BOOB TUBE REVIEW: Hawaii Five-O "Loa Aloha" (Season 1, Episode 18)

When the pilot episode of Hawaii Five-O premiered in September, Danno was portrayed as a wise cracking police officer from New Jersey who was only in Hawaii to be close to his daughter.  The only glimpse of his marshmallow-y inside was portrayed in his loving relationship with Gracie.  Remember when he tried to surprise her a stuffed bunny only to be upstaged by a real bunny?  Danno's disappointed face said it all as he quickly shoved the floppy eared toy in the backseat of the car.  Poor guy.  Episode 18 dives further into the softer side of Danno while rest of the gang is entrenched in a diabolical mystery that is killing targets one after the other.

First up, someone is taking down targets one-by-one via remote controlled explosions.  McGarrett, Chin Ho, and Kono figure out the connection between two murders, and are in hot pursuit of stopping a third one from occurring.  The murderer is targeting the children of individuals involved in his son's DUI case.  As a result, the judge's daughter is killed when her zipline snaps and the prosecuter's son is killed when the car his son is driving explodes.  Both the judge and prosecutor receive phone calls from the murderer prior to witnessing their children die.  A quick high-tech investigation reveals that the next target is the son of the public defender who defended the murderer's son.  However, the murderer's plans are thwarted when the gang arrives just in time to stop the explosive from going off in the 13 year-old's backpack.  As it turns out, the murderer was reluctant to push the remote control button after realizing how young his target was and doesn't fight arrest.

I thought this particular storyline was pretty good and kept me interested throughout the show.  However, I kept on thinking that somehow Danno's brother would be involved in the murder scheme.  Danno's brother Matt had his own set of separate problems.

Matt Williams (Dane Cook) arrives into town with a stack of presents for his niece Gracie.  Danno and Matt go down memory lane with Rachel along for the ride since her husband is out-of-town.  However, all is not peachy during the memory lane journey when Danno notices that his younger brother is being watched and followed.  He quickly finds out that the men are FBI agents and that Matt is the target of an FBI investigation.  Matt comes clean with Danno and tells him that he lost millions of dollars and is trying to recoup the loss and come out ahead by securing one last big deal.  The deal is the reason why he is in Hawaii.  Danno pleads with Matt to turn himself in to the authorities and assures his younger brother that he will be next to him every step of the way.  However, after the deal falls through, Matt prepares to skip town.  Danno eludes the FBI agents and catches his brother right before he is about to board a chartered private jet.  With Danno's gun drawn, he pleads with Matt to stay or he will shoot.  Matt gives Danno an ultimatum--either shoot him or say goodbye to him.  Danno watches Matt board the plane and says goodbye.

As much as I liked the mystery storyline, I was kind of irritated by the Danno's brother storyline and thought it was a distraction.  Plus, I thought Dane Cook's character was a little creepy, but I did like the fact that Danno and Rachel seem to be on better terms.  The bromance between McGarrett and Danno is getting better and more believable.  I can't believe it, but Hawaii Five-O is almost at the end of its first season already!  Can't wait to see what else is in store!