Hawaii Five-0 “Ma Ke Kahakai (Shore)” 

Catching up on recaps, last week’s Hawaii Five-0 was a bit of a disjointed affair that I thought was rewritten to accommodate an injury for Alex O’Loughlin. I can’t find absolute confirmation whether he did or didn’t actually break his arm, but the setup is that he’s hurt while he and Danny are out on a hike, and that switches up the dynamics for the rest of the episode. He takes a tumble while going to investigate a body that somebody tossed out of an airplane into the middle of nowhere, which is where they happen to be. He trusses himself up and then when it looks like a rainstorm may open up on them, climbs single-armed up the side of the drop. Before that, Danny climbs to cell phone range and calls the cavalry. He returns in time for Steve to make it topside as he and the body are airlifted out, netting us a gif-worthy “I heart you” pantomime from Danny.

Turns out the victim was a fisherman who didn’t want to go along with the drug trade taking over the marina, and he spoke out to protect his son, who was in business with him. That got him an asskicking, but didn’t get him killed. Ina nifty plot diversion, he was working a side gig at an airstrip and witnessed a murder suspect leaving in the middle of the night on a charter. The suspect’s dad fund out and killed him. When Danny and Steve catch up with him, he barricades himself in the floor inside his house but the boys break the doors down and arrest him. The suspect is brought home, and Kono goes to tell the fisherman’s family that he was a hero.

On the family front, Kono and Kelly’s aunt is in renal failure so they’re summoned home for final goodbyes, and Kelly worries that he won’t be welcome, but Kono tells him their uncle knew Kelly visited when he wasn’t home, so he should come now. They get there, there’s some frostiness, and their aunt tells Kono it’s her task now to get the family back together. Kono asks Kelly about the fractiousness and he comes clean that he took the fall for their uncle, who stole the money to buy a kidney for his wife. This rattles Kono every which way but she doesn’t really have time to get into it because she’s fairly primary on the case while Steve sits out half the episode, but I’m sure we’ll revisit that.

So, all in all, a pretty straightforward episode but a little disjointed with Steve out for a chunk of the episode. We did get some exposition fairy on Leila and Wo Fat just so we didn’t forget that was still out there—seems Steve is still getting piecemeal mementos from his dad’s toolbox returned to him in the mail.

The hike scene at the beginning was a nice nod to Hawaiian landscapes but I had to laugh that Danny was hiking in black denim. Chafing, people! Seriously, though, if anyone has the “I heart you” in an animated gif, please post it in the comments. Thanks!

Syndication news—TNT will start reairing H50 in 2014 and dropped significant coin for the privilege. And kudos to the show for its recognition by the State Legislature in Hawaii!