The world of NCIS is expanding, and what better way to kick that off than to bring back the franchise cast member who’s about to headline another spinoff? LL Cool J returns to NCIS as Sam Hanna, the role he originated on NCIS: LA then reprised on NCIS: Hawai’i as a special guest star for its final season, in the Tuesday, April 21, episode. This comes ahead of NCIS: New York joining CBS’ lineup in fall 2026.

It turns out he’s stopped by the Navy Yard at the perfect time; Kasie’s (Diona Reasonover) upgrading the system in MTAC with a skeleton crew when someone is murdered, and Sam joins Parker (Gary Cole) and Palmer (Brian Dietzen) in getting to the bottom of it. His presence also allows for an organic way to continue to talk about the major loss of Vance (Rocky Carroll), who was killed in the line of duty during the 500th episode. Warning: Spoilers for NCIS Season 23 Episode 17 ahead!

You gotta love that Sam’s visit continues his and Palmer’s friendship. The ME and Parker find Sam on the couch in Ducky’s; he needed somewhere to take a nap during a long layover on his way to visit a friend in Dubai. Palmer comments on the lack of a call, at first claiming his daughter will be disappointed, but it’s clear he’s also a bit hurt about the lack of a text. Sam also backs Palmer when the latter wants to help interrogate the tech trolls, telling Parker, “You should’ve seen him in Hawai’i in that dungeon they had us in. Man’s got skills.”

It’s also to Sam that Palmer confides that when he can’t sleep, he runs steps at the Navy Yard, and he’s training, including wearing a 30-lb. weight vest, to climb Kilimanjaro. “Good for you, Jimmy,” Sam tells him. “I love the idea.” He also pushes/forces Palmer into telling the others (Parker’s supportive) and to climb up the elevator shaft when they get stuck between floors since Sam can’t fit through the hatch.

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But when one of the issues plaguing the MTAC upgrade requires a new cooling fan, well, it’s a good thing that there’s an “old MTAC” available. “Vance once showed me these old NIS MTAC parts in the evidence locker, way in the back,” Parker reveals.

While he and Sam collect what they need, Sam remarks that he hasn’t seen everyone since Vance’s funeral and asks how they’re all doing. (We do wonder now who else was at Vance’s funeral from across the NCIS franchise…) “I don’t know,” Parker admits. “Doesn’t seem real, a lot of us are still in denial.” Sam is, too, adding, “Tell you what, we replace old MTAC with new MTAC, but people, like Vance…” Parker agrees, “No replacing that.”

Sam then admits that he’s now “thinking about where I’m headed, been waiting to make a move for a while, haven’t been able to settle on a direction quite yet” and “I’m done waiting,” clearly setting up NCIS: New York. It’s also fitting, given that Sam talked to Vance about his future during LL Cool J’s Season 22 appearance, and the director had assured him he’d always have a place at NCIS.

Robert Voets/CBS

As for the case, it ends up being pretty straightforward. The Department of Defense Deputy Chief of Cybersecurity (Noah Bean) warns Kasie that heads will roll if the MTAC upgrade doesn’t go perfectly. So, of course, it doesn’t. Long story short, janitor Tommy (Geoffrey Arend) is forced to sabotage the upgrade — his family, and a plumber who’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, is taken hostage — and patch into the reboot. The assumption is whoever’s responsible wanted to get into case files and employee information, but, in the episode’s final moments, Kasie reveals that a folder named Edna is empty. But what is Edna? All Kasie says is, “I think I’m the reason why Daryl’s dead.” Cue the rare “To Be Continued…” on NCIS.

(Side note: There has to be more going on with Noah Bean’s character; there’s no way he was just cast for that one scene.)

What did you think of LL Cool J’s return to NCIS? Let us know in the comments section below.

NCIS, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS