Neric in Making

The hype today about Neric News for Episode 5x18-ZeroDays; with the TV Line interview prompts me to review the spoiler news and finally I understand, indeed how the NCIS LA Scribe actually intended to develop to the Neric Arc. Things are not just with the mistletoe kiss last Christmas. Their friendship is actually being explored with certain amount of possessive feelings for Nell from Eric Beale. If we look at it carefully, the problem with Neric to happen is because of Eric Beale. He is too disinterested or the socially awkward for Nell Jones, the suave and smart Intelligence Analyst, who not only is a Geek and understands Geeks, is also able to go on a triple date with Kensi and Rose and generate a lot of interest in her. 

Then where does this leave Eric ? Well...either he should be interested or not. I see that writers are taking care with Eric Beale and dressing him up for the occassion, literally and figuratively. Hetty dressed him up in 5x02-Impact, warned him to maintain a code of conduct on dressing in work-place in 5x06-BigBrother. But it was infusing Eric Beale with possessive feeling in 5x05-UnwrittenRule that officially flags of certain amount of interest in Nell. And in the next episode, we have Nell tracking Eric to Gym to show us that Nell does miss her work-partner. For that to reach that point and go beyond it to keep it sustainable, we had R S Gemmill provide the backstopping in 5x02-Impact for Neric as the Story Arc to watch out for. Gemmill continued to explore the story arc by team leading the NCIS LA Writer Scribe to develop Neric.  He showed it beautifully it 5x14-WarCries. Neric - They looked cute together. I felt a great improvement in Neric chemistry even if there was largely a friendship shown there. Something about the two was sweet and we get an emotional presence in their friendship and not just a story arc.

5x18-ZeroDays is a full blown episode about Eric and Nell with three story arcs being focussed in parallel this season along with Densi Arc. Though on a emotional connection level, 5x18 misses the bus, it actually gets a lot of hops connected in the journey towards Neric as the destination.

- Nell Jones -In and On the field

- Eric Beale -The Smart Guy

- Neric in Making

Both in 5x18-Zero Days and 5x23-Exposure, we have Eric explicitly showing his emotional inclinations towards Nell as he feels threatened or overwhelmed under the circumstances. Zero Days was about threatened with competition from his college friend Ira Wells. Eric behaves quite maturely all the time,telling Ira off to stay away from Nell in a polite manner. Exposure was about Eric feeling threatened of losing his friends. Eric feels something for Nell, imagining what if it were the doomsday and he had not yet told her what he wanted to say to her most. It was cute of them exchanging personal notes to each other. Its still a secret what Nell and Eric wrote to each other as they had agreed never to talk about it. But they were full of smiles. In both of these episodes, what is developed is the maturity of Eric towards Nell. Unlike Eric exposing himself to Nate about kissing Nell under the mistletoe in last season, this season, we have Eric feeling territorial, protective and caring about Nell. Cute is the word for Neric with slight right to claim affection.

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Tweets

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NCIS LA ‏@NCISLA_CBS                                                                                             May 6

What did Eric's note say? Weigh in w/ the CBS app & get #NCISLA extras when u Sync http://bit.ly/1m1MTYE  @BarrettFoa pic.twitter.com/4qsRXdhU5B

NCIS LA ‏@NCISLA_CBS                                                                                                    May 6

Is Beale about to make a move for Nell??? Tonight's #NCISLA Sneak Peek: http://bit.ly/1jxsJ9L 

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TV Guide ‏@TVGuide                                                                                                 Mar 25

Find out why Tuesday's #NCISLA is "a game-changer" for Eric and Nell. http://tvgd.co/1lk2PZo  @BarrettFoa @reneefsmith

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Christine Park ‏@christineeepark  Mar 26

A great day with @BarrettFoa & @reneefsmith! Hope you all watched #NCISLA and enjoyed the episode #KCAL pic.twitter.com/fYSO5yilnB

Eric Beale - The Smart Boy

Season 5 has paid some attention to developing characters of Tech Operator Eric Beale and Intelligence Analyst Nell Jones. 

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ChrisDaisy ‏@ChrisDaisy405  1h

@BarrettFoa @fiona1wallace & the end of 5x06: Eric being acknowledged as the smart 1. That scene was really sweet! pic.twitter.com/pdbFJO5VfB

Recently, you may have seen me writing about Nell Jones In and on the Field . The prompt was ofcourse the Episode 5x14-War Cries where Nell showed her prowess in self-defence through her handling her opponent with a knife. With that fight she proved that she was fully ready to be on the field, unlike the "how to deal with unprepared challenge' in 4x14-Kill House last season. Nell Jones has been going to field at various times as needed throughout from Season 2 where she began her field assignments from 2x06-StandOff.

Same is the case with Eric Beale. My prompt this time to write about Eric is 5x18-ZeroDays episode, an episode very much dealing with IT People, Hacking etc. Zero Days itself is the IT concept of that challenge which can be tapped by a Hacker which has not been even addressed by the developer. And that makes me write about Eric Beale-The Smart Boy. 

It was Dave Kalstein's 1x03-Predator where we were given a little peep into Eric Beale's character, about how much he is so focussed and stressed about achieving the mission objective. Nate psychoanalyzes him as a person who keeps pressing the elevators buttons even if he knows its not going to come any sooner that it supposed to take time. It is the moment when Nate observes Eric being totally edgy with impatience at the kaleidoscope search not giving him fast results. We are informed that Eric is a surfer and uses a lot of surfer lingo that others cannot much understand. He dresses in beach-casuals. But that is just him and his looks. But his work shows him as him being the best at his work. He is a Hacker himself working for the Government against the rogue hackers on his watch. He helps Kensi get on with guest lecturing the superior hackers, and he also hacks into Joel Hardy’s laptop to know whereabouts of the rogue Drone. Eric Beale as the Tech Operator, explains us the two NCIS technologies that they use vastly - The FacialRecognition software search and the Kaleidoscope Search which is a visual search that scans live feeds from traffic cams through inputting of search parameters.

This year Eric Beale carries on with same traits as introduced before. He is smart, impatient, is geeky, wears casuals and keeps experimenting with his whistling calls for the Agents to come up to Ops Room for case hearing. On the surface, its not at all visible that anything much has changed for Eric. But subtlely things are changing this season for him. Inspite of the E-bot jokes on him for the rest of the team, who are irritated of his knowledge that they cannot understand, we as viewers see that increasingly, cases are coming that are going nowhere and only Eric along with Nell's partnership, give an insight into the cases that the team are working on. We are impressed with his skills in Gemmill's episodes 5x02-Impact, 5x14-War Cries , in Jordana Lewis Jaffe in 5x06-Big Brother, Andrew Bartels' 5x18-ZeroDays and Gil Grant's 5x20-Windfall. These episodes take us close to a real life NSA Employee who works for Government and is a hacker for Government related Security Projects and need all surveillance skills that allow security agencies to do their work. They are as much agents, detectives and soldiers on the field with their prowess about using technologies.

Eric worked against D7 Company to unearth information that they were trying to hide. You can read about that in my episode analysis of 5x02-Impact . In 5x14-WarCries, we see that it is because of him that D7 changes its tactics and shuts down its Ops and floats for itself a new entity. In that episode, Eric further helps Kensi run the surveillance for her in Afghanistan, unknown to his boss Hetty Lange under the very eyes of Assistant Director Owen Granger who flies to LA to find out who is helping Kensi. If you ask me it needs skill more than friends. Friends can help you having your back, but you also need to have that "extra edge" for which that gladly have your back. And that is Eric Beale equally to Kensi and Nell like they are to him. Its team work and Skill.

In 5x06-BigBrother, Eric was given a peep into his hacker mind and personality. A solo like we have seen episodes about him from Season 1. Like I remember him and the Drone Episode 1x03-Predator. All this just keeps pointing out to Obama Administration, which was directing that War on Terror can be also fought through remote targeting and not just actually in the field. The extensive use of Drones Air Strikes began under Obama and so had NSA spying and surveillance increased, to the point it got abused and exposed by a whisteblower Edward Snowden. And Big Brother is exactly that story. Through a story about a Teen Hacker, we are shown Eric Beale the Smart Guy, who actually understands when to hack and when not. The purpose is what counts for his way of work.

In, 5x18-ZeroDays takes us into Eric's blast with past in the form of his friendship with College friend Ira Wells. Ira's successful life-style, adds a Hacker's Dilemma to Eric, who then has to decide for himself, why he is at NCIS...something that even another favourite character of the series, Deeks; undergoes periodically. Isn't it surprising that both these guys are surfers and sork of geeky fellows ?!!  As a free-lance hacker, Eric could have made a fortune like Ira does, but instead he chose to work for Government with much lower remuneration and continues to be proud about that. When Hetty does not allow Eric work with Ira, he feels dejected, but by the end of the episode, when situation reverses, Eric feels all grateful about the position he has in Ops and the support he provides to NCIS. It shows us, how he too needs appreciation like the others and also how only a few can understand him what he does for the nation. It is only like his boss Henrietta Lange, who has been with Internet Development, can appreciate what kind of an asset Eric Beale is to the team. So much that she takes special interest into grooming him into wearing trousers, make a gentleman out of him. Why? Because he has started liking Intelligence Analyst Nell Jones. Its that sense of pride and confidence in himself, that prepares him into going into the field and finish his mission about tweaking the geo-satellite to mask its coordinates in a bid to avoid nuclear missile attack on San Francisco. 

Towards the season ending episodes, Eric comes across to us as maturing one, enough to take on equal aged young Agents of the team who are also his friends. He already had been teasing Deeks to stop being child in the previous episode about the workload that makes one be exhausted. In 5x20-Windfall, he is mature enough for Hetty to feel confident about his deductive skills and ask his assessment about Kensi, after her return from Afghanistan. Eric admits to Hetty that Kensi is bored and restless but emotionally is rock-solid. Hetty is also confident, though exhausted, Eric would survive the work alone without Nell in the Ops room, if situation demands that he has to work alone. After all, she had been preparing him from 5x08-Fallout to think like Nell, when he feels likes he needs her support.  And in 5x20-Windfall, we actually start seeing Eric, knowing exactly what Nell would do to support him. We see through the case investigation in retrospect, how much Eric and Nell actually keep applying their inductive and deductive methods at gathering Intel and provide leads to the Agents on the Field. They know to dig for clues within given virtual datasets. And this comes out starkly as Eric feels exhausted with the amount of data-mining he has to do all by himself, when Kensi is assigned to work with him. Neither Kensi is motivated enough to take enterprise until ordered by Eric nor Eric is motivated enough to delegate work to Kensi until she asks for it. Eric Beale is not the same person as of Season 1 where he could use Kensi's help in whichever form he gets. Now Eric after having worked with Nell Jones, misses her at work for how much she shares his Intel gathering work and how she complements and supplements him at work. After getting used to that level of higher skills, Eric just cannot adapt to non-technical team members such as Kensi. He feels relieved when Nell joins him in Ops room for few minutes and they get to cracking on important piece of info.

I am sure, we are going to see more coming our way in the left over episodes of this season. And I shall continue updating that...

Cashkend ‏@Cashkend_o  Nov 19

#NCISLA #Fallout + #maps + #Eric + glasses @Ladydi2000 @BarrettFoa pic.twitter.com/hWX3lMPUKb

The shockers of the season 5 for Densi Love Story - My guesses

About the Recovery Promo and Frozen Lake Press release

Two Writer friends, Gil Grant and Dave Kalstein; who have excellent grip on Densi, Deeks and Kensi write these episodes. Kalstein knows closely Kensi character, so he had to be there to continue the story-telling where Gil Grant leaves it off. I believe Recovery and Frozen Lake are continuations for Densi episode. Its for Deeks and Kensi to talk about their relationship and react to consequences of that talk.

The way I am looking at Deeks expressive desire in Recovery promo, its meaningful to me than how its been interpreted over Densi tumblr world of posts. "I wanna be at My Place right now, With You."  Now could he have not said, "I wanna be with you at someplace right now"..than eating this insipid dinner :D- okay the extension was just me! :D  But it would have sounded like the sex addict undercover part he plays in that episode!

For me, at my place; means more. Its like Deeks once again coming up with his honest feelings for Kensi that he loves his place, which is his home, but without Kensi, it is becoming something he wants more at his home to return to. All he misses at his home is Kensi. So if Kensi is there, he will be full. And his emotional center will be all fine. There is so much depth of meaning here for me that Kensi would certainly think hard before she can say anything to Deeks. Knowing the kind of person she is, we know she understands Deeks perfectly and what he is desiring of her. However, for Kensi, the partnership and friendship matters most than them being lovers. Atleast that's what she knows as. She is no Deeks to understand what she really wants for herself, specially apprehensive she is about losing. Deeks atleast tries to be hopeful inspite of losing.  

I tend to think that Kensi will say No to Deeks's wish and explain to him that she cannot risk their partnership being affected. But the next case onwards, Kensi starts having problems seeing straight as she failed to realize that love was essentially one of the key ingredient of her partnership with Deeks. Take it out of the equation, the magic will be gone. And this is why they will see their partnership not functioning when the love ingrediant is removed...if I use Nate's words :)

Enter Hetty - the Densi or officially Keeks Shipper of the Cast and Crew, she will separate Kensi from Deeks partnership wise. Then potentially she removed the obstacle for Kensi to accept Densi Ship. May be then Kensi realizes in next 6 to 7 episodes, reaching the 18th episode of the season for another shocker as Shane Brennan suggested. Now that Kensi wants to be with Deeks, may be the shocker to them is that their love will be separated with like someone as Jack coming up from nowhere.  :D

This is how Shane Brennan seems to have planned the Season 5 for Deeks and Kensi and providing leave of absence for Daniela Ruah.  I am sure he was waiting for viewer feedback to decide what he does for the rest of seasons's 6 or 7 episodes left.

3rd April 2014
I am impressed that my guesses about the plotline for the Densi hold true even today after watching 11 episodes. Nothing changes. Its essentially the same. Densi is a ship and Deeks has a "wheelhouse". Hetty blessed Deeks saying in 5x09-Recovery, "oh! You have a wheelhouse". So Deeks is the driver of the Densi Ship. It is his love story. And he is at home when Kensi is with him. That's how he proposed to Kensi, "I wanna be at my place right now with you."  And Kensi's answer to him in 5x10-Frozen Lake was, "I am standing on my Frozen Lake" and that is what we see in, 5x18-Zero Days. Kensi is frozen in time about her relationship status with her ex-fiance and is unable to let go of her past and sinking into the icy water. Deeks who also sees Kensi's point and counters her from his point of view, what if he did not even realize the danger and he is already into the middle of freezing waters around her. That was in Frozen Lake. In 5x19-Spoils of War, Deeks actually sees the reason why Kensi is still standing on the Frozen Lake and not coming away. He sails to Kensi, rescues her from the icy lake by pulling her into his ship, offering warmth of his home as she enters his home.  That was what the rescue and the hug was about in 5x19-Spoils of War. Kensi slips into his arms trustingly, helplessly needing a friend, needing support, needing rescue and Deeks offering it, "Its okay. I got you. We are going home"

• 5x09-Recovery-5x10-The Frozen Lake-5x18-ZeroDays-5x19-Spoilsof War
• Wheelhouse-MyPlace-FrozenLake-Rescue-We are going Home
• Ship-Home-FrozenInMoment-Sailing on the Ship to reach warmth of home. 

The journey just began for them to go home. And this is what the coming episodes from 5x20-Windfall followed by 5x21-Three Hearts will show us. Again we have Gil Grant and Dave Kalstein writing the episodes where they started the season for Densi Ship Sailing Home.

17th April update
And the Journey Just began. 
Gil Grant made them partners again. Densi want to be partners. Its Serious. 
Dave Kalstein made the partners shed their outer covers of "partners also in love" to enter deep waters of their Thing which is actually a Love Story. Deeks wants serious commitment and Kensi is getting ready. She just opened one Box of hers. And there's another Box. And its going to be a Touche Ride once again with their one-upping moves on each other.

It all started with the Thing for Densi from 2x22-Plan B.
This Thing ...No Thing...became Our Thing in 3x10-TheDebt
Kensi accepted This Thing as Our Thing in 5x10-FrozenLake.
And Deeks now wants serious commitment. His Love Story cannot be called a Thing.
He Ends the Thing.
End of how it started. End of Beginning.

End of the Beginning! 
The End of Profanity
The End of Indecisivness
The End of Beating around the Bushes
The End of Hide and Seek
The End of How it Began. The "This Thing" "No Thing" "Our Thing"
Its the Beginning of serious commitment - Its a Love Story

Its the Beginning of serious consideration.