Hawaii Five-0 - He Ke’u Na Ka ‘Alae a Hina – Review: “A Croaking by Hina’s Mudhen”

We’re heading into the final stretch with the last two episodes of the season. After last week’s stellar episode, nearly anything this week would be a letdown, but Hawaii 5-0 brings the tension with a terrorist plot to destroy Oahu, big changes for the team, and insightful flashbacks that show why Steve is such a good leader.

Instead of having a cold opening with the victim or the week, we jump straight into the main plot with Steve at Guantanamo Bay. Ten years ago, he treated one of the prisoners with dignity. Now, that man wants to return the favor. Salaam issues a dire warning. Steve needs to get his entire family off Oahu before something terrible happens.

Steve takes his threat seriously, even if the rest of the team is a little more skeptical. They’re worried that Salaam, an Al-Qaeda member, is just playing Steve to get something in return. He refuses to give up his source or find out any more information. The only thing Salaam, and Steve, know is that it has something to do with “Cain Allah.”

Jerry dismisses the phrase as something Arabic and thinks it is instead Hawaiian. “Cain Allah” would translate to “The Way of Kane,” which happens to be the name of a travel agency on the island. Jerry is immediately suspicious of a travel agency still operating in today’s day and age. Kono and Lou make a stop at the agency and notice the suspiciously missing owner and the security cameras guarding the back room. Lou catches the guy trying to flee out of the back door with a well-placed punch in the face.

Lou and Kono tell Steve that the place is a hawala, which could be used to smuggle money to a terror network in the Middle East. Steve is vindicated and puts the entire team on high alert. It looks like Salaam is right.

One name stands out in the hawala records: Adnan Khalid. Why would an established professor be funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars through the organization? When the team goes to his house, they find a confession set to be uploaded at 6:20 that evening. They have until then to stop whatever Khalid has planned.

Steve has a feeling that Khalid is targeting the military. Chin has a lock on his burner phone, which leads the team to Manoa. Before they can arrest him, the guy with the phone ran away and is very graphically run over by a car. It isn’t Khalid. The mastermind is still out there.

But is he the mastermind? While replaying the video over and over, Steve begins to believe that Khalid is being set up. He thinks that Khalid was being coerced in the video, and Eric Russo confirms that Khalid’s computer was hacked to pretend that he was being radicalized. It was why someone took his phone to the mosque - to look like he was praying before the attack.

This is where the flashbacks come in. While last week’s flashbacks show how much Danny has changed by being on the team, the flashbacks this week show how much Steve has stayed the same from his SEAL days. Steve showed Salaam kindness and respect, despite his superior’s commands to keep Salaam hungry and terrorized. Steve applies the same insight to this current attack. He knows that the story is something more than Khalid becoming radicalized and planning an attack. His ability to look for an unconventional, compassionate solution to the problem saves an innocent man from being demonized as a terrorist, and an entire plane full of innocent passengers.

The team traces the attack to a building in the flight path to the Honolulu airport. They are targeting an airplane carrying marines who participated in a raid in Kabul. Steve, Lou, and Kono breach the building, but their way to the roof is blocked. Steve smashes through a window and climbs up the side to get to the rocket-launcher-wielding terrorist on the roof.

After a brutal fight, Steve blows up the attacker with the rocket launcher. While they save Khalid, they do end up killing every single terrorist, which gives them no clues about who planned the attack.

While the rest of the team celebrates the win, Steve receives news that shakes him to his core. The terrorists were mercenaries, who may have been hired by a cabal in the United States government. This wasn’t a foreign attack. This was treason.

It’s unclear whether or not this will end up being the main plot of the finale next week, or if this will be an ongoing arc in the next season. We’ve also got whoever ordered the attack with the uranium as another potential foe for 5-0 to face.

Meanwhile, while everyone is trying to save Oahu, Chin is contemplating leaving if for good. Coughlin is having a horrible time trying to keep the triads under control and Chin is offered his own 5-0-esque task force to lead in San Francisco. He, Abby, and Sarah could start a new life in the Bay Area. That wasn’t a great sales pitch by Coughlin: “The Triads are so out of control they’re attacking people in broad daylight, but it’s a great place to raise children!”

Chin decides to have a conversation with Steve about Coughlin’s offer, but is surprised to hear that Steve already knows all about it. Steve tells Chin that he should take the opportunity and Chin confesses that he’s planning to propose to Abby.

I have been saying all season that Adam should officially join the 5-0 team, but I would also be up for a spin-off about Adam and Hirsh running Crime Clean together. When Hirsh first reaches out to Kono, he wants her help expunging his criminal record. She gives him a hard “No,” but does offer Adam’s help with his business plan. Adam and Hirsh bond over their challenges as ex-cons, and their feelings for Kono. Adam even good-naturedly listens to Hirsh’s ramblings about Kono’s nonexistent feelings for him.

Hirsch strikes out with every bank on the island, but his angel investor Kamekona comes through with the money. Adam went to him with Hirsch’s business plan and Kamekona is moved by his story. Just like Hirsch and Adam, Kamekona knows what it’s like for 5-0 to have his back. The Hirsch-Kamekona Crime Clean Enterprise is open for business. Now, everyone just has to survive the finale next week.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? What do you think will happen in the finale? Let me know in the comments!