Hawaii Five-O Recap & Review--The One That Was So Touching

There were so many things going on in this episode and I don't have a lot of commentary since I enjoyed it so much. But let's get started.

Junior is in a hotel room with Jerry and while Jerry is sleeping soundly with his sleep apnea machine, Junior can't sleep. The next morning Jerry is up early, getting ready to go somewhere and Junior is exhausted. There is a  very sweet scene of Junior helping Jerry with his tie (he's wearing a suit) and I have to say, they both look very sharp. (Junior is in his Navy uniform.) They enter a hangar where a woman waits with a flag-draped coffin on Dover airbase. Apparently, Junior has come to escort airman Christopher Kaliko's body home to Oahu. The woman waiting for them is from mortuary affairs and she tells Junior all about his escort duty and hands him the Staff Sergeant's file. Junior looks it over and is impressed to see that the deceased soldier earned the Bronze Star with Valor, he graduated top of his class, and was only twenty-four years old. Junior doesn't know why Staff Sergeant Kaliko requested for Junior to bring him home and the woman from mortuary affairs doesn't know either. We all watch as the casket is loaded into the plane. (Such a moving scene!)

We cut to a police car chasing a dump truck. The dump truck driver unloads an entire load of sand into the road, effectively stopping the police car, but wait! There was a body in the sand.

Duke is being a sweet grandpa, swinging his granddaughter on the swings when Steve comes to see him. He sits down with Duke to talk about his reinstatement hearing, to make sure he's prepped and ready to go, but Duke has decided not to go. Being away has made him think that retirement might not be a bad idea. Steve wants him to fight because it's his reputation and legacy---to go ahead and clear his name. Duke says the people who know him think he was a good cop and at some point you have to ask yourself, what are you fighting for? He's at peace with the decision. Steve seems frustrated by that, but he gets a call and heads out. (So far I've liked the introduction of the deceased Staff Sergeant's legacy of bravery and Duke's legacy being threatened after a long and distinguished career.)

Steve pulls up to the sand in the road and the nearly unidentifiable body is laid out. The hands are bound and the feet are missing, but the awful part is that the face is unrecognizable. (Ew.) Steve thinks the sand is stolen and Grover laughs. Who would steal sand? (Also my question.) But there is a huge business worldwide for black market sand mining. I guess they use it to make concrete and such. (Learn something new every day!) But now they need to ID the body and the crime scene is in the Pacific ocean somewhere. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack!

We flashback to 2013 in Afghanistan. Junior is about to go on an op, but he has to put his affairs in order and decide who will escort his body home. His CO tells him it's not a burden, it's an honor. Back to present-day, Jerry and Junior are on the plane talking about who Junior chose to be his body escort. (His cousin). Jerry asks if we know how the Staff Sergeant died.  According to the incident report, a special ops team was conducting an night raid and the helo was shot down by an RPG. Staff Sergeant Kaliko and another officer held off the insurgents and they were the only two who didn't make it. Junior is honored to take him home, but wonders why he chose him. With no answers, Junior tries to catch some Zzz's, but Jerry can't sleep with the turbulence.

Noelani tells Steve that the dead man's feet were ripped off, not eaten by marine life, and since there was a surgical cavity in the victim's left shin, if they find the feet, they can find the pin and use the serial number to make an ID. Steve says that they need to find driver so they can figure out where the sand was dredged. Of course they go to Kamekona to find out who the players are in the sand game.

As they drive up to the shrimp truck, Danny throws in his opinion that Duke doesn't need to go to the reinstatement meeting. Steve, of course, still believes that Duke needs to clear his name. They table the discussion when they find Kamekona eating his lunch. He's been on his feet for seven hours and is a bit grumpy. He tells the boys not to bother a food service pro after the lunch rush. (Steve is in his blue shirt this ep, so thank you wardrobe people!) Kame says he might know a guy who used to move in the sand circle and he'll make a call. He goes back to his lunch, but Steve and Danny just sit there, until Kame finally calls Flippa. Apparently Flippa was the guy who used to be in the sand game!. He tells them about a client from Dubai who imported Hawaiian sand because their desert sand is too fine to make into concrete, but when he left the game two haoles were in charge.

And I guess they still are because next thing we know, Steve and Danny are chasing the dump truck driver to a sand pit. Steve is right behind the guy when he jumps off and falls into a machine full of sand being processed, but thankfully the blades are turned off. Danny warns Steve not to follow the guy in, but he does anyway. Danny rushes over to turn off the machine, pressing random buttons, and he starts the blades! (Who just presses random buttons!) Luckily he finds the stop button and both Steve and the dump truck driver fall out. Whew! (I liked the tense buildup to this scene and the chase was great as well!)

Jerry is reading a novel when Junior wakes up. Apparently Danny's ex-mother-in-law is a best-selling author and she's written a book about a restaurant publicist in Seattle who breaks off her engagement to travel in Europe and meets a count who invites her to his castle. He sheepishly says he bought it to keep his mind occupied, but it's not working. He confides in Junior that after 9/11 he wanted to do something that would make a difference so he decided to enlist with his friend Mika. Unfortunately, at the recruitment meeting he had a panic attack. His recruiter told him that the service wasn't for him and Jerry felt ashamed. Junior tells him that there's no shame---the service isn't for everyone and Jerry has done a lot of other brave things. Jerry says he wanted to come and help Junior to make up for not being able to enlist and also admits it was his friend Mika who was the one who was killed in combat. (Such an emotional scene and Jorge Garcia killed it.)

Danny and Steve are on a boat getting ready to find the missing feet. They have a fancy imaging device that will help and when they find something that's worth taking a closer look at, Steve dives in. While he's underwater Danny tells him more of his opinions on Duke since Steve can't talk back. He says things like you are putting yourself in his shoes, but he's not you, it's about him. Duke is a grown man and can make his own decisions, and there's something to be said about knowing when your time is up. (A little armchair psychology in action.) Thankfully, Steve finds the feet fairly quickly and brings them up. But wait! The toes are painted. These are women's feet. We have a double homicide.

The airman's body is loaded into hearse at Hickam Air base and while they are there, Junior tells Jerry that his cousin wasn't the first person he asked to escort his body. He wanted it to be his dad, but when he asked him, his dad said no. He didn't want Junior to serve. He even went so far as to say that if Junior was killed, he wouldn't go to the funeral. Jerry says his dad was probably afraid of losing him, but Junior says he probably already had at that point. Jerry gently says, well, you're both still here aren't you? It's never too late to make things right. (Awww. *sniffle*)

Steve finds the second set of feet and digs out the surgical pin from the remains of the ankle. Danny is grossed out (as am I!) They get an ID, though. The deceased person is Kaimi Allana. Steve says they need to take some dogs and get to the sand facility since the woman's body might be buried in the piles of sand. While that's happening, Grover and Tani go to Kaimi's house. There's lots of unopened mail and it looks like he lived alone, but Grover finds women's clothing, hats, lotions, etc. in the bedroom. Tani finds pics of Kaimi as a man, and then one of him as a woman. Grover thinks Kaimi is transgender, but Tani says he's Mahu. In traditional Hawaiian culture, a Mahu identifies with both male and female spirit and so their gender is fluid. It seems Kaimi presented as traditionally female. They head over to the dance studio where Kaimi taught and her partner said there wasn't anyone who wished harm on Kaimi and they never were harassed. Tani isn't buying the hate crime thing, anyway, since Mahu are very respected and revered.

Back at the sand pit, the dogs find the second body. Her name is also Kaimi Allana! Dun, dun, dun. Two bodies with the same name. It could be a case of mistaken identity where the killer killed wrong person, then found the right one and killed them, too. So now they need to figure out who was the intended victim.

Steve brings in Kaimi's husband and questions him in his office. When he reported his wife missing he was out of town. Does he know Hailey Adams? Well, she booked a trip to Bali and he was supposed to be on the trip with her. Why would your recently deceased wife's friend book a trip for the two of you? The husband says he doesn't know and asks for a lawyer. Sadly for him, the dump truck driver already rolled and they have the evidence of a wire transfer for $2000 that the husband paid to have his wife killed. (I guess he didn't give the dump truck driver any info on the wife besides her name, so he just randomly went around killing anyone named Kaimi Allana and hoped he got the right one. What a terrible hitman. And then he admitted his stupidity to cut a deal. Whatever works, I guess.)

Back at Steve's house, Eddie is barking at the door. Duke comes by to tell Steve that they caught Akela taking money out of her mom's wallet. She said that a friend at school had a backpack that was falling apart and she wanted to get him a new one. So she was doing the right thing for the wrong reason and that got Duke thinking about his legacy that will be Akela's roadmap someday. He's going to fight to get his job back and he wants Steve to come with him. Steve is in 1000 percent. (Awww!)

Junior is following the hearse to the cemetery and sees a bumper sticker on the back of the Staff Sergeant's parents' car that says they have an honor student at Kukui  high school. That jogs his memory that he did a presentation there in 2011 about his experience in the military. Christopher Kaliko was there as a student and it impacted him. That hits Junior hard and he doesn't think he can face the parents since he was the one who encouraged their son to enlist. If it wasn't for him, Chris would be alive today. (Such a great performance here. I love Beulah Koale!) Jerry calms him down and reminds him that he encouraged Christopher to serve his country and he did that with distinction and died a hero. Jerry also says that his friend Mika would be alive if Jerry hadn't convinced him to join up. He blamed himself so much that he couldn't leave his mom's basement for months or go to the funeral where he was supposed to be a pall bearer. His blame kept him from honoring his friend's memory, which is why he's here. And that's why Junior needs to face Christopher's parents.

They go in and offer their condolences. Christopher's mom has a letter from Chris to Junior. He opens it and it says that the day Junior came to talk at the school was the day Chris found his life's purpose. He was proud to put on the maroon beret. One of the proudest moment he had was when they were taking back an area from Taliban control. He didn't speak Pashto, but totally understood how grateful they were. He'll never forget the look on the villagers faces when the last insurgent was gone. Nothing mattered more than giving them back their home and Chris' team gave them that. He tells Junior to please remember to celebrate my life and all the good I did. Serving his country was the greatest privilege of his life. They are showing the cemetery and the flag-folding while Junior reads the letter with Taps playing in background. It's so emotionally heartrending and beautiful. I loved it.

So, an emotional H50 with a theme of legacy running through it. I really enjoyed this one. Did you watch? What did you think?