S07.E13: Ua hoʻi ka ʻōpua i Awalua (The Clouds Always Return to Awalua)

[BW Manilowe]

As Max prepares to say goodbye to his Five-0 ohana, they must investigate a murder during a police convention on the island. Jimmy Buffett returns as Frank Bama.

Original Airdate: January 13, 2017

SOURCE: http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/releases/view?id=46753&shared

[thewhiteowl]

I think I will miss Max.

[Artsda]

Max's good bye scenes, party and flashbacks were great and sad too. Sad to see him go.

[buckboard]

Too bad Max's wife, Adam, Abby and Grover's wife couldn't make it to the farewell party.

I understand that it is a matter of actor availability and the cost of flying in someone for a couple of minutes on air, but it still looks kind of weird, plotwise.

Is Max's wife going to Madagascar with him?  Couldn't they have shot a scene with her helping pack up his house?  And Adam?  He's spent like five minutes with Kono since getting out of prison.  He can fly to "Mexico," but isn't there for a major party?  Abby is available to take Chin's niece to the beach, but can't make the party?  Grover's wife only seems to be around when his family is in some sort of jeopardy.

[ganesh]

I can't stand when Five-0 are bullies, so most of the time. I don't see what the big deal was with not letting Willie Garson advertise for his business. I know he's like Mozzie-lite, but they don't let him actually do legit work and then threaten him for information. It would be nice if they actually had a reasonable relationship with at least one person who has proven to be a good resource. 

Same thing with the lawyer. "Oh, you're not going to trample all over your legal protections to help us? Bookem Danno!" I know this isn't anything new, but it seems more egregious to me this time.

Edited January 14, 2017 by ganesh

[BW Manilowe]

2 hours ago, buckboard said:

Too bad Max's wife, Adam, Abby and Grover's wife couldn't make it to the farewell party.

I understand that it is a matter of actor availability and the cost of flying in someone for a couple of minutes on air, but it still looks kind of weird, plotwise.

Is Max's wife going to Madagascar with him?  Couldn't they have shot a scene with her helping pack up his house?  And Adam?  He's spent like five minutes with Kono since getting out of prison.  He can fly to "Mexico," but isn't there for a major party?  Abby is available to take Chin's niece to the beach, but can't make the party?  Grover's wife only seems to be around when his family is in some sort of jeopardy.

As you said, in the case of everybody whose character wasn't there & probably should've been, the absences were likely due to unavailability. Rumer Willis played Max's now wife, Sabrina; since she won Dancing with the Stars awhile back, she's been in more demand for various projects. Good for her, bad for H50. And yes, of course, Sabrina's going to Madagascar with Max--they just got married.

Ian Anthony Dale (Adam) recently got married in real life; it may have been around the same time the ep was filmed, but I can't remember. Julie Benz (Abby) & Michelle Hurd (Renee Grover) have roles in other shows (Training Day & Blindspot, respectively) that were also filming at the same time &, obviously, schedules just couldn't be worked out (like when they couldn't work out Scott Caan's schedule when the milestone do 150 was filming so he could be in it & meet his other obligation at that time).

I know it doesn't mean as much but, for what it's worth, they did manage to get the character of Sgt. Duke Lukela's wife, Nalani, into the goodbye party scene (& she's only been in 1 other scene--when Chin runs into the Lukelas, while wearing only a very small towel, in a hotel lobby after locking himself out of his & Abby's room--& is played by Dennis Chun's real life partner, Laura Mellow). But she lives in Hawaii, so...

Edited January 14, 2017 by BW Manilowe
To try to fix errant strikeouts. Which failed.

[Clanstarling]

The goodbye scene did choke me up - but I was a little annoyed that Max had a fond word for everyone EXCEPT Sgt. Duke and Kamekona's cousin. I realize it went on a little long, but still....imagine in real life being the only ones who didn't get a shout out.

I'm probably doing the cast a disservice, but it seemed there was real emotion from a lot of them, particularly when he went around and hugged at the end.

I'll have to give them one small kudo for doing a clips show (partial clips show) in an engaging way.

Am I the only one who thought it was strange that Danny sees the building explode not too awfully late at night (his son was still awake), but 5-0 doesn't show up until the morning? Given they were worried about their missing uranium and all....

The kid who plays Danny's son sure is cute.

[MissLucas]

Man, they made me tear up at the end - never expected that. I enjoyed the clip show parts (not something I usually do). Max had many great moments and it was nice to be reminded of them. It's a testament to Masi Oka's character (in both senses of the word) that so much thought went into his send-off - both by the writers and his colleagues. I'll miss Max and I'll miss Masi.

COW was meh but who cares.

Edited January 14, 2017 by MissLucas

[LotusFlower]

The actors not being present for Max's goodbye party scene had nothing to do with their availability.  Instead, it's all about money and contracts and union rules.  If a guest character like Rumer Willis or even a semi-regular like Ian Anthony Dale has a storyline or a number of scenes in an episode, then it makes sense to hire them for that episode.  But they're not going to go through that expense just to have them make an appearance in one scene.  

[snarkylady]

Aside from Max/Masi this episode was a waste.   Malasadas & coffee, why on earth?  Whipped cream in Danny's face, oh so very not cute, not funny, surely there's another way to show him interacting with his son.  I may have dozed off for a moment but it felt that Jimmy Buffett was only on screen for a few moments, not sure why he was there at all.  I love Masi Oka so honoring him and his character redeemed this otherwise silly and disjointed episode. 

[Mittengirl]

I liked the malasadas chat because it showed what real chemistry looks like, as opposed to the annoying Danny and Steve sniping, but I agree about the scene with Danny and son. 

Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten about the Jimmy Buffett scene.  Given his mention of the uranium, or whatever the radioactive substance is, I am guessing he will show up again when that plot line is revisited.

Tha absence of Adam, Abby, Mrs. Grover, et al, would not have been so glaring to me if there had not been all the talk of ohana.  (And since when has Hirsch been ohana?)  Had it been a small gathering after work at a bar, I wouldn't have given it a second thought.  But given that it was a casual evening at the beach, why in the world wouldn't spouses and kids be there?  Don't the writers/directors/whomever realize viewers notice these things and find them strange?  Or don't they care?

[jhlipton]

45 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I can't stand when Five-0 are bullies, so most of the time. I don't see what the big deal was with not letting Willie Garson advertise for his business. I know he's like Mozzie-lite, but they don't let him actually do legit work and then threaten him for information. It would be nice if they actually had a reasonable relationship with at least one person who has proven to be a good resource. 

Same thing with the lawyer. "Oh, you're not going to trample all over your legal protections to help us? Bookem Danno!" I know this isn't anything new, but it seems more egregious to me this time.

So true on both of these.  Why on earth wouldn't Garson have a permit (and why would a police convention allow him to have a booth without it)????  Just so 5-0 can get information without having to help someone they look down on (they treat the drug-dealer who's on from time to time better).

As for the lawyer, they had plenty of probable cause -- getting a warrant would have taken 5 minutes and made the lawyer want to work with them.  But no, so much more fun to haul him into the Blue Room for a bit of needless torture. (Even if this time it wasn't shown.)

Just now, snarkylady said:

It felt that Jimmy Buffett was only on screen for a few moments, not sure why he was there at all.

Yep -- "Hi, I'm staying where you just said Jerry could stay -- guess you don't remember... Ok, then, bye!"

[Traveller519]

Well we certainly went from all-out panic about the missing Uranium at the end of last week's episode, to a "Meh, it'll turn up when it turns up, more importantly there's a Cop convention in town" attitude this week.

[ganesh]

Has anything come back to bite Five-0? I mean Grover held people hostage in Chicago at one point. 

[blackwing]

I enjoyed this episode and I'm going to miss Max and Masi Oka.  I do kind of wish he had featured more prominently in the storyline.  Would have been nice to have actually seen him do that last autopsy and deliver his intellectual comments to a typically befuddled McGarrett and Danny.  The clips they did show were nice and I found myself actually recognizing and remembering a lot of them.  Godspeed Max.  I know that Masi Oka found the constant travelling between Hawaii, L.A. and Japan to be exhausting, so this was probably the right choice for him.  (Hint hint, Scott Khan!)

In addition to the other previously missing characters, where was Danny's nephew Eric?  I would have thought that Eric and Max would have worked together quite a bit.  I do agree that Flippa should have gotten a separate acknowledgement from Max, particularly since he and Max were stranded on that island together with Kamekona.  

On 1/15/2017 at 1:32 AM, Mittengirl said:

I liked the malasadas chat because it showed what real chemistry looks like, as opposed to the annoying Danny and Steve sniping, but I agree about the scene with Danny and son. 

Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten about the Jimmy Buffett scene.  Given his mention of the uranium, or whatever the radioactive substance is, I am guessing he will show up again when that plot line is revisited.

Tha absence of Adam, Abby, Mrs. Grover, et al, would not have been so glaring to me if there had not been all the talk of ohana.  (And since when has Hirsch been ohana?)  Had it been a small gathering after work at a bar, I wouldn't have given it a second thought.  But given that it was a casual evening at the beach, why in the world wouldn't spouses and kids be there?  Don't the writers/directors/whomever realize viewers notice these things and find them strange?  Or don't they care?

Completely agree.  I loved the banter between McGarrett and Grover.  It seemed completely natural.  I thought they were screen testing the pair as potential partners in the impending event of my long-hoped for departure of Scott Khan and that it was going to be another Danny-less episode.  Then Danny showed up, which got my hopes up even more that perhaps TPTB finally realise that Danny's neurotic arguments with Steve are no longer entertaining.  They gave Danny's role to Grover, which was more than welcomed.

As much as I don't care for San Francisco Police Lady and am relatively indifferent to Adam and Mrs. Grover, I did think it a bit odd that none of them showed up for Max's goodbye.  Sabrina's absence was very strange too.  These people meant a lot to Max, he was leaving them, I would have thought she would have supported him.  I don't really care what real-life circumstances prevented Rumer Willis from appearing (costs too much, she and Demi were spotted in line at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills on the morning of November 8 according to hawaiifivefanblog.net and this episode was filmed from November 7 to November 9 so she doesn't seem to have been asked, etc etc etc).  Masi Oka and Max Bergman have been a part of this show since almost the beginning, and I would say his addition to the main cast credits in Season 2 was slightly historic because it was perhaps the first time actors of Asian descent comprised a majority of an American TV show's cast (60%).  The show owed it to him to have everyone there.  If they didn't want to bring them there, they at least could have said something ("Sabrina wanted to be here but unfortunately her goodbye party was inadvertently scheduled for the same night", "Abby sends her best wishes, she is home watching Sarah", "Adam is once again useless in every recent appearance so he's sitting around being useless at home".)

On 1/14/2017 at 6:22 PM, LotusFlower said:

The actors not being present for Max's goodbye party scene had nothing to do with their availability.  Instead, it's all about money and contracts and union rules.  If a guest character like Rumer Willis or even a semi-regular like Ian Anthony Dale has a storyline or a number of scenes in an episode, then it makes sense to hire them for that episode.  But they're not going to go through that expense just to have them make an appearance in one scene.  

Yes.  But they hired Adam for 3 minutes last episode.  He showed up for one minute, then appeared in Mexico for one minute, then he was gone.  And this episode, they hired Jimmy Buffett for 30 seconds.  I bet Jimmy Buffett might cost more than Michelle Hurd or San Francisco Police Lady.  They also paid to have the Judd Hirsch character there, when he's always been annoying and probably doesn't know Max from Adam.

[Raja]

37 minutes ago, ganesh said:

Has anything come back to bite Five-0? I mean Grover held people hostage in Chicago at one point. 

Not successfully, everybody who went after them had their own agenda beyond working for the people and/or accepted the 5-0 cause justifying their means 

[ganesh]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

As much as I don't care for San Francisco Police Lady and am relatively indifferent to Adam and Mrs. Grover, I did think it a bit odd that none of them showed up for Max's goodbye.

She's been deemed the San Francisco Treat, fyi. 

[HurricaneVal]

I will miss Max.  The writers created a really interesting and quirky character with him, and Masi Oki made him work without becoming a big joke.  

 

I really hope the throwaway Jimmy Buffet scene was setting up a future episode, and not just a total throwaway.

 

I was surprised that when Danny felt/heard the explosion and opened his front door to see the co!umn of smoke and fire from the collapsed building there was no mention or associaion with his experiences with 9/11.  Nothing.  Nada.  I think Scott Caan tried to put a little of that in his facial expression in the doorway, but that was it.  That was a total missed opportunity and somewhat of a failure from the showrunners.  

[BW Manilowe]

On 1/14/2017 at 5:23 PM, Clanstarling said:

The goodbye scene did choke me up - but I was a little annoyed that Max had a fond word for everyone EXCEPT Sgt. Duke and Kamekona's cousin. I realize it went on a little long, but still....imagine in real life being the only ones who didn't get a shout out.

I'm probably doing the cast a disservice, but it seemed there was real emotion from a lot of them, particularly when he went around and hugged at the end.

I'll have to give them one small kudo for doing a clips show (partial clips show) in an engaging way.

Am I the only one who thought it was strange that Danny sees the building explode not too awfully late at night (his son was still awake), but 5-0 doesn't show up until the morning? Given they were worried about their missing uranium and all....

The kid who plays Danny's son sure is cute.

Regarding the bolded, I rewatched the ep on the CBS app yesterday. What crossed my mind about the lag time between the explosion & Five-0's arrival on the scene was that perhaps the resulting fire was bad enough it took a long time (hours) to get under control & for the fire department to clear the site for Five-0 & HPD & any other investigators to start their work without being in danger themselves (shrugs).

[jhlipton]

5 hours ago, ganesh said:

Has anything come back to bite Five-0? I mean Grover held people hostage in Chicago at one point. 

Yeah, but he had Reasons.  So that made it OK.  Hmmmm... time for a new acronym: IOKIYFO!

[betsyboo]

On 1/14/2017 at 3:30 PM, ganesh said:

I can't stand when Five-0 are bullies, so most of the time. I don't see what the big deal was with not letting Willie Garson advertise for his business. I know he's like Mozzie-lite, but they don't let him actually do legit work and then threaten him for information. It would be nice if they actually had a reasonable relationship with at least one person who has proven to be a good resource. 

Same thing with the lawyer. "Oh, you're not going to trample all over your legal protections to help us? Bookem Danno!" I know this isn't anything new, but it seems more egregious to me this time.

I had a similar moment of buggin' when they went to Stealth's house. I know we do a lot a if handwaving here, but he just kicked that door down. At that point 5-0 was only there to *ask* this guy if they could get a copy of the video. Yes, Mozzie told them he had some outstanding warrants, but I can't imagine that parlayed into "exigent circumstances."

Little Charlie is DARLING. 

6 hours ago, ganesh said:

Has anything come back to bite Five-0? I mean Grover held people hostage in Chicago at one point. 

I'm still waiting for this. An innocent woman hostage! Even if we handwave the partner being held against his will, the woman was completely innocent!

 

5 hours ago, ganesh said:

She's been deemed the San Francisco Treat, fyi. 

This still brings me SO. MUCH. JOY. 

Add me to the list of those who got a little misty. Also, my envy of Grace Park's ageless face/body cannot be overstated. 

[Jobiska]

I don't have a photographic memory for scenes, but to me it seems like it's more common than not for a touching milestone party to have mainly coworkers.  I first noticed this at Chin Ho's wedding (and again at his wife's funeral).  They'll sprinkle in whomever else is available, but only a few, especially if it's not at one of their houses like the barbecue at Grover's, but on a hotel patio or suchlike.  And they don't spring for extras (If I recall correctly Kono and Adam's wedding was more populated, but that is rare on this show).