The Steve McGarrett Story – No # 133

We continue our story from here.

Just a report back on the little fun ‘underwear’ poll that we posted last week. Although we did not get a lot of people responding, I still think it shows a good representation of how women feel about it in general –  59,2% of the responders said that they prefer to buy their own sexy underwear, 23,5% did not care for sexy underwear at all and 17,2% wanted their man to buy the underwear for them. Looking at the poll, it might have been more plausible for Danny and Melissa to be fighting about the underwear he bought for her, than the not-said,  “I love you“.

This week it seems that we are back to basics of the Hawaii Five-0 procedural again. Some good entertainment with great stunts and fights and action. Also a great performance by the guest star Joe Egender, who played Neil. (Some trivia – Joe is the same age as Alex)

And of course as usual Alex just being gorgeous competent Steve did not disappoint at all.  As before with similar situations, Alex and Grace did a great job with their characters and their interacting with the special needs of someone like Neil. All in all a great all-round performance by cast and crew.

…. but …..

I know most of us do not take the show too seriously and just enjoy the ride for what it is. It is however sad to me that lately so much seems to go missing somewhere. Maybe it is just me that got more critical as the show progressed over the seasons and for some reason I became disillusioned of the promise of greatness in the beginning. It just seems to me that between the writing and the actual filming of the show with the different directors, and with the final editing, something always seems to go awry. I have said before that the ingredients for greatness are all there, but somehow the taste of the final dish just seem to miss that something extraordinary.

Most members of the cast are still doing a great job in portraying their characters and the stunt crew are always doing a stellar job and maybe that is why I want more …….. and to criticize something and to want more from it, does not mean one hates it. In life, I admire loving honesty much more than blind praise.

Some general notes:

• I am a bit uncertain if Clara William’s arrival was supposed to be a flashback or to show her arriving on the island now. Exact same footage used as with her arrival in Season 4, but with no reason to show a flashback of her previous arrival because that story of her divorce is not part of the new story now? I also find it odd in the context of the show that she would rather come to get a free cruise, than to meet her “new” grandson Charlie?
• Not only is there recycling of scenes, but now recycling of talking part actors as well? I know some people would not even recognise if an actor was used more than once for different characters – but some of us crazy ones do.
• I saw on a tweet that more of the footage between Steve and Neil will be on the DVD extras. It is really a pity that some (lots) of Alex’s great character work as Steve on Hawaii Five-0 lands on the editing room floor and only have to make it to the DVD extras. When I say this, I am thinking of his therapy and some of the other scenes that only those who buy DVD’s get to see and never become part of the TV show that everybody can see.

I know not many of you care about timelines, but I find it interesting. Just thought to make a small one for this episode as well to understand the unfolding of the events better:

• For 6 nights (from 9 pm till early morning at 5am) a 4 man team of thieves were busy digging a hole in a wall from the parking garage into the vault of a bank. (Most probably making a lot of noise while doing it)
• The day after they finished digging and got into the bank and got the data from the safe in the manager’s office, they kill Mark at his house. Most probably because they see him as a loose end as the guy who gave them access to the parking garage.

• On his way to work Neil finds Mark’s body at his house and take him to hospital. (I guess Mark and Neil worked the night shifts, so this must be by late afternoon that this happened. BUT later  Steve says that he goes by Mark’s house every morning. Was that a wrong ad-lib from Alex or bad writing?)
• After 9 pm that evening Neil  performs the same ritual of the previous 6 nights to get ready for the ‘tunnel” diggers to arrive again. Steve realises that something might be going down and he investigates further and with it find the hole in the wall.
• I guess that the bank would be closed this time of night and they had to call the manager to open up for them to investigate the break-in.

• They continue to investigate through the night and gather more evidence like the cigaret butts. They get the results for that later on the 2nd day in the afternoon I guess, because …..
• Only around 11 am on the 2nd day did Gabriel interrogate and kill the thieves. (Why only then and not already the previous day is a mystery to me?)
• Here the Five-0’s make the connection with Ella the assistant manager (as her brother was one of the dead men) and they pick her up for questioning. She leads them to the truth of what was actually stolen.
• Now the focus moves onto the bank manager and with his arrest and connection to the people he has been laundering the money for, leads them to the shootout with Gabe and his men.

More questions arising from the timeline:

• Why did they need so many police members and even helicopters at Mark’s house? And of course it went from very bright daylight outside to pretty dark quite quickly.

Koala Smartass: They all were on a break with the last episode, needed to give them some work this time. And Hawaii is at the end of the world, and the sun sets pretty fast there …. maybe?

• Just as a lead-in to get Steve to move the dumpster in the parking garage, I would have had him look inside it and maybe see concrete and other building rubble from the hole that they dug, in there. #justsaying. A bit strange that he would know to just move the dumpster.

Koala Smartass: His Navy SEAL instinct just lead him there.

• If the guys already got into the vault the previous night, why did the people in the bank not see the big hole inside their vault wall on the first day after it was done, before Steve found the hole only that evening? Was it weekend?

Koala Smartass: Maybe nobody needed anything from the vault that day?

• It is night time, but the bank manager and Ella Koha the assistant manager are at the bank all dressed up in smart ‘work’ clothes? And other employees came in to check their offices as well?

Koala Smartass: People in Hawaii always wear formal clothes, even at home. 

• Great for the team that the stairwell smoker guy was also the guy at whose house Gabe shot them all at.

Koala Smartass: Smartass!

• Chin says the guys were taken by surprise when executed, but later Max says that there were signs that they were beaten before being shot? And Max made all those conclusions, while they were all still in the same positions in which they were shot? How did he examine in them properly if they were not even moved or undressed?

Koala Smartass: Max has developed the Five-0 superpowers as well now.

• Why did Gabriel execute the guys who stole his money before getting the information of what they did with his money – it does not sound very clever of him to do that or did he just get tired of ‘torturing’ them? Why did he not look on the laptop before shooting them? For a mastermind who was clever enough to have accumulated $94 million dollars through crime, he really acts kind of dumb at times.

Koala Smartass: Who will ever understand the mind of a mastermind criminal who wants to rule the world island?

• Ella said that her brother said that no one will get hurt … just poor Mark that they needed to get rid off I guess.

Koala Smartass: Yup, the best intentions never work out as we think it would.

• And if the bank manager told Gabriel that it was the assistant manager’s brother who stole the money, why did Gabriel only go after the crew, but did not think it might be her that have the money and go after her sooner? They must have known that she was working with her brother since they saw the footage and knew she would be able to do the transfers. And if he could find the brother at someone elses house, he would certainly be able to get her address all on his own?

Koala Smartass: The bank manager was secretly in love with her, and wanted to protect her from Gabriel and never told him the real connection. 😀

• Why did neither Gabriel nor Five-0 bring more people to the shootout if they knew it was a trap. And why did Gabriel’s men go into the building opposite Ella’s flat and not her building. The whole thing just do not add up, I guess like most stuff surrounding the Gabriel story?

Koala Smartass: Not enough time to gather a big group of support. And of course they were in the wrong building because Steve gave them the wrong address. And it is easy to mistake an empty office building for an apartment building.

As far as the long-term story arcs of the FBI’s “vendetta investigation” and the Gabriel saga goes, I prefer to not say much more ……. all I can say is that my fears that Abby would be Lori’d seems to be true. What do I mean by it? A pretty blond female introduced to the team as a colleague but who is supposed to be a “spy” for somebody, AND who falls head over heels for one of the team’s men ……. sounds familiar?

And that was Steve’s  story for:

Hawaii Five-0 – Episode 6:15

Ke Koa Lokomaika’i (The Good Soldier)

Written by: Carmen Pilar Golden & Sue Palmer

Directed by: Bryan Spicer

To be continued …….