Hawaii Five-0 (S0617) “Waiwai” (“Assets”)

Alooooha fellow Five 0 fans 🙂

After a week without a new episode we were treated last night to 6.17. I have to admit that the knowledge of a “Cath related” story didn’t make me jump of joy but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and kept an open mind to see where the story would go. I’m glad I did as the episode was a good one, full of action and with an interesting, well written plot.

This week’s episode focused on just one crime of the week, which however had plenty of ramifications and kept us guessing and involved until the very end.

We saw it starting with a rather gruesome bloodbath in the O.R. of an hospital, where a “Doctor” killed and injured a few “colleagues” before murdering a patient with a broken femur. The focus that the camera brought on her tattoos made it pretty clear that they would play an important part in her identification later on in the episode, once again thanks to our Jerry.

When Five 0 started investigating the crime we also saw two of our most beloved members of Ohana helping out, Duke Lukela and of course our resident M.E. Max Bergman.

It was quickly clear that the object that was extracted from the unfortunate “mule” would be one of the main characters of the episode too. It was a flash-drive, implanted in the victim so that he could smuggle it out of the country. The Doctor that performed the implant operation will turn out to be portrayed by no less than Jimmy Borges, a very much anticipated and welcome guest star, who did a very good job in playing the slightly creepy but also useful as a source of information Doctor Yang.

The scene in his shop was rather amusing also because it lead to what I would call a shop-gument between Steve and Danno, the first describing the positive sides of ancient Chinese medicine and the sceptical second defining it as “hardly science”. Steve and Danno might not share the same opinion but their interaction is always entertaining.

The operation was paid for by another principal character in 6.17, Chris Dalton, a cyber strategist, whom, as “expert” Kono pointed out to a puzzled McGarrett, has the job of protecting computer systems from hackers. His job has little use though if he is the very person to extract Government secrets from his place of work to transfer them to the before mentioned flash-drive.

The investigation lead our Commander to the discovery that the flash-drive contained N.S.A. material with sensitive information about secret agents involved in black ops. The operatives’ identities would be compromised if the flash-drive fell into the wrong hands. Later on Steve will also find out that, even though most of the agents were pulled out in time, some of them were in locations impossible to contact and were still in danger. When questioned on having a direct line to one of the operatives McGarrett ingenuously thought the guy was referring to his mother, Doris McGarrett, only to find out that he was in fact talking about his former girlfriend Lieutenant Catherine Rollins. At the same time as Steve so we find out that it was Cath who called him from a satellite phone all those months behind, right after she allegedly left for Nepal. We still don’t know why she called him though and why she didn’t say anything on the phone. We also find out that she is in Ukraine and not in South Asia.

Of course, the realisation that someone he used to be very close to could be in danger makes Steve even more resolute in finding the flash-drive and making sure the information it contains remains secret.

In the meantime, after an action packed gun fight with a frightened Chris Dalton an his girlfriend Ana Novak Five 0 manages to capture the cyber strategist. During his interrogation in the blue room I saw a parallel in his situation with Ana and Steve’s with Catherine. In very different ways and for very different reasons but both men were deceived and lied to by the woman they were involved with. So Steve helping Chris will hopefully made him realise that he needs to help himself too.

Ana manages to re-capture Chris in order to have him de-cripting the flash-drive but thanks to Steve’s strongly persuasive interrogation technique (we hear a shot fired when he is alone with him) Doctor Yang gives up her location and the drive is recovered before the information is released.

Crime of the week solved, so why is our Commander looking less than happy, staring at the ocean with a vacant glance? Of course the realisation of having been deceived when left by his woman, in a very similar fashion to how his mother did, deeply saddens Steve. Danny is promptly there for him, asking if he is angry and trying, with not much conviction nor success, to tell him that maybe Cath lied so that he wouldn’t worry.

Personally I would have preferred to see a little more passion, a little more disappointment in Steve’s reaction, but his calm demeanour and his apparent understanding of her actions in my opinion shouldn’t be misunderstood for prompt and blind forgiveness. It just means that he knows sometimes situations make people behave in a certain way, but he doesn’t have to like it. He might not show it explicitly but I bet Steve is even more hurt now and the trust he had in Cath might be finally completely compromised. I think that would make sense.

Talking about lies and secrets, in 6.17 we also see the team discussing about Federal Prosecutor Robert Coughlin, brother of Rex Coughlin and Abby’s boss, who now they know is after them, either out of a misplaced sense of justice, or more likely as a personal vendetta due to Five O indirectly causing the death of his brother.

Abby is with them when they talk about Coughlin and she fakes ignorance of his identity and purpose, but we see her later on confronting him and defending Five 0 saying that they are smart, they’ll figure his plan out, and that as far as she has seen they haven’t crossed any boundary while performing their duty (good thing she wasn’t there when Steve shot Doctor Yang to extract information :)).

Abby even tries to persuade her boss to pull her out of her mission but Coughlin is adamant that she ether works for him and does what she is told or she looses her badge, which leaves her in a very delicate position.

Her relationship with Chin is also brought up in her discussion with her boss, which clearly shows he has “eyes on her” and is worried her loyalty might lay now with Five 0 (and Chin Ho) more than with him.

In the very final scene of the episode we see Abby joining Chin in his office, with a very worried and sad expression on her face. When Chin asks if everything is OK she says no and starts talking to him but we can’t hear the dialogue.

Personally I hope she will come clean with Chin and the team and will help them from falling into any trap that Coughlin will lay ahead. I also hope that her honesty will save her relationship with Chin. Similar situation with Chin and Abby to the one between Steve and Cath? So why do I hope that Chin will forgive Abby but not that Steve will take Cath back?

There are many big differences. Abby and Chin haven’t been involved for over a decade, they are still getting to know each other and their circumstances are less than favourable. Plus Abby decided to tell the truth to Chin on her own volition.

Cath has lied to Steve in at least 3 important occasions, she has willingly deceived him after being involved with him for several years and after he helped her out of very dangerous situations risking his own life. She left him with no apparent reason nor justification for a full year even after finding Najib. Every single time Steve found out the truth about her lies it wasn’t from her because she wanted to come clean but it was because circustamces dictated it.

So how could he really trust her again. Love might be eternal but in my opinion when trust is gone it’s gone forever.

So now we won’t have a new episode for two Fridays and then I’ll be out of the country on holidays on April 1st so I have no idea when I’ll write my blog about 6.18.

In the meantime though I would like to wish you a very nice weekend and a very pleasant time until next time we meet.

Mahalo for reading, Manu