Hawaii Five-0 4x01: Aloha kekahi i kekahi

When last we left our heroes, a couple of them were on their way to Asia on a boat, a couple of them were trying to find love, and McGarrett was trapped in an ultra-secure facility with Wo Fat while some guys were trying to break in to kill them. Despite the fact that they managed to kill their way through a dozen guards in body armour and cut through a ludicrously thick metal door in mere seconds, McGarrett manages to kill the guys who came to finish off Wo Fat in less than a minute.

Well, I suppose this one was actually killed by friendly fire.

Inexplicably, one of the guys is still alive, so McGarrett has Chin and Danny secure Wo Fat while he drags the guy back to HQ. They run his prints and discover his name is Ricardo Cosi and that he's both a member of the National Liberation Movement (who the team screwed over in the previous episode) and the nephew of NLM leader 'El Condor'. Which is bad news for everyone, because before McGarrett can even really get started on the interrogation, half a dozen NLM terrorists break into Five-0 HQ, strap C4 to the front door, cut the hard lines, block all cell phone service, take dozens of hostages, hack into the database, and shoot the awesome Microsoft Surface table they had in their office.

I guess it's time for an upgrade.

A ridiculous number of HPD officers show up a few minutes later, including Duke, Max, and SWAT team leader Captain Grover, played by Chi McBride. Since all the entrances are wired with C4, there's no good way in, and it looks like the terrorists are going to be hanging around for a while. Especially since Danny and Steve have moved Cosi out of the interrogation room and are dragging him around the building, trying to stay hidden.

On the outside, Catherine's superior officer tracks her down on the beach and tells her what's going on, and Kamekona provides some comic relief as he tries to bust through the police barricades so he can get in and kick some ass. While on the inside, Chin is seriously pissed that some people have broken into his office and shot his computer, so he sets a trap for one of the flunkies, punches him in the jaw, and then drops him with a sleeper hold.

Don't ever touch an Asian man's computer.

Cosi's still bleeding from his gunshot wound, so the guys need to find a way to patch him up before he dies. It doesn't go so well, and McGarrett has to pound on his chest to keep him alive. Which is a little redundant since a few minutes later he pulls the whole Die Hard 4 thing and shoots through the guy's shoulder to kill a terrorist. With another one of his men out of contact, the lead terrorist, Jefe, is tired of this shit and stars shooting hostages until Danny and Steve bring him Cosi. Jefe then gets McGarrett to draw Chin out, and once he's firmly in control, he predictably shoots Cosi in the heart. The remaining terrorists then surprise everyone by immediately surrendering.

You can see the surprise in the back of McGarrett's head.

After turning the prisoners over to HPD, the team starts trying to figure out exactly what just happened. But before they can even get started, Steve gets a call from Catherine's phone that turns out to be from El Condor. He wants to trade Cat for his people, and if he doesn't get them back soon, she's going to be in for a world of pain. Danny tries to talk him out of it, but McGarrett's not about to lose someone else he loves to international terrorists, so they tear off after the SWAT prisoner van.

When they catch up, they run it off the road and order everyone out at gunpoint. Grover says McGarrett's career is finished, and he's probably right. Meanwhile, Jefe and the gang take the SWAT team's guns and Danny's Camaro.

Kiss it goodbye, Danno.

El Condor is a man of his word, and after commending McGarrett on his good judgement, he tells him where he can pick up Catherine. When they get there, Cat chastises Steve for letting the terrorists go free, but he thinks he has an ace in the hole: Chin has been tailing them. Unfortunately, they're not idiots, so they notice him, and as they round a corner, they jump out and unload their machine guns into Chin's car. Then El Condor picks them up in an SUV and as they leave, Jefe tosses a grenade in the Camaro for good measure.

Seriously, kiss it goodbye, Danno.

Chin isn't dead, so he pops off a few shotgun rounds as they escape, but it does no good. They're gone.

The rest of the team, a pissed of Grover, and Duke roll up a few minutes later. Grover wants to arrest everyone, but McGarrett convinces him that they still have time to catch the terrorists. Duke remembers that a new helicopter was stolen earlier in the day, and they figure that the terrorists will be using it as their getaway vehicle. With only one place in the near vicinity where it could take off and land, the cops set up a quick roadblock. El Condor and his men try to run it, but the car flips and most of them are killed in the ensuing gunfight.

So that's what happened to Desmond after he got off the island.

El Condor's a wily one, though, and he makes it to the helicopter on foot. But McGarrett's even wilier, and he manages to grab onto the chopper as it's taking off. He tosses one of El Condor's men out the side, then in a struggle, he shoots the pilot in the head, then finally puts one in El Condor's gut and shoves him out. Steve lands the helicopter in the parking lot, then everyone goes out for beer.

Later, McGarrett goes to visit Wo Fat before he can be transferred to a supermax prison on the mainland. He won't say exactly why McGarrett's mother came to visit him before she left, so Steve smacks Wo Fat's head against the bars of his cage and takes a blood sample so Max can run DNA and find out once and for all if McGarrett and Wo Fat are brothers.

Back at HQ, Danny has Toast dig through the busted hardware to see if he can figure out what the terrorists were doing before they wrecked everything. It takes him a minute or two, but eventually he finds out that they were stealing satellite data, which they then uploaded to a third party. The data was the location of Adam and Kono's satellite phone. They've been compromised, and the Yakuza are coming to get them.

Dun dun dunnnnnnnnn!

What I Liked
-There's a terrorist leader named 'El Condor'. That's what sets this show apart from other police procedurals. Ridiculous stuff like that.
-Random, surfboard-based hijinks.

Why shoot in Hawaii if you're not going to show it off every now and then?

-Danny talks about his relationship while Steve gives Corsi CPR. It's always time for banter.
-The terrorists actually notice that they're being tailed. That happens so infrequently in TV and movies that it was a really welcome surprise. Generally, I notice if a car's been following me for more than a couple blocks, so I figure professional criminals would be able to spot a tail much more easily.
-The lead terrorist underling was played by Henry Ian Cusick, so Desmond and Jin got to hang out again. They didn't get much screen time together, but they never really did on Lost, either.


What I Hated
-The guys sent to kill Wo Fat expend a lot of ammo on his bulletproof cell wall, even though they have an explosive device. The stupidity of master criminals strikes again.
-The terrorists had everything planned out meticulously, until it came time for them to finally escape. If they'd just switched cars again under an overpass or something, they would've gotten away clean. Instead they stole a helicopter, which wouldn't even have been able to carry all of them anyway.

Final Thoughts
I was wondering when they were going to get around to upgrading all their stuff. It's been three whole years now, so Danno needs a shiny new car, and the office needs some kick ass new computers. My guess is that everything will run Windows 8.1 somehow.

This was a pretty good way to start off the season. Although, with the way it ended, I really think it would've made a better finale for last season. The way that one ended with unknown entities cutting through the door just seemed random. Kono and Adam in mortal danger makes more sense from both a story and an emotional standpoint.

That being said, I still liked what they did here. There were explosions, gunfights, random girls in bikinis, fast cars, this shot of a guy hang gliding:

What more do you need?

I would've liked the terrorists to get away and live to fight another day. I think they could've made good long-term recurring antagonists. The show could use some, too, now that Wo Fat is more or less permanently locked up, and Sang is free and living the sweet life. I guess they wanted to finish off the NLM once and for all, though, since they killed them all in a profoundly stupid manner. That's why I can't say this was a great episode. But it was still pretty good.