Well, that didn't take long.

Except for Hetty still being off on her top-secret mission, the rest of the gang is back together again on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 9 Episode 2.

And all the tension from NCIS: Los Angeles Season 9 Episode 1 was gone. Poof!

There was no Shay Mosley, the new sheriff in town, nor her chatty deputy Harley.

There was no official supervision to speak of. Instead, they were just helping out the Secret Service on a counterfeiting case with a most tenuous of connections to the Navy, a couple of Marines suspected of being mules.

OK. I guess that meets the criteria. Barely.

Secret Service Special Agent Nicole DeChamps, who worked with Sam on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 8 Episode 16, requested his help as an undercover asset. He played some kind of financier Rain Man in a perfectly L.A. suit.

It was a hoot to watch alpha male Sam play so against type, portraying a man so meek he couldn't look anyone in the eye.

He and DeChamps caught up like two old friends. They had both had some travails in recent months, Sam with the loss of Michelle and DeChamps with a protection detail that went bad.

Sam even sagely adviced her maybe she should join a different agency once she figures out exactly what she wanted to do.

I could see why Larca's people were a little suspicious. I mean, why would this guy who is making all this money in real estate suddenly decide to start peddling Peruvian currency? It just seemed odd, even for such an odd guy.

Fortunately, when things went south as seemed inevitable, Sam and DeChamps had the attentive backup to clean up their mess.

And, I could be wrong, but was there a little flirtiness between DeChamps and Sam? It may have been strictly platonic, but I predict we'll see more potential matches for Sam this season, with him the only unattached member of the unit.

Now let's turn to the couple that inadvertently put Sam and DeChamps in peril: Densi.

Yes, Kensi and Deeks spent three hours interrogating Lucila Marca/Claudia Diaz (it only seemed longer), the highlight of which was her trying to seduce Kensi. While they did discover her secret, they got precious little information for her.

In the end, she missed her check-in with her handlers, which somehow led them to the conclusion that Sam and DeChamps were cops.

There was also precious little contribution from the meerkats, Eric and Nell. There was no big revelation that cracked the case, this time, anyway.

Instead, Eric was still trying to figure out where in the world is Henrietta Lange? It's so cute that after all these years, they still think they can get inside Hetty's brain.

The most effective couple of the episode was Callen and Anna. Using good old-fashioned shoe leather, and tire rubber, they trailed a suspicious pair to an abandoned hotel, beat up three counterfeiters, then brought down the whole production facility, while all the while cracking wise.

I've always liked Anna and don't mind her frequent visits, and she doesn't seem bad for Callen. But we'll probably be seeing less of her, as she seemed to think she'd be getting the ATF job for which she applied.

As for Hetty's secret mission, she got to meet the man she had been seeking, who was locked up. Apparently, he blamed her for his being there, but she wasn't even sure who he was. 

Hopefully, this mission will stop going at a glacial pace. It's going to take forever at a scene or two per episode.

Let's get Hetty back to LA before Mosley runs the unit into the ground.

Now one reason things may have seemed a little off is that the episode scheduled for this week got pushed back a week and that week got moved up. Apparently, continuity is a luxury.

Since Hetty's narrative didn't seem to suffer any disruption, my guess is that viewers were most interested in what she was doing, so they moved up her mission.

So why not Mosley and Harley? I dunno. It seems to me that if you're trying to introduce new characters, you use them more, not less.

I figure both will be back on NCIS Season 9 Episode 3 if nothing else so that producers can mine the tension between Callen and Mosley. I can't imagine Sam sitting on the sidelines for long either.

To catch up on the young season, watch NCIS: Los Angeles online.

NCIS: Los Angeles Photos from "Party Crashers"

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Were you glad to see Anna again? How about Agent DeChamps? How did you enjoy the case of the week? Comment below.

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