Finale Watch: Hawaii Five-0 “Ooia’i’o (Trust)” 

I know I dragged on getting this posted, y’all. Apologies. And yet, I have to start with a gripe. We sat through 2/3 of the season listening to Danny pine for/whine about his ex-wife and then all of a sudden he’s reunited with her, and the finale confirmed that not only were they sleeping together, but Rachel is pregnant? The hell? I totally do not get the point of that happening offscreen, and I don’t think Danny would have done that with Grace very present in the picture. Fail!

Aside from that, the finale wrote out two recurring characters, disbanded 5-0, and had two of the 5-0s in HPD custody. So, there’s that.

We start with Danny and Rachel in bed and she’s telling him she needs to go ahead and pull the trigger on leaving Stan (well, I guess so). At HPD, Kelly is offered a lieutenant’s badge since he’s been cleared of the robbery and he says thanks, but no. On his way out, he finds out that the money burned when Hesse was killed has turned up in a field.

We catch up with him reporting that development to McGarrett, but we don’t know if Kelly also tells him about the job offer. The have a meet cute in the hall with the governor and Laura Hills where the governor and McGarrett try to push Kelly and Laura off on each other. While the boys head upstairs, Laura and the governor head outside. Laura takes her leave, climbs in her car, and as soon as she turns over the engine, the car explodes. Up in the 5-0 office, the windows are blown out; outside, the governor is screaming blood murder.

The 5-0s investigate and find that a Claymore mine is responsible for the blast and that Laura was the one sending McGarrett the contents of the lock box. The last item received, just before she was killed, was a skeleton key. Kaye tells McGarrett the key belongs to an 1800s desk and he says doesn’t have a piece like that in his dad’s house. They also find out that that McGarrett’s fingerprints are all over Laura’s house.

Kaye discovers that the Claymore was stolen from a base, so McGarrett and Danny go investigate the suspect, who attempts to bolt before Danny pepper sprays him. They arrest and then interrogate him and use his soldier brother via webcam to provide an additional lean. He gives up that Wo Fat paid him $50K for the mine and to drop McGarrett’s name when asked who bought it. Danny and McGarrett go catch the governor up, and there in her office is the 1800s desk. McGarrett cuts short the info sharing and scoots out and Danny twigs that he’s being cagey.

Next, they find out the prisoner transport has been ambushed and their witness and two officers have been killed. McGarrett’s ready to ride into the governor’s mansion, sure that she dropped the dime on the transport, until Danny (supposedly) talks him down. He’s called away by Rachel, so he dispatches McGarrett home (he thinks), but McGarrett doubles back and breaks in and finds that the key fits the desk and the now-unlocked drawer has pictures of Laura leaving the envelopes for him.

Danny meets up with Rachel and she tells him she’s pregnant and it’s his (so they’ve been together a while–again–we’re finding this out NOW?). She says she’s going to leave Stan, and Hawaii, and he says he’ll go with her and Grace back to NJ. Sne makes the case that he has a job and he tells her his family is more important and the whole reason he came to Hawaii to begin with.

The next morning, McGarrett shares what he found in the desk and Kelly gets a heads up phone call that McGarrett is about to be arrested for Laura’s murder. In a really ridiculous scene, where it looks like the entire HPD force is dispatched to pick him up, he bolts to the roof. Riding shotgun on the arrest is IAB and they pick up Kono based on a witness who saw her outside HPD back when the money was stolen.

Danny puts a fork in his town-leaving plans and leaves Kaye to mind the fort while McGarrett goes to Kamekona and loads up on guns. At nightfall, McGarrett makes his way to the governor’s mansion and takes out her security detail. When he reaches her office, she’s reaching for a weapon and he shuts her down. She tries to talk him off his trigger finger, and he’s so overwhelmingly betrayed by what she’s done that he’s near tears as he puts his cell phone in record mode and tosses it on the desk, confronting her about killing his parents, killing Laura, and setting him up as the head of 5-0 to keep him close.

She refutes that his parents’ killers were caught and does the stall thing, saying that she’ll tell him whatever he wants to hear. He brings up Yakuza and Wo Fat and she never really confesses outright but Jean Smart sells it that she has reason to be terrified of McGarrett because she is guilty. Just as McGarrett is mid-rage, he’s tasered and Wo Fat appears as he falls down. The governor says they have to get rid of McGarrett and Wo Fat essentially tells her he’s got it, and then shoots her twice and swaps guns with an unconscious McGarrett on the floor.

McGarrett comes to and sees the dead governor across the room at the same time HPD (including new lieutenant Kelly) arrives. Kelly cuffs McGarrett while he insists it was Wo Fat and then leads him outside. Danny swoops in and goes defcon 10 on Kelly for being HPD again. He promises McGarrett he’ll fix things and then we see Rachel and Grace at the airport gate finally giving up on Danny’s arrival and turning to board their plane.

At the station, we get interspersed shots of Kono being ID’d in a lineup by the elderly lady who confronted her outside HPD (in the heist episode) and then booked, and across the room Steve being photographed and booked into custody, too. They share a sad look as the screen goes back. And, summer!

So we have our setup for seaon two. I’m happy for all involved that we got a full 24 episodes and a renewal. I love the stat that Tina wrote about that the show is #1 for DVR’d programs. So many folks beholding the power of cheese!

I’m glad the door is open for Dacascos to return. I hope they ramp up his role. It’s a drag they wasted Jean Smart because she could have been badass playing a rogue governor.

And yay, yay, yay for Alex O’Loughlin for landing a pitch-perfect vehicle. The whole cast seems to be having a blast. I’m pleased the TVG item about Grace Park maybe leaving was wrong. Thanks so much for reading. See you in the fall!