The NCIS/Hawai’i Crossover: 6 Times It Was Obvious That Nick and Jess Were Never Actually in a Scene Together
In the March 28 NCIS/NCIS: Hawai’i crossover event, you know who never actually crossed over into one another’s scenes?
D.C.-based coworkers Jessica Knight and Nick Torres, that’s who. Wait, what?
The NCIS half of the crossover ended with Wilmer Valderrama’s Special Agent Nick Torres arriving in Hawaii to reunite with old friend Special Agent Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and chase a new lead on a case they once worked together.
After their vehicle was riddled with bullets and then flipped during an ambush by baddies, the sequence segued straight into the NCIS: Hawai’i hour, where the two, with help from Tennant’s team, aimed to get to the bottom of the attack and who at some private defense contractor wanted what covered up.
Katrina Law’s Jess showed up a few scenes later, and yet for the entirety of the remaining episode, she never appeared alongside Nick in a scene — indicating that Law and Valderrama didn’t shoot their scenes at the same time in February. That bit of scheduling is entirely understandable, since NCIS proper wouldn’t want to hit pause on the filming of any scenes involving two of its series regulars.
How quickly did you pick up on the lack of Nick/Jess togetherness? To jog your memory, we’ve recapped below six instances where it became, and then became patently, obvious.
Photo : CBS screenshot
NCIS star Katrina Law’s first scene in the Hawaii half of the crossover had Ernie and Lucy discovering Special Agent Jessica Knight busy at work in Ernie’s “lair.”
The three (especially Jess and Ernie) became fast friends in that scene, but instead of Torres either dropping by to say hi to his coworker from D.C., or him fostering an introduction between Knight and Special Agent Jane Tennant, his very next scene involved guest star Teddy Sears’ POI.
Photo : CBS screenshot
Jess of course does get introduced to Pearl Harbor team leader Jane, but it happens off-screen (Nick’s involvement unknown). Instead, we pick up with the ladies walking-n-talking together, with Jess saying it is nice to “officially meet” the agent Nick has talked about (but only regarding “work” things!).
Photo : CBS screenshot
When it comes time for Torres and Knight (with Ernie and Lucy) to actually exchange timely information, it is done… over video chat. Jess jokes that Nick can’t walk down a flight of stairs to Ernie’s lair, and Nick explains that he is at the building’s front gate, doing… something.
Photo : CBS screenshot
When the two teams of NCIS agents approach the Fortress Services training facility and wind up in a firefight, Knight is seen outside, where after taking down a baddie she asks about the whereabouts of her coworker from back home. Well, Torres is busy with a brawl… inside.
Photo : CBS screenshot
At episode’s end — and because Knight had been largely stuck indoors, in Ernie’s lair, during her first-ever visit to the Aloha State — Jesse, Kai and Lucy take her out for a “nickel tour” of Hawaii. This is where you’re thinking, “Surely, Torres goes along. We just saw him in Tennant’s office a few feet away!”
And yes, Nick does go along, after Jess beckons him to hurry along — but all we get is his off-camera voice saying, “Coming!”
As final and irrefutable proof positive that Nick and Jess actually did spend time together during their trips to Hawaii, the episode ends with a montage of snapshots of them touring the town with Jesse, Kai and Lucy — though Wilmer Valderrama clearly could have been Photoshopped into each of the group photos. (Are the two snapshots above even the same photo of him, flopped?)
