NCIS: Los Angeles 12×17 “Through the Looking Glass” is the third episode in a row where I just really want to sit here and write a love letter to Densi, and to what this show has not just done with them as a couple, but allowed them to become. I watch a lot of TV, and the truth is that Densi has become the standard I judge all other TV OTPs on, procedural or not. This episode is a good example of why, and the best part is that it’s not even trying.
This episode, after all, features a case that doesn’t personally involve Densi, even if the threat of Kessler is predictably dialed up, in time for the season finale. The case is even interesting, with a fun twist at the end, even if it does have too much Joelle for my liking. It’s certainly not my favorite case ever, but it’s not the worst either. But the way NCIS: Los Angeles 12×17 “Through the Looking Glass” gives Densi the time to talk through their issues as the case is going on, to disagree, to show their frustrations and then to come together in a way that shows the best of both of them …well, that feels like a rare unicorn in a TV landscape that only seems to understand couples in the context of what drama it can milk from them.
Well, that, or perpetually place them in the background, happiness guaranteed only by the fact that they are never really given the spotlight.
That’s not the case here. And, yes there is drama. NCIS: Los Angeles has pulled absolutely no punches with this infertility storyline. At this point, I’m pretty sure viewers are as done with this storyline as Deeks and Kensi feel, and honestly …that’s a good thing. That’s real. NCIS: Los Angeles has allowed it to be long and frustrating, to go from moments when Kensi is optimistic to moments when Deeks is optimistic, to moments where you can see it’s getting to them both. It hasn’t shied away from the responsibility women feel, and it somehow presented that without making Kensi feel like the bad guy for struggling with these things.
That’s one of the things this show does better than most, if I’m being honest. Deeks is a rare character on TV, a man who’s allowed to be soft more than once every two seasons, and as much as that’s someone to be commended, the fact that they don’t feel the need to make Kensi into a stereotypical woman with no feelings to compensate is not just outstanding, storytelling wise, it’s also uplifting. The true genius of this couple is that even without ever being able to truly step into their kick-ass shoes, we always understand them. We always see things from their POV.
NCIS: Los Angeles 12×17 “Through the Looking Glass” goes even further, by introducing this concept that TV rarely ever grasps, that love, a stable relationship, a person who cares about you … isn’t always the solution to everything. Sometimes things are just hard, and sometimes you need to talk to a professional. Kensi doesn’t make the decision to do so in this hour, but that Deeks suggests it, and that she, despite brushing him off, internalizes what he’s saying enough to make the decision she makes at the end of the episode, that’s also huge and groundbreaking and again, I say this because it is actually so rare on TV, real.
Same as that conversation they have near the end of the episode, one that isn’t a solution, just a commitment to continue working through stuff, together. Because that’s all they can do. That’s all they have done for all these years, not just as a couple, but since they first became partners. That’s how they’ve made it through, and how they will continue to make it. As someone who has been in a committed relationship for about as long as Kensi and Deeks have, it feels good to see a TV show that actually respects what that means, and that actually understands that what we want to see is just this …two people choosing to walk hand in hand through life, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse.
