Every Halloween, “Hawaii Five-0” produces a gem of an episode where they juxtapose a local superstition or Hawaiian legend with a creepy case for Five-0 to investigate. Fans look forward to the episode, as it always has the team gathering for a rare night off, often in costume, which is always a treat.

This week’s episode “He ‘oi‘o kuhihewa; he kākā ola i ‘ike ‘ia e ka makaulā” is translated to mean “Don’t blame ghosts and spirits for one’s troubles; a human is responsible.” The real translation of the traditional ʻōlelo noʻeau is “the thought of a ghost is an error; it is a living person identified by a prophet.” The meaning is still very clear — if one thinks they are being haunted or that a ghost is a reason for their problems, there is usually a human element behind their fear.

Written by Rob Hanning and Zoe Robyn, the episode works the spooky moments perfectly. The storyline deals with two cases — one that has McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and Junior (Beulah Koale) looking for the body of a dead girl that has been stolen from Noelani’s (Kimee Balmilero) autopsy table. The other case has the rest of the Five-0 team, along with Max (Masi Oka) who has returned to visit and enjoy Halloween with his ohana, dealing with finding a supposed monster that has escaped after being locked away for years. Director Yangzom Brauen does an excellent job of heightening the suspense as both cases come to the conclusion that there are real-life people behind what seems paranormal.

IT’S A FIVE-0 HALLOWEEN REUNION

One of the reasons fans love a Halloween episode is that they often look for the Keanu Reeves easter egg. This is all thanks to Max (Oka), whose penchant for dressing up as various Keanu Reeves film characters started in the season two Halloween episode, “Ka Iwi Kapu” (“Sacred Bones”). Oka returned in this week’s episode as John Wick from “John Wick 2” and brought along his adopted son Tunde (Jonny Berryman) as John Wick from “John Wick 3.” All we were missing was Danny (Scott Caan) to make some kind of sarcastic remark about too many wicks at a crime scene and the episode would have been perfect.

Luckily we were able to see Tani (Meaghan Rath) dressed as her favorite mythical creatures, a lovely Mermaid; Quinn (Katrina Law) as Maverick from “Top Gun,” which as Tani so aptly mentions makes sense since that is McGarrett’s favorite movie, and he and Quinn “were basically separated at birth.” Noelani is her usual sparkly self as Sir Elton John in a sequined Dodgers-style baseball uniform, complete with “Hawaii” on the front and “Noelani 5-0” on the back; Flippa (Shawn Mokuahi Garnett) as Elvis in his white Aloha Elvis costume; and Kamekona (Taylor Wily) as what could be described as a shrimp in an orange Aloha shirt.

HAUNTING DUKE

As the team waits for McGarrett and Junior to finish scaring trick or treaters with Eddie dressed as a lion, who is more interested in belly rubs than staking his claim as King of the Jungle, Noelani gets a call in the middle of Flippa’s party. They have found the body of Lana Nakua who has been missing for two months. Before Noelani can perform the autopsy someone steals Lana’s body from the morgue. McGarrett and Junior arrive and Duke (Dennis Chun) fills them in on the case.

They say that every cop has a case that haunts them — and this seems to be one of them for Duke. In his office, Duke tells McGarrett and Junior all of the details he has spent late nights pouring over, trying to find a clue to her whereabouts. He shows them pictures of the three Oahu State boys he thinks had the most to do with Lana’s disappearance. Duke’s prior investigation is crucial, as it gives Five-0 a complete picture of what happened the night that Lana disappeared.

With Duke’s clues, and additional details Noelani finds on the suspect’s bodies — a long hair that looks like Lana’s, which McGarrett rationalizes just proves the boys moved Lana’s body — they find the last suspect. He was about to bury Lana’s body when Lana’s sister Emily (Keely Nakama) finds him. She was the one who killed the three boys in the same way she thought her sister was killed. When McGarrett finds her in a dark forest, serene and unmoved, we see how much she looked like Lana, and why the last suspect thought that Lana was trying to kill him.

WE CAN BE HEROES

Really, the best part of the episode had to be the ending scenes, where both storylines — finding Lana’s body and her killers, as well as subduing the monster who turned out to be a frightened young man named Kimo (Derek Mears). Kimo suffers from a type of genetic condition that causes overgrowth in bones and tissue, which is why he was seen as a monster.

Max is key to the resolution of the monster storyline, as he relates to Kimo, as both men lost their mothers and were adopted. Max himself was left on the steps of a church and was adopted into a loving family. Max tells Kimo that Tunde, who was not afraid of Kimo and had shared some of his Halloween candy with the man, is adopted and different from the other kids. They both help to keep HPD from shooting the frightened man and there is a sweet resolution with Kimo being reunited with his birth mother.

Brauen’s montage of the Five-0 team, with a version of David Bowie’s “Heroes” as the soundtrack, was the perfect ending for the episode. As the song plays, “we can be heroes just for one day.” we watch Junior and Duke bring in Lana’s killer, and McGarrett leading her body back to the morgue so Noelani can take care of her. The scene and the song made for a very satisfying conclusion of an excellent Halloween episode.

Wendie Burbridge writes the “Five-0 Redux” and “Magnum Reloaded” blogs for staradvertiser.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.