[Hawaii Five-0] Episode 2.15 "Mai Ka Wa Kahiko" a Meta Review

[eumelia]

Holy Shit in a Picnic Basket Batman Steven!

I actually don't know where to begin.

Oh, I know. Holy Shit Scott Caan!!!!! Will someone give this man an award already! Jesus effing Christ, this was beautiful!

I feel like I should re-watch the ep before I try to write something in depth about everything that happened in this very dense and layered episode.

My heart was breaking from the moment Danny saw and recognised the victim on the plane. Oh my word. His eyes were wet, his voice was shaky and my god, as the ep went on and the plot thickened there was actually a smidgen of sympathy for that creep - which, uh, reflects parallels I'll get into.

Indeed, let's talk about the characters, before we delve into the meaty parts of what made this ep so amazing - beyond Scott's acting, the really enjoyable editing and the emotional roller-coaster that was the plot.

Lori has a crush on Steve and Steve is so, so gay. Why yes, my slash goggles are firmly affixed when I watch H50, because nothing makes sense otherwise! Every time they put focus on Lori's crush I kind of feel bad for her, because Steve is either oblivious or ignoring it. Either way, it's a one way street as obviously Steve considers her a co-worker and jogging buddy.

Steve is so in love with Danny, because my heart clenched when I saw his face as he heard the message Danny left on Rachel's voice mail. A voice mail from a few months ago.

Danny has been in a bad place since the end of season 1. His arc has been subtle and chronic, as opposed to Steve's which has been above the board and pretty acute - I mean, torture is pretty fucking acute.

I felt that the previous ep, with the birth of Rachel's baby, was a pretty good resolution to that story. It was more that I expected frankly, but it happened and it was a beautiful rendition about fatherhood and Danny being there for Rachel and for Stan (Grace, you'll agree, is a given).

In this ep, we have a kind of regression, because it really digs up various issues that are dragging Danny down and have made his life utter crap the past few months (beyond the objective problems of being evicted, having his personal life in shambles and having his BFF - Steve - getting mixed up in lose/lose situations regarding his own life and history) and we've seen him not even bother give lip service to procedure like he did in seasons 1.

Danny has behaved badly all season (live grenade in a perp's hand! WTF!) and in this ep his brutality escalates (he drowns a guy) due to personal feelings and commits a federal crime in order to speed up the investigation. In essence, Danny has become a corrupt cop. Or, you know, was one all along.

Like Rick Peterson.

It's fascinating that the show went there. That it was willing to not only humanise Rick (his wife left him, his son hates him and he can't let go of his previous life) but to create a very clear parallel between him and Danny.

Danny's emotional roller-coaster was ours throughout. My heart was in my throat the whole time. His aforementioned shaky voice, wet eyes and his unabashed begging compelled me, they really did. They all touched on narrative kinks that have been building throughout the season. It being under duress made it all the more heart breaking, of course.

The whole thing came to a head when Danny and Stan stood in front of each other. Danny saying he was doing it for Grace and Stan nodding at him, understanding. Those two men have a bond now, not just because of Rachel, but because they are fathers for each other's children - I have no doubt Danny would lay down his life for baby Charlie, just as Stan lay down his life for Grace.

Danny and Stan do what they must to save Grace as two men within a mutual family - it's very unusual to see, moreover, it's unusual to see this type of fraternity between two men who are supposedly vying for the same woman, the same child. Usually it is a territorial struggle. In this episode it was subverted to a degree that made the whole nuclear family structure seem to break down and build up in a new way.

This is part of what makes H50 so beautiful, and even original, narratively. Yes, Danny loves Rachel, but his heart his big enough to contain multitudes and while I have no doubt he will always love Rachel, I think he knows to step out of the way of hers and Stan's relationship - after all, Rachel ran to Stan after Danny shot him.

On the slash side of things, I can see Danny leaving that message on Rachel's voice mail before everything that happened in North-Korea. And once again, Danny chose to save Steve rather than do what needed to be done in order to be with Rachel, just like in the season 1 finale. This is a slash reading, but this is canon and can't be put aside. Rachel made a choice, so did Danny. And they're the right ones all around.

Not to mention, Steve running around like a headless chicken doing his best to help Danny. I wasn't shocked when Danny shot Rick, but everyone else was surprised by how matter of fact he was, weren't they?

Intense, to say the least.

Of course the final scene with the team watching Danny reunite Grace with Rachel, was a layered tableau of what Danny had, could have had and currently holds.

As a commentary regarding Danny's change through the two seasons it struck all the issues Danny had and has pent up regarding his family (which includes Rachel's nuclear family, the Five-0 team and Steve in particular) and really brought to the forefront how much Danny has kept inside.

For someone who talks a lot, he really doesn't say much, does he.

Comments

[silveradept]

I watched this episode and wondered if they'd gone back to their first-season writers, because this episode was so very good with Danny. I kind of thought the bit with Lorie at the beginning was bolted-on to the actual episode plot.

Now I understand why I was getting that uneasy feeling about Danny and worrying that he was going off the reservation in the last couple episodes.

And yet, at the end, he didn't go a full Steve and actually kill the person he wanted to kill right at the beginning. Perhaps there's still some shred of humanity left in him, related to the fact that he has Grace, Rachel, Charlie, and Stan.

[eumelia]

The Lori thing at the start of the ep was to get her out of the field. Making it a Fierce Four centric ep. Which I loved.

Danny is in a very bad place emotionally, and this will only exacerbate his negative emotions.

No he didn't, though there was a moment where Steve thought he would have to stop Danny from murdering Rick. I think that shred is also related to Steve, if you ask me. Slash aside, there is a real camaraderie and affection between Danny and Steve, and despite being a part of the blended family that makes up the Williams-Edwards clan, Danny is more an outsider to that due to the fact that the nuclear family unit is exclusionary by default and Danny survives by being part of an extended chosen family (which we now realise he doesn't actually share all that much of himself with.)

[silveradept]

Danny's the example of the person who talks a lot to hide the fact that he doesn't talk all that much. Makes me wonder if his by-the-book cop-ness was a similar way of being involved without getting too attached. Which has happened anyway.

[eumelia]

Danny really isn't all that by-the-book. He talks the talk, but he never walked the walk, at least not when he was in Five-0. Before he joined, we saw an instance that he was (in the pilot he requests a warrant for a wire tap on some guy related to Steve's father's murder), but pretty much since episode 2 of season 1 he has complained about Steve's methods, but done nothing to stop him from actually circumventing the law in the name of revenge justice.

In season 2, he has pretty much adopted Steve's gung ho methods and gone over to be very much an active participant in police brutality.

The show's narrative doesn't allow us to hate or judge Danny (or the whole Fice-0 team) for their brutality and corruption, but that's we're shown, without any hint of moral ambiguity - what the team does, is the right thing to do, because they do it.

[silveradept]

That's actually pretty interesting. Nobody in Five-O ever appears to have any qualms about the legality of their actions or whether what they do would hold up in court. It seems to be a staple of many of these cop shows (with the exception of Blue Bloods in the CBS lineup), but it seems like the new cop shows, and Five-O in particular, are more casual about the scope of brutality they brush off without a worry.

Maybe they justify it by having ex-military people heading the teams?