‘NCIS: Los Angeles’: Is Season 14 Premiere Setting Up Hetty’s Rescue?
Maybe, just maybe, NCIS: Los Angeles is bringing back Hetty Lange early in season 14. At least, that’s a big hint the show dropped earlier this week.
The show finally revealed the plot summary for season 14, which is scheduled for Oct. 9. The first episode is “Game of Drones.” And read through it to get the first Hetty hint.
“The NCIS team searches for a suspect and their motive following the bombing of a large facility where military combat drones are assembled. Also, Callen and Kilbride get troubling news about a body found in Syria.”
No, the body isn’t Hetty’s. Or, it shouldn’t be. But let’s go back to last year’s season 13 premiere of NCIS: Los Angeles. Hetty (Linda Hunt) was back in the office. She butted heads with Kilbride (Gerald McRaney) and the two enjoyed some brilliant banter. And then Callen (Chris O’Donnell) confronted Hetty with evidence that he knew she ran a CIA program that identified foster kids as future spies. Yes, Callen was one of the foster kids, known as Subject 17. (Read the Outsider recap here).
Kilbride and Hetty argued about Hetty going back to Syria during last season’s premiere of NCIS: Los Angeles. (Robert Voets/CBS)
In NCIS: Los Angeles Timeline, Hetty Spent All Season in Syria
But Hunt only appeared in that one NCIS: Los Angeles episode. Her lack of screen time had nothing to do with her character. Rather, the 77-year-old Hunt was at higher risk of contracting COVID. It’s kept her off the set of all but two episodes the past two seasons. Writers had Hetty fly to Syria on some secret mission. She stayed on that mission for the rest of the season. And according to intel from the country, Hetty has gone radio silent.
However, NCIS: Los Angeles showrunner R. Scott Gemmill provided some missing details. Hetty also was in Syria with Keane (Jeff Kober), one of her long-time CIA contacts. And Callen sent Zasha, a Russian asset (Oleysa Rulin) to spy on Hetty in Syria. There was an episode last season where the team was worried Hetty had been k****d in a suicide bombing. But according to Keane, she was OK, but off the grid.
Is Keane d**d? There’s a body in Syria. As fans know, Keane is a long-time secret spy associate of Hetty’s. This photo is from 2018. (Bill Inoshita/CBS)
LA Crew Likely Will Be On Their Way to Rescue the Boss
Gemmill explained Hetty’s situation in an interview with TV Insider.
“Essentially two of (Hetty’s) people who were in country were on the right track to expose someone within the Pentagon, in the intelligence community high up, that was a traitor, basically a mole, kind of like the fourth man.,” Gemmill said. “But before they can get out with proof of that, they are captured and we don’t know if they’re captured because they know who they are or they’re just as captured as part of some of the problems are going over there.”
“So ultimately, she went back to try and resolve that with the Keane character, and then we haven’t heard from her since. So part of next season will be our guys finding out where she is, what happened and probably having to go in and pull her out of the fire.”
Hetty was on hand for the wedding of Kensi and Deeks. Callen will want her at his nuptials. (Monty Brinton/CBS)
Sounds tantalizing, doesn’t it? We do know that Callen will be planning a wedding with Ana. He proposed to her in the season 13 finale. And since Hetty is like a mother to him, Callen will be motivated to find the super spy and bring her back to LA for the ceremony. Hetty was a big part of the Kensi-Deeks nuptials three years ago.
