UPDATE:
I pulled my door panel off and before I get into this, wow... Special place in hell for whoever developed that tacky black stickum that holds the plastic sheet over the front of the door. I get why the plastic is there, but that black sh*t... it gets on EVERYTHING. I knew it would, and I was careful, but still...
So I got the solenoid off and tested it and it seems fine. I did this by pulling the panel of the door on the other side of the car and plugging it in there. I thought it was interesting that the solenoids for each side are unique. I mean it make sense on the surface because the lock/unlock movement is direction-specific, so the solenoid on one side needs to move left (relative) to unlock, while the one on the other side needs to move right. Anyway, smarty-pants at Denso thought to make the clip that attaches to the lock actuator bar yellowish/orange-ish for the driver side, and green for the passenger side.
Moving on, the problem is that I'm not getting voltage when the door is suppose to lock. There are 4 wires that come into the solenoid.
Bk = ground
Bl/R = lock
Bl/Bk = unlock
the other one (obscured in the photo and I don't recall) = 0.5v out when locked (i'm guessing so that the car knows the door is locked and the security bits are engaged)\
So in my case, the Bl/Bk wire isn't pushing 12v when it should (or at all, anytime). It strikes me that there's a regulator or circuit of some sort, somewhere that all the door locks come back into. My best guess is that it's in the drivers side door, but I'm not sure. I'll check the service manual later tonight, but if anyone has intel on the location of this part, I'm betting this is where the problem lies...
Thanks!