In the eyes of many NCIS: Los Angeles fans, Admiral Hollace Kilbride has been the least offensive of those allowed to keep Hetty's seat warm until she returns.

Whether they cared to or not, viewers learned more about Kilbride's family history on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 14 Episode 13.

With the series in the back half of its final season, the question has to be asked: Why bother?

With all the other loose ends to be tied up, how much screen time should be devoted to Kilbride?

I would argue that Kilbride deserves some of the same character development that the other OSP team members have received, many over the past decade or more.

Otherwise, Kilbride's personal background has only been hinted at. All viewers know about him is that he's divorced and messed up his relationship with his son, and he regrets both of those developments.

So his service is his life, and his family is his current teammates and those with whom he has served. It's simpler and cleaner that way.

Kilbride is a grouch that hates the vacuousness of Los Angeles, his current base of operation. But he also has a heart, which has become more evident recently, especially in the presence of his longtime aide, Shyla.

So, yes, it's OK to utilize part of a couple of episodes to fill in some background and elevate Kilbride beyond a caricature of a military lifer.

That started with the vivacious Elizabeth, Kilbride's ex-wife from three decades ago. Elizabeth was introduced, but her background was equally vague as his, which was disappointing. Maybe that's still coming in the future.

It was great to see two TV veterans, Gerald McRaney (Simon & Simon, Major Dad) and Merilu Henner (Taxi, Evening Shade), interacting so smoothly with each other.

They were believable as a former couple who still enjoyed chemistry between them as they reminisced about the highlights of their past.

The first question that wasn't truly answered is, what did Elizabeth see in Hollace? It's simple to see why he would have been attracted to her but vice versa? Not so much.

At least Elizabeth came out with why she had sought out Kilbride within 24 hours of her reappearance in his life. She wanted him back in the life of their son, Alex. That's also what Hollace secretly wants, as pointed out in past episodes.

While Kilbride has his Scotch, it appears that Alex abuses some other substance, although what isn't yet clear. Also, it's not evident why Alex's addiction drove a wedge between his father and him.

However, Kilbride didn't fight Elizabeth's suggestion that he inject himself into Alex's recovery process. Perhaps this will be that second chance that Hollace figured he would never get.

Even if Kilbride somehow straightens out this mistake from his past, don't expect to improve his disposition around Ops. He wouldn't be the same old sourpuss if that occurred.

The last thing Kilbride needed was to have a personal life intruding into his investigation, which sought to head off world armageddon. (Yet again. It's so exhausting.)

He barked as much at Elizabeth, who just sought to get him in the right mood to ask him a favor with a nice home-cooked meal. Good luck with that.

It was hilarious when Fatima and Rountree kept quizzing Kilbride about his less-than-foul mood, attempting to determine what was happening with him. Of course, he wouldn't let on anything, mainly because he didn't know what was happening yet.

Yet another military contractor was central to this case, developing something few team members understood. But everyone got the ramifications of what would happen if the technology fell into the wrong hands. (Sound familiar?)

The blonde thief's flashy pilfering of the mysterious suitcase put her in the OSP's crosshairs. After all, they weren't sure what was stolen. But she knew, and they needed to recover it before (see above paragraph).

That was before the tech bros (both the hospitalized one and the missing one) came under suspicion after Kensi found the microchip-stuffed dolls.

Even though they had a license to print money with an exclusive military contract, they still thought they deserved more. What an American success story!

They didn't do a great job disguising their plan of selling the chips on the dark web if a Polish arms broker came out of retirement to set up a fake buy and brazenly steal the chips.

Any excuse to bring in Lesley Boone's Nina Barnes for a scene is a good one. It took the secretive arms broker a few phone calls from her food truck, and the mystery woman was unveiled.

And, shockingly, technology was involved in stopping the thief from fleeing as Rountree tracked the smart suitcase to an airport, and the team swooped in to thwart the sale of the chips.

Or make that the fake chips. It was a surprise twist to have the Polish arms broker grow a bit of a conscience and come out of retirement to keep the wrong countries from getting ahold of the chips.

Of course, old habits die hard, and she couldn't resist trying to make a buck off the Russian arms broker who was the buyer. She meant well, though.

To revisit Kilbride's history, watch NCIS: Los Angeles online.

How did you like Elizabeth?

Have you wanted to know more about Kilbride?

Are you looking forward to meeting his son?

Comment below.

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