WARNING: The following contains spoilers from NCIS: Hawai’i Season 1, Episode 11, “The Game,” which aired Jan. 17th on CBS.
After last episode featured missing fingers and smuggled weapons, NCIS: Hawai’i’s newest episode put all of its cards on the table -- literally. While investigating a drug kingpin, Agent Tennant’s team kept striking out. So, they sent Lucy undercover to an extremely exclusive, underground poker game. Her mission was to learn critical information about the kingpin, but she should have ended the episode in a body bag. Here’s how Lucy survived.
‘The Game” really got going when tech guy Ernie’s cop crush, Detective Dalia Reed, showed up asking for help with an investigation. Information that would have put away Trey Santos (the kingpin) had recently been stolen, and Dalia suspected a dirty cop named Roy Burr. Not knowing who she could trust at the police department, Dalia came to NCIS.
Starting with some old-fashioned police work, Jessie and Kai followed Burr around, but nothing seemed out of place -- that is, until they saw him going into a Chinese Market. Noticing that more people went in than came out, the two agents went in and found an illegal casino. When Burr suddenly left out of a back door, they followed only to see the suspected cop killed in a drive-by shooting.
The team easily discovered an incriminating text on Burr’s phone that lured him outside, but the problem was that Ernie couldn’t trace the encrypted messaging app. Naturally, everyone suspected Kingpin Santos sent the text, but there was no way to know for sure until Ernie came up with a plan. They could use a piece of technology called a Cyber Hand Data Recover Device, which Ernie nicked named CHAD (no, the acronym doesn’t work), to clone Santos’ phone. All the team had to do was have someone be within a few feet of Santos for at least thirty minutes.
At first, that sounded like a tough ask, but they quickly found a solution. When Jessie and Kai busted the illegal casino, they remembered that the owner mentioned hosting a weekly poker game that Santos always attended. So, they sent in Lucy, who was apparently a very good player, to operate the CHAD.
Posing as a “Texas Cinderella,” who wanted to spend daddy’s money, Lucy did a great job. Overcoming a few technical hiccups, she completed the cloning process and won some money in the process. However, when she “went to the ladies’ room” Santos figured out that she was a cop, followed her and pulled a gun. Luckily, Judge Keen (one of the other players) distracted Santos so that Lucy could get away, and the two of them ran.
By this time, the other agents were busting down the door, but Keen and Lucy were in the wind. Santos caught them on the rooftop, but that’s when Ernie found out some valuable information from the CHAD. Santos hadn’t sent the incriminating text. Judge Keen was behind everything. He killed Santos and should have killed Lucy. He had the drop on her, but he hesitated. Lucy stalled long enough to move in and disarm him. A short, fierce fight ended with Lucy flipping the judge over the railing to his death.
To see what Jane Tennant’s NCIS team does next, watch NCIS: Hawai’i on Monday nights at 10 p.m. ET.