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jacensolodjo · 1 year

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Total disclosure: Because of the book Babi Yar being republished in English on 4/18/2023, while also seeing certain posts on my dash, I was inspired to make this post.

If the USSR was a free and open utopia why were books like "Babi Yar" sent through so much censorship it would have probably been better it was never published at all?

Babi Yar aka Babyn Yar, you know, the massacre of (predominantly) Jews that was the largest singular event massacre of the Holocaust?

If the USSR cared about Jews why did they cover up and refuse to even so much as put a plaque of remembrance up for DECADES after? Oh sure 25 years after Babyn Yar they put up a placeholder plaque promising a new one. BUT they would clear away all the flowers and such from the PLACEHOLDER PLAQUE whenever foreign dignitaries finished their tour of the area. How, exactly, is that okay? How could they put effort into all of that and not even give a proper plaque of remembrance? (The answer, by the way, is this was the Soviet Union's standard MO. Western writer is visiting? Quick, hire a bunch of actors to live in this totally fake Ukrainian village to PROVE there is NO FAMINE.)

At some point you have to admit someone is in the wrong and it will always be the USSR.

(Note the book Babi Yar isn't just about the massacre but also tells the story of a young man up through the 1960s, including the Kreshchatik and 1961 disaster.)

The author himself regretted he published it with so much redacted from it due entirely to USSR censorship.

I suggest everyone take a look at the new publication of the book from this year. (Translated into English new publication I should say.) ((And yes I DO think it is well timed given the attack on the Babyn Yar memorial site last year.)) I should note, that the complete unredacted version is unvarnished truth, and thus some parts are hard to read. It is told from notes written by a boy barely into his teens and this should be kept in mind if you do read the book.

Note from the author of Babi Yar:

"Those who are interested will be able to have some idea of the conditions in which books are published in the Soviet Union, because—as I must stress again—my case was not an exception; on the contrary, it was quite ordinary and typical. Again, the version of Babi Yar distorted and deformed by the censorship was printed in millions of copies and appeared in translation in many languages. People who have read it already but who would like to know the full text need only read in this book the new sections, published here for the first time; especially since they contain the main sense of the book and are the reason why it was written."

(Please note that even though the author, Kuznetsov, was Ukrainian geographically and half Ukrainian from his mother, that he was a Russian speaker and thus used the Russian spelling of Babi Yar in addition to other words. He was well within his rights to use whichever toponym he desired. There is a HUGE difference in him using the Babi Yar form and a Western English speaker using it after knowing the preferred by actual marginalized Ukrainians form. Out of respect for Mr. Kuznetsov I use the form he used in his writing when talking about the book itself. As well as any other words from the book using the Russian spelling.)

Anatoly himself was not Jewish but he grew up right by Babyn Yar. Before and after the massacre there. The massacre also, it should be noted, did not just include Jews but ethnic Ukrainians, Russians, Rromani, the disabled (mentally or otherwise), etc., and Anatoly took great pains to make sure of this fact to anyone who read the book in its full form.

One more note from Anatoly about the book's current form: "In the summer of 1969 I escaped from the USSR with photographic films, including films containing the unabridged text of Babi Yar. I am publishing it as my first book free of all political censorship, and I am asking you to consider this edition of Babi Yar as the only authentic text. It contains the text published originally, everything that was expurgated by the censors, and what I wrote after the publication, including the final stylistic polish. Finally, this is what I wrote." (and I want to note he says PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM of the book which turned out to be a 478 page paperback so this meant he RETYPED ALL ~478 PAGES and had the presence of mind to actually PHOTOGRAPH IT knowing damn well what could happen to his manuscript otherwise. He sewed all of it into his jacket as he fled for asylum.)

(I want to say, foolishly giving people the benefit of the doubt, that when a writer is called a 'Soviet writer' that they think it is somehow all of them actually being allowed to write. When in fact 'Soviet' in front of writer only refers to the time frame they were writing. Many 'Soviet' authors often only had their work published either during the 80s -- the time of glasnost-- or after the Fall but they still get the moniker of Soviet. Or, commonly, like with Anatoly their work is so butchered by censorship as to be practically a different work altogether. It takes a certain amount of courage to publish anyway though, so Anatoly's efforts along with any other author that mirrors his experience should be held in high regard.)

A regime or system of government (since people have tried to 'well actually' about the word regime) that does not allow their people to poke fun or satirize or even tell an unflattering truth with no veiling is not really a regime/system of government one should be defending and yet. When you defend the Soviet Union, you defend their total disregard for Jews, Ukrainians, etc., while at the same time pretending to care about them (The Soviet Union was a Jewish utopia, honest! So long as you ignore all the pogroms and things like the Doctors' Plot that happened post-Holocaust because gosh darnit there were still too many damn Jews in the Soviet Union! Mother Russia, FIX! While also preventing them from going to Israel where they can actually, you know, live. Instead you just whisper about thinking of going to Israel and you got fired and became a 'leech' and yada yada some people waited a decade or more to be allowed to emigrate but hey whatever. Jewish Utopia.)

I leave with one more note from the author of Babi Yar:

"Time and again I set about the task of writing an ordinary documentary novel on the basis of my notes, but without the slightest hope that it would ever be published. Apart from that, something rather strange happened to me. I had been trying to write a straightforward novel in accordance with the rules of ‘socialist realism’—the only guide to writing which I knew and which I had been taught ever since my schooldays. But the truth of real life, which cried out from every line written in my child’s notebook, immediately lost all its vividness and became trite, flat, false and finally dishonest when it was turned into ‘artistic truth’."

And an example of something that was excised by Soviet censors, denoted by brackets paired with what made it into the first editions of the book:

"[I, Anatoli Vasilevich Kuznetsov, author of this book, was born on August 18th, 1929, in the city of Kiev. My mother was Ukrainian, my father Russian. On my identity card my nationality was given as Russian.] I grew up on the outskirts of Kiev, in the Kurenyovka district, not far from a large ravine the name of which—Babi Yar—was known then only to the local people. Like the other parts of the Kurenyovka it was our playground, the place where I spent my childhood."

(I wonder, what was so repugnant about stating he was half Ukr to cause it to be removed from the book entirely?)

#anatoly kuznetsov #anti communism #Babyn Yar #babi yar #antisemitism tag #long post

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likeclarabow · 9 months

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2024 Books Read

In a Holidaze - Christina Lauren (Jan 1)

The Long Games - Elena Armas (Jan 2)

The Seven Year Slip - Ashley Poston (Jan 3)

Something More - Jackie Kalilieh (Jan 3-Jan 4)

A Study in Drowning - Ava Reid (Jan 8-Jan 13)

Cockroach - Rawi Hage (Jan 17-Jan 24)

Confessions of an English Opium Eater - Thomas De Quincey (Jan 18-Jan 24)

The Night Circus (reread) - Erin Morgenstern (Jan 24-Jan 29)

Manfred - Lord Byron (Jan 29-Jan 31)

White Nights - Fyodor Dostoevsky (Jan 26-Feb 1)

Murder on the Links - Agatha Christie (Feb 1-Feb 5)

Fronteras Americanas: American Borders - Guillermo Verdecchia (Feb 8)

Total Chaos - Jean Claude Izzo (Feb 7-Feb 16)

I Was Their American Dream - Malaka Gharib (Feb 17-Feb 21)

Once in a Promised Land - Laila Halaby (Feb 26-Mar 1)

Babi Yar - Anatoly Kuznetsov (Feb 17-Mar 2)

Northanger Abbey (reread) - Jane Austen (Feb 27-Mar 3)

Delicious Monsters - Liselle Sambury (Mar 10-Mar 11)

The Flatshare - Beth O'Leary (Mar 12-Mar 13)

Divine Rivals - Rebecca Ross (Mar 13-Mar 14)

The Breakup Tour - Emily Wibberly + Austin Siegemund-Broka (Mar 14)

Foul Heart Huntsman - Chloe Gong (Mar 15-Mar 16)

I Hope This Doesn't Find You - Ann Liang (Mar 16-Mar 17)

Less - Andrew Sean Greer (Mar 17-Mar 18)

Night of Power - Anar Ali (Mar 20)

Winter in Sokcho - Elisa Shua Dusapin (Mar 20-Mar 22)

The Last Man - Mary Shelley (Mar 19-Mar 30)

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels - Janice Hallett (Mar 30-Mar 31)

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - Timothy Snyder (Jan 10-Apr 4)

The Reappearance of Rachel Price - Holly Jackson (May 5-May 8)

Winter Garden - Kristin Hannah (May 14-May 16)

Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney (May 17-May 28)

Biography of X - Catherine Lacey (May 30-June 9)

Her First Palestinian - Saeed Teebi (May 30-June 10)

Funny Story - Emily Henry (June 11-June 16)

November 1942 - Peter Englund (June 16-June 26)

Alone With You in the Ether - Olivie Blake (June 23-June 27)

A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman (June 27-June 29)

Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin (June 29-June 30)

The Girl in Question - Tess Sharpe (June 30-July 3)

The Girls I've Been (reread) - Tess Sharpe (July 4-July 5)

The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K Dick (July 6-July 12)

Ruthless Vows - Rebecca Ross (July 12-July 16)

Body Grammar - Jules Ohman (July 17-July 19)

Shanghailanders - Juli Min (July 19-July 23)

They're Going to Love You - Meg Howrey (July 24-July 26)

So Late in the Day - Claire Keegan (July 26)

That's Not My Name - Megan Lally (July 26)

The Blonde Identity - Ally Carter (July 27)

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands - Heather Fawcett (July 27-July 29)

The Sittaford Mystery - Agatha Christie (July 31-Aug 2)

Beautiful World Where Are You - Sally Rooney (Aug 3-Aug 8)

Mr Salary - Sally Rooney (Aug 9)

Penance - Eliza Clark (Aug 9-Aug 10)

Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata (Aug 11)

Educated - Tara Westover (Aug 12-Aug 14)

The Couple at No. 9 - Claire Douglas (Aug 15-Aug 20)

A Curse for True Love - Stephanie Garber (Aug 17-Aug 19)

London - Edward Rutherford (Aug 20-Aug 28)

The Girls - Emma Cline (Aug 28-Aug 29)

The List - Yomi Adegoke (Aug 30)

Florida - Lauren Groff (Aug 30-Aug 31)

Less is Lost - Andrew Sean Greer (Aug 31-Sept 1)

Love in the Time of Serial Killers - Alicia Thompson (Sept 1)

Zoya - Danielle Steele (Sept 1-Sept 3)

Where Are You, Echo Blue - Hayley Krischer (Sept 4-Sept 7)

Bellies - Nicola Dinan (Sept 8-Sept 15)

#new reading log post!!!!!#2024 books

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justforbooks · 1 year

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The greatest notoriety – and critical and sales success – enjoyed by the writer DM Thomas, who has died aged 88, came with his controversial novel The White Hotel (1981), inspired by his readings of Sigmund Freud and by Anatoly Kuznetsov’s Holocaust novel Babi Yar. Thomas’s novel combined these two influences in a driving, non-naturalistic plot centred on Lisa Erdman, a fictional patient of Freud’s, who progresses through sexual obsession to being shot down by Nazis in a ravine outside Kyiv.

The sex and violence were described in lingering, some said lubricious, detail. Although the novel was variously hailed – by Graham Greene and Time magazine, among others – as a powerful new departure in fiction, and an insight into the dark heart of the 20th century, it was attacked by some as pornographic and misogynistic.

In addition, Thomas was accused (a charge also levelled at his later novel Ararat) of plagiarising his factual material from Kuznetsov: he defended himself by counter-charging the authors whose works he had plundered of wanting to “copyright genocide”. At any rate, his pastiche of Freud’s epistolatory style was convincing enough to fool the great man’s daughter Anna, who demanded: “Where did he get those letters?”

A runaway bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic, The White Hotel was pipped, to Thomas’s immense chagrin, to the 1981 Booker prize by Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.

The course of Thomas’s life and his work, in poetry and prose, was determined by his sometime tumultuous relations with women. A crisis brought on in the late 1970s by a domestic life divided between dual households, the deaths of his parents and the closure of the college in the American midwest where he was working, led him to undergo prolonged psychoanalysis and to produce his first fiction, The Flute Player (1979), written with the aim of winning a Gollancz fantasy award – which it duly did.

In 1980 he returned to his former university, Oxford, for postgraduate work arranged by his former tutor John Bayley. However, he preferred to use his freedom to write his own fiction, which, liberated by his analysis, spurted up from the wellsprings of his psyche in a seemingly unstoppable stream. He was not interested in the traditional formal structure of the novel, explaining that he was too impatient to get his characters from room to room, or continually intersperse “He said” or “She cried”. Instead of naturalism, he relied on streams of poetic prose, dream sequences and coincidences.

Thomas strove to repeat the success of The White Hotel with other novels dealing with genocide (Ararat, 1983) and Freud (Eating Pavlova, 1994); and key moments of 20th-century history including John F Kennedy’s assassination (Flying in to Love, 1992).

Always readable and often compelling, none of the later novels quite achieved the white-hot shock of The White Hotel. Bolstered financially by selling the film rights – though frustratingly for Thomas the movie was never made – he returned to his native Cornwall, settling in a large house in Truro. Long after it was written, a screenplay by Dennis Potter was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.

Born in Redruth, into a tight-knit, working-class community around the village of Carnkie, Donald was deeply attached to his Cornish roots, particularly his family, mythologising his close relationship with his parents, Amy (nee Moyle) and Harold Thomas.

He discovered sex as an adolescent during an abortive emigration to Australia with his parents after the second world war. It would remain an all-consuming obsession.

Precociously intelligent, after Redruth grammar school he followed in the footsteps of the Cornish historian AL Rowse in winning a scholarship to New College, Oxford, where he discovered literature via the teaching of Bayley and Lord David Cecil. Never orthodox in his literary tastes, he was told by a female don at his vivas : “I should read a little more about the medieval rhetoricians, Mr Thomas.” Gleefully he reported: “I never did.” Despite this deficiency, he secured a first, to his family’s intense pride.

He was already involved with a steady girlfriend, Maureen Skewes, who shared his Cornish childhood and in 1958, the year he graduated, became his first wife. But strict monogamy was not for Thomas, and his sexual explorations continued apace whenever opportunity offered.

National service at the height of the cold war was ameliorated by his selection for a course in Russian. Not a natural linguist, he passed out with sufficient knowledge of the language, his course assessment reported, to “conduct low-level interrogation”.

More importantly, he acquired a passionate enthusiasm for Russian life and literature, particularly for the poetry of Pushkin and Anna Akhmatova, both of whom he later translated, in versions whose technical limitations were more than made up for by his intuitive feel for the spirit of the poetry.

A respected poet in his own right, he produced eight books of verse before he turned to fiction, beginning with science-fiction in the influential magazine New Worlds, alongside Michael Moorcock and JG Ballard. His themes were sex, death, rebirth and the infinite world of the imagination.

Much influenced by the Cornish landscape, his poetry had a mystic, Celtic tinge. Physically, too, in his youth, he resembled his Welsh namesake, Dylan Thomas, with bulbous nose, wild curls and a cigarette moored to his lower lip, and some of his poems shared the mystically charged erotic preoccupations of the “Rimbaud of Cwmdonkin Drive”. Thomas’s own favourite Celtic bard, however, was Yeats, whom he would read aloud or recite, the lines rolling evocatively out from his barrel-shaped body.

His reputation as a poet grew through the 60s and 70s as he taught at a succession of schools and then at a teacher training college in Hereford, where his children by Maureen, Caitlin and Sean (who followed him into fiction and journalism), grew up, and where he acquired a parallel family in Denise Aldred and their son Ross, juggling his time between the two households. Following his divorce from Maureen, in 1976 he married Denise.

Feeling imprisoned by this awkward situation, he escaped by guest lecturing at various American colleges, where his homesickness was ameliorated by affairs with some of his students.

Once established as a writer, he ran creative writing courses at the Arvon and Skyros centres in various locations, and at his own home. An inspired and inspiring teacher, he acquired the status of a literary guru among certain female admirers of The White Hotel. His belief that sex, art and literature were at the very centre of life was palpable to his fans. To others less enamoured, his self-absorption was repellent. Exploring the psychotherapy he underwent led to an autobiography, Memories and Hallucinations (1989).

In 1992, Thomas was set up by the ever-mischievous Julie Burchill, who got the then-aspiring writer Louise Doughty to report the results of a one-to-one erotic writing course with Thomas in the Modern Review, and his reputation as a lady-killer solidified into myth. There was no shortage of female applicants to join his courses, or his ever-changing harem of transient lovers. However, Denise’s death from cancer in 1998 hit Thomas hard, and he wrote movingly of her final illness.

Never lost for long, and unable to endure solitude, later that year he married Victoria Field, whom he had met on a Skyros course in Greece.

His biography Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life (1998) was warmly received, and went on to receive the Orwell prize. He continued to publish poetry – including a verse memoir, A Child of Love and War (2021) – and prose, and ran a group of Cornish writers called the Stray Dogs, after a famous early 20th-century Russian literary cafe in St Petersburg.

Thomas had huge vitality, a charismatic presence and considerable charm and humour. Into the often stifling and prissy world of English literature, he introduced a welcome raw honesty, an imaginative widening of limiting horizons, and a distinct whiff of sulphur.

His marriage to Victoria ended in divorce, and in 2005 he married Angela Embree. She and his three children survive him.

🔔 Donald Michael Thomas, poet and novelist, born 27 January 1935; died 26 March 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Donald Michael Thomas #in memoriam

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laughicate · 2 years

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Savva Brodsky (1923-1982)

illustrations for Anatoly Kuznetsov's "Babi Yar" from the literary/art magazine Юность (1966)

#illustration #Savva Brodsky

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ions-in-the-ether · 5 years

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Anatoly Kuznetsov

#Anatoly Kuznetsov #art #abstract art

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nomoreuniverse · 6 years

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Anatoly Kuznetsov

#Anatoly Kuznetsov

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dare-g · 3 years

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Maria, The Wonderful Weaver (1959)

#maria the wonderful weaver #aleksandr rou #ninel myshkova #viktor perevalov #mikhail kuznetsov #anatoli kubatsky #georgi millyar #talks

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theranskahovs · 7 years

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6 Word Stories

Vladimir

•His demons come out in dreams.

•Tattoos and bruises fight for space.

•Calloused hands trace up your thighs.

•Leather and lace and late nights.

•Hard to love, harder to leave.

•Internally- the Man vs. the God.

•He wages his wars viciously, ruthlessly.

•Messy hair in early morning light.

•"Name one hero who was happy."

Anatoly

•"He smiled, face like the sun."

•"I will crawl home to her."

•"Graves can't hold my body down."

•Neon lights and grungy back alleys.

•Falling asleep in cabs, driving home.

•Fingers twisting around knives, bleeding skin.

•"I would know him in death..."

•"...at the end of the world."

•"Reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk."

Piotr

•Bruises not from violence, but love.

•Hand on your knee, latenight traffic.

•Rough kisses and bodies sprawled together.

•Takeout and weekends spent getting high.

•His gun becomes his constant accessory.

•Borrowing his jacket, sleeves too long.

•A fire escape overlooking New York.

•The blood won't always wash out.

Sergei

•A life of luxury and opulence.

•Rose-appliqué lingerie, always in black.

•A dog, a cat, "family life."

•A soft voice, a softer smile.

•Stargazing at four in the morning.

•"I wanna come home to you."

•"Devil's trying to hold me down."

•"Days and nights perfumed with obsession."

#i love this style of writing so i'm trying it out #writing #sergei malikov #piotr kuznetsov #piotr veselov #anatoly ranskahov #vladimir ranskahov #the quotes are songs and book quotes i liked and shrunk down to six words

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boxscorehockey · 2 years

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2021-22 Alphabetical Directory Fwd A-M

Aho Sebastian Alexandrov Nikita Altybarmakian Andrei Amirov Rodion Anderson- Dolan Jared Andersson Lias Arvidsson Viktor Asplund Rasmus Atkinson Cam Backstrom Nicklas Bailey Josh Balcers Rudolfs Bankier Caedan Barkov Aleksander Barratt Evan Barre-Boulet Alex Barzal Mathew Batherson Drake Beaucage Alex Beauvillier Anthony Beckman Adam Bellows Kieffer Bemstrom Emil Beniers Matt Benn Jamie Bennett Sam Bergeron Patrice Berggren Jonatan Bertuzzi Tyler Bjorkstrand Oliver Blichfeld Joachim Boeser Brock Bokk Dominik Bolduc Zachary Boldy Matthew Bordeleau Thomas Borgstrom Henrik Boucher Tyler Bourgault Xavier Bourque Mavrik Bowers Shane Brabenec Jakub Bratt Jesper Brink Bobby Brisson Brendan Brown Connor Broz Tristan Buchnevich Pavel Bunting Michael Burakovsky Andre Buyalsky Andrei Byfield Quinton Caufield Cole Cehlarik Peter Chekhovich Ivan Chibrikov Nikita Chinakhov Yegor Chromiak Martin Chytil Filip Cirelli Anthony Coe Brandon Colangelo Sam Coleman Blake Colton Ross Compher J.T. Comtois Maxime Connor Kyle Copp Andrew Coronato Matthew Cotton David Couture Logan Couturier Sean Coyle Charlie Cozens Dylan Crosby Sidney Crouse Lawson Cuylle Will Dach Colton Dach Kirby Dadonov Evgenii Dahlen Jonathan Damiani Riley Danault Philip Dean Zach DeBrincat Alex DeBrusk Jake Dellandrea Ty Denisenko Grigori Doan Josh Domi Max Donato Ryan Dorofeyev Pavel Draisaitl Leon Drury Jack Dube Dillon Dubois Pierre- Luc Duchene Matt Duclair Anthony Dugan Jack Duke Dylan Dvorak Christian Eberle Jordan Ehlers Nikolaj Eichel Jack Eklund William Elvenes Lucas Eriksson Ek Joel Ertel Justin Evangelista Luke Fabbri Robby Fagemo Samuel Farabee Joel Farrell Sean Fedotov Ilya Fiala Kevin Finley Jack Firstov Vladislav Fix- Wolansky Trey Foerster Tyson Foote Nolan Formenton Alex Forsbacka- Karlsson Jakob Forsberg Filip Foudy Jean-Luc Foudy Liam Francis Ryan Frost Morgan Gallagher Brendan Gallant Zachary Garland Conor Gaudreau Johnny Giroux Claude Glass Cody Golyshev Anatoly Goncalves Gage Gourde Yani Granlund Mikael Greig Ridly Gritsyuk Arseny Groulx Benoit-Olivier Grundstrom Carl Guenther Dylan Guentzel Jake Gunler Noel Gurianov Denis Gusev Nikita Gushchin Danil Hagel Brandon Hall Taylor Hallander Filip Harrison Brett Hartman Ryan Hawryluk Jayce Hayes Kevin Hayton Barrett Heineman Emil Helenius Sami Henriksson Karl Henrique Adam Hertl Tomas Hintz Roope Hirose Taro Hirvonen Roni Hischier Nico Hoffman Mike Hoglander Nils Holloway Dylan Holmstrom Simon Holtz Alexander Horvat Bo Howden Brett Huberdeau Jonathan Huckins Cole Hughes Jack Hyman Zach Iaffalo Alex Jarventie Roby Jarvis Seth Jeannot Tanner Jenik Jan Jenner Boone Johansen Ryan Johnson Kent Johnson Wyatt Jost Tyson Kadri Nazem Kakko Kaapo Kaliyev Arthur Kalynuk Wyatt Kane Evander Kane Patrick Kapanen Kasperi Kapanen Oliver Kaprizov Kirill Kase Ondrej Karlsson William Katchouk Boris Kaut Martin Kayumov Artur Keller Clayton Kempe Adrian Kerfoot Alexander Khovanov Alexander Khusnutdinov Marat Kidney Riley Killorn Alex Kirk Liam Kisakov Aleksandr Klimovich Danila Knies Matthew Koivula Otto Koivunen Ville Konecny Travis Kopitar Anze Korczak Ryder Koshtov Yegor Kostin Klim Kotkaniemi Jesperi Kravtsov Vitali Krebs Peyton Kreider Chris Kubalik Dominik Kucherov Nikita Kunin Luke Kuokkanen Janne Kupari Rasmus Kuznetsov Evgeny Kyrou Jordan L’Heureux Zachary Labanc Kevin Lafreniere Alexis Laine Patrik Landeskog Gabriel Lapierre Hendrix Larkin Dylan Lauko Jakub Leason Brett Lee Anders Leschyshyn Jake Lindholm Elias Lucius Chaz Lundell Anton Lundestrom Isac Lysell Fabian MacKinnon Nathan Madden Tyler Malatesta James Malkin Evgeni Mangiapane Andrew Mantha Anthony Marchand Brad Marchenko Kirill Marchessault Jonathan Marchment Mason Marner Mitch Martino Ayrton Matthews Auston Mazur Carter Mcbain Jack McCann Jared McDavid Connor Mcleod Ryan McMichael Connor McTavish Mason Meier Timo Mercer Dawson Meyers Ben Miettinen Veeti Mikheyev Mikhail Milano Sonny Miller J.T. Mittelstadt Casey Monahan Sean Mysak Jan

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typingtess · 3 years

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The Rewatch works better when you cut and paste the text into the post properly. This week at work was bananas.

NCIS: Los Angeles Season Twelve Rewatch: “A Tale of Two Igors”

The basics: Deeks is kidnapped by is new Russian crime family which leads to the happiest season finale in the show’s 12-seasons.

Written by: Kyle Harimoto and R. Scott Gemmill

Kyle Harimoto wrote “Omni”, “Merry Evasion”, “Chernoff, K”, “Command and Control” (episode 150), “Granger, O.”, “Ghost Gun”, “Kulinda”, “767”, “Se Murio El Payaso”, “Assets”/“Liabilities”, “Venganza”, “Superhuman”, “One of Us", "Let Fate Decide" (season 11 premiere), "Decoy", "Answers" and “Watch Over Me”. He co-wrote “Three Hearts”, “Leipei”, “Humbug”, both ends of the “Matryoshka” two-parter (part one with Gemmill), “Smokescreen” part two, "Searching" and “Cash Flow”.

R. Scott Gemmill wrote/cowrote “The Only Easy Day”, “Brimstone”, “Breach”, “LD50”, “Found”, “Borderline”, “Absolution”, “Archangel”, “Tin Soldiers”, “Impostors”, “Cyberthreat”, “Honor”, “The Watchers” and both sides of the NCIS Los: Angeles/Hawaii Five-0 “Touch of Death” episodes, “Recruit”, “Free Ride”, “Wanted”, “Ravens and The Swans”, “Impact”, “War Cries”, both ends of the “Deep Trouble” season five finale/season six premiere, “Inelegant Heart”, “Praesidium”, “Traitor”, “Active Measures” (season seven premiere), “Blame It On Rio”, “Internal Affairs”, “Matryoshka” part one, "Talion" (season seven finale), “High Value Target”/“Belly of the Beast” (season eight premieres), “The Queen’s Gambit”, “Under Siege”, “Unleashed” (season eight finale), “Party Crashers” (season nine’s premiere), “This Is What We Do” (episode 200), “Các Tù Nhân”, “Goodbye Vietnam”, “Ninguna Salida” (the season nine finale), “Hit List”, “Asesinos”, “Till Death Do Us Part”, “Choke Point”, “The Guardian”, “Hail Mary”, “Kill Beale Vol. 1”, “Alsiyadun”, “Fortune Favors the Brave”, “The Bear” (season 12 premiere), “Angry Karen”, “Love Kills”, “Russia, Russia, Russia” and “The Noble Maidens”.

Directed by: John P. Kousakis makes his first season 12 appearance in the final episode of the season. John P. Kousakis directed "Imposters", "Sacrifice", "San Voir" part one, "The Fifth Man", "Parley", "Inelegant Heart", "Chernoff, K.", "Active Measures", "The Long Goodbye", "Talion", "Glasnost", "Unleashed", "Party Crashers", "This Is What We Do" (episode 200), "Goodbye Vietnam", "Ninguna Salida", "The Guardian", “High Society”, all of the Afghanistan scenes from "Iron Curtain Rising" to "Zero Days" in season five and all of Kensi’s injury/recovery storyline scenes from "The Queen’s Gambit" to "Sirens" in season eight.

Guest stars of note: Gerald McRaney as Retired Navy Admiral Hollace Kilbride for the final time in the guest star list. McRaney was in a third of the episodes in season 12 so he sort of joined the show already. I will be interested in to see how the credits work. Ravil Isyanov as Anatoli Kirkin gets one last credit. Other guest stars: Sandi Todorovic as Igor Kuznetsov. Sisa Grey as Dr. Jennifer Tuala, Denys Toliarenko as Taras, Luke Sholl as Henry and Michael Klesic as Igor Lebedev.

Our heroes: End season 12 with a smile, short an Acting Operations Manager and their former Technical Operator but with Hetty back.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen: Willing to take on the Admiral for Nell as a big brother saving her from a bully. Sam: Father of a Naval Aviator. Kensi: Laughing for the first time in a while. Deeks: Russian crime boss. Eric: Tokyo bound with Nell. Nell: Tokyo bound with Eric. Fatima: Lost a friend and found her true self. Roundtree: Was the first to figure out Kirkin bought the dolphins. Hetty: Back.

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen: Grisha. Sam: Great dad (but we knew that) Kensi: Visiting Nell in Tokyo with Deeks down the road. Deeks: Martin. Eric: No connections to the Russians. Nell: Can do Hetty’s job even if she doesn’t want to. Fatima: Sad one day a year. Roundtree: Got into the Soho house. Hetty: Wishes Nell well as she starts her post-NCIS life.

Who's down with OTP: All is good with Kensi and Deeks. Eric and Nell are riding off into the sunset.

Who's down with BrOTP: Sam’s a good dad and Callen will be one too.

Any pressing need for a cranky retired Admiral? The cranky Admiral out-cranky’d himself an operations manager and wound up with Hetty back.

Who is running the team this week? Nell, who fought her own battles and left on her own terms.

Fashion review: Callen is wearing a dark blue, button down shirt. Sam is in a dark blue long-sleeve tee-shirt. Kensi is wearing a pale grey cropped sweater with a hood. Deeks starts the episode in a sleeveless wetsuit. Post-kidnapping at the beach, he has on a grey tank top, Faherty hoodie and board shorts. Dressed for work, it is a blue long-sleeve tee-shirt for Deeks. Eric is all in black – black pants, black hoodie under a black leather jacket. Nell is wearing a black jumper over a dark floral blouse. Fatima has on a heavy gold sweater with verticle black stripes and a black turtleneck. Roundtree is wearing a black tee-shirt under a red and blue unbuttoned flannel shirt. A brown suit for Hetty – nice words to type.

Music: “Black Cactus Stampede” by Los Plantronics is playing while Deeks is surfing. “Let That Money Talk” by Quise.B is playing as Eric drives to the office. “Electric Fever” by Them Vibes is playing as everyone gets a nice end to the season.

Any notable cut scene: Three!

Scene one: As Kensi walks into the bullpen, Nell walks up wanting to talk. Nell explains that Kilbride is pushing her to take Hetty’s job. A happy Kensi congratulates Nell and then realizes that’s not what Nell wants. Pointing to Deeks’s desk, Kensi asks if he’s shown up yet. Nell figured they would come in together. Saying Deeks was surfing before going to the office, Kensi is going to give him a call and then talk to Nell in her office. “Not my office,” Nell says walking away though Kensi adds a “yet.”

Scene two: Busy loading up the tactical gear with Kensi, Deeks notices the Admiral strolling into the armory. The Admiral is looking for a plan. Kensi explains they are going to set up a perimeter around the aquarium and see if either Igor shows up. They hope to find the military dolphins. The Admiral is more interested in the man who put the bullet into the one dolphin’s skull. It is his hope that the dolphin killer attacks with lethal force, which earns a smile and “copy that” from Deeks.

Scene three: Driving the food truck to the aquarium, Roundtree tries small talk – the Dodgers game. Fatima is not a fan because any sport you can play buzzed on chewing tobacco isn’t really a sport. Roundtree tries to engage but Fatima shuts him down. She is clear, it isn’t about Roundtree, she just needs not to talk right now. Roundtree agrees and Fatima is grateful. He assures her if she wants to talk but she already knows.

Quote: Deeks: “Nobody is over this Russian thing more than I am. No offense to you, Grisha.” Callen: “No offense, Martin.”

Runner up: Kilbride: “This whole damn office is like a Moscow train station at rush hour. Is there not one of you without ties to a Russian? Put your hand down, Beale. You don't even work here.”

Anything else: On a lovely California spring days, Deeks enjoys a good morning surfing session. Walking back to his truck, a fellow surfer asks about the conditions. Two other men arrive. When Deeks asks if they are with the surfer, the surfer starts addressing the men in Russian. Taking an item from one of the arriving men, the surfer hands it to Deeks. “What is this?” Deeks asks and he learns it is a “gift from Mr. Kirkin.”

Introducing himself, the surfer is Igor, who formerly worked for Kirkin. Deeks laughs that Kirkin had an Igor. Looking at the item in his hand, Deeks thinks it is a shoe bag. It is a hood. Deeks is being kidnapped on a public beach. Igor goes so far to ask the other surfers if they care Deeks is being kidnapped. They do not. Deeks thinks he can just paddle back out into the water. Igor’s two companions are heavily armed. Deeks is unhappy.

In the back section of Hetty’s office, Fatima and Roundtree are trying to take inventory but are having a hard time identifying the particular objects. Roundtree is calling everything he can’t identify a miscellaneous paperweight, annoying Fatima who doesn’t want things boxed in containers saying “assorted crap.” When Roundtree says he didn’t call anything crap, Fatima leaves.

When Nell arrives, she identifies the “miscellaneous paperweight” as a holdback fitting. It breaks at certain point to release planes from a catapult launch on an aircraft carrier. Hetty uses it as a paperweight. Nell asks what Roundtree is doing in the back area. The Admiral told Fatima and Roundtree to catalogue and pack up Hetty’s things. Nell is not pleased, ordering Roundtree to stop immediately.

With his office windows all fogged up, Kilbride is on the phone asking for acoustical tile to put over the fogged up windows with some wood paneling over the tiles. An annoyed Nell walks in as the Admiral ends his call. He wants to see her just as much as she wants to see him. Saying that he decided to close “the antique store on the first floor otherwise people would regard that as a shrine,” the Admiral is making it Nell’s office, not Hetty’s. Nell doesn’t want or need an office.

Handing her some paperwork, the Admiral announces that Nell has been promoted to Operations Managers. She just needs to sign the paperwork and take a polygraph. Nell hasn’t heard from Hetty. Kilbride says Hetty let her do the job long enough so she would believe in herself. Saying she is not comfortable with the conversation, the Admiral tells Nell that NCIS is not a spa – comfort doesn’t matter. The office needs 100% committed. Nells is committed to the team and to the cases but she’s not taking the job. The Admiral it is sign or resign.

Sam arrives in Ops as Fatima is looking at a photo of a woman and what looks like a car accident. He wondering if they have any immediate cases. There is nothing new – Fatima would have alerted Sam, that’s how things work. Sam gives Fatima a little reaction and she modifies her tone. She does mention a dead Russian dolphin with a microchip and that catches Sam’s attention. The microchip is similar to the ones people use for their pets in the US but this one reads that the dolphin is a Russian marine mammal. Surprised nobody thinks that’s worth looking into, Sam wants to know about the dolphin. They are going to visit the doctor doing the necropsy.

In the firing range, Nell wants to vent to Callen. Explaining the situation about Hetty’s office and his take it or leave NCIS offer, Nell makes it clear, she doesn’t want Hetty’s office – it’s Hetty. Nell isn’t sure she even wants Hetty’s job. Callen has bad news – Nell already has Hetty’s job. After six months, “it’s kinda your job.” Nell doesn’t think any of this would be happening if Hetty was there. “But she’s not,” Callen reminds her. Plus the Admiral outranks Hetty in the office’s organizational chart. Nell wishes Kilbride would slow down, things are working out well. Callen offers to speak to the Admiral but Nell doesn’t need him fighting her battles like a big brother saving her from a school bully. She will handle her situation though she’d appreciate an alibi if the Admiral takes an unexplained fall down the stairs. Callen is afraid and he should be - she’s the Nellverine.

With Deeks wearing the hood, handcuffed to the Jeep’s glove box, Igor is ordering breakfast burritos at a local drive thru. Asked by Igor if Deeks wants anything, he’d like the restaurant to call 911, he’s being kidnapped. Igor says tells the order-taker that Deeks is kidding. Igor thinks Deeks will feel better when he eats.

Uncuffing and unhooding Deeks, Igor apologizes. After what happened to Kirkin, he can’t be too careful. Eating his breakfast burrito – too many pinto beans – Deeks asks why was he kidnapped. There is a problem with Igor, Igor explains. Deeks is told there are two Igors, which he thinks is “plain greedy.” This Igor agrees but Deeks was Kirkin’s choice to take over his operation. Deeks thinks it is the fashion business and it is. Along with the gambling operation, smuggling, money laundering, the whole criminal enterprise. The other Igor thought he should be running the businesses so he and a few other disgruntled crime family members broke away.

After pointing out that he’s a federal law enforcement officer, Deeks is told by this Igor that his background is why Kirkin trusted him. Deeks and really Igor think that makes no sense but it all made sense to Igor. Willing to forget the whole thing, Deeks wants to be brought back to his truck and pretend they never spoke. This Igor tells Deeks that the other Igor stole a cache of weapons Kirkin was having smuggled into the country from Russia. Deeks asks what kind of weapons and this Igor doesn’t know anything except Kirkin paid a lot for the weapons and Kirkin considered them highly valuable. Igor wants Deeks to help him get them back.

Removing some of Hetty’s more unique items from the armory, the Admiral tells Callen that he was not informed that Hetty started “a damn museum” in the office. Callen wonders if Kilbride knows something about Hetty that the team does not. The Admiral knows a lot about Hetty that the team doesn’t – most days he wishes he did not. Callen asks if that’s why Nell was given an ultimatum. Without answering Callen’s question, the Admiral thinks Callen should be more worried about his future and not Hetty’s.

DOJ Agent Carlson’s investigation brought to light Callen’s vast Russian connections and the optics are bad. Callen assures the Admiral that Hetty isn’t worried about optics. “Or discipline, or accountability, or following orders,” the Admiral says. Callen talks about Hetty’s ability to get things done. Kilbride thinks Callen is brainwashed – he’s not unbiased. Most of the team works for Hetty, “but you, she created you.” Callen makes it clear that Hetty’s aid when he was younger was not grooming him for anything. Sam interrupts with the dolphin news and wants Callen to join him. Callen suggests Roundtree instead. Giving the room a good look before he leaves, Sam promises to keep Callen updated. Once Sam is gone, Kilbride asks if there is anything Callen wants to say to him. “Maybe later.”

At the Ocean Research Institute, Sam and Roundtree are looking at photos of the dolphin on eh beach. Sam explains that the Russians use dolphins, sea lions even beluga whales to look for underwater mines. Sam asks about a harness or any other item on the dolphin that was man-made. Only the bullet, according to Dr. Tuala. Sam asks about the caliber of the bullet but the Doctor can’t help him – she turns over the bullet to NCIS. Based on the slug’s weight, the bullet was probably a 9mm. Seeing that someone executed a Russian Navy dolphin, Roundtree asks if they are looking for James Bond or Dr. Evil.

As Callen looks through Hetty’s non-digitized files, Nell asks if she can help him in a way that is more “why are you here”. Everything has been moved to the storage room. Nell asks if Callen needs something specific. He blows her off. As Callen leaves, Kensi arrives. Nell asks if it is passive-aggressive that Kilbride packed up all of Hetty’s stuff. Kensi is paying attention but is more focused on not being able to find Deeks. Giving Nell her full attention, Kensi says nobody likes being pressured into a decision and the Admiral can be….Nell comes up with “gruff, grumpy, crusty, D, all of the above.” The Admiral objects to crusty. Kensi tries to run interference for Nell and is shut down immediately.

With a happy yelp, Kensi announces Deeks is calling. “I’ll try to contain my excitement,” the Admiral says before reminding Nell that the clock is ticking. On speaker with Kensi and Nell as he loads his gear in his truck, Deeks explains that he was “beach-jacked” by his gang. Kensi is confused until Deeks fills her in. Kensi is confused.

Looking at a newspaper article about a Sunset Canyon star dying in a “disastrous car crash”, Fatima gets an alert from the Coast Guard. She calls Sam with news about a man adrift off the coast – a Russian sailor. Sam asks if the sailor is medically sound to have him sent to the boat shed. Sam and Roundtree feel this is no coincidence. Sam actually thinks it is the start of a spy novel – which Roundtree thinks is cool. Sam does not.

Surveying the storage area, Callen comes across a locked file cabinet. As he tries to pick the lock, he gets a from Kensi call to come to the armory. With Deeks still in his post-kidnapping, not work gear, Callen gets an earful about Kirkin’s shipment, the Igors and Deeks’s new role as a Russian crime boss. There is much confusion about Igor One and Igor Two. “Nobody is over this Russian thing more than I am. No offense to you, Grisha.” Callen tells Martin Grisha is not offended.

At the boat shed, Roundtree has finished talking to the Russian sailor who swears he’s a civilian sailor who was freelancing with a local fishing boat, got drunk on Jim Beam apple-flavored bourbon and fell off. Popping up on the monitor, Fatima confirms there are five boats just on the West Coast with the same name as the boat the Russian sailor provided. Roundtree is still trying to deal with the apple flavored bourbon. Fatima comments that Roundtree got into the Soho House once and now he’s a liquor snob before Sam asks her to keep digging. When Fatima is gone, Roundtree asks if Sam knows what’s wrong with Fatima. Sam doesn’t but he caught the same attitude earlier in the day. Roundtree admits she’s been like that all day and he’s nearly snapped at her. Sam is happy Roundtree kept the case first but then distracted by a text.

In Hetty’s and possible her office, Nell takes a call from Eric. She’s happy – she wanted to talk to him. He’s just outside the office. Pulling up in a “little over the top” Lamborghini that he just picked up from the port that morning, Eric is driving his “700-hoursepower marvel” backup the West Coast. Eric can tell something is wrong. Asking if Eric thinks Hetty is ever coming back, Nell learns Eric would like to say “of course” but he really doesn’t think so. He asks if Nell wants Hetty’s job. Saying she hasn’t decided, Eric is glad she doesn’t have to decide right now. Nell tells Eric about the ultimatum. Since the Lamborghini would have been delivered with white glove service, why is Eric at the office.

Announcing he got funding to open his company’s International office in Tokyo, Nell is impressed – “wow”. That isn’t the “wow” for Eric. He pitched Nell to the board. Eric and Nell, as a team, would run the Tokyo office. Nobody knows cybersecurity, Kaleidoscope 2.0 and how to manage a team better than Nell. Nell figures there would be other candidates – why would she even be considered. She isn’t being considered – they are being considered. “We’re the Wonder Twins” Nell says.

In interrogation, a frustrated Russian sailor is asked one last question by Sam. Did he hear gunshots? When the sailor denies hearing gunshots, Sam shows him photos of the dead dolphin. The sailor gets agitated and Sam agrees – he’d like a few minutes with someone who shoots dolphins. Near tears, the sailor admits he was Russian military but he resigned when his program was terminated. The dead dolphin was named Leonid – the most intelligent dolphin the sailor ever trained. He asks about the others. When the program was terminated, the Russians ordered that the dolphins would be destroyed. He was working to find them a home – he rescued six of them.

On the big screen in Ops, Fatima has pictures of Deeks’s Igor standing with Kirkin and the other kidnappers. Deeks’s Igor is Igor Kuznetsov, the breakaway Igor is Igor Lebedev. When Kensi mentions Lebedev doesn’t want Deeks to take over, Fatima adds “understandably show.” Kensi gives Fatima an “ouch” before asking if Fatima want to talk. Fatima tells Kensi she’s good. Worried that the job is taking a toll on Fatima, Kensi tries to offer some help. Fatima tells Kensi she’s not like her – “my life is not defined by this job or this building.” Not everything I Fatima’s life is work. Kensi stands down and asks for the locations for the Igors. Realizing that she’s gone too far, Fatima starts an apology but Kensi is out the door.

In the driveway, Eric is showing Deeks his Lamborghini Aventador. Deeks thinks the car is “freakin’ awesome” – something that Superman would drive. Eric thinks more Batman’s car. The Admiral arrives, hoping the car does not belong to Eric. “Unlike you, Beale, I choose to support hardworking Americans,” the Admiral explains and cars like Eric’s cause pain in the hearts and bank accounts of the working man. He wishes Eric luck driving “this thing” past those unemployed Americans.

Mercifully for Eric, Deeks gets a call which he ends with a “Dasvidaniya.” Announcing that the Admiral is not going to like this – and the Admiral stating that truer words were never spoken – Deeks explains that his Igor found the rival Igor and his Igor is going to kill the rival Igor. The Admiral thinks the office is a like a Moscow subway station at rush hour. He asks if there is anyone in the office with ties to Russia. Standing behind the Admiral, Eric starts to raise his hand and with eyes in the back of his head, the Admiral orders Eric to put his hand down – Eric doesn’t work for NCIS anymore. Groaning at Eric’s car, the Admiral returns to the office.

Sitting in Ops blindfolded, Deeks asks Eric how his current situation is going to help find the Igors. Eric explains that one of the betas for Kaleidoscope 2.0 allows sensory input. Deeks hopes Eric hasn’t hooked his brain to a giant computer in Ops. Eric explains that senses – smell, taste, touch – are put into the computer to narrow down a location. Eric and Deeks go through Deeks’s morning but all Deeks can remember is the smell of burritos. Threatening to really hook up Deeks’s brain to the computer, Deeks remembers smelling fried chicken and gas. Eric mentions that burritos can cause gas – “not gals like that, you cretin.” Gasoline is what Deeks remembers. Using the drivetime from the beach, Eric has seven locations.

Joining Eric and Deeks is the Admiral who wants to know what is going on until Eric tries to explain it. Then he doesn’t want to know and leaves. After the Admiral departs, Deeks remembers Plumeria – the Hawaiian plant. Using traffic cameras, Eric found Deeks in the Jeep.

In the boat shed, Roundtree is still questioning the Russian sailor while Callen and Sam are watching the main room. Callen notices Sam is much busier texting that watching Roundtree. Sam tries to blow Callen but Callen keeps after Sam. When Sam tells Callen that Aiden is taking his flight test today, Callen has his answer. If Aiden passes, he can continue his plans to become a fighter jet pilot or else he’ll be flying transports or refueling planes. This is “the” test that will determine Aiden’s future with the Navy. Sam is trying to find the location of the test. Callen tries to assure Sam that Aiden isn’t going to just show up unprepared. Sam is worried about the “sky-high” wash-out rated. They chuckle at the pun.

Roundtree walks in, thinking things are “freaking crazy.” He’s offended to learn he was put on mute. Kirkin bought the dolphins. They are the weapons that were hijacked. Eric and Nell pop up on the screen. They tracked Deeks’s Igor to an aquarium in Palos Verdes. While there is no word on the other dolphins, the rival Igor and his men are also at the aquarium. Roundtree thinks they are at the aquarium looking for supplies. There is no Petco for dolphins. Sam asks about civilians at the aquarium but it is closed for renovations. Kensi and Deeks are on their away, Fatima is coming for Roundtree in the food truck and Callen and Sam are to join them all that the aquarium. Castor will babysit the Russian sailor.

In the car, Callen and Sam are laughing about Russian military dolphins. Laughing about the last year, they’ve survived a global pandemic, Hetty “just gone”, Nell maybe moving up to Hetty’s job, Eric is a billionaire, Deeks joined NCIS and Kensi has “a psycho writing her love letters” but Sam can’t get past Eric being a billionaire. Sam gets another text. A friend from the Teams is a Naval Aviator and he sent Sam Aiden’s flight plan. Sam admits that was probably not the right thing to do but Aiden will be flying off San Pedro around 5PM. Callen thinks they have two hours to find two Igors.

In Ops, Eric admits he misses Ops every day. He misses the team, the cases and the good work they did. But…he is really happy doing what he is doing. Nell can’t decide if Eric’s timing is terrible or perfect. She never wants to abandon the team but being responsible for them is not fun. Eric doesn’t mean to pressure Nell – he was just really excited to work with his “ununoctium”. Nell doesn’t want Eric to think she’s ungrateful from a purely business prospective. She was so young when she took the job, she made connections that have been a huge part of her adult life. Roundtree pops up on the big screen – he and Fatima are in place. Nell gives the team to signal to go.

Making their way into the aquarium, Callen and Sam have eyes on the two Igors and four other men from one entrance. On top of the food truck, Roundtree is set-up with his sniper rifle. Kensi and Deeks are at the other entrance with their eyes on the Igors and company. From the sniper’s perch, Roundtree announces that nobody is in the aquarium except the Igors. The team moves in.

Everyone yells “federal agents” (because that’s what they do) and Deeks’s Igor orders the men not to do anything, dropping his gun immediately. The others comply. Deeks’s Igor explains “it’s all good” – they have decided that two Igors fighting for a common goal is better than fighting against each other. Callen and Sam don’t see the real upside to that. Igor does – they will be a team with Deeks – “united as one.” Deeks would rather remain un-united but is grateful for the offer.

Callen wants to arrest the men but the Igors explain that the dolphins are free – “we broke them from their military aquatic shackles.” It was beautiful – one of the men, Henry, cried. It was what Kirkin wanted all along. The dead dolphin is the problem. Deeks wants to know who murdered the dolphin. The Igors assure Deeks none of his men would do that. Henry starts looking guilty. It was an accident. He was shooting at the Russian sailor – it was dark, it was foggy. The second Igor is furious. Henry explains the boat was “bopping and bopping”, angering Deeks who says “it’s bobbling you stupid son of a bitch.”

After Deeks asks who kills a dolphin, dolphin-killer Henry makes a break for it. Deeks is thrilled to chase him down and toss him in a pool of water. Deeks tells a flailing Henry, “you kill a dolphin, you die with the sharks.” Henry is in the sea-turtle pool.

Walking to Nell in her/Hetty’s office, the Admiral announces that the case could have gone a lot worse. Nell asks if that is his version of “a job well done” and throws in a “sir” because she’s Nell. He’s worried about getting too self-congratulatory. The dolphins are still missing, Deeks was “bequeathed an organized crime syndicate” – two things that could only happen in the OSP. Nell calls the office a special place as she stands.

Announcing time is up, the Admiral wants his paperwork. He gets her letter of resignation instead. He is not negotiating with terrorists or Operation Managers. She’s not negotiating. The Admiral asks Nell what does she want.

At the beach, Fatima explains to Roundtree that it was a rough day for her. He makes it clear – she doesn’t owe him any explanations. She explains. This is a rough day for her every year. Asking if Roundtree watched her CW shows – “every episodes,” he replies – Fatima talks about the show’s star, Leilani. Roundtree knows Leilani died. Fatima explains they were best friends and not in the “IG, blowing kisses way.” Leilani had Fatima’s back, no matter what. One night, they were at a party in Benedict Canyon, way up in the hills. Leaving, Fatima told Leilani that she shouldn’t be driving. Leilani smiled at Fatima and made a joke. Fatima said she should have taken Leilani’s keys, could have locked her into a room at the party. Instead, they got into the car together. It was foggy, the road was slick, they didn’t hit anything. Leilani and Fatima just flew off the road and into the canyon.

After the crash, Fatima gave up acting. She learned about her heritage, her religion. She walked away from everything that didn’t matter or wasn’t important. Roundtree is grateful that Fatima shared her story.

At the back stairs, Eric announces in this favorite British accents that Nell’s carriage awaits. Nell wonders about driving the carriage. Asking if Nell ever drove a high-end sports car before, Nell asks Eric the same – before today. Eric brings up his simulated gaming experiences. Announcing that the car is not big enough for the three of them, nell insists Eric shave his mustache. As about half of it is gone, the Admiral arrives. Eric wants to explain but Kilbride asks him to stop – it would only make things more disturbing.

Making it a trio, Kensi walks in. Giving Eric the shaver – and he doesn’t want Kensi to look at him – Nell wants a few minutes with Kensi. Kensi already knows about Tokyo. Nell hopes Kensi and Deeks will visit – Kensi promises they will. They aren’t leaving for Tokyo for a few weeks so Nell would like to have a going away celebration. She’d also like Kensi to be careful. The two hug. Kensi wants Nell to be careful too – don’t let Eric drive the car too fast. Asking if Nell is sure about the move, Nell tells Kensi she isn’t but it is a now or never decision. She will be all alone with Eric in Tokyo so she may be back in six weeks. Kensi promises to save Nell’s parking spot. Nell is going to take one last tour of the office.

Packing up the tactical gear, Deeks is reliving his glory of taking out Henry. Kensi gives a heartfelt laugh at Henry’s use of “bopping”. Deeks is thrilled. It has been a long time since Kensi has laughed and it is beautiful. Saying if they leave for home now, they’ll just be stuck in traffic – why not go to the beach? Some tacos, some cold beers – a sunset beach picnic. Kensi loves that Deeks is “a little mermaid.”

In Hetty’s office – Hetty. She’s not pleased about the empty look. Hetty and Nell have a wonderful reunion. Hetty isn’t staying – she’s up to her “ass in alligators” – but she had to come back to LA to wish Nell luck. With tears in her eyes, Nell apologizes for not stepping into Hetty’s position. Hetty is unhappy – her plan was to let Nell learn she had what it took to do the job. If she wanted it or not wasn’t the point – being able to do it was. Nell thinks Hetty “Yoda’d” her and Hetty agrees. Hetty gifts Nell with a pin – “just don’t aim it at anyone you like.” Nell isn’t sure Hetty’s joking. Hetty isn’t either. Nell gives Hetty a big hug, half crying, half laughing. Hetty wants Eric and Nell’s adventures to begin. As Nell walks away, Hetty blows her a kiss.

Saying that he heard stories of lost pets travelling hundreds of miles to make their way home, the Admiral is told to “save it” by Hetty. They need to talk. The Admiral says “lucky, lucky, me.”

Off a beach in San Pedro, Callen and Sam are waiting for Aiden. Callen laughs and Sam wants to know what he’s thinking. Hoping his thoughts won’t go to Sam’s head, Callen tells Sam he’s a great dad. Sam is there despite the crazy life they live. If Aiden or Kam need Sam, he always finds a way to be there. Callen tells Sam not to say anything and then knows it is killing Sam not. “Let her rip,” Callen says. Sam tells Callen he would be a great dad just as the planes fly by.

Making their way up the Pacific Coast Highway, Eric and Nell are “bopping” long to the music starting their grand adventure.

In the armory, Hetty is supervising the return of her weapon collection to the armory. The Admiral is doing the returning.

At the beach, Fatima and Roundtree are smiling, laughing and sharing stories. At a different beach, Kensi and Deeks are having a picnic on his surfboard, also laughing and having a good time. Finally, back at San Pedro, Callen and Sam are smiling and laughing. The shot moves to the ocean – the dolphins are home.

What head canon can be formed from here: We actually got real head canon Fatima’s back story. It was a good way to explain how a young woman on a CW primetime soap winds up embracing her heritage and religion and working for NCIS. Now do Roundtree, show.

The exit of Eric and Nell was the full season coming. Eric was thrilled with his new billionaire life but kept coming back to NCIS for Nell. Nell was unhappy with her NCIS life and made that clear regularly. They were great characters and the show will miss them. They always made the exposition their characters had to provide both informative and fun. It will be interesting to see if that becomes exclusively Fatima’s role.

Is it me or does a little of the JAG score play underneath Aiden’s flight over San Pedro?

This was a lovely ending to a season that was often not all that fun to watch. Callen ticked off some of the past season but skipped all the awful Russia stuff. Speaking or all the Russia stuff – is more of Callen’s past locked up in that file cabinet in the storage room?

Episode number: This was the 18th and final episode of season 12. It is the 280th overall which means next spring, 300.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la

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warmania · 3 years

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Dima Maseykin - Film director/Chief Illustrator instagram.com/daltonizm_/ Alya Lugovaya - Head of Production instagram.com/aleyaska/ Kostya Korobkin - Head of Production instagram.com/duffus/ Sophya Katulska - Executive Producer instagram.com/sollveig_k/ Mitya Katkin - Executive Creative Producer instagram.com/mityakatkin/ Nino Vasilkovskaya - Line Producer instagram.com/do_filtra/

Liza Chernyak - Illustrator instagram.com/cher_liza/ Nikita Selivanov - Illustrator instagram.com/kitos_04/ Aset Kairambayev - Illustrator instagram.com/nakedmazafaker/ Roman Novak - Illustrator instagram.com/nvk_foxhide/ Egor Afonin - Illustrator behance.net/egorafonin/

Pavel Nikiforov - Lead Animator Anastasiya Melikhova - Animator Vera Pozdeyeva - Animator Vadim Ivanov - Animator Egor Keon - Animator Lyudmila Skotnikova - Сolour-in artist Nadezhda Pshenichnikova - Сolour-in artist Alisa Andreyeva - Сolour-in artist Tatyana Petrova - Сolour-in artist Alina Khabarova - Сolour-in artist Darya Gavrilova - Сolour-in artist Ekaterina Tikhonova - Сolour-in artist Yury Tomilov - Digital-compositor Alexey Sazhin - Digital-compositor Alexander Kuznetsov (2A Pictures) - Digital-compositor Andrey Kiselev (2A Pictures) - Digital-compositor Oleg Koverchenko (2A Pictures) - Digital-compositor

Anton Reva - Сollage director instagram.com/savemymind/ Anatoly Shabalin - Сollage artist instagram.com/shabalin_anatoly/ Galina Kazimi - Сollage artist instagram.com/renard_oui/ Sasha Churganov - Сollage artist instagram.com/po.sox/

Vlad Yakunin - Senior editor Kirill Khandurin - Senior editor Nikita Potapov - Motion designer

Shepard Fairey - Guest Artist instagram.com/obeygiant/ Kate Moross - Guest Artist instagram.com/katemoross/ Nikita Kibirev - Guest Artist instagram.com/nikibirev/ Anatoly Vladimirovich instagram.com/subwwaymoscoww/ Zhenya Artemyev instagram.com/zhenyaartemjev/ Katya Oktyabr instagram.com/octbrkate/ Yana Bolotenkova instagram.com/bolotenkova.yana Oleg Guta instagram.com/gutaart/ Ilya Kutoboy instagram.com/kutoboy/ Sergey Kolesov instagram.com/peleng_square/

Brushes Page: creativecloud.adobe.com/discover/article/keith-haring

Making of film: vimeo.com/bakehouse/btsadobeandkeithharing

Campaign hashtag: #creativityforall

Tags: @Adobe Inc. Achtung!isobar Amsterdam achtung.nl/ facebook.com/136407646401784/ instagram.com/weareachtung

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densifangirl1 · 3 years

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Repost: @dg251170 PROMO VIDEO for #ncisla season 12 episode 18 „A Tale of Two Igors” on May 23 (season finale) Deeks is kidnapped by an associate of Kirkin’s (Ravil Isyanov) in need of his help and NCIS investigates the shooting of a militarized dolphin equipped with a Russian microchip. Also, Beale makes Nell an interesting offer and Hetty returns, on the 12th season finale of NCIS: LOS ANGELES, Sunday, May 23 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. GUEST CAST: Gerald McRaney (Retired Navy Admiral Hollace Kilbride) Sandi Todorovic (Igor Kuznetsov) Sisa Grey (Dr. Jennifer Tuala) Denys Toliarenko (Taras) Luke Sholl (Henry) Michael Klesic (Igor Lebedev) Ravil Isyanov (Anatoli Kirkin) WRITTEN BY: Kyle Harimoto and R. Scott Gemmill DIRECTED BY: John P. Kousakis https://www.instagram.com/p/CO9d6nYDscC/?igshid=3lih17xhd1ji

#ncisla

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ruminativerabbi · 3 years

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Babyn Yar

The Russian missile that hit Babyn Yar in Kyiv last week brought the war home to me personally in a way that I hadn’t anticipated. Was it an accident? It’s hard to imagine what the Russians could possibly have hoped to accomplish by bombing the most sacred of all Shoah sites in Ukraine and one of the most important ones in all Europe. Was it somehow related to Vladimir Putin’s regular—and supremely grotesque—willingness to reference the Ukrainian leadership, very much including its Jewish president, as a gang of neo-Nazi thugs? But even if it was, what exactly was the message here? Was it that the Russian Army liberated Ukraine from the Nazis once and is planning to justify its occupation and (I’m assuming) eventually annexation of Ukraine by selling it to the world as a justifiable, even laudable, effort to accomplish the twenty-first century version of that same thing? It’s hard to imagine that that could be it—not because Vladimir Putin is not cynical and malevolent enough to self-justify along such lines, but because it’s hard to imagine him imagining anyone hearing that without laughing—and yet what part of the events of the last few weeks wouldn’t have reasonably been labelled “hard to imagine” just a month or two ago? So maybe this too!

We grow up incrementally, step by step, stage by stage. No one goes to sleep as a child and wakes up as an adult. I’ve written in this space about my own coming-of-age experience reading Vasily Grossman and Ilya Ehrenburg’s The Black Book of Russian Jewry page by page when the ten- and eleven-year-old me found himself alone in our synagogue library for a few minutes. But that book was only the gateway to other books, some of which became so much a part of my growth to adulthood that I can remember them after all these years as though I just read them recently. André Schwarz Bart’s The Last of the Just was the foundation upon which rested my sense of my place in the world for years and years. So, of course, was Elie Wiesel’s Night. But Anatoly Kuznetsov’s Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel was perhaps the most profound of all in terms of its effect on my sense of what it means to be a Jew…and also what it means to be a human being. (See below.) The slightly fictionalized true story of the murder of almost 34,000 Jews in Kyiv in the course of just two days in the fall of 1941, the book was beyond terrifying and disorienting to me. I grew up in a neighborhood of survivors and had friends whose parents had lived through the camps. But, of course, there simply was no one—or no one I ever met—who lived through Babi Yar. The unimaginable massacres in that place, but also in Ponary Forest (where about 70,000 Jews from Vilna were murdered in the summer of 1941) or Rumbula Forest (where 25,000 Jews from Riga were murdered in November and December 1941)—these dark European forests were the terrible landscape of my nightmares as a boy, a dreamscape I still wander from time to time even now and which will always be part of me. As all readers know, the camps are central to my sense of self, even today. But I never dream about them.

But it was in the fall of 1973 that Babi Yar came to represent something else to me entirely. It was in the fall semester of my senior year in college. I was busy trying to gain admittance to JTS, but I was also taking my Russian seriously (just in case!) and it was in that context that I met Yevgeny Yevtushenko, at the time the best-known Russian poet in the West. How that came about is easy to explain: I met him easily because one of my teachers at Queens College, Albert C. Todd, was his American translator and invited him to visit our school and, semi-amazingly, he agreed to come. (It was a good gamble on his part too—years later, Yevtushenko himself became a CUNY distinguished professor at Queens.) Places were limited, but I was one of the first to sign up and got a ticket. I admired his writing, and particularly the poems I had read under Professor Todd’s tutelage. I eager to see what the man was like. But I had no idea how profound an encounter it was going to be.

The man began by reading one or two poems in Russian—translations had been handed out in advance at the door so you could read along while he spoke—and taking questions. (He spoke English well, it turned out.) But then he said he wished to read to us the poem that he described as his own literary Rubicon, a poem that could either have led to his ruin or to his ever-lasting fame but back from which he knew in advance there would be no turning. And the poem was, of course, “Babi Yar.”

In those days, the massacre at Babi Yar was famously commemorated yearly by the Soviet government without any reference to the fact that the victims were Jews. (Many thousands of others were murdered at Babi Yar as well, which provided the Russians with a kind of fig leaf covering their anti-Semitism. But it was the massacre of Kievan Jewry that was why Babi Yar was famous, or rather infamous, and that much was known to all.) He began by setting the scene. It was back in 1961, he explained, that the editors of the Lituraturnaya Gazyeta (then as now one of the leading Russian literary magazines) hinted to him that they would be prepared to publish his poem about the Nazi massacre, a piece of work that had to that point only circulated privately. They were clearly well aware that the poem was also about the Soviet government’s anti-Semitic persecution of its Jewish citizens and its revisionist refusal to acknowledge the site as a Jewish memorial. But they were ready to print the poem if he was willing. It was a huge gamble. This was the bad old days in the USSR, a time when people disappeared into the Gulag for far less. Yevtushenko said he considered his options. He knew the offer could not have come out of the blue and must have been pre-approved, possibly even by Brezhnev himself. Or was it a trap? Or a test? There was no way to know. Terrible things could have ensued. But there was also the possibility of advancing the USSR in a positive, liberal direction through his assent to publish. And so he agreed that they could print his poem in their next issue.

It was a huge success. No less a personality than Dmitri Shostakovich—probably the greatest Russian composer of his day—set the poem to music, then used that setting as the first movement of his Thirteenth Symphony. And the opening line of the poem, which reads “No monument stands over Babi Yar / a drop sheer as a crude gravestone” so galvanized public opinion in the Soviet Union that, finally, a memorial was established in that place that formally and unambiguously acknowledged Babi Yar as a site of Jewish martyrdom of almost unimaginable proportions.

I was beyond enthralled. Here was a man with no Jewish blood in him at all, who understood that anti-Semitism was as much, possibly even more, about the anti-Semite as about the Jew. And when he explained that the Shoah had become the benchmark for Western morality, I was enthralled. I felt as though he were speaking to me personally when he said, almost as though this were a commonplace thought, that identifying with the dead at Babi Yar is in our day the prerequisite for thinking of yourself as a human being, as a fully human being. The end of the poem, he read slowly in Russian while I followed along in translation. “I am each old man here shot dead,” the man read out. “I am every child. Nothing in me shall ever forget! The Internationale, let it thunder when the last anti-Semite on earth is buried forever. / In me, there is no Jewish blood. / But in their callous hatred, all anti-Semites must now hate me as a Jew. / For that reason, I am a true Russian.”

Maybe you had to be there. People applauded. I myself was stunned: this was the first time I truly understood that, even more than it defined my Jewishness, the Shoah defined (and still defines) my humanity, my human-ness. It was a threshold experience for me, the kind of experience you step through and feel changed. The notion that my whole adolescent obsession with the Shoah was as much about being a part of humanity as it was about being a member of the Jewish people—that was transformational for me.

Yevtushenko died in 2017 in, of all places, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He won a million prizes. He was awarded several honorary doctorates and was made an honorary citizen of many different cities. He had an asteroid named after him! (How cool is that?) But for me he was the guide who ushered me out of the prison I had constructed for myself and helped me understand that my emotional and intellectual involvement in the history of the Shoah was as tied to my human-ness as it was to my Jewishness. And he did that not by psychoanalyzing me or dissecting my psyche, but merely by reading a poem aloud in an overheated lecture hall and managing to speak directly to me as he did so.

The story of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still unfolding, its final dénouement still unknown. But the defiling the sacred space of Babi Yar moves the Russians’ aggression against Ukraine, at least for me, from the global to the personal. The Red Army was key in defeating the Nazis and rescuing the remnant of European Jewry still alive in 1945. Attacking Babi Yar, even if just symbolically, suggests to me that the Russians have turned their backs on their own history and have chosen to emulate not their own forebears but those forebears’ most vicious enemies.

#Yevgeny Yevtushenko #Babyn Yar #Babi Yar

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