Photo Credit:  CBS

Hi gang!  Well, here it is.  My final review of Season 9 of Hawaii Five-0. I hope this is somewhat coherent, and if not, I apologize in advance.  I’m kind of writing it in pieces in between hours spent on the beach and enjoying my vacation.  But, I couldn’t let the season end and not finish out my commitment to review it all.

Of course, nothing I’ll say here will be anything new.  It’s been several days since the finale aired and I know, from perusing Twitter and some of the other reviews, that conversations about everything that happened, or appeared to happen, everything that people liked and didn’t like, have been going on round the clock.  Hopefully you’re not all too bored with it all by now and will put up with one more, mostly unnecessary review. 🤣🤣

There is no need, of course, for me to summarize the many things that happened in the finale.  We all saw it, so no need to list what we’ve all already seen.  So, here are just a few personal observations.

Steve and Frank:  This scene was absolutely fantastic.  I loved the banter between the two of them and hearing about Frank’s latest business venture.  He’s such a great character and it’s always wonderful when he stops by for a visit.

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

I was a bit surprised Joe didn’t want to be buried under his favorite tree on the ranch but I can certainly understand the wish to be taken back to the most beautiful place he’d ever been as well.  And who better to take him there than his old friend Frank Bama.  It was wonderful to see he and Steve reminiscing and raising a glass (ok.. a can) to their mutual friend.  It was very touching and a very fitting farewell to Joe.

Adam and Tamiko:  I’m happy Adam is moving on.  It’s about time for him to try to go on with his life after Kono left him.  Adam has always been a good guy and what happened between him and Kono was no fault of his.  It’s nice to see him begin to try to find some happiness.

Is he going to try to find that happiness with Tamiko?  It does make sense.  They are not strangers who only just met.  They already have history and would probably already be married if their fathers had had their way years ago.  They are obviously comfortable with each other and already have a foundation of friendship established.

Another thing they have going for them, is that Tamiko is just as disenchanted with the Yakuza life as Adam was when he was still involved with it. She wants to escape it as much as he did. If (and that’s a huge if) they are left alone, they could make a good life together without Yakuza connections. If the Yakuza will allow that to happen. I mean, her father was willing to let her go for her FBI fiance but he may see a relationship with Adam as a way to both keep Tamiko in his life and bring Adam back to the “family” business. We’ll have to see where that goes but I’d really hate to see Adam even remotely contemplating such a thing.

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

Danny and Rachel:    

Now on to other business…….

I know there is that certain segment who are going to be losing their minds over that scene between Steve and Danny.  But let me lay it out this way.

Many years ago, I had a best friend who was really more like my sister.  When I needed advice on something, I always knew that she’d tell me the truth, even when it was a hard truth I wasn’t ready to hear.  She knew I’d do the same for her.  There were times when one of us, grappling with a decision, would put off telling the other about it because we knew what the reaction would probably be and weren’t prepared to have to listen to it, even when we knew, deep down, it was right.

So, here’s Danny, who I’m sure already knows that pursuing this relationship, for a possibly tragic third time, is probably not the brightest idea.  Kind of like me on vacation this week.  Yeah, I know I shouldn’t be blowing my diet with all this junk food but I’m gonna do it anyway.  I’m not about to turn to my husband and say, “Do you think I should eat this second bowl of ice cream?”, because I don’t want to hear him say no.

So Danny doesn’t tell Steve about his week away with Rachel.  Tells him he went back to Jersey to visit the family.  Because he’s not ready for the possibility of Steve asking some very hard questions that Danny is not ready to answer.  Is probably not even capable of answering because, quite frankly, Danny himself doesn’t know what the hell he is doing.

Steve knows Danny better than anyone.  When Danny wouldn’t tell Steve who was on the phone earlier in the episode, Steve already knew it was Rachel.  Steve has seen the migration of those two toward each other for months.  It was more than painfully obvious after Gracie’s injury.  And again when Rachel and Charlie took refuge at Danny’s during the hurricane.  It’s hardly a bold face lie when you don’t tell someone something they basically already know.

So the “Oh my God… Danny lied to Steve… bring out the gallows” crowd can bellow all they want.  It is not the same thing.  I feel bad for people who are too narrow minded, too obsessed with their untenable ship, to be able to comprehend the difference between a “white lie” and hurtful lying.

When you tell the man you’ve been in a relationship with for over ten years, who you’ve been practically living with for two years, that you love him, then turn around and inform him that you’ve found a life you enjoy better without him…. that’s deliberately hurtful.

When, after having zero contact for two years, you show up unexpectedly and pretend to try to pick up where you left off, moving back into his house and telling him you intend to stay for as long as he wants you to stay only to turn around and leave again, with a cockamamie lie about earthquake victims….. that’s deliberately hurtful.

When you repeatedly try, by any means possible, to take a man’s little girl away from him… that’s deliberately hurtful.

When you tell a man that the child you are carrying is not his only to be forced to tell the truth years later, depriving him of those first precious years…. that’s deliberately hurtful.

When a wife asks her husband, “do these pants make me look fat” and he says, “of course not”, it’s not hurtful.  Idiotic… but not hurtful.

Danny not being able to face the possibility of Steve’s negative reaction to he and Rachel’s week together, is also not hurtful.  He was absolutely beside himself wanting to tell Steve about it.  He was trying to tell him at the very beginning of the episode while struggling to keep up with Steve’s “angry walking”.  He literally leaped out of his chair to follow Steve around to his office so he could tell him.  Unlike the other two who have to literally be forced by circumstances to finally reveal the truth, Danny just couldn’t keep up the secret.

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

So Danny told a “white lie”.  So what?  Did it hurt anyone?  Did it make Steve question all the years of friendship or make him come to a realization that it never should have happened?  Of course not.  Steve’s smirk said it all. They are best friends.  They are brothers.  They know each other better than anyone else.  They are rock solid.

Junior and Natano:  How can your heart not go out to Junior?  Already agonizing over his decision not to fight the parole of the man who killed his sister, he goes into an almost panic when his mom calls him and says she can’t find Natano and that he took his gun.  Junior’s anxiety over what Natano might do to himself was palpable.  Beulah’s performance was fantastic.

I’m sure we all pretty much knew where Natano was headed.  It’s only natural that he’d find out where the guy lived and he intended to make him pay for what he’d done to Maya.  Thank God he didn’t have the nerve to go through with it.

But it was a sure bet that his newly rebuilt relationship with Junior was going to take a hit and what a hit it was.  I guess, considering Natano’s mental state ever since we first met him that his reaction would go to the extreme but to completely disown Junior?  That was devastating.

It’s also not surprising that Junior would seek out Tani after such a horrendous blow.  I’m glad she was there for him.  Their friendship has really become a wonderful anchor for them both.  Yeah… it’s moving in a more serious direction but right now, I think she’s just a very sturdy shoulder for him to lean on and damn… does he need it!

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

Aaron Wright:  I’m not going to go into everything he pulled in this episode but I will say, that I’m glad he wasn’t killed at the end of it.  Ok… he’s no WoFat (no one is ever going to be that awesome again!) and he’s not even a Gabriel Weincroft but…. damn… he is one nasty piece of work, isn’t he?  And I’m kind of tired of losing bad guys who have the potential to bring grief to our team for longer than one or two episodes.  So, I was glad they hauled his ass away instead of killing him off.

Photo Credit:  CBS

The Cliffhanger:  From spoilers and interviews we knew there was going to be a cliffhanger.  We also knew the cliffhanger was going to involve something happening to a beloved team member and leave us with a question as to whether that team member would be returning for Season 10.

The major speculation among many fans was that it would involve Danny.  Those worried that, because of Scott’s work schedule, he might want to leave the show.  Those hoping that, because of Scott’s work schedule, he might want to leave the show.  I’m so thankful that both camps were wrong and the cliffhanger had nothing to do with Danny.

It’s so sad that both attempts at redemption went so terribly wrong in this episode.  Junior did the right thing with regard to Maya’s killer.  He followed his heart and did what he thought Maya would want and opted for forgiveness over vengeance, costing him the relationship with his father he tried so desperately to rebuild.

And Steve thought he was doing the right thing by allowing Omar Hassan’s wife, Azra and her young son to come into HQ to apologize for her husband’s involvement in the deaths of Steve’s SEAL team and Joe White.  Steve is such a good guy.  He’s shown it so many times, in so many ways, over the years.  Not killing Omar when he had the chance, trying to stop the cycle of violence before it stained another generation through Omar’s son, showed what a wonderful heart Steve has.

But just like with Junior earlier, doing the right thing had horrible consequences.  No matter what the outcome of the cliffhanger, it’s something Steve is going to carry with himself for a long time.

Photo Credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and IG

Who got shot?:  Ahhhhhh, now that’s the question, isn’t it?  Azra pushed her son out of the way, as she grabbed the 3D generated plastic gun from his backpack.  It seems highly unlikely he could have gotten in the way and been shot.  We know it wasn’t Danny because not only was he standing behind Azra when she fired the shot, we can hear his “Oh my God” as the screen goes black.

Lou and Jerry ushered Azra into the bullpen when she arrived but Lou was off camera when the shot was fired.  It’s possible he could have been hit but not probable.  There is a promo picture of Lou with gun in hand which appears to be his reaction after the shot was fired.  It’s more than likely not Lou.

So that leaves the two people who were in the direct line of fire.  Steve and Jerry.  Could it be Steve?  Steve, who’s been through so much, has been hurt so many times, who’s been the center of finales before, isn’t it about time they gave the guy a break?  There have been eight finales.  Steve’s been injured, hurt or in trouble in five of them.

Season 1: Arrested for the murder of Governor Jamison.

Season 2:  Confronted with his “dead” mother.

Season 3:  Set up (by WoFat) to face assassins sent to kill WoFat

Season 6:  Plane crash and new liver.

Season 7:  Radiation poisoning.

So, yeah… maybe Steve should get a pass on this one.

A week or so before the finale aired, I was having a conversation with a couple of twitter friends and I proposed the idea that the cliff hanger could possible revolve around Jerry only because TPTB have been utilizing him so much more in recent episodes. In promo shots leading up to the end of the season (in a scene we never actually got in an episode) they have him at a shooting range with Tani, so it looks like they’re moving toward actually giving him a gun. He landed that wicked right cross on Wright in 9.24.  He’s been front and center and pretty awesome on a lot of cases and has gone out with the team on raids more often.  It just seems like they’ve been focusing on him a lot lately, whenever he’s in an episode. It was just a feeling, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were kind of building him up so that if something happened to him, it would be more of a shock.

Honestly, I really want to be wrong about that.  I don’t want anything to happen to Jerry. I don’t want him hurt and I definitely don’t want him dead (God forbid!).  So let’s hope that Azra is a horrible marksman and that shot hit absolutely nothing.  Anticlimactic?  Sure.  But I’d rather have that then to lose a beloved team member.

Well, that’s it gang.  Another fantastic season of our fantastic show.  It’s been such fun and I thank you all for sticking with me throughout all these long months.  Now onto Season 10.  I have no doubt it will be another fantastic year.

So, until we meet again…. Aloha.  Malama Pono

Not a lot of time for screen caps this week.  Only a couple are mine.  A huge thank you, once again, to Lisa (@alohaspaceman) on Twitter and IG.  I don’t know what I’d ever do without her talent to steal from! Lisa is the best.  Nothing left to do now but…..

Mahalo Lisa!  😘😘😘