The Steve McGarrett Story – No #86

We continue our story from here

A journalist, Sean Hutton, asks Steve some questions about Grover’s past. He is writing an article on the “facts” about why Grover left Chicago and a promising career, to come and work in Hawaii.

Just some trivia: Chi McBride’s name comes for Chicago. His birth name is actually Kenneth, but he was born and raised in Chicago and took on the name Chi, derived from his hometown.

After some initial resistance, Grover tells Steve what happened in Chicago. A man was holding his own boy hostage and said that he would kill the boy and himself because his wife wants to take the boy away from him. Because Grover knew the man from previous incidents with the family, he was handling the negotiation in the hostage drama himself. Unfortunately the man shot his son and then himself. Grover waited to move in with SWAT while reasoning with the guy, and that gave him the time to shoot and kill his son and himself.  The sight of that little boy still haunts him.

Grover: I hope you never see something like that man, because you remember for the rest of your life.

Steve: You made a call Lou, all right. It’s not your fault, what happened.

Grover: That’s what they told me. That’s what I told myself.  But I still couldn’t get passed the idea, if I done one thing, just done one thing differently, that that little boy would still be alive. Chicago PD cleared me, but I couldn’t get passed it. I was fighting with my wife, and I’m yelling at my kids. The best friend I had in the world, I get into a little argument and I end up punching the guy. And I spend so many nights, late at night pacing the floor in my livingroom, my eighth beer, my ninth beer, my tenth beer. And I’m angry, trying to……. I’m counting all the people that pissed me off that day? And I’m asking, “What the hell is wrong with everybody?”

Well eventually I figured out what the problem was, and it was me. And unless I wanted to ruin my career and wreck my marriage, I had to get the hell out of Chicago, man. Because driving down those streets, every little kid I saw, was Christian Molina. So, I put in for the job out here and figured, why not put six thousand miles and an ocean between me and my problems. And then this Sean Hutton is coming around, and he’s bringing all that back to my front door. And I’ve gonna have to deal with this all over again. All the guilt. All the questions.

Steve: You got my full support.

Grover: I really appreciate that, man. That’s why I came down here to talk to you. I know you got things you’re keeping inside. You got to get those things off your chest. Or I swear, they gonna press the air right out of you. And then you’re gonna end up just like me.

You know what I’m trying to say, right?

Steve: Yeah

After Steve heard Lou’s story, he decides to try and appeal to Sean to drop the article.

Steve: Thanks for coming.

Sean: You changed your mind about going on record?

Steve: No, I’m afraid not, Sean. Listen, I know what happened in Chicago, all right. And your facts may be right, but you are way off base about Captain Grover. He’s a good man and he’s a great cop.

Sean: Who made the wrong call and got a little boy killed. I’m surprised by your support for him Commander. One of the first things Grover did, when he rode into  town, was file a grievance against  you.

Steve: Which was withdrawn.

Sean: So you owe him a favour now?

Steve: That’s not how it works.

Sean: Why are you defending him. I don’t get you.

Steve: You don’t get. No you don’t GET me. You non-operators, you sit on the sidelines and you judge us in the field. You’ve no idea what it’s like. The hard decisions we have to make every day, going down range. And the consequences we have to live with forever.

Sean: Are you speaking for Captain Grover, or are you speaking for yourself?

Steve: I’m speaking for anyone whose ever had to do this job. I’m also asking you, leave this one alone.

In the end Steve got Sean to pull the article about Grover. Steve promised him a favour down the line some day, in exchange for it…..

Grover: You know that’s going to come around and bite you in the ass, right?

Steve: Yeah, maybe. That’s a problem for another day, right. Listen man, I really appreciate you telling me about Chicago.

Grover: Well perhaps some day you’ll tell me why you came back home.

Steve: Yes, some day.

I always disregard any deleted scenes, that might be included on the DVD’s. To me they don’t exist, because they are not part of what any regular TV viewer can see and therefore can’t be seen as part of the story. But I just want to mention, that the deleted scene of the group session Steve attended, that we posted a while back (link), would have been included at the end of this episode, if I understood correctly. (Instead the episode ended with a father daughter talk between Danny & Grace)

The majority of fans said that they can’t believe it was excluded – and I understand it. But I personally feel that if they want to deal with any trauma in Steve’s life, a short scene like that would really not mean anything. It will need at least a whole episode, or something over at least a couple of episodes to address it. Who knows, maybe Episode 100, is that episode that deals with it – not that I am holding my breath on that one. 😀

Just some more trivia: This was another ‘Steve/ Grover episode’, directed by Jerry Levine (Nina Tassler’s husband). Just like with Epi 408, on which the two of them did the commentary.

– Hawaii Five-0: Episode 415 –

Pale ‘la (Buried Secrets)

 To be continued here