NCIS: New York Series Premiere Recap: Sam Hanna Comes Home
Sam Hanna is back, but NCIS: New York wastes very little time making it clear that this is not simply NCIS: Los Angeles with taller buildings and worse parking.
The series premiere brings LL COOL J’s longtime agent home to New York for a case that quickly becomes personal. What begins with the death of someone Sam has known practically his entire life eventually introduces him to a new NCIS team, gives him a new partner in Nick Schaeffer, and leaves Sam considering something he clearly did not expect when he arrived: staying.
Sam Hanna Gets a Call He Answers Too Late
Sam is nowhere near New York when we first see him. He is in Dubai handling the kind of dangerous assignment that has apparently become normal for him, taking down armed men inside a luxury hotel while repeatedly ignoring calls from Jack Halloway.
Once Sam finally has a moment to call Jack back, he leaves him a voicemail apologizing for missing him. Unfortunately, Sam is already too late. Jack is dead on a bench in Central Park, and suddenly Sam has a very personal reason to return home.
The authorities believe Jack died by suicide, but Sam immediately knows something does not feel right. Jack was the son of a man Sam served with, and Sam has known him for most of his life. He is not prepared to accept the official explanation simply because it makes the paperwork easier.
Welcome to the New York Office
Sam takes his concerns to NCIS supervisor Robyn Wells, played by Jennifer Beals. She knows his reputation, but she also understands that investigating the death of someone this close to him creates an obvious conflict.
Still, Sam is Sam Hanna, and telling him to sit this one out was never going to work.
Robyn allows him into the investigation and partners him with Nick Schaeffer, played by Scott Caan. Nick is a Brooklyn native who comes from a family filled with cops and firefighters, while Sam grew up in Queens. Their personalities are different enough to immediately create some friction, but it is the entertaining kind. Neither man seems particularly interested in being impressed by the other, which means the partnership works almost immediately.
The premiere also introduces the rest of the New York crew. Addy Ross and Wyatt Hill are field agents, with Wyatt currently dealing with the aftermath of a broken engagement. Then there is Sean Sullivan, the office’s tech specialist, whose employment situation is a little less conventional. Sean hacked into the police pension system and is essentially using his considerable computer skills for NCIS while avoiding a much less pleasant alternative.
It is certainly one way to recruit. Sam also gets some familiar backup when Dr. Jimmy Palmer checks in remotely. Jimmy’s findings confirm what Sam already suspected: Jack did not kill himself. Someone murdered him.
Jack Was Hiding Something
Jack worked as a tugboat captain, and the investigation quickly shifts toward his boat and his first mate, Dave.
Sam initially bristles at the suggestion that Jack could have been involved in anything illegal. That loyalty is understandable, but Nick approaches the situation without the emotional baggage and keeps following whatever the evidence tells him.
That evidence starts getting uncomfortable. A search of Jack’s boat turns up thousands of dollars in cash, while surveillance footage reveals someone fleeing the area around the time of the murder. Sean manages to identify the unusual logo on the suspect’s baseball cap, connecting it to a minor league team from Norfolk, Virginia.
That connection leads directly back to Dave. Dave eventually admits that he was present when Jack died, but the situation is far more complicated than simply having a guilty first mate. Footage from an infrared camera aboard the tugboat reveals people climbing off an ocean liner and onto Jack’s vessel.
At first, it looks like Jack and Dave may have been involved in human smuggling. The truth is even more dangerous.
The people coming aboard were trained mercenaries.
A Fake Girlfriend and a Very Real Kidnapping Plot
Dave finally explains that the mercenaries forced him to cooperate and plant the cash on Jack’s boat to make Jack look corrupt. They had supposedly taken Dave’s online girlfriend, Katrina, hostage and were using her to control him.
Nick takes one look at the situation and realizes Dave has another problem: Katrina is not real.
Yes, Dave managed to get blackmailed over a girlfriend who apparently existed mostly on a screen. There is probably a lesson about internet dating somewhere in there, but the team has a kidnapping to stop.
The mercenaries have been using an empty nightclub owned by Dave’s cousin as a staging location. Sam, Nick and the team raid the building, but they soon discover that the mercenaries’ real mission is already underway.
Their target is a young NYU student whose father is a wealthy Russian mining oligarch. One of his rivals has hired the group to abduct his daughter and use her as leverage. The mercenaries grab her, but bringing her back to the nightclub proves to be a major mistake because NCIS is waiting.
Sam and Nick Survive Their First Big Fight Together
The rescue operation gives NCIS: New York its first major action sequence and gives the new team a chance to actually function as a unit instead of simply standing around introducing themselves.
Sean works from behind the screens, using surveillance cameras to help guide the agents through the building. Nick eventually finds himself fighting one of the mercenaries upstairs, and things quickly get ugly.
Sam arrives just in time and shoots the attacker, saving his new partner’s life. The team rescues the kidnapped student, shuts down the mercenary operation and solves the conspiracy surrounding Jack’s murder. Sam later visits Jack’s pregnant widow, Janice, and gives her an American flag in recognition of Jack’s service. For Sam, solving the case gives him answers, but it does not erase the guilt of missing Jack’s final calls.
Nick Gives Sam a Reason to Stay
With Jack’s case closed, Sam should theoretically be ready to leave New York. Nick has another idea. The two share a quiet moment beneath a bridge, where Nick makes his pitch for Sam to join the New York office permanently. Sam admits that after being gone for so long, he does not completely feel like New York belongs to him anymore.
Nick understands that feeling better than Sam expected. He explains that he once tried to escape the path his family had laid out for him by going into finance. It did not work. Eventually, Nick realized that returning home meant accepting the responsibility he felt toward the city and the people who shaped him.
Then he tells Sam what might be the only argument that really matters: Nick wants to work with the best. Sam agrees. As “Empire State of Mind” plays, the two agents head off together to get something to eat, and NCIS: New York officially has its partnership.
The TV Cave Take
Bringing Sam Hanna back could easily have felt like CBS reaching into the NCIS toy box for a familiar face, but the premiere gives his return a reason beyond nostalgia. Sam has spent years moving from one mission to another, and Jack’s death forces him to reconnect with the place he once called home.
LL COOL J can play Sam in his sleep at this point, but pairing him with Scott Caan was a smart move. Nick is not being positioned as another Callen, and that is important. His humor, New York attitude and slightly messy energy give Sam a different personality to bounce off, while Jennifer Beals immediately brings authority to Robyn.
The case itself is very NCIS: one suspicious death turns into human smuggling, mercenaries, international money, an oligarch’s daughter and a nightclub shootout before the hour is over. Subtle? Not exactly. But nobody turned on an NCIS spinoff expecting two agents to quietly spend 45 minutes auditing a Navy expense report.
More importantly, the premiere establishes a team worth coming back to. Sam Hanna may have arrived in New York intending to solve one case and leave, but by the closing credits, he finally has something he has not had for a while.
A home.
Grade: B+
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