‘NCIS: Hawai’i’: Why Is Sam on the Island? How Are Kensi & Deeks Involved?

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS: Hawai’i Season 3 Episode 3 “License to Thrill.”]

Why is Sam (LL COOL J) in Hawai’i? That’s the mystery that’s been set up across the first three episodes of NCIS: Hawai’i Season3, and as Vanessa Lachey told us, “Tennant will figure it out.” Well, we’re certainly seeing her trying to do just that.

It all began in the premiere, when Ernie (Jason Antoon) tried to get anything out of Sam, only to come to the conclusion that he’s hiding something, despite the agent’s insistence he’s not. Then, in the second episode, Swift (Henry Ian Cusick), on his way out, told Tennant that Sam was sticking around and she’d have to ask him why. Sam evaded the question and would only say that brass has him teaching a seminar on unconventional tactics in modern law enforcement.

Now, in the third episode, Ernie remains suspicious of Sam, especially since he’s going around telling everyone about that seminar, as he notes to Tennant. It’s odd, that NCIS would send its top OSP agent to Hawai’i to teach a class. She agrees, but she doesn’t get anything more out of Sam, who tells her she can’t attend the seminar because it’s fully booked.

Then, Tennant and Kai (Alex Tarrant) find Sam has taken over the war room—and set it to SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) level—for some work. “I was checking in with Kensi and Deeks back in LA, getting some details about a past case,” he claims, agreeing, when she suggests it, that it was for his seminar. “Safety first,” he says. Tennant’s clearly not buying any of it … which is why she tracks his visitor ID’s access and follows when he sets foot in the old admin basement across the street that hasn’t been used since WWII. Inside, she finds him teaching his seminar. It’s both as frustrating as Tennant finds it and entertaining as it sounds. But come on, would you expect this to play out any other way?

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At the end of the episode, Tennant joins Sam on his boat, and he again pretends he’s just in Hawai’i for the seminar. As far as an official cover goes, it’s a good one, she remarks, reminding him, “I spent half my life as a CIA officer. I know cover.” It doesn’t matter what she believes, she adds, just that she trusts him and she knows he’ll tell her why he’s really in Hawai’i when he can.

But we’re not as patient as Tennant is. Now, we have to wonder if Sam was really talking to Kensi and Deeks (played by Daniela Ruah and Eric Christian Olsen on NCIS: Los Angeles, which ended its 14-season run in May 2023) or someone else, plus if it was about a past case or something else. Before he came to the island, Sam was last seen in the LA finale in Morocco, alongside Callen (Chris O’Donnell), Nell (Renée Felice Smith), and the team she’d put together—including Nate (Peter Cambor) and Sabatino (Erik Palladino)—as part of the mission to rescue Hetty. He was still there and therefore in the neighborhood, when he came to Tennant and Kate’s (Tori Anderson) aid in the Hawai’i Season 2 finale.

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Could Sam have been talking to Kensi and Deeks or someone from that team Nell put together about Hetty? We haven’t heard anything about that mission to rescue her. What if Sam’s in Hawai’i because that’s the only place to get information as to her location or something that will help there? Or maybe there’s another open case that Sam’s working and he was talking to Kensi and Deeks about that. It could even technically be a past case that was never closed and therefore he wasn’t technically lying to Tennant and Kai. This could be why LL COOL J was vague when we tried to find out if we’d get an update on any of the LA characters with him now on Hawai’i.

Whatever’s going on, at least it’s clear that we will get answers, with Ernie suspicious and Tennant letting Sam know that he can talk to her when he can. What do you think is going on? Let us know in the comments below.

NCIS: Hawai’i, Mondays, 10/9c, CBS