NCIS: LA Review: The Bear (Season 12 Episode 1)

Instead of dealing with national security in a COVID-19 world, NCIS: LA Season 12 Episode 1, “The Bear,” has jumped ahead a little to the team living post coronavirus.

Meanwhile, its sister show, NCIS: New Orleans, which airs immediately after, is telling stories centering around the pandemic.

When we last saw the team in the Season 11 finale, they had just taken down a corrupt yet well connected Navy SEAL. A story that will be picked up in NCIS: LA Season 12 Episode 2, “War Crimes.”

We get right into the action on “The Bear” with an unidentified Russian aircraft entering restricted US airspace and being tracked by US fighter pilots. Suddenly the captain loses consciousness and the plane begins to descend.

Turns out the missing plane is a strategic bomber called “The Bear.” It has a large missile capacity, including nukes.

Considering the always tense relationship between America and Russia, the consequences of this are world-changing, so the team needs to find the plane as soon as possible.

Due to COVID-19 protocols, Linda Hunt is staying away for a while, so Hetty is headed off on another mysterious adventure. In her absence, she places Nell in charge.

We’re really intrigued by the prospect of seeing Nell run the show. Hetty has obviously been training her for this for years, so it was only a matter of time before she got her shot.

One of NCIS: LA’s strongest assets is its deep bench of supporting players, which now includes new series regular Caleb Castille who officially joins the team as Agent Roundtree. He’s sent to stake out the Russian consulate in the food truck.

We instantly get the feeling his inexperience in the espionage world is going to be a running theme for him this season. Yes, he’s new to NCIS, but he was an FBI agent, so we expect him to be a little more seasoned than what we’re seeing here.

As always, the best part of NCIS: LA is the chemistry among the cast. The family atmosphere of the team balances the action and high stakes they deal with. New agents Fatima and Roundtree fit in perfectly.

A missing Russian bomber means Arkady shows up to drink vodka and steal scenes. Vyto Ruginis somehow gets more hilarious every time he pops into the team’s lives.

We really hope we get to see him compete in the triathlon he’s training for. We deserve the payoff.

Sam and Callen find the crashed plane, but the Russians are trigger happy, which means we get our first slow-motion action scene of the season.

They manage to get the names of the crew from Arkady’s contact. However, this spooks the men left on board and they activate the self-destruct.

Other than Linda Hunt’s absence, another notable change was the team members working solo, instead of in pairs. For example, Kensi, Deeks, and Roundtree are all surveilling the same target, but from separate positions.

Meanwhile, Callen stays at the plane to communicate with the crew, while Sam tracks the others through the forest.

In the end, there isn’t much drama, as the four men in the forest are easily apprehended and Callen is able to get the other two off the plane before it is destroyed.

After all the build-up about this possibly leading to World War III, the conclusion was relatively anti-climactic. There was even time for wacky banter while the Russians were being taken in.

As season premieres go, this was a perfectly fine episode, but nothing too extraordinary happened. At a certain point, we knew where the story was going, but the fun of NCIS: LA makes the trip worth taking.

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

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NCIS: LA airs Sundays at 8/7c on CBS.

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