Game for Game: Personal Vs Professional, Deeks Vs Hetty

Beginning of the End or End of the Beginning! 

Granger: Beginning of the End?
Hetty: No. End of the Beginning.

That was Hetty getting Deeks message. 

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.

You might have noticed that there is an increasing distance between Deeks and Hetty from 5x14-War Cries. All we can see is a boss and subordinate relationship from 5x14-War Cries onwards. At first Hetty distances herself from Deeks. Hetty becomes pronounced as a tough boss from 5x17-Between the Lines. And by 5x19-SpoilsOfWar, Deeks does notice himself being singled out from the rest of the Kensi Search and Rescue Mission. I have traced this in each of the episodes so far. While Hetty relented to Deeks rebellious seeking of his partner in 5x20-Windfall, who would have suspected that she had plans of making a mockery of Deeks personal relationship with his partner, to her professional use of having a breakthrough to another NCIS Agent Paulo Angelo going rogue. It was downright making it public and that too in a demeaning way, like a commodity available for trade. She used Densi relationship for her professional gain and she justified as it being okay. Perhaps, these are the unforeseen ugly consequences of falling in love with partners at work places. Others making a joke or game out of it. What follows is an humiliated and outraged response from Densi, especially Deeks, as he can see where this is all leading to. And he makes a decision. Perhaps, Hetty can let Kensi and Deeks work together without worrying. But can Hetty be sure that, her relationship with Deeks is still intact. Would he be able to see that, by taking that extreme step, perhaps, she might have protected him before, it became more ugly?!!! We cannot tell. We have to wait.

One might wonder, what I am rambling about. Well..I am rambling about, why Deeks felt outraged coming out of the Boatshed Interrogation of Paulo Angelo, and how he felt like taking a shower. And how what he did in the end actually is his step to protect his third heart. Hetty asked Deeks in 5x05-Unwritten Rule, "How's your emotional Center?". And Kensi asked in 5x21-ThreeHearts, "What does your Third Heart say?" A long journey indeed for Deeks to learn that one can be exploited even by the persons you trust most. It is perhaps too early for me to even say this, but one cannot ignore the vibes we get. Hard as it was for Deeks to break away from Kensi, but he just got his personal dignity back by securing his Third Heart. 

How did Deeks come around this decision? or rather how did the writers take him there?

The Fight between Being Professional and Personal

It was Deeks all over again, with his Love Story in EP 5x21-ThreeHearts. A repeat of 5x16-Fish Out of Water mental state leading to 5x19-Spoils of War vulnerable state, seeking a release from the 5x10-FrozenLake. Can he be patient with Kensi? He can be provided Kensi wants to. Is Kensi serious enough about him. Yes. To the point of her letting him go to protect him. What does Deeks do? Take the plunge. He lets her go and do whatever she wants to do with him. He will wait for her.

In 5x16-Fish Out of Water, Joe Sachs weaves a story for Densi and Deeks, with the serious side of the “Love Story” coming up for the first time after Frozen Lake. The complication of two working partners falling in love and what implications each can have regards to his or her career is touched upon through the Guest character DEA Agent Talia. And yet by the end of the episode, Deeks is adamant about what he wants. If he fell in love with his work-partner and it has become a purposeful and meaningful existence for him, makes him a better person, he would fight for all of it, and be ready for any kind of fight he has to take up with his authorities. The simple human reason being, how can falling in love be demeaned as complicated if one can be reasonable enough to work it out. 

For all of these arguments, there are consequences and the persons, who ask these sort of questions get charged of breaking the law, like Paulo Angelo, but in the end, their question is valid enough for us to put our thoughts to amend a wrong. We can see that the emotional meltdown that Deeks goes through in 5x16-Fish Out of Water consequences both professionally and personally, he starts to fight for his own individuality, his beliefs, all that his existence is made of in the subsequent episodes. It starts becoming a fight between him and authority as represented by Henrietta Lange and a fight between him and professionalism as represented by Special Agent Kensi Blye. In 5x19-SpoilsofWar, Deeks disproves Hetty that he can let his emotions get in the middle of the rescue operation. Even if he loses himself briefly, Deeks finds his ground and is instrumental in rescuing all the others.

When Kensi is back, she is not allowed to work on field with Deeks. Nell is asked to work with Deeks and Kensi is asked to help Eric Beale in Ops Room. Can Densi and Neric take all this? Neric take it professionally. Deeks though disappointed that he did not get Kensi's company even when, she was there, he still manages working on a good footing with Nell. He continues mentoring Nell as Senior to Junoir and supportive and appreciative of her skills on the field. In contrast, Kensi miserably fails to work with Eric Beale. After watching Nell and Eric make her feel totally incapable as them, her spirit just kicks in honestly to be humble enough to approach her boss and ask her to allow her to get back to “Agent-ing”. It was a big step for Kensi. Like in 5x02-Impact, Deeks came back to form at the carrot stick of Hetty having to find his replacement for Kensi’s partner, Kensi in 5x20-Windfall, feels the jolt of not being able to work with Deeks and that too someone who replaced her in a better way on the field and in the Ops Room where she was assigned for the day. Why this is important is because, Kensi has gone back to her shell and has grown comfortable in her inner pain by not reigning in her emotions. She also has stopped being responsive to Deeks as someone who loves her to infinity. But being left alone, with no partner, makes her kick herself alive. And then comes her possessive response about losing Deeks to someone else. The return and the punch.

All of this is being favourable and understanding to Kensi. But the wait is getting longer for Deeks. Who is taking care of him for his fallout in Afghanistan? Apparently no one. Not only had Deeks seen his Third Heart with regards to vulnerability caused by his feelings for Kensi, Deeks also had to see the revelation, that in Kensi's heart, Deeks had never been able to make a place for him in last 3 years, that Jack Simon had in Kensi's heart apparently gone missing and presumed dead from last 9 years. While Deeks sees Kensi as his soul mate and home, apparently Kensi does not see him that way.

He starts to fight for his own survival and standing and negotiates clearly with his boss and his love interest, what he considers as professional and personal boundaries. He starts questioning in talk-back style. For the first time. And he sends his message across rightly to Hetty and Kensi, both professional par excellance.

Deeks waited for 5 months for Kensi to be back. And he complainingly asks Hetty to give him back his partner in 5x20-Windfall. It takes a loving boss to take Deeks demand kindly. Otherwise, Deeks tone to Hetty is rebellious and demanding, when he asks, “I want my partner back”; just like it was in 5x03-Omni when he says,”Ask me tomorrow” when she asked him if he was back. Shows his losing his edge, trying to find a meaning, why would Hetty not trust Kensi with him?! Is he not capable of taking care of Kensi?! more than anyone?! that seems to be his questioning as against Hetty’s administrative and qualified judgement call to detain Kensi from going on field without making her feel responsible enough on how serious she has to be while at work now. His whole attitude about questioning Hetty, is if she is ready to trust him. There is clear articulation of Hetty remarking on Deeks questions, "yet you question about my judgement".

Hetty in her official capacity and also in personal capacity; does relent by the end of the episode that, she or for that matter anyone else other than Deeks cannot assess Kensi's true emotional condition after her stint in Afghanistan. If she must have her Special Agent recover quickly from a traumatic experience, she would have to entrust Kensi to Deeks care. There is no doubt about it that Kensi will not open herself to anyone else. The only person, close enough to break her walls has been Deeks. And Hetty is well aware of it. Hetty remains impartial in this decision from administrative point, Hetty employs Eric Beale and Nell Jones to come to this decision. She trusts Neric as friends of Densi and yet quite capable of deductive reasoning much needed on the job. After speaking to Eric, Hetty is able to table it in her official assessment that Kensi is bored and restless when not in the field and appears totally stable emotionally to him. She informs Kensi, that she is allowing her to work on the field as she has come to an understanding that, if she is kept apart from the field or Deeks, revelations would not happen about her emotional state.

And after working a case together, Deeks goes for another rebellious questioning with Kensi and shows her what he thinks of her personal investment towards him. That's in 5x21-Three Hearts. Kensi's indecisiveness towards their relationship, Deeks sees it as a professional affront to his capabilities as seen through her personal and professionally critical eyes. She goes at length at protecting him before Angelo, which kind of puts Deeks in a bad light, as if he cannot manage himself. Could be true. But if Kensi was really professional, she would not have bothered to cut into Deeks negotiating style with Angelo. She would have had that trust on him both personally and professionally and they could still have their private thing going on. By protecting Deeks, Kensi exposes herself too. She forgets that Deeks has raised himself, is a negotiator by profession and would know how to manage interrogation. Its pleasure seeing someone going at length to protect you, but then it also means that the other cares about you in wholesome manner. Can Deeks be sure of that now? After what he saw in Afghanistan? Is Kensi protecting her work partner or protecting him for other personal reasons? Then it just remains for Deeks to take care of the fact that she need not get protective on him when working. Remove his "emotional center" and end the bother. 

So just by being a good work-partner to her, he lets go off the personal dangling "thing" between them, showing Kensi that if she prefers professionalism, then so be it until they both are ready to handle their personal versus profess He breaks away from her. Its slam dunk case he makes for himself against two judging women against his professional integrity. One has to either trust or distrust. One cannot be in perpetual doubtful state of "is he going to be one of us or be the weakling or a traitor, just because he is good at his undercover persona or wears his heart on his sleeve." Deeks neither can let Kensi become the DEA Agent like Talia, who can go ahead and dump him; nor can let himself get turned into Paulo Angelo the "doubted" as the NCIS under Hetty make of him. Slam Dunk rebellion of the Crass Distrust and the mockery that Hetty makes of his Love Story by sending him into the Interrogation Room to question Angelo, something that was so personal to him treated as a commodity by others.

That was Deeks point of view. What is Hetty's point of view? And how do they hash it out?

We see that even Hetty goes through a Fight between Personal and Professional desires. Her personal desire is that she wants Deeks and Kensi get to together. And she has helped them a lot from last 4 seasons. But then there is that professional side of hers, that also needs to assess the partners in love, dedication and objectivity towards work. It would have been easy for us to manage her two loved team members. But as fate would have it, she has a friend in Afghanistan, Jack Simon; who is in trouble and needs her help. Coincidentally, Jack Simon is also Kensi's Ex-Fiance, whom Kensi believes as dead. Hetty has to make the tough choice between her two personal wishes of seeing Kensi with Deeks, but having to send Kensi for rescuing Jack Simon. Its a tough call, but more on the professional lines, she decides to send Kensi to Afghanistan, well aware of the repercussions it may have on Deek's budding Love story with Kensi.

I am sure Hetty might have started feeling heavy about this. And thus she starts distancing herself from Deeks. This is where I started with the post above. How did then Hetty's decision affect her personally by affecting both Deeks and Kensi?  The answer is that, both Kensi and Deeks get to their Third Heart, that part of them that is so vulnerable that they cannot ever let it seen by others and have to always gaurd it. Both Kensi and Deeks lose stability when in Afghanistan. Its good and bad that they have seen what can happen to them. But what is the fallout?  The Fallout is that, its a step back for The Love Story. Kensi can see, that in her heart there was still Jack Simon. And until she flushes him out, she cannot let in Deeks. And Deeks, sees for himself, that he could go to a dark place for Kensi, but its not worth at all, because Kensi does not love him. She might care for him a lot, they have their Thing going on, but definitely its not the kind that Kensi feels for Jack Simon.  Hetty is all aware of this fallout. This is her personal loss. But first things first, she needs to get back her Special Agent Kensi Blye into shape, even if that means; having to exploit her other skilled team member Deeks closeness to Kensi. A Manager indeed!

The Human Response: When the Living itself is Belied

5×16 – Fish Out of Water

5×07 – The Livelong Day 

4×20 – Purity 

4×11 – Drive 

3×18 – The Dragon and The Fairy 

3×11 – Higher Power 

What happens when, our belief is belied? What happens when, those who are supposed to take care of us betray our belief? What happens when, our nurturers become our exploiters? What happens when, our brethren become our foe? What happens when, we start ceasing to exist? What is our Human Response? Do we accept our loss? Or do we fight back? Or we just keep fighting until we die?

Joe Sachs

Seeing him from last two seasons since Season 3 when he joined the team, I am seeing that Joe Sachs has good grip on the NCIS LA characters. He knows all of them. He is the Consulting Producer for the show and previously worked as the writer for ER along with R Scott Gemmill. He is a doctor by profession, but writes stories on varieties of subjects. On the NCIS interpersonal dynamics, he takes care of the partnership dynamics without compromising the story needs. He adds resolution of the emotion towards the actions that the characters perform. The reason in terms of the emotion is addressed and depicted. On the story side, he picks up sensitive movies, documentaries or books that sensitively question the whys and wherefores of the routines suddenly developing into the catastrophic attention. Along the same sensitive lines, Sachs develops his story, using the same title albeit weaving the story to fit the NCIS LA format. In his stories, the subjects are very important. They are responsible but frustrated human beings trying to make a point, fighting the system as the Higher Power governing them has cheated them, failing to protect them and instead doing the exact opposite for believing in them. They are remorseful of their drastic action that they are reduced to take and would not wanted to take this approach, but feel that they have reason enough to go for the drastic step to teach the lesson to the Higher Power. His stories are poignant portrayals of ideals gone wrong, passions and dreams of people belied and the individuals effort to make it good, fighting with the last straw they have. There is a sensitive and subtle treatment of human subjects, focussing on the casualty and human costs of any ideal cause gone wrong. He forces us to see what has been forgotten, overlooked, until someone challenges authorities to look into things what they have missed. That is Human Response: When the Living itself is Belied. The dominant emotion of a Joe Sachs episode is Pain, Love and Courage. Its a cathartic process.

I have liked all Joe Sachs stories so far. They can never be much widely discussed, but there is that poignant pain; that lingers on our minds. That emotion about feeling the sense of loss gives us through the subject’s pain and that; there also exists a stronger emotion of moral propriety within the subject’s mind, which cannot be snuffed into oblivion or indifference; which drives him to to keep fighting for in order to survive. The lingering feel about the interplay of those emotions of rebellion, disillusionment and retribution; sticks to our mind and our imagination starts to expand it. Take any episode written by Joe Sachs, the stories appeal to us because of the subjects involved could be the disillusioned miscreant fighting for justice in his own way, who makes us look deep into matters we otherwise would never pay attention to. 

I am restricting my analysis to Season 5 Episodes presently. When I do get to start writing summaries and analysis for the past 4 seasons, I will add others to the list.

Season 5

In this season, we have had two Joe Sach stories. 5x07-The LivelongDay and 5x16-Fish Out of Water

Livelong Day has two references. Its Barbara Garson’s book, “All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work” and David Fenster’s movie “The Livelong Day.” The movie is actually based on Trains and is about passionate people for whom Train is a way of life, who cannot see Trains being taken away from them. The essential argument underlying in the Book : "All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work" is that human beings want to work. We love work. Work is part of our nature. But human beings don't work with the unstoppable fervor of machines, so the people who dole out work have tried to compress us into the role of industrial robots. Barbara Garson doesn't pretend to be impartial. She's outspokenly socialist, believing that the people who do jobs are best capable of judging how those jobs ought to be done. She is not looking for a free hand in the world, and she's not looking to loaf on the clock. But when work is stripped of its inherent meaning and reduced to trivial repetetive twists and pulls, this necessarily strips the workers of some of their noble humanity.

5x07-Livelong Day is the story is about Mitch Rome, who dreamt all his life to work for Rail Roads, did all his study about trains and rail roads and yet, his employer, denies him his right to work just because he became "The Man who knew too much" and had to be erased out of the system. Mitch Rome is the Train Brakesman for FWRY Railroads. He has always loved trains and wanted to be the engineer.He was to be promoted as the engineer when he is fired on charges of Marijuana intake and causing an accident. Its a false charge on Mitch Rome by his company as he was being the whistle-blower to his corporation when he was sending letters to them to stop running the freight trains carrying dangerous chemicals from busy downtown areas against the FRA guidelines. His employers instead of listening to his pleas, fire him and then hire a detective Anthony Tregor to end him. Anthony Tregor successfully frames Mitch Rome in the Train Gaurd killing case along with Bellamy, convinces Bellamy to blow up the train that Mitch Rome was planning to hijack. Mitch Rome has only one intention- to make people hear and see what he is saying. He wants to make a point by stopping the train in busy down-town area. Alas his train brakes are failed and he cannot do that. The NCIS team helps him in two ways, 1) clearing him of marijuana intake and finding evidence of how his employers framed him 2) preventing the disaster that he set on the sabotaged train when he started his mission. His mother and him are actually good people. The son gets caught in the employers punishing him for doing his job. His plight is like Barbara Garsen’s Book “All the Livelong Day: The Meaning and Demeaning of Routine Work”. Mitch’s work is demeaned by his own employers when they should have been proud of him for doing the job correctly. 

Fish Out of Water is documentary movie about “what does Bible have to say about being gay?” In this story, Joe Sachs weaves a story for Densi and Deeks, with the serious side of the “Love Story” coming up for the first time after Frozen Lake. The complication of two working partners falling in love and what implications each can have regards to his or her career is touched upon through the Guest character DEA Agent Talia. And yet by the end of the episode, Deeks is adamant about what he wants. If he fell in love with his work-partner and it has become a purposeful and meaningful existence for him, makes him a better person, he would fight for all of it, and be ready for any kind of fight he has to take up with his authorities. The simple human reason being, how can falling in love be demeaned as complicated if one can be reasonable enough to work it out. 

For all of these arguments, there are consequences and the persons, who ask these questions get charged of breaking the law, but in the end, their question is valid enough for us to put our thoughts to amend a wrong. We can see that the emotional meltdown that Deeks goes through in 5x16-FishOutofWater consequences both professionally and personally, he starts to fight for his own individuality, his beliefs, all that his existence is made of in the subsequent episodes. It starts becoming a fight between him and authority as represented by Henrietta Lange and a fight between him and professionalism as represented by Special Agent Kensi Blye. In 5x19-SpoilsofWar, Deeks disproves Hetty that he can let his emotions get in the middle of the rescue operation. Even if he loses himself briefly, Deeks finds his ground. And continuing with his spirit of talking back to Hetty for being right, although well within the permissible limits of talking back to his Boss, Deeks demands of Hetty, when is she going to allow Kensi to work with him. "I want my partner back". That happens in 5x20-Windfall. There is clear articulation of Hetty remarking on Deeks questions, "yet you question about my judgement". Deeks though acting subservient to Hetty, does not relent on what he personally thinks of her decision. Hetty does relent, He lets Kensi start working with Deeks. And after working a case together, Deeks goes for another rebellious questioning with Kensi and shows her what he thinks of her personal investment towards him. That's in 5x21-Three Heats. Kensi's indecisiveness towards their relationship, Deeks sees it as a professional affront to his capabilities as seen through her personal and professionally critical eyes. So just by being a good work-partner to her, he lets go the personal dangling "thing" between them, showing Kensi that if she prefers professionalism, then so be it. He breaks away from her. Its slam dunk case he makes for himself against two judging women against his professional integrity. One has to either trust or distrust. One cannot be in perpetual doubtful state of "is he going to be one of us or be the weakling or a traitor, just because he is good at his undercover persona." Deeks cannot let Kensi become the DEA Agent like Talia or cannot let him get turned into Paulo Angelo as the NCIS under Hetty make of him. Slam Dunk rebellion of the Crass Distrust.

Eric Beale - The Smart Boy

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

 Retweeted by Barrett Foa

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.