Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

Television.  We all see it differently.  We all see it from our different points of view.  Some watch it only to keep up with current events.  Others use it to relive their youth by tuning into old favorites.  Some go for comedy while others are strictly lovers of drama.  Whatever your personal tastes, TV is a smorgasbord of choice.  Yet, most people tend to gravitate to what they are the most comfortable with.  It’s only natural.

But sometimes, our favorites throw us a curveball.  It’s happened numerous times over the decades, usually when a situation comedy produces an episode with a much more dramatic story.  Or a hard-core drama decides to go with a more lighthearted, comical theme.  Usually, looking back on the long history of a series, those breakout episodes are usually some of the most memorable.

Television also has a long history of tackling social issues.  In my more than fifty years of watching TV, I can remember many instances where TV presented topics which were controversial, extremely hard to swallow and some that were down right terrifying.  Not everyone liked it, many were extremely critical and vocal, even in the days before social media, in their displeasure of what was shown.  But they were all shown none-the-less and pretty much all made a huge impact on how people viewed those issues from that point forward.

I found a great article, published by Variety back in 2017 that perfectly details the great importance TV has in highlighting social issues.  If you care to take a look, you can find it here:

https://variety.com/2017/tv/features/tv-social-issues-history-the-defenders-east-side-west-side-1202007945/

Of course, I’m not going to try and say that this episode of H50 is up there with the likes of “Friendly Fire”, “The Day After”, “The Burning Bed”, (the list goes on and on)  but this story, written by Paul Grellong, went a long way in highlighting some extremely important issues which many people in our country deal with every day, along with the threat we all face from those who seek to reshape our country into what they feel it should be.

You only need to look at the headlines to see how relevant this episode was.  The horrific attack on Empire star Jussie Smollett this past week shows the crushing reality of what it’s like to be a person of color or a person in the LGBT community in some parts of the country.  Being both can be positively lethal.

***** UPDATE 2/21/2019*****  I felt I needed to post this update due to the news coming from the Chicago Police Department that Jussie Smollett paid two brothers to stage the attack on him and that he’s been charged as a consequence.  Also, according to the police, Smollett himself wrote the racist letter that was sent to the “Empire” set and paid for the staged attack because he was “dissatisfied with his salary.”

This is a horrible development.  There is no way in hell to justify anyone…anyone… doing something like this for any reason.  He deserves any and all retribution that befalls him.  But the worse part of this is that, in the future, when true crimes are committed based on race, creed or sexual orientation, those true victims may be measured by the Smollett yardstick.  Are they telling the truth or are they after some other personal or political agenda?

That’s the true tragedy here.  Smollett has hurt the cause against racism and homophobia for his own selfish purposes.  I hope they throw the book at him.  And as for his motive being he was “dissatisfied with his salary”… well… I would hope that now, that point is mute!  ***** UPDATE 2/21/2019*****

But you don’t need to be a person of color or gay to be at risk these days.  You can be in a movie theater, a supermarket, a school, a church, it doesn’t even matter anymore, and some intolerant domestic terrorist can decide his narrow minded, racist agenda is more important than your life or the lives of your children.  Yes, I said terrorist.  Because it doesn’t matter if it’s a bomb or an assault rifle, it is a weapon of terror, a means of spreading terror.

How many innocent lives have been lost to the violence of hate?  I looked it up.  So far, in the month of January 2019 alone, there have been twenty-seven mass shootings.  Twenty-seven in thirty-one days!  This episode was not about a writer or an executive producer pushing a personal agenda.  It was a statement of fact, a hard reality check of important issues.  Issues people deal with every day in the real world. Issues that need to be explored and brought into the light.

We’re becoming anesthetized with the frequency of these events in the news.  Sometimes, we need to have it shown out of the context of that news.  We need to see it permeate something like our favorite TV show.  The fact that the episode has stirred up so many reactions, both positive and, unfortunately, negative, shows the impact it had on people’s consciousness.  It makes you think.

Paul Grellong wrote a beautiful episode that was heartbreaking, intense and exciting and ended in the most touching of ways.  It was extremely well done.  I have nothing but respect for the way this episode was handled by everyone involved in the making of it.

June 8, 1963…. President John F. Kennedy landed at Honolulu Airport along with the mayors of several U.S. cities to discuss equal rights for black Americans.  On the tarmac, during his arrival speech, he spoke of Hawaii.  “This island represents all that we are and all that we hope to be.”  His hope that Hawaii, with her culturally diverse population, made up of many different ethnic groups, could serve as a bellwether for the rest of the country.  This speech was highlighted at the end of Episode 7.09 (Elua Lā Ma Nowemapa – Two Days in November) if you remember.

Junior’s line that the last place he thought he’d see a Neo-Nazi would be Hawaii and Jerry’s response that, thanks to the internet, they’re everywhere now, shows just how far we have not come since 1963.

This episode was nerve rattling from the start.  The murder of Flippa’s friend and band mate Luka Palakiko hit very close to home.  Crimes which closely touch the Ohana are always the hardest to bear and watching Flippa’s emotional reaction to the death as well as Steve’s compassion for Flippa’s loss was heartbreaking.  Of course, having a crime hit so close to his family always makes the already committed McGarrett even more resolved to bring justice.

This episode was extremely fast paced.  Usually, that’s because they’re trying to stuff a ton of story into a short period of time especially when it’s an episode with more than one story.  That was not the case here, though.  This episode centered around only one story, always my favorite type of episode.  The fast pace here wasn’t one of time management, it was one of intensity.

Peter Weller’s direction was magnificent.  Scenes not only rapidly jumped from one to the next, the characters themselves were extremely on edge throughout.  Everyone delivered their lines on what seemed like double speed.  Everyone moved around the scenes quickly and with urgency.  You could feel the tension leaping off the screen.  It was unnerving.  When you can sit on your sofa in the safety of your own home and literally feel the anxiety emanating from the screen, you know every single actor is playing it perfectly.

And they all did.  Steve’s compassion and resolve with Flippa.  The anger from Lou and Tani when they inform Steve, they think Luka was having an inappropriate relationship with 15-year-old Annie Kehr.  The relief when they find out that Luka was helping Annie as a LGBT counsellor quickly transitioning over to disgust at her parents who want to send her way for “conversion therapy” because they feel she has her “wires crossed”.  “Conversion therapy” has been outlawed in Hawaii (and in many other states and municipalities around the country) and Steve and Lou have no intention of letting these parents essentially kidnap their daughter and subject her to such cruelty.

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

Everything ratchets up when it’s discovered that Luka wasn’t murdered for only his van, but because he was a person of color, an innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a sick terroristic plot to set off bombs in Honolulu and in 4 other U.S. cities to promote a Neo-Nazi decree.  “Racism, sexism and anti-Semitism.  Looks like the hate trifecta”.  Everyone is revolted by what they are seeing but Lou furiously reacts to the disgusting manifesto displayed on the overhead screen.  Chi’s understated portrayal of that fury, in his silently clenched fist and Steve’s recognition of it was exceptionally played.

I do want to mention Jerry here for a moment.  I remember being so doubtful about the logic of adding Jerry to the team at the beginning.  I was quite content for him to remain a “consultant” in his basement office.  I was even more skeptical when they began to let him take part out in the field.  I have to say, I love it when I’m wrong.  Jerry has really come into his own.  He’s taken the assurance he’s gotten from Steve and the team and run with it.

He’s no longer the loner living in his mother’s basement, leery of telephones and still using his manual typewriter.  He was awesome in this episode from beginning to end.  I just wish he didn’t seem to get hurt every time he ventures out of the office. He’s been injured a couple of times from crashing vans to take out perps, he broke his leg the last time, and now burns on his hands.  All in all, Jerry has become an indispensable asset to the team in every way possible.  I just hope they don’t give him a gun anytime soon.

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

I really love that this was a one-story episode because it gives the writer the opportunity to really explore the story and all the characters emotions and reactions within the story when everyone has a hand in the investigation.  But my very favorite part was the teaming up of Steve and Lou as they headed over to Halawa to interrogate Roger Barton, the former cell mate of Conner Russell, identified as the potential bomber.  Of course, everyone knows my most favorite duo on this show is Steve and Danny but, on the occasion when Danny isn’t there, there is none better than Lou to team up with Steve.

The scenes between Steve, Lou and Barton were electrifying at the least and, at the most, more than deeply disturbing.  Listening to Barton not only spew his hateful beliefs but berating Steve for being “a disappointment” for not aligning himself to “his people” and having the detestable audacity to actually call Lou a “dog” and a savage to his face….. Oh my God, I wanted them both to rip that son of a bitch limb from limb!

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

“Let’s get one thing straight, all right?  You are not my people.  My grandfather… he died defending this country from pricks just like you.” God bless you, Steve McGarrett.

My heart literally stopped when I saw Russell pull that bomb laden van into a park in Waikiki and park it right beside a picnic table full of young people.  Of course, I knew Five-0 would get there in time but just the thought that anyone, even in a fictional TV show, could willingly do such a monstrous thing, well, I guess I just wasn’t born with the bone in my head that makes it possible to understand such evil.  I was more than thrilled it was Lou who blew the bastard away!

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

The theme of intolerance and the personal gut reactions to it ran through this entire episode and no one projected that more than Lou.  He was on the edge the entire time.  From the moment Steve noticed Lou’s balled fist in HQ, he knew there was more going on with his friend beside just the case.  When he tells Steve about the encounter he had with a couple of rednecks many years ago, you could literally see it all happening, his story was so powerful.  It’s a wonder he was able to control himself at all, especially with Barton.  I do wish they hadn’t written a real place into the script, however.  It’s my only complaint with this episode.  While I’m sure Elkhart, Illinois has its share of racists, I’m positive they have many good decent people there as well.  And, as this episode made abundantly clear, racism, hate and intolerance can happen anywhere.  I wish they would have made up a fictitious town to set Lou’s story in.

The ending of this episode was extremely touching.  Everyone gathers to remember their friend Luka as Flippa and the band perform.  I’d never heard the song “Great Hawaiian Man” before but it was beautifully performed (Shawn Garrett is an amazing singer) and it was a fantastic choice for this celebration of Luka’s life.

Annie taking the stage and asking the crowd to hold up their cellphone flashlights to say “thank you and we love you” to Luka was a beautiful moment.  As the camera pans back, we see the scope of the crowd, the number of people who tuned up and the many different ages, races and lifestyles represented in the crowd, well, I hope you had the tissues handy because I didn’t, and it wasn’t pretty.

There may be all kinds of hateful people in this world, but we always have to remember there are many more good people out there.  We have to remember people like Annie’s parents, Russell and Barton are not the majority.  If we all shine that light on others in our daily lives, maybe someday, we can finally put an end to all that hate.

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

This was an episode which took a lot of guts and even more talent to pull off so incredibly well.  To the entire cast and crew, writer Paul Grellong, director Peter Weller and everyone else who brought this wonderful episode to us this week… thank you!

Well, that’s it my friends.  I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

Aloha.  Malama Pono

No time for screen caps this week.  All photos courtesy of CBS unless otherwise noted. Mahalo @alohaspaceman!