head, I stopped paying attention to some silly terrorism story and completely lost myself in the geek love plot. Which is because I'm admittedly a 13-year-old girl on the inside. But come on. It was cute!

That aside, I do appreciate that NCIS: LA can tell a compelling, serious story without feeling the need to be too melodramatic. I mean, terrorism in and of itself is a dramatic plot, but the storytelling is simple. The characters move from one theory to another without much fanfare. They rarely break the rules if they can work within them, so when they do go rogue, the situation is made all the more intense for it. This episode set up the next, in which Sam will return to the Sudan to find Michael. I imagine this means eventually Callen (and maybe Kensi and Deeks) will wind up there as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the story will hold.

And the 13-year-old girl in me is looking forward to seeing what the Eric and Nell story will hold.

Rating: 4/5

Favorite line:
Nell: You took a flower from Hetty's desk?
Eric: She cuts them herself. It's a big bunch. She'll never miss it.
Nell: Hmmm.
Eric: I'm doomed, aren't I?
Nell: You sacrificed yourself to compete with me.

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