‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ 14×19 Review: “The Reckoning”

NCIS: Los Angeles 14×19 “The Reckoning” is a great episode of television and one of the best Grisha Callen episodes this show has ever given us. It’s emotional, it’s raw, and it’s a showcase for an actor, and a character, that has often been reduced to just one — or two bits, during the course of the show. There’s no Sam to banter with, no Deeks or Kensi to take the edge off, no Kilbride to face off. Instead, this is just Callen at his more vulnerable, and for anyone who has ever enjoyed the character, and even for people who have at some point wanted more from him, NCIS: Los Angeles 14×19 “The Reckoning” delivers in every respect.

But the episode is not just that, it’s also an hour that’s fourteen years in the making, an hour that reminds us of the G. Callen we first met, the one who didn’t know who he was, the one who didn’t even have a name. It’s been over a decade and that man is now gone. He isn’t fully healed, because some wounds go too deep, and even when they do close, they leave scars. But he’s moved forward. He’s grown. And he’s found love.

Romantic love, the kind he never thought he was capable of.The love of family, the found family of Sam, Kensi, Deeks, and yes, Roundtree, Fatima, and even Killbride. He’s found his blood relatives too, his sister and his nephew. And thanks to this episode, he’s found that the one person he thought he always had — the one for a second there he’d started to believe hadn’t been what he always hoped, expected, and depended on — was truly always there for him. Always loved him, even when she wasn’t present. Even when it didn’t seem like she did.

For Callen, that’s not just important, it’s crucial. Hetty’s love has been felt in every interaction she’s ever had with Callen, and the fact that the show had taken us to a point where we, and Callen himself, doubted it, was not just unnecessary, it was a cruel twist that went on too long. Perhaps if the payoff had come swiftly, and with Linda Hunt present, it would have felt different. But instead, we were left to wonder for too long until Pembroke, of all people, finally put into words the thing people who watched this show from the beginning always understood about Hetty.

She is Callen’s parent, in all the ways that count. She always has been. And she might not be the perfect one — no parent ever is, but the good things about the man Grisha Callen is today, his big heart, his courage, his willingness to go out on a limb for the people he loves and even his desire for justice are a reflection of the best parts of Henrietta Lange. Like mother, like son.

And when you love someone the way Hetty loves Callen, you don’t choose the kind of torture Pembroke put him through. Not willingly. The confirmation is nice, for Callen, and for viewers, but nothing else would have made sense. To suggest otherwise would have been a betrayal of the character of Henrietta Lange and everything this show has done for fourteen years.

NCIS: Los Angeles 14×19 “The Reckoning” comes at the right moment, because there was no way this show could have ended properly without this hour. It all started with Callen, a lone wolf, someone who self-admittedly had trouble trusting any relationship. It ends now …in a couple of weeks, with that same man holding hands with the love of his life, and looking into the future — hopefully, with Hetty by his side, but certainly with his family, the one he’s spent the last fourteen years with, by his side.

One of the things no one ever tells you about procedurals is that they’re, deep down, not about the cases, but about love. Doesn’t have to be romantic love, but at the core of this storytelling is an idea of connection, of finding a place to belong. NCIS: Los Angeles 14×19 “The Reckoning” proves that Grisha Callen has found it — this team has found it.

“Don’t make your life be just about the past. Let it be about the present and now the future,” Pembroke said. That’s a lesson not just for the characters, but for us. And one we’ll carry forward as we remember what this show gave us and what we will, from now on, expect every show to give us …love, family, some laughter, and yes, characters that feel very, very real.

Things I think I think:

• Look, I’m just saying, you do all of that and miss one guy?
• “I don’t want Callen running point on this.”
• Wonder why.
• Kilbride’s like, well, TOUGH LUCK.
• Kensi’s quick math is sexy.
• Oh, fun. Pembroke himself!
• Kensi having Callen’s back is giving me classic NCISLA feelings.
• The agent dude at Ops be shady AF. Is he even trying?
• I love how Callen is all like “I do not care,” because honestly, he shouldn’t.
• No one’s gonna cry over Pembroke, but what an inconvenient time to be hurt.
• Fatima and Killbride’s geometry is good.
• “No, you’re not.” Fatima Namazi, everyone.
• Well, that was a day in the office.
• VINDIDACTION FOR HETTY.
• “For worse and for better?”
• Mostly for worse.
• “It’s a mistake parents often make.”
• “You’re as close to a son as she ever had.”
• LOOK WHEN HE SAID THE THING ABOUT HOW SAM WOULD MAKE A GREAT FRIEND.
• This episode was too dang much, all around.
• And if you like anything of what you saw today, anything of what you ever see on TV, remember you don’t get this without the writers and support them as they fight for their right to make a living off doing just this …writing. #WGAStrong

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Los Angeles 14×19 “The Reckoning”? Share with us in the comments below!

NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays on CBS.