S07.E11: Kāʻili aku (Snatchback)

[BW Manilowe]

Five-0 races to Mexico where Chin puts his life on the line after his niece Sara (Londyn Silzer) is kidnapped. Duane "Dog" Chapman returns as himself and George Takei returns as Chin's Uncle Choi.

Original Airdate: December 16, 2016

SOURCE: http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=46539&shared

[thewhiteowl]

bump

[Trey]

Thank you, @thewhiteowl.

No posts yet? I thought it was a pretty good episode. Too bad it was a cliffhanger though.  I would have liked for them to be all happy and together for Christmas.

[thewhiteowl]

I thought it was good, too. Fluff TV but entertaining. : )

[JessDVD]

My main observation was that I must be in some other audience than the one that apparently feedbacks to most of these procedurals, that it's fun and entertaining TV to see the main characters 'go rogue' to accomplish whatever deep and personal thing is going on. The adjectives I would use are more along the lines of deranged characters and painful to watch. We know Chin is going to end up fine in the end, I don't find it fun to watch him turn into practically a psychopath in the process. I'd much rather watch a well-written, well-conceived (if perhaps insanely risky) plan carried out to save the girl and they all lived happily ever after.

The other problem with Chin practically becoming a psychopath in the process is that it's not making him very sympathetic in the "Who should have custody of Sarah" department. I was on his side originally and prepared to dislike the relatives that have her now, but found myself wavering during this episode, the guy's link to unsavory Mexican people notwithstanding.

Interesting attempt to humanize the crazy cartel leader. Uncertain if effective.

[anna0852]

Yeah this is a little weird. Chin is usually the sane one, compared to Steve (doesn't understand civil rights, possible death wish) or Danny (far too whiny and neurotic). I guess Grover will take over that spot. 

Edited December 17, 2016 by anna0852

[MissLucas]

I wish the writers would drop all plots involving the team going abroad where it has zero authority to be. All those trips require way too much hand-waving by the audience. Steve books a plane for the team? On what legal grounds? Who is paying this? And are the Mexican authorities supposed to welcome a bunch of 'tourists' armed to the teeth ('Hey, you come prepared, great!' - I mean they hardly left out any cliché about Mexico anyway)?

At least Chin admitted that the threat to Sarah came from H50 and not her relatives. Though it's clear that Sarah's not safe anyway - she did have a bodyguard after all because she lives in K&R central. Poor kid, all her parental figures so far have managed to put her into someone's crosshair.

Not sure if this was intentional or not but it cracked me up: the one Mexican character who was neither outright criminal, corrupt nor dicey was forced at gun-point by two US law enforcement officers to break the law.

Not a great holiday outing for the show despite Max's wonderful office decorations.

Edited December 17, 2016 by MissLucas

[ganesh]

"We're going to have to steal it back." Of course. Also nice job holding a law enforcement official from another country at gunpoint Danny. 

[Mittengirl]

Anybody else waiting for Gabriel to show up in Part 2?

What if something big happens in Hawaii when all of 5-0 are in Mexico?  I guess no one worries about that.  And little things like medical insurance if you are seriously injured while chasing baddies in a foreign country.  And I am guessing that Lou's and Danny's families would be unable to collect whatever life insurance they may have.  Doubt they would be covered for extracurricular suicide missions.

Maybe Sarah's new parents should move to Hawaii with her.  Then they could have all of the crimes in one place.

[Trey]

9 minutes ago, Mittengirl said:

Anybody else waiting for Gabriel to show up in Part 2?

Isn't Gabriel dead?

10 minutes ago, Mittengirl said:

Maybe Sarah's new parents should move to Hawaii with her.  Then they could have all of the crimes in one place.

lol, I thought of that too!

[ganesh]

Wow was the wife a terrible actor.

[BW Manilowe]

59 minutes ago, Trey said:

Isn't Gabriel dead?

lol, I thought of that too!

Chin (as I remember) told Steve he was dead--he died in surgery or in the ER, or was DOA at the hospital; I forget which. But we never saw his dead body onscreen after that point.

[LotusFlower]

2 hours ago, MissLucas said:

I wish the writers would drop all plots involving the team going abroad where it has zero authority to be. All those trips require way too much hand-waving by the audience. Steve books a plane for the team? On what legal grounds? Who is paying this? And are the Mexican authorities supposed to welcome a bunch of 'tourists' armed to the teeth ('Hey, you come prepared, great!' - I mean they hardly left out any cliché about Mexico anyway)?

I was laughing so hard at the Mexican clichés.  When Steve first visited the cartel leader and the guy sat down to eat, there was an actual centerpiece of papaya and pineaple and guava - I expected someone to come to the table and make homemade guacamole next!  Then later, for Steve's 2nd visit, the guy walked over to his bar, grabbed some limes and tequila and made margaritas!  Ole!

[LotusFlower]

1 minute ago, SweetTooth said:

Gosh, wouldn't it have been awesome, when Steve showed off his shiny badge that means absolutely nothing outside of Hawaii, that the dude said something about stinkin' badges? Would have completed the cliche/stereotype party.

Olé to that, too!  And don't forget the bathrobe!  Straight out of Scarface.

The palm trees caught my eye, too.  Didn't they look just like the palm trees in Hawaii?  (Seriously - these adventures in far away lands are all filmed in Hawaii, right?)

[LotusFlower]

7 minutes ago, SweetTooth said:

What? You mean those blue skies and sunshine? I'm sure that was totally Mexico. Ignore the volcano in the background.

I missed the volcano in the background - must have been blocked by the mariachi band.  

[Mittengirl]

4 hours ago, Trey said:

Isn't Gabriel dead?

 

On this show, no one is presumed really, most sincerely dead by me.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if the last episode has Steve's dad showing up.

[jhlipton]

9 hours ago, JessDVD said:

I was on his side originally and prepared to dislike the relatives that have her now, but found myself wavering during this episode, the guy's link to unsavory Mexican people notwithstanding.

I was never on Chin's side.  His strongest piece of "evidence" was that a criminal lawyer had criminal's number on his cell phone.  But Lechy McLecherson (whose main purpose is to try to make us believe that Kono is "sexy") is practically part of the 5-0 family.

3 hours ago, SweetTooth said:

Gosh, wouldn't it have been awesome, when Steve showed off his shiny badge that means absolutely nothing outside of Hawaii, that the dude said something about stinkin' badges? Would have completed the cliche/stereotype party.

I would have laughed if the Cartel Leader had stood up and walked to his son, then nodded to have McGarret shot once he was out of Kono's sight (because of course a major kingpin has a hill that has a clear line of sight into the compound!).

It would have been nice for Chin to apologize to Rodriguez.  But "sorry: isn't in the vocabulary of any of 5-0.

[JessDVD]

33 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

I was never on Chin's side. 

I was primarily on his side because I thought Chin could really use some family/happiness after the stupid Malia being killed thing, and it was sweet to see him and Sarah together. As the episodes have gone on to this point, the sympathy has started wearing.

[Raja]

1 hour ago, jhlipton said:

I was never on Chin's side.  His strongest piece of "evidence" was that a criminal lawyer had criminal's number on his cell phone.  But Lechy McLecherson (whose main purpose is to try to make us believe that Kono is "sexy") is practically part of the 5-0 family.

I would have laughed if the Cartel Leader had stood up and walked to his son, then nodded to have McGarret shot once he was out of Kono's sight (because of course a major kingpin has a hill that has a clear line of sight into the compound!).

It would have been nice for Chin to apologize to Rodriguez.  But "sorry: isn't in the vocabulary of any of 5-0.

Not only that, we just saw Sang Min the human trafficker and minion of Wo Fat  send birthday greetings to Chin Ho at the party.

[jhlipton]

26 minutes ago, Raja said:

Not only that, we just saw Sang Min the human trafficker and minion of Wo Fat  send birthday greetings to Chin Ho at the party.

That's who I meant by "Lechy McLecherson".

[Clanstarling]

19 hours ago, LotusFlower said:

I was laughing so hard at the Mexican clichés.  When Steve first visited the cartel leader and the guy sat down to eat, there was an actual centerpiece of papaya and pineaple and guava - I expected someone to come to the table and make homemade guacamole next!  Then later, for Steve's 2nd visit, the guy walked over to his bar, grabbed some limes and tequila and made margaritas!  Ole!

Well, it's not like they don't use all the Hawaiian cliches too. Cliches are easy.

I did like that they made the kidnapping about 5-0, and not Sarah's aunt and uncle. It seemed almost a shout out to us when they talked about putting their families in harms way. The childhood pictures of Daniel Dae Kim were fun, too.

I had to laugh when they talked about the first exchange site as being "too exposed", and then they stop where there are hills and trees all around. Okay then.

I did enjoy the very odd comic relief in the morgue. I don't know why, but it kind of worked for me.

21 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

Maybe Sarah's new parents should move to Hawaii with her.  Then they could have all of the crimes in one place.

For one hot second, I thought having the family move to Hawaii would be the solution. I like your practical take on that scenario.

Wasn't there a nanny cam in the bunny? I thought there was, so I was expecting it to come into play in the last scene.

Edited December 18, 2016 by Clanstarling

[BW Manilowe]

When we initially met Sara (no H at the end of her name), she was also kidnapped by somebody in Hawaii (it might've been Yakuza boss Michelle Shioma's henchmen, but I can't remember right now). When that happened, the team was able to find her quickly because she was wearing either a bracelet or necklace which had a GPS, or another kind of tracker, built into it. I'm surprised her adoptive aunt & uncle didn't continue having her wear it (especially since I think they're related to Sara's mom, & Sara's mom was, as I remember, said to be the person who gave it to her & insisted she never take it off). But if Sara had the tracking jewelry on, we wouldn't have had this story. Which I liked, even with the implausibilities.

[dwmarch]

Something weird occurred to me when I was re-watching the end of this episode. Chin has this dramatic moment where he has a flashback to Gabriel pleading to look after Sara... She's our blood! With the pounding DUN DUN DUN of the music it made me wonder if they were trying to actually say that Gabriel was lying and Sara isn't actually related to either of them, she's just some random kid Gabriel dragged in so he could upper deck 5-0 from beyond the grave.

Thanks for that burning and peeling skin scene there, show. It's been a while since we've done anything gross.

Speaking of which, although I'm somewhat fond of the character in spite of himself, why is Sang Min all buddy-buddy with the team? Hey guys, remember the time I tried to sell one of your team members into sexual slavery? Sure glad you got over it so I could wish Chin well on his birthday!

It looked to me like a couple of bad guys got shot through the trucks they were hiding behind which makes sense because aluminum isn't exactly bulletproof. But the SUVs 5-0 borrowed/rented/stole seem to have received the military-grade up-armoring package, specifically the "Hollywood Plot" armor package. Two trucks with heavy machine guns on them can't gun down half a dozen squishies?

Nice of that corrupt cop to keep $700k in stolen loot right at his precinct. I guess the only honest cop in Mexico works at the morgue.

[ByaNose]

I do love with 5-0 is able to shoot and kill everyone and none of them get a scratch. Funny how that works.all.the.time. I did like the dramatic ending of Chin getting his new head gear. Safe to assume that he survives when the show returns in January or February......I'm not exactly sure when.

[Clanstarling]

According to TVline the show returns January 6th. So not that long of a wait.

[HurricaneVal]

Chin has always been a little dark.   Earlier on in the show, he flat out revenge-killed that one guy.  I don't mind it, I think it shows character depth, that he can be this noble and upstanding guy but then *bam* and he's Mr. Hyde.

 

Actually, most all of the characters have been morally ambiguous at one time or another.  Danny killed the guy who killed Matt, Lou held his old partner hostage for a weekend, Chin killed that guy and is now going rogue.   Steve is supposed to be the most lethal character, but even when he's out there being a BAMF, he's got a sort of moral code he plays by.

[ganesh]

One person's moral code is another person's trampling over due process and civil rights. 

[MissLucas]

14 hours ago, dwmarch said:

Speaking of which, although I'm somewhat fond of the character in spite of himself, why is Sang Min all buddy-buddy with the team? Hey guys, remember the time I tried to sell one of your team members into sexual slavery? Sure glad you got over it so I could wish Chin well on his birthday!

Sang Min is one of the most retconned characters on current tv (probably only outdone by Voight on Chicago Police). Since I like the actor and this version of the character I give show a break for his turn from complete sleazeball to somewhat charming rogue.

[Vermicious Knid]

Quote

Not a great holiday outing for the show despite Max's wonderful office decorations.

Which should not have been there. I'm going to rant about this, because Max is a character who has been established as Jewish. And then they show his office festooned with Christmas crap. That is incredibly obnoxious and insulting. They wouldn't show a Christian character decorating for Eid or Diwali. But no, everyone must celebrate Christmas because that's the way it is. This is not a secular holiday and Jews don't celebrate it.  If you're reading this producers; really, really fucking insulting.

The overall story was pretty dumb too. 

[kassygreene]

The argument can be made that the Western Christmas has massively secular traditions, many of which are adapted from winter solstice traditions.

(Nope, won't be part of any argument from this, sorry, I'm only going here because I Am In A Mood, as I have already slapped one person down today for using the phrase "those people" when discussing the proper use of "Merry Christmas", who admitted that she meant "those people" were people who should in her opinion damn well adopt the religion of the country they immigrated too.  The kicker to this is that she's Canadian!  Hands down the nastiest Canadian I've ever met.)

But I digress.  My sister's husband (and therefore kids) is/are Jewish and I have spent some holidays sharing their L.A. experience.   Christmas Eve dinner at the home of a Jewish/Christian couple and their two (adopted) Chinese daughters, where there was kosher food, a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, Christmas music playing in the background, and a very nice dinner for the local holiday "orphans" (colleagues and students who didn't go home for the holidays).  My sister was amazed, as her husband's rabbi was quite adamant that that was Not Suitably Religious.  Next day a big fancy holiday party at the home of one of his cousins (also Jewish), with tree and presents and a frankly kick-ass holiday dinner.

Christmas is religious, with church services and carols and such.  Christmas is also secular, with borrowed (or appropriated) holiday traditions from everywhere that ever celebrated winter solstice.  And in Hawaii, where blending traditions and cultures seems to be a very common custom, "Christmas crap" is usually decorations and such.  I'm assuming there weren't overtly religious Xmas items?  I haven't made it that far in the show yet.

[MissLucas]

I admit I had forgotten about Max's Jewish heritage. I checked some screencaps from his office: red bow on computer screen, a nutcracker and a snowman on a filing cabinet, a tiny fir tree, a snowman and a reindeer on his desk plus some holy wrapped around the name tag there. Christmas lights around the windows and a gift stocking hanging from the filing cabinets. Nothing overly religious but YMMV.

(I'm just glad my native language has a traditional neutral holiday greeting that is appropriate for (almost) everybody and so there's no need for a debate about Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays.)

Edited December 20, 2016 by MissLucas

[blackwing]

I enjoyed this episode, even though I agree that it's quite ridiculous for the team to just frequently and suddenly depart Hawaii at the drop of a hat.  A month or so ago they all left for Korea, now they're in Mexico?  Their purpose is to defend Hawaii from threats.  But I guess only if none of them have any personal business to attend to out of the country?

I thought that Sarah's aunt and uncle were supposed to be Mexican natives?  Didn't they say that Gabriel's wife was Mexican, and not Mexican-American?  The actors who played the aunt and uncle sounded 100% American, especially the aunt.  They at least could have tried to pretend that the scenes were in Mexico, instead of filmed in Hawaii.

Also, the recordings of Morales' phones that Kono listened to.  Did they establish that Kono speaks Spanish, or did the aunt and the kidnappers conveniently speak in English for the benefit of Kono and 5-0?

Nitpicks aside, I did like the episode.  For the first time in ages, I actually liked Danny.  The scene of him and Grover in the morgue trying hard not to vomit while scraping away charred skin was one of the funniest scenes I've seen on this show in a long long time.

[Vermicious Knid]

My brother is married to a Christian woman and she makes him latkes and he lights a menorah with his daughter on Chanukah. And I can give you chapter and verse on the pagan antecedents of Christmas, going all the way back to the early Christians re-purposing Saturnalia. But Max was not shows celebrating with his wife or 5-O family, this was his office. As MissLucas described, all his decorations were solely for Christmas. No menorah, drediels, nothing. My big objection is they have taken this Jewish character and erased his Jewishness. You all may think I'm overreacting, but this just demonstrates the automatic, deeply engrained Christian-centric bias in our society.

[BW Manilowe]

Max did light a menorah candle, & say a prayer during it, at a group/ʻohana thing at Steve's in 1 episode. He also explained, I think to either Kamekona or Cousin Flippa, that even though he's of Japanese heritage he's Jewish because he was adopted by the Bergman family & they were Jewish. I think it was last season, because I remember Abby being there. I know it's not much, but they did recognize Max's Jewish heritage at least once. And now it's probably a moot point--that Max is Jewish--since the character's being written out, for now, & Masi Oka's leaving the show as of the second new ep after the current holiday break (the next new ep is 712, airing January 6th; Masi's & Max's last episode is 713).

[Vermicious Knid]

Yes, he's been explicitly portrayed as Jewish. If a white character was shown in blackface there would be a huge outrcy. Yet 'whitewashing' his religious identity to Christianity makes it acceptable in a way changing his ethnic identity is not. Saying it doesn't matter because he's being written off the show just proves my point.

[ByaNose]

It's 78 degrees in Hawaii. I wish I was there. Merry Christmas from not too cold in Philadelphia.

[mccartygirl]

On 12/17/2016 at 6:37 PM, LotusFlower said:

Olé to that, too!  And don't forget the bathrobe!  Straight out of Scarface.

The palm trees caught my eye, too.  Didn't they look just like the palm trees in Hawaii?  (Seriously - these adventures in far away lands are all filmed in Hawaii, right?)

I'm pretty sure most of the "Mexican" actors were Hawaiian. My dad is Hawaiian and is often mistaken for Mexican. He looks an awful lot like Cheech. But I did chuckle when I saw the adopted mom. 

I must have missed the episode that Gabriel was dead. I know this show is cheesy but I still love it!

[BW Manilowe]

19 hours ago, mccartygirl said:

I'm pretty sure most of the "Mexican" actors were Hawaiian. My dad is Hawaiian and is often mistaken for Mexican. He looks an awful lot like Cheech. But I did chuckle when I saw the adopted mom. 

I must have missed the episode that Gabriel was dead. I know this show is cheesy but I still love it!

I think Gabriel died in the next-to-last episode of last season, which would've been Ep 624 of S6. The thread for it is still in the forum. I forget the Hawaiian title, but the English title translates to something about a spider's web, as I remember. Just look for the thread numbered 06.24, from a date towards the end of May, 2016, if you're interested in reading about it. If you're in the US, you might be able to watch it on the CBS app or CBS All Access. You can also download it from iTunes or Amazon.com instant video.

But the thing about it is, Chin's niece/Gabriel's daughter, Sara, was actually introduced in another ep from earlier in the season, where her mother was killed, it was believed her mother was her only surviving parent, & we found out that Chin was her uncle by his marriage to the now-dead Dr. Malia Waincroft Kelly. When Sara was taken to Child Protective Services after her mom died, she told them, & (I'm pretty sure) Sgt. Duke Lukela, the HPD cop who works with Five-0 a lot, that she had an uncle who was an HPD cop. When Five-0 was called in on the murder, Duke put her with Chin. And in talking about her HPD cop uncle, she mentioned to Duke &/or Chin that her middle name is "Malia", the same as Chin's dead wife. So he put 2 & 2 together & got temporary custody of her, based on her being related to him by marriage. While he had custody of Sara, we found out, for sure, that Gabriel was her father (though that's probably the only way she could have the middle name Malia without being Chin & Malia's kid, & it should've been obvious earlier) after he was what ended up being fatally shot & he asked Chin to take care of Sara for him.

[mahree]

On 12/25/2016 at 6:20 AM, mccartygirl said:

I'm pretty sure most of the "Mexican" actors were Hawaiian. My dad is Hawaiian and is often mistaken for Mexican. He looks an awful lot like Cheech. But I did chuckle when I saw the adopted mom. 

I must have missed the episode that Gabriel was dead. I know this show is cheesy but I still love it!

 

They (Felix Solis (adoptive dad), Manny Perez (drug kingpin), Maximiliano Hernandez (DEA Agent), Diana Chavez(adoptive mom)) are all Latino.

[Raja]

I think by "actors" the OP meant the extras, and the mooks firing a machinegun at point blank range and hitting no 5-0 members. But then driving around in the bed of a pickup truck they were likely stunt players and not local Hawaiian extras either

[mccartygirl]

On 1/5/2017 at 10:30 AM, mahree said:

They (Felix Solis (adoptive dad), Manny Perez (drug kingpin), Maximiliano Hernandez (DEA Agent), Diana Chavez(adoptive mom)) are all Latino.

Sorry for my mistake. I had seen the DEA Agent in other shows and movies. 

[ByaNose]

Does anyone from H50 ever get shot with the automatic weapons? I'm amazed how they can take everyone out without a scratch. It's almost like it's a tv show. LOL!!!

[betsyboo]

Outside the police station, Danny: "Can I stay in the car?"  I laughed until I cried.