TV Tyrant

‘Hawaii Five-0′: More Daddy Issues!

February 6th, 2012 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o, tv shows

Feb
06

By Stu Robinson,

After a couple of milquetoast episodes, CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 brought some meat to the luau in Episode 14.

Joe comes clean and reveals Shelbourne’s identity. Danno helps his ex-wife deliver her baby. The ambush of a delivery truck leads to a terrorist threat.

The episode begins with a flashback to 1992 and the day McGarrett’s father sent him away to the mainland. “It’s not safe for you here anymore,” Jack McGarrett (William Sadler) tells young Steve.

Before we get into the details, let’s review the two lackluster preceding episodes for their contribution to the back story.

Episode 12

CBS hyped the wedding of Chin Ho and Malia, but that was just a scene tacked onto the end. The episode begins with an homage to The Goonies – Gratuitous Corey Feldman shoutout! – as three boys enter a dark, old military bunker. They unpack climbing gear and start dropping down a hole into an uncharted lava tube below.

Where, of course, they stumble upon a body.

Measuring for tuxedos.

McGarrett, Danno, Chin Ho, Joe White and Kamekona are being sized for wedding tuxes when the call comes in. Arriving at the scene, they find Max wearing a spelunking getup, complete with a spotlight on his hard hat. This formula of Max + Goofy Outfit = Humor is wearing thin.

McGarrett and Max repel down to the body, which bears a gunshot wound and damage from the fall. They attempt to turn the body over and are startled when the victim moves his head and moans. This stiff isn’t so stiff! He’s still alive despite being shot, dropped down a hole and left for 12 hours.

(I wonder if the girls in the 2009 movie Sorority Row considered that possibility when they pitched a presumed-dead Audrina Patridge down a similar hole. Eh, who am I kidding? People from reality TV never go away. They’re like the undead, but with better skin.)

Back on Oahu, the episode unwinds into a depressing story of a couple lowlifes scamming the parents of a young man who was presumed murdered, but whose body never was found. They lure the father to Honolulu with $50,000 in cash using a story that the missing son had been seen on the island. Dad starts to smell the scam and ends up in the lava tube; one of the scammers is found dead in a car trunk.

Meanwhile, Joe’s behavior becomes ever more squirrelly. The week before, he kidnapped Hiro Noshimuri, leader of the yakuza on the islands, in order to gain information about the mysterious Shelbourne. He’s last seen driving away with the crime boss in his car trunk. Now the mobster’s son, Adam (Ian Anthony Dale), wants answers, but Joe claims he doesn’t know where the father is. McGarrett also discovers that Joe has made a quick trip to Japan and back. Joe refuses to explain, again asserting that he’s trying to protect Steve.

Other details worth noting:

  • Tom Sizemore returns as police Capt. Vince Fryer. He is investigating the body in the car trunk while Five-0 is trying to identify the comatose man from the hole. They agree to pool resources, but their differing styles make that interesting. Heightening the contrast is the way Fry always appears pale, wearing a pale-colored (usually blue) suit and filmed in pale light – while the Five-0 team, excluding Danno, is a tanned, colorful bunch.
  • Gail O’Grady (NYPD Blue) plays the wife of the comatose guy from the hole.

Quotes:

  • “Thank you, Capt. Caveman.” ~ Danno to Max, after Max describes the crime scene while wearing spelunking attire.
  • “You’ve been hanging with McGarrett too long.” ~ Chin Ho to Danno, after the latter uses a live grenade in an interrogation.

Episode 13

Episode 13, which involves the murder of a teenage girl in her own bedroom, never gives viewers the chance to solve its central crime. Getting to the killer and motive requires so many degrees of separation that Kevin Bacon wouldn’t figure it out.

Meanwhile, Joe is back from another mysterious trip to Japan (on Hawaiian Airlines, of course) but drawing increased attention from the local yakuza over is refusal to explain Hiro’s disappearance. Adam Noshimuri wants answers about his father’s fate, and is willing to get them legally or extralegally.

After McGarrett rescues Joe from a mob beating, Joe asserts that he helped Hiro fake his own death. But that leaves us no closer to the identity of Shelbourne – and wondering where Wo Fat has been hiding since the North Korea episode.

In other news:

  • Lab technician Charlie Fong (Brian Yang) has another chance to show off his forensics expertise for Kono.
  • Another Lost cast member, Sam Anderson, turns up on Oahu as a shady jury-selection expert.
  • We got a “Book ‘em, Danno,” and it came organically, not tacked on at the end of the episode.
  • Once again: Good guys drive Chevys; bad guys drive Fords.

Episode 14

In the opening flashback, McGarrett is told by his father: “If anything happens, you can always trust your Uncle Joe.”

The advice clearly doesn’t square with Joe’s recent behavior. We see McGarrett tailing Joe to an antiques shop, which is closed. After trying the door, Joe walks away into an alley, where he and McGarrett have a confrontation. But Steve can’t get anything out of him until later, after Joe has survived a yakuza drive-by shooting while barely saving a bystander. McGarrett arranges a meeting with Joe and Adam Noshimuri. Adam is ready to kill Steve and Joe, but the latter pulls out a cell phone, hits speed dial and hands it over. Adam listens briefly, presumably to his very-much-alive father, Hiro. Joe then explains that he helped Hiro fake his death because he had become a loose end to Wo Fat. Hire figured that if Wo Fat though he was dead, he’d move on and leave Adam alone.

Meanwhile, the investigation of the delivery-truck ambush points to the very same antiques shop. Steve and Joe return, and this time they break in. The find the proprietor, a known forger, in the rear with a gunshot wound. He is conscious, and tells them two terrorist suppliers stole blank U.S. passports from the truck, forced him to complete them and planned to sell them to the highest bidders. With help from, you guessed it, Hawaiian Airlines, Five-0 captures the two suppliers in a jetway at the airport.

So, where is Danno while all this takes place? He’s at the hospital with ex-wife Rachel (Claire van der Boom). She has gone into early labor with the baby fathered by her second husband, who is out of town on business. While their daughter, Grace (Teilor Grubbs), waits in the lounge, Danno coaches Rachel through the birth of the other man’s child – with Rachel shooting him appreciative looks throughout. Later, we see Danno outside the nursery taking photos to send to the baby’s father.

Comic relief in the episode comes from the team’s decision to spring Sang Min (Will Yun Lee), everybody’s favorite human trafficker, from prison to take part in an undercover operation. “Holy mullet! Who’s this guy?” Lori Weston asks upon seeing

Scene with Sang Min at Kamekona's truck.

Sang Min’s mug shot. When Lori and Kono visit the prison to recruit Sang Min, he greets them with, “Oh, look at this! Sweet and Spicy, huh?” He agrees to cooperate on one condition, at which point he leers at the two woman and says he’s been in prison a long time and has needs.

What he needs, it turns out, is shrimp from Kamekona’s food truck. We next see him chowing down at a picnic table near the beach, garishly disguised in a promotional T-shirt and hat from the Komekona Collection and pausing between bites to proposition passing bikini babes. He gets serious and rises to his feet when McGarrett walks up. There is a moment of awkward hostility before McGarrett breaks down in laughter. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I know you want to do the whole dramatic staredown thing, but I can’t take you seriously in this getup.” I actually wonder if that was scripted, or a blooper that the director thought was too good not to use.

Less amusing was an adjacent scene at the same location. I’ve noted from the start that the new Hawaii Five-0 is rather heavy-handed with product placement. It has pushed the line so far, it was hard to imagine how it could cross over. But the writers found away. So how much product placement is too much? After finding an “Out to lunch” sign on Kamekona’s shrimp truck, our heroes walk around back and find him at a table piled with Subway sandwiches. The big man tells McGarrett he’s “trying to eat smarter, brother. It worked for Jared, and that boy was huge.” Kamekona continues like he’s reading the script for a Subway commercial: “The best thing about it? They make it any way you want it!”

Puh-lease! Placement and promotion are enough; leave the full-blown commercials for the commercial breaks.

The Big Revelation

Near the end of Episode 14, Steve and Joe visit Jack McGarrett’s grave at Oahu’s famous Punchbowl cemetery. There Joe reveals that Shelbourne isn’t real – that he killed Wo Fat’s father, which Joe and Jack pinned on the fictitious Shelbourne. So Wo Fat has Daddy issues too. Who knew? Besides Joe, I mean.

After telling the story of Shelbourne, Joe informs Steve that it’s his turn to go away for a while. Will Joe return? The season finale would be a good bet.

So, let’s review everyone’s Daddy issues:

  • McGarrett – Being sent away to a mainland military school as a boy. Hearing his father’s murder over the phone. Constant clues to his father’s unfinished business. And an inner need to carry out his father’s legacy, wherever it might lead. (To a lesser extent, the same issues dog McGarrett’s younger sister, Mary Ann.)
  • Danno – A divorced, non-custodial parent’s determination to be as much of a father has he can to his young daughter. For Danno, that involves moving from New Jersey to Hawaii and maintaining a complex relationship with his ex-wife.
  • Hiro Noshimuri – Under threat from Wo Fat, the former yakuza boss fakes his own death. Like Papa McGarrett, he doesn’t want his business to endanger his son.
  • Wo Fat – Like McGarrett, he’s after the person who killed his father.

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


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H50 Episode Recalls Real-Life Case

December 12th, 2011 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o, tv shows

Dec
12

By Stu Robinson,

Season 2, Episode 11 of CBS’ new Hawaii Five-0 draws heavily from a real-life 1976 school bus kidnapping in Chowchilla, Calif., in which the hostages were placed underground in the back of a buried truck. 

The real-life hostages eventually managed to climb out and get help. In the TV version, it’s Five-0 to the rescue. The episode is what I’ve called a “pursuit” episode – and it’s a roller-coaster ride as McGarrett and crew tie the crime to a recent cocaine bust and race to find the hostages before the drug gang kills them.

The brief secondary plot involves McGarrett’s mentor, Joe White. Forced into retirement by the Navy after the North Korea caper in Episode 10, White turns his focus to Wo Fat and the mysterious Shelburne. He starts by kidnapping a yakuza boss on parole after being arrested by McGarrett in Season 1, Episode 13. Later, he brings the criminal to McGarrett and says he’s learned that Shelburne is a person, and Wo Fat is very close to finding him. From the trunk of Joe’s car, where he is tied up, the yakuza boss says Shelburne is “someone Wo Fat fears, and Wo Fat fears no one. For that reason, he won’t rest until Shelburne is dead.”

Joe drives off, telling McGarrett that he’s going to find Shelburne. This is where the plot thickens: In the final scene, Joe uses his mobile phone while driving to call somebody and says, “Steve is getting too close. We’re going to have to move you.”

Notes

We finally got a “Book ‘em Danno” – the first of the season, I think.

The website TV Rockstars reports that McGarrett’s sister, Mary Ann (Taryn Manning) and girlfriend, Lt. Catherine Rollins (Michelle Borth), will return this season. McGarrett put his sister on a flight to Los Angeles at the end of Season 1, Episode 13 in order to get her away from whatever danger remains for them on the islands. The Navy shipped Catherine off to the Persian Gulf at the end of Season 2, Episode 4, when Borth’s own show, ABC’s Combat Hospital, still had a chance of being renewed. It wasn’t, and that is good for Hawaii Five-0. Who can forget the repartee when Catherine and Mary Ann bumped into each other – literally – in the McGarrett kitchen in Season 1, Episode 5:

  • Mary Ann: “Big night last night.”
  • Catherine: “Hmm?”
  • Mary Ann: “Old house; thin walls.”
  • Catherine: “Oh God!”
  • Mary Ann: “Yeah, you said that a lot.”

CBS has announced that Ed Asner (Mary Tyler Moore, Lou Grant) will guest star in an episode this spring. According to the network, “Asner will reprise his role of August March, a character he played in an episode of the original Hawaii Five-0 in 1975, called ‘Wooden Model of a Rat.’ In a first for the modern series, footage from the 1975 episode featuring Asner and his character’s backstory will be used, showing him as an up-and-coming world class smuggler. Now a reformed man after serving 30 years in prison for murder, March lives on Oahu and is approached by the Five-0 to assist on a smuggling case.”

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

 

 

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H50: Like to Stay? Keep Doctor Away

November 16th, 2011 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o

Nov
16

By Stu Robinson,

Episodes 8 and 9 of CBS’ new Hawaii Five-0 were little more than filler. Neither advanced any of the ongoing story lines; in fact, the only back story to come up at all was Danno’s housing saga. Neither episode advanced the McGarrett family subplot; neither mentioned Danno’s budding romance with the hot museum curator.

Episode 8 involved a terminal cancer patient killing a Customs agent to protect his supply of alternative medicines – only to find out that the doctor behind the non-traditional regimen was a quack. Episode 9, after several red herrings, came down to a plastic surgeon trying to cover up a botched procedure. So if there was any common theme, it was … beware of doctors?

Episode 8

In the series’ latest example of stunt casting, Episode 8 reunited Masi Oka, who plays crazy coroner Max Bergman, with former Heroesco-star Greg Grunberg, who played the dead Customs

Greg Grunberg, Masi Oka's co-star from "Heroes" guest stars as a Customs and Immigration official.

 

agent’s boss, Jeff Morrison. The writers tried to wink at the actors’ former relationship, but the attempt fell flat.

Max: “Do I know you?”
Morrison: “No. I don’t think so.”
Max: “Yes, I think we’ve met before.”
Morrison: “No. I think I would’ve remembered a guy like you.”
Max: “Well, I’m rarely wrong about previous human encounters.”

Huh? [Cue crickets chirping.]

Other notable moments:

  • Max has traded in his VW Thing (seen in the season premiere); his WARP 9 license plate is now affixed to a bright yellow Chevy Camaro.
  • Kono tells Chin Ho that she’s now okay with him dating his ex-fiancée, Malia. That was fast. But Kono also is back to flirting with her favorite lab tech: “Thanks, Fong. You’re a geek god.”
  • In a shoutout to America’s Customs and Immigration agents, Morrison gives the victim’s posthumous award of valor to McGarrett, who hangs it in his office at Five-0 headquarters.

Less notable was the idea of the team four-wheeling into the jungle in search of a ditched parachute – and finding it. Equally lame was the cherry picker poorly disguised as a branch that Lori used to recover the chute.

Episode 9

The intro is an adrenaline-pumping high-speed car chase that ends with the suspect escaping but the police finding a body in the trunk of another car.

[Cue the boffo Hawaii Five-0 theme.]

Danno, now reduced to sleeping on McGarrett’s couch due to “black mold” in his crappy apartment, is driving his host crazy by keeping the TV on and loud through the night. Why? He can’t stand the sound of waves crashing into the shore, which he calls “Hawaiian water torture.” The ensuing argument is interrupted, of course, by the call to action. And so begins the search for the victim’s identity.

While not as bad as the previous episode, the ensuing plot won’t end up in the H50 Hall of Fame. The victim turns out to be a witness to organized crime who left the U.S. Marshals’ protection program after two of his fellow witnesses turned up dead. (Head scratcher: If they were all in witness protection, how would he know?) We’re fed a scenario, complete with Boston Irish hit men, in which the victim’s past caught up with him – except the hit men still are looking for him, which means they obviously didn’t kill him. Turns out he died during facial-reconstruction surgery and the doctor tried to cover it up.

The show does delve into the world of vintage muscle cars, and the folks who steal them.

During an outdoor car show in an oceanside park, Lori must go undercover. She pulls up in a classic Ford Mustang and steps out wearing a tank top, tight leather pants and stripper-style

Lori goes under cover at a car show as bait for thieves.

plastic high heels. In the past, it’s always been Kono who had to vamp it up under cover; she finally gets to register her opinion of all those cheesecake scenes.

Lori: “I still think Kono would’ve looked way hotter in this outfit.”
Kono: “Sorry Sister, I did my time undercover. Now it’s on you.”

Never mind that Lori, a transfer from Homeland Security, likely has much more time on the books than rookie cop Kono. But the latter gets to display her bad-ass cop credentials later in the show when she reprises her stone-cold sharpshooting skills she used in Season 1, Episode 12 to take down Victor Hesse.

Even more gratuitous, the writers populate the car show with myriad bikini-clad onlookers. While the scene was by the ocean, it was not on a beach. And most of the women I know, even ones who are walking advertisements for the bikini industry, cover up with shorts or a sarong when they step off the sand.

Kamekona and Max again provide the comic relief.

The way that Taylor Wily uses facial expressions and body language makes it almost unnecessary for Kamekona, the giant shave ice/shrimp vendor, to utter lines. And I had to laugh when he gave Chin Ho and Kono a Spam-scented air freshener for their car.

Max may be relying a bit too much on silly costumes. After dressing up like Inspector Gadget in Episode 2 and Keanu Reeves from The Matrix in Episode 7, he appears as Danny (the John Travolta character) from Grease at the end of this episode. Of course, that allowed the writers to add a second bit of Lori cheesecake, dressing her up as Sandy (the Olivia Newton-John character).

The writers also went to the well again with a final scene in which McGarrett fills in the blanks for the victim’s girlfriend. They used this same approach in Season 1, Episode 22 (a/k/a the Rick Springfield episode) – and possibly other times, it seems so familiar.

What the writers didn’t do is tell us who led the cops on the chase in the opening scene, or why.

Closing Note

Both episodes were put to shame by the “scenes from next week” at the end of Episode 9.

McGarrett! In North Korea! With Jenna Kaye and Wo Fat! And Jimmy Buffett?

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

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‘H50′: Who Has More Fight in Him: Steve or Joe?

November 6th, 2011 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o, tv shows

Nov
06

h50-01-300x199

By Stu Robinson,

Episode 6 of CBS’ new Hawaii Five-0 begins with Steve McGarrett climbing into a mixed martial arts ring to face off against Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell.

Flash back 48 hours to see a body, tied to a chair, being chucked into a swimming pool. There ensues a procedural episode dealing with the murder of a wealthy restaurateur. The investigative focus moves from a home-invasion gang made up of parking valets, to the victim’s sister, to a young MMA fighter the victim had taken under his wing – before finally settling on the killer.

The series’ daddy issues resurface: The victim has a teenage son who returns home to discover crime scene tape at his house before Danno can take him aside.

And the McGarret back story provides the secondary plot for the episode. Only a week after trying to dissuade Steve from pursuing the case, Joe White is working the silent video again – this time bringing in a lip reader to try and determine what Papa McGarrett, the late governor and Wo Fat are discussing in the video. The expert identifies Steve’s father saying: “I want to know about Shelburne.”

Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos) lands a kick during a knock-down, drag-out fight with Joe White (Terry O'Quinn).

Later, Joe returns to his apartment and an ambush by Wo Fat:

Wo Fat: “I want to know why you are asking questions about men who are no longer with us.”
Joe: “I’ll stop asking those questions when you tell me about Shelburne.”

[Momentary staredown]

Joe: “What does it mean?”Wo Fat: “You’ve done more work than I could’ve imagined, old man. Will you do me one favor?”
Joe: “What’s that?”
Wo Fat: “Tell John Mc Garrett that his son will be along soon enough.”

At that point, Wo Fat pulls gun, starting a long fight scene. Eventually, Wo Fat escapes while Joe goes for the gun on floor.

Back to the mixed martial arts ring. It’s a charity bout, and McGarrett is taking the place of the young MMA fighter whose shoulder he separated during an arrest earlier in the show. The person prepping McGarrett beforehand is … Lori, and the two exchange smoldering glances before he steps into the ring. Following the bout, McGarrett is joking around with the Five-0 squad when he receives a call from Joe.

Arriving at the home of the old man who hired Papa McGarrett to investigate Wo Fat, he learns from Joe that the man has been tortured and killed. Joe goes all squishy again:

Joe: “We did this. Our questions got Mokoto killed.”
McGarrett: “No, Joe. Wo Fat started this. And I plan to finish it.”
Joe: “If you continue to go down this road, son, you’re going to have to ask yourself: ‘How many more lives is that going to cost?”

Guest Stars

We see Liddell climbing into the MMA ring to fight McGarret. He has no lines – which is probably for the best.

In a bit of pointless network cross promotion, the lip reader Joe imports from the mainland is Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) from NCIS: Los Angeles. Her appearance is limited to one awakard scene with McGarrett and Joe.

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

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‘Hawaii Five-0′: The Fall and Rise of Kono

November 1st, 2011 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o, tv shows

Nov
01

By Stu Robinson,

I’ve been busy with the day job this month, so I have to play catch-up on Season 2 of CBS’ new Hawaii Five-0 – starting with Episodes 3-5, a an arc that could be titled, “Oh no, Kono!”

I’m going to limit myself to a quick overview.

The Plots

Episode 3: A Navy SEAL is found dead while camping, an apparent suicide. McGarrett and the team must prove that it wasn’t, and then find the killer.

Episode 4: Five-0 must figure out why somebody killed a diver who specialized in treasure hunts.

Episode 5: Why did somebody kill the University of Hawaii’s women’s volleyball coach?

The Backstories

Booted from Five-0, Kono starts hanging out with shady ex-cops in Episode 3. Chin Ho tries a couple of times to intervene, but she basically tells him to buzz off. By Episode 4, she’s part of their team; in Episode 5, she finds herself driving the getaway car for a mortally wounded hit man.

In a challenge to the space-time continuum, after Chin Ho and Lori ambush the hit man and Lori shoots him, Chin Ho returns to the office and gets yelled at by McGarrett, who then manages to join Danno and Lori in time to arrest Kono, who still is fleeing in the car with the dead hit man.

While McGarrett and Chin Ho interrogate her, Vince Fryer (Tom Sizemore) bursts in and confirms what some of us guessed back in Episode 3 — that Kono was working under cover in an Internal Affairs investigation.

You knew the writers wouldn’t let Kono go bad. Her relationship with cousin Chin Ho is too integral to Five-0′s dynamics. And while she looked deliciously bad in a clingy black dress, all those colorful bikinis in the show’s wardrobe department wouldn’t “fit” a woman who had turned to the dark side.

In the McGarrett saga, Steve’s Navy mentor, Joe White (Terry O’Quinn) puts in for transfer to Pearl Harbor to oversee SEAL teams there … and be a recurring character. He tells McGarrett that he’s sent the video of McGarrett’s father with the late governor and Wo Fat to the Defense Department for an attempt a sound extraction – then puts off McGarrett every time he asks about it. After McGarrett learns, in Episode 4, that it was a lie, he confronts Joe.

McGarrett: “Know what? I know he was your friend. But he was my father. Whatever it is you’re trying to protect me from, I can handle. You understand me?”
Joe: “Did you ever think that maybe you’re not the only one I’m trying to protect?”
McGarrett: “What are you talking about?”
Joe: “Risk vs. reward, Steve. How much damage are you willing to do to your family, to your family’s name? ‘Cause whatever’s on that video is not going to bring your father back.”

Guest Stars

Is that a Baldwin brother? Yes, that’s William Baldwin, the pretty one, playing Frank Delano, leader of the crooked ex-cops.

Sara Roemer (Disturbia) plays the murdered SEAL’s widow.

Patty Duke, Oscar winner and 1960s TV star, turns up in Episode 4, playing the victim’s Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother.

And, yes, that was Peter Fonda in a throw-away role as a high-profile treasure hunter who’s real quest is for investor dollars. I’m sure CBS invested a few dollars in his appearance.

The star volleyball player in Episode 5 is played by Tania Raymonde (Lost). I didn’t watch Lost, so I don’t know if/how here character interacted with Daniel Dae Kim’s. The woman on the run is played by Meredith Monroe, who has grown up since playing Andie McPhee on Dawson’s Creek.

Romance

Episode 4 introduces a potential new love interest for Danno in the lovely form of Autumn Reeser (Entourage). She plays a museum curator who assists Five-0 by analyzing some evidence. Though Scott Caan also was on Entourage, it’s also unclear if those characters’ paths crossed.
McGarrett: “You should ask her out for coffee.”
Danno: “I don’t want … I’m not looking for a relationship.”
McGarrett: “Coffee’s not a relationship, it’s a beverage.”
Danno: “That’s not true. Every single relationship starts with a cup of coffee. Then it’s dinner. Next thing you know, you’re divorced and you’re moving to Hawaii so you can see your daughter every other week.”
(Are we supposed to recall the coffee talk between McGarrett and Lori during a stakeout in Episode 2?) Near the end of Episode 4, Danno waits outside the Bishop Museum after dark for the curator to emerge. He asks her out for a cup coffee, and she agrees. In real life, of course, he’d probably end up with a whiff of mace and a stalking charge.

Later, McGarrett needs a notebook decrypted. Enter his Season 1 girlfriend/plot advancer, Navy Lt. Catherine Rollins (Michelle Borth). But the magic appears to be gone. As he joins her on a park bench and gives her a freshly picked flower, she asks: “What do you need this time?”

Subsequently, McGarrett walks into Five-0 HQ with Lori, and they spot Catherine waiting in Steve’s office.
Lori: “Who’s that?”
McGarrett: “That is an old friend.”
Catherine is in her dress uniform, which McGarrett finds odd. “Orders came in today,” she says. “My flight for the gulf leaves tonight.” Awkward, but it does clear the decks for a potential romance with Lori – and for Borth to star on another season of ABC’s Combat Hospital if it’s renewed. Before leaving, though, Catherine informs McGarrett that the Defense Department hadn’t received an intel request from White.

But it’s not just viewers speculating about a potential attraction between McGarrett and Lori:

Danno to McGarrett about Lori: “Listen. She follows orders. She likes sports. If she was into blowing stuff up, romantic getaways at the DMZ, I’d say we are looking at a love connection.”

Lori and Chin Ho during stakeout:
Lori (pacing): “Sorry, uh … patience isn’t my strong suit.”
Chin Ho: “You’re a lot like Steve, you know that?”
Lori: “Am I? … What’s his deal, anyway?”
Chin Ho: “What do you mean, ‘What’s his deal?’”
Lori: “He’s kinda hard to get a read on. … Except for, you know, the daddy issues. Those are right out there front and center.
“And not like I’m trying to, like, shrink him or anything, ’cause I’m not – totally not. But, uh, I don’t know. I’d just sort of like to get to know my new boss a little better. That’s all.”
[Befuddled stare from Chin Ho.]
Lori: “Okay. Sorry. Is this awkward? Okay, it’s awkward. Let’s just rewind. [nervous laugh] Delete. I never said anything. It’s not a big deal.”
Chin Ho: “You got it.”
Bear in mind that Lori is supposed to be an expert in profiling.

During Kono’s walk on the wild side, lab technician extraordinaire Charlie Fong (Brian Yang), last seen flirting with her late in Season 1, expresses his concern to her cousin, Chin Ho.

Chin Ho, meanwhile, appears to have something developing with his ex-fiancée, Malia Waincroft (Reiko Aylesworth). When he meets her for lunch at Kamekona’s shrimp truck, we find out it’s at least the second date they’ve had recently. Later she tries to talk sense into Kono – implying more of a past relationship between the to than viewers had been led to believe.

Additional Snappy Dialogue

Oddball coroner Max Bergman (Masi Oka), is giving giant shave-ice guy Kamekona (Taylor Wily) a run for his money as the show’s comic relief. In Episode 2, he enters Five-0 headquarters wearing dark glasses, a khaki trench coat and matching hat – and carrying a large manila envelope.
McGarrett: “Hey … Creepy, why are you dressed like inspector gadget?”
Max: “Ropening a closed case without authorization is considered risky. So I took precautions.”

Danno needles McGarrett about his SEAL background: “So, what, you’re not going to tell me about Operation Strawberry Fields?”
McGarrett: “No.”
Danno: “No, no. Of course, you’d have to kill me. … I’m just curious, though: Was there an Operation Abbey Road? Were you The Walrus?”
He looks at Joe, who has stopped at a locked door.
Danno: “Time to shut up?”
Joe: “Roger that.” [Opens the door.] “Are you ready for the Magical Mystery Tour?”

Product Placement and Hawaiiana

The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, named for the last descendant of Hawaii’s Kamehameha royal family, is where Danno meets, and is smitten by, curator Gabrielle Asano in Episode 4. The Bishop Museum is home to an extensive collection of natural, cultural and historic artifacts from the islands.

The episode then offers a history lesson of its own when Charlie Fong identifies a piece of evidence as a $5 bill with “HAWAII” stenciled across the back. Such “Hawaiian overprint notes” replaced regular U.S. currency on the islands during World War II. After Pearl Harbor, the authorities opted for the overprint currency because it could simply be declared worthless if the Japanese invaded.

Max is like a kid in a candy store on a visit to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JPAC), the largest forensics lab in the world.

Episode 5 showcases University of Hawaii athletics. It opens at a women’s volleyball match, after which the coach is murdered. NCAA rules prevented the actual players from being on the show, but producers asked the crowd from a real UH volleyball match to stick around afterward and cheer on the actors. Local actor Joe Toro plays the ill-fated coach.

The getaway car driven by Kono is a Cadillac, in keeping with the show’s car credo: Chevys good; other makes bad.

Notes

In another bending of the space/time continuum, McGarrett finds out that a different SEAL is on his way to becoming a skydiving accident and inexplicably gets into the air with his own parachute in time to pull off a mid-air rescue.

###

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

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‘Hawaii Five-0′ Gets the Band Back Together

September 25th, 2011 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o

Sep
25

By Stu Robinson,

It took me a few days to recover from whiplash following the season premiere of CBS’ Hawaii Five-0.

No, not really. It just seemed like it.

I went into the Season 2 premiere wondering how the H50 writers could resolve last season’s cliff-hanger in a remotely plausible fashion. While I keep the emphasis on “remotely,” they did come up with a narrative to get the band back together for a second season — even if it involved brand new characters, suddenly revealed back stories and those whiplash-inducing reversals.

Last season’s cliffhanger left the Five-0 team in an existential crisis. McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) was under arrest, accused of shooting the governor; Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) was the Honolulu Police SWAT commander who arrested him; Kono (Grace Park) was being booked in the $10 million heist from last season’s Episode 12; and Danno (Scott Caan) seemed powerless to do anything about it all.

Cue the children’s choir at the governor’s funeral. To the sound of the choir, we see a montage of:

  • Actor Terry O’Quinn, Kim’s former castmate from Lost, walking off military cargo plane wearing camouflage fatigues and being greeted by Danno;
  • Kono sitting on a surfboard looking pensive (in a red bikini — yeah writers!);
  • former CIA analyst and Five-0 ally Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik) scrolling through evidence pictures on a laptop;
  • McGarrett doing push-ups in a jail cell.

Back at the funeral, Chin Ho stands in a police honor guard scanning the mourners. He makes eye contact with Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos), and afterward accosts the criminal mastermind in the requisite macho confrontation.

Summoned to meet a visitor, McGarrett finds Danno waiting. Their initial exchange recalls two of Season 1′s running gags, their bickering and Danno’s attire:

  • Danno: “Why are you you smiling at me?”
  • McGarrett: “You’re not wearing a tie. It suits you.”
  • Danno: “No, I’m not wearing a tie, because there’s no dress code for an out-of-work cop.”

Danno then yields to O’Quinn, whose first line to McGarrett is,“Let me guess: The governor had it coming.” O’Quinn’s character, Lt. Cmdr. Joe White, is identified as the man who trained McGarrett. Our hero dutifully calls him “sir.”

Next we see McGarrett in the jail’s exercise yard, where he is confronted by Victor Hesse (James Marsters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Caprica and Smallville), the man who killed McGarrett’s father in the Season 1 premiere. After a lengthy fight, Hesse stabs McGarrett in the gut, then speaks to him urgently, though his words are inaudible to the audience.

Cut to boffo theme song.

Confronted later in his cell by Danno and Chin Ho, Hesse explains that he stabbed McGarrett in a non-lethal way so he could escape. There is a quick cut and, sure enough, we see a bleeding McGarrett escape from an ambulance. Turns out Hesse is employing the same strategy tried by Sang Min (Will Yun Lee) in the penultimate episode of Season 1.

  • Hesse: “I may be a soulless bastard, detective, but I’m no fool. Wo Fat is making one last deal. Then he’s going to disappear. But he’s not going to do that without tying up loose ends.”
  • Danno: “Loose ends. By that you mean you, right.”
  • Hesse: “Unless McGarrett kills him first.”

Filling Some Blanks

Among the evidence from Papa McGarrett’s toolbox, White recognizes a photo of a military decoration. He recognizes it as having been awarded to a Japanese pilot for bombing Pearl Harbor. White relates that the pilot later became wealthy and moved to Oahu hoping to make amends. He gave the medal to McGarrett, and later hired him to investigate corruption in the Honolulu Police Department.

With information from the old man, Kaye determines that another item from the toolbox, a key, fits a storage locker at the airport on Molokai. It had been reported that Five-0 would go beyond Oahu this season, so here are two quick scenes on Molokai (that could have been filmed anywhere).

Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) is confronted in the dead governor's office by the lieutenant governor (Richard T. Jones).

The locker contains grainy, black-and-white video from the private office at the governor’s residence, the very same place where McGarrett was framed for her murder. Danno and Chin Ho race to the residence and find a camera in an old clock before they are interrupted by the lieutenant governor (Richard T. Jones). At least he is identified as the lieutenant governor throughout the episode; wouldn’t he be the governor since his predecessor is dead?

Turns out the newly discovered camera captured a figure appearing behind McGarrett, tasing him, shooting the governor and placing the gun in McGarrett’s hand. Though viewers know it is Wo Fat, the video doesn’t show his face – so he can’t simply be arrested.

But the lieutenant governor does reconstitute Five-0, with two exceptions:

  1. The team no longer will have blanket immunity to break the law; and
  2. Kono must be cleared by HPD’s Internal Affairs Division before she can return to the team.

Finally, in another whiplash inducing scene at the end, it is revealed that there is, in fact, a mole attached to the Five-0 team. It’s just not Chin Ho, as I speculated in my Season One recap.

Subplots

It also was reported over the summer that character of  Dr. Max Bergman (Masi Oka), the oddball coroner, had been upgraded to a regular. This was confirmed in the Season 2 premier. Max finds an unconscious, bleeding McGarrett in his home and proceeds to treat him and alert Danno and Chin Ho.

“Max,” McGarrett says after regaining consciousness, “the least you can do after patching me up is call me ‘Steve.’”

Max quickly displays his sci-fi geek credentials.

When he suggests a brief car exchange with Danno, we see a tiny model of the USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek on his keychain. Perhaps it’s an homage, since the father of Oka’s character on Heroes was played by George Takei, Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek.

A VW Thing

Then there is his car: Danno ends up behind the wheel of a VW Thing with the license plate “WARP9.” [Kim occupied the Star Trek universe as well, guest starring on an episode of Voyager. And the actor who plays Papa McGarrett in flashbacks (William Sadler) was a recurring character on Deep Space Nine.]

 

Max ends up driving Danno’s macho Chevy Camaro.

Yes, the advertisers must have been happy, because product placement is back for Season 2. An early commercial tells us that, “Chevrolet is proud to power Hawaii Five-0.” Later in the episode, a Hawaiian Airlines jet figures prominently in the background as McGarrett climbs out of a helicopter at the Molokai airport. CBS also used the commercial breaks to promote the season premieres of some of its other big shows, such as CSI and Criminal Minds.

Danno’s ex-wife and daughter, last seen boarding a plane to the mainland after Danno failed to show up at the airport, were only referenced in the Season 2 premiere. In discussions among characters, we learn that Rachel’s pregnancy was further along than she’d realized — and that the father is “The Stan,” not Danno. We’re told that she and Grace are returning to Hawaii so Rachel can give her second marriage another chance.

Notes

  • Not much is revealed about O’Quinn’s character, other than that he trained McGarrett in the military and was friends with Papa McGarrett for years. He’s unflappable: Told McGarrett escaped from jail, he responds that, “Patience was never his strong suit.” He also shows that he is good with gun, backing up Kono in a chase scene. (And what man wouldn’t back her up, since the writers had her wearing a snug pair Daisy Dukes.)
  • While Wo Fat got away, the team did prevent the “last deal” Hesse mentioned – the sale of “dirty bomb” materials to a Eurotrashy dude who Kono shoots dead. But Hesse’s larger plan fails, leaving him dead in his cell.
  • On a personal note, I was happy to see McGarrett dispatch one of Wo Fat’s henchmen with a “Book ‘im, Danno.”

###

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

 

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‘Hawaii Five-0′: Variations on a Theme

September 19th, 2011 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o

Sep
19

By Stu Robinson,

Tonight brings the Season 2 premiere of CBS’ new Hawaii Five-0.

To borrow the slogan from another classic TV show: Same bat time; same bat channel. Once again, it will go up against the ABC hit Castle. NBC hopes to grab some attention with The Playboy Club, but in this time slot I expect it to last about as long as Hef’s latest engagement.

While we wait to see if the H50 writers can resolve last season’s cliff-hanger in a remotely plausible fashion, I thought I’d set the mood with that boffo theme song – along with some of the creativity it has inspired on YouTube.

First, the behind-the-scenes video from last year’s re-recording of the theme.

The Brain Setzer Orchestra had a slightly different take, but still pretty cool.

This one’s a little out there, but it won CBS’ H50 theme song contest last year.

It would be hard to get more out there than these videos giving the H50 sound treatment to Star Wars and Star Trek. I think one of the commenters said it best: “Book ‘em, Chewie.”

Finally, who knew there were lyrics to the H50 theme? Sammy did!

###

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

 

 

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Wo Fat Springs Trap in ‘HF0′ Season Finale

May 31st, 2011 | by | cbs, hawaii five-o, tv shows

May
31

By Stu Robinson,

I’ve had some time to digest the Season One finale of Hawaii Five-0, the new CBS hit that pretty much lived up to its preseason hype. Summing up the 24 episodes requires more than one blog post, so here is Part 1: A Recap of the Season Finale:

Episode 24 starts with a bang as a car bomb kills one of the show’s secondary characters before the boffo opening theme song. And she wouldn’t be the only one to die.

Sexy governor’s aide Laura Hills (Kelly Hu) is the victim of that car bomb. After sifting through the wreckage, CIA analyst Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik)

Open season on secondary characters: Both Laura Hills (Kelly Hu, left) and the governor (Jean Smart) died in the season finale.

determines that the killing carries the same modus operandi as those of her fiance and McGarrett’s mother. She concludes – as she always does – that it has the mark of Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos).

The episode proceeds at warp speed.

This week’s mysterious envelope contains an ornate skeleton key. Kono’s new friend, lab tech Charlie Fong, apparently also performs handwriting analysis and finds that the envelopes containing the clues from Papa McGarrett’s toolbox were addressed by Hills.

McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) begins to suspect the skeleton key might unlock an antique desk in the governor’s office. He swings into cat-burglar mode to find out and discovers surveillance photos of Hills leaving the clues for him. “Laura was trying to help me,” he tells Danno. “It’s my fault that she’s dead.”

Convinced that the governor (Jean Smart) must be in league with Wo Fat, the angry and paranoid McGarrett embarks upon a series of events that ends with the governor dead, himself and Kono (Grace Park) under arrest and the apparent demise of Five-0.

But did McGarrett launch that series of events?

Taking a second look at the finale, one can see the dominoes fall one by one. The car bombing wasn’t even the first. Moments before, Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) encounters a group of cops carrying boxes of partly burned money that one says a rancher found in the countryside. He concludes immediately that it is some of the cash the team stole from the Honolulu Police asset-forfeiture locker – ransom money demanded by Victor Hesse after he strapped an explosive to Chin Ho in Episode 12. This despite the fact that McGarrett, Kono and viewers saw the ransom money destroyed after being set ablaze by Hesse.

The detonation of Hills’ car is the second domino to fall. When the team determines it was done with a Claymore mine, the investigation leads to the third domino: an arms dealer who says he sold the mine to “Steve McGarrett.”

No. 4 comes when word reaches the team that the Honolulu Police found McGarrett’s fingerprints all over Laura Hills’ house.

  • “How is that possible?” asks Kaye.
  • “You ever been there before today?” Danno (Scott Caan) asks McGarrett.
  • McGarrett: “No. Never.”
  • Chin Ho: “Well, somebody sure as hell wants HPD to think you were.”
  • Kaye: “Why?”
  • Chin Ho to McGarrett: “You’re being set up.”

Shortly thereafter, the team’s only witness, the shady arms dealer who first implicated McGarrett and then Wo Fat, is found dead in a bullet-riddled police car along with the offers who were transferring him to a new location. Domino No. 5 not only torpedoes the case McGarrett was building but also ensures that HPD will motivated to catch the cops’ killers.

Next, Chin Ho receives a tip that police are on the way to Five-0′s headquarters to arrest McGarrett. Upon first viewing, this came as a shock. But considering the domino theory, No. 6 shouldn’t have been a surprise. McGarrett escapes via the roof – careful not to kill any of the police pursuing him – and goes on the lam.

Unable to use his Chevy pickup or souped up Camaro, he starts driving his father’s classic black Mercury Marquis – one of the cars Jack Lord drove on the original Hawaii Five-0. He uses it to find Kamekona (Taylor Wily) and ask for a gun. After protesting that he is a parolee who could go back to prison of possessing a gun, the giant shave-ice vendor senses McGarrett’s desperation and leads him to a hidden cache of guns and ammunition.

Meanwhile, the next domino falls when Internal Affairs officers from HPD arrest Kono, saying a witness has put her at the scene when she and McGarrett raided the HPD asset-forfeiture locker. (Remember that annoying old lady who hassled Kono while she was posing as a utility worker? She’s Ba-ack.) This leads Chin Ho to storm from the office, leaving Danno to fill in a stunned Kaye.

  • “That’s crazy,” she responds upon hearing how Five-0 robbed the cops.
  • Danno: “Welcome to my world.”
  • Kaye: “I like it. What do we do now?”
  • Danno: “You like it; that’s good.”

Coming after a debate among team members during which Kaye asks if she gets a vote, that exchange would appear to validate her future status within Five-0 – if Five-0 has a future, that is. (Since CBS has picked up the show for a second season, that’s a pretty good bet.)

Armed with the weapons he got from Kamekona, a highly agitated McGarrett again infiltrates the governor’s office, this time confronting her face to face with his iPhone set to record her confession. He finally gets her to admit ordering Hills’ death, but his fixation on the governor enables Wo Fat to sneak up behind him with a Taser. The governor moves to erase the recorded confession, at which point Wo Fat draws a pistol, shoots her, places the weapon in a hand of the unconscious McGarrett and leaves.

An HPD response unit – led by Chin Ho, of all people ! – finds McGarrett, gun in hand, desperately claiming that Wo Fat killed the governor. There is no sign of Wo Fat, so Chin Ho arrests McGarrett. As he places the handcuffed McGarrett into a patrol car, Danno arrives on the scene. He tells Chin Ho to release McGarrett – the he has Five-0 immunity. To which Chin Ho responds, “You don’t understand, Danny. There is no Five-0 anymore.”

Danno was otherwise occupied for most of the season finale. He’s been hooking up with ex-wife Rachel (Claire van der Boom), she’s pregnant and they are planning a return to New Jersey with daughter Grace (Teilor Grubbs). In the end, though, Rachel and Grace are left waiting at the airport while Danno attempts to deal with the McGarrett situation. After waiting to the last moment, they board the plane to the mainland.

In a final scene, McGarrett and Kono spot each other in custody at the police station, giving viewers the sense that their plight is pretty hopeless. The episode concludes with mug shots being taken of McGarrett.

NEXT UP: Part 2: Season One Character Analyses

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

 

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‘Hawaii Five-0′ Careens Toward Season Finale

May 18th, 2011 | by | tv shows

May
18

By Stu Robinson,

Because I’m a week behind, I’m going to rush through Episode 23 of CBS’s new Hawaii Five-0 so that I can start deconstructing the series’ shocking season finale. Here goes:

Acting on a tip from CIA analyst Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik), Five-0 raids a supposed safe house expecting to find Wo Fat. Instead, they find fugitive Sang Min (Will Yun Lee), the human trafficker and jailhouse snitch who appeared in the pilot and two other episodes this season. He flees on foot, eventually leading Danno to another home where a man lies dead on the kitchen floor. Shortly after checking for a pulse, Danno falls ill. Jenna determines the dead man, a vagrant, was killed by the chemical sarin after drinking milk from a spiked carton.

At this point, the Wo Fat, sarin and Danno plots diverge.

  • Because Sang Min had boobytrapped the front door of the safe house and appeared surprised when Five-0 showed up, the team concludes that he was waiting to kill Wo Fat before Wo Fat killed him. That proves to be the case, and Sang Min eventually surrenders to the team, saying Wo Fat wants him dead and plans to come after McGarrett next.
  • Meanwhile, Five-0 traces the sarin through the homeowner, his caretaker and the homeowner’s brother-in-law/business associate to the latter man’s secretary, with whom he was having an affair. (Got that?) The secretary had made a deal with a Russian weapons dealer for the arms merchant to plant the sarin where the homeowner would be exposed to a lethal dose, thereby freeing the secretary and brother-in-law to continue their relationship while holding onto the company. But the homeowner didn’t return to Hawaii as scheduled, and the caretaker allowed the vagrant to stay in the empty house, where he was exposed to the deadly nerve agent. (Geez, I’m tired just from typing all of that.)
  • Finally, because it’s a weekend Danno is supposed to have custody of his daughter Grace, McGarrett picks her up from school and takes her to the hospital, where Danno is recovering thanks to Jenna’s quick diagnosis. It’s only a matter of time before Danno’s ex-wife, Rachel (Claire van der Boom), calls to check on Grace and learns Danno was injured. Bombshell alert! Rachel rushes to the hospital, whereupon viewers learn that her second marriage is failing and that she and Danno are getting close to hooking up again — if they haven’t already.

Notes

  • HPD Internal Affairs shows up at Five-0 headquarters to return the $200,000 Chin Ho gave them. Turns out HPD did have serial numbers for the stolen bills; the story Chin Ho heard about the records being lost was disinformation put out by IA in hopes of getting him to spend. When the money Chin Ho returned didn’t match, it basically proved he was innocent. McGarrett orders him to return the money immediately to the bookie from whom he borrowed it in Episode 22.
  • Big episode for secondary characters. In addition to Jenna Kaye, Rachel and Sang Min, giant shave-ice guy Kamekona (Taylor Wily) shows up at the hospital to provide some comic relief.
  • No obvious daddy issues
  • No “Book ‘em, Danno.”

###

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

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Kono and the Lab Tech, Sittin’ in a Tree

May 16th, 2011 | by | tv shows

May
16

By Stu Robinson,

Another week of CBS’ new Hawaii Five-0, another set of daddy issues.

In Episode 22, a famous fashion photographer (played by Rick Springfield) is burned alive in his trailer at a shoot. He had just proposed to one of his bikini models – gotta love the writers – and we quickly find out that she is pregnant,

Rick Springfield plays a fashion photographer in love with one of his models.

so the baby will be born without a father. The plot twists and turns, with a couple of red herrings thrown in, and eventually we find out the killer was the photographer’s estranged adult daughter, angry about being abandoned and masquerading as a production assistant on the photo shoot.

The major subplot involves Kono working with smart-aleck lab technician Charlie Fong (Brian Yang). He’s handsome and claims to have met her before but won’t say where or when. She doesn’t remember him, and it becomes a running gag in the episode as she makes repeated attempts to get the information from him. (At one point, she asks if he went to her high school; he says no, he went to Punahou School – alma mater of President Obama, class of ’79.)

Both Kono and Charlie are into gadgetry, which helps with the product placement. She shows him how she can check the fuel level in her Chevy Cruze with an OnStar app on her smartphone. Later, as the two collect samples from 12 Lex Brodie’s gas stations on Oahu, she demonstrates the Cruze’s high-tech sound system. But regardless of how sophisticated the Cruze may be, it still struck me as unwise for them to drive around sunny Honolulu with 12 gallons of gasoline samples in the trunk – even if subsequent testing did reveal the killer.

As long as they were highlighting Kono, the writers found a way to put Grace Park in not one but two bikinis – one at the beginning of the episode and one at the end as she helps Kawika teach surfing to kids with the Mauli Ola Foundation, which uses surfing as a natural treatment for kids with cystic fibrosis. Loyal H50 views met Kawika (Kala Alexander), the tough but honorable leader of a North Shore surf gang, way back in Episode 6.

In the two ongoing backstories, McGarrett returns from a run to find another piece of evidence from the stolen toolbox in an envelope tucked under his windshield wiper. Meanwhile, Chin Ho stubbornly wants to continue taking the fall for stealing $200,000 from the Honolulu Police, even after his uncle confesses. He tells the police the uncle’s statement can’t be trusted in light of his aunt’s recent death. The police say they’ve been watching Chin Ho for years, waiting to catch him spending some of the stolen money. When he claims he never spent any of it, they say, fine, bring the cash to us. Of course, he doesn’t have the cash because he didn’t steal it. So, in a move that defies credibility, he borrows it from a local bookie (an early suspect in the week’s murder) using his home is collateral.

In an equally implausible scene, McGarrett and Danno use Kamekona, the giant shave-ice vendor, to lead lure the bookie by having him call they guy and say that he won’t pay up. There is just no way real cops would leave a friend and valued source with that kind of exposure.

No other secondary characters appear in Episode 22, though McGarrett brings up his Navy girlfriend (last seen in Episode 15) in an exchange with Danno when he is shown a page with data along the lines of “DET-9/OKC+9″ and “ATL+2/CHI-2″:

  • McGarrett: “I’m gonna send this to Catherine. She can have the boys in intel run it through …”
  • Danno: “Whoa … it’s not coded text. No need for your little Ramboette. This is not your cloak and dagger spook speak; this is Danny’s world.”
  • McG: “Oh?”
  • Danny: “These are bets.”

Speaking of running gags, when they track down the bookie, he greets them with:

  • Bookie: “I take it you’re part of Honolulu’s law-enforcement community?”
  • Danno: “What gave us away?”
  • Bookie: “You’re wearing a tie in Hawaii.”

In the final scene, bikini-clad Kono is approached by lifelong female friend with, of all people, the mysterious Charlie Fong in tow. Turns out he and Kono kissed during a game of spin the bottle at the friend’s 10th birthday party. Flirting ensues, likely indicating that Kono has a new love interest and viewers have a new secondary character.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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