NCIS: New York Premiere: Did Sam's First Mission Get You Hooked? Grade It!

Sam Hanna is back in the New York groove — and he had a very personal mission on his hands in the series premiere of "NCIS: New York." 

Tuesday's premiere opens not in the Big Apple, but in Dubai, with LL COOL J's Sam taking out a bunch of bad guys in a swanky hotel while ignoring calls from a Jack Halloway. Once he's safe, he calls Jack back and apologizes in a voicemail... but we see Jack is now dead on a bench in Central Park. In Brooklyn, we meet Scott Caan's Nick Schaeffer, who's about to enjoy a steak and martini when he's called into work on his day off. He's a special agent at the NCIS New York field office, where Sam meets a dog named Sid and tells supervisor Robyn Wells (Jennifer Beals) that Jack was very close to him — Sam served with Jack's father and has known him his whole life — and he wants to pitch in on the investigation. The NYPD thinks it's a suicide... but Sam isn't buying it. 

Sam insists he's back in town for one case only, but he and Nick establish a nice rapport right away... by razzing each other, of course. Sam also meets the rest of the team, including agents Addy (Jacqueline Byers) and Wyatt, aka Milkman (Shane Harper) — poor Wyatt just got dumped by his fiancée — and tech nerd Sean (Devin Druid). They also bring in Sam's old "NCIS" pal Jimmy Palmer on Zoom, who confirms Sam's suspicions that Jack's death was not a suicide — it was murder. Jack was a tugboat captain, and Sam knew his wife Janice, so Robyn sends the team out to do some digging. Everyone except Sean, that is, who Robyn keeps at his computer, adding: "You're lucky you're not in jail." (Turns out he hacked into the police pension fund and is working off his punishment.)

On their way to see Jack's widow Janice, Sam and Nick get to know each other: Sam grew up in Queens, while Nick grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and his family is all "cops and fire." While Addy and Wyatt find a second bullet at the crime scene — more proof it wasn't suicide — Sam pays Janice a visit. She's emotional (and pregnant), but she wants to help, and Sam promises her, "I'm not gonna stop until I find out what happened." Nick calls in a warrant on Jack's boat, thinking that Jack may have gotten mixed up in something dangerous. But a defensive Sam doesn't think that's possible. (You sure about that, Sam?)

Sam and Nick go to Jack's boat and question his first mate Dave, who claims that everything on the boat was nice and legal — but then Sam finds a lockbox with seven grand in cash inside. Plus, Sean finds video of someone running away from the scene of Jack's death wearing a baseball cap with a weird logo on it. It's an angry eel, from a minor league baseball team in Norfolk, Virginia — where Dave is from. They bring in Dave for questioning, and he swear he didn't kill Jack... but he was there when Jack died. They discover there was an infrared camera on the boat, and they scrub through the footage to find people jumping off a nearby ocean liner and climbing onto Jack and Dave's boat. "He's not smuggling drugs," Nick realizes. "He's smuggling people."  

Those guys are mercenaries trained to kill, and Dave admits to planting the money on Jack's boat to make him look dirty. The mercenaries forced him to, because they're holding Dave's online girlfriend Katrina hostage. Dave shows Nick a picture of her — and Nick quickly pieces together that Dave has been catfished with a fake profile: "You are a chump, okay?" Dave's cousin has an empty nightclub in Bushwick where the mercenaries set up shop, and Sam and Nick lead a task force there and go in guns blazing, killing the one guy there and clearing out the place. But the mercenaries are going after their primary target: a NYU student who's the daughter of a Russian mining oligarch. (The oligarch's rival paid the mercenaries to kidnap her for leverage.)  

The mercenaries snatch up the poor girl, but when they bring her back to the club, Sam and company are waiting, and a fierce firefight ensues. Sean uses surveillance cameras to direct Nick to an upstairs window, and Nick gets locked in hand-to-hand combat with one thug... but Sam shoots the guy dead, saving Nick's life. They get the girl home safe, and Sam brings Jack's widow an American flag as a salute to his service.

Sam and Nick take a moment together at a picturesque spot underneath a bridge, and Nick tries to talk Sam into joining the team full-time: "This is where all the action is." He thinks Sam wants to come home, and Nick felt the same way: He tried to escape his family destiny by going into finance, but he eventually came back. ("This is my home.") Besides, he adds, Sam is the best at what he does, and "I want to work with the best." With "Empire State of Mind" pumping in the background, we can guess what Sam's decision is going to be: He agrees to join the team, and he and Nick head out together to grab a bite.

Alright, it's your turn: Give the "NCIS: New York" series premiere a grade in our poll, and then hit the comments to share your first impressions.