NCIS: Los Angeles Recap Season 9 Episode 3: Snipers And Stigers

NCIS: Los Angeles, season 9, episode 3–called “Assets”–started with a splash. Literally.

During the cold opening, a swimmer in a red suit doing laps sensed something was wrong. She was right. A series of shots sent this aquanaut to her death.

The NCIS LA team took on this case concerning deceased Navy Lieutenant Naomi Elder, who was apparently killed by a highly trained sniper.

Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) and Kensi (Daniela Ruah) headed to the aquatics center crime scene to suss out the situation. Callum (Chris O’Donnell) and Sam (LL Cool J) headed to the Silver Lake house of Elder’s college friends, the Stigers–where she had been staying–to do the same.

The latter NCIS pair discovered a huge hunk of highly classified intel from China not-so-expertly hidden on a gaming device.

They also discovered that the lieutenant was allegedly in the Southland to meet with some area defense contractors.

In addition, Elder had landed in the City of Angels to spend time with boyfriend Gino Preston. Callum and Sam followed a few pertinent clues, and found he was also killed–after being tortured to the extreme.

Meanwhile, as they searched an isolated warehouse, Deeks and Kensi were shot at by sophisticated automatic weapons carried by an unidentified motorcycle crew. All but one of these Asians, who were traveling on fake Chinese passports, were killed too.

The lone survivor turned up at the Stiger’s house on the East side. Keith Stiger (Matthew Atkinson) had been shot and was bleeding (he’ll live) before the NCIS teams took down the last bad guy.

Oh, and while the good guys were out solving the case, they came upon a bunch of cash at Gino’s place and a bunch of Chinese intel in Naomi’s cloud account.

Turns out Lieutenant Elder and Gino Preston were apparently planning to sell those sensitive Chinese documents but weren’t able to finish the transaction. Or were they?

Another transaction–definitely pending–was the sale of Sam’s marital abode.

Sadly, Sunday’s episode was devoid of any further information about Hetty (Linda Hunt). Also, Mosly (Nia Long) still planned to break up the long-standing NCIS teams but didn’t get the chance–YET! Stay tuned. And catch episode 4’s promo below.

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