By Stu Robinson,

Apologies for taking so long to post this. It was a busy week in Arizona Four-8.

After what I felt was Season One’s sloppiest episode last week, Hawaii Five-O came back this week with what struck me as the tightest episode yet. There were many twists, but – unlike last week – the viewer still had a chance to guess the result.

This week’s prologue put us in a submarine full of tourists. (I didn’t know there were submarines for tourists, except those of the Disney 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea variety.) Aboard, we find an annoying child being ignored by his cell-phone yelling mother until the following exchange:

Kid: “Mom! A mermaid; a mermaid!”
Mom: [Gasp!]

Following the boffo theme song, we find out the young woman floating upside down in the ocean was the daughter of a U.S. ambassador – and her sister is still missing. This particular diplomat is close friends with the governor (Jean Smart, in possibly her most-extensive appearance yet), so McGarrett, Danno and the rest of the Five-O team are summoned to action.

Very quickly, they are tracing the movements of the diplomat’s daughters, who never returned from a trip to the movies the previous evening. The trail leads to a roofie-reliant lounge lizard, a forced-prostitution ring and a terrorist plot. The intricate narrative moves quickly, which doesn’t leave much time to develop the four main characters: McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin), Danno (Scott Caan), Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) and Kono (Grace Park).

What does this mean? Time to introduce secondary characters, who presumably will make reoccurring appearances as needed.

Turns out we met the first two last week: McGarrett’s sister, Mary Ann (Taryn Manning), and the Navy’s must beautiful satellite-reconnaissance officer, Lt. Catherine Rollins (Michelle Borth).

Yes, in a mere week Catherine has gone from an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to a convenient post at Pearl Harbor. This episode finds her in bed with McGarrett when he gets the call to action. (Thanks to Danno’s crack powers of observation, we do learn that our hero is a happier guy after getting laid – shocking, I know.)

Later in the morning, Catherine and Mary Ann end up bumping into each other – literally – in the McGarrett kitchen, giving us this classy repartee:

Mary Ann: “Big night last night.”
Catherine: “Hmm?”
Mary Ann: “Old house; thin walls.”
Catherine: “Oh God!”
Mary Ann: “Yeah, you said that a lot.”

Way to go, Steve-0.

We also meet the resident medical examiner, Max Bergman (Masi Oka from Heroes), the most eccentric TV doctor since Mary McDonnell’s surgeon with Asperger’s syndrome on Grey’s Anatomy. (Yes, that Mary McDonnell. In honor of Five-O‘s Grace Park, we’re playing “Six Degrees of Battlestar Galactica.”)

Add in the governor and there are four secondary characters to complement the four leads.

Like previous episodes, this one climaxes with an action sequence in which the Five-O team comes to the rescue at the last possible moment. However, this one was a little easier to follow and slightly more realistic. I didn’t need to rewind my DVR as much as in previous weeks.

Other bits and pieces worth noting:

• Papa McGarrett’s ghost lingers, as Mary Ann discovers the mysterious toolbox from Episode 1.
• McGarrett starts the episode driving a Chevy crossover but is back in his muscular Camaro by the end of the hour. I wonder how the writers will work in the electric Chevy Volt when it hits the market.
• For the second episode in a row, McGarrett calls upon Catherine’s satellite access to locate a quarry. C’mon, writers: The first time it was outrageous; the second, lazy.
• Getting tired of that same Hawaiian Airlines commercial.
• Hawaii Five-O has a Twitter feed (@HawaiiFive0CBS) and hash tag (#H50).

Still, it felt like Hawaii Five-O got back on track this week, which is fortunate because CBS announced Thursday that it has picked up the show for the full season.

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Stu Robinson, a college friend of the TV Tyrant, is a writer, editor, media-relations practitioner and social-media guy based in Phoenix.