NCIS: Los Angeles - The Long Goodbye - Review: "Fun Pairings, Emotionally-Driven"

After “NCIS: Los Angeles” rearranged its episode order out of sensitivity to the Paris terrorist attacks, the original eighth episode of the season was replaced with “The Long Goodbye.” This was a stand-alone episode that could have aired any time and did not affect the continuity of the season.

“The Long Goodbye” sees the return of Jada Khaled, a Sudanese woman whom Sam had pretended to love while undercover in a season three episode (“Betrayal”). Sam – and the CIA – needed Jada to leave Sudan in order to get her to testify against her brother, a vicious Sudanese warlord. That was four years ago. In “The Long Goodbye” we learn that Jada has finally testified and is about to be placed into witness protection. When her transport vehicle is attacked, Jada goes missing and the NCIS team begins searching for her.

It turns out Jada’s brother has hired the Molina cartel to kidnap her. So NCIS joins forces once again with DEA agent Talia Del Campo, who goes undercover with Kensi to infiltrate the cartel and gain intel on Jada’s whereabouts. But the cartel is also responsible for convincing Jada that her brother wants to reunite with her and forgive her. Sam knows the truth: Her brother is going to kill her if she returns to Sudan. But ever since Sam told Jada his real identity and then disappeared, Jada is lonely for home and her family. So she decides to return to Sudan, despite Sam’s pleas that she is in danger. In the end Sam feels terrible but the team has to respect her wishes.

I enjoyed “The Long Goodbye.” It contained an emotional element with Sam feeling responsible for Jada after what happened to her. I respected that everything wasn’t tied up in a pretty bow at the end, leaving Sam in a tough place and emphasizing the toll that undercover work can take on these agents. In addition, I loved the shuffled pairs we saw working together. Callen and Deeks were a fantastic duo with a great push-pull dynamic. It made me want more of them. And for once, Kensi and Talia worked well together, giving Kensi another woman with whom to commiserate and bond. While not extremely weighty or relevant to the longer seasonal storylines, this episode was fun and well-executed.

Callen and Deeks

Man, I can’t tell you how much I love Callen and Deeks paired up together. Why has this not happened more? The two are so different that their interactions together make for great television. Callen is cool and nonchalant and noncommittal while Deeks is bold and impulsive and very vocal about whatever he’s thinking. They are complete opposites and so fun to watch together.

In the beginning team scene, when Kensi shows up late talking about her “parking spot bitch” who always blocks her in at the coffee shop, a guy-girl dynamic starts to unfold. The boys immediately come up with a solution to her problem, while Kensi just wants to talk about it. I thought Callen was quite funny as he spouted off a sentence with a bunch of letters. (“The PSB will be MIA ASAP.”) He even had Deeks laughing. At this point, these two men are on the same “side,” both of them thinking alike when it came to Kensi’s situation.

But very quickly their different personalities come into focus, and Callen isn’t sure he wants to be on the same side as Deeks. I loved their scene together in the car as Deeks calls out Callen on his unsocial ways. It was funny and sweet at the same time. The writing and acting in this scene were fantastic. I loved how Deeks started out making fun of Callen (in a respectful, teasing way), saying he was sure Callen believed he was social, even if it wasn’t true. Then, as Callen comments that Deeks wouldn’t really know since they don’t hang out, Deeks gets serious and says he’d love to hang out with Callen. He was casual about it, but Callen can’t quite wrap his head around hanging out with Deeks and claims he has to check his schedule. His response was amusing. And then Deeks calls him out again, asking him what else he has to do – stare at the ocean, smoldering? What a great line, especially coming from another attractive guy.

From here on out, they call each other “guy,” but it was especially funny coming from Callen – because he was almost making fun of the term. Deeks wanted a guy’s night and Callen was affirming their “guy” status. But he still wasn’t giving in to being a real buddy to Deeks. He was keeping him at arm’s length.

Their different personalities also came out as they watched Kensi and Talia changing out of their swimsuits behind a screen. (This was weird. I can’t imagine the ladies would actually do this in a real, professional office.) Deeks has to stop and mention how awesome the situation is while Callen breezes right past it and gets down to business.

Then Deeks wants to initiate and dominate a guy-girl war with Kensi and Talia while Callen smartly keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t want to take sides. Callen is an intelligent man who knows when to keep quiet and stay out of trouble, while part of Deeks’ allure comes from the fact that he says whatever he wants, when he wants. He doesn’t have a filter. It was funny that Callen refused to take Deeks’ side, emphasizing once again that he was not fully in on Deeks’ “guy bonding.”

In the end, Deeks is left out in the cold when Callen, Kensi and Talia all ditch him. And he just can’t fathom it. First Kensi and Talia leave, and then Callen won’t commit to beers. In his mind, he gave Callen a nice offer, so why won’t he accept it? He can’t imagine Callen having better things to do – and as Deeks says, who is going to listen to him vent now? Deeks gets so desperate and needy that it becomes amusing. He works hard and fast to “woo” Callen and convince him to hang out that evening, but ultimately he’s left behind as Callen slyly disappears without a word. It was a fantastic ending and served as the perfect way to emphasize how different these two men are. It ultimately made me realize how incredibly social Deeks is. He needs to be around people. Meanwhile, Callen’s personality is more introverted, liking to hang out alone and doing things on his terms. I suspect Callen wants his private time a little less crazy and more subdued than he’d find with Deeks. But here’s to hoping we will see more of these two together. Because I’m a new Deeks-Callen fan!

Kensi and Talia

Usually Kensi and Talia are like oil and vinegar together. So I wasn’t too excited for another episode with Talia, especially after the last time we saw her when she kissed Deeks in front of Kensi. But I was pleasantly surprised to see Kensi and Talia actually bonding in this episode. And that was the point. These two women, who usually don’t get along, finally found some common ground. And when they did, they put their differences aside and focused on their similarities.

It all begins outside the Molina mansion where the cartel is having a pool party. Talia poses as a former runway model from Buenos Aires, and Kensi is her sister. They both look beautiful and have model figures, so this is a believable cover. I found myself thinking NCIS and the DEA were very lucky to have such versatile undercover agents who can be both tough and sexy. As they talk in the car before going in, Kensi complains about being treated like a piece of fresh meat and comments on how awful it feels, even undercover. To her surprise, Talia totally relates. And suddenly Kensi has another woman with whom she can connect. It gives them an immediate bond.

Once they are inside, they work their magic to meet Alex Molina (though he later turns out to be fake) and find out what the shy guy on his computer is doing. Kensi sees this guy putting together a search strategy for Jada and expertly puts a tracking device on his shirt before the bouncer gets mad. Then Kensi and Talia have to throw down the bouncer. This is the type of “girl fight” I will watch any time! These two are tough as nails. They may have blown their cover but they also learned that they work well together. And they gained a newfound respect for one another.

When Deeks tries to turn their friendship into a guy-girl war, it backfires on him when he brings up the “PSB.” It turns out Talia knows about “parking spot bitches” and asks Kensi if she wants to talk about it – exactly what Kensi had wanted earlier in the day. She loves that someone understands her. These two would definitely team up against Deeks in his gender war. (But that would mean he’d actually have to have a team.)

In the end it was fun to see Talia and Kensi going off to eat ice cream together and de-wind after their operation. I think it’s healthy for Kensi and Deeks to spend some time apart with other people once in a while, even if Deeks doesn’t know what to do with his time apart. It was nice to see Kensi have another female to rely on. I hope these two women stay on good terms from here on out.

Sam (and Hetty)

Sam carried the emotional weight of the episode. You could see how hard it was for him to know how his job had affected Jada. He carried the burden of knowing his actions had affected her life in a negative way. He had done his job but that job had also caused someone pain, and he carried that burden with him. Because of that he wants to take care of Jada and make sure she is safe. When he can’t do that, it weighs on him.

I felt really bad for Jada, actually. All she did was trust someone and fall in love, and her life was blown apart. But I also felt bad for Sam, who was caught in an impossible situation. The dilemma he faced was palpable. It says a lot about him that he suffered so much from what happened and the harm he caused. These agents really do have a tough job when they are undercover, forming connections with people that aren’t real. That leaves a toll on them. Deeks pointed this out as he defended Sam’s choices, claiming that he thought about it a lot – if he meets someone while he’s undercover, things are likely not going to end well.

Most of Sam’s time was spent interrogating the cartel man who had been shot in the leg. At first they think he is a random cartel employee, but Sam begins debunking his file until he realizes this is the cartel head’s son, Alex Molina. Sam tries every method of getting him to talk about Jada. But the man starts getting to Sam when he talks about how Sam had lured her into falling in love with his lies. It was a sore spot for Sam, and he reacts from the heart. I kind of enjoyed watching him get emotional and heated because it showed how deep his concern ran for Jada. I also liked that Hetty was looking out for Sam. She opened the door to save him when his emotions were getting the best of him. It’s always good to have a friend like that.

Eventually, though, this young man admits to Sam that Jada’s brother is indeed going to torture her to death when she arrives back in Sudan. I was a little surprised that Sam never told Jada this information when he finally talks to her on the phone. This was the “proof” he’d been working hard to get. But in the end, he doesn’t tell her and just can’t get through to her. Their conversation was tough. Jada at first seemed happy to hear his voice but then quickly remembered the pain Sam caused her. She wants her life back and doesn’t want to be in a lonely place where she knows no one except the U. S. Marshal. She blames Sam for all the lies he told her. As Sam points out to Hetty, his lies caught up with him. When he is finally telling Jada the truth, she doesn’t believe him. She thinks she will be safe back home.

In the end Sam has to let Jada make her own choice. I loved that Hetty gave him this advice. Sam can only see through his own veil of feelings and experiences. He can only see the danger Jada is in and his role in putting her there. But Hetty wisely tells Sam that Jada needs her own voice. If he forbids her to return home, that imprisons her. He needs to let her have her own opinion and make her own decisions. That is especially important since her choice to come to the United States was based on lies. This time Sam needs to let her choose for herself, based on what she believes to be true.

That’s a tough decision that leaves Sam upset with the potential outcome. Hetty ultimately consoles him as best she can while letting him know he did excellent work. The words don’t make him feel any better, but that is a credit to Sam. I really loved that this ending was not a typical, happy “NCIS: LA” ending. It reflected the tough choices of undercover work. Those choices can affect people’s lives in both positive and negative ways. That was evident this week.

Other Thoughts

- Granger is really becoming one of the team lately. I love that he does surprising things, like giving Sam painkillers to use in his interrogation. There goes Granger breaking the rules!

- This show seems to be getting sexier as the season goes on. It appears they are using their later timeslot to take advantage of what they are now allowed to show.

- The theater scene was a fun idea. I enjoyed watching the team spread out with eyes everywhere to watch the cartel drop. (I have no idea how Kensi saw the man, though. She never even turned around. Does she have eyes in the back of her head?) I wasn’t expecting the “man” receiving the handoff to be Jada. That was a nice twist.

- It’s incredible to think that their tracking devices are strong enough to work anywhere around the world, wherever the plane lands. That’s some good technology!

- It was funny how Talia switched from hitting on Deeks to hitting on Callen. I can’t see the two of them together but the girl definitely works it! It was funny how she pointed out to Deeks what a social guy Callen was. And of course Talia agreed that Callen has a good smolder. That he does!

- It looks like we are back on track for next week as “Defectors,” the episode originally scheduled to air this week, is set for next Monday. Deeks’ arrest is imminent. Bring it on!


What did you think of "The Long Goodbye?" Which was your favorite pairing? What did you think of Sam's attachment to Jada? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

About the Author - Tonya Papanikolas

Tonya Papanikolas is an online, print and broadcast journalist who loves covering entertainment and television. She spent more than 10 years as a broadcast news anchor/reporter and now does everything from hosting to writing. She loves covering NCIS: Los Angeles for SpoilerTV. (She's a big fan of Kensi and Deeks!) She also writes SpoilerTV articles on other great shows.