Hetty sure has a lot of secrets, doesn't she?

It's interesting how time and time again the NCIS: Los Angeles team will take unusual or questionable assignments from Hetty without requiring a complete explanation. They may push her for some information, but when she blocks their attempts, they go ahead and investigate anyway. They view her secrecy more as an annoyance than something to be concerned about and that's troubling.

In "Raven & the Swans," Hetty wanted the team to look into the attack of a unidentified woman in a parking garage. On the face, there was no reason to believe the case was related to the military or even national security, but they looked into it regardless.

Callen and Sam's suspicions got the better of them and they found both Hetty and the mystery woman having tea in the boathouse. Oops! Or as Hetty said, "Aww, bugger!" The woman was NCIS Agent Grace Stevens. She had been recruited to NCIS in a similar manner as Callen, Sullivan, Paris, and Hunter by Hetty. Grace was working undercover as the live-in girlfriend of criminal Nolan Vandenburg and he tried to have her killed.

Hetty's secrecy about Grace didn't make much sense. If Hetty was concerned about her recruit, why wouldn't she want the team to help find her, rather than just investigate the men? There wasn't any reason not to trust them with the information and it was inevitable that they would find out. It came across as an unnecessary and poor plot device to create conflict with Callen.

If Hetty told them about Grace, Callen still would have gotten upset with her, since his anger was more jealousy than anything. He thought he was special to Hetty and over the years he has found out that he was just one of a few. And, now one of a lot. Hetty used orphans as her personal recruiting pipeline by replicating the Soviet program of Ravens and Swans. Her confession explains a lot about her recruits.

Now that her recruiting past is out in the open, will more of the former orphans be revealed? Since Hetty used them as a surrogate family, it would be interesting to see if they all ended up single and alone as she is. So far, Hetty's recruits that we have seen all proved to be excellent agents and dedicated to their jobs to the detriment of their personal lives.

In NCIS:LA season 4, Sam's home life has become a focal point with his wife's involvement with Sidorov. And, then with Sam's kids mentioned over the last two episodes with Kensi and Deeks babysitting and then Callen agreeing to dress up for his daughter's birthday party. While he has been able to have a somewhat normal home life, the rest of the team has had trouble in the love and family department.

Initially, I thought the kids were mentioned to foreshadow troubles that they will be facing due to the Sidorov thing, but now I'm wondering it has something to do with the rest of the team craving a personal and family life themselves. Is Callen capable of having a life like Sam's? Or, is he destined to be alone like Hetty? What about Deeks and Kensi? It's definitely not easy in their line of work.

Odds and Ends

• Callen as Professor Lupin! Why is it we never get to actually see this stuff?
• "Touching Wood" - no words.
• Deeks and Kensi going over the threshold was hilarious. Even better ... Deeks throwing Kensi on the bed not once, but twice! And, then her putting him in a headlock with her legs. Kensi rocks! Even though, it was Deeks that was in the band.
• Eric should never go undercover. He can't fake an expression to save his life or do a hand-off.
• Nell was awesome as the maid. She covered well, even though she didn't put the briefcase back in the right place. I love seeing her in the field.
• The fight between Hetty and Callen was intense and a long time coming. It's a shame that he's not as special as he thought he was, especially given his troubled childhood.
• Only better than their fight was Hetty laying out the truth for Callen. 
• Callen: You would have made a great mother, Hetty.
  Hetty: I like to think I have. | permalink

Carla Day is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter and on Google+.