Episode Title: ‘Ho ‘opio’ (‘To Take Captive’)
Writer: Noah Nelson
Director: Steve Boyum
Previously on “Hawaii Five-0”
Episode 3.21 “Imi Loko Ka ‘Uhane” (“Seek Within One’s Soul”)
Unfortunately, this week’s episode of “5-0” doesn’t follow up on Wo Fat, who is now in custody with a deep, deep tan after a bad helicopter crash. That’s because the gang’s busy searching for serial child kidnappers, Henry Rollins and Mare Winnigham and Kono’s wondering why her Yakuza boyfriend won’t return her calls.
The hour opens with a sumo contest on the beach, overseen by Kamekona (who’s played by former sumo wrestler, Taylor Wily). It’s a good time but Kono’s acting strange and McGarrett’s got a new haircut that no one likes. Not sure about the haircut, but Kono (Grace Park) is upset because yakuza prince, Adam is avoiding her. Well, she is a cop…
The party is cut short when a call comes in about a dead body in the woods. It turns out to be that of Amanda Morris, a young girl who went missing ten years earlier. A foreign hair is found on Amanda’s body and oddly enough, it belongs to Ella Bishop, a little girl who was kidnapped just days earlier.
In the midst of the investigation, Kono makes a pit stop at Adam’s place and starts digging through his stuff in hopes of finding some clues about where he’s disappeared to. Instead, she finds two guys with guns looking for Adam, one of whom mentions a man named “Sato.”
While Kono’s meeting Adam’s unsavory friends, a motorcycle gang led by Tip Gilbert, the real-life father of kidnapping victim, Maile Gilbert, whose story this episode is reportedly based on, arrives on the scene. He and his boys offer to help 5-0 chase any leads.
Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) learns of a suspicious looking van that was parked outside Ella’s house the night of her abduction. With help from the motorcycle gang, McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and Danny (Scott Caan) find the van and arrest the driver. He looks the part and has a record to boot, but he’s not their guy. Meanwhile, Kono asks Catherine (Michelle Borth) to look into Sato, off the books. Catherine tells her he’s a yakuza boss and sends her pictures of Adam meeting with him in Japan. Hey, at least it’s not another woman…
After studying surveillance tapes from an intersection near the Ella’s house, Chin spots a car driven by a woman dressed like HPD, but she’s definitely not a cop. 5-0 heads to her house, but she shoots herself before they can arrest her. They find Ella’s bracelet in the trunk of her car and a voicemail on her phone from a man she hired to create false identities for the abducted girls. This leads 5-0 to Henry Rollins and Mare Winnigham, who they theorize, kidnapped Amanda for welfare benefits and then killed her when she turned eighteen.
McGarrett and Danny arrive at the house and question Henry and Mare. They aren’t talking, but McGarrett spots a mark in the living room rug from moving furniture and finds a door behind a bookcase. Inside, it looks like the average little girl’s bedroom, except there’s a shackle and chain on the floor. Ella’s nowhere to be found and Danny wants answers. That’s when McGarrett takes Danno’s badge away and lets him go to town on Henry Rollins. After taking a beating from Danny, Henry gives up Ella’s location and 5-0 finds her alive inside a box buried in the woods.
It’s a happy ending to an especially disturbing case, unsettling because it relates to so many real-life cases, including the one it’s based on. The lack of follow-up on the Wo Fat situation is a bit of a let down and revisiting Kono’s forgettable relationship with Adam at this stage feels like a distraction, unless the two are connected. But otherwise, this episode offers up a harrowing case, “ripped from the headlines,” with completely random yet well-utilized guest stars in Henry Rollins and Mare Winnigham. Not a bad bit of filler as we head towards the season finale.
