S08.E21: Ahuwale ka nane hūnā (The Answer to the Riddle is Seen)

[BW Manilowe]

Harry Langford (Chris Vance) enlists McGarrett and Danny's help to track down Lady Sophie (Alana Boden), a teenage British Royal who has run away while under his protection. Also, Grover, Tani, and Junior work a 25-year-old murder case after a mysterious Betamax tape arrives at 5-0 headquarters.

Original Airdate: April 20, 2018

SOURCE: https://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/shows/hawaii-five-0/releases/view?id=49857

[ganesh]

As dumb as this plot is, Danny knowing all things teen girl was mildly enjoyable, and Harry bitch slapping the other kid cracked me up. 

[Passepartout]

Really Danny not letting Steve get his Animal cookies after so much of Steve being controlling over his so called partner and "best friend", finally Danny grew a backbone there.

Harry I knew was the real girl's father. And really love this emotional side of him. Hope to see him much more.

Junior, Tani, and Lou working a case very nice. Twenty five years cold case no more

But really that girl needed an attitude adjustment. Really spoiled there as Danny knows as a father of a teenager.

[ganesh]

Why would the woman send in the tape to Five 0? It's not like they handle cold cases. But of course, their mandate is all-encompassing. 

The show really just needs to have Harry be the lead. I mean, he just waltzes onto the boat like what. 

I think the problem with the show overall for me is that their taking themselves way too seriously with all the ridiculous plots. This also was a ridiculous plot, but the actor playing Harry is playing the role so breezy, and that's really what you need to go for. 

I guess TPTBs think Danny-Steve is supposed to be that, but Steve is just so boorish that I just watch to see him get taken down a peg, and the fact that he doesn't get any ANIMAL CRACKERS is the only victory I can get. Outside of that though, they didn't really do much snippiness at each other, and they remembered Danny has a teen girl and had a skill set for that. 

Five 0 would probably be better if they weren't actual law enforcement agents. 

14 minutes ago, Passepartout said:

But really that girl needed an attitude adjustment.

I can see why she would be spoiled. I was hoping they were going to make her reasonably capable because she totally clocked the main bad dude on the boat. It would have been more interesting if she was working on her own escape and being resourceful a la Harry, when Harry and them showed up. 

I actually had a huge laugh when Steve looked super awkward at the end and was like, 'uh, let's go get a beer?'

[MissLucas]

Eh, the teenage princess who drives her body guards crazy is a plot that has been done to death. Slightly amusing was that according to show she'd be 35th in the line of succession. In real life that position goes to George Windsor, Earl of St. Andrews. His daughter, Lady Amelia Windsor is 22 and has been dubbed the 'most beautiful member of the royal family' by the yellow press and she's 36th in the line of succession. She does some modeling but otherwise does not have much in common with Lady Sophie and I doubt she would be easily recognized if she went partying in Hawaii.

Adam was AWOL (probably trying to save the world from that pesky asteroid) and show's still trying to sell us that he's offed his half-sister. Yeah, right.

I did enjoy Grover and Tani - that's always a good pairing.

[Moxie Cat]

Fun episode. Good banter, low in torture and violence, and Lou shepherding Tani and Junior through a cold case was interesting. I love the British spy.

Only bone to pick, but only because this is my area of expertise.....I doubt anyone who was clearly a regular videotaper would have still been using a Betamax video camera in the 1990s. Beta VCRs, yes (although even by then, my Beta-loving family had switched to VHS) but Beta video cameras, highly unlikely. That was just a technology that didn't get far out of the 1980s. It would have been VHS, VHS-C, or 8mm by the mid 1990s. (I laughed when Tani said the tape was 20-30 years old....Beta was pretty dead by 1998!) I would have thoroughly enjoyed watching Tani and Junior, these young'ns, trying to figure out how to play an 8mm tape. The Beta VCR they had was ancient (top loading!) and it's hard to believe it was actually working. But hey, this is 5-0. :)

[fishcakes]

10 minutes ago, Moxie Cat said:

Only bone to pick, but only because this is my area of expertise.....I doubt anyone who was clearly a regular videotaper would have still been using a Betamax video camera in the 1990s. Beta VCRs, yes (although even by then, my Beta-loving family had switched to VHS) but Beta video cameras, highly unlikely. That was just a technology that didn't get far out of the 1980s.

I was thinking the same thing. I don't even remember seeing movies on Beta in video stores much past the mid-80s. The cell phone on the nightstand was also an anachronism. That phone looked like a Motorola StarTAC (man, I miss my StarTAC), which wasn't widely available until 1998. If that was supposed to be 1993, a cell phone would have been one of those bricks with an antenna that looked like a cordless handset for a landline.

The best part of the cold case investigation was Grover (I think it was Grover) suggesting they cross-reference motel employees of the mid-90s with people who had emphysema in the mid-90s. Because there are just lists of both on Wikipedia, I suppose.

[Just my 2 cents]

Filler episode, but had some fun elements.

Edited April 22, 2018 by ally

[Raja]

It seemed strange for Capt Grover and Lani to time jump for their flight to California and then move back to real time for the daddy reveal.

[GustheCat]

23 hours ago, fishcakes said:

Only bone to pick, but only because this is my area of expertise.....I doubt anyone who was clearly a regular videotaper would have still been using a Betamax video camera in the 1990s.

I didn't catch all of the dates on the tapes when the wife of the cameraguy opened it for Lou, but I do believe they went back many years. So, why would the perv/perp go to a different camera and have to buy the new camera/playback deck? If it ain't broke...

 

Otherwise, it was a middling show. I thought Harry breaking the bouncer's wrist/arm (I thought I heard a snap?) just for the guy doing his job was a bit too much. A simple gut punch and flip into the water would have been enough. And, were the two girls who took Lady Sophie to the SS Martha recruiters for those guys? How would they just happen to be at that party at that time? Oh well, another lucky coincidence for the Task Force. And, sorry guys, if Sophie is trying on outfits and you are hungry, send one of you out the door and to the closest food place for takeout or something to tide you over. What whiners!

[UncleChuck]

On 4/21/2018 at 8:06 PM, Moxie Cat said:

The Beta VCR they had was ancient (top loading!) and it's hard to believe it was actually working. But hey, this is 5-0. :)

Not too hard to imagine that HPD might have a storeroom of working tape players in every old format, probably including 8mm and 16mm film projectors, so that old evidence can be examined.  They would be in working order because technicians would keep them working, and of course, the BetaMax player would not stop working from just resting for years on the shelf.

[FiveString]

I lived in Hawaii from 1982-87 and was surprised to find out that Beta was far more prevalent there than on the mainland, thanks to Sony's dominance of the Pacific market. I bought my first VCR in 1982 there and it was Betamax.

[jhlipton]

On 4/21/2018 at 1:56 PM, ganesh said:

As dumb as this plot is, Danny knowing all things teen girl was mildly enjoyable, and Harry bitch slapping the other kid cracked me up. 

On 4/22/2018 at 6:23 PM, GustheCat said:

I thought Harry breaking the bouncer's wrist/arm (I thought I heard a snap?) just for the guy doing his job was a bit too much.

Good old 5-0, turning their back on two cases of criminal assault because it's their buddy doing the assaulting.  Fun times.

On 4/22/2018 at 6:23 PM, GustheCat said:

I didn't catch all of the dates on the tapes when the wife of the cameraguy opened it for Lou, but I do believe they went back many years. So, why would the perv/perp go to a different camera and have to buy the new camera/playback deck? If it ain't broke...

I think the ones we saw went from '90 to '91, but he would have had tapes at least up to '93.

At least they came up with a semi-good reason why a 20 year old tape was sent recently.

[ganesh]

That seems to sum it up. 

[BW Manilowe]

4 hours ago, ganesh said:

That seems to sum it up. 

The reason Adam (Ian Anthony Dale) may only be heard about/from, but not seen the rest of this season (& why he also wasn't in, like, the first 7 eps this season) is because he's also 1 of the stars of Salvation, that sci-fi/fantasy series about a meteor headed for a likely apocalyptic collision with Earth, that Lenkov & some of his colleagues from H50 & MacGyver created & sold to CBS last season, which aired last summer.

Despite crappy ratings (expectations must not be as high with the summer-only series), that show got renewed for a 2nd season & Ian's still in it (he plays some kind of Secretary or Undersecretary in the US government, who may or may not know more about the whole pending meteor disaster than he says he does, & I think his character there was also trying to figure out a way to save at least some people).

Anyway, because Salvation airs in the summer it has to start filming eps when the fall/winter/spring series are still airing & filming (&, conversely, it's wrapping up filming--or it was this past summer--when at least the shows scheduled for the fall [& maybe the winter] were starting their filming), which is why we didn't physically see Adam until episode 807; Ian was filming the end of the summer show's season until that H50 ep was ready to go. He's probably about to start work, right now, on Salvation S2.

Edited April 30, 2018 by BW Manilowe
To remove a whole bunch of unnecessary italics.