S08.E24: Ka lālā kaukonakona haki ʻole I ka pā a ka makani Kona (The Tough Branch that Does Not Break in the Kona Gale)

[BW Manilowe]

McGarrett joins Junior and his SEAL Team on a high risk covert mission to capture an elusive target who is holding his mentor, Joe White, hostage. Also, Gerard Hirsch  and Kamekona help Grover and Tani on a murder case involving masterpieces stolen by the Nazis during WWII and Tani makes a shocking discovery. Series star Alex O'Loughlin has the 'story by' credit for this episode.

Original Airdate: May 11, 2018

SOURCE: https://cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/shows/hawaii-five-0/releases/view?id=50038

[UncleChuck]

Oh good.  Someone is being held hostage and has to be rescued.  Only THIS TIME it's personal!!!!!  Now that's a plot twist that we haven't seen on this show...

[Mittengirl]

UncleChuck, it is like they don’t even try.  

[notcreative enough]

I know they made Adam dumb but I don't think they made him so dumb that we would keep a murder weapon in his junk drawer. 

Aw it sounds like Hirsch keeps in touch with Kono. That little weirdo. I liked the bit about him and Kamekona switching roles with Grover and Tani. But man they need to give Grover some front burner material. All he seems to do is babysit the new kids.

Did I miss the explanation of how the couple got the stolen artwork? I liked Grover's ohhing as the situation started to sink in with the Nazi connection. Poor regular HPD can't solve a simple the husband did it case 5-0 needs to do it. 

I didn't care about Steve and Junior's jungle adventure. I never really cared for Joe. Junior couldn't yell out the back door that something came up and he needs to leave town for a few days. He just ghosts Steve at dinner. I'm not even going to get into all the trouble Junior would face for telling Steve or how Steve would never have been allowed to tag along. I was all so absurd but Steve was the only person that could help out Kathrine a few weeks ago.

[DrScottie]

With Willie Garson essentially playing Mozzie again, this felt more like a reject episode of White Collar than a Hawaii Five-0 one. 

[Roselle]

Oorah! Writers and AOL (idea credit?) leaving no SEAL cliche unturned and...

3 hours ago, notcreative enough said:

Junior couldn't yell out the back door that something came up and he needs to leave town for a few days. He just ghosts Steve at dinner. I'm not even going to get into all the trouble Junior would face for telling Steve or how Steve would never have been allowed to tag along.

...yes to this!

Also to this...

3 hours ago, notcreative enough said:

I know they made Adam dumb but I don't think they made him so dumb that we would keep a murder weapon in his junk drawer. 

 

Plot planted perhaps...like a double bluff? Dunno and actually don't care much either.

[BW Manilowe]

3 hours ago, notcreative enough said:

I know they made Adam dumb but I don't think they made him so dumb that we would keep a murder weapon in his junk drawer. 

Aw it sounds like Hirsch keeps in touch with Kono. That little weirdo. I liked the bit about him and Kamekona switching roles with Grover and Tani. But man they need to give Grover some front burner material. All he seems to do is babysit the new kids.

Did I miss the explanation of how the couple got the stolen artwork? I liked Grover's ohhing as the situation started to sink in with the Nazi connection. Poor regular HPD can't solve a simple the husband did it case 5-0 needs to do it. 

I didn't care about Steve and Junior's jungle adventure. I never really cared for Joe. Junior couldn't yell out the back door that something came up and he needs to leave town for a few days. He just ghosts Steve at dinner. I'm not even going to get into all the trouble Junior would face for telling Steve or how Steve would never have been allowed to tag along. I was all so absurd but Steve was the only person that could help out Kathrine a few weeks ago.

At least 1 promo for the episode showed the phone call between Junior & Steve, & Steve does try to keep Junior from telling him anything about the mission, but then Junior says something about how the terrorists had been holding an American for (over) a year, which piques Steve's interest, & then Junior says the American was apparently someone Steve knew, Joe White. Once Steve knew that bit of info, no matter that his & Joe's relationship runs cold because of Joe's complicity in helping Steve's mom Doris' hide out in Japan, & wherever, for so long, Steve was gonna be in on that mission.

I think he also might've felt he still owed Joe for setting up the clandestine op that rescued Steve, battered but alive, after Jenna Kaye, a supposed friend of Five-0 who ended up giving her life to save Steve's, lured Steve into captivity at Wo Fat's mercy in North Korea.  Steve's rescue party was Joe; the Five-0 team members at the time--the  Core 4 plus Lori Weston; the members of SEAL team 9 (who felt they owed Steve for saving 1 of their teammates from a serial killer), & Frank Bama, an American expatriate helicopter pilot who knew Joe from when they were apparently in the Vietnam war (or some other war) together; who was still living, mostly undetected, in Southeast Asia somewhere near the Korean DMZ;  & who became a part of Five-0's extended ʻohana for his part in helping rescue Steve. I think Steve might've felt he still owed Joe for his live rescue from Wo Fat's clutches in North Korea because Joe's involvement in the rescue cost him his Naval career & that has never really sat well with Steve, that Joe's Naval career ended because he was trying to help get Steve out of life-threatening trouble.

If the members of SEAL team 9 could tag along when Joe rescued Steve from North Korea (they were supposed to be on a brief leave & sightseeing in the area), then I'm wanking that Steve could tag along & help rescue Joe; especially if his active duty Naval career had been stellar. (Shrugs)

33 minutes ago, Roselle said:

Oorah! Writers and AOL (idea credit?) leaving no SEAL cliche unturned and...

...yes to this!

Also to this...

Plot planted perhaps...like a double bluff? Dunno and actually don't care much either.

Yes, Alex had the idea for the story, & was credited as such. Whomever had a credit like "Teleplay by" turned Alex's idea into a fully fleshed-out script that could be produced as an episode.

[MissLucas]

12 hours ago, DrScottie said:

With Willie Garson essentially playing Mozzie again, this felt more like a reject episode of White Collar than a Hawaii Five-0 one. 

Nothing wrong with that. I actually ffw through all the SEAL drama. Chi McBride and Willie Garson are great together. I also like the easy chemistry between McBride and Meghan Rath. The scene at Kamekona's - with the little alternative reality scenario - was hilarious.

Next week: Tani finds Adam's to-do list pinned to the fridge; last items checked: 'kill evil half-sister' - 'dump gun in junk drawer' - 'call Antonio Cabrera to pick me up from LAX'

[Passepartout]

Really love Chi and Willie together. As both have a great chemistry as love Chi and Meghan as well. Father and daughter.

Steve looks at Joe as a surrogate father. And really Joe has done a lot and saved his life in the flashbacks. Keep in mind that before John's murder he and his father were estranged. Glad that Steve returned the favor as Joe has done so many times

No Danny :Sigh:

But Junior is looking at Steve as like a father figure and a big brother there. As Junior really has no family but did try to call his estranged family in an earlier episode.

Tani finding that of Adam's to do list pin. And really he is a felon and they do not at all or can't be in possession of a weapon. But that is just TV

Navy SEALS getting along with Steve despite the commanding officer hesitated but then realizes Steve is like one of them. 

One of the best episodes of the season.

[GustheCat]

15 hours ago, BW Manilowe said:

after Jenna Kaye, a supposed friend of Five-0 who ended up giving her life to save Steve's, lured Steve into captivity at Wo Fat's mercy in North Korea

I must have missed that part of the episode. As you say, she lured Steve to North Korea and into the hands of Wo Fat in order to be re-united with her boyfriend who, when shown,  appeared to have been dead for quite some time. She then dug into the corpse's knee to dig out a pin that had been there from the bike accident when they met, and toss it in the vicinity of Steve's foot. I wouldn't think of this as giving her life to save Steve, she was a dead woman walking the whole time.

Anyway, unless the writers really surprise us, no one believes Adam killed Noriko. The interesting thing to do is if Tani says "she followed a hunch" and found a weapon (without revealing where or giving a false location) that might have been involved in Noriko's death, has the ballistics run, and it is a match. What does she do with that knowledge? Confront Adam alone? Tell Grover? Tell Junior? Tell Eddie? And, if it was a plant, why did anyone think the gun would be found in the back of a kitchen drawer? Generally a plant will only work if the evidence has a good chance of being found by someone other than the person being framed.

Next big question, will all of the recurring or semi-recurring characters make it into the finale? We haven't seen Flippa or Nahele much, maybe only one episode this season? No Sang Min this year.

[BW Manilowe]

1 hour ago, GustheCat said:

I must have missed that part of the episode. As you say, she lured Steve to North Korea and into the hands of Wo Fat in order to be re-united with her boyfriend who, when shown,  appeared to have been dead for quite some time. She then dug into the corpse's knee to dig out a pin that had been there from the bike accident when they met, and toss it in the vicinity of Steve's foot. I wouldn't think of this as giving her life to save Steve, she was a dead woman walking the whole time.

Anyway, unless the writers really surprise us, no one believes Adam killed Noriko. The interesting thing to do is if Tani says "she followed a hunch" and found a weapon (without revealing where or giving a false location) that might have been involved in Noriko's death, has the ballistics run, and it is a match. What does she do with that knowledge? Confront Adam alone? Tell Grover? Tell Junior? Tell Eddie? And, if it was a plant, why did anyone think the gun would be found in the back of a kitchen drawer? Generally a plant will only work if the evidence has a good chance of being found by someone other than the person being framed.

Next big question, will all of the recurring or semi-recurring characters make it into the finale? We haven't seen Flippa or Nahele much, maybe only one episode this season? No Sang Min this year.

According to his IMDb filmography, Will Yun Lee, the actor who plays Sang Min, has apparently done a few (I think it said 4) episodes of a show called Altered Carbon, which apparently debuted in February, on Netflix as near as I can figure.

He was also in USA Cable's series Falling Water from 2016-2018; he was a doctor in 5 episodes this season of ABC's first-year hit, The Good Doctor, the show about the underage autism & savant syndrome-affected medical/surgical resident, played by Freddie Highmore, which is co-executive produced by Daniel Dae Kim's production company & the production company belonging to the executive producer who did Fox's long-running medical show, House, MD with Hugh Laurie. So hopefully you can see the Good Doctor eps before they start S2. If ABC doesn't run repeats over the summer, then you should be able to watch the eps on iTunes or Amazon Prime Video.

Will's IMDb filmography, from which I got this information as I said, looks like he also did parts in a few movies too--I don't know how big they were, but it looked like 2 of the movies were connected/part of a series/part of a franchise.

So it looks like the issue with Will this season may have been his availability. Since Sang Min's only a recurring H50 character, unless there's a clause in his contract with the show stating otherwise, Will can go up for, & take, other jobs when he's not needed on H50. He needs more work than a few eps of H50 per season to support himself & his family, after all, unless he's been making wise investments with the money he's earned from acting & whatever else he makes a salary from.

Edited May 13, 2018 by BW Manilowe
To add a comment.

[ganesh]

What's with the not wrapping up the plots lately? Steve, Junior, and Joe walk outside from the tunnel and then we're in the military hospital in Germany. Tani and Lou shakedown the woman and then Mozzie is taking the paintings to the family. They skipped like 20 minutes of what was actually going on.

On 5/11/2018 at 11:40 PM, DrScottie said:

With Willie Garson essentially playing Mozzie again, this felt more like a reject episode of White Collar than a Hawaii Five-0 one. 

Honestly, their wasting the actor's talents. He should basically be playing Mozzie, Five-0 CI. It's not like Five-0 follows the rule of law, and they could just have him running all sorts of cons and scams to get evidence when Five-0 couldn't get a warrant, for example. Although, they don't bother with any shred of due process, so getting a warrant wouldn't even register for me. 

I did like how Tani doesn't have a concept of how many snacks to give the dog or how much water the plants need. 

Whether that's Adam's gun isn't relevant. If he didn't do it, Steve will shoot everyone until Adam is cleared. If he did do it, he'll get away with it because he's in Five-0. 

I guess dumb runs in the family. The sister knows where Kono is and everything about Adam's life but then asks for the money and gets killed. She didn't see that coming?

[kili]

Quote

Did I miss the explanation of how the couple got the stolen artwork? 

During the discussion at the shrimp truck, we learned that the husband's grandfather was from Gunzburg, Germany and came to the US after WWII. They theorized that he brought over some paintings that the Nazis stole and the paintings were inherited by husband (Kurt Wagner).

I found the painting story more interesting than the SEAL story. Eddie probably got fat eating those two steaks Steve left on the grill and forgot about. 

[MissLucas]

The paintings story was far more interesting - despite some massive hand-waving when it comes to handling art supposed to be Nazi plunder. Hirsch would never have made it through customs. 

[ganesh]

Would he go through customs? Lou said he was just flying to the mainland. 

[MissLucas]

Oh right, I had assumed he had to travel to Europe. But he did say the mainland. It would still require an immense amount of red-tape but that would hardly make for riveting tv so it's all good.

[ganesh]

If anyone could smuggle paintings, it's Mozzie. 

[Sake614]

6 hours ago, kili said:

Eddie probably got fat eating those two steaks Steve left on the grill and forgot about. 

 

Ha! That was my first thought too. Well, not that he got fat but that the steaks would be gone because he was stupid enough to leave them on the grill with the dog sitting right there. And when Steve cut off s piece of steak to give him, I said to the tv ‘it’s too hot!’ So I was glad that the next thing Steve said to him was ‘it’s hot’ lol! I know it’s tv but still! 

I absolutely adore Eddie. He’s the best character on the show lol!

[HurricaneVal]

On 5/12/2018 at 11:00 AM, MissLucas said:

Next week: Tani finds Adam's to-do list pinned to the fridge; last items checked: 'kill evil half-sister' - 'dump gun in junk drawer' - 'call Antonio Cabrera to pick me up from LAX'

::snerk::

 

I seem to remember the last time Steve went to Afghanistan/Middle East area on an unauthorized mission (with Catherine, to rescue the boy from the family that had rescued her), he was told by Navy brass that under no uncertain circumstances was he allowed back "in theater" either on an authorized or unauthorized mission.  I believe that rather emphatic officer was very clear that Steve was not welcome and had best not try again in the future.  In the meantime, Steve actually officially retires from the Navy and the SEALS, so isn't even a reservist anymore.  I get it, this is a TV show, and all sorts of preposterous things and plot items happen, but....yeah.  In reality, he'd be grounded and likely otherwise prevented to "follow along" on the op.  Not to mention, Junior would have been court-martialed for sharing the classified intel.

Yeah.  It was Joe.  Steve's mentor, family friend, and betrayer.  I don't think Steve has adequately dealt with the way Joe strung him along during the search for Shelburne, nor any of that other stuff Joe pulled.  Steve is righteously pissed at his mom, but also clearly conflicted.  He should feel much the same regarding Joe.

[ganesh]

In reality when Steve said "ok, I'll just follow you then," the commander should have detained him. 

[Chick2Chic]

I realized that when it's a Danny-free ep, I don't actually miss him. I feel like the eps go by faster without him kvetching with Steve (or in general). I don't dislike Danny but his kind of griping slows scenes down for me, opposite of say Grover, who can snark and gripe with the best of them too but it doesn't slow the pace of an ep. 

Anywho, I enjoyed this ep. I totally think Adam killing his half-sister is a red herring. Also, it's always good to see Eddie and Joe. 

[dwmarch]

On 5/12/2018 at 11:51 PM, ganesh said:

What's with the not wrapping up the plots lately? Steve, Junior, and Joe walk outside from the tunnel and then we're in the military hospital in Germany. Tani and Lou shakedown the woman and then Mozzie is taking the paintings to the family. They skipped like 20 minutes of what was actually going on.

That was silly along with Junior having a big-ass grenade launcher on his rifle that he totally forgot about. These Hollywood SEAL teams always just go for gunfights and totally forget about grenades, claymores, drone strikes, etc.

On 5/13/2018 at 8:20 AM, MissLucas said:

The paintings story was far more interesting - despite some massive hand-waving when it comes to handling art supposed to be Nazi plunder.

I found myself raising an eyebrow at the leap to conclusions they did here as well. "The suspect has German grandparents!" means of course they were Nazis who plundered. Now I am not German by any means but if I were I might find this kind of stereotyping offensive.

9 hours ago, ganesh said:

In reality when Steve said "ok, I'll just follow you then," the commander should have detained him. 

Indeed! I suppose this show wants to establish that the military community in Hawaii is a close-knit one but in reality I am pretty sure a former Navy SEAL cannot just go up to the staging area for a mission and interrupt the planning to say "hey, can I come too? I used to be a SEAL and this mission (that I shouldn't even know about) is really personally important to me!" I am pretty sure Steve and Junior would both be in the stockade for a stunt like that.

[BW Manilowe]

15 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

::snerk::

 

I seem to remember the last time Steve went to Afghanistan/Middle East area on an unauthorized mission (with Catherine, to rescue the boy from the family that had rescued her), he was told by Navy brass that under no uncertain circumstances was he allowed back "in theater" either on an authorized or unauthorized mission.  I believe that rather emphatic officer was very clear that Steve was not welcome and had best not try again in the future.  In the meantime, Steve actually officially retires from the Navy and the SEALS, so isn't even a reservist anymore.  I get it, this is a TV show, and all sorts of preposterous things and plot items happen, but....yeah.  In reality, he'd be grounded and likely otherwise prevented to "follow along" on the op.  Not to mention, Junior would have been court-martialed for sharing the classified intel.

Yeah.  It was Joe.  Steve's mentor, family friend, and betrayer.  I don't think Steve has adequately dealt with the way Joe strung him along during the search for Shelburne, nor any of that other stuff Joe pulled.  Steve is righteously pissed at his mom, but also clearly conflicted.  He should feel much the same regarding Joe.

Yes, the pissed off Navy officer said what you said to/about Steve after he was captured & almost beheaded by the Taliban when he went to Afghanistan to help Catherine try to find the son of the local family who helped her when she needed it after being injured during a tour of duty. But...

This time, as I remember from the episode promo, Junior told Steve Joe (& whomever else was involved) was being held in Nigeria. Nigeria & Afghanistan/the Middle East aren't the same place, let alone in the same continent. So... loophole to make the story work; probably especially since the idea for the story was Alex O'Loughlin's & he's the male lead (with a contract that was supposed to have ended with this season, thinking it would likely be the last, but the show got renewed &, apparently Alex's contract did too), as well as #1 on the call sheet for production. So you really wanna try not to piss him (Alex... or probably Scott, for that matter) off while filming if you want the show to continue.

While you're talking about Steve doing a bunch of things he wouldn't have been able to get away with, in real life, in the name of being a former SEAL/retired Navy Officer, let's not forget Joe has also done some things to help Steve (as I can remember) after Joe himself was discharged from the Navy for his participation in the clandestine mission involving himself, the Five-0 members at the time besides Steve, & the members of SEAL team 9 (who felt they owed Steve for saving 1 of their own, in a case involving a serial killer of members of the same SEAL team) to rescue Steve from Wo Fat's clutches in North Korea, after he was lured there by Jenna Kaye who, herself, was lured there, to help rescue Jenna's fiancé because he was supposedly alive & being held captive in a small town just on the other (bad) side of the border between North & South Korea.

Among the things Joe did to help Steve after, I'm pretty sure, Joe had been discharged from the Navy, was he helped Steve & Catherine by pulling some strings & getting extra time for them to stay in North Korea on a body repatriation mission, hopefully without interference from the NK government, & find the real body of Steve's BFF before Danny, & fellow SEAL team member, Freddie Hart, once Steve realized the body they'd been given to repatriate wasn't Freddie's; which he noticed when he checked the remains to identify the body the best that he could before it was supposed to have been loaded into the military plane that was supposed to bring everyone back from Korea.

It was important to Steve to make sure this repatriation mission was done right because Steve & Freddie were best friends at the time of the mission & Steve (I think/am pretty sure) felt guilty about  a). Freddie getting killed under his watch; especially since Freddie had told Steve, on the way to the drop zone, he had recently been secretly married & he & his wife were expecting a baby daughter & b). Having to leave a dying Freddie in North Korea after their mission went south, badly, in order to save himself; even though Steve had been told, while being briefed about the mission when he was chosen for it, that if either he or the person he chose to do the mission with him--or both of them--were injured or killed during it, & couldn't exfiltrate under their own power, there would be no rescue by our military. And Freddie, when he realized he'd sustained a probably fatal wound, tried to remind Steve of that & told him not to worry about him (Freddie); he wanted & needed Steve to get his ass back to safety because now Freddie needed Steve to be there for his soon-to-be widow & the daughter who would now grow up without knowing her father. Steve reluctantly left Freddie before he took his last breath.

I'm actually happy Steve finally, apparently, completely retired from the Navy/Reserves. Maybe they decided they'd run out of Naval/SEAL stories they could tell from Steve's point of view, or they decided to start telling them from former SEAL Junior's point of view because both his character & the actor are younger than Alex O'Loughlin & the Steve McGarrett character, & hopefully not as easily injured/beaten up doing a stunt as apparently happened with Alex over the years, before Beulah Koale & Junior Reigns came on the scene, because there were times Alex probably got unnecessarily injured, because he liked doing his own stunts & there were times when he took on stunts that he should've left to his stunt double to do.

But that's not why I'm happy Steve's apparently left the Navy; I'm happy he apparently finally did that, because people said he actually should've retired completely from the Navy sometime in S7, after having the liver transplant from Danny at the end of S6 because, apparently, in the real world Steve would've been, basically, forced to retire on a medically-related discharge as a result of the transplant. I just figured maybe Steve had taken the medical discharge, but it was done offscreen.

[roamyn]

ALex, stick to acting and/or directing.  Your story ideas suck.

[jhlipton]

Nigeria has it's own set of problems (the conflicts which resulted in the Nigerian Civil War -- anyone remember Biafra? -- are still present) but any "pirates" are going after the oil pipelines that steal oil from the country primarily to the Netherlands, and doesn't have a history of terrorism (too much other stuff going on).  They should have done what everyone else does and called it Madeupistan.

On 5/14/2018 at 10:21 PM, dwmarch said:

I found myself raising an eyebrow at the leap to conclusions they did here as well. "The suspect has German grandparents!" means of course they were Nazis who plundered. Now I am not German by any means but if I were I might find this kind of stereotyping offensive.

That's kind of backwards.  Hirsch determined that the paintings were part of the stolen loot, then they found out that Kurt had German grandparents.