The new hit series NCIS: Los Angeles aired its third episode last night CBS.  This episode opens up with an unmanned, remote controlled military plane called a Predator drone going off target and killing a navy sergeant. The drone then flies away off radar to an unknown location and is presumed stolen.

Sam (played by LL Cool J), Callen (played by Chris O’Donnell) and the team must work quickly to find the stolen Predator drone before it can be smuggled out  of the country, because it is still armed with live and deadly missile.

They use the computer surveillance built into the plane to see who picked up and transported the drone away from it’s landing site. They uncover that he is a young Islamic man who seems to show signs of being a religious extremist.  Sam and Callen go to the young man’s home to arrest him but instead of allowing himself  to be captured, and for some unknown reason, he is walking around with a bomb attached to his body and blows himself up (The writers show some pretty shallow writing skills here).

They later find this  Islamic extremist worked for a local computer software company but further investigation reveals he’s was not a man with the aptitude to have  mastered flying the drone.

The trail leads Eric and Dom to a university classroom where the footage of the stolen drone was posted to the Internet.  Kensi goes undercover as a super-sexy computer hacker gone good to speak in the class hoping to find their suspect in the case. The provocatively dressed Kensi finds him and aided by her womanly charms gets him to start talking, but the young man gets his throat cut by the henchmen of the mastermind behind the whole plot before she gets any real answers.

As the team continue to try to figure out who’s behind the theft and the executions of the men involved in the heist the drone pops up on radar with its missile activated and pointed at a local high school. Turning to the original drone remote-pilot they’re able to take back control of the missile and save the school while arresting the man behind the conspiracy.

Although I do enjoy NCIS: Los Angeles, the writing at times is a bit stereotypical and lacking. For one, why does no one every ask to see their badges?