CBS gave us Episode 2 of its new Hawaii Five-O last night – a chance to see what direction the writers would go from the premiere, in which Steve McGarrett’s father is slain and the son is left to ponder how they became estranged.

The show continues to work through its Daddy issues in Episode 2.

Following an opening sequence in which a man is kidnapped at gunpoint while on the phone with his young son – and then that boffo theme song – viewers are treated to a montage of the four main characters set to a voiceover of McGarrett’s dad talking about the toll that police work can take on cops’ families. For McGarrett, it’s the relationship with his father; for divorced dad Danno, the potential impact on his little girl were he killed or disabled in the line of duty. Chin Ho and Kono struggle with the bribery allegations that ended his career with the Honolulu Police and that he believes will cast a shadow over hers.

What can I say? Subtlety is not this Hawaii Five-O’s forte.

Turns out this week’s kidnapping victim is a widower, so the episode continues with the team hoping to keep his son from becoming an orphan.

There is the requisite bickering between McGarrett and Danno – this time over issues as light as proper cop attire and as heavy as the effectiveness of torture. In both episodes so far, one of these bickering sessions has taken place in a speeding car. Given the amount of attention the characters appear to give the road, I sure wouldn’t want to be a motorist on Oahu.

And isn’t it a coincidence, they always seem to be driving Chevys. McGarrett pilots a muscular Camaro while Kono drives a bright red Chevy Cruze just like the one in the commercials.

Actress Grace Park has more to do in this episode as Kono, who is expecting to go through her Police Academy graduation in a matter of hours. While most of the episode features her in the serious, fighting-for-her-life mode she perfected on Battlestar Galactica, there is a scene in which she gets to play against that type, using origami to connect with the victim’s son. She also gets an extended hand-to-hand fight scene resulting from a plot twist I didn’t see coming. (Just when I was thinking the show was getting a little too predictable.)

Scott Caan continues to shine as Danno, uttering some of the show’s best lines while cutting McGarrett down to size. That’s important, because it appears to be the writers’ primary way of humanizing their hero.

The plot advances quickly, as the writers have packed a lot of exposition into however many minutes they have between commercials. A couple of the shootout scenes moved so quickly that I had trouble following the fighting. And just like in the pilot, I found that it’s best not to sweat the details. Viewers should just sit back and enjoy the ride. As quickly as you can say “Book ’em, Danno,” McGarrett and his team capture or kill the bad guys.

But even though each episode has a self-contained story, viewers can expect the series’ Daddy issues to continue. The pilot ended with McGarrett shooting his father’s killer on a dock, with the force of the bullets pushing the man into water. Episode 2 pointedly establishes that the Coast Guard has been unable to recover the body.