Expect an ‘NCIS: LA’ Twist When Kensi Interrogates a Dark Prisoner From Her Past

Daniela Ruah NCIS Los Angeles Season 12 Kensi Blye Frank Military
Preview
Ron Jaffe/CBS

This one’s personal for unshakable agent Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah).

In the second of back-to-back NCIS: Los Angeles episodes, she interrogates psychotic convict David Kessler (played by the episode’s writer, Frank Military, above, with Ruah), who has been obsessed with the agent since her pre-NCIS days. (She sent him to prison for human trafficking of minors.) He’s allowed himself to be recaptured after escaping with a fellow inmate, who’s still on the loose and intends to assassinate the U.S. president. Using his precious knowledge of the plot as leverage, Kessler demands to speak to Kensi.  

“We don’t know why he’s obsessed with her. He’s a very sick, dark character — one of those guys who tries to push your buttons. Like, where can I stick my knife?” Ruah says. He exploits her desire to become a mom, but “she knows a lot about him, so she has an edge.”  

With the dangerous Kessler caged in plexiglass à la Hannibal Lecter, Kensi presses him for intel as her earpiece transmits clues about the would-be assassin to her colleagues. She remains cool, but her husband, Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) — sidelined from his NCIS job — is a wreck: The team accidentally allows him to overhear some of the bone-chillingly creepy things Kessler threatens to do to Kensi if he’s ever free. 

The hour ends with a shocking twist, Ruah says, hinting that we haven’t seen the last of Kessler. “He tricks us all. This guy is someone who stays on Kensi’s and Deeks’ mind.”

NCIS: Los Angeles, Sundays, 9:30/8:30c, CBS