NCIS: Los Angeles finally returned with a new episode on Sunday. This served as Season 12, Episode 15 of NCIS: LA and it was called Imposter Syndrome.
In the last episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, Callen was able to save Anna after she was abducted by the Noble Maidens. Joelle is also safe again, but she was seriously injured, and now she is out for revenge against the people who took her finger and leg.
The show has four episodes that will debut during the month of May, leading up to the NCIS: LA Season 12 finale. When speaking about the finale, star Chris O’Donnell stated that fans will be pleased.
The first of the four episodes debuting in May aired Sunday night on CBS, and this is a full recap of it. Within the episode called Imposter Syndrome, the NCIS team was going up against some criminals who were trying to use deepfake technology against them.
NCIS: Los Angeles recap for Imposter Syndrome
The episode started out a bit disjointed, hinting at possibly building toward something. Before the opening titles ran, Rountree and Fatima took down a guy who tried to run after he was suspected of buying arms.
Later, Fatima was shown working out in the gym and arguing over music choice with a guy there. Deeks tried to convince Kensi to paint the last room in their house (possibly nursery), but she was more interested in spending time at the firing range. And then Callen was shown speaking with Nell, who was cleaning up Hetty’s office and monologuing about being unsure about the job again.
It was soon revealed that the guy at the gym had been distracting Fatima while he transferred all of the files from her phone. Oops.
Nell and Rountree head to work on a Saturday
Nell examined some evidence that the team had taken off the suspect they captured and found out it was propaganda for Al Qaeda. She called the team in to work on the weekend, and that began by getting information from their suspect. He claimed to actually be a courier and that he was there to do a dead drop, not buy or sell anything.
Fatima called in to the office to say that her mother had fallen and hurt her hip. She would be out for the day, and the team was going to be shorthanded as they tried to solve this case.
While doing more investigating into the tech that they had recovered from the suspect, Nell figured out that they were dealing with deepfake technology. On the propaganda they had recovered, the criminals had used it to make it look like a terrorist leader was still alive, despite him having died a few years earlier.
The team gets deepfaked
A dramatic part of the episode took place as Kensi and Deeks were tracking down a suspect. As they did, Sam came on over the comms and noted that he was there too. When Kensi and Deeks took down the suspect and Sam didn’t arrive, things got chaotic.
It turned out that someone was duping the team by mimicking different team members through the comms system. The criminals were able to lead Sam to a door that had a bomb on the other side before then speaking to Nell and demanding that she do what they said or she would start losing team members.
Of course, Sam was fine on his own, and he defused the bomb. Meanwhile, it turned out that Fatima was the character being deepfaked, but the stories that the guy playing her was using didn’t work out perfectly. Rountree and Nell figured it out.
The fake Fatima did convince Callen to move their suspect to a new location, though, where it turned out a Russian operative was waiting to save the suspect and acquire the tech. She was killed, but also kept from acquiring the suspect.
Nell digitally tracked the location where the fake Fatima was broadcasting from. Sam and the real Fatima stopped him, but they also saw a deepfake had been created of Callen. It was something that could be used to trap Anna if needed. Before they could take the evidence, a bomb was set off that destroyed the entire building. Sam and Fatima just barely escaped with their lives.
The tech had all been destroyed, but it appeared that a deepfake of Callen was now out there that Nell needed to talk to him about. That was done off-screen.
When Callen stopped by to visit Nell at the end of the episode, he had a gift to give her from Hetty. It had a note attached to it.
“You always struck me as a gin girl. To knowing our strengths and appreciating our differences. Cheers, Hetty,” read the note.
The final scene of the episode had Kensi and Deeks painting their nursery, but she seemed very sad about it since she is still not pregnant.
That brings an end to the NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12, Episode 15 recap. The show returns for another new episode next week.
For readers who haven’t heard the great news yet, NCIS: LA Season 13 was picked up by CBS and it will debut in the fall.
NCIS: Los Angeles airs Sundays at 9/8c on CBS.