The BEST episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles

Every episode of NCIS: Los Angeles ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles!

NCIS: Los Angeles is a drama about the high stakes world of undercover surveillance at the Office of Special Projects (OSP), a division of NCIS that is charged with apprehending dangerous and elusive criminals that pose a threat to the nation's security, specifically Naval and Marine assets and personnel.

Last Updated: 12/14/2025Network: CBSStatus: Ended
Ninguna Salida (2)
star
8.17
390 votes

#1 - Ninguna Salida (2)

Season 9 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/20/2018

Despite several team members having grave reservations, NCIS travels to Mexico for a risky mission to locate and rescue Mosley’s son.

Directors: John P. Kousakis
Watch Now:Amazon
Sans Voir (2)
star
8.13
576 votes

#2 - Sans Voir (2)

Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/15/2012

The team is drawn into a deadly mind game against a master criminal motivated by revenge.

Directors: Terrence O'Hara
Watch Now:Amazon
Hot Water
star
8.08
1292 votes

#3 - Hot Water

Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/15/2017

The mole has once again compromised the NCIS team as planted evidence results in the arrests of Callen, Sam, Granger and Deeks, on the day Under Secretary Duggan returns for Hetty’s resignation.

Directors: Dennis Smith
A Line in the Sand (1)
star
8.05
780 votes

#4 - A Line in the Sand (1)

Season 9 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/20/2018

After Sam is shot during a firefight with the cartel, a suspect is interrogated and reveals new information on the whereabouts of Spencer Williams, the man who kidnapped Mosley’s son five years ago.

Directors: Frank Military
Watch Now:Amazon
Unleashed
star
8.04
1412 votes

#5 - Unleashed

Season 8 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/14/2017

Following the kidnapping of Sam’s wife, Michelle Hanna, Sam goes rogue from the NCIS team and attempts to stop his arch nemesis Tahir Khaled from ever targeting his family again.

Familia
star
8.04
2021 votes

#6 - Familia

Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/17/2011

Hetty's sudden resignation prompts Callen and the NCIS team to investigate the reason why she would disappear in the hopes of tracking her down.

Watch Now:Amazon
Callen, G
star
8.02
1924 votes

#7 - Callen, G

Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/25/2010

Callen races against a ruthless adversary to locate a woman who knows the whereabouts of a forgotten fortune earmarked to fund a new war in the Middle East - and also holds the tantalizing key to his unknown past.

Directors: Tony Wharmby
Till Death Do Us Part
star
7.99
729 votes

#8 - Till Death Do Us Part

Season 10 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/17/2019

After months of planning, the NCIS family celebrates the wedding of Kensi and Deeks. Also, an old acquaintance, Anatoli Kirkin, pays Deeks a surprise visit on his wedding day and he isn’t alone.

Directors: Tony Wharmby
Watch Now:Amazon
Found
star
7.99
2119 votes

#9 - Found

Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/4/2010

The NCIS team races to save one of their own when they receive video evidence of Special Agent Dominic Vail being held hostage months after he was kidnapped.

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Descent (1)
star
7.97
1507 votes

#10 - Descent (1)

Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/14/2013

A nuclear explosion in the Pacific reignites the search for stolen nuclear weapons and prompts Hetty to shuffle the NCIS: LA partnerships, sending Callen and Kensi overseas and leaving Sam and Deeks teamed up state side.

Directors: Terrence O'Hara
Watch Now:Amazon
Spoils of War
star
7.97
1187 votes

#11 - Spoils of War

Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/1/2014

After learning that Special Agent Kensi Blye disappeared and the Taliban may be he holding her captive, Hetty sends the NCIS: LA team to Afghanistan on a rescue mission.

Directors: Frank Military
Blye, K. (2)
star
7.97
2005 votes

#12 - Blye, K. (2)

Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/28/2012

The team continues to search for new evidence to prove Kensi Blye’s innocence after a private meeting involving her deceased father’s sniper unit turns deadly.

Directors: Terrence O'Hara
Watch Now:Amazon
Payback
star
7.96
1471 votes

#13 - Payback

Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/19/2017

Emotions run high for the team as one agent is held in an unknown location and tortured by the mole, while another discovers he was betrayed by someone he least expected.

Directors: Terrence O'Hara
Uncaged
star
7.95
1383 votes

#14 - Uncaged

Season 8 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/7/2017

After Sam’s wife, Michelle, is taken from her home, the kidnappers demand the prison release of Tahir Khaled, Sam’s arch nemesis, in exchange for information on her whereabouts.

Directors: Frank Military
Lange, H.
star
7.95
2234 votes

#15 - Lange, H.

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/2011

The Special Projects team travels to Romania to search for Hetty, while delving into the history of the Comescu crime family, and their connection to Callen. Meanwhile, Eric and Nell discover that Lauren Hunter, the Office of Special Projects' Operations Manager, is a member of the Comescus.

Directors: Tony Wharmby
Watch Now:Amazon
Các Tù Nhân
star
7.94
1023 votes

#16 - Các Tù Nhân

Season 9 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/14/2018

While Hetty is being tortured by her captors in Vietnam, Eric and Nell find a clue to her whereabouts, prompting the team to organize a rescue mission with very little information.

Directors: James Hanlon
Sans Voir (1)
star
7.93
1609 votes

#17 - Sans Voir (1)

Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/15/2012

Callen and the team confront their vengeful adversary, the Chameleon, when an undercover case ignites a deadly mind game orchestrated by the criminal mastermind.

Writer: Gil Grant
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Russia, Russia, Russia
star
7.93
378 votes

#18 - Russia, Russia, Russia

Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/21/2021

When Callen goes to the National Counterterrorism Center on the pretext of interrogating a Russian asset from the crashed plane case he investigated months earlier, the tables are turned and he is detained, accused of being a Russian agent.

Directors: Daniela Ruah
Old Tricks
star
7.92
1421 votes

#19 - Old Tricks

Season 8 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/5/2017

After a retirement home resident is kidnapped, the NCIS team uncovers a pair of con artists: Ginger and Edward O’Boyle, who hop from home to home scamming the elderly out of their money. Also, Callen confronts his father on his illegal activity and the danger it places on their family.

Internal Affairs
star
7.92
884 votes

#20 - Internal Affairs

Season 7 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/7/2015

Deeks is arrested and interrogated in connection with the murder of his former partner, while the team tries to prove his innocence.

Directors: Eric A. Pot
To Live and Die in Mexico (3)
star
7.92
843 votes

#21 - To Live and Die in Mexico (3)

Season 10 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/30/2018

Gravely injured and unable to communicate with the team in the U.S., Callen, Sam and Kensi, with an unconscious Deeks in tow, search for a safe way home as a cartel boss places a “dead or alive” bounty on their heads. Also, Mosely and retired Navy Admiral Hollace Kilbride beseech their contacts in Mexico and D.C. for assistance with their missing colleagues

Directors: Frank Military
Watch Now:Amazon
Code of Conduct
star
7.91
486 votes

#22 - Code of Conduct

Season 11 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/26/2020

Sam, Callen and Roundtree travel to Afghanistan when Marine Lieutenant Colonel Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie asks NCIS to help with a sensitive case after two SEALs claim their chief murdered an unarmed prisoner.

Directors: Frank Military
High-Value Target
star
7.91
1287 votes

#23 - High-Value Target

Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/25/2016

Under Secretary of Defense Corbin Duggan takes over the NCIS Los Angeles unit when they fail to find a mole.

Directors: Tawnia McKiernan
Watch Now:Amazon
Talion
star
7.90
1084 votes

#24 - Talion

Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/2/2016

When Sam receives a distress code from his son Aiden that his school has been taken over by an extremist group, Sam, Callen, Kensi and Deeks rush to San Francisco to protect Aiden and free the hostages.

Watch Now:Amazon
Goodbye, Vietnam
star
7.90
955 votes

#25 - Goodbye, Vietnam

Season 9 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/11/2018

Callen, Sam, Kensi and Deeks join Hetty's team from the Vietnam War, Sterling Bridges, A.J. Chegwidden and Charles Langston, in a dangerous and off-the-books rescue mission to save Hetty from her captors in Vietnam. Also, Mosley calls in Nell's sister, homeland security specialist Sydney Jones, to assist the team in Los Angeles with processing evidence connected to Hetty's time in Vietnam.

Watch Now:Amazon