Hawaii Five-O – Recap & Review – Ma Ke Kahakai

photo: cbs

Hawaii Five-O
Ma Ke Kahakai

Original Air Date: Apr 11, 2011

Rachel M – Staff Writer
rachelm@thetwocentscorp.com

So happy to have Five-O back! I missed the banter! We’ve got a new villain (Wu Fat) and new almost ally (Kaye). But it looks like tonight is a regular old murder mystery with some internal discoveries on the side. Daniel Dae Kim live tweeted during the east coast feed and shared some secrets that I will share with you here as well in case you missed it. The best though is this “Any teasers? Yes, in the next episode, someone commits a crime, McG chases them, Danno wisecracks, and there’s a great theme song.”

Let’s go to Hawaii!

Steve and Danny are on a hike. How on earth did Steve convince Dan to go on a hike? It seems very unlike him. Danny thinks baseball is a better option to bond than the hike, but to each his own. Steve confides that he recieved another piece of his Dad’s toolbox treasures. It’s such a mess, the whole game whoever is playing is so complicated. They finally arrive at the petro glyphs, and while Danny is underwhelmed, Steve finds a body. Because he’s a super hero he throws together a climbing rig to check on the guy, who turns out to be dead. They agree that he’s a victim of foul play, and Steve climbs back up so they can call CSU. He gets hit in the face with a big rock and falls, almost falling off the cliff!

He has a broken arm (and he’s lucky that’s all it is). Here’s what DDK had to say about it during his tweet session, “A2Q Did Alex really break his arm? No, but he wanted to. That’s DEDICATION.” While Danny goes to get help, Steve treats his arm (don’t look if you’re squeamish). At the office, Kono and Chin have a dying family member. Chin feels awkward about seeing his family. Danny finally gets to the summit and calls Chin, he and Kono find Danny on the mountain top and send the rescuers.

But it’s about to downpour, so Steve thinks they’re running out of time. Steve has to get back up and fast, between his one handed climbing and Dnny’s pulling on the rope, he gets to edge of the trail. The helicopter comes and they get rescued. As Steve goes up in the chopper he thanks Danny, who mimes “I Heart You” back to him with a grin on his face. At HQ, Danny, Chin and Kono are on the case. His name is Jack and he’s a fisherman. Seems he recently gotten into a fight with another fisherman. Kono does the family notification to his son, who has no idea what’s going on except that his father had been acting a little strange the day before. Chin and Danny see the other guy from the fight and when he takes off they jump into the boat, very impressive. “A2Q Was that me jumping on the boat? No. It was my stunt double’s stunt double. We have very good unions here.”

Chin searches the boat, Danny interrogates the scumbag. He’s got a huge duffel bag or crystal meth and now they have leverage. The guy doesn’t really offer up much, just that they had a fight and that Jack knew about the meth trade. Kono does her tech thing, and finds that Jack was looking at a cold case with a missing suspect Jordan. Chin finds out where Jack has been, and Danny knows that the scumbag is innocent or murder at least. But then Kono gets another call, and Chin and her go to visit their dying aunt. When Chin walks in, the room gets awkward and quiet. But their uncle shakes his hand and welcomes them. As they say their goodbyes, Uncle comes and says he needs to talk to Chin. Her aunt tells Kono there might be a connection between her sickness and Chin getting dismissed from the force. Kono confronts Chin about the whole incident, Chin finally tells her that her aunt’s kidney came from the black market in China, and that Uncle took the money and Chin took the fall. Kono is devastated, and insists that Chin comes clean after their aunt passes away. But Chin is happy with Five-O, and I can’t blame him.

Kamekona picks up Steve from the hospital. I gotta say, the sling isn’t as hot as I thought it might be. They go to Morimoto’s, the restaurant where Jack delivered his fish. It’s actually chef Morimoto! From Iron Chef! So cool! Danny has to search the fish because Steve can’t get his cast wet. So Dan takes the fishes, and then finds one with a bullet whole in it. Using long chop sticks, Steve pulls out a bullet and gives it to Danny, who then wipes his fish hands on Steve’s shirt. Kono shows McGarrett that Jack also encountered jet fuel before his death. Out to the air strip to check up on Jack’s whereabouts, turns out he checked the internet there too. There’s something sketchy going on that Jack stumbled onto, relating to Jordan the murder suspect. The team puts it all together and fingers their man.

At the fancy mansion, Steve and Danny are there to confront the killer, who promptly hides in his giant house. Steve grabs a thermal scanner to find him, and they discover a secret entrance to the basement. He’s hiding in this bunker pointing a gun and Steve and Danny. They chat a bit about the man’s son who is a murderer, and the old man who is about to make a fatal mistake. Danny distracts him and Steve kicks his ass. (Did you catch the writing on the cast? Clearly comes from Kamakona, says something about snow ice.)

The team is celebrating, and I’m really surprised (and delighted) to hear this inside scoop from Daniel Dae Kim, “A2Q Is the banter scripted? No, actually. The guys are great at improv, and when the writers think it helps the scene, it stays in.” It makes even more sense that Alex and Scott have such great chemistry onscreen if their banter comes from a natural friendship.

Damn this show is good. What do you think? Did the team come back with gusto? I think so. Share your TwoCents below!