‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ Fans Celebrate Anna Kolcheck’s Return to Help Callen

NCIS: Los Angeles fans had a special reason to be excited about this Sunday’s episode “The Circle.” It marked the first appearance of Bar Paley’s character Anna Kolcheck in Season 11. However, Anna did not return to rekindle her romance with ex-boyfriend Callen (Chris O’Donnell). Instead, she was back to give him a warning.

Early on in “The Circle,” Anna told Callen she spent time recovering from injuries in Cuba while Joelle (Elizabeth Bogush) went back to the U.S. Anna thought Joelle had forgotten about her, but she suddenly returned and the CIA wanted to learn more about their mission together.

The CIA gave them a list of Russian operatives to track down, and that’s exactly what they did. But they reached Darius Reznikov (Gene Faber), a Russian who became Callen’s arch-nemesis. Anna showed Callen a new photo of Darius, which was strange because everyone thought he was dead. However, Anna said he is now operating with the Comescus, who have bad blood with Callen’s family.

The case also brought Hetty (Linda Hunt) back into the office, which was a sign that tracking down Darius is a big deal. While Anna has to hide out because she is still wanted in the U.S., Callen and the NCIS team have to track down Darius. Surprisingly, the team quickly tracked Darius down, but he refused to say why he was in Los Angeles.

The team found Darius was carrying a thumb drive with graphic images of women. Darius also carried a photo of Mina Raducan (Melania Neilan), a woman who had gone missing in Romania. They now believed this might link Darius to human trafficking.

During an interrogation with Callen, Darius revealed that he was tracking Mina to Los Angeles and his search was connected to a human trafficking ring. Mina went missing just before they were supposed to get married. Callen said they would help track Mina down, but he had to be cooperative during the investigation.

Next, Callen had to go undercover at a party-slash-auction hosted by the human traffickers. While preparing for this, Callen told Anna they could figure out her future. This conversation was interrupted when Hetty told Callen he had to bring Darius to the party, where they have to find the human trafficking victims. Once the victims are introduced, Mina was revealed to be one of them.

Darius blew their cover when bidding on Mina began, and everything went haywire. Meanwhile, Kensi (Daniela Ruah) and the other team members burst in to find other victims. Callen was stabbed with a drug during the fiasco, and hallucinated about seeing his mother killed. Callen woke up to learn Darius ran off to find Mina. Later, Callen surprisingly saved Darius’ life as Darius reunited with Mina.

In the end, Callen told Hetty Darius was defecting to the U.S., meaning Anna got exactly what she wanted. Hetty explained that he had to bring Darius on the mission to break the cycle of revenge.

After the mission wrapped, Callen told Kensi and the team Anna disappeared again. She was disappointed that he just let her go, but he decided it was time to move on. But when Callen arrived at his apartment, he found Anna waiting for him, with her only wearing a shirt. It turns out she is hiding out in his apartment and didn’t want anyone else to know she is staying. The two kissed as the episode faded to black.

NCIS: LA airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

Photo credit: Monty Brinton/CBS