My father was a voracious reader so when I was growing up and asked him to tell me stories he didn’t fall back on stories of the “Three Little Bears” variety. No, he told me stories out of great literature. Two of my absolute favorites were stories from Tarzan and, particularly, Sherlock Holmes. I just adored a good mystery story, trying to figure out who done it and why? The more questions the better, it made it fun, made the challenge of trying to figure it out so much more rewarding and damn if it wasn’t a thrill when I actually figured out something!

In the last decade, before Five-0, my favorite TV show was LOST. For anyone who never watched LOST, it was not a show for anyone who wanted quick answers, story lines that were easy to follow or neatly tied loose ends. Watching LOST was a study in patience and required a good ability to simply accept that everything wouldn’t always be wrapped into a tidy little bundle. I LOVED it!

I bring this up because we seem to still be faced with a rather perplexing mystery with the conclusion of Five-0’s 100th episode. Like LOST before it, Five-0 has the tendency to answer one question while simultaneously spawning more. In this case the continuing mystery surrounding one…. Doris McGarrett.

It is true we have been given the answer to a question many of us have either grappled with or were convinced we already knew the answer to. What was the relationship between Doris and WoFat?  So now we know….she was his (not quite official) adopted mother. But that nugget of information, while quite satisfying, left us with even more questions. Here is my take on what we learned and what we still need to find out. Of course, I have no clue what will happen or if we’ll ever get all the answers but speculation is a hell of a lot of fun. Ok so here we go. I hope this actually makes even a small amount of sense!

• Doris is WoFat’s “adopted” mother:

Well, we knew that the mission to kill Papa Fat took out Mama Fat instead. But what if it wasn’t “instead” but “too”? Maybe when the hit took place they weren’t both supposed to be together and whatever it was (probably some kind of explosion…seems to be the preferred method on this show) got them both. Mama Fat was killed and Papa Fat gravely injured, captured and, perhaps, sequestered away all these years.

WoFat said she had just “become a new mother” so he was barely more than a newborn when his mother died. Therefore, he wouldn’t have known that the woman raising him wasn’t his biological mother unless someone told him. What if no one ever did? What if, when he was a small child, Doris did tell him that his daddy had died (because she probably believed he did) but just allowed him to believe she was his real mother. Then, all of a sudden one day, Doris was taken away from him too.

According to the H50 writer’s timeline WoFat is 7 years older than Steve. So he couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old when Doris was forced to leave him. So young that it’s conceivable he wasn’t told the whole horrible story about his parents nor that his “mother” wasn’t really his mother. Hopefully Doris’s superiors at least gave her the opportunity to properly say goodbye to such a small child before she was just gone from his life.

Personally, I don’t think WoFat knew Doris wasn’t his biological mother until he found that grave in Cambodia, opened it and discovered his real mother’s body. I think that look of shock in the safe house when he saw Doris was one of REAL shock……the same look Steve had when he opened that door in Japan and saw MOM. Not only because, in that moment, WoFat realized that Doris was Shelburn but also because, at that point, WoFat STILL believed Doris was his real mother.

 

I also keep thinking about that first meeting between Steve and WoFat at the noodle house back in Season 1. WoFat told Steve he wouldn’t like what he would find if he dug too deep into his family’s past. What would Steve have found? That his mother had been a spy before she married John? Surprising, yes, but hardly earth shattering information. Steve, after all, had been a spy on occasion too. That Doris wasn’t dead? At that point they both thought she was.

No…I think WoFat truly believed at that point in Season 1 that he and Steve were brothers……real blood brothers and that’s what he warned Steve he wouldn’t like if he found out. That’s why when Steve took blood from WoFat to have Max run the DNA WoFat yelled after him “you don’t want to know the truth”. That was before Doris visited him in prison in Colorado so I believe at that point WoFat still believed she was his real mother.

 

I honestly believe Doris did tell WoFat the whole truth in Colorado. That his real mother was killed and she thought his father had been too but, in fact, his father was taken away and she never heard where he was or what happened to him. Perhaps the CIA had taken him somewhere. Could be why WoFat thought with his connections, Steve would know where “they are keeping him”.

• Why did WoFat have John McGarrett killed?

Of course, we have no idea about WoFat’s upbringing after Doris left him but if, in fact, she was allowed to say goodbye to him, he knew she was alive somewhere out there. He probably knew her name, no reason for her not to tell a small child she intended to raise forever her real name. It would be understandable that even as an adult, the small child within him resented, even hated, the new family she had, the family who got all the love that should have always been his.

WoFat ended up serving his country. Jenna said back in Season 1 that WoFat started out as one of the good guys. More than likely, in the course of his work, he came across information that showed his father had not died when he was a baby but was murdered in an OP by “Shelburn”. Having lost the only mother he ever knew and growing up without his parents for most of his life, he began his trek to the dark side in search of the man who killed his father probably rationalizing that that murder is what ultimately caused all the grief his life.

I believe the meeting in Jameson’s office was when WoFat began to put two and two together. John was investigating the Yakuza at the time. Maybe Jamison was orchestrating the meeting to introduce WoFat as a respectable businessman with ties to Japan and China to throw John off track. You know…that old “keep your enemies closer” thing. WoFat is introduced to John McGarrett and something may have clicked. But it was just a friendly meeting ending with smiling and handshakes as they stood to leave.

 

Then John mentioned Shelburne and that’s when I believe the other shoe dropped and WoFat did indeed put two and two together. THIS man knew about Shelburn….knew about the man who killed his father. AND his name was McGarrett which means he’s also the man who took his mother. I think WoFat truly became unhinged at that moment and decided to take his revenge on Doris’s family. He used the Hesse brothers ongoing battle with Steve and Victor as his hired killer to wreak retribution on the family who had the love he should have had all his life from his mother.

• Who was after Doris in 1992?

Why did Doris feel she had to take such drastic measures to protect her family in 1992? According to the WoFat timeline, in 1992 he would have been around 22 years old. Seems rather young to wield that much power. And if we go on the theory that WoFat made the McGarrett family connection in Jameson’s office sometime around 2010 it had to be someone else who was after Doris in 1992. Could it have been Papa Fat?

If Papa Fat IS alive and free out there somewhere he’s never shown any interest in his son. But what if, all this time, while WoFat thought his father was dead, his father thought the same about him? That he died with his mother in the explosion and that’s why he never tried to find him. And that’s why Doris thought he was coming after her…. because she killed his wife AND his son!

Could be WoFat and his father have different names then they did way back when.  WoFat is very well-known in his circles and if his father was also in similar circles there is no way he wouldn’t have heard of his son and vice versa. His father hasn’t laid eyes on him since he was a newborn so he’d hardly recognize him. But what if WoFat is not his real name but a name he fashioned for himself or one the agency he worked for years ago gave him? We keep calling his father Papa Fat but it’s very possible he has an entirely different name than his son.

So….even though we have the new information about Doris’s relationship to WoFat that doesn’t mean this story is over. It seems inevitable that at some point Steve and WoFat’s father will meet. If it’s true that Doris faked her death because of this man, it’s a safe bet that the meeting between him and Steve will not be a pleasant one. How will he feel about the man who killed the son he never got to meet and know?

And how will Doris react when she finds out that her biological son killed her adopted son. How will she feel when she finds out that her adopted son once again kidnapped and tortured her biological son over information only she possibly has?  WoFat had help escaping from that Super Max in Colorado.  Was it Doris who helped him?  Will she ever come back so she and Steve can hash this all out face to face?

So there it is.  I’m sure there are plenty of holes in my theories and speculations but even so it seems there are plenty of questions still out there with regard to the McGarrett family saga. I, for one, look forward to finding out all there is to know about it.  So here’s to a great story and 100 great episodes.  I think there is enough story possibilities out there for 100 more.  One can only hope!