Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “After the Storm” are forward!
Welcome again, Sam Hanna! Following the cancellation of NCIS: Hawai’i final 12 months after simply three seasons, which got here one 12 months after NCIS: Los Angeles concluded its 14-season run, LL Cool J returned to the procedural franchise to reprise his position on the flagship present. That episode, titled “After the Storm,” simply completed airing on the 2025 TV schedule, and whereas Sam Hanna helped out the NCIS group for this week’s case, he additionally shared some updates on a number of of his Los Angeles and Hawai’i cohorts. Whereas that was actually welcome, what actually obtained my consideration was the massive shakeup thrown in on the finish regarding the Deputy Director LaRoche storyline.
Sam Hanna’s Updates On G. Callen, Hetty Lange and Jane Tennant
This week’s case targeted on three Navy vets being killed in a motel room, with a touring salesman within the room subsequent door ending up as collateral harm. Sam Hanna was known as in to assist when a witness to the carnage mentioned he would solely converse to Sam. It seems this man’s brother, Mark Davis, served with Sam, and he ended up getting concerned with a personal navy firm known as Iron Horizon that was sending its recruits to guard Colombian warlords and different seedy characters. You possibly can stream “After the Storm” with a Paramount+ subscription if you would like the total story, however by the tip, Sam had rescued Mark and shut down Iron Horizon’s operation.
Within the midst of this, Los Angeles and Hawai’i followers had been handled to mentions of Chris O’Donnell’s G. Callen, Linda Hunt’s Hetty Lange and Vanessa Lachey’s Jane Tennant. When Jessica Knight introduced up Callen and the way he match the “lone wolf” label greater than Sam, Sam shared that his former companion and his spouse, Anna Kolcheck, expect their very own “pup,” which means they’re having a toddler quickly. Talking of being a mother or father, whereas giving Knight, Torres, McGee and Parker some malassadas, a Portuguese fried pastry, he talked about that Jane Tennant gave him the recipe, as baking “retains her out of hassle” whereas she raises a 15-year-old daughter and has a child in faculty. They develop up so quick!
Lastly, on the finish of “After the Storm,” Sam Hanna determined to resign from his newest job of talking on Capitol Hill to politicians to offer his recommendations on navy operations, deciding that he was lastly able to resume being an NCIS agent. However earlier than he formally resumes these duties, he has “some issues to handle.” Director Leon Vance then requested if this needed to do with the rumor that Hetty Lange had been noticed within the DMZ (demilitarized zone, I assume referring to the Kuwait-Iraqi border). Sam wouldn’t elaborate upon this, so hopefully someday in NCIS Season 23, we’ll get an replace on the place issues stand along with her, even when LL Cool J can’t cease by the sequence to share it in character.
Vance Is aware of About McGee’s Investigation Into LaRoche
Though it appeared like Seamus Dever’s Gabriel LaRoche was being painted in a extra sympathetic mild in final week’s episode, “Killer Intuition,” Timothy McGee uncovered data that satisfied him the Deputy Director was simply as shady as he suspected. So now McGee is extra decided than ever to search out exhausting proof of this, although he’s not precisely being discreet about it. Many individuals on the NCIS DC workplace are effectively conscious of McGee’s distaste for LaRoche, together with Vance, who known as McGee as much as his workplace simply as Sam Hanna was leaving.
At first of the episode, McGee informed his group that he knew somebody who was going to cross alongside an unpublished DOJ IG report that had “LaRoche’s title throughout it.” That report was as a substitute despatched to Vance, who informed McGee that he was enjoying with fireplace by wanting into LaRoche. McGee must be “completely sure” LaRoche is responsible of one thing, in any other case one fallacious transfer might get all of them “burned.” Nevertheless, somewhat than order McGee to drop his LaRoche inquiries, he as a substitute informed McGee he was heading to a gathering in MTAC, and when he got here again, the file could be despatched again to the DOJ. And but, he didn’t instruct McGee to depart his workplace.
In different phrases, McGee was given valuable time to look over the file by himself throughout the safe confines to Vance’s workplace to see if there was something in that report to assist him construct his case towards Gabriel LaRoche. McGee maintained a impartial face as he began studying the report, however I’ve to assume there’s one thing useful in there for him to make use of. In any case, there are solely two episodes left in NCIS Season 22, so except this storyline is extending into Season 23, we have to deliver it to a detailed.