Several lives (and perhaps a bit of love) were left in jeopardy as CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles wrapped its fourth season. Tonight at 9/8c, the drama picks up right where it left off, with Deeks being brutally tortured for intel on Quinn and Sam’s wife dangling from a window ledge. (As previously scooped, Michelle is not easily felled.) Here, showrunner Shane Brennan previews the physical and emotional fallout, his big plans for a milestone hour and hints at a midseason surprise.

TVLINE | As the new season opens, obviously we’re not getting rid of Sam and Deeks. So I guess it’s not a question of will they survive, but how they survive?
That’s correct. It is always hectic to come out of these things and explore what the implications are — not just for them, but for their relationships with others.

TVLINE | Are you going straight into it, or are you going to show us everything fine and dandy and then give us “12 hours earlier…”?
No, we pick it up where we left off, roll straight into it and it’s pretty full-on, for want of a better description. There’s a big surprise in it. When we think that they’re about to be rescued, maybe they’re not. It gets pretty brutal for the guys. And then there are the ramifications of that, which certainly ripple very deeply into the season.

TVLINE | Eric Christian Olsen told me that Deeks has his most honest conversations ever with both Sam and then later with Kensi.
And there is a lot to talk about. The second episode is very, very emotional. And in Episode 4, there’s a scene between Hetty and Granger, where they’re talking about Kensi and Deeks, and basically Hetty says, “Partnerships can be tricky.” So it really cuts deeply into this season, and there are some very, very big surprises and big turns. This is probably the most laid-out season we’ve ever done. We know every turning point of this season and it really is quite powerful.

TVLINE | Is it safe to say that Deeks has shown Sam a thing or two about himself?
There’s a newfound respect between the two of them. This isn’t the first time Sam’s been in this situation, but it certainly is for Deeks. The tensions and friction between those two characters have been part of the series, and to a certain extent they’re laid to rest.

TVLINE | What does Kensi think about what Deeks has gone through? Does it give her a bit of a scare?
It gives her a big scare. And because everything was predicated by the kiss, a very unexpected kiss, there are two things to be discussed or to be handled. The first is: How will Deeks physically and mentally come through this? Once that is kind of resolved, then there is the elephant in the room, the kiss, which is clearly just between Deeks and Kensi. As a consequence of both the kiss and what happened to Deeks in the finale and what happens to him in the opening episode, their relationship goes to a new level. It continues at that pitch right through the season and then takes a most unexpected turn at the back end of the season. It takes a very, very interesting turn. I mean, really interesting. This is a big act for the season, Kensi/Deeks, and we’re moving it pretty rapidly through the season. When I say “moving it,” their relationship goes to a new level, to a place that a lot of these shows don’t go. And obviously, we take another step in Callen’s journey….

TVLINE | I was going to ask: Any new vittles about him coming our way?
Episode 100 focuses pretty squarely on Callen and his past and his journey. And there may be something for the fans who have watched the Callen stuff closely. They know that he has a little tea tin sitting on the mantle in his house, filled with little pieces of his past, pieces of the jigsaw. Well, he adds another very significant piece of the puzzle to that box in Episode 100. It’s incredibly emotional.

TVLINE | Is Episode 100 going to be out of format or anything?
No. We’ve done “Callen, G.” We’ve done “Lange, H.” We’ve done “Blye, K.” This one’s called, “Reznikov, N.” So clearly this is about someone important, to get their name in the title..

TVLINE | Are you going to be shedding any light on Granger’s past? You kind of been teasing it for a bit now.
You’ll see more of Miguel Ferrer this season; he’s not a regular, but he has joined the title sequence. Later in the season, he plays a very pivotal role in the Kensi/Deeks relationship. And in Episode 100, he is put in very, very serious jeopardy. I won’t say anything more about Granger’s role in 100, but it’s pretty intense.

TVLINE | And I reported a couple of weeks ago that Pete Cambor is going to swing by again, as Nate Getz?
Well, when you have a couple of agents who have been tortured, there’s always a little bit of a debrief with the resident psychiatrist or psychologist. So yes, he makes an appearance — and it won’t be his last appearance this season.

TVLINE | Is Deeks one of those headstrong types like, “I don’t need my head looked at. I’m fine.” Or does he admit that he’s shaken up?
I will say this. Eric Christian Olsen is an incredibly talented actor and you really get to see a new side of Deeks because of this trauma that he’s been through. And Eric is phenomenal in those scenes.

TVLINE | Any other returning faces to talk about?
There could be a returning face later this season who will surprise everyone. I haven’t resolved that yet, but there will be some very interesting guests midseason.

TVLINE | What about any of your NCIS: Red characters [from the spin-off CBS passed on]? Chris O’Donnell had great chemistry with Kim Raver. It’s got to be tempting to grab her for an episode and play that a bit.
The interesting thing about the characters in the NCIS world is that they can come back, once they’re established. Certainly some of the folks who were on the Red team may pop up on NCIS: Los Angeles in the future.

TVLINE | Does it feel like you’ve got 100 episodes under your belt already?
This is a great show, and the enthusiasm from the cast is still like it was in Season 1. Everyone is really having a ball. We’ve got so many stories to tell and, given the nature of our show and the way it sometimes reflects or sometimes preempts what’s happening in the world, this is a show that has a lot of legs. It will go for a long time.

TVLINE | Well, with Dancing With the Stars’ results show gone and NCIS: LA now sandwiched between NCIS and Person of Interest, I think you have a real opportunity here to build buzz.
We’re No. 2 in terms of “bums on seats,” as we say in Australia, and I’m very happy with that place.

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NCIS: Los Angeles closed out Season 4 with the cruelest of cliff-hangers, leaving fans to wonder all summer whether Michelle (Aunjanue Ellis), who was last seen dangling out of a window, would survive; and whether Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) would crack under the pressure of being gruesomely tortured. Oh, and then there are the tiny matters of Deeks and Kensi (Daniela Ruah) locking lips before everything went to hell, and of Callen (Chris O’Donnell) being betrayed by The Chameleon (Christopher Lambert), which set off the aforementioned chain of events.

“The [Season 4] finale and the premiere episode for Season 5, the impact of that particular story will have the greatest consequence of any story we’ve told,” executive producer Shane Brennan tells TVGuide.com. “For a number of characters involved in that, there’s nowhere to hide. If you think about the trauma that nearly all of them went through in the process of the finale, these things are not easily swept under the rug. We’re not going to pay lip service to them and then move on. … Particularly Kensi and Deeks, their relationship has been altered by the kiss, and then it’s been altered by the trauma that Deeks is going through when we left him.”

TVGuide.com turned to Brennan, as well as Olsen and Ruah, to get scoop on the Season 5 premiere (Tuesday, 9/8c, CBS). Here are six teasers from the season opener:

1. There won’t be any break in the action. “It’s a continuous season premiere from the finale,” Brennan says. “We play the story out in that first episode. … Everything that we set up in the finale is addressed. I won’t say everything is resolved, but everything is addressed.” For Kensi, it raises the stakes of needing to rescue Deeks and Sam (LL Cool J) before it’s too late. “Now it’s not just her partner she’s saving,” Ruah notes. “It’s this guy that she might have a future with.”

2. Deeks’ troubles may have only just begun. As if the stomach-churning scene of Deeks getting his teeth drilled wasn’t enough — “I’m sure everyone who had a dental appointment over the summer decided to cancel the appointment,” Brennan jokes — don’t look for the show to ease up as the season progresses. “If you think that that was the big moment in this story arc, it wasn’t. There’s something bigger to come,” Brennan says. “The opening episode is very, very traumatic for both Sam and for Deeks. … Post-traumatic stress is something that happens after the event, sometimes a long time after the event. Deeks is going to have issues well into this season, and he’s going to turn to the people he loves and cares about for help.”

3. Don’t expect a happy ending for Deeks and Kensi. At least not right away. “It’s going to take a little while for Deeks and Kensi to talk this whole thing out. … This season will focus a lot on the Deeks/Kensi relationship,” Brennan notes. Viewers who are hoping for a quick resolution to the pair’s trajectory aren’t alone, however. “I think the audience deserves something. I don’t think it would work if you just bury it, let it go and never talk about it,” Ruah says. “They’re humans. At some point, something has to be said.” But it’s not just Deeks who’s holding back this time. “More than any of them, Kensi is probably in the most emotionally difficult position,” Brennan says. “If this had been a normal day and she’d gone back home and gone to bed, she probably would have lay awake and thought about it all, but she hasn’t got that luxury. The mission comes first, so she’s focused on that. But… as we get to the conclusion of the opening episode, she will need to refocus on … ‘What just happened between Deeks and I, and what does that mean for the future? Does that jeopardize our partnership? Do I ignore this? Do I embrace this? What am I going to do?'”

4. Will Sam have a newfound respect for Deeks going forward? It’s no secret that Sam and Deeks aren’t exactly a buddy-cop pair. But will Deeks’ risking his own life to save Sam and his wife finally earn him Sam’s respect? “They’re the two most contrasting characters on the page,” Olsen says. “There’s a really f—ing great scene in the season premiere between the two of them about that very thing.” But viewers shouldn’t assume anything about their relationship until it plays out, Brennan cautions. “Was Deeks strong enough to resist the torture? Did Deeks give something away? Is Michelle going to pull through this?” he teases. “The audience will have to sit through that and then make their assessment of what Sam thinks of Deeks. The story is only half-told.”

5. Brace for a showdown between Callen and The Chameleon. Callen feels a level of responsibility for Deeks’ and Sam’s predicament, since it was his decision to work with the Chameleon that compromised Sam and Michelle in the first place. “He needs to right this,” Brennan says. “He needs to make sure that the Chameleon does not get away with what he did.” But their story line won’t be wrapped up neatly. “At some point, these two men will find themselves in a room and only one will come out alive,” Brennan promises. “I’m not saying that it happens in the opening episode, but it will happen.”

6. Is the team damaged beyond repair? As previously reported, Brennan has said that someone will be leaving the team by the end of the season. Whether the departure is a direct result of the events in the Season 4 finale remains to be seen, but it will take a significant toll on Hetty (Linda Hunt). “This will be the toughest season for Hetty,” Brennan says. “She sends people out into danger, running towards the bullets in effect, and she’s done that all of her career. … The way this impacts her people, these events, and the personal effect it has on them, puts her in a very difficult position as the leader of the team. In fact, she is going to have some very difficult decisions to make this season — including a decision about the future of one of her agents.”

NCIS: LA kicks off Season 5 Tuesday at 9/8c on CBS. Do you think Deeks and Sam will survive their ordeal? And which team member do you think will be leaving?

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NCIS: Los Angeles season 4 ended with the tragic scene of Deeks and Sam being tortured by Isaak Sidorov after Marcel Janvier betrayed them. Their search for the missing nukes was interrupted with not only their lives at risk, but with Quinn’s life literally hanging on the edge.

Deeks went from a high moment in his life when he finally kissed Kensi to the lowest possible when he was being tortured. I caught up with Eric Christian Olsen at the CBS Annual Summer Stars event to ask him about the events of the finale and how those events will play out into the upcoming season….

Did you watch the torture scene?

Olsen: I read your article “Did the Torture Go Too Far?” I read the article and then went back and re-watched that because of what you wrote and I was like, ‘she was right.’ It’s not graphic, it’s not gruesome. It’s just literally that scream at the end. And you wrote very kind words about me and what they allowed me to do on that show. And I think that you’re right. I think what’s so heartbreaking is that you see a character that I think for some reason has made so many emotional attachments with fans that they and you saw him just at the bottom.

It was the scream. You sold it with the scream. I think people imagined more than what is actually shown.

Olsen: Yeah. He really just puts the drill up and then it goes back to Sam and off camera you hear that awful scream.

How was it to film that scene?

Olsen: It was awful. It was awful. I couldn’t do a horror movie. I know that. My buddy did Hostel and I almost did that movie with him, but I couldn’t have done it. Jamming that thing in my mouth and I’m all tied down. I read a bunch of books this summer about torture and war and about PTSD and what the effects of that kind of — what we shot. And, I can’t even imagine what that’s like for someone to go through when that’s real because even when it was fake and they yelled “cut” it still got in my head.

Why was Deeks able to hold strong for Sam and Sam’s wife, especially given Sam’s almost disdain for Deeks?

Olsen: I think that’s who he is. I don’t think he’s doing it so much for Sam or to prove himself. I think that’s just who he is as a person. This is an opportunity in which he gets to kinda show “I don’t know what your problem is with me and it’s about my hair. It’s about the style of music. It’s about all these things that don’t matter.” This is the sh*t that f***ing matters and you’ll see how it ends.

The season premiere is so good. It is absolutely heartbreaking. I think the most interesting thing about these types of shows are not the events, but the consequence of the events and how it affects the relationships of the characters. And, this is maybe the most — it’s such a watershed moment for so many of the characters. I think there’s consequences emotionally to deal with for what it is that happens.

For Deeks, this is not his background. He was a lawyer. He got into being a detective and then all of a sudden he’s tortured for 7 hours. And, he doesn’t have the ability, at this point, to compartmentalize and fight through it. It’s the most raw he’s ever been. It’s the most vulnerable he’s ever been. It’s the most honest conversations that he’s ever had with Sam and more interesting it’s the most honest conversation he’s ever had with Kensi. There’s a scene with her that’s so good at the end [of the premiere]. Everyone at base camp was crying. Just tears.

Before Deeks got tortured, he had a moment with Kensi. Why did he chose that moment to make a move?

Olsen: I think because he — especially when he has those kind of emotions — he has an inability to articulate`how he feels. And, especially with her. I think that you have that moment of clarity and I think we have this in our own lives which is just those perfect moments of clarity in which everything makes sense in the world. And, that was that. That was that moment. That was that kiss. And, that was that moment after that kiss. It’s just like that’s it. And, then we spend the rest of our lives trying to get back to that moment. And now we’ve put all these obstacles in his path to get back to the place where it was that. Which is this is how I feel. This is how I feel about you. And, this is what I want. And, now that’s all out the window.

That’s so sad. I have to say that I was never a fan of Deeks and Kensi getting together until the season finale. I thought that they’re partners. They can’t hook up.

Olsen: Right. That’s why it’s genius. That’s why Scott Gemmill and Shane Brennan and Frank [Military] are all geniuses. It’s like we can take them to that place and then tear his world apart. Let him fight to get back there. You know what I mean. You have that moment. We all have these. We can think back on our lives like when it made that most sense. When life made the most sense and relationships made the most sense. And, whatever happens and we lose that, we spending the rest of our lives trying to get back to it.

Do you know what’s in the box?

Olsen: Yeah.

And will the viewers find out?

Olsen: Yes.

Early in the season?

Olsen: No. They’re going to have to wait.

Will it be this next season?

Olsen: I think it’s gonna be this season. We’ll find out what’s in the box.

NCIS: Los Angeles season 5 premieres on Tuesday, September 24 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.

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Can Kensi and Deeks put the mate in teammate? That’s the question on NCIS: Los Angeles, where the long-­simmering tension between Daniela Ruah’s and Eric Christian Olsen’s characters threatens to ­bubble over in the Season 4 finale.

Conventional relation-“shipper” wisdom says that the “Densi” banter will never come any closer to an actual romance than “Tiva” (Tony and Ziva) ever has on the mother ship, NCIS. Yet we can guarantee that some emotionally explicit, heartfelt words will be spoken between the star-crossed agents, which may be the next best thing to an actual non-undercover clinch. We sat down with the costars in Ruah’s trailer during filming of the finale — in which Kensi and Deeks are broken up professionally, as are longtime partners Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Sam (LL Cool J) — and can assure you that the banter doesn’t stop when the cameras do.

TV Guide Magazine: We hear there’s a third party who forces Kensi and Deeks to acknowledge their feelings for each other. What can you tell us about her?
Ruah: It’s a woman named Monica [Jeananne Goossen], who has close ties to someone who might have ties to these stolen nukes that have been an ongoing storyline. Deeks is assigned to get close to her and befriend her. And sometimes when a man and a woman have to get close to each other and befriend each other, it’s a little more physical. So obviously that’s an interesting thing for Kensi to have to observe. I’m hearing it, because I’m in the car doing surveillance.
Olsen: What’s crazy about this season is that there were always discussions about their partnership, which obviously leads to conversations and hints about the relationship. But then these last seven episodes have come to a boiling point.
Ruah: And with the addition of Monica, it drives Kensi crazy. She knows you can’t really have anything come of this, because they’re partners. And they get closer and closer to talking about what’s going on between them, but nothing has actually ever been said. But it’s getting to a point of blowing up.

TV Guide Magazine: And this all happens just as Kensi and Deeks split up as partners on the job?
Olsen: We have to switch. So I end up working with Sam.
Ruah: And I end up working with Callen. It’s a wonderfully stressful episode. There are tensions between all the partnerships, so it’s not just a Kensi/Deeks thing. There’s tension between Callen and Sam, Kensi and Deeks, and Sam and his wife, ­Michelle [Aunjanue Ellis], who’s back undercover. There’s constant tension between the partnerships.

TV Guide Magazine: On the original NCIS, they’ve gone eight seasons without ever taking Tony and Ziva over that precipice into a real relationship. Think you’ll beat that record?
Ruah: But didn’t they have an episode when they both were in the same hotel room in Paris and ­nobody really knows if anything happened or not?
Olsen: The NCIS: L.A. writers did an amazing job with the exact same thing when we were undercover as a married couple. We had a kiss that blew up on Twitter. But it was undercover, so there was a rationalization for how these things happen. But this episode is gonna be interesting. Statements are made, and how do you [retreat to] common ground ­ after that? Maybe you don’t.
Ruah: The writers have done an impeccable job keeping it interesting for us — and, I think, for the audience. We get so much feedback on it. There are people who say, “When are Kensi and Deeks gonna hook up?” Then there are other people who say, “No, no, no. We don’t want this to happen; otherwise the interesting thing about it is gone.”

TV Guide Magazine: Do you have a preference for how this plays out?
Ruah: I actually don’t. I’m going with the flow here. If they were to get together too soon, it probably would become less interesting, and then where do you go from there? I don’t think it would fit the team dynamic if they were to have a steady relationship.
Olsen: The most interesting version of any of those relationships — if you look at the history of great TV shows, and even back to literature — is you have two characters who are obviously meant to be together, and you give them the largest obstacles to navigate. That’s the most compelling kind of storytelling.

TV Guide Magazine: As the finale ends, Kensi and Deeks have grown emotionally closer but are physically separated. Sounds like a real cliffhanger…
Olsen: Very much so!
Ruah: Absolutely. It’s very emotional. It’s dangerous. It’s definitely cringe-worthy.

NCIS: Los Angeles airs Tuesday at 9/8c on CBS.

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Shane Brennan is a busy man.

He created NCIS: Los Angeles. He’s behind its potential spinoff, Red. And he’s also developed the new series coming in June to TNT, King & Maxwell.

But Brennan still found time to jump on the phone with TV Fanatic this week and talk about his myriad of projects.

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TV Fanatic: Let’s start with King & Maxwell. What are the different challenges in creating the show based on the David Baldacci books? An NCIS spinoff is one thing but this is coming from a different – and very popular – source.
Shane Brennan: David Baldacci has sold over 130 million books around the world, and a whole bunch of those are based on King & Maxwell. It would be pretty crazy of me to adapt those books and give my particular take on King & Maxwell. It has to be David’s take so the audience will recognize it. Otherwise, the audience who love the characters in the novels will be critical of the characters on the screen. It’s very challenging.

Baldacci actually has said so publicly [that] we have surpassed his great hope that these characters would translate to the screen, and you can thank Rebecca [Romijn] and Jon [Tenney] for that. They are astonishing as King & Maxwell.

TVF: Let’s move over to NCIS: Los Angeles, which of course has another couple that everyone’s rooting for to get together, the whole Kensi-Deeks relationship. Can you talk a little about what’s coming for them in the finale.
SB: It is one of the powerful season finales we’ve done because of what’s at stake. Anyone who’s watched the season knows that there are a bunch of nuclear weapons about to be sold on to the market and all that comes to a head in the finale…because there’s so much jeopardy because the stakes are so much higher, you find characters doing things that they wouldn’t normally do. Under that pressure, we certainly see hints of something unexpected, something that the audience has perhaps wanted to see but it comes in a surprising way. It provides a moment…let me say, a bittersweetness to the Kensi-Deeks relationship in this last episode of the season.

TVF: In “Raven & The Swans,” Callen questioned Hetty’s recruiting tactics and her background, which we got a really nice back story there. Is that just filling in gaps there? Or is that something that’s going to come to light in these next episodes?
SB: That’s almost, in fact, setting up something for next season. This season we focused a lot of our storytelling Sam revealing the other side of Sam, the fact that he’s married to a woman who turns out to be a former CIA agent, who has been reactivated. We focused on that, but we haven’t done much on the Callen story. We touched on various parts of the Hetty-Callen backstory. Certainly in “Raven & The Swans,” we touched on that some more.

It is, in fact, though, setting up what would be a pretty astonishing season in season five, where we focus on Callen. We restart his journey of discovery, and it clearly involves Hetty, and it will take us into some very surprising places next season.

TVF: How are Callen and Sam? They seem to be in a good place just partnership-wise. Is there conflict between them in these next episodes?
SB: Well, one of the interesting things that happens in the finale is that, because of the circumstance of the episode, all of the partnerships are swapped around. We’ve done this once or twice before over the last four seasons, and there’s always been a certain amount of fun. It takes on much more of a dangerous element in this season finale with these changes.

We have Deeks and Sam partner up. These are two characters when we put them together there was always friction. All that’s turned on its head because of the circumstances that they find themselves in…this episode goes to a very dark place. Particularly, the last two scenes, it’s quite grueling to watch. The stakes are very high because we’re talking about these new weapons [and] as a result, what we have is probably the most powerful last two scenes of NCIS: LA that we’ve ever done.

When I was watching the cut [of the episode], I had to look away. I won’t tell you what I was looking away from, but it will take you to perhaps, the reality of what can happen to these undercover agents when things don’t go quite the way they were planned.

TVF: Assuming the Red spinoff goes forward, how will it be different from the other shows in the franchise?
SB: I didn’t want to do NCIS: New York. To me, and I’ve worked on a lot of different procedurals over the years, both in this country and in Australia. And the thing that the audience always ultimately hankers for is, so what do they do when they go home? That’s what Red is. You get to see them at home. You get to see them in the pressure cooker of working and living together, and this has a different pace and feeling than the other two. It will be a different show, but within the NCIS franchise, but in the NCIS world. This thing goes about solving crimes in their own particular way, and that particular style they have is based on them having been forced to work and live together.

So the lines between their personal lives and their work lives, they’re not blurred, they’re just totally intermingled so they can be on their way to the laundry, and have to stop and track down a suspect. They can wake up in the morning, argue over putting the strap on their guns and go to a crime scene, and when there’s a crime scene argue over who’s going to do the dishes when they get back, and who was snoring, and all those sorts of issues that we have when we get into the personal lives of people. To me, it seemed to be a great opportunity to see what the other side of the coin looks like.

NCIS: Los Angeles airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBS. King & Maxwell premieres June 10th at 10 p.m. on TNT. We’ll find out about Red next week when CBS announces its fall programming slate.

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If you enjoyed the two episodes of “NCIS: Los Angeles” that delved into Special Agent G. Callen’s (Chris O’Donnell) mysterious past, you won’t want to miss the next two episodes of the CBS drama. In them, the book is opened on the life-changing incident that had the biggest effect on shaping Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) into the woman/agent she is today: the mysterious death of her father.

Kensi doesn’t talk much about her dad, so her team doesn’t know all the details of his death. Was it an accident as it was ruled at the time, or was it really a cold-blooded murder?

“She never believed it was an accident,” Ruah says. “She always felt that there was something more to the story. She thought her dad might have been murdered. She doesn’t know why. These episodes are going to tie up the loose ends of her father’s story, her history and all that jazz.”

So, when the special agent is taken into custody as the lead suspect in a murder investigation involving a former colleague of her father’s from his sniper unit, Callen, Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) and Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) spring into action to clear her name.

In this exclusive interview, Ruah weighs in on Kensi’s unique relationship with Deeks, what her motivation could have been for joining NCIS, getting to do all the kick-ass stunts and more.

How much of who she is do you feel is because of her relationship with her father and his death?
So much of her wanting to solve her father’s case — if there is a case — we don’t know that until we are further ahead into the episodes — defines her in such a way that it made her join NCIS. If her motive behind joining NCIS is not that she just wants to be agent then that also puts the whole team in question because was she working for her own motives and not the team and the greater good? There is a lot about her life and what makes her tick that is explained.

Even if she has an ulterior motive, she still has been a very productive member of the team.
Of course she has, but we never know to what extent people have second intentions behind things. Her father’s death was a big drive in her life and made her make big decisions. She could have gone to the CIA or the FBI. She could have gone to organizations that are bigger — she was the best in her class — but she chose NCIS very specifically. [These two episodes are] quite a voyage for Kensi. It is quite a voyage of internal turmoil and unresolved [issues]. It was really great to play Kensi in these two episodes. Lots of emotional roller coasters.

Will you be a part of the action?
As we have seen in the promo, I have become a person of interest in the murder of one of the men who was in my father’s sniper unit. Whether I am guilty or not, I will not tell you. I will say that they take me into custody and they won’t let me talk to my team.

Does Deeks have her back on this? They have a unique relationship. Sometimes I think they enjoy working together; others not so much. What is your take on that relationship?
I think it is a relationship like two human beings who are really attracted to each other but know it probably would not be a healthy thing for anyone, especially their jobs, if they got together. So, there is definitely an attraction. I think over time, they have gained this unconditional care for each other, whether that be brotherly or sexual or romantic or just friendly. Regardless of that, they care for each very much so much so that every time something happens to Deeks or to Kensi, the other one steps in immediately and tries to help them and tries to get the rest of the team to help them. We will never leave our partner behind. It is not just the principle. I definitely think they have a love for each other, whatever kind of love this may be. And of course, this whole part 1 and part 2 affects their relationship very much. Again in the promo, Deeks is the one who has to bring her in and she knows that is going to be hard for him. She knows that that is the last thing he wants to do.

But he also wants to know her secrets.
He does. I don’t know if it is just out of curiosity. I think he genuinely cares. He knows this has been a big thing in her life. She doesn’t talk about her father all that much. In a previous episode, he has said, “You don’t talk about your dad.”

They threw in a cameo appearance by real-life NCIS Director Mark D. Clookie? Did you get to work with him? What was it like to have him on the set?
It was so, so nice. It is an honor to have people in his position think that we are a good enough representation of people like him for him to come on the show and be a part of it. I think that is a big compliment to the show, to the writers and to the way the whole team has come together. If we were terrible, I doubt he would have wanted to be a part of it. It was a great honor to have him on the show. I think he was a little nervous. He was quiet. We were in the same scene, but there were so many of us, we didn’t get to exchange any lines.

What is it like to be the only female with three male agents?
It feels as if I were the younger sister in a group of three brothers and one sister. I go between feeling highly protected by these guys, getting wonderful advice from them, knowing who to turn to if I have questions about life, about real estate, about cooking, about anything really, they all have such different interests, it is wonderful. But I am also the younger sister who gets picked on. I love it. I love that I can snap back at them if I have to and a minute later, no one is offended. I think you become a family. They were all so much more experienced than I was with working here in the United States. I have learned a lot from them. It is nice. You get that bit of attention more than anyone else because you are the only girl.

Were you a tomboy growing up so all the kick-ass action that Kensi is a part of comes naturally to you?
I grew up as a tomboy. I still liked the feminine things. I had my Barbies. I had some dresses, but essentially, I was jeans and T-shirts. I cut my hair off when I was about 14 years old to my mother’s chagrin. She was, “Don’t do it. It will take years to grow back.” And it did. I grew up with a majority of male friends. Of course, I did have some girlfriends. In terms of the physical activity and the fighting that is required, I think it is a mixture of me being maybe a little feisty and me loving it. I love playing that tough character. I know I can do other things, but I love this character. It is so much fun and I have learned so much working with our stunt coordinator and fighters. They work with me and they let me come to their location where they train and they let me train with them even though I don’t have any scenes that require that. They still work with me. I remember being about 8 years old and doing a backward somersault going down the steps of my aunt’s house because I thought that one day, if I became an actress, I would need to know how to fall down stairs. For liability reasons, they never let me do that on the show, but the fact is, it has been a little bug inside of me for a long time.

So you knew you wanted to be an actress even that young?
You know what is funny? I grew up more focused on dance. I danced six days a week and one day a week, I had acting classes growing up. So I have always loved it and I have always loved being in front of an audience and being on stage. It started off being dance, but when I was 16 years old, I got my first part in a Portuguese telenovela. It made me wonder if acting was actually the way to go. At 16 was when I really made my choice. I wondered: What can I do for the rest of my life? I can act for the rest of my life, but I can only dance until a certain age. Because of biological and physical reasons, you have to stop. So, I chose to go for acting out of the two.

What is it like on set between takes? Are you guys practical jokers? The gym and basketball court are not too far from your stage?
We don’t go work out between takes because it is such a short period of time. We just linger on set, but there is definitely a lot of joking around that happens. Practical jokes occasionally. Not the little jokes. Things that take more time to plan. It is a great environment. We play around. Sometimes we don’t do ourselves any good by doing that because then we crack up half way through the scene and start laughing and nobody knows why except the two or three people involved in that joke and we blow the scene for everyone else. But that is rare.

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