This week’s Five-0 had plenty of drama, angst and action coming into play. There were definitely some high notes, but for the most part, “Kuipeia E Ka Makani Apaa” held a certain amount of predictability that clashed with the onslaught of the intensity of what was going on. The Season 10 premiere held more strength and promise; its follow-up was good, but it had room for improvement.
As predicted, Quinn is once again looped into a Five-0 case. Initially, Steve calls her for a favor and Quinn pretty much invites herself to help out with the remainder of the case even though she’s still military police. Quinn has a way of crashing the party that might strike some as annoying, and some as eager. The Five-0 team seem more than happy to have her aboard, even if she was uninvited, and she proves to be quite helpful alongside Danno and Adam.
Already it is evident that Quinn is establishing something of a connection with the rest of the team; most notably, Steve. Their shared interests and past seems to make a solid foundation for friendship. Still, being too much alike has its issues, and I can see these two clashing time and again as the season progresses. Steve obviously trusts her enough to call in favors, and even allow her to crash their cases, but I’m not so sure he should be so open. After all, we still don’t know that much about Quinn; could something about her, or her past, come back to bite her and, by affiliation, the Five-0 team?
This week’s episode also seems to have a subsidiary theme of couples. Though secondary in comparison to the action, the couples theme possessed angst and drama in various ways. For instance, a vacationing couple, who obviously have issues in their marriage, are among the group who find themselves trapped in the collapsed tunnel. While a sweet gesture that the two seem to be making up considering their circumstances, I’m concerned about a couple things.
First, it’s a little too typical. Given a life or death situation, practically anyone would be willing to forgive just to have some support and pray for survival. Second, who’s to say the relationship would last beyond the collapsible tunnel walls? It seems like this particular couple is about to head into something for the better, but it’s more of a secondary plot to keep us invested in the trapped group and to make us feel for them. It works, but it’s still predictable.
Predictability is also a key component in Tani and Junior’s relationship. While returning from a surfing venture, the two stumble across the tunnel collapse and eagerly offer their help to the victims inside. This unfortunately lands them trapped inside the tunnel too.
The will-they or won’t-they factor has been in-play for quite some time. So long, in fact, that some of us are getting tired of it and just want to see them admit to each other how they really feel, or to just walk away. Tani’s teasing of Junior is a little ludicrous at this point, and in this particular episode’s example, somewhat childish. It’s more like a sibling relationship as she taunts him by saying she’s a better surfer than he is.
The tunnel collapse, however, breaks into their innocent playtime. This event practically ensures their impending predicament. Trapped inside, conflict with other victims and initially failing to save Junior are all typically foreseen. In addition to that, I had a strong sense that it would be Tani, not Steve, that would return to save Junior.
Her desperate tone and determined look were a dead giveaway into how much she really cares for Junior. Will the tunnel collapse push their relationship forward? Will they pretend the moments they shared never happened and avoid one another? Perhaps a bit of both? Any which way but loose is the approach their relationship seems to be upholding.
The other proverbial event worth mentioning is the breaking of the rope. We were shown that as more people were lifted, the rope kept breaking just a little more because of a sharp component on the fan that they passed on the way up. We kind of figured that the rescue wouldn’t go as smoothly as planned. While my heart went out to Tani and Junior, and I could feel the urgency given their limited time for clean air, I was a little bored. It seems nothing comes easily to the Five-0 team. Just once, a clean rescue effort would suffice.
After all, wouldn’t someone notice the rope coming apart and do something about it? In the heat of the moment, their focus is rightfully on getting everyone out. Still, wouldn’t someone have noticed the rope’s integrity was failing each time they pulled someone up? For the sake of rescue workers and victims both on the show and in real life, I’d hope so. While the rope breaking was clearly meant to further increase the suspense, I don’t think we really needed that extra edge. A tunnel collapsing is enough.
I did, however, love the adorable moment in which Steve sent in his bomb-sniffing dog, Eddie, to find Tani and Junior and get them a walkie-talkie to communicate with. Eddie bravely stayed down with the victims until the rescue came; if I were in such a perilous position, I’d want a dog like Eddie coming in to the rescue of myself and my peers too. Even if he was just a comfort dog, it’d certainly make things easier, so I appreciated this aspect.
In all the chaos of rescuing the people in the tunnel, and solving the case of why the tunnel collapsed to begin with (it was due to a prisoner’s escape), one vital storyline got little screen time and was somewhat overlooked; the bomb planted in Steve’s home. Steve strongly believes it was planted by Wes Cullen, the villain from the premiere episode, whom law enforcement was forced to release as there was no evidence against him.
If not for Eddie, the bomb would’ve surely ended Steve. Is it possible Cullen could become the next arch-enemy, after Wo Fat? It’s pretty hard to be Wo Fat by way of villainy; after all, framing Steve for the murder of The Governor of Hawaii was just one of his more heinous highlights. Yet, after ten years, the show has to up the ante somehow. Frankly, I’m disappointed by the lack of outcome here, but it’s clear that Steve won’t back down and will surely do something drastic down the line to find the bomber and would-be murderer; it’s just Steve’s way.
Wilcox, the prisoner escapee in this episode, could also be a recurring villain. He escaped without a trace; his exit leaving an opening for a return. What crimes will he commit that Five-0 may investigate in the meantime? Will he come after one of their own? What is his agenda and how does he plan to use it? It could be a twist, it could be predictable. Whatever the manner, it looks like we can count on some kind of return for this bad guy.
The episode’s end finds the gang barbecuing at Steve’s house. Steve and Danny had little time together in this episode, so it seems the writers tried to make up for it with a brief argument between the two about the dog getting a steak (for his heroic efforts of the day) instead of Danny, who gets a burger. This is reminiscent of their relationship over the years, and besides, who doesn’t love a good moment of bickering between this old “married” couple?
This week’s episode didn’t quite live up to its potential, but it holds up just enough to keep hanging ten off our surfboards for the episodes to come. The show has been on for a decade, it obviously has its qualities that pay off and make audiences fall in love with it each year. Despite its predictability, its value lies in its intuition and sentimentality that it still manages to maintain.
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