“NCIS: Los Angeles” Season 6 Episode 5 “Black Budget” aired last Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. on CBS.The entire team investigates a shooting at the accounting department inside the West Coast Office of the Department of Defense. However, one of the accountants present at the shooting went missing. Both Special agents Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) and G Callen (Chris O’ Donnell) went to Mexico to find him. However, Detective Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) and Special Agent Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) discovered that all is not what it seems with the missing accountant. Read on to learn more about this episode.
The episode began in an office, during their lunch break. However, two of the employees, an asthmatic male and a woman named Margaret stayed in to eat their lunch. Right after the asthmatic man went to the bathroom, the entire department was gunned down by six heavily armed men.
At the NCIS: Los Angeles Headquarters, Technical Operator Eric Beale (Barrett Foa) and Intelligence Analyst Nell Johnson (Renee Felice Smith) briefed Special Agents Sam Hanna (LL Cool J), G Callen (Chris O’ Donnell), Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) and Detective Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) regarding the situation. They were told that the Accounting and Contracts Division of the Department of Defense in their West Coast Office was attacked during lunch that day. Of the few employees that were present, since it was a Sunday, only one, Milton Mulrooney (Bill Malone), survived. Milton was seen going into the men’s bathroom a minute before the attack happened, and two minutes later, he left the building, and has not been seen since. This case would be handed to them by the FBI as the accounting department contains account information that are allocated to “most of the Pentagon’s covert operations”, such as their NCIS department, the Office of Special Projects.
At the accounting department, they found Milton’s asthma inhaler in the men’s bathroom, which had been shot. They then spoke to the one in charge of the department, Doug Oulette (John Billingsley) who agreed to cooperate with them in figuring out if anything had gone missing because of the attack.
Back at headquarters, Nell and Eric discovered that Milton had just entered Mexico and was headed to Tijuana. The Secretary7 of Navy thought that thousands of operations and operatives could be compromised by what had happened. He then ordered Sam and G to track down Milton and to bring him home. However, as it was an unsanctioned operation, if anything went south, they would be considered as rogue agents.
As soon as they got there, Eric informed them that Milton had gone to a brothel called the Cottontail Men’s Club. However, before they took another step, they were surrounded by DEA agents. It turned out that the Secretary had to inform other agencies working within Mexico that two NCIS agents were coming in. They were stripped of their cell phones, guns and car by the DEA. They were also given a car and guns that would allow them to better blend in, as everything was untraceable.
Back in Los Angeles, Ouelette informed Deeks and Kensi that several servers were missing. This could only mean that over a hundred operations could be compromised. He also informed them that he usually ate lunch inside the office, but on that day, he had forgotten his lunch at home and had been forced to get lunch out.
At the Cottontail Men’s Club, the manager directed them to the sixth room upstairs and told them to look for Carmen if they were looking for the American. Carmen tried to deny that Milton had been there, but was given away, as he had left his inhaler in her room. Because of this, Carmen told them that Milton was staying outside of Tijuana. At that moment, six heavily armed men came, looking for Carmen. Because of this, G and Sam protected Carmen and escaped in a taxi.
They then arrived at Carmen’s house, where Milton had been hiding, as he was the fiancé of Carmen’s older sister, Aminta. Milton refused to trust them, even if he believed that they were indeed government agents as he claimed that the government was trying to kill him. He then told them that he and his co-worker, Margaret, had discovered anomalies in the moneys that were allocated to a black operations Delta Unit codenamed ‘Buster’. Based on what they had seen, they were allocated money for missions that never existed or happened. This meant that Delta Unit “Buster” had stolen more that $40 million. The day the shooting happened, Margaret had finally told their boss, Doug, what they had discovered.
At that moment, the six men, whom they figured was Delta Unit “Buster,” arrived. They demanded that Milton be released to them, or else, everyone would die. Sam also discovered that there was no signal because the unit had destroyed the only cellular tower nearby.
Back in Los Angeles, Kensi and Deeks found that the getaway cars had been torched along with the missing servers, which surprised them, as they knew that there were backup servers. However, Eric and Nell informed them that erasing the main servers would effectively erase the records of who the author of the accounts were. They then surmised that the perpetrators wanted to kill those who knew about whatever was on the servers that they wanted to destroy.
Thanks to Nell and Eric, they discovered that some money had been allocated to a Delta Unit codenamed “Buster”. However, the money was for operations that never occurred. Also, the ones who had signed off on it did not have the clearance level to actually know it those operations would exist. All in all, the Delta Unit had stolen $ 41 million. As they surmised that Doug would have known about it, they brought him into the interrogation. However, he maintained that he was innocent. It was despite the fact that they found a Swiss Bank account registered to him with $3 million in it and that money had been laundered by an armed group called Millennial Arms. However, after a while, Nell and Eric realized that Doug was innocent, as they discovered that the identification card that was given to the bank had Doug’s name on it, but not his picture.
Assistant Director Owen Granger (Miguel Ferrer), then decided to head out to rescue Sam and G, as he learned from the General in charge of Delta Unit “Buster” that his men were in Tijuana.
Frustrated, Kensi and Deeks decided to return to the crime scene. There, in the bathroom, they realized that Milton had been in on the entire scheme, as his shot inhaler showed that it had not been shot in the bathroom, but outside. They also realized that the men had been trying to kill Oulette before he informed their superiors about it, but they had been too late, as Doug had informed the “chain of command” as soon as he learned of it.
At Tijuana, Sam helped Carmen’s family arm themselves. He taught them how to make Molotov cocktails to throw at the men who were going to attack them. As they were being nice to them, Carmen showed them a bag of $ 1 million that was stashed in their oven. After learning that the money was Milton’s, they realized that Milton had been on it the entire time. He threatened them with a shotgun, but they were able to tie him up. Carmen’s grandmother had hit him on the head with a frying pan.
The men entered, and the girls, Sam and G were able to hold them off for a while. It was until Sam and G ran out of ammunition. Just in the nick of time, Granger came with a team of men- the real Delta Unit “Buster” who had been tracking down the men. It turns out that they are part of the group of arms dealers who laundered money for Milton.
As Sam, G and Granger left with the gym bag with money, G and Sam denied that they had left some cash with the ladies, and told Granger that “what was in the bag, was in the bag”. Granger then smiled and agreed to their story.
And that’s all for the recap of “NCIS: Los Angeles” Season 6 Episode 5 “Black Budget”. For more news, updates and recaps on “NCIS: Los Angeles”, keep on following Movie News Guide (MNG).
Catch “NCIS: Los Angeles” every Monday night at 9:00 p.m. on CBS.
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