Our regular recapper, Susan Schoppe, is away this weekend for a family celebration so one of the admins stepped in and did the recap/review this week. Hope you like it.
This episode starts out with a scene from Alicia Brown’s class she was teaching about serial killers in where she is talking about how serial killer are never woman. In matter of fact, women are not the typical murderer in general unless it is for defense of some type. One of her student’s makes an astute comment about the topic and we learn that student happens to be Sienna Brown, Alicia’s daughter. It is clear that there is a lot more to the story surrounding this introduction of her daughter. Could it go back to that picture Steve honed in on in episode two and the reason she did not want to get involved with helping Five O when first asked.
Flashing forward we next find Alicia being dragged across the floor with a knife in her back and Steve calling out for her, which of course cues the credits and the iconic theme song.
Directly after that, there is another flashback but this time to only 16 hours prior. Taking off from where last week’s episode ended, Steve and Alicia are in Madison Gray’s office discussing Lau’s file. Madison says that Lau was only sharing personal things and not anything about the cases until he took his own life. Alicia clues Madison in that they know Lau was murdered and they will need Lau’s files now that this is a murder case. Steve backs her up although he looks as if he disapproves of releasing the information so directly and so soon in their meeting.
As Steve and Alicia walk back to Steve’s truck, Alicia’s methods are discussed as well as how they both do not believe Madison about what is in Lau’s. Steve reminds Alicia that serial killers are never woman according to Alicia’s own words she used in a book she wrote. Steve also orders Alicia to stand down and says he will brief the team about the developments. Since Alicia has been showing that she has a lot of Steve’s traits, it is unlikely that she will be standing down.
Moving forward in the flashback, to lighten the mood slightly in an already intense few minutes of the show, we are next taken to the shrimp truck where Kamekona is using Kono and Grover to test some of his newest concoction, shrimp doughnuts, or shall we say shrimp malasadas. From the looks on the guinea pigs’ faces and the fact they spit it out, it is clear they do not taste so good. Kono and Grover encourage Kame to stick with the traditional island delicacies for his food of the month club he is starting. Also while at the truck we learn that Adam will be getting out early for good behavior and helping Five O with the escaped convict case from season six, and Kono will be picking him up in a couple of days. (to us viewers this translates to next episode). Another football icon, Otis Wilson, shows up on the island and at the truck too. This time it is Grover who is excited to see him as Steve is obviously busy getting stabbed in the back (literally).
Another sweet and light moment plays homage to Daniel Dae Kim’s role as the King this pas hiatus- in the Broadway play the King and I, as he has taken Sarah out in a “gondola” board. She even calls him majesty and it was quite sweet. The two are brought in by Jerry who summons Chin and tells him based on new evidence that has come to light, the family that Sarah is going to be living with could possibly be connected to a drug criminal.
Chin then goes and meets Abby’s old boss, Robert Coughlin and after they have a bygones will be bygones talk, Chin asks Coughlin to look into the Morales family (Sarah’s mother’s relatives in Mexico). Coughlin agrees and tells him he will have an answer to him within 72 hours.
Back to the issue at hand, the serial killer, (still within the 16 hours prior flashback), Steve receives a call from Alicia who has broken into Madison Grays home and found proof that she is in fact involved in the serial killings. Steve after hearing that there is a chess board there with 7 missing pieces goes into cop mode and rushes to Madison’s house. He shows up and calls out for Alicia which now brings you up to the moment and the scene in which Alicia finds herself in trouble. Steve sees Alicia’s cell phone and as he goes to look at it, he too is stabbed in the back.
Meanwhile back at HQ, the team is waiting for Steve and he is over two hours late. Not being like Steve to be late, they decide to ping his phone.
Then we are brought back to Madison and her psycho ways as she pulls the knife out of Steve’s back which makes him understandably writhe in pain. He and Alicia are lying next to one another when it seems as if Alicia starts to remember another time in which she was profiling and visiting another serial killer, Edward Sears. Sears is in high security Correctional Facility in Portage, WI. and appears to have been involved in the disappearance of Alicia’s daughter, Sienna who we met in the classroom in the opening scene. Although Alicia handles him coldly and emotionless at first, she loses control when Sears taunts her with the murder of her daughter.
While Alicia is reminiscing, Steve start to question Madison and let the games begin. He wants to know how she was able to get the men that he has been finding murdered in the first three episodes to kill for her. She is not very responsive until Steve brings up logic, which Madison shares the game is not over yet and it has nothing to do with logic. Steve wants to know who the king and the queen are in the game as those pieces are now missing from the board. Although you might think the king and the queen are Alicia and Steve, their pieces in the game have already been assigned to them previously; Steve in his kitchen and Alicia in her bed. It appears as if Steve has asked too many questions as he finds himself being hit in the face with a meat tenderizer Madison retrieves form her kitchen drawer.
Poor Steve, will the team save him in time? To answer that question, we find that Chin and Kono are now chasing down a parcel truck in which is showing the location of Steve’s cell signal. Seems as the driver is being used as another innocent pawn in the game as it turns out, the cousins find out that the abducter had placed it in a box for her delivery guy to pick up and there is now three square miles that Steve can be in.
That information is not looking good for the heroes in the story which brings us back to Alicia’s turn to play head games with Madison who is still cleaning the knife and her hands in the kitchen sink in a compulsive sort of way. Will Alicia be able to out psych the psycho psychologist? Turns out that neither woman wins this mind game as they each bring the others personality mindset to the forefront. Alicia reveals that Madison was probably sexually assaulted by her father who she had played chess with in the past. (thus the chess board and pieces). Madison brings back the horrible nightmare of Alicia’s daughter and Alicia’s need of control. (another flashback is shown here to that time when Alicia lost control during her visit with Sears who actually was the one that killed Sienna) Both women not only know the inner thinking of each other but seem to also know their own faults, too. This game ends in a tie for now.
As Steve is beginning to recover from the tenderizer blow, Alicia and Steve see two people come towards the house and meet with Madison. Turns out that Donald and Mallory are – you guess it- serial killers! Uh Oh. Madison previously saying she would not kill Steve and Alicia, now reveals that the newcomers are here for that job.
We then find the heroes in a back of a van driven by Donald and Mallory as Chin and Kono being assisted from Jerry and Lou back at HQ,race to find them. It seems they have narrowed down that Madison has them. The team is too late and the circumstances become even more dire for the SEAL and the lady profiler. In the back of the van , Steve is trying to reason with the serial killer couple sharing that Madison was just going to kill them next. However it is revealed that their real motive is to take out Alicia as she had been the reason that Donald had been put away prior. Guess Steve should know better to try to reason with serial killers. They can be so unreasonable.
In the midst of all this Madison manages to take Steve’s truck to a remote location and blow it to smithereens. Steve is going to need a new truck when he gets out of his current predicament.
The team soon finds out that they are looking for a green van as we see it pull up in front of the blowhole. It seems that Alicia’s worse phobia is of drowning, so …guess what? First they take Steve and although he tries to fight them off ( he loses this one) he finds himself being pushed into the depth of the blowhole and deep within its clutches. As he tries to maneuver himself towards the edge and start his escape plan, he is gifted with Alicia who is the in the same circumstances, but much weaker. He dives deep and pulls her up and calms her down. She tries to apologize for getting them in this mess but Steve uses a familiar tool from his SEAL training arsenal, telling her she can make it up to him when they get out of there. If you recall he has used this prior when he and Danny were stuck underground. This provides hope. He also calms her breathing as he has also done prior with a woman in distress, Lynn, on their first date.
After some more dramatic water drops and the tide coming through causing further concern, it seems as if Steve has figured a way out for the both of them. He uses some sea vine to secure himself and climb out of the hole. He then brings up Alicia in a similar fashion.
While Steve is saving himself and Alicia, Chin and Kono have arrived and are in the midst of a gun battle with the serial killers, Donald and Mallory, (in case you are confused which serial killers- there are a lot of them these days). Of course, Chin and Kono prevail and two serial killers down…more to go?
With that accomplishment down, Chin and Kono make there way towards Steve and Alicia who are now walking up towards them. They get a blanket to dry off in which Steve and Alicia share. It is clear that is not all they share as they now have a special bond going through this together. Where will that bond take them? Time will tell but most likely they will be friends from now on. Steve really should find a more normal way to make friends, don’t you think?
The few closing scenes are shared between Chin and Sarah, Steve, Lou, and Jerry, and the revelation of the whereabouts of Madison. Sarah seems to be coming to grips with leaving although she will miss her Uncle Chin, Steve find his truck blown up and states that he surmises that Madison is long gone, and Madison is onto her next victim in her sick game in the mainland. Will she ever come back to Hawaii? HMMMM….
As for the rating for this one, we would give it an 8. All the flashbacks and time transitions made it a little harder to follow at times and there were times that Steve could have escaped sooner. Also they were stabbed in the back with very little blood loss? We know its a TV show and watch it for entertainment only but even that is hard to overlook. With that being said, this episode also provided many intense moments, some great acting by Alex O’Loughlin and Claire Forlani, the usual comic relief, and some great action scenes and stunts. It was a very good episode.
Until next week where it looks like there is a new plot. Susan will be back recapping too.
