Tonight on CBS NCIS: Los Angeles returns with an all new Sunday, January 8, 2017, season 8 episode 12 called, “Kalinda” and we have your weekly NCIS: Los Angeles recap below. On tonight’s NCIS Los Angeles episode, as per the CBS synopsis, “A Navy reservist is killed while protecting a city councilman. Sam (LL COOL J) goes undercover at a private security firm with links to several criminal organizations to investigate. Meanwhile, Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Anna (Bar Paly) discuss the next steps in their relationship.”
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Tonight’s NCIS Los Angeles Recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
NCIS: Los Angeles begins tonight with a city councilman celebrating the “new Los Angeles”, telling the citizens they made L.A. more beautiful by putting down their phones and getting off social media; meeting their neighbors and helping them. He ends his speech by telling them he made L.A. shine.
As he exit the building, his security team sees a vehicle approaching them, and tell him to get in the vehicle, but then they throw a bomb under the car, causing the security team to get the councilman to safety. The SUV explodes and another car returns and they shoot, killing a Navy reservist who was on the security detail.
G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) is doing push-ups when his doorbell sounds. He pulls out his gun only to see it is Anna Kolcheck (Bar Paly). He opens the door and she wishes him a good morning, bringing him breakfast. She gets nervous and attempts to leaving saying she isn’t usually like this; Callen tells her to join him. She is the one who said she wanted to take things slow and feels she is bugging him; he grabs her in his arms and they kiss.
Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) is gun training with Sam Hanna (LL Cool J). Deeks jokes that he is a great shot in the light and the dark; Sam agrees saying its a good thing he isn’t a bad guy. Sam asks how things are at home with Deeks and Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah)? Deeks deflects saying things are good, but when pressed he says things aren’t great, but whatever.
Sam says its none of his business but he is there if he needs to talk. Deeks blurts out that all the things he used to do with Kensi, they are no longer doing together. Sam says it will take some time after she was laid up and Deeks confesses that she can do it, but she doesn’t want to do it with him. Sam insists she will come around but Deeks isn’t convinced. Sam advises that he doesn’t bring it up to Kensi because she needs time to get there, and it needs to come from her; not him.
Eric Beale (Barrett Foa) tells them they are needed in ops; but before they go, he says he saw them practicing and do they think he is ready to do that. Deeks tells him he should talk to Callen about that as Sam smirks saying Callen cannot wait to walk him through those drills. Eric gets excited.
When Deeks and Sam arrive in ops, Nell Jones (Renee Felice Smith) greets them, telling them Owen Granger (Miguel Ferrer) won’t be in today. Callen tells Nell to start and she reveals what happened to the Navy Reservist, Mark Newton that was killed in what appeared to be an attempt on Councilman Hill. They don’t know why a councilman would have a security team and Nell confirms they do not know if it was an ongoing threat or just a one time occurrence.
The security officers Mark Newton and Junior Sancho worked for Kulinda Tactical Security (KTS). The team learns Hetty Lange (Linda Hunt) got the phone call because the councilman’s father once played football with a man who is a US Senator. Sam and Callen are going to the scene and Deeks takes Nell to visit with the councilman.
At the scene, Sam and Callen discuss Granger and that he hasn’t been to work in three days and they believe something is up. Sam suggests that maybe Hetty has Granger working off the books and Callen says that wouldn’t surprise him, but doesn’t like that he is missing work and plans to check on him again tonight.
Sam looks at what is left of the bomb, claiming it was low tech but highly effective. They re-enact the events at the crime scene. They discover the story from the body guard doesn’t make sense, thinking Councilman Hill wasn’t the target, and the gunman was there to kill Newton.
Hill is found at Crenshaw Boxing Club. Deeks is surprised that he didn’t take any time off after the attempt on his life. He tells Deeks he can’t afford to because one day in the gym is one day these kids are on the streets. He asks if they found out the suspect’s names. Nell asks him why he has body guards. He says a lot of people are happy with the great things he is doing but it has created some local enemies for him. Deeks informs him they believe he wasn’t the intended target but Mark Newton was.
He is shocked saying that Mark was a good man. He tells them he wants to help but he has no idea why someone would want to kill Mark Newton. Deeks and Nell shake his hand and thanks him for his time.
Kensi arrives at the gym where Anna is working out. Anna comes over to speak to her, but Kensi tells her to keep working. Kensi admits that she isn’t back to work yet and asks Anna if she is working, she tells her Hetty has something for her; Kensi seems happy for her but brushes her off saying she needs to do some physical therapy and walks away. Eric comes down to tell Anna she is needed in ops, but notices Kensi is there, he gives her a big hug confused as to why she is there but glad to see her.
Sam and Callen return and Nell tells them Anna is waiting in ops. She tells Callen to head up but Hetty has something else for Sam to do, only saying she had one last card to play. Callen heads off to ops. Nell informs Sam that LAPD robbery/homicide has new intel on KTS. Apparently they have been hired muscle to several LA organizations. Sam says they are using their legit company as a front, Nell says they believe that to be true but can’t verify it. Hetty wants Sam on the inside and he agrees. Nell warns him that they will not be afraid to come after him.
Nell and Deeks are on site when Eric informs them Sam will be arriving shortly. Nell begs Deeks to stop complaining about her driving, he says he is getting used to it but he is still getting a custom molded helmet. She laughs and they joke around about trees and their pruning. Deeks tells her he took care of the trees in that park one summer, she doesn’t fully believe him. Sam arrives for his meeting with the owner of the KTS company, Mr. Irvin. He invites Sam to walk and talk as they get a cup of coffee.
He is a little bit leery about Sam’s reference. He tells Sam that KTS is very profitable but important to stay in the community. He says it is important the kids in the community see his good, strong men and wants them to aspire to be like his security team. He asks Sam if he thinks he can fit in, and offers him an opportunity to prove himself.
Callen and Anna get out of their car, Anna acting very off when it comes to their budding relationship, unsure of where this is all going. Callen insists that maybe he will surprise her with what he wants. She wants to take a trip by San Diego and was sure he didn’t want to go and she didn’t want him to feel obligated to go but he tells her they should go. She smiles and agrees to go. He asks what is there, and she tells him Lego land and an outlet mall. Callen is amused about Lego land.
Sam arrives at KTS. He meets the two men he is working with and gives them his condolences about Mark Newton and they tell him Newton was a great dude. Their assignment is Poppy Gold, a Youtube star who is doing an appearance at an art gallery. She has 1.7 million subscribers and a good 10 thousand are haters. She has had threats at previous appearances so they are told to be alert but mainly they are there for crowd control.
Deeks and Nell learn from Eric that Junior Sancho was in a gang. Junior was arrested 3 times as a minor, from there he enlisted with the Marines. Deeks is sure he didn’t leave gang life behind him. Strangely back at KTS, Sancho grabs his bag and when asked where he was going he said no where.
Sam digs around for information and discovers that Sancho is always wound up tight and for some reason triple checked everything before they were to leave. Sam is offered to come up to the gym but says he needs to call his wife first. Sam calls Deeks, but it looks like the guard with him may have overheard the call.
Deeks and Nell observe Sancho outside with the owner of KTS. He cranked the music in the truck so Nell and Deeks couldn’t hear their conversation. After a few minutes, Mr Irvin disappears. Deeks and Nell continue to follow Sancho, while Eric is told to keep an eye on the truck.
Callen and Anna believe they are chopping up the car from the drive-by shooting instead of stashing them. Callen sends Eric a photo of a tire outside the garage. Eric confirms they are a match to the shooter’s car.
Callen and Anna enter the building and find the cars from the drive-by ordering the men to come to them with their hands up. One comes to Callen while the other shoves a toolbox at Anna and beings to shoot at her. Callen handcuffs the man with him and jumps on the man shooting at Anna and knocks him out, looking up at Anna he asks if she has ever been to Lego land and she laughs.
Eric check out the men they have arrested. Barmik Firas is tied to a Syrian money laundering group in Los Angeles. Anna wants to know why a group like that would want to kill Newton and what is the link. They learn that one of the men in the Syrian group was arrested with some members from the same gang Sancho was in. Anna and Callen believe the Syrians may have had a deal go sideways with the gang, wanting revenge on KTS because they were the muscle behind it.
Eric discovers everyone ties to one man, D’Andre Linton. They have no arrests on him, all they know was he was kicked out of school a couple years earlier for running a sports gambling operation. Anna says he could be the middle man and tells Eric he did nice work.
At the art gallery, Sam talks to Sancho saying it must be hard to be at work after what happened and offers an ear if he wants to talk about it. Sancho tells Sam he doesn’t trust him.
Anna and Callen arrive at D’Andre’s house to find out the front door has been damaged; a young boy named Joey tells them D’Andre left. Anna asks Joey about D’Andre, who tells her D’Andre ran away when those men came for him. Anna shows him a picture and he confirms that is the man who kicked in the door. They tell him they are not going to hurt D’Andre and thank him for his help.
Poppy arrives for her appearance and within minutes there is a woman confronting her with a taser. The men grab her and Poppy tells the crowd that is why you hire the pros and they all clap. Nell and Deeks are outside watching the cameras from outside and Deeks is making fun of how Poppy became a star. Nell informs him what she really does and he tells her to stop talking because there are just somethings he does not need to understand.
Callen and Anna learn from Eric that the man they are looking for has his car parked at a Performing Arts Center; they head over to the location. They enter the building and order D’Andre to drop the gun, as Callen gets closer he drops it and tells them this whole thing is his fault. He begins to cry.
D’Andre sits on a chair and tells Anna and Callen that Newton and Sancho were like his big brothers. He says Newton was trying to protect him but he screwed up and needed money so he agreed to be a look out for the Syrians. When Newton found out, he told them he was out and to stay away from D’Andre. That was 2 days earlier and today the man came after him. D’Andre ran to this place because Newton and Sancho told him this was a safe place.
Sancho told Mr. Irvin about him and he met him for the first time today and now Mr. Irvin is going after Barmik. Callen informs Sam that Mr. Irvin is going to take Barmik out. They believe he is going to do it at Barmik’s girlfriend’s place. When Sam arrives, Irvin has already beaten up Barmik. Sam orders Irvin to stop, and the sirens are getting louder.
Sam orders the police to stay back telling Irvin it isn’t worth it and not right. He says it is right; Sam tells him to look around and he is an example to these people and children and to not under all that and change. He tells him to be that light and beacon for them. Irvin kicks Barmik one more time and Sam hugs Irvin.
Kensi looks around the office, and as she is leaving Pete sees her. She asks him what he is doing there and he tells he. Kensi asks what his assignment is and her smile fades when she learns she is his assignment. He offers her a seat and asks her how her workout went.
Kensi says she is ready to come back and he asks her why she is rushing it. She feel she isn’t but he wants to be sure, saying sometimes the body heals faster than the mind. Kensi learns it is his decision to make and asks what she needs to do to prove it. He says talk to him. She rambles on, speaking rapidly and promises she will be 100% at some point. He asks her what is she isn’t. She says that isn’t an option and tells him he cannot take this away from her. He says he wants the best for her and the team and they both may not be the same thing. She insists she belongs there and he says not yet.
Sam is with the KTS team, they say it was great working with him and if he ever wants a career change to look them up. Sancho admits he didn’t trust him but there is a basketball tournament next weekend and they could use another ref. Sam says he will be there. Irvin thanks him and they part ways. Sam walks through the party in the park and joins his team to eat.
THE END!
