Is NCIS: LA‘s Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) really a murderer?
After his shocking arrest at the end of last week’s episode, Deeks finds himself on the other side of an interrogation on Monday night’s installment (10/9c, CBS). And the crime he’s being questioned about isn’t just a random killing: It’s the murder of his former partner. Obviously this must be all part of an elaborate setup, right? Or is it possible that Deeks has been keeping a dark secret from his colleagues (and also, as we learn, his mother)?
TVGuide.com spoke with Olsen to find out whether Deeks’ arrest is justified, and what impact it will have on his relationship with Kensi (Daniela Ruah) and the rest of the team going forward.
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TVGuide.com: It seems like Deeks’ past has caught up with him. What can you tell us about his arrest?
Olsen: We are now reaching the precipice of what … that internal affairs investigation is actually about. Obviously, he was arrested for the murder of another police officer. It turns out that he’s arrested for the murder of his ex-partner. One of the things that I’ve been tracking is the Serial podcast. I think what makes that such great storytelling is we spend so much time and effort trying to figure out if this person is guilty. I think the success of this storyline is that, in Serial, you’re meeting him after the crime and then you decide post-crime what the situation is. [With Deeks], we’ve now had five years of emotional attachment to a character, as he fails in his job and has successes, falls in love, tries to start a relationship. And now we reveal this possible catastrophic event that he’s been hiding from everybody, including the person that he loves the most in the world.
What do we learn in this episode about Deeks’ former partner?
Olsen: They do a good job of articulating how corrupt his partner was. … [His and Deeks’ relationship] is tumultuous, to say the least. It’s a clashing of styles and morality, as far as how they view the world and how they view their role in that world, as police officers and detectives. I think that the crux of the story is that power corrupts, from both sides of that. And I think it’s really hard to be able to have the self-awareness to pull the emergency brake on that and realize that we’ve lost ourselves in a job, or in the power that was given with that job.
What impact does his arrest have on the rest of the team, and on his relationship with Kensi?
Olsen: What makes these agents so successful is their ability to emotionally detach themselves from the cases. … The ones that are the most fun to watch are the ones where it’s the exact opposite, where they have something truly at stake. And this is the grandest and greatest version of that, because this is someone that’s part of their team. For Kensi, it’s someone that she’s sharing her life with and is in a relationship with. So everything’s heightened. … There’s nothing better than falling in love with something and fighting for it and realizing that you’re wrong.
How does Deeks cope with being in jail?
Olsen: For Deeks, it’s the unraveling of a history that he’s proclaimed for himself. One of the things I always talk about is that there’s kind of darkness in everyone, and it’s just a matter of how deep it’s buried. For Deeks, I think this is a darkness that potentially he’s buried from everyone, including himself. Because for the characters and his relationships with them, if it’s true, it’s almost too much to rationalize or justify. And he knows that, so I think that he’s obviously trying to hide whether it’s true or not. Even the possibility of it, he’s trying to hide from his mom and from Kensi.
