The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH May 6, 2013. ~ Newseum
Holy mackerel! Talk about catching lightning in a bottle.
What are the odds? Episode 22 of CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 concerns a young girl kidnapped and held hostage for a decade. During the closing credits, local news teases the day’s biggest real-life story: Three girls missing for a decade turn up in Cleveland.
Okay, so Cleveland isn’t exactly Honolulu. But … wow. Just wow.
The episode opens with a teenage girl in her room, writing in her journal. Someone opens the door. The girl rises and turns toward the door, but is stopped short because her ankle is shackled to the wall. A girl about 6 or 7 years old is pushed through the door, which is then pulled closed.
“I know you’re scared,” the teen tells the girl, “but it’s going to be okay.” When the little girl cries out for her mother, the teen tries to comfort her with an embrace. “I know exactly how you feel,” she says.
Cue the boffo H50 theme song.
A day later, the teen’s body is found, shot in the back, in a shallow grave. Scarring on an ankle indicates she’d been shackled for a long time … years. Genetic testing identifies a hair found on the corpse as matching a young girl kidnapped the day before. That leaves the Five-0 team asking the same question as a viewer: Why would a kidnapper hold a girl for years, then grab a replacement and kill the original?
I’m not going to get into a blow-by-blow recap, but “blow-by-blow” could describe Danno’s approach to questioning suspects in the case. He’s the only parent on the team, and his daughter, Grace, was kidnapped in Season 2, Episode 15. In fact, Grace (Teilor Grubbs) makes her first appearance of 2013 when Danno feels compelled to seek her out at cheerleading practice and hug her.
The plot features a truly sinister performance by former Black Flag front man Henry Rollins (Sons of Anarchy). Mare Winningham (Hatfields & McCoys, Grey’s Anatomy, St. Elmo’s Fire) plays his wife and accomplice.
During the investigation, Steve and Danno are assisted by real-live Hawaii missing-child activist Tip Gilbert, whose 6-year-old daughter, Maile, was kidnapped and killed in 1985. Police in Hawaii now use the MAILE (Minor Abducted in Life-threatening Emergency) Alert system, a program to notify the public of an abducted child through radio and television bulletins and electronic highway billboards. (Honolulu’s KHNL News reported on Gilbert’s H50 appearance.)
Heartache for Kono
Kono (Grace Park) waits for Catherine (Michelle Borth)
to finish surfing before seeking a favor. ~ CBS
A skimpy secondary plot revisits the relationship between Kono and Adam Noshimuri (Ian Anthony Dale), last touched on in Season 3, Episode 13. Kono confides to Chin Ho that Adam, the yakuza heir who supposedly has gone legit, has grown distant.
“Look, you know that I had my doubts about him,” Chin Ho tells her. “But he was there for you when you needed him most. So, before you assume the worst, why don’t you at least give him a chance to explain?”
Later, while snooping around Adam’s home, Kono encounters two goons – one of whom asks if Adam has gone to meet “Sato.” She seeks out Catherine at the beach (which gave the writers another opportunity to put Michelle Borth in a bikini, though more of a sport-cut suit this time) and asks her research Sato on the down-low. Eventually, Catherine obtains video of Adam visiting a yakuza boss in Japan.
In His Element
There is a comedic scene early in Episode 22 in which Kamekona (Taylor Wily) presides over a mock sumo match with wrestlers in fat suits. It’s a throwaway scene in terms of the episode’s plot but is notable on three levels:
- Wily was a professional sumo wrestler in Japan for 12 years. Wrestling under the name Takamishu, he fought his way to a championship in the sport’s third-highest division before retiring in 1989. Here is a video in which Wily discusses his background. (Factoid: He also competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championships’ UFC 1 in 1993.)
- Kamekona has deployed his cousin Flippa (Shawn Mokuahi Garnett) as a ringer in the competition.
- The girl who steps out of the crowd and defeats Flippa is played by Olympic bronze medalist and world champion women’s freestyle wrestler Clarissa Chun, a Honolulu native.
Note
The kidnapping plot includes another nod to the real-life 1976 school bus kidnapping in Chowchilla, Calif.
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Stuart J. Robinson, a college friend of the TV Tyrant, is a writer, editor, media-relations practitioner and social-media guy based in Phoenix. He blogs about entertainment and social media at www.lightbulbcommunications.com.