NCIS:LA Season 5 SPOILERS: Learning About Deeks' Past, Plus Reaction To Finale's Torture Scenes
Fans have been treated to insights into the personal lives of the NCIS:LA team: stories from Sam's family, Callen's past, and Kensi's vow of revenge against the man who caused her father's death.
But what of Deeks? Viewers haven't gotten much detail of his life before then, save for his past career as a lawyer (belying his surfer vibe) and as a dancer in college. But it looks like the viewers are due for a little glimpse even farther back than that.
Back in March, show runner Shane Brennan suggested that there would be some explanation into Deeks' family life and introduce the world to the character's mom, but it was not going to be explored during the last season.
"Next season we're going to learn more about Deeks," Brennan told Matt Webb Mitovich of TVLine.com, "including some insights into his past, his relationship with Kensi and his future with NCIS."
NCIS:LA fans have, however, gotten a glimpse of Deeks' (Eric Christian Olsen) real-life mother. In Season 4, Episode 3, the cast member passed by their own mothers in a scene in a casino.
Meanwhile, in the weeks since the finale, fans are still talking about the torture scenes that ended it. The last viewers saw of Deeks was the detective's mouth pried wide open with a large scary power drill lowered toward it. Writer Carla Day of TVFanatic.com said she understood viewer concerns, but claimed that this scene was not exactly unlike others the series; it is a crime show, after all.
"The show is violent every week," she wrote bluntly. "People are beaten shot, killed and even blown up. The NCIS agents have been put through the ringer, too, though not to this level before."
In the case of Deeks, it served to get under the viewers' skin on viewers and allowed Eric Christian Olsen to show off his abilities as an actor.
"The entire hour built in tension and danger up until the moment Deeks' screams," wrote Day. "It was Eric Christian Olsen's brilliant performance during those final 30 seconds that sold it as a horrific, painful event; not the viewing of actual torture.
"Ultimately," she concludes, "it wasn't the physical action that sold the excruciating pain, it was Deeks' scream."
The season 4 DVD set is due out on August 20, with the season 5 premiere airing in the fall season.
