S07.E12: Ka ʻaelike (The Deal)

[BW Manilowe]

After Chin is kidnapped by a cartel in Mexico, Five-0 must find and rescue him before he is executed by the group that's out for revenge. Also, Grover goes undercover as a car salesman to investigate a murder that turns out to be far more complex and dangerous than expected.

Original Airdate: January 6, 2017

SOURCE: http://cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/shows/hawaii-five-0/releases/view?id=46714

[Raja]

"also" The promo monkey makes it sound like the Chin Ho situation is going to be wrapped up pretty fast. After all family is flying back to Hawaii to go undercover.

[BooksRule]

Pretty good episode, but it was definitely all over the place.  Chin is kidnapped and rescued in five minutes.  Grover goes undercover and catches the murderer.  But, no, there's more.  There is a drug-smuggling operation.  They catch the guy.  There's more!  There is uranium on the island.  They find the suitcase and the guy is dead.  All done, right?  Nope, we find out that Max is leaving.  Sad ending.  But, there's still more!  The uranium is not there and now someone will be making a dirty bomb.  Whew!  

I do have to say that Grover was really good in the scene when the salesman was confessing.  He was really enjoying himself.  

Sad that Max is leaving.  I wonder who will be taking his place?

[Mittengirl]

If they kill off Danny and fill his place with Lou, I would be very happy.

Am I the only one who took a minute to figure out who the hell "Abby" was?

Not sure living with Chin will be any safer for Sarah, but I guess we are supposed to ignore all of the people in Hawaii that keep terrorizing members of 5-0 and their families.

[BW Manilowe]

8 hours ago, BooksRule said:

Pretty good episode, but it was definitely all over the place.  Chin is kidnapped and rescued in five minutes.  Grover goes undercover and catches the murderer.  But, no, there's more.  There is a drug-smuggling operation.  They catch the guy.  There's more!  There is uranium on the island.  They find the suitcase and the guy is dead.  All done, right?  Nope, we find out that Max is leaving.  Sad ending.  But, there's still more!  The uranium is not there and now someone will be making a dirty bomb.  Whew!  

I do have to say that Grover was really good in the scene when the salesman was confessing.  He was really enjoying himself.  

Sad that Max is leaving.  I wonder who will be taking his place?

They haven't announced a replacement yet, but I'm assuming there'll be 1 since Medical Examiners are kind of/pretty important to cops. I'm betting it'll be the Dr. Noelani Cunha character--the female Medical Examiner the team worked with earlier in the season, when Max was on his Doctors Without Borders sabbatical.

She was also in 1 of the last couple of eps before the Christmas/New Year's break, the ep where the boy/young man kept remembering a teenage girl getting killed & he had PTSD because of it (& it ended up his mom hit the girl with her car, & buried her while the kid was in the car). Dr. Cunha was the character who confirmed for Max & the team the now exhumed remains were of the girl involved in that boy/young man's situation. And I kind of thought that scene was maybe supposed to be a "passing of the torch" between Max & his successor, though not necessarily including Five-0 since the team had already worked with her while Max was on his Doctors Without Borders sabbatical at the beginning of the season.

[Raja]

9 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

If they kill off Danny and fill his place with Lou, I would be very happy.

Am I the only one who took a minute to figure out who the hell "Abby" was?

Not sure living with Chin will be any safer for Sarah, but I guess we are supposed to ignore all of the people in Hawaii that keep terrorizing members of 5-0 and their families.

It seems as if they showed Danny loading the car or breaking cover with Steve after everyone took out the drug gang then Scoot Caan would say FU I get to take another episode off. Even though  by any accounting that 5 minutes had to be filmed with the main Chin episode and not the Grover car salesman episode.

[morriss]

That was quite an episode.   The policeman getting smoked by the car was pretty brutal.

[Clanstarling]

12 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

Am I the only one who took a minute to figure out who the hell "Abby" was?

I took longer - still not sure who she is. But at least they had a throw away line to explain his absence.

That was quite a ride. My thoughts in the first 5 (maybe 10) minutes: Chin - done and done, well that was easy. Getting custody of Sarah - done and done, well that was easy. Inadvisable, since the cartel was gunning for Chin and not the uncle and aunt. But easy, nonetheless.

Then along came the Russian Nesting Doll of plots. Engaging enough, though I thought the car dealership was the best part - Grover shined and I was completely engrossed. The other continually escalating plots - not that much. Though I thought the actor who played the Korean drug dealer popped, and kind of hope we see more of him.

I had to replay Steve's comment about the doughnuts - he said Jerry ate 4 of them. The box was only big enough for two rows of 4,  and the gap was 2 doughnuts wide.  Yes, this detail is the one I got stuck on this morning.  That and Chin's somewhat irregular injury make-up (and seriously, couldn't they have cleaned him up before reuniting him with Sara - that was trauma worthy, man).

Edited January 7, 2017 by Clanstarling

[threebluestars]

After all the leadup to Chin's kidnapping by the cartel, that was the fastest wrap up ever. I felt cheated.

The rest of the episode case wasn't bad. I find I don't miss Danny at all when he's gone. I think it's time for Scott Caan to say aloha and head back to the mainland permanently.

[illdoc]

I've got questions!! So Chin & his kidnappers have hours headstart, but still 5-0 manages to get to the meeting place ahead of him and hide, waiting for the right time to pop-up & shoot everyone??? Did the bad guys stop & have dinner? And, seriously, what was the point of having Adam in the episode at all? Who was watching Sara (who barely had time to get over her kidnapping) while Chin was working on the car dealer case on a Saturday? Can't he even have a little time off after his (& Sara's) ordeal? Was it really necessary for him to be there? I *think* they said Danny left town with "Melanie"--who's Melanie? Did he arrive back in Hawaii from Mexico and immediately leave town? Chin (or someone) actually said "yesterday" with regard to the Mexico events, so it's not like a lot of time could have passed.

[fishcakes]

Me [starts episode]: Hmm, I wonder how they're going to rescue Ch ... oh, that was fast.

[MissLucas]

19 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

If they kill off Danny and fill his place with Lou, I would be very happy.

I've been thinking that for quite a while. They don't need to kill off Danny, just send him to a farm upstate. Chi McBride is such a great actor and he seems to enjoy the ride a lot more than Caan so I wouldn't mind.

7 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

Though I thought the actor who played the Korean drug dealer popped, and kind of hope we see more of him.

Yeah, he made that brief scene quite interesting. Loved his 'Really?' after McGarrett's 'sit tight'-quip.

Does 5-0 have a Tardis? They rescue Chin on Friday and fly back to Hawaii (with a kid in tow). On Saturday morning they have their first case. Everyone's fresh as a Daisy (Chin a bit worse for the wear) and within that very day they manage to place Lou in the business (complete with a legend I assume), conduct two interrogations, bring down a drug-smuggling business, raid two places - the second one in Hazmat suits btw. and requiring decontamination afterwards and they still have time for little hearts to hearts (Chin and Adam - McGarrett and Max) - and I thought I had a busy day! (I also loved how it took the crime lab just a couple of minutes to restore the dash-cam footage.)

And I think I'll definitely strike Hawaii off my list for possible holiday destinations: this is the second time somebody seems willing to set off a nuclear device on the island. Not to mention rampant serial killers, smallpox and plenty of other stuff with the potential to ruin your holidays that I've forgotten about.

[BW Manilowe]

21 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

I took longer - still not sure who she is. But at least they had a throw away line to explain his absence.

That was quite a ride. My thoughts in the first 5 (maybe 10) minutes: Chin - done and done, well that was easy. Getting custody of Sarah - done and done, well that was easy. Inadvisable, since the cartel was gunning for Chin and not the uncle and aunt. But easy, nonetheless.

Then along came the Russian Nesting Doll of plots. Engaging enough, though I thought the car dealership was the best part - Grover shined and I was completely engrossed. The other continually escalating plots - not that much. Though I thought the actor who played the Korean drug dealer popped, and kind of hope we see more of him.

I had to replay Steve's comment about the doughnuts - he said Jerry ate 4 of them. The box was only big enough for two rows of 4,  and the gap was 2 doughnuts wide.  Yes, this detail is the one I got stuck on this morning.  That and Chin's somewhat irregular injury make-up (and seriously, couldn't they have cleaned him up before reuniting him with Sara - that was trauma worthy, man).

Abby is the female cop from San Francisco they introduced towards the end of last season (S6). She was supposed to be observing how Five-0 operated/working with them because the SFPD had started/was going to start a similar task force & Abby was going to either run it or be involved with it in some other way.

Only that turned out to be a cover for what she really was doing: Ingo Rademacher's recently recurring character, the brother of the HPD Internal Affairs guy who had it in for Chin & was killed by Chin's brother-in-law Gabriel, was using Abby to try to get something on Five-0 so they'd have to shut down or end up in jail (presumably because his brother who was on HPD died while working a case involving the team members).

But that got complicated after Chin & Abby fell in love with each other. And Abby's now working with HPD instead of Five-0, & she & Chin are supposedly living with each other. But we haven't seen Abby, except I think briefly in the S7 premiere ep, because Julie Benz, the actress who plays Abby, also has what's supposed to be a recurring role in CBS' new show Training Day (I'm pretty sure based on the Denzel Washington movie for which he won his 2nd Oscar), which is supposed to start airing in early February &, as such, has been filming recently.

[BW Manilowe]

20 hours ago, illdoc said:

I've got questions!! So Chin & his kidnappers have hours headstart, but still 5-0 manages to get to the meeting place ahead of him and hide, waiting for the right time to pop-up & shoot everyone??? Did the bad guys stop & have dinner? And, seriously, what was the point of having Adam in the episode at all? Who was watching Sara (who barely had time to get over her kidnapping) while Chin was working on the car dealer case on a Saturday? Can't he even have a little time off after his (& Sara's) ordeal? Was it really necessary for him to be there? I *think* they said Danny left town with "Melanie"--who's Melanie? Did he arrive back in Hawaii from Mexico and immediately leave town? Chin (or someone) actually said "yesterday" with regard to the Mexico events, so it's not like a lot of time could have passed.

I think the point of having Adam in the ep was that they could because Ian Anthony Dale was available (among other reasons, the show he was also in, on TNT, has already finished filming & airing their most recent season of eps & they got cancelled after that, so this was their last season), this was 1 of the S7 eps Scott Caan was apparently contractually allowed to opt out of (He gets 5 per season & that was, like, #3 or #4 for this season... I think. Next week is Ep 13 of 25 for the season, so Scott should be around most of the rest of the season.), & they wanted to remind the audience his character, Adam, & Kono were still married.

It sounded as if Abby was watching Sara. I heard Chin tell Steve, or maybe most of the team, at 1 point that Sara was upset or disappointed that Chin had to go into work, after they just got back from Mexico, because of the car dealer case, but that Abby had offered to take Sara to the beach while Chin was working. So Sara apparently wasn't disappointed/upset anymore & she was OK with going to the beach with Abby instead of being home with Chin.

As far as I heard, Danny was supposed to be out of town with his girlfriend since about S4 or S5, Melissa (who was introduced as using a pseudonym, Amber, because she was hiding from an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband who had abused her--& the ex then showed up in, an ep in like, S5 [or maybe S4], because he found out where Melissa was & he wanted her back, & she & Danny were off on another romantic weekend on the island at the time & Danny was stabbed & seriously wounded by Melissa's ex when he found them & tried to take her back).

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, BW Manilowe said:

Abby is the female cop from San Francisco they introduced towards the end of last season (S6)

Smacks head! Oh, THAT Abby. I had completely forgotten she existed. Even though I watched all her episodes, like the actress,and she is one I can actually pick out from the line-up of 5-0 love interests. I couldn't name any of them, Grover's wife included, with the exception of Catherine and Adam - who both have had long and involved story lines in multiple seasons.

Edited January 8, 2017 by Clanstarling

[preeya]

23 hours ago, arieswriting said:

After all the leadup to Chin's kidnapping by the cartel, that was the fastest wrap up ever. I felt cheated.

The rest of the episode case wasn't bad. I find I don't miss Danny at all when he's gone. I think it's time for Scott Caan to say aloha and head back to the mainland permanently.

I agree 200%. His constant bickering with Steve is so over blown, distracting, and childish. Move on Scott and go  back to NJ.

[Brian Cronin]

It's like they had three episodes half-written and some producer just had the idea, "Hey, why not just make them all one episode?" 

[Machiabelly]

This was the oddest paced hour of TV I have watched in years.

[Brian Cronin]

8 hours ago, Machiabelly said:

This was the oddest paced hour of TV I have watched in years.

Seriously! It was like a TV version of musical chairs. "La la la la plot plot la la...DONE! New plot! La la la la plot plot la la...DONE! New plot! La la la la..."

[leslieo54]

On 1/7/2017 at 2:35 PM, MissLucas said:

And I think I'll definitely strike Hawaii off my list for possible holiday destinations: this is the second time somebody seems willing to set off a nuclear device on the island. Not to mention rampant serial killers, smallpox and plenty of other stuff with the potential to ruin your holidays that I've forgotten about.

I live in Honolulu and watched the season premiere for last year at Sunset on the Beach, outside in Waikiki (I think? I've seen most of them that way - I'm thinking of the one that opens with the drone attack on the beach). Let me tell you, sitting on Waikiki Beach watching people being *shot* on Waikiki Beach is pretty freaky... But no nuclear devices yet. ?

[HurricaneVal]

Wow.  Usually I love this show, but that was...weird.  Odd pacing, odd plotting, Adam shows up out of the blue and Danny vanishes into thin air, Steve was smiling a lot...which begs the question: why was he smiling a lot?

 

But Chi McBride and his scenes as an undercover car salesman?  Priceless.

[blackwing]

On 1/9/2017 at 0:49 AM, Brian Cronin said:

It's like they had three episodes half-written and some producer just had the idea, "Hey, why not just make them all one episode?" 

Completely agree.  It reminded me of another similarly paced episode from last season, the one that included Robocop and the rampaging elephant about to take out the taxi carrying two real-life NFL football players.  That episode, like this one, comprised several random plots.  This episode was like TPTB took some bad fan fiction from an obsessed fan who kept emailing her ideas for an episode to them on a daily basis, and they wanted to appease her and put several of them into the same episode.

I can't believe that the Chin kidnapping was wrapped up so quickly.  I was expecting another episode like when the team went to Korea to save Doris.  But instead, the episode was mostly the car dealer plot and the drug/dirty bomb plot.  While I enjoyed watching Grover as a car salesman, the actors playing the bit parts were just awful.  The actors playing slick car salesman, sad sack car salesman, and Mr. Sung were so stilted and unnatural.  

Scott Cahn can quit any time.  The show doesn't need him, and it was refreshing not to hear any cargument or kvetching about his liver.  McGarrett and Grover make a much better pair.  I laughed at the throwaway line that he was on vacation.  If they hadn't said that line I probably wouldn't have even noticed he was gone.  Just like how the line about San Francisco Police Lady was completely unnecessary.  I couldn't care less about her and don't need to see her.

Chin mentioned that she was taking Sarah to the beach.  I found myself wondering who takes care of her during the week, since both Chin and SFPL work full time.  Presumably Chin had a nanny but I imagine he fired the nanny after Sarah moved to Mexico.  Wonder if he got the nanny back.

Lastly, I couldn't give a rat's ass that Jerry Garcia sleeps in Steve's office.  That whole bit was strange.  Oh woe is me, I'm sad sack Jerry Garcia, I'm still stuck in the windowless basement office despite my innumerable contributions to 5-0, I still don't have a badge despite my countless help, Chin "carelessly" loses his badge and gets it all returned gleaming and shiny and yet I don't have one, I can't afford shampoo for my greasy hair since I don't get paid much in my job as a thankless consultant in the basement... wah wah wah.  He's obviously going to rent or be given Max's house.

The show did well in getting rid of the extraneous character that was San Francisco Police Lady.  If it could just get rid of Jerry Garcia and Scot Kahn, I'd be happy.  LOL

[Traveller519]

This whole episode.

I love that their tactical take down of all the cartel members leaves the guy holding Chin's leash and pointing the gun right at him for a dramatic last second take down. It seemed like they had a much bigger idea of how to go about the Chin rescue then realized it would be impossible to film. Still, it's nice watching the team do things tactically well. (Kind of the "Indy shooting the Swordsman" approach).

There were no less than 3 characters mentioned who didn't show up, (Danny, Abby, and Sabrina... and I'm pretty sure Duke got a shout-out too, I'm surprised someone didn't ask what Lori Weston was up to)

Adam shows up in Mexico to unpack, then drinks a beer with Chin at the end of the episode.

Then the plot that can't decide what it is, which centers around a car salesman who decides that importing plutonium illegally is worth the step up from importing drugs.

[jhlipton]

On 1/6/2017 at 11:21 PM, Mittengirl said:

Not sure living with Chin will be any safer for Sarah, but I guess we are supposed to ignore all of the people in Hawaii that keep terrorizing members of 5-0 and their families.

For reals.  Any number of rich and important people (and their children) live in Juarez. Hawaii has many more, and much more dangerous, criminals!

On 1/7/2017 at 11:28 AM, Clanstarling said:

Though I thought the actor who played the Korean drug dealer popped, and kind of hope we see more of him.

{S}eriously, couldn't they have cleaned him up before reuniting him with Sara - that was trauma worthy, man.

I liked the snarky salesman too.

I thought the exact same thing: "This is how you're coming back to Sarah?"  But this is the dude who always rides his motorcycle without a helmet, so maybe he wants to prepare her for how she'll inevitably find him some day.

5 hours ago, SweetTooth said:

Killing off that innocent guy? Way to go, 5-0. That's the kind of stuff I love to watch in my fluffy show!

I'm sorry, but when exactly was this a "fluffy" show?

[Raja]

58 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

 

I'm sorry, but when exactly was this a "fluffy" show?

Well at least in the first season they had Commander McGarrett be creative with his enhanced interrogations techniques. Since the second year  like Sergeant Voight  and Chicago PD's Intelligence squad 5-0 has just taken people down to their black-site basements and beat on people.

[Brian Cronin]

I liked the bit in this episode where McGarrett's all, like, "What the hell? We tortured the hell out of this guy and he STILL hasn't told us anything! Life doesn't make sense if torture doesn't even work!"

[lh25]

On 1/7/2017 at 4:35 PM, MissLucas said:

And I think I'll definitely strike Hawaii off my list for possible holiday destinations: this is the second time somebody seems willing to set off a nuclear device on the island. Not to mention rampant serial killers, smallpox and plenty of other stuff with the potential to ruin your holidays that I've forgotten about.

LOL-we are planning a trip that includes time in Honolulu, and we were joking about that last night watching this.  I want to go to their building and ask to meet Cmdr McGarret...promised husband I would restrain myself though.

[anna0852]

I have to think you wouldn't be the only one to try that @lh25!

[BW Manilowe]

23 hours ago, blackwing said:

Completely agree.  It reminded me of another similarly paced episode from last season, the one that included Robocop and the rampaging elephant about to take out the taxi carrying two real-life NFL football players.  That episode, like this one, comprised several random plots.  This episode was like TPTB took some bad fan fiction from an obsessed fan who kept emailing her ideas for an episode to them on a daily basis, and they wanted to appease her and put several of them into the same episode.

I can't believe that the Chin kidnapping was wrapped up so quickly.  I was expecting another episode like when the team went to Korea to save Doris.  But instead, the episode was mostly the car dealer plot and the drug/dirty bomb plot.  While I enjoyed watching Grover as a car salesman, the actors playing the bit parts were just awful.  The actors playing slick car salesman, sad sack car salesman, and Mr. Sung were so stilted and unnatural.  

Scott Cahn can quit any time.  The show doesn't need him, and it was refreshing not to hear any cargument or kvetching about his liver.  McGarrett and Grover make a much better pair.  I laughed at the throwaway line that he was on vacation.  If they hadn't said that line I probably wouldn't have even noticed he was gone.  Just like how the line about San Francisco Police Lady was completely unnecessary.  I couldn't care less about her and don't need to see her.

Chin mentioned that she was taking Sarah to the beach.  I found myself wondering who takes care of her during the week, since both Chin and SFPL work full time.  Presumably Chin had a nanny but I imagine he fired the nanny after Sarah moved to Mexico.  Wonder if he got the nanny back.

Lastly, I couldn't give a rat's ass that Jerry Garcia sleeps in Steve's office.  That whole bit was strange.  Oh woe is me, I'm sad sack Jerry Garcia, I'm still stuck in the windowless basement office despite my innumerable contributions to 5-0, I still don't have a badge despite my countless help, Chin "carelessly" loses his badge and gets it all returned gleaming and shiny and yet I don't have one, I can't afford shampoo for my greasy hair since I don't get paid much in my job as a thankless consultant in the basement... wah wah wah.  He's obviously going to rent or be given Max's house.

The show did well in getting rid of the extraneous character that was San Francisco Police Lady.  If it could just get rid of Jerry Garcia and Scot Kahn, I'd be happy.  LOL

Oh but they haven't gotten rid of Abby. The actress who plays her has a role (I think recurring, but it's still another gig) in another CBS show that premieres early next month. Peter Lenkov has said Abby will be around as Julie Benz (the actress)'s schedule allows.

[jhlipton]

12 hours ago, SweetTooth said:

There was no point. He could have just gotten wounded. 

If he hadn't have been killed, I would have thought it extremely sloppy.  This was a group that had no regard for human life, and killing a cop is always higher than killing a civilian, so letting a witness live would be unbelievable.  

[Lovecat]

On January 8, 2017 at 10:45 AM, Clanstarling said:

I couldn't name any of them, Grover's wife included...

Her name is Renée, but I can only remember that because it's my name, too!

on topic for this episode, DAMN that cop got flattened out of NOWHERE! I did NOT see that coming, and in kind of squawked a little in surprise. It was like Regina George getting hit by the bus

[MissLucas]

18 hours ago, Lovecat said:

Her name is Renée, but I can only remember that because it's my name, too!

I feel bad, not only had I forgotten her name but also what she looks like. Caught a re-run of Kono's wedding episode today where she was present and finally realized why she wasn't at Max's send-off as well. She's busy plotting the end of the world (or something along those lines) over at Blindspot!

[Jobiska]

We're so far behind in this show, usually because we look at the description, see another kidnapping, groan and pick something else instead.  But we have decided to power through.

At one point I paused the show long enough to turn to the menfolk and say "This is the worst written episode ever!"  (Mainly because of the cobbling together of several ideas thing Brian Cronin and others mention above).

When I said that, Mr. Jobiska said dubiously, "even worse than the nuclear bomb one?"

I shrugged and started the show up again....to hear this:

"The deceased had traces of radioactivity!"  

But our greatest fun came when Chin Ho stopped by Kono's place and Mr. Jobiska voiced over for Adam, "I'm here enjoying my beer and condiments!"  That well-stocked lazy Susan on the picnic table caught our attention more than some of the plot points....

I too thought the Korean drug dealer was a good (and good-looking) actor and wouldn't mind seeing him again.