RATING: 3 stars
Original air date: 03/13/15
This episode was not bad, falling into the category of "how could it be worse than the one(s) that preceded it?" (both of which were major stinkers).
Unfortunately, there was a very stupid sub-plot of Jerry getting mistaken for a home invader robbing and attacking divorced women. The show began with Jerry getting picked out of an HPD lineup by one of the victims with "beyond a reasonable doubt" certainty.
Chin, Grover and Kono did the investigative work trying to get Jerry sprung from becoming what Jerry called "the next Hurricane Carter," referring to the boxer who spent almost 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
It turned out that three of the invader's victims all used the same law firm (Kaio and Reed), so it didn't take much effort to track down the culprit who worked there. The guy turned out to be a big Samoan-looking dude with long hair, but the bigness and hair were where the resemblance to Jerry ended.
The crime of the week (or, more specifically, big action of the week) happened in and around the barber shop of Odell Martin (Michael Imperioli reappearing after only 5 episodes). Much of the acting in this part of the show was very good.
McGarrett was getting a shave at some early hour of the morning, like around 6 a.m. -- probably the first time O'Loughlin's McGarrett has appeared clean-shaven on the show since it began, if I recall correctly. This was a new barber shop because it ends up looking like Swiss cheese after a bunch of Armenian gangsters shoot it up. (The previous location in S05E14 is a local landmark).
These bad guys are after Eran (Steven Krueger), a young guy who flees inside. Eran, who has been shot in the knee, says he was working at his job at the Hoapili Bakery on Palolo Avenue (bogus business, real street) and witnessed these Armenian dudes executing some guy.
After the gangsters, led by Ari Bailan (Ivo Nandi), spray the shop with automatic weapon fire, McGarrett soon runs out of ammunition. Odell manages to lock the drop-down metal gate in a scene which is ridiculous, because as he does this, a bullet comes flying towards him in slow motion. Bullets do not really fly in slow motion, and if this was real life, Odell would be toast! After a very long time, an HPD cop eventually shows up in response to phone calls about the shooting, but he is dispatched with a bullet to the head.
Barricaded in the shop with bad guys both at the front and back doors and Odell's closed-circuit TV disabled, McGarrett is at his wits' end, only to discover Bailan cutting his way into the place with a chainsaw through the Kahanu Flower Shop next door. This leads to a very cool stunt with not one, but two guys becoming human torches as Odell and McGarrett fashion a Molotov cocktail from various barbering supplies like hair dye and after shave.
McGarrett gets Odell to drive Eran to King's Medical Center after Eran is further wounded during the final confrontation with the gangsters. But on the way there, Eran grabs a gun that McGarrett gave Odell and gets him to drive to a marina.
Meanwhile, McGarrett confronts the local Armenian gang boss, Garig Dobrian (Mark Ivanir).
Odell has already provided McGarrett with info about this guy, who relocated from Los Angeles where the trope of an Armenian gang was already used a lot on The Shield, a show which co-starred Alex O'Loughlin. Odell describes Dobrian as "ruthless. Drugs, shakedowns, insurance scams -- got his hands in all of it. He owns the Rainbow Valley Supermarket over on Palolo Avenue, but that place is just a front."
It turns out that Dobrian is Eran's father, and that he ordered his men to kill his son, who he calls "a sick boy, touched by the devil," after he found out that his son was involved in the murder of several children. Somehow Dobrian knows that McGarrett was trying to protect his son, saying "I had to make it right, but my associates failed to stop him."
The show ends with McGarrett shooting Eran dead at the docks (yet another suspect!) and then finding evidence to close this case, though you have to wonder why HPD never did this, considering how many children were seemingly killed, judging by the stack of photos McGarrett looks through, bringing to mind the line about how such events can rock even the most hardened investigators.
MORE TRIVIA:
- Danno was not in this show. McGarrett said "he'll be back in a week," without specifying where he was. In fact, the rest of Five-0, investigating Jerry's dilemma, had nothing to do with McGarrett at all during the show.
- There are three pictures shown of the home invader's victims. The first of these, Susan Lipsberg, has a large cut on her right lip in her photo, but not when she fingers Jerry in the lineup. The other two women are named Carol Oyama and Mary Washimura.
- Odell's new shop is supposedly located in the 1200 block of Queen Street (1284 precisely), which a look at Google Maps will disprove. This address is actually located quite close to the beach in Ala Moana Beach Park, though.
- McGarrett commits a major faux pas when he leaves his cel phone in his Silverado while having a shave, so he cannot call HPD after the shooting starts. As well, Odell had "a falling out with the phone company years ago," and he "[doesn't] do cell phones." If so, you have to wonder how did McGarrett contact Odell to "open up early, [and] sacrifice your morning paddle, all for my schedule."
- While moving stuff around in the shop, McGarrett finds Odell's diploma for law school, specifically Fordham University. The date he received his degree was May 10, 1972. Michael Imperioli is only 48 years old, which would probably be much younger than someone who received this degree after spending three to four years after getting a bachelors' degree at university. In other words, Imperioli's character would probably be in his mid-60's, at least! When telling McGarrett that he had had enough of studying law after he got this degree, Odell uses the expression "wela ka hao," which translates as "strike while the iron is hot."
- Grover is Mr. Potty-Mouth again, calling Chin's brother-in-law a "sick son of a bitch," and telling Tauna Lahani (Pogi Tevaga), the suspect in the home invasions, "I don't think you got the stones [balls] to run, do you?"
- Max, who is Jerry's alibi, tells Chin reluctantly the night before Jerry was arrested that the two of them were at a Magic: The Gathering tournament which features geeky trading cards. Max pocketed a pile of money at this tournament, though, according to Wikipedia, "The gambling rule is forbidden at sanctioned events and is now mostly a relic of the past, though it still sees occasional usage in friendly games."
- At the end of the show, how does McGarrett know where Odell and Eran are?
- During the first meeting Chin had with Jerry while the latter was in jail, there was actually NO MUSIC for about 50 seconds. Amazing! The sound mix for this show was unusually bad, by the way, especially when heard on a relatively low-fi system.
- When talking to Chin, Jerry makes reference to Locked Up Abroad, a National Geographic Channel reality show about people who have been arrested while travelling.
No comments:
Post a Comment