Week 11: Random on Purpose

Random on Purpose (Originally aired November 2009)

Tonight's episode we get another guest from NCIS!  Abby!

A man is killed in his home with the killer leaving no traces of DNA or prints there.  The only way we know they are there is it being filmed by the Nanny Cam in a teddy bear.

This weeks show starts off with Callen looking confused....

This is one of my favorite scenes of this show.  The look on Callen’s face and him just saying “Don’t know” makes me laugh every time.  It also makes you wonder how long he had been there before Sam and Kensi got there.I also love the look on Callen's face when he KNOWS that Hetty is there beside him.

Hetty: “Continue Mr. Callen Continue."

Callen: “With the authority”  

NICE SAVE!

Hetty explains that she's tired of the office looking like a fraternity lounge and they are welcome to have one or two personal items.  All of their "stuff" is now put away safely in trash bags (most of it's Kensi's). Now on to work! Chief Petty Officer Frank McEllon one of the Navy's top Engineers was murdered the night before. They are looking at murder and possible espionage.

Callen and Sam go to the house and wonder how an enlisted man could have a house that nice.  He signed up after 9/11. The room that McEllon was found in was the Nursery.  Sam calls Eric to look at the security cam that the house behind them has.  Kensi points out that the window sill was dusted for prints but they're aren't any.  The person who killed McEllon came in and out of that window.  There aren't any prints fibers or hairs. Sam picks up the teddy bear on the diaper changer and we find out that it's a Nanny Cam...and it was on!

Sam talks to Dom. Callen talks to Eric. They try to tell each other what the other one said and we have Kensi flipping a coin to find out who talks first.

Back at the office Sam likes the new arrangement.  Callen not that much.  Eric whistles for the guys to come up stairs.

So Abby thinks that the person who killed McEllon is the one that she has been blogging about.  She calls him "The Phantom".  There have been fourteen murders in two years with no forensic evidence.  None of the same type of murders that The Phantom has done are repeated.  She has tried to get the local police where the murders have been done to help out but they will not.  Eric shows her that they have a clue.  The man casing out the house three days before the murder.

Callen talks to Hetty about why she pressured Vance to send Abby to help with the case and he's a little fuzzy about the chain of command because of some of the meddling going on at the office. (In other words Callen doesn't like change).  She assures him that she is the operations manager and he is the head agent on the case.  "You still shoot the ducks, I just row the boat"

They look at the Nanny cam footage and we see that the killer is wearing a bodysuit.  He takes the evidence with him.  Abby and the gang go to the house. Dom found emails from the future ex-wife threatening to kill him.  The suit that The Phantom was wearing had the fabric like the dust cloths that have a static charge.  Sam and Callen go talk to McEllon's lawyer. She tells him that he was a nice guy and she told him to fight. She's a widow not an ex.  They get her address and go talk to her. They find her with the guy who was checking out the house three days before.  They follow him and he runs (why do they run?!).  They catch him and take him to the boat shed for questioning.

Kensi goes to talk to Magda McEllon while Dom videos her.  She is shocked and surprised to the news that her husband was killed the night before.  Callen is interviewing Cyrus Hill who ran because he thought they were going to steal something from him not because he has two arrest warrants out on him.  His name is really Ted Brock.  He says that he was with Magda McEllon the night before.  She tells Kensi she was with her child Lilly.  Cyrus/Ted says that he took her out and she got a babysitter for the the baby.  Out of anger she told Cyrus/Ted about the Patents.  He found out that there was ten grand in bonds at the house.  He saw the camera and left.  He was in Brentwood with a lady friend.  Off to jail he goes!

Abby emails the company and has to stay overnight.  Eric asks her out and they go to a bar called Steampunk. Flagstaff PD calls them and tells them that they did find boot patterns same size as the ones in McEllon's house. But why McEllon. All the other murders where in small towns but this one is in LA and NCIS is also involved so what does that get them? It gets them ABBY!  They call up Eric who just got refills on drinks while Abby went out to look at the hotrod cars in the parking lot.  She is drugged and taken away in a van.

Hetty and Nate talk to Director Vance.  The parking lot had no cameras or witnesses.  Vance tells them that Gibbs and the gang are on their way to LA. Good news is he didn't kill her, bad news is she doesn't have much time. Sam and Callen go to Steampunk to ask the bartender if he had seen her.  Bartender tells Sam that he's not talking to anyone without a warrant.  Callen goes with Plan B: Unplugs the music and asks for help finding Abby.  Sam sees that the waitress looking uncomfortable.  Sam puts on the puppy-dog eyes and asks for her help. She tells Sam that a man paid her a hundred dollars to text him if Abby showed up.

Mike287 was on Abby's blog.  He works at the law office that McEllon used.  They also got hazmat suits two years ago. Abby wakes up in a room and knows that The Phantom is Mike 287.  There is video camera set above.  He monologs about how he won't make the same mistakes again thanks to her. How he will get away with her murder, the door is booby-trapped to explode if opened.  She claims that her noise itches and she bites his finger and now he has her teeth marks on his finger.

Kensi and Callen go to the law office as a couple who want a divorce.

(Again thanks to my partner in crime for this video)

Sam goes in and gets the video of the names of the people on the cell phones. Mike smith is mike287 and has been out for two days.  Eric finds live video of Abby.  They go to the office next door and they find Mike Smith dead in the basement.

The real Mike Smith has been dead about two-three days.  Kensi sends video of the person posing as Mike Smith.  It's the Receptionist who is also Smith's nephew.  His Uncle owns about a dozen places around the area.   Time is running out for Abby.  Eric sees that Abby is using sign language finger spelling.  "Construction noise" is the first part of the message.  They go to one of the building about to open the door when Sam sees a wire to the door.  Eric then gets the second part which is "doors booby trapped."  


They go to the roof :

(Again thanks to my partner in crime for this video)

In the day or so that Abby was there she solved fifteen murders.  Abby goes upstairs to talk to Gibbs via video conference.  Callen takes Hetty aside and tells her that with the new arrangement the team is getting a half a days work done in thirty minutes time. "You row pretty good"

Music:

• Spaces In Between By Collide
• Chaotic By Collide
• Go!(Club Mix) By Tones on Tail
  

Did You Notice?:

• Abby calls Director Vance Leon?
• Sam wears Red...A lot.

Next Weeks Episode: Brimstone

Preview for Random on Purpose

Week 10: Ambush

Ambush (originally aired  November 18, 2009)


Hetty goes to Washington leaving the kids at home alone...big mistake.


Man walking around beach area looking very paranoid. Sees someone hiding. Goes into an aquarium that is under construction and hears someone come in.  He tries to hide, but instead gets strangled and left for dead.

Sam has written an operations report. They discuss positive and negative enforcement.....

And we wonder why they get along so well.


Mike Renko makes an appearance in this episode....

Hetty tells them about the man who was killed in the aquarium. He's a marine reservist and Renko's informant to get information on ELE (Enhancing Law Enforcement). They are even more dangerous with six dragon missiles now.


Director Vance talks to Hetty. She knows that something is up because she's getting the special treatment and makes a remark about leaving the kids alone. Director Vance asks "how much trouble can they get in 8 hours?" Really?!? Have you met the kids? He assures her that this is not a witch hunt which she reminds him that's what she told Macy before she went in front of a committee and look where she is now.

Kensi, Callen, and Sam go to the aquarium where MacKaye was killed. Callen sees someone putting a para sail and asks Sam if a Dragon Missile could fit in a Sail bag. Eric goes over the video with Sam and Callen and see that they check the car but don't check the sail bag on the roof of the car. Kensi is at Riley's apartment and goes to check the sail bag on his car. Riley attacks her from behind and Kensi kicks his ass. Just as he tries to use the knife on her, Renko steps on his wrist. Makes a remark about starting without him and how he rescued her (yeah right).


Kensi questions him at the boatshed. Nate asks if she should be in the room with Riley alone. Renko remarks that the guy may be bigger and stronger but Kensi is meaner. She comes out and knows that he killed MacKay but they all agree that he is not a leader but a follower. Kensi and Renko take Riley, who gets put in the back of the truck.  There is Callen as a prisoner and Sam as an MP.


So in order to get this guy to think that Callen has the same views, he starts talking about how he's a patriot. Him and Sam argue about their views of the military and Callen tries to get Riley on his side. Riley wants nothing to do with it. Callen is trying to get this guy's trust and proceeds to tell the following BAD JOKES

Callen: "How many MPs does it take to screw in a light bulb? 50.  One to screw it in and 49 to stand guard."
I agree with Nate “That is the worst joke I ever heard.”

The one joke that does work is this: "Why don't MP's take showers before they go into battle? Because they're just going to wash up on the shore anyways."  That one gets a reaction out of Riley.

Momma Hetty calls home to check on the kids...

Dom finds that on the map is a list of potential targets on Riley's computer all are immigration processing centers.

A Truck comes up beside the armored truck and gets Callen ‘rescued'. Callen 'shoots' Sam and goes to escape. Riley wants to go with him and says that he has friends who have the same views that he has. Callen agrees to take him and they drive away. Kensi and Renko get Sam and they follow them.


Callen drives up to a gate in the woods and he starts to complain about how he doesn't want to go camping. They pull up and they get shot at. Riley goes out to talk to the shooter who is a kid named Jay. Callen says “You got to be kidding me. I’m being shot by a Jonas brother and I think I’m going the rest of the family." Riley and Jay get in the truck. This is when Callen and this kid start the "At least" game:

• Callen: At least where I come from they have bathrooms, and TV and Fun!
• Jay: At least where I come from we know when to shut our mouth.
• Callen: At least I don't have an Appalachian goatee.
• Jay: At least I can grow one.

Eric shows Nate a file about an agent Sullivan that Hetty personally recruited him ten years ago and was killed by an militia group. They look at his file and Sullivan was a lot like Callen. Hetty interrupts the meeting where Director Vance is in to talk to him.  He assures her that Callen is not Sullivan and everything will be alright.



Kensi Sam and Renko pull up to the entry to where the group is. Kensi sees that Callen's earwig on the ground he's worried about being searched. Callen, Jay and Riley pull up and he meets Malcolm and Bordinay. Renko Sam and Kensi in the woods sees the dragon missiles in the cabin. Bordinay is not thrilled with Riley bringing an outsider to the group. Kensi calls Dom tells him they need backup now. Bordinay kills Riley and Sam kills Bordinay before he shoots Callen he then tells Renko and Kensi not to shoot unless it is necessary. Callen takes Jay as a hostage claims he has no idea who is in the woods just wants the keys to the truck and he’s gone. Malcolm tells him to go ahead and shoot the kid he’s willing to die for the cause. Jay's facial expression says otherwise.


Nate gets on the phone to get director Vance and says that maybe Hetty's right. Eric replies with "Yes Hetty is always right!" DUH!


Sam then has an idea....

Callen wakes up and Sam tells him what is going on. Callen wants the gun and the hostage back (I would too). Director Vance pulls Hetty out of the meeting and lets her know what was going on.  Tells her that they have Callen and Sam and the LA office is doing everything they can to get them out. Renko asks Kensi how her Morse code is. While Callen is trying to get himself free of the handcuffs with a bobby-pin he had been carrying since the nineties and Sam sees a red laser flashing on Callen's forehead.  He gets Sam free and Sam responds with the reflection off of his watch.

Hetty calls Eric says “Please don’t yell” (LOL Eric I would be saying the same thing.) They tell her what Sam says about "Maskelyne" and she knows what he is talking about.  Basically they give the ELE the illusion that there are more people than what there is. Kensi and Renko move Nate, Eric and Dom get on the frequency and act like they are the ATF, Hetty talks to the Secretary of the Air Force and asks for a small favor.

ELE gets on the frequency and hears the 'ATF' talking. Callen wants to make a run for it. Jay comes in and Callen tells him that "you should be playing guitar hero and being with your friends or picking up chicks on the beach. Not camping out with a bunch of the Hills Have Eyes psychos . Jay comes running out and tells Malcolm that he saw ATF people coming in. F-22's go overhead freaking everyone out. Malcolm gets in a truck and drives away (big surprise)
Sam and Callen go after Malcolm. Knowing that he is not going to stop and probably hit them they shoot at him and the truck crashes.  

Callen tells Jay that he talked to the agent in charge and who spoke to attorney general and they said that he could go home for now. They do the "At least" game one last time with Jay telling him "At least I finally woke up and saved your behind."

Vance tells Hetty that the F-22's were a nice touch. She tells him that he knew that if Hetty went to SECAF that he would do it for her. They talk about Agent Sullivan and he tells her that she saved two agents today and she should be proud.

Next weeks episode “Random on Purpose”

Preview for Ambush

Week 9: Pushback

This weeks Episode is "Pushback" (Originally Aired November 10, 2009)

This episode solves the mystery on why Callen was shot almost six months ago.

     We start off with a couple on a boat being watched by someone in an apartment.  The person doing the surveillance is listening to music and doesn't know that someone comes in gun drawn.  As they try to light the cigarette they are shot in the back of the head.  The man with the gun calls the man on the boat and lets him know that it is done.  The man on the boat leaves (still not seeing his face)  and the shooter finds video equipment and deletes the pictures on the laptop.  Pictures that are deleted are of the man on the boat and of Callen.

      
     Sam is making tea for Hetty.  Callen mentions that it smells moldy.  Hetty asks Callen if he wants some.  He says he's fine with what he has and Hetty replies “and you can’t taste the paper?” the look on his face is hysterical.  Sam tries the tea and tells her that it is delicious (but his face says otherwise).  Hetty then tells Callen that Director Vance is on the phone for him, walks away and the phone rings. Callen asks Sam “how does she do that?” (HELLO it’s Hetty!) and Sam tells him that was the worst tea he ever had in his life.  Hetty tries it and says “oh! Moldy” and pouts.
 
      Director Vance tells Callen that a woman was killed and had a flash drive hidden in her ball cap.  Had pictures and files and LAPD called him because when identifying the people in the pictures Callen’s name came up. LAPD lets them take care of it and the team looks at the pictures.  They are taken at his old apartment about four days before he was shot.  They then look at the crime scene pictures and he looks at the woman’s face. Guess who it is?

Remember the Russian girl?

  

     The oldest photos on the flash drive are eight days old the most recent are from the day before.  Nate walks in to find out what is going on.  He goes to Hetty to see if there is something more about Callen's in the personal file about his shooting he’s hoping that it can help heal old wounds. Sam, Callen, and Kensi go to the apartment where the “Russian girl” was shot.  Sam and Callen go “old married couple” to the point where when Callen leaves Kensi says to Sam “How long have you two been married?” THANK YOU KENSI!!! They go in and see that what she had was "fold and carry" meaning easy to pack up and get out.  She was not a professional because her back was facing the door.  The apartment manager claims he had no idea she was there but how did she get in? Kensi poses as a person who just needs a place to crash....

   

   
     So the manager then SUDDENLY remembers after he finds out that they are NCIS that he did let the Russian girl stay there and didn’t delete the security footage.  They find the person who shot her walking in and leaving covering his face knowing that the security camera was there.  Dom tells them that she backed up everything on the server.  Callen notices a name on the screen they open the “Cossack” file a mission that he was on about ten years ago in  Europe against the Russian mafia.  A three man team Ethan Stanhope with the CIA, Ricky Taylor and Callen both worked with the DEA.  Eric looks them up and sees that Stanhope and Taylor are both dead.  Murdered on May 5th the same day that Callen was shot and should have died.

     Eric has the traffic cam footage of both Stanhope and Taylor’s shootings.  Stanhope’s was in Las Vegas and Taylor’s was in Chicago and were also drive by shootings like Callen's.  No one had been charged for the murders.   The three of them were on a  joint operation with Russia where there was a syndicate trying to manipulate the flow of oil from the Black Sea into Europe and someone let them know that they were coming. Taylor and Callen were out from the DEA because they both spoke Russian.  CIA set it up and Stanhope was their point person but they only saw him at a bar eating caviar and drinking expensive vodka. They never did find out who betrayed them.  The Russian contact was an Arkady officer in the KGB, which Eric looks him up to see that Arkady is now living in LA.
 
     Kensi works with Nate to see what Arkady has been doing   Hetty has met Arkady and Nate read about him in Callen’s file.  90% of the information about Arkady is redacted.  Hetty is able to let them see an uncensored copy of his file.  Arkady is a security consultant now. Callen and Sam go to talk to Arkady.  Eric calls and tells them that Arkady has a very high level security system that even he cannot break but he’s on the road to go to a local market place.  Callen sees him gets out of the car with bodyguards. Callen goes with Plan B.  Leaving Sam to do his "Plan B" which I think is one of the funniest scenes in this episode.
  

  (Special Thanks to my partner in crime for helping me out for this footage! writing about it would not give this scene justice.)

     The one bodyguard that took Arkady gets him to the car and there is Callen with his gun out. Arkady tells the guard that it’s okay and that he knows Callen.  Says that he knows that Callen probably thinks that he is responsible for the deaths and him being shot and tells him that he is not.  Tells Callen that he sent someone to warn him and the others that they were in danger. Callen asks who it was he sent and he tells him a Russian girl.  He didn’t tell Callen himself because he know that he didn’t trust him after what happened ten years ago. Callen asks why he would think he would believe some Russian girl and Arkady tells him that he knew her. She was at one of the foster homes Callen was in as a kid the girls name was Alina.

     Callen told Arkady about Alina when he asked him about how he knew how to speak Russian Callen told him from a little girl named Alina Rostoff.   He called in a favor and got the address where she was living and knew that if Alina talked to him that he would know her.  She was going to greet him by saying “My big brother” in Russian.

     He remembers that she tried once but he scared her away.  The second time was just before he was shot.  Next week the mafia will be signing a billion dollar contact with an American oilman named John Cole.  Cole maybe part of the syndicate or the syndicate and they didn’t want the members of the team to be around when the deal was signed. He had Alina find out everything that she could about Cole.  She found him on the yacht and he set up surveillance and helped her because she wanted to avenge Callen.  She found out where Cole was and one day later she was dead.  Arkady gives Callen a flash drive with everything about John Cole.

     Hetty sees that Nate is worried about Callen.  His file is only a page with no family history or next of kin.  He tells Hetty that he could put in a physiological assessment to the director telling him the reasons why he didn't want Callen on the case but he doesn’t want to lose the trust of everyone on the team.  She tells him that this could be okay and could be clues to his life. If she is wrong then Nate gets to tell her that he told her so, Director Vance gets to rip her a new one, and Callen does what he always does which is survive.
 
     The man on the yacht is John Cole. He is the owner of an oil refinery company which he bought seven years ago.  The friend/bodyguard (who killed Alina) is Max Tyrus.  Eric cannot find anything on Cole so he looks into Max Tyrus.  Pulls up the phone records and the last call was to a jet charter company.  Callen calls them up posing as Tyrus to confirm the details.  It’s a one way trip that leaves in four hours.
 
     Callen and Kensi go in as EPA inspectors for a surprise visit and Sam as back up. Nate has the opportunity to tell Callen that he shouldn’t be on the case but doesn’t.  Max Tyrus tells them that the EPA has already been there and tries to make them go away.  Cole comes over to see what is going on and sees Callen and says “They said you were dead.” Callen replies with "They said the same thing about you” John Cole is Ethan Stanhope.
 
     Callen mentions that he actually thought Arkady did it because he was the only one left alive.  Stanhope tells him that he was going to try again next week.  It was all about the oil the deal is set for next week and he was going public. If anyone who was on that operation was alive it would be embarrassing and costly.  Stanhope asks how many hits he took Callen tells him five. 
They go chasing after them.  Max is shot by Kensi and falls off the catwalk and is dead.  Callen continues chasing after Stanhope Sam blocks off his way, Callen gets him and Stanhope is arrested.
 
    Nate and Hetty talk about Callen's time in foster care.  From the time Callen was five to the age of eighteen he was in thirty-seven foster homes.  Some for a couple of weeks some for just a few days.  The longest time he spent in a home was three months and that was with Alina’s family.  The parents have died and Alina still had the house. Hetty finds Callen making tea, and he tells her that he was tasting the paper.  She hands him an envelope that has a picture of Alina and him when he stayed there and the address of where they lived.  He goes over there and has memories of the time he stayed there.

Nitpicks:  Okay I saw this picture when I started working on this on this back in May.  This was on the set of "Legend"

   

   

   

Now while watching this episode about a month ago I had to go back to this picture because of this:

  

Stanhope: How many bullets did you take?
Callen: Five. Thanks for asking.

Five?  Are you sure?

My Count is SEVEN!

Music:

Normal Man by Duff Dugan

Next Weeks Episode is Ambush

Preview for Pushback

Week 8

Hello!  No Rewatch this week!  On vacation with family (sadly not at the beach!)  But will be back next week.