Changing the plan

“Hawaii Five-0” seemed to have taken the symbolism of the famous line, “The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry,” to heart this week. Not only were the plans of a money-hungry servant thwarted by McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and the team in “Ka Papahana Holo Pono” (“Best Laid Plans”), but the plans of Kono (Grace Park) and Adam (Ian Anthony Dale) seem to also have gone off to the dark side.

Sometimes I just wish there was at least one plan that would work out. Especially for fans’ star-crossed — and seemingly always in danger — favorite couple.

This week started off with McGarrett mourning Catherine’s (Michelle Borth) departure. He’s hurting, yet resigned to the fact she is gone. There were no words in the scene, and viewers saw the same type of sadness as if McG had been sitting on his bed leafing through pictures and tokens of their love.

But no, just a glance at her left-behind toothbrush. It was enough for us to see the finality of her leaving on his face.

I did love how the team tried to lift McGarrett’s spirits a bit, especially Lou (Chi McBride), who invited McG to join him at RumFire for pupu and cocktails. The friendship between McG and Lou seems to really have deepened this season. I also loved how they shared a moment of new bromance while heading in to see Danno (Scott Caan), who was recovering from donating bone marrow to his son Charlie. It was a nice way to mention Danno and explain Caan’s absence in the episode.

It has to be hard to keep the crimes of the week unique and interesting. This episode featured another case that kept me guessing. I do enjoy how they have moved away from the red herring suspects and are now more focused on twisting viewers in different directions. The case kept me guessing and thinking, which I very much appreciated.

The set-up involved the death of a wealthy recluse named Harrison Crane, who was found in the middle of Makua Forest shot in the heart by an arrow. He was covered in the same counterfeit cash that last weekʻs victim, Miko Mosley, had been printing in his bathroom.

This discovery of the faux bills led Five-0 to an old friend, Gerard Hirsch (returning guest star Willie Garson), the shady art dealer Kono busted when the team searched for a stolen Van Gogh. Garson has turned to drawing tourist caricatures to make a buck.

As the team looked into Hirsch, he revealed his connection to the dead hermit. Seems as if Hirsch bought back the Edward Hopper painting he sold Crane back in the 1980s with the counterfeit cash he received from Mosley in an art deal before he was killed.

Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) brought Jerry (Jorge Garcia) into the mix to do some investigating into Crane, as Jerry knows a lot about “one of the Island’s greatest unsolved mysteries.” Of course, Jerry thought Crane may have been abducted by aliens, but seemed to stick with Five-0’s reality-based investigation. He did give some insight into Crane and why the millionaire left society, however.

Jerry’s story of what happened to Crane was reminiscent of the real-life story of Genshiro Kawamoto, a Japanese billionaire who owned million dollar properties on Kahala Avenue and basically let them fall into ruin and disrepair.

Unlike Kawamoto, Crane actually lived in one of his dilapidated homes, so Chin, Lou and Jerry searched it for clues to his death. While there, they found pictures of a young woman that seemed to be the most recent items in the mansion.

At the same time, McGarrett and Kono got Hirsch to give them details of his dealings with Crane and put it together that Crane sold Hirsch Edward Hopper’s “Girl at Sewing Machine” in order to get enough cash to pay a ransom for Craneʻs de facto ward, Laura Ioane (Lauren Murata).

There was a lot of action as the team had to retrieve the Hopper painting in order to make the ransom drop, as Hirsch had already sold it to a Russian crime lord. Watching McGarrett dodge cars to get the painting back was exciting and had my heart in my mouth. I’d like to think traffic in Hawaiʻi would slow down for McG in that situation, but depending on the time of day, I’m not so sure.

After getting the painting back, Hirsch helped them make the drop while hilariously dressed in a loud aloha shirt with built-in wire. I think my favorite part of that scene was when he asked Kono for a bulletproof vest and she said, “Why? They’ll just shoot you in the head.”

Touché, Kono, touché.

After getting wired up, Hirsch made the drop and led the Five-0 team on a chase for the kidnapper, who was promptly T-boned on a strangely empty Waikīkī street and killed, taking with him their connection to finding Laura. The bad guy may have died, but his cell phone did not, and Chin recognizes the woman’s voice as the maid who let them into Crane’s mansion. They find Laura and McGarrett pulls her from an empty outside drain to free the hysterical young woman. All in a day’s work for the Five-0 team.

I liked the case. I thought it kept me guessing and I definitely enjoyed the ride. Everyone had a part to play and I liked the ties to other cases, other characters and the return of Hirsch. The ending when the team all meet at RumFire and everyone got own caricature was perfect — especially McG as Rambo.

I don’t want you to think whenever you are in Waikīkī, NFL Hall of Famers just happened to show up so you can get an autograph and a photo. Sometimes it happens, but not all the time. But the scene with former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jerry Rice was another cool touch. Again, the mention of Danno helped us not to miss him too much this episode and helped end it on a positive note.

If only the ending for Adam had been as perfect. Throughout the episode, Adam is seen dealing with one of Gabriel’s henchmen (Michael Maize), who was kidnapped by Goro Shioma’s men in order for Adam to get information of Gabriel’s whereabouts. After Adam beats him in order to get him to admit what he knows, only to find he knows basically nothing, the Yakuza kill him.

That left Adam with a ticking clock; time to pay Shioma or else. Shioma’s man (Steve Bastoni) told Adam he needed to do whatever he can to get the money back.

“I think you proved today that you are capable of that,” he said, meaning Adam will have to go to the dark side in order to save himself and Kono. Even if that means doing things Kono does not approve of or want in their life together.

Man, that is hard. You can see it on Adam’s face. He knows he’s going to have to basically return to his illegal past in order to get the money, and yet that was what he gave up in order to marry Kono.

The scene at the end was darling, with Adam telling Kono that seeing her is “the best part of (his) day.” I only hope he still feels the same way — and Kono as well — when all this is said and done.

Sometimes, even for the good guys, the best-laid plans don’t always go the way we want them to, no matter how much faith and love we have in them.

REDUX SIDE NOTE

I loved seeing Dennis Chun and Taylor Wily in scenes with the crew this week. Chun will represent “Hawaii Five-0” this weekend at the Chinatown Business Association Dinner when the show will receive one of the association’s Heroes Awards.

Another local face was Lauren Murata, who played Laura Ioane. She was great as the hysterical kidnap victim and I think I would have played that up too if part of my save was getting hugged by McGarrett for a couple of minutes during each take.

Tattoo artist Brandon Holokai played the Yakuza heavy who handed Adam the hood in the elevator and said, “You’ll know when we get there” after Adam asked where they were taking him.

Mike Cho, the desk sergeant who gave Hirsch back his property after he was released from Five-0 Headquarters, is a former detective with HPD and a law enforcement consultant with the show. Cho has been seen in several other episodes, notably as the officer who returned Chin’s property to him in “Pono Kaulike.”

And Hawaii News Now reporter Mileka Lincoln played herself in a broadcast announcing Harrison Crane’s death and Miss Hawaii USA 2014 Emma Wo played the hostess who gave Hirsch a new phone when he was in Waikīkī to make the ransom drop.
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Wendie Burbridge is a published author, playwright and teacher. Reach her via Facebook and follow her on Twitter.