RATING: 3-1/2 stars
Original air date: 10/24/14
Yes! A good show, and not only that, the music was good -- both worthy of 3-1/2 out of four stars. The writer for this show, Eric Guggenheim, had written a couple of mediocre episodes -- McGarrett and his ninja momma in the elevator shaft (S03E23) and Catherine in Afghanistan (S04E21), but he also wrote the Carol Burnett show (S04E09), which was above average.
As the show begins, McGarrett goes to visit his father's grave on the anniversary of his murder, September 20th (also the date of the pilot episode of both the old and new shows). He encounters Ellie Clayton (Australian actress Mirrah Foulkes), who is also paying her respects. Her father Paul was murdered years before in the Aces High bar which he owned, and the senior McGarrett (William Sadler), who is seen in numerous flashbacks, was not only in charge of investigating, but took the orphaned Ellie under his wing. Ellie is now a deputy prosecutor in Honolulu.
No one was ever charged with the murder of Ellie's father, so McGarrett reopens the cold case. Five-0 revisits people who were suspects at the time and digs up evidence. Paul Clayton's body is exhumed to get fragments of bullets which are examined by Max and Mindy Shaw as the music takes a dive with some crappy pop tune heard for a few seconds. A homeless guy named Ned Burrows (Nick Searcy) leads them to the stolen cashbox from the bar which he recovered in a dumpster and later hid in a building behind Leonard's Bakery (a Honolulu landmark). Amazingly, the box is still there. Kono looks up a card found in the cashbox and references it in the "HPD Symbol Images Database." (Really?) It turns out to be for membership in an underground gaming room called the Paradise Den where Paul Clayton was involved in gambling and where he pissed off some heavy duty dudes who hung out there, including members of SVL, a Samoan street gang.
O'Loughlin's McGarrett has a Jack Lord-like brainstorm when he realizes that Paul Clayton's murder was not because of a robbery, but a hit which was made to look like a robbery.
Jordan Lewis (J.R. Lemon), a meth dealer who argued with Clayton before his murder, is sprung from Halawa and wired. He is sent to rattle the last suspect on the list, Jimmy Sykes (Stephen Bauer, recently known for the TV series Ray Donovan and Tony Montana's pal Manny Ribera in the 1983 remake of Scarface). This unorthodox move backfires, because Sykes shoots Lewis in the chest after Lewis flies off the handle recalling how his junkie mother was in debt to Sykes years before. Fortunately, Five-0 is nearby in the Takahamo Cleaning and Restoration van and arrives quickly on the scene.
Danno did not appear in the show at all. McGarrett was seen talking to him on the phone at one point, wondering "how is the family holding up," referring to the traumatic events of the previous episode. Grover and Kono showed up briefly to help with the investigation, getting some unexpected insight from Kamekona. The team was seen helping Jerry move out of his house near the beginning of the show, and I didn't mind this scene so much, because Chin Ho gave Jerry serious shit over his illegal bugging of the bookstore. However, at the very end of the show, Jerry was confronted and captured by the store's owner, Thomas Farrow (Greg Ellis). Seriously -- I really don't care where this story arc is going, as mentioned previously!
Despite the episode's minor issues, Alex O'Loughlin did a very good acting job. So did Daniel Dae Kim. Aside from the obnoxious "cute" underscore during the move at Jerry's and the above-mentioned outburst during the exhumation, the music was also very good.
Next week, however, is the annual Hallowe'en exercise which in earlier years has not turned out well. We can hope...
MORE TRIVIA:
- Ellie was a keener in school. The recovered cash box from her father's bar contains a report card of hers where she got "A"s in all of her subjects. Her address at the time was 3964 Mokae Avenue, Honolulu 96816. Her ID was 299492, the school district was 399, and her school, Momi Academy, was number 127.
- In a flashback to Christmas 15 years before when McGarrett's father visits Ellie as his partner Chin Ho waits outside, the HPD squad car is number 467. The current McGarrett is working on the Mercury Marquis seen on the original Five-O at the end of the show. The license number is FCS 154, the actual license number of the car.
- When Chin Ho is driving in his classic Mustang, he appears to be actually on an Oahu street, not with the usual projected backgrounds. (Or the projected background technology has improved majorly.)
- cartermatt.com just can't get it right: "Bad news about Jerry – turns out not only is he right about the counter-fitting, but the counter-fitters have found out about him and have taken him."
- The main credits did not kick in until over 8 minutes into the show.
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