Now that you all have had a chance to see it, let's discuss this episode, shall we?
READ MY OFFICIAL RECAP HERE
First of all, the PROS:
-- C'mon. Steve running around in a wife-beater all bloody and sweaty? That should NOT have been as hot as it was, but...well...it was. They really put all of Alex's lovely assets out there for the fangirls, no?
-- Steve seems to have reverted back into himself a bit, kinda like we're back at the beginning of S1 as far as his outward displays of affection toward Danny. I sensed some guarded vibes from both of them in this ep. I'm wondering if it's simply because of the shitstorm they're both facing or if it's because Steve seems to know about the Rachel pregnastyness from the start and MAYBE he knows that Danny was going to ditch him?
I like the guarded nature and that Danny seemed to be pulling away from the team rallying at the end, just as long as these two guys work hard to find that balance again.
-- Steve and Danny - "Why are you yelling at me??" Oh dear god, that will always be my favorite line of the episode.
-- Best scene - Steve and Danny in the car with the *looks* in the rear view mirror and "you don't seem happy" and just... God. I loved it.
-- The Beer at the end in the Five-0 offices - Steve tried to give Danny the manly band-aide for the soul with this "I want to fix it for you but I can't and I'm still effed up so here's a beer, Danny."
-- Terry O'Quinn's Joe White - loved his character, loved what he can bring to the team. Saw major daddy issues for Steve in there though. I think I counted 8 times White called Steve "son." Transference anyone?
-- Max Bergman and all things Star Trek and Star Wars - Oh Max, never change. I love your geekiness so very much.
-- Chin and his general badassery - Chin Ho don't take shit from your goon squad, Wo Fat.
-- Wo Fat - for reals, what can't this guy do? More on that below.
-- The action. The drama. Alex O'Loughlin OWNED this episode and I am so happy for him to get to show off his acting skills.
-- That wonderful moment with White and Steve, when Steve shows that he is still a vulnerable, broken man despite his scary skillz was just BRILLIANT!
The CONS:
-- Okay I saw the deleted scenes from ep 1x24 on my S1 DVD extras and WHY oh WHY did you cut that stuff, Show? That was necessary character development stuff we NEEDED in that ep. At any rate, we want to know if Steve now knows that Danny was going to ditch him and leave with Rachel or if he just manned up and moved on. Those are the character development goodies we NEED!
-- Steve running around like a superhero with a gut wound - I mean, really. C'mon. That's just hilarious. I know his badassery knows no bounds but I'll chalk that up to movie magic. If PDiddy could run around with a GSW to the side, why not Steve?
-- So much packed into 42 minutes and I felt RUSHED! I felt like I was sitting in one of those wind machines trying to catch the money being blown at me. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but after the high wore off, I have questions, Show. What was the point of the blond hoale dude Kono was chasing? How did that video camera in the Gov's office stay recording for so long? Nuclear battery life?
-- Gov Denning and his mother of all Obe-Wan Kanobi hand-waving of Five-0's sins. Poof and ye shall be reinstated! I did like that he at least ATTEMPTED to come off with a hard line against McGarrett and his crazy ass ways. Well, he was hard-lining for a second, but once McG said "Sometimes we gotta blur that line" Denning was all, "Okiedokie". Who knows, maybe he'll still rein in the wayward Five-0 at times. It will be interesting to see him try.
-- Rachel storyline - Okay, now I see where you painted yourself in a corner there, Show. Wo Fat being behind the plot would have been so very cool, but at least you answered it. And you fixed so Danny doesn't leave and all that, but really? This was disappointing story telling. I hate baby story lines. They add nothing but soap opera. Unless it makes for some scenes where Danny is angsting about it and Steve tries to be there for him because he didn't want to see Danny hurt in the first place by Rach, then I don't care if we ever see her again. And send Rachel back to her fancy-schmancy college in England to learn how to use birth-control, please.
-- Wo Fat is apparently God. He can walk into a prison and kill an inmate. Can we dial back his omniscience, please? Can he make a mistake more than once a season?
The Verdict: GREAT EPISODE
I thoroughly enjoyed this at Sunset on the Beach on Hawai'i and I enjoyed it again in my own home. I look forward to exploring the new questions posed and hope that I'll get the answers I need.
Next week - we meet Lauren German's Lori Weston. Please God, don't let there be forced romantic/sexual tension for her and McGarrett, lest fandom and the internets explode in a fangirl fury.
I think it's safe to assume if Rachel doesn't know how to use birth control, she can't count the days of the week nor the weeks of the year.
ReplyDeleteBut I love Rachel. Bring on the baby! I'd name the baby Awesome, because that's exactly what the baby will be- AWESOME.
So much word about the deleted scenes. The scene with Steve in the car where Danny at least superficially acknowledges the skeeviness of what he and Rachel are doing would have done a lot for the bad taste that ep left in my mouth. And the scene at Steve's house totally read to me as the moment Danny decided to stay in Hawai'i.
ReplyDelete@Officer808 - I am going to call the baby Faily McBunInTheOven!
ReplyDelete@NurseBrak - Yes. If I had seen those deleted scenes during the S1 finale I might not have raged so much. At least they had a moment where Danny sat there and acknowledged what he was doing, but we never got to see it. Hence the fail.
ReplyDeleteBiggest disappointment for me this episode: the micro camera that had a year's worth of footage on it. Brilliant. I'm sure that was realistic.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, Steve was stubbly, blue-eyed goodness, Danny owned the screen, and Chin Ho was significantly more badass than he was all season long in S1. Almost made up for Kono getting captured AGAIN.
Over all, there was a lot of ridiculousness in this episode -- including McG apparently leaking all 5.6 liters of blood out of his body as he did an American Gladiators impression while fleeing the clumsy, discombobulated members of the HPD. But had McG not wound up at the home of the good Dr. Max, we never would've gotten awesome lines like "Why are you yelling at me?"! and "Zip it, Kermit." But I digress. The boys are back and all is right with the world ;)
ReplyDeleteRegarding Danny and Rachel and Faily McBunInTheOven? It'd be Awesome if we never learned the paternity and next season Lenkov gave that kid a raging case of SORAS ;)
@tiptoe - I heard of a Russion spy camera where they'd made the battery run off "air"... and for real, that would be so damn cool. But I doubt Pappy McG had access to that kind of awesome hardware.
ReplyDeleteYeah, don't you get tired of Kono getting captured? I guess they do it to show off how she can kick ass with her hands tied behind her back
@Steph - Oh I did adore everything that had to do with McG in Max's apartment. It was made of total win.
ReplyDeleteAnd not only can he do all these amazing feats of heroism while bleeding out a few pints of blood, BUT he can wad up some old newspapers from a back ally, stuff them into his open wound and yet, NOT end up with flesh eating bacteria!
SEAL's immune system, yo. They need to bottle it.