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Owen Granger was the former Assistant Director of NCIS for Special Operations and the direct superior to Henrietta Lange. At the time of his disappearance, he oversaw the NCIS: Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles. He was also an officer in the CIA prior to joining NCIS but that part of his career was never made perfectly clear.

Appearances[]

Owen Granger was a recurring character in season 3 and 4, before being promoted to a main character at the start of season 5.

For all his appearances, see List of Appearances

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 3[]

He first appeared in the episode The Watchers where he questioned Hetty's ability to lead the Office of Special Projects (OSP) and has been a reoccurring character ever since then. Granger's original motives are unknown though it seemed like he was trying to bring down Hetty's team in order to score points in Washington and enhance his own authority over NCIS.

He revealed at the end of the episode Crimeleon that he had arrived in Los Angeles to catch a killer, which also showed him glancing out at Kensi who was in the shooting range, suggesting that he might be involved in the investigation of her father's death.

It was revealed in the episode Blye, K. (Part 2) that he also belonged to the same sniper unit as Kensi's deceased father Donald Blye, and he also helped the team track down the real killer, Peter Clairmont. He also shot Clairmont when the other man attempted to kill Kensi in revenge for her having beaten him in hand-to-hand combat.

As a result, Granger was assigned to stay in Los Angeles on a temporary basis and in the season three finale, he helped the team tackle the case of "The Chameleon", a serial killer responsible for the deaths of Special Agent Mike Renko and former Operations Manager Lauren Hunter.

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 5[]

In season five, Granger was heavily involved in the effort to apprehend Isaak Sidorov and the Cold War-Era nuclear weapons he stole, proving strong support to the team when he learns that the only agent to have been able to maintain a deep cover with him was Michelle, Sam Hanna's wife. He was also appointed to head the "White Ghost" operation, during which he became Kensi's handler when she was reassigned to the Middle-East to conduct an assassination.

Along with the rest of the OSP Team, Granger is also heavily aware of the growing romantic relationship between Kensi and Deeks. He is shown heavily discussing and debating their relationship in season five with Hetty with both expressing concerns and doubts. However, Granger shows slight disapprovement for their relationship and is unsure if Deeks and Kensi can continue working together as partners with their feelings growing stronger for each other. However, Granger eventually comes to approve and support their relationship later when Deeks and Kensi officially become a couple.

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 7[]

In the episode Granger, O., it is revealed that Jennifer Kim, a North Korean spy captured by the Office of Special Projects (OSP) in the episode Cancel Christmas, is his illegitimate daughter.

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 8[]

In the season eight episode Black Market, he tells Nell Jones to call him Granger and not Assistant Director, showing him eventually getting closer to the team. When she tells him, "That would be awkward Sir" he answers with, "Too bad cause it's an order”. In the episode Ghost Gun he tells Marty Deeks to call him Granger and says that it is "what his friends call him".

In the season eight episode Crazy Train, he reveals that he was dying from a form of cancer which he admits could have been caused by any of his actions, including being exposed to Agent Orange from while he was in the Golden Triangle prior to being extracted from Laos. He later ends up stabbed in the episode Hot Water while being escorted to a jail cell and left in critical condition. In the episode Payback, he was nearly the target of a hit by an officer of the CIA, although he managed to kill the assassin before she could inject a poison into his IV. In that same episode, it is revealed that he once tried to kill future Rear Admiral A.J. Chegwidden when "Chegwidden was young and Granger was stupid".

Owen Granger was written out of the series in the season eight episode Old Tricks. Hetty tells her colleagues that the process of his recovery will be longer than expected, and plans to visit him in the hospital later, but upon doing so in the final scene of the episode, she discovers his bed is empty. After asking his nurse of his whereabouts, she learns Owen quietly fled the hospital and abandoned further treatment despite not being fully recovered, leaving behind a compassionate farewell note to Hetty.

In Granger's written good-bye, he expresses his thanks to Henrietta, explaining that he has had enough bullets and hospitals for one lifetime and has decided to put his last affairs in order, effectively parting ways with the team without subjecting them to his impending death from cancer. His one wish is for her to break the news to them gracefully, and if she can't figure out how, that he trusts her to eventually come up with a way, knowing that is who she is. The episode ended with a tribute to Owen Granger's actor, Miguel Ferrer, who died a few weeks before this episode premiered. Ferrer had exhibited noticeable hoarseness and pronounced difficulty speaking in the episodes filmed shortly before his death. His deteriorating voice and failing health were justified through his character's development of terminal cancer, which reflected Ferrer's worsening cancer. The character's abrupt departure was posthumous, and designed to write around his actor's demise.

Although Granger himself does not actually appear in the episode Battle Scars, he was frequently mentioned throughout the episode, namely regarding his abrupt departure from NCIS and his presumed death, as well as his time in Laos where Hetty rescued him being elaborated on regarding a clandestine mission to rescue non-official agents still stuck in southeast Asia during the aftermath of the American withdrawal from Vietnam, and also appeared in the "Previously on NCIS: Los Angeles" portion of the episode calling back to Granger's acknowledgement that he has terminal cancer.

Like in the episode Battle Scars, Granger, owing to his heavily implied death, does not physically appear in the episode Golden Days, but he is alluded to several times. In the ending Hetty, A.J. Chegwidden and their fellow comrades from the Vietnam days raise a glass to him in honor and memory.

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 9[]

In the episode Liabilities, Granger is confirmed to have passed away; after leaving the hospital in the episode Old Tricks, he went to the safe house his daughter resided in and spent his last week with her, trying to make up for his failure to be a father to her. One morning, Jennifer found him dead under a tree overlooking a valley and buried him there.

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