Hawaii Five-0 – “Ho’ohuli Na’au” – review

Five-0 investigates when, during a swimsuit shoot, famous photographer Renny Sinclair (Rick Springfield) is locked in his trailer, which then explodes in flames. Meanwhile, Chin Ho’s uncle decides to admit he was behind the theft that ended Chin’s HPD career.

The way Sinclair died wasn’t very mysterious. Two gas cans had been fixed to his trailer. Setting fire to one ignited the other. Kono and an old friend from the HPD crime lab took gasoline samples from across Oahu to find out which station had sold the gas and to whom. At the same time, McGarrett and Danno looked into Sinclair’s financial history and found he had lost dozens of bets, making his bookie a suspect.

Meanwhile, HPD reopened the investigation into Chin Ho’s alleged theft. As mentioned previously, Chin wanted to take the blame to keep his uncle’s police career beyond reproach. His uncle, on the other hand, was tired of lying and refused to take back his admission. Chin told the review board that his uncle was still lying to protect him. Not believing Chin, the board ordered him to produce the original $200,000, which Chin claimed he never spent.

Sinclair’s killer turned out to be his daughter from a previous relationship. She killed him in cold blood, not realizing his current girlfriend (Serinda Swan)’s pregnancy had caused a change of heart. He wanted to reconnect with the daughter he never knew. He had maneuvered to set up a trust with all the money he should have paid in child support. I found the father-daughter backstory compelling despite the rather routine method of killing.

The episode ended with Chin Ho offering Sinclair’s bookie the deed to his house in exchange for $200,000. This isn’t quite the neat solution it seems. Wouldn’t the HPD check the serial numbers on the bills and realize they were not the originals? This wrongheaded plot twist seems only to set up a season-ending team break-up. The setup continues next week when Danno comes in contact with a deadly nerve agent.

I say these season-ending fireworks are wrongheaded because Season 2 will have to open with an even farther-fetched explanation to reunite the team. I am curious just how far out the explanation will be.