NCIS: Los Angeles Review: Home Is Where the Heart Is (Season 8 Episode 6)

Adjustment is the name of the game for NCIS: LA Season 8 Episode 6, titled “Home is Where the Heart is” – and well, adjustments are hard.

For the team in general, one that now includes Anna and is minus Kensi, and for the different dynamics that entails.

For Deeks, who’s still grappling with putting his words, his promises, into action, and just the general sense of helplessness that fills you when someone you love is in a situation that you can’t help them get out of.

For Kensi herself, who’s faced with the possibility of never going back to the person she was, and who predictably lashes out, because sometimes it’s easier to push people away than to see them leave.

For Eric, who doesn’t really know how to handle his partner – the one who’s always there with him, out in the field and possibly getting hurt.

For Nell, who’s gone from partnering with Deeks to a bad-ass and badly-needed-in-this-testosterone-filled-show, team up with Anna. She’s no longer just the analyst, Nell, she’s an agent, and those are big shoes to fill.

For Callen, who’s faced with saving a kid, and then pushing that kid’s father toward reconciliation with his family, because he, of all people, understands what it means to grow up without a family.

For Sam, who, for a moment there, feels like the dynamics with him and his partner might have shifted.

And even from Granger, who turns guru this week, and delivers a speech worthy of Hetty’s best moments, without breaking character or turning mushy.

His words ring true. They’re at the core of a message many other shows have tried to send and failed miserably.

Deeks doesn’t know what to do any more than Kensi does. The team has no answers either, not to this situation.

Sometimes that’s life. Sometimes you don’t know. That doesn’t mean you get to stop trying.

Because that’s what you do for the people you love. You don’t quit. Ever.

Home is where the heart is, indeed. For a father who might have never gone back to his daughter if it weren’t for the team, for Eric and Nell, who were confronted with the possibility of severe injury, and for Deeks and Kensi – despite the rough day.

Because, for Deeks, Kensi is home, and viceversa.

And for this team – this merry band of people who’ve found friendship in each other, home is, in a way, the OSP. And, as Granger said, they’re responsible for the lives they touch, aka, for each other.

The only way to fail is to quit. And this team is not quitting. Deeks is not quitting.

Neither is Kensi.

This was just a rough day. And, at the end of a rough day, you still go home.

And, yes …home is where the heart is.

Just because it’s kinda corny doesn’t make it any less true.

Other things to note:

• Everyone asking about Kensi – the continued acceptance about Deeks needing/wanting to be in the hospital, Sam’s supporting pat on the shoulder…it all means something. It gives me feels, okay? It gives me feels.
• Marty Deeks in general just gives me feels too. His whole response to Kensi saying she didn’t want any more visitors? “Rough day,” he said. And then he went back to the hospital.
• I too fell for Callen’s prank for a second there, Sam. Or more than a second. Well played, Mr. Callen. Well played.
• The little nods to continuity – like Nell’s driving and Deek’s commenting on it/Anna noting the same thing, are always a nice touch.
• Also, can Deeks just get along with everyone? Since when are he and Anna bantering like it’s nothing?
• How great is Bar Paly as Anna Kolcheck? No, seriously, how great is she? I never expected to like her as much as I do, but hey, count me in.

What did you think of this week’s episode of NCIS: LA? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Reviewer rating:

User rating: 

NCIS: LA airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

Follow us on Twitter @TellTV

8 Reasons We’ll Miss MTV’s Teen Wolf