Hawaii Five-0: “Ho’opa’i” – review

While New York crime boss Jimmy Cannon (Keith David) visits his son in Hawaii, Reggie Cole (Sean Combs), an undercover cop in Cannon’s organization, visits his own wife and son at a safehouse. In the middle of the night, two gunmen break into the safehouse, killing one of Reggie’s protection detail, wounding another, and killing Reggie’s wife. Fortunately, Reggie is able to save his son and memorize a few details about the getaway car before he collapses from a gunshot wound.

Much of this episode was a straight revenge plot. The prevailing theory was that Jimmy Cannon learned Reggie’s identity and took revenge on his family. One of the FBI agents working with Cole told McGarrett, “You cannot get involved with our investigation of Jimmy Cannon.” McGarrett replied, “Watch me,” and inexplicably the FBI made no further attempt to stop Five-0.

In similar maverick fashion, once Reggie Cole was well enough, he escaped from the hospital and tried to hunt down Cannon on his own. I’ve seen the same plot on many series, featuring many guest stars before Sean “Diddy” Combs. In this case, it only meant Five-0 had to split time trying to bring Reggie in while trying to gather evidence on Cannon.

The episode did have two twists, one better than the other. Five-0 deduced that one of the agents on Cole’s protection detail had leaked the location of the safehouse to Cannon. I guessed incorrectly as to which agent it was. The second, more cliched twist, was that Jimmy Cannon had not ordered the hit on Cole’s family; his son had.

Though I appreciated that first twist, “Ho’opa’i” was too loose about FBI/Five-O jurisdiction for my taste, including McGarrett and the team barging into a suspect’s hospital room to question and threaten him.