H50 Ep: O Ka Pilo 'Ohana Ka 'Oi
Well, that was a busy episode.
It wasn't even as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. Despite Show having already done an episode where a bad guy came out of the past to hold a loved one hostage in exchange for buttloads of stolen money, and an episode where a bad guy came out of the past to hold a main character's daughter hostage while pulling his strings all day, I wasn't rolling my eyes nearly as hard as I was last week when Show recycled Steve's 'tortured in North Korea' episode by having him tortured in Afghanistan instead. Still, I hope the writers spend the summer watching lots of TV so they can recycle the plots from other shows instead of just their own all the time.
Obviously the writers chose to make Grover the focus of the season finale because they were planning to slide him over into Five-0, which does kind of make sense from a showrunning perspective, but I still wish they'd done this episode a little earlier and left the finale for the Core Four. I actually do like Grover. I also like Flippa, but I wouldn't want to watch a season finale about him.
Grover joining Five-0 isn't my worst nightmare (that would be Jerry joining Five-0), but I'm not sure how it will work out. You know he's not going to be staying behind to do computer things, because he's about as tech savvy as Danny. Him going into the field has the potential to be Lori all over again, because whoever Grover gets paired up with will mean breaking up an established and liked partnership. On the plus side, I suppose we can at least count on Grover not nursing an unrequited crush on Steve all season. On the minus side, no disrespect to Chi McBride as a dramatic actor, but the man just cannot handle the action scenes. In an action-adventure show? That's a problem.
I also found the end of this episode weirdly unsatisfying in a non-Grover-involving way. We had two incredibly smug bad guys being incredibly smug the whole time. I have an issue with wanting to punch smug people in their smug faces, which I realize is not one of my more attractive character traits, but there you go. I guess Agt. Novak (Hi, Richard Burgi! I haven't seen you since Harper's Island!) was arrested off screen at the compound? And then we never saw him again. Then Wo Fat shot Ian, which I'm not exactly sorry about, but Ian died pretty much instantly and never really saw it coming. I could've stood a little flopping around in agony and gasping for breath before he died. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. I've learned to live with it. Either way, I think they both deserved more than they got.
The thing I really did like about this episode was the return of actual character moments: Danny showing his support for the various things Steve was going through with regard to Wo Fat, Doris, and Catherine; Danny giving Grover a pep talk by telling him about Grace's kidnapping; Chin and Kono talking about Kono maybe marrying Adam, and Chin telling her he wished he hadn't waited to propose to Malia; even a shout-out to Chin having joined Five-0 as a disgraced cop when Grover didn't think he'd be allowed to accept the position he was being offered. I especially loved Steve and Danny standing on Danny's car at the compound, with Danny on the roof and Steve on the hood, and yet both of them ending up pretty much the same height. This has been, what, four episodes in a row that Show has included some of the character interaction that made many of us fall in love with the show in the first place but has been pretty thin on the ground this season? We even got a "the only way we do this is together" from Steve. Dare I get my hopes up that Show has seen the error of its ways and will be focusing more on character development next season?
Guess we'll find out. See you back here next fall.
It wasn't even as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. Despite Show having already done an episode where a bad guy came out of the past to hold a loved one hostage in exchange for buttloads of stolen money, and an episode where a bad guy came out of the past to hold a main character's daughter hostage while pulling his strings all day, I wasn't rolling my eyes nearly as hard as I was last week when Show recycled Steve's 'tortured in North Korea' episode by having him tortured in Afghanistan instead. Still, I hope the writers spend the summer watching lots of TV so they can recycle the plots from other shows instead of just their own all the time.
Obviously the writers chose to make Grover the focus of the season finale because they were planning to slide him over into Five-0, which does kind of make sense from a showrunning perspective, but I still wish they'd done this episode a little earlier and left the finale for the Core Four. I actually do like Grover. I also like Flippa, but I wouldn't want to watch a season finale about him.
Grover joining Five-0 isn't my worst nightmare (that would be Jerry joining Five-0), but I'm not sure how it will work out. You know he's not going to be staying behind to do computer things, because he's about as tech savvy as Danny. Him going into the field has the potential to be Lori all over again, because whoever Grover gets paired up with will mean breaking up an established and liked partnership. On the plus side, I suppose we can at least count on Grover not nursing an unrequited crush on Steve all season. On the minus side, no disrespect to Chi McBride as a dramatic actor, but the man just cannot handle the action scenes. In an action-adventure show? That's a problem.
I also found the end of this episode weirdly unsatisfying in a non-Grover-involving way. We had two incredibly smug bad guys being incredibly smug the whole time. I have an issue with wanting to punch smug people in their smug faces, which I realize is not one of my more attractive character traits, but there you go. I guess Agt. Novak (Hi, Richard Burgi! I haven't seen you since Harper's Island!) was arrested off screen at the compound? And then we never saw him again. Then Wo Fat shot Ian, which I'm not exactly sorry about, but Ian died pretty much instantly and never really saw it coming. I could've stood a little flopping around in agony and gasping for breath before he died. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. I've learned to live with it. Either way, I think they both deserved more than they got.
The thing I really did like about this episode was the return of actual character moments: Danny showing his support for the various things Steve was going through with regard to Wo Fat, Doris, and Catherine; Danny giving Grover a pep talk by telling him about Grace's kidnapping; Chin and Kono talking about Kono maybe marrying Adam, and Chin telling her he wished he hadn't waited to propose to Malia; even a shout-out to Chin having joined Five-0 as a disgraced cop when Grover didn't think he'd be allowed to accept the position he was being offered. I especially loved Steve and Danny standing on Danny's car at the compound, with Danny on the roof and Steve on the hood, and yet both of them ending up pretty much the same height. This has been, what, four episodes in a row that Show has included some of the character interaction that made many of us fall in love with the show in the first place but has been pretty thin on the ground this season? We even got a "the only way we do this is together" from Steve. Dare I get my hopes up that Show has seen the error of its ways and will be focusing more on character development next season?
Guess we'll find out. See you back here next fall.