Hawaii Five-0 Recap & Review--The Halloween Episode

This episode was full of the usual Halloween murder and mayhem, but combined with Hawaiian legends this time around.

We start out with Junior cleaning up Eddie's accident, when Danno drops by to scare Steve with a $75 mask. (Do people really pay that much for masks? That seems expensive and it wasn't all that great.) Danny does mention to Junior that he can call him sir every three minutes or so. I personally like that Junior is respectful and still has a military bearing around him. Where's Steve you ask?

Steve is going to escort Alicia to the courthouse, so he brings her some coffee. While they're chillaxing, she confesses that it wasn't self-defense with Dr. Gray. Steve doesn't look surprised, but he tells her never to say that again and he didn't hear it. She doesn't want to commit perjury, (since she's a murderer with a conscience and all) Steve doesn't trust the system to see it her way and since her daughter lost her mother for five years, she doesn't deserve to lose her again. (Ahhh, now we get down to the nitty gritty of why Steve is so against this. Losing mothers is a touchy subject for him with his own mommy issues. Poor Steve.) Alicia just asks that Steve take care of her daughter if jury goes wrong way. (Which was a bit of a strange request, but okay. I mean, Steve does take care of other people's kids all the time. Usually not twenty five year olds, but whatever.)

Oddly, we are heading to the Florida State prison because Lou is visiting Forney (the guy from Where the Heart Is. I love that movie!) Lou has no idea what the guy wants with him, but since he's on death row and about to be executed, he sticks around to ask. Forney draws out the suspense, eating his last meal, talking about a chicken farmer he murdered. Lou is near the end of his rope and just wants to know what he's doing there (I get cranky after long flights, too, Lou) and Forney wants him to have patience. Easier said than done when someone just wants to shoot the breeze! We finally get down to it when Lou's old buddy Clay Maxwell comes up. (Seriously, are they still beating that dead horse? Sheesh. Give it up already! Get Lou a new crazy friend!) Anyway, seems that Clay hired Forney to kill Lou. Forney has to get some hair shaved off on the top of his head before he's executed and tells Lou that Clay offered $250,000 for the Grover hit. (At least it's a pretty good amount. Lou would have been insulted for less, I'm sure.) Aside from that, Forney can prove Clay killed Diane, but in exchange, he wants an extension on his stay of execution. Good luck getting that!

Tani and Danny are investigating a guy whose truck broke down on the Pali while he was transporting pigs and got murdered. Tani tells Danny the legend of Pele and how the goddess of fire had a relationship with a demi-god who was half-man, half-pig and they had drama and split the island in half. Since then, you can't bring pork over the Pali or an old woman and her dog will kill you. Danny isn't buying it, and is half-mocking her, but Eric comes and backs up the legend with evidence that a small person and a dog were near the murder scene.

Jerry chimes in on the case since he had his own spooky experience on the Pali. When he was young, riding his bike, the chain came off. He went to put it back on and he heard growling. He had to get the spam out of his fanny pack and throw it to the growling and pedals away. (Who randomly carries around spam? Weird.) And there have been several other reports of the same sort of phenomenon. (Jerry is also keeping on with Max's tradition of dressing up like Keanu Reeves characters and goes with a Dangerous Liaisons costume. I miss Max.) Danny gets another alert that there's been another homicide and this one is also connected to a Hawaiian legend.

New homicide was a guy found entombed in concrete in front of his home. He was killed at midnight (what was he doing pouring concrete at midnight? Random.) But he suffocated as he died in the concrete. (Didn't he have anyone miss him when he didn't come in after pouring his new sidewalk?) Anyway, according to legend, trolls on the island were expert craftsmen but they were shy and if they caught you watching them work, they turned you into stone pillars. Cue the dead guy's body that does, in fact, look like stone. Dun, dun, dun.

Steve is sitting in the back of a courtroom listening to the attorneys talk about the phone call that Alicia made before she killed Dr. Gray. They're getting to the evidence that the knife wasn't in the victim's hand and Alicia was reporting an actual murder when Tani comes in. She takes Steve in the hall and tells him about the two murders they've been investigating and how they they think it's a serial killer. Steve gets an idea and goes back to the courtroom to interrupt the trial. He whispers to the lawyer and the trial is put on hold because Five-0 needs Alicia's profiling skills. They leave and head back to HQ.

Alicia gives her professional opinion that the serial killer is patient, meticulous, and may be trying to make a statement since both victims were white men. (Even I got that much. I should have been a profiler!) She segues into her opinion that maybe Steve brought her onto this case to stop her from telling the truth about what happened with Gray. (Ya think?) He says he's not that clever, but does want to talk some sense into her. Before they can, however, Eric wants to show them some results he got. (Which were pretty sparse, actually, and he could have called and reported, but whatever) There was some DNA in the rafters at the murder scene, and he found moss and seaweed on the victim. Steve knows which legend the killer is using next and says there's going to be a kidnapping. We cut to a little girl being watched at a school playground with her costume on.  On the way to the school, Steve tells the legend of a mom who lost her child, wanders around as a ghost and takes any child.  The girl has already been snatched by the time they get there, but the team follows her cell phone. Unfortunately, they end up finding it in an abandoned backpack. The girl is now being led through the woods by a person in a hoodie and she's bound and gagged.

Jerry calls to say the DNA from the crime scene belongs to Marisa Walker, a girl who was abducted, raped, and tied to a tree twenty years ago. She was also attacked by wild boars which left her horribly disfigured and the newspapers called her half-faced girl. (Sad! Why are people so mean?) Of course that gives her motive of recreating the legends. But in a twist, the team finds out that Lacey is actually her niece. Uh oh. Marisa's sister was supposed to walk home with her the day she was abducted. She feels responsible. But the question now is, will Marisa recreate what happened to her twenty years ago on her niece? With Marisa tying the girl to the tree and telling her the monsters will be there soon, it looks like it.

The team and HPD go out with flashlights looking for the girl. Tani and Junior chat, and he finds out she's new to the team and didn't graduate the academy. Double standard, much? Junior is a highly trained SEAL forced to join HPD before he gets to join Five-0 and Tani couldn't hack the Police Academy and gets on Five-0 with barely any training. Yeah, makes no sense to me either, Junior.

Grover can't get a stay of execution, but goes to witness the death. The first electrocution doesn't kill him, so they do it again. Gruesome. As Grover is leaving, the guard gives him a letter from Forney. It's a map in the Florida Keys with confession tapes from Clay. (What a dumb newbie criminal to confess on a tape.) Lou is overcome that he finally has evidence and calls Steve to tell him. (Hopefully we can bury that old case now. Really. Please don't inflict anything to do with Clay on the audience ever again. I'm begging you, show.)

Steve is walking through the woods "looking" for the girl and chatting to Alicia. He tells her that Five-0 has immunity and means and he has no problem telling the judge she still worked for them so she can beat the murder charge. He recruited her, he brought her in, let him help. Alicia doesn't want to do that and says Steve doesn't owe her. He got her daughter back. Won't let him lie for her. Chat time comes to an end when they find an abandoned building, and it's obvious that's where Marisa has been living. It's suitably cobwebby and spooky. She even recreated her family at a table with life-size looking dolls. Creepy. Steve sees Marisa running away from the shack and gives chase. He's losing his touch, though and gets beaned over the head again when Marisa gets the drop on him. (That's like the third time this season, I think!) They lose Marisa because they don't think to look in the trees where she's hiding, but thankfully, Eddie finds the girl and she's okay. They show an emotional reunion with her mom and the team looks pleased. To top it off, Alicia gets the call that she got 18 months probation is all, since she'll be at the beck and call of Five-0. Hmmm....wonder who made that happen?

And the awkward award of the night goes to Tani when she invites Junior to grab some pancakes with her. The whole scene seemed forced and weird.

But, a week later, the kidnapped girl's mom has learned nothing! She leaves her daughter sleeping, doesn't close any blinds, and Marisa is creepily watching them through a window. I hope the mom invested in a security system or something. The least she could do is get a few blinds! Yikes.

So, they crammed in a death row story, Alicia's being put on Five-0 speed dial and getting off on her murder charge, as well as a serial killer getting away, and a kidnapped girl being found. Very ambitious!

Did you watch? What did you think? Too much or just right?