Episode Title: “Olelo Pa’a” (“The Promise”)
Writers: Peter M. Lenkov and Ken Solarz
Director: Joe Dante
Previously on “Hawaii Five-0”
Episode 3.19 “Hoa Pili” (“Close Friend”)
With “Olelo Pa’A,” “Hawaii Five-0” took an exciting detour from the usual island-based procedural and the never-ending Wo Fat saga for a brief visit to North Korea and McGarrett’s days as a tough-as-nails Navy SEAL.
A timely coincidence perhaps, what with North Korea dominating headlines lately, this marks the second visit to the “People’s Republic” for McGarrett. Last time, it was a mission to rescue Jenna Kaye’s finance. This time around it’s to recover the body of McGarrett’s fellow SEAL team member, Freddie Hart.
What’s great about “Olelo Pa’a,” which means “The Promise” is that the episode doesn’t try to cram in an investigation back home while following McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and Catherine’s (Michelle Borth) maneuvers overseas. Instead, we get an episode that feels more like a Hollywood action flick, (something “H50” excels at) than a police drama.
This hour also visits McGarrett’s time in SEAL training under Commander Joe White (yup, Terry O’Quinn is indeed back!). Oh and Jimmy Buffett is still hiding out in a bar in South Korea, having traded his signature margarita for a snake’s blood rice wine certain to put “thirty-six hours of led in your pencil.”
McGarrett and Catherine meet with North Korean military leaders to exchange a couple of hostages for the Commander Hart’s body. However, back at the base, McGarrett’s realizes the body isn’t Hart. He tells Catherine, who suggests they go through proper diplomatic channels to deal with the matter. But McGarrett doesn’t want to wait around for a team to be assembled and decides to take matters into his own hands, like McGarrett always does. He also doesn’t seem too concerned about those nuclear missiles Kim Jong-un has pointed at Texas.
Catherine insists on helping McG, citing her three tours of duty in Kabul as qualification for the mission. He reluctantly agrees and with a little help from Joe White, who’s doing his best “Marlboro Man” impersonation, horseback riding in the mountains of Montana, the two seek out McGarrett’s old friend Frank Bama (Jimmy Buffett) who takes them to the border via an old smugglers’ route.
Interspersed throughout the episode are scenes of McGarrett and Hart (Alan Ritchson) training together, under White’s command. After one particularly grueling session of beach water boarding training, Hart is about to drop out of the program when McGarrett pretty much beats him into staying when the two get in a fistfight. It turns out to be the right decision for Hart, who goes on to be an exceptional member of the team. However, when he and McGarrett are sent on a mission to capture an arms dealer, Victor Hess’ brother Anton (Hey, it’s “Daryl” from The Walking Dead,” Norman Reedus!) in North Korea, Hart is killed in action.
Back in the present, McGarrett and Catherine manage to capture one of the North Korean soldiers who was there the day Hart was killed. He brings the two to Hart’s burial site and digs up the body. McGarrett sees that his friend’s remains were badly mutilated after he was killed. He and Catherine tie the soldier up and McGarrett places a mine under his body.
Shortly after, McGarrett and Catherine are caught in a shoot out and captured by the soldiers responsible for killing and desecrating Hart’s remains. Lucky for them, the man they left laying on top of a mine is found by his comrades who trigged the explosive. With their captors distracted by the explosion, McGarrett and Catherine are able to overtake them and leave North Korea with Hart’s remains. The fallen soldier is then given a proper burial back in the states.
“Olelo Pa’a” doesn’t offer up much mystery; the only reason we’re given for the switcheroo with the bodies is that the North Koreans didn’t want the U.S. military to see what they’d done to Hart’s body. Even the suspense over McGarrett and Catherine’s capture is short lived as they easily escape after the explosion in the jungle.
But what this episode lacks in mystery, it makes up for by mixing things up with a look back at what made McGarrett the badass he is today. Factor in a visit with Jimmy Buffett and his snake’s blood Viagra plus the return of Joe White as McGarrett and Hart’s SEAL team taskmaster and this episode is a cool trip back in time for “H50” fans.
