NCIS: Los Angeles / Characters

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NCIS Agents

Callen

Grisha Callen

Played by: Chris O'Donnell

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/g_callen_58.jpg

"Is this an interrogation or a date?"

Broken Pedestal: Is a bit upset with Hetty when he finds out he's just one of many agents she's recruited and trained from broken homes. He seems to forgive her though.
But Not Too Foreign: Son of an ex-Russian Army officer imprisoned in a gulag camp in Siberia and a Romanian-American mother.
Characterization Marches On: An early element of Callen's character in the series is his training and life as a spy. Hetty's efforts to make him into what he was produced a lot of angst trying to unite his life as an NCIS agent and his double-lives as numerous personas. This is especially prevalent in his Backdoor Pilot appearance in the parent series, with it being a major focus of his character arc. As the series progressed, however, much of this was handled or faded away, and once all of his double life personas were abandoned, he focused entirely on his agent work and Mysterious Past instead.
Combat Pragmatist: As a contrast to his partner's more typical fighting style.
Deadpan Snarker: To give just one example, Callen and Hetty are in a graveyard remembering the dead. Hetty remarks she wants to just be gone: no flowers on the grave, etc. Callen says it won't happen, because he hears Granger's going to have her stuffed.
Family Extermination: The Comescu crime family wiped out his entire family as retribution for his OSS agent father assassinating the Comescu patriarch due to his Axis sympathies. It traumatized him so much that he had the memory of his mother assassinated in front of him as a child suppressed for a long time even before he joined NCIS.
Feuding Families: The almost 70 year old feud between Callen's family and the Comescu family is the reason why he is an orphan.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Sam.
Honorary Uncle: Sam's son Aiden calls him "Uncle G" in S7E11, "Cancel Christmas".
In-Series Nickname: He is known as "the Ghost" among JAG, an agent who can slip into almost any disguise but no one knows his actual identity, the only thing known about him being his last name "Callen." One corrupt JAG lawyer tries to use Kensi as a hostage to lure him out and he gets shot for his troubles.
Last-Name Basis: At one point, Callen asks Hetty why she never calls him by his first name (though she usually calls most of the other agents by their last names, too). She responds, "It's not a name. It's a letter."
Last of His Kind: Callen is apparently the only living member of his family, which a certain Eastern European crime family has been hellbent on wiping out.
Made of Iron: Downplayed. The series starts off with him recovering from the Backdoor Pilot where he was filled at close-range with lead from a drive-by, and all he gets after a few months of recovery is scars for his troubles with no permanent damage. He's still very human, but his spy training and Heroic Willpower keep him trucking through seemingly-impossible odds, albeit only to a limited degree before even he hits his limits.
Married to the Job: Callen. It worries Hetty a lot.
Mysterious Past: Hell, he doesn't even know his own first name.
- It's finally revealed to be Grisha in S7E16, "Matryoshka, Part 2".
No Name Given: See Mysterious Past for more details.
Omniglot: G can speak English, Arabic, French, German (Which some people says has an Austrian accent), Italian (With a Northern accent), Polish, Russian and Spanish. He says that he can speak Czech and Romanian. In "Allegiance", he can speak Turkish. But Sam chews him out for not speaking the right words. G retorts that he intended to call Deeks a scruffy rodent.
One-Letter Name: Due to the paperwork with his full name on it getting lost by the foster system.
Orphan's Ordeal: His time in foster care was rather rough.
Parental Abandonment: His father is a question mark, and his mother was killed by the Comescus. As of Season 7, he's met his Disappeared Dad, though.
Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Callen witnessed his mother's murder but suppressed the memory most of his life.
You Are in Command Now: Temporarily after Mosley and Hetty both go missing for their own reasons. While Deputy Director Ochoa is in place to work them officially, Callen is the one that has to call the team's shots in the meanwhile.

Sam Hanna

Played by: LL Cool J

"Yeah, I see where you're going with this. Popeye ate spinach, Popeye was a sailor, so... we're looking for a crew member with giant forearms, smoking a pipe."

Big Brother Instinct: According to Nate, it's his biggest weakness: trying to protect everyone.
Cultured Badass: Among other things, he's a trained sommelier and regularly visits a cobbler to have his shoes repaired.
Cunning Linguist: If there's a foreign language the team needs, Sam probably knows at least a bit of it.
Demolitions Expert: You need a bomb defused, Hanna is your agent. The man knows virtually every type of bomb there is, and if a professional bomb squad can't get to the area in time, he's the one that has to handle it. If he can't handle a bomb, that is the Oh, Crap! moment for the team.
Famed In-Story: He's a legend in the SEAL community. One of his brethren even says that he's "who SEALs want to be when they grow up".
Fan Boy: keeps the complete run of Silver Surfer comics in a national security-grade safe, and is a big fan of Black Panther.
"Not just 'cause he was a brother who was richer than Tony Stark. T'Challa was a leader, he was a president, he was a superhero all at the same time. He was all about justice."
Genius Bruiser: A former Navy SEAL and all around Scary Black Man. As previously mentioned he speaks three additional languages fluently and can handle himself in Farsi, and he has extensively studied sharia law and The Qur'an. (He was also a Junior Math Olympian as a child.) Justified: They don't let Dumb Muscle into the SEALs.
Happily Married: Although it isn't brought up much, to the point where Kensi and Deeks were very surprised when he offhandedly brought it up while interrogating a suspect. Callen knew about them, though. Sadly, Michelle's death has ended this.
Hero of Another Story: His time with the SEALs in various theaters from the Balkans to the Middle East.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Callen ever since they worked in OSP for years.
Irony: In the Season 11 episode "A Bloody Brilliant Plan", which has the team working with two British former criminals, Deeks starts speaking in rhyme at one point while trying to figure what one former crook's usage of the name "Jack Jones" means in British slang, prompting the other former crook to tell him while rhyming as well. Irritated, Sam tells the two "Enough with the rhyming, alright? I hate rhyming". This coming from LL Cool J of all people.
It's Personal: In cases involving SEALs. And his wife's death. And that one case where a girl is Buried Alive, as it brings back some very bad memories for him.
Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Sam dabbles in threatening people with this. For obscure reasons, despite this being caught on camera, the confession that results is never questioned.
Limited Wardrobe: His outfit of choice◊ seems to be long-sleeved, four-button Henley shirts in assorted solid colors.
Living Emotional Crutch: For Callen. It's said that "his partnership is the only stable thing in his partner's life."

Omniglot: Sam speaks native English with Arabic, Japanese and Spanish. He's familiar with Farsi, but he didn't speak the language for a long time. In "Allegiance", he can speak Korean. But G chews him out for not speaking the right words.
Papa Wolf: When his son's Military School gets taken over by terrorists, he leads the charge to take them out.
Parental Abandonment: At least to his kids. The only thing Sam doesn't like is that extended hours makes him miss out on his kids' lives like school graduation.
Scary Black Man: He uses his height and musculature to intimidate when he's working or using an alias, and even with his coworkers, he carries a strong aura of "Do NOT mess with me."
Stout Strength: He's not actually obese, but he's definitely not skinny. He is, however, a Lightning Bruiser in hand-to-hand combat.

Kensi Blye

Played by: Daniela Ruah

"Anybody want to put a leash on him before we go another round right here?"

Action Girl: She's an experienced OSP agent who can stand on her own during fights.

Child-Like Voice: Her voice sounds really adorable, youthful and soft.
Disappeared Dad: He was murdered and his case was a cold case for years until it was solved in Season 3 episode "Blye, K Part 2".
Eye Scream: To a degree. Kensi - and, of course, the actress - has an unusual birthmark on the white of one of her eyes which gives her a distinctive look (but otherwise has no effect on her vision). Viewers who might not be aware of this unusual trait might think that Kensi, or the actress, has some sort of eye injury or a completely dark eyeball depending on the lighting and camera angle. In reality, of course, neither is the case.
Fair Cop: She's an attractive Field Agent in the NCIS.
Femme Fatale: Only becomes this during missions to lure suspects/criminals.
Friendly Sniper: She enjoys the usual camaraderie with her colleagues, has an "are they or aren't they" relationship with another agent, and often takes part in the show's humor. And the in the next scene she is cold-bloodedly sniping bad guys to death. She doesn't fit the "loner" aspect of the trope, but otherwise... shudder.
Good Is Not Soft: A kind-hearted character, the subject of a longstanding ship pairing... with one of the highest body counts of any female character in network TV history. See also Friendly Sniper, above.
Lad-ette: Views of her home are basically that of a bachelor pad.
Light Feminine Dark Feminine: Downplayed. Dark to Nell's Light. After Nell's departure, she herself ends up being the Light to Joelle's Dark.
Lovely Angels: After Fatima joins the team, they both become this.
Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Serves as this to Deeks as she is much more physically aggressive in a fight and is brusquer.
Military Brat: Was born on U.S. Marine Corps family and was raised in military camps.
Ms. Fanservice: Perhaps the inevitable result of being the only female regular under the age of 40 (until Nell came along, but Nell's not that sort of character), although she's fairly mild compared with some - but a lot stronger than Ziva David.
Omniglot: She can speak English with Portuguese and Spanish. (In real life, Daniela can speak the last two languages fluently aside from English, which doubles as a The Cast Showoff). In "The Dragon and the Fairy", she displays her proficiency in French.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite her stature, she is a Waif-Fu who takes down and beats up men bigger and muscular than her.
Properly Paranoid: In "This Is What We Do", she gets antsy around Asakeem after he's used to draw out armed Islamists in LA. When she sees him trying to walk on the beach, she takes her sidearm out. Turns out that Asakeem is trying to pray to the direction of Mecca, as a requirement for all practicing Muslims.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue Oni to Deeks' Red.
Semper Fi: she's a Marine brat.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Tomboy to Nell's Girly Girl.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: But she does enjoy getting dressed up every now and then.
Tsundere: And then some. Usually it's not too pronounced, but if Deeks flirts with her whether knowingly or unwittingly, she tends to fire back and hard. She softens up later on, however.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Deeks for the first five seasons.
Use Your Head: Does this to Talia during their fight.
Vitriolic Best Buds: When they're not flirting her and Deeks are usually sniping at each other for the first few seasons
Wrench Wench: She was an only child, so her father taught her everything he'd teach a son, including things like fixing a car and wiring a house.
You Killed My Father: She goes after one of her father's colleagues in the Marines for getting him killed.

Doc Getz

Nate "Doc" Getz

Played by: Peter Cambor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nate_getz_4759.jpg

"The million dollar question is do you know what you're doing?"

A Day in the Limelight: One episode has him contemplating becoming an agent and teaming up with Kensi temporarily.
Hidden Depths: Plays the harmonica.
The Profiler: Nate does by providing exposition on suspects OSP investigates.
Put on a Bus: At the start of season 2.
- Commuting on a Bus: Has returned several times from season 2 to 8, and 13. He also returned in the last episode, helping Nell in Morocco.
Took a Level in Badass: In season two, Nate goes away for an episode or two, comes back, and picked up the ability to shoot. He's become a deep-cover agent in an ongoing terrorist investigation, then a sleeper agent in Egypt.
- Non-Action Guy: He used to be—his desire to carry a gun and end up in the field were mostly Played for Laughs. Then he took the aforementioned level of badass.

Marty Deeks

Played by: Eric Christian Olsen

"I was attacked by a hell hound."

Abusive Parents: His dad tried to shoot him at least twice. Or maybe once. The show is a little unclear about it.
Afraid of Needles: He faints when Hetty gives him a shot in 3x21.
- Played more seriously in 5x1, after surviving torture via dentist drill and being taken to surgery, he sees a syringe and stares at it visibly terrified.
All Take and No Give: Despite his Butt-Monkey tendencies, he would probably be this wasn't it for casual hints from the team that they do care... which become increasingly less casual.
Ascended Extra: Got promoted from recurring character to principal cast in season 2.
Badass Normal: Just starting the series out, he was an undercover LAPD officer so he had none of the more advanced training that the proper NCIS team had. That didn't keep him from staying on par with the team when he wasn't comedic relief, and he even ends up fighting overseas on their military ops long before he became a full-time NCIS agent.
Berserk Button: A dirty cop once mocked a woman Deeks had a relationship with; a fellow cop that the dirty one had framed for his activities after she'd been killed by a crimelord. Deeks pulled his gun on the man, and after surrendering it to Sam, proceeded to beat the hell out of him with his bare hands.
Beware the Silly Ones: Deeks uses his jokes to throw people off guard and get them to trust him. But when angered he can quickly turn deadly such as attacking a cop who made fun of his recently dead partner and torturning a blind cleric when Kensi is kidnapped.
Blithe Spirit: He is a funny, free-spirited guy with Manic Pixie Dream Boy tendencies. It's amplified even more when he meets Kensi.
Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Gender-Inverted with Kensi being the brooding and angsty one while Deeks is the gentle and cheerful one who cheers her up.
Butt-Monkey: As the newest on the team, G, Sam and his partner Kensi all tend to pick on him, though he tends to either shrug it off or play it up. In one or two tense episodes, it's implied he sets himself up for teasing to lighten the mood.
The Charmer: Deeks is a trained undercover detective. He uses charm to get into places and get people to trust him so he can further get into the group.
Chivalrous Pervert: For variable levels of chivalry and perversion. He also uses it to diffuse tension in certain situations.

Deadpan Snarker: He often has a sarcastic joke to work in any situation. You can bet that it pisses people off consistently, especially those he snarks at when he wants to be antagonistic.

Distressed Dude: After being shot twice, kidnapped, used as bait, beat up on numerous occasions, and being involved in more explosions, the only person who MIGHT rival him is Callen, and that's only because he's the last surviving member of a family that's been feuding with another for decades and everybody wants to kill him.
Drama Queen: He is always freaking out in the worst times. Normally used for comical relief.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Up until Descent/Ascention Sam never trusted Deeks. But after Deeks is tortured and protects Michelle Sam grows to respect the detective.
Frame-Up: He gets accused of killing a former partner of his, Detective Boyle, which is really mostly a ploy to hunt for the stolen goods the Dirty Cop had hidden away and that Deeks presumably knew the location of. Deeks not only doesn't know where they are, but he did kill Boyle, albeit in defending Tiffany. Not to mention the goods were in the garage of Boyle's own partner in crime, who was accusing Deeks in the first place, the entire time under his nose, meaning the whole series of events were All for Nothing.
Friend to All Children: Seems to have a knack for bringing kids out of their shells.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has blonde hair and is an overall good person.
Heroic BSoD: Seems to be falling into this after being brutally tortured during the season 4 finale.
Hidden Depths: Grew up playing the violin, and seems to be able to sing as well. Also, was a public defender before he became a cop. He also worked in Robbery for two years before becoming a Detective.
Keet: He is really hyper-active and happy-go-lucky.
Manchild: Deeks often speaks of watching cartoons and reading comics along with over-the-top whining. Though how much of this is real and how much is a front we don't know.
Manic Pixie Dream Guy: A rare male example of this trope.
Missing Mom: Up until season 7 his Mom was a mystery. In Personal we learn that she isn't put down as his next of kin prompting Hetty to be and yet in Citadel we meet her and they act like they have always been together. This has yet to be explained.
New Meat: As of Season 12, he is now a full-time NCIS agent, thanks to Hetty's efforts to get him admitted to FLETC training despite being too old. He had previously lost both his job with the LAPD and his position as liaison to Hetty's team.
Nice Guy: As a starter, every Christmas Eve he volunteers at a soup kitchen. He's The Heart of the team for a reason, and so long as someone isn't out to kill him, he's personable to a ridiculous degree; even getting locked in a cell with half a dozen inmates being told he's undercover has him understanding their stories and getting to know them rather than being thrashed like a jealous ex-partner of his hoped.
- When he's arrested as a Frame-Up for murdering a former partner of his, people assume some money he's paying per month to a prostitute is of course the usual sort of thing. He's actually supporting and hiding her for her own safety with the strong belief that she didn't kill who she was accused of murdering, even if it's at risk to his own status.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Deeks often pretends to be stupid or mishears things for comedic effect but really he's quite smart having both passed the bar and on cases he often can see things the others can't.
Overshadowed by Awesome: If this show had been about the L.A.P.D., Deeks would have been The Hero. Next to G, Sam, and Kensi, however, he's not.
Phrase Catcher: "Shut up, Deeks," when his Deadpan Snarker habits get out of hand.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Kensi's Blue.
Sad Clown: In "Game of Drones", he tells Kensi why he jokes on the job:
Deeks: Because if I don't joke, this job is too sad for me to keep doing it.

Sixth Ranger After Dom is killed
Standard Cop Backstory : He shot his father when he was 11. The last time Deeks saw him, his father tried to shoot him with a shotgun on Thanksgiving.
Undercover Cop Reveal: The team first met him when he was at an MMA gym, posing as a fighter named Jason Wyler. Hetty revealed the truth halfway through.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Kensi, for the first five seasons.
Vitriolic Best Buds: When they're not flirting him and Kensi are usually sniping at each other for the first few seasons
You Can Leave Your Hat On: Paid his way through law school and the Police Academy by stripping.

Devin Roundtree

Played by: Caleb Castille

New Meat: As of Season 11, he's moved to NCIS's LA branch due to his last bad case with the FBI. Between Seasons 11 and 12, he went through FLETEC training and is now a full time NCIS agent.
Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: A Running Gag is him not getting references to anything from musicals to well-known action movies.

NCIS Support Personnel

John Rogers

Played by: Peter Jacobson

A Special Prosecutor sent to assess the OSP team in the wake of the events in the 9th season.

Fire-Forged Friends: With the team. He starts out with a seemingly hostile investigation (to which the team responds by being as uncooperative as possible), but it's understandable given the epic cock-up that he's investigating. Once the team is cleared, his working relationship with them greatly improves.
Hidden Depths: In season 10's "Heist", after riding the team's ass all episode long, he spends the last scene off-screen gaming on Fortnite with Beale, with Nell even saying the prosecutor carries his own gaming console around.

Louis Ochoa

Played by: Esai Morales

The NCIS Deputy Director who oversees the OSP after Mosely's departure.

Reasonable Authority Figure: He knows how much leeway to give the team in order to get things done, and he genuinely admires them for their successes.

Fatima Namazi

played by: Medalion Rahimi

A Special Agent brought in to support the OSP team. Prior to joining, she used to be a TV actress as revealed in "A Fait Accompli".

Action Girl: Fatima, like Nell, can defend herself and serves as backup to the LA team.
All There in the Manual: The episode "A Fait Accompli" gives more background to her pre-NCIS career.
Establishing Character Moment: She's seen in a boxing match while in headgear wearing a hijab.
Expy: The female version of DiNozzo. She tends to spout out pop culture references, especially to Roundtree.
Token Minority: An Iranian-American woman in the OSP team who happens to be a Muslim.

Hollace Kilbride

Played by: Gerald McRaney

Ex-US Navy Admiral and DOD official who's brought in to help command NCIS agents in LA when Hetty wasn't around.

A Day in the Limelight: The final moments of "Divided We Fall" shows that he knew the deceased agent who turned traitor.
Dark Secret: In a three-part cross-over story with the original series and Hawaii, it is revealed that Kilbride was involved in the Simon Williams program, a CIA-sanctioned assassination program that was run during the 1980s and went rogue from the 1990s onward.
Promotion to Opening Titles: Gerald McRaney gets added to the main cast in Season 13.
Real Men Wear Pink: Gruff, tough-as-nails, no-nonsense, likes Moana.
Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: He once threatened to boil anyone that sent him an emoji.
The Vietnam Vet: Dialogue from "Subject 17" indicates that he fought in South Vietnam.
You Are in Command Now: Takes charge of the Old Spanish Mission when Hetty's not around.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Relays orders from the OSM's command room.

LAPD

Ellen Whiting

Played by: Karina Logue

Action Girl: Whiting's a plainclothes LAPD officer and gets her fair share of trouble with the NCIS team.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Implied when Deeks and Kensi end up in a relationship. Of course, Whiting prefers to just trying to ruin Deeks' life rather than attempting to get back together.
Internal Affairs: Her main job in the LAPD.
Inspector Javert: She'd like nothing more than a personal excuse to throw Deeks behind bars and throw away the key, and personally guns for managing his arrests whenever someone attempts a Frame-Up on him or other such situations.
Jerkass to One: She's an ex-partner and implied ex-girlfriend of Deeks, so you can bet that if she's involved in an episode, she's going to be the one giving him hell. Of course, once he and Kensi end up in a relationship, this expands into two.
Working with the Ex: On the rare occasion that she's forced to realize Deeks isn't as fault and can't really give him hell, she'll cooperate. Begrudgingly.

Allies

Anatoli Kirki

Anatoli Kirkin

Russian mafiya boss operating in LA. He helps the NCIS team from time to time, but only if Deeks is involved.

All Love Is Unrequited: Has a thing for Deeks.

Heroic Sacrifice: Pushes Deeks out of the way of incoming gunfire.

Katherine Casillas

Played by: Moon Bloodgood

Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: How she gets around LA's social life since she's a known insurance broker. Plus, some of her insurance cases connect to active NCIS cases.

Talia Del Campo

Played by: Mercedes Mason

A DEA federal agent who works primarily in undercover work, meeting the team when they investigate a bombing at a fish cannery suspected of moving drugs.

Action Girl: She's a DEA - Drug Enforcement Agency, agent who generally comes around when the issue of drugs is a thing.
Cat Fight: Has a very brief one with Kensi in Deep Trouble, Part 2. After they finished with some Passive-Aggressive Kombat, Kensi responded with a headbutt, which Talia gladly responded with a nasty right before they were immediately separated.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She makes occasional appearances in seasons 5-10 until never being seen or heard from again.
- Possibly Justified as her work involved going undercover, meaning she might've simply put on a long term assignment.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Despite not being a couple, she gets jealous when someone gets a bit too close to Deeks and is the primary source of tension between her and Kensi.
Distaff Counterpart: She's basically Deeks from his introduction episode in season 1, working alone undercover and meeting the team when the cases they're working on overlap. This in turn overlaps with Replacement Goldfish for Kensi being an Action Girl federal agent that has witty, flirty banter with Deeks.
Put on a Bus: Is never seen again after season 10. She does return in Season 13 and tries to flirt with Deeks, even though he's married.

CIA

Vostanik Sabatino

All There in the Manual: Dialogue from "Best Seller" indicates that he has Armenian heritage on his maternal side of the family.
Elites Are More Glamorous: He's an experienced SAC operator who gets deployed overseas to combat terrorist threats.
Hero of Another Story: Mostly his time off-screen doing special forces missions in the SAC.

Joelle Taylor

Expy: She slowly becomes this for Yuri from Girl from Nowhere as like her, she also serves as a darker and evil foil to the cunning, powerful and abrasive female lead who represent karma for misdeeds (Kensi and Nanno). Like Yuri, Joelle was also bullied and horribly mistreated by the villains before her, which eventually caused her to go insane and become obsessed with revenge and bloodlust and begins to meddle in the main characters' missions to benefit herself for satisfaction.
It's Personal: In Season 13, she goes after SVR agents stationed in LA for what happened to Katya. G and Sam warn her against doing this since Joelle brings trouble whereever she goes.
Sanity Slippage: Katya's actions against causes Joelle to slowly teether on the edge of her sanity, to the point the team doesn't even know when is she going to snap and go insane.
Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: While Kensi is a rebellious and abrasive but kind and altruistic Tomboy who wants to settle for a peaceful life with Deeks, Joelle turns into a demonic and borderline psychotic Femme Fatale after what Katya did to her, meddling in the investigations and mistreating Callen in the process.
Took a Level in Jerkass: After being revealed as a C.I.A. Agent and later getting attacked by Katya, she turns into an insufferable, obnoxious and arrogant bitch towards Callen and the team and constantly meddles in their investigations and abuses her powers just to do it her own way.

Antagonists

Isaak Sidorov

Played by: Timothy V. Murphy

A former Russian FSB agent turned ruthless arms dealer. He gets on the radar when he steals at least three nuclear bombs. He apparently has a long history with Quinn, whom is, unbeknownst to him, Michelle Hanna, Sams wife.

Arms Dealer: The "Former Reds With Rockets For Sale" type. His role in the plot starts when he attacks a group of Russian sleeper agents that were hiding nuclear bombs. The reason? To sell the bombs for a profit.
Ax-Crazy: Quinn points out that her clients aren't usually as happy to see her as him. His response? "They don't enjoy killing as much as I do." It's implied he killed his current girlfriend simply because she was jealous of Quinn.
Big Bad: Of Season 4, as his plans to sell a nuclear warhead consume much of the team's efforts. Though it becomes a Big Bad Ensemble with Marcel Janvier after the latter re-enters the field.
The Chessmaster: By the time the NCIS team goes after him, he's already gotten his hands on at least three nukes.
Cold-Blooded Torture: He used it to find the nukes. In the Season 4 finale, he captures Sam and Deeks and uses Electric Torture and a dentist drill on them, respectively.
The Dreaded: Just the mere mention of his name is enough to make any conversation tense. Even The Mafiya is terrified of him.
Killed Off for Real: In "Ascension", Sam shoots him up real good.

The Chameleon

Marcel "The Chameleon" Janvier

Played by: Christopher Lambert

Arch-Enemy: For the team in general and Agent Callen in particular.
Asshole Victim: Suffers various severe injuries throughout the show. No-one feels sorry for him.
Ax-Crazy: Has absolutely no concern for other's life and is possibly the most psychotic villain in the show.
Beneath Suspicion: Invokes this trope. When he's on a job, he often passes himself off as someone low on the totem pole, like a mere driver. He generally uses a frontman to make the deals for him.
Big Bad: Of the finale of Season 3 and the premier of Season 4. He later elevates himself to Big Bad Ensemble of the finale of Season 4 and premier of Season 5 with Isaak Sidorov.
Body Horror: First, he is shot in the face by Callen. Then has one of his hands cut off by Vaziri.
Boxed Crook: At the end of Season 4, Callen "recruits" him to lure Sidorov into revealing the location of his stolen nukes. Janvier seems to play along, but then he exposes Sam and later, slips the leash.
The Chessmaster: Single-handedly manipulates NCIS multiple times into doing what he wants, including wiping out a family of arms dealers, manipulates Sam, Kensi and Deeks to almost getting blown up all to get his revenge and screw with Callen. He also likens his actions to a game of Chess.
Covert Pervert: Implied in his debut episode to have a liking to women with tattoos. Whether this is true or not is never confirmed.
Cruel Mercy: Is on the receiving end of this from Callen at the end of "Ascension". Callen even makes sure to be there when he's sent to jail.
Death Seeker: When he appears in "Descent" he asks Callen to kill him. He subsequently tries to provoke Callen into doing so. It fails.
Faux Affably Evil: Will act incredibly polite towards you while describing how he will kill you. He also regularly sends Callen a Christmas card, which Callen places next to a picture of himself and Joelle with Sam and Michelle.
Hero Killer: Responsible for the deaths of both Lauren Hunter and Mike Renko. He's also responsible for Sam and Deeks getting tortured by Sidorov
Hired Guns: Although he sometimes appears to have a gang, the Chameleon just hires (and disposes of) people as needed.

Master of Disguise: Played with. While he doesn't impersonate anyone himself, he can fake being a variety of nationalities. He's also very good at passing himself off as Beneath Suspicion.
Refuge in Audacity: In his first appearance, he arranges the death of the Interpol agent tracking him. He then hires a guy to contact NCIS and impersonate the agent.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Although he didn't start out this way, when he enters the show his entire reason for living is literally to get revenge on Callen for shooting him in the face. It isn't just Callen either; during "Ascension" he goes after the guy who cut off his hand and pays him back twice over.
The Sociopath: Marcel Janvier cares only about his own profit and has no regard for human life.
Xanatos Speed Chess: In the Season 5 premier, during his escape from Callen, Marcel constantly updates his strategy to the point of cutting off parts of his own skin just to get rid of the tracking residue Callen placed on him.

Tahir Khaled

Played by: Anslem Richardson

Arch-Enemy: For Sam after his time in Sudan.
Big Bad: Of Season 7, and the finale of Season 8.
Hero Killer: Masterminded the op that led to Michelle Hanna's death in Season 8.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Gets killed by his own IED after Sam escapes.
It's Personal: Sam earned his undying hatred for making Tahir's sister turn on him, leading Tahir to target Sam's family in turn, which made it personal on both ends. After kidnapping and killing Michelle Hanna, the rest of the team all want him dead.

Ferris

Played by: Kurt Yeager

An Arm and a Leg: Kensi unwittingly took out his leg, the injury so bad that it needed to be amputated. He intended to return the favor.
Ax-Crazy: Sabatino, who is already a traitor to his country, described Ferris as "sick", implying he did some nasty shit in Afghanistan. Deeks cuts off the feed to not want to hear it, and we never figure out how true it is.
Becoming the Mask: Very, very vaguely, as Kensi hints that he may have fallen In Love with the Mark, which is enough to make him waste time trying to dismember her. When she bites her tongue to emulate choking and gagging with Blood from the Mouth, he actually grows very concerned to try to save her, rather than angry at the thought of being denied his vengeance.
Boom, Headshot!: Deeks doesn't even bother letting him finish threatening to cut Kensi's neck with a saw before he gets a double-tap to the noggin.
Evil Is Petty: His entire shtick is vengeance for his leg, and screwing over the rest of the NCIS is just a sadistic bonus for kicks.
Foil: Subverted. Like Kessler below, he attempts to be this to Deeks for Kensi's heart, but in this case he actually puts up a solid persona as a Nice Guy while Kensi's recovering from her spinal injury. Of course, it's (almost) all for show.
The Heavy: When his handlers are either arrested or killed, Ferris is the last one standing and keeps that way for the following episode after them.
Interservice Rivalry: Played very seriously; NCIS's actions almost completely ruined CIA operations in Afghanistan, and while Ferris wasn't the one heading the attempt to screw over the L.A. branch of NCIS for it, he's certainly the one most explicitly acting on it.
It's Personal: That seemingly-random Taliban that Kensi sniped the leg of in Afghanistan? Yeah, he really didn't like that, and repeatedly plans to cut her own legs off in retaliation for it. He also targets the rest of the NCIS because their interference in the region basically ruined his undercover operation there. Ironically, his kidnapping of Kensi makes him this for Deeks.
Rogue Agent: He was supposed to be part of the undercover CIA operation to shut down NCIS for their messing up plans in Afghanistan. However, his vengeance against Kensi led to him taking a couple of his own goons, attempting to assassinate Granger, killing Duggan, and intending on dismembering Kensi's legs out of personal spite. It's a good question how on the leash he ever was given how spiteful the whole op was to begin with.
Smug Snake: When he thinks he's got Kensi where he wants her, he can't stop flaunting it over and over, trying to make her suffer.
Would Hit a Girl: Besides what he attempts to do to Kensi, Sabatino implies something to this effect while Ferris was undercover in Afghanistan.

David Kessler

Played by: Frank Millitary

Allegorical Character: Of Toxic Masculinity and Stalking Culture.
Betty and Veronica: He serves as the sociopathic, messed up and misogynistic Veronica to Deeks' sweet, kind and compassionate Betty with Kensi ending up as the reluctant Archie who wants nothing to do with the former.
Bigot with a Crush: Despite having a huge hatred for the law inforcement, he is still obsessed with Kensi.
Foil: To Deeks. Both are men who are in love with Kensi. But while Deeks is a Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold young man who loves her and is protective of her and is respectful of her, Kessler is shown to be an embodiment of toxic masculinity whose only goal is to own Kensi as his trophy, control her and do horrid things to her.
Lust: His defining trait is his lust for Kensi and that is all he could ever talk about and will stop at nothing to assassinate her once and for all.
Hate Sink: It is clear from his first appearance that he is made to be despicable, annoying and disgusting. Especially when he throws misogynistic rhetorics at Kensi.
Knight of Cerebus: He is one of the villains who bring darkness to the series and is known as the dreaded presence to the main characters.
Stalker with a Crush: Towards Kensi.
Straw Fan: He possibly serves as a straight up parody for Noble Demon mastermind characters who have strong feelings for the detective protagonists, mainly Hannibal Lecter. It was too much to the point it left most of the viewers with a migraine and they begged to have him taken down at some point to stop the madness.
The Sociopath: A clear cut example of one. He is willing to cause chaos just to get to Kensi.

Katya Miranova

Played by: Eve Harlow ("The One That Got Away"); Samantha Gangal (young Katya); Sasha Clements ("Down the Rabbit Hole")

Dark Action Girl: Ex-SVR agent turned rogue spy.
Not So Stoic: In "Down the Rabbit Hole", less than a minute after claiming she's dead inside, she states "Thank God" with relief when Jolie appears to kill her and her accomplice.

Others

Mike Renko

Played by: Brian Avers

Back for the Dead: He returns in the Season 3 finale, and gets shot and killed by a sniper in the same episode.

Put on a Bus: Near the end of season one.
- The Bus Came Back: In the season three finale.

Corbin Duggan

Played by: Jackson Hurst

Under Secretary of Defense, he arrives in Season 8 to restructure the NCIS OSP unit because of a failure to uncover a second mole in the organization, taking his job incredibly seriously. Of course, this does nothing but get in the team's way.

Enemy Mine: When The Mole is finally working to destroy the NCIS team, Hetty begrudgingly works alongside him since he's more interested in propelling his career rather than trying to antagonize her team at that point.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: Shortly after finally cooperating with Hetty after several episodes of being an ass towards her and NCIS, he is suddenly killed off.
Hero Antagonist: He's a good guy, but he's in friction with NCIS in his attempt to stop the mole among the government.
Interservice Rivalry: He is the crux of many issues as to why the government suddenly bears down on the L.A. branch of NCIS from virtually every angle, and seems to have a personal grudge against Hetty. However, when he finds out that several of the NCIS agents were inexplicably split up by multiple authorities on frame-ups without any knowledge or authorization on his part, he quickly drops the hostility upon realizing the mole he's been hunting for is playing even him.
Jerkass Has a Point: For all of his bullshit and his attempts to personally accelerate his career, Duggan has a very good point in that a mole in the dead center of one of your most personalized agencies that has access to obscene amounts of top secret information is a security breach on the national level. Were he not out to basically crucify the entirety of NCIS for daring to step out of line, he'd almost be reasonable.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His distrust for Hetty borders on violently obsessive to the point that he seems all too eager to pin her as the traitorous mole in the NCIS so she can be executed. It also doesn't help that he seems to be partly out for his own career opportunity. However, he still holds America and its safety as a priority, and once he finds out how hard he and Hetty have been played to tear apart NCIS, he tries to turn it around and help them.
Mauve Shirt: Lasts several episodes spread across season 8 as a central figure of the mole storyline, before being unceremoniously sniped.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As could be expected, his attempts to find the mole within NCIS rapidly degrades their capability, on top of the fact that his final push is exploited by the real antagonists of the arc to finish the job.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: His entire purpose is to antagonize the heroes, which involves arresting Hetty when she proclaims she's the traitor in the midst and stonewalling NCIS every opportunity he gets in his limited run time.
Oh, Crap!: Hetty explains that Callen, Sam and Deeks have all been snapped up by entirely different agencies within the day, testing Duggan's reaction. His bewilderment and subtle horror at realizing they've all been played is all she needs to know that he is not responsible for any of it.
Smug Snake: He's a douche in a position of power and he's sure to lord it over NCIS every opportunity he gets.
Surprisingly Sudden Death: When a SWAT team raids the boatshed, he goes out to try to confront them and figure out why they're swatting the place. The mole he's hunting for, Ferris, has him sniped in front of them to prevent the plan from being thwarted.

Arkady Kolchek

Played by: Vyto Ruginis

Inactive NCIS personnel

Lara Macy

Lara Macy (Louise Lombard)

Chuck Cunningham Syndrome / The Pete Best: She only appears in the NCIS 2-parter "Legend". Hetty was added to the team in her place.
- Bus Crash: Killed off a year later in the parent show.

"Dom" Vail

Dominic "Dom" Vail

Played by: Adam Jamal Craig

Black and Nerdy: He had his moments. His bobble-head was the best example.
Butt-Monkey: As the new guy, Dom copped a lot of flak.
Heroic Sacrifice: During the team's mission to save him, he steps in front of gunfire and is killed saving Sam.
Killed Off for Real: In the Season 1 episode "Found".
New Meat: A Police Procedural version of this.

Anna Kolchek

Played by: Bar Paly

Action Girl: Anna helped OSP solve several cases prior to being recruited by the US Marshals.
But Not Too Foreign: A first-generation Russian-American who moved to Champaign, Illinois when she was young.
Generation Xerox: Anna was in law enforcement like her father. Although unlike him (he was with the Soviet KGB), she joined the Chicago Police Department.
Official Couple: As of Season 8, she's with Callen, and got engaged by the end of Season 13, and officially tied the knot on the series finale.

Nell Jones

Penelope "Nell" Jones

Played by: Renee Felice Smith

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nell_jones_844.jpg

"Do they always expect miracles?"

Badass in Distress: She's been taken hostage a few times. The first used her as a human shield so she unloaded his gun. The second manages to take her gun so she pulls a knife and stabs him repeatedly.
Belligerent Sexual Tension: She and Eric lapse into this when she feels he doesn't give her enough attention, or when they become slightly competitive. It is mostly playful and benign.
Beware the Nice Ones: Unlike Eric, she is field trained and carries a gun when in the field. She hasn't had to use it that often, but she has captured a few suspects and disarmed a trained opponent who had taken her hostage and was using her as a human shield.
The Bus Came Back: Returns in the final scene of the series, offering Callen and Sam another mission.
Cincinnatus: With Hetty at an undisclosed location in Season 12, Nell has become the defacto Operations Manager in Hetty's place. While she's not really happy about it (quitting NCIS after the end of Season 11), she is slowly growing into the role. This could be Hetty's way of getting her acquainted with the role as she has tapped Nell to be her successor (despite Callen and Sam having much more seniority).
Girly Bruiser: Once escaped from a gunman holding her hostage. Callen also once nicknamed her "the Nellverine" after she took down two different fleeing suspects hand-to-hand in the same day.
Hollywood Hacking: Generally averted, occasionally played painfully straight.
Exposition: What she's commonly used for.
The Lad-ette: According to a profile created for her by her sister. Subverted when it turns out that, among other things, she doesn't know anything about football.
Number Two: Hetty appears to be training her as a potential successor.

Sugar-and-Ice Personality: When forced to take Hetty's place, she reveals that she can become just as authoritative and efficient as her for routine work.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Kensi's Tomboy.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Eric at times. She did kiss him at one point.
You Are in Command Now: With Hetty way long gone, Nell's mandated to take over since Hetty has named her as her successor. Admiral Kilbride says so or she needs to leave NCIS. By the end of "A Tale of Two Igors", she decides to go to the private sector and work alongside Eric in Japan.

Eric Beale

Played by: Barrett Foa

"I broke the internet."

Belligerent Sexual Tension: He and Nell can lapse into this when she feels he doesn't give her enough importance, or when they get competitive. It's mostly playful and benign.
The Bus Came Back: He came back as of Season 12, working with an unnamed defense contractor to help NCIS.
Closet Geek: A very, very transparent closet—one that embarrasses him occasionally around Nell. Varies between this and Proud to Be a Geek.
Hidden Depths: When everyone thinks he's not fit for a match of basketball, he waits until they left for an operation briefing before taking and making a half-court shot almost perfectly.
Eric: Three years in varsity, bitches.
Hollywood Hacking: Generally averted, occasionally played painfully straight.
Mission Control: Helps the OSP team by providing details from the Ops office.

Non-Action Guy: The one time he's forced into the field, he's terrified he'll have to carry a gun. Hetty gently informs him she wouldn't forgive herself for forcing him to carry a weapon, and he's happy to return to Ops when he's done.
Preppy Name: He gives his full name as "Eric Bartholomew Beale III, Esq." in S6E2, "Inelegant Heart".
Put on a Bus: He once again is on the bus after the Season 12 Finale "A Tale Of Two Igors" as he is now running the Tokyo office of his tech company. Only this time he's taking Nell with him as his co-director.
Took a Level in Badass: While out on field training with Kensi and Deeks, the suspect they're trying to arrest fires at them. Eric manages to neutralize said suspect by throwing a flash grenade.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Nell. The 2012 Christmas Episode had them kissing under mistletoe.

Hetty Lange

Henrietta "Hetty" Lange (Linda Hunt)

"Bugger."

And Starring: Hunt gets the 'With'.
The Atoner: She has blamed herself for the deaths of several agents to a point that she has tried to resign. Three times. All she does is change the date on the letter.
Badass Bureaucrat: Being a bureaucrat (and a diminutive one at that) doesn't make her any less badass. She used to be a field agent and she's proficient in many weapons, including some exotic ones.
Badass in a Nice Suit: She prides herself on her haute couture. In one episode, where Abby Sciutto assists the team in taking down a serial killer, Hetty compliments Abby on her own unique sense of style.
Catchphrase: "Oh, bugger."
The Chessmaster
Callen: When are you gonna stop moving us around like chess pieces!?
Hetty: I don't move pieces, Mr. Callen. I move the board.

Guile Hero: She is once called The Duchess of Deception
Hero of Another Story: Prior to joining NCIS, she participated in black ops missions to rescue American/Allied soldiers captured and held in Vietnam, even with the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Mama Bear: Hetty does some long distance Mama Bearing when Sam and Callen are held hostage by militia— she uses her "political capital" with the Secretary of the Air Force to send them backup in the form of fighter jets.
The Mentor: To the LA team when they need her help or advice.

My Greatest Failure: Failing to save Callen's mom. As well as the deaths of previous agents. Later on, she goes to Southeast Asia to investigate one of her old colleagues who is locked up by the current Vietnamese government, who she thought died in captivity after the Vietnam War.
Mysterious Past: She could tell you, but she'd probably have to kill you.

No Celebrities Were Harmed: Hetty, like a certain Edna Mode, is modeled after costume designer Edith Head. In "Imposters" she mentions to have worked with Bette Davis on Death on the Nile, so Hetty might actually be Edith Head in the NCIS universe.
Not So Above It All: At the end of the street racing episode, Hetty spots Eric's Segway in the empty office. The last few seconds of the episode is her riding it, whooping.
Not So Stoic: Snaps at Callen when he challenges her on recruiting and losing so many vulnerable agents. See his Broken Pedestal moment, above.
Noodle Incident: Has many, often from the Expansion Pack Past being a Mysterious Past.
- She once ruled Nicaragua for 72 hours. "Don't ask."
- "Hetty, plus tequila, plus mechanical bull, equals bar fight."
- During the 2023 crossover, in an encrypted voice message, she reminds Alden Parker that he owes her $600 regarding a "Monaco fiasco."
Omniglot: English and German and in "Allegiance", Welsh. Her personnel file in "Familia" lists her as also being fluent in Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Czech, Romanian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hungarian, and Pashto (the primary Afghan language). The same file says she attended the Defense Language Institute (a DoD institute that teaches foreign languages to soldiers and federal agents), which is presumably where she learned most of these languages.
Parental Substitute: To Callen. She's always had a special connection to him given their shared history.
Parental Abandonment: Her parents died shortly after being freed from a Nazi concentration camp and she was adopted.
Put on a Bus: Sort of. After the whole mole arc was completed, Hetty took a bus trip for a while, before turning with much fanfare for Deeks and Kensi's wedding. From there she ends up Commuting on a Bus, disappearing for long stretches of time and then reappearing again shortly.
Shrouded in Myth: Many of her schemes precede her.
Team Mom: She is a mother figure to everyone under her care, and extremely protective of all of them.
Took a Level in Kindness : Though she proved kind and caring since the pilot, she reached new levels in season 2 and 3.

Owen Granger

Played by: Miguel Ferrer

Bus Crash: Miguel Ferrer died from throat cancer in the middle of 2017, and the writers had been working out a way to address this by writing his terminal infirmity into the story. After trying not to rip the band-aid off his actor's passing by having his character depart in Season 8, the writers finally get around to the sad task of officially killing Owen off next season, off-screen. It's revealed he managed to reunite with his daughter while critically ill and dying from his cancer. After making his peace with her, he went off his medication that was sustaining his life, quietly and weakly made his way to a tall tree on top of a hill, sat down under it in the shade... and died peacefully. His daughter later buried him in that spot.
Comically Serious
Guile Hero: He prefers to manipulate targets into revealing something or tricking them into leading NCIS to something unwittingly.
Hero of Another Story: Prior to joining NCIS, he participated in black ops missions to rescue American/Allied soldiers captured and held in Vietnam, even with the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: When a suspect working for a Private Military Contractor demands to speak with his lawyer, Granger hands him his phone and lets him dial. As the suspect raises the phone to his ear, Granger fires his pistol right next to the suspect's ear, then tells him the next bullet is going into his head unless he talks.

Obstructive Bureaucrat: He has good reasons sometimes...
Parental Substitute: Kensi saw Granger like a second father to her, and was even going to ask him to bring her down the aisle at her weeding. It's sad that he didn't last long enough nor stick around to see it happen.
Real Life Writes the Plot: He goes rogue/off the grid after his actor passed away from throat cancer. And then after the cast and production crew's grief has subsided and they've had time to heal, his character is officially revealed to be dead and buried in the episode "Liabilities".
- Lethal Diagnosis: With respect to his actor's condition, Granger was diagnosed with throat cancer and told he had only a few months left at best. This implies that his character is destined to die off-screen. And in Season 9, we learn he did.
The Patient Has Left the Building: The manner in which Owen is posthumously written out of the show, said to have suddenly flown the hospital without warning, leaving a goodbye note to Hetty indicating he will not be coming back.
Reasonable Authority Figure: ...and has been very accommodating to the team the more he works with them.
Team Dad: It shows in season 6, as while Hetty is Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee, Granger is helping the team avoid the Department of Justice investigators. Later on in the season, also, when he tries Deeks's Swedish nachos.
- Later exemplified when Kensi reveals that because she lost her dad, she wanted Grainger to walk her down the aisle in his place on the day she eventually got married... except by that point, he parted ways with the group. And due to his actor's sudden passing, we know he won't be coming back.
Was It Really Worth It?: He's had to do a lot of Dirty Business over the years. After Fatima Khan (a woman he saved as a child) tried to kill him and Hetty for planting a car bomb that killed her father, he's left seriously wondering if every mission they performed was worth the costs.

Harley Hidoko

Played by: Andrea Bordeaux

The executive assistant to new NCIS Executive Director for Pacific Operations after Hetty resigns. Like Nell, she sometimes joins the others in field operations.

Action Girl: Like Nell, she helps the OSP team on raids when manpower is needed.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Captured by the Mexican cartel, tortured for information that she doesn't give up, and ultimately gets her tongue cut out before she's covered in gasoline and burned alive until there's nothing left.
Dark Secret: She's actually a widow who never even got to experience a full day with her husband, as they performed a wedding ceremony while he was dying.
Uncertain Doom: The finale of Season 9 sees Hidoko eerily disappear after going off to Mexico. From our point of view, some unidentified person is violently murdered and incinerated near the beginning of the episode. The agents Never Found the Body, but did find evidence that someone had been burned to oblivion, hoping that it wasn't her. And now it turns out that it was her.
Widowed at the Wedding: Married a fatally wounded soldier in Afghanistan just to give him the benefit of being wed to her out of love.

Shay Mosley

Played by: Nia Long

The new NCIS Executive Director for Pacific Operations. She used to be with the Secret Service.

Big Damn Heroes: Kensi and Turk were screwed by the sheer scale of eighteen armed cartel members about to come knocking on a hospital front door. Shay ambushes her ex-husband Spencer Williams, who was calling the shots, and subsequently kills him once and for all before forcing his driver to call in Williams' death and thus get the men out of there.
Didn't Think This Through: In probably one of the most unprofessional acts of such a high-ranking individual in the franchise, basically everything involving Spencer Williams and her son in Mexico completely and utterly drives her into an irrationally angry and violent series of impulsive events to get what she wants. It gets the entire Los Angeles branch of NCIS in deep trouble and nearly gets everyone kiled, and ultimately results in the Mexican cartel putting a massive bounty on her head, resulting in the character having to leave permanently.
Hero of Another Story: Her work with Secret Service prior to her NCIS recruitment.
I Did What I Had to Do: The aftermath of her unsanctioned Mexico operation lands her in hot water, given she nearly got the team killed and couldn't even send Hidoko's body back to her family just to rescue her son. She does feel guilt for the latter part, but ultimately justifies it all as necessary.
It's All About Me: Technically it's about her son Derrick, but the instant she realizes she has an opportunity to rescue him from Spencer Williams, she creates a massive warpath and disregards all the warnings, advice and attempts to cool her off. Shay takes these things personally and blows it all off, even blackmailing Hetty outright and firing Deeks when he attempts to question her authority on the matter.
Mama Bear: Mosley's dedication to rescuing her son is so strong that she'd go to Mexico herself and endangers the agency to get him back, come hell or high water.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Not at first, she sometimes gets into disbelief about ludicrous requirements such as conducting false flags op to deceive suspects and getting high-end cars for sting ops. Of course, all that rationality goes out the window when her son's involved.
Shay: I should have stayed in D.C.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Her actions in the Season 9 finale are firmly rooted in a vicious Mama Bear state of mind and she becomes an absolute terror and relentlessly abuses her authority over the rest of the team.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her attempts to rescue her son from her lover-turned-criminal leads to overstepping jurisdiction, breaking laws with an unsanctioned operation into Mexico, getting the team in massive heaps of trouble on top of implicating them in crimes, and nearly gets the heroes killed while Hidoko was tortured and burned alive. Season 10 tears into her hard for this, and ends up needing to go into hiding with her son because she pissed off the entire Mexican cartel.

Characters / NCIS: Los Angeles

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