S03.E10: Divided We Conquer

[Snazzy Daisy]

SERIES FINALE - Part 2

Quote

Following a devastating ambush with a deadly bioweapon, the NCIS team must track down a mysterious terrorist group before they can strike again.

Air Date: May 6, 2024

 

[Grizzly]

Why didn't Sam just shoot Cruz? 

[Raja]

So you are Serbian security and the most dangerous bioweapon in history is loose in your country and you let a few Americans work the problem alone in some black site.

Hawaii 5-0 had a better Filipino terrorist group in their early season. Any weapon could have been used for their super plan. With the season wrap party they caught me with the cliffhanger ending. maybe they should have just cut and sold another commercial slot. Or will McGee give a line to what happened on the mothership show.

[mammaM]

This is why I HATE cliffhangers!!!!!!!!!

RIP NCIS:Hawaii

[Snazzy Daisy]

So, Julie isn’t home AGAIN but Maggie Shaw is there, waiting. Why brings her back? Very uninteresting cliffhanger as Maggie’s arc has run its course.

Goodbye NCIS: Hawai’i’. 👋🏻
 

[dwmarch]

So, that's it huh? I guess the cast and crew didn't get any advance warning about the cancellation. Unless Maggie is there to tell Tennant that there are no more terrorists or criminals left on earth so your whole team can call it quits now.

I haven't watched NCIS: LA (except for the Hawaii 5-0 crossover episodes) so I'm not familiar with Sam's previous characterization. Is he really just too stubborn to die? The NCIS Elite agents died in a few minutes! Maybe it was because he only got a small dose of Compound X.

Speaking of which, I thought we were in for a surprise twist there. Sam had a small crack in his mask and the airlock was only open for a second. But that was enough to infect him, which he questioned later on. I thought maybe we would find out that the villain had actually infected everyone on the plane ride over. Now that would have been an ending! (Just kidding, I like these characters and I don't want to see them all die in the finale but I could see a show doing this if/when suddenly cancelled.)

I felt bad for Whistler. She comes in ready to help and everyone greets her with FUCK OFF KATE, WE'RE WORKING THE PROBLEM. I know everybody is tense but there's no need to be rude! If not for Whistler's contacts in Belgrade, Jesse would have been shot by that SWAT team!

Not sure why the bad guys left Hawaii, flew to Belgrade and then flew back to Hawaii. Just the travel time alone would be a big vulnerability in their plan. How long would you like to be carrying around the deadliest bio-weapon on earth for? Are you sure those containers won't leak? What if you go to the airport and they insist that case is checked baggage (with an additional fee!) rather than carry-on? Imagine the bad guys sitting around at the baggage claim waiting for their bio-weapon. And are you telling me there are no US military-adjacent targets in Europe? But no, let's fly back to where we are being actively hunted and let's count on the good guys to cancel the military event but not the military family event.

[BluBarbi98]

Why couldn't the editors cut the Maggie scene once the cancellation was announced? Sam's welcome home party would have been a great way to end. I'll miss the show, it filled a spot that Hawaii 5-0 left. 

[Raja]

34 minutes ago, dwmarch said:

 

Not sure why the bad guys left Hawaii, flew to Belgrade and then flew back to Hawaii. Just the travel time alone would be a big vulnerability in their plan. How long would you like to be carrying around the deadliest bio-weapon on earth for? Are you sure those containers won't leak? What if you go to the airport and they insist that case is checked baggage (with an additional fee!) rather than carry-on? Imagine the bad guys sitting around at the baggage claim waiting for their bio-weapon. And are you telling me there are no US military-adjacent targets in Europe? But no, let's fly back to where we are being actively hunted and let's count on the good guys to cancel the military event but not the military family event.

I think the Russian who Cruz worked for had his lab in Serbia, the Filipino terrorist cell however was to small and had to mule the gas to their target themselves.

The targets were the families traveling to a joint US and Philippines flag officers conference, as if spouse's and kids are brought along to such things.

[milkyaqua]

Yeah, I also questioned why Jesse wasn't just arrested or why the antidote wasn't confiscated.  Kate contacts or not, a foreign government is just going to take the word of the American and just let it go, favor owed or not?

And yes, you do wonder whether or not TPTB at least knew they were on the bubble or up for possible cancellation because they definitely could have cut the Maggie scene and just ended with the party.

[Raja]

3 hours ago, milkyaqua said:

Yeah, I also questioned why Jesse wasn't just arrested or why the antidote wasn't confiscated.  Kate contacts or not, a foreign government is just going to take the word of the American and just let it go, favor owed or not?

I can see letting go of a US agent since everybody allies against terrorist, but not the evidence. In this deal it doesn't even make sense for NCIS to want to have a medical examiner and a black marketer nursing school graduate work in an abandoned veterinary clinic when teams of researchers and specialist could be working to safeguard their people.

3 hours ago, milkyaqua said:

And yes, you do wonder whether or not TPTB at least knew they were on the bubble or up for possible cancellation because they definitely could have cut the Maggie scene and just ended with the party.

They spent every season on the bubble. I guess they felt secure in an NCIS renaissance with three new shows, Sydney, young Gibbs  and the middle aged Tiva relationship all being talked about. As it was the Maggie tease came at a point where many local stations bust in for a split scene to promo the coming bedtime local news 

6 hours ago, dwmarch said:

I haven't watched NCIS: LA (except for the Hawaii 5-0 crossover episodes) so I'm not familiar with Sam's previous characterization. Is he really just too stubborn to die?

Just your standard TV SEAL. Mix in some Star Trek medicine and we get what we got

[StarBrand]

One thing that was alright about COVID shortened seasons in 2020, was that most shows simply stopped production, and often just stopped on a good episode, with no time to incorporate any cliffhangers- (the original NCIS had a doozy)...which was what TV shows used to do before Dallas and "Who Shot JR?".  Now everyone feels compelled to end every season with one, whether it's any good or not.

It doesn't have to happen. If I like a show, I'll probably come back when a new season starts without any character in peril.  It's especially foolhardy to try and do when you don't have a guarantee your show will come back.  Especially when quite often the writers don't know exactly how they will resolve things anyway at the time. 

I'm writing this without having seen the episode. I've been struggling to complete watching this season, as short as it is. The whole Sam Hanna thing is dragging things down like an anchor.  Bringing him in could have been a good thing, but they've turned him into an unwelcome distraction.  And of all things, seems to end on a loose thread I wished the show had given up on.

Like I said, I wish more shows would simply concentrate on producing a nice finale. If they want to set up a new arc at the beginning of the following season, that's all good.  But it's not the way TV is made these days, unfortunately.

14 minutes ago, Raja said:

I haven't watched NCIS: LA (except for the Hawaii 5-0 crossover episodes) so I'm not familiar with Sam's previous characterization. Is he really just too stubborn to die?

That's correct, yes. The backdoor pilot featured a main character being shot about seventeen times, and survived. so that tells you all you need to know about their invulnerability.

[Raja]

11 hours ago, StarBrand said:

It doesn't have to happen. If I like a show, I'll probably come back when a new season starts without any character in peril.  It's especially foolhardy to try and do when you don't have a guarantee your show will come back.  Especially when quite often the writers don't know exactly how they will resolve things anyway at the time.

They seemed to have two themes going Aunt Maggie as surrogate grandmother to Janey's kids being a big bad to return. And Vanessa dealing with on screen with her real life mom ghosting her as a child. But fitting that in to the case of the week would be the key.

11 hours ago, StarBrand said:

I'm writing this without having seen the episode. I've been struggling to complete watching this season, as short as it is. The whole Sam Hanna thing is dragging things down like an anchor.  Bringing him in could have been a good thing, but they've turned him into an unwelcome distraction.  And of all things, seems to end on a loose thread I wished the show had given up on.

I think having him hang around for the entire season instead of just  a mini arc with his return to LA like they used Charlie 1 was the mistake.  For most of the episodes he was just another gun and not doing much more than ex Marine CID Kai would have done when the fighting started in the first two seasons. But then I guess CBS was hoping that LL Cool J could bump up the ratings, even if his fan base, the first generation of Hip-hop, is now also in their 50s and no help in the demographic numbers.

11 hours ago, StarBrand said:

Like I said, I wish more shows would simply concentrate on producing a nice finale. If they want to set up a new arc at the beginning of the following season, that's all good.  But it's not the way TV is made these days, unfortunately.

As cliffhangers go having a rarely seen character in peril wasn't all that much, I think that  she would only be known to the biggest fans. The search for the bent spy had been in place since her heel turn in the first season.

[Sake614]

Really sad that this is the end of Hawaii, but the producers had ample time from when the cancellation was announced to simply cut the Maggie end and leave it with Sam’s party and him thanking everyone for welcoming him into their Ohana. If it had to end, that was the way to go. 
Feel terrible for the cast and crew who gave it their all. Hope they all find wonderful new projects, especially Vanessa.

[secnarf]

I'm sad, I really did enjoy the show. Like others, I wish they would have just cut that last scene - it wasn't necessary anymore. I was worried the whole plot with the virus would end on a cliffhanger, but they had wrapped that up nicely.

[blackwing]

I really enjoyed this series and I thought this was a great episode.  Tala got her just desserts.  Loved the line Jane said "I wasn't talking to you" and then Sam shoots Tala in the head.  I actually got off my couch and cheered!

So sad the series is done.  Loved the scene of them gathering at dinner for Sam's return.  I wonder how he would have been used in Season 4, would he have joined the team full time?  Would he have dropped in from time to time, bring along some ELITE agents?  I guess we won't know.  I'm also ticked that we never got to meet Heather Boone.

Agree with everyone that once the cancellation occurred, they could have cut out that last Maggie scene.  I saw Julie White's name in the credits so I was prepared for it, but still, what a downer.  The dinner celebration would have been a perfect ending.  Instead, we get Maggie and her annoying voice "you have no idea what's coming next".   Since the show is over, I'm going to write my own ending.  Jane pulls out her pistol and shoots Maggie in the forehead.

I hope the cast finds new gigs quickly.

[b4pjoe]

My guess is that they left the cliffhanger in hoping fans would complain to CBS and maybe they would reconsider and renew the show which has happened before with other shows. Twice with S.W.A.T.

[blackwing]

2 minutes ago, b4pjoe said:

My guess is that they left the cliffhanger in hoping fans would complain to CBS and maybe they would reconsider and renew the show which has happened before with other shows. Twice with S.W.A.T.

I never liked the Maggie character.  They tried too hard to make her into the Wo Fat of this series.  I think the problem for me was the emotional manipulation, I'm convinced Jane let Maggie go when we saw Maggie last.  And constantly coming back into Jane's life, I kept waiting for Jane to grow a spine and arrest her.  The only silver lining in this cancellation is that I won't be subjected to any more Maggie.