It is time for another great recap from Susan Schoppe of another great Hawaii Five 0 episode. This one taught us something as well as gave us the true ohana. It was enjoyable to watch so if you have not seen it yet and want to know what happened, or you have and just want to relive it, here you go.
Well this one was fantastic. Tonight’s episode begins with a scene from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel Waikiki, November 21,1963, where all the people from that era seem so familiar. As the scene takes us through the hotel, a man looking very much like government from those days enters a phone booth. He makes a call to Dallas,Texas.
We are moved forward to present day where Jerry is standing in the very spot of where the phone both used to be. He is discussing the events of that day from the past with an uninterested bystander while waiting for Susie, his on line conspiracy theorist friend. This is their first time meeting face to face and Susie has come to Hawaii to try and solve the JFK assassination conspiracy theory. As Jerry and Susie take a walk outside the hotel, Susie tells Jerry she believes she’s very close to solving it. Jerry is in awe, as he sees this as the “holy grail of conspiracies”
Susie tells Jerry she only has a few more leads to run down and she can pull it all together and prove it. As they finish up their conversation, Susie is shot, falls to the ground, and Jerry begins shouting for help while holding Susie.
Next we see Steve pull up at the scene (in his new truck) and Grover fills Steve in on what happened. On his way over to talk to Jerry, Chin stops Steve and tells him that Jerry is really shaken up and that he couldn’t get too much from him. As Steve approaches, Jerry is trying to figure out where the shot came from. Jerry tells Steve that Susie was too close to solving the conspiracy of JFK and that’s why she was killed. Steve looks shocked, but we have witnessed these looks while hearing Jerry’s theories before, so we will see if this one turns out like the rest.
The next scene is at Chin’s house where Jerry is washing Susie’s blood off of his hands. He is clearly upset as he replays the events of that morning in his head. Chin makes them some tea while they sit at the table, Jerry tells Chin about Susie; she was a high school history teacher, she was involved in her school, and that she was very involved in proving her theories.
Back at HQ, Grover goes to have a talk with Danny about Will & Grace dating. Grover wants to make sure that he and Danny are on the same page with the kids. He appears to be a little concerned about their school responsibilities suffering with their new found relationship. To his surprise (and ours) it seems Danny is totally fine with it and not worried at all. As the conversation continues, Lou and Danny begin to argue and start pointing out the reasons why their child is lucky to be dating the other. While it begins to heat up Steve comes in and stops it saying he would love to hear it all but they have leads and have to get to work. (this will sure to be continued.)
At the table Kono updates everyone on Susie and the work she was doing. Everything Kono finds on Susie seems pretty normal. Steve does think it’s strange that she was killed while investigating her theory. While the team discusses their leads Jerry arrives saying he wants to help. Everyone is concerned but agrees. (always nice to see the ohana taking care of one another)
Jerry explains that on November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas and the world was told that Oswald was the shooter and he acted alone. But here was something that was not known; on the 20th & 21st, a large number of high ranking members of JFK’s administration were all on the island. It included most of the cabinet, joint chiefs, and several other top officials. For two days they gathered behind closed doors at Camp Smith for a meeting that was deemed to be a conference on Vietnam. When Kennedy was assassinated, most of them were on a plane to Asia. This was all a surprise to the team. Jerry’s conclusion is that the conference was a cover up for Kennedy’s assassination and that Susie was about to prove it.
At Grover’s objection to this, Jerry goes on to explain that the reason for the assassination was because the group felt Kennedy was too soft on communism and that most of them wanted to invade Cuba and even one of them wanted to make a first strike at the Soviet Union. They felt Kennedy was too soft on those policies. The last few days Susie had been conducting interviews with locals who had come into contact with these men in the days leading up to the assassination. So the team now thinks it is possible that Susie was killed for her investigation. Kono pulls up two scheduled interviews on Susie’s phone that she had on the morning she arrived.
George Sellers is one and it seems he gave one of the president’s men a telegram which the man burned after reading. Chin and Jerry go and talk to him and find out that George had read the telegram and knew what it said. Chin and Jerry deduct there was a hidden message within.
Back at the crime scene, Max is working on finding the location of the shooter. Max determines that it was most likely a vehicle that the shot came from and that there are cameras that could help in locating any vehicle that looked suspicious at the time of the shooting. He also tells Steve and Danny that the bullet that killed Susie was camefrom an M-40. Steve knows this is a military issue weapon for all snipers and the plot thickens.
Meanwhile back at HQ in the lab, Eric is working on the evidence for Susie’s murder, when men from the FBI storm in (Agent Ward is the leader) and begin seizing all of the evidence he is working on. As Eric protests their actions he calls Danny and begins to tell him what’s going on and Ward hangs up the phone on Eric.
The very next thing we see is Steve and Danny speeding up to a SUV and cutting it off in the street. Everyone gets out and Steve is demanding to know why the FBI is interested in a local case. Steve is furious. Ward is a jerk and tells Steve to stand down or be charged with obstruction. While the guys leave Danny tells Steve how well he handled the situation, then immediately says to Steve “we’re not standing down are we” the answer NOPE. (knew that was coming)
Back with Chin and Jerry who are on their way to talk to the second guy listed in Susie’s phone. It seems this guy was asked to answer a pay phone if it rang and then to ask the person on the phone to wait, and to come and get him in his room to take the call. While leaving, Chin notices a man leaving in a car watching them that raises his suspicions but decides it’s nothing.
Back at HQ Steve and Kono find the vehicle they think was used to shoot Susie from. It was a minivan with dark tinted windows which was reported stolen the morning of the shooting. Steve tells Kono to put all their resources into locating the van.
Next, Chin and Jerry go to Camp Smith’s film archive center where they discover that Susie had set up an appointment to view a tape of a meeting between a general and the Joint Chief. As they watch the men, Jerry notes they need a lip reader to know what they are saying. They get the lip reader and get the film transcribed as to what each man is saying. It turns out the men are discussing an assassination and are positive that when the world reads the obituary that all the blame will fall on Cuba. Everyone is convinced they’re about to break the case.
On their way out of the lab, Chin notices the same guy as before and goes after him. The guy disappears but back at Chin’s car Jerry finds a note on a book of matches from a club, (Dukes) It says “4;30 come alone”. When they show up at Dukes they find a man by the name of Drake, Susie had asked him to decipher an encrypted message from 1963. He said he had told her he wouldn’t do it hoping she would drop it but after hearing what had happened he decided to come forward. It turns out Drake was an informant for the FBI and everyone that they were spying on passed through Dukes club when they were in town including mobsters, foreign dignitaries and politicians.
The message Susie wanted him to decipher was related to him being a spy. On the night that Kennedy’s men came into the club, Drake had one of the girls that sang there get friendly with them and sit at their table. Drake gave her a tape recorder hidden in a lighter. He instructed her to leave it on the table when she left. She followed through on the instructions and after that Drake said that was the last he ever saw of her. He didn’t know what happen to the tape because someone else was supposed to handle that part. So now Chin and Jerry are thinking the girl never turned it over and she must still have it. They find out that she has since passed away and through some leads find their way to a shop where some of her belongings still are. While searching through her things, Jerry finds the lighter and the tape inside. Jerry also believes that the FBI is the one who shot Susie.
Meanwhile, Kono informs Steve that they just located the van and that it is in the impound lot. Next we see Steve and Danny leaving the impound lot after discovering that the FBI beat them to the van and have taken it. In the parking lot a black SUV tries to speed out of the lot when Steve and Danny spot it. Steve runs in front of it and pulls his gun out aiming at the windshield which causes the driver to stop. To no one’s surprise it is Agent Ward. He accuses Steve of not standing down.
Meanwhile Danny searches the vehicle and he finds a camera with pictures of Susie’s murder on it. When Steve sees all the pictures of Jerry and Susie and her murder, the Steve we all know and love comes out and delivers a much deserved punch to Ward’s face. He then cuffs him and it’s off to the rendition room where Steve wants answers to why the FBI was following Susie. Of course, refusing to cooperate, Steve using some of his persuasion skills, tells Ward he is four stories below ground, nobody knows he’s there and their staying until he gets answers. Ward decides to talk.
Back upstairs Jerry, Chin, Kono, and Lou are about to listen to the tape from all those years ago. On them it is revealed that the code name for the operation was called Mongoose and that it was an operation to remove Castro from power. It turns out that it wasn’t Kennedy’s assassination they were planning; it was Castro’s. Jerry is upset because Susie died thinking she had solved the JFK Conspiracy. Kono comforts Jerry sharing that Susie died knowing she had a friend that would continue the investigation to the end. With everyone thinking about what they had just discovered, Chin gets a call from Steve saying that Agent Ward gave up everything and it seems Susie was targeted for something else she was working on and they also Identified her shooter.
Steve, Danny and Grover go the the hotel to make the arrest but the guy pulls a gun making Steve shoot him in the shoulder.
Steve goes back to the rendition room where Agent Ward is. Steve tells him they got the shooter. Ward is not happy because they were trying to get the whole operation and everyone behind it. Steve tells him that the shooter gave up everything and the CEO of the company said Susie needed to be silenced before she went public with what she knew so he hired the shooter to kill her. Ward waited while trying to build a bigger case on the CEO when he could have arrested him with what Susie had given him. Steve tells Ward if Susie hadn’t trusted him she might still be alive.
Steve goes to Jerry’s office where Jerry is watching films of JFK and asks if he’s OK and that he just wanted to see how’s he doing. Jerry pauses the video and tells Steve that Susie was the only one he could tell his theories to and not be thought of as crazy so he’s really going to miss her. Steve tells Jerry that the next time he feels like sharing that the coffee is on him. Although he can’t promise that he will agree with Jerry on everything, he won’t think he’s crazy. Steve really does like to fix broken pieces.
Looking over at the video, Steve asks if that was when Kennedy visited Hawaii. Jerry tells him it was and asks if Steve knew that Kennedy was the first President to visit the Arizona Memorial. Steve answers he did and asks Jerry if he knew that every President after him followed his lead. Of course Jerry knew that as well. It was quite touching to see how much Steve cares about Jerry. (there just might be a badge in Jerry’s future afterall)
I really enjoyed this episode as it was very informative while being touching. For that I give it a high 9. We also got to see old shades of Danny and Steve like in the beginning of the series and the team was not splintered as they all rallied around Jerry solving this one case. I also always enjoy seeing Steve giving one to the jaw of a total jerk.
That is it for a few weeks as there is no new episodes until December 9th. Glad it ended with a great episode to hold us over until then.
