The second to last episode of the season of NCIS: Los Angeles was such a shocker it still has fans speculating on what will happen next. In the episode, we saw Sam and his wife, Michelle, together as they prepared for the day. When they got a call about meeting with a man named Michael Zhrov in prison, neither had any idea what this would lead to.
When Sam is called to the scene of a murder, it soon becomes apparent that he was set up and his wife is in danger. Her kidnappers will reveal her location if they get Tahir Khaled out of prison. With only eight hours to save her, the team does everything they can to bring Sam’s wife home.
Decisions are made in this episode that could alter things for our characters and you can see just how much the team wants to find Michelle. LL Cool J really knocked this episode out of the park in portraying a side of Sam we have never seen in the past eight seasons.
Next week, we will see the season finale of after this episode that left us speechless at the end of the night. While we wait for more, check out the top moments that made the episode “Uncaged.”
10. Sam and Michelle
We probably should have seen it coming when we saw Michelle and Sam in such a personal, domestic setting when before we only got glimpses of their personal lives. Sam and Michelle began their day with a morning run before helping daughter Kamran with her homework. Sam then got a call about an inmate wanting to talk to Michelle. The man is Michael Zirov, who had worked with a previous nemesis that was responsible for the events that led to Sam and Deeks’ kidnappings in a previous season.
9. Set up
After Sam and Michelle went to the prison to get intel they would need to check up on, Callen arrived to take Sam to a crime scene while Michelle headed for home. But when Sam and Callen arrived, they found out the victim was supposedly a SEAL friend of Sam’s. However, after the man’s wife got the call, her husband showed up to let Sam know he was alive. Finding out his ID had been stolen weeks ago, Callen realizes someone had lured Sam and Michelle out of hiding. Sam calls his wife to warn her but before she can get her gun, she is kidnapped by three men as Sam watches helplessly on his security app.
8. Whatever it takes
The entire team rushes to Sam’s home as the authorities investigate. All they know is a black van took her north before disappearing from camera view. Kensi and Deeks immediately leave to find security footage from the buildings where the van headed.
7. Cash
In order to get a security guard to let them look at the footage from a warehouse, Deeks bribes him with cash, doing anything he can to save Michelle. They go inside and get the footage to Eric, but they can only see the van passing and nothing more.
6. Video
A video link is sent to Ops and it turns out to be footage of Michelle inside the room she is being held. The recorded voice of the kidnapper tells them to release Tahir Khaled or she will die. The entire team helplessly watches as she tries to get her bearings and communicate with them. As she tells Sam how big the room is, it is clear he is calculating how long she has to be able to breathe before suffocating.
5. Prison connection
After having gone to the Michael Zhrov to find out if he had anything to do with Michelle’s kidnapping, Sam learns from Hetty that Tahir was moved to the same prison as Zhrov. Realizing they were in on this together, Sam and Callen leave for the prison. Unfortunately, Zhrov has been taken by the CIA. Sam goes to see Khaled, who taunts him by pretending to suffocate.
4. Sabatino
Sabatino contacts Sam and Callen in order to lead them to Zhrov. He shoots Zhrov in the leg to get him to talk. He began working with Tahir after realizing they knew Sam. Even though it’s hard to trust him, Sabatino claims to be doing this to show them he never was actually part of the mole plot.
3. Decision
Hetty receives authorization, or at least she claims to, to let Tahir out of prison so he can lead them to Michelle. In the meantime, Michelle has been having communications with Sam privately, saying goodbye even when he tries to get her to keep fighting. When Tahir is released, the team and other agents try to follow him, but then they see multiple cars leaving and they look too much alike for them all to follow. Nell makes a career ending decision to tell them SecNav has ordered them to fall back. When Hetty remarks on it, Nell tells her she accepts her choice.
2. Realization
As the hours end and Sam has trouble telling if Michelle is still alive, Eric calls Deeks and Kensi to the same warehouse they had gone to earlier. Before she lost consciousness, Michelle told Sam that she heard no cars in the van and they come to the conclusion she never went anywhere after they spotted the van in the security footage obtained by Kensi and Deeks. Eric tells them there is no footage of the two of them showing up after the van went past. After seeing the security guard had three phones, Kensi and Deeks grab their weapons and go in, realizing this was where Michelle had been all along.
1. Too late
Kensi and Deeks manage to take out the men in the warehouse and as the security guard is dying after Deeks shoots him, he goes to the wall and realizes the wall is fake. They get inside and rush to the refrigeration unit where they find Michelle. Soon, Sam and Callen arrive but it is obviously too late. Finding his wife deceased, Sam takes her into his arms as Callen asks everyone to leave. Deeks, Callen and Kensi reluctantly leave his side.