Hawaii Five-0: Season 5, Episode 17 Review (S05E17) -- Kuka'awale (Stakeout)

(S05E17) Kuka'awale (Stakeout)
RATING: 1/2 star

Original air date: 02/27/15

I really disliked this show, a major contender for Worst Episode of Five-Zero Ever. If had to give it a name, other than the one above, I would have called it "Two Men and a Pussy" (TMAAP).

This was a major league apartment-gument between McGarrett and Danno. Overall, the show was much worse than the similar S03E03 which I also did not like, where the duo were marooned, afloat on a boat.

My notes taken during TMAAP were littered with comments like "Stupid!!" and "Shut up!!" It began with a two minute and 41 second continuation of their Governor-sanctioned psychological therapy seen in this season's premiere episode, S05E01, and went downhill from there.

What I hated the most was the music which had the usual plink-plunk associated with "comedic" and/or "cute" scenes throughout, because -- among other things -- the incessant arguing between McGarrett and Danno, who were "working on their relationship," was supposed to be funny, but it was not. The music score was probably the worst one yet heard on the show.

After a jewellery store is robbed, McGarrett and Danno set up shop with cameras and phone taps across from the apartment of one of the suspects, Emma Mills (the very attractive -- read: large-breasted -- Jessica Lowndes). The comic-relief characters who dropped by, including neighbor Ruth Tennenbaum (Cloris Leachman) and geeky dope dealer Ricky Schiff (Charlie Saxton) as well as the non-stop chatter between McGarrett and Danno really drove me crazy. Much of the show played like a bad version of Hitchcock's Rear Window.

The woman named Agnes whose apartment they are commandeering is a serious cat lady. This leads to interaction between McGarrett, who confesses his liking for cats, which he describes as "ninjas," and the resident feline, Mr. Pickles, in scenes designed to appeal to Facebook cat-video fanatics. (Danno tells us that he is a dog kind of guy.)

As if this isn't dumb enough, McGarrett enlists the help of Jerry to try and track down who recently stole Mrs. Tennenbaum's fern. Comedian Jon Lovitz appeared as Barry Burns, a pawnshop-like merchant in "gold and unwanted jewelry" seen on local TV in sleazy commercials who is acting as fence for Emma's $3 million worth of stolen loose diamonds.

The scene at the end where Emma's partner and bad guy Jacob Anders/Radomir Ivanovich (Zoltan Hayth) shot up the jewellery store in a manner like The Terminator where he wounded or killed at least half a dozen cops was in very bad taste, especially considering the cutesy-poo finale outside Kamekona's shrimp shack which came after this.

This episode was Daniel Dae Kim's TV directing debut. I have really nothing to say about this, because the whole episode was so distracting, other than "I guess he has to start somewhere," and "I wish him well in his future endeavours."

MORE TRIVIA:

• For all the show's faults, I laughed like hell when Leachman's character told McGarrett and his "partner" Danno "I fully support gay marriage." After she left, Danno had a snappy response: "I personally would have gone with the gay thing to keep our cover." Danno also had another good line, saying the apartment they were using "smell[ed] like loneliness and despair," to which McGarrett said the smell was mothballs.
• "Family values" WWW sites are not going to be happy with this episode, especially the scene where Emma is revealed to be in cahoots with Mia Price from the jewelery store (Arden Cho) and the two are in a lesbian relationship. They are seen kissing and later McGarrett is listening to them making out.
• The book given to McGarrett and Danno at the beginning of the show for "homework" is The Perfect Partners' Workbook: Exercises in Conflict Resolution and Team Building by Susan Rothman. There actually is a marriage and family therapist in California named Susan Rothman, who, according to her WWW page, is "a practicing zen student and lead[s] a group called 'Being Mindful'." But as far as I can determine, this book and its author are both bogus.
• Conan O'Brien's drummer/band leader Max Weinberg, seen in the remake of Hookman where Danno had another idiotic whiny rant, reappeared as gunshop owner Norm. He had a serious run-in with Anders, who beat him up and stole small and large firearms plus body armor and explosives. (Are these all items one could obtain in a gun shop in the USA?)
• Anders is a member of Serbian special forces who participated in the Bosnian war, a tiresome trope for bad guys on the show.
• Not only was the music bad in the scene where Anders extracted a bullet from his stomach (put there by his partner Emma at the beginning of the show) but it was overbearingly LOUD, something I get at least one complaint a week about through my WWW site from people who think the site is officially connected to CBS.
• Emma's apartment is in the art-deco style Waikiki Cove located at 2118 Kuhio Avenue. When Danno calls for an ambulance to deal with her injuries, he says the address is 2119 Kuhio, apartment 503.
• Not be overly picky, since this show is "fiction," but the building from which McGarrett and Danno are surveilling, shown briefly in a frontal view, is also on Kuhio Avenue, and their window faces the street. So, if this was "real life," they would not be able to see into Emma's building at all. As well, the window frame in her room is different than what can be seen on the art deco building through Google Maps, though that picture may have been taken several years ago. When McGarrett and Danno enter her room, they do it through a sliding glass door, and the only place these are located on the building (from what I can see) is via the balconies of the apartments. Are McGarrett and Danno leaping across balconies like McGarrett did in the last show? There is also a fire hose on the right of Emma's window through which McGarrett is spying, which does not make sense, because this would probably be in a hallway in the building. When Mia Price visits Emma, the two of them go into what looks like a bedroom off to the left (from Five-0's viewpoint), but later McGarrett is watching them have sex in silhouette, presumably in the living room, since that's where his camera is focused. (The second computer on the right of the table is used to communicate with the Five-0 office, among other things.)
• The scene where gunshots and screams are heard from Emma's building on the third day of the stakeout confused me. I thought that the couple fighting was Anders and Emma, but it was not. It was some other couple two floors down at the end of the building. Although I did not recognize them (i.e., not Anders and Emma), McGarrett and Danno, using binoculars, did not either, which is interesting, because you would expect they would, because they have been watching the building for three days. I don't know how they can hear these screams and two gunshots, because the windows of this couple's room appear to be closed. McGarrett and Danno run outside and over to Emma's building and they go to this couple's apartment which is empty, saying "We just got played." (The room looks like someone was painting in it, vaguely reminiscent of a scene in Hookman in the room above Norm's gun shop.) Then they go to Emma's condo two floors up and find her mortally wounded by Anders. When I asked questions about this on IMDB, member fishead924 there suggested that Anders arranged for the couple on the third floor to stage the fight to draw McGarrett and Danno away from Emma's room where he was shooting her and taking the diamonds. Even if Anders hired these people to distract the stakeout, how much time would this buy him? Does he expect that McGarrett and Danno, who he obviously realizes are watching, would go and help the other couple, maybe because it is "the thing to do" (i.e., a domestic dispute is not good) or it will interfere with their surveillance? On the stakeout camera footage viewed later after the commercial, Anders doesn't seem to take a long time after he plugs Emma, so it's odd that McGarrett and Danno don't run into him on their way up to her room. The bottom line is: this is yet more sloppy writing on the show with the usual "means -- no matter how stupid -- justifies the end" kind of logic.
• We find out in this episode that McGarrett used to play the guitar, something Jack Lord's Steve McGarrett also did. He gave up his musical career when he was traumatized during a grade ten talent show. The actor playing the young McGarrett, Taylor John Smith, had little resemblance to Alex O'Loughlin. Not to be too cynical or anything, but I thought considering the "comedic" angle of the show, maybe they should have done an Airplane-like spoof and had the young McGarrett played by a black guy.
• The phone number for Barry Burns' company Gold Blast USA is 555-0101 (no area or 1-800 code).
• Danno says that his favorite music is Bon Jovi: "I could tell you about every song he ever wrote."
• Jessica Lowndes, the female "bad guy" and one of the few things worth watching during this show, especially when she peeled off her clothes, is from Vancouver, my home town. Interestingly, in S01E09, the execrable Po'ipu (Siege), Emmanuelle Vaugier, the villain, was equally attractive, and also from Vancouver. Alas, both of these women were knocked off. I was recently "studying" Krista Allen, another good-looking actress who appeared in S04E18. She was not knocked off and not from Vancouver, but it looks like she might have made several soft-corn porno movies (do a Google search for her and feel free to post in the Five-0 Discussion Forum with your take on this).

Hawaii Five-0: Season 5, Episode 16 Review (S05E16) -- Nānahu (Embers)

(S05E16) Nānahu (Embers)
RATING: 3 stars

Original air date: 02/20/15

This episode, well directed by Joe Dante, could be called "The Tale of Two Psychos."

The first of these was Frank Simpson (David Hoflin), the husband of Amber, Danno's girl friend. Turns out that Amber's real name was Melissa Armstrong and she had married Simpson who abused her so badly she had fled as far away from New York where they lived as possible, i.e., Hawaii.

Danno and Amber (Lili Simmons), making her third appearance on the show, were re-establishing their relationship and spending some time together at an isolated location near Waimanalo. Somehow Simpson managed to track them down, which was odd, because even Five-0 had no idea where Danno was.

Simpson first visited Kamekona's shrimp shack where he inquired about Amber with a photo. This set off alarm bells with the big guy who fortunately snapped a picture of Simpson's car and sent it to McGarrett. Then Simpson made inquiries at Amber's company, though it is equally unlikely that the boss there knew where she was.

Eventually Simpson ended up at the romantic retreat where he knocked out Danno and threatened his ex-wife in a very nasty manner. After Danno punched the shit out of Simpson, getting stabbed in the process, he and Amber were leaving on their way to the hospital when Simpson suddenly appeared out of nowhere and made further threats. Amber drove right into her ex, with the result he flew up on to the roof of the car and then back down in front of it via the hood (a great stunt). Amber then drove over him like she would a speed bump, a move that I suspect will return to bite her in the ass eventually, even though she and Danno were seemingly the only witnesses. (Don't forget the "old lady" of season one who fingered Kono!)

The second psycho on the show was Jason Duclair, played by former UFC fighter Randy Couture. Duclair was a serial arsonist who had terrorized people in California, then relocated to Hawaii. Posing as an exterminator, he cased people's houses, then returned to burn the places down with the people trapped inside.

Duclair was pursued by ATF agent Kathy Milwood (Melina Kanakaredes) from Orange County, who had followed his early career of two dozen fires. She nearly lost her life when Duclair torched her house, killing her husband, after she taunted him during a TV press conference where she called him a "weak, frightened coward" who was sexually dysfunctional.

Duclair was extremely nasty, grabbing and knocking out Milwood as she followed him into the Lava Gardens Hotel where he was going to climax his career with a big-time blaze. He doused her with White Spark camp fuel and was just about to incinerate her when McGarrett broke into the room via the next room and the balcony between them.

Kanakaredes' acting was exceptionally good -- too bad she cannot stick around to join the team! As she was leaving at the end of the episode, McGarrett told her "Don't look back, you can't change the past," again pretty funny, considering what a mess his own life is. The acting of the two villains was also very good.

There was a stupid sub-plot about McGarrett and Grover playing golf which took up about six minutes of the show's time. It featured U.S. Women's Open golf champion Michelle Wie giving advice to McGarrett and acting as his caddy as he participated in a charity tournament for the HPD Widows and Orphans Fund. The less said about this, the better. No doubt the gorgeously photographed shots of golf course scenery were designed to ensure that the show continues to qualify for Hawaii state production tax credits .

MORE TRIVIA:

• When Chin is talking to McGarrett about trying to locate Danno, having figured out that Amber's husband is after her, he says "I'll reach out to friends and [or "at"?] work and see if anyone knows anything [i.e., where Danno and Amber are]." Shortly after, Duke tells Chin "My boys spoke to one of Amber's co-workers; he said that their boss might know where Amber and Danny are. He also said that an old friend of hers came by the office this morning, asking the same question. We're trying to track down the boss. As soon as that information comes in, I'll get it to you." But it is never specifically said that the boss told the husband where Amber was. No matter how the husband identified himself, either as her husband or an "old friend," and the boss knew about Danno's relationship with Amber, because Danno had phoned him to get her off work (or some other reason), why would he?
• Duclair's character was very reminiscent of the classic Five-O and Zero character Hookman the way he kept newspaper clippings of his crimes (but framed!) on his wall. At the end, Duclair fingers a book of matches he seemingly lifted from his prison guard, reminiscent of the "surprise" ending of Woe to Wo Fat, final episode of the original show.
• Trying to find Duclair at the Lava Gardens Hotel (a bogus place), Five-0 goes to room 2104, which, according to the hotel, the killer checked into. But on the 18th floor we saw him get out of the elevator he shared with a family and go into a room directly opposite the elevator. (The room door does not close after he enters -- obviously so the camera can follow him in.) When Five-0 don't find anything in room 2104, they go out into the hall, and you see a room with number 2110. But as they are standing opposite the elevator where they see Milwood's blood on the elevator floor, behind them on the wall is another sign which indicates where rooms 1808 to 1834 are. There is no explanation as to how the Duclair either books the room on the 18th floor or gets the key card to open the door. It seems a stretch that Five-0 notices the blood in the elevator, considering there are three of them.
• Five-0 figures out Duclair is at the Lava Gardens because he left his computer running at his house where Five-0 breaks in, trying to find him. There is an e-mail regarding the hotel reservation right on the computer screen which McGarrett sees! Talk about stupid writing. Why wouldn't Duclair turn the computer off, since he has left the house? There are also questions about how Duclair could board up the front door of houses he is torching to keep its occupants from escaping during the fire without them hearing him do this.
• Duclair's exterminator license number is 45X2-ZY2Z-XY1. He works for the No Vacancy Pest Control.
• It takes just over half an hour to drive from Waimanalo to the Tripler Army Medical Center.
• Simpson's New York driver's license #B4259103K shows his address as 1813 Herkimer Street, Brooklyn 11209. (An actual street, though no such address.) He was born 08-08-81. The license expires 08-09-18. Amber's driver's license under her married name #B3486162M shows her birthdate as 06-09-84. It was issued 06-30-14 and expires 07-01-18. The issue date is odd, because Danno first met Amber in the episode broadcast on 01-10-14.
• Milwood uses the expression "son of a bitch" twice.

Hawaii Five-0: Season 5, Episode 15 Review (S05E15) -- E 'Imi pono (Searching for the Truth)

(S05E15) E 'Imi pono (Searching for the Truth)
RATING: 2-1/2 stars

Original air date: 02/13/15

The crime of the week part of this episode was not bad.

Roko Makoni (Barkhad Abdi), a warlord from the Congo responsible for brutal kidnappings, rapes and murders during the 2000s and described as "the most wanted man in the world," moved to Hawaii several years ago with the help of Ben Hamilton (Grant Bowler), a CIA "cultural attaché" with the American embassy in Kinshasa. Having faked his death in Africa with the help of Hamilton, Makoni is living a new life under the name of Earl Robinson and working as a taxi driver in Honolulu. But Makoni is recognized by Patrice Thomas (Feikamoh Massaquo), members of whose family were murdered by Makoni in Africa. Thomas came to the States from the Congo as a political refugee and moved to the islands. Thomas contacts Julius Brennan (AJ Buckley), a freelance journalist and documentarian who befriended him while reporting on the Congo conflict and sends him some pictures connected to Makoni. As a result, Brennan also comes to Oahu.

As the show begins, Brennan meets up with Hamilton, who he knew when in the Congo. Hamilton later describes Brennan as acting paranoid and "not the Julius I knew." Shortly after their dinner, Brennan is garrotted in his car by Makoni, who was likely tipped off by Hamilton.

When Max starts examining Brennan's body, he finds writing all over the his chest. Assistant ME Shaw describes this to McGarrett and Danno as hypographia, a "behavioral condition characterized by an intense desire to write." Some of what she and Max say about this condition has been taken almost word-for-word from its Wikipedia entry (see below*). There is also similar writing all over Brennan's hotel room.

Jerry manages to crack this writing's "code." It contains a mark which is "the arrow of Sagittarius ... referring to the zodiac symbol of ancient Babylonian origin representing the soldier" (seriously). This code also contains Thomas's name, and when Five-0 arrive at his apartment, they find him the victim of a staged drug overdose. The Sagittarius symbol is branded on Thomas's body from years before..

Finding photos of Makoni's taxi on Thomas's computer leads Five-0 to the warlord, who pulls out some heavy-duty weaponry and the usual firefight ensues. He escapes because, once again, Five-0 can't hit the side of a barn door, or, in this case, a fleeing hijacked car. Makoni has another taxi than the one he usually uses secreted in some building with a lot of C4 explosive in the trunk. After taking hostages, one of whom he shoots in the stomach, Makoni is surrounded by cops on a Honolulu street (corner of Kapuni and Cleghorn). There McGarrett tries to negotiate with him and he is just about to shoot McGarrett when Kono plugs him from afar with her usual expertise.

There were plenty of opportunities to stretch this plot out to the show's full length. For example, nothing is made of the C4 in the trunk of the taxi. Didn't anyone think that the supposedly clever Makoni would have had some kind of detonation device that he could have used to further threaten everyone? There also could have been connections made between the CIA man Hamilton and McGarrett's mother, hopefully without having Ma McG putting in an appearance.

Unfortunately, far too much of this show was taken up with the usual "family" nonsense. As if to make up for his recent absences, Danno rattled on and on about Gracie getting text messages on her new cel phone from some boy at school who he described as a "little thug" and "predator." (Danno was able to view these messages thanks to some technical screwup by the phone company.) We have heard this before, haven't we? Not only was Danno whining about this as McGarrett dumped some butter in his coffee at the beginning of the show, but then we had to endure further ranting from Danno as they were driving. I must admit that the end of the show, where Danno resolved his "trust" issues with his daughter, was touching, but this was during another beery "ohana" finale at a Valentine's Day barbeque where Grover was dressed up in some ridiculous chef's outfit which transformed him into a jazzy version of the guy on the Cream of Wheat box. To top this off, at this party Jerry was seen having the hots for Dr. Shaw as the others looked on, chuckling. Did anyone not figure that when Shaw gave him a rose earlier telling him to give it to someone that he cared about, that she would not be getting this flower back eventually?

MORE TRIVIA:

• Danno uses some peculiar expression when he and McGarrett are driving.

  Danno: When I was a kid, if I liked a girl, I had to go up and talk to her, right, like, with my mouth, a human being. Now, any kid with thumbs, a family share plan, gets to walk around, thinking they're the mack.

  McGarrett: The mack? You say "the mack?"

  Danno: The mack, yeah. I don't know. It's the smooth jazz ["on hold" music on his phone], baby. It's got me thinking about the 90's, you know?

• Gracie and her boyfriend are seen hanging out at Via Gelato, an actual Honolulu locale.
• During the hostage-taking, how does Makone know McGarrett's name?
• Max was far less annoying in this episode than usual. He mentioned that he was going to be meeting his girl friend Sabrina for Valentine's Day. He described her his "paramour," a term usually used for "a person with whom someone is having a romantic or sexual relationship and especially a secret or improper relationship." When questioned, Shaw tells him that "I have a date with my Kindle and a nice bottle of Cab," which Max describes as "wonderfully pathetic."
• In the CBS PR material for this show, dated January 22, 2015, Makono's name is Roko Contee and Brennan's is Joseph Boyd. There are two other characters listed, Kee Mun, played by Hoon Lee amd Little Girl, played by Ciara Fortuno, who seemingly do not appear in the show at all.
• Part of the negotiation between Makoni and McGarrett involves a helicopter. To where? It's not going to get to the mainland, that's for sure. Is it going to the airport where a plane awaits him? After he is captured, McGarrett tells Makoni he is going to The Hague, meaning the International Court of Justice.
• Patrice Thomas's driver's license #729K419 shows he lives at 1109 Kahuamaka St., #210 in Pearl City 96782. He is 6'0" and weighs 175 lbs. His date of birth is 04/22/1991. Considering he is 25 years old, why would he be branded with the Sagittarius symbol, since this was supposedly done by Makone on his "kidnapped child soldiers"?
• Brennan is shown interviewing Thomas and his brother Wesley [sic] in the Congo during the conflict years before in a video which Five-0 got very quickly from some editor who worked on it. Rather than being filmed with a single camera, it employs the multi-camera techniques and closeups similar to Five-0's photography.
• Makone's Laulauna Taxi Company license, 2994992-49920, and Hamilton's Diplomatic Immunity Card, #2997543796-0087 have signatures which look like they were written by the same person. The license plate of Makona's taxi is QDI 851. The other taxi he has with the C4 in the trunk has a license YF5 852.
• According to Mike Timothy, Makone's "C4" taxi is a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria. As to whether the driver could control the locks in the manner depicted in the show, Mike says, "There is a rocker switch on the driver's door panel which locks or unlocks all doors. In addition, there is a knob at the top of the door panel for all four doors that runs up or down depending on the master door lock switch. There likely is a power door lock switch on the passenger front door. As originally designed, it is not possible for the driver to lock the rear doors in a fashion such that the rear seat passengers could not unlock and open the doors themselves. Police cars (Crown Victoria Police Interceptor) models of course have that feature, but not a retail sale or fleet sale (cab) car. There may be a switch on the driver door panel that deactivates the power window switch (power window lockout). Indeed the 1968 Park Lane Brougham has such a feature, though it was worthless to McGarrett, as he never ever drove with the windows up. No car with power door locks, however, has had a power lock override."
• The writing on Brennan's chest has disappeared between the time it is originally seen by Max and Shaw and when Jerry comes to the morgue. Presumably it was washed off before the body was sliced open, but isn't this considered evidence?
• *Wikipedia:

  Hypergraphia is a behavioral condition characterized by the intense desire to write. Forms of hypergraphia can vary in writing style and content. It is a symptom associated with temporal lobe changes in epilepsy, which is the cause of the Geschwind syndrome, a mental disorder. Structures that may have an effect on hypergraphia when damaged due to temporal lobe epilepsy are the hippocampus and Wernicke's area. Aside from temporal lobe epilepsy, chemical causes may be responsible for inducing hypergraphia. [Note there is nothing mentioned about stress.]

  [Under "Characteristics":] Patients with hypergraphia exhibit a wide variety of writing styles and content. While some write in a coherent, logical manner, others write in a more jumbled style (sometimes in a specific pattern).[citation needed]

  The Show:

  Shaw: It's called hypergraphia. It's a behavioral condition characterized by an intense desire to write. It's a symptom associated with temporal lobe epilepsy and can be triggered by high-stress life events.

  Danno: He's had plenty of those.

  McGarrett: Yeah, or maybe the stress of thinking somebody's out to kill you. Looks like a code.

  Max: That was my first assumption as well, until I took a closer look. (Gives McGarrett a mirror.) The words are backwards.

  [Holding the mirror, McGarrett reads several of the words.]

  McGarrett: What does this mean? Do you guys understand this?

  Shaw: It actually makes sense that it doesn't make sense. Think of it as nervous doodling, a frenzied firing of neurons in the brain.

  Max: Some people who suffer from hypergraphia write in a coherent and logical manner. Others, like Mr. Brennan, have a more jumbled style.

Hawaii Five-0: Season 5, Episode 14 Review (S05E14) -- Powehiwehi (Blackout)

(S05E14) Powehiwehi (Blackout)
RATING: 2-1/2 stars

Original air date: 02/06/15

This episode brought back Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jeff Morrison (Greg Grunberg) as well as gun runner JC Dekker (Xzibit, in his third Five-0 appearance). Morrison has sprung Dekker from Halawa with a fabricated back story involving legal technicalities to help him track down Roman Zednick, a Bulgarian involved in everything "from narcotic trafficking and K&R [kidnapping and ransom] to assassination and piracy." Zednick showed up on Oahu a few days ago, wanting to buy guns.

To meet Zednick, Dekker has to contact him through Sidney Ames (David Cordell), a "concierge for criminals," the local "go-to guy" if you are interested in "weapons, muscle, safe house[s] and body disposal." Strangely, Five-0 has never heard of Ames. After his meeting with Zednick doesn't go well, Dekker is taken away by Ames to be knocked off, but he ends up turning the tables. Despite being shot in the ensuing confrontation and being very badly beaten, Dekker kills Ames and manages to get back to Halawa where he attempts to climb the fence and is shot yet again, which is where the story begins. (Why doesn't he just drive up to the front door of the prison?)

Suffering from a bad case of amnesia because his head hit a rock during the fight with Ames, so much so that he can't even recognize Morrison, Dekker doesn't have any idea what has happened to him. Five-0 manages to find out how Dekker met Zednick after talking to Odell Martin (Michael Imperioli), a former Eastern US low-level crime figure who was into "bookmaking, cigarettes and weed" and now runs the Moku Cuts barber shop. After they locate the place where the fight with Dekker and Ames took place thanks to some chemical analysis, Chin Ho manages to get info from Ames' cel phone which leads them to a house at 2121 Kahaleo Avenue where Zednick is supposedly staying. Five-0 typically knocks off three of the five people at the house, thus eliminating potential suspects/witnesses. Zednick manages to escape after threatening Morrison and his family, and McGarrett finds a woman named Danielle (Ana Alexander) wounded in a room.

Danielle gets transported to the same hospital as Dekker as he is slowly figuring out what has happened to him. Included in this is a flashback to when he was at Ames' house where he was told by Danielle that -- surprise! -- she was Roman. (The guy acting as Roman's decoy was really named Emil Hossa (Tudor Munteanu).) This results in a very serious situation as Kono, assigned to be Dekker's nurse, has to deal with Danielle/Roman suddenly becoming Super Villain and taking over their wing of the hospital by cutting the power to the elevator, among other things. (How D/R figures out how to do this boggles the mind.) At one point, Kono takes a hypodermic needle which looks like it is usually used to inoculate horses, draws off some of her blood and dribbles it on the floor to throw D/R off their track as they try to escape. D/R's pursuit of Kono and Dekker climaxes with a tremendous fight between Kono and D/R which ends with Kono taking a pair of defibrillators and applying them to D/R's chest, throwing her across the room and seemingly killing her. Thanks to a brainstorm by McGarrett back in the Five-0 offices that Danielle is Roman, Five-0 arrives shortly after.

While the crime of the week was interesting (as least on a second viewing) though formulaic, the rest of the show was not.

After the main titles, the show began with Kono dithering over her relationship with Adam, telling him his company is a "business that was born out of corruption." In a scene full of banal dialogue, Adam assures her that he is trying to make everything legitimate, but she isn't convinced. I was all ready to rant about this, but I already ranted about it in May of 2013 in my review of S03E23 and virtually nothing has changed! After having the crap beaten out of her by Danielle/Roman, Kono shows up at Adam's office at the end of the show and asks to become his wife. Now I am a sucker for scenes where Kono looks sad, like when she is gazing at pictures of her and Adam on her phone, but enough is enough and hopefully this will be an end to this soap opera sub-plot which is really sooooo wrong (see my rant)!

The show ended with Jerry (described by Dekker as Five-0's "mascot") driving Adam's Ferrari and singing Dean Martin’s “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head?" At least this sequence was actually filmed outdoors instead of in front of the usual process screen. Allowing Jerry to drive the car was Adam's "payment" for Jerry having coerced some friend at Leonard's Bakery to whip up a batch of macadamia nut malasadas which are usually only produced once a year. This was Adam's peace offering for Kono after their "argument" earlier on. This finale, which went on for far too long, was just plain stupid.

Danno was not in this show, having gone back to New Jersey to deal with some old case of his which came up on appeal. Neither was Max, even at the scene where Ames had been shot dead by Dekker.

MORE TRIVIA:

• After Dekker arrives at the hospital, McGarrett suggests that in order to keep Ramon from getting off the island, they should "kill Dekker" by planting false news reports. Grover says "We need to clear this wing out as well. Even though there's security up here, there's a lot of foot traffic. The less people that see Dekker, the better." Kono then says, "There's another prison ward at King's Medical. We can have the guards transfer EVERYONE there." Morrison replies, "I can get a guy down here to handle security." Kono's word "everyone" is hardly audible. I thought she actually said "him," meaning Dekker, which would make a lot more sense. It would have avoided Danielle/Roman running into Dekker there later.
• When Five-0 confronts Hossa in the Foster Botanical Garden, not only is Morrison -- who Hossa threatened earlier -- present and standing up, quite obvious for Hossa to see (even though he does not), but they seriously endanger all the people in the garden who they order to lie on the ground as they surround Hossa with guns drawn. Hossa is carrying a grenade, which he does not get a chance to use, fortunately.
• Kono says that the last time they dealt with Dekker "he seemed like a changed man." Like Sang Min, Dekker is definitely Five-0's pal now, dispensing romantic advise to Kono concerning her and Adam -- nonsense like "Your boyfriend sounds like a decent guy," "I'm guessing you're the problem; you're the one who can't commit. What's that all about?" and "What you're doin', it ain't cool. If you can't commit by now [after being in a relationship for three years], you need to be fair to the guy and cut him loose. Don't be stringin' him along."
• The license number of the car Ames uses to chauffeur Dekker around (sometimes in the trunk), and which Dekker is seen driving to the Halawa fence at the beginning of the show, is PIV 290.
• The location of Martin's barber shop is a real barber shop, Island Style Cuts at 843 Kapahulu Avenue. Unlike in the Google maps view, it has a barber pole on the wall outside. In the background as McGarrett and Morrison are walking there, you can see the Kapahulu Vista Apartments. Despite the fact that McGarrett and Morrison are seen driving in a location which suggests that this barber shop is out in the sticks, it is really not.
• I thought Morrison was a mainlander, but it doesn't look like this is the case. After he surprises him at Ames' place, Hossa threatens to kill Morrison's family, who are at 2756 Kalawao St. This street number in the closed captions is 2476, as opposed to 2756 as heard in dialogue by Hossa and Grover.
• Jerry tells Kono and Dekker that "I have a little man crush on the guy [Adam]."
• Considering Dekker seems to be bleeding pretty badly during his and Kono's attempt to escape from Danielle, why isn't there any of Dekker's blood on the floor of the laundry room where he hides?
• The book Jerry is seen reading -- The Secret History of Freemasonry by Paul Naudon -- is a real book.
• Bad words: "He's a slippery son of a bitch" (Grover referring to Ames).