Hawaii Five-0 - A'ohe Kio Pohaku Nalo i Ke Alo Pali - Review - Hidden From Sight

The full translation of this episode title is "On the Slope of the Cliff, Not One Jutting Rock Is Hidden from Sight". That is an especially long title for an especially long episode. While I understand that the show must stall for time until Adam comes back and the Greer arc can continue, that doesn't mean the episodes themselves have to experience jet lag. But this one did, despite one meaningful B story.

Black market sand mining is an actual thing, something I know because this episode prompted me to "research" it. People are killed for the stuff, and whole islands can basically disappear from the sand being stolen. The police are pursuing one such miner when he dumps his load. They find a footless body inside that is almost completely unidentifiable. Their best bet for figuring out who murdered this unfortunate soul is tracking down the miner to get the location he dredged the sand up from. First stop is Kamekona for some underworld information. He is THE phone book for local crimes big and small.
"Why do you assume that I know every criminal enterprise on this island?"
"Is that a real question?" Good one, Danny Boy.
His contact leads them to the miner, and McGarrett gives chase over a structure that looks like a jungle gym, if it were made from rusty metal with a big open space full of churning blades. McGarrett promptly jumps in after the bad guy, despite Danno's protests. I am firmly with Danno on this one. Those things looked sharp. They were moving, and, even if they hadn't initially chewed up McGarrett and the other guy, Danno pressing all the wrong buttons at first to turn it off would most certainly have resulted in some injury. The dude talks, so they head out for a dive to retrieve the missing feet which have an orthopedic pin they can use to identify the victim.

Danny and McGarrett out on the boat gives us our McDanno Moment of the Week, though it felt like they barely shared enough screen time at any point to qualify. It's been eating up McGarrett that Duke told him he isn't going to fight for his job back. He just wants to retire, and McGarrett can't understand that. While McGarrett is diving, Danny takes the opportunity to lecture him good and proper.

"I think we should discuss this Duke thing right now, because you can't talk back."
He reminds McGarrett that he shouldn't always be so quick to judge people for not doing things the way he thinks is best. Danny also brings up how McGarrett apparently didn't want his help designing the restaurant menus. That last part is all that McGarrett acknowledges he listened to. But later he will put Danny's advice about Duke into action. That's what partners are for: to be ignored while doling out common sense that you secretly recognize is the best option but wouldn't dare admit it.

The diving trip turns up a big surprise: a second pair of feet. A woman's! Here's where things take a turn. It is discovered that the first person killed was mahu, a traditional Hawaiian term for someone "in the middle" who embodies both the male and female spirit. Fascinating cultural and social history here, but it's totally irrelevant to the episode. This person apparently had the same name as this guy's wife who was killed by a hitman her husband hired. We are meant to believe that the first person was killed in a case of mistaken identity, which seems insanely far-fetched. So the cheating spouse only gave the killer his wife's name but not like her address or favorite smoothie shop or license plate number or photo or anything. I am not married, so I haven't hired a hitman to take out my spouse. Bucket list items aside, this whole solution to the case was sloppy.

Aside from the case of the week, the secondary thread was Junior and Jerry escorting the body of a soldier home. Junior was curious why this young man he didn't know had selected him for this assignment. It was speculated that maybe it was because they had the same hometown. Jerry came along to honor a fallen friend of his own. He asks Junior who he picked to escort his body home.

And Junior shares that he picked a close friend but that he wanted it to be his dad. Apparently, his father never forgave him for enlisting and hasn't had much contact with him since. He then remembers that the soldier they are bringing home attended Junior's high school and that he was there when Junior spoke to the school about how much military service had changed his life for the better. Junior worries about what he will say to the boy's parents. Jerry shares that the friend he wanted to honor enlisted because Jerry encouraged him too. In a truly lovely bittersweet scene, the young man's parents present Junior with a letter their son left for him. A thank you note. This story gave Beulah Koale and Jorge Garcia some great character work to do. It formed a jarring contrast to the missing feet mystery happening elsewhere in the episode, but it was still moving.

This episode called for some endurance to get through, but it was all worth it for McGarrett calling Eddie "Edward".

Next up, this Friday, the HALLOWEEN EPISODE, and it's going to be significantly more engaging!