NCIS: Los Angeles 13×15 “Perception” is a typical episode of the show. There’s a case, the team works well together, there’s some banter, the case is solved, lather, rinse, repeat. Except a completely off-case scene makes this a pretty memorable episode, and a terribly infuriating one.
To be fair, that’s not on the show. It’s on the system. On the country. On the world we live in. In fact, the show does about as good a job as it’s possible to do, considering there are no answers, no solutions. Pretending there is would be absurd. Asking Roundtree to make peace with the racists cops, even in fiction, would be the wrong message. Because it doesn’t work. It never has.
There was no description …
Because Devin Roundtree was racially profiled, and he is right, it matters not that he is a federal agent and was eventually let go. Because he should have never been stopped the way he was. Cops shouldn’t have assumed that a suspect with no description would automatically look like Roundtree. And they shouldn’t have acted the way they did at any point during their interaction.
That Killbride yelled, that Roundtree was let go, that we got Sam and Callen, Fatima, and later Kensi and Deeks talking about change, about what can be done, showing that they are allies, isn’t the important part of this episode — though the show had to establish their perspective, if nothing else because, sometimes, racists will only accept the message coming from other white people.
No, the important thing is that …it happened, and it sucked. For Devin, for his sister, for Sam, who expressed he’s been there before. And the important part is how often it happens to Black people all over the country. The more removed we are from it being in the news, the more we forget that this is still a daily thing for so many. And we shouldn’t forget. Change never comes if we forget.
Some might say, why this episode, why now? I’m not one of those. I think we needed the reminder. Personally, I needed the reminder. I try, every day, but that doesn’t mean being confronted with all the ways we should strive to not better is a bad thing. We’re way past allyship being a simple matter of not being racist ourselves. We need to be anti-racist instead. We need to speak up, stand up and push for the kind of actual change that isn’t one person at a time, but is about policies, about systems.
Thanks for the reminder, NCIS: Los Angeles.
The nursery?
The Densi + kids storyline feels like the longest-running storyline this show has, even though it isn’t because technically Callen’s backstory is. But, Deeks did bring up their own mutant-ninja-assassins all the way back in “Neighborhood Watch,” in Season 3, so at this point, some payoff has got to be coming in that regard. And though this episode isn’t about that, or about Densi at all — it shouldn’t be, it feels like the one mention of Deek’s father means we gotta be getting close, right?
I expect Deeks, and Kensi, will both go through a moment where they’ll question how fit they are to be parents — particularly considering their family issues. And you know what that is? Real. Bringing a kid into this world is one of the scariest things you can do. Being responsible for someone else? For their wellbeing, and their happiness? How is that anything but terrifying?
Storytelling wise, though, it’s a pretty nice next step for a couple that has weathered every damn storm this show has thrown at them, together. And, if we also get some resolution with Callen’s backstory to end this season, well, that would just be the icing on the cake.
Things I think I think:
- I really like Fatima and Roundtree’s vibe, enough that I don’t even care to define it right now.
- That scene with Roundtree and the police was rage inducing.
- I cannot go from that scene to Deeks making jokes so fast. I love you Deeks, but I cannot.
- Kinda loved the Hetty vibes from Killbride. He’s never gonna be Hetty, of course, but we do need him to look after the team.
- The best thing the episode could do was make the Roundtree storyline about Roundtree — and Sam’s feelings. No one else understands.
- “A good idea is changing the system.”
- Deeks bringing up his dad felt appropriate, too. It’s understandable that he rarely wants to linger on those memories, but his father feels just the kind of asshole one would remember in a situation like this one.
- Fatima hugging Roundtree gave me FEELS.
- Give Densi a kid, please.
- “We don’t wait for change, we make it happen” still feels like …a little too optimistic. I realize there’s nothing to do but end with hope, but …hope is also a little tiring, isn’t it?
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Los Angeles 13×15 “Perception”? Share with us in the comments below!
NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.