Is it safe to assume that the much-loved character of Hetty (Linda Hunt) on NCIS: Los Angeles will not be eliminated, especially behind the scenes? Yes. Should we continue to be concerned about the potential outcomes of her mission in Syria? Yes. Having said that, the debut episode of Season 14 did its best to leave us wondering about the first question.
Kilbride (Gerald McRaney) invites Callen (Chris O’Donnell) into his office for a video call with Commander Neal (Jennifer Marshall). Commander Neal’s squad was conducting joint reconnaissance work with the Syrian democratic forces when they came across an abandoned school that was being used as a shared safe house. Callen is asked to ask Commander Neal about the school.
There were indications of an ambush, as well as human remains that had been completely destroyed by the fire. Trudy Chambers, an American citizen, was found dead with identification documents on one of the bodies. When Callen hears that, he becomes very still. He notes that the Trudy they are familiar with is a petite woman, and he wants to know if the remains match that. It is true. Trudy is known to be one of Hetty’s aliases, but they can do nothing more but wait for dental and DNA confirmation for a positive ID at this point.
Callen inquires with Kilbride concerning Keane, played by Jeff Kober, who was in Syria with Hetty, but there has been no trace of him. In the event that she was ambushed while in the safe home, this indicates that someone betrayed her.
Even if it turns out that the remains aren’t hers, she’s still in a dangerous situation. Callen is reminded by Kilbride that Hetty was in danger the moment she returned home: there is no such thing as a safe house in Syria, “but then again, this is Hetty we’re talking about. She is as vicious as a farm cat, despite the fact that she has more lives than a barn cat.
After that, they are unable to do anything but wait for news. While they wait for a response from Kilbride, Callen and the rest of the squad work together to solve a case. They don’t find out until the very last few seconds of the episode. When Callen arrives into Kilbride’s office, Kilbride immediately offers him a drink. Callen responds by asking if he’ll need it. Kilbride tells him, “The longer you stay in this business, definitely, but not because of Hetty, not now.” “The longer you stay in this business,”
The skeletal remains belonged to a little girl, but it’s strange because she had one of Hetty’s identification cards on her when she passed away. Kilbride believes that Hetty staged it because, in the absence of forensic evidence, it would persuade whoever discovered the body that she had passed away. Callen interprets this as evidence that she’s in a precarious situation, but Kilbride reminds him that she was in a precarious situation the moment she returned.
Callen wants permission to go look for her, but just like Kilbride isn’t getting what he wants (the knees he had when he was 30), that isn’t happening yet. Callen wants permission to go look for her.
He informs Callen that things would be different if they had intelligence that could be acted upon. Hetty will have to fend for herself till then. Kilbride points out that they just had a foreign terrorist attack in their backyard, so there’s no way he’s going to let Callen go halfway around the world to search for his surrogate mother. Callen is willing to use the leave he’s saved up, but Kilbride points out that they just had a foreign terrorist attack in their backyard.
After Callen proposed to Anna (Bar Paly) in the penultimate episode of Season 13, the happy couple has decided to tie the knot and start a family together. Now, if only they could decide where to have their wedding. Anna’s thoughts are halfway between going to City Hall and achieving her father Arkady’s (Vyto Ruginis) goal of recreating Doctor Zhivago with everyone riding horses and real snow, as Callen relates to Fatima (Medalion Rahimi).