NCIS: Hawai’i 3×08 Review: “Into Thin Air”

After an outstanding episode, NCIS: Hawai’i 3×08 “Into Thin Air” is a more subdued hour that feels more like setup for the end of the season than an episode designed to make an impression by itself, even if the case is somewhat interesting and the clowns properly creepy, as clowns pretty much always are. It’s not a bad hour, it’s just not a particularly memorable one.

Lucy’s absence in her third episode of eight this season is deeply felt this hour — not because this team doesn’t work without her, but because it doesn’t feel like everyone taking time off in the same regular way the regulars did in the last few seasons of NCIS: Los Angeles. Instead, it’s just Yasmine Al-Bustami missing, often without an explanation about where Lucy is.

No, really, just one line from Kate about where her girlfriend is or what she’s doing would go a long way, I promise. She’s sick! She’s at court! She has a doctor’s appointment. It helps with continuity.

Other than that, though, NCIS: Hawai’i 3×08 “Into Thin Air” does a good job with Sam and Ernie (who hasn’t gotten enough to do in this third season), and seems to set up the Elite team for a season finale cliffhanger that we kinda wish were more interesting than it is. In truth, the only way the thing means something in the grand scheme of the NCISverse is if there’s some tie to Hetty’s whereabouts or what Callen has been doing lately. Otherwise, why is Sam even in Hawai’i?

*checks notes* Eight episodes in, we still don’t really know!

Jane Tennant and Kate Whistler, however, work perfectly well — and are a testament to what this show does well, and what it needs to focus on when TPTB finally untangles the mess of what next season is going to look like. The dynamic works because the two are more similar than they look at first glance, and yet there’s still so much they can learn from each other.

It is, in many ways, a similar dynamic to Kai and Jesse, though Tennant and Whistler have a little more of a mentor and mentee dynamic to them, while Kai and Jesse are on much more even ground. That, however, works in the show’s favor. Jesse and Kai can come off as annoying siblings teasing each other, without their dynamic mirroring Tennant and Whistler too much. Kai and Jesse, meanwhile, can both have their own dynamic with Lucy, without the show feeling like it’s copying the same relationships.

That’s the benefit of creating distinct characters, that the relationships the characters form with each other feel very different. And three seasons in NCIS: Hawai’i has also done a really good job at creating a cohesive team unit that is unique to this show, this setting.

We’d like to see so much more of them. Preferably on CBS and in a full season. But, we just want to make sure we get to see them again. The NCIS: Hawai’i still has a lot more stories to tell. Please bring them back for the Season 4 they, and us, deserve.

Things I think I think:

• “Secret agent club.”
• More Kate and Jane, please.
• Sam and clowns is HILARIOUS.
• The moment the case started not making sense, I suspected the wife.
• Yes, Ernie, talk to the computer. I talk to inanimate objects too.
• Where is Lucy?!
• Kai and Jesse have a secret BFF handshake at this point, right?
• Kai getting super upset at the idea that they stole the money is so on-brand.
• I said “I hope it’s a secret lesbian affair,” so at least there’s that.

Agree? Disagree? What did you think of NCIS: Hawai’i 3×08 “Into Thin Air”? Share with us in the comments below!

NCIS: Hawai’i airs Mondays at 10/9c on CBS.