Burned (18 May 2010)

After Callen's cover is blown and compromises the unit, the NCIS team races to find out who is behind the security breach.

Director:

Steve Boyum

Writers:

Shane Brennan (creator), Gil Grant (teleplay),

Stars:

Chris O'Donnell, Peter Cambor, Daniela Ruah

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Chris O'Donnell	...	G. Callen
Peter Cambor	...	Nate Getz
Daniela Ruah	...	Kensi Blye
Barrett Foa	...	Eric Beale
Linda Hunt	...	Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange
LL Cool J	...	Sam Hanna
Brian Avers	...	NCIS Special Agent Mike Renko
Peter Wingfield	...	Eugene Keelson
Steve Bacic	...	Ruman Marinov
Gregory Alan Williams	...	Vendor Phil (as GregAlan Williams)
Benjamin Byron Davis	...	Waiter
Isa Jonay	...	Security Man
Miranda Russo	...	Store Clerk
Rachael Kahne	...	Young Woman

Storyline

Callen blows his Beauregard cover after witnessing Northgate Elite Security P.I. Michael St.Paris, who was tailing him, getting run over by a car on Venice Beach and hearing his last words 'Callen, Callen G.'. The team is operationally frozen. Callen is contacted by Eugene Keelson, who proves to know about G., his family. Callen accepts to pose as him and deliver a memory stick to Ruman Marinov's Bulgarian vet thugs, which proves dangerous. After a masterly hacking attack, Hetty orders Beale to check up offline. Sam breaks protocol by contacting Callen.

---

Plot Keywords:

false identity | sabotage

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 May 2010 (USA)

Filming Locations:

1312 Palmetto St, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shane Brennan Productions, CBS Television Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Special Agent G. Callen: I told myself making the Bulgarian deal might help shed some light on just how badly Keelson had compromised our team. Is that why I did it? Or was it just an excuse to find out about my past.
Henrietta 'Hetty' Lange: Oh, only you can answer that Mr. Callen.
Special Agent G. Callen: I can't. Which is why Nate's right. I should stay off this case.

---

Connections

References NCIS: Patriot Down (2010)

User Reviews

The Puppet Master

Well well, after too many formulaic and similar episodes, NCIS Los Angeles surprises pleasantly with a plot not used yet. Well, in NCIS Los Angeles at least - we've seen this pretty much in every other "spy" series - most of which are not worthy of the more sophisticated word espionage.

This sure starts promisingly. There is a mystery and we don't even know what questions to ask let alone are able to predict the answers. But experienced viewers have been, ahem, burned, by promising starts in the past. And we are offered the *possibility* of learning what the "G" in Callen's name stands for. For frak's sake! Is that supposed to be important? Callen is far too bland to make us *want* to know his past, compared to, say, Christopher Chance's (or Guerrero's, for that matter) in Human Target.

There's action. Not bad, but not great either. Later, there is more action. Better, but this is 2010 - it's *hard* to stand out. The aforementioned Human Target, for instance, has *constantly* both intense and inventive action sequences, whereas in NCIS-LA we are given pretty much only "shoot-and-take-cover" action. Also, *both* the good guys and the bad guys in NCIS-LA shoot and take cover like civilians, not like trained professionals they are supposed to be. Watch Heat, frak-dammit! Also, a high speed chase is a luxury in this series - in Human Target a fistfight *during* a high speed chase is considered ordinary.

So, how does the plot in this episode fare? Well, again, the lack of urgency, especially in face of a grave threat, is sadly lacking. More of the director and composer's fault than the writer's really, since neither seems able to create 24-style tension. Also, both the infamous Enhance Button and Facial Recognition Software tropes make another appearance. In the end, we are left with questions most will find hard to care about and are none the wiser. That is called the Reset Button trope and it makes this a sad 6/10 episode. (Yes, there are seeds planted, but again, interest in them is low.)