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“NCIS: New Orleans” season 6 episode 5 “Spies & Lies” opens with an unconventional beginning. Instead of focusing on a standalone plot, “Spies & Lies” plunges straight into a story arc continued from the previous episode. “It’s unorthodox to give a forensic result to a family member,” Jefferson Parish medical examiner Loretta Wade (CCH Pounder) explains to Special Agents Dwayne “King” Pride (Scott Bakula) and Chris LaSalle (Lucas Black). During “NCIS NOLA” episode “Overlooked,” LaSalle discovered the remains of his older brother, Cade. “I’m federal agent, I can handle it,” LaSalle counters. “You can. But should you?” Loretta wonders. “There are a lot of reasons this is a bad idea, Chris,” Pride chimes in.

Back at NCIS New Orleans headquarters, Special Agents Hannah Khoury (Necar Zadegan) and Tammy Gregorio (Vanessa Ferlito) question William, the son of Cade’s girlfriend. When the teenaged William began selling drugs to help provide money for his mother, he lost a package. Then, William confided in Cade who in turn intervened on William’s behalf. Khoury and Gregorio run through a picture lineup attempting to identify drug dealer Shorty. “Isn’t there an easier way we could find [Shorty]?” William questions Tammy and Hannah. “There was a security camera at the park, but someone vandalized it,” Khoury explains. Hilariously, William offers “Can’t we just hack into all the kids’ phones or something?” Enter Agent Sebastian Lund (Rob Kerkovich), resident geek and one of the show’s most dynamic characters: “Will is halfway to a great idea.” Using a quick social media search, Sebastian pulls up tons of geotagged photos of the basketball court where Will would meet Shorty. Thankfully, Will successfully identifies Shorty, and facial recognition software identifies him.

Lieutenant Landry, Aviation maintenance Duty Officer out of Stennis walks into NCIS NOLA HQ. As Lt. Landry explains, he’s working on a top-secret project. Unfortunately, Landry suspects that his girlfriend, Rina Rollins, is spying on him. Landry reveals that he planned to propose to Rina but discovered photos of a manual for a room-temperature superconductor on Rina’s laptop when attempting to view her schedule. While Rollins and Landry are both working on the project, only Landry holds a top security clearance. Thus, Rina obtained photos of the manual illegally and Landry suspects a spy. Convinced of a conspiracy, NCIS sets out to investigate.

Investigative Computer Specialist Patton “Triple P” Plame (Daryl “Chill” Mitchell) outs Shorty as Charles Goggins. “Go ahead, we can handle [the Landry case],” Hannah encourages. “Yeah. I know you can. We, uh, we need to have LaSalle’s back on this one,” Pride states. Thus, Pride and LaSalle travel to Mobile, Alabama where they uncover a conspiracy. It turns out the drug-running operation Will got mixed up in was pushing stickers used as a transdermal method for synthetic opioids.

Observations:

“NCIS: New Orleans” S06E05 “Spies & Lies” is a taut, quick yet evenly paced series entry. Action picks up immediately with a continuation of the investigation into Cade LaSalle’s disappearance and death. Chris LaSalle’s emotional depth is a tragic but refreshing change of pace. It’s painful watching the younger LaSalle brother blame himself unnecessarily for his sibling’s death. Now, more than ever, the NCIS NOLA outfit truly operates as not only an investigative unit but a family. Although Chris claims he can handle the case, he’s clearly struggling. This is evident by his unprofessional aggression towards suspects. Thankfully, Pride is able to calm LaSalle down.

The spy storyline proves engaging, and in a subversion of the typical “NCIS: New Orleans” episode format, the case-of-the-week gets shoved to a secondary plot point with the overarching story arc as the front and center feature. While LaSalle struggles with his brother Cade’s death, Sebastian grapples with losing faith. “Sometimes [this job]…can just…rob us of all hope,” Lund laments. Once again, Sebastian proves one of the most fascinating characters on the series. When “NCIS: New Orleans” debuted, Lund was merely the geeky coroner assistant that provided comic relief. And although Sebastian definitely ushers in a much-needed geekiness and hilarity at times, he’s also a thoughtful, emotionally aware character that transformed from gangly lab rat to competent field agent. Well-paced, emotionally-charged, and entertaining, “Spies & Lies” is a superb “NCIS NOLA” episode.