Hawaii Five-0 3x04: Popilikia

A professional polo player (which is apparently a thing a person can be) loses his head on the practice field. Literally. Well, I suppose he didn't lose it. He knew exactly where it was right up until it fell off... and maybe a few seconds afterwards.

It's on the ground, right where he left it.

Elsewhere, a noise in the kitchen awakens McGarrett and Catherine. Mama McGarrett (who should be under witness protection) has broken in, and is downstairs making breakfast. Since it's weird to have breakfast with your boyfriend's mother when you're not wearing any pants, Cat excuses herself. The conversation's not terribly comfortable, but fortunately there's a dead guy for Steve to deal with, so he gets to leave. Out at the polo field, Max discovers the murder weapon: Someone strung garrote wire across the goal posts. To demonstrate its effectiveness, Max murders his cane.

Dr. House would not approve.

The dead guy's girlfriend points the team to a psychic who said that she'd be touched by death. Since Danny is a believer, he takes Kono to question her. The psychic's not actually psychic, but she's a practised con artist, so she's very observant. And, when the dead guy came in, she observed him getting a phone call from someone named 'Al' who he didn't want to talk to. A call that made him very nervous.

Coincidentally, Al is the name of the man who owns the polo team the dead guy used to play for before he switched clubs mid-season. And, Al was still paying the guy for some reason. Danny and McGarrett go to have a talk with Al, and like a good 25% of the people they question, he makes them chase him down.

Making a cop chase you across a polo field is a one-way ticket to a butt-whooping.

But, Al has an alibi, and the payoffs were just to keep the dead guy's mouth shut about horse doping. So, the team has no suspect, and Steve and Danny nearly got trampled by horses. The day's not going well. They have a chat with the owner of the dead guy's team, and his son walks in and tells him that he switched practice times with the dead guy. So, maybe he was the target.

As it turns out, the son was kidnapped ten years ago and held for ransom. However, he escaped and testified against his kidnappers, one of whom has just been released and is AWOL from his halfway house. Steve sends Kono to protect the kid, but he gets there just in time to watch his car explode and injure the kid and his mom.

It was actually a bomb, and not just a defect in the air bags.

Danny tracks down the suspect, and when they go to get him, he makes them chase him down. So few people go quietly. He's not a much better runner than the first guy, though, and McGarrett tackles him into a polluted river. Tetanus shots for all! Steve plays bad cop and finds out the guy planted the bomb, but that he was paid 50 grand to do it. He says he would've done it for free, because he was still ticked at the kid for testifying. McGarrett's not exactly happy with that answer, so he clocks the guy and has Danno book him for attempted murder.

At the hospital, the mom dies after someone asphyxiates her. The security cameras show that it was the son. He was angry with her for having an affair with the now-dead polo player, so he killed them both. When McGarrett and Danny go to arrest him, he doesn't run, he just tries to ride over them with his horse. It doesn't work, and he gets a bullet in the shoulder. The case is closed. Which is good, because it's beer o'clock.

The ladies love Chin.

There's still one question that needs answering: Why did Doris let Wo Fat go? Steve finally asks her, and she says that her shots were wild, and she didn't mean to let him get away. He doesn't buy it. Which is understandable because he's a notorious cheapskate, and doesn't buy anything.

What I Liked
-Danny has to pay the psychic because his salary's higher than Kono's. Also he believes her crap, so he deserves to pay. He doesn't believe in ghosts, though, which is weird because he saw one once when he was trying to find an apartment to rent.
-Steve gets to tackle some guys.
-They bust out the catchphrase. Danno hasn't been doing nearly enough booking lately. In the previous three episodes, most of the criminals either wound up dead, or got caught by Kono and Chin.

What I Hated
-Cat goes to investigate the sounds in the kitchen even though it would be much safer for her to stay upstairs. I know empowering women is a big deal, but that doesn't mean they have to be idiots. Steve is a former Navy SEAL and he has a gun; he can probably handle whatever it is, and running around with a bat is just going to get you killed. Or you'll have an awkward conversation with his mother. One or the other.
-McGarrett doesn't call his mother out on the fact that she lied. She has to know that he didn't believe her, and he knows she knows that. So, why delay the inevitable conversation about how Wo Fat is her secret love child or whatever?
-When the kid gets shot in the shoulder, the stunt is fairly obvious. The obvious stunt man quite obviously jumps off the horse.

At least he doesn't have a beard.

Final Thoughts
The last time I saw Bai Ling in anything, she was telling the story of Jack's tattoos on Lost. Does she always play mystical fortune telling ladies, or does she only do those parts when she's in Hawaii?

I wasn't feeling this one. There was more focus on Steve and Catherine's relationship, which I think is important for growth and to cement Cat's character as an integral part of his life and thus explain why she's always helping out even though she's not technically part of the team. However, there wasn't nearly enough banter. It was replaced with mama drama and a bunch of whining from the killer's father.