'NCIS: Hawaii' Reveals Secrets From Lucy's Past and Kai's Present

NCIS: Hawaii is tasked with the job of protecting Tatyana (Masha Mashkova), the daughter of a Russian oligarch carrying a deadly secret and for some reason, Tatyana has requested that Lucy Tara (Yasmine Al-Bustami) be assigned to head her protective detail.

Lucy is not excited about the prospect. Tatyana stands for everything that Lucy is opposed to—at least at first glance—but it turns out that there’s a reason why Tatyana selected Lucy: They come from similar backgrounds. Still, it’s a shock for Lucy when she realizes that Tatyana did a background check on her.

Her family’s a secret she’s been keeping with the exception of Jesse (Noah Mills), who did a background check on Lucy early on and discovered that she comes from a wealthy, powerful family.

“Lucy’s definitely very secretive and tries to keep everyone out of her past life,” Al-Bustami tells Parade. “She has tried so hard to recreate herself and be her own person and not have people attach where she came from, who her family is, to who she is now. With this episode, we learn more about that.”

Once Lucy gets to know more about Tatyana, who also doesn’t want to be judged by who her family is any more than Lucy does, they finally make a connection when they both realize that they are trying to be true to themselves.

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“It’s up and down,” Al-Bustami says. “I see it as a love-hate, push-pull kind of relationship. Lucy doesn’t want to have anything to do with Tatyana, but the more that they are in the trenches together trying to stay alive, the more that they find out about each other. Through that and the situation that they’re in, I feel like Lucy can’t help but develop a liking—even though she hates it—but she develops a liking for this person. And, also, I think it's been a while since she’s talked to someone who might understand her in a way that other people don’t.”

It's a good thing that the bond develops because—without giving away too much—the two women find themselves in major jeopardy and Lucy must put her life on the line for Tatyana. But that’s the fun of it for Al-Bustami, who really enjoys the physical aspects of playing an NCIS agent.

“Every fight’s different, all of the action can be different depending on the location and what the storyline is,” Al-Bustami explains. “But with this one specifically, it’s one of my favorite fights. It’s definitely Top 2 for me. And it’s just because of all of the elements. All of the action in this was awesome. I love working with our stunt team. They just make us look cool.”

In case you’re wondering what Top 1 is, it’s the fight scene that Lucy had on the beach—and you’ve got to remember, Lucy hates the beach. Anyway, it was a fight scene where Lucy took on this particular bad girl because she beat up Kate (Tori Anderson), so it was a revenge fight.

“Anytime there’s meaning behind the fight instead of just a fight just to have a fight, like there’s a personal reason, it just makes it that much more fun,” Al-Bustami volunteers. “And then on top of that, if it’s in gritty, dirty elements, that also makes it a little more fun. Yeah, those are my Top 2.”

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During our NCIS: Hawaii chat, Al-Bustami also talks about the Kate-Lucy (aka Kacy) relationship, what it’s like working with LL Cool J, and the other secret that’s revealed in this episode: Kai’s (Alex Tarrant) Canadian girlfriend is real.

Jane (Vanessa Lachey) is divorced. But Jesse has a stable relationship, he’s happily married. So, it’s nice to watch young love in the form of Lucy and Kate as they try to figure out theirs. Are you getting a lot of support from the LGBTQ+ community? How does that feel?

We have tons of support. It’s been there since day one, which is really lovely to see. It’s also lovely to see that everyone loves where we’re at now in our relationship, that we’re not so up and down. They’re supporting the stable aspect of our relationship. So, that’s been really cool. Obviously, just working with Tori is such a blast. So, anytime I get to do that then it’s a fun time.

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What are you enjoying about the relationship now? For example, there was a really fun line in there where Lucy’s headed home to watch reality TV with Kate.

Because of the ups and downs we’ve already experienced with them, it’s nice that they are just in a good place and a healthy place it seems like. So, that’s just been really good for Lucy’s anxiety, I feel, to have a relaxing, stable relationship.

Lucy’s past isn’t the only reveal in this episode. We also get to meet Kai’s mystery girlfriend (Peyton List). And it seems like nobody believed him. It’s like everybody thought he was being catfished, right?

I know. I feel like Lucy is such a cheerleader for him and is such a great wing woman for him. She just wants to see him happy with someone, so that’s why it’s so cool. I wish the whole team got to meet her. But I’m happy also, selfishly, that Lucy got to meet her. Because I think she was the one that was just like, ‘Oh, my gosh. I can’t believe you have a Canadian girlfriend.' That was really fun to play.

So, you have a new addition to the cast this season with LL Cool J, who’s billed as a guest star, but he’s been in every episode so far. What do you think he brings to it? And do you have any favorite scenes you’ve worked with him on?

In the episode that aired just prior to this one, it was in the very beginning of the episode when he’s making Lucy and Kai yogurt bowls while he’s telling this really in-depth story of him maybe possibly about to die. And then Jesse comes in. That was just so fun to play. That would probably be my favorite thing. And then, actually, in this episode, we’re in the jungle. Sam and Jane are paired up together trying to find Lucy in the jungle.

Whenever we all get together and just team up that’s fun, just all being out there. He’s just such a bad a$$ person, both on screen and off screen. He’s just so lovely. He gives the best hugs; I love his hugs. That’s been fun for me.

NCIS: Hawaii airs Monday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams next day on Paramount+.

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