NCIS: Los Angeles season 9 episode 18 review: Arkady, Anna, and a face-off with Sokolov

Let’s kick off our NCIS: Los Angeles season 9 episode 18 review with one simple statement: Arkady is fantastic. In between the towel, the antics, and him loving Khloe Kardashian more than any other Kardashian, he’s by far one of the most ridiculous recurring characters out there. While much of the rest of the episode tonight may have been serious and intense, we got a lot of comedy for most of the first fifteen minutes or so.

Unfortunately, things definitely got a little bit more serious for Arkady as the episode went along, especially where we got to the point in which the character was kidnapped and Sokolov did what what he could in order to force a trade. If anything happens to Arkady we riot!

We assumed that he was going to be okay, but it took a long time for us to be able to exhale as Callen, Anna (who really wasn’t in this episode all that much), and many other members of the NCIS team waited around Hollywood Forever Cemetery in order for him to turn up.

Related – Be sure to preview what is coming up on the show next week!

Eric’s undercover mission

In order to gather more information on Sokolov this episode featured Eric venturing out into the field in order to collect as much information as he possibly could. He did a pretty good job (at least at first), though there was an EXTREME amount of paranoia about him being out there just because of the fact that nobody seemed altogether inclined to want to trust his ability to do things right.

Well, unfortunately Eric ended up having a hard time with the most important part of the gig: Clearing the building when it started to look like Sokolov and his men were going to be coming in. He was able to clear most of it with Hidoko’s help. (The funniest part of the whole exchange? Eric yelling Hidoko’s name and someone saying “what’s a Hidoko.”)

Eventually, the remainder of the team made their way over to the building after being misled on their way to cemetery. Sokolov forced Eric to get onto a computer in order to deposit tens of millions of dollars into his account. When the team arrived Anna was able to get him outside, and minutes after that Callen heard gunshots. Anna had shot Sokolov, and in cold blood!

CarterMatt Verdict

This was a crazy episode, but also a really entertaining one. The action was on point, there was a lot of comedy with Arkady, and things actually got pretty intense near the end.

What is going to be interesting to explore after this episode is whatever sort of long-term ramifications are going to come Anna’s way as a result of what happened. Do she and Callen cover this up, or will she actually be punished?

What did you think about NCIS: Los Angeles season 9 episode 18 overall?

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