Happy (almost) week before the holidays everyone! Well, holiday preparations are well under way.  So much so that the entire weekend got entirely away from me with shopping, decorating, cooking and a really fun Christmas Faire in our little town.  Sorry this review is so late.

Once again, this was a two-story episode but this week, both stories were really good.  No beating around the bush this week… let’s just get to it:

Adam:  I know I just said I thought this story was really good so let me clarify.  As of now, and I say that because I sincerely hope there is more to it than is apparent right now, the only thing that’s making this story worthwhile for me is the acting attached to it.  It’s no secret that Alex and Ian are fantastic actors.  The old saying that “an actor can elevate the material” certainly applies here.

Steve tried so hard to hold onto the faith he’s always had in Adam.  He was totally prepared to give him the chance to explain and clear up the question of how his watch ended up at a crime scene.  It was palpable how his emotions moved from one emotion to the next. His loyalty to Adam quickly gave way to an almost despair that Adam wasn’t giving him answers then to shock when Adam took off his badge and placed it, along with his gun, on Steve’s desk.   But when Adam turned and walked out of his office, Steve’s anger exploded.  And he has every right to be angry because he’s 100% correct.  He has been on Adam’s side from the very beginning.  From the moment he and Kono became a couple, Steve has always been in Adam’s corner.  Alex played this scene absolutely perfectly…. as always.

And as fantastic as Alex was, Ian was just as great.  Actually, Ian had very few lines, since most of Adam’s “dialog” was purely emotional reactions.  You could literally feel all his emotions as much as Steve’s.  The horror of seeing his watch in Steve’s hand.  The panic that there wasn’t any way he was going to be able to talk his way out of it.  The horrendous realization that he only had one option.  It was heartbreaking.

Photo credit:  Kurt Jones (@jonesydop) on Instagram

Photo credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and Instagram

But it wasn’t just Alex and Ian.  Dennis Chun was awesome in this scene too.  The look on Duke’s face from last week when he first brought that watch to Steve carried over into this episode as well.  Just like Alex and Ian, Dennis was able to make you literally feel what Duke was feeling.  Adam is Ohana to Duke too and he showed that by taking that watch to Steve and not just issuing an order for Adam’s arrest. He wanted to give him the chance to explain too.  The look on Duke’s face the entire time alternated between disappointment, disbelief and, like Steve, anger.  When Adam walked out of Steve’s office, Steve had to literally hold Duke back to stop him from going after him.  The three of them killed this scene.

Then there was Danny.  It was a cool role reversal between Steve and Danny with regard to Adam.  You would expect Steve to try to defend Adam and for Danny, who once said “once a criminal always a criminal” (or something to that effect) to be against him.  But Danny kept trying to understand what reasons there could be for Adam’s behavior.

I understand that because Danny was skeptical back then but over the years he not only came to trust Adam, he brought him into his Ohana.  Danny’s the one who pulled Adam out of his booze induced funk after his marriage broke up. It was Danny who brought him his Five-0 badge.  Charlie considers him an uncle, just like Steve and Lou.  Adam went to Danny’s house on Christmas Eve to make sure the chimney was clear for Santa.

It’s bad enough Danny needs to accept what Adam has done, but he also needs to come to terms with putting aside that original skepticism.  It’s like having to throw an “I told you so” at yourself.  It’s really too bad we didn’t get to see Danny confront Adam.  Hopefully we’ll get to see that in an episode to come.

Photo credits:  CBS

If all the actors keep bringing their A+ game, I might just be able to muddle through the silliness of this story because it just does not make sense. Adam’s throwing away everything he’s worked years for and all the friends he has for Tamiko.  I mean, I understand he loves her.  I’ll give them that.  They’ve known each other and been friends their entire lives.  If Hiro and Masuda could have had their way, these Yakuza children would have been wed ages ago.  It’s more of a foundation for a relationship than we ever got between him and Kono.  The first time we saw that Adam and Kono even knew each other existed they were in the shower.  At least with Tamiko we have some preexisting history and we’ve seen them together as friends before they ended up in the shower.

I guess the problem is it’s all happening way too fast.  I can buy Adam and Tamiko as a couple, but I can’t buy Adam walking away from his Ohana this radically.  All of a sudden, just because Masuda told him he couldn’t fight his heritage, he’s running toward a life he was never a part of in the first place?  And what about Tamiko?  She said she detested the life her father led and didn’t want anything to do with it.  Now, she’s ok with her fine, upstanding, lover leaving Five-0 to join the Yakuza life she hates?  Huh?

And Adam did have another option.  He could have just come clean to Steve and Duke.  He could have gone to Steve in the first place, when Tamiko was first taken and the “no cops or she dies” bull be damned.  It’s not like they haven’t ignored that warning a zillion times before.  No… I do not like this story one bit and all I can do is pray there is more to it that we’ll see as it progresses.  This absolutely does not make one bit of sense.

Daiyu Mei:  When we first heard there was going to be a WoFat connection mentioned in this episode it never occurred to me it could be a wife.  At first I thought maybe just someone who’d taken over WoFat’s “businesses”.  Then I saw the “old lady” beginning to peel off her disguise and thought maybe a daughter.  The sneak peek showed whoever she was, she’s not young enough to be his child.  Then I thought maybe a sister.  A wife never crossed my mind.

Of course, this is the second time in a very short period of time where we have a wife out for revenge, or whatever it is Daiyu Mei wants.  But this is very different than before.  It was quite obvious that Hassan’s wife didn’t think out her revenge very well, doing it right in HQ where there was no way she could get away with it.  This lady is chillingly thorough.  It’s obvious she’s been planning this for a very long time.

It seems logical that she probably has surveillance on Steve but it’s obvious he’s not the only one.  How did she know Junior would be at that particular gas station at that particular time if she wasn’t monitoring his movements?  She probably has eyes on them all.

She’s as meticulous and methodical as WoFat was.  And she’s just as ruthless.  She didn’t think twice about the innocent people on that tourist chopper.  She didn’t hesitate to mow down the weapons buyers just so she’d have a conduit to deliver her message to Steve.  She coordinated everything just for that one purpose.  She’s been wanted by Interpol for years, but she chose this time to come out of the shadows and dropped bread crumb after bread crumb to lead Steve and Five-0 exactly where she wanted them to go.

Photo credits:  CBS

Before Cullen’s house went boom with him inside, he told Steve there was much more going on than Steve was aware of.  Was Daiyu Mei behind the bomb left in the McG garage? Was she behind everything Cullen and his associates were up to?  It’s been years since we’ve had a full fledged, ongoing bad guy.  Not since Gabriel Weincroft and WoFat himself.  It seems that Daiyu Mei has been the new Big Bad for quite a while.  As much as I don’t like the idea that Steve could be in danger again because of WoFat, or in this case WoFat’s wife, I am looking forward to seeing Eugenia Yuan bring this character to life.

Photo credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and Instagram

McDanno!! ❤️ I’m prejudiced, of course, but this was my absolutely favorite part of this episode.  There was so much Steve and Danny time, it almost had a feeling like the early years of the show.  I adored watching Steve and Danny work the case together the entire episode.  Watching them bounce ideas off each other was such fun and when they both checked out the house in the “no fly zone” together, it had such an early seasons feel it made my heart sour.

This is what hooked me on the show from the Pilot episode.  This partnership is and always will be the best on TV. It’s been fun this season to watch these two together.  I know it looks like there will be even more episodes without Danny in them this year and, of course, I don’t like that one bit, but it also seems the writers are taking pains to give us as much Steve and Danny time as they can whenever they are both in an episode.  Of course, it’s not enough.  It will never be enough because it can’t ever be what it was in the early years.  But they are doing a good job of giving us as much McDanno as they can this season and I am loving it!

The McDanno banter in this one was pretty much perfect, and it looked to me like Alex and Scott were really enjoying it as well.  Their delivery was spot on.  I love how Steve told Danny that he knew he’d “concocted a fake mold issue to stay” at his house but I especially loved how Danny not only didn’t deny it but said he’d only done it because he thought Steve needed him.  Even though it was done in a lighthearted way, the emotional connection was right there.  Danny was worried about Steve.  Steve knew, understood why Danny was there and really appreciated it.  It was perfect.

Photo credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and Instagram

And that bonsai? I have a vision in my mind.  Danny wasn’t just worried about Steve when he made up the mold story.  He was worried about him from the moment he left to find Doris.  Remember back in S8 when Danny told Steve he was losing sleep because he was afraid Steve wasn’t taking care of himself.  That time, he hired a stress coach in a misguided attempt to help him.  But he realized the problem wasn’t Steve’s, it was his because he was making himself sick with worry.

Now, once again, worried about Steve going off to God knows where, he got himself a bonsai to help with stress relief.  The fact that he still has it and still tends to it shows that, just like making up phantom mold infestations, he’s still worried about everything Steve’s been through.  The appearance of Daiyu Mei on their landscape doesn’t bode too well for Danny’s stress levels going down any time soon.

Photo credit:  @alohaspaceman on Twitter and Instagram

But I’m not going to think about that right now.  Right now, I just want to think about the sewage backup at Danny’s house and the fact that it’s going to take six to eight weeks for it to be repaired and cleaned up.  Six to eight weeks of Danny living at Steve’s house.  I can’t wait to hear the arguments and the banter and the hilarity that’s going to come from that arrangement.  It’s the best early Christmas present the writers could have given.

Well, that’s it for this week my friends. This was a really great episode to end 2019 with.  We have what looks to be a couple of really great story arcs on the horizon (as least I hope Adam’s is going to be great) and six to eight weeks of McDanno to really look forward too.  I can’t wait to see where it’s all going to lead.

Here’s hoping you all have a wonderful holiday season.  Whatever holiday you celebrate, be it Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever… have a HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY one!  See you in 2020.

Once again, I’m sorry this review was so late.  Not a lot of screen grabs this week but those that are here are mine except where otherwise noted.

Aloha.  Malama Pono