Episode Title: ‘Ike Maka’
Writer: Mike Schaub
Director: Bryan Spicer
Story:
McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) gets a call about a body found in the trunk of a muscle car. He and Danno (Scott Caan), now crashing at McGarrett’s place, race to the scene. Though unable to identify the body, Max (Masi Oka) tells the team the victim had recently undergone extensive facial reconstruction surgery.
Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) and Kono (Grace Park) get a tip about a muscle car thief on the island and put an order in. Meanwhile, Danny and McGarrett pay a visit to the plastic surgeon who worked on the victim. They learn that the man paid cash and he was in a hurry to leave the office after the procedure.
Weston (Lauren German), posing as a muscle car enthusiast, meets with the car thief and the two go for a ride. The thief and his partner are stopped in their tracks after trying to make off with Weston’s vehicle. McGarrett and Chin Ho interrogate the crook but they learn that he stole the car after the body was placed in the trunk.
After retrieving the victim’s duffel bag from the crook, Danny and McGarrett meet the victim’s girlfriend, Susie (Courtney Ford). She tells them her boyfriend’s name was Adam and that he was in some kind of trouble, though exactly what she isn’t sure.
McGarrett and Danny drop by the ship Adam worked on. Meanwhile, Weston learns that Adam’s actually identity is classified with the US Marshals. It turns out Adam is really Jimmy Sheehan, a witness to an Irish mob murder, now under federal protection. On the ship, McGarrett and Danny encounter Sheehan’s old roommate, Billy Murphy (Zack Ward), attempting to flee the ship. Once caught, Murphy explains that he owed money to the mob and sold out Sheehan’s location in order to clear his debt.
The team quickly arrives at Susie’s hotel room, where two mobsters are holding her at gunpoint, demanding to know Jimmy’s whereabouts. Before they can kill her, Kono takes the gunman out from afar. McGarrett then realizes that the mob, still looking for Sheehan, couldn’t have killed him.
After checking the records from the parking garage Sheehan’s car was at, the team narrows in on the plastic surgeon who worked on the dead man. Sheehan, insisting the doctor operate on him alone, died on the table and the panicked surgeon attempted to cover up the death.
Breakdown:
Leave it to “Hawaii Five-0” to give is an hour of TV involving facial reconstruction, muscle cars, the Irish mafia and the music of “Grease.”
While ‘Ike Maka,’ which means ‘identity,’ was nowhere near as zany as last week’s wild ride, it wasn’t without the charm and silliness we’ve come to expect from “H50.” Why is Max giving McG and Danno the silent treatment? The duo’s been ignoring his movie night emails. Which would explain, but not justify, why Weston is dressed up like Sandy from “Grease.”
The case of the week, concerning a witness to an Irish mob murder, featured a couple of minor guest stars you might recognize from their previous work, namely Chris Bauer aka Frank Sobotka from “The Wire,” Courtney Ford aka Christine Hill from “Dexter” and Zack Ward aka Scut Farkus from “A Christmas Story.”
As for the story itself, “Ike Maka” did more to serve its silly subplots than thrill viewers with intense crime drama. On that note, here’s a few additional observations on “Ike Maka:”
– McGarrett and Danny have taken their bromance to the next level by moving in together. McG even splurged on a pair of Bose headphones so Danno can fall asleep to the TV instead of what he calls “Hawaiian water torture.” How bromantic.
– I was fully expecting Kono to go undercover at the muscle car meet. However, Weston’s meeting with car thief, Naoka was filled with enough sexual innuendo to make one think they’re watching Cinemax not CBS.
– Max Bergman’s antics tend to douse any intensity or drama with a bucket full of silliness. There’s so many other subplots “H50” could explore; Kono’s relationship with Fong, Danno’s relationship with Dr. Asano, Wo Phat’s movements or just about any character’s love life. Why waste so much time on Bergman’s dumb sight gags?
‘Ike Maka’ definitely felt like filler as far as any of “Hawaii Five-0’s” ongoing storylines are concerned. That’s not to say it was a bad episode, just a bit of a let down after last week’s antics. Hopefully, we’ll see a return to either the Wo Fat storyline or “H50’s” heightened pop culture sensibilities in the episodes to come. With Jimmy Buffett on tap and the return of (SPOILER) Jenna Kaye next week, we’ll likely get a bit of both.
Crave Online Rating: 7 out of 10.
