S2E16: Tonight’s episode of Hawaii Five-0 employs the old out-of-sequence technique: The beginning is really the end, and the rest is shown via flashback.
The episode opens at a hospital, where Steve appears to be in bad shape and Lori is washing off quite a bit of blood from her hands — and getting reprimanded by the governor.
Eighteen hours earlier …
The whole Five-0 crew was at an environmental fundraiser hosted by Gov. Denning, when they’re informed that a murder has occurred at the hotel at which the event is taking place. Denning gives Lori and Steve specific instructions to swiftly get to the bottom of the crime — which centers around the dead body of a woman named Victoria Chase found in the laundry room — but keep it hush-hush.
The first suspect, as is pretty much always the case on Hawaii Five-0, is the wrong one. A man named Dennis Mack was the last person to see Victoria alive, per elevator surveillance footage, but it’s all a mix-up, as he has nothing to do with the crime at hand.
Next up: a guy named Roger Furman, a bouncer at the restaurant where Victoria waited tables who fits the bill in the case — but although he isn’t exactly a good Samaritan, Furman turns out to be Victoria’s ally. He was, in fact, set to do her the favor of “laying a beatdown” upon a guy who had wronged Victoria’s sister.
That’s when Steve and Danny uncover the real dirt from Vicky’s sister, Amanda: She’d gone out with a man from a company called Garland International. A few dates in, she found out that he was married, at which point she tried to leave his house, only to be raped.
His name: Dmitri Vonokov. His whereabouts? Seemingly hiding out at the Russian consulate, but getting the consul general to give him up isn’t going to be easy. So Steve, Danny, Kono, Chin and Lori are forced to do things the really hard way — and after Steve and Vonokov are hit by a car (that’s how the former wound up in the hospital in the episode’s opening sequence), Chin is detained at the consulate for “acts of terrorism,” and Kono obtains (albeit not so legally) the necessary blood sample from Vonokov while he’s in the hospital, Vonokov’s guilt is proven and justice served for Amanda.
It comes at a price, though: Lori Weston hands in her letter of resignation to Steve after Denning gives her an ultimatum.
TOP FIVE MOMENTS FROM TONIGHT’S EPISODE
1. A scene early on in the episode, in which Steve and Danny are outbidding each other by one dollar for season tickets to the University of Hawaii’s football team. They bicker and taunt each other for the rest of the episode.
2. A scene that hints at certain death for Dennis Mack – before the commercial break. After the commercial, it seems like certain death for McGarrett, who jumps off the roof with Mack, only to land on a balcony not far below.
3. “OK, I’m thinking that this could just be a Cinderella story gone bad: Nice lady, she saves up to buy a ticket to the ball, she gets herself a fancy dress … right? She’s looking for Prince Charming. … Take it from me, because I know that nobody wants to be alone on Valentine’s Day.” –Danny’s initial hypothesis on the crime
4. The obligatory chase scene, in which Danny and Steve run after the perp, in this case (the ultimately proven innocent) Furman – who jumped out of a window to try and escape.
5. “Ohhhh, OK. This is your … your pity party? Is it, uh, personal invite only, or can anybody else attend? Can I come too?” –Danny to Steve, who tries to take the blame for the whole debacle
