Five-0 Redux: ’Hawaii Five-0’ shows father will go to great lengths to save his child

Being a good father is one of the many themes that is woven into the overall story arc of “Hawaii Five-0.” While this is an easy theme to dramatize, the episodes focusing on fatherhood are quite memorable.

This week’s episode was a good mix of humorous scenes between the main characters, as well as a strong storyline about two fathers and how they attempt to save the girl they both claim is their daughter.

The episode, titled “He kama na ka pueo” which is Hawaiian for “Offspring of an Owl” is a based on a ʻōlelo noʻeau, or Hawaiian proverb and poetical saying. The phrase is used to mean “a child whose sire is unknown, so called because the owl flies at night.” Hawaiians would say this if a child did not know the name or lineage of their birth father.

Written by David Wolkove and Matt Wheeler, and directed by Jerry Levine, this poetical saying is expertly threaded through the case of the week. The Five-0 team investigates the murder of Dale Sampson, played by “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I.” stuntman, Victor Quintero. Sampson is hired by Daniel Nettles (David Shatraw), who has been looking for his kidnapped daughter, Jennifer, for 24 years. After the man who kidnapped her, Wade Henderson (David Lee Smith), realizes that Sampson has found him and Jennifer, who he raised as his own daughter, Emily (Rachel Chambers), he murders Sampson, which drops the case onto Five-0’s doorstep.

FINDING JENNIFER

The case starts with Sampson’s gruesome murder, as he is burned alive in a crematorium, and the team tries to figure out who he is first and next who killed him. When Noelani (Kimee Balmilero) finds parts of a pacemaker in the ashen remains, they uncover that he was a former HPD officer who started marketing himself as an illegal private investigator.

Jerry (Jorge Garcia) finds a connection to Nettles and that the killer has lured him to Hawaii. It is obvious to the team that the person wants Nettles to stop looking for his daughter. McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) theorizes that perhaps they should be looking for Jennifer, not Nettles, and maybe that will lead them to whoever got Nettles to come to a Hawaii — and who most likely killed Sampson.

Using an age-progressed photo of the kidnapped girl, they identify a young woman who could be Jennifer as a 25-year-old, Emily Henderson (Chambers). They look at her father Wade and discover that he lived near the Nettles when Jennifer was kidnapped. HPD and the team arrive at his home, where he holds Nettles hostage. Henderson tries to talk him into surrendering, but he chooses to kill himself instead, knowing that he was the one who kidnapped Jennifer and will lose her either way.

We could have done without Henderson beating Nettles almost to death, but for some reason showing a lot of blood seems to be what “Hawaii Five-0” think viewers want to see. The reunion between Nettles and Henderson is emotional, but not overly melodramatic. The climactic scene does stress the idea of a father doing whatever it takes to save and protect a child. Henderson went so far as to kill a man and almost kill another to keep Henderson, who he kidnapped after his own wife and child were killed in a car accident. Even after 24 years, Nettles had never given up the search for Jennifer.

THE RETURN OF MR. PICKLES

While the team is simultaneously investigating Sampson’s murder, McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and Danno (Scott Caan) receive an unexpected windfall, when Agnes Miller, a woman whose apartment they used years ago during a stakeout, leaves them her porcelain cat figurines in her will. They also need to find her beloved Turkish Angora cat, Mr. Pickles, a new home.

The pair take the cat to McGarrett’s, and Danno remarks that McGarrett is more like a dog. McGarrett is friendly, loyal, loud— and kind of dirty, Danno says. In the end, it’s Eddie who seems to have the last say when he takes after Mr. Pickles with malice aforethought. The scenes are funny and brought back the kind of humor and banter we love to see between the two friends.

THE THING ABOUT TOUGH GUYS

There were a few scenes that lightened the more dramatic case of the week. Tani (Meaghan Rath) nervously asks Junior (Beulah Koale) to accompany her, not as a date but as a friend, to a wedding; and Lou (Chi McBride) takes Adam (Ian Anthony Dale) to Kamekona’s in order to check in with the newly divorced team member.

Lou reminds Adam over shrimp burritos and Coffee-Kona (which we wonder if Kamekona has trademarked yet), that he has friends and family who will help him through it all. Adam admits that things are getting better for him. Both scenes are a good reminder of how close the team is beyond their ties to McGarrett.

But everyone is still wondering if Danno’s gunshot-induced dream from last season of Tani and Junior being married in the future might be coming to fruition. Perhaps this is a clue that “Hawaii Five-0” will get a tenth season so we can continue to see where this “non-date” will lead.

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