The (Unplanned) NCIS: Hawai’i Series Finale: Who Left the Team? And What Was Teased for Season 4?
The following contains spoilers from the May 6 NCIS: Hawai’i finale.
NCIS: Hawai’i on Monday night aired the Season 3 finale that it wrapped filming on a full three weeks before CBS announced that the island drama was cancelled and would not return in the fall.
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How did the episode serve as a very unplanned series finale?
Picking up right where Part 1 of the finale left off last week, Part 2 opened with Sam at the hidden lab in Serbia, trying to bust his way through the steel door that stood between him and the ELITE team members who’d been exposed to the deadly Compound Z bioweapon by the duplicitous Dr. Annalisa Cruz.
Though Jane & Co. strongly advised Sam not to open the door, lest he expose himself and possibly others to the released gas, he was not about to let his team members down. But just as Sam managed to crack the door open, ELITE’s Jesse — with what would be his final breaths — slammed it right back closed, to spare their team leader.
Sam, though, had not been fully spared; rather, as he attempted to chase after Dr. Cruz, it became evident, to us and him, that he’d been exposed to enough of Compound X to compromise his system. Sam slumped to the floor, in front of a morbidly pleased Dr. Cruz, just as Jane and Jesse arrived on the scene.
Gleaning that an easily fleeing Dr. Cruz must have crafted and administered to herself an antidote, Jane called in another favor from local asset Milos, to hook up Dr. Carla Chase with a state-of-the-art infectious disease lab, where she could best treat Sam. Milos came up with… an abandoned kennel (and lots of sausage varieties to snack on), and Carla got to work.
Meanwhile, the team back in Hawaii learned that Annalisa Cruz once went by the name Tala Flores, and that she for a long time has rebelled against “U.S. imperialism” as part of a group called CLA. Ernie in turn got busy trying to determine the whereabouts of Annalisa’s CLA pals, by scouring their social media and mentions.
Back in Serbia, Jesse braved the contaminated site of Cruz’s attack on the ELITE team to track down the rest of the antiserum… which was sloshing around inside a case full of shattered vials. After a brief scare courtesy of Serbian LEOs (which Kate and her always handy connections was able to ward off), Jesse delivered the antiserum to Carla. Carla was able to salvage barely one dose, but the sad truth, for Sam, is that with four canisters of Compound X still floating around out there, she needed to use that small sample to reverse-engineer great quantities of antiserum.
Tennant tracked down Dr. Cruz and got the upper hand on her after a brief skirmish. She then delivered her to Carla’s makeshift lab, where she was determined to extract the whereabouts of the remaining Compound X from their prisoner. Cruz scoffed at Tennant’s threats, until the Special Agent in Charge revealed that Annalisa’s kid sister had been tracked down and taken into NCIS custody.
When it appeared, via Jane’s laptop, that the sister was being tortured with a cattle prod, Cruz eventually divulged that CLA’s target is a Hawaii gathering of military leaders from the U.S. and Philippines. (We at home then learn that Lucy, Kate and a bit of real-time deep-fake tech had been used to fake the kid sister’s torture.)
Sam was given the antidote, and as he started to recover suggested to Jane that Cruz broke too easily. It was then deduced that the VIPs’ families are the true target, at a large, crowded event. The Hawaii team descended upon the venue, knowing that the four CLA members are milling around in disguise. Kai got the drop on one, who was about to release the gas into the air circulation system, only to have two others join in the fight. Kai masterfully took down all three goons, just before Kate and Swift arrived to, um, “help.”
Lucy meanwhile ID’d the fourth CLA member, and after their own brief skirmish, neutralized the final part of the bioweapon threat.
Back in Serbia, though, Dr. Cruz escaped her holding room and held Carla at scalpel-point. Jane engaged Cruz just long enough for a recovered Sam to end the standoff by putting a bullet in the baddie’s bean.
Weeks later, back in Hawaii, Sam was fully recovered and ready to head back to Los Angeles — but not before Jane’s team surprisesdhim with a going away party, during which they toasted the fallen ELITE agents.
That night, Jane returned home, expecting to find daughter Julie waiting, hungry for a dinner Mom had no energy to make. Instead, sitting on the living room couch was… the evasive and elusive Maggie Shaw (returning guest star Julie White).
“No, Janey. Julie isn’t here,” said Maggie, seated in the dim room. “And you’re probably going to need a drink for what’s coming next….”
Which, alas, is now nothing, given CBS’ decision about NCIS: Hawai’i’s fate.
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