Hawaii Five-0 Recap & Review: The Tale of Two Hidden Stashes

This episode features children whose parents have been robbed. Happy Thanksgiving!

We start out with Steve and Junior getting out chairs and tables for their Thanksgiving party. Junior mentions that he remembers around the holidays after his sister passed away, he thought he had a handle on things, but he didn't and since Steve said he wasn't up for the annual football game, if he feels like the Thanksgiving party might be too much, let him know and Junior will pull the plug. Awww. Steve says he appreciates that, but he's good. There's a knock at the door and Danny shows up with bags saying his place has mold so he needs to move in for six or seven days. And he expects to use the room Junior is staying in, since Junior could just sleep on the couch. Junior looks annoyed and informs Danny that the couch is Eddie's. Steve seems resigned and says Danny is welcome, but he's making a chore wheel. He mercifully takes a call and they head out to their COW. (Case of the week.)

Tani is already at the scene and fills them in as they walk down a beautifully landscaped area of the home's property. It seems poor George Parks came home early from a business trip and thought there were intruders on his property, but instead of calling HPD, he called his son, who tells him to call HPD. George decides to go get his 12 gauge instead and gets killed by blunt force trauma to the back of his head for his trouble. His son gets worried and comes over, finds the body and calls 911. His father was robbed, but it's not the kind of robbery you would expect.

Cue music.

The robbers stole a tree and nothing else. Didn't even go in the house. They were smart tree-robbers, too, since they spray-painted the security cameras. From their bootprints there were four of them and the tree they stole was a koa tree so it's probably worth a million dollars or so. Since no one can see the tree from the street, the robbers must have been on the property before, but since TwelveGaugeGeorge had hundreds of parties at his house, it could be anyone.

It's still early in the investigation so they don't have forensics and have to concentrate on potential buyers. Junior gets a call from his mom, while everyone listens in. His parents were robbed, too! Steve sends Junior and Tani to go over there and then let him know what happens. Meanwhile, Steve goes to talk to TwelveGaugeGeorge's kids. Whoever did this had to know dad was out of town, but since TwelveGaugeGeorge attended a trade conference in Singapore over every Thanksgiving, all the house staff and ground crew knew he would be out of town since they got time off. Steve asks for everyone's names.

Back at the secondary parental robbery scene, MamaReigns is telling Junior how she was only gone for half an hour and when she came home the back door was smashed in. Dad is already at the hardware store getting supplies for a new door and doesn't know Junior is there. Didn't want to bother him. Just like at George's robbery, not much was taken, but they did get an old laptop and radio as well as dad's stashed cigar box hidden in a wall with all dad's valuables. Junior flashes back to him showing a friend where the cigar box was. Uh oh.

At HQ, Lou found a guy named LoLo Joe, who always has koa wood for sale. Him and Quinn are going to pay him a visit. Tunior are talking in the car, while HPD is canvassing pawn shops for MomandDadReigns' stuff. Junior is pretty sure he knows who did it. The only other person who knew about that stash spot was his best friend growing up, Owen. Poor Owen had an addict for a mother who got arrested and left her eight-year-old son living by himself. The Reigns family took him in for a year, but when his mom got sober, she made Owen come live with her again. Junior was bragging about his dad's purple heart one day, so he got the cigar box out to show Owen and he must have seen the gold watch, too. Tani is all sympathetic and says that since addiction is genetic maybe Owen didn't dodge that bullet like she did.

LouLiu go visit LoLo Joe and tell him about the theft and murder. They came to the right place! LoLo Joe says he was contacted by some guys coming into a big supply of koa and he didn't get their names, but he's supposed to meet with them in about an hour! The team goes to the meeting spot instead, but all the tree-robbers are dead and the tree is still there. So what were they killed for? Well, Quinn IDs the men in the warehouse and three of them had records, but the fourth was clean and a former gardener for George. And the whole tree wasn't left behind, a part with a large cavity was taken. So it must have been being used as a stash spot! (Cigar box/koa tree, I'm seeing the stash spot parallels!) And whatever was stashed was valuable enough to kill for, so George or his kids must know what it is.

Back to the B robbery storyline. Tunior go visit Owen's mother and she's the classic addict. Attitude, her place is a mess, the works. Tani pokes around and sees some "happies" and takes an obvious picture of it. Apparently mom gave Owen $100 to score but he came back with $50 in crap and of course she doesn't know who his dealer is or where he got his score. Tunior leaves and Junior is feeling the guilt because when Owen lived with them, he did great. Junior tried to get Owen in rehab, but got turned down so many times he stopped trying. Tani tries to reassure him that he did what he could and with a mom like that, Owen never stood a chance. Also, addicts have to take responsibility for themselves, or no help will get them clean. Luckily Tani's brother knows who deals the "happies" and gives them a location. They head over.

Danny brings Steve coffee and he's instantly suspicious, telling Danny he doesn't get the guest room, so Danny takes the coffee away. (Did Danny really think he could just boot Junior out of his room? Really?) Steve also cautions Danny against too much caffeine because he gets jittery and stupid when he has too much. Adam comes in and they found an earring lodged in the lower section of the trunk and got DNA off it that popped from a cold case fifteen years ago. A Jane Doe was murdered and dismembered. They found all her body parts except her head. (Ew. Guess we know what was inside that tree now.)

Tunior go to a park and find Owen. Junior is pretty straight to the point and says he knows why he's there and Owen immediately caves, says he's sorry, and tells him where he pawned the stuff. He kept the purple heart, though, back at his motel. Junior has him empty his pockets and he crushes the drugs under his shoe before he gives Owen two options: get turned in for the robbery or go to rehab. All he has to do is say yes. (Um, didn't Tani just tell him that addicts have to take responsibility for themselves? Okay, well, maybe ultimatums will work just as well. This is H50 land!)

The team is trying to figure out which of George's kids out of Darren, Preston, and Olivia would have killed Jane Doe and then hide her head in a state-protected tree on private property. Lou comes in with a story to tell and we cut to the Blue Room of Doom with Preston in the chair. There was a discrepancy in the timeline Preston gave because he said that when his dad didn't answer the phone he went to his place and called 911, but there's 45 minutes between last time he called and the 911 call. Since he only lives fifteen minutes away from his dad's house, there's a half hour missing. Maybe that was just enough time to get to the warehouse and kill the tree-robber guys! They know he needed to get to the tree and get the skull back that he stashed fifteen years back. Quinn pulls a skull from a duffel bag while Lou shows him an earring. Tell us who she was. Preston caves immediately and says her name was Leah. She was a German backpacker, and he met her at a beach party and took her home since no one was there. They were drinking, doing drugs, and messing around when he jokingly pushed her into the pool and she hit her head. He didn't mean for it to happen. Quinn points out that he obviously did mean to cut her body into little pieces and scatter her around the forest, though. Preston pauses, but then says he panicked and didn't want his mistake to ruin his dad so he took care of the problem. They tell him to walk them through the last fifteen hours. When they exit the room, they tell Adam that Preston bought it all, and Quinn's idea to show the skull came from Hamlet and Noelani supplied the prop. (Was that really someone's skull then?) Preston told them the real skull is in a canal and CSU will have to go get it. Lou doesn't believe Preston is the killer though because he was so emotional and doesn't seem like the type who dismembered people. But who would Preston be protecting?

Owen gives back the cigar box and is sorry, especially since DaddyReigns was good to him back in the day. He gets in the rehab van while Junior looks through the cigar box. There are letters from Afghanistan in it that he's never seen before so he opens them.

Back at the MEs office, Noelani shows them that Leah was wounded and unconscious after the fall in the pool that Preston described, but she didn't die from that. She had three more depressed fractures on the other side of her skull that killed her. So Preston was covering for someone else in the family. (Which we already knew.)

LiuLou go to George's house where there's a wake/Thanksgiving gathering going on. The house clears pretty fast when Lou announces they want to talk about Leah Schmidt the woman who was murdered here fifteen years ago. They don't believe Preston's confession since he didn't now how she died, but they think Olivia and Darren do. The sibs are outraged, telling them to get out and how dare you, but then Preston comes in, all emotional saying how they let him think he was a murderer for fifteen years! He thought Leah was dead when he pulled her out of the pool! But Olivia gave him some pills and sent him to bed, telling him she'd take care of it. And she did. They show Olivia striking Leah in the head. Olivia doesn't confess yet, though, so Lou and Adam start giving her reasons. They were all drinking and doing drugs and possible manslaughter charges against Preston might leave the family open to a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Preston is still whining about how he thought Olivia did this amazing thing for him so he confessed to protect her, but now he knows the truth, he's done. (Didn't he wonder what they'd done right after it happened? What did he think happened when the news reported a dismembered body? Oy.) Anyway, the sibs are cuffed and shooting dirty looks at each other when they're put in police cars. Darren's house turned up a dismembered AR15 (more dismemberment?) and they already linked the bullets to the warehouse. Apparently, Preston saw his dad's body and the tree theft in progress, so he called his sister. Olivia told him to follow the truck at a distance and see where they took the wood. He did, then gave her the address before he came back to the house and called 911. It was Darren who went over to the warehouse and shot the men, then he hooked back up with Olivia and dumped the skull. (I thought they said Preston did that?) So a pretty harsh Thanksgiving for the Park family.

At Junior's dad's house, DaddyReigns is fixing the door when Junior comes out with the stash box and gives it back to him. He doesn't tell him that Owen did it and just says some tweakers did. Tani is gathering MamaReigns old laptop and radio. He brings up the letters in the box because DaddyReigns told Junior not to write him from deployment because he didn't want to know what was going on with him, but now he finds out Dad got Junior's CO to write and keep tabs on him. Since Dad isn't big on telling people his feelings, the letters speak for him since he read them a bunch of times, which tells Junior they still have a shot. Junior is never going to stop trying to make things right with his dad even if he's mad for what Junior did at the parole hearing. Dad says he's not mad at Junior, but mad at himself because he couldn't forgive. He won't make that mistake again. They hug. And since MamaReigns didn't cook, Junior says he knows a place they can all eat for free. (Well, hopefully he helps Steve with the food bill or something!)

Back at Steve's house, Flippa, Princess, and Kame are there. Princess is looking over the table full of food and says she won't send Steve the bill until next month. Quinn is over talking to Danny. She connected with Leah's dad who was relieve to get some closure. She asks if she'll meet Danny's family today, but he says no, his ex has them this year. He also tells her that him and Rachel are trying to work it out and give it another shot, but when Quinn asks how it's going he says, she's not here. (Hmm...what does that mean exactly?) Junior comes in with his parents and introduces them. Steve is happy to meet them, tells them he's sorry to hear about the robbery, and how lucky it was that Junior was able to sort it all out. When Junior leaves to get his parents a drink Steve goes on to say that their son is one of the finest men he's had the honor of working with, and they raised him right. Tani comes in with all of MamaReigns stolen stuff, but it doesn't look like a laptop and old radio. MamaReigns hugs her while Junior watches. Tani comes over to him and asks if the talk went well. He thanks her for not only today, but for everything. A year ago she gave him a pep talk before he went to his parents' for Thanksgiving and things have been up and down with his dad ever since then, but she's been a constant in his life, so thanks! She gives him a happy look and says where else would she have been? And he goes on that he's been distracted with his dad and that other things in his life have taken a backseat, but he's looking forward to changing that now. She says that sounds good and there's smiles all around. (Honestly, they still give me that sibling vibe, but it's easy to see that the show is going for something more than that. Oh well.)

Lou comes up to Steve and says Renee and the kids will be there in ten minutes and Percy's even coming and bringing the dessert. (Thank goodness we were spared having to watch Percy again. Oy!) Lou tells Steve it's nice that he's letting Danny stay while they're working on his place, but Steve says Lou knows as well as he does there is no mold in his house, but he gets it. It's been an interesting year for Steve between Joe and mom, so Danny's worried and wants to keep an eye on him. Lou says it's nice Steve has a lot of friends, but he better work on his poker face because Danny is a detective and is going to figure out that Steve knows he's lying. Steve says he doesn't have to find out tonight, then Adam throws the football to Steve asking to play a few downs before they eat. Steve looks at everyone, then says, "Let's go."

So, a nice Thanksgiving ending scene with Steve after two parallel cases of children and a friend trying to hide their crimes, but Five-0 ferreting it out of them. What did you think? Did you watch?