Moving on to the second episode of the doubleheader, we have recapped the winter finale below. This one was the show’s Christmas story and turned out to be a wonderful way to celebrate Christmas with the team. Although Christmas episodes in the past have had a few scenes of Christmas, this time the whole episode surrounded that theme. Here is the recaps with lots of pics to show just how much.
The winter finale begins in Danny’s living room with Charlie shaking the Christmas presents and Danny bringing in cookies for Santa. We quickly see that they aren’t alone because Adam is there making sure that the chimney is clean for Santa to come down problem free.
When Danny sends Charlie to the kitchen for Santa’s special cookie plate, Adam asks how Danny is really feeling and says he should still be in bed after his ordeal. Danny thanks Adam for doing everything because Charlie loves all the preparation. They also mention that there is still no further clues on the stranger who shot him. Before leaving, Adam tells Danny he is going home to pack and then meet Kono in LA the following day.
With Charlie now in bed, it is time for the bedtime story. Instead of the usual story from a book, Danny decides to wing it with a bad santa story and the heroes who catch them. (One hero of course is Steve but Danny does not disclose that yet) He also makes sure Charlie knows the story is also about a Christmas miracle.
As Danny begins, the book image fades to where we see a santa out in front of a store collecting money when an armored van pulls up. After the guards have picked up the money and are leaving, this santa pulls a metal box from his collection box telling them not to forget that. The guard takes the box along with the others and puts them in the van.
As they drive off santa uses a cell phone remote to blow up the van. With the money exposed, a car speeds up to the scene and another santa jumps out. The two santas shoot the guards and grab the bags of money and escape.
Note: With Charlie asking questions all through the story, Danny skips around just a bit. There is the version of the story Charlie hears and one is what we would see in reality.
One astute question among many by Charlie, is about why santa would have had a phone. That is when Danny explains it was not really a phone and we see the van blow up.
Back to the story; while the bad santas have made off with the money, we see Junior driving a van with real heroes from our military. They have been disabled in some form or another from combat. While on the way, Steve calls Junior to let him know that he will be a little late getting to the shelter where they are heading, because he is meeting Mary and his niece to watch the parade first.
While on the phone with Junior, Steve sees everyone running from the area that the bad santas have stolen the money from. Danny explains that there is another hero in the story, a crazy man, who happens to be a cop. He was going to a parade so he has no gun with him.
The show fades back to Steve now at the armored van, and he takes one of the guard’s weapons and shoots at the bad santas. This causes them to crash into a parked car in reality but in Danny’s kid version of the story they ran out of gas. As the santas jump out of the car and run, Steve gives chase.
Charlie is now onto the fact that the crazy man cop in the story is Uncle Steve. Steve and the bad santas now end up at the parade where of course they blend in perfectly with all the other santas. Steve has to search through the santas and parade floats for the two bad santas. At this point in the story we get to see Danny compare Steve to one of Charlie’s stuffed toys, a donkey, which was kind of funny.
Back to the story, Steve finds one of the santas and he has him stopped pointing his gun at him. Unfortunately a woman walks by and the santa grabs her as a hostage forcing Steve to let him escape The santa tells Steve to get on the ground and pass off his gun, which he complies in order to save civilians in the area.
Charlie asks Danny (Danno as he is calling him) where all of the hero’s friends were and why they were not helping. Danny says they were doing very important things at the time. We then see Jerry decorating the tree at HQ, while singing along with a voice controlled device called Cortana. (good product placement here).
When Lou comes in and tells Jerry he’s singing the wrong part of the song (Baby it is Cold Outside) making it seem as if the female machine is seducing him, there is a comical moment. Tani then comes in telling them that there has just been an armored car heist at the mall and Lou mentions that McGarrett is supposed to be there. Tani says she had tried to call Steve but there was no answer. They track his phone to find that he is on the move at the mall leading them to believe that he is in pursuit.
Back with Steve, he goes up to the woman taken hostage to make sure she is OK and she tells him that the guy went towards the mall parking garage. Steve follows but finds out that he is too late and that the perpetrator has now entered the mall.
Danny’s story continues with some more props in play, and he shares that by that time Lou and Tani along with Duke and HPD arrive to surround the mall. Steve is on the phone with Jerry who has him pull up surveillance video of the santas going into the mall. Jerry is using the mall cameras inside and find where they have gone. Steve comes up with a plan to go into the mall as shoppers and search for them.
As the three discuss their plan, Junior arrives with his veteran passengers in tow who are all willing to help. Junior says they seem to have the capability based on their fields of military expertise. As our veterans exit the van, we formally meet them; Kekoa, Reggie, Frank, Josie, and Henry. Junior had heard what was going on and decided Steve needed the help.
At first Steve respectively declines, but they share their military experience and dedication, therefore convincing him they could easily handle a couple of bad santas. As Danny explained in his Christmas story to Charlie, they were special Christmas Angels sent to help Uncle Steve.
Proceeding with the story Jerry is telling Steve exactly where the bad santas are moving inside the mall and he also informs Steve that he sees Adam shopping there. Needless to say Steve is surprised. Steve has Jerry reach out to Adam and tell him what is going on in case they need his help. The team and their new angels go in to search the department store that Jerry has said they entered, and to evacuate the shoppers.
While searching, Tani and Steve come upon a dressing room. They find santa clothes left on the floor leading them to believe that the bad santas have changed clothes and are now walking around the mall looking like everyone else.
Meanwhile, Lou and Kekoa get a few items from one of the stores that they can use in the search for stopping the Santas from escaping. They set up a checkpoint to check ID’s at the door along with Jerry’s help to run the ID’s back at HQ. Charlie of course wants to know what a checkpoint is and Danny explains as he tells his story.
Next we see that Duke, Henry and Tani are at the van that was first robbed, Tani and Henry are looking for clues to identify the bad santas. Henry is the perfect person to do this as he was in charge of this kind of thing in Afghanistan. While looking, Tani shares things about her father and his service and she also tells Henry she is sorry for what happened to him. Henry, like most returning injured veterans, tells her not to be sorry, as he is not, and that he would go back if he could.
Back with Steve in the mall Steve has an ID on the primary santa from Jerry, and he is now updating our veterans, and Adam, who has now joined the group. The santa’s name is James Wendall, 35 and has multiple felony convictions. Steve instructs everyone on the plan of search and pairs everyone with a partner. Adam is paired with Josie and when he introduces himself to her, she asks if he is part of Five-0 too. He responds that no, he is just in the wrong places at the wrong times lately which is pretty funny, but true.
While searching, Adam and Josie find dry blood on the floor. They continue on and find two real mall santas locked in a storage room missing their santa suits. Adam makes a call to Steve to tell him what they found, leading Steve to believe that finding the discarded santa suits in the dressing room was a trick to throw the team off, making them believe they were not dressed as santas anymore. So now we know the bad santas are probably still dressed as santas.
Back at the ID check point, Lou lets a santa pass through and he walks out. At that time Steve calls Lou and tells him that the fugitives are actually still dressed as santas after all and not to let any santas pass. Lou quickly runs after the santa that just passed and calls for him to wait. Of course, this santa takes off running. Lou doesn’t run after him but instead makes a phone call saying santa is on the move. We then get to see who he called when Junior easily takes down the santa. Money flies out on the pavement and Junior arrests the santa. One down, one to go.
As Danny’s story to Charlie continues, back inside the mall Steve uses the intercom system to tell the other bad santa that they have his partner, the mall is surrounded, and the only choice for him is to give up. It seems that bad santas don’t give up easily though as he looks for a way out of the mall, Jerry is watching him on the mall cameras and informing Steve and Frank of his location. The bad santa goes into an area that is not covered by cameras, but that’s no problem because Frank is with Steve and he knows the mall very well. Frank says he can lead Steve through a shortcut and knows santa is heading to the roof.
Getting to the elevator they have a problem as it is locked from when they locked down the mall. Thankfully they are able to use Reggie’s prosthetic arm to pry open the elevator door so Steve could get to the roof where the bad Santa was waiting. Steve returns their salute as he head up.
At this point in Danny’s Christmas story, Charlie gets afraid that Uncle Steve will be hurt and hides under the covers. Danny follows him under and explains that all Christmas miracle stories have happy endings. He says that Uncle Steve got to the roof and talked the bad Santa to death, forcing him to surrender to get him to stop.
Of course this is not the actual story, and we see Steve arrive on the roof and shoot the santa in the chest killing him. There you go a happy ending to the story; a Christmas miracle, so to speak.
Danny explains that after catching the bad santa everyone got together to celebrate at Uncle Steve’s house. We then see Steve is in a festive santa hat as he walks by Dog who is babying Eddie. It is good to see Eddie again and Dog is also a nice addition. Also at the party, are everyone on the team, the usual “misfits” of the Ohana, and the veterans that helped save the day capturing the bad santas.
Steve calls everyone to listen up and he welcomes everyone to the Steve and Eddie McGarrett’s Christmas bash. It is really neat to hear Eddie now has Steve’s last name and has clearly found a home. Steve also whole-heartedly thanks everyone for their help and service not only earlier that day but for their servitude for the country.
When done, he calls Junior over and tells him he showed initiative today and he has been doing so all along, so he has something special for him. Steve hands Junior his Five-0 badge but Junior is very surprised because he has not completed the academy yet. Steve tells him he will still be required to do that but it is time for him to become a full member of Five-0. Merry Christmas to Junior with hugs all around and some good belly rubs for Eddie.
The final scene is back at Danny’s place where Charlie is now asleep. Danny goes out to the living room where he finds Steve eating the Christmas cookies. The usual bantering between the two begins. The show fades out with the two BFFs on the couch in a couch-gument, ending 2017 for us the same way we expect to see them begin 2018, together and playfully arguing.
This was another enjoyable episode and a great way to enjoy Christmas with the Ohana. The addition of the real veterans and the way that was integrated into the story was a good way for the show to once again honor the military. Through their short stories, we were reminded that there are real heroes out there and although we enjoy our TV heroes, they will not even come close to what the actual ones have endured.
There were light moments, too, and the chemistry between Zach and Scott was fun to watch. Eddie is also always a fun addition. Overall, the way it all came together was truly a great way to end 2017 and we give it a solid 9.
Until 2018…(the show returns with a new episode on Jan 5th)- See ya then!
