‘Hawaii Five-0’ season 6 rewind

BEST ACTION SEQUENCE

“Ka Makau Ka‘a Kaua” (“The Sweet Science”)

Episode 610

Action is standard fare in “Hawaii Five-0,” but when series villain Gabriel Waincroft (Christopher Sean) sends a crew of hit men to kill three crime lords during a championship boxing match at Blaisdell Arena, we are talking off the charts. The juxtaposition of McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and crew having to save the bad guys, all while a boxing match rages on center stage, was seriously cool. Danno’s (Scott Caan) fistfight with one of the assassins in a Blaisdell bathroom was also one of the best fight scenes of the season.

BEST CULTURAL REFERENCE

“Ua ola loko i ke aloha” (“Love Gives Life Within”)

Episode 612

Aunt Deb (Carol Burnett) appeared twice this season, including a return home in Episode 612 to scatter the ashes of her husband, Leonard, whom she married on the courtyard of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Season 5. Friend-of-Five-0 Kawika, played by recurring cast member and Hawaiian waterman Kala Alexander, takes Leonard’s ashes out to sea to scatter. He and McGarrett share “ha,” or breath, as Steve hands him Leonard’s urn. Ha is what gives aloha its deeper meaning, and in this case it is a sharing of sorrow and friendship at the loss of a loved one.

BEST COUPLE

Duke and Nalani Lukela

“Hoa ‘Inea” (“Misery Loves Company”)

Episode 614

When the entire team breaks down their Valentine’s Day nightmares, the best couple of the episode has to be Sgt. Duke Lukela and his lovely wife, Nalani, played by recurring cast member Dennis Chun and his real-life partner, artist Laura Mellow. Their reaction to seeing a half-naked Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) running through the Kahala Hotel lobby after getting dumped was simply perfection.

BEST STUNT

“Ka‘alapahi Nui” (“Big Lie”)

Episode 605

The opening sequence starts with a motorcyclist riding into the elevator of a downtown office building, speeding through the offices, then making his getaway by jumping from one building to another. Sure, it was a bit over the top, but we wouldn’t expect anything less from the show’s Emmy-nominated stunt coordinator, Jeff Cadiente.

BEST NAIL-BITER

“Ka Pono Ku‘oko‘a” (“The Cost of Freedom”)

Episode 621

This episode was a tension-filled, hourlong chase sequence as five violent offenders — and one minimum-security prisoner, Kono’s (Grace Park) husband, Adam (Ian Anthony Dale) — escape from Halawa prison. Former UFC champion Randy Couture returns in this episode and helps save Adam’s life. It turned out to be a huge setup for the Yakuza to kill Adam. Luckily, Five-0 finds him before the assassins do, and Adam and Kono get in one sweet goodbye before he’s sent back to prison.

BEST GUEST STAR

Carol Burnett

“Ua Ola Loko i ke Aloha” (“Love Gives Life Within”)

Episode 612

The saddest moment of the season was when McGarrett’s Aunt Deb, played by the incomparable Burnett, returns to Hawaii to settle her affairs. She dies quietly before completing the final item on her bucket list. I don’t know what makes her passing even sadder, the fact that Steve and his sister, Mary Ann (Taryn Manning), no longer have any McGarrett elders left, or that we will no longer be blessed with Burnett’s singing and humor on the show.

BEST BADDIE

Jason Duclair (Randy Couture)

“Lehu a Lehu” (“Ashes to Ashes”)

While Waincroft is always good at being bad, he has not been seen since Chin threw him out of a window and he seemed to have escaped after a car stopped his fall. But as an episode villain, Couture as serial arsonist Duclair is on a different level than most of the “villains of the week.” A pyromaniac with a bit of conscience, Duclair adds a bit of slick style to his fiery ways. He was sent to prison by the team in Season 5 and returned in this episode.

BIGGEST SHOCKER

“Pilina Koko” (“Blood Ties”)

Episode 623

Last week, fans were shocked by the reveal that Chin has a niece — and she is also the daughter of his arch-nemesis, Waincroft. Gabriel’s sister, Malia, was Chin’s wife. She was killed off in Season 3, leaving Chin to mourn for two more seasons. When little Sara Malia is kidnapped, McGarrett and the team help to get her back to Chin. It was definitely something fans were not prepared for but it will nicely tie in with the first hour of tonight’s season finale, as the Five-0 team help Gabriel escape Yakuza assassins.

In the final hour of Season 6, airing at 9 p.m. today, “McGarrett and Danny pose as drug pilots in a plan to stop a meth epidemic on the island; Danny is forced to break cover and land the plane when McGarrett is seriously wounded,” according to CBS.

Read Wendie Burbridge’s “Five-0 Redux” blog for a recap of the Season 6 finale at staradvertiser.com.