NCIS Brings Back LL COOL J's Sam Hanna With Nods To The Past — And The Future

Of course we were happy to see LL COOL J back on "NCIS" this week as Sam Hanna, of "NCIS: Los Angeles" fame. But we didn't expect this week's episode to pack nearly as many "NCIS" Easter eggs as the 500th episode.

Tuesday's episode opens with a mom and her kids (and the plumber, poor guy) getting tied up by an unknown assailant. Back at the NCIS office, Kasie is spearheading a crucial upgrade of the computer systems, bringing in four "tech trolls" (Parker's words, not ours) to help get the job done. They have to shut everything down for two hours, including all computers and security cameras. The reboot gets underway, and everything seems fine — until one of the tech trolls, Darryl, ends up dead.

Was it an accident, or murder? Jimmy says Darryl's neck was broken, and it looks like he was hit by someone... but who? When Parker hears noise coming from Ducky's office, Jimmy jokes that it could be Henry the office ghost, first referenced earlier this season. But it turns out to be Sam, who's catching a few Z's on the couch after getting stuck with a long layover on a flight to Dubai. Jimmy is just sorry his daughter Victoria didn't know he was in town. (They'll have to do karaoke another time.) Sam also vouches for Jimmy to join the murder investigation, telling Parker, "You should've seen him in Hawaii in that dungeon they had us in." Remember that crossover, from Season 2 of "NCIS: Hawai'i"?

Sam and the team question the tech trolls, and one of them, Harold, slips up when he says he went to Penn with Darryl... and later corrects himself to say Cornell. Hmmm. Meanwhile, Sam gives Jimmy an update on his kids: "Aiden made captain, as you know. Kamran's still on a mission to save democracy." He also notices Jimmy is wearing a weighted vest, with Jimmy confessing he's training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro — which he hasn't told the rest of the NCIS team about yet. A blackout strands them in an elevator, which allows Sam the time to give Jimmy a pep talk, encouraging him to tell his friends about his plans... and to climb up though the panel in the elevator's ceiling to get them out of there. "This is your Kilimanjaro moment," Sam tells him, and indeed, Jimmy is inspired to climb the elevator shaft and free himself before setting Sam free.

They grill Harold, who confesses that he lied about going to Penn because he got kicked out of school for hacking and really needs this job, so he made up a fake name and résumé. Plus, Kasie's reboot hits a snag when an old computer fan goes on the fritz, sending Parker and Sam to the evidence locker to find a replacement. Sam asks how the team is doing after the loss of Director Vance, and Parker admits, "It doesn't seem real. A lot of us are still in denial." Sam opens up, too, confessing that he's not sure what he's doing next with his life: "I've been waiting to make a move for a while now. I haven't been able to settle on a direction quite yet." Does that direction point to New York, perhaps? 

They find a replacement for the broken computer fan, and Kasie gets the server cooled down, so the reboot is still on track. But then Jimmy sees someone he knows in the morgue... and gets knocked out cold. Parker learns that Tommy the janitor, who they ran into earlier, wasn't supposed to be working tonight, and he sent his fellow janitor Vito home early. Uh-oh.

It was Tommy the janitor who knocked Jimmy out cold, and when he comes to, he finds Tommy frantically trying to patch into Kasie's laptop. "I have to do this!" he screams at Jimmy. When Parker and Sam rush in to confront him, Tommy holds an axe to Jimmy's throat, saying he didn't mean to kill Darryl, but he couldn't let him stop him. While the reboot finally finishes as planned, Jimmy manages to knock Tommy away, who cries out, "He's going to kill my family!"  

Yep, Tommy's family is the one we saw kidnapped in the opening, and Sam and Parker bust into his house to find his wife and kids (and plumber) tied up, but unharmed. The assailant ran off, only taking Tommy's wife's phone with him. Tommy says he punched Darryl to get access to his computer, and the tech troll landed wrong, killing him. It was an accident. But he had to plant the device in the NCIS computer, or his family would be dead.

It feels like a happy ending: Kasie got the reboot completed, and Jimmy finally tells Parker about his plans to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. (Parker is supportive, of course.) Kasie is troubled, though: She notices that nothing was added to the computer system, but a folder is missing. A folder named "Edna." Kasie looks stricken as she realizes: "I think I'm the reason why Darryl is dead." (Guess we'll have to wait for next week's Part 2 to get answers.)

How'd you like Sam Hanna's return to "NCIS"? Spot any Easter eggs we missed? Hit the comments to share your thoughts!