Hawaii Five-O Recap & Review--The Grover Episode

Well, sometimes we get an episode that makes the HPD look like they can't do their jobs very well and this was one of them! But we also get some good scenes with Lou and I enjoyed it overall.

We start out with Tani and McG paddling along on their boards, talking about the time when Chin got locked out of his room and had to chase Abby with only a towel on. (A classic scene.) Tani wants to meet Chin and McG thinks it will happen, that the island always draws you back home. (I hope so, but I highly doubt we'll see Chin or Kono anytime soon, sadly.) Steve also tells Tani that he has a rep for being hyper-competitive, but he isn't. He just likes to win. (Um, isn't that the definition of competitive?) Tani hears this and decides to test the theory by paddling faster. Steve catches on quickly and tries to keep up. (You know that isn't going to sit well even with Steve's "non-competitive" nature.)

Cut to Will who is having girl troubles and Grover is trying to help him out. Just listen! All women need is a fixed stare and open ears! (Not bad advice, really.) Will gets an emergency alert on his phone and reads it to his dad, but his dad says it's his day off. The guy must have bad karma or something because they come up on the car the HPD is looking for. It crashed into a street sign and is smoking in the road. Grover tells Will to call Steve and to stay in the car, then he approaches. He's yelling at the driver to get out of the car, but the guy says he can't. And when Lou gets closer, he see that the guy is pointing a gun to his own head. That can't be good.

Steve and Tani make it back to shore and she was four yards ahead. Steve wants to call it a draw and she's all, whatever, so he finally admits that she won. Steve takes the call from Will and says they'll be right over. (They do take time to get dressed and in tac gear before they arrive, though. I wonder how long that took.) Long enough that HPD is setting up barricades around the car. Duke and Junior give Danny, Steve, and Tani all the pertinent info---the suicidal guy was going to surrender for murdering his wife, but he didn't turn up. His wife fell fifteen stories, but the husband claims she jumped. Cops don't believe him. Nobody does. (Yeah, that guy is definitely having a bad day.)

The suicidal guy's name is Brad and he's telling Grover he didn't kill his wife. Grover is trying to calm him down, has him roll down the car window so he can hear him and tells Brad that everyone needs to hear his side of things and he should trust Lou. Steve gives Lou a call and Lou takes it, walking a few feet away to chat about Brad. Does Lou believe Brad didn't kill his wife? (Well, Lou's only been talking to the guy for five minutes!) Also, Brad can probably hear everything Lou says.  Lou answers Steve's question with a maybe he did, maybe he didn't. (Or in other words, how would I know?) Lou asks Steve to look into evidence on the case, just in case there's something HPD missed. Steve assigns Tani and Junior to look at everything HPD has on the case. Danny Downer says this is a dangerous precedence they're setting by helping this guy. (Well, what do you think we should do Danny? Tackle him and hope the gun doesn't go off? Call in the snipers?) On top of that little comment, a crisis management guy comes on scene ready to take over. Steve says Lou has it under control, so thanks but no thanks. The guy is put out and snottily says, well, if the man kills himself, you'll deny justice to wife and family. (Poor Steve, having to put up with all the Negative Nellies.)

After that we get a gruesome scene where we get to see where the wife hits the car and a close-up of her dead body. (So not needed and really gross.) Tani is standing on balcony looking over where the wife fell before she turns around to take in the trashed apartment. But back at the HPD perimeter, Brad is still holding a gun to his head. Lou is pleading with him, saying he doesn't want to leave the people who love you like this. They'll have to live with that. Why don't you tell me about your wife? Lou really seems to connect with the guy and is able to keep him talking.

Tani brings Steve everything they got and tells him there was definitely a struggle, and Noelani is looking over physical evidence. So far, emails, texts, and bank records are solid. (So, no motive?) Brad claims that he left straight after argument, but sadly no one can corroborate. Oh, and Brad deleted her texts and didn't return her calls. (It all seems really circumstantial to me, but hey, what do I know?)

Brad is talking about how they'd been married ten years, but actually, he doesn't want to talk, he just wants it over with. Lou reminds him that death is final. He will have thrown away his whole life in one split second mistake. To show he trusts Brad, that he believes in his innocence, Lou puts away his gun. Steve is watching and the Crisis Management creeps up behind him to give his opinion that Lou putting his gun away is a mistake. Lou's practically signing his death warrant! (And he's not overdramatic or anything. Not at all.) Steve backs Lou's play, but he's also got snipers in position. He mentions that when Lou was running SWAT in Chicago he had similar situation with a gunman holding a two year old inside and he wishes he'd handled it differently. The guy killed himself while still on phone with Grover and when they went inside, he'd killed the boy, too. Sad!

Lou is still talking and says Brad does't look like a guilty man. Brad thinks Grover is playing him so he'll put the gun down, but Lou reassures him that he thinks he's innocent and if he takes his life, he'll take the truth with him. Lou starts to move to the passenger seat just as Noelani confirms that Traci had defensive wounds and Brad's DNA under her fingernails. They've got enough evidence to lock guy up for life! (Really? Do they?) Steve calls Lou, but he won't pick up, since he's getting in the car. Steve is visibly worried. (I love how much he cares.)

We get a flashback of the funeral of little boy that Grover couldn't save in Chicago seven years ago. He's standing apart, it's raining, and the mother gives him an accusing look. Nobody wanted Brad at his wife's funeral, but he had to go to say goodbye. Grover assures him that people are looking for answers and it's easier to point the finger at Brad. Brad gets animated and says they should look at him as the guy who tried to save her and keep her safe from herself! Apparently, Tracy had severe depression and didn't tell anyone else, only Brad knew. Steve is trying to listen in, but creepy Crisis Management guy pops up again to say that talking is good, but Captain Grover gave up all his power when got in car. Brad has leverage over us now! (*whine whine* What an annoying guy. And that's who they have trying to talk people down!)

Junior and Tani are back at the scene of the crime, lamenting that the apartment manger thinks he saw Brad leave, but can't remember what time. Neighbors saw nothing. But then Junior sees an ATM machine across street! They hurry over to look at it and hope it caught something. (How did HPD miss that? Rookie investigators?) Steve is still listening in to the car convo, but a random guy not only gets by the barricade, but also where Duke is set up, and he pulls a gun! Steve takes him down, and it's Tracy's dad. He's disheveled and nearly crazed saying Brad should die for what he did. He had a concealed permit for the gun, but Steve tells him, not anymore! Haha. Steve and Danny urge him to let them do our jobs. Trust us! CrazyDad doesn't look too convinced and refuses to leave. Steve gives Duke babysitter duty and says CrazyDad can stay. (Big mistake there.)

Meanwhile, Brad is telling Grover how he needed to get out of there with all the mood swings happening every day. Grover asks what we're all thinking, why not get her professional help? Brad tried, but got tired of asking. He says he should have insisted. He's getting more agitated and Lou is calmly saying he'll have his day in court, there's more life ahead for you. Then they call for pizza. Brad wonders why Lou is doing all this and he says he's been where Brad is and he needs someone in his corner.

Another flashback from seven years ago when Grover was drinking in a bar. He's not looking good. He says that when you're hurting, it affects people who love you and we see Grover's wife trying to get into a locked room. Grover is inside, drunk and crying, trying to get into his safe and he won't open the door for Renee. He asks Brad what really happened that night and Brad says he messed up. The pizza arrives and Steve's going to walk it over. CrazyDad is incensed they're feeding him since Brad is not the victim! Steve tries to talk him down, Danny throws in that he has a daughter, too, but nothing works. If there was something wrong with Tracy, CrazyDad would have known!

At the same time, Brad is saying how Tracy left him four messages and he knew what was going on, since she'd done it before. He raced home to find her hysterical and screaming with his sleeping pills, saying she'd take them all. There's a struggle as he tries to take them away and the apartment gets trashed. Tani and Junior, or "the kids" as Steve calls them, have evidence from the ATM that Brad left the apartment building before she jumped, the time stamp proves it. Steve approaches the car with the pizza, but CrazyDad freaks, grabs Duke's gun, and fires a shot at Brad and Lou. John is then shot by police. Steve trains his gun on Brad, worried for Lou. (So many guns, such a tense scene!)

Brad is actually hit and needs paramedics, and Steve is saying they know he didn't do it and they have proof. Lou is relieved, now everyone knows Brad's innocent. But Brad won't accept that. He says it's his fault, he didn't know how to help her and he was done. He told her to go ahead and do it, felt like he didn't have the strength to stop her. So, he feels like he killed her and puts the gun to his head again. Lou is visibly upset and says he wants to tell him one more thing. Flashback to seven years ago. Lou kisses wife goodbye, the kids are off to school, so he goes upstairs and gets his gun. He's holding it to his chest, cocks the gun, when he hears a noise downstairs and goes to investigate. It's his son who has cut school, with a broken dish on the floor. Lou remembers the hurt, and there didn't seem to be a way to make it stop and find peace. Guilt can consume you, but Lou made it through that day and the next one and the one after that. He found help and eventually found peace. He tells Brad if he puts the gun down, he'll help him because he knows what it's like. Brad gives up the gun. Lou is crying, it's an incredibly well-acted scene. Steve starts shouting for EMS right now! Come on! As they slowly saunter over and ignore the urgency. (Thank goodness that snotty Crisis Management guy wasn't around to tell Steve how they did everything wrong again.)

Grover goes home and talks to Will. It was a long day, but he thanks him for all he did. Will says he didn't do anything, but Grover assures him he did more than he knows. Flashback to a counseling group in Chicago that Lou's been attending, but this is going to be his last one. He tells the leader of the group that he feels like he can't move on as long as he's in Chicago, with all the bad memories. She asks where he's going to go? He doesn't know, but somewhere warmer. (I guess that's when he decided on Hawaii.) Lou walks away, a light snow falling, but was that a palm tree I saw in the background? (Hmm...)

So, an emotional episode, light on the action, more Chicago backstory, and making HPD look inept for their investigations and keeping people out of an established perimeter. But we did get some great acting from Chi McBride, so there's that.

Did you watch? What did you think?