Now that Kensi’s back from Afghanistan on NCIS: Los Angeles, will she and Deeks finally get together? — Kylie
Although executive producer Shane Brennan doesn’t plan to fully explore that relationship until next season, there is one thing ‘shippers should look forward to: the reveal of what’s inside the box Kensi gave Deeks back in Season 4. “That box gets opened,” Brennan says. “It’s a lovely moment between the two of them.” Alas, that moment could quickly be ruined by the return of DEA Agent Talia in the season finale.

Source

The entire “NCIS: Los Angeles” team is on its way to Afghanistan to rescue Kensi (Daniela Ruah), who’s been captured by the Taliban. While she’s there, she discovers that she’s been sent to assassinate her ex-fiancé, Jack (Matthew Del Negro), who is living a completely new life as the White Ghost. Ruah talked to Yahoo TV about how this week’s episode, “Spoils of War,” will affect Kensi’s relationship with Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) and how Ruah’s experience as a new mother will affect her work on the show.

What can you tell us about shooting this episode?
It was awesome! It was very dark. It was very emotionally dark for [Kensi], considering what we’ve seen in the previous episodes with Jack, trying to figure out what happened there with him and in her past. This episode is very much going to be like a movie. If there were ever going to be an “NCIS: LA” movie, this would probably be similar to it. It’s incredible. It was written by Frank Military, who also debuts as a director in this episode. He’s also one of our darkest writers.

Anytime we delve into something personal for any one of our characters on the show, it always makes for a great episode. I think viewers really enjoy when they get to know us a little bit — to be part of milestones that end up shaping who [the characters] are in the future, and that’s very much what this episode is.

How is it affecting your relationship with other members of the team, especially Deeks?
I think it will inevitably affect their relationship. They were coming so close to turning into something for them, and then all of a sudden, Hetty [Linda Hunt] sends Kensi away on this mission. And she sends her away for a few months with very little contact with Deeks other than photographs they send each other. I think it’s like… what’s the expression? All of a sudden I’m thinking in Portuguese and I’m trying to translate into English! [Laughs.] It’s a stone in their shoe, it’s a thorn in their side. [Laughter.] Damn foreigners!

It will affect them; of course, it will affect them. Kensi confronts Jack and that whole situation from her past. It was unfinished business, for sure. But I think she finally came to terms with the fact that she was probably never going to see him again, and suddenly he shows up in a really strange setting for her, completely out of context. She thought he was dead or probably at least living in America. And it turns out he’s living in Afghanistan with this whole other life that he’s started. And he was the love of her life at one point. And what does that do to see the love of her life? If you think it’s not a real relationship, I think these two are definitely in some sort of relationship, Kensi and Deeks. So it affects it. Of course it does.

Was this a difficult episode to shoot? Stuck out in the desert like that?
I think when the writers and producers give us the opportunity to play scenes like this that are so juicy and so wonderful, I think any one of us cast members would do anything for a piece of our past, as characters — to play with a piece of our past. Because I think our show can be pretty light-hearted. It’s obviously a drama, but in terms of the characters themselves, it can be relatively light-hearted. And then once in a while, they show us these wonderful goodies to play with, and that’s what they did for me this season — they gave me this Jack situation to play with. And so I don’t think it was necessarily a challenge; it just made me want to be better.

Do you feel the need to differentiate your relationship with Deeks from other “NCIS” relationships… the relationship that Eric and Nell have, that Ziva and Tony have?
Of course, I want to differentiate as much as possible. I think that even though there are equivalent duos, we are still our own characters and, as actors, we play our roles in our own ways, so that’ll always make a big difference from other couples. And then, it kind of all depends on what we’re given to play. There’s a lot of banter, ups and downs, backs and forths with “Densi” or “Keeks,” as the fans call them. And they place obstacles in their way, and we try to get over those obstacles.

Especially if you compare us to the other couples on the show, obviously there’s a huge difference. You’ve got the nerdy couple, and they’ve got their own thing going on with their own nerdy type of humor. Callen and Sam are two men, and they have the relationship of partners and best friends. It’s almost “Lethal Weapon,” where you’ve got this rogue cop, Mel Gibson, who kind of attaches himself to Danny Glover’s character’s family, like this appendage that follows them around. That’s what Callen is to Sam’s family. And then you’ve got Kensi and Deeks, who will kind of get spicy once in a while. And then on the other hand, she’ll punch him in the shoulder

Are there any couples you’d liken Densi to? Sam and Diane? Lucy and Desi?
No, I think they are their own people, and they’ll create their own environment. And fortunately for us, it’s been working really well with the fans. They’ve been responding really well; if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t still be playing with this relationship. So, someone’s doing something right!

Do you feel like the relationship’s progressing either too fast or too slowly?
I definitely wouldn’t say too fast! I also don’t want to say too slow because, honestly, if we’re going to be playing it with it for 10 seasons — I don’t know how long we’ll go — but if we’re lucky enough to hit 10 seasons… I think at one point, of course, we’re going to have to have resolution one way or another. Whether they stay together or decide to fully not be together. I think they want to be together; I think they just need to find the right time and place to be together. But I definitely think they both want to.

Any more exciting things you get to do this season?
I think what I’ve been able to do so far has been pretty exciting! For me, the actress playing Kensi, the fact that they’ve allowed me to [shoot while I was pregnant]… They preshot a lot of the stuff. My first episode back was the episode that played last week. I was no longer pregnant there — though people might think I still look pregnant. [Laughs.]

I shot all the way up to seven and a half months. I had to lie on my tummy on the floor — we dug this big hole in the ground. All of that was so much fun to do and to play with. And one day, when my child is a little bit older, I can show him some of the scenes and say, “Look, you were in Mommy’s tummy at that time. Getting rid of bad guys and running away from explosions and gunshots, and you were in her belly the whole time.” So all of this has been a completely unforgettable experience for me. I don’t think there are a lot of people who could say that their pregnancy was registered in this kind of tone.

Were you chomping at the bit to come back, or was it hard to return from the pregnancy?
No! River, my son, gave me a wonderful gift other than himself — he decided to show up three weeks early. So that gave me extra time with him, because we had planned on when I would be coming back. Shane [Brennan, the show’s creator] and the writers were really flexible. They’re like, if you don’t feel like you can come back at this date, we’ll push it longer. But fortunately, I was aiming to come back when they were hoping to have me back. And they gave me another two weeks, which made it even easier.

And also another thing, too: They’ve been super-accommodating with me, which I’m so appreciative of. They make it easy for me to bring my son to work with me. I have a nanny, obviously, who takes care of him when I’m on set, and I get to be with him. Every lunchtime, I come back to my trailer. Every time we have some time between scenes for setup, I run back and I spend time with my son. I’m able to be a working mom, which is the example I have from home and the mom I always wanted to be. Moving train never stops! And he’s on the train with me all the time, which is awesome. I’m very privileged to be able to do that.

Has having a child given you a different perspective on your work?
The perspective is that I don’t matter, other than to keep him safe. When your mom says, “Don’t you want to wear a jacket?” and you say, “Mom, I’m 30 years old, I think I can make that decision for myself” — I don’t think I’m ever not going to tell him to wear a jacket outside; I don’t care if he’s 45. There’s just this sense of protection and love like I’ve never known it before. It’s so big… it’s so big that it makes you want to cry when you first feel it, when you first see your baby.

If you ever do it, if you ever decide to, there’s no bigger love. And I know people say this all the time, but you just feel it, it’s in you. It’s like, uh-oh — I’m toast. I’m done. I completely surrender to this little person that can’t even speak. It’s an incredible, incredible feeling, and I would do every all over again.

“NCIS: Los Angeles” airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. on CBS.

Soure

Does what happens in Afghanistan stay in Afghanistan? For NCIS: LA’s Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah), the answer is probably not.

On Tuesday’s episode (9/8c, CBS), Callen (Chris O’Donnell), Sam (LL Cool J) and Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) are sent to Afghanistan to rescue Kensi, who’s being held captive by the Taliban after a botched anti-terrorism mission in which she discovered that the alleged traitor she was sent to assassinate is none other than her former fiancé, Jack (Matthew Del Negro).

“I think this is probably my favorite episode that we’ve shot,” Ruah tells TVGuide.com. “It’s sort of like a movie. The action’s incredible. I think everybody was on their game, when it came to performances. There’s some really intense scenes. … It’s the team fighting for one of their own, which always makes for a good episode. There’s a lot at stake.”

The question, of course, is less whether Kensi will make it safely out of Afghanistan and more about what kind of condition she’ll be in when she returns. “She obviously cannot go unaffected by everything that’s happened,” Ruah says. “She’s a really strong woman and she does the best she can to get back in the job. She’s desperate to get back to normality, if that’s even a word. … I think there may repercussions later on with that.”

Hetty (Linda Hunt), for one, is “not entirely confident about Kensi’s psychological and emotional abilities when she first comes back,” Ruah notes. “So we’ll see how that pans out.”

Aside from any professional or emotional consequences, will Kensi’s encounter with Jack be the latest in a long line of wrenches thrown into her budding romance with Deeks?

“I think that there’s some sort of personal failure in Kensi’s mind … and I think it really hurts for her to think that she may have been part of why [Jack] had to leave. It’s definitely a painful situation,” Ruah explains. “I always feel like when you break up with somebody, if you break up because you don’t love them anymore, it becomes so much easier. But when you still love them and you have to break up for any other reason, it becomes really, really hard, and that’s kind of what happened to her. He left, and she still loved him, and she had to let those emotions pass with time, and all of a sudden [this] just rekindles everything. And of course, what does that do with her relationship with Deeks? Where does that stand? Does this sort of make everything go to zero, or does it make it stronger? We’ll have to see.”

While fans are clamoring for “Densi” to take their work partnership to the next level, Ruah is less convinced the two are destined to be together. “I don’t think anybody understands them better than they understand each other — but that could also make for a wonderful friendship,” she hedges. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll become a couple. I think they have to set their priorities straight, before anything could ever happen. What’s more important: their job or their future life together? … I’m actually indecisive of where I would like them to go.”

That’s not to say Ruah doesn’t appreciate the Densi ‘shippers, however. “It’s really flattering,” she says of fans’ emotional investment in the plot line. ” It keeps me in a job, for one. If people didn’t find us amusing or entertaining, we wouldn’t be happening. I feel appreciative, and I love playing along with it.”

Of course, the Afghanistan story line was a way for the show to deal with Ruah’s real-life pregnancy. (She gave birth to a baby boy in December.) Ruah is grateful that, as a result, she was able to keep working until she was seven-and-a-half months along.

“They could have just said, ‘Oh, Kensi’s in Afghanistan. We’ll see her in two and a half months when she’s back,” Ruah said. “[But showrunner Shane Brennan] decided to incorporate that as a huge part of this season’s arc, and we got a few bigger developments with Kensi and Deeks because of it, and I’m just really, really happy that I got to do all that stuff. They sent me to the Hindu Kush because it’s cold, and I could wear layers and layers of clothing, which means we could hide my belly. In Episode 18 … I think I was about six months pregnant there, and I had to dig a small hole in the sand so I could lie on my front. And then when they start shooting at me, I had to sort of roll over and I just felt like a turtle on my back. I couldn’t get up.”

With Season 5 of the drama winding down, future episodes will reveal to viewers (via flashbacks) more details about Kensi’s ordeal in Afghanistan — and in some ways, will bring the season full circle. Will her experience mirror that of Deeks in the first few episodes, after he and Sam were tortured?

“I find it interesting how they react in two very different ways,” Ruah notes. “Deeks began to sort of doubt what he’s doing with his life and wonder if he should come back, where I think Kensi has a very different reaction. I think what she finds stability in is her job, and I think that’s what she’s going to hold onto to make herself not go crazy, or feel overly traumatized about what happened.”

NCIS: LA airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS. Where do you think Kensi and Deeks will go from here?

Source

This Tuesday at 9/8c, CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles team makes tracks for Afghanistan, to track down and rescue a fallen-off-the-grid Kensi. TVLine spoke with new mom Daniela Ruah about filming Kensi’s solo mission while increasingly pregnant, her character’s conflict, “turbulent” times for Deeks and a somewhat controversial clobbering.

TVLINE | As I’ve spoken to Shane Brennan over the past six months or so, I’ve marveled at what he was able to pull together to work around the pregnancy and spin an exciting yarn, all without missing a beat. When did you tell him what was going on?
I held off from telling anybody but family until the 12-week mark, but that happened to come along about two weeks before we started shooting the season, which bode well for me because I gave Shane plenty of time to make a plan. So I scheduled a call and said I had some awesome news, that I’m 12 weeks pregnant, and his reaction was one of immediate joy. I said, “I know this is kind of like going to happen in the middle of the season, which doesn’t make things easy for anybody…,” but he was like, “No. No. No. This is the most joyous thing that’ll ever happen to you. Take advantage of every moment of it!”

TVLINE | I think the only consideration in this particular instance is that it’s one thing for Scandal’s pregnant Kerry Washington, who has fashionable pocketbooks and Oval Office furniture to hide behind, while we’re used to seeing Kensi running around in the field, packing heat, chopping guys down….
Right. I mean, the fact that they [accommodated] all of this is a huge, huge testament to how creative and supportive our writing staff is. It would have been so easy for them to just say, “OK. We sent Kensi to Afghanistan and she’ll be back when she’s back” — and they didn’t.

TVLINE | What did pre-filming Kensi’s storyline translate into for you?
I kept working until I was seven-and-a-half months pregnant. That was actually one of the reasons why they sent me to a place that would be cold, so I’d have an excuse to wear all that clothing and hide the belly. Scott Gemmill wrote the loose scenes of Kensi’s time in Afghanistan and then the writers of each episode would basically take those and make sense of them when they wrote their respective episodes. As I watched the show, it didn’t feel like the scenes stood out as being something we shot three months ago.

TVLINE | Any fun anecdotes of braving “Afghanistan” while pregnant?
In the scene where I purposely missed the shot with Jack, I think I was six-and-a-half months pregnant, so we dug a hole in the sand that I was fitting my belly inside. And then when the bad guys started shooting in my direction, I remember feeling like a turtle on my back, not being able to get back up! [Laughs] It was pretty funny. In the future, I can be like, “Hey, River, you were right there during those scenes,” if [my son] ever decides to go back and watch my work.

TVLINE | So now Kensi’s missing. Where does the next episode pick up? Are we going to immediately see what she’s up to?
The way the episode was written was one thing and the way it actually ended up is another, because the episode was so awesome that it ran 10 minutes over, so a little chopping had to happen here and there. But it is literally like a movie. It was written by Frank Military, who’s tends to write the darker material, like when that episode a couple seasons ago where the girl was buried alive in a box and we had Sam’s flashbacks of being buried…. It was also his directing debut. The whole team goes to Afghanistan to try and save Kensi, who has gone rogue and allowed herself to get captured by the Taliban, because she’s trying to get in touch with the White Ghost, with Jack. I’m so excited for “Spoils of War” because it’s going to be dark and heavy, and every single one of these characters is going to suffer in one way or another. It’s probably the best episode we’ve had on the show ever.

TVLINE | Speaking of Jack, what do you think was going through Kensi’s mind when she first saw him out there?
Complete shock. She hasn’t seen him in years, after he just left her one Christmas Eve because he was suffering from PTSD. So when she sees him, it’s like, “Is he better? Is he worse? Has he turned? Is he an enemy now?” You don’t know what that kind of disorder does to people. But at the same time there’s this missing him and wondering, “Can I pull him back?” And then there’s also this feeling of maybe personal failure — “What could I have done more to make this person better that I loved so much?” It’s a lot of internal conflict.

TVLINE | What kind of obstacles is the team going to have to deal with in order to save Kensi’s bacon?
The Taliban, for one. That is our large obstacle, and then there are a lot of personal obstacles. There are really tough decisions that our boys have to make in the process of saving Kensi. Deeks, for one, definitely goes through a very turbulent few moments.

TVLINE | What is it like when Kensi and Deeks first lay eyes on each other again?
I think it’s a little different for both of them — and once you watch the episode, you’ll kind of figure out why.

TVLINE | It sounds like it maybe doesn’t happen under the best circumstances.
Not really. And also, we still kind of don’t know what really happened after that dinner between them. They go home together, and then we’re supposed to meet at the end of the episode and she gets sent off [to Afghanistan]. Things were left off at this really uncertain place, so it’s like, “Where do you go from there?” They haven’t really talked about it. They never talk about their thing.

TVLINE | Before we go, there’s one thing that I promised readers I would bring up with you: When Kensi punched Deeks [in “The Frozen Lake”], it left a bad taste for some.
The punch after he doesn’t take the shot? Yeah. I know exactly what you’re talking about. And I completely understand where people are coming from. In a way, you could view it as sort of promoting aggression between colleagues at work, that kind of thing, and it being OK because there are no repercussions to it. However, I think if you take the situation and relate it only to these characters who people have seen progress through the seasons…. You know, Kensi kind of punches him all the time. Not that it makes it right, but that’s who they are. They’ve slapped each other on the butt. It’s not something for anybody who is in a working environment to imitate or to take as an example, but I think this is a completely isolated case, where characters would try and spruce things up. It’s what they do to each other. There was that time when where they’re in the hotel room and Deeks literally tosses Kensi onto the bed, and then he does it again and then they start jabbing at each other. It’s the way they play. Now in this case it wasn’t a play situation, but I still think that it’s who they are. But again, I completely understand why that may have bothered some people, and that obviously was never the intention.

TVLINE | One common refrain is that if the roles were reversed, such a scene wouldn’t be tolerated.
That also makes sense, but I think a guy did that to Kensi, she’d probably kill him – also not an example of what I want to put out!

Source

Tonight on NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, 9/8c), mild-mannered Eric Beale finds himself smack dab in the middle of a murder case – and not in a good way – when a college pal with access to Russian missile codes gets killed. And to get at the truth, his ops sidekick Nell will need to work her womanly wiles…?! Barrett Foa and Renée Felice Smith previewed for TVLine Eric’s “super cozy” jail stint (get an exclusive look at his mug shot!), Nell’s turn as a prim-but-flirty lawyer and Kensi’s surprising homecoming.

TVLINE | What has Eric gotten himself into this week?
BARRETT FOA | Eric Beale gets kind of involved with a bit of a crime, when his old college friend is shot at while playing an online game with Eric. After I hear it happen, I run over to his place and somehow get mixed up and start tampering with the crime scene, so I get thrown in jail, where there’s a bit of a hairy biker/Eric Beale sandwich.
RENÉE FELICE SMITH | A biker/Beale sandwich! The tastiest kind.
BARRETT | Eric is not too happy about that.
RENÉE | Weren’t you wearing your polar bear pajamas…?
BARRETT | Yes, I was, the ones from a previous season, and with my flip-flops, so it’s a little harrowing to spend the night in jail. Dressed like that. With the hairy biker guys. Super cozy. But eventually he gets sprung and then he ends up getting out in the field.

TVLINE | Because he’s basically the only sort of witness to this murder, right?
BARRETT | That’s true. And then reunites with another college buddy, Ira, who puts some questions in his head about, “Hmm, maybe you’re not appreciated at NCIS. Maybe you should come over to a more lucrative side of computer hacking.” And for a moment, that is something Eric struggles with. Like we all do — “What if I could be making more money doing something else?”
RENÉE | It’s a temptation. Eric Beale and Ira have the same background but Ira is living the high life, with a bachelor pad downtown….
BARRETT | Yeah, it’s a temptation, and it made me realize how government workers who are keeping our country safe, like Eric Beale, they’re sacrificing their lives and for not a lot of money.

TVLINE | But Renee, Eric is appreciated at NCIS, right?NCIS Los Angeles Eric Nell
RENÉE | Of course he’s appreciated! And he’s got friends who’ve got his back at his job, and that carries a lot of weight. That’s why we stick around.

TVLINE | As Eric struggles with this, does he seek counsel from Nell?
RENÉE | Eric and Nell have several key moments in the episode. There’s definitely some conflict between them at one point, because Nell turns up the charm to get what she wants out of Ira in an interrogation. It kind of sparks a moment where Eric is like, “Hey, wait a minute she’s my girl! What are you doing with her, Mr. Fancy Pants Ira?” But it was fun. I got to kind of go undercover as this prim, hard-hitting lawyer, and I got to reprimand LL Cool J and “throw him out” of the interrogation room.
BARRETT | Eric likes the show Nell’s putting on, but when it gets a little too cozy he doesn’t like it. But again, it’s about the team and that support system. There was a scene where I was on the roof, and I’ve never had bullets being shot at me — that was a first for Eric — so it was cool to see LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell protecting me from the bad guys. There’s also a really nice scene that Nell and I have, where she kind of welcomes Eric back and comforts him, after the rough night in jail.
RENÉE | She’s basically using humor to calm the situation and ease him back into the workplace, which is what we do as humans.
BARRETT | Renee just did that for me the other day when I was having some [real-life] personal problems.
RENÉE | Like my great-grandma always said, “If you don’t laugh you’re gonna cry, so you might as well laugh.”

TVLINE | Ooh, I like that saying. You two have had a particularly interesting past year-and-a-half or so. Any favorite moments?
RENÉE | My knife fight this season was kind of groundbreaking for my character. She’s always been this intelligent person and now we have her in the field, and whatever training she’s received from Hetty is being seen played out. She carries a knife in her boot, so now we know that about her. Don’t [mess] with her, she’s ready to go!
BARRETT | Definitely the Christmas episode last year, with the kiss between Eric and Nell, that whole teasing. But I also loved the “pants episode” this season. Basically I had e-mailed one of our EPs, like, “It’s really cold on set, maybe Eric Beale gets to wear some long pants? Maybe it’s time?” And we had this hilarious e-mail exchange and eventually Scott Gemmill wrote an episode where Hetty puts Eric in pants, and he just cannot handle it. His thighs are being “constricted” and he doesn’t feel free…. And Nell is like, “Dude, you’ve gotta relax.” We also learned that Eric used to wear kilts in ops….
RENÉE | He’s a very complex character.

TVLINE | Next week, the team goes over to Afghanistan — but do Eric and Nell stay behind to hold down the fort?
RENÉE | It’s a bit of fort-holding.
BARRETT | Much holding of fort. Eric and Nell break the rules and go out of ops every now and into the field, but there are some essential things that need to be done in ops.
RENÉE | Eric’s our rock and Nell’s our pebble. Sometimes she flits around, but she always finds herself back in ops with Eric.

TVLINE | [Showrunner] Shane Brennan told me that when Kensi eventually comes back from Afghanistan (in the April 8 episode), it’s not exactly the easiest homecoming.
BARRETT | There are some transition issues.
RENÉE | There are definitely issues. Hetty kind of encourages Kensi to stay close to home in ops, so she and Eric Beale get to spend some time together, which gives Nell and Deeks some time together in the field. It’s nice to see the partnerships broken up, different people interacting.
BARRETT | [Ops] is not Kensi’s area of expertise. She’s doesn’t thrive there. And she’s kind of annoying for Eric. [Laughs]

TVLINE | Lastly, what if anything are you hearing about the finale?
BARRETT | Not as much as you are, probably. They keep pretty tight-lipped.

TVLINE | But shall we assume pyrotechnics?
BARRETT | I am sure.
RENÉE | Most definitely!

Click to see and exlusive photo March 25th, episode.

Source

It may not be safe to entrust Eric Christian Olsen with spoilers. “I’m off to go get killed,” he says, picking himself up from a shaded picnic table and heading back out into a Southern California winter heat wave. In the parched hills above Santa Clarita, sets for an Afghan army base and village have been constructed, making NCIS: Los Angeles suddenly seem like NCIS: Afghanistan. “This,” he repeats, “is the scene where Deeks dies.”

He’s joshing, of course, since the only fatality for Olsen’s character this season is more along the lines of “I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight,” if you can stand an ’80s-­music reference. His Deeks and Daniela Ruah’s Kensi have long provided the implicit romance that complements the bromance of LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell on the smash series. In November, the two finally hooked up, however briefly, shocking fans who expected an endless variation on the unconsummated flirtation common to coworkers on TV procedurals. But no sooner had the pairing known to shippers as Densi become an actual thing than Kensi was sent to Afghanistan, where, in the upcoming episode I’m observing, her partner and putative beau has come looking for her.

Would it kill Deeks and Kensi to spend a second night together? Well, yeah, actually, it might.

Ruah really does look like death warmed over when I meet with her at this location’s makeshift commissary. Her lip is cut, the right side of her face is black-and-blue, and a wound over her left eye has been crudely stitched (all thanks to an expert makeup crew). But she springs to life, as does Olsen, when the subject of romance comes up.

Olsen: That’s more honest storytelling, because that’s what life is. You don’t have 10-year relationships of flirting without taking that to the next level.

TV Guide Magazine: Unless it’s on your parent show, NCIS, where Tony and Ziva did pretty much just that.
Ruah: If you compare us to the other show, our characters have similar traits. If you go by the very superficial traits of these characters, you’ve got the brunette, kick-ass girl who’s too tough for her own good, and then you’ve got the sarcastic funnyman —
Olsen: Charming, attractive —
Ruah: Right. Sure. [Laughs] And I think that since people already compare us by those traits, if you didn’t differentiate where the relationship goes, it would just be a repetition of what’s been done before. So the fact that we’ve shown something more than just the banter and flirtation between these two characters was actually quite crucial to our show. You want to make it your own and pull away from what’s been done, especially on a show that has the same name as ours.

TV Guide Magazine: But doesn’t the other shoe have to drop? It seems unlikely that the producers would let you guys move in together and have domestic bliss.
Olsen: That’s why they kill off Deeks.
Ruah: No, no. I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen. Prepare for Eric to roll his eyes. Think Friends: Ross and Rachel, on and off for 10 years, have a baby together, the show ends, and they are in bliss — but it’s at the end of the show. I’m just sayin’.
Olsen: I don’t even know how to do an eye roll.

TV Guide Magazine: Give yourself credit. That was an excellent eye roll you just did, Eric.
Olsen: But seriously, this is where the obstacles are so important. Just because something has happened doesn’t mean that two characters can be together, especially when there are consequences for their actions. Especially when they’re partners at work and they’re putting themselves in danger. Because when you’re driven by passion, you’re not doing your job right. And that’s where the storytelling gets really interesting. The journey after that moment is much more interesting than the journey before that moment.

NCIS: LA airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on CBS and Sundays and Mondays on USA Network.

For more on NCIS: LA, pick up this week’s issue of TV Guide Magazine, on newsstands Thursday, March 6!

Source