NCIS: New Orleans - Legacy - Review: "All About Family"
5.4 - "Legacy"
Directed by LeVar Burton
Written by Chad Gomez Creasey
Reviewed by Kelly Anne Blount
“Legacy” opens on a shrimping boat. A young man isn’t interested in helping his family with the nets, he’s most interested in playing video games. The boy makes his way around the boat and freaks out when he sees a bloody body in the water.
Khoury and Sebastian head to the docks, where a crowd has started to gather. Word is out that the body belongs to, Petty Officer Aaron Trang, a local who grew up working the docks.
Gregorio tells Khoury and Sebastian to “brace” themselves. The body is in rough shape. Dr. Wade tells the crew that, “this was no accident.” There was a rope tied around his waist. Per Gregorio, “Someone wanted him to disappear forever.”
Eddie Dao intervenes. The shrimpers are upset because they can’t unload their catch and their food may spoil. LaSalle tells them that it’s on the Coast Guard to allow that to happen. He appears to be on edge, which Khoury notices. When she asks if there’s anything she can do to help, he tells her that unless she can get the IRS off his back, there’s nothing she can do. He’s going to hear the IRS’ findings this afternoon at a scheduled meeting. Poor, LaSalle! This entire situation is really stressful. I hope it is resolved in this episode.
Amy Trang, the victim’s cousin comes back to shore. Before they can talk to Amy, Gregorio and Khoury talk to the victim’s uncle. He says that he and the victim weren’t close anymore. Aaron was supposed to take over the shrimping boat, but instead, he joined the Navy. That upset his uncle and his father. His uncle reports that life has been tough lately. Khoury and Gregorio head off to find Amy.
Pride is leaning on his beautiful classic car, waiting on LaSalle. He wants to go to the meeting with LaSalle. The sense of family is so real with this crew. LaSalle tells his old boss that he can handle things alone. Pride quips, “You can handle this alone, but you don’t have to.” They head into the government building together.
Oh my! LaSalle is told that he owes the IRS over ten million dollars. Evidence shows that LaSalle’s father took the money instead of paying the government. The first installment is due by the end of the month. If he can’t pay, the IRS will take money from his paycheck, assets, and since he’s a federal agent who could be blackmailed, they can take away his clearance, which would result in him losing his badge as well. Oh man!
LaSalle heads out of the meeting. He’s visibly upset. Pride looks back at the IRS agent and says, “Maybe there’s a way we can both get what we want.” Thank the blue sky above for Dwayne Pride! He always saves the day.
Pride catches up with LaSalle outside. He tells him that he’s giving him some time off, so they can figure things out. Pride has pulled all of the case files and evidence related to LaSalle’s with his “Special Agent in Charge” title. They are going to figure this out together.
Back at HQ, Khoury tells Gregorio that Amy Trang, a juvenile, has a criminal past. Sebastian and Patton have a series of texts between Amy and Aaron. Aaron is begging Amy to stand down. It appears she is about to do something dangerous. In the last text, Aaron states that he would get the proof himself and tells Amy to sit tight. Khoury asks, “Proof of what?” Whatever it was, it probably got Aaron killed.
Thanks to Patton, they locate Amy and another individual at the shrimping docks. Amy is crawling up a boat ladder with a backpack. Khoury ends up tackling her to the ground. Uh oh. The backpack is loaded with explosives. Khoury orders everyone off the boat, NOW!
Khoury and Gregorio have Amy in an interrogation room. Amy thinks she’ll get a “slap on the wrist” in the juvenile detention system for her attempt to blow up the boat. Khoury and Gregorio drop a truth bomb on her. There were two people below board, which means that she will also be charged with attempted murder. Those will definitely earn her more than a “slap on the wrist.” She will be tried as an adult and put behind bars for 30 years.
Khoury tells Amy that if she cooperates, they might be able to help her. Khoury asks if this was in retaliation for Aaron’s death. Amy had no idea Aaron was dead. She immediately says, “It was them. It was Triton (Fisheries).” Amy goes on to tell them that Triton has been poisoning their waters for years and no one was helping. Amy said she wanted to send Triton a message. She says that Aaron was trying to find “proof” and “evidence” of what was going on.
Eddie Dao, who spoke to LaSalle down at the docks, shows up as a “concerned member of the community.” He says that Amy isn’t “evil,” just angry.
Eddie explains that families are losing their businesses and that the kids are terrified. They are willing to do whatever they can to help their parents. Khoury tells Gregorio to let the D.A. know that the kids are cooperating and that they are going to get off with probation, Khoury will personally vouch for them. I’m not sure that’s how that works? Doesn’t the District Attorney have a say in and have to approve what kind of deals can be made? Eddie seems pleased.
Khoury asks Eddie to share with his community that “recklessly lashing out” isn’t going to help anyone. They shake on it.
LaSalle, Patton, and Pride are digging into his father’s documents. Patton is amazing. He scanned thousands of documents and is using a program to pull specific invoices. All of the invoices in question, where money was transferred, came from Leila Addison’s computer. She was the company’s accountant, but quit three weeks after LaSalle’s father passed away. Turns out she moved to New Orleans a short time ago. Pride and LaSalle head out to pay Leila a visit.
Back at the docks, Khoury and Gregorio talk to two Triton fishermen. The fishermen deny killing Aaron and trying to run the local Vietnamese families out of business. They said that they did offer to buy the processing plant, owned by the local Vietnamese families, but they wouldn’t sell. He says that they didn’t poison their waters and that they’ll do, “Whatever it takes to defend their property.”
LaSalle and Pride show up at Leila’s house. She tells them, “I didn’t take a penny that wasn’t earned.” She says that she loved working for LaSalle’s father, as did everyone else. She says that things got tight and LaSalle’s father took on the work of “half a dozen” employees. Leila adds that when things got really rough, LaSalle’s father took over the money and paid the bills himself. She says, “I would just transfer the funds into an account and he would transfer the money to where he saw fit.”
LaSalle is shocked to hear that his father went to Jamaica right before he died. Why would he go on a vacation as his company was collapsing?
Khoury and Gregorio head to see Dr. Wade. Turns out Triton has a history of running smaller fishing companies out of water and ruining local fishing communities.
Dr. Wade has news. The victim was drowned in ice water. He has marks on the back of his neck from being pushed in it and he also has some kind of indentation on his cheek.
Sebastian comes in with an awesome line about Davy Jones’ locker. Oh, how we love Sebastian! Turns out that the mark on Trang’s face is from a commemorative plaque his uncle’s boat.
They head down to the docks to check the boat for evidence, but when they show up, the Trang’s boat is on fire. Any and all evidence is gone. The Vietnamese fishermen on the docks are furious and blame Triton for the fire.
Mr. Trang is in the interrogation room. Khoury and Gregorio drop the news that his nephew’s body was on the commemorative plaque from his boat. Furthermore, the boat made two recent trips out to their fishing grounds in the middle of the night. One of the trips was made the night Aaron was killed.
Mr. Trang says that he would never hurt Aaron, he was “like family.”
Khoury convince Mr. Trang to help. He says that Aaron asked to borrow the boat. He says that Aaron said he was, “trying to save our way of life.” He is in tears and says, “He deserved better than this.”
Patton has news. LaSalle’s father was flying to Jamaica regularly. Grand Cayman is only an hour away via charter. LaSalle jumps to the conclusion that his father set up a secret retirement bank account in Grand Cayman and that he was screwing over the people he worked with in the process. Side note, I used to live in Grand Cayman, and it was amazing. Also, there is a regular test of some kind going on, on my television right now, so the next bit was difficult to make out. I apologize for any inconsistencies or missed information.
LaSalle tells Pride and Patton that he needs to go see Leila. He’s hopeful she’ll be able to help him recover the money.
Pride heads back to his new office. His assistant is studying for her Master’s Degree in Criminology. She’s worried that she’ll be in trouble for studying on the job. She’s not, because Pride is the best. He helps her with a question and then heads to his office.
Gregorio shows up a few moments later. She misses Pride and she’s worried about LaSalle. Pride says, “It doesn’t look too good for him right now, but Chris is a fighter.” Gregorio hopes that whatever answers LaSalle finds, that he can live with.
Turns out Aaron Trang, the victim, was taking water samples and having them processed through the Navy. He was trying to find evidence that the Vietnamese fishermen’s waters were being poisoned, but all of the samples came back clean.
Khoury figures it out, the Vietnamese fishermen’s catches were being poisoned at the processing plant, not in the water.
LaSalle catches up with Leila. He wants to know how Leila is paying for an expensive private school. She tells him that her son won a scholarship. LaSalle tells her that his father was stealing money from the company and the employees he allegedly loved. She doesn’t believe LaSalle. He asks her to help him find the money. That way, they can either prove that he stole it or that something else was going on.
Back at the docks, Gregorio and Sebastian are talking to Eddie and two of the local Vietnamese fishermen and women. Sebastian and Gregorio share that the poisoning has been occurring in their processing plant. The man and woman are mortified. Gregorio tells Eddie to tell them via translation, that it isn’t their fault. She then shows them a picture of Wilkinson. They all recognize him and know that he works for Triton. They said that after he made the offer and they turned him down, things got rough.
Sebastian says that he’ll look for evidence in the processing plant, but the changes of finding anything are slim to none, as the plant is sanitized every day.
Uh oh, Mr. Trang, the victim’s uncle has a bat in hand. He and several other fishermen attack Wilkinson’s truck and start a huge fight with Wilkinson.
Sebastian and Gregorio break it up and come face to face with several large cannisters of industrial acetone. Per Sebastian, it is very useful for starting fires. Wilkinson says, “That’s not mine.” Do you believe him?
Back at HQ, Khoury and Gregorio have Wilkinson in charge. He says that he didn’t start the fire or sabotage the processing plant.
Khoury wants to know who ordered him to go after Aaron Trang and the local processing plant. He says that not only did he have nothing to do with it, no one higher up at Triton ordered him to do it. He adds that they are already looking at purchase a different processing center nearby, therefore, the people at Triton have no reason to poison the processing plant.
He says they are going to work with someone who “doesn’t play games.” Khoury and Gregorio are confused. Wilkinson says the only reason Triton reached out to the Dao family, who own the processing plant in the first place, was because he heard they were courting offers. After Triton made one, the Dao’s were allegedly no longer interested in selling.
They leave the interrogation room. Gregorio says that the Dao’s would never sell the processing plant. Hannah follows up with, “Who would?” I think I know who’s behind all of this and it’s not Wilkinson or anyone at Triton… What do you think?
We cut back over to LaSalle and Leila, who are working together to trace the missing money. Turns out LaSalle’s father wasn’t stealing the money and hiding it in a secret bank account, he was using it to take care of his employees. He did embezzle the money, but he was using it to pay medical bills and doing other good deeds. The money is still being sent out via the bank account in Grand Cayman.
Leila thinks that they can get the money back from some employees. LaSalle says they weren’t just employees, they were family. Per Pride, the IRS isn’t going to accept that excuse.
Back at HQ, my suspicions have been confirmed. Eddie Dao went behind his parent’s backs trying to sell the processing plant. When they refused, he tried to get power of attorney, so he could move forward with the sale. He failed, which is why the processing plant is still owned by his family. Why does Eddie want to sell the plant? Especially when his family wants to keep it. Is it all about money?
Sebastian alerts Khoury and Gregorio that Amy Trang is missing. They think she’s going after Triton. Khoury meets her at the docks. Amy has a gun in her hand. She wants to avenge Aaron’s death by killing Eddie.
Amy points the gun at Khoury. Khoury remains calm and urges Amy not to screw up the rest of her life.
Amy is in tears. She lets the gun fall to her side and says that word on the docks was that Aaron was with Eddie when he died. She knows that Eddie was responsible for Aaron’s death.
Back at the processing plant, Amy goes undercover. She wears a camera and microphone. She confronts Eddie. She tells him that she knows that he’s been poisoning the shrimp at the processing plant and that he was with Aaron the night he was murdered.
Eddie admits that Aaron questioned him about the sabotage a.k.a. poisoning. Eddie says that Aaron confronted him on the boat. Eddie says that he wanted to sell the plant, so they could adapt to the changing times. He wanted to invest the money into the community, so they could survive. He says they fought and that Aaron hit his head on the side of the boat and fell overboard. Amy lets it slip that Eddie was already dead when his body was loaded on to the boat. Eddie realizes that Amy must have talked to the police, there’s no other way she could know that information. He attacks her and tries to drown her in a sink.
The team rushes in. They save Amy and arrest Eddie.
Sitting in the back of an ambulance, Khoury tells Amy that she was very brave. She gives Amy her card and says, “If you need any advice, call me.”
LaSalle and Pride head back to the IRS. LaSalle tells the IRS officer that they money his dad took is gone for good. He admits that LaSalle Enterprises doesn’t have the money necessary to cover the first payment. Pride and LaSalle have something up their sleeve, but what?
Leila and LaSalle sit on a bench at her son’s private school. Leila says that her son will miss the school. LaSalle tells her that her son isn’t going anywhere, “He’s staying.” She says they can’t. It isn’t legal.
LaSalle says that it’s fine, because he’s going to liquidate the company. Leila points out that the money was his inheritance. He says that he doesn’t want it. They money belonged to his father and the employees a.k.a. his family. Oh, LaSalle! Could your heart be any bigger? What about his brother’s care? Hopefully there’s money set aside to take care of him.
Leila tells LaSalle that his father was, “So proud of you.” Aw, LaSalle!
The scene ends with Leila inviting LaSalle over for supper with her and Conner, her son. At first he turns her down, but she wins him over with brisket and fresh pecan pie. The grins on their faces are telling. Could Leila be LaSalle’s new love interest?
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My Thoughts:
I love that LeVar Burton directed this episode! He did a great job as did the writers. They really painted a perfect picture that Triton and Wilkinson were to blame, but in reality it was a member of the community.
I’m so relieved that LaSalle’s worries with the I.R.S. are over. It’s a shame that he had to liquidate the company, but it’s not like he had time to run it. I also love that it looks like he’s getting a new potential love interest. LaSalle deserves some love right now!
Hannah Khoury continues to do a great job. She is likeably and relatable to many of the victims. Think about how easy her transition has been compared to Gregorio’s. Yikes. Remember that rough time? My only issue is the same one from the very beginning of this season. The team is moving on without Pride, even though he has still been in every case, like it’s no big deal. That just isn’t believable to me. What do you think?
What were your thoughts on this episode of NCIS: New Orleans? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts! Be sure to leave a comment below!
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