Hawaii Five-O Review: Where the Marshals Horn In

Well, last week we said goodbye to Max. This week, we're talking about invading another nation right there in Hawaii!

We start out with a guy running in the dark with two policemen chasing him. He's pretty fast and even has time to dig a hole and escape under a chain link fence before they catch up. The two policemen are determined, though, but before they can get near him, there's a standoff! Hey, did you know there's a separate, recognized nation of Hawai'i compound that the police can't breach? Yeah, it didn't look like the policemen did either. *cue music*

Cut to Steve taking a driving test to renew his license. (Wardrobe loves me since Steve and Danny are both in blue again this week!) Apparently Steve's been driving on an expired license for seven years. That stretches the edge of believability, but okay. Danny is chattering on about how reckless Steve is in the car, but considering all the situations they've been in and Danny has walked away, I'd say Steve is an excellent driver. We do get annoyed McG face (A LOT) But the testing lady gets in and starts taking notes on Steve's driving. He remarks that he's used to being judged from the passenger seat. (Ha! Truer words have never been spoken.) Duke calls and Steve has to take the testing lady back quickly. Danny is blabbing to some kid on a bench about Grace (he likes to talk. To anyone!) and Steve screeches into the parking lot. The testing lady gets out all dizzy and stunned. (Maybe Steve turned on the charm for her. All the man has to do is smile, am I right?) But, in reality, we're supposed to think it was his driving skills that had her acting like that. Danny gets in and they drive away.

Chin is at a standoff with the people who live on a compound that's recognized as a separate nation, and HPD. The leader of the compound, Bumpy, doesn't trust the police and tells Steve that. The runner guy, Kanuha, says he's innocent and if Bumpy has his way, he'll get sanctuary there. Steve agrees and says they'll prove he's the murderer, then Bumpy can turn him over. Steve and Danny go back to the office (the governor wants this sorted out quickly) and look at the murder victim, Akimoto. We get some table talk as the team chats about Akimoto being murdered somewhere else and his body dumped. He was Kanuha's partner in robbery, but when they were caught, Akimoto got off on a technicality and Kanuha did seven years. He got out six weeks ago. (And didn't have time to get a good haircut, either. His hair drove me crazy!) They quickly find the car Akimoto was murdered in, all bloody, and Steve takes a look at the GPS. It has Kanuha's address in it. Oops. Kanuha didn't mention that part.

Chin goes to Bumpy with the new evidence and begs to question Kanuha. He takes off his badge and gun and gets in. Kanuha knew they would try to pin the murder on him, so he ran. He has no alibi. It's not looking good for Kanuha.

They don't find any blood in Kanuha's car and his car tracks don't match the ones by the murder victim's car. But Devil's Advocate Danny says that doesn't prove anything! John Barris, Kanuha's parole officer shows up to chat. He got Kanuha a job with his brother! He believes in the guy.

Well, ballistics matches the murder weapon to a guy named Dylan Turner. They go break into his house and find an open safe with an empty gun case. The guy's been in Tahiti for a week, though. (I wish I was in Tahiti) and he'll probably be surprised to find his door broken down when he comes home.

Chin is talking to Steve on the phone, still standing in front of the compound. (Did the guy get a bathroom break? He's been standing there for a long time.) A whole bunch of U.S. Marshal trucks come roaring in and Lou Diamond Philips gets out and relieves Chin of his duties. They're taking over now! Those dang Feds always ruining a good case.

The "comic relief" is Jerry interviewing roommates with questions like do you believe there really was a moon landing. Grover comes in to break up the interview and wants him to look into the Turner robbery. In turn, Jerry wants him to do background checks on the roommate applicants. Grover doesn't want to, but Jerry threatens to sleep in Steve's office if he doesn't, so Grover caves. (Who knew that Jerry just had to threaten people with his presence and they would do anything to get out of it?)

Steve comes to the compound and Bumpy is ticked that Steve didn't keep his word. Steve says he'll work it out, but Marshals aren't having any of it. The DOJ caught wind of this! And they were super bored and hadn't had any action in FOREVER so they sent Lou Diamond Philips down as The Marshal, to blow some stuff up! McG tries to reason with him. After all, he likes to blow stuff up, too, but he has his "peaceful negotiations" hat on today and tells The Marshal that there shouldn't be any action without provocation. (Or, you know, that pesky thing of innocent until proven guilty that the DOJ should know pretty well, but whatevs). The Marshal gives them until sundown. (Our boys do well on a deadline so I'm not worried.)

Steve is on the phone to the governor and he has his annoyed McG face on again. Danny is analyzing his flared nostrils, his pacing, and the fact that the phone is in his left hand so he wants to punch something. Danny knows his boy (or he just likes to talk about McG with anyone who will listen this ep). The phone call gets them nowhere since it's out of the governor's hands, supposedly. She didn't even try! Five-O is on their own. Again. Always.

Back to our comic relief. Jerry demonstrates how a strong magnet can open a safe. Apparently he thought Five-O would reimburse him for that purchase. Because employees always buy super expensive things and expect their employers to reimburse them without clearing the purchase first. Yep. Moving on.

The Marshal cuts off communication and Chin gets all worked up. So, in order to calm Chin down, The Marshal says they are cutting off water and electricity next! Take that women and children in a peaceful compound! Marshals are lean, mean, we-do-what-we-want machines! A guy is trying to get out of the compound so he can go to work, but The Marshal won't let him out. Chin says The Marshal is trying to provoke a fight. Yeah, he called it. But The Marshal says he wants a peaceful resolution. (Maybe a Marshal peaceful resolution definition is different than everyone else's. I dunno, but I guess we'll see.)

Danny and Steve are in the car talking about reading each other's minds. Danny is grateful Steve can't read his, and he's grateful for his seat belt. He says he can read Steve's mind, though, and that Steve is hungry, wondering if Danny has his wallet, and about his new Gun and Ammo magazine. Silly Steven and his shallow empty-headedness. Luckily, Danny is also thinking about the case and they should have just gone in this morning and picked up Kanuha. Steve stops thinking about food and his magazines long enough to disagree.

Thankfully, Dylan is home from Tahiti and gives a list of the stolen items. One of the items has mobile broadband and is pinging to a storage shed that Kanuha rented! Uh oh. The team goes to check it out and finds a bunch of stolen merchandise, including a back massager, which Danny promptly uses. Grover cautions him that a sweaty hairy-backed man could have owned that. Danny assures Grover that he also is a hairy-backed man. Ew. TMI. There's also the murder weapon stashed in there.

Chin confront Kanuha again and he's really upset this time. Why do you keep lying, Kanuha! He thought they'd turn him in, give him up, think he was guilty. But Bumpy still believes in him, even though he just got out of prison and they've proven he was robbing houses. Bumpy will only give him up, though, if they can prove he's a murderer. Robbers? Meh. We can protect them!

The Marshal is not happy they are harboring a robber and says Five-O has one hour then he's going in! And just to prove he's serious, he's putting units all around the compound! And spying on them with drones! They only have themselves to blame, he intones grimly. Luckily Kono saves the day when she digs deeper and finds someone accessed the storage facility an hour ago! It was Devin Barris the hardware store owner. Dun, dun, dun. And now he's at the compound wanting to talk to Kanuha with a gun. Chin and Bumpy let him through and don't even pat him down for weapons, even though they don't know him from Adam and are at a tense standoff. I mean, Chin's a seasoned detective, but Barris looked like a good guy, I guess, so there's no way he's a gun-toting murderer, right? Poor Chin. It's always the innocent-looking ones. Maybe standing there with The Marshal breathing down his neck rattled him.

Danny is trying to reach Chin and when Chin tells them Barris is at the compound, they quickly turn around and head there. Barris is already talking to Kanuha and telling him what to say and how he'll only go to prison for a little bit when he takes the rap for the murder. Kanuha realizes that Akimoto wanted him out of the game and was trying to help him when Barris shot him. He attacks Barris and they struggle until Barris pulls the gun on him. Chin bursts in and talks him down and then we get a slo-mo victory frog march with Chin bringing Barris out of the compound. The Marshals have to go home without any action. Maybe next time they can horn in somewhere else and get to blow something up! But until then, remember, keep everything on the downlow because if the DOJ gets wind of anything, and you don't have Chin available to stand there all day and mediate, you're screwed.

There are thank yous all around and the team gets invited to a nice luau with the compound people. Bumpy thanks Chin for the respect and we all look at beautiful Hawaiian scenery. (I'm going there someday. Sigh).

No previews because next week is a rerun. What did you think of the episode. Did you watch?