NCIS: Los Angeles celebrated a wedding in this week’s episode, but that was not the only major development. Henrietta “Hetty” Lange finally returned after missing for all of Season 10.
In “‘Til Death Do Us Part,” Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) and Kensi Byle (Daniela Ruah) finally tied the knot. But as can be expected for any crime drama wedding, the day did not go as well as planned. Before the wedding, one of Deeks’ old acquaintances, Anatoli Krikin (Ravil Isyanov) showed up with some friends to make the wedding day more action-packed than expected.
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The episode also features the surprise return of Hetty.
Just moments before the wedding, a group of Russians showed up to get Anatoli. Suddenly while guns were pointed at Deeks, Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Hanna (LL Cool J), a car came crashing through the room. Hetty walked out of the driver’s seat.
“I can’t leave you damn kids alone for one minute,” Hetty told them.
Later, Hetty officiated the wedding.
During the reception, Callen and Hanna asked Hetty where she was this whole time. She refused to say, “because some things are better left unshared.” There will come a day, but during a wedding was not the time to explain while everyone was having a good time.
Hetty missed the first half of Season 10 after Oscar-winner Linda Hunt was injured in a car accident last summer. Hunt later told TVLine in November that it has taken longer to recover from her injuries than expected.
“I first want to say how much I appreciate the outpouring of support from the NCIS: Los Angeles fans following my car accident this summer,” Hunt said in a statement at the time. “Though I had hoped to return to playing Hetty at the start of the season, I had to take some additional time to recover. I look forward to returning later this season.”
The wedding was a long time coming for Kensi and Byle. They were engaged earlier in the show’s run, but called it off after Kensi refused to leave her job and they disagreed over having a family. But in the Season 10 premiere, Deeks realized how important Kensi was to him — after all, she saved his life by dragging him from the destroyed SUV during the NCIS team’s ill-fated mission to Mexico — and he proposed.
Aside from the wedding, fans finally learned what was in the box Kensi gave Deeks back in Season 4. All he found at the bottom of the box was a key to a locker. Inside was a packet with her late father’s wedding ring.
“We find out what’s in the box, and that beautiful reveal, I think, has an emotional impact that no one is really prepared for,” Olsen revealed in an interview with TVLine. “When you look at the box and its history in its entirety, what’s in the box, and her putting that in the box, at the point in their relationship at which she did, is masterful storytelling by the producers and writers. It almost changes the last six seasons. That [Kensi] knew at that point what was in that box was what it was is game changing. So I think [fans will] be thrilled with that.”
The wedding episode is the best version of what we do, which is action and drama and comedy and poignant moments that are earned,” Olsen teased. “We get all that stuff — and then a nice surprise.”
New episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
Photo credit: CBS
