Hawaii Five-0 3x14: Hana I Wa'Ia

As the episode opens, the campaign manager for a Senate candidate gets shot in the head by a guy who sounds surprisingly like Mark Dacascos, but we don't see his face, so there's no way to tell who it was.

No way at all.

The next day, Danny has to go to Family Court to keep Rachel from modifying their custody agreement and taking Grace back to the mainland. He prepared a statement to read directly to his ex-wife, but since guest stars are expensive, she's not there and he has to speak to the court. In short, he hates Hawaii, but it's their home now, and taking Grace away from her home just isn't right. Steve chimes in with some support, but he gets a call from Governor Denning and has to bail on his buddy.

The Governor has a picture of a dead girl and he wants the Five-0 team to take over the investigation. He wants it cleared up quickly and quietly. No interfacing with HPD, no interviewing witnesses, and all reports need to go directly to his cell phone. Something's smells fishy. And with good reason. Kono runs the girl's prints and finds out she was once busted for solicitation. So, the Denning is somehow involved with a dead prostitute. That's not going to help his re-election campaign.

Unless he's running on a 'Kill all the hookers' platform.

When Kono and Chin retrieve the girl's laptop from her apartment, they pick up a tail from a government vehicle that bails when they stop to confront the driver, and Danny finds out that the Governor himself has told the crime lab to slow down their processing of DNA evidence found on the victim. Things are looking really bad, so McGarrett goes to confront Denning face-to-face.

The Governor swears that he's not directly involved, but the DNA will trace back to his good friend and former military comrade, Congressman Chris Freed, who is currently running in a special Senate election. Denning wants to protect is friend, but he doesn't know if he killed the girl or not.

Danny and Steve go to the congressman's campaign office to talk to him, but he's not there and neither is his campaign manager, and his press secretary has no idea where either of them are.

He still lays on the industrial strength BS to keep from telling them that, though.

It looks like a pretty clear cut case until the DNA evidence comes back as a match to a university professor from Ohio who was in town for a conference. When they bring him in and threaten to tell his wife, he admits that he was with the girl, but he swears that he was nowhere near the Congressman's house and she was alive when he left her. I don't have much experience with these things, but I figure that 'that hooker was alive when I left her' is pretty much what they all say in these situations. Nevertheless, his alibi checks out and they're back to square one. Until the campaign manager from the opening turns up.

And she is decidedly unshot in the head.

The campaign manager says she delivered the prostitute to the congressman at around 9:15, but that doesn't add up because she was banging the professor at the time. The team checks her out to see why she's lying and finds video of her leaving a bar with everyone's favourite international criminal, Wo Fat.

The camera loves him.

It turns out he's holding the congressman hostage, and he has a wire on the campaign manager, so when Danny and Steve show up to question her, she can't talk. When she takes the wire off, she's immediately killed by a sniper who the guys manage to kill when he makes a break for it.

Wo Fat calls his man, and when he doesn't answer, the plan changes, and it's time for the congressman to die. Except he has conveniently escaped and is running like hell. Wo Fat kills a local hunter and steals his ATV, then begins his hunt for the most dangerous game.

Well, second most dangerous. There aren't any hippos in Hawaii.

The congressman takes one to the shoulder, but before Wo Fat can move in to finish the job, Danny and Steve arrive in a helicopter, and Danno starts spraying bullets at him. They get the congressman on board, but he takes another hit and they have to bug out before they get a chance to finish their nemesis.

An HPD search of the house where Wo Fat was holding his prisoner turns up a cell phone with a call log that implicates the congressman's opponent in his kidnapping. He cracks under interrogation and admits everything.

The Governor drops by McGarrett's house to apologize for not being honest from the start, and Danny gets a call from the court saying they've ruled in his favour and Grace will be staying in Hawaii.

Case closed.

What I Liked
-McGarrett doesn't know why dress blues are black. No one does, commander, no one does.
-Steve asks the congressman's press secretary what his position is on dead hookers found in his bed. I'm gonna say he'd probably fall on the anti side.

What I Hated
-They try to hide who the shooter was in the opening scene. Come on. Anyone who can hear or read the credits knew it was Wo Fat. The big reveal that he was the guy behind it all kinda fell flat because I know who plays him.
-During the final fire fight, neither Danny nor Wo Fat can hit the broad side of a barn. Danny's suppressing fire was so useless that Wo Fat was free to stand up and shoot.

Final Thoughts
Kind of a 'meh' episode. Wo Fat's a good character when used correctly, but they've neutered him this season, and he doesn't seem particularly threatening anymore. He can't even shoot straight.