Hawaii Five-0 Recap & Review: The One With The Awesome North Korean Spy Moves & Plot Twist

We start out with previouslies of Cullen's house blowing up (my fave part was Steve's face when he gets out of the truck and heads toward Cullen. The square-jawed determination and the look in his eye!) then we cut to Adam at the Chatting Table. (I guess he changed out of his blue shirt. Luckily, Steve is still in blue.) Adam tells Steve that several components from the bomb at his house match the one at Cullen's! (Awww. Matching bombs. How sweet.) And Adam also figured out that Cullen's real estate business was being used to launder huge amounts of cash coming in from Asia. (How come they didn't know that when they first investigated him? Weird.) But whoever he was laundering money for must have been unhappy to have law enforcement sniffing around so they offed him. I guess it really *is* much bigger than Steve thought!

Cut to a dark street with a young, teenage girl in a school uniform walking alone with ear buds in. (Wow. Definitely not a good idea.) She notices a white kidnapper van and gets spooked, hurrying away, but the van cuts off her escape. Uh oh. Nine hours later HPD finds the abandoned van with an obvious blood stain on the bumper. But when they open the door, all three kidnappers are in the back shot in the head. (There have been a ton of execution-style killings on the show lately!) But where's the girl?

Cue music.

Steve and Danny are at a dog park, trying to help Steve get a date by "not being himself." Danny's plan is that women will come over to pet Eddie and then have to talk to Steve since he's standing there and maybe he'll get a date.

(Okay, wait. I've been with this show through some pretty unbelievable storylines. Remember the giant claw with Wo Fat? Or how about lifting a cabin out of the woods? Yeah. I went with it. But saying that Steve "Smooth Dog" McGarrett needs help getting dates is pretty hard to believe. Remember the cases where Steve would be standing there and women would approach him? Or when Lori had to leave because she developed feelings for him? Has anyone seen Steve McGarrett? The man is a former SEAL, and has the looks and presence to stop women on the street. But, yeah, here we are, in a strange McG universe where Steve is now insecure and unsure of himself around women. Okay then.)

Anyway, Danny is pointing out women in the park, one doing yoga, one talking to friends, one with an English mastiff. He throws the ball near the English mastiff and Eddie goes to get it, but the mastiff attacks and bites him. They end up at the vet so Eddie can get stitches (Poor guy! So sad.) Not deterred in his FindSteveADateQuest, Danny starts telling the vet she can call Steve to walk her dog (because he has so much time on his hands?) and Steve can call her to walk Eddie and mouthing to Steve to get her number. It's all very teenager-ish and silly, but mercifully, Steve is finally able to send Danny out on a case.

Junior meets Danny at the kidnapper van scene and Danny mentions that Steve and Eddie are no longer welcome at dog park (why? Eddie wasn't the aggressor) He also comments on Quinn being early and helpful. She gives them the rundown that 911 got a call last night when a witness saw a teen girl forced into van by two men. They found the van and the dead kidnappers with no sign of the girl and no idea who she might be. All they know is she had dark hair, there are no missing person reports and that two of the kidnappers had records for assault and robbery. The third guy was clean and worked as a doorman at a condo building. (The victim was probably someone from his building. I'm calling it right here) Maybe this is a ransom play, but once they got the girl back, why didn't they report? Well, maybe because all three men were killed by a pro. They're definitely looking for a trained killer.

Back to DannytheDatingGuru. He gets a call from Steve and he didn't get the vet's number. Danny can't believe it! Why does he have so many rules when it comes to women? Is Steve afraid of rejection? Well, DannytheDatingGuru advises to just keep striking out and moving forward. Steve talks about a measured approach to dating and says he wants to meet someone organically and not force it. Danny tells him a story about asking a girl out over a PA system in high school and he struck out, but her friend liked his approach so he went on a date with her. Danny mocks Steve's organic approach and mentions that he and Eddie have a beautiful friendship and their anniversary is coming up, so Steve hangs up on him. *claps*  (Can this storyline be over soon? It feels so forced, like the restaurant storyline, just filler to have some sort of interaction between Steve and Danny.)

Back to the Chatting Table Roundup & Report: Adam dumped the kidnappers' phones, and one called a Client Services rep at a bank who is in charge of wire transfers and foreign transactions several times. CSU scrubbed the van and the lab found wool fibers under the fingernails of the kidnappers and in van, and they likely came from girl. But, wait, who wears wool in Hawaii? No one unless they're being forced to, like private school kids who have to wear uniforms! And there's a private school within two miles of kidnapping. (Convenient!) Tani is going to go with Quinn to check on the five girls that didn't show up to class this morning. While in the car, Tani is talking about how she can't understand why the parents wouldn't immediately go to police, especially after they got their daughter back, but Quinn says maybe it wasn't the parents' choice if the girl wanted to keep her kidnapping secret. Also, it might have been more than just a kidnapping since she was in the van for over an hour with three grown men. Tani still can't figure out why she wouldn't come forward, (really?) so Quinn ends the endless "why" questions from Tani with "we can't imagine because it didn't happen to us, so stop trying to guess what we would have done or felt." (I sense some Quinn backstory here!)

Lou talked to the Client Services rep and BankerBoy got wrangled into the plot by his cousin who was the doorman, but they never got any money because they were killed before they could make the ransom. He mentioned that they chose the girl because she lives in same high end building as CousinDoorman worked at (called it!) and it's on Lure Street. (Lure street? Really? For a kidnapper.) She's a tenth grader named Yumi Chung. She's new at the school and only been there a month. Quinn and Tani go to talk to Yumi, who is alone, but lets them in. They sit down and Tani starts droning on about how they know what happened, she was forced into a van, must have been terrifying, and they're here to listen (only not really because she won't stop talking) Yumi says nothing happened, but Quinn is all you must want to forget about what happened last night, but the men that took you were murdered and we want to find out who killed them. She holds Yumi's hands and tell her they want to help, but no pressure. Back at HQ Adam has learned that the ballistic analysis points to all the shots fired inside the van coming from Yumi. Uh oh. He calls Tani and tells her, but Yumi attacks! She lays out Tani and Quinn and runs away. (Plot twist! Loved it)

Well, they got HPD searching the neighborhood, so of course she got away. Yumi isn't the innocent schoolgirl she was pretending to be (ya think? LOL) and so they search her house and find a hidden bag in the vent. It has a gun, cash in three different currencies and four passports. Apparently, Yumi is wanted for questioning in China, is in her mid-twenties and fled arrest in Germany. She was also part of a company that led a North Korean cyber-attack on U.S. power grids a few years ago. Everyone is standing around the Chatting Table chatting about why Yumi chose a schoolgirl alias and how that private school she infiltrated is super elite and a lot of powerful people send their kids there, even high-ranking military officers. She could have been invited into their houses! So the team decides to see who her friends at school were and if they have parents who serve.

Yumi isn't standing around waiting to be caught, though. She's at a cafe, telling NerdyGary, who is there with his laptop, that her phone is dead and she needs to check her email, so can she borrow his computer? He says yes and he'll even get her a latte. (I guess he's just so shocked a cute girl talked to him?) While he's walking away he tells her to do her worst which was super odd. Worst what?

There's a bunch of people checking out Major General Avea's home for bugs. The Major General isn't too concerned, since he never talks about work at home or met the girl since he was out of town. But hey, Yumi went to a lot of trouble to get into his house because he's with the DOD and they need to figure out why. They finally find a wifi enabled camera in a lamp that was positioned right over the desk where the Major General worked with his DOD laptop and has been transmitting video since it was installed. Oops. She probably has his password and access to all the classified documents his security clearance grants him since he logged in that morning. (That's all you need is one little password and you have classified clearance? Yikes. Our military needs a security update if that's the case.) Quinn calls CCIU to get his password revoked, but Yumi is at the cafe, sending NerdyGary back for an iced latte (oh Gary) and the screen says her upload is complete. That can't be good.

Back at HQ Lou reports that CID cyber crime said Yumi accessed the account before they disabled the password, but they don't know what she took. Loyal Adam asks if they should get Jerry, but Lou doesn't think he could help and besides, McG has an idea that Adam won't like! They're going to Halawa to talk to Aaron Wright! They offer Wright a cappuccino, in exchange for doing them a favor, but he wants minimum security with furlough privileges. No deal. They start to leave, but Aaron decides to help them in exchange for just the cappuccino after all! Way to negotiate.

Lou updates McG that according to Wright, Yumi accessed the Major General's account a few minutes before the password was revoked and the IP address traces back to Coffee Talk in Waikiki. Steve sends a unit over to figure out which computer she was using. Wright gets introduced to Quinn as a "homicidal oil slick" and he seems pleased with his nickname. (I really enjoyed the bantering with Wright. Witty and funny.) Wright sends them a screen of all ten terabytes worth of the classified docs she downloaded, but none of them are relevant to North Korean national interests or have anything to do with U.S. military plans for North Korea. Steve has Wright check for keywords North Korea and Oahu and personal files of intelligence assets come up. The newest one was updated two months ago, and was a North Korean defector living in Hawaii under the alias Sam Hong. He was responsible for one of the most successful mass escapes from North Korea in modern history and got away with five families.(Five? That's it for the "mass escape?") So he's a hero, but to them a traitor and Yumi's here looking for him. They send CID to his address with HPD for backup. (That's not going to end well, I can feel it.) Tunior will meet everyone there and they'll try to get this guy out of the building before Yumi gets there.

Dang, she's already there. CID pulls up to form a perimeter and protect him, while Yumi goes into the building manager's office and creepily shushes him. She throws a pen on the floor to distract a CID guy who falls for it. (Must have been a rookie or not watched any horror movies in his lifetime.) She breaks his neck, then goes after more guards with just a PEN! (It is a crazy awesome fight scene and stunt work.) When everyone is down, she runs for SamtheDefector's apartment. He's just leaving and has one guard left, but Yumi easily kills him. Before she can leave with SamtheDefector, though, Tunior roll up. They're looking at all the carnage and see the elevator is coming down. Yumi has taken Sam hostage and tells them that all the classified info about Special Forces movements, location of hidden bases and memos on detainees held in U.S. black sites is on a timed 30 minute release onto the dark web and it will go live to all the U.S. enemies if she isn't on a plane back to North Korea before then. Well, that's a dilemma.

Next thing we know Yumi is in a car talking to Steve. (Where did she get the car? One of the dead CID guy's cars? And where is HPD? Just didn't come? Too busy?) Yumi has a gun on SamtheDefector yapping about how she didn't think Steve would make the right decision, but letting her go is the only way to stop the documents from going live. Oh, and if he tries anything funny, she'll just kill Sam. So here's the scenario: They're six minutes from the plane with Tunior in position behind them, and Wright is working on Gary's laptop that Yumi used. Thankfully she was in a hurry since Gary was coming back so Wright finds the dark web portal she used. He needs more time to access it, though, and Lou pulls a Rudy Gobert and knocks Wright's drink off the table. (You can see Rudy here)

Adam uses reverse psychology that if Wright can't open the portal then he's not even a good hacker! And they'll just leave and never come back! Nooooo! (Honestly, that's what they threaten him with? Haha!) Anyway, Wright humors them and gets back to work. Sam and Yumi are talking in Korean about him leaving and how he abandoned his friends and family. Oh, and they used to work together. Oddly, Steve forgot he speaks Korean and they all defer to Quinn to translate. Sam wants Yumi to reconsider working for a regime that would force her to bring back her oldest friend to be executed. She said she volunteered. Oh, snap! (I wish we would have had more story here. I mean, that is a great plot twist, too!) Sam says he's not getting on a plane and jumps out of the car and runs away. Yumi wings him and Tani shoots her dead. (Like, immediately dead, staring at the sky, dead. Where did that bullet hit exactly?) Wright has ten seconds to stop the classified documents going live on the dark web and he does with one second left. (So, Yumi really wasn't going to wait until she was on the plane to release it? Or did her death speed up the time frame? I was confused there. ) Anyway, everyone is relieved and Wright says that surely deserves a change of scenery but Lou mocks him and says life isn't where you end up, but the friends you make along the way and that the cappuccino they brought was decaf. (Honestly, I wish they'd been a little nicer. He did help them!)

Sigh, we're back at the vet's office, and McG is getting last minute instructions for Eddie from the vet. McG is glad to hear that Eddie behaved himself, unlike his partner from that morning. It's super awkward and then Steve leaves. But Eddie is giving him a look (so cute!) and Steve chats with him about conspiring with Danny about going in there and maybe getting shot down in front of everyone. He makes a decision and heads in (leaving Eddie in the car, though). The vet is back out front talking to another patient's owner with a lot of people in the waiting room. (With a crowd that big, she should probably do less talking and more treating, but I digress) She makes Steve ask her out in front of everyone and he invites her to dinner sometime.

Steve meets the gang at a bar at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. They're all happy he got the date and clap for him. The convo comes around to Quinn and what she thought of her first day. Despite being beat up by a North Korean secret agent and translating the hostage-taking of some of America's most dangerous secrets, she's still in! Cheers!

What did you think? Did you watch?