S09.E19: Pupuhi ka he’e o kai uli (The Octopus of the Deep Spews Its Ink)

[BW Manilowe]

Five-0 investigates the murder of a window washer and finds that the victim is actually a renowned street artist who may have a politically motivated bounty on his head. Also, Grover and Adam look into the murder of a gambler, and Junior helps his father when they are reminded of his sister’s death.

Original Airdate: March 15, 2019

SOURCE: https://cbspressexpress.com/cbs-entertainment/shows/hawaii-five-0/releases/view?id=52093

[Arkay]

Found this episode to be way too far-fetched, even for H50. The storyline meandered too much, Jerry's skills seemed too over the top, the whole thing felt too disjointed. The part with Junior's father felt too tacked on. 

Oh, yes, of course, a Nicaraguan politician is going to know who Steve is when he appears on camera in Hawaii  and says 5-0.

Just a boring episode.

[MissLucas]

I may have tuned out a bit - but was the shirt-plot resolved? I honestly can't remember.

[Passepartout]

Yeah was not Five 0 out of their jurisdiction? Or wait. They did that for dramatic reasons. Beginning to be far fetched.

[dwmarch]

12 hours ago, Arkay said:

The storyline meandered too much, Jerry's skills seemed too over the top, the whole thing felt too disjointed. The part with Junior's father felt too tacked on. 

Oh, yes, of course, a Nicaraguan politician is going to know who Steve is when he appears on camera in Hawaii  and says 5-0.

I call these kinds of 5-0 stories "plot generator" episodes. Let's throw in a window washer being murdered, a Bansky expy, that skeevy art dealer, Nicaraguan intelligence and an old contact of Joe White's. For a side plot let's throw in Junior's dad getting super emotional about finding a bracelet. That's not enough, we also need a plot about a really expensive shirt that is part of a larger murder mystery. Put these elements into the plot generator, press the button, see what you get.

12 hours ago, MissLucas said:

I may have tuned out a bit - but was the shirt-plot resolved? I honestly can't remember.

The guy who had the shirt was cheating on his wife so she had her boyfriend strangle him and roll him for his big winnings. Another guy who was at the illegal card game stole the shirt off his back (because the guy wouldn't shut up about it) and tried to sell it to Grover.

10 hours ago, Passepartout said:

Yeah was not Five 0 out of their jurisdiction? Or wait. They did that for dramatic reasons. Beginning to be far fetched.

While 5-0 will certainly happily disregard any border that suggests they might be subject to jurisdiction of any kind, that didn't happen in this episode. The Nicaraguans were watching a live video feed from Honolulu when 5-0 busted in to free the kidnapped woman. I think they said something about Joe White's contact in Nicaragua getting Abuela to safety. Whether or not that counts as 5-0 extending their means and immunity to whomever needs it the most at any given moment is an exercise left to the viewer.

[fishcakes]

How did Junior's sister die? I can't remember if it was an accident or a drug overdose. Also, did we know his dad has a prosthetic leg and why?

[GustheCat]

8 hours ago, fishcakes said:

How did Junior's sister die? I can't remember if it was an accident or a drug overdose. Also, did we know his dad has a prosthetic leg and why?

I believe all that was revealed was that it was an accident. I'm guessing it will be explained that the Dad was involved somehow and that is how he lost his leg. But, that would be too predictable, right?

This was a "blah" episode to me. I wanted to see 5-0 charge the shirt thief with a felony since the value of the shirt was so high, tampering with a corpse, etc. But, you had the feeling they let him go when he gave them the card host information. Does anyone know if that is a real store on Oahu with the Aloha Shirts? There is something like that on Maui called "MauiShirts" (very original, I know). At one time you could visit the store, but I believe now it is either by appointment, or online only. And, they do sell these (image from their website), so I would expect to see Eddie sporting the latest.

The most unbelievable part of the show, and there were several, was Jerry's sudden competence at crime analysis and fingerprinting. If you remember when Danny' nephew (Eric) first showed up, he was a lost soul and didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. He chose the crime analysis specialist but he had to go to school for, I believe, 6 months. But, Jerry just picks this up in his spare time? Maybe he sent away for one of the courses listed on the inside of a matchbook? You will remember how badly his stakeout at the rare bookstore ended. If they at least gave some tie-in with him learning some of these techniques, it would be more plausible.

The footprint technology piece seemed a stretch as well. I can't find a reference to it, although it seems pretty neat. But, only 4 sets of shoes...ever? How long do the shoe impressions stay? What about all of the crime scene people up on the roof, surely they walked around prior to Jerry's drone buzzing the place?

Lastly, it wasn't until the show was over that I realized Danny wasn't in this one. It seems that Scott Caan is missing more shows than in previous seasons, and they are certainly setting it up for him to re-marry Rachel and head off the island. I guess we will know more when the renewal notices come out for next season. Aloha.

[sue450]

   juniors sister died in an accident,, an auto accident I think

[BW Manilowe]

2 hours ago, GustheCat said:

I believe all that was revealed was that it was an accident. I'm guessing it will be explained that the Dad was involved somehow and that is how he lost his leg. But, that would be too predictable, right?

This was a "blah" episode to me. I wanted to see 5-0 charge the shirt thief with a felony since the value of the shirt was so high, tampering with a corpse, etc. But, you had the feeling they let him go when he gave them the card host information. Does anyone know if that is a real store on Oahu with the Aloha Shirts? There is something like that on Maui called "MauiShirts" (very original, I know). At one time you could visit the store, but I believe now it is either by appointment, or online only. And, they do sell these (image from their website), so I would expect to see Eddie sporting the latest.

The most unbelievable part of the show, and there were several, was Jerry's sudden competence at crime analysis and fingerprinting. If you remember when Danny' nephew (Eric) first showed up, he was a lost soul and didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. He chose the crime analysis specialist but he had to go to school for, I believe, 6 months. But, Jerry just picks this up in his spare time? Maybe he sent away for one of the courses listed on the inside of a matchbook? You will remember how badly his stakeout at the rare bookstore ended. If they at least gave some tie-in with him learning some of these techniques, it would be more plausible.

The footprint technology piece seemed a stretch as well. I can't find a reference to it, although it seems pretty neat. But, only 4 sets of shoes...ever? How long do the shoe impressions stay? What about all of the crime scene people up on the roof, surely they walked around prior to Jerry's drone buzzing the place?

Lastly, it wasn't until the show was over that I realized Danny wasn't in this one. It seems that Scott Caan is missing more shows than in previous seasons, and they are certainly setting it up for him to re-marry Rachel and head off the island. I guess we will know more when the renewal notices come out for next season. Aloha.

Regarding the bolded: A social media friend of mine, who’s a Hawaii native but has lived on the Mainland the last few years, writes a weekly blog (& has been writing it since the show began) for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about each new H50 episode during the TV season; she also writes about the actors & various other things connected to the show when the show’s pre-empted during the TV season, as well as during the filming hiatus between seasons (she also writes a similar blog about the Magnum P.I. reboot). The blogs are published in the print edition of the paper, & posted on the paper’s website, the day after the show airs on CBS (so Saturdays for H50 & Tuesdays for MPI).

She actually discussed the Aloha shirt store seen in this episode in this week’s blog (if reading the linked blog post, look for the “Grover the Appraiser” section towards the end of the blog post). It’s a real store, Bailey’s Antiques and Aloha Shirts, & it’s located on Kapahulu Avenue near Waikiki. While the store is real, the store employee Grover & Adam spoke to in the scene was played by an actor.

[HurricaneVal]

I was happy to see Hirsch back in on this episode.  I also like that he's being written to be a little less skeezy than he was in the past.  Sang Min was fun!skeezy, but Hirsch was always creepy!skeezy.  I also liked how he kind of brightened up and straightened up when Tani said she had faith in him.  Awww...  That's all he needed, a little validation.  Whatever happened to his crime scene clean up business?

As for the aloha shirt store, if you're really curious, I think that is the same store that Anthony Bourdain went to on one of his shows where Hawaii was the destination so you might want to look that up.  I'm sure it is online somewhere.  He had a fairly long segment inside the store, conversing with the proprietor, and going into the history of the aloha shirt and why the older ones are so valuable.  He ended up buying a classy vintage black and white one as I recall--and it was expensive.  Around $3K as I recall.  He wore it in quite a few subsequent episodes.