I know I’m late with this Hawaii Five-0 recap. In a busy week that included my birthday, the Scottsdale International Film Festival and a couple of sports events, I didn’t even get to view Season 3, Episode 3 until this afternoon.

I thought about simply waiting and lumping this recap in with the one for tomorrow night’s episode, but I think I can knock this out pretty quickly.

A Fishy Story

The hour featured a lot of bickering between McGarrett (Alex O’Loguhlin) and Danno (Scott Caan). Not carguments, technically, since they were at sea, but pretty much the same. The boys are out on a powerboat fishing for tuna, and, in the only nod to the McGarrett backstory, Danno asks Steve about the latest on his mother. When McGarrett says Catherine (Michelle Borth) is trying to locate her, Danno can’t resist busting his balls.

Danno: “Your girlfriend checking up on your mother. That should turn out very well.”
McG: “Okay. First, she’s not my girlfriend. Second of all, she’s not checking on my mother. She’s using her contacts … to locate my mother. Nobody’s going to know.”
Danno: “Oh, no no no. Your mother is a spy and a woman. She will know. Trust me.”
McG: “That’s a good point.”

But Danno isn’t finished.

Danno: “Let me ask you another question: What is it with with Navy SEALS — they’re not allowed to have girlfriends? I mean, how else do you characterize your relationship?”
McG: “Well … we have a thing.”
Danno: “Yes, you have a thing. It’s called a girlfriend.”

They are interrupted by a tug on Danno’s line, and he reels in a large tuna – but not without bitching about Steve’s attempts to coach him. Just as they get the fish on ice, they spot a guy waving for help from an inflatable dinghy and race to the rescue. When they bring him aboard and start questioning him about his bloody shirt, he pulls a gun and forces them overboard. Then he puts two bullets into the dinghy and takes off on the powerboat.

Adrift with a dinghy that’s taking on water, a near-hysterical Danno unleashes several more rounds of bickering – about their odds for survival, McGarrett’s plan to save them and the untimely arrival of a shark. It goes on and on, to the point where even McGarrett gets sick of it. We’re with you Steve.

Then they spot another powerboat bobbing derelict in the waves. The get to it, board and notice two things: It’s missing its dinghy, and there is a bloody corpse in the cabin. With the Coast Guard looking for the second powerboat and Catherine, Kono (Grace Park) and Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) trying to locate their overdue colleagues, McGarrett and Danno eventually are rescued – but not before the Coast Guard places them in handcuffs after finding them without ID on a boat with a fresh corpse.

By this point the episode is half over, so the mystery couldn’t be too complicated, and it wasn’t. I knew who was behind the crime the moment she was introduced. Wife saddled with prenup recruits patsy to kill husband. So simple that her sister-in-law figures it out and shoots her before she can be arrested by Five-0.

Notes

• The episode’s only other nod to one of H50‘s ongoing story arcs comes while Chin Ho and Kono are staking out a suspect’s apartment. Chin Ho starts in on Kono about how her boyfriend’s yakuza legacy could impact her. She doesn’t want to hear it and goes to get some coffee. Later, she makes an offhand comment about Chin Ho always wanting to take care of her. “I still do,” he replies. Does this foreshadow some drama to come?
• We get a “Danno” reference from McGarrett, though not in the usual context. When all is said and done and Kamekona (Taylor Wily) has prepared Danno’s fish for eating, McGarrett offers a toast, “To Danno’s first fish!”
• Actress/singer Taryn Manning, who portrays McGarrett’s sister, Mary Ann, was arrested in New York Thursday following an altercation with her personal assistant. Manning was charged with misdemeanor assault and freed on her own recognizance. The incident occurred just days before Manning released a video for the song “Send Me Your Love.” It’s a catchy tune, but the video makes no sense to me at all.
• The Associated Press this week published an interesting story on the tourism industry’s efforts to expose inauthentic “Hawaiian” traditions.

###

Stuart J. Robinson, a college friend of the TV Tyrant, is a writer, editor, media-relations practitioner and social-media guy based in Phoenix.