By Stu Robinson,

Because I’m a week behind, I’m going to rush through Episode 23 of CBS’s new Hawaii Five-0 so that I can start deconstructing the series’ shocking season finale. Here goes:

Acting on a tip from CIA analyst Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik), Five-0 raids a supposed safe house expecting to find Wo Fat. Instead, they find fugitive Sang Min (Will Yun Lee), the human trafficker and jailhouse snitch who appeared in the pilot and two other episodes this season. He flees on foot, eventually leading Danno to another home where a man lies dead on the kitchen floor. Shortly after checking for a pulse, Danno falls ill. Jenna determines the dead man, a vagrant, was killed by the chemical sarin after drinking milk from a spiked carton.

At this point, the Wo Fat, sarin and Danno plots diverge.

• Because Sang Min had boobytrapped the front door of the safe house and appeared surprised when Five-0 showed up, the team concludes that he was waiting to kill Wo Fat before Wo Fat killed him. That proves to be the case, and Sang Min eventually surrenders to the team, saying Wo Fat wants him dead and plans to come after McGarrett next.
• Meanwhile, Five-0 traces the sarin through the homeowner, his caretaker and the homeowner’s brother-in-law/business associate to the latter man’s secretary, with whom he was having an affair. (Got that?) The secretary had made a deal with a Russian weapons dealer for the arms merchant to plant the sarin where the homeowner would be exposed to a lethal dose, thereby freeing the secretary and brother-in-law to continue their relationship while holding onto the company. But the homeowner didn’t return to Hawaii as scheduled, and the caretaker allowed the vagrant to stay in the empty house, where he was exposed to the deadly nerve agent. (Geez, I’m tired just from typing all of that.)
• Finally, because it’s a weekend Danno is supposed to have custody of his daughter Grace, McGarrett picks her up from school and takes her to the hospital, where Danno is recovering thanks to Jenna’s quick diagnosis. It’s only a matter of time before Danno’s ex-wife, Rachel (Claire van der Boom), calls to check on Grace and learns Danno was injured. Bombshell alert! Rachel rushes to the hospital, whereupon viewers learn that her second marriage is failing and that she and Danno are getting close to hooking up again — if they haven’t already.

Notes

• HPD Internal Affairs shows up at Five-0 headquarters to return the $200,000 Chin Ho gave them. Turns out HPD did have serial numbers for the stolen bills; the story Chin Ho heard about the records being lost was disinformation put out by IA in hopes of getting him to spend. When the money Chin Ho returned didn’t match, it basically proved he was innocent. McGarrett orders him to return the money immediately to the bookie from whom he borrowed it in Episode 22.
• Big episode for secondary characters. In addition to Jenna Kaye, Rachel and Sang Min, giant shave-ice guy Kamekona (Taylor Wily) shows up at the hospital to provide some comic relief.
• No obvious daddy issues
• No “Book ’em, Danno.”

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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.