NCIS Los Angeles Recap: Disaster Lurks, Fish Are Fried in Season 5 Premiere

NCIS: Los Angeles has returned for a fifth season just in time to learn that Hetty has retired, Sam is chilling at the beach with no apparent plans to return after his wife’s tragic death and Granger has been replaced by stern Shay Mosely, a person nobody finds very easy to like. Not at all.

But never mind. The team has bigger fish to fry–namely determining and perhaps detonating a missile North Korea claims to be launching directly at LA. Does the term ripped from the headlines resonate here?

But let’s not get ahead of the storyline too much. Before these dire straights are dealt with Mosely mixes up the routine. She pulls Deeks from the team (sending him back to the LAPD where his office shares space with a barking canine unit) and pairs Callen with Kensi.

What’s done is done–for now.

Through a series of coincidental events, the fresh duo discovers who the bomb maker is thanks to Eric and Nell who supply his identity after they supply hints.

Then, after hatching a plot using the once again present Deeks as a decoy before the killer can take off in what is apparently a stolen ambulance, Sam and Callen go into action, killing the guy post haste.

Sam, who came back just in time take for this wild ride, climbs in the back of the vehicle in an attempt to try to deactivate the bomb he finds there. Oh, and for more thrills, there are only minutes to spare.

As for Callen? He takes the wheel of the ambulance, driving the heck out of the big machine only to sink it and the bomb into the nearest drink.

Because of this latest development, Sam and Callen must figure out how to swiftly rise to the water’s surface so they don’t drown, which they accomplish because, well, these are the show’s leads and it’s only episode 1 of the new season.

Besides, this magic trick proves this partnership to be really amazing, a fact that surprises nobody except the new director who is not pleased with the pair’s blatant display of what can be termed as infractions.

So, no, Mosley did not particularly enjoy her first day on the job. In fact, she ended it by telling her rogue agents that “gone are the days when you shoot first and ask questions later.” Uh-oh.

As for Hetty’s current location?

She’s in Ho Chi Min City on the other side of the world looking into a 1976 incident for which Lange thought she was the sole survivor. Not so, apparently. An American operative is said to have gone MIA at that time and has remained at large for all these years.

What’s next on the agenda? Stay tuned.

NCIS: Los Angeles airs on CBS on Sundays at 9 p.m., ET.