NCIS: LA Review: A Fait Accompli (Season 12 Episode 9)

On NCIS: LA Season 12 Episode 9, “A Fait Accompli,” we’re instantly thrust back into last week’s shootout. Unfortunately the bad guys get away, but Roundtree and Fatima get a chance to show off some cool heroics while saving a homeless man.

As the team continues its investigation into the counterfeit superbills and Chinese spy Jimmy Fang, they discover a plot to sell classified tech.

As Covid-19 protocols have forced the show to get creative about separating the team, we got some really fun partnerships this week.

With Callen off on personal business, Sam works with Admiral Kilbride, who always brings a hilarious grumpy old man quality to the team.

Kensi continues to partner with Sabatino, which leads to some surprising revelations about the CIA agent’s personal life. Turns out he used to be in a metal band and still has rock star dreams. He and Eric also bond over their shared obsession with bigfoot.

These may sound like unimportant developments, but the ability to infuse comedy into tense situations has always been a hallmark of NCIS: LA.

This is especially essential in an episode where the case seems unremarkable. When it’s clear that the engineer the team is chasing is just a hard-working immigrant, and his boss is actually the bad guy, we need something to keep us interested for the whole hour.

Making it too obvious who the real criminal mastermind is too quickly has been a consistent problem for NCIS: LA this season.

We’re not sure if it’s the writing or the performances, but it’s something the show really needs to work on moving forward. It takes the fun out of watching if the boss is obviously shady, but the team needs so much more time to see it.

Kensi and Sabatino are able to stop Fang from getting his hands on the tech, but they still don’t know who’s making the counterfeit superbills, so we’re expecting that story to get revisited at some point. We hope that means Sabatino comes back to wrap it up.

Meanwhile at FLETC, despite his failures last week, Deeks is on track to graduate until he mysteriously washes out.

Once he returns to LA, Hetty videos in to present him with a badge, saying she couldn’t allow strangers to do the honors.

So we spent nine episodes hearing about Deeks losing his job, watching him agonize over being too old, seeing him do spectacularly bad at FLETC, just so Hetty could basically hand him a badge?

As good as Eric Christian Olsen is in this storyline, that feels like a very simple conclusion. It really feels like we wasted our time since Hetty could’ve just handed him a badge at any point.

On the plus side, we are happy to have Deeks back with the team, as something has definitely been missing without him around regularly.

So about Callen’s personal business.

He’s finally decided to pop the question to Anna. However, when he goes to the motel she’s staying at while volunteering, it turns out there’s no group rebuilding the town.

If we’re being honest, we’ve never been completely sold on Callen and Anna, because she’s constantly lying to him. It’s hard to see how he forgives her this time since he was ready to make the ultimate commitment.

Frankly, it doesn’t even matter what secret mission she’s on. We’ve lost any ability to care about Anna after she’s spent months lying to Callen again.

A few weeks ago, Callen approached Arkady about Anna, and he told Callen not to rock the boat. At the time we thought Arkady was protecting his daughter, but perhaps that was also his way of warning Callen?

Considering how bad his luck has been, it’s time for Callen to take a break from dating and just focus on himself and his friends.

Since the episode ended with the bombshell of Sam’s daughter being kidnapped, something tells us Callen won’t have time to wallow in his broken heart.

We don’t know where the show is going with Kam’s kidnapping, but we hope it doesn’t lead to another traumatic loss for Sam. We’re still not over the way they killed Michelle.

When it’s been on for so long, it’s common for a show to fall into a rut. The addition of new cast members, and shaking up the partnerships has certainly helped NCIS: LA, but this episode highlighted how the case of the week still needs a fresh formula.

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

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NCIS: LA airs Sunday at 8 pm on CBS.

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