A/N: As promised, the Deeks manifesto! Densi one should be up in the next few days.
Martin A. Deeks was not first introduced as such. The first time we meet him, we had no reason to think he was anymore than a throwaway character. First introduced as Jason Wyler, a MMA cage fighter, in the episode "Hand-to-Hand" in season 1, Wyler appeared to be an agitated, suspicious individual. As Kensi walks in as Tracy, he looks her up and down, the only fighter to not welcome her.
As they later find out, "Wyler" is the only fighter who is not military. His lack of background comes up as suspicious to them, and he finds himself a suspect. We clear this up quickly, though, as we learn that he is actually an undercover LAPD cop, Marty Deeks. Deeks proves his capabilities in the first episode, staring down Kensi as she was forced to switch covers from girlfriend to drug dealer.
Deeks: Except he said your name was Kate.
This closed, suspicious side of him is still not one we know well. From the start, Deeks was characterized as a joker. He seems to strike a balance between the two in his first scene with the team:
Callen: Are you in the mood to share, Deeks?
Deeks: That depends on if the mood is reciprocated. 'Cause I gotta be honest, not feeling a lot of love right now.
He is serious, and more than a little apprehensive, while traces of his real personality still begin to show through. Deeks disappears at the end of the episode, and for all assumptions, we won't see him again. His biggest moments of interaction were spent with Sam, and as we know, to this day, they are and always will be, two very different people. We think again at the end that we probably won't see him again, as it was clear the writers had not abandoned Dom's story either.
Yet in the next episode, there is Deeks again. This time, he is assigned as an LAPD liaison, immediately putting Callen on alert. Callen views Deeks as a terrible liaison, yet he senses his presence is not temporary.
Through the first season, we learn that Hetty watches the agents she plans to recruit for an unknown length of time, and she has had her eye on Deeks for awhile. We all know of Hetty's intelligence when it comes to the job she performs, so we can assume that there is a very good reason she has been watching Deeks for so long, giving us, at the very least, a bit more faith in his abilities.
Callen raises concerns, valid concerns from what we have seen, about Deeks, telling Hetty that they do not need an LAPD liaison, and many, if not most, other shields, hate Deeks. He himself admits as much:
"I've pissed off my fair share of shields."
Why this is, we've never found out. It may be they find his personality irritating, or maybe what he does is not of enough value for him to be worthwhile, but for whatever reason, Deeks is not popular with LAPD.
Nonetheless, he identifies very strongly with being an LAPD cop. It seems to define how he sees himself. What we know about Deeks is that he grew up with an abusive parent, but he was intelligent, or at least hardworking. It was revealed that not only did Deeks get into law school, but passed the Bar. Yet, though he knew he could be successful as a lawyer, he chose to go into the decidedly more unstable life of an undercover detective.
This is hugely telling of Deeks. He could use his considerable intelligence to live a comfortable lifestyle, free of danger, but he chose to go into one of the most dangerous branches of the LAPD. He, who seems to thrive off human interaction, chose one of the most solitary positions in the LAPD, not to mention one he is forbidden to talk about outside of those on a need-to-know basis. This seems to completely contrast with Deeks' personality.
One of the key aspects of Deeks' personality is his proclivity toward deflective humor. I tend to think this sprung from his childhood, from when people would start to grow suspicious at the abuse going on in his home. We do know that Deeks doesn't like having people pity him, but is okay with being their butt monkey, so to speak. That is to say, he avoids genuine pity but seems to be fine with being the butt of the team's jokes. We really haven't gotten into enough of Deeks' past to truly see why this is, but we do know that after awhile, he did learn to defend himself when he was a child. When Ray gave him the gun, Deeks took it and took the steps necessary to ensure his safety. His father was coming at him in a manner that was probably intended to do harm, and Deeks acted in self-defense when he shot Gordon John Brandel at age 11. Nonetheless, we still saw (Personal is a good example of this) the guilt he carries around at having to do that to his own father. Yet when he talks about this with Kensi, he refers to his father as "the old bastard" and jokes through the whole conversation. This is a key example of his using deflective humor to mask the very real emotions he feels.
We can very safely assume he is very much attracted to Kensi, but again, jokes his way out of any conversations that neither of them are ready for. In "Blye, K: Part 2", Kensi takes her shirt off in front of him and is left in her bra, and Deeks remarks "this is usually how the dream sequences start." Even so, when it comes to actual physical contact, he touches her as lightly and as little as possible. This is really getting more into Densi than just Deeks, but it is another example of how Deeks' personality often contrasts with what he says.
One of the most important episodes for Deeks is "Plan B". Before this, we have seen Deeks go undercover many times before, but for the most part, his personas have not been far from his actual personality. His alias as Max Gentry is so radically different (and yet, so familiar to him), that is completely striking to see. As soon as he walks into the bar, his entire persona changes. As Daniela Ruah is incredibly talented at conveying emotions with her eyes, Eric Christian Olsen conveys so much with his body language. It is like watching two completely different actors in two completely different roles. At the very least, this tells us how good Deeks is at his job. His back straightens, his eyes harden, his shoulders tense, and he is nearly unrecognizable.
We can actually see Deeks steeping in self-hatred. He is becoming the one thing he has worked his absolute hardest never to be: his father. He punches a younger man with absolutely no warning, then studies his face, his face quirking in an almost smile, as if he is happy to have caused this man pain. He then walks over to the bar, and asks, "you got my lunch?" We can see how easily Deeks pulls this out, like he has already lived through this for many, many years (which, as we know, he has).
When we see him later with Nicole, he is still undercover, and still doing an incredible job of maintaining it. He compliments her hair, and she responds "that's sweet."
"Seriously," he says. "Couldn't even tell it was a weave at first."
His tone is this scene is a complete mix. We can hear Max Gentry's more crude sense of humor, but we can also hear the genuine sweetness we have come to expect from Deeks, which tells us that this woman is not just part of a cover to Deeks.
Througout this episode, Deeks wrestles with what his life could have been. How easy it would have been to just fall into a life as Max Gentry. Deeks had to work extremely hard to get out of the bad situation he was born into. However, it is the fact that he does get out of it again, and he does keep working to make his life different from his father's that defines him to us.
The episode "Human Traffic" gives us a good idea of how Deeks copes with trauma. In his meeting with Hetty, he is fighting down tears but his sentences are punctuated with wry laughs.
His reaction to trauma is to put all the blame on himself, but his determination to see the case through wins out in the end. When Hetty tells him that she's not sure if the LAPD will allow her input on the case, Deeks gives another false laugh and sincerely comments, "well, I'd like to see them try."
The next moment, he's back to his wisecracking personality, deflecting to Hetty's game of Scrabble.
At the episode's end, when Scarli provokes him by asking him how Traynor was in bed, we get a reaction like we've never seen out of Deeks.
He hears Traynor's story of childhood trauma, and instantly relates. Deeks' nature is such that anyone who makes a sincere effort to better themselves and prevent the same from happening to others, he instantly respects them. An insult to Traynor's honor, like Scarli's comments, provoke an immediate, severe reaction from him, until Kensi simply asks him to put down the gun.
Personality-wise, Deeks is smart and capable, as I've discussed, but he is also fiercely loyal to those he cares about, and displaces a very sweet, genuine nature. His absolute dedication to Kensi (the man was ready to run out where he knew there was a sniper to make sure she was safe), and his willingness to break any protocol to ensure her safety and happiness are proof of this, if we weren't even going to get into the Densi "thing". He knows his limitations (we saw this in him recognizing himself as the weak link) but also knows his strengths.
He recognizes that he has found a home with NCIS, but he still identifies himself as a cop. When Hetty offers for him to become an official NCIS agent, he is flattered, but hesitant. To this day, he still has not accepted, and we see how much, like Kensi, his job defines him.
A man like Deeks, who worked so hard to get where he is, has very different aspirations than those of his father. It's very easy to imagine Deeks, with his fiercely loyal and loving personality, as wanting to one day settle down with a wife and kids. He has never outright said so, save for his comment on a decade of dating before marriage, but we can pick up aspects of his personality that clue us to this.
I'm not really sure how to end this now, but to say that I love Deeks and I think Eric Christian Olsen portrays him fabulously.