‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ 13×10 Review: “Where Loyalties Lie”

NCIS: Los Angeles 13×10 “Where Loyalties Lie” is one of those not-very-deep case-of-the-week episodes that, nonetheless, works really well because, thirteen seasons in, this show knows what it is, and what people want to see. Some pieces of the puzzle are missing, Hetty the larger one, but the show still mostly works as what it is, a procedural that is, not so deep down, about family.

This episode, however, goes even farther than others at examining that family. It does so by giving us a little bit of Killbride and Fatima, a relationship that has worked much better than we ever expected it to, and also by allowing Deeks a moment with both Sam and Callen.

For Kensi, the basis of her bond with both can be traced back to the first season we do not talk about, but Deeks came in a little later, and he is Deeks, so his relationship with both Sam and Callen has always been so much more complicated than Kensi’s.

But they’re still family, and not even just because he married Kensi and they had no choice but to accept them. It’s been over a decade, and this team has been through a lot together, and if the last scene of this episode is to be believed, they’ll go through a whole lot more, as a team.

With the radar tech still missing and the setup for an episode that will hopefully bring back Anna — it has been way too long, and with absolutely no reason — it can feel like an episode like this one is just filler. The bigger plots of the season weren’t really advanced, and the characters we know and love didn’t really learn too much about themselves, either.

They just had a case, and they solved it, and while they were doing so, they had some of the normal conversations people who spend a lot of time together have. Nothing fancy, and noting way too interesting, but at the end of the day, the building blocks for the relationships, for the characters, the reasons we care so much, can be traced to hours like this one.

We can now go back to suffering. Or, like, not? I will not complain if Anna just comes back in a super safe and calm way that doesn’t put her or anyone else in danger. I don’t expect it, but I just gotta put it out there. I wouldn’t really complain.

Things I think I think:

• Why do people ALWAYS go check where the noise is coming from?
• The couple that works out together, stays together?
• She did propose to you, Deeks.
• Ambushing Sam before his morning coffee does sound like a bad idea.
• DID SAM SAY “DEEKS YOU’RE FUNNY”? We’ve come a looooong way.
• Callen being all oh well to the weird Doctor call is such a weird thing considering I remember the episode where there were digital fakes of everyone.
• I promise, there’s no need to say “Investigator Deeks,” every single time.
• But, I miss Roundtree.
• And the bank too? Come on, Callen, you’re smarter than this.
• In this house we are not ashamed of our reaction to Chris Hemsworth, Kensi.
• Agent who?
• Look, the convo between Deeks and Callen at the end? TEARS.

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Los Angeles 13×10 “Where Loyalties Lie”? Share with us in the comments below!

NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays on CBS.