LA Season 3 Is Armed With Big Secrets, a 'Gut-Wrenching' Backstory,
and a Fun Switcheroo
In a nutshell, NCIS: Los Angeles executive producer Shane Brennan says that
it is time for the CBS procedural to “cut loose” with its third season
(premiering this Tuesday at 9/8c). Kicking off the new cycle is the continuation – played out in real time, à la 24 — of the Hetty/Romania/Callen mystery that
closed out the sophomore run on an intrigue-filled note. Brennan gave TVLine a
look at the big reveals to come out of that cliffhanger, shared Academy
Award-slash-Teen Choice winner Linda Hunt’s giddy reaction to it all, and
teased a “gut-wrenching” backstory for one of the other team members.


TVLINE | First things first: How much time has lapsed since the events of the
season finale?
I think it’s about three minute after we left off, and it’s a real-time episode.
The story unfolds over 43 minutes, so it has got a narrative drive that will…
well, you really need to go to the bathroom before you watch this show. I mean,
it just pumps. We cocked the gun, so to speak.

TVLINE | The finale and all its zigs and zags about Hetty and Callen left us
wondering what was real.
That’s the great fun about L.A. Because they’re undercover and they make things
up, you get great latitude to play around with some of that stuff.

TVLINE | Is there any one hint from the finale you can confirm right now as being
true? Like, is it safe to say Hetty does have ties to Callen’s childhood?
[Long pause] That is definitely true. And I think the other thing I’ll very
confidently say is that what Callen remembered on the beach is what happened.
When he drops to his knees, he is blown over by what is remembered. And as he
tells Sam what he remembered, just when you think, “Wow,” he says, “Annnnd
then this!’ There’s a lot more to come.

TVLINE | One of our readers wanted me to ask: Why did Hetty have to resign? Was it just for show?
What we discover is that Hetty drew a line in the sand, and she decided that she
needed to do this. So her actions in resigning and going to Romania were probably
the most important decisions she’s ever made. It’s very, very real to her.

TVLINE | Is Vance on board with this? To a degree?
Is anyone ever on board with anything Hetty says? Let’s say that Hetty told him
some of the story. But what she does by resigning, and going to Romania, opens
the door to reveal as much about her as she does about Callen.

TVLINE | Linda Hunt must be over the moon. You’ve turned her into perhaps the most badass NCIS agent.
She’s one of the most badass people on TV. There’s a scene between her and
another actor – I’m not go to say who it is, because it will give too much
away – that is positively cinematic, and people who have seen it are just blown
away by the power of these two actors together. When we were shooting it, I took
a sheet of paper to Linda that said “Confidential: Hetty Lang Backstory.”
She read it and she couldn’t stop giggling. She was like, “Oh my god!” I gave
her the answers to a lot of questions, and then I said, “Read it and burn it,”
it reveals so much. The good thing about that sheet of paper is that by the end
of Episode 4, you know a lot of it.

TVLINE | You told you me wanted to dip into Kensi’s backstory this season. How
soon do you get into that?
My expectation is that probably in the second half of the season we’ll explore
that. It’s gut-wrenching. It really is quite confronting for the character and
for everyone who loves her – the audience and the other characters in the show.

TVLINE | If she confides in Deeks along the way, it could help along that
“thing” between them that she talks about.
In Seasons 1 and 2, we’ve been in first gear. In Season 3, we put the foot down
and cut loose. It’s going to be a great season.

TVLINE | Is there anything else to tease about the new episodes?
One of the interesting things we do is that in one of the early episodes, all of
the partners get switched around — circumstances dictate it — and they’re not
happy. I saw last season as the season of partners, where you paired people up;
in this episode, they’re like, “Really? I’m with him?” And that will be a lot
of fun.

1楼翻译：（依旧得说明一下~我基本都是直译... 英文水平一般，只供参考~）
LA 第三季被一个巨大秘密、一个及其痛苦的背景故事以及有趣的突然变化武装起来~
（我理解就是第三季的主线是惊天秘密，角色本身及其痛苦的曾经的经历也就是痛苦往事，以及突发变化的乐趣场景~ 大概突发变化就是指交换搭档这件事吧...因此带来的各种笑）
概要：LA执行制作人Brennan说：“是时候CBS程序上‘摆脱’它们的第三季了。开始新的周期是一个延续，实时播放，Hetty/Romania/Callen的神秘事件——处理掉二年级运行的充满阴谋的笔记。”Brennan给电视频道一个大的高潮的揭露，分享Academy Award-slash-Teen Choice的赢家Linda Hunt对于那些使人眼花的反应。并且戏弄队中另一个人的令人及其痛苦的背景故事。