In “Beacon,” the NCIS team must investigate the apparent death of Callen’s Russian “friend” Arkady Kolcheck after a body turns up in a car explosion. But it turns out Arkady wasn’t the dead man – he killed a man who came after him. As the NCIS team looks into why someone wanted Arkady dead, they learn he had been brokering a shipping deal between the Russians and the Americans. When the American shippers tried to pull out, Arkady wouldn’t give them their ship back, so they sent a hit man after him. By the end of the episode, everyone is safe, but the ship still hasn’t turned up – and it has more than 100 million dollars in oil on board, enough to “finance a war,” as Hetty says.
I found the plot of this episode convoluted. But that wasn’t my main problem with “Beacon.” The tone and the pacing were off, making the episode feel slow and awkward. Long pauses in between important moments occurred all throughout the episode, lending to confusion. The slow-motion shooting at the end made me realize the whole episode had resembled that dawdling, stilted motion. It often felt like things weren’t going anywhere, and the episode lacked energy. Even the music score held back the action. As for the tone, the characters exhibited an unusual lack of emotion that left me detached. I didn’t know how to feel about many things because the characters weren’t reacting themselves. And many of the conversations felt strange and unnatural. I hate to say this was a weird episode for me – definitely not one of my favorites.
Callen and Sam
The topic of their talk also felt unnatural. It felt like a conversation that should have happened months ago, not now. I understand she is still learning to trust him, but it felt like she hadn’t made much headway in that department. After all this time, it was surprising to hear her say she was still getting used to the real him. They haven’t seemed to progress much further than when we last saw them on camera. I was happy, though, to see Callen being more open with Joelle. He mentions being in prison (undercover, the case from last week), so it’s nice to know he’s sharing information about work with her. And I liked all the mentions of how Joelle is influencing Callen to eat healthy. It proves G likes her a lot if he’s eating tofu and vegetarian Chinese food.
Something else I found strange in this episode was Callen’s ambivalence to Arkady’s death. When G found out the news, he hardly reacted at all. I know he claims Arkady is not his friend, but he has always seemed to feel a connection to the Russian. Callen and Sam may constantly be frustrated with Arkady and the fact that he is never forthcoming with information, but they have also grown to value him and look out for him. Callen even mentioned that he had been to Arkady’s house numerous times, a fact that surprised Sam. Callen says it’s because Arkady has a nice pool, but if G is close enough with him to hang out at his house, why does he have no reaction to the man being dead? Especially when he knows Arkady could have information about his father. The only theory I could come up with is that Callen might be upset with Arkady for withholding information about his dad. That would explain G’s lack of emotions. But it was never alluded to in the episode.
Finally we see them in the shooting scene at the pool. It was entertaining to watch Callen undercover as a waiter, dressed all in white. When he and Sam can’t hear the message from Kensi and Deeks about what is happening, they both become hyper-sensitive to what is going on around them. As usual, these are the guys you want watching out for you. They are on their toes observing everything. They notice the shooter as he pulls out a gun, and they move into action. Sam goes after the shooter while Callen saves Arkady – “just doing his job,” he claims. (Again, pretending he doesn’t care.)
Kensi and Deeks
Their other interesting scene was the conversation about the LAPD internal investigation. But like the Callen and Joelle scene, this one also had some long pauses and awkward moments (mostly before they start talking). Kensi notices something is off with Deeks and asks if he is okay. After saying he’s fantastic, we then watch a long, overdrawn silence that made me wonder what was happening. Deeks doesn’t look at Kensi but stares off into space, acting strangely. He eventually tells Kensi he is thinking about stakeouts, and how they are not fun when the cat becomes the mouse. In this investigation, he has become the mouse. I was happy to hear Kensi ask the question that we all want to know: If the LAPD detective keeps digging, is she going to find anything? To that Deeks emphatically tells Kensi not to ask him that. When she questions why, he says, “Because I honestly don’t know how to answer.” He then looks directly in her eyes before turning away.
Eric and Nell
Like our other pairs, Eric and Nell have some fun moments and some awkward moments this week. It was amusing to see Eric making fun of Deeks, mimicking Deeks brushing his hair off his forehead. It seems he doesn’t think too highly of Deeks’ intelligence. He was also funny as he ran to tell Hetty that Arkady was still alive, with a dramatic flair that Granger notices.
But my favorite Neric moment was when Eric accidentally told Nell he loved her. After realizing what he just said, he tries to backtrack by adding extra words to his meaning: “And by you, I mean your mind – your beautiful, gorgeous mind.” But then things turned weird, which bummed me out because the moment started off so fun. The whole I-want-to-take-your-brain-home-like-a-lobotomy conversation was bizarre. And again, we saw another long, silent, awkward pause as Eric pictured her brain. What? Add Eric to the growing list of characters acting strangely in this episode.
Other Thoughts
- It seemed cruel to make Callen watch a video of Arkady dying instead of just telling him his friend may be dead.
- I enjoyed Granger and Hetty’s conversation about keeping Deeks and Kensi together in the field. Hetty’s response was hilarious: that their “extracurricular activities” hadn’t caused any problems yet. Nice to know what Hetty really thinks about them working together.
- Callen’s reference to Eric teaching him about comic books was amusing.
- The blonde girl on Arkady’s phone, Anna, must have had a purpose. I am sure she is going to come up in future episodes as this case continues. Could she somehow be related to Callen or know something about his family? Arkady said she had nothing to do with the boat. But her name and photo were dropped for a reason.
- Callen’s exchange with Arkady about the stopwatch was interesting at the end of the episode. As he repeated the Russian phrase on the watch (“loyalty to party, loyalty to motherland”), he points out that loyalty to family trumps them both. And Arkady agrees. This seemed to be a foreshadowing of Callen’s search for his father. Arkady likely knows more than he’s saying. If he doesn’t have information himself, he knows people who do. So Callen mentioning family to Arkady was almost reminding him that his family and his father are important to him, and he’s not going to drop the issue.
- Hetty had some funny lines in this episode. I had to laugh when Hetty refused to tell Arkady it was a pleasure to see him, saying her mother didn’t raise her to be a liar. I was especially amused when she sarcastically said her parents almost named her Pollyanna.
How did you like "Beacon?" Did you notice the tone or pacing problems? How much do you think Arkady knows about Callen's past? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
