Hawaii Five 0 returned last night for one of the last episodes of the season. Thankfully, all things were right in the Five-0 world as Steve and Danny were partnered up and working a case together. Also to help Junior, the entire team worked together in sync. Mimsy did the recap this week so without leaving you hanging, we will jump right into it. Once again it is very detailed with lots of great pics from the night. Here it is.
The opening scene is a man getting acupuncture from a woman and her daughter. In the middle of their session, his doorbell rings and he apologizes asking if they can reset in 5 minutes. Upon getting up from the table, the person at the door becomes more and more impatient pressing the button like it’s going out of style. Putting on his robe, he tells the women, “this Chinese needle stuff, I can’t have anyone I know…they will think I’ve lost my mind.”
After he leaves to answer his door, the mother tells her daughter that she has two clients the next day and could use her daughter’s help. Her daughter smiles and agrees. As the mother is looking at her supplies, the daughter becomes distracted by voices arguing downstairs. Her mother tells her that it’s none of their business, but she let’s her curiosity get the better of her and goes to eavesdrop and spy on the argument.
As she quietly creeps down the stairs, she sees the argument and at the height of it, she’s frightened, runs back upstairs into the room with her mother, locks the door and screams to her mother that they need to get out of there. She tells her mom the man they were working on is dead, and that they killed him. After finally convincing her mother to leave, as the door is shaking with someone trying to break in, the two women make a run for it.
THE WAVE ROLLS
Honolulu Animal Clinic: Eddie is getting a follow up checkup on the leg wound he suffered when he was shot. Steve asks how Eddie is doing and Dr. Shaw lets him know that the surgeon did an amazing job and that Eddie’s a lucky boy since the bullet missed all of his vital organs. He remarks that he’s surprised that Eddie has been able to stay away from the sutures without a cone. Steve tells him that he’s been licking himself, just not “there”. Dr. Shaw lets Steve know that shows an improved range of motion and he brings Eddie back down to the floor where Eddie is able to show the vet how well he’s walking. Steve tells him that Eddie’s snoring is gone too, thankfully.
After concerning Dr. Shaw a bit with a cough, he convinces an unwilling Steve to get up on the table and let him take a look at him. This of course is after he tells Steve that before he was a vet, he was pre-med. Rightfully so, Steve feels a bit weird being checked out by an animal doctor. He checks his glands, his pulse, which is slightly elevated, and then has Steve lift his shirt so he can listen to his breathing. Still trying to convince the doc that he’s fine, Dr. Shaw puts his finger up to Steve’s mouth to quiet him down and tells him to breathe as he listens. He does as he’s told as Eddie watches on with curiosity and some great expressions.
After hearing that he and Eddie are roughly the same age in human years, Steve teases Eddie that he’s “officially over the hill”. Dr. Shaw tells him that he would like to see the both of them take better care of their bodies, maybe have Steve take up golf after hearing that he’s going to be opening up a restaurant soon. And speaking of one source of Steve’s stress … the exam room door opens and in comes Danno! Steve tells Dr. Shaw that there is his number one source of stress.
Danny laughs at seeing Steve up on the exam table and says that he’s always said that Steve is an animal. Danny then tells Steve that they have to go due to a call. Upon leaving the exam room, Dr. Shaw gives Eddie his treat and Danny jokes with the doc asking about Steve not getting a treat. Asking if he wasn’t a good boy, did he pee on the floor, did he bite Dr. Shaw? Dr. Shaw is rather surprised by that and the trio leave. Danny asks what Dr. Shaw said and Steve lets him know that he told him that he should take up golf to reduce stress. Danny responds, “Like that would work.” And his partner counters with, “The idea of beating you with a 5-iron sounds pretty relaxing.”
At the ME’s office, Noelani is explaining to Steve, Danny, and Tani that their victim, Mei Lin, was found in a local alley by a local vendor who recognized her. Tani explains that Mei Lin was well known in the Chinatown neighborhood, she was an acupuncturist for over 25 years, and even had a shop close by to where her body was discovered. Tani continues that her daughter Cammy worked with her and didn’t show up for work that morning. HPD went by her house, she wasn’t there. Phone and wallet were missing. All calls were going straight to her voicemail. Danny suggests that she could possibly be hiding, that people don’t just disappear. Steve adds that unless someone has made them disappear.
At the Chinatown Natural Apothecary, Steve and Danny are speaking to the owner, Dr. Wai. He explains how he has known Mei Lin for many years and how Cammy was learning from her mom how to be an acupuncturist. He tells them that Mei rented space from his shop for a little business. Just a bed and address was what they used it for. Most of her business was done in the clients homes. Danny asks he knew if they were working last night, to which he responds that he did not, but that she does keep an appointment book.
He gets that book for them and upon opening it, Danny sees that everything is written in Chinese. Thinking he’s funny, he smiles and says, “This might as well all be in Chinese.” Dr. Wai doesn’t see the humor in it and Steve immediately takes the book from him. Obviously understanding the writings, he is able to determine that Mei Lin did have an appointment that prior evening at 9:00pm with a man named Tom Boyle.
Both men recognize the man’s name, however they recognize it in different ways. Danny knows that Tommy Boyle is a wise guy mob boss from Boston who came out to Hawaii a few years ago. Steve tells him that the HPD daily briefings showed that Tommy Boyle killed himself last night after swallowing a bullet. They both agree that it’s no coincidence that Boyle and Mei Lin both died in the same night after his appointment with her.
In the car driving, Steve and Danny are talking with Noelani about the times of death for both victims; between 9pm – 11pm. Noelani lets them know that it appears as though Boyle’s death is a suicide and she may have found motive in his records that he was battling a very aggressive form of Aden sarcoma and statistically he should have died six months prior. Steve mentions how acupuncture is sometimes used for pain management. Going with the idea of suicide, Danny thinks that possibly Boyle got tired of the pain and waiting to die, so he sped things up. Noelani agrees that that could be true, but due to the nature of his death, she is required to do a full autopsy. Steve asks her to let them know about whatever she finds as he is thinking there just might be a possibility of foul play. Steve and Danny continue to discuss and Steve tells him that to him, Boyle doesn’t seem the type to put a bullet in himself.
They pull up to O’Toole’s Restaurant and Bar where Tommy Boyle’s family is hosting lunch for their family and friends wishing to pay their respects to Tommy’s son, Conor Boyle. Danny tries to warn Steve that it’s not going to be a friendly environment from the start at the front door, especially since they are cops. He makes up some saying that Steve calls him on but point taken. As he takes that under advisement, they proceed to the entrance.
At the door, they encounter a man acting as security, who refuses their entry. Steve thinks that by showing the man that he is wearing a badge and introducing both himself and Danny as members of Five-0, it will gain them entry. All the while, the FBI is taking pictures from an apartment across the street of the exchange.
The security guy is not impressed by Steve’s badge and continues to deny both men entry to the restaurant. Danny tells him that he warned him and he told him it would be like that. Steve agrees that Danny did try, where he then proceeds to throat punch Conor Boyle’s security. Danny asks if that relieved any stress and Steve responded that it was actually very relaxing.
Conor witnesses the exchange from inside and he is then approached by both Steve and Danny. He agrees to chat with them for a few minutes and is not happy with either man. He says that he is supposed to be laying his father to rest today, but they are holding his body for an autopsy. Steve tells him it’s standard protocol and Conor let’s both men know that what else is protocol is giving a dead man some dignity with a decent burial. Danny lets him know that they know what his dad did back in Boston, and they move to a back room.
Danny tells Conor that his dad is a very lucky man, since most of his associates are either doing time or buried on an east coast beach somewhere. Tommy Boyle got lucky, he got to retire over in Hawaii where some people call paradise. Conor counters that he wouldn’t consider getting diagnosed with lung cancer the week after he moved out there luck, but hey, maybe that’s just him.
Steve asks how Conor found out about his dad’s death. He tells them that he got a call from his dad’s maid who found him with the gun in his hand. Steve then shows him a picture of Mei Lin, explaining who she was and how she was found dead after her appointment with his dad and now her daughter is missing. He explains that if they could find Cammy, she could possibly shed some light on Tom Boyle’s death. Conor seems surprised. When he asks if they’re suggesting that his dad didn’t commit suicide, Steve tells him that until they find conclusive evidence that it was definitely suicide, they have to keep an open mind about every possibility.
Switching to Cammy’s apartment in Chinatown, Steve and Danny arrive to find her apartment door open. Steve sees Danny’s expression and asks what the look is for. Danny tells him that all the way up the stairs, he had a feeling that the door was going to be open but that he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to bet Steve knowing that Steve would never pay up. Steve tells him that he WOULD HAVE taken that bet.
Both men go in guns drawn. They see a person standing looking out a window in a back room. Shockingly it is Junior. Steve asks what he’s doing there to which he tells them that he’s looking for Cammy and so is the guy sitting in the SUV outside right across the street.
As Steve and Danny look out the window, Junior leaves Cammy’s apartment and goes down to the vehicle. He opens the passenger door, crawls in with Steve and Danny right behind him in the street. Steve asks, “Yo, did he just get in that car?” Danny responds, “See you knew this was going to happen.” “What?” Steve asks. “You’re rubbing off on Junior” and they witness the driver’s window shatter and then Junior pulling the man out the open passenger door, throwing him to the ground.
As Junior is pulling the man’s hands behind his back, Steve asks Junior if he’s alright. Junior responds, “Yeah. I kindly asked this guy to step out of his vehicle and he didn’t listen. So it’s his fault.” He tells Steve and Danny that his friend, Cammy, is missing and that this guy knows why.
At the palace, Junior is playing the voicemail on his phone left by Cammy Lin. She is calling pleading for his help saying that he’s the only one that she can trust. But just after that, her phone died along with the rest of the message. Junior explains to Steve, Danny, and Lou that when he got the message, he tried calling her back but it went straight to voicemail so he went to her place. How did Junior know her? Junior explains that they went to school together and then when he got shipped out, Cammy checked in with his mom once a week.
Tani comes in and tells the guys that she just spoke to the crime lab and found that gun evidence on Boyle matched the GSR on Mei Lin. Steve was surprised that they were killed by the same gun. Danny says that it makes sense since they were thinking that the women saw something, got scared and they ran. Lou wants to know though why if the gun used on Boyle was made to look like a staged suicide, why would the killer use the same exact gun to kill Mei Lin? The killer has to know that once ballistics and forensics come back with that evidence, the whole thing is blown. Let’s see what the perp downstairs knows about that, Steve says.
Down in the blue room, George Thomas is being questioned by Steve, Lou, and Junior. Steve asks if George was the kid that didn’t listen in school. George is choosing to exercise his right to remain silent. Steve then asks George to tell them why he was looking for Cammy Lin. Again, silence. Lou says that he’ll start. Lou explains that he believes that George is trying to tie up loose ends; either for himself, or for some other bird. Steve explains to George that what Lou is trying to say is that either George himself killed Tommy Boyle and Mei Lin or he knows who did. Junior says that if George was just the one hired to clean up the mess, he suggests that George start talking. Whatever they are paying him, it’s not worth the live jolt.
Steve answers his cell and then let’s all three other men that “as much as I am enjoying this riveting conversation, I have something I need to attend to.” He is going to leave George in the very capable hands of Lou and Junior. Upon leaving, Steve promises Junior that they are going to find Cammy.
Junior then remarks about George’s blank stare. Lou asks Junior if he’s sure he didn’t give George brain damage when he slammed his head against the steering wheel. Junior explains that he believes that brain damage was a pre-existing condition. George then finally decides to open his mouth suggesting that he needs to see a doctor. Junior says that head trauma can be a serious thing if not examined. But Lou says that they don’t need to explain that to George. He knows all about it, given his history of being a boxer back in the day. Calling him a reverse Rocky. Lou says enough with the small talk and asks who George is working for. Apparently George enjoys exercising that right to remain silent quite a bit.
Lou tells Junior a story of “many years and many pounds ago, I was a boxer myself.” Junior asks if he was any good, and Lou lets him know that when he was 15, he was 20-0, but he quit after that. His dad told him to always go out a winner. Words to live by. Says that he was so good, he could take one look at a guy and tell what kind of fighter a guy was. He says that George was a dancer. He would float around the ring, letting his opponent hit him until he wore himself out. He tells George that he won’t wear him down. Lou will outlast him, out think him,;George will not go the distance with him. Not today, not ever.
Upstairs, Steve returns to Tani and Danny at the smart table. Danny tells Steve that they have a good lead and Tani explains. Tani reached out to all other law enforcement agencies to see if they had anything on the Boyle’s. The feds have been sitting on the family ever since they got to the island. They increased the surveillance in the past two weeks to see if any other associates came out of the woodwork. She then showed both men the pictures of Steve’s lovely throat punch to Conor Boyle’s bodyguard at O’Toole’s. Steve is happy to see his handiwork up on the screen like that. Danny tells him, “That’s why I told you, you have to pay more attention. You never know who’s watching.”
Tani continues that the feds had eyes on the Boyle house that morning and they saw a man who came to see Conor. Sharing pictures that show the two men walking and chatting, she says Karl Ludwig is the man and he travels on a German passport. Up until two weeks prior to that day, he was the VP of the Alliance of German Banks. Steve asks if he quit and Tani answered that nobody knows. Steve thinks that the guy is there to pay his respects. But after everyone is gone? Steve suggests that maybe they’re taking a meeting. Danny questions why Conor would be taking a meeting on the day he’s supposed to bury his father.
Danny and Steve are on their way to see a Chinese Triad. Steve explains that nothing on the island happens without this guy’s knowledge. They enter the building to see two men fighting kung-fu style with a Bruce Lee movie playing directly behind them. They are mimicking the moves from the movie. Danny asks who the two clowns are and what are they doing?
The older gentleman, Jin Leung, doesn’t find it funny but responds that the one man is his grandson in the black. Danny tells him that his grandson is handsome. Leung then asks Steve if Danny is his partner. Steve confirms that and says that Danny did not mean any disrespect. Danny apologizes and agrees that he meant no disrespect. Leung tells Danny that he appears to be an intelligent man, but that all disappears when he opens up his mouth. Leung tells Steve that he knew his father and that Steve can sit down with him but tells Danny that he can go to the back row of chairs and be quiet. Danny’s been put in time out.
Steve sits down and they watch the men fight. Leung mentions how he’s heard they’re opening up a restaurant. An Italian restaurant in Chinatown? Steve tells him that they want to give the public different choices. Leung explains that his grandson wants to be a movie star, and he wants to make his grandson the next Bruce Lee and finance a series of movies of his own. Steve wishes them the greatest success in both.
Leung then asks why Steve and Danny are there and Steve tells him that it’s about Mei Lin. Leung says that he heard about it, but that he doesn’t know who killed her. Steve then tells Leung about Boyle’s death and Leung says he heard about that too and how he had chosen to terminate his suffering. Steve asks if he believes that it was suicide and tells him how Conor is acting strange. He took time out from mourning his father to meet with Ludwig.
After seeing the picture on Steve’s phone, Leung confirms that he recognizes the man. Leung explains that he had heard that Ludwig was retired. Both men discuss a retired financier meeting with the son of a retired mobster. Leung explains how Conor was trying to fill his father’s shoes and that he was allegedly working on a deal that would really put him on the map where he could step out of his father’s shadow. It had something to do with foreign currency. He heard that Conor was looking for seed money, but came up short at first. He then found someone who could come up with the entire amount. His father. But then at the last minute, Conor called Leung and asked him for the money instead. Asking why he would do something like that, Steve says that the elder Boyle most likely changed his mind. Leung determined that losing in the final moment, for Conor, that would “put poison in a man’s heart”.
Steve calls Lou and tells him that he wants the entire focus to be on both Conor and Ludwig. After the call, Steve and Danny prepare to leave. Steve thanks Leung and Leung asks Steve to repay the kindness. When Steve asks what that favor would be, Leung explains that he wants his grandson to now spar with the one in the back. The one with the big mouth.
Danny is none too thrilled with this and tries to argue his way out with Steve. To his disappointment, he loses the argument. Steve tells him not to hit back. Now does anyone think that Danny is going to listen to Steve? Danny is shocked that he is supposed to lose and says that this is the dumbest thing that Steve has gotten him into. Leung tells Danny the style he is to fight and of course Danny doesn’t understand. Steve explains, “Wax on, wax off”.
The fight begins and at first Danny is complying with the no-hitting. However, after a couple of swings and a couple of kicks, Danny punches and knocks down Leung’s grandson; much to everyone’s surprise.
Steve asks him what the hell he is doing and Danny asks if Steve knows how hard it is to take a hit and not hit back. Steve begs him to just take the beating so that they can get out of there. They begin again. Danny takes his hits but then punches and knocks the grandson down again.
Leung stands up in shock while Danny makes sure that the young man is alright. Leung tells Danny that he is impressed and Danny lets him know that he meant no disrespect. Leung shocks both Danny and Steve when he says, “You would have been, had you not fought back.” Danny compliments Leung’s grandson telling Leung that he is very good.
Steve picks up a call from Lou letting him know that the FBI had been investigating Conor, NOT Tommy. He tells Steve that Ludwig, back in the day was in charge of destroying the old German currency but of course . Steve finishes, “Save some for a rainy day.” Lou says that a load of old Deutschmarks now is like a load of dirty paper. Steve says unless you can get rid of them and the only way to do so is at a central bank. If Ludwig does that, he incriminates himself so he sells it to Conor. The FBI knew there was a money laundering operation going on but decided to let Conor complete the exchange before moving in on both men. Conor and Ludwig got the jump on the feds before they could move in on them and that’s when the two men met.
Steve and Danny return to the Palace and Lou asks if they took the scenic route back. Danny explains that “This idiot made me get into a kung-fu fight with another idiot.” Tani says that she wants to go with them next time as they have all the fun.
Junior tells them that while they don’t have anything new on Conor and Ludwig, they may have a location on Cammy. Lou explains how they took a deeper listen to her voicemail to Junior to see if there were any identifiable sounds in the background and played the message. It was determined that it sounded like metal against metal. A big door latching. Junior believes that in her last message to him, she was trying to tell him that she was at Ewa beach. There are some railroad cars there where they used to hang out when they were kids. Tani and Junior go to check it out.
On the drive over, Junior is blaming himself for not having picked up her call. He says how he thought she was just calling to meet for lunch, but being that Cammy was his ex’s best friend, he didn’t want to spend the whole time hearing about his ex leaving him when they broke up. Tani does her best to try and convince him that none of this is his fault and even if he had answered her call, there was no way he could have saved Mei Lin. But he asks what if it could have saved Cammy.
They arrive and begin searching the boxcars. Junior is unsuccessful but Tani ends up in a boxcar looking one way when she is hit from behind and begins fighting with her attacker. After being knocked to the floor, Junior stops Cammy, who ends up in his arms thankful to have been found by him. After helping Tani up, Junior lets them know that he’s going to let the others know that they found Cammy. Tani asks Cammy where she learned how to fight like that … her mother. Tani is impressed and also offers her condolences.
Junior asks Cammy if she saw what happened? Upon hearing that she did, Tani tells Cammy that she needs to come with them and make a statement. She tells them both no and when Junior tells them that she’s safe with them, she questions because they’re cops? She informs them that one of the men who killed her mother was a cop. That she’d seen enough badges in her time working with her mom to recognize one. She explains what she saw and how she saw Tommy telling two men that they needed to respect his decision and how the cop injected Tommy with a needle, causing him to fall to the ground. She tells how she ran and the second guy turned around showing that it was Conor there as well. They ran after her and got into the room as Mei Lin was jumping out of the second floor window to the ground. Cammy followed soon after and had to help her injured mother, who had hurt her foot. The women tried running, but were chased by a car driven by the cop and in the passenger seat was a gun toting Conor. Mei Lin fell and ordered her daughter to continue running, to get away. Cammy didn’t want to leave, but after her mother screaming, “GO!!!”, she tearfully ran off. She explains to Tani and Junior how she should have stayed with her mother, but Tani tells her that she did what her mother wanted and that her mother wanted her to live. Cars pull up and Junior explains that it’s trouble.
As they’re listening to the men approaching the box cars, Junior sees that he is standing on an old loose floorboard. He manages to break a hole in the floor and drop out to the ground. He shoots out the legs of two of the assailants and then shoots them dead. Two others start shooting towards him when Tani climbs out onto the roof and begins shooting. They each distract the shooters and eventually take them out. Junior is left fighting the cop as Conor begins shooting wildly while running back towards his car. Tani, now on the ground, picks up one of the assailants guns and goes after Conor.
Junior is involved in a good old fashioned street fight with the cop and Tani in a gunfight with Conor. Junior is knocked to the ground and when his guy goes for his gun on the ground, Junior reaches over for his own gun, also on the ground, and ends up killing the bad cop.
Conor runs out of bullets and Tani shoots up his SUV with a hail of bullets. Silence rings out and we see Conor coming up from hiding behind the door, looking around. He doesn’t see anyone and turns around only to be met with a hard right hook from Tani, knocking him down and out. Junior goes back and lets Cammy know that it’s over and they embrace.
Tani, Junior, and Steve meet up with Conor in the blue room. Steve asks Conor to help him understand how Conor goes to see his father, who now refuses to help him fund his operation so Conor ends up killing him. Conor whines how he wants his phone call and Steve tells him that they’ll do the talking for him instead. Junior explains the autopsy results for his dad showing that he had a substance in his body known as Tetrodotoxin. Explaining how it’s a paralyzing agent to where the victim can’t even scream, but can feel pain. Each taking a turn rubbing in Conor’s face how they figured out each detail of Cammy witnessing this, him not knowing that Cammy and her mother were even there at the time, how both men ran after the two women, and how Cammy got away due to her mother sacrificing her own life so that her daughter could live. Tani wondered how it must feel to have a parent love a child that much. Junior then explains how Conor then doubled back to finish the job and through flashbacks, they showed how Conor placed the gun in his father’s hand, turned it up under his chin, and fired.
Conor says that his father was already dying and Junior accused him of growing impatient about that. Conor tells Junior that he’s just starting out and that he’ll see worse than that. Steve tells Conor, “See you in 25.” Steve and Tani leave with Junior staying behind. He looks at Conor, who is unclear as to what is going on, and happily says, “Gotcha” and he leaves the blue room and Conor all alone. Conor realizes that he just admitted to everything.
In the final scene, at a Buddhist temple, Junior helps Cammy and other family members bury Mei Lin. Cammy is crushed and Junior takes and holds her hand in comfort.
This episode was very good. We were pleased to see the whole team work together on one case without any side stories whatsoever that confuse the matter. It felt like a smooth episode and returned to what we have known the show to do best; comedy, action, and teamwork.
The return of Eddie added some fun at the beginning and did not interrupt a case, as it was prior to them learning about one. Eddie and Steve were funny with their expressions at the vet’s office and the addition of Danny at the end was solid.
Overall, the episode had the same back and forth banter that Steve and Danny have been known for and there was even a couple of carguments which have been missing this season.
We enjoyed the whole episode and although predictable it was a good story. Danny and Junior doing the majority of the fighting was also a nice change.
With the inclusion of Eddie and an all-around good episode, we rate this one a 9.5.
With the end of the season being better than the majority of the rest of it, we look forward to next week, which the “story by” credit goes to Alex. See you then.
Overall I liked when Steve got a checkup at the vet and Danny with the fight scene.I look so forward to episode 8.24 with the story by Alex I’m so proud to call myself a Alex O’Loughlin fan since 2009.