NCIS: Los Angeles Fills In The Blanks

NCIS: Los Angeles‘s third season premiere picks up with Callen and the others having resigned and gone to Romania to find Hetty, who herself had gone there to convince the Comescu family that Callen was dead, thus ending their blood feud with Callen’s family.

The episode, “Lange, H.” opened with Hetty sitting down with Alexa (Kristine Rose), head of the Comescu family. Gunshots were heard outside the door, and Hetty said Callen and the team were coming. Alexa shot Hetty and said, “Let them come.” The episode then flashed back fifty-three minutes and proceeded in real time.

I usually find real-time episodes exciting. There’s nothing like a real ticking clock for natural tension; however, I found most of this episode slow and boring. I should mention that I’ve never been all that curious about Callen’s mysterious past. In my opinion, it seemed tacked on and hadn’t come into play much until now.

Another key element of the episode was Hetty and Alexa talking about their pasts, Alexa explaining how the Comescu feud with Callen’s family began, and Hetty revealing why she’d come to Romania when odds were the Comescus would discover she wasn’t a real member of the family.

Alexa revealed that Callen’s grandfather had been an OSS agent who killed some members of the Comescu family. The Comescus retaliated by killing Callen’s grandfather and mother, but oddly stopped short of killing Callen as a child. Hetty revealed that she had come to Romania out of a debt she felt she owed for not saving Callen’s mother. This exposition, while interesting, really slowed the pace down. Meanwhile, Callen was recovering the same memories of his youth in Romania.

The most worthwhile aspect of “Lange, H.” for me was the role Agent Lauren Hunter (Claire Forlani) played in the family drama. Eric and Nell found a secret file Hetty kept on the Comescus, and according to the file, Hunter was Elena Vadim, a member of the Comescu family. I thought Director Vance had sent Hunter to Romania to either support or be rooted out by Callen, but Vance seemed uncharacteristically flustered by the news of Hunter’s identity.

In the final moments, Callen burst into the room to find Alexa and Hetty. Alexa said she knew everything about Callen’s past. Callen didn’t kill Alexa, and Alexa didn’t kill Callen. Hunter killed Alexa and revealed that the real Elena wanted nothing to do with the Comescu family, so Hunter had taken her place. Like Callen, I had no idea where Hunter’s loyalty lay until she killed Alexa.

Meanwhile, the team was slow to realize Hetty had been shot. The episode ended with the sound of her slumping over, but I don’t really fear for her life. I like Hetty as a character, but if she does die, I’d be happy to watch the show with Hunter as a developing character.