Hawaii Five -O Season Premiere Recap & Review---The Man in the Red Suit!

I am so glad the new season has started! It seems like it has been forever since we've had a new episode. In a nod to the original Hawaii Five-O, this is an homage to the original series premiere called Cocoon (and fairly well done and updated!)

The episode starts out with a man dressed in a red latex wetsuit, floating in a large tank face down, hooked up to breathing apparatus. Creepy. He's being monitored and Wo Fat appears and says, "Bring him to me." (Wo Fat! I've really missed him on this show. He's the only baddie we've ever had that was truly a worthy adversary for McG.) They take the man out and strap him down and when they take the mask off it's Steve. And he's dead. (It's a great scene.) Cut to Steve really in the tank, but of course he's hallucinating Wo Fat. They take him out and go through the same scene of strapping him down and cutting off the mask. Then a guy who sort of looks like a poor man's version of Wo Fat says, "Commander McGarrett, are you ready to talk?" That can't be good. Dun, dun, dun.

Cut to two days earlier. Steve and Junior are digging up the back yard with bags of money all around them. Tani joins them and is curious what they're doing. Apparently Steve and Danny can't deposit the money in a bank because it's Kamekona's partnership money and they would need a lawyer to draw up partnership papers and they can't afford that. So they're just going to bury the money. On a beachfront. On an island. Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but whatever. All I was thinking was for McG's phone to hurry up and ring. And then it did! McG gets a phone call and is visibly affected. He heads out.

There's a dead guy on the beach and he's an old friend of Steve's named Tom Hennessey. (Poor Steve. So many of his old friends are dead now.) Hennessey worked for the CIA and helped him track down Victor Hess back in the day. His clothes were found down the beach neatly folded, but Steve knows Hennessey didn't go for a swim and not come back because his brother was drowned years ago and Hennessey never went in the water. He was murdered.

Back at Hennessey's apartment, a man is going through Hennessey's drawers and ripping pages out of a little black book. He burns them, but hears Danny and Steve coming in so he heads out to the balcony. Steve and Danny can't smell the smoke when they come in, I guess. (On a shallow note, Steve is in my favorite blue shirt. Thank you wardrobe people!) Steve sees the open drawer and goes to the open balcony door. Danny sees the fireplace and heads to that. He's trying to piece back some of the already cool-to-the-touch fragments and make sense of them when they're attacked from behind! Hand to hand combat with one guy and Steve and Danny are getting beat! They take some pretty hard shots, but finally Steve gets the upper hand. Unfortunately, the attacker ends up dead. Steve says to "Book 'em Danno," but the guy's dead, so no dice. DeadGuy has no ID, so they want to call Noelani in, but before they can, someone else is coming into the apartment and they head to the door, guns drawn. It's two CIA officers.

The four of them stand around and discuss the dead guy. His name is Chow and he's a Chinese spy. Male CIA guy gives some attitude and surprise! The agency wants to take over the case, but McG won't stand down on a homicide. Once outside, Danny comments that the woman was flirting or  impressed. Or  . . . he's hooked up with her. McG admits he did hook up with her a long time ago before Cath and right after he got his trident. (I love that they made it clear she was before Cath.) Danny wants Steve to stop living like a monk because apparently he hasn't been on any dates since he broke up with Lynn. (So a Cath mention and he's a single man again. Hmmm....)

And just to remind us that Tani has a story, she's randomly driving around with Junior worrying about if/when she should tell McG the whole I-found-a-gun-at-Adam's-apartment-that-may-be-the-murder-weapon-in-Adam's-sister's-murder. Junior encourages her to get the gun tested to see if it comes back as the murder weapon. (The whole scene just seemed out of place with the Cocoon storyline being so intense. Oh well, back to the good part.)

Noelani found white stuff on Hennessy's eyelids that dentists use to plug up holes after procedures. It was also in Hennessey's nose and ears so they were all sealed up with the white stuff. Poor Steve needs some answers.

Steve remembers back in 2001 when he was in Afghanistan taking fire, and Hennessey came to the rescue. Back in present day, the female CIA agent named Greer is meeting him at an overlook. (Steve is still wearing a blue shirt and it looks fabulous with his eyes and the beautiful scenery in the background.) Steve figured after Morocco she might not want to see him. She assures him that even though they spent two days in a Marakesh flea bag, she didn't expect a proposal. He did write her a note that he'd been deployed which was all true, but his life got complicated after that so he never saw her again. Greer tells him that she ran into Lieutenant Rollins a few years back, so she knows. (Interesting that she knows Cath and we have another Cath mention!) Steve pauses, but then gets down to business and asks what was Hennessey working on? Greer says just routine intel gathering. She asked to be on the case because Hennessey was her friend, too. But then she drops the bomb that four other top agents have been killed recently and there's not a shred of evidence that they weren't accidental, but she thinks they're not accidental at all. There must be a mole in the CIA who is selling them out! What? A mole in the CIA? No way. I bet we can guess who it is . . .

Back at the Chatting Table Jerry is piecing together the fragments from the fireplace and they get the word Cocoon and Steve figures out the other one is SS Arcturus. Since Hennessey's car was found near a commercial pier, he must have been watching the SS Arcturus. Of course, Steve and Danny go out and find the ship, sitting low in the water, with workmen welding on it. Steve says that he has to get on that boat, but while a younger him would "SEAL" his way on, older Steve has an easier way. He pretends to be a worker that's working on ship repairs and when everyone goes home for the day, Steve stays and sneaks around. He opens a hatch and finds the large tank. Takes some pics and leaves. All in a day's work for an "older" SEAL.

Steve and Danny meet with Jonathan Cray, Chief of Pacific Operations of Counter-intelligence. He says that Hennessey and four other agents were interrogated and murdered after Steve helped take down the Russian spy ring. All their enemies are running scared and want to know what the CIA knows. Since the evidence Noelani found on Hennessey's eyes, ears, etc. were on the other victims as well, they conclude the cocoon apparatus Steve saw is a sensory deprivation tank used to get the agents to reveal their investigation. What does that have to do with Steve? Well, back at the Chatting Table, Steve tells the team that Cray will leak info that McG found incriminating evidence at Hennessey's apartment, then McG will allow himself to be captured and interrogated to give misinformation to expose all the communication channels. So, he'll feed them false info that will give the CIA eyes and ears on that network and hopefully shut them down when the time is right. The team is worried about Steve being brainwashed, but he reassures them all that this is going to work.

Back at the SS Arcturus, everyone is in position. Steve goes in alone and gets into a fight before he's stabbed with a needle in his neck. He sees Greer before he passes out. (Totally saw that one coming.) When he comes to, he's strapped down in his form-fitting red rubber suit and doesn't even seem surprised. (I have to wonder, who put him in that skin tight suit? Greer? I think it would be really hard to get on an unconscious person. It's tough enough trying to get on tight leather pants fully conscious! I mean, according to people who wear tight leather pants ...)

Anyway, Greer claims she knows this man. (How? From years and years ago?) She doesn't think he'll tell them anything, but PoorMan'sWoFat rambles on about the brain being like a computer, downloading data from moment you're born and when all input is shut off, eventually a starved computer panics. The brain blanks and is compliant and will answer questions. Huh. Weird. Steve asks Greer to tell him why, but she answers with does it really matter? Next thing we know Steve is floating peacefully in the tank.

Danny and Lou are worrying, and it takes six hours before Steve starts to hallucinate. They pull him out and Steve is answering all the questions, remembering Hennessey's apartment and everything they found. He seems brainwashed and blank. Outside, a black SUV pulls up. Greer comes out and the team recognizes her. She glimpses Tani and Junior's not-so-surreptitious movement (really, guys!) and then sends men out to search the perimeter. A firefight ensues with the ship guys and the team/HPD. Jerry uses the car he's in to run down the guys who have Lou and company pinned. Junior also brings down a crane so the boat can't leave. They all head inside.

PoorMan'sWoFat is trying to figure out what to do and Steve escapes. He's fighting with everyone and comes down to the final fight with PoorMan'sWoFat. They end up in the tank and PoorMan'sWoFat gets the upper hand and is choking/drowning him. Danny shoots him, though, and saves Steve. He gets him out and asks a dazed Steve what's my name? Steve finally says Danny. How long have we known each other? Fifty years. (Haha. Nice nod to the 50th anniversary, though.) Steve says it feels like fifty years and it would take more than brain scrub to make him forget Danny. (Here's my question. Is Steve going home in his red rubber suit? Where are the man's clothes?) The team comes in and confirm they know it was Greer, and she got away. Danny says he hopes this ridiculous plan (of passing along false info) of yours works. Steve tells him it will, but he doesn't look exactly sure.

The end.

Well, there are so many other red rubber suit questions in my mind.

Overall, though, I thought it was a great start to the season and a nice nod to the original. Of course I give it bonus points for a few Cath mentions and the Lynn breakup, I'm really excited to see what direction they're taking Steve's personal life, as well as seeing what Greer will do next. Did you watch? What did you think?