What Happened to Joelle on ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’? She Only Has Revenge on Her Mind
Published May 23 2021, 2:58 p.m. ET
What happened to Joelle on NCIS: Los Angeles to make the character so hellbent on revenge? Well, longtime fans of the CBS procedural can attest that this CIA agent has endured serious trauma.
Joelle (Elizabeth Bogush) made her NCIS: Los Angeles debut in the show’s fifth season, playing a schoolteacher that Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) sets up with his partner G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell). Callen and Joelle had their romantic ups and downs over the next two seasons, but in Season 8, Hetty (Linda Hunt) forced Joelle to confess that she’s actually a CIA agent keeping tabs on Callen and his teammates.
But that was just the start of her troubles …
Joelle faked her death a few seasons ago on ‘NCIS: Los Angeles.’
In Season 9, Joelle faked her death to protect her husband and son from a rogue CIA group known as The Syndicate. And here in Season 12, Joelle lost a finger and a leg after being tortured by Russian spies.
So yes, Joelle has a score to settle with her Russian adversaries — including operative Katya (Eve Harlow). And in the May 16, 2021 episode, “Through the Looking Glass,” she dupes Callen again, arranging a sham investigation into a string of faked CIA murders.
She says her “taste for blood” is all she has left.
Callen finally catches wise to Joelle’s shenanigans at the end of that May 16 episode. “I made some calls,” he tells her. “You played us. You knew everything.”
Joelle admits the plot was “an opportunity to place an operative within the highest levels of Russian intelligence,” adding that there’s no mission more important.
Callen realizes that she’s trying to get “revenge on Katya or SVR or whoever did this to you,” but he argues that this obsession of hers isn’t good.
“You don’t understand,” a frustrated Joelle replies. “I lost my husband and my child. My body has been permanently mutilated. All I have left is my taste for blood.”
We might have to wait for Season 13 for more of Joelle’s storyline.
There’s only one episode remaining in NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12: The season finale, “A Tale of Two Igors,” airs tonight, Sunday, May 23. But Elizabeth Bogush’s IMDb profile doesn’t currently show that she’s featured in the episode, so fans may have to wait for the rest of Joelle’s revenge plot.
For the record, here’s CBS’ teaser for the episode: “Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) is kidnapped by an associate of Kirkin's (Ravil Isyanov) who is in need of his help. Also, NCIS investigates the shooting of a militarized dolphin equipped with a Russian microchip and Beale (Barrett Foa) makes Nell (Renee Felice Smith) an interesting offer.”
That said, Elizabeth has been all over TV in recent years. She recurred as Elodie Radcliffe on The Blacklist, for example, and as Dr. Anderson on The Young and the Restless.
And the actress has a healthy sense of humor about her NCIS: LA character’s plight. “I might only have one leg and half a pinkie finger, but I got LL Cool J backing me up, so everything’s gonna be alright!” she wrote on Instagram on May 16.
