The Steve McGarrett Story – No # 160 (Epi 7:17)

Oh what a pleasure to see Alex do his stuff as Steve when he is provided with a better story and some great  talent sharing the screen with him. All I can say is that Alex really shined brightly together with the two guest actresses. Nothing over the top. Such pure portrayal of their various characters in various scenes. And I also once again enjoyed Steve and Chin being partners on this one, traveling to the mainland. (The two of them have done a lot of flying lately. 😀 )

Having said all that great stuff, it is Five-0 after all, and as usual there were some plotholes as wide as the Grand Canyon. But not even that could take away much from the entertainment value of this episode for me. I sincerely hope that it is the beginning of a few more great episodes to come for the rest of this season …..

Before I go any further, I just want to add that together with a great performance as Steve hunting some monsters, Alex also looked GORGEOUS!

But although I found the episode great entertainment, it will not prevent me from asking some curious questions as usual ……

• I guess Danny and Steve just took a joyride to the North Shore just to check out the grand opening of Flippa (I mean Kamekona’s) truck there. Crime on the island must be slow if they can just hang around there for no real reason work related at all.

Koala Smartass: I always get the feeling with each of these photo op scenes with celebs (which I as non-American normally have no clue who the celebs actually are), that they are trying to teach us how to behave whenever we meet one of them. Does that make any sense to you or is it just in the Koala’s head? Thanks for the lessons, but I doubt if I will ever force myself to the front on the line to rudely cut in ……

• What did the friends at the Phoenix Foundation tell Steve about Dr Gray? That she was on her way to Hawaii? How did they know more about what happens on Hawaii than authorities on Hawaii? If they knew she was travelling to Hawaii, they must have known what alias she used. AND what does it help if your connections warn you about stuff, but you do not act on it Steve? Alicia should have been told immediately about the warning.

Koala Smartass: You do realise that this is just a mention to set up a crossover episode with MacGyver and it was not really hardcore info. Don’t spoil the EP’s fun!

• Steve has been leaving a number of messages on Alicia’s phone without her answering back, but he does not go there immediately? I mean this woman tried to have both him and Alicia killed, 4 months ago and he knows Dr Gray was on the loose in Hawaii. Now she walks in with blood on her hands, and he does not immediately, after not being able to reach her, go to Alicia himself or at least send a police patrol to check on her?

Koala Smartass: You know by now that Steve’s skills and instincts vary as necessary for the story ….

• Why does Steve ask the question, “Why did Dr Gray choose Eagle Wisconsin?”, but he never checks for connections. They always do cross check references. Why not do it now this time when they have a real reason? (Gray would have been connected to Brown and Brown to Sears. As easy as that.)

Koala Smartass: Duh. Then the story would be solved too soon. And we would have missed out on some pretty Steve.

• Seeing Steve’s face when he  realises that Alicia might be Dr Gray’s victim, reminded me a lot of his expression when he realised that his father’s killer, Victor Hess, was still alive and on the Island.

Koala Smartass: That face

• How can Steve even suggest that Dr Gray collected Alicia’s blood 4 months ago? For what purpose? She organised their deaths, why keep some blood? Did she know they would escape? Maybe the water-hole was just to slow them down for her to get away – she knew Steve’s abilities and for sure must have known that they would survive. 😆 And how did she keep the blood? She was on the run back then? Dumb question Steve.

Koala Smartass: They had to give him something to say …… (and you nitpick too much)

• I was just wondering, was ‘poor’ Dr Gray sitting on that chair and tied up to that table all the time? She still looked kind of good and happy after all those hours there?

Koala Smartass: Of course not. HPD can’t be that cruel. They must have had her in a holding cell and just brought her to that room for Alicia. I am just amazed at how fresh she looked after all this time maybe sleeping in the holding cell. HPD must have some make-up stylist around to “do” the detainees before visits from a guest.

• Okay here is where the timeline and distances gets all screwed up again. The team is discussing what looks like for the first time, what happened with Dr Gray and Alicia. What time would you guess it was? I would have thought that it would be around 6 or 7 or 8 am that morning? All depending on how urgently Steve called the team to get back to the office that morning. But oops no, we got it all wrong! Why do I say that? Grover walks in and says that Alicia and Dr Gray just landed it Wisconsin 30 minutes ago. In the beginning I thought it would be about 8 hours, but according to Mr Mike’s calculation that should be at least 13 hours and when taking everything into consideration, most probably many more hours later, after they left the police station between 4 and 5am that morning. That would then mean that the team was actually only discussing the situation at around 6 or 7pm, maybe even much later that evening. What did they do all day? Play frisbee on the beach?

Koala Smartass:

• And now suddenly Steve starts running cross references with Alicia and Wisconsin? Looks like the man has lost his game, or too much wine at dinner? Maybe he is still in a trance from all the fun and Jasmine at the spa? I mean Valentine’s day was only 3 days before that day.

Koala Smartass: Ah, no wonder Steve was enjoying some adult companionship with Alicia – the double dating couples disaster with what seemed like 3 juveniles happened just 2 days before this dinner with her.

(If anybody got confused – I know they talked about couples weekend during last week’s episode, but Valentines is on 14 February, and this episode started on 16 February. We see the date on Steve’s phone the next morning at 4:06)

• I would really love to know what type of persuasion Dr Gray used on Sears to give up the information about Jones, and maybe get him to kill himself rather than give up the information to anybody else. That must have been some real powerful stuff.

Koala Smartass: I guess he must have told her that he wanted to kill himself and she promised him that she will organise some dumb cops from Hawaii to provide him with a pen to kill himself with ….. (sorry Steve)

• Shouldn’t it be protocol to record visits to such high profile prisoners and maybe someone should have heard what they talked about during those visits? Especially with a criminal still involved in an unsolved FBI case.

Koala Smartass: And you clearly expect too much from the prison system or FBI investigations.

• Okay, so now Steve and Chin got on a plane and also fly to Wisconsin and then had to drive to Portage. That would be at least another 13 hours and more for the flying and even more added for the driving.

Koala Smartass: And?

• And now after having a head start of more that 13 hours, suddenly Steve and Chin are just 15 minutes behind the 2 women. Not to mention that they had to see Sears first and help him kill himself etc. That would have taken some more hours to get them so close to Jones’s place. What did the 2 women do all that time while they were there already? Go to the mall, or went to have their nails done?

Koala Smartass: It is Five-0. Time and place does not exist. What is your point?

• And how did Steve and Chin now so quickly figure out where this Benton Jones lived? Again, why did the authorities never check on  Sears’s connections before, when Sienna’s case was still open with no body or killer ever found?

Koala Smartass: But you must know by now that in the world of Five-0,  the FBI are a bunch of bureaucratic idiots who are only up for bribes. They are not really good at their job at all. Trying hard to recall any honest or good agents that we ever got over the 7 years thus far ..

• So Benton lives out there in the quiet of the woods, but he would he not hear the car pulling up and just wait for Alicia? I really do not understand why she is acting so dumb in a place that is unknown to her?

Koala Smartass: She was trained at the FBI. Read comment above at previous point and you will know my answer. 

But to be more realistic. I think her behaviour makes a good point for why neither dr’s nor law enforcement should be involved when family members are part of the case. You do dumb things. Unfortunately Alicia did not know that her daughter was involved when she left the house and Steve that morning. If she knew, then maybe she would have made a better choices.

• Dear directors, or writers, or whoever. Would it not have been good use of the “time” problem to get Steve and Chin closer and also solve this problem of Alicia acting dumb, if Dr Gray and Alicia actually staked out Benton’s place and waited for him to leave and then she could have gone in?

Koala Smartass: But then we would have known that Sienna was alive and spoiled the fun. 

• No, I disagree, there could still have been suspense in it if we heard Dr Gray tell Alicia that, but not really know if she is telling the truth or not.

• Why did Steve not share all the information about Wisconsin with Alicia. I was actually the whole time waiting  for them to discover it during dinner. To make some connection and be cleaver together, and to outsmart the evil doctor. I was hoping they would not always just be reactive, but actually solve something together and get the Dr in a trap.
  

Koala Smartass: The show was very careful never to let Alicia know that Dr Gray lived in Wisconsin for the past 4 months. She would have made the connection. And the suspense would be lost if they were actually too good for the Psycho Dr. Or would it have been? I would also have loved it if they were actually smarter than her.

• I did not really understand what Jones’s motivation was for keeping Sienna captive and alive all these years. Was he not really a killer but just a groupie trying to impress Sears?

Koala Smartass: He was lonely out there in the woods?

• And why did nobody ever  find those letters from him with Sears. How did he get them if not through the prison system. Are the prison guards just like the FBI, all on the take and prepared to look the other way?

Koala Smartass: In the world of Five-0, only Five-0 are the good guys ……

• The end somehow caught me by surprise, but not like most of you would think. I was kind of sure that Alicia did not want to ‘wake’ Sienna for Steve, because she was actually guarding Dr Gray somewhere in the house. And that Alicia was boiling the kettle for some torture material for Dr Gray. Her behaviour made me feel like she was hiding something from Steve and that while he was searching, she actually already knew where Dr Gray was. That she came around earlier, much like how she did at the end, but that Alicia was able to capture her …..

Koala Smartass: Now that would have been some REAL drama. And I am kind of sure you are confusing people now. I guess we will have to wait and see how this plays out. I am sure we will get some unexciting resolution within the first seconds of next week’s episode. Maybe you will be surprised again. But then again, it is Five-0 …….

At moments they again really ‘dumbed’ Steve’s and the team’s abilities down to the level of some novices. A bit too much for my liking, but I do not even want to mention those. As a summary I’d rather like to list the stuff that I really enjoyed during this episode:

• Steve stroking the chair in the interrogation room. (see previous post for image)
• Steve in the snow. (see previous post for images)
• Steve cooking dinner for a friend.
• Steve exchanging some banter with a friend that did not somehow sound like juvenile idiots
• Steve sleeping (on a couch) – a continuation of this story: Alex O’Loughlin is having an affair ………with couches
• Caring Steve, believing in his friends and their motives.
• Steve’s subtle changes of faces, so perfectly executed by Alex. Gently saying so much with just his face (and body) ……..

And that was Steve’s  story for:

Hawaii Five-0 – Episode 7:17

Hahai i na pilikua nui (Hunting Monsters)

Written by: Rob Hanning

Directed by: Roderick Davis

To be continued …….

Our slide show of the screencaps from the episode: