Once again, we have to thank bookemdanno.net for the pics. And also Alex O’Loughlin Journal for the extra ones.
This week you’re stuck with me, Andrea_Briz, for the recap as Westy’s not been well. So join me in sending her virtual hugs and cups of soup and get well soon wishes.
The procedural:
In keeping with the pattern this season so far, the procedural was pretty good but sadly the other bits were not. So I’m going to recap the procedural first because I really liked it!
So here goes:
It’s a Runaway Bride! She’s driving along Tantalus Drive and because she’s speeding and taking her eyes off the road to glance at her ringing phone, she ends up in an accident. I’ve been along Tantalus Drive and it’s no picnic to negotiate, I can tell you. Anyway, the car crashes through a guard rail but fear not, Runaway Bride is OK for now. It looks like she’s going to be saved by a passerby but instead the guy kicks the car down the embankment. So much for good Samaritans.
We cut back to earlier in the day when Runaway Bride was still on about-to-be-married bride. The yet-to-be-runaway-bride is all smiles until she spots a guest as she approaches the groom which freaks her out somewhat. Husband-to-be notices and looks sideways and then in an instant, bride-to-be becomes bride-not-to-be. Looking back on this bit when I rewatched for the recap, it’s quite cleverly done because the camera pans to the mother-in-law-to-be (Rebecca De Mornay and nice to see her, too) so there’s a hint that she may be the reason why the bride suddenly has cold feet.
McG, Danny and Chin are called to a crime scene in a hotel room where Max tells them that the male victim has been shot three times in the chest. He has defensive wounds on his hands. Chin tells us that the victim’s name is John Fitzpatrick and he’s from Florida and he only checked in yesterday. I’m not really listening though because Chin looks mighty fine in this scene #justsayin. The suit suggests he was a wedding guest at Runaway Bride’s nuptials and it turns out that husband-to-be is from a wealthy New York real estate family. Duh dun!
Danny piles on the snark about weddings and McG can see why he’s divorced. Right. But Chin, giving props to Danny for his use of the word ‘fisty cuffs’, nixes Danny’s theory and tells Our Intrepid Duo that the wedding never went ahead. Because the bride ran away!
Our Intrepid Duo goes to what looks like the reception – what, it went ahead anyway? They want to talk to the groom’s mother, Barbara Cotchin, who calls over her attorney because she thinks Five Oh are there to discuss Runaway Bride’s well, running. We find out Runaway Bride has a name – Dahlia. But alas, Mrs Cotchin, you have a dead wedding guest to deal with – although it turns out he’s actually a Wedding Crasher and not a guest at all.
Chin has footage from the wedding videographer and he finds out that the person Dahlia saw amongst the guests who may have forced her to run away was in fact the shooting victim, John Fitzpatrick.
The groom-to-be, Nathan Cotchin, has never seen or heard of John Fitzpatrick. Nathan is puzzled by the whole thing because Dahlia was happy about getting married and they have no secrets. McG breaks it to him that they must have secrets because Dahlia has run away from the wedding after spotting Fitzpatrick. Who is now dead. Ouch.
Back at HQ, Chin has changed his shirt and he’s doing background check thingies with the new magic table. John Fitzpatrick doesn’t even exist – all of his identity documents are fake.
But fortunately for the team, ballistics reports on the murder weapon show it was used in a string of armed robberies and the suspect is one Ty Amano. Ty Amano isn’t committing an armed robbery right now, he’s playing beach volleyball. Well, this is Hawaii after all. In an instant he goes from beach to blue room. What a buzz kill.
Ty’s ironclad alibi is that he was getting tacos in Waimanalo at the time of the murder. There was a taco place just down from where we stayed in Waimanalo so I totes believe him at this point. And yep, we stayed in the Dodgy End of Oahu, just so you know (this explains why the guy at Immigration looked strangely at us when he enquired as to where we were staying). Anyway, Ty admits to having the gun but claims that he sold it two days ago – to John Fitzpatrick. So Fitzpatrick was killed with his own gun then! Ty gives McG a lead – Fitzpatrick may have grown up in Germany.
With Ty’s lead, Chin discovers that John Fitzpatrick is actually Brad Dixon, a US citizen who has been convicted of running confidence scams all around the EU and has just been released from a Munich prison. Ooh, here’s where it gets really interesting. Dixon’s MO is to use a female accomplice to fleece rich guys out of their money. His accomplice is his sister, Nicole Dixon AKA Dahlia Swain AKA Runaway Bride. They’ve both got previous convictions for the wedding scam.
It looks like Nicole may have previously implicated her brother in return for a reduced sentence then fled to New York and changed her name. So is she going solo in attempting to scam Nathan out of his New York money? The Five Ohs think that Dixon had caught up with this sister and wanted a cut of the Cotchin score PLUS exact revenge for Nicole rolling on him. Good theory, boys!
McG and Danny break it to the Cotchins that Dahlia is not really Dahlia. Ooh, this is good – possible monster-in-law isn’t such a monster at all as she can’t believe Dahlia could be a con artist. I figured she’d be quick to jump on the ‘rich boy gets taken for a ride’ bandwagon but like all good businesspeople, she’s had her lawyer do a background check on Dahlia and nothing dodgy turned up. Ah, Mrs Cotchin, you may want to rethink your choice of lawyer because his background check is pretty crappy. Chin found out who the real Dahlia is in a Five Oh second! (I guess he didn’t have someone with the computer skillz of Skye to help him then.) Nathan is just a bit upset at this development, as one would expect.
Chin riding his motorbike! Awesome! Although not awesome that he’s helmetless. Here in Australia, it’s totes illegal to ride a motorbike or pushie without a helmet. Helmetlessness aside, Chin’s doing his thing on Tantalus Drive as he knows that the last signal to come from Dahlia’s phone was in that location. Tantalus has bad cell phone reception and Danny thinks she may have chucked her phone but Chin’s spidey sense tells him that she may still be in the area.
Chin’s spidey sense was totes on the money and he’s found Dahlia at the bottom of the embankment. She’s alive but in bad shape and she has to be cut from the wreckage and flown out by helicopter. (As an aside, did the rescue guy just use a sawzall? Sorry, I’ve been watching way too much Chicago Fire!)
Nathan visits Dahlia in hospital and his face says he is so hurt by her betrayal. Dahlia looks equally as upset and I’m starting to think that she’s not a baddie after all. Mrs Cotchin adds further weight to my idea by questioning whether Dahlia really did try to scam Nathan. And then Dahlia is interviewed by McG and Danny where she admits to having made mistakes in the past but says that she really loves Nathan. Dahlia says she didn’t know about Nathan’s money until after they were engaged and she just wanted a fresh start with him but panicked when her brother turned up at the wedding. I really like this woman as she seems genuine to me. The actress who plays Dahlia does a great job with this character and she has my vote for Memorable Guest Star.
Chin’s busy with the magic table again and he’s discovered that a shoe print on Dahlia’s car matches the shoes Brad was wearing at the time of the murder. What are the odds? So Dixon was the Not Good Samaritan then? Right.
The next bit of detecting leads the Five Ohs to figure out that Brad’s killer must have known who he really was, seeing as he was checked into the hotel under a false name. Something must have come up about him in Dahlia’s background check.
In the next scene, Mrs Cotchin goes to see the lawyer and asks to see said background check. The lawyer says he’s going to get the paperwork for her but instead pulls out a gun. He asks Mrs Cotchin to wire 5 million dollars into a Cayman Islands account so he can disappear. Mrs Cotchin is a total bad ass here and refuses to hand over a penny. Luckily for her though, McG and Danny burst into the room just then.
Back in the blue room, the lawyer is in custody and it’s not looking good for him. He’s a total dope because the whole sorry mess was premised on Dahlia conning Nathan (which he figured from the background check) and his plan was to muscle in on some of the money. So he was forced to kill Brad to protect his cut. Hah, he didn’t figure on Dahlia marrying Nathan for love not money. Nice Show, nice.
McG’ breaks the good news to Nathan but he’s still not sure what to think. It turns out that Dahlia was orphaned at a young age and was forced to go along with her brother’s schemes as he was her guardian. Nathan’s doubts are assuaged after he reads the wedding vows that Dahlia wrote which were found in the wreckage of her car. And they’re lovely. Awww.
Oh, there’s more awww ahead! Nathan walks into Dahlia’s hospital room and professes his love for her and then a priest appears out of nowhere and McG and Danny do too! So then there’s a wedding ceremony in the hotel room! *sniff*
OK, so that was the good part of the episode. I liked the procedural and I liked Dahlia. The pacing was good, the procedural cleverly written and and the ending was rather sweet. More of this please, writers.
And McG looked lovely in that blue shirt AND we had Chin riding his motorbike, also looking mighty fine.
Right, here’s is my take on the other bits. Brace yourselves. (Just so you know, this is an extremely watered down version of my original rant which I will save for the comments. Again, brace yourselves.)
Kono and Adam
Bear in mind that I’m completely over this story arc. I love Kono to bits and I can’t wait for her to come back – which I hope she does – but I don’t like what the writers have done with her character and the whole hiding from the Yakuza thing is silly and a bit boring now. You probably know that Grace Park has just had a baby and if she needed maternity leave, then why didn’t the writers come up with an awesomely cool reason why Kono was MIA for a bit? Here is Sage’s suggestion, taken from a recent email conversation we had:
She could’ve been written out for some kickass detective training at Quantico or tried her hand at surfing again or been requested for a big undercover op on the big island, or or or. She didn’t need to run away with her sketchy-as-f*ck boyfriend.
Sage FTW! ACA, baby.
We’ve just had Adam hiding in a shack while Kono takes on the bad guys and catches their dinner and fixes their car and this week I’m supposed to buy that he’s a bad ass who tortures a Yakuza dude to find out that both he and Kono are wanted dead (so it’s not just about revenge for Michael’s death then). Nope, sorry, don’t buy it even though he did bring out the duct tape rather than the candles. Just to show he means business.
Kondam are in Hong Kong, right? Why the f*ck are they in Asia when the Yakuza, with ties to the Chinese Triads, are after them? Adam, mate, you could come Down Under and I’d set you up in the Outback in my state, where all you’d have for company would be roos, snakes and flies, and NO ONE WOULD EVER FIND YOU, NOT EVEN THE YAKUZA.
Chin totes agrees with me because when he’s on the phone with Kono, he tells them to get the heck out of Hong Kong. See, I was right? And then he tells Adam he sure better look after Kono. Ah, no, Chin, it’s the other way around. Kono is looking after Adam *rolls eyes*.
The cinema scene
OMG, that was bloody awful. McG was being a total jerk and I wanted to bop him on the head. If I’d be in the cinema, I would have told him to shut up too (but politely, of course). I give props to Gabby for trying to make McG and Danny shut the hell up but McG gets no props at all from me for his behaviour. Hey, McG, some people like rom coms! And to top it all off, he’s talking with a mouthful of food AGAIN! And Cath just sat there throughout it all and smiled because, you know, McG’s adorable when he’s being a tool. Not!
Show’s mixed messages about supporting your partner’s career and other crimes against humanity
I used to live for the carguments as they were a highlight of the show for me. They made me laugh. So far this season, they have made me either cringe or want to throw something at my computer screen.
In cargument 1 Danny is offering up a jealous ex scenario (because Show is hung up on jealous exes this season, so it would seem). McG thinks Danny has wedding issues and needs to workshop these deep-seated problems. Seriously, McG, did you actually say that with a straight face? Then Danny’s performs a master stroke of evasion while on the phone with Gabby and McG just smiles. Right.
The next cargument is about Gabby’s latest job offer in Denver (for six months). Now we’re back to talking about whether one partner should let the other one take up a career opportunity. After all the rubbish that has gone on over Cath’s career change, I’m flabbergasted that Show is still going down this route. And that McG has the nerve to weigh in with advice for Danny? And Danny is still banging on about how stupid McG is for ‘letting’ Cath work with her good-looking ex-boyfriend? Enough already, Show.
Right, next up we have McG and Danny pulling up to H50 HQ to find Billy waiting outside for Cath. There’s more Danny snark (i.e. we’re being hit over the head again with the ex boyfriend thing) and McG and Billy look like they are marking territory over Cath. And then I cringe when I hear that Cath’s code name is ‘Little Wink’ and Billy’s is ‘Big Kahuna’ and that Billy’s dead serious about this. Oh my word.
Worse than that, most of the ensuing office scene revolves around Cath’s clothing and my feminist hackles rise. And then there’s a stupid ‘in-joke’ about reverse favour doing. Sorry, Show, this fell really flat, mostly because I found not one iota of humour in all the favour doing last season. If you are a McRoll fan, you probably found this cute but I almost had to cover my eyes it was so cringe-worthy.
And then we have what I thought was the final scene. Gabby is talking to Danny about her career opportunity and how they can make things work but Danny is actually breaking up with her. And using Grace, who is getting close to Gabby and would not cope with her absence, as the reason. What? I’m a little confused here. Show, what messages are you trying to convey?
Oh my, there’s worse to come. Cath arrives home, escorted by Billy, at the end of her first day. McG is waiting for her like a parent waiting for their daughter to come home from a date to ensure that the boy doesn’t try any funny business. He’s so obvious it hurts. After only one day of Cath in the new job! So, what do you think, is Little Wink going to pass McG over for the Big Kahuna?
To end on a lighter note, I really liked the procedural this week. The three main guest characters – the Cotchins and Dahlia – were terrific. If you fast forward all the other bits, it was a really good episode. So, what did you think?
the champ box 
Try as I might, I just do not give a shit about Catherine.
Well, you tried! Can’t say fairer than that :-).
Andrea- great recap. I agree with you wholeheartedly. Thanks. Chin was all kinds of terrific in this episode. He should really be onscreen so much more. Thank you Chin for being the only decent guy left on this show.
During the cringe worthy “favour” scene all I kept thinking was “what kind of security firm doesn’t have access to computers and background checks?” Do you think that Blackwater popped in on the FBI to borrow their equipment? Seriously?
Is it me or does Catherine have better chemistry with Billy than with McG?
Lastly, why oh why do the writers think it is funny to portray McG as a rude, ignorant a-hole? That movie theatre scene was just awful. It is not funny to be rude and disrespectful. Yes McG you are super cute, but that does not give you the excuse to act like you were raised in the woods by wildings.
Hope you feel better soon Westy!
All in all a good COTW, likeable guest stars but once again not enough goodness for me to want to watch the episode a second time.
Chin was awesome, wasn’t he?
Good point about the background check thing. Billy’s company isn’t going to last long if he needs to obtain information from Five Oh all the time.
*snorts* No, you are not alone, I though the same thing about Cath having better chemistry with Billy than McG. I haven’t seen the McRoll chemistry since the start of season 3, to be honest.
As you could tell from the recap, I detested the cinema scene. It wasn’t funny to me at all even though I get that’s what the writers were aiming for. I can’t be having with the ‘he’s pretty so he can do anything’ idea – um, no, you don’t get a free pass just because you are cute. I’m not sure who I am more cranky with – McG for being a pinhead (to use your word) or Cath for being an enabler. If he were my BF, I’d be calling him on that for sure.
But I did like the procedural and Dahlia had me hook, line and sinker. I really liked her!
I think she has more chemistry with Billy as well, it’s not just you :-).
“Raised in the woods by wildings” *snort*.
I had to throw in a Game of Thrones reference 😉
*fistbump*
I have been awaiting this recap and it didn’t disappoint – ACA on everything. I am enjoying the COTWs this season more than I have the past 2 seasons, but Show has taken a far left turn down Relationship Road and it isn’t working for me.
I realize that most drama shows like to show the ‘ships for more character development. Fair enough. I don’t mind us seeing a little bit here and there. I do think it’s interesting to watch Steve, with all of the parent issues, awkwardly navigating this thing with Cath, and watching Danny wrestle with his terror of trusting someone with his heart again. That being said…
HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES TO WE HAVE TO HEAR THE SAME CARGUMENT ABOUT CATH AND THE NEW JOB?! This is the 3rd episode that they’ve talked about it in the car. We get it already!!!
I will say that I was proud of Danny for setting boundaries with Gabby. She did leave him hanging at the airport and he’s right in assuming that this won’t be the last job offer. I do think he was using Grace as an excuse, but the sentiment was on target. He doesn’t want a part-time, long distance ‘ship.
QUESTION: When did Steve and Cath start living together? Did I miss something? I’m assuming that we’re supposed to think that based on the fact that she was there the morning that she was starting the job and that’s where Billy dropped her off. So we’ve gone from not really defining their ‘ship to living together? Aside from my confusion, that’s someone I wouldn’t mind waiting up for me. 🙂 Beyond that, I’m over McRoll. I liked it in doses, but it’s becoming a focal point and the show is losing its balance.
For those of you who don’t watch American Horror Story, Mr. Kono was in the season premier and literally got the life sucked out of him. Much like the Kono/Adam story is doing to us.
Awww, thanks Spursy *hugs*. The procedurals have been good this season so far, I agree. But as I’ve said before, McG (and the show itself) is far less interesting to me since his main character development has been around his relationship with Cath. I wouldn’t even mind this so much if Cath was well written but she’s not IMHO. There’s just too much of it for my liking and other things (more interesting things) have fallen by the wayside. Agree with your comment about the show losing its balance. I have no problem with McG having a GF, I just don’t want to see GF stuff ALL THE TIME.
ACA with the carguments. No one’s mentioned Fong or Doris and McG and Danny are too busy banging on about Cath to even give Kono a second thought. Atplenkov is subscribing to the ‘Hit the Audience over the Head’ school of writing and it’s driving me nuts.
I can see your point about Danny’s sentiment but it would have been nice to see more about Gabby’s career opportunity. She was prepared to make things work, to compromise and take the job opportunity and still be with him. Also as a parent of two teenagers with a career and a PhD underway, I don’t consider myself someone who doesn’t put my family first. I just juggle everything as best I can.
I guess that was McG’s house Billy dropped Cath off at; I think I was too busy thinking about him waiting up for her to pay much attention. If it is, I guess that means they are living together and they have gone from ‘is she really my GF’ to cohabiting. OK, then.
*snorts* Yep, Kondam is all kinds of silly. Perhaps Grace is still making up her mind about returning?
“Also as a parent of two teenagers with a career and a PhD underway”
Show-off ;-).
(LOVE YOU!!)
Actually, that was my working mother guilt surfacing there after reading stuff online yesterday about how noble Danny was being to put Grace first 🙂 .
Tell it to f/ck off. You’re amazing <3.
WORD!!!
“HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES TO WE HAVE TO HEAR THE SAME CARGUMENT ABOUT CATH AND THE NEW JOB?! This is the 3rd episode that they’ve talked about it in the car. We get it already!!!”
ALL OF THIS!!!
I like having some relationship stuff for variety too, but not this much. Mostly though, I just think they should try not to do very much relationship stuff because they are really really bad at it.
“I just think they should try not to do very much relationship stuff because they are really really bad at it.”
They sure are. I high fived my computer screen when I read this comment. I actually despair if the writers think that this is good relationship material. They’re much better at blowing stuff up and crazy car chases so they should stick with all that, I think.
(Love you too, by the way. Forgot to say that in my previous comment 🙂 )
“HOW MANY FUCKING TIMES TO WE HAVE TO HEAR THE SAME CARGUMENT ABOUT CATH AND THE NEW JOB?! This is the 3rd episode that they’ve talked about it in the car. We get it already!!!”
I was ranting, out loud, full on yelling at the tv as this scene came to a conclusion so I completely missed the Little Wink/Big Kahuna bit that I assume immediately followed because I have no memory of the code-name conversation happening. The dead horse has been beaten.
(a) Well and truly flogged.
(b) Probably best that you didn’t hear the code names or you may have cringed and well as ranted.
Great recap! Chin’s spidey sense FTW!! And I love that you managed to reference Chicago Fire AND Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Kudos 🙂
I loved this episode! The COTW was complex but still easy to follow and unpredictable and the guest stars were top-notch. I’ve always loved Rebecca DeMornay and she was great in this episode. I like that they didn’t make her a monster-in-law, it looked as if it was going that way with the background check but then when she just refused to believe that Dahlia (love this name!) could be at fault I was happily surprised. And she’s a badass businesswoman who is cool under pressure. I didn’t guess for a moment that she was wearing a wire in the scene with the lawyer at the end because she didn’t turn a hair. Perfect.
Dahlia was also great, she reminded me a lot of Julie from E Malama, she had the same kind of strength of character. And we learned so much about her in just this one episode, just like we did with Julie. And I liked Nathan, he seemed like a nice guy. When he brought out the bouquet from behind his back! Although imagine having McG and Danny at your wedding and neither of them being the groom. What a bummer.
(As a sidenote: how hilarious was it that they kept thinking Fitzpatrick was Dahlia’s ex? Lovely that they think she’s more interested in personality than looks, but she is about three thousand miles out of his league).
And I LOL’d at the shoeprint! Honestly, this show! #bless
I was giving McG a virtual fistbump during the conversation about romantic comedies, and also yelling NOW YOU KNOW HOW I FELT WATCHING THE BACK-UP PLAN because I did not get that film at all, except for the doctor saying ‘VAGINA! VAGINA! VAGINA!’ which had me in tears of mirth. I think I just don’t have the chick flick gene (but I can be romantic! My running commentary email to Andrea and Westy said ‘awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!’ with about three times as many w’s as that after the hospital wedding scene!).
Chin looks A-MAZ-ING this season (I think his cheekbones are actually growing, y’know) and he had some quality screentime this ep. I’m looking forward to the one with his backstory in it :-).
Danny and Monkey have mani-pedi spa nights??? So by the law of averages, at some point Danny will come into work with sparkly nail polish on, like in those ‘Parenting? You’re Doing It Right’ pins? Pleeeease, Show?
Adam remembering that he used to be a badass was about time, really. And when he shot the guy in the leg and Kono said ‘this is not the way’ I tried to high-five my computer screen.
Question: am I the only person who actually LIKES Billy?
Thanks! I quite enjoyed writing this one because, as you say, the procedural was good! And that there was computer stuff and a rescue meant that I just HAD to reference the other shows we recap 🙂 .
I agree, Dahlia was like Julie. Julie made a huge impression on me and Dahlia has done the same thing. I know some fans don’t worry too much about the guest stars but I think this episode is a great example of how they can be more than just background noise and can be well developed in just one episode.
Rebecca de Mornay was fab and I’m like you, I didn’t guess the wire thing at all. I’d be sweating buckets in that situation but she was so calm. Glad, too, that the monster in law protecting the heir to the fortune cliché wasn’t hauled out. Nice, Show.
I’m not a big chick flick girl myself but I liked the hospital wedding scene. I bet Barbara was a bit miffed at being left out though, although perhaps she was just thrilled with the happy ending.
Chin was in fine form and I suppose I can forgive the helmetlessness because he looked so bad ass riding his motorbike. And not a hair out of place.
Adam’s giving me whiplash with his candles and hiding in the shack and then being a tough guy I can’t take him seriously anymore. I hardly paid attention to his scenes and I barely registered Kono saying “this is not the way.” Kono, we’ve been saying that for ages! (And I still want to know why he doesn’t want to hide out in the Australian Outback.) Also, I’m not quite getting why the Yakuza want both him and Kono dead?
I don’t think we’re supposed to know why the Yakuza want them dead. I can think of reasons for Adam, but why Kono?
It’s been way too long since we saw Chin on a motorbike :-). And I liked that he did a lot of the detectiving in this one. I missed Kono being with them, but otherwise this ep had a good balance.
I’m sure you’re right; I think I’m just done with the whole thing.
Chin was great and definitely nice to see him flexing his detectiving muscles. Yep, I’d like to see Kono back with the team just being Kono.
I’m not sure if I actually like Billy but I’m a bit like Nance, I have started to see the chemistry between him and Cath. His only real black mark so far is to pick ridiculous code names. And use them in public with a straight face.
I wonder how many takes it took before he managed it though ;-).
I bet there’s lots of material for the gag reel from this episode 🙂 .
OK, that was the ‘good stuff’ comment. Now the rest of it *cracks knuckles*.
Danny and Gabby: yeesh. Oh look, a woman offering to give up an amazing career opportunity for the good of her relationship. Must be Friday. It occurred to me that the reason Danny and Rachel split up was because of his job but did he give up his career to save his marriage? Of course not. It’s the woman’s role to put her relationship ahead of her career, because women’s careers aren’t as important as a. men’s careers, or b. relationships. Give me fucking strength. And the logic of it is absurd. “Grace is really attached to you and she’d miss you if you weren’t around for six months, I think it would be better if she missed you by NEVER SEEING YOU AGAIN.” Riiiiiiight. Plenty of children manage when their parents or step-parents are away for long periods of time, you’d think a show so closely allied with the military might know that. And it’s not like Grace doesn’t have a mother-figure, on account of having AN ACTUAL MOTHER.
The cinema scene: finding it adorable when your boyfriend is being a jackass is something most women grow out of by the time they hit their twenties.
The love triangle: yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn. Is this a goofy plot device to separate them and then get them back together? Oh, where have I heard that recently? Amusing to think that McG would find his own relationship development a pointless waste of popcorn. And yes, Show, we get it now, she’s going to be joining Five-0. Please stop having Billy popping up every episode to parrot ‘anyone would be lucky to have her on their team’, like he’s forgotten he already said it. It makes him look like he couldn’t secure his way out of a paper bag.
And he gets to be ‘Big Kahuna’ and she’s ‘Little Wink’?? Tells you everything you need to know about gender roles on this show, doesn’t it? And I did appreciate the long slow pan up Cath’s body in the office. I don’t think I would have been able to tell she was wearing a suit otherwise #sarcasm. I laughed at the ‘string bikini’ line too. Probably the guy watches the show and is wondering why she ISN’T wearing a string bikini ;-).
The self-contradictory carguments are baffling because both of them seem to be trying to argue both sides at the same time *scratches head*. I get the impression that this new writer (who is very good, judging by this ep) is trying to impose some damage limitation while still keeping things consistent, but it’s such a clusterfuck that there’s not much she can do. It just gives the impression that they’re the kind of men who really want to have control of their girlfriends’ careers but know that it’s not the 1950s anymore. And refraining from doing something because you know it will make you look like a douchebag doesn’t make you a good guy, it only makes you slightly less of a douchebag. Danny ‘doesn’t want to be that guy’, huh? I thought he WASN’T that guy, and the sooner they get him back to being NOT THAT GUY, the better.
*rant ends*
“And refraining from doing something because you know it will make you look like a douchebag doesn’t make you a good guy, it only makes you slightly less of a douchebag.”
I have more to say in response to your comment but it’s late here 🙂 . But this bit really stands out to me. So much of what has gone on with McG and Danny in the past few eps re their girlfriends seems to be about how they look, how their actions may appear. So it’s really all about them, isn’t it? The clusterfuck, as you so expertly put it, over Cath’s job was mostly about how McG felt about her taking the job and less about her career and what she wanted and how she felt about working with Billy. Same goes for Danny – Gabby’s career opportunity ends up with Danny cutting her loose and it was all about him. She said she’d give up the job and then she said she’d make it work if she took it but he still ended the relationship. Mind you, as much as I like the two of them together, it was a huge leap from the couple of appearances she made to this point and it’s not like Danny spoke about her all that much. Oh, wait, that’s right, their relationship developed off camera *rolls eyes*.
My biggest problem with this episode is Danny and Gabby at the end. Are they breaking up? Is she taking the job in Denver? I don’t know what is going on with that.
And on the McRoll, yes, men can be that jealous because I’m married to one. No, he doesn’t talk in the middle of a chick film because there’s no way he would get anywhere near the theater that was showing the chick film.
I *think* she’s moving to Denver and they broke up. She said something like ‘maybe one day my life will be in Hawaii as well’ so she might be back, you never know…
LOL, my husband is the same! Although *whispers* he has seen the Twilight films on DVD but shhhh! don’t tell anyone I told you that ;-).
I guess we’ll find out if she ever comes back…
My husband hasn’t seen Twilight and is quite proud of it. I read the books, but really didn’t think that the movies didn’t have a good cast.
I thought Alice and Charlie were perfect, and Jasper was pretty good too. But that was about it. I thought it was SO clever though the way they got a battle scene into the last film. Didn’t see that coming!
I liked the twists and turns of the procedural. Thought the lawyer was hinky the first time he was on screen! I liked the movie scene just to see Steve and Danny out of the workplace and doing normal things! While it was not necessary to the show, it did give a glimpse into their very different lives. Danny knows about rom-coms because he is the father of an 11 year old. I don’t know about letting very young girls watch them. Not realistic like Steve said! Thanks for the recap and photos!
I loved McG’s “It’s supposed to be a romantic comedy. it’s neither romantic nor funny. I don’t understand what’s happening.” He sounded so completely baffled. Bless.
Yes, he did and I would have found it completely adorable if he was saying this ANYWHERE BUT THE CINEMA WHILE THE MOVIE WAS PLAYING. (Sorry, one of my pet peeves is people talking through movies.)
Oh, mine too! It would have been OK if they’d shut up when Gabby told them too (and I giggled at her line! ‘Can we save the running commentary for the DVD release?’ It’s a shame she likely won’t be back, I like her 😦 ).
ACA, I am sure I would have been OK with that. I like Gabby, too. Shame she’s not coming back.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting. It was a good procedural although I suppose in hindsight, the lawyer was a good candidate for the baddie after the background check thing was first mentioned.
I like seeing McG and Danny out of the work environment too and it’s fun to look for the different scenarios that are set up each episode for when McG takes ‘The Call’ about the crime of the week. The cinema scene would have been quite cute – McG and Danny sitting next to each other eating popcorn – if they’d just made McG less obnoxious #notaskingformuch
{Forgive if this has already been brought up}
What if… in the upcoming firefight, Billy tries to shoot Steve, making it look like an accident, fog of war, yada yada. In self defense, Steve shoots and kills Billy. Cath wakes up, finds out what happened, awkwardness ensues.
Too much of a stretch?
Love your work, spursy! I don’t think ‘too much of a stretch?’ is a phrase we can apply to this show because the whole darn thing is a stretch 🙂 .
I don’t know, we’re being hit over the head with the ‘working with your ex boyfriend’ thing and how this could lead to McRoll trouble but maybe, just maybe, Billy wants Cath for her intell skills and nothing more? *looks hopeful*. He was in the Navy just the same as McG and Cath and they are noble and trustworthy and all that so why can’t Billy be that too? Billy could be shot by the bad guys or by McG by accident though I guess. There’s supposed to be tension between Cath and McG over Billy, isn’t there, so you are probably right to look for a reason for it because the ‘working with the ex thing’ hasn’t had much time to develop (seeing as Cath has only had one day in the job!).
I’m just guessing that Billy buys the farm in this next ep. Show has made a little habit of making some ex-military folk either mentally unstable or very mercenary, so I’m not ruling Billy having an agenda regarding Cath and seeing an opportunity to eliminate the competition. He seems like an upstanding guy, but underneath the boy next door is a guy who hates to lose.
I’m thinking about the last scene between Shane and Rick on The Walking Dead. {SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED WALKING DEAD YET} Shane lured Rick away from everyone and was going to kill him and blame it on someone else – all so he could be with Lori and Carl. My warped brain can envision Billy doing the same thing with Steve.
I love your warped brain :-).
I think he’s going to be killed off as well. I’m torn between your idea and ‘he dies saving Cath’ or ‘he gets shot and McG tries to save his life but fails and has a major guilt trip at Cath’s bedside’.
Ooooo… I like those too!!
I’ve managed to drag myself out of my sick bed and finally watch! Yay! After I comment, I’m crawling right back 😦
I liked this ep. I’d give it the usual 8/10 – the COTW was interesting. I wanted to throw popcorn at Steve in the cinema – I HATE it when people talk during a movie. Usually it’s teenagers, not a grown man. It didn’t make him look adorable at all, if that’s what they were aiming for.
I’m also over the carguments about Cath’s career. Give it a rest, TPTB. I honestly didn’t mind the office scene where the camera panned up Cath’s body to show what she was wearing. No different from last week’s opening scene where the camera panned down Steve’s body while he was waking up.
I don’t hate Billy – I do think he’d take advantage of any opportunity to get back together with Cath, but I don’t think that’s his only reason for working with her. I think he’s a bit of a dick with all the code names and especially in front of Danny, when he told Cath that Steve was on his way up to the office. It made him look like a little kid playing super spies or something.
I don’t get Danny – the only reason I can think for his decision to break up with Gabby is that PLenkov once said that Danny is more interesting when he’s unhappy.
Westy, you made it! Hope you are feeling better today *hugs*.
I’ve been known to turn around and politely ask people to stop talking during a movie. Often it’s kids, but the last time this happened to me it was an entire family sitting behind us. Sheesh.
Good point about the camera panning over McG – so if we have more of this (or less of it with Cath) then it will be more balanced because it doesn’t seem that way at the moment. On top of that, there’s so little in the show about Cath AS A PERSON IN HER OWN RIGHT that the camera panning was a little jarring to me.
Loved your comments about Billy – he may well want to get back with Cath but I don’t see it as his sole motivation for wanting her on his team. At least I hope not. The use of the code names did make him look a bit foolish. I mean really, it’s just McG on his way up to his office not the POTUS meeting with a foreign diplomat or something.
I don’t get Danny either but I LOLed at your comment about him being more interesting when he’s unhappy. Clearly Autumn Reeser is pregnant and she may not want a recurring role in the show but I thought she might go to Denver and then later the long distance relationship doesn’t work out and she wouldn’t need to come back.
LOL, I was probably a bit sensitive about the slow pan, this episode had had another one of those ‘men do sports, women wear bikinis’ beach montages (DON’T THINK I HAVEN’T NOTICED, SHOW!). You’re quite right, it’s not really any different. And it was a lovely suit and she did look lovely in it.
I think Danny expects women to treat him badly. He probably thinks he’s saving himself heartache in the long run by breaking up with her now instead of waiting six months for her to tell him she’s not coming back again (as he said to McG earlier in the episode). Poor Danny :-(. And if PLenkov thinks that, he’s not going to be getting a happy ending any time soon, is he? 😦
This episode just fell flat with me overall. Too much attention paid to things I don’t care about and not enough attention paid to things I do. I’ve ranted a little on my Tumblr about it but it boils down to this: If Show has ample amounts of time to showcase 30-60 seconds of Hawaii vanity shots each episode and has time to show Danny bitch to Steve about Cath taking the job with Billy three episodes in a row, Show has plenty of time to show someone other than Chin giving a fuck about what’s happening to Kono. Steve hasn’t mentioned her, not once. And this bothers me. As part of his ohana, you would think that he would show at least a tiny amount of concern over what happened to her. As far as canon (actual canon, not Lenkov’s head canon) is showing us, Steve isn’t even aware that she made it to China OK.
But speaking of Lenkov’s head canon… can we just not with the whole Gabby thing? From 2.17 until the S3 finale, we saw her exactly zero times and Danny mentioned her twice(?). Yet this season he’s talking about telling her he loves her, angsting over whether or not he should give the OK for her to take a job (and what the hell is it with that theme this season FFS?!), and telling her how important she was to his happiness in Hawaii. Huh? What? I’ve never been one to want Show to focus on relationship drama (BORING!) but to have this beautiful (and it really was a great scene) break up moment as the ending to a relationship that didn’t even really exist in the first place was just bad, bad, bad writing.
Which brings me to Fong. You know, the guy that was stabbed in the S3 finale and the last we heard was “they don’t know if he’s going to make it” from Max? Four episodes in and not a single, teensy tiny peep about his status. Instead we get Lenkov SPOILER INCOMING!!! gloating on his Twitter that Fong is back in 4.07. Oooooookay. Am I supposed to be grateful, kiss his feet, join the legions of blindly devoted fans and say “thanks boss!” for him being oh so condescendingly proud that fans who were paying attention have to wait seven episodes to find out something which should have been answered in 4.01? Sloppy, terrible, shitty writing. The stories I wrote in high school had better continuity and attention to detail. High school!
All that being said, I think I would’ve liked this episode more had they focused more on the CotW and spent the time they used on Danny being pissy about Cath to show more team unity when it comes to what was happening to Kono and Adam. Side note: Chin getting all protective!cousin was hot, not gonna lie. The scenes with Cath were fine but I do have to say that a security firm would/should have access to background check sites so her favor was really pretty pointless. But yay for her calling Steve on all the favors she did for him (although technically, I believe said favors were paid for in sexy times so he doesn’t really “owe” her anything).
Almost done with my wall of text!! I think I figured out what’s bothering me about this season as a whole so far (besides the obvious bad writing, lack of continuity, love triangle cliche, Danny’s sudden OOCness, etc.). Except for the premiere, the episodes just don’t feel like Show. I mean, it’s like I’m tuning into some TV show mid series after only seeing a few episodes here and there. I recognize the characters but I feel like I’ve missed a season or two worth of plot.
Re your comment about McG not caring much about Kono (and I agree), this is how I felt when she was working undercover in S2. It was Chin who was concerned for her well being and McG hardly seemed to bother with her and then all of a sudden, he’s in there punching out Fryer for messing with his team. I didn’t get that at the time and I don’t get it now.
Agree with your comment about Gabby. I think I said it in an earlier comment, that it was a huge leap for the audience to accept the depth of her relationship with Danny when she’s hardly been in the show and Danny’s hardly mentioned her. Bad writing, I agree.
Poor Fong, he’s stuck in NoMentionLand. Ridiculous for atplenkov to tweet about his return when he’s not even been spoken about at all.
I think the procedural part of the show so far this season has been pretty good and that aspect feels like the show I know and love (well for the most part anyway given that Kono is absent). But the ‘character development’ stuff has been woeful and I barely recognize my beloved characters these days, or the qualities that are being showcased are not the ones I want to see in them.
Well, we all said that the reason McG and Danny never enquired about Kono when she was U/C was because they stayed in touch via Facebook. That was the ONLY explanation we could come up with to explain their total lack of interest and concern in her whereabouts back then.
I’m assuming they’re face booking right now!
Bahahahaha! They sooooo must be facebooking right now. I’m sure Kono has wifi. If not, she can rig something up with a piece of string and a bent coat hanger, seeing as she’s a total bad ass at everything.
Mind you, McG’s probably too busy disturbing people’s movie watching and giving Billy the stink eye to find much time to log on to Facebook.
It upset me that Billy & Cath’s private business used Five-0 resources for running background checks. Yes, Cath had repositioned tons of satellites for Steve over the years. However, at that time, they both worked for government agencies. (The show even went out of its way, in a line we all hugely rolled our eyes at, to have Cath say that the “favors” were all cool with her CO). Turning over government resources, even to a trusted friend, for the purpose of their private business strikes me as very shady. Of course, in America today, nothing is really “safe” and public/private lines are constantly blurred. But this didn’t sit right with me. And I feel like this opinion will attract a lot of negative attention because I think we’re all supposed to be happy that Cath is finally turning the tables on Steve. But this has nothing to do with Cath and Steve this has to do with a show where sometimes when I watch I’m told I’m taking things too seriously and other times I’m told I shouldn’t be enjoying it because things are “over the top” or “forced.” This action by the characters, even though it had nothing to do with the overall plot, made me feel icky.
You are absolutely correct to be outraged. I used to work for the PD here, and if anyone was caught looking up a name without sufficient and valid reason, the penalties were harsh. Well, for civilians, it was instant suspension, investigation, most likely dismissal and often a jail term.
Cops doing favours for other cops was frowned upon. As I said, a valid reason was required.
I’ve always had a problem with the favours Cath did for Steve…I mean, really. We’re expected to believe that her CO is on board with her repositioning satellites??
I totally agree with both of you. I guess the writers are going to the ‘return favour’ thing but it doesn’t sit right with me either that Cath is going to McG for information. What kind of security company doesn’t have its own access to the information it needs anyway? The writers have gone for the relationship angle again and have forgotten about plausibility and ethics and all that.
I think that whole scene made me cringe because the banter between the two of them seemed forced and unnatural. And I snorted when Cath mentioned the repositioning of satellites as it sounded ridiculous. Surely the Navy has better things to do with its resources than do McG’s bidding? I am no expert at all but wouldn’t repositioning a satellite require all kinds of permission? I mean, really, does one simply reposition a satellite like that?
Iedereen heeft gelijk mensen. Er zijn telkens weer nieuwe verhaallijnen te zien en te maken. Zelf zag ik Billy als gevaar voor Steve. Doch Steve zou Billy vermoord hebben mocht hij weer proberen met Cath wat te flikken. Cath en Steve zijn en waren beslist aan elkaar voorbestemd. In de meeste verhaallijnen komt dit ook helder terug. Wel hebben Cath en Steve een lange weg te gaan van verdriet pijn gemis en natuurlijk de date,s. Cath kon er ook wat van doch deed dit regelmatig om Steve te jennen. Toen Steve nog met Lynn was vertelde Cath aan Steve dat ze aan het daten was terwijl dit niet waar was. Ook toen Cath voor de bruiloft van kono even op het eiland terug was ging ze een paar keer op een date omdat Steve nooit geen tijd voor haar vrijmaakte. Wel vertelde ze Steve dat ze deze mannen niet dichtbij liet komen. Ze heeft wel een paar mannen verwend doch geen sex gehad. Dat wilde en kon ze niet omdat het altijd weer Steve voor haar was. De schrijver van Hawaii Five -0 heeft veel moois laten liggen. Bijzonder wat betreft voor Cath en Steve. Die hadden zeker in de finale aflevering eerst moeten trouwen en dan samen weg moeten vliegen op naar hun nieuwe leven samen. Op deze manier zie ik het en velen met mij !! Groeten uit Holland