H50 season finale
Best thing I can say about season 2 of Hawaii Five-0:
At least it's over. See my icon? If I'd had a pic of me being tortured, I'd've used it.
You know, I've gotten used to having to hand-wave a lot in this show. I've gotten used to ideas being rehashed, tidbits being dangled, characters being wasted, time being somewhat 'flexible,' police procedure being non-existant and the writers leaving plot holes you could drive the Camero through, but last night was just too much of all of the above. I know there are sharks in the waters of Hawaii, but did Lenkov have to try to jump over all of them in one episode?
I was with them until the last ten minutes. Mostly. Actually, I had a few bones to pick before then. I didn't expect the ep to be perfect. Even after last week, I've learned that for every great ep in this series, we have to slug through two or three meh ones and cringe through at least one actually bad one. Okay, I can handle that. Nothing's perfect and H50 is still fun, still has great characters and the great relationship between Steve and Danny. And I'm not so over-invested that I worry about who's going to live and who might die, or get upset when they reveal something shocking or when their supposed surprise revelation was something a lot of fans guessed months ago, no matter how stupid I think it is.
Okay, here's what I loved:
The Danny/Steve moments. We got a great conversation in the car. Danny brought up the letter and took the time to yell at Steve about it, which Steve deserved. I doubt that was really the first time Danny complained about the letter, too but since this show regularly leaves us to fill in characters' reactions, it was nice that they didn't have Danny just 'forget' about it. And the stuff Steve said about putting his hands over his ears and driving with his elbows... and then saying he could hang his head out the window and drive with his feet since he has "great toe control" was both hilarious and slightly kinky-sounding. But they went on to have Danny tell Steve what was going on, after reminding him that as friends and partners, they were supposed to share things with each other. And then... in the vet's office... that look between them when Steve put his body in front of Chin's to save him and Danny nearly flipped out worrying about what idiot move Steve might be thinking of doing -- oh, god, that's what Relationship (with a capital "R") is all about. Friends, partners, lovers look at each other that way. Danny, worried, yelling, scared but knowing his Steve will do whatever it takes to get their suspect. I was almost willing to hand wave the rest of the stuff that was wrong with this ep when that happened.
But then....
The writers took those great moments in male bonding and threw them in our faces. Steve, who is supposedly angry with Joe and distrustful of him after all his shennanigans of the last year decides at the drop of a hat to just jump on the nearest plane and, oh yeah, "I have to call Danny or he'll never speak to me again" -- to which Joe quips "would that really be a problem?" Steve gives us a smile then. I noted someone said they thought he was being cavalier about Danny and his relationship from that. At the time I viewed it, I thought it was a fond smile that kind of said, "oh, how wrong you are, Joe". It didn't bother me. What did bother me, was that instead of actually getting Danny on the phone to tell him, Steve just left a message. When you're friends with someone and plans change or you have something important to tell them -- you don't leave a message and then, IDK, go post it on Facebook or wait til you get back to explain, you keep calling until they pick up. I don't know if Danny would be willing to forgive Steve this time. Didn't Danny just tell Steve in the car that he didn't want to leave Hawaii? Maybe Danny should be re-thinking that, if that's all Steve cares about him. Not that Steve doesn't have a thing or two to learn about trust and sharing, and god knows he'll need more than one trip to a therapist after the revelation that Shelburne is his mother, but I think a good shrink could help him work on his obsession issues too. Sure, it's all about his family and what happened to them, but it's been years since it all started. Couldn't he have waited a few days to go off with Joe? Just sayin'.
Here's the other stuff that drove me nuts in this ep and combined, they are what made me really annoyed and angry about it.
Fryer sees there is nothing at the place he's been told to go, but he wanders down the alley to check, even though he's heard from HQ that there's been no crime reported. He turns over a 'dead body' which turns out to be a dummy with a "good-bye" sign on it. Bang, Fryer, you're dead.
Five-0 arrives and Max is shot. Never mind that the trailer tried to fool us into thinking this was who was going to get killed. That didn't bother me. What did? Let's start with them not calling an ambulance to the scene despite Fryer probably being dead on the scene. Shouldn't a medical bus been summoned anyway, thus saving time when Max was shot? And why was Joe touching Fryer's body? He's not a detective? That's Danny, Chin and Kono's job and they would have put gloves on!
And Joe goes with Max... sweet, but didn't Steve say he wasn't going to let Joe out of his sight?
Then the shooter leads the team on a wild chase to police headquarters. As they were heading there, I kept wondering why they didn't smell a trap. After all, they already knew someone had lured Fryer.
I didn't think the woman in the basement was the shooter. But I also didn't think, as Steve apparently did, that she was a civilian. What would a civilian be doing in the police station basement? Though it being her that was the shooter wasn't a great piece of writing, at least it wasn't the silliest part of this ep. We learned enough to find out who she was -- even if she was supposed to be dead -- and lead us to Delano. Did Steve and Danny actually believe that Delano had nothing to do with her? Did the show explain how Delano knew she was alive or how he got together with her to persecute Chin? And who is tooth pick guy, her partner? Why was he watching Danny too if they didn't try to do anything to him the way they did Chin, Malia and Kono? Putting Danny in danger would have been more interesting than dragging out the old Rachel/custody storyline.
And why did Steve kill her? I know that she'd just killed more than one cop, blown up the precinct and attempted to kill them, but could he have wounded her instead? Has anyone else thought about how it would have been helpful to have her alive for questioning? Not saying she'd've told the truth but still. And didn't they have at least a little paperwork they might need to do once that was all over before Steve could head blithely off with Joe to Japan? If they hadn't ignored that, Steve would have been around for Kono and Malia being in danger and Chin going off on his own to get Delano released from jail.
Which brings me to -- WTF were they thinking? It was bad enough that they sprang Kono and Adam dating on us. Why couldn't they have thrown us the tiniest hint of foreshadowing that Delano was going after Chin because of that old stuff about the money? Why would Delano even care if Chin was a bad cop, when Delano was a bad cop himself? (Okay, he's mad because 5-0 brought him down, but shouldn't he be taking it out on all of them and not just Chin?) And Adam and Kono are still dating? (Isn't their relationship kind of compromised anyway? Not only is she a cop and he is a ganster, but after tying her up and trying to kill Steve, I'd've thought it would be hard for them to just act like they are two nice people having a fun relationship. Reminds me of the SH ep "The Fix" where Hutch was dating a woman named Jeannie who used to be with a mobster she was hiding from. To find her, the mobster took Hutch prisoner and hooked him on heroin to get him to reveal her whereabouts. Hutch got away, they arrested the mobster but in the ep's tag, Hutch and Jeannie realized they couldn't go on with their realtionship, no matter how much they loved each other, because too much was between them.) Wouldn't Adam be in jail after last week's events? If he's out on bail or something, how long would it take to throw in a line of dialogue telling us that? Sure, I'll buy it if he's able to help save Kono -- though I'll be much happier if she saves herself as she certainly would have been able to do last season. After all, she's a champion surfer, excellent swimmer and her hands are bound in front of her. (And as someone pointed out, MythBusters tells us duct tape loses its adhesive qualities in water.) And why is our badass Kono duct-taped twice in as many eps? Come on, writers!
I'll tell you when they could have put in some of this vital information -- when they had Kamekono show up with shrimp for Max in the hospital. I know he's a great character, but it's been established that he has contacts on the street. If they wanted to use him in the finale, wouldn't it have been a bit more logical to have him give them some info about... the shooter who killed Fryer... Delano's plans and associates on the street... something other than having him bring shrimp to a man who's been shot in the stomach (or thereabouts) only about two hours ago? As usual, instead of moving along the plot, the writers wasted valuable time throwing in a meaningless "cute" scene, like the time Max and Joe went to the museum. I was already grinding my teeth when that took place, but when I realized how much important information they left out, the idea of that scene really made me angry.
And I wonder, just how did Chin get Delano out of prison? Clearly, instead of figuring out a believable story for him to tell the authorities, it's much easier to just show him doing it. Throw in a comment from Delano about "immunity and means" -- and I guess Delano didn't get the memo that the new governor changed all that -- and we're good to go. And then, Chin pulls his gun on Delano and hands it over because Delano tells him to? No good cop ever hands over his gun! He could have put it down, stopped aiming it at Delano's head, but he didn't have to hand it over. And what did Delano mean about having all the phones "covered"? Boy, that guy really was able to do a lot from behind prison bars. Chin doesn't question him, doesn't try to call anyone, he just gets all upset and has to play Delano's game. This kind of plot always makes me mad in the first place, when the bad guy has all the avenues for our hero to stop him sewn up from the get-go, but this was weak, very weak. And even before Delano revealed that he was going to give Chin a chance to save either Kono or Malia but not both of them, I could see that coming a mile away and was groaning. That cliche is as old as the hills. There could be interesting ramifications from Kono finding out that Chin chose to rush to Malia instead of her -- because he wants to save his wife and figures his cousin can take care of herself, surely, but that will have to have some consequences. But I guess that's the least of our worries right now.
And then we're back to the Joe and Steve show. I interpreted "not letting Joe out of his sight" a little differently than Steve did. If he were truly angry and distrustful of Joe, why would Steve be so happy to jump on the first plane to Japan with him? Why wouldn't the writers have put "Shelburne" somewhere else, say a bit closer?
By the way, I did a quick google search and it takes about 8 hours to fly from Honolulu to Tokyo. Still, as long as we've never tried to let the viewers know how much time has passed from the commission of a crime until the case is wrapped up, why start hinting at those boring things now?
And does Steve need any more angst on his plate? Seriously, if he applied to become a SEAL now, I doubt they'd let him in. Can you say "psychological baggage"? Not only does the man have father issues, now he's supposed to deal with the idea that his mother wasn't really dead all these years? And if she's Shelburne, why and how did she murder Wo Fat's father? Let's not go the route of Prison Break and have the supposedly dead mother be in "the company" or worse. Did Steve's father know she was alive? Who faked her death? Steve's father, or just her? What's Mary going to say about this? Let's not worry our heads about whether Steve was 15 or 16 when he was sent out of Hawaii, after this, he'll not know if he was 5 or 25 when it happened. No wonder the poor guy is confused.
So let's see what the writers have given us for our finale:
Character assasination? Check. Kono has gone from being badass to a girl who gets tied up and dropped in the ocean. Steve has gone from a determined SEAL to a guy with so much obsession that he's left his country, his job, his team and his partner not once but twice to find "answers."
Rehash of old storylines? Check. Just when you think the whole Rachel issue has been put to rest, the writers decide to pull the old switcheroo again. Is she a bitch? Is she nice? Who cares?
Plot holes and improbable happenings? Check. I'm not going to rehash them again.
We'll know who's dead by the end of the ep? Um... not so much. Yes, we know for sure that Fryer is a goner. That was less shocking than killing the Governor last year, though. They want us to worry about Malia and Kono all summer, but I doubt Kono will be dead. That's as much a red herring as Max being shot in the trailer, or it should be. Malia? Maybe she'll die, but we certainly haven't seen her being integral to the show up til now, so she's expendable. They are just jerking our chains and putting the women in jeopardy. But Chin looked wonderful with his shirt off, didn't he? And except for the fact that they don't tape broken ribs anymore.... But I digress.
The resolution of Shelburne? Riiiiight.
And they all seemed so proud of themselves in that "thank you" video they released before the ep aired.
At least it's over. See my icon? If I'd had a pic of me being tortured, I'd've used it.
You know, I've gotten used to having to hand-wave a lot in this show. I've gotten used to ideas being rehashed, tidbits being dangled, characters being wasted, time being somewhat 'flexible,' police procedure being non-existant and the writers leaving plot holes you could drive the Camero through, but last night was just too much of all of the above. I know there are sharks in the waters of Hawaii, but did Lenkov have to try to jump over all of them in one episode?
I was with them until the last ten minutes. Mostly. Actually, I had a few bones to pick before then. I didn't expect the ep to be perfect. Even after last week, I've learned that for every great ep in this series, we have to slug through two or three meh ones and cringe through at least one actually bad one. Okay, I can handle that. Nothing's perfect and H50 is still fun, still has great characters and the great relationship between Steve and Danny. And I'm not so over-invested that I worry about who's going to live and who might die, or get upset when they reveal something shocking or when their supposed surprise revelation was something a lot of fans guessed months ago, no matter how stupid I think it is.
Okay, here's what I loved:
The Danny/Steve moments. We got a great conversation in the car. Danny brought up the letter and took the time to yell at Steve about it, which Steve deserved. I doubt that was really the first time Danny complained about the letter, too but since this show regularly leaves us to fill in characters' reactions, it was nice that they didn't have Danny just 'forget' about it. And the stuff Steve said about putting his hands over his ears and driving with his elbows... and then saying he could hang his head out the window and drive with his feet since he has "great toe control" was both hilarious and slightly kinky-sounding. But they went on to have Danny tell Steve what was going on, after reminding him that as friends and partners, they were supposed to share things with each other. And then... in the vet's office... that look between them when Steve put his body in front of Chin's to save him and Danny nearly flipped out worrying about what idiot move Steve might be thinking of doing -- oh, god, that's what Relationship (with a capital "R") is all about. Friends, partners, lovers look at each other that way. Danny, worried, yelling, scared but knowing his Steve will do whatever it takes to get their suspect. I was almost willing to hand wave the rest of the stuff that was wrong with this ep when that happened.
But then....
The writers took those great moments in male bonding and threw them in our faces. Steve, who is supposedly angry with Joe and distrustful of him after all his shennanigans of the last year decides at the drop of a hat to just jump on the nearest plane and, oh yeah, "I have to call Danny or he'll never speak to me again" -- to which Joe quips "would that really be a problem?" Steve gives us a smile then. I noted someone said they thought he was being cavalier about Danny and his relationship from that. At the time I viewed it, I thought it was a fond smile that kind of said, "oh, how wrong you are, Joe". It didn't bother me. What did bother me, was that instead of actually getting Danny on the phone to tell him, Steve just left a message. When you're friends with someone and plans change or you have something important to tell them -- you don't leave a message and then, IDK, go post it on Facebook or wait til you get back to explain, you keep calling until they pick up. I don't know if Danny would be willing to forgive Steve this time. Didn't Danny just tell Steve in the car that he didn't want to leave Hawaii? Maybe Danny should be re-thinking that, if that's all Steve cares about him. Not that Steve doesn't have a thing or two to learn about trust and sharing, and god knows he'll need more than one trip to a therapist after the revelation that Shelburne is his mother, but I think a good shrink could help him work on his obsession issues too. Sure, it's all about his family and what happened to them, but it's been years since it all started. Couldn't he have waited a few days to go off with Joe? Just sayin'.
Here's the other stuff that drove me nuts in this ep and combined, they are what made me really annoyed and angry about it.
Fryer sees there is nothing at the place he's been told to go, but he wanders down the alley to check, even though he's heard from HQ that there's been no crime reported. He turns over a 'dead body' which turns out to be a dummy with a "good-bye" sign on it. Bang, Fryer, you're dead.
Five-0 arrives and Max is shot. Never mind that the trailer tried to fool us into thinking this was who was going to get killed. That didn't bother me. What did? Let's start with them not calling an ambulance to the scene despite Fryer probably being dead on the scene. Shouldn't a medical bus been summoned anyway, thus saving time when Max was shot? And why was Joe touching Fryer's body? He's not a detective? That's Danny, Chin and Kono's job and they would have put gloves on!
And Joe goes with Max... sweet, but didn't Steve say he wasn't going to let Joe out of his sight?
Then the shooter leads the team on a wild chase to police headquarters. As they were heading there, I kept wondering why they didn't smell a trap. After all, they already knew someone had lured Fryer.
I didn't think the woman in the basement was the shooter. But I also didn't think, as Steve apparently did, that she was a civilian. What would a civilian be doing in the police station basement? Though it being her that was the shooter wasn't a great piece of writing, at least it wasn't the silliest part of this ep. We learned enough to find out who she was -- even if she was supposed to be dead -- and lead us to Delano. Did Steve and Danny actually believe that Delano had nothing to do with her? Did the show explain how Delano knew she was alive or how he got together with her to persecute Chin? And who is tooth pick guy, her partner? Why was he watching Danny too if they didn't try to do anything to him the way they did Chin, Malia and Kono? Putting Danny in danger would have been more interesting than dragging out the old Rachel/custody storyline.
And why did Steve kill her? I know that she'd just killed more than one cop, blown up the precinct and attempted to kill them, but could he have wounded her instead? Has anyone else thought about how it would have been helpful to have her alive for questioning? Not saying she'd've told the truth but still. And didn't they have at least a little paperwork they might need to do once that was all over before Steve could head blithely off with Joe to Japan? If they hadn't ignored that, Steve would have been around for Kono and Malia being in danger and Chin going off on his own to get Delano released from jail.
Which brings me to -- WTF were they thinking? It was bad enough that they sprang Kono and Adam dating on us. Why couldn't they have thrown us the tiniest hint of foreshadowing that Delano was going after Chin because of that old stuff about the money? Why would Delano even care if Chin was a bad cop, when Delano was a bad cop himself? (Okay, he's mad because 5-0 brought him down, but shouldn't he be taking it out on all of them and not just Chin?) And Adam and Kono are still dating? (Isn't their relationship kind of compromised anyway? Not only is she a cop and he is a ganster, but after tying her up and trying to kill Steve, I'd've thought it would be hard for them to just act like they are two nice people having a fun relationship. Reminds me of the SH ep "The Fix" where Hutch was dating a woman named Jeannie who used to be with a mobster she was hiding from. To find her, the mobster took Hutch prisoner and hooked him on heroin to get him to reveal her whereabouts. Hutch got away, they arrested the mobster but in the ep's tag, Hutch and Jeannie realized they couldn't go on with their realtionship, no matter how much they loved each other, because too much was between them.) Wouldn't Adam be in jail after last week's events? If he's out on bail or something, how long would it take to throw in a line of dialogue telling us that? Sure, I'll buy it if he's able to help save Kono -- though I'll be much happier if she saves herself as she certainly would have been able to do last season. After all, she's a champion surfer, excellent swimmer and her hands are bound in front of her. (And as someone pointed out, MythBusters tells us duct tape loses its adhesive qualities in water.) And why is our badass Kono duct-taped twice in as many eps? Come on, writers!
I'll tell you when they could have put in some of this vital information -- when they had Kamekono show up with shrimp for Max in the hospital. I know he's a great character, but it's been established that he has contacts on the street. If they wanted to use him in the finale, wouldn't it have been a bit more logical to have him give them some info about... the shooter who killed Fryer... Delano's plans and associates on the street... something other than having him bring shrimp to a man who's been shot in the stomach (or thereabouts) only about two hours ago? As usual, instead of moving along the plot, the writers wasted valuable time throwing in a meaningless "cute" scene, like the time Max and Joe went to the museum. I was already grinding my teeth when that took place, but when I realized how much important information they left out, the idea of that scene really made me angry.
And I wonder, just how did Chin get Delano out of prison? Clearly, instead of figuring out a believable story for him to tell the authorities, it's much easier to just show him doing it. Throw in a comment from Delano about "immunity and means" -- and I guess Delano didn't get the memo that the new governor changed all that -- and we're good to go. And then, Chin pulls his gun on Delano and hands it over because Delano tells him to? No good cop ever hands over his gun! He could have put it down, stopped aiming it at Delano's head, but he didn't have to hand it over. And what did Delano mean about having all the phones "covered"? Boy, that guy really was able to do a lot from behind prison bars. Chin doesn't question him, doesn't try to call anyone, he just gets all upset and has to play Delano's game. This kind of plot always makes me mad in the first place, when the bad guy has all the avenues for our hero to stop him sewn up from the get-go, but this was weak, very weak. And even before Delano revealed that he was going to give Chin a chance to save either Kono or Malia but not both of them, I could see that coming a mile away and was groaning. That cliche is as old as the hills. There could be interesting ramifications from Kono finding out that Chin chose to rush to Malia instead of her -- because he wants to save his wife and figures his cousin can take care of herself, surely, but that will have to have some consequences. But I guess that's the least of our worries right now.
And then we're back to the Joe and Steve show. I interpreted "not letting Joe out of his sight" a little differently than Steve did. If he were truly angry and distrustful of Joe, why would Steve be so happy to jump on the first plane to Japan with him? Why wouldn't the writers have put "Shelburne" somewhere else, say a bit closer?
By the way, I did a quick google search and it takes about 8 hours to fly from Honolulu to Tokyo. Still, as long as we've never tried to let the viewers know how much time has passed from the commission of a crime until the case is wrapped up, why start hinting at those boring things now?
And does Steve need any more angst on his plate? Seriously, if he applied to become a SEAL now, I doubt they'd let him in. Can you say "psychological baggage"? Not only does the man have father issues, now he's supposed to deal with the idea that his mother wasn't really dead all these years? And if she's Shelburne, why and how did she murder Wo Fat's father? Let's not go the route of Prison Break and have the supposedly dead mother be in "the company" or worse. Did Steve's father know she was alive? Who faked her death? Steve's father, or just her? What's Mary going to say about this? Let's not worry our heads about whether Steve was 15 or 16 when he was sent out of Hawaii, after this, he'll not know if he was 5 or 25 when it happened. No wonder the poor guy is confused.
So let's see what the writers have given us for our finale:
Character assasination? Check. Kono has gone from being badass to a girl who gets tied up and dropped in the ocean. Steve has gone from a determined SEAL to a guy with so much obsession that he's left his country, his job, his team and his partner not once but twice to find "answers."
Rehash of old storylines? Check. Just when you think the whole Rachel issue has been put to rest, the writers decide to pull the old switcheroo again. Is she a bitch? Is she nice? Who cares?
Plot holes and improbable happenings? Check. I'm not going to rehash them again.
We'll know who's dead by the end of the ep? Um... not so much. Yes, we know for sure that Fryer is a goner. That was less shocking than killing the Governor last year, though. They want us to worry about Malia and Kono all summer, but I doubt Kono will be dead. That's as much a red herring as Max being shot in the trailer, or it should be. Malia? Maybe she'll die, but we certainly haven't seen her being integral to the show up til now, so she's expendable. They are just jerking our chains and putting the women in jeopardy. But Chin looked wonderful with his shirt off, didn't he? And except for the fact that they don't tape broken ribs anymore.... But I digress.
The resolution of Shelburne? Riiiiight.
And they all seemed so proud of themselves in that "thank you" video they released before the ep aired.