Monday, November 18, 2019

Hawaii Five-0 Recap & Review: The One With Sad Steve

We start out with Steve (still with cuts on his face, so nice job continuity team!) sitting on his bed remembering the last moments with Doris. Alex O'Loughlin has such an expressive face, you can just see the devastation on it as he thinks back to his last words to his mom before she died. His phone is buzzing and he doesn't answer any of the messages from Danny.  We cut to a helo with a trauma patient going into cardiac arrest. They give him an epi shot which brings him back to consciousness and he attacks the paramedics, throwing them out of the helo and then he goes after the pilot.

Cue music.

When we come back Grover is picking up his "niece" from the airport. While she's in town, she'll have some downtime, but she doesn't want to do what Grover suggests, Siobhan just wants to go see where he works. Grover seems surprised. They get to the basketball workout Grover had set up in front of the UH coach with Metta World Peace running it because he owed "Fat Man" a favor. (Really? That's what he calls Grover? *eyebrows raised*) (And while I thought the actress playing Siobhan did a good job, she looked a lot older than a high school student to me.)

Adam is at the crime scene when Tani and Quinn arrive. They talk about how no one's seen Steve and hope that he's taking time off to process what happened with his mom, but then he pulls up in his truck. They're all telling him they've got it and that they didn't think he'd be back at it so soon, but he just says hey I appreciate your concern but I need to get back to work. (And sometimes you just need something to distract you when the grief is getting in your head, you know?) Adam gives him the report that a medevac was deployed after hikers found an unconscious man suffering from exposure. The crew was inbound to King's Medical when the patient turned violent and killed two paramedics, forcing the pilot to land before he killed him. HPD put out a BOLO based on the hikers' description, but since he killed three people to avoid being taken to the ER, he's probably a fugitive. (That's not the only conclusion to draw here, but okay, we'll go with it.)

Speaking of the fugitive, he's bleeding all over the floor and everything he touches at some market. Ew! The storekeeper rings him up while the guy hefts a snow globe in his hand and gives the storekeeper a weird look. (Uh oh. That can't be good.) Back at HQ all they have is the composite from the hikers---no DNA or prints from the chopper (why is that? Seems weird since his blood and fingerprints should be all over that!) Adam checked Interpol alerts and inter-agency reports and got nothing. Steve points out they have the location of the airlift so Junior and Adam are going to go take a look with Eddie.  Tani gets a call and meets Duke at the market where the shopkeeper was indeed killed with a snowglobe. (What a horrible way to go!) They did get security footage of their fugitive, though, so they're going to get that image out. Oh, and he bought a burner phone so they might be able to figure out who he was trying to contact!

Siobhan puts some moves on Metta and makes the basket over him before the workout is over. While she goes to change, the coach comes to talk to Grover. She says that Siobhan is special and they want to offer her a scholarship, but they're concerned about some mystery thing that happened. When Siobhan comes out Grover tells her that the coach said she hasn't seen a player like her ever, but there is the matter of the thing back home. (Just say it already!) Siobhan says that it's not how he thinks, but what Grover thinks is that she got in a fight with a girl and got expelled, even though she was the #1 high school player in the nation. (Yawn)

Quinn and Tani track the Hong Kong phone number the burner phone called and even get an address conveniently close to where they are located off of it. (I thought burners were untraceable?) Quinn and Tani head over there. Steve meets them there and all three are in full tac gear. Steve has the women set a perimeter before they breach and he goes front. He sees movement through the side windows and they breach, finding a guy inside. He looks smarmy and says he's Richie Gormican from the DEA. SlickRick is also looking for the bloody fugitive (whose name is Ben Tam.) SlickRick says Ben won't leave the island because he's got $100 million worth of heroin somewhere in the jungle.

And speaking of the jungle, Adam and Junior are almost to the point where the helo picked up BloodyBen. They're chatting about Steve coming back to work so soon. Adam is worried because apparently he knows what it's like to try and deal with this kind of trauma on your own, thinking you've got a handle on things, then out of nowhere you realize you're not coping at all. (How did Adam's mom die was all I could think about when he was talking) Junior is philosophical and says all they can do is keep an eye on the guy and make sure they're there for him. (Always practical) They give Eddie a scent out of a bag and he runs off.

SlickRick is telling them how he's been running an undercover op against heroin traffickers moving product out of Hong Kong for the last six months and were about to rewrite DEA history with the biggest drug haul Hawaii's ever seen, but five days ago a Cessna loaded with 170 lbs of heroin en route to a private airstrip in Oahu crashed and aerial searches turned up jack. So SlickRick has been monitoring cartel comms, waiting for chatter on the shipment. He was up on the same Hong Kong phone that BloodyBen called from the burner and came to the same house that the Chinese cartel sent BloodyBen to. Whoever lives in the house is somehow connected to the business and Tani says that the house is being rented to Sam Bishop---Cullen's fixer. Quinn reminds us that Cullen suggested there's a bigger conspiracy and Steve says that this proves there's a wider criminal network that connects Cullen's right hand man to the Asian heroin trade. Bishop has access to men and guns and is currently accompanying BloodyBen back into jungle to find that heroin. Hey, aren't Adam and Junior there, too? That's not good. Junior's not answering his phone so they decide to go and find them. Quinn isn't happy about letting SlickRick come along because she doesn't trust him. Steve doesn't trust him either, but says he's the best way to get to BloodyBen. (Why? He's as much in the dark as they are, but whatever) Quinn keeps trying to get hold of Junior and Adam, while SlickRick is chatting up McG. He was hoping not to like McG, heard about what happened in Mexico. Thought it wasn't good for the DEA image when Steve came in and took care of Carmen Lucia. That makes it tough for pros like him. (He's just so slimy!) Steve just gives him a look and says everything has a price. SlickRick goes for the, "I heard about what happened with your mom. I'm sorry," line. Steve thanks him. (How did SlickRick know so many details about that op in Mexico and Steve's CIA mom? Things that make me go hmmm....)

Grover's wife comes in to their new apartment (that has a gorgeous view) and he recaps what happened, that the coach is concerned about the fight and dad says she fell in with the gang Lady Apostles. UH really wants her and will give a full scholarship, but they'll only take Siobhan if she lives off-campus with them, since Lou is with Five-0, that would be a positive influence. Lou isn't too positive, though, and Siobhan is listening and then leaves. Lou and Renee decide they can figure it out and go to tell her they'll help her, but she's gone. (I wish we could have gotten a little update on Will.)

Eddie finds the crashed plane full of heroin with the dead pilot still inside. They don't have too much time to decide what to do before Quinn finally gets through to tell them the killer is headed their way, but he's already there with a bunch of other killers! Uh oh. The team is ten minutes out so Adam, Junior, and Eddie take cover to wait.

A bunch of men with guns drive up with Sam Bishop at the head. BloodyBen realizes someone was there when they see the cut in the heroin brick, so they start searching and find Adam. (Did his months on the run with Kono teach him nothing about hiding?) A gunfight ensues and Adam is the first out of ammunition. When Junior is almost out, the rest of the team shows up to save the day. Eddie even gets in on the action and bites a gunman who turns to shoot the dog. Steve shoots the bad guy before he shoots Eddie. In the end, BloodyBen is dead and Bishop is wounded. Steve calls for a medevac (I wonder if the paramedics are all, um, remember what happened last time we went out that way?) But when everything is wrapping up and the drugs are being loaded into a car, Quinn reports that Bishop is unconscious, but stable, and they'll call when he wakes up. SlickRick thanks McG and is happy everyone goes home with a win. He's going to get the haul back to HQ and hey, just to be nice, he'll give a shout out to Five-0. Bye, SlickRick.
 
Back at HQ, Steve is sitting on the couch in his office, his head in his hands. He looks tired. Adam comes in with a preliminary report from the ME's office. The dead DEA agent was Carl Brower who was on suspension for six months pending an internal affairs investigation, so he shouldn't have been on the plane at all. And guess what? His former partner is SlickRick. Steve has the Marshal's office track the car and by the time Tunior gets to it, there are only two dead marshals in it and no heroin. SlickRick got it all!

Steve is in action mode with APBs out and all airports on alert. This man is not going to leave the island and they are going to use every resource to make sure he doesn't! Luckily, Adam talked to DeadBrower's supervisor who said the guy was side-dealing with the Serbian mafia out of New York, so Adam put a flag on all known associates of that organization and he got a hit! A crew just touched down on a chartered plane at a private airstrip and the passengers were all using fake IDs. (Here's my question, what did Adam get a hit on if they had fake IDs and it was a charter plane on a private airstrip?) So the Serbs are probably the original buyers for the heroin and SlickRick is looking to make BloodyBen's sale without him. The team hurries over to the airfield. Meanwhile, SlickRick is looking at duffels of money while the heroin is being loaded and is so involved with the deal, he doesn't hear the sneaky police and Five-0 moving in! Steve takes SlickRick into custody and tells him things are about to get much worse for him.

Siobhan is in an Uber and Lou pulls it over, taking her to a bench beside the ocean to talk to his ungrateful niece. She's mad because she can't trust him after she heard what he said to Renee. She finally tells him the whole story of how Romella is a Lady Apostle and was pressing her friend Tiana to join and when Tiana wouldn't, Romella was going to shoot her. Siobhan stole the gun and when Romella came after her, they fought and Siobhan got expelled because the school just doesn't care. (There was some great emotional acting here!) Protecting her friend meant more than playing ball and if anyone cares, Siobhan wants to be a cop like Lou. We get a flashback of Lou taking a five-year-old Siobhan away from her dead mother who'd OD'd and it was a really sweet scene. She tells Lou she felt safe with him that day and he finally says if she wants to do law enforcement, he'll help her.   

Everyone is chilling at the shrimp truck, when Lou brings over Siobhan and introduces her. They've all heard about the workout with Metta World Peace and want to know how Lou knows him, but it's a long story. Steve drives up, but doesn't get out right away. Quinn climbs in and Steve looks a little emotional. He tells her he trusted SlickRick too quickly, but she waves that away and says he fooled all of them and besides, they got SlickRick, took our multiple Serbian gang members, and stopped a hundred mil of heroin from hitting the streets, so it was a good day! But that's not all! Bishop is getting released from ICU so he'll talk and they'll get some answers about who's behind this and more about the conspiracy! So, come get some food. Steve says he will in a minute and after she gets out, he calls Danny and tells him he's sorry, that he got all his messages. "I just miss her, Danny." (*sniffle* Alex O'Loughlin is hitting the grief out of the park this entire episode!)

The end scene is back at the hospital where a maintenance man is cleaning Bishop's room. There's no guard or security to be seen, so he puts a pillow over Bishop's face and shoots him, then slowly walks away with his cleaning cart. (Never trust the hospital maintenance people!) So I guess Quinn won't be getting those answers after all.

Did you watch? What did you think? 

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Julie!

I liked this episode more than I thought I would, mostly because they didn't sweep Steve's emotions under the rug. Alex knocked it out of the park. My heart ached for him in every scene. Alex played it perfectly -- Steve was present but it was obvious he was struggling.

I would like to have seen some evidence of Steve having a bullet wound. I mean, they accurately show his battered face, but not a major wound? I'm a medical person, so I always gripe about it when they drop the ball in this area.

I had the same thoughts about SlickRick (love it!) How did he know about a CIA op in Mexico? Not realistic at all.

Lou's story with Siobhan was just okay, until they got to the flashback. Then I was totally onboard. Very good! Loved seeing Lou take young Siobhan away from the tragic scene. But I don't really want her to be a recurring character. Hope she's not.

My favorite part of the episode was near the end, when Quinn sees Steve drive up to the shrimp truck. She reads him well -- she knew he felt like he'd missed signs from SlickRick. Instead of commenting in front of everyone else, she climbed into his truck and talked to him privately, caringly, almost manipulatively. She said just the right things to him. I don't know if you read Linda Stein's blog but I said the same thing there -- if the plan is to get these two into a relationship, then this was a good start. I don't necessarily want that to happen, but if it happens organically, then I'm okay with it. I just thought that it was a touching scene. And of course, I love that Steve finally called Danny back and was able to express some feelings.

It was a good follow up to last week, and I hope we continue to see Steve wrestle with what happened.

Have a great evening!

Gail

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Gail, I am SO sorry it took me so long to respond! It sounds like we're on the same page with our thoughts on this episode. Alex really did knock the emotions out of the park. His facial expressions are so on point! I really hope the writers show him continuing to wrestle with all he's had to deal with as well. Fingers crossed we get more Steve! :)