‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ season 5 finale spoilers: Now openly promising cliffhangers!

How is this for an interesting strategy when it comes to promoting your upcoming season of a show? Rather than trying to make it even remotely coy about how season 5 is going to come to a conclusion, the folks over at “NCIS: Los Angeles” have apparently decided to scream “cliffhanger” from the rafters. Heck, it is even in their official press release for the hour.

In addition to advertising “Deep Trouble (Part I)” as just that (the first half of the two-parter), CBS specifically mentions that this is a “fifth-season cliffhanger” while sharing their official synopsis below:

“When the NCIS: LA team and the DEA uncover the cartel’s plans to slyly transport billions of dollars’ worth of cocaine from Colombia to the United States using a submarine, Callen and Sam must quickly locate the missing vessel. Meanwhile, Hetty is called to Washington in the aftermath of the controversial mission in Afghanistan.”

One other thing that is particular of note here is for Kensi / Deeks shippers out there: Where in the world is the mentioning of them in this? Are they involved in the story at all? The simple answer is that some of their story is being shelved until season 6, which you cannot really blame the producers for, given how well they were able to take advantage of Daniela Ruah’s availability in the first place. In a time where we saw so many other shows try weird strategies to hide pregnancies (Olivia Pope carrying around strategically placed objects), this show did one of the best jobs that we’ve seen.

So what could the cliffhanger be for the season? It may have to do with Hetty in Washington, but also Sam and Callen getting them stuck in some sort of terrible crisis. Given that everyone is still under contract for a sixth season, there’s not much drama there unless the show really wants to create a jaw-dropper and kill someone off early.