A Deeks centric episode where Deeks realizes how Hetty and Kensi are worried about him as he tries finding fun undertaking bike-riding. In essence it just shows to him what he needs to correct about his habits so that the women who care about him are not worried about. While Hetty is concerned in right proportions, Kensi is overly concerned for him by magnifying his PTSD issues instead of the real issue that affects Deeks to do what he does. Kensi thinks it is his Impact of Trauma. And there in lies his problem, the Impact of the Kiss and his anxiety, Kensi; and how to talk to her about what he feels about her and when will she allow him to open up in his way in its natural course. It again seems to lay squarely on his shoulders to fix that anxiety for Kensi about him as his mentor pointed out, when she asked him, "How's your emotional center?"
All that is felt in a subtle manner just like the "unwritten-rule" in suggestive tones. The true meaning is layered in words and actions. This is the reason, we find much of the episode's sensitive material puzzling while the banter keeps entertaining us. On top of it, the lame case totally makes us focus on characters rather than the crime story. The only people we notice is NCIS LA characters. Nell, Eric out of Ops room, Callen's surprise seeing Nell in action, Deeks bonding with Sam and Callen and finally Hetty and Kensi's worries for Deeks and Deeks understanding of what these women want of him.
The events that can become story arcs out of this episode.
1) The Men’s Club - Deeks-Callen-Sam in the bullpen.
2) Nell on the field alone and wielding her gun at the bad guy at Callen’s orders.
3) Eric getting a little bit possessive and protective about Nell and so venturing out of his geeky comfort zone; the Ops room.
4) Hetty’s prod to Deeks to talk to Kensi.
5) Kensi’s worry and watchfulness for Deeks, watching out for his PTSD symptoms
6) Deeks sensing Hetty’s and Kensi’s concerns for him. He clearly does not like seeing them worried and him covering it up with false answers. Its for him what he wants to do with their worries.
The events that can become story arcs out of this episode.
1) The Men’s Club - Deeks-Callen-Sam in the bullpen.
2) Nell on the field alone and wielding her gun at the bad guy at Callen’s orders.
3) Eric getting a little bit possessive and protective about Nell and so venturing out of his geeky comfort zone; the Ops room.
4) Hetty’s prod to Deeks to talk to Kensi.
5) Kensi’s worry and watchfulness for Deeks, watching out for his PTSD symptoms
6) Deeks sensing Hetty’s and Kensi’s concerns for him. He clearly does not like seeing them worried and him covering it up with false answers. Its for him what he wants to do with their worries.
What I did not like about the episode. I had to watch the episode like a piece of puzzle. I felt they were overdoing the torture Impact for Deeks and underplaying it for Sam. My instinctive thoughts were, "Sam almost lost his wife. But he is a Navy Seal and so he is left after one episode. Callen’s find about his father in last episode is neither tacitly shown as joyous feeling for Callen nor any other aspect is discussed/shown that lets us know that Callen might be brooding on that detail. And Deeks; if he is considered that non-NCIS like, then how come he is able to handle tougher emotions associated with his LAPD undercover Ops. And in and out he is flitting between dangers like gunshots, explosions and speeding vehicles. So the torture and shot to his heart actually has made him scared of action ?! But that doesn’t convince me at all because in Season 2 Personal, Deeks was aimed and shot even if it was not to his heart that he took the bullet…but he did look into the man’s eye. I mean I am a little bit having a difficulty in digesting the overplay of trauma for Deeks and not the same for Sam. Hetty and Kensi are concerned… so does it mean they are going to stretch the trauma and the Kiss for the entire season? Kensi worried about the Trauma Impact on Deeks and Hetty worried about the Kiss Impact on Deeks. So basically he is the subject of worry for these two women when he could have a perfectly enjoyable male bonding with Callen and Sam which he never had before in the earlier seasons. And thanks to Deeks, we do agree that their job is actually risky at every step of it and they could have potential problems with partners they fall in love with, with or without torture and trauma involved. Even if the torture had not happened, Kensi would never have discussed the Kiss by herself and that is essentially Hetty’s problem. So I guess I got my answer to Hetty’s question,”How is Deeks emotional center?” She was basically asking Deeks, how is Kensi doing and Deeks could not even answer her. And that’s another worry for Hetty. There is Kensi who wouldn’t take the next step after the kiss and there is Deeks who wouldn’t go close to Kensi if she doesn’t answer his open question, “How that for communication?” So Hetty’s problem is that Deeks and Kensi are not talking and the bike is just a rule that everyone has to follow, it just became a catalyst for us to see Kensi’s opinion on PTSD patients because of her experience with Jack. She is seeing a Jack in Deeks. Now that does not look good at all to me."
However I realized that overplaying of Trauma effect was to push the Love Story of Deeks. It was like Hetty asking Deeks to fix his PTSD fast so that he can get on his Love Story Track. Hahaha! Also I was reading online comments from viewers, they were very much interested in Deeks PTSD story. So the exaggeration worked!!!
Episode
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5x05 - Unwritten Rule
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The Unwritten Rule of the Navy and the NCIS team. You don’t take unnecessary risk and since unnecessary risk cannot be measured or categorized objectively it becomes an unwritten rule subjectively.
NCIS: NCIS Agents work hard. Play safe. No matter how much danger we put ourselves in danger round the clock while at work, off the clock, we don't take unnecessary risks. Military: When a person in the military comes in through lot of money, they can get permission to leave, because it is felt that their service is no longer their first priority. Its an unwritten thing.. |
Writer
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Jordana Lewis Jaffe
Joseph C Wilson
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The story was good, episode was very entertaining. It was fun to watch the NCIS team and we could totally forget about the lame case. No complaints whatsoever. However, the episode was written with the intention to 1) send Nell into Field, all by herself and how can she handle action [We can have Nell as Field Agent], 2) to show Eric’s possessive feelings about Nell [we can have a Neric developing here], 3) to show how Hetty is worried about Deeks and Kensi unresolved personal feelings about each other [concerned that Deeks and Kensi are not moving ahead, not talking] 4) to show how Kensi is worried about Deeks and his possible affliction with PTSD by contrasting a situation of Deeks taking to bike riding for pleasure [Kensi may not move forward with Deeks until he is fully recovered from his PTSD. She already has trust issues on that front] 5) to make Deeks sense that he needs to address the worries that both Hetty and Kensi have about him. After all those two are the only near ones he has close to him.
However, like all Joseph C Wilson’s stories, the action and emotion misses the point until we have seen episodes in future. We do have explosions, one of the favourites of Joey Wilson. Joseph C Wilson primarily creates an opportunity for the character to react through the other character’s actions. The reaction directs the next course of action. Joseph has written stories that are strongly grounded in the NCIS Staff's personal stories or emotions.
For Jordana Lewis Jaffe, she likes to show us the female power. And so we have control key in the hands of females. There is the kidnapped woman who actually is the master planner for her own kidnapping for mercenary reasons, there is Hetty as usual ahead of everyone and also worried most about what she should be without forgetting her duties, there is Kensi who can protect her partner in the same manner as he has protected her in the past, there is Nell who is smart to handle both intelligence and Action and puts Geeks, Agents and Bad Guys in place.
Jordana Lewis Jaffe stories are usually with emphasis on Nationalistic flavor towards its Citizens, by those who are supposed to lead this country by being exemplary citizens to the one who need their support. We can see her stories as the suspect/victim will always be a patriot at heart in one or the other way and we as fellow patriots should help them.
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Director
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Larry Teng
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The Episode does not have continuity from previous episode. We understand that this episode was shot as an extra episode last season, and an additional scene was shot by Larry Teng this year for 5x05 while he was shooting for 5x03 to cover the developing story and dynamic of Season 5. However, it still missed severely showing the continuity for Callen’s feelings post his finding about his father. Should not there have been any reaction from his partner atleast or any concern for Granger from anyone on the team ?
I was confused in the first place by Hetty-Deeks talk and everyone’s worry about Bike riding as risky behavior because in last Episode 100, Hetty actually answers to Granger’s query on Deeks bouncing back and if she feels alright about it, “I wouldn’t have encouraged him on the bike if I didn’t think he could ride it.” It could be metaphorical and yet I do feel that continuity would have if Rezhnikov N was after Unwritten Rule as then Hetty and Granger’s statements about being worried for both Deeks and Kensi would have made sense in this order especially when Deeks could not answer Hetty’s emotional center question, and would have been understandable why no one was asking about how Callen was feeling or how far Granger is recovered from the gun-shot wound.
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Episode Summary
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A woman is abducted at finish line after she wins the cross country run by masked men. Her name is Robin Henson and her next of kin listed is Exp-Naval Intelligence Officer William Garrett who is Robin Henson's boy-friend.
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It was a totally a lame case. William Garrett, Ex- Navy Intelligence Officer is specialized in highly classified Drone Navigation Design. He had an early discharge from Navy a week back. He owns a Start-up company called Reduce Q running software for collecting GPS data. He has a business partner Oscar Balsam, who arranged investments from Song Shaw Holding - HK Venture Capital for a sum of 75 Million dollars. It was asking William Garrett to improvise the Drone Technology repeatedly until he realized that they were wanting him to sell US technology to them, then he refused. It is then his Girl Friend is abducted. He builds the software but adds a virus to cannibalize it in 36 hours and arranges for the release of his girl friend by delivering the technology to the abductors.
The NCIS LA OSP investigates the case and finds that the Ex-Naval Officer’s Girl Friend Robin Henson and his Business Partner Oscar Balsam has schemed the plan to extort his intel on technology so that they can sell it off to Song Shaw Holdings. |
NCIS Personnel Highlights and Bull Pen Fun
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This episode was all about the NCIS characters and less of the case itself.
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There was Eric & Nell in the field, there was Bromance between Deeks-Callen-Sam in the bullpen like Shane Brennan showed to us amicable fraternity between the three men in Season 2 episodes, especially I am remembering 2x18-Episode. Deeks finally is admitted into brother club through Vroom-Vroom smile to Callen and Muffin reference to Sam. Callen-Sam-Deeks banter was amusing and lovable. And the overall Deeks banter about the Navy’s unwritten Rule about Unnecessary risk and the risk perceptions was spot on fun and also making us ponder indeed at the subjectivity of the Rule.
The events that can become story arcs out of this episode. 1)The Men’s Club - Deeks-Callen-Sam in the bullpen. 2)Nell on the field alone and wielding her gun at the bad guy at Callen’s orders. 3) Eric getting a little bit possessive and protective about Nell and so venturing out of his geeky comfort zone; the Ops room, 4) Hetty’s prod to Deeks to talk to Kensi 5) Kensi’s worry and watchfulness for Deeks, watching out for his PTSD symptoms 6) Deeks sensing Hetty’s and Kensi’s concerns for him. He clearly does not like seeing them worried and him covering it up with false answers. Its for him what he wants to do with their worries.
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Ops Manager
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Hetty Lange
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Hetty’s scenes with Deeks are always the best. They have an altogether different plane. What can I say! They have another one of those best scenes that we can remember by. To quote from http://www.examiner.com/article/ncis-los-angeles-unwritten-rule-recap-risky-behavior
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The best part of the episode had to be Deeks and Hetty's conversation, and it was a pretty good set-up of what could be coming. Their relationship has always been one of the best ones to watch, ever since he first showed up, and that scene could end up going down in the top 10 conversations they'll have. It all began when she asked how his heart was—and she meant in terms of his emotional center, not his physical health. He rambled for pretty much the rest of the conversation. "I understand that you worry about me more than the others. That's mostly because I'm your favorite, obviously. Don't say otherwise, it'll break my heart," he told her. I want you to know that I'm great. I'm—actually I'm better than great. Kensi's great." When all she said to that was "I see," he continued: "What do you mean you see? Why, did Kensi say something other to that—because if she said something that contrasted that, I think it's because at this point, well, it's difficult to explain it. It's personal feelings—no, I'm not going to fall for this. I'm not one of your little minions, I'm not going to fall for Jedi mind tricks." You got the feeling that Hetty knew exactly what was going on, probably even knew what will happen between Kensi and Deeks at the end of the season, and that was likely—and hopefully—just the first of a series of conversations between Deeks and Hetty on the topic.
Unquote
Interesting confessions, advices, questions and lines between them.
"Officially "Uncle Marty" is back"
Quotes as expressed above and these "It got rapidly cold in here?? Because I need ear muffs. My hands are tingling in cold." "Could be early signs of Renaud's?" "What's that?" "Look it up. Better yet. Get it checked up." "I will." "Keys"
"For the record..it sucks"
"Noted" "Duly Noted" |
Bull Pen Partnership -1
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G Callen & Sam Hanna
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The usual.
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Partnership -2
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Marty Deeks and Kensi Blye
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The field scenes, Ops room scenes and the Interrogation room scenes, all are interesting.
The banter between Deeks and Kensi where Deeks tries to convince her to support him keeping the bike was nicely done. But the moment she says strongly “I am your partner” there is a lot of meaning interjected into the scene. Kensi’s facial expression says more than what she meant verbally as Partner and as mere her responsibilty. Her words were professional and expression was all about her concern for someone dear to her and yet the forceful words make Deeks and myself not to take the words kindly. Deeks was like…Really ?! Just Partners ?! and knowing Kensi as he knows her and cares for her, never wanting to hurt her feelings, he doesn’t linger on that upsetting emotion and instead talks back in professionally amiable manner, becoming her partner friend. He calls her Mommy and asks if she has a baby-seat in the back of the car. That comeback from Deeks satisfied me because indeed she treated him as baby, not allowing him to ride the bike whereas she gets to ride it in the weekends. Kensi even jumps in to pull him back from the running SUV fearing that Deeks was being suicidal and taking risk. |
Ops Room Partnership
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Eric Beale- Tech Operator
Nell Jones - Intelligence Analyst
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Already explained above. Nothing happening in Ops Room. Interesting things happen in the Field.
Quotable lines
Nell : I speak Geek. These are my people
Eric : I could kill you with my pen.
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Love Story
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Kensi Blye & Marty Deeks
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We start seeing that Deeks is getting away from Kensi, not wanting to flirt with her or get close to her, instead he is finding other past-times such as bike-riding which simply takes his stress away to address the communication lost between him and Kensi due to the Kiss and that was what exactly Deeks was rambling on to Hetty. He is honest guy and can never lie to people he respects and cares about. So a simple "I see" from Hetty for his lie about Kensi is doing great (in his emotional world)makes him give up the truth about contrasting effect as unresolved personal feelings between him and Kensi and he stops himself right in the middle as he realizes that he might have talked too much. Hetty is concerned about this and Deeks agrees with it though he may have stopped unraveling himself before Hetty.
We see Kensi being worried about her partner to the extent of baby-sitting him and watching his every move to the extent of diving for him before a running vehicle to save him.
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PTSD
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Marty Deeks
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Deeks anxiety is now centered on Kensi. Hetty rightfully asks how is Deeks emotional center, which is all about the non verbal communication that he does with Kensi, doing things for her without talking to her. Kensi had mentioned to him “how she missed him at work". Kensi’s words and actions matter to him. She missed him, then he makes sure that he comes to work regularly. She is worried about him not taking a shot or trying too hard to make him a competitive Agent. Yes, he indulged in wall climbing competition with Callen to make her happy in 5x04 episode. He never ever did that before.He is bent on proving to her and everyone that he is doing good, ready to take any kind of risky job. But Kensi sees Bike riding as a symptom of his PTSD and that he is trying to kill himself by riding a motor bicycle, because statistics speak so about a PTSD patient. Her answer to his saying that "she does not have to worry about him" is that she does have to worry about him as he is her partner. It is good to hear that but it is certainly not pleasing for Deeks to get saved by Kensi like it happens in the episode. He does not want her to baby-sit him. This is now certainly directing him to address his anxiety around his "emotional center" like Hetty warns. His emotional center is Kensi and Kensi is certainly more worried about him than she should be. He needs to quieten down for her sake, so she can calm down. Further, he needs to focus and get his emotional control back. He needs to get away from doing what Kensi does, bike rides, competitions etc and instead do what is pleasing to him.
Deeks PTSD and Kensi's worries invokes within us memories of a pastPTSD case in 2x11-Disorder episode where Kensi handles a faking PTSD returning veteran from Afghanistan war and also introduces her fiance Jack who left her on Christmas unable to deal with his PTSD issues.
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Others/GK
| Renaud's syndrome |
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In crew's terms this is known as 4x25-97. This episode was shot in Season 4 as an extra episode. This changed the sequence numbers for all the season 5 episodes either in terms of Season Episode number or actual episode number for show's grand total serial number. Unwritten Rule realistically is 5x05-101 for Viewers.
Production Planning and Rollout - Prepping - 7 Business days days | Shooting -7 Business days | Post Production - 7 Business days | Promotions - 2 weeks before Air date
Story writing/Script :
Prepping - Was done in May 2013
- Concept Meeting
- Departmental Meetings
- Location/Tech Scouting
- Casting
- Table Read : Happens a day before the shooting starts (end of Prepping).
Post Production : Was completed in May-June 2013
Promotions: CBS after Post Production is completed.
Press Release : Photos - 14th October 2013 | Storyline - 10th October 2013
http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=36939
http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/photos/?episode=2664
CBS2 Air Date : 22nd October 2013
CBS2 Rating : http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=37086
NCIS: LOS ANGELES was first in viewers (14.87m) and second in adults 25-54 (3.4/08) and adults 18-49 (2.6/07). Compared to last week, NCIS: LOS ANGELES was even in adults 18-49 and added +220,000 viewers (from 14.65m, +2%).
Credits
Writer : Jordana Lewis Jaffe and Joseph C Wilson
Director : Larry Teng
1st Assistant Director : Eric A Pot
2nd Asst Director: Suzanne Saltz
Co Producer: Christopher J Molnar, Chad W Murray, Jordana Lewis Jaffe
Producer : Joseph C Wilson, Eric Whitmyre, David Bellisario, Rick Tunell
Consulting Producer : Joe Sachs, Gil Grant
Supervising Producer : Cheo Hodari Coker, Dave Kalstein
Co-Executive Producer : Frank Military
Executive Producer : John Peter Kousakis, R Scott Jemmill
Production Designer: Thomas Fichter
Director of Photography : Victor Hammer
Editing : Robert Florio ACE
Music : Jay Ferguson
Unit Production Manager : Rick Tunell
Casting : Suzanne Bluestein. CSA|Jason Kennedy CSA
Casting Associates : Meredith Forney and Krysty Baxter
Costume Designer: Darry Levine
Art Director : Anthony Parrillo
Set Decorator : Michele Poulik
Property Master : Steven B Melton
Make-up Artist : Chris Burgoyne
Hair Stylist : Brooks Stenstrom
Production Coordinator : Laura P Napoli
Assistant Prod Coordinator : Adam Rex
Production Accountant : Mathew Klipper
1st Production Accountant : Dana Micahaelsen
Art Department Coordinator :
Location Manager : Tony Salome
Stunt Coordinator : Troy Brown
Special Effects Supervisor : Don Frazee
Production Sounds Mixer : David M Schneider
Construction Coordinator: Mike Brooks
Construction Assistant : Krista Schoenbaum
Transportation Coordinator : Dave Bassett
Script Supervisor : Diana Valentine
Script Coordinator : Jimmy Donchey
A Camera Operator : Russell McEllhatton
B Camera Operator : Terence Nightingall
Gaffer : David B Jarell
Key Grip : Jeryll L Marshall
Assistant Editor : Eric J Lucas
Post Production Supervisor : Dillom Gemmill
Sound Supervisor: Wilson Dyer MPSE
Post Production : Digital Film Tree
Post Production Sound : Larsen Studios
Re recording Mixer : Chris Haire CAS, Alexey Mohr
Online editor : jacob Tillman
VFX Supervisor : Dylan Chudzynski
Colorists : Patrick Woodard
Music Supervisor : Mark Wiki
ADR Supervisor : Jay Keiser
Sound Effects Editor : Kevin Fischer
Theme by : James S Levine
Technical Advisor : Osama Shofani USMC (ret)
Multi Media Coordination : Justin Maradiegue
Specialized Imagery, Software and Promotional Consideration : Furnished by Lockheed and Pictometry International Corporation
Some of the worst locations - rattlesnakes. @jpkouz #unwrittenrule #ncisla pic.twitter.com/h9gSSbjofm
"Unwritten Rule", Int. Garrett's Office pic.twitter.com/si96aN2K6p
6th Street Bridge drive bys #ncisla http://instagram.com/p/YxsO3-gKU_/
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