Roundtable Discussion Part One: How Has Deeks Fared Thus Far?

Team wikiDeeks came together for our first Roundtable Discussion this year to take a collective look back at the first half of season five and how it has affected Deeks in particular. Our contributors had a lot to say about their favorite Detective and enjoyed talking about this very Deeks-centric season.  Diane:  We are half way through the season… so what are your thoughts on how Deeks has fared so far? Karen P:  In terms of Deeks relationship with the team, there have been a few times where his spot on the team has been in real jeopardy, he’s thinking about resigning and Hetty is on the verge of kicking him off but overall he’s really cemented himself on the team like never before. Part of that is what he did to save Sam and Michelle but part of that is also Kensi going away and Deeks having a chance to work with everybody else and you can see all the male bonding that has been happening like in "Allegiance" which is really fun to watch. So I think he has made huge progress this year. I actually can almost see myself seeing him belong there and maybe he will make that big decision where he will become an agent. Lindy:  I really like this season so far. The opening episode was so dynamic and amazingly well done I was kind of surprise at how well done it was but I shouldn’t have been I suspect. They brought him along and made it so interesting having him deal with something he hadn’t dealt with before like torture and being unsure about whether he even wanted to stay in law enforcement. They didn’t talk about it so much after that but I thought it was really interesting that he said to Sam that he was thinking of getting out of law enforcement and that surprised me. I think it wasn’t until Callen challenged him in that episode, I think it was "Omni," where he said I don’t want you here until you’re ready. I think it wasn’t until he challenged him that Deeks knew he wanted to do this. He knew it would be hard but he wanted to do it. I think that was important to him to realize because before that he was unsure. The other thing that is remarkable about the first half of the season was the change between him and Sam. I still wonder if that is still kind of causing a little bit of friction between him and Callen. I know we talked about Callen being a little bit jealous… I don’t know if that is true but I’m still kind of looking forward to seeing an episode where Callen and Deeks interact a little bit more get to work together. I like the fact that they are putting him together with other characters and I think it’s a great way to make him feel more part of the team. I’m just enjoying it. I know some people are upset that they didn’t go more into the PTSD part of it but that can still be dealt with in future episodes. But they handled it quite well because I think if they had brought him too deep and too down it would have become sad and they wouldn’t be able to have him and Kensi make a connection there. I think the timing of Daniela’s pregnancy put that part in motion and made them deal with it quickly and get it over with but it can come back later. Mel and I have talked about PTSD and it doesn’t just happen one way with every person. I thought that the quality of the episodes so far, except for one, has been terrific. I think the one with the 15 year old girl was a disaster but overall I’ve really enjoyed watching. Gayle:  I was really a little hesitant when they said they were going to bring PTSD in for Deeks as a sort of theme this season and how it was sort of change that character which didn’t turn out to be true at all. Eric was completely brilliant in that holistic range of emotions and in particularly in Impact to just go through that whole range of depression, and fear and anxiety with anger here and there and frustration. You just got the sense of how lost he was even though it was so out of character and had the potential to really change who Deeks is as a character, it took him to such a different level for Deeks being a character and Eric as an actor that really people didn’t expect out of either, at least for me the view was breath taking. The PTSD, everybody knows you don’t automatically get cured from this. It’s something you have to learn to live with and for a realistic advancement for this, I really hope that there is some point in the future that something happens and it triggers this back. It is much more and comprehensive telling of this issue with this character.

Diane:  He does seem at this point to be back to his normal self and you know that there has got to be something else brewing underneath.

Gayle:  Absolutely and I’m sure there are things that we didn’t necessarily see and that’s the brilliance of this show that there is so many things that go unspoken. You saw how he was acting out with the walking work station and the motorcycle and those were all clear covers for what was going on inside.

Lindy:  I think they should have let him keep the motorcycle, come on!

Karen S:  I have a feeling the motorcycle will come back because of the pictures that we saw! The other things that I picked up is when he was talking to Kensi at Christmas time and said I’m strong, moderately strong. He knows he’s still dealing with stuff and I also get a kick out of watching him mess with his team members because in “Allegiance,” they were all talking about hawala and he puts this smile on his face and says ‘oh koalas’… he knows what it is but he is just like screwing with them and I think it’s hilarious!

Diane:  If we took the whole Densi component out of the season so far, what would the first 12 episodes be about? We are not dealing with Callen or Sam so far this season… so is this the season of Deeks?

Lindy:  They have that story line of the guys they captured in “Omni” and you got the impression they may resurrect it at a later date and you had the whole Callen story on the 100^th episode. This show is really Callen’s story so I don’t think it’s going to be all Deeks’ oriented the rest of the season. I just think something else is going to happen. They could bring Janvier out of prison or bring those Omni guys back but who knows.

Mel:  I think one of the things that maybe this season is about is the team, the team as a whole. Without Kensi there, it’s given them this great opportunity for them to invest Deeks in other partnerships and it’s creating somewhat of a challenge between Callen and Sam because they are thinking about Deeks in a different way. I’m really getting to enjoy watching Deeks with other team members because before it was always Kensi interacting with Deeks most of the time and this is giving the rest of the team a way to interact with him more and hopefully appreciate what he brings to the table in terms of his undercover skills and maybe his sense of humor. They haven’t had a strong thread that they have been pursuing throughout the whole season so far. I think the team is the character so far and how the team is changing throughout the season.

Karen P:  I totally agree with Mel. I think before this season everyone looked at Deeks as Kensi’s partner and Kensi has to deal with him and we don’t have to interact with him all that much. Now, the looser structure of not having her there and having other people together and working together is making the team so much stronger and it’s been really fun to watch. I enjoyed the structured relationships that they have. There are three sets of partners and maybe Hetty and Granger if you want to count a fourth one but splitting that up this year has been a fun thing to see.

Diane:  Karen P. and I were talking about how Deeks likes strong women. But I think it was interesting that when he was paired up with Nell he was a little hesitant and not sure about working with her.

Mel:  I don’t think he gets Nell. I think Nell confuses him a little and I think it was great how she kind of pushed back or teased him in return during “Merry Evasion.” I think it was a tad different for him to be with somebody else and whenever you are working with someone in an intense atmosphere where you can be killed any day… well it’s hard… It’s hard enough to work with someone and also have to figure out how they think and how they function. Nell is a totally different, analytical type and she so different in many ways.

Lindy:  Maybe he didn’t trust her either because he didn’t know her… so I think there was a little lack of trust on his part. It seemed realistic.

Karen P:  I personally think that Nell still needs to prove herself. When she was holding her gun on that bad guy, well she’s just so tiny and we haven’t seen her kick any butt yet. We’re going to. . . but until I see that she is able to have his back… I’m still a little worried about her being out in the field.

Gayle:  There is no way that Deeks was going to think that Nell was going to have his back in this shoot out. He knew he was going to have to take the lead but when you are in this physical confrontation he might have also been a little scared that compared to Nell he was going to look a little dumb and how she has this sense about her that when she has the knowledge or facts and analysis that she’s going to be on top of it and in that way he is going to take a back seat to her. So now what feels natural in the field is completely unsettling.

Lindy:  Is she not a strong enough woman for him or is it more of an intellectual thing?

Gayle:  It’s two ends of the same spectrum in that she is not strong enough in the field and is too strong when she is in her own setting and in control of facts and knowledge. She may be ready for the field but we just haven’t seen it yet.

Karen S:  The only inkling that we got that she was ready for the field was when she acted defensively and they killed that guy in “Kill House.” The visual of those two being out on the field together was just so comical because he is just so tall and she is so short.

Gayle:  We have seen her with a gun which is one thing… but we have never seen her in a physical confrontation and there have been some behind the scene things that have hinted that that might be coming… and I’m really interested in seeing what Renee brings to that.

Diane:  What about Sam and Deeks? Has it gone over the top a bit, or just right in terms of how they are interacting now or leveling out?

Karen P:  For me it’s been wonderful to see. I think Sam’s been true to his words in the hospital when he told Deeks he would be grateful to him for the rest of his life for what he has done… and not mistake him for being weak again. I thought in “Omni” there was some sincerity behind that and I would like to believe that meant a lot to Deeks and I think that Sam has been very consistently supportive through the whole season and finally in “Allegiance” when they did their undercover work together, they got back to their more comical dynamic and I don’t know how LL Cool J kept a straight face when Deeks was doing his Sven and Sam’s lines for me were the highlight of that scene.

Gayle:  I had to go back and rewatch it because I think Sam was reacting in a such a different way because in the past Sam wouldn’t wanted to have anything to do with going undercover with him in that way and would have really ripped him when they got back to Mission about how over the top he was… and it felt that Sam just had to respect him and say I know that this is what he is going to do, and it’s what he is good at and it’s going to get us to what we need to do so I’m just going to go with it.

Karen S:  You know that in the past the team would do things and several times Sam would say “Don’t screw it up, Deeks” and he’s not done that this season and he trusts him now more than he has in the past and I think that’s a nice thing to see.

Diane:  We talked about how Callen may be a little jealous this season of Sam and Deeks’ new relationship but we haven’t talked anything about Hetty. She seems to have gone back and forth with her feelings towards Deeks and the Kensi and Deeks relationship. What do you think?

Lindy:  The one thing I thing I didn’t like in “Impact” was when Hetty understood what Sam was going through but with Deeks she wasn’t as kind and that bothered me. I think they’ve mitigated it slightly now but in that episode she wasn’t very sympathetic and that bothered me because I love Hetty and the reason I even started watching the show in the first place because of Linda Hunt and I was surprised at how hard they made her in “Impact.” She told Nate she didn’t want him back if he wasn’t the same person. There was no ‘let’s help him get back to the same person’ and it was all very hard.  I don’t know if that’s the direction the show wants to go… to show how tough she really is because maybe they have made her into this sweet, kind, little lady and she’s not a sweet, kind, little lady!

Diane:  But she has gone back and forth in her feelings too, like when she got the cell phone for them to have so sometimes I don’t know what side she’s on.

Karen S:  The thing we don’t know yet and maybe we will find out why they did this but you will remember Hetty and Granger discussing the White Ghost and she offered her teams help but he said he was handling it himself and then all of a sudden she sends Kensi and we don’t know why they made that decision… they kind of make you believe it was because of what happen between Kensi and Deeks but then she turns around to give them the cell phone to talk to one another… it’s kind of confusing and clear up why they didn’t to send Kensi over there… it’s not like she’s the only sniper on the planet.

Lindy:  I think Hetty sent Kensi over there because she wanted someone to watch what was going on. Kensi is her own little spy in all of this. I think she wanted her own person over there. She did have all the right skills but she also wanted someone of her own that she could talk to and that’s why she gave them the phones… she thinks there is a mole, a traitor involved and that’s why she is there. It’s not just to break up Kensi and Deeks… I don’t think she would do just that.

Gayle:  I remember back to the scene when Hetty and Granger were looking back at the file and there was discussion on who and what this White Ghost might be and it’s interesting because while I agree that Hetty wants to know what’s going on I felt the phone was also her way of trying to protect Kensi if she got in trouble and she needed some more help and that her team was still there to back them up and of course that also starts to make people consider that there is going to be potentially, most likely be some sort of known personally connection or knowledge between Kensi and the person she is now hunting.

Come back next week for the second part of our Roundtable discussion where our team shares their views on how season five is treating Kensi and Deeks and what will happen to the star-crossed lovers as we go into the second part of the season!