The NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12 finale was packed with surprises. As previously announced, it saw the return of Hetty (Linda Hunt), who has pretty much been MIA all season with only an occasional appearance on the computer, but her return was just in time for the team and the show to say goodbye to two long-running cast members.
Both Barrett Foa, who plays former tech operator Eric Beale, and Renée Felice Smith, who plays intelligence analyst Nell Jones, made their exit in the finale.
Eric hasn’t been around much this season anyway. His departure was predicated on a piece of computer software that he designed, named Kaleidoscope, which made him a multi-millionaire, and now he has the opportunity to become a billionaire with a move to Tokyo to expand his tech company – and he will be taking Nell with him.
Nell has been going back and forth on the decision Hetty presented to her a while back of taking over her job as Operations Manager. But, the offer from Eric was too good to turn down, so the two are headed to Japan.
That doesn’t mean Nell doesn’t have second thoughts about leaving. She says, “I was so young when I took this job. I didn’t know anyone in L.A. and then I met the team. This place, these people, they’re part of my life now, my entire adult life.”
So why was the time right for this to take place? Showrunner R. Scott Gemmilltold TV Line, “Both Renée and Barrett have been on the show a long time, and they’re both very ambitious individuals who have projects that they want to do on their own — and we’ve been giving them time off to do so. It seemed like a natural time to let them go off and do some other things, and give [their characters] what is a happy, hopefully, ending.”
Gemmill also told the site that it doesn’t necessarily mean the last we will see of either of them.
“There’s a little loophole in there, when Nell says she’s going to be alone in Tokyo with Eric, and she gives it ‘six weeks’ before she’s back. So, we’ll see what happens,” he added.
It is also unclear what the story is on Hetty. Will she be back next season to run the team? Will there be a brand new cast member to take that job, since none of the team really want it? That’s a story for a new season, and luckily, NCIS: Los Angeles was picked up for its 13th season, so there is plenty of time.
