And, so starts tonight’s NCIS: Los Angeles. I’ve never been to California, but I would have thought it was safer than Iraq or Afghanistan. Why would Marines be active in California? Patrolling the Mexican-American border, it would seem. Usually, I find the plots on NCIS: Los Angeles to seem realistic, but tonight’s ambush of Marines in California seemed a far-fetched. And, that a businessman would even consider paying mercenaries to kidnap Marines, let alone actually do it to try and start a war between the US and Mexico is crazy.
Regardless, the episode had some funny banter, a motorcycle vs. ATV chase scene, a gun battle, an air raid, a grenade launcher, and ultimately a rescue. These made for a fun, suspenseful show. In particular, I enjoyed the pairing of Kensi and Deeks. It works for me, and I don’t mean romantically. I wouldn’t want them to go down that path that so many other shows follow. They play off each other well. When a new cast member joins a show, it can create a problem with the chemistry of the characters. In this case, I think the addition of Deeks has been a positive thing. His LAPD rough-around-the-edges character is a great contrast to the other team members.
A new character looks to be sticking around, while another leaves. Nate is going … somewhere. Unless, I missed it, we were never really told where he was going or what he would be doing. I am sad to see Nate go, but I know some people really didn’t care for his character on the show. From Callen’s goodbye, after some research and help from closed-captioning, it looks like Nate is headed to Afghanistan. It will be interesting to see how long he is gone and if, perhaps, his trip will lead to the rest of the team joining him in Afghanistan at some point.
Notes and Quotes:
Clacked by Carla Day 
on Sep 29, 2010 @ 08:00 EST5EDT
Having been to California many times, I’ve never seen tanks crawling through the streets. But, I’ve never been to the border. And now I know I don’t want to go. Thanks for saving my life!
*POST AUTHOR*
When I re-read my post this morning, I realized … I actually have been to California. But, the San Fran area, so very different than southern California, right?
I’m glad I saved your life :)
A tank patrolling California, not likely. A Humvee? A different story altogether. Humvees can easily be found performing duties stateside from base security to offroad patrols. And it is not at all far-fetched to have US Military involved in border operations, especially if it falls under the jurisdiction of counterdrug operations. Wiki “Joint Task Force North” and “Joint Task Force Six” if you don’t believe me. You’ll even see that a US Marine involved in Counter drug ops in California died although it was from an accident rather than an attack by gunmen.
Very good point. Now that you mention it, it was a Humvee not a tank. A sign of my military ignorance.Thanks for references. I will check them out when I am on a computer.