NCIS: Los Angeles 14×17 “Maybe Today” was a nice, if unnecessary detour at this point of the season — with only a few episodes to go until the series finale. It’s not a bad episode, the team works well together in the team-ups we’re most familiar with, and the case echoes real life in a way that makes the message the show is trying to send not just compelling, but important. But in the grand scheme of all the things this show still has to do before the finale, all the loose ends it has to tie up, the episode feels incredibly out of place.
We haven’t seen Anna in a while. We’re likely never getting a resolution to Kensi’s Kessler problem. Hetty is still MIA and absolutely nothing about her storyline in the past few seasons makes sense. We never got enough on Callen’s past. We never got a Deeks, M. episode. We’ve barely scratched the surface with Kilbride and his family. Roundtree and Fatima still feel like two people we don’t really know. But we have time to play with a cold case.
Of course, NCIS: Los Angeles wasn’t going to solve all those problems in one episode. They were clearly not planning on this being the last season. A lot of the things we wanted to see from the show would have likely happened if we’d gotten at least another season. But we didn’t, and as it stands….we’re not sure this one can give us anywhere near the satisfaction we need to close off fourteen pretty special seasons.
We would still like to see them make the attempt. That starts with Hetty, because if there’s one thing we need resolution on, it’s Henrietta Lange. And we cannot do it just in one episode, it’s not as simple as wishing for Hetty to be at Callen’s wedding and Hetty will miraculously appear. After Hetty, though, the show needs to make a decision going into the finale: are we going for endings, or are we going for …everything will continue on, we just won’t get to watch it.
So much of the setup of this show has been about moving on. For Hetty, for Kensi and Deeks, certainly, and perhaps even for Callen. Fatima and Roundtree still have a lot to do with NCIS, and Densi plus a teenager always felt like a great and fitting storyline for them, but also one that made it easier for them to remain on the show. Sam is more of a wildcard in that, at this point, it feels like he could go any of a number of ways, but with the show about to end, the one thing we probably need is for NCIS: Los Angeles to choose one way or another, for everyone.
It still won’t be the ending we deserve. It won’t tie up all loose ends. But there’s a way for it to still be a tribute to the show we loved for fourteen seasons and the characters that made us love it. Episodes like this one are not that way. Time to do better. In fact, it was time a few episodes ago. Now it’s critical.
Things I think I think:
- I mean, yes, the more I think about it, it makes sense that Deeks would be THAT parent. But it’s still kinda hilarious to see.
- We don’t need Killbride!
- “Again with the drama.” Look, Sam, I agree with Callen here. Not about Stacy, but about the drama.
- truly compelling.makes a world of difference, but closure is also …the end of hope. And that’s hard.
- The Fatima and Roundtree are too young joke is actually kinda funny in this one, I’m not gonna lie.
- Man, Killbride is getting on my last nerve.
- This case went just where I thought it was gonna go, and that’s the point. The show is trying to send a not-so-subtle message.
- LUCKY DEEKS indeed.
- I so wanted this man to live to see prison.
- This felt very spinoff-like, except the characters carrying the case were still …the NCISLA ones. I wonder if it was always meant to be like that or if it was reworked after news of the cancellation.
- It was nice to see Killbride trying.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Los Angeles 14×17 “Maybe Today”? Share with us in the comments below!
NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays on CBS.
This, is so on point in so many ways!! I knew that this wasn’t going to be the last Season when the casting announcement for Alex and his mother came. Those kind of moves are the kind of moves 1 makes when there’s plans for another Season! CBS made the decision to axe this show, not the showrunner, and this whole Season up to now is proof of that. (Chris Gorham himself said on Twitter last night that he would’ve been in Season 15, so that confirms that).
Everything said in the 2nd paragraph can clearly be pinned on RSG’s bad choices as the showrunner. Shane Brennan would never have let this wonderful show go so downhill like this.
When Hetty started being absent with no explanations given, the whole show collapsed with her. Everyone clearly works and acts differently when she’s not around (there’s a LOT of things they’ve done in the last few Seasons that she would never have approved of!!). And with that, my expectations of the whole team diminished.
With me now, in terms of a satisfactory like ending, it would be Hetty being back at home, in charge, with everyone being alive. I hope we’ll actually get 3 episodes with Hetty in them to even try and wrap up this whole Syria mess and get her and Callen back on good terms, course. This depends on if Episode 19 will also involve her being in the episode.
I personally believe nobody will end up retiring in the end (other then maybe Kilbride). This show is connected to the franchise again, and I’m sure everyone will want there to be real chances of cameo appearances in the other shows, and that can’t happen if anyone leaves the team. So, I believe everyone will get to do things outside of NCIS that they want while actually not leaving altogether. Kind of how NCIS New Orleans ended up in the end.
I wish things were much different now with the show, but unfortunately, a really bad showrunner had to ruin it all. And now we’re stuck hoping for cheap sounding resolutions for everyone in hopes of having an happy ending.
Thanks for this review. I agree with it. I’m glad viewers finally see that many of the problems with the show–like unfinished storylines and focus on characters who aren’t really important–can be traced back to A LOT of bad decisions by the showrunner., but he’s been making them for years and it’s way too late to complain about them now. Lots of viewers, especially super Densi fans, liked having the focus on their couple because they were the “perfect couple,” but when Brennan was showrunner, the show was a true ensemble show. It lost that under Gemmill and the show was the worse for it. Pretty sure the ending is going to be a total mess.
Exactly! In fact, back in this show’s glory years of Seasons 3-8, this show was actually more popular then OG NCIS in quality and promotion! The cast and crew members loved promoting this show, and fans loved all the cute photos and videos they posted from set. The love was amazing.
Now, flash forward all these years later, no one wants to promote it anymore! The show’s own social media accounts don’t even bother to promote it much of anymore. It’s like everyone just wanted to finish filming and just fade away. (in fact, even they could probably see that most of this Season wasn’t really worth promoting, because really, what ‘excitement’ even goes on anymore?).
Oh, I’m sure everyone will all still be alive in the end, and that they’ll get some fun things to do outside of work to make their lives appear to be all happy go lucky, which sounds nice and all, but seriously. We all deserved better then having to hope for cheap sounding happy endings for the team members that we love. (especially since there’s going to be a lot of loose ends left unresolved for many things)