Hawaii Five-0 3x24: Aloha, Malama Pono

After last week's revelation, Kono is now on the lam in the back of a silver Camaro with McGarrett at the wheel and Danno riding shotgun, as it should be. The HPD are in hot pursuit, but Steve manages to lose them long enough to give Kono a burner cell and let her out. Then they tear off again until they run into a blockade Duke has set up. The Sarge knows what's up and is in no mood for any of Danny and Steve's shenanigans.

I am in no mood. NO MOOD!

Kono's obviously no longer in the car, but she's wanted in connection with a murder, and Duke knows that the guys know where she is. He's willing to cut them a little slack because they're friends, however the prosecutor's office wants her and he doesn't know how much time he can buy them.

Meanwhile, a small plane full of dead people has just landed in a remote airfield. There's no registry and no record of the tail number and half the dead guys are wearing black suits and have empty holsters, so Steve thinks it was a rendition flight. The CIA gets in touch when Catherine starts asking questions about a flight that doesn't exist, and the chief black suit guy tells the team that the plane was carrying Rafael Salgado, a high-ranking member of a Latin American terrorist group. They think he knows about an attack that's going to go down on US soil, so they need him fast and they need him alive.

So they can take him to Cuba and torture him.

One of the dead agents' cell phone called a house twice just after the plane landed, so the guys go to bust down the door. When they get there, Salgado's nowhere to be found, but the woman inside knew him as Pedro back when she was a college student and he's the father of her son... who is now missing. The guy's have no idea where to start looking, so Steve goes to see someone who might.

He ain't pretty no more.

Wo Fat doesn't want to help, but he relents when Steve threatens to cut off his pain medication and points him towards a man who deals in forged documents. On the way out, the guard makes note of the fact that Steve is the second McGarrett to come through in the last few days as Doris recently paid a visit to Wo Fat as well. The documents guy gives up Salgado pretty quickly, however Mrs. McGarrett doesn't break quite so easily. Steve has to berate her until she's practically in tears before she's ready to spill her guts. Unfortunately, Catherine picks up Salgado's car on satellite surveillance, and Danny pulls him away before he can get the answers he wants.

He's so mean to his poor mother.

The guys catch Salgado without much trouble, but the kid isn't in the car. He says he didn't come to Hawaii to kidnap his son; he came to save him from the wrath of his terrorist organization. But he was too late. The terrorists took his son as collateral so he wouldn't talk. The CIA doesn't care if the boy lives or dies, so the head black suit guy tells the Five-0 team to stand down. Danny has a soft spot for kids, though, and he and Steve convince Salgado to help them out in exchange for saving his son's life. When they get to the meeting site, the terrorists double-cross Salgado and threaten to kill his son in front of him. Before they can, the Five-0 guys jump out of nowhere and ambush them. All the terrorists go down, but Salgado takes a bullet in the back while acting as a human shield for his son. They rush him to the hospital, where he gives up the location of the terrorist attack just before he dies.

Elsewhere, Kono is on the run. Fortunately, she has a rich boyfriend whose family owns a secret mansion through a holding company. She tells Adam that the HPD is after her because of his brother and he reveals that he knows she's been spying on him, and despite all appearances, he still claims that he's trying to legitimize the family business. However, his brother is fighting him for control and if his allies see him as weak, he's a dead man.

Together, they go to a warehouse that Adam's father's associates use as a supply depot and they look for evidence that his brother was involved in the murder. They find some bloody gloves, but before they can get away, Michael comes by. While Kono gets out of sight, Adam pretends that he needs a gun because the cops are after him. The ruse works and they both manage to escape without being seen. They take the gloves to Fong in hopes that he can match the dirt and blood on them to the body. Charlie's a bit hesitant, but he agrees to do it because Kono's his chum. The DNA on the outside of the gloves is a match to the dead guy, while the DNA on the inside is a match to Michael. It looks like they've got him dead to rights, but before Charlie can get the gloves to McGarrett, Michael drops by to pay him a visit.

And he is not happy.

After stabbing Charlie, Michael goes to the Noshimuri safe house to confront Kono and Adam. He tells his brother that everything he did was to protect him, but now that's over. He's going to kill Kono, take over the family business, and then Adam is on his own. Adam's not cool with that, so he jumps his brother and in the ensuing struggle, Michael gets shot in the torso.

Unlike when Kono got shot in the previous episode, the bullet does not miss his vital organs.

With their main source of income now dead, Michael's associates are going to want payback. Doris books passage for Adam on a freighter to Shanghai and Kono decides to go with him. Danny and Steve tell her she's crazy, but her cousin tells her to follow her heart and lets her go. Everyone says their tearful goodbyes, and the couple ships out, with Mama McGarrett tagging along to help them get settled.

Later, at Five-0 headquarters, it's been a year since Malia died, and Chin decides he's tired of being alone, so he finally calls Leilani. Also, Gabby comes back because Last Resort was a terrible idea for a show.

Navy officers hijack their own submarine and gain control of nuclear weapons? Who the hell would believe that?

With Doris gone, there's only one person McGarrett can turn to for answers. Coincidentally, Wo Fat asks to see him at the same time he decides to come in on his own. He's fully willing to cooperate and tell Steve everything he wants to know, but first he needs to save him from the men who are coming to kill him. There's an explosion outside the door and sounds of gunfire, followed by someone slowly cutting through the door.

Ah, crap.

What I Liked
-Duke has no time for Steve's BS. Too many people go along with his nonsense, and it's good to see someone who's willing to put him in his place.

What I Hated
-The whole ticking clock terrorist rendition thing. Plots like this make the public okay with sending people to secret prisons so they can be tortured without oversight. Jack Bauer may have tortured people, but at least he always did it on US soil.
-Wo Fat is in a top secret facility with a giant steel door and a dozen armed guards outside. The man has half a face and one working arm; why the hell do they need that much security?
-They do that thing where two people struggle for a gun and it goes off and they don't immediately show who got shot. Is it ever the good guy? Ever?
-Apparently Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are there to kill Wo Fat because whoever's on the other side of the door manages to cut through a good 35cm of steel in mere seconds. That's 35cm thick.

I guess Wo Fat works for the Trade Federation.

Final Thoughts
Why in the hell did they bother bringing Gabby back? She hasn't been on the show in over a year and it would've been just fine to completely ignore the character and pretend she never existed or have Danny give a throwaway line about how they broke up. Instead, they somewhat randomly decided that everyone needed to find love in the season finale. Steve has Catherine, Kono has Adam, Danny has Gabby, and even Chin has Leilani. Everybody's happy.

This is the second straight finale where something has happened that makes it look like Kono won't be back next season. Of course, she will be and everything will be resolved by the end of the third episode, just like it was this season... or last season for that matter. Remember when Rachel was pregnant with Danny's baby and McGarrett was a suspect in the Governor's murder?

As for this episode, it had one of the three Bs, but Danno hasn't booked anyone in quite a while, and there haven't really been that many bikini babes lately, either. The show's been moving away from what makes it good and trying to become more serious and dramatic. There are plenty of serious cop shows on TV, and Hawaii Five-0 can't really compete with them in that arena. However, there aren't any other banter-based cop shows set in Hawaii out there, and if they stuck to that niche instead of trying to branch out, I think it would be a much better show.

Beyond that, it was an adequate finale. It had a little bit of action, some drama, some romance, and a ridiculous cliffhanger that came out of nowhere and made no sense. So, I'll watch the show next season, but if it starts to decline in quality, I might skip a few episodes.