Hawaii Five-O (1968-80) — Season 11 Episode Reviews

244. (S11E06) A Distant Thunder ★★★  BOOK HIM, DANNO 

QUICK PLOT:

Danno goes undercover as a Nazi sympathizer to investigate the hate campaign against a Hawaiian Congressional hopeful.

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REVIEW:

Danno goes undercover as a Nazi in this guilty-pleasure episode to investigate the National Socialist Movement based on Oahu which is harassing Robert ("Bobby") Tamara (Cal Bellini), considered to be the "Hawaiian Kennedy." Tamara makes speeches saying things like "the quest for human rights is no idle journey, but I commit myself to that road, no matter how long the trip or how great the obstacles." He denounces nuclear stockpiles which are growing among major powers and uses catch phrases like "the time has come to deal in attitudes, not in platitudes."

The Nazis' commander Wendell Stoner (James Olson) makes crank phone calls to Tamara, saying "You will burn in hell," threatening his wife Lois (Elissa Dulce, in her final Five-O appearance) and son Bobby Junior. He ends a typical call by saying, "We want you out of that race, and none of you will be safe until you are out. Heed me, monkey."

Tamara comes to see McGarrett and mentions further forms of harassment he received like having his garbage dumped out and plants ripped up in his back yard. McGarrett offers him police protection, but Tamara refuses, saying, "I won't run this campaign surrounded by police. That flies in the face of everything I believe in. I will not be a prisoner of public service."

Stoner has a meeting hall in his house where he dresses up in full military regalia and addresses half a dozen "soldiers," almost all young men. There are pictures of Hitler, Göring and Himmler on the walls, and signs like "Death to Jew Traitors," "Keep Mongrels Out of Office," and "Send the Apes Back to the Jungle." Stoner tells his followers, "Men of the National Socialist Movement. We have a new enemy. His name is Robert Tamara. I've heard him and I've seen him. He's an ape out of the jungle who seeks national power to rule over Aryans. He must be stopped. No question. Robert Tamara is a dangerous man who preaches dangerous ideas. From now until the election, all of our thoughts and all of our energies must be directed to the defeat of this man. If blood must flow, then let it flow."

These Nazis are mean bastards — they run over Tamara's son's little dog Pixie! Fortunately, Bobby Junior is unharmed. There is an employee of Tamara's campaign who has been assigned to watch over Tamara's wife and son at his house, and after this incident, he gets a serious chewing out by McGarrett, who insists that there now will be 24-hour police protection whether Tamara likes it or not. (This employee is played by Mark Russell, who was Detective Saperstein in 107 episodes of Kojak.)

When Tamara makes an appearance at the local university, Stoner and his men are there with picket signs which, like those for Tamara's followers, seem to be all made by the same person. Some of Tamara's followers start to fight with the Nazis and Tamara tries to discourage this. McGarrett tells Stoner to take his men off the street and on to the nearby sidewalk where they can exercise their freedom of speech.

McGarrett gets Danno to infiltrate Stoner's bund using the pseudonym Walter Mantell. To qualify as a Nazi, McGarrett says that one has to be "fair-skinned, blonde, clean-cut, Protestant and Aryan," qualities which suit Danno to a T. When he cautions Danno that this assignment could be dangerous, tells him, "Surfing could be dangerous." McGarrett gets Danno a job in a garage as part of his cover, and Danno tells the owner, "I used to fool around cars." McGarrett says, "He's referring to the engine, not the back seat."

Danno abuses a plainclothes black cop named Phil (Johnny Walker) in a classic scene designed to endear him to Stoner. Danno tells the cop, who is mouthing off to Stoner, harassing him while he is doing his job as a window washer, "Beat it, Rufus ... I'm talking to you, nigger!" (This is the second and only other time in the entire series the "N-word" is used, the other being in S01E13, "King of the Hill.") Phil later only complains that Danno called him "Rufus."

Danno sucks up to Stoner, saying, "I know you and I respect you, for what you're doing for white Christian people everywhere," using the words "Commander" and "sir." Stoner in turn compliments Danno, saying "You fought that jungle monkey to assist me." The two of them go and have several beers and Stoner rants: "The Jews fill our places of business, Blackie fills our bedrooms … The Führer was right, he realized what mongrelization was." Danno says about Tamara, "Get a guy like that leading the country, you might as well give it to the Russians."

Danno meets McGarrett at the gas station periodically to report on his progress and give his boss a copy of a tape he is making surreptitiously of the Nazis' meetings. McGarrett is disgusted by the Nazis, telling Danno, "We're dealing with lunatics here." He tells Duke later, "The losers and the dimwits are usually the ones who wind up wearing swastikas or a Ku Klux Klan robe."

After Danno and Stoner infiltrate a Tamara campaign event at a beachfront house where they let off a stink bomb, Danno is welcomed into the Nazi group. He has to undergo an indoctrination period of six weeks: "There'll be a regular program of study, physical exercise and testing. Reveille is at 0600 hours and lights out at 2200, unless otherwise ordered. The drinking of hard liquor is not permitted on the premises, nor is the use of drugs. And you'll be expected to maintain a high level of personal cleanliness and will be punished if you do not."

Members of Stoner's group are busy distributing pamphlets which bad-mouth Tamara, while others are manning the phones where they are spreading rumors that Tamara is "an out-and-out adulterer and tool of … pornographers" and "has belonged to at least two Communist front organizations." During another of Tamara's campaign events, the Nazis attempt to get a picture of Danno and Tamara in a homosexual setup — Danno opens his shirt and puts his arm around Tamara and one of his fellow Nazis snaps a picture. The camera gets busted in the ensuing fracas.

Danno's cover is blown when one of his fellow stormtroopers sees him making a call from a pay phone, and Stoner finds the mini tape recorder hidden in Danno's pocket in a package of Metropolis cigarettes. Stoner wonders if Danno is a "cop, FBI [or] Jew-spy." During his ensuing trial for being "a spy and a traitor," Danno snickers, "You're not Nazis, you're nut-zies." The Party members are not amused and prepare to execute Danno. Fortunately McGarrett, Duke and HPD manage to prevent this, as well as the assassination of Tamara by Stoner who is on a mission of his own.

When McGarrett finally confronts Stoner at the end of the show during yet another campaign event, he looks like he wants to dance with the Commander. Stoner falls to his knees, saying "God will bless me for my work." Before the final scene with Bobby, which is weak, McGarrett insists that Stoner be read his rights after he is arrested.

The music by John Cacavas manages in several spots to establish a "Nazi" atmosphere, including snare drums, but the orchestral passages are watered-down. When it's first revealed that Stoner is a Nazi, the drumming is combined with a speech by Hitler ... I think it would have been more effective to have the drums alone.

I question whether Danno would be the best choice for the undercover operation, considering what a high-profile cop he's been for the last 11 years. Not only that, before he takes on this assignment, he's seen walking by Stoner's house in his Five-O suit to check on Stoner's truck (not a Ford, but a Chevrolet).

This episode may have been inspired by events that took place in the village of Skokie, Illinois in 1977, when the neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America planned a demonstration, raising various issues about freedom of speech.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Pixie, Bobby Junior’s dog, run over by Wendell Stoner in his pickup.
Injury: Stoner shoved by undercover cop Phil to start confrontation.
Injury: Phil hit by Danno to end fight.
Injury: Danno slapped by Stoner after his cover is blown.
Injury (x3): Danno kicks one trooper out of van, hits another and chokes Trooper Lehman when van runs into bushes.

MORE TRIVIA:

• Stoner's daytime job is with the Palm Custodial Service. The embroidery on "Walter's" gas station shirt has very similar lettering to that on Stoner's janitorial service uniform.
• Tamara's son is played by Haku Kahoano ... any relation to Kimo?
• McGarrett is seen wearing a leisure suit as well as a hat.
• A stock shot shows McGarrett squealing around a corner in a Park Lane, not his current car.
• Les Keiter appears on TV giving a political commentary.

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos from this show: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5.

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245. (S11E07) Death Mask ★★½  BOOK HER, DANNO 

QUICK PLOT:

King Tutankhamun's golden mask is stolen during a Hawaiian exhibition.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

This is the only episode with a typeface for the title at the beginning which is in a different font — and the title fades away into the background. The opening of the show is impressive, showing artifacts from an exhibition called The Treasures of Tutankhamun. I did a Google Images search on some the pictures of the artifacts and couldn't find any matches, so I don't know if the artifacts and the images of them were created especially for the show or not. In real life, there was no exhibition of King Tut in Honolulu. The only American cities where there was a show (which attracted over 8 million people from 1976-1979) were Washington DC, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City and San Francisco.

As the show begins, we are at a private opening reception for the exhibition. McGarrett is there. Alicia Warren (Cyd Charisse), who is presenting the show to benefit friends of the Honolulu Museum of Fine Arts, chats him up. The script doesn't go into background about how Alicia arranged for the show, which runs from July 7th to August 15th. Alicia, who is a middle-aged fox, tells McGarrett that she "dabbles" in paint, but mostly sculpture. Charisse, who was 56 years of age when the show was broadcast, is stunningly attractive; her character is a bitch. As McGarrett gazes at the mask of the title, she tells him, "I'd like to do you sometime. Perhaps a bronze." McGarrett tells her, "A cop immortalized in bronze? That's unheard of. Lead maybe, or concrete."

Alicia's husband Bart (Robert Ellenstein), who has been watching his wife drool over McGarrett, tells her with a scowl on his face that he is leaving. He seems very annoyed. McGarrett is called away for a phone call, later described as "useless," and Waikiki hustler Mik Chandler (Tim Thomerson), who lifted the wallet of a man (stuntman Beau Van Den Ecker) in a very obvious way a few minutes before, accuses another man (stuntman Chuck Couch) of stealing it. A fight between the two stuntmen breaks out, during which Chandler smashes the display case holding the death mask, grabs it and and runs out of the room. He is pursued by McGarrett, who has returned, and two security guards.

McGarrett finds Chandler in a storage room with the mask, so it looks like a disaster of international proportions was averted. But Chandler, somehow having obtained an exact duplicate of the mask, has switched the real mask with the duplicate and hidden the real mask in the garbage. After McGarrett leaves, Alicia encounters Edgar Miles (Rory Calhoun), curator of the museum, and gives him a chewing out. She tells him, "Another incident like this, and I will personally see to it that you are replaced."

Later, Alicia's husband calls McGarrett, wondering if he got information about the thief, but his wife grabs the phone away from him and asks Five-O to take over security at the museum because Miles is "totally incompetent." McGarrett says they can't do this, but they will check the place out and make recommendations. Then McGarrett abruptly hangs up the phone! When McGarrett suggests to Danno that Alicia is upset with Miles because he doesn't like her sculpture (which was mentioned by her earlier), Danno says, "Hell hath no fury like a society sculptress scorned," which McGarrett lamely describes as "an old-time, abysmal alliteration."

Danno goes to interview Chandler at HPD, who says that he just "found" the invitation and when he got to the museum, something came over him when he "saw all that gold." Danno pushes him, asking who got him the invitation, but Chandler acts dumb. A woman named Jill Baker (Marsha Merchant) bails Chandler out of jail with $5,000 in cash. The two of them then go and park across the street from the museum, watching for a guy from the Ala Moana Trash Company (Richard Vales) who picks up the garbage including the can which contains the mask that Chandler hid there earlier. It is an interesting coincidence that Chandler knows about the pickup and he is released just in time for him and Jill to surveil this.

Shortly after, McGarrett and Danno go to the museum, where McGarrett is told that the garbage cans were taken about an hour before. McGarrett already has suspicions — to Miles' horror, he scratches some gold leaf off the death mask, demonstrating that this is not the original one, which is made out of solid gold. Miles tries to explain what happened as being connected to "the curse of the Pharaoh," but McGarrett tells him that he wonders about "the lack of security that allowed [the theft] to happen in the first place."

Meanwhile, Jill and Chandler are following the Ala Moana Trash truck. After there is a bulletin on the news about the theft of the mask which the two of them just happen to hear, Jill starts to get antsy, but Chandler tells her "Nothing is gonna happen to us. Okay? Believe it."

McGarrett goes to see Alicia to update her on what's happening with the mask. Bart, who is Alicia's fourth husband, drunkenly harangues McGarrett, suggesting if the top cop doesn't watch out, he will become husband number five. Alicia is embarrassed by his ranting. Bart tells McGarrett about how Miles described Alicia's works as "third-rate." After he leaves, Alicia again tells McGarrett, "I'd still like to do you sometime."

After tailing the trash truck to the Ala Moana Trash Company headquarters, Chandler recovers the mask from the garbage can by pretending to be someone from the museum. When Morgan doesn't believe who Chandler says he is, Chandler grabs a piece of pipe and clubs him over the head. Jill thinks that the man is dead, which is confirmed by Danno after the commercial –- it's "murder one."

Chandler and Jill flee, pausing near a beach where he tells her they will run away and be rich. He says, "I've been pushed around all my life. This is my shot." Every time the two of them reach a conversational crisis, they start slobbering in each other's mouths. At a place called Car City, Jill trades her brown Mustang for a white beater. McGarrett goes to Jill's apartment at 219 C Waleakala, which is actually in the Hawaiian Regent Hotel. Chandler is seen talking on a pay phone near the car lot to someone who will pay $50,000 cash for the mask. Duke looks into phone calls made from Jill's place and discovers local calls to Chandler as well as long distance calls to a storage company in Portland, Oregon that's been holding a few things in storage for her. McGarrett thinks this is very fishy, because Alicia told him earlier she was from Portland. Duke is told to get on the next plane to that city. Mik and Jill go to the "James Hong Curve" near the Diamond Head Tunnel where he will exchange the mask for the $50,000, but while Jill is waiting and applying lipstick in the car, Chandler is shot dead, out of her line of sight.

The cops investigate Chandler's killing and Jill, who found his body down the hill where he had gone, is taken to the hospital, suffering from shock. (There is no indication as to how the cops or ambulance were alerted to the scene.) After McGarrett arrives at the hospital and is denied access to Jill for the moment, McGarrett snoops in her purse where her driver's license reveals she lived on 1783 Bendix Street in Portland. The date of issue was 12/11/77, her date of birth was 12/1/60, her height is 5'5", weight 110 lbs., and it expires on her birthday, 1981 (the "81" seems to be written in hand). The code for the license, which is number 38590110, is C7rg.

McGarrett hauls Miles into his office and accuses him of being involved with the theft of the mask, suggesting he did it either for money or the "satisfaction of ruining Alicia's exhibition." Miles tells him, "obviously, I can thank Alicia's vindictiveness for this conversation. She couldn't get me fired, so she put you up to this." Miles leaves the office, telling McGarrett to communicate with him through his lawyer in the future. Alicia phones McGarrett, all agitated because she has to tell the State Department something about the mask, which is still missing. McGarrett tells her "We're making every possible effort to recover the mask," and hangs up abruptly — again.

At Akins Van and Storage in Portland, Duke finds a picture which reveals Jill to be Alicia's daughter by her first husband, who is now deceased. He tells McGarrett on the phone that the picture was taken 15 years before, but the date on the back of the photo is June 14, 1966. (The episode was first broadcast on November 16, 1978.)

McGarrett and Danno go to see Jill in the hospital, where she has woken up after being sedated. They confront her with the fact they know she is Alicia's daughter. Jill, who has been in Hawaii for about three months, fills in a lot of the gaps in the story, though she insists that Mik was "kind, gentle [and] caring." She finally doesn't want to talk to them any more, but McGarrett makes a big pitch that she should help them put Mik's murderer away in jail. Jill says that her mother "doesn't care what happens to me. She never has. She's never cared about anyone except herself … My father died last year. I didn't know what to do, where to turn. I came here hoping she might have changed. But 15 years hadn't changed a thing. Not one single thing."

McGarrett wants to play a hunch with Alicia, so he and Danno go to her place. When they arrive, she is having a huge argument with her husband. She tells McGarrett, "He's out of his mind. I told him I was through, and he went crazy." Miles is there too, and Alicia explains Miles' presence by saying, "You said you came to settle with me once and for all."

McGarrett comes forth with a huge "suppose" speech, which, as usual, is all correct: "I have a theory … a theory that someone conspired with Mik Chandler and put him up to stealing the mask. I'm not sure why. Money, perhaps. Or kicks, as they say today. Or maybe, uh, someone wanted to own a priceless art treasure. Or maybe a way to preserve a relationship with a younger man. A much younger man. Who was on the verge of rejecting an older woman for a younger lady. Perhaps even her own daughter. Now, if that older woman was consumed by vanity, as well as anger and jealousy, what do you think she would do, Mrs. Warren? … What happened, Mrs. Warren? Did he demand more money than you agreed to pay him? Or were you afraid he'd reveal your complicity in this?"

When Alicia accuses McGarrett of having no evidence to back up what he is talking about, McGarrett looks at a pair of lion heads that she is sculpting and says, "How can she sculpt a matching pair before she finishes the first one? [HUH?!?] Unless the match isn't important, and this one is already finished. Already serving a purpose." Using some wooden tool, he chisels the clay off one of the lion heads to reveal the stolen death mask underneath. Alicia immediately incriminates herself by saying, "You must admit, the copy I made of the mask was exquisite. Mr. Miles was wrong about me, wasn't he?" McGarrett turns to Danno and says to him, "Book her, Danno. Murder one."

There is great color photography in this show, which includes numerous paintings in Alicia's studio. One wonders if any of these were Jack Lord's own, like in "How to Steal a Masterpiece." The slightly-better-than-average music by John Cacavas features a pseudo-Egyptian vocal line reminiscent of Dimitri Tiomkin's Land of the Pharaohs (not to mention Cacavas' hideous score to "Why Won't Linda Die?"). I really can't buy Rory Calhoun, with his white suit and white shoes, as the "professional" curator of the museum – he looks more like a real estate salesman! The ending of the show is sucky.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Morgan, trash truck driver, hit over the head with what looks like metal pipe by Mik Chandler.
Death: Chandler shot by Alicia Warren (not seen by us).

MORE TRIVIA:

• Compared to Cyd Charisse, Robert Ellerstein looks old by comparison, but he was actually born over a year and 3 months after her.
• McGarrett is very careful to get a warrant to have a postal inspector open Jill's mail, rather than snoop in it in front of her landlady Mrs. Evans (Kinau Wilder).
• When he goes to HPD to grill Chandler, Danno is wearing a white suit, but when he returns to the Five-O office, his suit is black. The sequence when he arrives outside the Iolani Palace is relatively long.
• The insignia on the coveralls of the moving man from Akins Van and Storage in Portland is written in the same script seen on uniforms in "A Distant Thunder."
• A stock shot of cops driving is seen.

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246. (S11E08) The Pagoda Factor ★★  BOOK THEM   DANNO, BOOK THEM 

QUICK PLOT:

McGarrett arranges for the escape of a convict so that the man can gather information about plans for a Chinese gang in Honolulu.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

At the beginning of the show, McGarrett, sort of in disguise with "old man's clothes" plus sunglasses, and driving a blue Ford station wagon, springs Joey Lee (Brian Tochi) from the medium-security "Oahu State Prison" to help with an investigation in Chinatown. Joey is in jail for stealing cars. This prison seems much different than the ones seen in shows like S01E16, "The Box"; there is lots of foliage around, more typical of Halawa, but even that jail has kind of an arid area surrounding it.

The whole sequence where Joey escapes from the prison to meet McGarrett is ridiculous. First, during an inmate football game and not that far away from the guards, he puts this long picnic table up against a wall to use like a ladder. From what I can see, there is no way Joey could get from the top of this table to a ledge around the building's corner and halfway up its two stories, but then we don't actually see him getting on to the ledge. With all the people in the yard below, it's not as if no one can see him, duh! After sneaking across the ledge, he climbs up a drainpipe which goes under the soffit, and there is really no way he could use this route to get to the roof! After this, his escape is quite easy, and no one is shooting at him, though the guards clued in to his escape, an alarm siren went off and we see a bunch of guards grabbing rifles from a rack. By the way, I don't know how Joey was supposed to synchronize his escape with McGarrett's arrival, because Joey doesn't have a watch.

McGarrett then takes Joey to a dumpy room in a building in the middle of nowhere, where Danno is waiting. Joey, who has been a member of the Kowloon gang "all my life" has his mission explained to him. He has to keep tabs on Victor Fong (Dana Lee), the "top dragon" of all Kowloons, who is coming to Honolulu from San Francisco to organize the local members into a Chinese version of the Cosa Nostra like in other major American cities. Danno seems annoyed by Joey, who is kind of a smart-ass. Rather than staying in this seedy-looking place, Joey leaves, saying he might get busted for "aiding and abetting a cop," and goes to Honolulu where he hangs out with some of his old pals and his girlfriend Julie (Shari Au).

Later McGarrett explains to the Governor why he sprang Joey from jail, and the Governor thinks this whole scheme stinks, especially since he was not informed about it ahead of time. In keeping with his annoyance, the Governor's hair is uncharacteristically ruffled! McGarrett explains to the Governor that Chinatowns all over the country are ripe for what Fong is preaching: "There's an emerging sense of ethnic pride among the young Chinese … But with Joey supplying us with information, we hope to curtail our problems here, nail Victor Fong, and stop him from spreading this organization on a national level." When the Governor asks, "What makes you think 'Pal Joey' isn't going to be part of the problem?" McGarrett says, "Perhaps grief over his brother's death. [His younger brother was killed in a street-gang fight.] A genuine desire to stop gang warfare in Chinatown. And, of course, there's always a possibility of a pardon." The Governor is very skeptical about the last of these, saying "If it goes sour, Five-O is going to have one awfully big black eye."

Fong arrives shortly after and stays at the Ilikai, funded by "donations" (i.e., protection money) from local merchants. McGarrett sarcastically tells Joey, "Aren't we grand?" Fong makes a sales pitch at a meeting with Joey's Kowloon pals, most of whom seem barely out of high school. In fact, Fong comes across more like someone leading a school spirit pep rally than a menacing mobster.

On the way out of the Fat Siu Lau Chop Suey restaurant where this meeting is held, the Kowloons run into the rival Toy Li gang led by Soo, played by Roland Nip, whose acting is terrible throughout, especially when he mugs his way through the encounter with Joey, who he calls a "coolie" and addresses another Kowloon as "punk." A kung-fu rumble breaks out and spills out onto the street in front of the restaurant.

Suddenly Riley (Dane Clark), an HPD cop whose beat is Chinatown, shows up and provides some comic relief as he breaks up the fight. Considering how old the actor is and looks (66 when the show was broadcast), it is more than likely the gangs would break him up! Riley has been working in this area since Joey was "a kid," and you would expect him to utter at least a few words in Chinese, but he doesn't. Because of Joey's local reputation, Riley recognizes him after a few moments, but Joey manages to escape. Later, McGarrett asks Riley why he always looks the same, and he replies, "ginseng, rhinoceros horn..." These days, the latter would not endear Riley to people who are concerned about endangered species.

After an informer from the Toy Lis tells Riley and McGarrett that there will soon be an assassination attempt on Fong, this is foiled by Five-O. Soo and two others are busted and taken away, to be charged with "assault with a deadly weapon [Huh? They never fired their guns…] and conspiracy to commit murder." At this point, the Five-O team take the Toy Lis' weapons and fire at their intended victims, who are emerging from the restaurant opposite, but aiming high, as per McGarrett's instructions, to miss them but strike fear into their hearts.

Fong is indebted to Joey for saving his skin during the resulting firestorm, but things soon change, because Joey snoops around Fong's room to read a red book full of contact information hidden in a mahjong box, and while doing this, he is seen by Julie, his girlfriend, who the gang pimped out to Fong while he is in Hawaii, telling her that this was "Joey's idea." Julie follows Joey around with a guy named Lum (Michael Hasegawa) and they see Joey talking to McGarrett. Julie is obviously pissed off because she has had to "do it" with Fong as his temporary mistress rather than her true love Joey. When meeting Fong at a restaurant, she tells Fong what Joey is up to and he realizes he has been set up, saying he will do "what we always do with finks."

Having overheard this conversation, Mr. Chan (TinHop Pang), the kindly owner of the restaurant, later spills the beans to McGarrett that he fears Joey is in danger, adding the Chinese community doesn't like to go to the police, but prefer instead to handle their own affairs. McGarrett then grills Julie about Joey's whereabouts, saying, "Look, honey, we're not playing games." She tells him nothing, so McGarrett turns to Riley, who pulls an idea out of a hat as to where Fong will take Joey, now regarded as a traitor, to be executed. He says this will be at "the Bashu Building … an abandoned place on Malakai near Fifth, they used to meet upstairs."

Of course, in a typical TV trope, Fong cannot just kill Joey outright as you would expect but beats him seriously with this thing that looks like a long wooden shoehorn, giving McGarrett, Danno and Duke enough time to arrive and bust Fong after a brief standoff where he holds a knife to Joey's throat until Duke threatens to blow out Fong's brains.

This show isn't that bad; at least it has some variety, focusing on another ethnic group in Honolulu, though not particularly favorably. I wonder if the Italian community got upset about references in this show to "Mafia" and "Cosa Nostra," as was their wont. The mish-mash music score by John Cacavas, including some funk sounds, is pretty crappy.

WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?

The title to this episode makes no sense whatsoever.

CASUALTY LIST:

Injury (numerous): Members of Kowloon and Toy Li gangs roughed up during martial arts fight inside and outside restaurant.
Injury: Shopper in Chinese grocery hit over the head by Toy Li soldier and knocked out.
Injury: Toy Li soldier gagged by McGarrett, subdued by him and Danno.
Injury: Joey Lee beaten up seriously by Victor Fong for working with the police.

MORE TRIVIA:

• The Governor twice refers to "Pal Joey" (very good!). The reference here is to the musical play which was made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra.
• Roland Nip, Michael Hasegawa, and Dana Lee all appeared in the Five-O reboot, as well as this show.
• The Oahu Market at 145 North King Street and Kekaulike Street is seen.
• During a news broadcast, a casually-dressed Asian woman (Karen Ahn) is seen reporting.
• When Joey knocks on the door of the Five-O office pretending to be a delivery boy, he uses a stereotypical accent, saying, "Chong-Foo here, missee pick up laundry, washee-wash, two bits, give tickee..." McGarrett tells him, "You make a lousy Chinese."
• McGarrett pulls more than one of his leisure suits out of the closet for this episode. When he gets out of his car near the end, McGarrett leaves the signal on. Danno wears bell-bottom pants.
• Joey is seen smoking a cigar.
• Duke goes with McGarrett to check out a social club to find Joey, whose life is in danger. But shortly after, when McGarrett radios to Riley, he says to call Duke. Did Duke go back to the office?
• McGarrett tells Riley to take the Toy Lis "down[town] and book them." He tells Danno to "book them" (meaning Kowloons) at the end of the show.
• Joey obviously gets his pardon from the Governor, because soon in S11E12 and E13, he has a job working as a DJ in a disco.

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247. (S11E09) A Long Time Ago ★★½

QUICK PLOT:

Danno encounters an old girl friend who has been arrested for shoplifting in Honolulu, and his life is further complicated when she is linked with a killer.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

Danno has been at HPD interviewing a witness to a killing committed during a robbery in a liquor store by Roy Crawford (Burr DeBenning) , who is wanted for assault and murder in five states. In McGarrett's office, a picture of Crawford from the Seattle police was available almost immediately to compare to a sketch of him which was produced by the witness, whose name is Aka (Walter Chotzen).

As Danno is on his way out of the station, he recognizes an old girl friend from the mainland, the Toni Tenille-like Melissa Cole (Katherine Cannon), who is on her way to be booked for shoplifting. The two of them went to school together at O'Farrell High.

Danno looks totally dumbstruck when talking to her, not just now but for most of the episode. Their relationship is kind of hard to take, considering James MacArthur was almost 41 when the episode was broadcast, whereas Katherine Cannon was around 25.

Danno and Duke spend some time pounding the pavement trying to find out where Crawford is holed up around town, and have no luck, even after talking to Kimo (Moe Keale), an oily guy who works at a pizza joint, who seemingly knows everyone with a criminal connection in Honolulu, sort of like Kamekona in the 2010 reboot of the show.

After Melissa is booked at HPD, Danno arranges for her bail and helps her get an apartment and a job as a waitress in a restaurant. He drives her home to her new place, and tells her "I thought an awful lot about you since high school." Melissa says that he was "the nicest guy I ever dated." She says that she is divorced and her 2-year-old daughter Beth is "being taken care of just fine." Danno gives her a big kiss, and my money is on them "doing it" after this.

The next morning when Danno shows up to work, he gets a big surprise, because in addition to the information about Crawford he already has seen is a rap sheet from HPD on Crawford's "girl friend" ... who is Melissa.

Danno goes to the Olomana Restaurant where Melissa is now employed, telling her he now knows that she was busted twice for shoplifting and convicted both times. She says, "Well, that was then. This time I didn't do it," adding, "Danny, you still think of me as prom queen. I had to feed my baby. You can't make a meal out of pressed roses in a yearbook." When Danno brings up Crawford, Melissa says she doesn't know he is in Hawaii, adding, "Damn it, Danny. You're like the rest. One night and you think you own me." As Danno leaves, she acts pouty, saying, "I didn't mean it. I think you're very special."

Melissa is lying all over the place, beginning when she met Danno at the cop shop, where she told him she was trying on a watch in a department store and then "forgot" that she had left her own watch on the counter. She goes to see know-it-all Kimo, wanting to know where Crawford is. Kimo leers at her as the price for this information is knocked down from $500 to $300. When he suggests another $100 off for fooling around, she leaves.

Danno returns to Melissa's place again in a stern mood, telling her, "This is not fun and games. Roy Crawford just killed a woman." She still denies knowing anything about Crawford's whereabouts, and says she hasn't been his girl friend "for a long, long time ... a couple of years ... a lifetime ago."

After this, Melissa goes back to the pizza place and gives Kimo a piece of jewelry. Despite him saying that it is "junk" which is possibly "hot," he tells her that Crawford hangs out at the Dockside Bar.

There is trouble at the Five-O office, because, despite Melissa telling Danno she hasn't seen Crawford in years, McGarrett talked to the Seattle police, who said that six months ago, Crawford was cornered in that city, but shot his way out and killed a cop. At the time there was a woman with him and she had a baby ... again Melissa. Danno is pissed at what's been going on.

McGarrett tells him, "You're upset. Why don't you take off? Take a swim. Play some tennis. Boy, that lady really got to you, didn't she?" Danno replies, echoing the title of the episode, "Yeah, a long time ago."

Danno does not want to be taken off the case, but returns to Melissa's again, and this time McGarrett comes along. Confronting Melissa with her lie about Crawford, McGarrett gets heavy, threatening to have her busted for "anything from obstruction of justice to harboring a fugitive." However, he cannot charge her with anything, so he leaves, with Melissa wanting to talk to Danno alone. Once again, she turns on the charm, remembering the first place he kissed her, which was "on the roof of my parents' apartment in San Francisco." She tells him, "You never knew it, but I had you on kind of a pedestal." Pushed by Danno for any scrap of info which might help their case, she mentions the Dockside Bar. Danno relays this information to McGarrett, who will have surveillance put on the place.

Danno takes Melissa to lunch, and the two of them go to a park where she talks about a modelling career that she hoped to have after she dropped out in her junior year around the same time Danno was going to Berkeley. She tells Danno, "I'm glad you're not mad at me anymore," and he replies, "Never mad, Melissa. Just disappointed." She asks him to kiss her again, and, of course, he cannot refuse, but is interrupted by a radio call telling him to get to the Dockside. Melissa jumps in the car with him.

At the bar, Crawford is getting very drunk and hassling some hooker (Debi Parker). George Finn, an associate of his (Christerpher Neddels), shows up in a stolen Toyota pickup truck full of chickens. This seems to be just a coincidence, it's not like Crawford called him. The two men switch getups since Finn has seen cops outside, including Danno, who busted him three years before. Melissa somehow recognizes Crawford and climbs into the back of the truck with the chickens just at the moment the disguised Crawford is getting into it and can't see her, which seems improbable.

After Melissa and Crawford return to his hideout, Crawford leaves her to take part in a major caper he has been planning in cahoots with a bank guard named Ray Simpson (Beau van den Ecker). The Bank of the Islands, where Simpson works as a "special guard," is making a display of a million dollars in cash as part of the celebrations at a new branch which is opening.

There's an interesting stunt during the robbery where a steel reinforced Bronco designed by Finn with bulletproof glass windows drives through the front window of the bank, then backs out after the money is grabbed with Simpson jumping onto the hood where he gets shot off by some cops who have suddenly appeared outside. When the bank manager Guthrie (Bill Bigelow) is questioned about the robbers later, he says that he recognized Crawford's face as someone who was robbing banks on the mainland, which is interesting, since Crawford did not remove the gas mask he was wearing as a disguise.

Crawford returns to the hideout, where Melissa, who acts as if she wants to be with "nobody else" but him from now on, tends to a wound Crawford received during the shootout. Melissa has tipped off Five-O as to the location of the hideout, and Danno shows up, seemingly driving very quietly, since no one notices the sound of his car outside. When Danno enters the hideout, Melissa suddenly starts screaming at him to kill Crawford — "I hate him. I came here to kill him. But I want you to do it for me." — but Crawford escapes when she fires a shot at him using Crawford's gun. However, Crawford is grabbed outside by McGarrett and Duke, and Melissa is hysterical, screaming she doesn't want Crawford to be taken alive. She is comforted by Danno.

We finally find out what is going on, because Melissa received a letter earlier which made her break into tears (which we did not read) and McGarrett saw a copy of this letter later which concerned funeral arrangements for Melissa's daughter Beth (we could see it, but it did not provide any details).

McGarrett got Duke to look into what happened with Beth, and he found out that after the shootout in Seattle, Crawford, who was living with Melissa at the time and was always drunk, returned and beat the daughter so badly she later died. Melissa had come to Hawaii for revenge.

The show ends with some banalities from McGarrett, which is annoying, since the focus should really be on Danno.

The music in this show is by Dick DeBenedictus, which I liked in my earlier review. It is OK, but it has some pretty saccharine moments with strings which sound like they are in an echo chamber.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Mr. Tanaka shot by Roy Crawford during liquor store robbery.
Injury: Crawford shot by HPD officer.
Death: George Finn shot by HPD officer.
Death: Ray Simpson shot by HPD officer.

MORE TRIVIA:

• Kimo is hauled into the Five-O office because a "snitch" apparently told Five-O that Melissa had visited Kimo earlier. This is interesting — a snitch snitching on a snitch! None of this is actually seen in the show, though. Danno refers to Kimo as a "fat pig" when Kimo taunts him during a grilling, saying "You're getting cheap, Williams ... the lady had more to offer."
• Melissa's HPD rap sheet shows her address to be 252 Paoa Place — but this address conflicts with the apartment at The Alexander, which Danno got for her. Its address is 1505 Alexander, strangely enough, and her apartment is 219. This place is still there — see this shot and this one (thanks to Fred).
• Melissa was born in Seattle on 6/4/49, making her 29 years old (Katherine Cannon's birthday is Sept. 6, 1953) and she was arrested for shoplifting on 9/6/78 by HPD officer John Akalai. Her HPD mug shot number seems to be 0722250. Her father, John, either ran or worked for AAA Fence Co. in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her mother's name was Mary.
• Some of the food available at D&B's Lunch where Kimo works, including pizza: Anchovy & Mushrooms (Our Chef's Choice) — $3.25 (for 1), $5.75 (2), $7.95 (4); Mushroom & Cheese (Serves 2) — $5.50; Shrimp, Olive & Cheese (A Great Combination) — $3.75 to $8.25; Cheese (8 Great Favorites Blended on Thick Crust) — $3.95 / $5.25 / $6.95; Crispy Bacon, Pepperoni and Cheese (Our Specialty Pizza, Family Size — $7.75); Sicilian Style Pizza (Hot & Lots of Everything! Serves 4) — $7.95; Italian Sausage, 2 Eggs & Toast — $1.10. A sign on the door says "Thank you! Call Again," featuring Camel cigarettes. The number for take-out is 521-5165. In the same area are Charlene's Massage and another massage parlor, plus two adult theaters. A club advertises "Topless Girls" and "Go-Go Girls."
• The owner of the liquor store, Mrs. Tanaka (misspelled Tonoka in the DVD subtitles) is played by Marika Yamato. She turned up in the new Five-0 33 years later as the old woman who witnessed Kono (Grace Park) posing as a construction worker while McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) broke into the HPD money stash, and later identified Kono in a police lineup, which led to her (temporary) downfall.
• Guthrie, the bank manager, signs the delivery receipt for the million dollars cash, number 6055 from Drake Delivery Service, dated 6/9/78. This reveals Bill Bigelow to have been left-handed. The money is in the form of a hundred $10,000 bills. According to Wikipedia, this denomination of bills was officially discontinued on July 14, 1969 by the Federal Reserve System, though they were (and are) still legal tender.
• The date on this delivery receipt conflicts with the date on the forwarded letter that Melissa gets by mail from Wm. J. Mitchell at the Orchid Hill Cemetery, 1003 Strathmore Road in Seattle for her daughter's funeral services. It is dated September 8, 1978 for a funeral which took place on 8/3/78. The cost of the funeral was $250.00. Melissa's address in Seattle was 28 Main Street.
• Crawford is not very clever, since the Bronco has a rear license plate. As well, its back window is opened by Finn when he is putting the money in the car and not closed!
• When phoning McGarrett to bring him up to date on the case, Danno goes through the switchboard — surely he would know McGarrett's direct number. McGarrett gets back to the office very quickly after he leaves Danno and Melissa at her apartment. During the bank robbery, one of the two cops who happen upon the scene gets on the radio to report a "211 [bank robbery] in progress." His call goes directly through to McGarrett.
• The episode is directed by Robert L. Morrison, who was director of photography up until the eighth season.
• Waimanalo in the subtitles is spelled "Waimanalla."
• McGarrett wears a blue leisure suit.

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248. (S11E10) Why Won’t Linda Die? ★★

QUICK PLOT:

When a Canadian politician is the victim of a hit-and-run accident, McGarrett is faced with one of Five-O's most bizarre cases.

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REVIEW:

Directed by Jack Lord, not in a particularly interesting manner, this episode features an above-average performance by Sharon Farrell as Diana Forbes, a prissy, uptight schizophrenic woman who is a freelance writer. Three years ago she came to Honolulu to research a magazine article and fell in love with the place. She persuaded her sister Linda, a gregarious and promiscuous airline stewardess who was born 10 months after she was, to move there to be with her. Because Linda stole Diana's boyfriend Paul Evans away from her, Linda murdered her by drowning and since then has sometimes assumed Linda's identity. Farrell also plays Diana as Linda.

There is some Canadian colour in this episode: when the two sisters lived in Toronto, Diana was having an affair with Evans (Geoffrey Heise), a member of the Canadian Parliament. He gets killed in the opening scene, not very convincingly. He is waiting to meet Linda near Hanauma Bay; you can see the ocean in the background. Linda runs him off a cliff, which is silly in the way it is handled, because there is plenty of room for him to avoid her car. Later, the headlight of this car, rented from Char Auto Rental on Lagoon Drive, is shown as broken, and there were fragments of paint from the car on Evans' clothing, yet it seems to have barely tapped him before he fell over the cliff to his death on the rocks below.

Five-O gets a call from the RCMP in Toronto to investigate this fatal hit and run, and Danno and Duke go to check out Evans' room, where he is registered under the name of Edward Carver. His hotel is supposedly the Ilikai, but it's actually the Rainbow Tower, part of the Hilton Hotel complex next door to the Ilikai. In an attaché case in Evans' room, Danno finds some letters addressed to him at his Canadian address, 11 Dunfee Way, Toronto, including one sent three weeks before by Linda from Hawaii with two 15 cent American orange eagle stamps on it. Other letters in the case have Canadian stamps with typical pictures of Queen Elizabeth. Linda's Honolulu address on the letters is 127 Kapiolani (Danno says Kailani Avenue, which is what's in the subtitles), Honolulu 96115.

McGarrett goes to this address, where he meets Diana, who gives him a frosty reception. Linda supposedly also lives there, and when McGarrett asks Diana what her relation is to Linda, and she says "her sister," McGarrett says, "Well, it could've been a cousin, a sister-in-law, couldn't it?" which seems kind of a dumb thing to say. McGarrett asks Diana several questions, including some relating to Evans, but eventually she refuses to talk to him any further. He leaves and after he is gone, she rips up the business card which he gave her.

After this, we see an airline pilot, Dave Coleman (James Whay), who just returned to Hawaii, phoning Diana to break a date because he wants to hang out with "an old buddy from Vietnam." But Coleman is lying. He wants to get together with Linda, who we soon see in a stewardess outfit. It looks like Linda has just gotten off a flight, but we later find out that she called in sick and hasn't been out of town. The time frame between the call from Coleman to Diana and this encounter between Linda and Coleman has not been established. If it's soon after, it's hard to understand how Diana could have transformed into Linda (whose hair is black – a wig) and gotten quickly to the place where she met Coleman, with whom Linda is carrying on a romance. Maybe we are talking about the "afternoon after"?

However, we soon get a time frame when Diana comes to the Five-O office, where she wants to apologize for her "attitude" yesterday. We later find out that after Coleman and Linda got together (yesterday, I guess), she stayed at his place overnight where they probably "did it" and Linda went home to her and Diana's apartment in the morning.

At the office, Diana shows some pictures to McGarrett, from a box of Linda's mementos, of her sister with a man taken four years ago in Canada, as per dates on their back. McGarrett identifies the guy as Evans. Diana says "I never heard of the man until yesterday. Linda never told me about him." She confides in McGarrett: "There's something you should know before you talk to Linda … She has a problem. A psychological problem … Periodic lapses of memory … She's seen several psychiatrists in Toronto, and she saw one here … a Dr. Robert Fleming. But he hasn't helped her. None of them have … It's possible Linda may have had a relationship with Paul Evans and not remember a thing about it." When she met McGarrett yesterday, by the way, Diana told him that Linda "was with me, at home, all day, all evening [presumably on the day that Evans was killed]," though she first told him that she didn't really know where Linda was, mostly likely "working a flight to Los Angeles."

McGarrett goes to see Coleman, who lives at 2525 Date Street, Apartment 1404. He finds the pilot in a pool outside the place. Coleman tells McGarrett "I've got a problem, but I brought it on myself." Coleman used to date Diana, which was "never that serious," but he switched to Linda, about which Diana knows nothing. Coleman says he finds the situation "a little awkward" because "they are sisters," adding, after some hesitation, "There's something wrong there. I mean, they're sisters, they live together, but they're like strangers. Lately, I've had the feeling that, uh, maybe Linda went after me just to spite Diana. I don't know how I got myself involved in this, Mr. McGarrett, but right now, all I want to do is get out without any hassles."

Coleman is supposed to meet Linda for lunch at the Mahali Mahi, but McGarrett goes in his place. Coleman phones Linda to warn her of this arrangement and after he arrives, she is charming and chatty, and laughs at the prospect of McGarrett arresting her. Asked about her relationship with Evans, Linda says, "I haven't seen him for over a year," which conflicts with the date on the letter that Danno found in the hotel. She says she met Evans while she was living with Diana in Toronto. Evans visited her in Hawaii a few times. "Finally, I told him I wasn't interested in seeing him anymore. But he wouldn't give up. He kept writing and calling. I told him he was wasting his time, but he came anyway."

In the next scene, Coleman meets with Diana. He tells her that the airline has transferred him to Seattle and that he asked for this transfer. Diana is shocked, realizing that Coleman is dumping her. Diana suspects that Linda put Coleman up to this, but he says, "I'm not running away from anyone. I just don't like the situation … I haven't told her I'm leaving." Soon after this, Coleman gets a phone call from Linda, and he breaks the bad news to her as well. Linda wants to come to his place to talk about this, and he says OK, but he tries to contact McGarrett at Five-O. He looks up McGarrett's number in his flip-open address book, which seems odd – why would it be there? Unfortunately, McGarrett is not at his desk … probably for the first time in the history of the show!

Soon after this, Coleman's body is found underwater in a pool outside his apartment, which looks more like some decorative rockery pool than a swimming pool or even the hot tub-like pool where McGarrett talked to Coleman earlier. Some bikinied babe notices his body and screams in a totally phony manner. When Danno shows up with Duke, the coroner, played by John Zenda, who was in "Deadly Courier" earlier this season, is very snotty and gives him a bunch of sarcasm, but Danno has been kind of sarcastic himself. Zenda's character is 180 degrees from the kindly Doc Bergman. Later when McGarrett gets a call from Danno's "friend, the coroner," he is told that "There wasn't any water in Coleman's lungs. He was murdered before he hit the water." It is curious as to how Diana/Linda did this, since Coleman was not some wimpy guy, and there would have been a good chance that someone nearby or in the apartment above might have seen him getting killed. But let's not think too hard about this…

McGarrett goes to talk to Linda, but of course, she is not at the apartment. Diana tells McGarrett about her conversation with Coleman, that "I warned him to be careful how he told her [Linda — that he was leaving Hawaii] because she's so emotionally unpredictable." Trying to track Linda down, McGarrett borrows an address book of hers that Diana gives him, but it doesn't provide any useful information. McGarrett then talks to Linda's psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Fleming (Lyle Bettger, the series' most overused guest star playing different characters in later seasons). He tells McGarrett, "The only thing I can say with certainty about Linda Forbes, psychologically, is that she is a very confused young woman with a great deal of suppressed hostility, particularly toward her sister Diana. And I also believe that Linda is bordering on schizophrenia … During one of our early sessions, I asked Linda about her sister. Well, her frivolous attitude turned off just like that. She became very bitter, and then proceeded to tell me with malicious glee how she had deliberately broken up a romance some years ago between Diana and a man in Toronto." (This man was Evans.)

Back at the office, McGarrett runs ideas off Danno: "There's something about this case I can't get a handle on … [I]t's those two sisters that I can't figure out. Linda apparently hates her sister but she goes on living with her. And at the same time, Diana comes to see me, she says she wants to protect Linda. But she gives me information that actually incriminates her … David Coleman said there was something strange there. So did Dr. Fleming. They were right. There is. Something much stronger than sibling rivalry. And I'm gonna find out what it is."

When McGarrett goes to the sisters' apartment again, where Diana is packing to leave town. He tells the taxi driver to forget about taking her bags downstairs and tells her that she is not going anywhere. When she balks, he threatens to hold her in jail as a material witness. At the office again where he is working late, McGarrett gets a call from Diana who says she heard from Linda, who wants to meet her the next morning. Despite the fact that Diana refused, saying she never wanted to see her sister again, McGarrett goes to the Hawaii Kai Mall, where the meeting was supposed to take place, though why Linda would show up there considering her sister's refusal is odd. McGarrett goes there anyway and sees Linda waiting in her stewardess outfit, clutching a bouquet of red anthuriums. After Diana doesn't show up, driving her MG Roadster she leads McGarrett on a chase, muttering to herself and accompanied by incredibly dull music. This goes on for over two minutes, during which it looks like McGarrett loses her a couple of times, and she inexplicably drives up the long hill seen in numerous other episodes like season twelve's "Voice of Terror."

Linda ends up at the most moth-eaten cemetery imaginable, where there is a grave for Linda which is marked by a large cross with only "LINDA R.I.P." on it. With a smile on her face, Linda puts three leis on the cross and starts to recite the Lord's Prayer while crying. She is interrupted by McGarrett, who says, "You killed her too, didn't you Diana?" When Linda says, "I'm not Diana. I'm... I'm Linda. I'm Linda," McGarrett responds, "Linda's alive only up here. In your mind." He pulls off her black wig, revealing that this is indeed Diana, who has a full-fledged meltdown: "I killed her! She was a cannibal! She was eating me alive! I killed her! She took Paul away from me! And I knew she would take David away from me. That's why I killed her. I killed her … I drowned her. We were at the beach. We were at the beach and... She... She can't swim. It was a lonely place. Nobody was around. And I saw my chance. I just got her in the water and I held her head under it … Nobody saw me. I had to do it. I had to kill her. And she won't die. She won't die! She won't die! Oh, why won't Linda die?"

McGarrett comforts her, and the two of them leave.

Uh … OK … but there are so many questions unanswered. Aside from no one seeing Diana killing Linda (similar to no one seeing Linda kill Coleman), what happened after this? When someone is murdered, you usually have to do something with the body. Was this reported to the police, which I'm sure would have resulted in an inquiry of some kind? Did Diana just haul the body to her car and take it home? How did the body get buried in this pitiful cemetery? If it was done through a funeral home, there would be paperwork and more questions. Did Diana just dig a grave by herself and put Linda's body in it?

There are other questions, too, like how could Diana could have fooled the lovers who were attracted to her in her dual role. How could "Linda" keep her wig on during sex, for example. Or why didn't the boyfriends or Dr. Fleming or even McGarrett recognize similarities between the two women's bodies – like the small mole below their right eyes? If McGarrett was suspicious of the two women, why didn't he have either of them tailed? Etc., etc.!!

Anyway, as mentioned early on in this review, Farrell at least gives a very dramatic performance, even if the script is full of idiocies. But the script is not the worst thing about this show. What really sabotages it is the score by John Cacavas, one of his — and my nomination for the series' — worst. A prominent melody which sounds like Ennio Morricone is particularly awful, almost to the point of being comic, whether it's whistled and/or sung and/or played by a solo cello. Terrible!

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Paul Evans hit with car and forced over cliff by Diana Forbes.
Death: David Coleman killed (we are not told specifically how) and pushed into pool of water by Diana.

MORE TRIVIA:

• When asked about the possibility of Evans having had an affair with Linda, McGarrett says, "Boy, those stews get around, don't they?"
• The music, in addition to being generally terrible, is especially boring for the "waves." A harpsichord is heard in the score.
• The reference number of the car that Linda rented which was used to kill Evans at the beginning of the show was 16543. The rental company was in Kaimuki, but the subtitles translate this as "Kama Key."

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249. (S11E11) The Miracle Man ★★★

QUICK PLOT:

A visiting evangelist's behavior draws suspicions after he is the object of an assassination attempt.

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REVIEW:

Five-O is called in after the attempted assassination, broadcast live on TV where it is seen by "the Governor and the rest of the world," of Reverend Andy Norwood (Keith Baxter), an evangelist visiting Hawaii on a crusade. After the assassin, Jim Nelson (Pepper Martin), who hails from San Diego and was actually using an unloaded gun, is arrested, he tells McGarrett that Andy is "a fake, a liar, a Rasputin — he mesmerizes people, they'll do anything for him." Nelson says the minister had designs on his wife Marian who donated $12,000, all their family's savings, to Andy's Miracle Crusade and then left her husband to join his church. Following this, Marian was killed in an automobile accident under suspicious circumstances.

The Governor is disturbingly chummy with Andy and his sleazy manager Oscar Ross (James Sikking). Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? The Governor tells McGarrett "it's quite an honor that [Andy] is here," adding, "I'm really very concerned that this be handled very judiciously, if you know what I mean." When McGarrett protests, saying "I'll have to run it as I see fit, sir," the Governor tells him, "I know you'll do it your way, anyway," adding, perhaps with tongue in cheek, "You have my blessings."

McGarrett manages to get past Ross and ask Andy some questions about Marian Nelson, but he denies knowing her. When McGarrett asks Andy about the qualifications for his job, he replies, "My calling came when I was in jail. I was born Andrew Norwood, outside Manchester in England. I guess you could say I graduated from the University of the Streets, with a master's degree in what Americans call hustle. I was in and out of jails from the time that I was 14. Then one night, I was stabbed in a prison brawl. The wound was severe. I barely made it back to my cell. I prayed to God that I might live. I prayed hard. I believed. In my mind, I pictured my body perfect again. And the next morning, when I woke up, there wasn't a mark on me. It was a miracle. The holes were still in my shirt. The dried blood was on the sheets. And from that day on, I dedicated myself to God and to teaching others that miracles can happen to them too. And that includes you, brother McGarrett."

While this has been going on, Danno tried to ask questions of a couple of prominent "sisters" connected with Andy's organization, but they look like they didn't tell him anything. He has more luck with Sister Harmony (Jean Marsh), also from England, who tells him that Andy sent her to the hospital with flowers for Marian Nelson after the accident, but "she didn't last long enough to see them." When Danno asks if Andy had a "special interest" in Marian, Harmony tells him, "There's no room in Reverend Andy's life for anything but God, and spreading his word." She tells him that she is living testimony to being a "miracle," because she was a streetwalker in London, and Andy "saved my soul." She compares Andy to Jesus!

McGarrett is curious about "how religious organizations handle their money," among other things, and he sends Duke to the mainland to see what he can find out about Marian Nelson's accident as well as the construction of a tabernacle for Andy in Arizona. From Marian's former San Diego neighbor Lee Wilkens (Peggy Anne Siegmund), Duke finds out that Nelson's wife was determined to see Andy personally. In Arizona, Duke checks out the church in Joshua City which looks to be on the up-and-up. Meanwhile, Danno has lunch with Tom Kewala (Harry Chang), a financial advisor, who tells him that there are some fishy things concerning the land where the tabernacle will be built, which was purchased from the Apache Land Company.

When McGarrett is seen by Ross talking to Sister Harmony about a "retreat" in Honolulu where Andy has gone to "pray and cleanse his thoughts," word gets to Andy, who senses bad publicity on the horizon. He stages a press conference in front of HPD headquarters where Nelson is still being held in jail, and announces that he is "turning the other cheek" and dropping charges against his assassin, not only refunding the $12,000 that Nelson's wife donated earlier, but giving her husband more money, a total of $25,000 "to help Jim Nelson get a new start in life."

An incredulous McGarrett goes and talks to the Governor about this gesture, who says that "evangelism is as American as apple pie." The Governor is already under pressure from Ross, who wants him to tell McGarrett to be more "tactful" in dealing with Andy and avoid "unsettling" questions. McGarrett tells the Governor that Andy's "divine gesture" is just "conscience money."

Danno has been doing some digging on information he got from his friend Tom. He finds out that the Apache Land Company, which is controlled by Ross and Andy, bought the tabernacle land for $10 an acre, and later sold it for $1,400 an acre to themselves. McGarrett says that this "may not be illegal, but it's certainly unethical." Danno has also found out that the story about Andy getting stabbed in prison and miraculously being healed is likely baloney.

After some HPD cops who have Andy under surveillance at his "retreat" notice Sister Sarah from the organization (Jacquelyn Campbell) also going into the place, McGarrett and Danno decide to put a bug in Sister Harmony's ear, and Danno mentions this to her. Soon after, Harmony goes there and sees Andy and Sarah together, with the suggestion that they were "doing it." Harmony starts to have an emotional breakdown and drives away from the scene, almost causing an accident, and is later found off the wagon in a bar on Hotel Street.

Ross is distraught because his racket connected with Andy is on the verge of collapse. When he tells Andy that Harmony wants to blab everything to McGarrett, Andy tells him, "Would you take the word of an ex-whore against that of the Lord's own chosen minister?" Andy says he had a similar experience with Marian Nelson who caught him with another woman in La Jolla where his retreat near San Diego was located, which is why she ended up running into a telephone pole after also getting overwrought. Ross tells Andy, "Couldn't you be more careful? Look how far we've come, and you want to give it all up for some cheap tramp [meaning Sister Sarah]?"

At Andy's final crusade meeting, Harmony shows up, acting as if she wants to return to the fold. But the microphone she has attached to her is live, and she asks Andy questions backstage about Marian Nelson. He tells her, "I think she was a bit unstable. I tried to calm her, but she went screaming off. That sounds so cold. But I know you're discreet enough to keep our little secret in the family." McGarrett is standing next to Harmony and grills Andy with questions about the financial improprieties connected with the tabernacle.

Meanwhile, all this conversation is being fed through speakers in the auditorium where people are assembling. They listen to it and file out in disgust. When Andy, alerted by Ross, comes to the hall, he starts pleading with people to stay, and ends up babbling incoherently, his whole mission and life in shambles.

Perhaps Five-O was ahead of its time in dealing on TV with this touchy subject matter, later brought to the forefront of the news by hypocritical and horny evangelists like Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker, among many others. At the end, although the crowds at the Honolulu Concert Hall abandon Andy's crusade, he actually hasn't broken any laws!

The acting by both Keith Baxter as Andy and James Sikking as Ross is very good and makes you totally dislike both of them. On IMDb, someone commented that Jean Marsh's accent was if she had been voice coached by Dick Van Dyke. She would have been more effective if she didn't try to overemphasize being a Cockney. (When she describes Andy as "a hypocrite," she pronounces this "an 'ipocrite.")

The effective score by Fred Steiner uses snippets of the hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves," sung by the "sisters" choir at the beginning of the show, but later played just by the orchestra in a minor key.

CASUALTY LIST:

Injury (x3): Three people shoved by Jim Nelson in order to get on stage.
Injury (x3): Nelson shoves another three people from The Miracle Crusade.
Injury: Nelson subdued by The Miracle Crusade security.
Injury: Sister Harmony found passed out by HPD in a bar without any ID.

MORE TRIVIA:

• The show is directed by Lawrence Dobkin, who plays General Oban in the season finale, "The Year of the Horse."
• Ed Fernandez appears as an HPD Sergeant. Behind him at headquarters is the Crimestoppers-like sign with the phone number 944-1212.
• Duke uses McGarrett's clear blackboard in the Five-O office to illustrate connections between Andy's organization some big shot in the Apache Land Company. He is named R.O. Windom, same last name as actor William who appeared in two Five-O episodes.
• McGarrett is seen playing with a camera in his office, and later uses it to take pictures of the Reverend for some inexplicable reason. The action freezes whenever McGarrett's shutter clicks.
• "MT" on the crusade's podium and members' arm bands might mean "Miracle Tabernacle"; Darrell Fung suggests it means "Miracle Tour."
• When McGarrett sends Duke to San Diego, he suggests that while Duke is there, he should go to a San Diego Chargers game, an interesting comment in light of Herman Wedemeyer's football career.
• Both the Governor and Sister Harmony look kind of anorexic.
• Reverend Andy is staying at the Ilikai Hotel — at first, the camera shows the building known as the Marina Tower (now condominiums), but later on the camera pans up the outside of the main hotel building.
• McGarrett is wearing a very nice suit when he is talking to Sister Harmony at HPD. She tells him, "You were right, you and your man. About everything." He says, "Well, that's what we get paid for, Sister."

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250 & 251. (S11E12 & S11E13) Number One With A Bullet ★★★  BOOK HIM 

QUICK PLOT:

The mainland syndicate tries to muscle in on the Hawaiian music business, already under the control of local gangsters.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

This is a surprisingly logical two-parter focusing on mob influence in the Hawaiian music industry and disco scene. There are numerous disco hits on the soundtrack, and a featured role for real-life singer Yvonne Elliman as Yvonne Kanekoa, sister of disco owner Sonny Kanekoa (Richard Dimitri) who finds himself in a heap of trouble.

Elliman's singing career began in 1969 in London, where she performed at various bars and clubs. While still an unknown, she was discovered by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who asked her to sing Mary Magdalene's part for the original audio recording of Jesus Christ Superstar. After its release as an album in 1970, they invited her to join the stage show's traveling cast, which she did for four years. She later reprised her role in the 1973 film version of the musical.

In this episode, Yvonne's boyfriend, Johnny Munroe (James Darren) has written two potential hit songs for her, but resists getting involved with gangster Ray Santoro (Antony Ponzini) who's working for the smart-mouthed kumu (Hawaiian mob) boss Tony Alika (Ross Martin, in the first of four appearances). Munroe has a reputation of being kind of a loser. According to Danno, "He played Vegas some, lounges, made some records. One time, it looked like he was gonna break through … One day there was an article in Variety saying Johnny fired his manager [who] was using Johnny's money on the tables. It all just faded away."

At the beginning of the show, Santoro tries to convince Bernie Adams (John Barry), Sonny's partner from the mainland, to take services from Hawaiian Restaurant Supplies, a kumu-run outfit, and Bernie tells him, "Look, boy, you may be some kind of gangster to the folks on this island, but I see you around here again, I'm gonna get some boys over here from down home who'll chew you up and spit you out." Shortly after this, Bernie's car is blown up with him in it. Santoro takes Adams' place as Sonny's new partner.

Santoro's previous employment included handling "the Colombo family's musical interests," referring to the real-life East coast Mafia family. Interestingly, later, the Mafia is referred to as "the Company." Alika is not too happy about Santoro's involvement in Bernie's demise, telling him, "I wasn't too pleased with the way you dealt with that Texan ... I just want your assurance that ... you won't attract any more unnecessary attention."

After he is beaten up by two goons working for Santoro, including Reed (Bernard Ching, a real-life member of the Honolulu Police force and Five-O stock actor), Munroe returns to the mainland where he enlists the help of the "head of the West Coast mob" Allie Francis (Nehemiah Persoff, giving a great performance). We later learn that Adams was one of Francis' "soldiers," which provokes an extreme reaction from Santoro who attacks Sonny, as if Sonny knew this all along, and thus invited Francis' interference in local affairs which would conflict with Santoro's own ambitions.

During his investigation, McGarrett talks to lounge singer and bar owner Sally (Melveen Leed) about "the music business in this town." She tells him, "One of these days I'm gonna get you so smashed I'm gonna find out what's behind that all-business front you put up." McGarrett replies, "Sally, you better watch out, I might take you up on that invitation one of these days or nights." Several years ago, someone sent me a recording of dailies from this part of the episode, a very rare item considering no outtakes or goofs from the show seem to have survived.

Francis arrives in Honolulu with his retinue, ostensibly to pursue music and disco business opportunities, but McGarrett and Five-O prepare for an all-out gang war, especially after a car containing Sonny and Santoro on their way to meet with Alika is run off the road by shotgun-toting hoods connected to Francis who arrive in town after the kumu leave a fish hanging in Francis' hotel room shower as a welcoming gesture.

After this incident, McGarrett pays a visit to Francis, giving him an obligatory airline ticket back to the mainland. When Francis asks McGarrett, "Why do you stick your neck out [in your job as a cop]? I mean, what's in it for you?", there's an extraordinary scene where McGarrett, almost with tears in his eyes, reveals what motivated him to become a policeman:

"I'll tell you what's in it for me. When I was 13 years old, I stood in a rainy cemetery one morning, holding my mother's hand, and watched my father's body lowered into a wet grave. It took my mother 20 years of backbreaking work to bring us up and educate us. Well, uh, everybody dies, McGarrett. Yeah, but not at 42. On his way home from work, three days before that, my father was run down and killed by some bastard like you, who had just held up a supermarket and was making his getaway. I never even had a chance to say goodbye. Standing in the rain that morning, I knew right then I wanted to be a cop. And since then, I've had a hundred better reasons. And each one of them had a name and a face and dirty hands, just like you. So when I tell you to get your tail off this island, mister, you better believe me."

The use of the word "bastard" is pretty strong for 1979 TV, but the DVDs of the show have revealed as least two previous uses of this word, in S07E03, "I'll Kill 'Em Again" and S10E10, "Tsunami." It was also heard in an episode of Kojak almost four years earlier.

Considering that Alika was the one who "hired" Santoro, the kumu boss's attitude changed quickly when Santoro befriended Yvonne early in the show, trying to come between her and Munroe. Santoro then told Alika, "A few more days she's gonna realize I can do all the things Munroe can only talk about ... Munroe will be no problem, I promise you that." Alika told Santoro, "The one thing we don't need right now is another body. And if there is one, there's gonna be a third: Yours."

Santoro really gets out of control when he has some cocaine delivered to Munroe, but instead it ends up in Yvonne's hands and she is busted by the cops, who Santoro tipped off. Munroe is furious and confronts Santoro with a gun, but he is shot dead when he is distracted by Sonny. Near the end of the show, Alika is so fed up by Santoro's antics that he tells him, "If I could offer you as a sacrifice, if I could offer you as a peace offering to Francis, I would do it. I just don't want the kumu to look weak."

McGarrett solves Alika's dilemma by busting Santoro while bringing Alika and Francis face to face, leaving them to sort out their differences as a couple of federal agents prepare to talk to both of them. This is kind of a letdown after all that we have been through. McGarrett tells Danno, "After Sonny Kanekoa and Santoro get through talking to us, we'll have enough material about Francis and Alika's extortion money and skimming for the IRS to write a book on the fine points of tax evasion."

While there is a lot of music heard in this show, it is integral to the story, and the production values, including the photography and costumes, especially in the disco and club scenes, are very good.

I don't know what the big deal is with disco, that some people consider it the worst music of all time. After all, people enjoyed dancing to it in the late 1970s. I have to admit that I find McGarrett rocking back and forth at the end of the show during Yvonne's big concert finale, where she miraculously recovers quickly from the shock of her boyfriend being knocked off, to be kind of corny, though.

WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?

From The Free Dictionary:

1. Of a song, number-one on Billboard Magazine's charting system and still gaining in terms of sales or playtime on the radio. (The "bullet" in this phrase refers to an icon placed next to a song that makes rapid progress in the charts.)

2. By extension, far better than anything/anyone else; having rapidly become the best, most authoritative, or most dominant among others in a certain group.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Bernard "Bernie" Adams dies in car explosion.
Injury: Front door guard at Tony Alika's house knocked down by McGarrett.
Injury: Johnny Munroe beaten by Santoro's two thugs, Reed and Eddie.
Injury: Munroe punches Reed.
Injury: Sonny Kanekoa attacked by Santoro, who tries to strangle him.
Injury: Santoro injured in car wreck when run off road by Allie Francis' soldiers.
Death: Munroe shot by Santoro after gun is knocked out of his hands.
Injury: Duke knocked down by mini-bus as he’s chasing Sonny.

MORE TRIVIA:

• The disco tunes in the first part of the show, including music by The Bee Gees, have been retained on the DVD of the eleventh season, but a couple of musical excerpts in part two have been replaced with generic music.
• McGarrett wears his blue leisure suit.
• When Yvonne gets into Santoro's huge limousine and he closes the door, you can briefly see the reflection of the camera crew.
• There is a nice contrast with one of the "waves" where Yvonne sees Munroe's gun ... the music instead of the usual ominous build-up is very low-key.
• Jimmy Borges appears briefly as a disco owner. Alika's manservant Billy Swan, played in this episode by Vic Malo, is portrayed by Jerry Boyd in subsequent shows.
• Joey Lee (Brian Tochi), who was sprung from prison by McGarrett in S11E08, "The Pagoda Factor," has achieved respectable employment in this episode as a DJ at Sonny's disco. His exclaiming "All right, get down and boogey! [sic]" as the show opens is not one of its highlights.
• In Act One, when Munroe has finished writing the song "In A Stranger's Arms," he is first playing the tune very quietly on the piano and it sounds OK, but when Yvonne turns on the recorder and they make a demo of the song, the piano sounds totally different and out of tune.
• Allie Francis stays at the Ilikai.
• The 1978 date is seen on a calendar.
• The Kalihi district of Honolulu is identified as having some special ties to the kumu.
• At the end, McGarrett tells Duke to "book him," referring to Santoro. The charge is murder one.

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252. (S11E14) The Meighan Conspiracy ★

QUICK PLOT:

A fortress-like, burglar-proof Honolulu bank is robbed of a fortune, and Five-O is stumped.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

The gimmick in this episode is totally stupid. Businessman, "outstanding citizen" and philanthropist Matthew Meighan (Robert Reed) builds shopping malls – not just in Hawaii, but also on the mainland — which include a bank and a music store next to the bank with a control panel that enables people to enter the bank from below using passageways and a complex mechanism that opens a door in the floor of the bank's vault.

The show begins with one such vault in a Honolulu bank – the First Security Bank of Oahu (FSBO) — having been plundered of the valuables in its safety deposit boxes, which produces a very loud scream from one of its female employees, Mrs. Tanaka.

There are plenty of questions about the FSBO robbery, which took place in the hours overnight between opening and closing on a specific day, not even on a weekend. This bank is supposedly in the Plaza Mall, also developed previously by Meighan's company, though it is seen in other episodes like S12E14, "The Golden Noose," where it looks like it is not only in downtown Honolulu (under the same name!), but there are other issues having to do with its location.

In this show, it is later determined that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) inspector who was supposed to confirm "eight solid feet of steel-reinforced concrete" below the FSBO vault was on the take, but if this was not constructed originally, how could this have been done in such a short time frame after the robbery? And there was also the passageway through the music store or whatever store was "next" to the bank which contained the complex mechanism opening the floor and producing stairs up to the vault. Wouldn't this store's basement also have to be filled in to totally cover up the crime? There is no suggestion in the show that either of these things happened. It typically takes concrete up to 24 hours to harden, up to 28 days to fully cure. As well, Meighan's "associates" are not tradespeople capable of doing this, at least as seen in the show, but shifty crook types.

McGarrett is so desperate for a solution as to why the impenetrable FSBO bank was looted, he gets two hired men to drill holes in its vault's marble floor, much to the horror of the bank manager Monty Doheni (Hedley Mattingly), which suggests that at that point, there is indeed concrete under the marble — though we don't see how deep the drills really go. When the drilling starts, Meighan looks nervous for a few seconds, but he is just jerking McGarrett around; he is really laughing at him.

Near the end of the show when Meighan's scheme is exposed in a current construction project in Honolulu at the Wapahanu Shopping Center, we see the floor of that location's bank vault opening very obviously, but no one can previously find any cracks or joins in any of the floors in either this new bank or those robbed previously, including the FBSO. (Don't tell me that at the Wapahanu bank the floor looks like linoleum and it would be covered by marble like at the FSBO … how could this be done from below after the robbery?!?)

At the Wapahanu Center, we also see workmen delivering a "truckload [of bags] of cement." McGarrett suggests to Meighan at the end of the show as he walks them through his brainstormed recreation of the crime that this cement was for "getting ready to fill up this passage after you rifled this new bank vault."

It is very peculiar that the local people who Meighan contracts to build the shopping malls have no clue that anything is unusual about the complicated floor-opening mechanism which has all these science-fiction-like lights as well as the passageways between the music store and the bank.

There is another issue in relation to these robberies — plundering the banks would be restricted to when the mall or the bank first opened, and the music store would likely open sometime later. Could you expect the bank's safety deposit boxes in the vault to be full of expensive things when the bank was new, as opposed to a well-established bank that had been there for years?

A heavily-mechanized gimmick like the one in this show is something that Mission: Impossible used to do very well, but in this Five-O episode, it's like the writer, Seeleg Lester, who wrote several of the all-time turkeys for the series, came up with this idea and then worked backwards without thinking very hard.

Too bad, because there are some interesting things about the story, especially the way Danno and Duke pursue leads that lead to Meighan's arrest. Danno gets an interesting lesson in how to track down corporations from a stockbroker friend. Duke is sent to the mainland, where he buys a harmonica because he gets homesick for Hawaiian music and we find out he can't play the ukulele!

Five-O seems pretty adept at uncovering various false fronts which Meighan has set up to disguise his schemes, some of which involve his wife Dorothy Deborah (Barbara Anderson) being involved with these outfits under her maiden name of D.D. Jonas. It is also very fishy, in an obvious way, that other banks on the mainland connected with Meighan in Chicago, St. Paul and Wichita were similarly plundered to the one in Honolulu, and they all had a music store next to them.

Robert Reed as Meighan has some amusing repartee with McGarrett, who is frustrated because he can't come up with any "concrete" evidence (pun intended). Meighan is far too smug, at one point referring to McGarrett as a "pussycat." His wife tries to act seductive towards McGarrett, who addresses her as "board chairman ... or should I say chairperson." In an earlier scene, she and her husband talk about going inside their rented house, which is the Anderson Estate, and pulling the blinds, i.e., "doing it."

There's some amusement between McGarrett and Danno. Coming out of the Oceania floating Chinese restaurant, McGarrett says his fortune cookie suggested "a beautiful blond will soon complicate your life" (i.e., Meighan's wife). Danno asks if he would like to trade fortunes — Danno's was "You'll soon encounter a tall, dark, handsome man." This sequence is one long tracking shot which goes on for over a minute and a half, and is followed by another tracking shot as Danno talks to bank inspector Bob Sullivan (Bob Sevey) in downtown Honolulu which is almost a minute long.

The ending of the episode — with the Governor paying an unusual visit to the Five-O office — is unbelievably mediocre, almost as bad as the beginning when the Governor delegates McGarrett to talk to Doheni from the FSBO which has just been robbed and then brushes him off because he has to go and attend the Wapahanu Center opening along with its developer, Meighan.

The smarty-pants theme for Meighan by John Cacavas seems more appropriate to a situation comedy, and the music overall for the episode is a far cry from the classic scores by Morton Stevens and others. The first two waves in this show have no suspense whatsoever. There are some lame attempts at humor during the show as well.

CASUALTY LIST:

None! The seventh instance in the series.

MORE TRIVIA:

• At the beginning of the show where the Governor and Meighan are officiating at the opening of the new shopping center, in the background is a stand selling hot malasadas, a kind of hole-less doughnut which was introduced to Hawaii by the Portuguese.
• McGarrett wears his blue leisure suit.
• When McGarrett arrives at the newly constructed mall, he leaves the wipers on his car running, but in a subsequent scene they are shut off. When he starts up the car and leaves, they are on again.
• Good McGarrett quote: "Everyone is a suspect until proven otherwise."
• There is a stock shot of McGarrett's car — the Park Lane from early seasons — driving from left to right past the "balcony" near the Transportation Building.
• When receiving a phone call from Duke on the mainland, McGarrett asks the receptionist Luana to "put it on speaker," something which is usually under McGarrett's control.
• Inside the Wapahanu bank vault, there is a box which looks like it contained some Panasonic hi-fi equipment like an amplifier. The "Pana" in the trade name is blacked out, leaving only "sonic."
• When he returns to the Five-O office, Duke displays several instant camera pictures that he took during his trip, which look like Polaroid photos.
• According to McGarrett, there were 3,296 bank robberies in the USA during a recent year.
• A street sign at the corner of the 1100 Nuuanu Street is seen.
• The office of Deak & Co., an actual investment firm, is seen during the show quite close to the FSBO.
• Dorothy Meighan smokes.

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253. (S11E15) The Spirit Is Willie ★★  BOOK HIM, DANNO 

QUICK PLOT:

Mystery writer Millicent Shand is convinced that the death of her niece's husband was part of a scheme to bilk the niece of her inheritance.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

In this episode, best-selling mystery author and friend of the Governor Millicent Shand (Mildred Natwick), previously seen in S10E21, "Frozen Assets," makes a return appearance.

This time, aside from hawking her new book based on events from the previous show, she is on the case of spiritualist Sebastian Rolande (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Robert Vaughan), an "unprincipled opportunist" who she thinks is connected with the drowning of Jeremy Walker (Ross Borden), the husband of her niece Carole (Diana Scarwid), which happened the previous week.

Millicent, who was appointed by her late rich brother Martin's estate to make sure Carole didn't fritter away her inheritance, thinks that Jeremy faked his own death in cahoots with Rolande so the latter could fleece Carole by asking her for contributions to his spiritualist "research group" as well as getting money by conducting séances where the "dead" Jeremy communicates with her. The Governor assigns McGarrett to help Millicent investigate her claims.

After Jeremy disappeared while searching for black coral on his "last dive," four expert scuba divers spent twelve hours trying unsuccessfully to find his body, but Millicent is convinced there is a conspiracy connected with his death, because Jeremy, in her opinion, was a "fortune-hunter," taking advantage of Carole, "a dear, innocent, ingenuous child, head over heels in love with a scamp."

McGarrett and Carole go to visit Rolande, who lives in Honolulu. He gives a demonstration of his powers by trying to locate her late husband using Jeremy's watch which Carole has brought along with her. Holding the watch to his forehead, Rolande senses, "There's water in his nose, and mouth, and throat and lungs. He's choking." But feeling inconclusive about what happened, Rolande wants to go to the "family yacht" where Jeremy was last seen, even though Millicent will be there. Rolande tells Carole, "Your aunt's antagonism doesn't bother me."

On the yacht, Rolande fondles the watch more and finally points: "Over there! About 29 or 30 meters. He's caught in an underwater fissure … He's trapped. Foot in a crevice." When divers come to investigate, they finally find Jeremy's body, much to Millicent's astonishment, considering the ridicule she has just directed at Rolande.

Back at the Five-O office, Duke and Danno report that their investigation into Rolande has received reports that he is "highly regarded as a medium by the London Research Society and as a genuine psychic and clairvoyant by the Psychical Institute in Marseilles." He is also known and respected by "Palo Alto, Duke University, and an outfit in Connecticut." Millicent still thinks there is something fishy about the guy, because "he must have known exactly how and where Jeremy died." The idea of murder comes to both her mind and McGarrett's.

McGarrett and Millicent go to visit David McKinnon, a semi-retired professor in psychic phenomena living on the North Shore (Eduard Franz, last seen in S10E20, "Invitation To Murder"). As McGarrett and MacKinnon discuss the difference between a medium and a psychic among other things, there are half a dozen closeup reaction shots of Millicent, who is sitting at the table across from them, rolling her eyes and gaping in amazement. When McGarrett finally asks what she thinks about their conversation, she says, "Rubbish!"

Following this, McGarrett attends a séance at Rolande's palatial house which is also attended by Millicent, Carole and MacKinnon. Millicent's brother and Carole's father Martin is seen and heard, with Martin revealing some trivia about Millicent's early life. After this demonstration, Carole tells McGarrett that her aunt was "subdued." She also tells him that before Jeremy drowned, he said that he had "he had changed his mind about spiritualism" and "he was glad that I hadn't listened to him about giving Rolande all that money." Despite this, Carole added a codicil to her will, giving Rolande big bucks if something should happen to her!

McGarrett goes to talk to Millicent, who is meeting with fans and signing her just-released novel, The Case of the Frozen Assets, in a King's Alley bookstore. The two of them talk about the current case in a very loud voice which people lining up can surely hear. Not very professional on McGarrett's part!

MacKinnon tells McGarrett that he was "impressed" by the séance he attended, but McGarrett suggests he try and trip up Rolande, so MacKinnon returns for another encounter, wanting to speak to his dead wife, except he was never married. This does not go well, because Rolande summons up the "spirit" of Ruth Sommers, a now-dead girl friend of MacKinnon instead, who was very bitter about the way that he treated her. Rolande denounces MacKinnon as a "fraud" for this deception. At this time, Millicent is snooping around Rolande's house, despite the fact that McGarrett "made it absolutely clear that she was not to operate on her own."

After MacKinnon leaves in disgrace, Rolande catches Millicent hiding in a closet where she has overheard everything. Rolande threatens her – " It would be a pity if you never got a chance to write your next book" – but Millicent tells him that he has "shaken" her "three times now," and proposes a "deal." As she explains to McGarrett later, "I challenged him, McGarrett … up to now that man has had everything his own way. All these so-called 'appearances' have taken place in his own home, under his conditions. I've challenged him to perform where he won't have that advantage … aboard [the "family"] yacht. And I promised him, if he can bring Jeremy back…, I'll withdraw all my objections to Carole giving him half a million dollars."

After receiving further information from overseas about issues with some of Rolande's séances — there were two "incidents" where he was charged after he was named the beneficiary in a will — McGarrett, Duke and Danno go to the yacht where the séance is in progress, and overpower Fitzwilliam who is running the "slide projector" that displays an image of the summoned person and audio equipment for broadcasting their voice. McGarrett then uses this equipment to talk to the next room where the séance is taking place, telling Rolande that the jig is up. Rolande is busted. ("Book him, Danno. Murder one.")

At the end of the show, Millicent departs after congratulating McGarrett and Five-O on a job well done, and promising to write yet another book about what happened. After she leaves, McGarrett speculates the title of the book will be the same as title of this episode.

This is another example of a typical late Five-O episode where McGarrett and Five-O clearly don't have something important to do, instead being delegated by the Governor to deal with issues connected with one of his acquaintances, just like the next show, "The Bark And The Bite." (Warning: I could tolerate that show better than this one.)

Things are not helped by guest star Robert Vaughn being a bland villain. During his lengthy career, the actor played a few bad guy roles like the slimy senator in the film Bullitt. In this episode, written by Seeleg Lester, who wrote or consulted on several mediocre Five-O episodes, Vaughn's character is not particularly menacing or even very interesting.

"Willie" Fitzwilliam, Rolande's assistant, is a minor role, but he becomes an all-powerful behind-the-scenes individual who does a lot more than we might expect. He is played by Fred Ball, who was also in "Frozen Assets," where he was a resuscitated corpse.

At the end of the show, it is said that Willie was the one who killed Jeremy: "[I]t was Rolande who had … Fitzwilliam murder Jeremy Walker under water, and then take the body down to where the diver found him." We are also told "HPD is searching Rolande's estate … for additional evidence, including a set of Navy frogman's gear that Willie used." Using this kind of equipment would require a certain amount of expertise, and there was no other person (or boat) visible above or below the water in the area where Jeremy died, which surely would have been noticed. Or are we to believe that Jeremy really did die on his own, and Rolande really was psychic in determining the location where his body was found?

Willie also got information from MacKinnon's place about the professor's girlfriend Ruth by breaking into the house and snooping in a box of love letters. It's suggested that Rolande himself got information relating to Carole's father and Millicent's brother from Jeremy, though it seems highly unlikely that this would include information that Jeremy would know about Millicent's prom date and her first "beau" named Tommy.

Somewhat more problematic are what might be described as "technological" issues with the show. It is very hard to understand how the equipment Willie operates creates a picture of whoever is being summoned at the séances. It includes a projector that looks like the hose from a vacuum cleaner and some audio gizmo which can help Fitzwilliam imitate the dead people's voices. (Millicent says her brother's voice "was kind of muffled.") How does the image of the dead person appear in the room? Is it like a hologram or is it just projected on the wall? There is no explanation for this.

At the end of the show, this equipment, previously used at Rolande's, is brought to the yacht. McGarrett, Danno and Duke put Willie out of action and then McGarrett, who suddenly figures out how to use the equipment, becomes the séance "floating head," saying, despite the fact his lips are not moving, "This is not Jeremy Walker. This is Steve McGarrett, I've come to seek retribution. Recompense for evil done. Jeremy can't come. He's dead. He was brutally murdered by someone in this very cabin. And Jeremy is crying out from the grave. Justice must be done. Retribution. Retribution against you, Rolande. Three times murderer. Three human lives sacrificed in your quest for money." This whole scene is ridiculous.

The score by John Cacavas is kind of low-key, with some creepy sounds as Rolande "psychs" out Jeremy's watch, then it briefly turns into string quartet music. (Both the weird music and quartet music will appear again later during the first séance.) Prior to the séance with MacKinnon, Rolande turns on the hi-fi in his lavishly-furnished house which plays some classical-sounding work which is the same as the beginning of the slow movement from Mahler's first symphony. The composer described this movement as like a funeral march (which combines with the melody Frère Jacques), but whether there is some symbolism connected with this is debatable.

WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?

Punnery on the Biblical quotation "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41)," the likely title of Millicent's next book.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Jeremy Walker "drowns" while scuba diving, likely murdered by Willie Fitzwilliam.

MORE TRIVIA:

• McGarrett wears grey and black leisure suits in this episode.
• At the beginning of the show, McGarrett receives a package without any identifying marks, but opens it anyway, despite his bad experience with such packages in previous episodes. It turns out to be a copy of Millicent's latest book. Danno and Duke sort of jump when the phone rings as the package is being opened.
• McGarrett, having a brainstorm, says that he remembers Fitzwilliam as having a "puppet show on TV," as if this explains how Rolande's assistant was capable of imitating dead people's voices and running the equipment. In real life in Honolulu, Fred Ball was "Professor Fun" on a popular children's TV show.
• Although Rolande is "booked" at the end of the show, nothing is said about similar treatment for Fitzwilliam.
• When McGarrett arrives at Carole's yacht which is moored just below the Ilikai Hotel, he has to step in a huge puddle of water on the road. As well, you can see people on the balcony above watching the filming.
• The Governor is referred to by his pet name of "Sonny" twice in this show, once by McGarrett, once by Millicent.

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254. (S11E16) The Bark And The Bite ★★½  BOOK HIM, DANNO   BOOK ME, DANNO 

QUICK PLOT:

In this show, regarded as a "dog" by many, McGarrett's advice to an obnoxious socialite regarding a valuable ruby goes unheeded.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

This is an episode that you will either like (not love) or hate.

On the one hand, it is probably the worst example of McGarrett and Five-O doing the Governor's bidding, distracting them from solving crimes, instead babysitting a rich heiress, Dilys Conover (Tricia O'Neil), the daughter of a woman who was one of the Governor's "dearest friends."

On the other hand, it has some humorous moments, though not the kind produced by the perpetrators of crimes like Lewis Avery Filer in S03E11, "Over Fifty? Steal!," but instead by McGarrett's frustration at having to deal with the spoiled Dilys who, for most of the show, is an insufferable bitch. At one point, McGarrett says, "I think I've had this case, Danno." Danno also gets roped into keeping an eye on Dilys, who McGarrett describes as "an obvious kook, harder to read than a wet newspaper." Near the end of the show, Danno refers to her as "Dilys the dilly."

Dilys is barely off the plane when she starts making trouble because her yappy Yorkshire terrier Daphne, who has been smuggled to Hawaii in her bag, gets the attention of an airport security guard. She gives the dog over to him to be placed under the required four month quarantine only after the suave Harry Clive (John Saxon), who is also at the airport, probably having gotten off the same plane, tells her that he just went through the same thing with his bloodhound Dudley.

Clive has sinister intentions on Dilys' body, telling her, "You don't have to worry about taking care of them when you're busy. Here on Honolulu, a young lady like yourself is obviously gonna be very busy." But his intentions are more sinister than this, because he is really Howard Caine, "one of the top society burglars on the mainland" who is after an expensive Burmese ruby which Dilys owns, one of a matched pair. Clive recently stole the other from Dilys' sister Laura (Lynne Ellen Hollinger) on the mainland. The two stones together are worth more than a million dollars.

There is no love lost between the two sisters. McGarrett phones Laura, whose pet project is The Civic Purity League, the purpose of which is "improving the moral climate here in San Francisco." He asks her some questions about the theft of her ruby, a crime of which he is aware. Laura doesn't answer with much enthusiasm, and when McGarrett wonders if there is something to pass on to Dilys, she goes into a huge rant: "You can tell that supercilious, sanctimonious, insidious, insensitive, spoiled, silly, slip of a simp, that if the devil had her hindmost, I wouldn't lift a finger. She was the baby of the family. A condition that still lingers in her soiled psyche, which is about the dankest place in the continent. If I never see her again, I shall hold a celebration in my honor." Later, Dilys describes her sister to McGarrett as "dreary," saying, "I think you and Laura would make a lovely couple. Mr. And Mrs. Clean. You could help her with that purity league of hers … My sister would say anything to spoil my vacation."

Dilys doesn't like the role assigned to McGarrett by the Governor, who described her as "a very attractive, though headstrong, young woman." When Dilys argues with McGarrett during his first visit to her, expecting him to spring her dog, he asks if she's ever heard about rabies. She asks if he's ever heard about fascism, to which he responds, "Yeah, and fortunately we don't have either one here." She also gives him a lot of mouth when he visits her for a second time, saying to him, among other things, "I don't tell you how to catch crooks. I do not expect you to tell me how to run my life."

McGarrett and Danno don't ingratiate themselves with Clive either, because they go to visit him after finding out his real identity based on some fingerprints taken from the bill at a restaurant where he and Dilys were having a fancy dinner. This has shades of a similar technique used in S10E23, "A Stranger In His Grave." (The waitress, Mei Lu (Kathy Paulo) asks Danno where is her tip for giving him the bill for forensic purposes, and he tells her, "I guess you'll have to call me at the office," perhaps trying to make Danno look like a stud.)

When the Five-O duo arrive at Clive's luxurious rented house in the Kahala area (Kohla in the subtitles), they find the place has been tossed. Clive shows up and thinks that McGarrett and Danno did this. Clive never gets a real answer as to what they were doing there, other than them asking a couple of questions about his relationship with Dilys.

The break-in at Clive's place was done by another guy from the mainland named Armitage (Cooper Huckabee) who is also after Dilys' jewels. A waiter for a catering service in San Francisco, he was working a meeting of the Civil Purity League, one of Dilys' sister's pet projects, and saw Clive alone in the place's library studying the safe. A few days later, when Laura Conover's ruby was stolen, he figured that Clive took it. Armitage started watching Clive, and when Clive booked the same flight to Hawaii as Dilys, Armitage put two and two together, figuring he would follow them and steal the ruby that Dilys owned and make a deal with Clive for it.

Armitage pretends to be room service in Dilys' hotel when Clive is visiting her, and robs her of what he thinks is the real ruby, but she gives him a fake one instead. Armitage is one big red herring for the episode, and he has these ridiculous "freckles" painted on his face, making him look like Raggedy Ann. These marks are used to identify him by Dilys and Eudora Finch (Nita Talbot), a screwball employee at the quarantine station.

After Armitage leaves with the stolen ruby, Dilys extracts the real one from the thermostat dial in her room where she has kept it hidden, and Clive promptly chloroforms her and steals it. Meanwhile, Armitage tries to leave town for Hong Kong, but is busted and brought to the Five-O office. He plays dumb, but Dudley, who escaped from Armitage after he sprung the beast from quarantine, suddenly shows up at the office with a lei around his neck, presumably having been found by HPD, who had an APB out for him. McGarrett has determined that the ruby given to Armitage in the hotel room is a fake by whipping out a jeweller's eyepiece. Huh? Does he keep this in his desk or something? Suddenly he is an expert in rubies, knowing that "Nature doesn't make them this bright. Or, this clean. Even the best have what they call, inclusions. But this is a very good imitation."

McGarrett proposes to charge Armitage with "Two charges of armed robbery [and] transporting a person against her will, which is kidnapping." Armitage did threaten Eudora with a gun to release Dudley from quarantine, but he never "transported" her beyond the center after he put Dudley in the back of his van. Presumably the charges of armed robbery refer to what happened in the hotel and also removing Dudley from the quarantine station, inasmuch as McGarrett realizes that the real jewel stolen from San Francisco is in Dudley's collar.

McGarrett takes Dudley back to the rented house where Clive is preparing to leave town. Figuring that Dudley managed to find his way home like the animals in The Incredible Journey, Clive is happy to see his pet again, especially with the real ruby in the collar. McGarrett is close by, however, and it's all over for Clive who is booked.

At the end of the show, McGarrett gets served a summons by Eudora for keeping Dudley out of quarantine to help solve the case, and tries to weasel out of the fact that he broke the law. Finally, in exasperation, he says "Book me, Danno!" The smile on Jack Lord's face for the final freeze-frame is priceless. (Click here to see this scene, highly reminiscent of the end of S11E03, "Deadly Courier.") This and the sight of the sexy O'Neil in a bikini are the main things worth watching in the show. In the final scene, Dilys seems to have become McGarrett's pal, telling him, "I just wanted to thank you for looking after me. You did a wonderful job."

The amusing music in this episode by Fred Steiner, also orchestrated by John Morgan like "Horoscope For Murder," makes frequent use of the popular song "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" Since this song dates from the mid-19th century, presumably there were no music rights involved here. There is a lot of Mickey-Mousing in the score. Steiner's music quotes the main Five-O theme at the beginning of the show, which is more than you can say for most of the other episodes this season, the only one where Morton Stevens didn't provide any music at all.

CASUALTY LIST:

Injury: Dilys Conover and Howard Caine/Harry Clive tied up by Armitage when he steals the fake ruby.
Injury: Dilys chloroformed by Caine/Clive so he can steal the real ruby.

MORE TRIVIA:

• McGarrett wears three different leisure suits in this episode: grey, black and blue.
• An article about Dilys' arrival is seen on the society pages of the Honolulu Advertiser. The first paragraph of this story actually talks about Dilys' arrival, rather than just being made up of the usual boilerplate bogus text. The headline on the article about her is Heiress Arrives on Islands. Other headlines on the page include TEA Honors New Charity Group (subhead: Mrs. Frank Petterson Elected Outstanding President), Rummage Sale is Success, One Woman's Essay and Chamber Music Sounds Fill Public Library.
• At the beginning of the show, Armitage is reading a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle with a headline Israeli-Egypt Breakthrough Tenative Peace Treaty Reached. The Camp David Accords connected with this treaty were signed September 17, 1978. There is another article with a headline Investiture of the Pope. This could referring to Pope John Paul I, whose investiture was on September 3, 1978 (he was Pope from August 26, 1978 until his death on September 28, 1978, only 33 days later) or that of his successor, John Paul II on October 22, 1978.
• We get a look inside Laura Conover's San Francisco apartment, where there are posters for two Civic Purity League events: (1) The Civic Purity League presents Emphasis on Morality. Guest speaker Clyde Van Deen. Wednesday, Apr 24, 8 PM Sausalito Playhouse and (2) The Civic Purity League General Meeting Apr. 18 - 8 pm. 828 Mayfair Drive, San Francisco 94118 - Public Welcome.
• A shot of the parking lot at the Iolani Palace with a car driving off to the left is used twice in the fourth act, once at the beginning, once near the end.
• When Caine takes a handkerchief doused with something like choroform out of a Ziploc-style bag to knock out Dilys prior to stealing the real ruby, why doesn't she smell it?
• Dilys is staying at the Cinerama Reef Hotel, which is where Don Ho performed for years.
• In the Five-O office, McGarrett holds the phone up twice so that Danno can hear the conversation from several feet away. The first time, the phone is on speaker, and McGarrett is just thrusting the phone to Danno to pay attention to the conversation. But the second conversation suggests that she is talking so loud (and the speaker is not on) that Danno can hear her from several feet away. Hopefully at the end of the conversations, Dilys is the one who hangs up first, otherwise she could hear what McGarrett has to say about her both times! At the end of the conversation to Laura, Dilys' sister, McGarrett tells Danno, "I've seen more family affection in a cage full of starving pythons" before he hangs up the phone, so Laura could also presumably hear him if she hadn't hung up already.
• Dudley slobbers when waiting at Caine's house. He also slobbers over McGarrett when he comes to the Five-O office.
• Fred Ball, who plays a Central Dispatcher, was in the previous episode as Robert Vaughan's assistant Fitzwilliam. the humor between Ball's character and McGarrett is pretty lame.
• McGarrett's weight is estimated by Dilys at 180 pounds.
• Harry Clive's car, which looks like an Excalibur, has the unusual license plate 1E-4.
• When McGarrett and Dilys are arguing over her dog having to quarantine, pointing out to her the threat of rabies, she tells him "Ever hear of fascism?" McGarrett replies, "Yeah. And fortunately, we don't have either one here." He seems to have forgotten about the people he was dealing with in "A Distant Thunder" 10 episodes earlier. (Thanks to Jeff H.)
• The two "star" dogs in the show were both trained by Frank Inn, Inc. an organization that supplied animals to the movie and TV industries.
• Streets of San Francisco also had a "canine" show in the last (and extremely awful) episode of its final season aired June 9, 1977, also to do with a dog having a very expensive jewel-studded collar.

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255. (S11E17) Stringer ★★★½  BOOK HIM   BOOK THEM, DANNO 

QUICK PLOT:

A photographer attempts to blackmail an influence peddler after he takes a picture of the man meeting with a local mob boss.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

For an eleventh (or even twelfth) season show, this one is not bad at all. It stars Paul Williams as Tim Powers, also known as "Stringer," a freelance photographer who sells pictures to local papers like The Honolulu Advertiser. Williams also co-wrote the episode's story.

At the beginning, Duke and Sgt. Napoli (Beau Van Den Ecker) are tailing two cars containing kumu boss Tony Alika (Ross Martin) and his men on the usual one-lane middle-of-nowhere road. We last saw Alika in this season's "Number One With A Bullet" where McGarrett left him and mainland mob boss Allie Francis (Nehemiah Persoff) at the mercy of a bunch of federal agents investigating income tax evasion. Alika is currently out on bail; Duke and Napoli have been assigned to keep an eye on him.

Powers is taking swimsuit photos of Maren Wilson (Sandra Kerns), who is standing on what looks like a very high ledge, but when they are interrupted by the goons' car nearby, Wilson is freaked out and Powers goes to see what is going on.

The topography of this sequence is not easy to follow, because Alika's men are parked close to Powers and Maren, whereas Alika and "political power broker" Howard Kramer (Robert Clarke) are meeting below at the bottom of a hill where Alika gives Kramer an attaché case of money. Powers snaps some pictures of the exchange just as one of Alika's thugs shoots out one of the pursuing cops' tires, causing the vehicle to plunge over a cliff. When he hears the explosion, Alika says, "What the hell was that?" which is odd, since it is obvious that he intended something bad to happen to the cops, courtesy of his thugs.

As the car rolls over and slams into some bushes, Duke is thrown free, but Napoli, still inside, is killed when it catches fire and explodes. At this point, Powers runs up and takes some photos of the car as it is burning.

When Duke returns, bandaged, to the Five-O office, he gets another warm welcome from McGarrett, similar to the one in S10E22, "My Friend, The Enemy." Danno wants the lab to look at the tires of the car to find bullets, which theoretically should be difficult, since the whole car was totally fried.

However, the lab manages to find a slug embedded in the tire, which McGarrett takes to Alika's place where the mob boss welcomes him "to my little grass shack." When McGarrett says Alika's movements around the time of Napoli's death were suspicious, and "whenever something evil happens, you're likely to be involved," the scenery-chewing Alika says "Well, if that were true, I'm sure that a big superstar cop like you would be able to prove it just once."

Meanwhile, Powers sells his photo of the burning car to The Advertiser, but also decides to blackmail Kramer for $250,000 with the picture he took of him, Alika and the money — which is not a very good idea. Kramer quickly contacts Alika, who says he will take care of everything.

After McGarrett sees Powers' picture of the burning car on the front page of the paper, he wants to talk to him. Danno tries to track him down via Maren, who has an unspecified connection with The Advertiser and also works at a hotel dispensing tourist information, but is rebuffed. However, some guy named Yoshi (Michael Hasegawa) who works close to Maren and overheard their conversation, tells Danno that Powers works as a pedicab driver.

Both Alika's men and Five-O scour the city, trying to track down Powers. After a chase where he winds up in the Ala Wai Canal, Powers is hauled into the Five-O office where McGarrett sternly tells him that he is "playing a dangerous game."

Despite this, Powers continues with his shakedown of Kramer, and the two of them meet at Powers' loft apartment at 223 Pearl Street. Just as Powers hands over the prints and the negatives, Alika and his two men arrive there as well and kill Kramer by tossing him out the window, after Alika says that Kramer made a mistake "that somebody has to pay for."

Alika tells Powers to keep the attaché case of money, and to get out of town fast, because he wants to make it look like Powers was responsible for Kramer's death. However, Powers has been recording everything that went on with a hidden camera that is taking photos every second or so behind a one-way mirror.

When Five-O investigates shortly after, McGarrett tells Danno that he knows that Powers is innocent. Maren meets with Powers, and he tries unsuccessfully to persuade her to run away with him, now that he is rich with the windfall of Kramer's $250,000.

Powers tells Maren that "I gotta go back to my place and get some pictures … pictures of Tony Alika and his goons throwing Kramer out the window like a sack of potatoes." But then he says, "There may not be any pictures. Look, the mirror was broken. It was cracked. The camera was ruined, the film was ruined. There may not be any pictures."

Later, Powers returns to his place, but there is a lock on the door, placed there by the cops. He enters through a door in the floor from the place below, only to find McGarrett there with Five-O, cops and Maren. Maren says that McGarrett found the camera and the film when they were there earlier. McGarrett has made a contact sheet of the photos that the camera took automatically, telling Powers that those will be used to make a case against Alika, but they will still need Powers' testimony in court.

There is a big question regarding this sequence, however: how did McGarrett and the others get in to Powers' place, considering the front door was locked, likely placed there by HPD to preserve the crime scene? Maybe because they knew from Maren that Powers would come there that evening, they took the lock off and waited inside, and had some cop put the lock back on, somehow knowing that Powers would get in through the "other" entrance ... I guess. (Did Maren know about the "other" entrance?) They might have had a long wait if Powers delayed coming back, or didn't come back at all!

McGarrett returns to Alika's where he is subject to more derision like "You're beginning to sound like a broken record," and "Sherlock Holmes of Hawaii solves another big one." But McGarrett whips out the contact sheets, saying, "That little fellow, Stringer, has a real talent for candid shots, wouldn't you say?" and Alika is busted.

The episode features an excellent score by Dick DeBenedictis. Just before Kramer is thrown out the window, there are shrieking violins like in Bernard Herrmann's Psycho score, and at the end of Act 3 some creepy near-electronic sounds as Alika diabolically laughs while burning Powers' prints and negatives, this laugh carrying into the "wave."

WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?

As defined by Danno in the show, a stringer is "somebody who sells articles or pictures to a publication on a freelance basis."

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: HPD Sergeant Napoli burned to death after car tire is shot out by Tony Alika’s thugs; car goes down cliff, flips over and bursts into flames.
Injury: Duke thrown from car which goes down cliff and flips over after tire is shot out.
Death: Howard Kramer thrown out window in Tim Powers' loft by Alika’s thugs.

MORE TRIVIA:

• In case you are wondering, Paul Williams, according to an Internet query, is 5 feet, 2 inches tall.
• Sandra Kerns, the actress playing Maren, has the most incredible blue eyes!
• At one point, Alika says "Shhh..." sounding like it's going to turn into "Shit!"
• There are several scenes in this show where it is seen raining or the ground is wet.
• At the beginning where Powers is taking cheesecake shots of Maren for "posters," the weather is far from sunny. As he sprays her down with a water bottle, she says she is "uncomfortable" because "you can see everything" (including her "headlights" through her red bathing suit). She must have changed into this suit from the floral outfit she was previously wearing, though we do not see this, obviously.
• Powers tells Maren "Just because you were born in Shaker Heights in this life doesn't mean you weren't Queen Halekulani in your last." Shaker Heights is a city in Ohio.
• At the end, when McGarrett is talking to Alika, he mentions that he "took over from Pahoa," referring to the kumu boss played by Manou Tupou in season ten's finale, "A Death in the Family."
• When McGarrett comes to Alika's place, he is offered some opakapaka, commonly known as crimson snapper or Hawaiian pink snapper.
• The clicking of the hidden camera in Powers' loft is very loud when it is taking pictures about once a second for several minutes. Is this technically possible over such a long time period?
• At the beginning of the show, as the camera pans away from the exploding car in the direction of Powers, who comes running down the road, there is someone dressed in blue seen standing right in front of the camera, as if they are watching the accident. This is obviously a goof, since there is actually no one there, and this person and Powers would have seen each other when he finally arrives at the scene. Thanks to Corey who adds, "As the car crashes, the screech/crash sound it makes is the classic sound bite used over and over again in TV shows and cartoons. I note this, as you hear a character, saying in a comic voice very quickly, 'oomph.' This part of the sound bite is more buried in this show, but it is still there."
• Powers drives a blue Mustang when he is not working for the pedicab company.
• When McGarrett tells Maren "Trust me," this is reminiscent of what she said to Powers earlier while he was spraying her with the water bottle, that her father had told her whenever someone said that, this actually means "Don't trust me."
• Powers uses Nikon and Nikkormat cameras.
• McGarrett says "Book him" when Powers is arrested, and "Book them, Danno" at the end when Alika is taken away, though he says he wants to take Alika in himself.
• Fred Helfing tracked down the narrow one-lane road seen at the beginning of the show: "It's the military road above Kamehame Drive. Same one used in season twelve's "Flight of the Jewels" at the end. The photo shoot probably combines two separate locations on the road, based on the differing of background. One background is Koko Head and the other is the Waimanalo area."

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256. (S11E18) The Execution File ★★½ (Original Version) ★½ (DVD Version)

QUICK PLOT:

McGarrett goes after an ex-cop whom he suspects of gunning down Honolulu pimps.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

Robert Loggia plays Russ Hendrix, an ex-cop with a troubled past, now a private investigator, who is on a crusade to rescue young girls from prostitution and knock off their pimps. Formerly a lieutenant with the HPD vice squad, he was kicked off the force because he beat up a pimp named Martin Kamaki, who murdered a teenage hooker.

Kamaki gets shot dead by Hendrix "right in the middle of a packed night club" at the beginning of the show. Hendrix knocks off two more pimps later in the show, and not only does he never get caught, but nobody even seems to look in the direction where his shots came from.

Motivated by the fact his own young daughter Nancy, who he had raised as a single parent, was found dead after a brief career as a drug-addicted hooker, Hendrix works for hire for parents whose daughters end up in Hawaii to pursue a life of prostitution. He picks up one such girl, Anne Carpenter (Nevada Spence) who tells him that she is 19, but is actually 15. Hendrix takes her to his office, then calls her father and tells him to come to Honolulu to pick her up. He tells Anne, "Pimps are experts at being wonderful … but just for a little while."

Hendrix has a special attraction to one of the girls he rescued, Lureen (Kaki Hunter), now living in a halfway house, who was "raped and beaten when she was fifteen." His feelings for Lureen, now sixteen years old, seem to go well beyond those of a father for a daughter.

Addressing her as "baby," "an extremely attractive young lady," "about as close as I'll ever come to having a daughter," and telling her "I love you, sweetheart" he takes her to a new home he is having built, saying that he wants her to live in it with him. He says, "I'll be the father, you'll be the daughter. You'll have your own car. You'll go to school down the hill there. And that way, I'II watch you grow up, safe and happy." Hendrix's age is never stated in the show, but Loggia the actor was almost 50 when the show was broadcast. Though their potential father-daughter relationship seems sincere, there is still an aspect to it that is kind of creepy, especially considering how touchy-feely the two are for each other.

McGarrett figures out pretty quickly that the "psychotic" Hendrix is the man behind the killings, but Hendrix covers his tracks very well, and tells McGarrett he likes being tailed (in the usual obvious fashion by Duke) because he appreciates the "unsolicited police protection" that he is getting.

John Larch plays the gangster Roger Maggers, boss of the pimps, who is high on Hendrix's list for execution. Larch gives an ineffectual performance compared to the very menacing one he gave in S01E10, "Yesterday Died and Tomorrow Won't Be Born." The scriptwriter must have searched hard to come up with his last name, which gives Danno the opportunity to refer to him as "maggot."

Nephi Hannemann as Lopaka, Chuck Couch as Keoki and Jimmy Borges as Teo are some of the pimps who work for him who are terrified by Hendrix's vigilante actions. Maggers contracts an out-of-town hitman to knock off Hendrix. This guy, named Anderson and played by Christerpher Neddels, doesn't do a very good job. He seriously wounds Hendrix, but is shot dead by either McGarrett or Danno, who have been tailing the ex-cop.

After dropping Lureen off at the halfway house and then going back to his office, Hendrix, who is bleeding heavily, goes to Maggers' house to take his revenge. He manages to pull himself over a fence despite the pain from his wound and lies in some bushes where he should be very visible to one of the guards, especially after he coughs. But the guard totally misses him, allowing Hendrix to put this guy out of action.

McGarrett, Duke and Danno have been at Hendrix's office where they discovered the secret back room behind a bookcase with pictures of Hendrix's recent pimp victims with a large "X" on them. Duke suddenly starts blabbing away all the back story concerning Hendrix and his daughter Nancy without any build-up. He has pictures which suggest that Nancy and Lureen resembled each other. I don't see much of a resemblance at all, even though the two girls are around the same age.

Figuring that because time is short for Hendrix, he will go to knock off Maggers rather than any of his underlings (those that are left), McGarrett follows Hendrix to Maggers' place and quickly appears as Hendrix is about to drill him. We have to endure McGarrett's pleading comments to the fatally injured Hendrix for over three and a half minutes.

Though Loggia gives an emotional, operatic performance in the sense that it takes him several minutes to die, Larch by comparison ends up sounding like Rodney Dangerfield, even though Hendrix is pointing a gun at his head and calling him "scum" and "filth." Maggers is revealed to be not a particularly tough guy, since under pressure he starts admitting, in front of McGarrett, how many girls he has in his stable ("a hundred"), and how much money they are bringing him ("a thousand dollars").

Hendrix is losing consciousness and McGarrett grabs on to him. Hendrix passes away, saying "I'm no better than Maggers," but McGarrett tells him, "There's no connection. You love Lureen. You could never hurt her. Never." Maggers just stands there looking. There is no closure for what happens to Maggers and no "bookem" by Danno.

McGarrett goes back to the halfway house to comfort Lureen. She tells him, "I did all my crying already. I somehow knew I'd never see him again. I was crazy when he drove off like that. I never thought it was possible to love somebody so much ... I'm gonna handle this. My life. It's what Russ gave me. He taught me to be complete. And I think I am."

At the end of the show, Lureen tells McGarrett that "Russ loved me as a woman as well as a child ... do you know what I'm saying? ... The thing was, it would have worked out in time." When she asks McGarrett if this shocks him, he replies, "Nothing shocks me, little one."

There are serious issues with the background score for this show. The Rod Stewart hit song "Do Ya ["You" in the end credits] Think I'm Sexy" is heard, arranged by episode composer John Cacavas and sung by Jim Henderson. Unfortunately, because of music rights issues, the DVD release totally removes any instance of the Stewart song, replacing it with generic disco/funk music, which is garbage. Click here for a very detailed comparison between the DVD version with the original broadcast release. As well, the DVD, for some inexplicable reason, features Kam Fong as Chin Ho Kelly in the main titles, even though this character was killed off in the last show of the previous season.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Martin Kamaki shot by Russell Hendrix.
Death: Keoki shot by Hendrix.
Death: Third pimp shot by Hendrix.
Injury: Hendrix and Lureen shot at by Anderson, Hendrix is badly wounded.
Death: Anderson shot by McGarrett or Danno.
Death: Hendrix dies of gunshot wound at Maggers’ place.

MORE TRIVIA:

• In the secret room at Hendrix's office, the binder with pictures of pimps that Hendrix has killed has a picture of Teo (Jimmy Borges) with a big "X" across it ... but he was still alive the last time we saw him. The mug shot number on this photo is 817695.
• Hendrix drives a cool red Mustang convertible, license number 8E-840.
• In the sleazy part of Honolulu where Hendrix finds Anne Carpenter, the 24-hour Paris Theatre and Bookstore is showing two movies: Passion and Don't Tell Mama.
• As Hendrix is grilled by McGarrett in his office, there is a shadow briefly seen behind Hendrix, like that of a crew member, as well as some noise on the soundtrack.
• There is a nice touch at the end, with McGarrett grabbing a Frisbee that girls from the halfway house are playing with. One wonders how many takes were necessary to film this scene!

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257. (S11E19) A Very Personal Matter ★★  BOOK THAT ONE 

QUICK PLOT:

After the son of a Navy friend of McGarrett's dies from abusing drugs, McGarrett hounds the boy's doctor, convinced that he is guilty of murder.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

This is a "contemporary issues" show dealing with doctors who overprescribe drugs, sometimes illegally. It's also a rare episode where McGarrett is totally wrong about his suspicions of a crime being committed. Some people consider McGarrett to be "Zeus-like" in the final seasons, but in this show, he gets his comeuppance. The episode is cringe-inducing, not only because the audience can see all along that McGarrett is full of it, but also because of the means that McGarrett employs to go after a doctor he thinks is guilty of malfeasance.

Cameron Mitchell, well known for his appearance on the Western television series The High Chaparral and who starred in S07E11, "Welcome To Our Branch Office," is Tom Riordan, an old Navy comrade of McGarrett ("the best bosun the Navy ever had"), now security chief at the Ilikai Hotel. His estranged son Tommy Junior is taken to the hospital because of a suspected overdose of methaqualone, also known as Quaaludes or just "ludes."

After visiting the unconscious Tommy at the hospital briefly, Riordan goes to his son's pigpen apartment to pick up some pajamas for him "to wear at the hospital in case he pulls through." He finds a prescription for 100 Quaaludes which Dr. Harvey Danworth (Fritz Weaver) gave his son the day before. Riordan immediately calls McGarrett, who quickly becomes determined to make it "a very personal matter" to find out if Danworth is negligent or could even be guilty of murder if Tommy dies as Riordan suggests.

However, there is something very wrong with these suspicions from the beginning.

First, if this prescription was used to dispense the drugs which Tommy OD'd on, wouldn't the pharmacist have kept it? Second, although he originally cautions Riordan, "Let's not make any emotional judgments," McGarrett's friendship with his old comrade totally blinds him and he goes after the doctor with a vengeance, forgetting about things like the presupposition of innocence.

McGarrett talks to Walter Napali (George Groves) from the district attorney's office and Dr. Whitewood (Connie Saywer) from the State Medical Control Board. Napali says "our present position is that unless it can be proven that a doctor has violated one of the drug statutes, we have no position." McGarrett ridicules this as "double talk," and gives the two of them various legal arguments stemming from his feelings that Danworth's actions suggest he is guilty of a crime.

McGarrett then goes to see Danworth himself, making veiled accusations about the way the doctor treated Tommy. Danworth is very annoyed, saying, "Who do you think you are? How dare you force your way in here and question my way of practicing medicine? I gave that boy the best treatment I knew how to do." After McGarrett gets a call in Danworth's office that Tommy has died, he leaves, saying, "I'm going, doctor. But I'll be seeing you again. Count on it."

A hearing is held in a room at the Hawaii State Government District Court, where Tommy Fujiwara, playing a judge, is in charge. Danworth testifies that "Tommy Riordan was a shy, gentle young man who simply couldn't cope with the pressures of everyday life. He was always talking about being unable to find 'the magic,' as he called it. I tried to convince him that there was no such thing as a magic ingredient. I really thought that I was making some progress. But I guess he was just using me." This causes Riordan, who is among the spectators, to rise out of his seat and start yelling at Danworth, "He was using you?" After Fujiwara restores order, Danworth concludes by saying, "Perhaps I should've been more careful. Perhaps I made a misjudgment. I don't know."

Fujiwara, rather than taking the testimony under consideration and adjourning to another day, immediately launches into a verdict: "It would seem that Dr. Danworth might have used greater discretion, but upon considering the psychiatric profile submitted on the decedent, it is our conclusion that Thomas Riordan Junior simply would've obtained the drugs from other sources. Therefore, it is the finding of this inquest that he died by his own hand. This hearing is concluded."

Riordan gets more irate than before, leaping across several rows of spectators and physically attacking Danworth, screaming, "He's a murderer! Murderer!" After Riordan is restrained, McGarrett sarcastically tells Danworth as the doctor leaves the room, "I hope you are feeling exonerated." Later, McGarrett says to Riordan that not only did he make a fool of himself, but also "assaulted and threatened a man, which is very serious."

From this point on, about 18 and a half minutes in, the show has an attack of the terminally stupids as far as logic is concerned.

After leaving the hearing, McGarrett goes to a park where Gerry Colby (Simone Griffeth) is conducting an outdoor exercise class. She is a voluptuous blonde mega-babe and McGarrett wants to get her — not a member of HPD or Five-O — to do "undercover work" and entrap Danworth by obtaining some prescription drugs (the bad kind) from him. There is no indication how McGarrett knows Gerry, though they seem very chummy.

In her MGB Roadster, Gerry drives to a marina where Danforth's yacht is moored, and confronts the doctor. Her dialogue in this scene is so stupid, I couldn't bear to watch it. I just read the subtitle file that I have from the show. Gerry tells the doctor (seriously), "I get these terrible headaches, and I can't sleep. I was hoping you could give me something to calm me down, maybe some downers." Danworth tells her, "Do you think I carry a prescription pad around in my hip pocket?"

After she whines some more, he says, "You look pretty healthy to me." Trying a little too hard to get his sympathy, she replies, "But I'm not. I'm really nervous and jumpy. Just help me out this time, and I'll be your best advertisement. A lot of my friends need help too."

Danworth cautions her, "Do you know it is unethical, possibly even illegal, for a doctor to prescribe dangerous drugs for a patient who doesn't need them?" She tells him, "Hey, you've done it for other people, why can't you do it for me?" Danworth is confused, saying, "Wait a minute. What are you talking about? What other people?" She tells him, "Come on, doctor, I don't think we should use names, do you?"

Danworth recommends that she "take a couple of aspirin and call me at the [Westside C]linic" where he does volunteer work once a week. Hello, obviously Danworth can see he is being set up, as can any viewer with half a brain cell!

Gerry goes to the clinic soon after, where she meets Kona Emery (Alan Austin), another patient who is attracted to her, as any red-blooded American male would be. He echoes what Danworth said to Gerry when she told him at the marina that she was "sick": "If you're sick, a lot of girls ought to catch what you've got." Emery offers to provide her with some things she might need (i.e., drugs) if she has trouble making an appointment at the clinic.

When Gerry gets to see Danworth, she talks about her "friends" who she mentioned when they met previously: "Some are tense and nervous, like me. Others are, you know, really depressed. They can't get it together." When Danworth says, "Maybe you'd better send them in to me," she tells him, "Wouldn't it save a lot of time and trouble, if you just gave me their prescriptions? … I could become sort of a branch office."

Soon after this, Danworth goes to Five-O. He is super pissed: "A young woman approached me about some drugs. I know how concerned you are about these things." For some reason, Danno chirps up, "And you thought we should know about it?" Danworth starts screaming: "You already know about it! You sent her. And don't tell me you don't know what I'm talking about!" McGarrett acts clueless, uttering a bald-faced lie: "I don't know what you're talking about." (Like shut up!)

Danworth says, "I'm talking about this. [He plays a tape he made of Gerry saying "It's really very simple. I could become sort of a branch office."] There's more. Here, I made you a copy. You listen to it. It makes me sick. I've run into cops like you before. This Miss Colby wasn't bad, but it didn't work. Now, you hear me, McGarrett, and you hear me good. That coroner cleared me. I know my rights, and I'm gonna have them. Is that clear?'

As he storms out of the place, Danno, from whom we’ve gotten the impression previously that he didn't agree with his boss's feelings about Danworth's supposed complicity, says, "Steve, he doesn't sound like a guilty man to me." McGarrett, in a magnanimous moment, finally admits, "I know, Danno. My God, maybe I misjudged the man." DUH!!

McGarrett goes to talk to Undercover Agent Gerry, and they discuss her major flop effort to ensnare Danworth. She tells McGarrett about Emery and his offer, and that she met Emery in the clinic where Danworth just happens to volunteer ... as if there is yet some hook that McGarrett can use to bust the doctor.

McGarrett goes to the clinic to talk to Danworth and appeal for his help in nailing whoever is pushing pills and handing out phony prescriptions. McGarrett still can't avoid implying the doctor is bad: "Maybe I was wrong about you, doctor. Maybe you're not one of the guilty ones. Maybe you can help me find the ones who are guilty." (During this speech, I kept yelling at the TV screen.)

Danworth refuses to help, saying that McGarrett is threatening him again, and that if he gave him names, it might ruin the career of someone "the way you're trying to ruin mine." McGarrett continues with his crappy attitude: "I'm not trying to ruin your career, doctor. Let's have that clearly understood at the outset. Think about it. Isn't your silence a mistaken attempt to protect your colleagues in the medical profession?" Danworth replies, "I do what I think is right for my patients. That's all I owe anybody." He tells McGarrett to get lost in a relatively polite manner.

Continuing with the annoying storyline involving Gerry, she meets Emery on the beach near the Hilton Rainbow Tower while wearing a very attractive red bikini. As she leaves him, and bends over where her stuff is nearby, we get a nice view of her ass.

A meeting with Emery to exchange cash for drugs is set up for the next morning at the War Memorial Natatorium. This get-together is filmed by a cop and surveilled by McGarrett, Danno and others. When Emery realizes that he is going to be busted any second now, he attempts to flee, but Danno chases him into the water at the nearby beach and gets completely submerged, suit and all. A bunch of prescription forms that Emery handed over to Gerry reveals who was really pushing pills at the clinic: Daniel Savio (Don Pomes), a doctor who also volunteered there along with Danworth.

Perhaps this is why the prescription from Danworth was found at Tommy's place, because the prescription which provided Tommy with the drugs which caused him to overdose (assuming that's what really happened) was written by Savio. Earlier on, we saw Danworth having some harsh words with Savio at a golf course, saying to him, "I don't write prescriptions like I was some kind of movie star handing out autographs."

Meanwhile, Riordan, getting more and more frustrated by what he sees as McGarrett's inability to solve the case and lay blame for his son's death, goes to Danworth's yacht and takes him hostage. At gunpoint, he forces Danworth to go back to his office. Riordan wants Danworth to cook drugs like he gave Tommy and then inject himself. (Good luck at forcing Danworth to do this!)

It is a good question where Riordan got these drugs in the first place, not to mention the fact that according to one WWW page, the way you usually ingest Quaaludes is orally. However, in certain jurisdictions it is crushed and mixed with marijuana, then smoked. Some heavy abusers will liquefy it and inject it into their veins.

McGarrett shows up at Danworth's office to apologize to him and, discovering the scene there, manages to take Riordan's gun away. Danno has discovered that Danworth's nineteen-year-old daughter Jenny (who we saw a photo of briefly in a frame on the doctor's desk earlier) also turned into a dope addict, and there are a lot of parallels between Danworth's and Riordan's lives in how they related to their children.

McGarrett closes the show with a lot of sermonizing, concluding with "Let's all try to forgive, huh?" The level of B.S. here comes close to seriously giving the conclusion of S10E19, "When Will A War End?", a run for the money.

As you can tell, I disliked the show very much during my re-viewing. At one point in the distant past, when the season 11 DVDs came out (September, 2011), I was enthusiastic about it, giving it three and a half stars, which slid to two and a half more recently.

I was hard pressed to give the show its current rating of two, which was only because Fritz Weaver and Cameron Mitchell both gave excellent performances. Mitchell was helped by the fact that the actor was around 60 years old when the episode was filmed, suggesting that Tommy was born relatively late in his father's life, emphasizing the emotional distance between the two of them that Riordan talks to McGarrett about.

Simone Griffeth as Gerry was certainly interesting to look at, but her presence in this show completely derailed it whenever she was on screen thanks to the stupid script.

The music in this show is by Cacavas, the bête noire of the Five-O music department. It is hardly memorable, but it sounds sort of "traditional," being full of violins and so forth.

WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?

When McGarrett tells Riordan to "let me handle Dr. Danworth," Riordan asks him, "You? But how? I thought Five-O couldn't get involved?" McGarrett replies, "That's right, not officially. But I consider this a very personal matter."

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Tommy Riordan overdoses on "downers." Taken to the hospital, he later slips into a coma and dies.
Injury: Kona Emery grabs Gerry Colby’s arm when McGarrett runs after him, he soon lets go. Danno subsequently tackles Emery in the surf.

MORE TRIVIA:

• I received two emails from actor Alan Austin, who played Kona Emery on the show, which he described as "an interesting experience ... pretty horrible script ... and a total fiasco at the beginning. Sam Wanamaker was there to direct it and in an opening scene he had set a shot at the hotel where Jack Lord was going to walk out of the building and emerge from behind a fountain that blocked him initially. As I recall, Lord, in a fit of rage, said, 'Nobody photographs me through a fountain. I hate this shot.' Sam Wanamaker promptly quit [or was fired — this is not clear] and Lord decided he was going to direct the rest of it. Wanamaker spent the rest of the week on the beach." (Perhaps Lord was remembering S06E02, "Draw Me a Killer," where he was photographed through a fountain — twice. The footage of McGarrett behind a fountain in this show was not removed from this episode, though! — MQ)
• The opening credits say that Harry F. Hogan III directed the show. He was reportedly an assistant director, though he is not mentioned as such at IMDb, where he is credited as directing this episode and the wretched S12E03, "Though the Heavens Fall."
• McGarrett has a peculiar memory lapse when talking to Gerry, referring to Danworth as "Dr. What's-His-Name." Maybe Jack Lord was distracted by Simone Griffeth's good looks? Alan Austin told me that Griffeth spent a lot of time in Lord's trailer during the show, but I was told by another person later that someone else contacted Griffeth about this, and the actress said that she was "invited by Mr. Lord to his trailer for lunch and dinner to rehearse lines." Griffeth told this other person that "Mr. Lord was a gentleman throughout their time together."
• Alan Austin reported that "Jack Lord never memorized his lines, which is why you see him looking off camera all the time. It was especially challenging when they were shooting outside between some palm trees and the grips were trying to hold these giant cue cards steady so he could read them." Austin also told me that "in the scene where I walk out of the water to chat with Simone, they didn't want to shoot it where there was any beach, just rocks. I stepped on a piece of coral and got a pretty good cut. I was in some pain during that shot and the infection lasted months. James MacArthur and Jack, by the way, didn't get along at all, which added another level of tension on the set."
• A ticket for Keoni Pawnbrokers at Tommy's apartment has the number 51362. This place is located at 208 East 29th Street.
• A 1/17/79 date is seen on Danworth's prescription slip for Tommy, whose apartment is at #8, 838 N. Ulani. Danworth's office is at 431 Kohai Road, Suite 43, Honolulu 96821, phone 555-3411. His pharmacy number is 741-247-36. David Savio, the doctor who is revealed to be the "pill pusher," has an office at 14 Kalapal Road, Honolulu 96786, phone number 555-9800. His pharmacy number is 561-439-65.
• A Physicians Ambulance is seen in the opening shots taking Tommy to the hospital. This is not a "long car" style of ambulance, but a van.
• Five-O finds out during their investigation that Danworth drives a 1978 Mercury. They also determined that he "lives in a comfortable house in Kahala, but you'd hardly call it a mansion … His boat, his home, are heavily mortgaged. He even owes money on his car." I wonder how easy it is for Five-O to get information about his prescription records for dangerous drugs.
• In one sequence where he is on the road, McGarrett's lips don't match the words he is speaking into the car radio handset.
• After the hearing for Danworth, there is a prominent article in the local paper with a headline "Coroner Clears Doctor in Youth's Death." The first paragraph is actually about the hearing, rather than the usual bogus boilerplate text. But it says the hearing was held the day after Tommy died. Before he takes Danworth hostage, Riordan shows him this article.
• McGarrett tells Danno to "book that one" at the end of the show.
• The subtitles when McGarrett says "heroin addict" are "heroine addict." McGarrett wears his black leisure suit during the show.
• In the Westside Clinic, there is a T-shirt hanging on the wall, probably for sale, which reads "I'm VD free — are you?"

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258. (S11E20) The Skyline Killer ★★★  BOOK HIM (2)   BOOK HIM, DANNO 

QUICK PLOT:

McGarrett's quest for a psychotic killer is hampered by a writer who wants to make a fortune by getting to the multiple murderer first.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

Charles Cioffi, who was in three previous shows (S07E06, "Right Grave, Wrong Body"; S08E02, "McGarrett is Missing"; and S10E16, "Head to Head"), stars as muckraking author Norman Klane, whose efforts to get an exclusive story from a Hawaiian serial killer conflict with McGarrett's unsuccessful investigation to find this "monster" responsible for the death of eight women.

When Danno shows McGarrett an ad that Klane, author of the best-selling book Judgement on America, has placed in the local press offering a lot of money for the killer to give him a first-person scoop, McGarrett comments this is "the most despicable thing I ever heard of." (Really? After eleven years, that is the worst thing?)

Cioffi, who looks a lot younger than his previous appearances on the show, gives a bland performance. What this role really needs is for the actor playing Klane to be totally pushy and sleazy like Geraldo Rivera. McGarrett, Danno and Duke also seem to be just going through the motions in this second-to-last-filmed show of the season. When Cioffi leaves McGarrett's office after the two of them wrangle over issues like freedom of the press, Duke comments, "That was quite a skirmish," though it wasn't as if Klane and McGarrett were throwing chairs at each other.

The killer is played by Walt Davis. We only see his mouth speaking into the phone in a monotonous manner until well into the episode. This character is motivated by "those tramps exposing themselves at their windows, wearing those clothes that show."

The episode starts out with the murder of one such woman, Erin Black (Spray [sic] Rosso) who is killed while she is taking a shower. There are hints of nudity behind an extremely opaque glass door at the beginning, but closer inspection reveals she is wearing a flesh-colored body suit. When Erin sees the killer, she screams loudly and throws her hands up in a stereotypical manner. It's more likely she would have fallen backwards or used her hands to cover her boobs or private parts.

Klane's 23-year-old daughter Mary Ellen (Rita Wilson) becomes the object of the killer's wrath near the show's end. She seemingly lives in Honolulu, and her father is so busy that he has totally ignored her upon arriving in Hawaii, and she has to call him to arrange a get-together at Sally's bar where Melveen Leed, previously seen in S11E12 and 13, "Number One with a Bullet," again plays its owner. Another previous episode, S07E03, "I'll Kill 'em Again," is referenced when the killer purchases a used copy of Klane's book at Beecham's Used Books.

It looks like Mary Ellen is staying at the Ilikai, judging from the view outside the window. Earlier, an external night shot of her father's hotel showed the Ilikai's glass elevator, but inside in a hallway was a sign suggesting it is the "Sheraton Molokai Hotel."

There are some mind-boggling stunts, not only with the killer coming down the side of buildings (where no one seemingly sees him) but also on a high-rise construction crane at the end. Some of the long shots of the killer have him wearing a Beatle-like wig which is totally unlike actor Davis's actual hair style.

As well, Jack Lord as McGarrett follows Davis on to the crane like a human fly in a scene that verges on being ridiculous, and reminiscent of the way Roger Moore, almost 60 years old — just like Jack Lord around this time! — played the role of James Bond near the end of his career as that iconic character. Two stunt men are listed in the credits, and the episode is directed by stunt man Beau Van Den Ecker, who became an Associate Producer for the twelfth season. Danno's reactions to McGarrett's antics on the crane are priceless.

This episode contains an exceptional score by Dick DeBenedictis, plus some effective hand-held camera work.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Erin Black killed by The Skyline Killer, third stewardess and victim #8.
Death: Ms. Howard killed by The Skyline Killer – victim #9.

MORE TRIVIA:

• McGarrett wears his leisure suit, and, at one point, a hideous shirt with a black and white zebra pattern. Danno is then wearing a pretty awful shirt as well.
• Klane's ad that the killer's story is "worth millions" is located in the classified section of the paper, where there are some oddly misplaced ads. For example, under Automobiles - Used, it says "Talented lady, much to offer, seeks quality lifetime mate, a tall man, 45 plus, accustomed to and able to provide the best. Full detail" while under Help Wanted, there is an ad reading "Lonesome bachelor wants to meet refined lady."
• McGarrett refers to the contemporary serial killer Son of Sam. He doubts they will catch the local killer in a near-accidental manner like the New York cops who cracked that case over a minor parking infraction.
• At Beecham's, Klane's book is on a rack of best-sellers, which features a few Hardy Boys titles including The Hardy Boys' Detective Handbook, The Witchmaster's Key and The Clue in the Embers. Other books include Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere by Oscar Ratti and Okinawa by an unknown author.
• At the end when McGarrett is pursuing the killer from the floor where Mary-Ellen's apartment is located, he doesn't have to wait for the elevator, it shows up immediately.
• When Klane turns over some letters to McGarrett that he got in his postal box (PO Box 10275, Honolulu 96816), Danno has them analyzed and later reports that they were all from "ding-dongs."
• Luana is the Five-O receptionist, though she is not seen.
• At Sally's, where happy hour drinks are $1 each, the killer pays a guy $50 to throw some key words at Klane and smoke out Five-O who are waiting to catch him. This character is played by Lee Jay Lambert, who was Bible Jim in S09E18, "To Die in Paradise," and also appeared in S10E05, "Descent of the Torches." In the end credits of this episode, he is "Man #2," though there is no "Man #1."
• McGarrett's phone's ringer is very noisy at one point! He tells the Five-O team to "check every flower shop in the city" because the killer sends all of his victims a bouquet of red carnations in advance of their murders.
• While McGarrett says "Book him, Danno" (for the last time), he also says "Book him" to Danno twice, once at the end and once to Danno and Duke when the Lee Jay Lambert character is busted at Sally's.
• Jack Lord clenches his fists several times during the show.
• When McGarrett is talking to Sally, the word "haole" is spelled "hoale" in the subtitles.
• Rita Wilson, who plays Klane's daughter, later became Mrs. Tom Hanks. At the time of filming, she was the girl friend of Alan Austin, who guest starred in the previous show.

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259. (S11E21) The Year Of The Horse ★★½

QUICK PLOT:

McGarrett and Danno head to Singapore to investigate a heroin-smuggling ring after the Governor's office is implicated in the operation.

Click here to read Full Plot.

REVIEW:

This large-scale two-hour episode, primarily based in Singapore, is passable, but there are the usual picky issues which you would expect the show not to have after 11 seasons, and that it should be running like a well-oiled machine, despite having to pack up the cast and crew and move them to a location 6,700 miles from Honolulu.

There are already issues at the beginning of the show. A 23-year-old woman on a flight from Singapore to Honolulu dies, poisoned by heroin, after a plastic envelope in her stomach containing the drug bursts open. Right off the bat, I wanted to know if this was realistic, and a lengthy search at Wikipedia says probably not, at least having her croak almost immediately as in the show. (If you have knowledge to the contrary, please let me know.) The medical examiner dealing with this is Doc Bergman, played by Al Eben, who has returned, uncredited, almost two and a half years since S09E05, "Tour De Force, Killer Aboard," where he was identified by his name and about six months since S11E04, "The Case Against Philip Christie," where he was just "Coroner." Doc says the woman died of "massive pulmonary arrest … she never knew what hit her."

In the same room where Doc is delivering his autopsy report is a guy named Taki (Taaki in the subtitles) played, also uncredited, by Tommy Fujiwara. His function is not specified, but he seems to have some kind of legal significance, perhaps a connection to the district attorney's office. He says the dead drug courier, Terri Ramos (uncredited actress), came from Singapore, but bought her ticket in Bangkok. When Doc says, "The analysis of the heroin found in her stomach matches the index of junk from one of the busiest heroin labs in Southeast Asia," Taki tells McGarrett, "You read the Felix testimony before the grand jury. That ties in with what was said there. There's definitely a Honolulu connection to this Southeast Asia operation." There are no details regarding what he is talking about here.

When Taki says, "The Governor's name was mentioned in that grand jury testimony," McGarrett says, "I can't go along with that theory. I've known the governor since I came to Hawaii. He's an honorable, God-fearing, man. In no way could he be connected with this. It's some diabolical plot to discredit him." Taki replies, "Well, the rumor alone will hurt him badly, Steve. Especially when her death hits the papers." But how could a rumor like this happen, considering grand jury proceedings are secret and the records are sealed?

Despite all this, McGarrett tells Taki he is going to Singapore to "find the Honolulu connection," presumably on the taxpayers' dime and without talking to the Governor about this. (The Governor is not in the episode.)

Next scene has McGarrett and Danno arriving at the airport in Singapore. Danno is going to be staying at the police academy where he will be giving "a series of lectures on police work in a multiracial society." When Danno seems less than enthusiastic, McGarrett tells him, "Cheer up. There are more than 800 women on the Singapore Police Force," even though not too many, if any, of them are seen in the show. McGarrett is using the pseudonym "Kevin Riley," same-sounding last name as the one he used in S10E14, "A Short Walk On The Longshore." He is met by Eddie Chu, chief inspector of the Singapore police Central Narcotics Bureau (Manu Tupou), who is very wary of McGarrett trying to impose demands on the local cops.

McGarrett wastes no time tracking down the Club Tropicalla where Ramos, who was a dancer, worked. A poster showing her as the featured artist is still at the place's entrance. Jonas (William Beckley), a swishy choreographer, is trying unsuccessfully to create some new routines. (In the best Five-O tradition, the camera focuses on a couple of the women's asses.)

When the two of them go backstage to Ramos' dressing room, they discover it has been trashed and some guy wearing a creepy mask threatens McGarrett with a knife, then runs out of the building. Jonas suggests that the guy was probably after a box of jewelry that Ramos left with him, which seemingly has been untouched.

McGarrett focuses on one particular item in the box, a class ring from the United States Naval Academy, 1963. We later see him giving this ring to Danno to get the Singapore police lab to try and ID it, because the initials inside the ring have been filed off. There is no indication why Jonas would have given this to McGarrett, who was pretending to be from an insurance company and was checking Ramos' references.

The Singapore lab manages to produce the initials L.P.S. on the inside of the ring, and Chu recommends Danno contact the FBI. Danno says he will instead deal with the Department of Defense in Hawaii. An inquiry there reveals the ring belonged to "Sandover, Lucas P. 0437659. Graduated U.S. Naval Academy, 5 June 1963. Commissioned ensign, same date. Commander Sandover reported missing in action, presumed dead, over Northern Laos, 17th December, 1969. Survived by Dolores Kent Sandover, widow."

We have already met Sandover (Barry Bostwick), who is very much alive and in Singapore at the moment. He has become a Southeast Asian drug kingpin and is freaking out because the man who "makes the phone calls" for him, John Cossett (George "James Bond" Lazenby) used Ramos as a mule to transport the drugs to Hawaii. She was romantically involved with Sandover, and was also the daughter of General Oban (Lawrence Dobkin), a local bigshot whose significance is mysterious. His business card reads "Universal Commercial Operations International Limited." Chu later says Oban has "Many irons in the fire. Many fires. He's a very influential man."

Oban is already aware of McGarrett's presence in Singapore, and arranges for the two of them to have a drink at the Clipper Bar in the Mandarin Hotel where McGarrett is staying. (Of course, McGarrett refuses the drink.) Oban is a white-looking guy with an accent who wears a white turban. Oban knows that McGarrett has been making inquiries about his daughter, though McGarrett hasn't been aware of the connection between the two until now. Oban says, "I don't wish to encourage, in others, the belief that what is mine may be handled carelessly, and then disposed of. That would be very dangerous for a man of my position." After they exchange only a few words, McGarrett is summoned away for a call which he told Danno to make at a specific time, leaving Oban just sitting in the bar.

McGarrett goes to his room to find Mr. Scary Mask Dude there, now using nunchucks, but McGarrett overpowers him, saying, "If it's a gold ring you're after, you tell the man that sent you to call me. And tell him that the price just went up to $25,000 American." Oban shows up at the door and the two of them have a few more words without really resolving anything.

Cossett goes to the back room of some Chinese restaurant, where Jonas is tied up. Jonas says he didn't know that Ramos was Oban's daughter, and says that "Riley" is looking for her. He describes Riley as "Stocky, about two meters, fourteen stone, 40, 42." (Jack Lord was over 58 when the show was broadcast, "14 stone" is 196 pounds.) Jonas is knocked off, which we do not see, and the cops find him in the "Wayan River," which, as far as I can determine, is bogus. When Chu tells McGarrett this, he wonders if Oban could have killed Jonas. Chu says, "When the general has someone removed, there are no awkward things left behind. Like bodies."

Sandover's wife Dolores (Victoria Principal) suddenly shows up at McGarrett's hotel. She tells him "One of my friends from the Pentagon alerted me that Hawaii Five-O had made an inquiry about a Naval Academy class ring." The lack of security concerning this is disturbing. McGarrett tries to play dumb, but Dolores tells him to cut the baloney, because her father is Admiral Arnold Kent, stationed at Pearl, who likely knows McGarrett and vice versa. McGarrett asks her to see her passport to determine if she is related to the admiral, which doesn't make any sense.

Over a drink (just her, not McGarrett — again!), she tells him, "I'm still married to Luke. You can't kill what I feel here," adding, "I've had other men. I'm not pristine." McGarrett tells her, "I must warn you that if your husband is alive, he may be engaged in some very serious and ugly criminal operation. And if I find him, he may spend the rest of his life in Leavenworth Prison." McGarrett gets a call from one of her husband's stooges, wanting to arrange payment for the ring.

The next morning, McGarrett is driven by Chu to the place where the ring is to be exchanged for the money, near the Mount Faber station of the Singapore Cable Car, a gondola lift providing an aerial link to the resort island of Sentosa across the Keppel Harbour. Dolores follows him, though it's difficult to understand how she can get her driver to follow McGarrett who left the hotel 27 seconds before her.

While McGarrett is waiting for the stooge, he is entertained by a snake charmer who has a cobra. McGarrett tells the guy, "Okay, beat it, pal. I don't dig snakes." Dolores shows up 3 minutes and 40 seconds after McGarrett arrived, somehow knowing exactly where he went. When she enters the cable car station, she sees her husband, and screams his name. McGarrett, who has met the stooge outside, pushes the guy down a hill where he is busted by several undercover cops under Danno's direction.

McGarrett pursues Sandover on to one of the cable cars. The following sequence rivals the construction crane antics in the previous show, "The Skyline Killer" with McGarrett getting into the car despite Sandover's attempts to keep him out, and then fighting with Sandover as the car travels from 150-300 feet above the water below. The editing in this sequence is not bad, though the part where Sandover gets to the roof of the car and McGarrett then climbs up and tries to grab his leg is silly. The reactions of Danno, who is in the following car, are a bit more low-key than those he had in the previous show. From the roof of the car, Sandover manages to grab some triangle-shaped thing on the cable above perhaps connected with maintenance or an emergency and escape, though you have to wonder why the cops wouldn't alert the people at the other end of the ride.

After he is not nabbed, Chu suggests to McGarrett that Sandover has fled to a "kampong," meaning a small village, port or compound. This is exactly what happens, and Cossett tracks Sandover there, where the latter is doing yoga-like exercises and practicing martial arts moves. Cossett tells him they have to go through with their plan, which involves 20 kilograms of heroin: "The German's there with U.S. Green. You've gotta see it through."

Dolores, who is being tailed by the local cops, manages to evade them and meets her husband at some tourist trap. McGarrett has already thrown hints at her that he might be able to help her husband, who is facing the death penalty in Singapore, and get him transferred back to the States, where he would likely spend life in prison. He has also suggested this to Chu as well, the deal being that Chu would get all the other members of Sandover's gang. Sandover tells his wife, "20 years in Leavenworth at hard labor, I'd rather hang," but he finally says for her to talk to McGarrett and "if he's got anything reasonable to say, I'll listen." Deep down, though, he would rather just run away with his wife and get lost with the proceeds of the $2 million that he expects to make from the heroin.

A police dragnet is mounted to locate Sandover, who dresses like a local worker and manages to escape on a bus. McGarrett, on the other hand, seeing a band of monks, manages to get one of them to part with his robe (no idea if the guy is now running around with no clothes!) and follows Sandover on the same bus, coming within inches of the guy at one point.

Sandover is killing two birds with one stone, because aside from escaping, he goes to the ramshackle room where a Mr. Ho (Thomas Lee), a elderly blind dope addict from Hong Kong who is an expert on heroin, has been hiding out. The two of them get on a speedboat which has been waiting for them outside and beat it to some ramshackle freighter where the heroin is being cooked. Mr. Ho tries it out and is brought back to shore where he tells its potential buyer over a pay phone: "Very strong surge on the needle. Good peak. Very fine finish. Small even crystal. Take the cut well. Appears stable. No condensation or granulation. I sampled three out of the 20 kilos."

Oban has managed to figure out Cossett's involvement with the death of his daughter, and corners him on the street using his red Rolls-Royce. But Cossett says he had nothing to do with the scheme, it was all Sandover's idea. (Beau Van Den Ecker is seen briefly, uncredited, as Oban's chauffeur.) Mr. Ho is abandoned by Sandover in his hotel room, but he is later taken to hospital where, despite the fact he is blind, he reveals information gleaned with his other senses which give clues as to where the heroin lab is located.

Cossett arrives by boat at Sandover's stilt house on the water with the cash from the German. A second boat with the buyer shows up and he accepts the drugs. But then Cossett double-crosses Sandover with a gun to his back, ordering him into a boat with the cash. As the boat leaves the dock, Sandover guns the engine so Cossett falls backwards, and Sandover throws a knife into Cossett's chest, killing him. Sandover dumps Cossett's body in the ocean.

Thanks to information from Mr. Ho, McGarrett, Danno and Chu head out into the harbor on a high-speed police boat. They see Sandover, who is headed towards a freighter which is in international waters. But there are issues with pursuing him there which results in a screaming match between McGarrett and Chu with McGarrett saying that "anyone who deals in drugs at this level are mass murderers and violate human law."

When Sandover gets to the freighter, he gets a big surprise, because Oban is there, along with Dolores who was kidnapped from her hotel room. In revenge for his daughter's death, Oban's men bring out Dolores for her husband to see: "The eight ounces of heroin that you used to kill my daughter, now are your wife's portion. She has five ounces left to consume."

McGarrett shows up on his own, using a boat seized from some of Sandover's associates who were trying to stop the police boat. Face to face with the general, McGarrett accuses him of being the "Honolulu connection," and that it was his heroin that killed his daughter. (I dunno if this is serious or not…) Sandover acts like he wants to surrender, but someone sympathetic to him slips him a gun on his way to the upper deck where Oban awaits. There is a sudden outbreak of gunfire from Sandover's men; Sandover shoots Oban and is shot in turn. Both men die.

As the show ends, Dolores, holding McGarrett's arm at the airport, tells him that her husband "was thinking only of himself, even at the last, wasn't he?" and he agrees with her. McGarrett sends Dolores off, saying "Goodbye, pretty lady." She gives him a smooch and he says "That's the nicest thing that's happened to me in Singapore."

Danno takes her to the gate to get on her plane, never to be seen again on the show!

John Cacavas' music for the show overall is pretty boring, droning away in the background, and that for the "waves" is especially soporific. There is an attempt to constantly make the music sound "Asian" with not particularly interesting orientalisms. The score is no match for Morton Stevens' classic music for that other Asian city-based episode, "Nine Dragons."

WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?

Punnery, with the word horse = "heroin." February 07, 1978 to January 27, 1979, which includes the time the show was filmed, third in production order for the season, was actually "The Year of the Horse" in the Chinese lunar calendar. The date the show was broadcast, April 5, 1979, was in the Year of the Sheep.

CASUALTY LIST:

Death: Terri Ramos dies of “massive pulmonary arrest” when heroin packet ruptures in her stomach.
Death: Jonas killed by John Cossett’s thugs –- Singapore Police pull him out of the river (none of this is seen by us).
Injury (x2): People yanked out of cable car by Lucas Sandover and thrown on ground as he escapes from McGarrett.
Injury: Mr. Ho nearly overdoses when he samples the heroin.
Injury: Dolores Sandover chloroformed and kidnapped by General Oban’s people.
Death: John Cossett killed by knife thrown by Sandover; his body is then pushed into the ocean.
Injury: Dolores forced to ingest 3 ounces of heroin by General Oban.
Death: Sandover shoots Oban.
Death: Oban shoots Sandover.
Death (maybe): Firefight between Sandover's and Oban's men (not seen by us).

MORE TRIVIA:

• According to Ramos' passport, she was born in Singapore on May 7, 1956. She is 5'4" and her address is 27 Bukil Lane. Whether her height should be in Imperial or metric is a good question, since the metric system was adopted there 1968–1970. However, it is quite possible that her passport was issued before this happened.
• When McGarrett is talking to Doc Bergman at the beginning, he mispronounces the word "autopsy" as auTOPsy again.
• During the show, McGarrett sometimes wears a leisure suit and also a large straw hat.
• A monkey with clapping cymbals is seen. At the time of this review (2020), toys like this, known as a "Musical Jolly Chimp" are selling on Ebay for $80 and up.
• Jonas tells McGarrett "There's no such word as 'fanny' in the Chinese language." What he is referring to depends on where you are from, since "fanny" can mean either buttocks or vulva. Showing McGarrett a large poster of Ramos on her dressing room door, Jonas tells him in a burst-out-laughing line, "Look at that savage little rear end, darling. I've never heard any complaints about that department. And I should know."
• When Oban comes to the Mandarin Hotel where McGarrett is staying, he phones from the lobby, asking to speak to McGarrett in room 1602. But McGarrett is staying on the hotel's twenty-second floor, as can be seen when the elevator doors open and also on a sign located near the elevator.
• McGarrett must have pretty powerful binoculars if he can see Sandover while they are pursuing him on the ocean at the end of the show.
• In real life, Victoria Principal was born in Fukuoka, Japan, the elder daughter of a United States Air Force sergeant.

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