It’s always fun when faces from the past show up.
Nate and Anna turned up on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 11, with at least the former getting an explanation of why. Anna, not so much.
Their appearances were both Callen-centric, of course. After all, the weirdness this season circles around G.
Most of that strangeness emanates from his relationship with Hetty.
So when a drone strike happens in Syria, near where Hetty was set to meet with an al Queda leader, Callen naturally went off the reservation.
He even has his operative in Syria thanks to, what, intimidation? Blackmail? Whatever you call it, Zasha is his eyes on the ground in that wartorn land.
Zasha wandering around checking out the corpses should have reassured Callen, but it didn’t have that effect.
It would be easy to chalk up his concern to being worried about his surrogate mother. But now that Callen has determined that Hetty had a significant role in turning him into the secret agent he is, he truly wants her to return safely to get the truth about himself.
Also returning was Harris Keane, watching Hetty’s back in Syria until she disappeared after the drone strike. He also told Callen what little he knew about the Drona Project, giving him another avenue to explore. But why did Zasha cut off the call at such a crucial juncture?
So Anna was back. Where has she been since last season? I don’t think it was in that dingy room over the Squid & Dagger.
Callen must have known how to contact her. How else is there to explain that she showed up just when he was having an existential crisis?
Sam was gone on a personal matter. But Sam wouldn’t have worked for the type of soul searching that Callen needed. “Rub some dirt on it” wouldn’t have been helpful advice.
Thanks to her odd training at the School of Noble Maidens, Anna got with what Callen was wrestling. And she attempted to set him straight.
Anna appears to have a healthy approach to life despite the Maidens, despite Arkady, despite living in the crosshairs for too much of her life. So she tried to keep Callen from dwelling on what might have been.
Speaking about getting Callen into a better headspace, Nate reappeared after being summoned by Kilbride.
So Nate has been one of Hetty’s operatives this whole time and knew more about what she was doing in Syria than anyone.
And yet he too was out of touch now, as Hetty has gone to ground, although voluntarily and involuntarily has yet to be established.
Kilbride also sought Nate’s help in getting a better handle on the Island of Misfit Toys that he had inherited.
Nate hemmed and hawed about more than doctor-patient confidentiality. But he did come around to assist Kilbride later on.
Kilbride admitted he had good soldiers in Sam and Kensi. Deeks is a mess. But Callen is a bomb waiting to go off.
Kilbride had known all along that Callen was a trainee of the Drona Project that the CIA had run of which Hetty had been a part.
It’s certainly a valid question of what happens when Callen discovers what Hetty had done and what Kilbride knew but wouldn’t disclose? How will that affect team morale and chemistry?
Callen running a shadow operation out of OSP is nothing new. He’s now working on not just “Where is Hetty?” but also “Where is Katya?”
And the deep fakes of Callen originating from Russia must have something to do with Katya, right?
A better question might be when do we get back to Hetty or those targeting Callen?
With the first team sidelined with other matters, Kensi and Deeks came to the fore as they searched on board a Navy ship for the mother who had abandoned her newborn baby girl.
Though, as it turned out, “abandoned” was too strong a word. “Entrusted to the care of the state” was more like it.
Leave it to Deeks to bring up the irony of a couple trying to have children attempting to find a mother who had given up her child. Nope, no subtlety to be found here.
This particular case hit Kensi hard as she couldn’t believe, rightfully it turned out, that any woman would abandon the child to whom she had just given birth.
Instead, Sofia Addison was in such medical distress that she left her daughter where she was sure to be found in time.
It could be debated if Sofia should have sought prenatal care rather than keeping her pregnancy a secret because of its origins.
But at least she admitted to Kensi that she had been raped so that the squad could give her some closure.
And what a jerk the rapist was. He could deny all he wanted, but didn’t he realize how simple it would be to match his DNA to the baby’s? It was heartening to watch Callen and Roundtree take him down after he stupidly resisted arrest.
To follow Callen’s journey, watch NCIS: Los Angeles online.
How long can Kilbride let Callen freelance on secret investigations?
Were you glad to see Anna back, and where do you think she was?
How significant a role will Nate play the rest of the season?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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