After NCIS: Hawai'i Kicked Off Its Two Part Series Finale Event, Can The Show Stick The Landing With Just One Episode Left?

Spoilers ahead for the penultimate episode of NCIS: Hawai'i, called "Spill the Tea," and for promo materials for the series finale.

NCIS: Hawai'i ending a season on a two-part finale event would normally be news worth celebrating among fans, but Season 3 isn't ending under normal circumstances in the 2024 TV schedule. The show was unexpectedly cancelled less than a week before that finale event kicked off on April 29, meaning that now there is only one episode left before the credits roll for the last time on Jane Tennant and Co. in the Aloha State. Now that the penultimate episode has aired, let's take a look at what we know about the finale for a clue of whether or not it will really work as the last-ever episode.

"Spill the Tea" was a deadly episode on April 29, although none of the major characters were among the fallen in the first half of the finale event. Some new agents from NCIS ELITE were exposed to Compound X after they were double-crossed by a Dr. Cruz, who had been the assistant of Volkov himself. Sam was close to being trapped inside with the deadly gas, but was ultimately locked out before he could heroically risk his own life to try and save the others.

And that brings us to how NCIS: Hawai'i picks up the story in Part 2 of the series finale, which was originally planned as just a Season 3 finale with the expectation of a Season 4. Here's the episode description for the final episode, called "Divided We Conquer," via CBS:

Admittedly, that's not super helpful when it comes to gleaning facts from an episode description, but it is something to go on. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't give away if anybody dies in the final episode. The NCIS bodies that dropped in the latest episode may not have been our usual heroes, but the promo for "Divided We Conquer" suggests that the NCIS: Los Angeles alum at least could be in serious trouble. Take a look:

That sure does look like Sam being affected by the gas that killed the other agents, even though he was not on the wrong side of the glass in the penultimate episode. In true Sam style, he doesn't want anybody else to risk exposure, and the substance can certainly be deadly.

That said, I can't imagine that NCIS: Hawai'i will truly kill off Sam Hanna. After all, the episode wasn't written with the intent that it would be the series finale, and would NCIS: Hawai'i really kill off a legacy character like Sam?

According to Deadline, the next episode isn't going to end on a massive cliffhanger to keep fans hanging for the next several months. The outlet further reports that the finale will include a touch of foreshadowing for what was supposed to happen in a fourth season. In light of these facts on top of what went down in the Part 1 of the finale, I have some thoughts.

Personally, I felt that "Spill the Tea" really didn't feel like the second-to-last episode of the series or Part 1 of a series finale event, but that's nobody's fault at the show. They didn't know that the end was nigh, with leading lady Vanessa Lachey even admitting she was blindsided by the cancellation.

So, I can help but have my doubts about the show sticking the landing next week with an episode that feels like a proper series finale. A season finale? Sure. But I just don't feel like the show is ready for a goodbye, and there is no word as to whether the episode will be edited to make it seem more definitive. There certainly wasn't time to reshoot anything a la Star Trek: Discovery, after all.

We can only wait, watch, and find out for ourselves with the series finale of NCIS: Hawai'i on Monday, May 6 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. You can also revisit earlier episodes streaming with a Paramount+ subscription now.