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NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Rewatch: “Down the Rabbit Hole”

The basics: Katya kidnaps Callen and the team is on the case.

Written and directed by Frank Military. Military wrote "Little Angels", "Deliverance", "Lockup", "The Job", "Greed", "Betrayal", "Crimeleon", "Vengeance", "Out of the Past" Part One, "Rude Awakenings" Part Two, season four’s finale "Descent", season five’s premiere "Ascension", "Allegiance", "Spoils of War" (directed by Military), "Black Budget", "SEAL Hunter", "Rage" (directed by Military), "Unspoken", "Unlocked Mind", "Revenge Deferred", "The Seventh Child" (directed by Military), "Crazy Train", "Uncaged" (directed by Military), "The Silo", "Monster", "Line in the Sand" (directed by Military), season ten opener "To Live and Die in Mexico" (directed by Military), "The Patton Project", "Better Angels", "False Flag" (the season 10 finale), "A Bloody Brilliant Plan", "Code of Conduct" (season 11 finale, directed by Military) and "Raising the Dead", "Through the Looking Glass" and "Indentured". Military directed one episode he did not write, season 11’s holiday episode "Answers". He also appeared as Donald Kessler in "Raising the Dead" and several other episodes in photos.

Guest stars of note: Bar Paly as Anastasia "Anna" Kolcheck and Beckett Gunderson as Young Callen are both back from "Genesis" in April. Elizabeth Bogush is back from “Subject 17” as Joelle Taylor. Sasha Clements as Katya Miranova, Karolina Szymczak as Vavara/Female Fire Captain, Andrei Dolezal as Young Pembrook and Jamil Akim O’Quinn as Detective Michael McNeil.

Our heroes: Rid themselves of Katya with some Joelle help.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen: Kidnapped. Sam: Greatest partner in the world. Kensi: Working with Rountree. Deeks: In Guatemala. Fatima: Using Kaleidoscope the whole episode. Rountree: Working with Kensi. Kilbride: Figures out the best course of action is to start in the past.

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen: Loves Anna. Sam: Loves Callen. Kensi: Not deep faked. Deeks: Absent. Fatima: In the office the entire episode. Rountree: Always checking for bombs now. Kilbride: Not particularly ranty today.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Gets a mention from Katya.

Who's down with OTP: In the episode, nothing. In the short deleted scene, Kensi is worried about Deeks being gone.

Who's down with BrOTP: Callen code phrase to Sam is “greatest partner in the world” while Sam’s is “I love you”. You don’t get much more BrOTP than that.

Fashion review: Callen is wearing a peacock blue button-down shirt. Sam is wearing a brick red long-sleeve tee. Kensi is back in the white and blue striped long-sleeve tee (a lot of use for that top at the end of this season). Fatima is wearing a green-grey sweater over a darker green turtleneck. Rountree is wearing a pink-tee shirt under a blue-green jacket. A dark blue three-piece suit with a pale blue shirt and blue tie.

Music: None.

Any notable cut scene: In the firing range, Kensi and Rountree are set up and shooting. When Kensi finishes her practice session, Rountree asks about Deeks coming come the next day. Kensi says “Can’t wait,” but sounds sad. Rountree asks if Kensi is OK. Kensi says sure, her husband is down in Guatemala with no badge, authority or gun. Rountree thought Deeks was down there gathering paperwork. He is but there was more than just the paperwork.

Rosa’s father didn’t abandon the family, he was murdered by MS-13. He was a journalist who wrote about the gangs and was killed for it. That helps Rosa’s asylum request/Kensi and Deeks’s adoption plans since it proves Rosa was fleeing to the US for her own safety. All true, Kensi tells Rountree but Deeks has to gather witness statements, police reports. Rountree reassures Kensi that Deeks will be home tomorrow.

Fatima enters the firing range with a situation – Katya made contact. She is sending them to meet with Sam.

Quote: "Sam Hanna, greatest partner in the world.”

Anything else: An impatient Callen is sitting in traffic. There are accidents in both directions on the highway. Fatima calls to set up a shared call with Sam. Callen greets Sam with a compliment – “Sam Hanna, greatest partner in the world.” Sam replies that “someone took a happy pill.” Everyone laughs as Fatima tells both men that Marshall Davis is back and the weapons deal planned for next month is going down today. Davis was arriving in LA today and wanted to meet with a Stewart Grimes at 9:30AM in Davis’s office to work out the details. NCIS has been staking out Davis’s office for a month – they need to be ready to roll.

Pulling out of traffic and onto a side street, Callen parks his car and opens the trunk. In his go-bag are several phones. When Sam answers, Callen repeats the “Sam Hanna, greatest partner in the world” statement. Sam tells Callen he loves him. The conversation was code. Checking with Sam, Callen learns that he wasn’t on the phone minutes ago. Sam is surprised the deep fake call was with two people. “That’s got to be Katya.” Whatever Katya has planned, it is starting now. Callen half-jokes that Sam saying I love you saved him. Sam is going to talk to Fatima about putting their comms on a closed, encrypted loop (shouldn’t they be that way already?).

“It gets worse,” Callen tells Sam. Katya used their case against Marshall Davis to lure Callen in. That has Sam worried – Katya is in their casefiles. Since this case has been going on for months, Katya has been staking them out for a while. Thinking that going to where Katya tried to lure Callen with a team could end their Katya issues. Callen and Sam set up a location near Davis’s office to meet.

As Callen drives to the location, an ambulance and a LA Fire Department SUV are going the wrong way down Callen’s one-way street. Callen tries back out of the street but a firetruck is right behind him. Out of his car and waving his badge, Callen asks one of the firefighters to make a little room so he can get through the street. The firefighter has a weapon in her hand. She hits Callen with some sort of tranquilizer dart. A firefighter behind Callen has a taser. Callen is down for the count. Just to make sure, the dart shooting firefighter punches Callen in the face. The ambulance opens up and a gurney comes out.

As Sam pulls up in the location where he and Callen were supposed to meet, he pulls out his phone and calls Callen. Right to voicemail. Tapping his comms, Sam is connected to Fatima, who tells him that Kensi and Rountree are five minutes out. Sam tells Fatima that Callen isn’t where they were supposed to meet and he was much closer when they spoke. Fatima looks at her tablet – Callen’s comm went offline five minutes ago.

Four women carry Callen into yet another shipping container. Callen is strapped into a chair. The walls are covered with soundproofing material. As the doors are locked, Callen starts coming. There is a big screen TV and Callen is on the TV. He knows it is Katya. Screen-Callen talks about the old TV show This Is Your Life. Katya considers what’s happening now as This is the End of Your Life.

When Kensi and Rountree arrive, Sam updates them. Fatima has video of Callen eight blocks from the meet site, leaving his car and going to the stakeout.

Back in the shipping crate, Screen-Callen is yammering on about becoming obsessed moving on to it being almost sexual. Real Callen wants to know how Katya knew about their case. There is no case – Katya set it all up and the team came buzzing “like good little bees to service your queen.” As the team staked out the office, Katya was able to put trackers on everyone’s cars, listening to their conversations, getting details of everyone’s lives. Katya knows that Callen has been meeting with “that one-legged bitch” – Joelle.

Turning her attention to Anna, Katya asks Callen if he thinks it is strange that the two of them love the same woman. “We” had sex with the same woman. Callen wants to know who is “we” since all he sees is someone like a 14-year old wannabe hacker playing online practical jokes while hiding in their bedroom. Pulling off whatever made her look like Callen, the real Katya is on the screen with a lot of pricey computer equipment behind her. She’s not hiding from Callen.

Since the moment he took Anna from her, all Katya wanted to do was meet Callen, Again, Katya feels he took the most important thing in the world to her. Callen disagrees – he knows what the most important thing in the world is to Katya. Katya insists it was Anna, her last chance at happiness. Thinking Katya can’t live with happiness, all she has is hate and revenge. And they share that because both want to see Howard Pembrook dead.

Calling into Ops, Kensi wants Fatima to contact Anna, see if Callen has spoken to her. Fatima is reviewing security cameras in the area and traffic cams. The Admiral joins Fatima in Ops. Looking at the blocks around the fake office for Marshall Davis, Fatima can’t a trace of Callen in the neighborhood. Sam asks her to check out the office there were using for stakeouts – there was a camera there. Two clicks and Fatima see the power has been cut to the office. Saying that something is “profoundly wrong”, the Admiral is sending in the REACT Team to the office. While the team drives to the office, the Admiral asks about Deeks, who is in Guatemala working on the adoption paperwork. The Admiral isn’t pleased but he’s not angry either.

Not long after Sam, Kensi and Deeks arrive at the office building, the REACT Team shows up. Setting an outside perimeter around the office, Sam, Kensi, Rountree and the REACT Team go into the office building to their stakeout location. In the office, the NCIS chairs, computers and telescopes are there. The office for Marshall Davis, however, now sits empty. One of the REACT Team members gets the power back to the office.

With the power returning, Fatima is able to download what was last on the security video. Putting it up on the computer screen in the office, there is soundless video of Callen walking into the office followed by five women wearing ski masks. The women circle Callen as fourth of them start beating the living hell out of him. The fifth woman looks at the camera and takes off her ski mask – it is Katya.

Knowing that nobody but NCIS is in the office, Sam wants to check the security cameras in and around the building to see how Callen was brought in and taken out. Of course the cameras outside were disabled. Sam saw a new photo of Katya that Callen got from Joelle. The Admiral will have Joelle picked up and brought in. As Kensi and Rountree search every inch of the office for a clue, Sam is on his way to the boatshed.

In the shipping crate, Katya tells Callen that Pembrook has been dead for 25-years. Callen disagrees, even says he spoke to him. Katya wants a name but Callen won’t share unless they meet face-to-face. Katya leaves the fake female firefighter to watch Callen. When Callen asks who his new babysitter is, she replies “I’m the one who made your face not so pretty.” Katya enters in the shipping crate with a warning, Callen is playing with fire if he lies about Pembrook. And by playing with fire, she means burning Callen to death if this is a trick. Callen makes a joke and gets punched twice in the face. Saying that they were trained by the same person, Callen knows whatever Katya is feeling, he’s already felt.

When Katya moves in close to Callen, it causes a flashback. Pembrook is hammering Callen’s fingers, telling him not to cry. Pembrook tells Callen not to feel because feelings cause pain. She wants to know what he is thinking now. Callen recognizes she’s wearing Pembrook’s cologne – Shulton Pierre Cardin. Callen asks where she found it. Admitting it took a while, she wears it every day now, she got so use to it so she doesn’t smell it anymore. Callen says “feeling cause pain.”

In interrogation, Sam can’t believe Joelle doesn’t know anything about Katya. Joelle says she’s telling the truth but an arriving Kilbride tells her she’s not. Her ex-colleagues at the CIA have been feeding Joelle info on Katya. Saying that the search for Katya was killing her, the CIA had Joelle speak to “some really good people.” Joelle is fighting very hard to put all this behind her.

On comms, Fatima interrupts. She has something to show Sam and the Admiral. In the main section of the boatshed, Fatima found a van with no windows. It was stolen two days ago. There is a BOLO with LAPD to find the van and Kaleidoscope is looking too. Fatima has some bad news – Anna isn’t answering NCIS’s calls. Fatima got Arkady to call – they have a secret code too – and Anna is not answering to that.

Alone, the Admiral tells Sam he’s going to kick Joelle free – see where she goes and what she does. Sam is going to put a tracker on Joelle’s car. As Sam is about to leave, the Admiral mentions Sam losing Michelle in a situation like this. “We’re going to get your partner back,” the Admiral says. “Yes, of course,” Sam says without his usual enthusiasm.

In the shipping container, Callen is trying to make a deal. Both he and Katya could find Pembrook together. Katya knows he’s working an angle. He’d never work with her, never let her walk away. “The things I’ve done can’t be excused.” Callen says if he finds Pembrook, Katya knows what he’ll do, which means he will have blood on his hands. They will put the gun in Pembrook’s mouth and pull the trigger together. Callen won’t only let her walk away, he’ll help her start over. That way, they both will be fixed. Katya says she can’t be fixed. She still wants to hurt Callen for taking Anna away from her. She’ll find Pembrook. Katya leaves.

Arriving where Fatima found the van, Sam sees Kensi picking the lock while Rountree checks for explosives. No explosives so Kensi opens the door. A camera is looking that the three of them while deep fake Callen and Sam are on the TV screen behind the camera set-up. Fake Callen and Sam are looking for Deeks and Fatima, who fake Callen thinks is sexy. Real Sam asks Fatima to check for a video signal going to van. Fake Callen tells her not to bother, the team just fell down the rabbit hole and there is no signal there.

In Ops, Fatima can’t trace the signal. They can’t trust anything going forward. A beep from Fatima’s tablet has Joelle stopping at a different office location. Sam is on his way while Kensi and Rountree check out the van to see what they can find.

With a change in the screen in the shipping container, Callen sees a badly beaten Anna strapped to a chair. He calls to her but she can’t hear him. Instead, Katya is talking about how much she loves Anna. Beaten and handcuffed, Anna is not feeling the love. While Anna says they were only together a short time while they were in prison, Katya announces it was the happiest time in her life. She thinks Anna keeps going on-and-off again with Callen because she is still in love with Katya. Callen can see Anna playing her. Anna admits she has a hard time with her bisexuality but she loved their time together. Katya asks if Anna still loves her. Anna admits still thinking of her.

Walking into the office building, Sam learns from Fatima that Joelle is on the fourth floor. Fatima has video of Joelle entering the office. Sam knocks, saying he’s coming in one way or another. An annoyed Joelle answers, asking how he found her. She pulled the two trackers off her car. Sam put four on the car. Looking around the office, Sam asks how long has she and Callen had this “side hustle”. It is two months. Sam wants to know why Joelle is keeping secrets. He knows Callen is in a seriously bad place. Joelle tells him they were tracking Katya and Pembrook. Since the law can “get in the way of a really good time”, they were working without NCIS.

Following credit cards, they found Katya renting vehicles, from the vehicles, they were able to trace her movements with traffic cameras. Katya swaps out vehicles every day or two. Looking at the businesses where Katya was parking, Joelle found a shipping container rental property. Since both Joelle and Anna were held in a container, Cargo Blue Inc. is a place to start.

When Rountree comes up with nothing in the van, Kensi says she didn’t expect them anything. Katya is too smart and too well trained to leave anything behind. Since everything they found was a deep fake, Rountree realizes the beating of Callen was likely as fake as this van being used in Katya’s plan. They are moving forward on Katya’s planted clues. The Admiral agrees, they should go back in time to trace what Katya did, not wait for her to send them on another wild goose chase. They have to find something they know it is real. If they can find something from a camera they know is really, the team will use that as a starting point.

On the screen, Anna is told Callen is in other shipping container. Katya turns on Callen’s camera but not the audio – Katya doesn’t want Anna to hear him. Anna thinks it is a deep fake but Katya shows her a photo of Callen’s chest with the bullet holes. If Anna will leave the country with Katya, Katya will tell NCIS where to find Callen. Asking for a month, alone together, Anna could leave Katya after that if she’s unhappy. Katya wants to know if it is real. Anna agrees to go. The two kiss.

Knowing that Anna would say anything to save Callen, Katya thought she’d feel better if she heard Anna say she’d leave. Instead, Katya feels like a prostitute. Anna says Katya is wrong but Katya asks for a gun. With Callen yelling “don’t shoot her,” Katya does just that. Covered in Anna’s blood, Katya tells the camera that shooting Anna felt real and good.

After tracking Callen from the time he got the deep fake call, Fatima found the fire truck/ambulance blocking Callen in but nothing after that. A call to the 9-1-1 operators said there were not fires in that area. The Admiral wants Kensi and Rountree to check out the area. “Someone must’ve seen what happened to Callen.”

Using security cameras, Joelle has Katya coming out of the Cargo Blue offices wearing a wig. Cargo Blue’s offices are half-way between the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles. With the shipping issues, there are tens-of-thousands of shipping containers just sitting around in the ports. Good place to hide Callen, terrible place to look for him – he’s a needle in a haystack.

At her workstation in Ops, Fatima gets a call from Anna. Worried that it is a deep fake, Fatima is going to use their codes. When Fatima says it is a beautiful day in the neighborhood, Anna answers that Mr. Rogers was the man. It was the code. Anna was on a run in Topanga. The Admiral can’t quite abide by a three-and-a-half hour run but Anna says she is training for a marathon. Anna is brought up to speed and asks if Callen is alive. The Admiral doesn’t know. She’s coming into the office.

At the place where Callen was grabbed, witnesses confirm to Kensi and Rountree that Callen collapsed and was put into an ambulance. They thought the fire truck and ambulance was there for Callen as part of medical emergency. Fatima is able to track the movements of the ambulances while Joelle gets the code numbers for the shipping containers. Fatima watches the ambulance go into the alley and a white van exit the other side. Rountree is worried they switched vehicles again. Joelle sees a white van outside of the Port of Long Beach with the same plates. Sam realizes they either got very lucky or Katya planned this. The Admiral wants to follow up this lead with the whole team and the REACT guys. While Sam leaves, Joelle keeps the video running and sees a smallish sedan pick up the people from the van. Blowing up the license plate on her computer screen, Joelle can track it.

When Anna arrives at the Port of Long Beach, Kensi promises her they will find Callen. Sam is right behind Anna. Joelle heard from the Port Authority with the location of one of the shipping crates. Sam leads the way. The Port Authority police are waiting for Sam, Kensi and Rountree outside of the shipping container. Anna is there too. Rountree checks for bombs while Kensi picks the lock. Though Kensi is worried they are doing Katya’s bidding by opening the shipping container, Sam doesn’t think they have any choice.

Opening the container, Callen is on a big screen with Katya. Callen is happy to see Anna alive. Katya thinks it is going to be so much fun to make everyone watch. Sam tries to talk to Katya but is ordered to shut up. Callen gets punched in the face for no real reason. With a bucket between Callen’s legs, Katya picks up a canister with potassium cyanide pellets. When she puts them in the bucket, they’ll dissolve and kill Callen with cyanide gas. Dropping the pellets into the bucket, Katya leaves while Callen starts to choke to death on the poison gas.

Sam does not believe a minute of it. Anna does. Pulling Anna away from the screen, Sam tells her not to believe it. Katya wants Anna and to do that, she has to keep Callen alive. In his shipping container, Callen is very much alive and is encouraging Anna to believe Sam. Sam tells Rountree to kill the video feed. Rountree does.

When Katya arrives at the shipping container, Callen tells her the team didn’t believe her cyanide act. Katya thinks they looked worried. Promising to take everything from Callen, she brings a few of her flunkies with big cases into the container. Since the Pembrook training made them feel nothing, she knows they both really want to die. But to cause Callen real pain, his real family is not the sister he barely sees but Sam, Hetty, Kensi and Deeks who all mean everything to him. Seeing them killed in an explosion trying to save him is the new plan. Thinking he’s dying they’ll rush into the container which Katya’s flunkies are wiring it to blow up. With a camera outside of the crate, Callen can watch the team die.

From Ops, Fatima found footage of the van stopping off at a private shipping container company before it was parked outside the port. Callen is likely there. Fatima sends the address and the team is on their way. At the private facility with the REACT Team, they are looking for the container numbers Joelle sent them.

In a car with the chief flunky, Katya admits that killing Callen gives her as much pleasure as drinking a glass of water though she honestly thought it would make her feel better. Callen is one of the few people who knew how dead she feels inside. The flunky wants Katya to go – it’s all over. Katya is there to hear the final explosion.

Running through the huge crates, Anna found one. The team is on their way but Anna is in the back of the facility. Anna is trying to open it but Callen is screaming for her not to open it. Thinking he’s inside, Anna tries to shoot the lock off the door. Callen yells for her to stop shooting. She fires her gun again.

Someone is walking with a gun. Katya tells the flunky she thought the bomb would have gone off by now. Katya wants to go back in but the flunky is worried about the NCIS agents all over the facility. Katya gasps. Joelle is in front of the car. She executes the flunky. Just before being killed, Katya says “thank God” before taking one to the neck and one to the brain.

Just as Anna is about to open the container door, Sam stops her. He checks for a bomb and finds one. Opening the door just a bit, Sam sees the bomb. Callen tells him not to open the door. Telling Callen to sit tight, Sam wants his bomb kit. Sam orders Anna to leave but she’s not going anywhere. Rountree runs up with the bomb kit. Sam orders him away and Rountree listens.

Working diligently in a very small space, Sam is going to open the door without defusing the bomb. Sam is able to get himself and Anna into the container. Sam is able to deactivate the bomb’s triggers, defusing the bomb. Callen and Anna hug as Sam tells them “you’re welcome.”

The Long Beach police bring Callen to Katya’s vehicle. Dead Katya, dead flunky. Callen confirms it is Katya – they have a positive ID. He doesn’t know the name of the flunky. The officer asks Callen who would do something like that. Callen lies – “I haven’t a clue.”

Walking away, Callen and Anna share I love you’s.

What head canon can be formed from here: While he was likely selling the idea of teaming up with Katya to kill Pembrook and letting her start a new life to keep himself alive long enough for the team to find him, Callen did the same thing with Joelle killing Katya and the flunky.

The Noble Maidens are all in on shipping containers. Starting with Anna wanting to send Kirkin back to Russia in one, going to Joelle and Anna being held in one and Callen here, Trained Russian female spies may be the real reason for shipping container shortage.

Shulton Pierre Cardin cologne is available online for $25.00. Not sure why Katya had to try too hard to track it down. Amazon has it.

The program has spelled Pembrook about six different ways in the closed-captioning.

Episode number: This is episode 21 of season 13 and the 301st episode overall.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la

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