Hawaii Five-O Review: Change of Heart

We start out the episode with Steve going over to Danny's house to find him sitting around looking at the thirteen million dollars he's got spread all over the floor.  Apparently, he's five and a half million dollars short in order to save his brother and doesn't know what to do.  (Here's what I would have suggested, why not do some detective work? Follow the money? Five and a half million dollars is a clue.  Look at banks, deposits, I don't know, try to figure out if Reyes even has Matt!  But, you know, whatever.)  The next day they show Danny going to a loan shark for the five and a half million he needs, but the loan shark turns him down. Chin meets Danny in the parking lot and says he might be able to help.  Poor Chin and his never-ending illegal money stories.  At least he looked good on his motorcycle. He always has that for a fall-back.

Cut to a guy being pulled aside at an airport by some TSA guys.  They take him to a little room and show him that they found the hidden compartment in his luggage that has a gun and a sound silencer.  Which is against the law to have. The guy goes for innocence, "I've never seen that before in my life," but when they tell him they'll detain him, he pulls a Jason Bourne and takes out all five guys. (Although Matt Damon is a lot cuter than this guy, but I digress. Also, those TSA guys had no clue how to use their weapons and were kind of wimpy.  All five of them!)

But our team is on it and quickly figure out that this Jason Bourne wannabe works for one of the original crime families, the Begosa syndicate, and he is a hitman, although his official job is listed as a construction worker. He hasn't been convicted of anything substantial.  Kono tracks him to a mall, where McGrover go to head him off.  Steve wants to go for his gun as soon as they spot him, but Grover reminds him there's a lot of potential collateral damage if they do that, so they watch him.  I really love the dynamic of McGrover. They watch the hitman until he sees a police car pull up, which makes him look around and he easily spots Steve with his earpiece in.  Then he runs.  And this leads to one of the best moves I've seen on Hawaii Five-O yet.  They corner the hitman on the street, but before they can cuff him, he's shot in the chest by another gunman. Steve opens fire and clips the shooter on a parking structure, but the guy gets away in his car.  Super SEAL Steve chases him on foot, and has to HOP UP ON THE HOOD OF A MOVING POLICE CAR to avoid being hit. It. Was. Awesome. Anyway, the shooter gets away. 

Back at HQ they figure out that the shooter also works for the Begosa crime family and the agent they have on the table phone says he is a well-known hitman with over a hundred kills that no one can pin on him. He doesn't take trophies, there's no ego at all, he just kills.  Now everyone is scratching their heads as to why one Begosa hitman would kill another one.  Steve and Grover are discussing it, with Grover throwing out ideas. Grover kind of took over Kono's usual duties this week, and though I was happy that Kono wasn't attached to the table, we barely saw her. Cast balance is something I wish this show did better.  (And did I forget to mention that Jerry was on several times doing surveillance on the bookstore and "helping?" Yeah, I meant to do that.)

Anyway, the shooter's name is Nick Mercer and he kidnaps two EMTs to treat his bullet wound. They sneakily call 911 while they're treating him, but he realizes it and knocks them out.  Stealing the ambulance, he takes off with McGrover in hot pursuit.  The McGrover convo in the car was funny, with Steve not wanting to be criticized for his driving and Grover denying that he was doing any criticizing. It doesn't end up being much of a pursuit, though, because the guy nearly bleeds out at the wheel.  They take him into custody and call for another ambulance. Ironic, as Grover says. Ha!  

During questioning at the hospital, Nick tells the team about how he got a heart transplant two years ago, and his donor heart was from this awesome do-gooder, who taught in a difficult school, volunteered at the soup kitchen, and built houses for homeless people. It changed Nick so that he couldn't pull the trigger on his contracts anymore.  Instead of killing them, he's made his own witness protection program to save them.  Begosa found out and sent a hitman, so that's why Nick took the Jason Bourne wannabe out---so he could keep his people safe.  He won't tell Five-O where the hidden people are.  (And I really thought this guy playing Nick had an expressive face. He did really well telling his story.)  And it was funny when the team is deciding whether to believe this guy and Grover was all, that's a nice campfire story. All we're missing is the marshmallows. Ha!

Kono lets them know that Begosa's plane has taken off and is headed their way.  It's off radar so, you know, that's probably not good for Nick and his hidden people.  (That sounds like the title of a children's story or something. Nick and His Hidden People. Ha!) They go back and tell Nick he has to let them know where the hidden people are, and in order to show that Nick can trust them to keep the people safe, Steve takes his handcuffs off.  Then Nick can go help bring them in!  Who doesn't want a reformed hit man on their team, right?  All I can say is, this guy is a quick healer, since he's recovered enough from massive blood loss and a shoulder wound to go in the field with Five-O.  Not to mention he's a heart transplant survivor.

Begosa's men get off the plane with Begosa, and they are loaded for bear to go to kill Nick's people, but Five-O have set traps and take them all out. Nick gets his confrontation with Begosa, but doesn't kill him and they are both taken away.  The team gets a nice shot of all the people Nick has saved waving to them as they go by in a convoy of trucks. The look on Nick's face was so awesome. Like he'd really come to see them as people and he'd done right by protecting them.  I, however, kept thinking, dang, that's a lot of people living in isolation on an island.

Meanwhile, Chin has gone to Halawa prison to talk to Gabriel and ask him for the five and a half million that Danny needs. Gabriel originally turns him down, but then changes his mind after he gets beaten for being related to Five-O.  Chin gives Danny the money and Danny says a heartfelt thank you before him and Steve head off to Colombia. 

Steve and Danny are carrying some heavy duty duffel bags into this teeny basement with only one light shining down on Reyes. It's creepy and if he's such a rich guy living off drug money, why doesn't he have a better place? Was the eighteen and a half million Matt stole his only income? Has he been searching for it all this time and now he's reduced to living in a shack? Anyway, Reyes' goons check the bags, then Danny demands to see Matt. The goons go back in the darkness to "retrieve" him and Danny is calling out to Mattie until they roll out a steel drum.  Reyes asks if they want him to ship the barrel somewhere and Danny tries to attack him.  Both him and Steve are held by the goons and Danny says to kill him because if he doesn't, Danny will put Reyes in the ground.  Reyes says go back to Hawaii or else he'll go after Grace.  The goons take Danny and Steve upstairs where we hear a struggle and gunfire.  Reyes calls out for his men and one of them rolls down the stairs, dead or at least bloody and unconscious.  Then Danny comes down saying What did I tell you?  He has Reyes backed over the table, a gun to his head, and keeps repeating look at me.  Reyes looks at him and then Danny shoots him in the head.  

Honestly, this disturbs me on so many levels.  First of all, Danny had no proof that his brother was in the steel drum.  He did NO DETECTIVE WORK AT ALL on this case.  Who knows if Reyes even ever had Matt!  Who knows if Matt isn't somewhere in the world right now, thinking of turning himself in. It's just poor writing to have a detective who doesn't even try to verify the facts of any case, brother or not, and it makes Danny look gullible.  It should be second nature, especially to Danny who has been a detective for a long time and has been on an elite task force for four years!

Second of all, I thought it was interesting that the show had a reformed hitman who had caused so much death and destruction having a change of heart and trying to make up for his deeds and juxtaposed this with Danny who has been good and helpful and honorable for the most part, change in the blink of an eye to a murderer.  He shot an unarmed man and made Steve an accomplice to the murder.  Is Danny becoming what he's been fighting against?  I guess we'll see, but this episode's ending was dark and not something I've come to expect from the show. I hate to see Danny brought to this and hopefully the writers can help us see why they are taking this direction for our heroes. 

Did you watch? What did you think?