Hawaii Five-0 (S0621) “Ka Pono Ku’oko’a (The Cost of Freedom)”

Hello fellow Five 0 fans and Happy Saturday 🙂

I was expecting to like episode 6.21 as I have always loved Adam as a character and him and Kono as a couple and most certainly I wasn’t disappointed. There are many things that I liked about the episode, most of all once again the emotions related to the different characters and the togetherness of the team working towards solving a crime of the week that involved one of their very own.

But lets start from the beginning. First of all I would like to know what the Hawaii Five 0 writers have against poor innocent buses. I have travelled on them while in Oahu and they seemed pretty harmless. But in this season we have seen them shot, commandeered, blown up. Jokes aside, our episode started with a gruesome scenery of an exploded bus that was transporting prisoners out of Halawa after a chemical spillage. Most of the inmates were severely burnt, injured and the only one that managed to survive was immediately shot dead but an unknown subject (I’m tempted to use the term “unsub” but that’s a different show ;))

Invited on the scene by our own Duke Lukela the Five 0 team, only missing Chin, promptly arrived on the scene, to find out that six inmates escaped more or less uninjured and took off after the accident.

The fugitives were a good collection of murderers, rapists and even a cannibal. Mr Burns, Stockman and Aquino were scary enough but we then also find out that two old acquaintances of Five 0, Jason Duclair the arsonist and Garavito the cannibal were among the escapees. As McGarrett pointed out the only one that was probably forced to run was no less than Kono’s husband, Adam Noshimuri.

Now Danny might have had his doubts about Adam’s intentions but I never did. I have loved his character since the first time I found out he was romantically involved with Kono and I have always been a supporter of their relationship, so true, so deep, definitely one of my favourites on the show.

It bothered me a little when Adam seemed to be in charge, or at least a willing participant of the run but I never lost hope that he was just doing so to avoid getting in further trouble with the guys he found himself with.

Jason Duclair was, in typical Five 0 fashion, a pleasant surprise, still of course a bad guy having murdered lots of people by fire but with a hint of redeeming quality when he saved Adam’s life from the Shioma guys.

Didn’t care all so much about the other inmates but I have to admit that Garavito made me feel uneasy from beginning to end, I thought the actor played very well the creepiness and madness of someone that turns out to be a cannibal.

I found it very clever the fact that the first murder victim, convict Hamasaky (sorry if I got the name wrong) turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. He could very well have been the intended target, being supposed to testify in court the day after but instead the otherwise lucky coincidence of resembling handsome Adam Noshimuri turned out to be very unfortunate for him.

Kudos to Jerry for once again being very useful in the resolution of the case and for bringing a potential new resident villain to Five 0’s attention, Mrs Michelle Shioma, daughter of the late Yakuza boss. The lady was most definitely creepy in her attitude while being interrogated by Chin, I’m pretty sure we’ll hear about her again.

Talking about Chin Ho, I couldn’t help myself from noticing that once again he was more in the office than in the field, like it happened in 6.19. He looked very cool both C.H.I.P.S. style on his motorbike tracking down Lady Shioma and in the interrogation room grilling her but I would have expected him to be more in the field with the rest of the team. Probably Daniel Dae Kim, being the only member of cast that has been in every single episode of the six seasons needed a bit of time off screen. Still, it was heart warming listening to Chin describing Adam as Ohana and saying that his wellbeing was a personal matter for the team, not only for Kono.

Also talking about Ohana it’s impossible not to mention how caring and understanding Lou Grover was with Kono during the chase in the forest, trying to cheer her up first talking about the cold weather in Chicago and encouraging her not to ever loose hope and faith in Adam. That’s a real friend, that’s real Ohana.

The walk in the woods gave us also a couple of McDanno mini arguments, quite funny the one that ended Danny’s question to Steve “Why can’t you say that I’m right” into Steve’s answer “Because you are wrong”.

I didn’t think it would end in any other way but I was very happy and relieved to see Adam rescued safe and sound (and in Kono’s arms) at the end. In good or in bad these two always manage to bring tears to my eyes. The intensity of the emotion when they were reunited was palpable and I couldn’t help but getting quite misty when Adam said ” No matter what happens we’ll always find a way back to each other”, and gave his last bid to Kono. I’ll ship Kodam to the very end.

The episode also gave us two different versions of Steve McGarrett , both of which I truly love. The “I’m in charge here” “Lets get the job done” Commander on one side and the softer, caring, father figure on the other.

We find out that Nahele’s father was on the inmates bus as well and was killed in the explosion. After meeting the kid being happy and carefree at the beginning of the episode, even slightly mischievous, as a teenager should be, when he called Steve for the “emergency” of Kamekona’s flat tyre, we se him once again heart broken at the end, when Steve has to tell him that his father is dead.

No one could understand how Nahele is feeling better than McGarrett, after his own personal loss, and despite of his misfortune Nahele is lucky to have Steve on his side. The heart-breaking “I got no more family left” followed by reassuring hug and “Yes you do, pal” from Steve brought me to tears once again. Nahele still has a family and someone that cares for him and will be there for him, no matter what.

I am ever so happy that Nahele is part of Steve’s life, and viceversa.

Altogether another very enjoyable episode.

And 6.22 already looks very intense so I’ll see you all next week for more fun and thrill.

Until then have a great weekend and an even better week ahead.

Mahalo for reading,

Manu