We even made the choice, for example, that world when she goes into the cabin, that’s her perception of the world, and she hasn’t seen herself in the mirror. So if you’ll notice, she doesn’t even have a cut on her head. But then when we come out and see that she’s alone in the cabin, she does have a cut on her head because that’s the reality and she can’t see herself, so therefore she doesn’t see the blood. Therefore it’s not there in her world that she’s creating in that moment.
It was a fine line between tipping your hand too soon and making it so weird that the audience would be like, ‘This doesn’t seem right. This is probably a flashback, or this is probably something in our head.’ So we had to be careful to shoot it as normally as possible without tipping our hand. But then the way that the scenes were written, there’s this amazing crescendo of weirdness. It just gets weirder and weirder every time we go back to the cabin, and it just allowed for me to do something different, especially when Mom is starting to really question her about the guy in the woods, and she’s like, ‘How do you know about the guy in the woods? How is that even something you know about?’ And I had them speak into camera so that it’s just that she’s really speaking into her soul.
It’s really, really important, the sense of, maybe her mother saw her as a bother, and so that’s how she perceived this woman who opens the door and she’s like, ‘I don’t want you here. I want you to leave.’ “Because maybe that’s the sensation she feels of why maybe her mother left, ‘Was I a bother to my mother?’ Whether those things are true or not for that character, those are the things that we had to discuss. The showrunners are still are exploring this journey for Jane Tennant, so there aren’t a whole lot of concrete answers. So I just had to figure out what made sense for this episode and leave enough open that they can keep building on it.
How Tennant’s Vision Of Her Mother Strengthens Her Character Arc
& What It Means For Jane’s Future
Jane’s mother was not a major presence in her life, having left when she was very young, making her relationship with her almost nonexistent. However, the latest episode of the series delves into her psychological feelings behind her mom leaving, revealing how abandoned and bothersome she still feels about the whole situation. While she is now surrounded by friends and colleagues who would no doubt support her in times of need, none of them can bring back the time she lost with her mother.
Although NCIS: Hawai’i season 4 hasn’t been confirmed yet as of writing, this episode of the series could be setting the stage for a deeper exploration into her wrestling with her past. While the vision of her mother was brought on by a head injury she suffered, that doesn’t mean something similar won’t happen in future episodes. By utilizing the visuals of Tennant’s mother, it makes her a key presence onscreen, something that can better connect the two while giving the agent a visual outlet to process her past.
Given that season 3 was shortened due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes, it doesn’t appear that there will be enough time moving forward for Tennant to process everything about her past in the upcoming episodes. While this doesn’t confirm other NCIS: Hawai’i characters will be getting the spotlight instead in these final entries, the agent’s visions do appear to be setup for later down the road. With plenty left to explore surrounding her past and her feelings toward it, the series is setting the stage for a deeper dive at some point in the future.
