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Wednesday, December 11, 2024 75° Today's Paper


Five-0 Redux

Diverting from the race

Five-0 (Daniel Dae Kim, far left in gray shirt; Alex O'Loughlin, second from left black shirt; Grace Park, second from right; Scott Caan, far right in car) is baffled when a highly skilled ring of thieves pulls off a heist of an armored car, killing two security guards but leaving the money behind. —Photo by Neil Jacobs/CBS

Click here for more photos from this week’s episode.

Watching re-broadcasts of “Hawaii Five-0” is getting a little tedious, but I suppose it just makes me more anxious for a new episode after watching reruns for so many weeks. There’s hope in sight though, fellow Five-0 Fans, a new episode drops on March 21. Only one more week of re-watching McG and the Five-0 Team’s previous escapades. Good thing tonight’s episode featured Kono in a bathing suit and McG sans t-shirt. And they both got wet. That should buffer us for another week. Let’s hope.

Perhaps CBS is trying to amuse us. Perhaps they think by throwing up some visual distractions and a fast paced repeat, it will keep us from sending them angry emails and blog comments to complain about holding back their new Five-0 episodes.  So coupled with hot shots of our team, they gave us a bang-up start with a cute ex-baseball player, with a wife about to give birth, getting shot by four masked gun-toting rappellers dressed as painters. Diversion #1. About half of this episode was about diverting your attention from the real crime—that we’ve seen this episode before.

But I digress; bring on Diversion #2, which is one of my favorite distractions—Kamekona, or “Baby Huey” according to our fast with the nicknames Danno. I just love Kamekona, but how can someone not feel five or six vibrations from an iPhone, brah? Steve was so right to let him keep it. Right now AT&T is selling the 3GS real cheap, McG—or you could always check Gavinslist and see what they have online.

Diversion #3 was for the local folks, Diane Ako as Meredith Michaels, an inquiring reporter who breaks the news to McG and Danno that the only witness to their case may be in grave danger. Diane’s role was not much of a stretch for our lovely former news anchor, and she did a great job even as Danno chastises her for breaking the news. Which of course, is what a good news reporter does, isn’t it, Diane? Great to see another local face featured on the show. And one we miss seeing nightly on television.

And for the best diversion—Diversion #4—of the evening, was the appearance of Rachel, played by Claire Van Der Boom, Danno’s “evil-ex,” the woman who necessitates the Psycho shower theme as her ringtone. Finally we meet our Danno’s nemesis, the torturer of his goofy thumbs, the unseen woman he has fought with over iPhone, begged over intercom, texted with frustration. And we find that she is not only lovely and non-psycho, but she is also clever and quick thinking. I think she fits in well with the Five-0 Team. Resourceful, beautiful, and still obviously cares for Danno. Her hitting the front gate of the bad guys’ house was a pretty damn fine diversion—nutty, but well done, and a fitting reminder of how she and Danno first met. It was good to revisit this relationship, especially after the moving ending to the last new episode we got two weeks ago. Has it been that long?

See, CBS, I suppose no matter how many diversions you throw our way, even the team splitting up to catch the four bad triathletes and McG kicking-ass on the beach (and good!) we still know that we have to wait two more weeks to see a brand new episode and find out if a possible Five-0 Team member #5 was worth the wait.

Redux Side Note: According to the Hawaiian Language dictionary, “Heihei” is Hawaiian for race, as in footrace, canoe race or horse race. And if we modernize the idea, I know it would have included bicycles in this definition. And cars. Which McG also likes to race. He also likes to race time. And the odds. Perhaps the episode could have been called “He kanaka ikaika e heihei ana” which means, “a strong man running a race.” Which of course, fits Steve McGarrett perfectly. No diversions needed.

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Wendie Burbridge is a published writer, playwright and a teacher of literature and fiction writing at Kamehameha Schools-Kapālama.

10 responses to “Diverting from the race”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Book em Dano… I always wanted to text that.

  2. Teresea says:

    Like the diversion angle, WendieJoy. Good points all around. But, lordy, They do need to hurry up with a new episode even though I will admit I loved the diversions. That quartet can’t give bad diversion.

  3. Teresea says:

    Like the diversion angle, WendieJoy. Good points all around. But, lordy, They do need to hurry up with a new episode even though I will admit I loved the diversions. That quartet can’t give bad diversion.

  4. Officer 808 says:

    Not enough Kono bikini time. Just sayin’ 😉 “Hao kanaka” was the original working title, which translates to “iron man” but probably doesn’t work grammatically in Hawaiian.

  5. Jkeagy928 says:

    the diversion is not working casue its a long time in between new episodes. konos bikini should have slipped off. just sayin…

  6. Jkeagy928 says:

    i have a theory for the last episode that tears the team up. the governor is in kahoots with wo-fat!
    jean smart just signed for an nbc pilot. maby she gets exposed somehow maby she knows about the money and said it was all there. maby shes part of wo-fats sinister plot. maby a good reason for all the guilt feelings over steves dads death! cmon i can write for the show! wouldnt that be cool!

  7. Tulloch says:

    I didn’t even watch last night. I taped it so I can watch it any time I want. I think the networks need to go back to the days when there was a new episode every week exept around Christmas. Yes, folks I’m dating myself, but there was a time that we could watch new episodes EVERY week. Course, there was more program than commercials too! Just sayin’.

  8. jlopie says:

    CBS – we can only take so many “diversions!” Joey and Officer808 are going off the deep end! The only way to save them is a new episode!!!

  9. norman says:

    There have been so many re-runs this season that I sometimes miss new episodes thinking it will be a re-run. Just provide new episodes until the season is over. Then it will be time for the re-runs. Not know when a new episode will be showing or having to research it, is too much work. The best way to get new viewership is to build from one new episode to the next new one and intersperse it with re-runs.

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