Hi everyone. Sorry I’m really late with this review. My hubby and I went away for a long weekend to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary and we only got home late Sunday afternoon. The good news is that even though I thought I wasn’t going to be able to even see this episode until I got home, I did manage to make it back to our hotel room by 9pm on Friday night. It was close but I didn’t miss it. This is the 97th first run episode of Five-0 and I have never missed one! The bad news? No access to a computer…..hence the late review! But I’m here now so let’s get to it shall we?

Last week’s promo asked the question “How far will he go to get his brother back?” But the theme of that question can apply to both stories in this episode. What Danny is willing to do to get Matt back.  What Chin was willing to do to help his friend.  What Steve was willing to do to help his brother.  And what Nick Mercer was willing to do to protect the people he had hidden away.

I enjoyed this week’s crime. As always, there is a Five-0 twist. This time by having a hit man take out another hit man. I have to admit that’s something I never expected. But Nick Mercer himself was also very unexpected. The cold blooded killer, a man who has no heart, literally has a change of heart. Seems Mercer was in a car crash a couple of years ago that damaged his heart so severely he needed a transplant. In a plot point that’s perhaps a bit contrived, Mercer’s heart donor is a salt of the earth pillar of the community and after the transplant, the man called Valentine, finds he no longer has the heart to kill.

  

But when you’re very well paid by Detroit crime boss Albert Bagosa to make people disappear you don’t just quit. But what you can do is find a different way to make them disappear. Unfortunately, Bagosa found out that Mercer had remotely hidden away his “victims” and sent another hit man, Joseph Stegner, to rectify the situation. So what was Mercer willing to do to protect the innocent people he’d hidden away? The man who could no longer kill did just that by taking Stegner out before he could kill anyone. Then with the help of Five-0 Mercer was able to stop Bagosa and his men from finding all those people.

  

So was the murder of Stegner really a crime? By every letter of the law, of course it was. But by killing Stegner, Mercer saved the lives of every person hidden in that compound. Is there a logic to “the end justifies the means”? Maybe, just maybe, sometimes there is. Not that it really mattered…..Mercer was led off to jail, to answer for the 100 lives he took before his change of heart.

Woven throughout the crime of the week was Danny’s quest to wrangle up all 18.5 million dollars he needed to save Matt. You know, so far, I am loving this season and one of the big reasons is there has been so much great material for Danny. It’s really incredible when you think about it since Scott wasn’t even available to film for a part of the time these episodes were being made. But Danny has been every evident in every episode culminating with this one and I could not be happier about that. I really hope this is a trend that continues throughout the season.

Anyway, the money Matt took was exactly where his cryptic clue said it would be, however it was a bit short….5.5 million to be exact. First Danny tries to get the money from a loan shark without success before Chin volunteers to try to help by going to his brother-in-law Gabriel. At first Gabriel turns Chin down but eventually he decides to “help”. Seems he’s getting tired of having his face repeatedly rearranged by other inmates not trilled he’s related to a cop. A little quid-pro-quo and Danny has his total of 18.5 million dollars.

    

You know, I’ve had a bad feeling about Matt’s fate for weeks. With no indication from anywhere, no behind the scenes pictures, no editing pics, no listing of Dane Cook’s name in the press release and not a whisper from Dane’s own Twitter postings that he was anywhere near Hawaii in the last months made me feel it was pretty certain Matt wasn’t going to survive. So when Danny and Steve headed to Columbia I knew this wasn’t going to end well. I don’t know what was more heartbreaking. Danny’s anguished hope as he called out Matty’s name, waiting for his brother to appear, probably beaten and bloody but alive or his heartbroken grief and anger when he realized that barrel was all that was left of his baby brother

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Ok…so who besides me thought, for just a second, those goons were beating the crap out of Steve and Danny. Until we saw the look on Reyes’ face. He knew right then his time was up. He made three fatal mistakes. First, he killed Matty. Second, he threatened Grace. NO ONE threatens Grace. Third, he didn’t take Danny’s advice and kill him while he had the chance.

  

When Danny marched towards Reyes, demanding he look him in the eye, and pulled that trigger, my heart damn near stopped cold. If anyone ever doubted Scott Caan is an amazing actor the look, or rather looks, on his face spoke volumes to his talent. In the span of about 20 seconds, with no words, only his facial expressions, he spoke of grief, anger, disgust, horror and shock at what he had just done. Our Danny, just killed a man in cold blood.

 

  

  

  

But like Mercer before him, does the end justify the means? Reyes deserved to die, I don’t think anyone will argue that. Yes, he killed Matty but I’m sure there are hundreds more deaths he’s responsible for. Does it make what Danny did right? No…but………. And Steve was right there with him the entire time. This story is not over, not by a long shot. Matt may be dead (as a door nail per Peter L) but the ramifications will be felt for a long time.

First off, if we EVER finally get to Steve’s PTSD story, this is going to give Danny a better perspective to relate to Steve. Now they have both lost more than one person close to and related to them. Steve lost Freddie then his father. Danny lost Grace (his partner) then his brother. For all that Steve turned to Grover and Grover shared his experience in Chicago with him…Danny now has a closer emotional, traumatic connection to how Steve feels and vice versa. Even though it was written and acted wonderfully, I was never really happy Steve turned to Grover instead of Danny. Maybe now he will turn to Danny and Danny to Steve to help them both get through the emotional fallout.

AND Danny now also has an even deeper connection with Chin. Not only did Chin risk a LOT getting that money from Gabriel, Chin also killed Malia’s murderer in cold blood. Now both Chin and Danny know what it feels like to be on both sides of the law. What’s Danny going to do and feel when HPD IA comes down on Chin for this? This terrible ending to Matt Williams just opened up at least 2 new storyline opportunities. Let’s just hope the writers take full advantage of them.

Some favorite moments:

• Jerry and Kamekona on a stake out complete with bright green mini-van, circa 1988, and two of the biggest undercover dudes you’ll ever see. God I love these two guys to pieces but can you be any more conspicuous guys? LOL

  

• Lou and Steve chasing down Stegner on foot. Was it just me or did Lou look like he was huffing and puffing up a storm. I give him credit for keeping up but, man, he looked like he was suffering a bit.

  

• Steve weaving through oncoming traffic while chasing Mercer and that leap over the crashing HPD squad car. Always wonderful to see Steve be so incredibly athletic. Great job by Justin Sundquist on that leap. AND Justin was in the scene at the airport too. I love when we see him on camera too.

  

 

  

• The way Steve and Danny are always ready to jump and run to the others defense. Danny has done it numerous times to save Steve’s ass and Steve has no hesitation in telling Danny, again, that he’s willing to just jump on plane and head to Columbia and finish this. Danny’s lighthearted comment about Steve’s willingness to always get them shot at is countered with Steve’s steadfast comment that he’d be more than willing to go through that door first, willing to take a bullet for Danny if he had too. All joking, ranting aside they are always there for each other, and they both know it.

  

Finally, even though I indulge in very large pitchers of Kool Aid each week, I did promise I would point out when I wish something could have been done differently. In this episode it has to do with the case of the week. Like I said above, I really enjoyed it a LOT. However, I think, maybe I would have enjoyed this episode even more if this particular case of the week had been part of a different episode and this episode had been devoted 100% to Danny and the conclusion of this story.

For instance, when Kono had her big story conclusion with Frank Delano in Season 2, the crime of the week was the murder of the volleyball coach which tied directly into that story. When Steve was captured by WoFat in N. Korea, also in Season 2, the crime of the week was the murder of a reporter who turned out to be WoFat’s “source” which caused Jenna to betray Steve to WoFat. Again, directly related to what was going on with Steve in that episode. So, yeah, I wish they could have come up with some crime of the week that was directly connected to Matt or Danny so the entire episode could have been that story. Of course, having said that, I have no idea what crime they could have come up with to do that, which is why I don’t attempt to try to tell TPTB how to write their show. I just sit back and enjoy the incredible ride.

And four episodes in I just can not wait to see what they have in store for us next.  I hope my heart can withstand it.

NOTE: Most of the photos in this review are screen captures I took from iTunes.  However, those that are not mine are courtesy of Bookemdanno.net.