Sunday’s NCIS: Los Angeles should give fans a Top Gun feel as the episode kicks off. An F-35 Navy training sequence goes awry, forcing the pilot to eject. Aside from the shock of those taxpayer dollars going up in flames, the pilot is the son of Special Agent Sam Hanna, played by LL Cool J.
Hanna’s son, Aiden, survives the incident and gives his father and grandfather, played by Richard Gant, some pause. Executive producer R. Scott Gemmill says the young pilot “gets his bell rung pretty hard” and it could end his Naval pilot career. “Aiden has a reputation as a hot dog,” Gemmill says. “He’s been reprimanded for his flight behavior.”
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Of course, the NCIS crew has to investigate the incident, with Hanna barred from investigating due to his connection to Aiden. It leaves father and son, and grandfather Raymond, to tackle their emotions and detail what actually happened on their own.
“It’s a lot of stubbornness in one room,” Gemmill says. “There’s [Sam and his dad] going through the initial shock and worry, but also trying to help Aiden remember what’s going on.”
His memory is one of the big reasons he could be grounded. It also ends up creating a throughline for Hanna and his father, Raymond, as they contend with their own issues. Raymond struggles with memory loss and it continues to grow worse as the years continue, stemming from an injury suffered in the Marines.
“Will there be a time when he needs to be looked after? These guys would rather eat a bullet than be a burden on their families,” Gemmill adds. It’s a very real struggle that the audience can likely find common ground with, especially as they get older. We all deal with the same batch of issues potentially popping up and changing our lives.
Thankfully having the NCIS crew on the crime allows the three generations of men to deal with the personal recollection. “They investigate mechanical error, the ground crew, something within the new technology of the jets that somebody hasn’t been honest about,” Gemmill says. “Hopefully, one exonerates Aiden.”
Safe to say they probably will, but find out for yourself when NCIS: Los Angeles airs at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.
