Hawaii Five-0 - Puka ‘Ana - Review:"Exodus"

If you were anxious to learn how Hawaii Five-0 would manage to resolve the cliffhanger featuring serial killer Madison Gray and Alicia Brown, don’t worry, MacGyver’s got you covered. Am I a little salty that the denouncement of a season-long serialized arc was ended in one line on a completely different show? Yeah. Apparently Madison is dead and Alicia is presumably in jail.

The rest of the crossover wasn’t nearly as irksome. It was actually quite fun and got me to tune in to a show that I normally wouldn’t have watched. Chin and Kono got to be their awesome selves and Kamekona expanded into the Los Angeles market. I know that crossover weirdness means that Hawaii Five-0 isn’t going to bother commenting on the huge earthquake that hit Hilo, but it was nice that they acknowledged the crossover in the following Hawaii Five-0 episode.

Which is what we’re here to really talk about after all! After the breezy nature of the show’s lead-in, Hawaii Five-0 tackles a serious topic – sex trafficking.

We start with a young teenager waiting anxiously in the emergency room. The man she’s with, who tells the nurse, Anna, that he’s her uncle, is basically raising every creeper red flag in the book. The nurse immediately suspects abuse, but the suspect and his victim vanish before she can notify anyone.

Luckily, Anna is old college friends with Noelani. Noelani brings Kono and Steve on to the case and Jerry’s facial recognition software matches the girl to Moani Amosa, a missing girl who was presumed to be a runaway. Russo (who has had one too many reprimands from HR) goes through the girl’s laptop and finds a series of messages from an online predator. Russo tracks down a location and Kono and Steve move quickly.

Sometimes when Hawaii Five-0 does an episode with a clear message, it gets a little clunky. Usually Steve and Danny endlessly bicker about the hot topic of the day. In this case, it works a lot better as Kono tells Steve the reason why someone could be vulnerable to online manipulation. The episode immediately goes into dark territory when Kono finds another traumatized girl tied up in the predator’s house.

Kono and Steve have saved one girl, but Moani is still out there.

This is Kono’s episode. Steve knows when to take a backseat and let Kono talk to Kelsey, the victim. Grace Park doesn’t always get the most substantial storylines, but she treats this one with the nuance it deserves. She gives the victim kindness and respect. In return, she learns that there are four girls including Moani, all under the control of people named Tori and Emilio.

Kono is completely professional when she listens to the story of the poor girls, but she can’t contain her rage for long. She smashes the car window of a guy who probably didn’t serve it and returns to the case with a laser-focus. In a few scenes prior, she was gushing to Steve about her and Adam’s plans to start a family and now she has to stare down one of the most insidious evils on the island.

Kono gets information on one of the johns from Kelsey and confronts him at his house. He’s a high school swim coach with a family, which just enrages Kono more. She demands he help them track down Emilio. The swim coach gets them to Tori, who gets them to some skeezy guy, who gets them to the girls. Kono chases down Emilio and gives him the beat-down she’s been saving just for him.

Kono gets a lot of punching in, but it doesn’t make her feel better about the case.

Kono slowly processes her feelings about the case by meeting with Moani and taking her to Pearl Haven. Pearl Haven is an actual center dedicated to supporting human trafficking victims. It’s run by Ho’ōla Nā Pua and it looks like their dedicated staff is doing amazing work (the cast and crew took the time to bring this organization to viewers’ attention, so I figure I should do my part!).

Meanwhile Chin and Lou investigate a murder at a sober living house. Lou immediately suspects something when he sees four dehumidifiers in one room. It wasn’t a sober living house, but a stash house. They track down the head drug dealer, Makoa, and try to flip him. It’s a little weird to go from a tragic, horrific storyline to Lou and Jerry trying to explain to Makoa what the cone of silence is. The wrap-up isn't very interesting and they catch the killer pretty quickly.

One of the best moments in the MacGyver crossover was Chin talking fondly about his new sense of fatherhood. The theme continues in “Puka ‘Ana” where Sara shows up, looking very happy and healthy in her new permanent Hawaiian home. She’s also taking business lessons from Kamekona and foisting as many girl-scout cookies as possible on the team. She plays on Danny and Steve’s competitive nature to sell more boxes of Hawaiian shortbread (which is completely ridiculous. Everyone knows you go straight for the Thin Mints). Kono, Jerry, and Russo also aren’t immune to her sad story of losing her gymnastics equipment if she doesn’t sell enough cookies. The props department had fun scattering the boxes in every scene.

Sara’s plot ties into the larger crime. Putting Sara in the episode reminds the team that no child is completely safe from this kind of evil. It’s their responsibility to protect the Moanis and Saras and Kelseys of the world.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Let me know in the comments!