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typingtess · 2 years

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NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Rewatch: “Genesis”

The basics: The disappearance of an ONI Officer has the team running up against Iranian intelligence agents. Callen continues to dig into his past.

Written by: Andrew Bartels wrote or co-wrote "Allegiance", "Zero Days", "The Grey Man", "Humbug", "Fighting Shadows", "Driving Miss Diaz", "Angels & Daemons", "Where There’s Smoke…", "Glasnost", "Old Tricks" "Battle Scars", "Fool Me Twice", "Warrior of Peace", "Reentry", "The Prince", "Smokescreen", "The One That Got Away"/"No More Secrets" two-parter, "Yellow Jacket", "Missing Time", "If the Fates Allow", "Red Rover, Red Rover" and "Divided We Fall".

Directed by: John P. Kousakis directed "Imposters", "Sacrifice", "San Voir" part one, "The Fifth Man", "Parley", "Inelegant Heart", "Chernoff, K.", "Active Measures", "The Long Goodbye", "Talion", "Glasnost", "Unleashed", "Party Crashers", "This Is What We Do" (episode 200), "Goodbye Vietnam", "Ninguna Salida", "The Guardian", "High Society", "A Tale of Two Igors", "Under the Influence", all of the Afghanistan scenes from "Iron Curtain Rising" to "Zero Days" in season five and all of Kensi’s injury/recovery storyline scenes from "The Queen’s Gambit" to "Sirens" in season eight.

Guest stars of note: Peter Cambor returns “MWD” as Nate Getz, Bar Paly returns from “All The Little Things” as Anna Kolchek. Both Duncan Campbell as Agent Castor and Beckett Gunderson as Young Callen are back from “Pandora’s Box”, Ashwin Gore is back from “Divided We Fall” as Akhil Ali and Milissa Sears returns from “Lost Soldier Down” as Leah Novak. Jere Burns as Arnold Baines, Layla Alizada as Dr. Roxana Jarrahi and Andrei Dolezal as Young Baines.

Our heroes: Try to find an ONI Officer while Callen mucks around some more in his past.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen: More flashbacks tie him to Katya’s trainer. Sam: Knows the SAC for the FBI in the Middle East. Kensi: Wants to do the right thing by Pilar. Deeks: Visiting the Refugee Relocation Center before talking to an immigration lawyer pal. Fatima: Fatima Khadem. Rountree: Working Ops today. Kilbride: Got a sexy call from Callen.

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen: Moving. Sam: Jogging on the beach with Kensi. Kensi: Calling Rosa. Deeks: Gave Rosa’s phone number to Kensi. Fatima: Ghosting boyfriends. Rountree: Danny Tanner-like with his dating advice. Kilbride: Using the firing range to wash the sexy Callen call from his brain.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Nobody knows but Callen has a question or two.

Who's down with OTP: Not a lot of Deeks around but he gave Kensi Rosa’s phone number. Happy wife, happy life. Like the Ali pining for Fatima.

Who's down with BrOTP: The Callen and Nate show was interesting.

Fashion review: Callen is wearing a dark shirt watching the Katya video. The following day, it is the green and blue plaid button down. Sam is jogging in a black hoodie over a white undershirt. Later he’s in a black long-sleeve heavy tee-shirt. Kensi is jogging in an off-white fleece jacket over a medium blue tee. Later in the day, she’s wearing a white henley. Fatima starts the episode working out in a red sweatshirt. Working in Ops, she’s wearing a blue and white striped shirt under a dark blue jacket. Deeks is wearing a pale purple hoodie. In the field, Fatima is wearing a concert tee-shirt under a brown sweater. Rountree is in a black sleeveless muscle tee-shirt working out. He’s wearing a brown sweater with a green jacket later in the episode.

Music: No tunes today except for a clip of a song by Googoosh.

Any notable cut scene: Two:

As Fatima changes in the relocated wardrobe dressing room, Ali fills in Fatima about Dr. Jarrahi’s work. She is working on changing mosquitos so she can help stop the spread of malaria. Her detractors think she is trying to eliminate an entire species of insects. Fatima said growing up in LA, there were no mosquitos, now the city is full of them. Ali thinks they can bond over a shared dislike for the bugs. Fatima snarks that she will then casually turn the conversation to the officer’s disappearance. This goes into the scene where Fatima models her tee-shirt for Ali, who is a bit surprised she did that. He thinks she looks cool but he doesn’t spend a lot of time with undergrads. Fatima is relieved he does not.

From the episode, at the beach, Callen is trying to explain what he did to Leah. Nate is shocked – Leah was a subject just like he was. Callen brings up her work at Homeland Security and her redacted personnel file. If she didn’t want to be found, Callen thinks his approach was better. Nate mocks Callen’s alias. Greg is the English version of Grisha.

Cut from the episode is Nate getting back on topic, asking if Callen ever learned why Leah’s file was redacted. He didn’t. Leah isn’t with Homeland anymore, she’s freelancing as a negotiator for companies dealing with ransomware issues. Her background is likely classified cyberwarfare.

Nate asks if Leah spoke about the Drona project. Callen says he and Leah had dinner a few times, he tried to ask about her past but she didn’t want to give him much. Then Callen had to cut it off. He wasn’t interested in going any further. It wouldn’t be ethical to sleep with her, especially since he’s with Anna. Nate asks about Anna, Callen says she’s good.

Quote: Kilbride: “I believe that this whole thing is Looney Tunes. If you had told me a year ago that I would be dealing with mischievous digital facsimiles of my agents trying to seduce me with prank phone calls, I'd have moved to a yurt in Mongolia, never to be heard from again, but, apparently, this is the idiotic world we have chosen to live in.”

This may be the finest rant ever uttered on this or any other program in the last year.

Anything else: Setting up the old-school projector, Callen is once again watching the Noble Maidens ganging up on one of their own. The Russian instructor can be heard saying “Seventeen”. Suddenly, the young woman is not standing up, it is young Callen. Callen has a flashback to being tested by as a child. The man is saying “finish the job” in a similar tone as the man speaking to the Noble Maidens. Anna wakes Callen up. They need to finish packing.

Asking if she recognizes the voice, Anna does not. But she is pretty sure that is Katya in the video. Anna tells Callen she was not treated that way at the Institute. Anna almost feels sorry for Katya – “Almost.” She asks if Callen ever figured out what “Pembroke” meant. Callen has a list of a few Pembrokes, including a breed of corgis, but he thinks it is the name of the instructor. They need to finish packing – there are movers coming the next day. Callen is going to watch the film one more time.

In the gym, Fatima is working the heavy bag and discussing her dating life with Rountree. He thinks she “ghosted” the guy she’s currently dating. Hasn’t spoken to him in three weeks. She tells him ghosting happens after four. After saying a little prayer, Fatima wants to know what she is doing wrong. She meets these nice guys and after a few dates, she’s out. “It’s me, isn’t it.” Rountree thinks she has trust issues. With the quality of people NCIS deals with on a regular basis, why wouldn’t Fatima have trust issues.

Rountree mentions the deep fakes boyfriend and Fatima quickly corrects him. They met once. Though Rountree thinks there was a connection, Fatima tells him it wasn’t real – she was being played. “But it felt real.” Rountree feels it messed with her head and her heart. Fatima thinks Rountree is well on his way to being a great dad like Danny Tanner. Rountree finds her real problem – “you’re a jerk.” The two laugh.

On the beach, Sam is jogging with Kensi. Kensi is talking about Pilar, who learned how to speak English by watching horror movies. Now she’s making her own movies at 14 with her phone. Rosa asked Kensi and Deeks to watch over Pilar and Kensi doesn’t want to let her down. Deeks is going to meet with the Refugee Resettlement Office before talking to a friend who is an immigration lawyer. They’re going to find out how hard it is going to be for Pilar to stay. Kensi remembers not having a safe home to go to – she wants more for Pilar. Sam knows Pilar will be fine with Kensi and Deeks watching her back, “just like Rosa was.”

Wrapping up a call, Anna tells Callen she’s going to stay with Arkady for a while. Callen reminds Anna they just signed a lease for a place by the marina. He asks if she is breaking up with him. She is not – she loves him. The last few months have been hard and since the film reel showed up, Callen is obsessed. Callen thinks the key to finding Katya is in the video – surely Anna understands that. She does but she is tired of Katya defining their relationship. They’ll take a step back, just for a little while. Callen’s phone rings – it’s the Admiral. Anna tells Callen to go, they’ll talk later. An unhappy Callen answers the phone.

In Ops, the Admiral reintroduces Fatima and Rountree to ONI Officer Akhil Ali. Rountree asks what are they being investigated for now. Nothing – Ali has been promoted to running ONI’s LA field office. His biggest area of responsibility is running the collectors – he trains Naval Intelligence Officers to meet and collect foreign assets who provide intelligence information. Ali seems impressed Fatima knows his job. Kilbride explains one of the officers has gone missing and NCIS is there to help find her. When the Admiral leaves, Ali asks Fatima for access to the system. She’s going to get him set up.

Marching down the hall, the Admiral calls to an arriving Callen to go to the fishbowl office, “now.” Kilbride has a voicemail from Callen and his desire to see the Admiral in a “sexy little sailor suit.” Callen denies making the phone call. The Admiral asks if Callen thinks he’d still be alive if he did. Vance and hundreds of other federal officials got similar calls. There were also inappropriate social media posts. Callen looks sick – NCIS CYBER was supposed to be protecting him. They were but Katya has bot accounts that are amplifying whatever she sends out. Callen thinks it all goes back to the film reel and how Katya probably wants him sidelined.

Taking a seat, the Admiral tells Callens that the deep fakes were mostly a nuisance. They are the product of a psychopathic troll. But this escalation is interfering with Callen’s ability to do his job. Callen tries to interrupt the Admiral but Kilbride plows on about Callen not being able to represent the agency. Callen asks if Kilbride really believes that. He believes the entire set-up is “Looney Tunes.” Vance is not only worried about the trouble Katya has already caused but the trouble she is looking to cause. He has asked Kilbride to remove Callen from the field until the deep fakes stop. “What if they don’t stop?” The Admiral does not have an answer.

With Sam and Kensi in the boatshed, Ali, Fatima and Rountree review the case. The missing ONI Officer is Maria Varza. She’s been a collector for six years and has cultivated a relationship with Dr. Roxana Jarrahi. Jarrahi is one of the top genetics in the world, working at The Curie Institute and MIT. Varza was working on Jarrahi, whose research is funded by groups with ties to the Iranian military. ONI wanted to see if Jarrahi’s work would lead to a genetic weapon – something that could target specific sections of DNA. An inert virus could be released that would only hurt people with a specific genetic sequence or a family or a whole race of people.

Varza was just getting friendly with Jarrahi. A planned dinner the prior night is where Varza was going to make her official offer. Ali was hoping Fatima could get access to the restaurant’s security cameras. Varza was supposed to call in this morning but didn’t. Ali tried to call Varza with no luck. He drove to her home to find the door unlocked and no Varza. Kensi wants to know if Jarrahi's relationship with the Iranian military is deeper than just funding. Jarrahi may have been collected – just not by the US.

In the firing range, a shooting Callen is joined by Nate. Nate asks how Callen is doing, he’s fine. Callen doesn’t want to talk about Katya, he wants to stop her. So does Nate, who drew up a profile on Katya. Callen’s already read profiles on Katya by both the FBI and CIA – she’s a sadist driven by revenge. Nate disagrees – she’d driven by obsession. When only plays out, like Anna, another pops up – Callen. If they could identify a new obsession, they could draw her out. Callen thinks about an old obsession he thinks he found, though Nate may think it’s crazy. Nate is not a fan of the word crazy.

Checking out Varza’s house, the place is not a mess. Kensi finds her keys right away so if she was taken, they didn’t bother to lock up the house before going. Sam thinks she may have run. Kensi asks about Callen, who says he’s fine. Sam doesn’t believe Callen. There is no computer or cell phone in the house. Rountree in Ops can’t trace the phone – it’s shut off. With only external security cameras, Varza’s car is seen pulling into her garage but the system was turned off at 2:14AM. Sam wonders if Varza took her system offline and is selling secrets. No witnesses, no cellphone, no computer – they don’t have much. Looking at Varza’s car, they have one set of computers.

An unhappy Nate just finished watching the Katya video. Nate asks Callen if he’s sure he’s heard that voice before as a child in Hetty’s version of the Institute. The KGB man was also involved in the CIA project. Callen believes that Katya was looking for the man in the video when she was stationed in the US as a spy. The film reel was her only lead. “You think I’m crazy,” Callen says to Nate, who doesn’t like the word. He switches to delusional. Nate explains that Callen could be seeing similarities in his and Katya’s upbringing. That would make the instructor sound the same. But it isn’t impossible for the instructor was KGB – the CIA took a lot from the Russians, including the Drona project from the Institute of Noble Maidens. Callen stops Nate – how does he know that the Drona program is based on a Russian program. “Admiral Kilbride told me.” That’s news to Callen. Nate is surprised the Admiral kept that secret but Callen brings up breaking into a sealed archive and how he was almost fired for that. “Since I’m half way out the door,” Callen wants to explore what the Admiral knows.

Wearing a concert tee-shirt under a brown jacket, Fatima asks Ali how she looks. He says she looks cool but he doesn’t hang around much with college coeds. Fatma would hope not. Usually, Jarrahi has lunch at the university cafeteria at 12:30PM but she’s fasting for Ramadan, as is Fatima and Ali. Ali tells Fatima is he also going to the mosque. She’s glad to hear it. Ali asked if she had plans for Eid but Fatima say she usually does something with her family.

Watching what’s going on, Rountree waits a beat before updating Fatima and Ali on Varza’s credit cards and bank accounts – nothing there to indicate she was up to something. Looking into the Varza’s car’s computer, the trunk was opened and closed at 8:16 PM around when she left the restaurant. It was opened again six-minutes before the security system was taken offline. Varza was kidnapped. They didn’t break in, they were hiding in the trunk of her car.

As the Admiral is about to go into the gun range to purge the memory of Callen’s voicemail, Callen confronts Kilbride about the Russian connection. The Admiral is not happy with Nate who broke confidentially. Nate pushes back – no patient-doctor confidentially between them. The Admiral brings up the idea of classified material but Nate pushes back again. He’s there to help Callen. Callen explains his theory about Katya looking for someone from the Drona project. The Admiral thinks Callen sounds crazy, causing Nate to flinch. Callen asks and the Admiral confirms that the Drona project was based on the Institute of Noble Maidens. The name Pembroke means nothing to the Admiral. Callen storms off.

The Admiral goes off on Nate, who instead of pulling Callen out of a rabbit hole is pushing him down deeper. Knowing Callen for years, with or without him, Nate knows Callen will see this through.

On campus, a casually dressed Ali is wearing headphones and pretend working on a computer. Fatima passes him as she approaches Jarrahi. Introducing herself as Fatima Khadem, Fatima sits down to speak to Jarrahi. Fatima is so happy to meet another Iranian scientist. Explaining that she’s graduating in a few weeks, Fatima is waitlisted for the graduate program in bio-chemistry. Jarrahi can do nothing to help Fatima with that. Ali tells Fatima that Jarrahi is a workaholic, focus on her research. Speaking glowingly of Jarrahi’s work, Fatima asks what is holding it up. “Fear.” Saying she has a lot of work to do, Jarrahi dismisses Fatima.

Ali tries to move to plan be – wealthy parents who will fund her research. Fatima pulls out her phone and starts to put in her earbuds. Googoosh, a popular Iranian singer starts playing so Jarrahi can hear. Fatima blames the Bluetooth sync. Jarrahi is a fan. Fatima has tickets to see Googoosh at the Hollywood Bowl that summer, as does Jarrahi. Fatima isn’t surprised – “Pretty sure half of Tehrangeles will be there.” Fatima has a favorite song – “Gharibe Ashena” – and hopes Googoosh sings it at the concert. “Oh, she has to. If she doesn’t, the crowd will revolt.” Fatima will lead the revolt. Jarrahi starts chatting with Fatima.

Showing Nate the files he has of the other subjects, Callen admits he hasn’t ID’d many of them. The ones he has, most are dead. Two died in action, two died by suicide. The only one alive is Leah. Nate asks if Callen has spoken to her – he has. Did she recognized the voice, Nate asks. Callen has some explaining to do.

At his desk, Deeks has his laptop opened when Kensi arrives. He’s catching up on the Varza case – “where’s Sam?” Sam is at the university as back-up. He dropped Kensi off at the office. Kensi asks about the Pilar. There is a lot for Deeks to go through. He doesn’t miss being a lawyer. Pilar’s parents were murdered by a gang and the gang threatened Pilar too. Kensi is upset for Pilar. The good news is that Pilar has a strong case for asylum. Kensi and Deeks need to find someone who Pilar can talk too about what happened. If she can be comfortable explaining what happened, it will help her case. Kensi thinks of Nate or someone who Nate could suggest. Nate sounds like a good idea to Deeks.

Rountree joins Kensi and Deeks with security cam footage from the restaurant. Varza and Jarrahi enter around 8PM. Two men are just behind them. One of the men leaves around the time Varza’s trunk was opened. The second man stayed inside to watch Varza and Jarrahi. Varza left about 8:38PM as did Jarrahi, but they did not leave together. The two men are not coming up in a facial rec search.

Nate is surprised Callen tried to trick Leah. He explains that with her redacted file, he wondered if she was hiding something. Pulling up to her home, Callen explains why he broke it off with Leah before going “oh” in recognition. Callen knocks on Leah’s door – “we need to talk.” In her backyard, Callen is playing the audio for the Noble Maiden instructor. Leah went to a special school because she had ADD. She’s stunned this is why Callen lied to her. Nate tries to cover for Callen – as an agent, it is hard for Callen to trust people. As someone who works in cyberspace, Leah doesn’t need to be told the world is full of liars. She asks them to leave. Callen asks if Pembroke means anything to her. Leah tells him to go to hell.

While Fatima and Jarrahi area walking and talking about science, Sam joins Ali who is following the women. There are no IDs from ONI on the two men who tailed Varza and Jarrahi into the restaurant. They are likely Iranian intelligence agents with non-official covers. This makes finding Varza harder.

Through comms, Sam tells Fatima to push Jarrahi harder. Talking about Jarrahi being new to LA, Jarrahi says she works all the time. She hasn’t even seen the ocean in her five months in LA. Fatima talks about the number of Iranian ex-pats in LA and Ali knows Jarrahi is lying about not knowing any. Varza’s cover was as a pharmaceutical businesswoman from Tehran. Fatima tries to weave Varza’s cover into the conversation but that tips off Jarrahi, who storms off.

The two men who grabbed Varza are now following Fatima. Sam has Ali follow Jarrahi and tells him to approach her after she’s clear of the men. As Fatima is getting into her car, the two men approach. She asks if she could help them. They order Fatima to come with them. Sam arrives saying he’d like the same thing. When he says “Federal Agents”, the men run. Sam follows one who is nearly hit by a truck. He and Sam fight. Sam wins. As Fatima chases the other man, Ali holds up his ID and tells the man to stop. He gets run over for his trouble. The man trips and Fatima keeps him on the ground. While handcuffing the second man, Fatima asks Ali about Jarrahi. She’s with campus security. Ali has a busted up nose for trying to help.

In the main part of the boat shed, Jarrahi tells Fatima and Ali that she cut dinner short because Varza said she was ONI. Varza wanting Jarrahi to spy for ONI was “the most ridiculous thing I ever heard.” She would have laughed if she wasn’t so angry. Ali says she takes money from the Iranian military, a military that is interested in genetic weapons. She claims that she does not do business with the military – any military. She’d like to help find Varza but she can’t. Jarrahi would like to leave but since they don’t know the names of the two men in interrogation right now who were following Jarrahi, it may not be safe. Besides, they are still looking for Varza.

Over comms, the Admiral has an update. As Ali brings Varza to the upstairs interrogation room, Kilbride heard from the FBI. The two men in interrogation with Sam are Iranian intelligence agents who will likely die before talking.

Back on the beach, Nate wants to look at the Drona files – maybe he can help figure out who some of the subjects were. While Nate knows Callen feels he’s back at square one, Nate believes Callen is making progress. Callen drops the bomb that Anna moved out. Nate is sorry. Callen wonders if he is ruining his life more than Katya is. Nate talks about Katya’s obsession with Callen feeding Callen’s obsession with Katya. If he stops obsessing on Katya will she do the same. Nate says no because she’s…. struggling to find the word he goes with crazy – “pure, unfiltered, bat poop crazy town.”

Callen gets a call from Leah. A few years ago, she reconnected with one of her foster moms. The woman gave Leah some personal belongings including a special ed enrollment form with an address in Cypress Park. She texted a photo of the document to Callen.

Since the two men aren’t talking, Sam wants to backtrack their movements. Kensi, Deeks and Rountree pop up on the plasma. Deeks has an idea he thinks is solid gold, Kensi is worried he’s overselling it. One of Jarrahi’s biggest funders is an Iranian-American businessman, Reza Shaheen. One of the Iranian Intelligence Agents called Shaheen that morning. Since Shaheen is out of the country, why call? According to Rountree, Shaheen is closing his LA businesses but he still has one property – a warehouse in Hawthorne. Kensi and Deeks will meet Sam at the warehouse.

At the address Leah sent, Callen and Nate are looking around. There is a sign “Plants for Sale”. Going to the back of the house, there is a man tending a number of bonsai trees – trees he’s shaped into what they are today. That’s not creepy at all. Callen stops – he recognizes the voice. The man faces Callen – he is an older gentleman. Callen remembers him as a younger man.

The man introduces himself as Arnold Baines. Callen is too stunned to talk. Nate tries to fill in, asking about a plant to buy but admitting he doesn’t know much about plants. Baines says most people don’t. If it was up to Baines, he’d teach kids about flowers in grade school. Give them a lily, let them nurture it and then take it away so the kids can watch it wither and die. Yeah, not creepy at all. Nate thinks it is a little intense for elementary school kids. Explaining that kids are tougher than people think, the children will learn the true way to respect life.

Suddenly chatty Callen asks if that is why Baines works on bonsai trees – there are comparisons to foot bonding. Baines disagrees – bonsai does not stunt growth, it encourages it. Baines even corrects the way Callen says bonsai – “it’s Japanese. It’s a beautiful language.” Baines spoke it years ago but is out of practice. Callen tries some Russian but Baines plays dumb. Callen pushes because it is obvious Baines speaks Russian. Offering Nate a snake plant – one of the hardiest houseplants out there. Doesn’t need a lot of water or light, just time.

Returning to the armory, Sam, Kensi and Deeks did not find Varza. Sam knows the SAC in the FBI’s Middle East office, he can get Shaheen picked up – it isn’t over. The Admiral disagrees. LAPD found Varza an hour ago. She was in a state of delirium about a mile from her house. The State Department orders NCIS to release the Iranian intelligence officers for the greater good – “or so they claim.” Nobody wants to ruffle feathers. The case is closed for now. Shaheen is on their radar however.

In the boat shed, Fatima apologizes to Jarrahi. Jarrahi is sorry the world doesn’t see her research for the good she wants to do. Castor walks her out. Ali arrives. Varza had benzodiazepine in her system – it is a drug used to extract information during interrogations. Since it is almost sundown, Fatima asks Ali to break the fast. He offers her three dates to break to the fast. She jokes about one date and then see how things go. It takes him a second to catch on. The dates got a little smushed when it was tackled.

In the bullpen, Deeks gives Kensi the phone number for Rosa’s aunt. Kensi calls immediately. She and Rosa chat while a happy Deeks watches his happy wife.

Callen is watching the video again when Nate arrives. He’s sure it is Arnold Baines in the video. Checking out the house where Baines lives and is growing his plants, it was purchased in 1986 from a behavioral psychiatrist named Howard Pembrook. The only a slight spelling difference. Pembrook died in 1986 on record. But Arnold Baines is Pembrook. Callen is 100% sure, Nate wants to look at it tomorrow with fresh eyes.

Later that night, Callen starts looking around Baines’s house. All the plants are gone. Anna calls to apologize. She wants to move in with Callen, she doesn’t want to take a step back. Callen promises his obsession is over. Lying to her that he’s finishing up at work, he’ll be home soon. Callen looks at a security camera on the house. Baines sees Callen and says “Seventeen”.

What head canon can be formed from here: I remain so done with the Callen childhood nonsense but am intrigued by Jere Burns being involved. Burns is a quality character actor who has been terrific in any number of programs. He was the head of the Dixie Mafia in Justified. If he returns, I may be interested but otherwise, nothing new here. Nothing at all.

I’m sort of into the Ali-Fatima ship. Hope she hops aboard soon.

Episode number: This is episode 17 of season 13, episode 297.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la

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loftec · 2 years

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So, I started re-reading NTW for warmth in the cold winter and I’m in the chapter where Stran is introduced. When I first read it my brain automatically cast Layla Alizada in the role, and I almost thought you’d done that on purpose as a kind of wink to real life. My brain hasn’t cast anyone else yet. I know you’ve said you’re picturing Rahul Kohli as Etch, but do you have any of the other OC’s pictured in your head? Hope your finding some warmth this winter too.

Hello friend!

I love this question, and here’s the thing… I started answering it the same day you sent it in, spent like a good couple of hours writing and finding reference images and really considering what I wanted to say… and then I like… did a thing with my Wacom pen, just a little normal thing, and it deleted 99% of what I’d written. Serves me right for trying to type text directly into a function on Tumblr.

Anyway. It’s been months now and I’m sorry, but I still love this question. Here we go.

(Also, please enjoy this first paragraph aka the 1% I managed to salvage from my previous attempt:)

What a wonderful question, thank you! I think it's so interesting to find out about where people go to cast characters… I think I tend to not describe characters' looks a whole lot, on purpose, largely because I think that's the fun of reading, of being able to build your own mental image of someone.

I do however often have someone as a reference point when I start building a character… a little bit of how they look, but I think it's more to do with the spirit of the person. I also have a bad habit of then naming the character after person who inspired them which, I don't know, is maybe tangentially creepy?? We'll see.

Let's go!

Stran. That's a very interesting casting! You know, it's never crossed my mind, but I like it. I feel the weirdest about my own reference for this OC because I named her after a person I almost became friends with ten years ago? Whom I still follow on socials? And we still talk occasionally? And when I wrote NTW she released her first single and I was like, 'well, she'll be world famous within the year' (because seriously, she's one of those people, she's amazing) so at the time I guess I was like 'this is no weirder than any of my other OC:s named after real people'… but then she put the music career on the back-burner and now I named my OC after a would-be friend who technically isn't a public person but who also can be found online with minimal googling aargh I don't know, it's weird, it's a little weird! But when I wanted to write an OC that was funny, goofy, stunning, and utterly convincing at everything she does, I thought of Stran and here we are. (Not to make it even more weird but the last 30 seconds of this video make a lot of strong points.)

Etch. Erdetch is named after a random guy who rang in to place an order at my old job when I worked customer service. I stand by Rahul-as-Ravi as a good starting point, but I might have thought of an even better reference since. How about: a less buff Marwan Kenzari (specifically as Yusuf al-Kaysani in The Old Guard).

Etch is kind of tall and kind of lanky and kind of soft-looking all at once, with the kindest smile and something a little bit cheeky in his eyes. Maybe he's somewhere in the Venn diagram of Marwan Kenzari, Rahul Kohli and Hasan Minhaj, looks-wise? But I also named him Kraish after Mousa Kraish (I don't remember why!!) even though they don't really look alike at all beyond the beard and hair. I followed Mousa Kraish on Twitter for the short stretch of time I was on there, maybe he gave off an Etch-y vibe?

Ruth. The Professor! I don't necessarily have one point of reference for Ruth, she's named after Linda Ruth Williams (because I borrowed bits of her career and the whole Professor thing from her). I imagine she looks a bit like… a taller Tessa Claire Hersh?

Sonya. I based Sonya visually on Sonya Tayeh, so I named her Sonya, but I don't think I've described a single thing of what Sonya looks like so I don't know how necessary it is for me to have a visual reference for her lol. But that's how I imagine her, anyhow! Sonya Tayeh but a part time diner cook, part time fiber artist.

Anne. I'd just been to a concert with Kimberly Anne at the time, so Anne was roughly based on her general vibes! But I've had a few different reference points for her since then, among others the incredibly awesome Amythyst Kiah. and I imagine her as a singer to be something between the two, with a pinch of Shilpa Ray. We haven't really met her yet, but the vague sketch I have of Anne's girlfriend looks a bit like Jamie Clayton.

Jon. I had a lot of disparate references for Jon at the start, and I'm still a bit unsure about him. I look forward to writing more of him so he can become more solid in my mind, and not just the backstory I've got now. Funnily enough, Jonathan Braylock isn't a half bad reference for how I imagine Jon to look, but I don't think they have a lot in common in terms of personality… Still, he's probably a more helpful visual reference than what I had before (Danny Brown with a laundry list of caveats).

Edna. I don't know if I've ever even had a reference for Edna? I have a very clear image of her in my head but she wasn't named after anyone. I'm trying to think of a woman in her sixties who looks right and it's not easy for obvious reasons… more women in their sixties for the people! (Edit: Maybe Penelope Wilton a little bit actually..?)

Did I forget an OC? Did you have a different image of them? Let me know!

#yesnosorry #I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS ASK FOR MONTHS #context clues tells me it's been almost half a year #but it feels like a couple of weeks #what has happened to time??#it's not what it used to be

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