LL Cool J’s NCIS Return Came With Updates On Some Los Angeles And Hawai’i Characters, But It Was The LaRoche Shakeup That Really Got My Attention

Warning: SPOILERS for the NCIS episode “After the Storm” are ahead!

Welcome back, Sam Hanna! Following the cancellation of NCIS: Hawai’i last year after just three seasons, which came one year after NCIS: Los Angeles concluded its 14-season run, LL Cool J returned to the procedural franchise to reprise his role on the flagship show. That episode, titled “After the Storm,” just finished airing on the 2025 TV schedule, and while Sam Hanna helped out the NCIS team for this week’s case, he also shared some updates on a few of his Los Angeles and Hawai’i cohorts. While that was certainly welcome, what really got my attention was the big shakeup thrown in at the end concerning the Deputy Director LaRoche storyline.

Sam Hanna’s Updates On G. Callen, Hetty Lange and Jane Tennant

This week’s case focused on three Navy vets being killed in a motel room, with a traveling salesman in the room next door ending up as collateral damage. Sam Hanna was called in to help when a witness to the carnage said he would only speak to Sam. It turns out this man’s brother, Mark Davis, served with Sam, and he ended up getting involved with a private military company called Iron Horizon that was sending its recruits to protect Colombian warlords and other seedy characters. You can stream “After the Storm” with a Paramount+ subscription if you want the full story, but by the end, Sam had rescued Mark and shut down Iron Horizon’s operation.

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In the midst of this, Los Angeles and Hawai’i fans were treated to mentions of Chris O’Donnell’s G. Callen, Linda Hunt’s Hetty Lange and Vanessa Lachey’s Jane Tennant. When Jessica Knight brought up Callen and how he fit the “lone wolf” label more than Sam, Sam shared that his former partner and his wife, Anna Kolcheck, are expecting their own “pup,” meaning they’re having a child soon. Speaking of being a parent, while giving Knight, Torres, McGee and Parker some malassadas, a Portuguese fried pastry, he mentioned that Jane Tennant gave him the recipe, as baking “keeps her out of trouble” while she raises a 15-year-old daughter and has a kid in college. They grow up so fast!

Finally, at the end of “After the Storm,” Sam Hanna decided to resign from his latest job of speaking on Capitol Hill to politicians to give his suggestions on military operations, deciding that he was finally ready to resume being an NCIS agent. But before he officially resumes these duties, he has “some things to take care of.” Director Leon Vance then asked if this had to do with the rumor that Hetty Lange had been spotted in the DMZ (demilitarized zone, I assume referring to the Kuwait-Iraqi border). Sam wouldn’t elaborate upon this, so hopefully sometime in NCIS Season 23, we’ll get an update on where things stand with her, even if LL Cool J can’t stop by the series to share it in character.

Vance Knows About McGee’s Investigation Into LaRoche

Although it seemed like Seamus Dever’s Gabriel LaRoche was being painted in a more sympathetic light in last week’s episode, “Killer Instinct,” Timothy McGee uncovered information that convinced him the Deputy Director was just as shady as he suspected. So now McGee is more determined than ever to find hard proof of this, though he’s not exactly being discreet about it. Many people at the NCIS DC office are well aware of McGee’s distaste for LaRoche, including Vance, who called McGee up to his office just as Sam Hanna was leaving.

At the beginning of the episode, McGee told his team that he knew someone who was going to pass along an unpublished DOJ IG report that had “LaRoche’s name all over it.” That report was instead sent to Vance, who told McGee that he was playing with fire by looking into LaRoche. McGee needs to be “absolutely certain” LaRoche is guilty of something, otherwise one wrong move could get them all “burned.” However, rather than order McGee to drop his LaRoche inquiries, he instead told McGee he was heading to a meeting in MTAC, and when he came back, the file would be sent back to the DOJ. And yet, he didn’t instruct McGee to leave his office.

In other words, McGee was given precious time to look over the file by himself within the secure confines to Vance’s office to see if there was anything in that report to help him build his case against Gabriel LaRoche. McGee maintained a neutral face as he started reading the report, but I have to think there’s something valuable in there for him to use. After all, there are only two episodes left in NCIS Season 22, so unless this storyline is extending into Season 23, we need to bring it to a close.