If you think this was the best episode under the sun and are not willing to read a maybe slightly different opinion, you might like to turn away now.

And as always a spoiler warning applies to this post. If you haven’t seen the episode… you know the drill.

The very few screen captures are my own, thanks to CBS and Global for airing the episode.

This review will be very different from my normal reviews, hope you will still find it interesting. And please don’t hold back with your comments. I can take it. 😉

Let’s start with the poll.

KONO

So, now she is pulling her next friend into her web of lies. I thought her request not to tell Steve was really unconscionable. I couldn’t believe my ears.

She is not only pulling her friends (Fong and now Catherine) into her questionable dealings, she is also lying to her cousin’s face.  It is one thing to keep the truth and her suspicions from Steve, but it is a very different thing to outright lie. There is simply no excuse for such behavior.

She should come clean with Chin and tell Steve. Withholding her suspicions or even knowledge of criminal activity is an offense. Yes, it is arguable that there is no proof Adam did anything illegal (even though using his father’s money can’t be legal), but keeping her information from Five-0 makes her equally guilty if Adam is involved in criminal activity.

Honestly? I really don’t care what is going to happen to her or her relationship with Adam. And I think that is a shame really. But the show never managed that I found them interesting. Adam was never really present; I never managed to get interested in his character or in the relationship with Kono.

I think her actions again show how blind and naïve Kono is.

This was surely in preparation for her story arch in the last two episodes. As I said earlier I would rather have someone else in distress and not Kono for the third time in as many years. Maybe that is also a reason why I’m not interested in it.

CATHERINE

I really liked her involvement in the story. I think it is great that Kono and her are obviously good friends. I loved her very vehement no to lying to Steve if he’d asked. She obviously has learned her lesson. What I didn’t like was that she was again pulled into a scheme to keep something from her boyfriend. But I think I covered that in Kono’s part.

CHIN

I always enjoy Chin, and this time was no difference. I truly liked the advice he gave Kono. It’s a shame that she is repaying him with lies.

Unfortunately he was not much in this episode.

DANNY

Well, to be honest I get a little tired to rant about Danny almost every time I’m writing a review. But to his defense this time it was not his fault.

I’m actually sick and tired of constantly being reminded that Danny is the Dad. I’m sorry, but I’m offended by the very notion that the others might not be equally shocked and appalled by what happened to the kids, that they are not equally outraged. Which is simply not true.

Every time kids are involved in any way it gets showed in our faces that Danny is the dad and oh so empathetic with the relatives.

The only thing it shows me though is that Danny is not in control of his emotions. That he is a danger to himself, his teammates and ultimately the victims.

He lost it in the blue room without any plan. With his action he endangered the whole investigation simply because he didn’t know then if it was the right guy. I actually hope he has to face consequences for his actions. Even if only by Steve. It would have been the right thing to do to take him off the case at that point.

Later, when they did know they had the right guy, I can fully understand his reaction, not condone it, but fully understand.

Danny should rethink his career choice after everything that has happened to Grace. At the very least he should seek professional help for his issues. Because the next time he acts out of control because his judgment is clouded by his emotions he might get one of his friends killed. His partner will not always be there to protect him from himself.

Danny is not a good example for a good investigator. That is my opinion of him based on his behavior. Please don’t forget, he is a law enforcement officer in an elite task force. And no matter what, I expect something better from him. If he can’t handle such a personal case he should have been removed from it.

STEVE

Yes, Steve has very often been involved in very personal cases. But other than Danny, he never lost it without a plan behind it. If it was the break-in into the Governor’s office (not talking about the outcome, but the plan and intent behind it) or the interrogation on the roof, or his hunt of Wo Fat. Or the stealing of the ten million to save Chin’s life. He had plenty of opportunity to lose it, but he never did due to his training. The closest we got to see him losing control was when he pumped Han Ji Woo full of lead.

Maybe someday he will lose it, who knows, but until this day he was always professional on a case.

And don’t anyone dare tell me he isn’t taking the kidnapping of little girls as personal as Danny. Just look at the guy and you have your answer.

Anyway, I think Steve should make sure that his partner gets help. It’s his job as head of the task force to make sure that his team handles themselves above standard.

None of them is free of guilt to have done something against the law, but I think Danny is the only one who did it because he simply lost it. And I think there lays the difference.

There surely is one scene that plays right into this; Steve taking Danny’s badge and walking away from the scene unfolding. Was that okay? No, it was not. Was it understandable? Yes. But that still doesn’t make it legally right, and you could see that Steve was bothered by ‘allowing’ Danny to go ahead. You could see that it made him sick to do it, but he also knew that it was the lesser evil. But even so, I can’t with a good conscience condone what they did. I don’t think Danny had the same scruples doing it as Steve had. Hell, he shot two unarmed men without a second thought, so why stopping at beating the crap out of an obviously guilty guy. But not everyone is guilty, as we saw in the blue room, and he had no problem beating him to a pulp.

This scene surely gives a lot to think about, I think it was wrong to show it in such a way on TV. Making is look like it was okay. It was not.

It would be interesting to see if that bad guy doesn’t walk because of this.

I absolutely loved the cargument, if you can call it that. That was brilliant work by the both of them. And I really loved the interrogation of the killer’s wife by Steve. Great work.

I do have something to complain though. Who the heck is writing those scenes? Imagine you would stand right next to your girlfriend and would be called back to work. Wouldn’t you lean over and give her a good bye kiss? Of course you would, everyone would. This is getting ridiculous, Steve just turning and walking away. Writers, wake up!

CRIME OF THE WEEK

Let me say something right up front, it is always the worst kind of case when children are involved. That is a given.

I think the talk with the first parents outside the ME’s office was the most heartbreaking. Just imagine hoping for ten years that your kid might be alive and well somewhere. And then to find out she was practically in the neighborhood for those ten years and then to lose her again to a violent death. They were right; they lost her a second time that day. Really horrible.

Now let’s go right to the second set of parents. At least they could have real hope knowing that the other girl was kept alive for ten years.

I completely disagree with Danny, oh imagine that, false hope is better than none. He as a parent, as the show constantly tells us, should know that the parents would never ever lose hope. No matter what. As a parent I would question a detective who gives me a guarantee to bring my kid back. That would not make me feel better. On the contrary. How could he be so stupid and make such a promise? That was even worse than Lori in 2.02. Back then Steve wasn’t happy with her either.

Now let’s look at the holes in this whole story. The fake police woman kidnapped those kids, maybe even a lot more than those two. Did I get that right?

Who paid her all that money to do that? And why was she supposed to bring that money somewhere? Wasn’t that hers for snatching the kids? And after the kids were kidnapped, let’s say for a child smuggling ring to the Far East, or wherever. How in the world did that disturbed couple get their hands on two of those kids? How did they pay for them? I’m sure the stolen kids come at a high price on the right market. And please, they got the kids to cash in 500 $ a month? That in itself is ridiculous. You go through all that trouble for 6000 $ a year? Highly unlikely. Besides if that kid was in the system with a fake ID, how come NO one ever checked on them, no one ever checked if she was at school, or at medical check-ups?

But the biggest illogical thing in this episode was to keep Ella alive and bury her. I’m sorry, but that guy would not have done that. He would have killed her. I don’t think he thought he’d get her back at a later time. Leverage? Sorry, but no, he was not that clever.

In my eyes it made no sense to keep her alive. And quite frankly, as horrible as it is, the episode would have been a lot better if she had died. It’s horrible, I know, and I feel bad to say it, but that would have been a more realistic ending.

I think it would have been an awesome and bold move to let Five-0 fail to find the girl in time. Yeah, okay, hate me for it, but that’s how I feel about the ending.

Well, what’s left is the verdict. I’m struggling with this one. Yes, mostly because of Danny. I’m not one for in-your-face acting. I’m more the subtle kind of guy. A look here and there says more than thousand words.

As I said before, I really have it with getting Danny’s anguish about kids cases slapped in the face with. And the ending with his face filling the full screen twice at the end at the crime scene and with the parents, really was too much. I groaned out load. That really ruined the beautiful voice-over for me completely. We really didn’t need to see Danny again at the end. The team ending and just the crime scene and the parents would have been SO much better.

The episode had many good scenes, but all in all I was disappointed. That was my initial reaction and I’m going with that for now. It might get better with the second or third viewing. But at the moment this is one of the weaker episodes for me.

Just because it involves children in a dramatic way doesn’t make it a great episode for me. At the moment this one barely gets a B.