S08.E04: E uhi wale no ʻaʻole e nalo, he imu puhi (No Matter How Much One Covers a Steaming Imu, the Smoke Will Rise)

[BW Manilowe]

The lives of Five-0's informants are in danger when the HPD system is hacked and one ends up dead, forcing McGarrett to enlist the help of hacker Aaron Wright (Joey Lawrence), who he just imprisoned.

Original Airdate: October 20, 2017

SOURCE: https://cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/shows/hawaii-five-0/releases/view?id=48577

[Raja]

Was it Sang Min who said everybody knows that Kamekono was 5-0's bitch in possibly Kamekono's last activity as an informat?

[roamyn]

4 hours ago, Raja said:

Was it Sang Min who said everybody knows that Kamekono was 5-0's bitch in possibly Kamekono's last activity as an informat?

If anyone's 5-0s "bitch", it's Sang Min.

Don't get me wrong, I adore him, but he almost was killed in prison because of it.

It seems like no one messes w/Kamekona.

Edited October 3, 2017 by roamyn

[Raja]

Along with Xzibit's gun dealer. I guess he is an early favorite for the victim role with no casting spoilers 

[Machiabelly]

Oh Drew Wu you went bad.

[Passepartout]

Really felt Kamekona

would had been killed but it was that of Toast. RIP Toast!

[Raja]

Kamekona how could the drug lord not notice your helicopter when he went looking for the  $500,000? 

[ganesh]

I always like the trope of "have criminal work a case for you while verbally abusing him the whole time." I mean, I get you have to cuff him, but forcing him to use the bathroom in an ice bucket is a little much. Plus only having one guard for him was dumb too because of course it's her against 3. 

Edited October 21, 2017 by ganesh

[fishcakes]

Listening to Jerry sing reminds me of how much I don't miss Blues Traveler's popularity.

[ganesh]

Nor do I.

Why are we having a retrospective for a guest character that made 3 appearances. 

I actually think they missed a good plot here. Stealing the CI list could have been a more suspenseful story with a longer arc. 

[fishcakes]

Just now, ganesh said:

Why are we having a retrospective for a guest character that made 3 appearances. 

Ha. No kidding. When the episode started and they were all being, "oh noooo Toast is DEAD," I was thinking that I didn't know who Toast was but since the previouslys showed the hacker guy whose name I didn't know because he'd only been on a couple of times and I don't pay that much attention, I figured that must be him.

[ganesh]

I didn't even know that was his name. It's Martin Starr playing the Martin Starr character. 

[Passepartout]

Glad that got the man who kidnapped Kameonka.

Can't wait for the Junior and Tani stories evolve

And really Lou and Steve both rock! Love McGrover

It was otherwise an so so episode. 6/10

[Mittengirl]

I thought maybe the actor who played Toast had died when they had the “memorial service” at the end.

I much prefer Grover and Steve working together than Steve and Danny.   

I really don’t give a damn about the restaurant.  When it was first mentioned I thought it would be a “years in the future” plan that we wouldn’t be subject to.

[ganesh]

The restaurant plot is gay marriage. 

[dwmarch]

I liked this episode for one particular reason and that was Kamekona telling the bad guys that he doesn't take his life for granted. That was a very powerful speech from a character who is mostly comic relief. (Kamekona's other crowning moment of badass was way back in season 2 when McGarrett was on the run and needed firepower and Kamekona took him to a trailer that was just packed with guns)

Toast did get a loving tribute for a dude who was in a couple of episodes.

Junior is staying at a mission even though he has access to military housing? That's weird. I assume there will be more about that soon. Also, he fails to keep police property (the phone) secure, meaning he'll fit right in at 5-0. Also, no one steals a Windows phone or at least if they did they would quickly give it back once they figured out there were no apps for it.

Eddie's back! Good to see him again. Over on The Blacklist characters keep getting dogs that are seen for two episodes at the most and then gone, never to be mentioned again.

[Just my 2 cents]

8 minutes ago, dwmarch said:

Junior is staying at a mission even though he has access to military housing? That's weird. I assume there will be more about that soon. Also, he fails to keep police property (the phone) secure, meaning he'll fit right in at 5-0. Also, no one steals a Windows phone or at least if they did they would quickly give it back once they figured out there were no apps for it.

Eddie's back! Good to see him again. Over on The Blacklist characters keep getting dogs that are seen for two episodes at the most and then gone, never to be mentioned again.

Something tells me Junior wanted out of the military life and something probably happened that was extremely tragic.  Maybe something similar to what happened to Steve and his best friend Freddie.  Just being around anything that reminds him of military life would cause him to want to be as far away as possible.  I'm assuming he either has no family or is not ready to be around them because he's not able to pretend to that everything is okay.  However after being regimented for so long and having direction he knew he needed to do something and went to Steve.  If anybody will recognize it, which he did, it would be Steve. 

I laughed at your comment about the Windows phone.  Perhaps Junior purposely left it where someone would steal it in hopes of getting a better more functional phone.

I see you've noticed The Blacklist issue.  I'm sure Eddie will fare better.  The Blacklist also has an issue with disappearing children and initial storylines from previous seasons.

[ganesh]

I thought at first that he meant he gave the phone to someone who needed it. 

[BW Manilowe]

On 10/22/2017 at 3:12 AM, dwmarch said:

I liked this episode for one particular reason and that was Kamekona telling the bad guys that he doesn't take his life for granted. That was a very powerful speech from a character who is mostly comic relief. (Kamekona's other crowning moment of badass was way back in season 2 when McGarrett was on the run and needed firepower and Kamekona took him to a trailer that was just packed with guns)

Toast did get a loving tribute for a dude who was in a couple of episodes.

Junior is staying at a mission even though he has access to military housing? That's weird. I assume there will be more about that soon. Also, he fails to keep police property (the phone) secure, meaning he'll fit right in at 5-0. Also, no one steals a Windows phone or at least if they did they would quickly give it back once they figured out there were no apps for it.

Eddie's back! Good to see him again. Over on The Blacklist characters keep getting dogs that are seen for two episodes at the most and then gone, never to be mentioned again.

Taylor Wily (Kamekona) was also (some might say unexpectedly) good in the H50 ep where we found out more of the character's background & how he came to be a Criminal Informant (CI) for Chin Ho, where he--as I remember--sacrificed his freedom for that of his younger brother, who'd gotten himself involved with selling drugs somehow, so his brother wouldn't go to prison & ruin his life at such a young age. And then Chin, like, checked up on Kamekona while he was in jail/prison & Kamekona was already talking about starting a shave ice place, & why, when he got out of jail.

You have to admit, the character of Toast made an impression (at least I thought so). I mean, a stoner computer hacker who was also a CI was an interesting combo (though I think they used him equally for his computer skills as his CI knowledge, but he only seemed to be used when Five-0 needed either knowledge on a criminal/hacker with ties to the internet/computer world, or when they needed someone who had hacking skills--like the new Joey Lawrence character, Aaron Wright--or who could give them other technical info on computers/the internet, like on the first case where we saw Toast & he was explaining to Steve & Danny about the computer program the victim of the week designed, from which they got why it would be valuable enough for the victim of the week to get kidnaped over.

I think they may have written Toast out/killed him off because Martin Starr, the actor who played him, was maybe getting too much other work to even be available even though they barely used him. As I remember, the last time we saw the character onscreen the team learned he'd developed a computer game app that he sold to someone/a company & Toast had actually become a millionaire by doing that (& pretty much nobody expected that of the stoner computer hacker they knew), & I remember Martin Starr was also in a starring or recurring role on another show when he did the "Toast is now a millionaire" appearance, because I saw his name in the credits of a non-repeat broadcast of another show around the same time.

Forget The Blacklist writing in a pet/dog we only saw/heard about twice, then never again... H50 did the same thing, remember? Back in S2, they had that case where it looked like an ICE agent had died in a plane crash near Waikīkī Beach, & her boss was a guy Lori Weston knew &/or had worked for before she ended up at Five-0. The dead agent was really killed because she'd stumbled onto bad guys who were dealing in parts/fluids extracted from animals that were being put into "health supplements" used by humans (1 fluid I remember being mentioned was "bear bile").

Anyway, the dead ICE agent had a dog, which I think they said had been drugged by the person who killed the agent. And Danny, at least, found it when he, & I forget who else, went to the dead ICE agent's apartment/condo to look for clues. Danny took the dog; Steve expected it to end up at a shelter, but Danny gave it to Gracie (& told Steve this story about how he [Danny] actually had a dog when he moved to Hawaii but--like with pretty much everything else that Danny loved or thought was important to him--Rachel got custody of the dog in their divorce & the dog somehow died during the quarantine process for new pets/other animals being imported to Hawaii. Hawaii is, & always has been, a rabies-free state; hence the quarantine process for all animals entering the state).

We saw the dog in that episode, & in a subsequent episode where Danny was house sitting for Steve while he was gone on some recurrent Navy training--during which Rachel also had to go out of town, apparently unexpectedly, & she called on Danny to take care of the dog (which I suppose was fair, because Danny gave it to them). Steve came home to find his normally neat house in a big mess; while Danny was explaining that, the dog barked from upstairs (he had been sleeping with Danny in Steve's room), & may have come running downstairs... I'm not sure about the running downstairs part. And Steve wasn't happy about the dog sleeping in his bed. And that was, I think, the last time that dog was ever seen or heard from on H50.

Edited October 23, 2017 by BW Manilowe
To remove a letter which was in the quoted post but didn't belong there. Then to add a missing right parenthesis.

[backgroundnoise]

Did anyone doubt for one second that the guy would be sprung as soon as he was left alone with Tani?  She's a terrible cop, kept turning her back on him and not watching what he was  doing.  There badass, and then there's annoying.  Tani is becoming annoying and no fun to watch.

[ganesh]

Well she was texting her brother, so it's totally not her fault right? Never mind that the rookie is left solely alone to guard a prisoner.

[JessDVD]

I was hoping for something more with Joey Lawrence keeping the bad guys from offing Tani, but nothing (yet). I think they're either going for, or for me are succeeding whether intended or not, to make him into kind of a 'sympathetic' bad guy, like Duclair, where he's a major piece of work/hardened criminal/etc, but yet I find myself weirdly liking his character.

[jhlipton]

On 10/21/2017 at 1:59 PM, fishcakes said:

Listening to Jerry sing reminds me of how much I don't miss Blues Traveler's popularity.

Burrrrrrrrnnnnn!!!!

On 10/21/2017 at 2:04 PM, ganesh said:

Why are we having a retrospective for a guest character that made 3 appearances.

For real.  I didn't remember this Toast dude.

21 hours ago, dwmarch said:

Also, no one steals a Windows phone or at least if they did they would quickly give it back once they figured out there were no apps for it.

Burrrrrrrrnnnnn!!!! #2

9 hours ago, BW Manilowe said:

I think they may have written Toast out/killed him off because Martin Starr, the actor who played him, was maybe getting too much other work to even be available even though they barely used him.

He's in Silicon Valley (what a stretch, right?) so that may explain it.

[Tdoc72]

I'm just counting the minutes until the other Lawrence brother shows up!  Matthew, where are you?

[HurricaneVal]

Awww...  I'm going to miss Toast.  I know some here are saying they barely remember him, but the episodes he was in were very memorable to me.  In particular, I remember the one where he was actually all cleaned up and working at a Best Buy type store and H50 recruited him to go undercover at a hacker enclave.   Toast was so nervous that he was hysterically sweating all over, and I think shorted out his wire.  I'm sad Toast is gone.

I'm glad Kamekona didn't die, though I do worry about the actor--they seem to go out of their way to stage his scenes so he doesn't move around much anymore.  But Friday's episode had him being frog marched at gunpoint to his supposed death, and I saw Taylor Wily slip on some wet ground and I thought "Oh shit, the big man is going down, and that's gonna hurt!" but he recovered and the scene went on.  I worry about him.  He seems to be doing better this  season, but the last couple of seasons, his scenes tended to be with him sitting or leaning, and it seemed he had a hard time catching his breath.  I think Kamekona is such an interesting character that I want the actor to keep playing him to stick around.  When they introduced Flippa to the cast, that made me think that maybe Taylor Wily was needing to step out because of his health.  So far, that hasn't happened.  Knock wood...

I was watching The Wolverine on cable the other day, and I thought "who is that very handsome Asian actor?" then a few scenes later realized that it was Sang Min!  Will Yun Lee, when not sporting that ridiculous mullet and twisting his face into the Sang Min sneer is a very handsome man.  I hope we see more of him, I find his character interesting as well, though it won't be as much fun without his constant tweaking of Kono, and Kono's tweaking back.   But it is nice to see new folks introduced to the wonder that is Sang Min, so maybe we'll see the rookies reactions later in the season.

Speaking of the rookies, I kind of like Tani, but I am really not at all interested in her backstory.  I feel like we've seen it before.  I am much more intrigued by Junior's backstory.  Something really bad must have happened for him to have made it all the way through BUD/S to become a SEAL, and then leave the Navy when his tour was up.  Most of those elite operators stay in for as long as their bodies can hold out--and longer if they can fake it.  I think Steve finally had to leave the Reserves with his liver transplant.

[Passepartout]

Yeah as really think that Will Yun Lee more and more. And really he is good at either being good or bad. Hope we see more of him as well.

Tani will never replace Chin or Kono. But she is her own woman. And really think that so far, winning my respect for her as a tough and very selfless person.

You would think with Junior's history as a SEAL he would have like an apartment. But then would love to see why he did not stay in long.

Nice Steve took him in for awhile.

But really glad they are not making Steve look like an a*s in previous seasons there. He is really taking responsibility and really showing more and more respect to others. Something that was lacking.

[kassygreene]

The show has Steve actually doing stuff in terms of personnel management that a good manager/commander (or perhaps XO) would do.  He did this occasionally in earlier seasons, especially a few times with Chin, but he is acting that way with Tani & Junior and I find it believable and well done.

I also am really really liking Beulah Koale and I am looking forward to "Thank You For Your Service".  He also worked with Frankie Adams (The Expanse) on "One Thousand Ropes", another film I will have to track down.

(Just what I need, more stuff to watch.)

[BW Manilowe]

1 hour ago, SweetTooth said:

DREW WU! Noooo! I guess he let the monster take over. So sad to see this is what's become of him.

It reminds me how much I miss him. Best part of a show that turned into an utter crapfest.

So, they didn't leave Wright with Jerry, the guy who knows something about hacking enough to look over his shoulder and see if something hinky is going on, and instead left new girl, who verbally abuses the guy they think at the time is the only person who can help them save people's lives. SMART!

FYI, it's canon to call her New Girl, since a character came right out and said it.

Uhhh...who's Toast? Kidding, but...seriously? 

I'm waiting to see how I feel about Junior, but I agree that they've done nice pivots with Steve and Danny and how Steve is remembering he's leading a team and acting like a leader. I actually think making Junior go through the police academy was one of his better moves. I think he actually took the time to assess the situation and came up with a plan, as opposed to just doing whatever and figuring it out later.

Unfortunately, they've made Grover take on all of the bad aspects of Steve and he's getting an inch from people's faces and hitting them and threatening to hit them and in general acting like a total asshole. 

Kamekona rocked this. Here's hoping they keep rounding out his character more, so he's not just in the credits for them to save some face. It's good to remember his background and that he's not just some big, goofy guy.

And in that scene, we belatedly find out that Steve actually did get at least some HPD academy training under his belt as well (I think some people have always wondered about that). As they're watching Junior work on his marksmanship, the instructor's going through all the attributes (I guess you could say) Junior's shown during training & then he says Junior reminds him of Steve.

[Moxie Cat]

I'm liking both of the newbies. We haven't had a newbie story in a long time. Don't hate me, but these two characters have breathed a little new life into this show, and I say that as someone who likes both Chin and Kono.

I can't fault Tani for losing Joey Lawrence. Isn't kind of ridiculous, that they didn't have guards outside the door? That she was the only cop guarding him? I mean, they were leaving him to his devices as to what he was doing online.

It felt really weird to have a slow-mo montage of an actor I've watched play a similar character for four years on Silicon Valley. Martin Starr is not dead. Guess they didn't want to kill off Sang Min, Jon Lovitz, Hirsch, or any of the other rogue's gallery in the composite (I admit to not remembering all of them!)

Is there a Halloween episode this year? I will never forget the ep with Danny and the haunted apartment! (And related: four episodes in and Caan is already off?)

Edited October 29, 2017 by Moxie Cat
Because it's Sang Min, not Sang Mon.

[Passepartout]

Yeah as the Halloween episode is a week from yesterday. And Danny will be on there.

But really think that the guards thing with Tani as wonder if the guards were killed possibly.

And in that of in the Steve losing Wright. Yes that is on him.

And in that of Duke and want to know and learn about him.  As he is my favorite now and glad he is in the main credits.

[BW Manilowe]

1 hour ago, Moxie Cat said:

I'm liking both of the newbies. We haven't had a newbie story in a long time. Don't hate me, but these two characters have breathed a little new life into this show, and I say that as someone who likes both Chin and Kono.

I can't fault Tani for losing Joey Lawrence. Isn't kind of ridiculous, that they didn't have guards outside the door? That she was the only cop guarding him? I mean, they were leaving him to his devices as to what he was doing online.

It felt really weird to have a slow-mo montage of an actor I've watched play a similar character for four years on Silicon Valley. Martin Starr is not dead. Guess they didn't want to kill off Sang Min, Jon Lovitz, Hirsch, or any of the other rogue's gallery in the composite (I admit to not remembering all of them!)

Is there a Halloween episode this year? I will never forget the ep with Danny and the haunted apartment! (And related: four episodes in and Caan is already off?)

The Halloween ep airs this Friday, November 3rd.

As for Scott's MIA, as far as I know he still gets to do 5 eps less per season than Alex (as he told the Pittsburgh TV writer at the CBS party in LA before S6 started) but I don't think it's scheduled like "he shoots 4 eps then misses the next ep" (for 1 thing, that wouldn't really work out too well unless the number of eps per season is divisible by 5). I don't know how they choose which 5 he misses, & when, but I assume/hope they're flexible when it comes to emergencies/unexpected stuff.

And I've heard they're apparently only doing 23 eps this season (which may be a concession to the physical state Alex's body has gotten into from doing too many of his own stunts over the years--though in the most recent interview he did with CBS' Watch! magazine, before last season ended, he said he'd been getting stem cell treatments on something he apparently injured & he was feeling a lot better, well enough to do a 9th season now, he thought; he had told an Australian newspaper around the beginning of last season that he thought this season would be it... at least so he could remain physically capable of playing with his & Malia's sons &, eventually, his grandchildren after having done the show). Anyway... If they're only doing 23 eps this season, I'm not sure what that does to Scott's time off... I guess if Alex is doing all 23, then Scott will be doing 18.

Plus there's another thing to consider: Maybe Scott was planning to be in the ep, but that was when whatever it was that had him recently wearing a brace on his arm, on & offscreen, happened &, presumably, Scott had to have some kind of surgery on it... probably missing at least an ep because of it, & bringing Scott (& Danny) back onscreen with that brace we've seen on his arm in pics from filming. Though they'd have to write in an excuse for the injured arm; Danny was said to have been at his niece's confirmation (presumably in New Jersey) & the confirmation itself shouldn't have been enough for Danny to hurt his arm. For that matter, I don't think we've heard how Scott hurt his arm--was it a jiu jitsu thing, like when he messed up his knee, had to have surgery, & they had to write it in during S1, or what? At least I think he's out of the brace now; so that's good.

[Roselle]

On 29/10/2017 at 3:29 AM, BW Manilowe said:

For that matter, I don't think we've heard how Scott hurt his arm--was it a jiu jitsu thing, like when he messed up his knee, had to have surgery, & they had to write it in during S1, or what? At least I think he's out of the brace now; so that's good.

Utter speculation here but the brace looks like the kind of thing people wear for a condition (apparently real!) called 'Golfers Elbow'. Scott Caan does play a lot of golf so, maybe...

Also, interesting news, if true, that there could be a S9 after all if AO'L is now fit enough. 

[BW Manilowe]

36 minutes ago, Roselle said:

Utter speculation here but the brace looks like the kind of thing people wear for a condition (apparently real!) called 'Golfers Elbow'. Scott Caan does play a lot of golf so, maybe...

Also, interesting news, if true, that there could be a S9 after all if AO'L is now fit enough.

Thanks for the info on the elbow/brace. There is a thing called Tennis Elbow, so it's probable golfers get something similar.

Mind you, nothing has been set in stone yet about a S9. But yeah, Alex said--close to the end of last season, in a magazine published by CBS, that he'd been taking stem cell treatments (for what I assume is the worst of the injuries), he felt a lot better than he had been feeling as a result, & he felt like he could a 9th season if that's what everyone involved wanted.

There's also this: I was looking at 1 of those "cancellation predictor" sites, recently. They were writing about CBS' program ratings in the 4th week of the season & they said that H50 was "likely to be renewed by May 2018". I don't think they've said that about the show this early in the season since S1 going into S2. From the end of S2 until this season started, they've started by predicting "cancellation is imminent" & then changed to "likely to be renewed" closer to the end of the season.