The sun has set on “NCIS: Hawai’i,” leaving the show on a wild cliffhanger.
The series, which ran on CBS for three seasons, said its final aloha on Monday night with a season finale-turned-series finale.
At the end of last week’s episode, the Compound X bioweapon was in the hands of the nefarious Dr. Annalise Cruz (Rachel Mars), the late Alexi Volkoff’s assistant. She also aimed to take out the NCIS ELITE team, to the horror of Sam Hanna (LL Cool J).
The episode opens with Sam risking exposing himself to Compound X in order to save his team — a heroic but potentially fatal move that his teammates stop him from doing.
From there, Jesse Boone (Noah Mills) and Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) work to find Cruz, also known as Tala Flores, and save the day. Sam is also chasing her but coughing a lot, eventually falling and confirming mild Compound X exposure. He’s sidelined in order to heal.
After thwarting a Compound X attack centered at a concert, the agents beat up and shoot some hired goons. Back at the command center, Tala suddenly pops up and holds Carla Chase (Seana Kofoed) at knifepoint, but a recovered Sam shoots her in the head to end things. Hooray!
Our heroes then have a very “Fast and the Furious”-esque surprise party to celebrate a job well done and Sam’s recovery, ending with some speeches that seem like an appropriate, if abrupt, way to end the series.
But then! In the final scene, which felt inspired by the post-credits of MCU movies, Jane heads home, expecting to find her daughter, Julie (Mahina Napoleon). Instead, she walks into the living room and sees Maggie Shaw (Julie White) on the couch! The last time Maggie was on the show, she was on the run at the end of the Season 2 finale — so the past must be racing back.
“You’re probably going to need a drink for what’s coming next,” Maggie says ominously, before the show cuts to credits that will never lead to a resolution.
The decision to cancel “NCIS: Hawai’i” came as a surprise to many viewers. The spinoff series maintained steady ratings throughout its third season, but CBS ultimately cited the cost of a Hawaii production as too expensive to justify more episodes. “Hawai’i” marked the fourth series in the network’s “NCIS” franchise and the third to reach a conclusion, though “NCIS: New Orleans” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” enjoyed much longer runs, at seven and 14 seasons, respectively.
The end of “NCIS: Hawai’i” also shocked Lachey. The lead took to Instagram Stories to share viewership figures for the sizable audience that the series had attracted, highlighting a four-episode stretch where it drew more than 10 million viewers across linear and streaming. In an earlier post immediately following news of the cancellation, Lachey wrote that she was “gutted, confused, blindsided,” but expressed gratitude to “confident, beloved fans.”
Farewell, “NCIS: Hawaiʻi.”