The OSP can still work even if three of the top four agents get pulled away on other tasks.

Even better, NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 16 included a victim about whom viewers could care.

In this case, the abducted Marine was Master Sergeant Boomer Hayes (any relation to Jason Hayes on SEAL Team?), a retired military working dog.

Boomer and Mary Smith, his former handler/current owner, continued to do good work even after leaving the Marines, uncovering millions of dollars worth of drugs for various police agencies.

So when Mary came home to find him missing, she rightly assumed that he'd been abducted, and the case landed in NCIS's lap.

It was a good thing that Kilbride was there to explain to Fatima and Rountree that they needed to handle this like any other kidnapping of a Marine.

Mary didn't help matters by fingering her ex-boyfriend as a likely suspect. While he was a jerk, he had little motivation to abduct Boomer.

Fortunately, before he disappeared on his crisis, Sam identified the most likely culprit: one or more of the criminals with whom Mary and Boomer had interfered.

That made perfect sense. Only Mary and Boomer's record of success left a large pile of suspects to work through. Mary was of little help in narrowing that down.

Fatima did locate a strange man pushing a shopping cart through that residential neighborhood, who seemed out of place.

Then Shyla, who appears to have taken over Ops, leading Fatima to abdicate, found there was a bounty for Boomer on the dark web.

It was surprising that Shyla returned this episode. Maybe her role will be as the Kilbride whisperer for the native OSP staff. Lord knows they haven't figured him out on their own yet.

And what's up with the assortment of new faces this season? Aliyah de Leon has visited for a couple of episodes, and now Shyla has been there for two episodes as well.

These appearances have happened despite at least one regular, along with Hetty, being missing each week. It was Deeks out this week, for some reason that didn't even register. 

So have these been tryouts, with more turnover coming? Both Fatima and Rountree have had psychologically trying times this season, and Deeks always seems to have one foot out of the door. 

Or maybe it's just a different approach, introducing new recurring characters rather than constantly recycling previous characters. 

In any event, Kensi, Fatima, and Rountree, with an assist from Shyla and a cameo from Callen, were enough to bring down the geniuses who had taken Boomer, drug dealers who dabbled in dogfighting. 

Kensi tied up two by herself with a fake car accident for crying out loud. Why exactly was Callen summoned back from his session with Nate? Callen wasn't much needed except as a late verbal punching bag for Sam.

I had hoped for something more coming out of Callen's session with Nate. It essentially turned out to be him being lured there under pretenses by Kilbride for Nate to assess him.

It's unlikely that Nate knows more about Hetty's activities or the Katya deep fakes or the Jonah Project than he let on. He told Callen what little he knew and was upfront about what Kilbride wanted him to accomplish with the session.

Throughout the series, Callen hasn't known the entirety of who he is. So why should it start affecting his performance in the field now?

Expect to see the repressed-memory therapy that Nate suggested to Callen. Sure, there are risks. But with no Hetty for Callen to question, how else will he learn anything about his origins in the spy game?

Kilbride undoubtedly knows more than he's letting on. But I don't think he's being malicious. He's just been around so long in the intelligence game that he won't release any piece of intel until he absolutely has to. No one should take that personally.

He's also right to keep an eye on Callen as he's working through things, especially since Callen always has thought he has the right to go off on personal tangents. But before, Hetty was always there to protect him from himself.

At least we finally found out why Sam was disappearing to take care of his father. He's facing a tough road ahead, with a father who is as stubbornly independent as him now having to face dealing with Alzeheimer's.

It's about time that Sam let go of his boat. It was always a place of transition for him, dealing with Michelle's death and his kids going off to college. But such a Callenesque escape didn't fit such a squared-away man like Sam.

Sam just got a taste of what he would be facing when Raymond called him, lost with no idea how he got there after slipping away from his caretaker.

With Sam being such a responsible man, it fits that he would sell his toy and use the proceeds to buy a house where he could help to take care of his father.

However, expecting to do that alone would be unrealistic. So it will be interesting to see how Sam handles that task.

To follow Callen's trip into his past, watch NCIS: Los Angeles online.

What do you think of Shyla?

Is Kilbride right to worry about Callen?

Did you expect Nate had more to offer?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.