Tonight on CBS NCIS: Los Angeles returns with an all new Monday March 14, season 7 episode 18 called, “Exchange Rate” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, a convicted Cuban spy escapes U.S. custody just before he is set to return to his country in a prisoner exchange; and the team is shocked when they learn that Anna (Bar Paly) helped him break free.
On the last episode, after extensive surveillance footage of Sam’s family was found in Africa, Sam and Callen flied there to determine who was responsible and for what purpose. Also, Sam’s family was moved from their home to a safe house. Ella Thomas returned as Jada Khaled. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the CBS synopsis, “when a convicted Cuban spy escapes U.S. custody just before he is set to return to his country in a prisoner exchange, the team is shocked to learn that Anna (Bar Paly)helped him break out. Also, Deeks admits to Kensi that he thinks she is too messy.”
Tonight’s episode looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it, so be sure to tune in for our live coverage of CBS’s NCIS: Los Angeles at 10:00 PM EST! While you wait for our recap hit the comments and let us know how excited you are for the season 7 episode 18.
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Tonight’s episode of NCIS Los Angeles kicks off with a man being transported – he is driven in a red van with a hood over his head. They arrive at a house – the man appears to be some sort of prisoner. The agent in charge of him seats him in a chair in the house and tells him that in 12 hours, “he will no longer be America’s problem.” But, it looks like the prisoner has other plans – and an accomplice. Someone left a syringe taped under the chair he is seated in, he stabs the agent in the neck with the needle and makes a run for it.
Kensi finds Deeks in the boatshed taking a shower – she demands to know what the hell is going on and why he isn’t showering at home. He says that he went surfing before work, but she knows he is lying because he didn’t bring his board with him. Deeks confesses that he hates getting ready for work at home because the bathroom is always a mess and there are over 11 bottles of shampoo in their shower. Apparently, Kenis’s messiness isn’t cute anymore. She flushes the toilet, scalds him, and steals his towel – she’s not happy.
At the office, Kensi arrives and says that Deeks is having car trouble – or probably looking for a towel. Callen, Kensi, and the rest of the team are briefed on their new case. They watch a video of the prisoner escaping from the safe house in Hollywood. The man that was stabbed in the next was US Marshall Anthony Howard, and the prisoner that escaped and is now on the run is Ricardo Pena – a convicted Cuban spy. He was a part of a prisoner exchange. They were trading him back to Cuba for Brian Seymour – an American soldier. They need to find Pena before Cuba realizes that he escapes and calls off the trade.
Callen and Sam. head to the safe house to investigate. Deputy Howard arrive to show them around, he’s still recovering from being drugged by Pena. He says the only people that has access to the house and could have planted the syringe are other agents, and a cleaning company that they had a contract with.
Callen and Sam get a call from Nell back at the office, she ran a search in the employee database at the cleaning company – and apparently they just hired a new woman to clean the house last week. She sends Sam and Callen the photo and they recognize the woman immediately, it’s Anna Kolcheck. Anna is definitely the one who planted the syringe for Pena in the safe house – she just visited him in prison last week. Eric finds security footage of Anna picking up Pena a few blocks away from the safe house, but they lost the once they don’t on the freeway.
Back at the office, Deeks and Kensi are working the Communist angle. When Pena was arrested, he had infiltrated an anti-Communist group called Agency 5 in the US, and he was plotting to attack them from the inside. Deeks thinks that Pena may have switched teams, and joined the anti-Communists, and that is why he doesn’t want to go back to Cuba.
Deeks and Kensi track down Ben Walker – the leader of Agency 5, and something doesn’t add up. The DOJ officer told them that they arrested Pena for conspiracy, because he was plotting to take over Agency 5 and attack the US from within. But, Ben Walker says that Pena only came to three meetings – and he never even spoke to anyone, he just snuck in and had a few donuts and left.
Callen and Sam are able to track down Anna’s car that she used to pick up Pena. They find the car parked and abandoned on the street – and there is a lot of blood inside. Someone was seriously hurt, but they have no idea if it was Anna or Pena.
Meanwhile, Henrietta appears to be missing – no one has seen her in a few days, and she hasn’t showed up to work all day. Assistant Director Granger is keeping the case running smoothly, he promises the team that he will find Henrietta, but in the mean time they need to find Pena before news gets back to Cuba that they lost him.
Kensi and Deeks pull Pena’s file, something is fishy … he has two different birthdays listed and him entering the US in two separate occasions. They bring the attorney, Heidi, from the DOJ in for questioning and demand to know what is going on. Heidi confesses that she was two years out of law school and inexperienced and someone chose her for the case – they were given a mandate to put Pena behind bars, the orders came from some place very high up and everyone was in on it – the judge and the DA.
Callen and Sam pay their old friend Arkady a visit – he insists that he hasn’t seen or talked to Anna since she got to the US. A few house later, Eric gets surveillance footage from a shopping mall of Arkady meeting up with Anna in the parking lot and giving her the keys to a new car. The NCIS team rolls out to chase down Anna in the Mercedes. They manage to corner her as she crashes in to another car, and they bring her in to custody – her arm is bloody, and they get her stitched up.
Anna says that Pena turned on her and pulled a gun on her. He ordered her to drop him off on a corner, and he thinks she is the Russian Attache. Anna says that Arkady didn’t have anything to do with her helping Pena escape – she took a paying gig from someone else. She is supposed to meet Pena at a bar later to give him his papers.
Callen goes undercover with Anna and meets Pena at the bar. Everything is going smoothly, and then Pena slips up and uses a Russian word, that only a Russian would know. He realizes that Callen picked up on it, and in a split second he pulls a gun out and takes Anna hostage and manages to escape from the restaurant without anyone taking him down.
Afterwards, Kensi asks Callen what just happened – why did Pena freak out for no reason. Callen reveals what he just figured out. Pena is Russian, that’s why he escaped and is trying to hard not to go back to Cuba. He’s not even from Cuba. Kensi says that no one is ever going to believe them – but Henrietta appears out of nowhere, apparently she was a the restaurant the whole time, and she says that she will believe them.
Henrietta explains to her team that she pegged Pena as a Russian spy years ago – but no one believed her, or wanted to believe her. Back then the US was courting Russia, and they didn’t want the Russians to know that they picked up one of their men. So, they tossed Pena in prison as a Cuban spy and tried to throw away the key.
Hattie and Callen head back to headquarters, where they left Arkady handcuffed to his own steering wheel. Arkady looks at Pena’s photo and confirms that he is from Russia and he is a “bad seen,” apparently Pena’s real name is Roman. HE says Roman was an engineer and he came to the US for their technology, he says that they can probably find him at the National Aeronautic Research Center.
Callen and his team rush to the NARL leader’s house – a man named David Webster, they have reason to believe that Roman might go after him. They find Roman in the kitchen torturing David and Anna is badly beaten, and tied up in a chair. Roman tries to make a run for it, but he is outnumbered and Sam captures him and they bring him in to custody. Case closed!
THE END!
