Hawaii Five-O Recap and Review: Where Steve Shines & Grover Sings

This week's episode has McG flashbacks and I've been looking forward to it. There's still a lot of story the writers could tell about McG's past, so I love when they dig into that.

It starts at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay where McG is walking in the prison, accompanied by two armed guards. (He's also wearing two shirts and a coat, so the man has to be sweating buckets!) Before he goes into the cell, he flashes back to 2007 where he is uncuffing a prisoner and giving him a prayer rug. Back to present day, he steps through the cell door and is faced with the same prisoner, who is now looking a little more healthy. His name is Salaam and he tells McG the years have been kind to him (yes they have!) and that if he has family on Oahu, he needs to get them off. Not a threat, mind you, a warning.

Dun, dun, dun.

Cut to Coughlin meeting with Chin in a coffee shop. They've got problems in San Francisco with the Triads and he wants Chin to head up a task force there similar to Five-O. I guess if he can't break up the team through Abby's efforts, he'll try his own way. Chin is going to think about it.

And if that weren't enough going on, we cut to Adam and Kono meeting Hirsch at Kamekona's to discuss how Kono can help him. He wants to expand Crime Clean, but the bank turned him down. Adam says his business plan is terrible, with just one page and in a red font. Hirsch thinks it's not the business plan, but because he's an ex-con and so he wants Kono to expunge his record. She refuses, but volunteers Adam to help him with his business plan, since he ran a "multi-national" company before. (Did she mean the Yakuza thing? And with a business degree, do you think the best Adam can find is construction jobs? Really? Hmm). Kono gives Adam a lingering kiss goodbye and even though Hirsch points to his cheek, she doesn't give him any sugar. (Just give up, Hirsch. She's happily married.)

Steve is trying to convince his team that Salaam is telling the truth and his warning is good. They're all hemming and hawing that Salaam is former al-Qaeda who hates Americans and so they can't trust any intel of his. (*shakes head* Um, how many times has Steve's gut saved their lives?) Steve mentions that he treated Salaam with dignity and that goes a long way, so all the man is doing is trying to return the favor. Apparently, another prisoner told Salaam an attack was imminent on Oahu and mentioned the words Cain Allah. But, Kono says, there's been no chatter, and maybe the guy just wants leverage! But how would that be when the guy didn't ask for anything? (I guess I don't see why the head of the task force is having to plead with his team to take a threat from a former al-Qaeda guy seriously. He's the boss! Just listen to him. I mean, he's rarely wrong. And it's not like they have anything better to do right now, am I right?)

Steve flashes back to giving Salaam a food tray (I love this insight into Steve's character when he was in the service) and Jerry comes in to say that maybe Cain Allah is actually mispronounced Hawaiian. If so, then it matches a travel agency on the island, so Kono and Grover head over to check it out. The receptionist guy is so happy to see them! Until they show their badge. Then he gets cagey, like that's not suspicious. He tells them the cameras and security are to protect the safe in the back and only the owner has a key for it. Of course in the back room, a guy is emptying a safe full of money and running out the back door. But SuperGrover has disappeared from the front and is now around back to meet him at the door, punch him in the face, and say, "Stop. Hammer time." Must have been listening to an 80s station on the way over.

Steve comes into the travel agency for the lowdown. These guys have been moving a lot of cash through the travel agency and brokering it through the Middle East, but luckily there's a ledger of names. (Not even coded names! Silly terrorists.) Chin is running background and cross checking it with the terror watch list. And guess what? Now Salaam's warning is a credible threat. (Steve is always right, but he never says I told you so.)

Hirsch is annoying Adam, slurping through his drink while Adam works on his presentation. He gives Hirsch some good advice to just own his ex-con thing and show the bankers that he's making the most of his second chance. (He really has talent at this. Perhaps he could be a life coach!) Hirsch thinks that's good advice, but makes things awkward talking to Adam about his feelings for Kono and her "feelings" for him. Adam is gracious about everything and barely suppresses a smile through all of it.

Chin actually gets through the hundreds of names pretty quickly (MagicChin!) and one jumps out at him. A professor of international relations! (Those professors. It's always the educated ones that you least suspect.) His name is Adnan Khalid. No record, but has $100,000 worth of transfers in the ledger. It's a great excuse to break down the guy's door, but he's not there. He did leave a laptop with a message on it, though, that when they get this, he'll be in the light of Allah, and the events that took place were in retaliation for the slaughter of someone named Turiq in Kabul. The message was supposed to be uploaded at 6:20 p.m. so they have three hours to figure out what the attack is. (That's not a lot of time. If the team had just believed Steve sooner! Sheesh!)

McG flashes back to a CIA guy giving him grief for being nice to Salaam and not using more standard techniques to get info from prisoners. Steve tries to explain that they have time with this guy to cultivate a relationship, but he's not having it and tells McG his problem is that he likes to do things his own way. McG is looking down on him and says that if he's not pulling him off, then stay out of his face. (For real. Why are the CIA guys always so cranky?)

So, not surprising, ProfessorKhalid dropped off the grid, he's on sabbatical from work, and his neighbors haven't seen him lately. That doesn't bode well. McG's gut says the attack has to be military since it's in retaliation for Turiq who was taken out in a SEAL raid. (And he would know all about those!) Chin puts his super tracking powers to the test again and tracks down a burner phone the guy bought. Not only that, but he tracks it to a mosque! SuperTrackingChin.  McG and Grover go to the mosque, but service is just letting out and they can't see Khalid, so Chin calls the phone and the guy who has it takes off running. McG gives chase, but they lose him. (Aww. Too bad. I love a good McG takedown!) Grover finally catches up and asks McG where the guy went, (like he's some sort of fortune teller), but they don't stand there long wondering before the guy comes roaring around the corner on a motorbike. He crashes, though, and is launched into traffic where he is grotesquely run over and killed (but his injuries don't look that bad, actually.) They turn him over and it's not Khalid! Uh oh.

McG is watching Khalid's message over and over on his computer while Grover and Kono are staring at him awkwardly through his office glass like looky-loos at a traffic accident. (That would probably be me if I worked with McG) Well, McG finally goes down to Jerry's office and asks him if there's anything off in Khalid's laptop. He says that Eric believes the browser history was hacked and someone is trying to make it look like Khalid had been radicalized. So, he's being set up, but by who? McG agrees with Eric and Jerry, and says the message Khalid left reminds him of a POW with dilated pupils and a strained voice. He's probably being forced to do this and is a captive somewhere! Poor Khalid.

Welp, there's no ID on the dead guy, he's a ghost. But all is not lost! The ghost had that burner phone and they unlock it to see recon pictures of a building. They quickly match it (is there a computer program with pics of every building on it?) It's an empty office building. Maybe a diversion? But on the way there, they see a plane flying right over it and they realize it's on a flight path. What plane is coming in at 6:20? A Marine's body that was killed in combat with a lot of his unit that were part of the Turiq raid in Afghanistan. McG quickly realizes the building is a launch point and they're running out of time. Cut to the roof where a guy is setting up a rocket launcher, and Khalid is tied and gagged watching him. That's not good.

The team heads into the building and takes the stairs. Two armed men are covering the access to the roof so a gunfight breaks out. While Kono and Grover keep them busy, McG finds an office and breaks out a window and does a Spiderman climb up the side of the building. (You would have to have some pretty amazing arm strength to do that, just sayin') The rocket launcher dude doesn't hear Steve pull himself up and doesn't even turn around until McG tackles him. (He's very focused on his Rocket Launching job. His boss would be so proud!) They fight, but McG gets the upper hand with his knife. RocketLauncherDude pulls the knife out of his leg, but Steve isn't taking any chances that he'll throw the knife at him I guess, and shoots the rocket at the guy to vaporize him. (Cool, but isn't that a bit overboard? I mean, knife vs. rocket? Ouch. Also, how did the rocket launcher just explode over one guy? Wouldn't it just clip him on the way by and hit one of the buildings behind him? I guess I need to read up on rockets.) Anyway, he ungags the professor who proclaims his innocence. (Can I just ask how a plane being taken down would warrant a warning to McG to get all of his loved ones off of Oahu? I guess Salaam's terrorist friend thought the attack would be bigger or something.) Grover and Kono catch up to Steve and he asks them if they're all right. Well, Grover says, the gunmen are dead and I was looking forward to some one on one debriefing time. Then, he delivers some more song lyrics of "you can't always get what you want." (Seriously, he must have had some crazy Pandora on today or something!)

We do get to see a clip of the Marine's coffin is shown being taken off the plane. Sobering.

Chin catches Steve before he heads into Kamekona's and tells him about Coughlin's offer. Steve knew about it because Coughlin had told Steve he was going to ask Chin as a professional courtesy. Chin says he's thinking about it, but he needs to make things official with Abby before he asks her to turn her life upside down. Steve is happy for Chin wanting to make things official. (They have such a great friendship. It's good to see them happy.) Steve gets a phone call while Chin joins Adam, Kono, and Hirsch. Hirsch is sad since all nine banks turns him down. Kamekona offers to invest in Crime Clean to be a "silent" partner, only he throws out the Hirsch Kamekona Crime Clean Enterprise. It was a sweet speech from Kame about being an ex-con and finding people who believe in you and want to give you a chance, like Five-O did for him. He wants to pay it forward. Awww.

McG calls the team over. He reached out to Joe White and Joe says those guys they killed were ex-KGB mercs. But the motorbike guy was actually outside the U.S. Capitol building and somehow, there may be a rogue faction inside the government in on the domestic terrorism. This was possibly their first strike in their political agenda. (Well, someone's been watching Designated Survivor!)

The final scene is McG offering water to Salaam in 2007. He's scruffy with a ball cap on and quite concerned about the prisoner. Salaam asks why he is offering this kindness? He knew who McG was and his men feared him. McG says they're both men who came into the world the same way and sometimes it's easy to forget that. Salaam tells him he'll never forget this. (A very touching scene and beautifully acted.)

I loved this episode. Action, emotion, and some great teamwork. I could have done without the Hirsch parts, but Adam was there, so it was tolerable.

Can't wait for next week's finale! Did you watch? What did you think?