By Stu Robinson,

I’ve had some time to digest the Season One finale of Hawaii Five-0, the new CBS hit that pretty much lived up to its preseason hype. Summing up the 24 episodes requires more than one blog post, so here is Part 1: A Recap of the Season Finale:

Episode 24 starts with a bang as a car bomb kills one of the show’s secondary characters before the boffo opening theme song. And she wouldn’t be the only one to die.

Sexy governor’s aide Laura Hills (Kelly Hu) is the victim of that car bomb. After sifting through the wreckage, CIA analyst Jenna Kaye (Larisa Oleynik)

determines that the killing carries the same modus operandi as those of her fiance and McGarrett’s mother. She concludes – as she always does – that it has the mark of Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos).

The episode proceeds at warp speed.

This week’s mysterious envelope contains an ornate skeleton key. Kono’s new friend, lab tech Charlie Fong, apparently also performs handwriting analysis and finds that the envelopes containing the clues from Papa McGarrett’s toolbox were addressed by Hills.

McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) begins to suspect the skeleton key might unlock an antique desk in the governor’s office. He swings into cat-burglar mode to find out and discovers surveillance photos of Hills leaving the clues for him. “Laura was trying to help me,” he tells Danno. “It’s my fault that she’s dead.”

Convinced that the governor (Jean Smart) must be in league with Wo Fat, the angry and paranoid McGarrett embarks upon a series of events that ends with the governor dead, himself and Kono (Grace Park) under arrest and the apparent demise of Five-0.

But did McGarrett launch that series of events?

Taking a second look at the finale, one can see the dominoes fall one by one. The car bombing wasn’t even the first. Moments before, Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) encounters a group of cops carrying boxes of partly burned money that one says a rancher found in the countryside. He concludes immediately that it is some of the cash the team stole from the Honolulu Police asset-forfeiture locker – ransom money demanded by Victor Hesse after he strapped an explosive to Chin Ho in Episode 12. This despite the fact that McGarrett, Kono and viewers saw the ransom money destroyed after being set ablaze by Hesse.

The detonation of Hills’ car is the second domino to fall. When the team determines it was done with a Claymore mine, the investigation leads to the third domino: an arms dealer who says he sold the mine to “Steve McGarrett.”

No. 4 comes when word reaches the team that the Honolulu Police found McGarrett’s fingerprints all over Laura Hills’ house.

• “How is that possible?” asks Kaye.
• “You ever been there before today?” Danno (Scott Caan) asks McGarrett.
• McGarrett: “No. Never.”
• Chin Ho: “Well, somebody sure as hell wants HPD to think you were.”
• Kaye: “Why?”
• Chin Ho to McGarrett: “You’re being set up.”

Shortly thereafter, the team’s only witness, the shady arms dealer who first implicated McGarrett and then Wo Fat, is found dead in a bullet-riddled police car along with the offers who were transferring him to a new location. Domino No. 5 not only torpedoes the case McGarrett was building but also ensures that HPD will motivated to catch the cops’ killers.

Next, Chin Ho receives a tip that police are on the way to Five-0’s headquarters to arrest McGarrett. Upon first viewing, this came as a shock. But considering the domino theory, No. 6 shouldn’t have been a surprise. McGarrett escapes via the roof – careful not to kill any of the police pursuing him – and goes on the lam.

Unable to use his Chevy pickup or souped up Camaro, he starts driving his father’s classic black Mercury Marquis – one of the cars Jack Lord drove on the original Hawaii Five-0. He uses it to find Kamekona (Taylor Wily) and ask for a gun. After protesting that he is a parolee who could go back to prison of possessing a gun, the giant shave-ice vendor senses McGarrett’s desperation and leads him to a hidden cache of guns and ammunition.

Meanwhile, the next domino falls when Internal Affairs officers from HPD arrest Kono, saying a witness has put her at the scene when she and McGarrett raided the HPD asset-forfeiture locker. (Remember that annoying old lady who hassled Kono while she was posing as a utility worker? She’s Ba-ack.) This leads Chin Ho to storm from the office, leaving Danno to fill in a stunned Kaye.

• “That’s crazy,” she responds upon hearing how Five-0 robbed the cops.
• Danno: “Welcome to my world.”
• Kaye: “I like it. What do we do now?”
• Danno: “You like it; that’s good.”

Coming after a debate among team members during which Kaye asks if she gets a vote, that exchange would appear to validate her future status within Five-0 – if Five-0 has a future, that is. (Since CBS has picked up the show for a second season, that’s a pretty good bet.)

Armed with the weapons he got from Kamekona, a highly agitated McGarrett again infiltrates the governor’s office, this time confronting her face to face with his iPhone set to record her confession. He finally gets her to admit ordering Hills’ death, but his fixation on the governor enables Wo Fat to sneak up behind him with a Taser. The governor moves to erase the recorded confession, at which point Wo Fat draws a pistol, shoots her, places the weapon in a hand of the unconscious McGarrett and leaves.

An HPD response unit – led by Chin Ho, of all people ! – finds McGarrett, gun in hand, desperately claiming that Wo Fat killed the governor. There is no sign of Wo Fat, so Chin Ho arrests McGarrett. As he places the handcuffed McGarrett into a patrol car, Danno arrives on the scene. He tells Chin Ho to release McGarrett – the he has Five-0 immunity. To which Chin Ho responds, “You don’t understand, Danny. There is no Five-0 anymore.”

Danno was otherwise occupied for most of the season finale. He’s been hooking up with ex-wife Rachel (Claire van der Boom), she’s pregnant and they are planning a return to New Jersey with daughter Grace (Teilor Grubbs). In the end, though, Rachel and Grace are left waiting at the airport while Danno attempts to deal with the McGarrett situation. After waiting to the last moment, they board the plane to the mainland.

In a final scene, McGarrett and Kono spot each other in custody at the police station, giving viewers the sense that their plight is pretty hopeless. The episode concludes with mug shots being taken of McGarrett.

NEXT UP: Part 2: Season One Character Analyses

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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.