Is Sam Hiding Something on ‘NCIS: Hawai’i’? LL COOL J & Vanessa Lachey Weigh In

Meredith Jacobs February 12, 2024, 11:00 pm

LL Cool J as Sam Hanna in 'NCIS: Hawai'i' Season 3 Premiere - 'Run and Gun' — Karen Neal/CBS

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the NCIS: Hawai’i Season 3 premiere “Run and Gun.”]

Aloha, Sam Hanna. The NCIS: Los Angeles character has made the jump over to Hawai’i, with LL COOL J a special guest star in Season 3. And while he’s around to evaluate Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey), after what she went through in the Season 2 finale, we have to wonder about an exchange he has with Ernie (Jason Antoon) in the premiere.

First of all, Sam and Ernie together? The perfect set-up for comedy gold. Ernie tries to get something, anything out of Sam—where he’s staying, for example—and accidentally reveals that he read the other man’s file (which only gave him his middle name). Ernie becomes convinced he’s hiding something despite Sam insisting he’s not. So is he?

“Of course, he’s hiding something,” LL COOL J tells TV Insider. “Maybe, maybe not. He might be hiding something. … Sam got a lot going on.” Adds Lachey, “I’ll tell you this: Tennant will figure it out.” LL COOL J has his doubts, however. Now, we’ll just have to see if that’s something we’ll find out this season or if maybe Sam’s just going to have fun messing with Ernie, and it’s something from his past we might already know from Los Angeles.

Vanessa Lachey as Jane Tennant and LL Cool J as Sam Hanna — 'NCIS: Hawai'i' Season 3 Premiere

Karen Neal/CBS

During the premiere, Jane and Sam have multiple conversations, including one at the shooting range in which she wonders if while he’s cleared her for work, she might not be cleared for life. After he lost his wife, Michelle, he was in the zone for work, but outside of it, he was a mess, he explains. He forgot his daughter’s birthday, and his son had to call him. How’d he get out of that hole, she asks. Transcendental meditation, he shares.

So what might Tennant need now, if not therapy, considering she only went to the minimum number of sessions required to be cleared to return to work? According to LL COOL J, “I think you have to look at the way the circumstances in your life affect you and figure out how to navigate that in a way that brings you peace. Sam has given her room to do that and given her room to navigate her life a little bit. And as long as it doesn’t negatively impact her team or her life in the field, he’s given her a little bit of leeway.”

With LL COOL J on 'NCIS: Hawai'i,' Will We Get Update on Hetty & Other 'LA' Characters?

But Lachey suggests, “Or Sam is my extended therapy because I’m going through it with someone who’s gone through it, and I’m able to be vulnerable, and I’m able to test the water, so to speak, on his shoulders. And so that’s a big part of what gets Tennant back on track.”

The premiere also ends with a cliffhanger: The team realizes that a hacker breached the U.S. Marshals’ files so that they would move prisoners for security. Breaking a prisoner out of federal lockup is impossible, but grabbing one while they’re being moved to the mainland is easier. But the plane with the prisoners takes off before they can stop it—and the agents can only watch as it goes down soon after.

NCIS: Hawai’i, Mondays, 10/9c, CBS