Why is she here?
These are the words Lou mouths to Steve on tonight’s episode of Hawaii 5-0. The she in question is Catherine Rollins, Steve’s ex and everyone’s favorite (or not-so-favorite) guest star. Every once in a while Catherine pops up to bring a little excitement to the island (not that it needs it) and remind Steve of what might have been.
The force drawing Catherine to the island in this case is King Kamehameha and his stolen grave goods. When Catherine finds an ancient artifact on a dead terrorist connected to her white whale, Asad Al-Laja, she immediately recognizes it as Hawaiian. The only place the man could have gotten it is the grave of the revered Hawaiian king, whose location has been a secret for many, many years. Catherine knows that she’s bound for the islands, and she knows exactly who she wants helping her. Complicating matters is the uranium traces found on the item, which makes Catherine think that Asad’s plan could involve something nuclear buried on the island.
Steve and Catherine’s army contact points them to Kaho’olawe, an island the US military abandoned but didn’t completely clear out. An underground storage bunker is still buried on the east side of the island, and it could contain more of the uranium. The two are bound for the distant island and need Kamekona’s help to get there. Kamekona is wise to do an inspection of the chopper he’s renting to Steve, Catherine, and Jerry. The teams’ expeditions off the island don’t usually end well.
Catherine and Steve may be after the uranium, but Jerry just wants to find the king’s tomb. He lies about knowing the island like the back of his hand but freaks out when he finds out it is chock full of landmines.
While Jerry stays behind, properly wary of the landmine warning sign, Steve and Catherine forge ahead. They take the time to catch up a little bit (and it was a weird decision for the show to immediately jump into their adventure without showing Steve processing Catherine’s return or Catherine reacting to the new team dynamic). Unfortunately, the two are so busy trying to show each other how cool and nonchalant they are that Catherine walks right into a spike pit and Steve gets caught by the kind of jungle combatants who are always lurking in the brush in this show. Seriously, has there ever been a “hiking in the wilderness episode” where the team hasn’t stumbled on random bad guys?
These random bad guys think the wilderness is a great place to mug someone and leave Steve and Catherine for dead. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds for them to get out of the trap, and Catherine takes the opportunity to question Steve about his planned proposal. Steve insists that it was genuine, and Catherine is moved, even if she is insisting that the two stay mature and above their messy relationship.
The luckless hunters use the map they stole from Steve and Catherine to find the bunker themselves and earn a bullet for their troubles. After a brief firefight, the team storms the bunker and finds the barrels that housed the depleted uranium (Steve might want be a little more careful about entering areas with extreme radiation readings). Catherine speculates that the terrorists were using the uranium to create dirty bombs, and one of them is missing.
Steve and Catherine go after the terrorist and Jerry stays behind to track down the missing grave. He is forced to put out a fire of his own making when he’s startled by some spiders. While Jerry is causing his own problems, Steve and Catherine are getting theirs solved for them. The terrorist runs directly into a landmine. Catherine uses a cellphone left in the bunker to take down Asad. Everyone wins but Jerry, who realizes that none of the artifacts were real. Kamehameha’s secret is kept for another day, or maybe for another season.
Steve and Catherine are busy dealing with a fraught situation far from home, but Junior’s danger lurks a little closer.
Junior’s plot for the episode was already about how he was isolating himself from others. When Tani comes over to give him a pep-talk before his father’s birthday lunch, Junior tells her that it isn’t worth it. His relationship with his father will never be healthy, and Junior doesn’t see the point in trying to change that. His response disappoints Tani, who genuinely wants to see Junior have a closer relationship to his family (motivated by the fact that she doesn’t have much left herself).
Now that Junior has metaphorically isolated himself from his loved ones, he finds himself physically isolated when he falls down a ravine while out on a run with Eddie. Junior has an injury on his leg that I officially diagnose as “gross,” and he starts to go a little stir-crazy down in the ravine. With no gruesome murder case to focus on, Junior takes the time to reflect back on his relationship with his sister, Maya, and the mysterious accident that destroyed their family.
Eddie goes full-on Lassie and tells Lou and Tani that Junior is stuck in the ravine (not stuck in the well this time). Beulah Koale does his best acting so far this season when he composes a final message to his dad, unloading years of guilt and frustration in a single voice message that cuts him off before he can finish. Luckily, Tani and Eddie have his back and the team celebrates his safe return and Catherine’s victory with dinner at Kamekona’s.
In our ongoing Noriko plot, Adam is grieving the loss of Jessie. Steve tries to tell him that Jessie’s poor choices are what got her killed, but Adam can’t be sure that his crazy sister wouldn’t have gotten her hands on her one way or another. He, just like Jessie, wants to cut his losses and run. There’s always a place for him with Kono, but Tani tries to persuade him to stay and get justice for Jessie.
Adam tracks down his father’s old friend and banker for one more favor. That favor takes on a very ominous tone when Noriko’s body washes up on the beach. Adam was desperate for revenge, but did he take it a step too far? Guess we will have to wait and see on next week’s episode.
What did you think of Catherine’s return? Be sure to let me know in the comments!
