Review: NCISLA “Kolcheck, A.” (S6E23)
Don’t get me wrong, if we have to have a recurring guest star on this show, Arkady would definitely be my choice. In fact, I would love to see him become a regular cast member working with the team. But how does Arkady get a backstory before Deeks does as in “Kolcheck, A.”?! Trying to be patient with hopes of a more revealing Season 7 for Deeks, but in the meantime we may have to make due with finding out more about Callen and his elusive father. Nice to see Joey Wilson’s name on this week’s script again and a return of James Hanlon to the director’s chair. We have dead crew members from Arkady’s missing oil tanker turning up now and the team sets out to find out more regarding his connection to the ship and the deal he made with his home country, Russia.
Well, it’s not a Joey Wilson episode without a little boom in it, is it? This time he’s outdone himself! An entire tanker in the harbor rigged to explode. We always knew there was a connection to Arkady and Callen, and the discovery of the pictures of Callen’s father goes even further to confirm it. But it turns out this is also a story about sons and daughters and a formidable villain. Arkady pleads for help to rescue his kidnapped daughter, Anna… Karposev is about to become a worldwide threat with the sale of the tanker oil… and Callen is still in search of his father. It was a worthy lead-in to the season’s last show. We know NCIS:LA always works best when we can take one theme and string it out over the course of a few episodes. For me it’s a lot more satisfying to be able to tell a story in more detail. It’s those little details that make the show a lot more interesting. So let’s see what Karimoto can do with the finale cliffhanger. Looks like we’re off to Russia, folks!
Memorable Moments
• Who knew Eric was such an entrepreneur… with Deeks’ money?
• “You got it honest.” Sam is impressed with Callen’s dad.
• Some of the best Callen and Sam banter has been with Arkady and you can always expect a few grins and giggles with these guys. (Callen: Going to war, Arkady?)
• Eric always makes me smile too when he gets to show off his investigative and surveillance skills to the team. Granger is not impressed.
• Finally a new bad guy we can sink our teeth into… Ivan Karposev is going to give our team a run for the money!
• I see Callen still has no furniture in his house. What’s wrong with this guy? His trips down memory lane still get to me though.
• Callen and Hetty talks are so few and far between. I love it when these two get to connect.
Deeks’ Moments
• Can someone tell me why the show always seems to start off with some problem Deeks is having that week? Not that I’m complaining but since he is the only one that seems to have a much more interesting life than the others, why not a backstory? I know… I’m not going to let it drop! There’s got to be a reason why he is such a soft touch when it comes to lending money to people?
• Don’t drop that soap! LOL! Enough said.
Densi Moments
• I just love how Densi strolls into the Mission together. Of course they could be just commuting in together, but somehow I doubt it.
• Since their ‘all in’ moment, the Densi banter seems a bit different to me. Kensi smiles now when Deeks says something stupid when before she just use to scowl. Ah, true love!
• Speaking of which… Deeks is so sweet when he calls Kensi his ladybird. I wonder who came up with that endearment, ECO or the writers?
• So are Kensi and Deeks pro-wrestling fans? Deeks really did enjoy making that jump off the fence!
Deeks: Listen why don’t you go and distract the guard with your cleavage. (Love, LOVE the look Deeks gives Kensi!) I’m going to use the defibrillator to wake him up.
Kensi: What if it doesn’t work?
Deeks: What are you talking about? Your cleavage always works!
This season just flew by for me, I can’t believe there is only one more show left to this season. Come back this week for Deeks’ Surf Log and Kensi’s Journal and please don’t forget to enter our drawing to win an autographed picture of Eric Christian Olsen for our Pets of the Homeless campaign. Only one week left to donate to this wonderful charity and be entered to win our photo of Eric! Enter now!!! See you back here next week for our final review of the season!
Episode: “Kolcheck, A.”
Writer: Joseph Wilson
Director: James Hanlon
Original Air Date: May 11, 2015
Diane Volpe is a Contributing Editor at wikiDeeks.com.
Follow her on Twitter: @phillydi
wikiDeeks | Marty Deeks | NCISLA 
Well writen review, thank you!
I kind of really liked the episode, I am really glad that Deeks is not the clown anymore, he is a lot more serious, and I like the little Densi moments, like he puts his hand on her shoulder when they walked in after the car crash. I think they have to wrap up Callens storyline before they can focus on Deeks complicated background.
So I am really looking forward to S7
dont want the summer to be over but looking forward to the Hiatus to be over.
LikeLike
I’m still (unsuccessfully, of course), trying to figure out why they would have thrown Field of Fire into the middle of this Beacon/Kolcheck/Chernoff three-parter. It makes no sense to me, especially since FoF was a big miss in terms of content and intrigue.
I really really love Arkady. He’s hilarious and definitely my favorite secondary character (not that we have a lot to choose from). I thought it was funny that Callen was trying to convince Sam to admit that he likes Arkady when just two eps ago, Callen was trying to play it off like they weren’t friends.
I have to admit that I didn’t have a lot of high expectations going into this ep, mostly due to the fact that FoF took a lot of wind out of my sails as a viewer and I’m still a little bitter that we’re looking at another Callen-centric arc. That said, I’m liking what we’ve seen so far between the Beacon and Kolcheck episodes. This is the kind of story LA seems to be lacking on – not necessarily the content, but the interconnected episodes and secondary characters.
I try not to always compare it to the mothership (okay, no I don’t, I can’t help it) but it’s something NCIS does so well with tying multiple episodes together (even ones that aren’t back to back) with season-long bad guys, stories, etc (Ari, Harper Dearing, Elan Bodnar, etc) and I really wish we saw more of that on LA, so for that reason alone, I’ve enjoyed this Arkady arc more than I thought I would.
Onto Deeks/Densi stuff…
– I was pretty surprised to find out that Eric is the one mooching money off Deeks! It hindsight, I’m glad it isn’t some unnamed, unknown, “best friend” that we didn’t know he had (like Kip, or Kensi with her FIVE best friends). It would appear that even Kensi doesn’t know it’s Eric otherwise I imagine she would have either called Deeks out for it or she’d probably go bother Eric herself!
– I love the shift we’ve seen in how Densi banters, and especially Kensi’s reactions to Deeks. Like you said, Di, she is much more likely to smirk/smile/laugh along with him when he makes comments about things like her cleavage (which was quite funny. His face when she mouthed “really??” to him was gold).
– I loved the (numerous) times Deeks had to “save” her/have her back this week. It really hammered home how well they could work together even with their personal relationship being what it is. If anything, I imagine on some level it makes them MORE aware of keeping each other safe. I’ve been so nervous that the writers had some cruel plan to show us how it wasn’t going to work (maybe I’m still suffering from Frozen Lake flashbacks) and I’ve been SO pleased to see that they are actually doing the opposite. I hope that doesn’t change.
– Even though we basically only saw professional-Densi this week, they were fantastic and their interactions were great. Joey Wilson seems to have a good grip on all of the characters and their mannerisms, behaviors, etc were spot on this week.
Overall, I think I was pleasantly surprised with this ep and I have every intention of rewatching Beacon and Kolcheck next Monday night before the finale airs. Just to get in the end-of-season mindset and to pretend FoF didn’t exist.
LikeLike
This eoisode was just hillarious. I love Arkady. He is my favorite reccuring character like I’ve said before.
I think that FoF should’ve been the 21st ep instead of 22nd. I loved the plot and I think we’ll havean epic season finale. Still excited from the good news that two of my fav shows are renewed (NCISLA and Criminal Minds).
I loved Densi banter. Kensi is more relaxed when she is with Deeks now, than she was before.
She even smiles more often on his jokes and comments.
I love Arkady/Callen friendship, those guys are like the old days hehe.
I wish that Callen will find out more about his father. No one should live without knowing about his family.
Russia wait for us in the next episode.
Action Deeks is one hell of a good view. He saved Kensi and her back few times this ep. “Love is in the air, everywhere I look around.”
When Deeks jumped on top of the prison guard it was outstanding
Ladybird? I ask myself if this was ECO’s idea.
The scene in the car was just WOW. Deeks shooting the guy. Plus when he shot the guy on the ship.
Action Deeks won’t let his partner down, ever.
Now, we need to prepare for next week and the season finale.
3, 2, 1 go!
I hope we will get Deeks’ backstody in S7.
Till next week.
LikeLike
Of this quite normal episode, which I enjoyed anyway for its fast pace and action, what I really did like was how Deeks and Kensi worked well together.
Seeing them so beautiful (I can’t help it!), in love (yes!) and still so competent in the field makes me admit that the authors are doing a good job with these two characters after all.
This was my greatest fear after my Densi dream came true in “Humbug”: to lose what Deeks and Kensi had been together as “crime fighters” up until then.
It’s true I would like to see a little more affection between them (not just references to their night performances or body parts), but to see them still so realistically portrayed as partners in the field even if they are a couple in real life is a great satisfaction that I thought would never be possible after the “Frozen lake” characters’ failure.
After the “Field of fire” letdown, my hopes are up for a great season finale!
LikeLike
Thanks for great review! I liked this episode much, and even if it was Callen centric, the little Densi moments were great. Like you wrote, they still have their adorable banter, but there’s something new, something little bit intimate in it nowadays. I think it’s in their smiles and between the lines and I like it a lot. It was also nice to see how well they still work together, always effectively and consistently.
I also liked competent Deeks in this episode, kicking doors and saving Kensi multiple times. Totally hot! And it isn’t ever bad thing when he has tactical vest 😉
Like Kara, I don’t understand why they put FoF between Beacon and this episode? So irrational decision.
LikeLike
Hope next week isn’t toooo much of a cliff-hanger but that it does “remember” F of F happened? This was a fun episode but I think we should do a check on how many times they open with Deeks or Densi compared to the others – seems like it’s usually our favorites lately. I was thinking about the renewal – They don’t seem to give NCISLA much credit or promotion? Very few commercials/coming attractions compared to NCIS NO, CSI Cyber, Good wife,even NCIS, etc. Yet they moved it to Monday night and it scared away Blacklist to a new night, demolished the chances for the Heigl/State of Affairs challenge, and held its own against the so popular Castle. What more could you ask? Maybe they don’t think they have to promote a success?
LikeLike
Great review, Di! I totally agree that Kensi is sweet on Deeks. No more scowls and frowns…there’s a whole different vibe between the two. I love Arkady and I was thinking the same thing as you. I wondered if Arkady couldn’t become a regular. The banter between G, Sam and Arkady is hilarious. I love when G finally lowers the boom on Arkady’s wise-cracks and deflects. Looking forward to the season finale😀
LikeLike
I am finding it hard to not feel a little bitter at the lack of Deeks storyline not just at season’s end, but for the whole season. But- I love seeing how happy Densi is together, I love Deeks saving her life three separate times (especially the way he yelled for her to get down on the boat and she did without hesitation). And well written throughout.
I wish they could have planned ahead enough to introduce us to the new villain earlier in the season. Don’t just tell us he’s a psychopath, let’s meet him and have him get away (like Janvier did), so that we have time to really build up some fear and worry. And are we to believe that talk of another Russian psychopath doesn’t affect Sam or Deeks at all? Am I the only one who was scarred for life by Descent/Ascension? Or do I just need to accept that that is the point of fan fiction? Post ep, please???
LikeLike
I agree Karen, re: introducing this Karposev character sooner. And you are not the only one scarred by Descent/Ascension. The VERY first thing I thought of when they mentioned Karposev’s ill-regard for human life was Sidorov so it stands to reason that Sam and especially Deeks would think the same thing.
LikeLike
I appreciate the review and look forward to them and will miss them over the summer. It would have been nice to have the villian woven into the story earlier and get to know him unless he is going to the villian for season 7. Feel like it could have come up with whole mole story line that was just dropped. Loved seeing the growth in Deeks and Kensi’s relationship. I am disappointed in the lack of a Deeks
story. I don’t like Deeks frequently threatening suspects with bodily harm. Still, over all this was a good set for the finale. I don’t have hope that they will bring up any serious discussion of what happened in Descent/Ascension. It remains two of most harrowing episodes for me . Thanks so much for the discussion. I will miss it over the summer.
LikeLike