Why would a tiny actress in her 70's matter so much to a teenager with a TV addition?
Well, it's an interesting story really. Let's start at the beginning:
It was Fall 2014, I was 13 at the time. After seeing so many episode endings of Season 5 a few months before, my mom decided to start watching NCIS LA full time. At first I groaned, because I thought this was just going to be yet another weird show that she was addicted to. I quickly changed that view overtime.
Did I know who Linda was? In a small way. Months before, I recognized her voice from a movie that I watched a lot as a kid. I was like 'Wow, she's a little one!'.
I didn't really think much of Hetty at the time, since I didn't really see many of her scenes before Season 6.
She started becoming kind of interesting to me with her first scene in the Season 6 premiere:
I was pretty stunned by that.
Oddly enough, until I rewatched the masterfully written Episodes 2 and 3 of that Season years later, I didn't have much of a memory of those episodes. But I DID remember Episode 4 pretty clearly, including the 1 scene that jumpstarted my interest in Hetty and this show:
Thsi scene was not only the end graphic for Episode 3, but was also in the promo for Episode 4 itself! I almost couldn't believe it! Like, she's old, and tiny, and she's doing something this crazy??! I thought of that the whole week before The 3rd Choir aired. And the episode itself, basically started my love of Hetty and the show itself! 😊
After that, Hetty became the main hook for me. Each episode, I was like 'when is Hetty going to show up?'
She won me over in a lot of ways after that. Her way of talking, her humor, her courage, the ending of Rage that revealed her mother/son like connection to Callen was real. I had never seen anything like it.
In 2016, I finally watched the whole series on DVD, and after that, NCIS LA officially became my top show.
When Season 8 started, I couldn't wait for each episode to air. It was a very exciting time for me. So much so, that was the Season that I started becoming slightly interested in spoilers.
That feeling of being really excited for an episode thankfully stuck with me throughout Season 9. Mainly because finding out what Hetty was up to at the time was an exciting mystery for me. (and thankfully, that was back when there was still stable writing!!).
With Hetty being absent in a few episodes that year, I figured Season 10 would be a return to normal. Like, show the aftermath of the finale and it's effects.
Until I got the news on the morning of July 3rd of 2018 that would start the show's real downfall:
Linda had been involved in a freak accident, and filming on Season 10 was supposed to start a week later.
I was insanely worried. Losing a cast member back in Season 8 was bad enough, but the possibility of losing her so suddenly like that? That would've been the end of NCIS LA right then and there!!
Luckily, she didn't die. But I was still worried of how her being able to work would be affected.
Sometime before Season 10 started, I got this news from TV Line:
That put me at ease, in a way.
In that episode, she was only offering her voice over the phone, but man. Hearing her voice made me want to cry so much because I knew the reason why she could only be in the episode that way, and because I knew how lucky I was just to get to hear it!
When she wasn't in the next 2 episodes, I figured 'Hey, it's just a couple of episodes, she'll be back soon'.
Until the end of Episode 4 derailed all that: it ended with Callen getting a phone call from someone using a voice changer. I can't remember everything that was said clearly, but at the end of the call, Callen confirmed it was Hetty who was on the other end, and that thunder strike that was heard after she hung up? Perfect description of how earthshattering my experience with this show was going to change instantly from there on out.
After that, I was pretty unhappy for the next month. Sure, the team being their usual goofy selves and seeing Deeks and Kensi plan their wedding was nice to see, but I couldn't stop wondering and worrying about Hetty.
Then a few days before Thanksgiving, I saw this statement on TV Line:
Oddly enough, that was enough to help with calming my worries for a while. (back then, just hearing some sign of positivity was enough to help me. I also didn't have a reason to be very skeptical of any info or spoilers in a negative way.)
For the next couple of episodes, I was actually pretty fine. Until the end of the Christmas episode when Deeks gave an emotional toast those who had passed and who was MIA:
Needless to say, that made me remember of how much I missed her, and there was no more 'putting those feelings back into a box' from there.
For the next month, the withdrawal and sadness from missing Hetty was getting to be pretty overwhelming for me. I was actually having to fight off the urge to cry to myself more then once because of how sad I was!
1 of those examples came on a blizzery day in January when I saw a photo of the script for Episode 17, which was titled 'Till Death do us part', which was confirmed to be the long awaited wedding episode.
Naturally, I was concerned. Like, would Hetty be there? She was the reason why Kensi and Deeks were even together, it would be completely disrespectful for her to not be there!
The next month, the photos and a big interview for the episode were released to TV Guide. As pretty as they were, I was struggling to feel happy because I wanted to be sure that Hetty would be there.
Then I read this part of the interview:
A surprise so huge, it had to be kept secret? Had to have been Hetty. What else could it be? I asked myself.
Sure enough, as I thought being patient would give me a big reward, the long, and absolutely beautiful promo for the episode itself gave me a huge motivation to rest easy:
Car crashing through the wall? A tiny foot that no one else on the team has? I knew right there who it was. Who else on the team was that small, and also crazy enough to pull off a stunt like that as a grand entrance? 😊
The entire episode was everything that I love about this show. ❤ This is truly the best episode I have ever seen. And the interviews that I read afterwards, 🥰🥰 Every fan loved that episode!!
With such an incredible comeback, I expected Season 11 for when things would go back to normal, and where I would find out what Hetty was up to in Season 10.
But unfortunately, the last 2 and a half Seasons have been nothing but: Terrible writing, 'Teasers' that either only last for 1 episode or never even happen (including teasers involving Hetty material that never materializes!!😡), Broken plans from the producers ('Yes we plan to have more Hetty', 'Yes, the plan is for more Hetty'. BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! It's been 2 Seasons of they saying that crap and where's 'More Hetty'??!!!! 😡😡), Endless baby/adoption/maybe fostering drama for Densi ( Oy vei 🙄🙄), Endless questions asked about numerous things that either get terrible answers or never answered at all (including now 2 and a half Seasons worth of questions about where Hetty has been!), The literal worst excuses for absences (or simply no explanation at all) (imagine if any other show tried that stunt! The reactions would be ridiculous!), The beyond ridiculous mixed signals being given in each episode of Season 13 about whether or not Linda is still a Series Regular:
Examples:
Press Releases:
Opening Theme Reel:
But in the Season Premiere:
Long story short, This once great show is now a shadow of it's former self, and no one involved with it seems to care. I'd quit it, except the very very small thread that keeps me from ditching it is well, the living fact that Hetty is not fully gone. (which is pretty obvious considering all the talking I've been doing about whatever she's doing in Syria, well, if the dumb writers even remember that's where she was 'sent' to!).
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Well, that was the NCIS LA portion of this, any other reasons that I have?
Quite a few actually!
She's the only woman to win an Oscar for playing the opposite gender! I know that might sound weird to some, but hey, it's an awesome fact!!
She's really sweet to her other cast members. I've seen a ton of past BTS pics from past Seasons, and she's just so sweet!! 🥰
She's just really adorable. 🥰 And she's got a cute smile that gives me the warm fuzzies each time I see it.
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Linda changed my life for the better. And I'll always appreciate that. (And I'm always going to say she deserves better from the show that she's been the glue of for these past 12 years because it's a fact!!!)
Thanks for reading!