Tonight on CBS NCIS: Los Angeles returns with an all-new Sunday, March 26, 2023, season 14 episode 16 called, “Sleeping Dogs” and we have your weekly NCIS: Los Angeles recap below. In tonight’s NCIS Los Angeles season 14 episode 16, as per the CBS synopsis, “When the NCIS team receives a cryptic, urgent message, Fatima and Rountree must work together to solve the case. Also, Kilbride plans to visit his son, and Callen asks Sam to be his best man”
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In tonight’s NCIS: LA episode, Special Agent Roundtree was catching up his loved ones when work intruded. Only it wasn’t his job this time that was intruding. He was at lunch with his girlfriend, sister, and best friend. They were all chatting. His girlfriend was even about to tell Fatima a juicy start about him and that’s when she got the text from work.
She’s an FBI Agent. She couldn’t ignore the call and Roundtree’s sister also needed to study. They all said goodbye at the table. They agreed to meet up later and it wasn’t long before a text did come in for both Roundtree and Fatima. They got called in to work. And their case actually involved his girlfriend.
NCIS received a classified file on two individuals. One of them was John Jenkins. Jenkins was the CEO of a tech company. He was murdered while taking his dog out on a walk and his death was apparently connected to the murder of FBI Special Agent Patrick Hertel. Hertel was the other individual.
He was murdered the exact same way as Jenkins within an hour of each other. They were both killed in LA. The classified file indicated that they knew each other. NCIS just didn’t know how or who sent them the file. They suspected Hetty was behind it, but they haven’t seen her in years and there’s no telling what she’s up to nowadays.
They also had no idea how these cases were connected. Sure, they were killed the same way. It also was suspicious that it happened within an hour of each other only it was LA. There were plenty of murders in LA. They wouldn’t even be looking at these murders if Hetty hadn’t sent them a cryptic message. Hetty was involving them in the matter because apparently this case was personal. It involved the message. The victims each got a cryptic message that said “8.22.11”. The team thought it was a date and they had been wrong.
It wasn’t until Roundtree went with Fatima to Hertel’s crime scene that things started to make sense. Roundtree had to practically beg Summer to let them in on the investigation. She wanted to Hertel’s murder in house because he was one of them. He was FBI. But they were able to convince Summer to let them see the body. They found out that both Hertel and Jenkins were orphans. They were in foster care in LA. Hertel also had a birthmark that told Admiral Killbride how these two cases were connected.
Admiral Killbride recognized the birth mark because both victims were a part of the Drona Project. Callen’s alma mater. The Drona Project took several kids in the foster care system and ran them through tests to determine their worthiness in future federal agencies. 8,22, and 11 wasn’t a date. It was their code name in the program. The men were 8 and 22. 11 was Leah Novak. Callen has already met her and she claimed not to remember the program at all. She told Callen to leave her alone and so she hadn’t wanted to take his warning when he called her again to tell her about a killer being after her.
Leah was going to dismiss him until she saw a black ops team coming for her. She got out her gun. She started fire back and she was still on the phone with Callen at the time. He overheard the gunshots. He got her location from her cell phone and he went to her. Leah was badly injured albeit still alive. She was shot several times. They got an ambulance for her. She was saved, but she was in a coma. Her last words to Callen before she slipped into the coma was “14”. Callen had his people tracked down 14 from the Drona Project.
14 was Anthony Beltran. Callen and Sam went to his house to check on him when he started firing at them. They only got him to desist by telling them Leah sent them. Callen also mentioned that he was 17. Anthony was more willing to trust him after that. They later took Anthony to the boat shed. They asked him why he was running and he said Pembrooke was after him. He claimed that he and the others were a part of a lawsuit against Pembrooke. They wanted to take him down and Leah didn’t want to include Callen because he lied to her and she hadn’t trusted him after that.
According to Anthony, they were finally going to stop Pembrooke from hurting anyone else. Anthony also said that Leah meant a lot to him. He asked to see her and it was at the hospital that Callen figured out Anthony has been lying to him. Anthony wasn’t warned. His number wasn’t included in the message they all got. He therefore never got a message himself. He was their killer He wanted to see Leah because he thought she was still alive and wanted her dead. Anthony revealed his true colors when he saw Leah in the hospital bed. He said she’s no longer a threat and he told Callen that he didn’t have to kill her. He also wasn’t going to kill Callen.
Anthony has been working with former Drona kids to take down everyone that continues to see Pembrooke. Leah had lied to Callen when she said that she doesn’t remember Pembrooke. She actually worked for him as an adult. Jenkins and Hertel too. They did whatever Pembrooke asked them to do on black ops mission and Anthony had finally had enough. He was killing off Pembrooke’s foot soldiers. And his next stop was Pembrooke himself.
Anthony didn’t kill Callen when he had the chance because Callen wanted the same thing he did. He wanted Pembrooke dead. And so Anthony had Callen drugged at the hospital while he made his escape.
And this case was far from over.
THE END!