Dear Friends. I hope you don’t mind but this week’s review won’t be as detailed as usual. I had a small medical procedure on Friday and it seems anesthesia and I don’t get along very well and I never managed to make it all the way through the episode on Friday night. Saturday morning arrived and I realized I’d missed a large portion of what happened. Also, I spent pretty much all of Saturday out of the house with family obligations my dear husband got me tied into that I just couldn’t shake (and believe me… I tried!). Anyway, here it is, Sunday afternoon and I only just watched the entire episode for the first time. I’m still not feeling very well, so I’m just going to hit on some main points. Please feel free to discuss the episode any way you’d like in the comments section, as always.
This week’s episode was really just a filler episode; not related to any ongoing arcs but quite enjoyable in its own right. I especially liked how the title reflected the themes of both main stories. I mean, there isn’t much bigger game out there than Great White Sharks and Nazi’s, right? Ok… let’s get to it:
Grover the “Grill Sergeant”: This scene was really cute. I love Grover and Chi McBride is a delight in just about everything he does. I could totally relate to the feeling of frustration and annoyance when trying to have a conversation with your teenager while their face is plastered to their phone. I have also experienced the phenomenon of two teenagers having a texted conversation while they are sitting a foot apart. So, yeah, I got a real kick out of it. But having said that, I do think it went on a bit too long. It’s only purpose seemed to be having the photo of the dead “big game hunter” show up on Grace & Will’s phones.
Shrimp Strike at Kamekona’s: You guys know me. You know I absolutely love Kamekona but these calls to Five-0 for his personal “emergencies” are pretty ridiculous. I mean, Kame is a smart business man, an enterprising entrepreneur. This man is not stupid so it shouldn’t be difficult for him to comprehend that flat tires and peaceful picket lines are not things you need to bother Five-0 about, Ohana or not. If the plan was for Flippa to be given his own North Shore shrimp truck it could have been done without these silly scenes. Kame could have just decided that his love for his cousin and the good and loyal work he’s done for him was worthy of his own truck in Kame’s plan to expand. They could have had an Ohana gathering at the new truck at the end of an episode to announce Flippa’s “promotion” and that would have been that.
A Shark’s Tale: This was an interesting story that should have been expanded. If they’d used some of Lou’s pancake tutorial and about 90% of the shrimp truck picket line and added that time to this story, it would have been so much better. I liked the team combo of Danny, Kono and Lou working this case however. I love any combination of these guys so having them all together made this story fun. I especially liked how real life shark conservationist Ocean Ramsey, played the character Lily O’Neill. I give her credit, she’s got guts to go free diving with sharks. Those underwater scenes of her with the sharks were incredible.
A Bit more Hawaiian History: We’ve been getting a fair amount of stories this season with historical themes. Events which have taken place in Hawaii as well as Hawaiian history itself. The part Hawaii played in the JFK assignation. The history and current story of the Nation of Hawaii. This week, we learned about the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement, in the Kalaupapa National Historic Site on Molokai. It’s heartbreaking to think there was a time when people sent their family members away in fear of being exposed to what is now known as Hanson’s Disease. Even more heartbreaking is the emotional toll that ostracism from the world and their families took on the patients of Kalaupapa. So much so, that many chose to remain in the only home they had even after the quarantine was lifted. I found a very interesting article which discusses Kalaupapa, its history and what, if anything, will happen to the land once the last resident passes away. If you’re interested… here’s the link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/05/when-the-last-patient-dies/394163/
Justice Finally Served: Our main story centering around Leia Rozen and her quest to find the Nazi guard who had terrorized her grandfather Itzhak in Auschwitz. The same way it’s heartbreaking to think of those people sent into exile because of their disease, it’s equally as heartbreaking to think those who perpetuated the worst crimes against their fellow man could walk away and lead normal lives while leaving their tattered and traumatized victims shells of their former selves. Watching Bernie Kopell, as Itzhak Rozen, recalling the day Nazi guard Thomas Sauer forced him to choose who would die, his brother or his sister, was the most heart wrenching scene I’ve seen in a very long time. How can such evil exist in the heart of a man to do such a thing?
I also really enjoyed that Steve and Chin were in on the arrest when Sauer and his daughter Alana were found hiding in Arizona. As always, I allow for certain amount of literary license with regard to what would be normal procedure in real life and what they do on TV but I thought I’d look this one up. According to Attorney John McCurley’s article on Lawyers.com, “Police Jurisdiction: Where Can Officers Make Arrests?”, officers may make arrests “outside their jurisdiction when in “fresh pursuit” of a suspect who committed a crime within their territory”. Also, many states “allow an out-of-state officer to cross the state line to make an arrest ….. when the suspect being chased has committed a felony”. I think murder and war crimes fall into this category! Besides, I just loved hearing Steve arrest Sauer “under the laws of the Geneva Convention”. A very powerful moment.
http://criminal.lawyers.com/criminal-law-basics/jurisdiction-where-can-the-police-make-arrests.html
Eric and Bill Walker: There’s been a joke among some fans for years that Five-0 is a bit of a “Love Boat” where stars whose luster may have faded can find a place in an episode. I know there are those who probably hyperventilated with laughter hearing that Bernie Kopell was going to be in this episode since he was the ship’s doctor on the actual “Love Boat” TV show. Well, his powerful performance, while short, should have been enough to silence those snickers.
Then there is Max Gail as leprosy patient Bill Walker. Another star from an old TV show (Max played Detective Wojciehowicz in “Barney Miller” in the 1970’s) Max has been steadily working in TV and films for decades. Max was wonderful as Bill. He successfully conveyed the personal trauma of being left on the island by his parents when he was only eight years old and was almost childlike in his awe of police work and his devastation over Leia’s death and the true identity of Alana and her father.
And I really enjoyed the interaction between Bill and Eric. Just as you know how much I love Kamekona, you know how much I love Eric. He’s like so many guys I grew up knowing in Philly and Jersey; he’s a breath of fresh air for me. He acted like a perfectly normal human being when he was confronted with Bill and his misshapen hands. Politically correct…. absolutely not. … but understandable when confronted without warning… hell yeah! It was really nice to see Eric form a bond with Bill and come to the point where he didn’t see his hands any longer. I loved the handshake between them as they parted ways. Bill seemed genuinely touched by the gesture. I hope Eric is able to carry the maturity he found in this episode forward.
The Character of Hawaii: It’s been said from the very first episode of this show that Hawaii itself is a major character. It’s also the case that this is “Hawaii” Five-0 and not “Oahu” Five-0. We don’t get to leave Oahu very often but when we do I just love how we’re treated to aerial views of the different islands. I simply adored all the beautiful views from the chopper flight and of the island of Molokai. I know it used up a lot of screen time, but if we must have a filler episode, I don’t mind that some of that filler is the gorgeousness of Hawaii!
Well, there you have it my friends. I hope I did this episode justice. Have a wonderful week!
Aloha. Malama Pono
All screencaps are mine unless otherwise noted.
Hawaii Five-0 Kool-Aid 
You did great on difficult conditions Linda. No need to apologize. I will be brief, which is different for me though -:). First I need to watch the show again. I still did not get the shark crime resolution clearly. There were so many themes in this packed show. Not that it wasn’t really good TV, but my attention was compromised, and I really need to look at that again. Second, I thought the Love Boat actors were fantastic. They are accomplished actors to begin with. For people to confuse the fact that they did Love Boat so well gets it mixed up: professionals will do whatever they are assigned very well. I once saw an old black and white short movie starring Laurence Olivier, arguably the greatest film actor ever, doing a vacuum cleaner salesman comedy with an English housewife. He tried to show her how the vacuum would pick up dust, part of the gag was dropping a whole bag of black dust on her nice clean carpet. It was hilarious, and totally believable. He looked at his acting as a trade or craft, and he was constantly working to improve it so it fit whatever the STORY called for. That is true art, and these dudes are true artisans. I enjoyed seeing them. Finally, Hawaii is a character, and Molokai just blows one away with that scenery. So its a cool review Linda, save your strength for later in the season because we know its about to get hot and heavy.
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Thanks Dave and I agree with you. There is a stigma many people attach to the old Love Boat as a place where actors who couldn’t find work anywhere else landed. Like a “pity date”. While it was true that many of the actors on the Love Boat had seen better days, there were also many current (well, current for the 1970s & 1980s) actors made appearances for the fun of it. I never thought it was fair to categorize every actor who appeared on that show as a has been.
Now Bernie and Max have been working actors for going on 50 years. Check out the imdb pages for both of them. There is barely a year that goes by where they are not working. Has beens they are definitely NOT!
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Great review under the circumstances! The opening scenes with Lou were good,but as you say,a waste of time that could have been spent on the shark murder,aside from seeing the victim on his son’s cell phone. Both Bernie Kopell and Max Gail gave powerful performances and I hope they both get consideration for Outstanding Guest Actor when the Technical Emmys come around. Loved seeing the team split up to work different cases-sometimes,I think it helps to have them do that. I agree that Erik is staring to show some maturity. Look forward to the next episode.
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I agree Rhonda. Both actors gave powerful performances. Bernie nearly brought me to tears!
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This was a great episode and thank you for the great review. I really loved it all. My favorite part was Eric and Bill’s interaction too. I can see Uncle Danny coming out in him more and more. He comes off kind of uncaring but he’s got a big heart underneath it all. I hope you are feeling better next week, Linda. It sounds like it is going to be a great one.
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Thanks Mary. I have loved Eric from the first moment we first met him. I never saw him as uncaring…. more like clueless to how a civilized person should behave. I’m thrilled he is finally showing the maturity I know he has deep within. He couldn’t do his job as well has he does without intelligence. He just needs to hone his social skills a bit more. I think Bill helped him to move along that path.
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Can anyone tell me when the Blessing of Season 8 is being held
I would love to attend
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Hi Diana! Welcome to the blog! There has been no official announcement of a Season 8 as of yet, although, many of us expect we will get that happy news eventually. The blessing of a new season traditionally occurs on the first day of filming for a new season, which is usually around the 2nd week of July.
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Hi Linda – hope you’re feeling better. Thank you for another great link for follow-up reading about the islands. I too had to re-watch to fully appreciate all the little things. It was sort of a mix and match kind of episode – goofy and really serious. It reminded me of when they finally caught Wo -Fat…….on the tail end of what started out a real fluff story with the talk show host following them around. I wonder if there’s deleted Chin and Sarah scenes- otherwise I didn’t get the Lou sending pancake pics bit……and didn’t Steve and Danny arrive at Kami’s together? Strange how he took off and left him……just odd. Anyway I agree the guest actors were great, the ending very satisfying and once again the writers touched on important topics without beating us over the head. It was another enjoyable outing. Really looking forward to next week.
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Hi Carole! Yeah, I thought it was kinda weird for Steve to leave Danny behind with the bickering cousins at first too but then realized it was logistics dictated by story.
What I mean is, the story was written that Danny was going to work the shark case with Kono and Lou while Steve and Chin would go to Molokai. If Danny had gone with Steve to the MEs office, it would have been awkward to then have him peel off that case and join Kono and Lou.
It made more sense to peel Danny away from Steve at Kame’s so he could later join up with Kono and Lou rather then have him start off with Steve and Chin then abruptly “switch teams”. Does that make sense?
It kinda reminded me of the Victoria’s Secret episode back in season 3 where Steve left Danny behind with the stalker case against the models.
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Perhaps when Chin retold the story about making pancakes for Sara, some of the facts got changed and they not only tasted good (which would have been true) but also they were beautiful to behold (which is stretching the truth a little).
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This was a powerful Episode Linda and I enjoyed your masterful review
.The” Nazi ‘and “Shark” { HOW APPROPRIATE} stories. were brilliant and moving. Bernie Koppels performance made me cry and the fact that that sharks really are being mutilated and destroyed needed to be told.
I actually needed Grover’s pancakes by the time I finished the episode to make me feel better !!!!!
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That reminds me I hope YOU feel MUCH better soon.
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Thanks babe! Considering that it’s 7am on Monday morning and I’m sitting at my desk at work when I’d much rather be home in bed…. I am feeling much better today! ♥♥
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I don’t know why you think this wasn’t an adequate review — I think it was great! I had all the same reactions you did! Since I just finished watching the Super Bowl, I’m a little drained tonight. If I think of anything to add tomorrow, I will! Thanks for writing this, I know you had a rough weekend!
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I never saw the ending! I went to bed in the middle of the 3rd quarter and missed the big comeback. Oh well.. I honestly didn’t care who won so I’m not too fussed about it. I needed the sleep! LOL Lady Gaga was AWESOME!!!
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Feel better soon, Linda. Loved your review, as always. The episode was good and I love when Danny works with Kono, they’re so good together. Both stories worked for me, although I thought the shark one a little hurried. It was great to learn more about Hawaiian history, thanks for the link. Looking forward to next weeks episode, hopefully we get lots of bromance.
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It’s so funny how next weeks episode is all about the girls taking their guys away for Valentine’s day and we’re all looking forward to the BROMANCE! ROFLMAO
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I enjoyed this episode a lot. I am still awed by the beautiful scenery on the trip over to Molokai. Both stories were interesting and we learned a bit about Molokai’s history in the process, Interesting that we didn’t need it explained when Kono said that a shark was her family’s aumakua (a reference back to a scene in a Season 1 episode). Quite a change from the episode when Danny asked what an imu pit is, even though he should have known (as his HPD partner Meka was murdered in one). Just a great episode.
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I agree Ed. I remember when Danny asked that question. We were all like… Huh? You, of ALL people, should know what that is! Obviously who ever wrote that episode hadn’t gone back and watched every single episode from the very beginning, numerous times, like we do! LOL
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It was an interesting episode. Using Hawaiian history is always a winning episode for me and this was no exception. The other COTW was so so but the underwater shark footage was fantastic. While I like Kame & Co., it was a piece of fluff (if they follow through with it, this could make for another filler scene in the future showing the opening of a new shrimp truck!) and like the pancake scene could’ve been a lot shorter with the extra time given to the story on Molokai.
I know you like Eric, but writing Eric as a jerk all the time is annoying. And then he does a 360 making him even more annoying (geez even puppies grow up, could they spare us the growing pains and just make him an adult finally). There are certainly enough other characters on this show who supply the comic relief. Man, I really miss Charlie.
I always love when Steve and Chin work together and they didn’t disappoint. The casting of Max Gail and Bernie Kopell was spot on. Both were excellent. It was a sad episode. Living in isolation caused by the stigma of such a disease is hard enough and then to have your friends turn out to not be who/what you thought they were was heartbreaking. That saying is true, you can run, but you can’t hide. The daughter carried the sins of the father and both were found and served their, and in one case, long overdue, justice. The aerial shot of the Grand Canyon was just breathtaking (brought back beautiful memories of my trip there!).
Hope you’re feeling better Linda and thanks for the links, will definitely read them.
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Yeah… I really do love Eric but I have to agree with you… I miss Charlie as well. I always hoped he and Kono would hook up before Adam came on the scene. I mean, Kono WAS Charlies first kiss after all LOL ♥
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