Courtesy of Belle Anderson ‏@SurfBelle2

I have to admit, the title of this episode had me worried.  Having spent more years watching TV and especially police procedurals than I care to admit, the cost of freedom many times ends up being the cost of life.  Add to that, a quick check of the CBS Press releases for the last four episodes of the season showed Ian Anthony Dale nowhere in sight.  So yeah, I was extremely worried this might be the end of Adam and I really hated that thought.

You see, I really like Adam. I have liked him from the very start.  I never saw Adam as a criminal trying to turn a new leaf and I never understood when people, fans and characters in the show alike, would say things like “Adam has changed” or “Adam is trying to change”.  Because I never saw Adam as needing to change.  He was always a good guy.  His father went to great lengths to keep him out of the family business. When Hiro died and Adam tried to take over, he totally sucked at it.  It was never in him to be a criminal because Adam has always been a good man.

Take those two goons who were sent out to kill him.  Adam killed them to save himself but it wasn’t 100% self-defense.  He killed the second man when he was down and unarmed.  But it was in the middle of nowhere, with no witnesses.  Adam could have easily gotten rid of the gun so it would never be found, and no one would have been the wiser.  They were Shioma’s men.  HPD probably would have chalked it up as “business related” and that would have been the end of it as far as Adam was concerned.  But Adam, couldn’t let it go.  He knew he murdered that second man.  He couldn’t live with that and turned himself in.  Because Adam is a good man.

And then there’s Kono.  There are those who might say it was the love of a good woman who turned him around.  But since I never felt he needed to be “turned around”, I’ll say Kono touched what was already good within him and brought it to the fore even more.  Without her, Adam probably would have continued to try to run Hiro’s business and continued to suck at it until a rival stepped in and murdered the job away from him.  Kono brought out what was already there and gave Adam the strength he needed to tap into his good soul and try to legitimize the business and to ultimately leave it.

I have said numerous times that I do not consider myself a show shipper.  Oh yes, pretty much everyone knows I ship McDanno wholeheartedly in Fan Fiction but on the show, I prefer the personal relationships of the team and their significant others remain back burner.  Like the paint color chosen for a room, it should complement the furnishings, not overwhelm them.  Then there is Kono and Adam.

I can already hear the word “hypocrite” being slung at me from certain segments but I don’t consider the Kono and Adam relationship to be shipping.  To me the personal relationships, like the paint color on the wall, is something that compliments a main story.  But for Kono and Adam, their relationship is the main story.  I actually wish that weren’t the case. I wish Kono had her own work related story that could showcase her talents but that’s just not the case.  Kono’s story revolves around Adam and has for several years now.  Without Adam, Kono has no story.  I don’t necessarily like that she has no story of her own, but it is what it is.

Their love affair has been fraught with so much turmoil and they have fought so hard to be together only to be ripped apart time and time again. I can’t help but root for them to finally find happiness.  So this episode, the cost of freedom, had me scared to death that fate would tear them apart once again, this time permanently.  Thank goodness all my worry was for naught.

Some observations, in no particular order:

•  I really enjoyed this episode a lot and one of the main reasons was because it was exactly the kind of episode I love. One crime, one story, and the entire team working together to solve it. This will always be my favorite type of episode because it showcases everyone and the way they all seamlessly work together.

• Damn, so much of this episode was downright gruesome. Starting right off with that horrendous bus explosion and all the dead, burned and dismembered bodies strewn all over the road.  That was truly horrifying. Kudos to Jeff Cadiente and his crew and to the makeup department.  They went over and above for this episode for sure.

• I thought the characters chosen to make up the six men who escaped was inspired. I enjoyed how they added two known, previously arrested by Five-0, inmates to the mix.  It always feels good when things from past episodes are added to current ones. It makes me feel more connected to an episode when I recognize things from the past.  We’ve seen ex-defense attorney turned murderer Gerald Burns three times previously.  The first time, famously, when Kono kindly helped him with the spelling of her name in Season 1, then very briefly as the attorney for Dr. Olivia Victor in Season 3 and finally when he was arrested and sent to Halawa for the murder of his wife and her lover in Season 4.

• This is also the third time we’ve seen arsonist Jason Duclair after his arrest in Season 5 and his recapture at the beginning of this current season. But then, he wasn’t really recaptured was he?  He allowed himself to be taken back to Halawa because he felt, at the time, it was the only way to stop himself from committing more arson and more killing.  It was good to see that ever so small spark of humanity raise its head again in this episode when he took out one of the guys trying to kill Adam even if he reverted back to his firebug ways to do it.

• It’s kind of funny but from the first time I saw the sneak peek online for this episode showing the evidence files for the six escapees that song from Sesame Street kept going through my head. Murderers, rapist, cannibal, arsonist and “one count of obstruction of justice”.  One of these things is not like the others…….

• And speaking of the others…well, one other… that Garavito guy, the cannibal. Oh my God, we’ve had some terrible people on this show in the past but this guy was seriously creepy.  Just his facial expressions made my skin crawl. What a satisfying moment it was when Steve and Danny pumped that monster full of bullets!

• I really loved how Adam used those beads to leave a trail for Five-0 to follow in the hope they would find him. And I especially loved how he gave the last one to Kono.  I’m willing to bet the next time we see Kono’s necklace that bead will be on that chain, right there, alongside Adam’s wedding ring.

• I’d like to talk about Danny here for a minute. You know, there are people who are always complaining that the writers don’t let Danny show his abilities as a cop anymore, that he’s been reduced to being just background these days.  And I was a bit annoyed with him, at first, for his pessimistic attitude toward Adam but then, the more I thought about it (funny the things that go through your mind when you’re cleaning out closets and drawers) I had a change of heart.

What he really was doing, was voicing the other side of the equation which, when you think about it, is what a good cop should do.  It’s foolish to go blindly ahead with only one way of thinking without taking into account that other ways are a possibility.  Someone needed to voice the unlikely possibility, but a possibility none the less, that Adam may have indeed sided with Gabriel.  Even if Danny didn’t truly believe it, even if he knew Steve wouldn’t agree with it, it needed to be said.  Hell, even Kono was having her doubts about whether Adam was on the up and up so I can’t be angry at Danny just because he was the one to say it out loud.  However, I do take exception to Danny repeating something he said way back in Season 2 to Captain Fryer.  “Once a criminal, always a criminal” because, sorry Danny but, Adam has never been a criminal.

Oh, and one more thing about Danny.  When everyone was ready to jump to the conclusion that it was Gabriel who was out to kill Adam, only Danny was logical enough to point out that it couldn’t be Gabriel because the last time they had seen him he was doing a header out of a window and landing on a car.  He’s half dead and has no money, there is no way he’s putting out a hit on anyone now.  So, Danny was acting like the good detective he is.

• I did miss Chin being out in the field with the rest of the team though but I understand someone had to stay behind to do the office/computer work on the case. I liked the way Jerry was utilized in this episode and he always works so well with Chin.  Thanks to their work we have a new villain to look forward to for Season 7 maybe.  Michelle Shioma, daughter of Goro Shioma, wants retribution for the murder of her father.  She goes after Adam because she thinks he’s in league with Gabriel, the man who murdered her father.

I think this formidable lady is going to play a big part in 6.24.  The synopsis for that episode says Five-0 has to protect Gabriel and try to escape a building when gunmen storm the building to get to him and anyone protecting him.  I’m sure Michelle has placed Five-0 on her enemy’s list after they stopped her in this episode.  And how awesome would it be to have a new villain for Season 7 who’s a woman?  I could totally get behind that.

• But, yeah, I did miss Chin out in the field with the team and I thought that Kono being out there was a blatant conflict of interest but if Kono had stayed behind in HQ instead of Chin we wouldn’t have gotten that great reunion between Kono and Adam.

• There was so much heart in this episode. Even though Chin can be a bit scary when anyone threatens his team, his friends and especially Kono, it was really sweet to hear him say that Adam being married to Kono (like a sister to him) made him Ohana too and that made everything very personal.

• Another sweet moment, in the heat of the explosion no less, was when Duke informed the team about the six escapees. He looked almost sad when, after taking a beat, he had to tell Kono that Adam was one of the runners.

• Another really great moment was when Grover saw that Kono’s faith in Adam was perhaps slipping a bit. He gave her a reassuring smile and a supportive shoulder asking if she needed “help dealing with the weight of the world on your shoulders, Atlas”.  It was a moment full of friendship and solidarity.  It was perfect.  I really enjoy the camaraderie between these two a lot.

• And then there is Nahale. There was enough heart in the scenes with Nahale to fuel an entire episode.  First, there was Steve racing to Nahale’s side when Kamekono made him text Steve and say there was an emergency.  That it turned out to be nothing but a flat tire is beside the point.  Steve was hell bent to get to Nahale as quickly as he could.

We’ve all been wondering what’s been going on with Nahale.  We knew his father was in prison but we haven’t heard where Nahale has been staying or what he’s been doing.  Well, we still don’t know where he’s been living but we do know he’s still working for Kamekona and he hasn’t been in contact with his father.

To find out that his father was one of the inmates killed in the bus explosion was kind of a relief.  That horrible man will never be able to hurt Nahale again.  But he was still his father and even if he was a horrible human being, he was all Nahale had.

But that’s not taking into account that Nahale still has Steve and paternal Steve is nothing short of simply awesome.  The man has a heart as huge as the Pacific Ocean and the bond he and Nahale have is truly heartwarming.

“I got no more family left.” “Yeah you do, pal.”  No one knows better than Steve what Nahale is feeling.  Steve lost his family too and found himself a new one.  I know we’re going to see Nahale again before the end of the season.  I sure hope Steve’s assurance that Nahale does indeed have “family” is played out in more than words in Season 7.  My hope is that Steve formally fosters Nahale and moves him into Casa McG so we can see more of this wonderfully warm relationship.

So there we have it. Another great episode.  Only four more to go to the end of the season.  I have to admit, I’m stuck in that black hole between dying to find out what’s going to happen and not wanting the season to end.  Knowing that Season 7 is already a guarantee makes it easier to handle the season coming to an end, but only marginally easier.  I still hate to see it coming to an end.

Have a wonderful week my friends.  Aloha. Malamo Pono

All screen caps are mine this week except where noted.