This week’s Hawaii Five-0 reminded me of dining at an expensive restaurant – everything around it might be super, but what you really care about is whether or not what you ordered is any good. Likewise, this week’s episode had plenty of guest stars that popped up, and lots of flash, but what was important were the basics that the series was built on a long time ago: characters we give a damn about, doing things we want to watch.
If you’re keeping score, Terry O’Quinn, Larisa Oleynik, David Keith and Reiko Aylesworth all returned in this episode, and then there was a much-hyped appearance by legendary musician Jimmy Buffett – complete with a corny line about margaritas, in reference to his classic song “Margaritaville.”
This was the episode where everyone finally found out that Jenna Kaye was evil, when she led Steve right into Wo Fat’s hands – except not really, because she was only doing it since Wo Fat had promised her that her fiancee was still alive. Here, I must laugh. Jenna worked for the CIA, where lying is a business, and beyond that, she knew Wo Fat’s reputation. How on Earth did she believe he’d actually keep up his end of the bargain? Was anyone surprised when her fiancee turned out to be dead? Did anyone mind when she ended up dead? I can’t say that I was, or that I did. So much for that “potential series regular” thing…
Speaking of potential series regulars, was there supposed to be significance in Lori hugging Steve when she saw him again? Was that another sign of their impending relationship? Who knows.
But this episode wasn’t about Lori, or about Jenna, or about Jimmy Buffett. It was another opportunity to bring Steve face-to-face with his arch-nemesis Wo Fat, and yet again, that proved to be the best part of the entire episode. I know he’s also the The Chairman on Iron Chef America and a former Dancing With The Stars contestant, but that doesn’t take the edge off Mark Dacascos‘ villainy. He’s a great choice to play opposite Alex O’Loughlin, whose Steve McGarrett is just as tough.
Take, for example, a sequence of events at mid-episode. Wanting answers, Wo Fat uses a restrained Steve as a punching bag, but Steve doesn’t let it get to him; he just smiles. He’s not going to give in so easily. And yet, minutes later, when Wo Fat shoots Jenna, Steve swears that he’ll kill him.
In the wrong hands, the whole thing could read as false drama: we know that Steve can’t die or there’d be no show, and we know that Steve can’t escape and kill Wo Fat or that would be ending their awesome conflict way too soon. Yet because the two actors are so good, we don’t mind that we can guess at the outcome. We want to see Wo Fat take his best shot at Steve, and we know that Steve’s threat is sincere – it just might happen later rather than sooner. It doesn’t matter that we know where the story is heading because we want to watch it get there.
And we want to see Scott Caan‘s Danny step way out of his comfort zone, picking up an assault rifle and traveling halfway around the world to rescue his best friend. A season ago, that might have seemed ridiculous, but now, we wouldn’t expect him to do anything else.
So let me make a suggestion to the Hawaii Five-0 creative team: you don’t need to have a list of guest stars every week to be a great show. Just let your regulars do what they do best. They’re what got you here, and they’ll keep you going for a long time if you let them.
Clacked by Brittany Frederick 
on Nov 22, 2011 @ 02:39 EST5EDT
