The Tough Branch That Does Not Break in the Kona Gale

The Tough Branch That Does Not Break in the Kona Gale (Ka Lala Kaukonakona Haki 'Ole I Ka Pa a Ka Makani Kona) is the 24th episode of Season 8 in the remake version of Hawaii Five-0.

Synopsis
McGarrett joins Junior and his SEAL Team on a high risk covert mission to capture an elusive target who is holding his mentor, Joe White hostage. Also, Gerard Hirsch and Kamekona help Grover and Tani on a murder case involving masterpieces stolen by the Nazis during WWII and Tani makes a shocking discovery.

Plot
Junior had looked at finding his own place on tonight's all-new episode of “Hawaii Five-0”. He had moved in with Commander McGarrett when he first moved to the island because he had nowhere else to go and so he had been grateful to his boss. He knew that without McGarrett he would have had to move back in his dad and there had also been other advantages in living with his boss. Junior never went hungry and he hadn’t needed to worry about getting to work on time. The situation was practically perfect and Junior could have stayed for as long as he liked, however, he was a young man and he had wanted a place of his own.

Junior had looked for places without telling McGarrett and had even come across an apartment that he loved, so Junior could wait to talk about it. He had gone back home to tell McGarrett and had been a little surprised when his boss hadn’t been too happy. McGarrett hadn’t wanted to say that he would miss Junior and so Junior had had to figure it out on his own. He noticed that McGarrett hadn’t wanted to be left at the house by himself and it turns out that McGarrett had never gotten a place of his own. He went from his father’s house to boarding school to the Navy and then back to his father’s place.

McGarrett was used to being around people and he had gotten used to living with Junior. Junior picked up on that and had changed his mind about the apartment. He told McGarrett that he shouldn’t pick the first place he looked at because there could be more out there for him. Junior said he could keep looking and he noticed how relieved McGarrett was when he said that. So Junior was going to do what he said. He was going to keep looking at places he could rent until he thought McGarrett was ready to say goodbye and he had gone to get a beer when suddenly he had to drop everything at the last minute.

Junior had heard from the Navy. They needed to pull him in on a mission because they were short a person and technically Junior was still in the Reserves though disappearing on McGarrett had left McGarrett concerned. He thought something must have happened to Junior and reached out to everyone on the team to see if there could have been a problem. McGarrett had even called in Noelani despite knowing she was on a first date and so he had been willing to do anything to get answers until thankfully Junior called him. Junior called to tell McGarrett that he had gotten called in by the Navy and that there was something important about this mission.

Junior wasn’t supposed to release classified information and he did so anyway because of the mission. Junior was being sent overseas to Nigeria to take down a high-value target. This target was considered the objective and it hadn’t mattered that he had hostages. Junior had been warned that they had to prioritize the criminal and that meant they could potential risk someone important to McGarrett. McGarrett’s old commander had become a private contractor after he retired and there was intelligence that he could be in Nigeria as a prisoner. Junior told his boss all of this and that had been enough for McGarrett to want to come along.

McGarrett had used his own record, as well as the fact that he would go after his commander whether anyone liked it or not, to get an invite. He went with Junior to Nigeria and had made sure to thank the younger man. Junior had risked his career in the Navy to help out McGarrett and McGarrett weren’t forget that anytime soon. Especially as Joe White had been like a second father to him! If it hadn’t been for Joe then who knows where McGarrett could have ended up. McGarrett became a Navy SEAL thanks to Joe and so he wasn’t going to let his friend die. And so he hadn’t for one second believed Joe could be dead.

McGarrett had been warned that Joe could have been killed months back and he hadn’t wanted to believe it. He knew Joe was a survivor and so he risked the dangerous situation in Nigeria to get to his friend. Meanwhile back home, Hirsch brought a case to Five-0. He had been cleaning up after a crime scene when he noticed two works of art were hanging up in the bedroom and was able to recall that both had been stolen by the Nazis back during WWII. They had apparently been stolen from a prominent Jewish family and so Hirsch had wanted to return the paintings to the family. He had brought Lou onto the case because he thought Lou could fast-track it and Lou couldn’t do that.

Lou said they still had to find whoever murdered the woman that lived there and Hirsch said that was the easy part. He believed Sherry Wagner had been killed by her husband Kurt. Hirsch said it was always the husband and this time around he had someone that agreed with him. He had Kamekona on his side because they were partners in Crime Clean and so the two men decided to skip a few steps in getting justice. They both agreed that Hirsch should go back to the house and the plan ended up working a little too well. Hirsch broke in and then he got trapped because Kirk returned home.

Hirsch stayed hidden while the man paid his bills, watched television, and had spent the night with his mistress. But Hirsch stole the bed sheets after they left and brought them to Five-0 to test. It hadn’t taken them that long to find the mistress after that and finding her helped proved that Kurt killed his wife. He had had his girlfriend go away on vacation with his phone while he stayed behind and killed his spouse, so Hirsch solved the murder and he even got the chance to prove the paintings were real.

Kurt Wagner’s family was from Germany and there were some shady business dealings that meant those paintings were sold not long after they were stolen. It may have taken a few years yet Hirsch had been glad to be there when the paintings were returned to their rightful owners. And while Hirsch was surprising everyone, Junior and McGarrett came back from Nigeria with Joe. Joe it seems had been the one to tell McGarrett to go on a date with Catherine and he had also advised McGarrett after a near miss to call his dad. McGarrett never forgot that because thanks to Joe he had gotten the chance to get to know his father.

Quotes
Steve McGarratt after just getting shot in the chest gasps, coughs Navy SEAL: (digs and finds the bullet in his vest) You kidding me? - You wore your plates for this one? Steve McGarrett: Yeah. Yeah. I know myself. I make bad decisions sometimes. Navy SEAL: You are one crazy frogman, you know that? Steve McGarrett: Yes, sir.

Steve McGarrett: And if he's in that compound, there's no way I'm about to start giving up on him. Junior Reigns: Okay, well, you need someone to watch your back. Steve McGarrett: No, absolutely not. Junior Reigns: Sir, we're not cops today, we're SEALs. So that means you ain't my boss, so I'm coming with you.

Trivia

 * Despite being credited Ian Anthony Dale, Jorge Garcia and Dennis Chun do not appear.
 * This episode marks the writer and story debut of Alex O'Loughlin (Steve McGarrett).
 * Building where hostages were supposed to be held in Nigeria looks to be the same building used in Pa'ani for the tech company team building exercise

Cast

 * Mike
 * Stephen Paul Kaplan
 * A Navy SEAL who is part of Junior's SEAL team
 * Ethan
 * James Beck
 * A Navy SEAL who is part of Junior's SEAL team
 * Manti
 * Brad Kalilmoku
 * A man who appears in this episode.
 * Kurt Wagner
 * Tatum Shank
 * A man who appears in this episode.
 * Olivia
 * Kelly Yazdi
 * A woman who appears in this episode.
 * Leader
 * Karim Ndiaye
 * A man who appears in this episode.
 * Marcus Kalawaia
 * Ma'a Tanuvasa
 * A sheriff
 * Leader
 * Karim Ndiaye
 * A man who appears in this episode.
 * Marcus Kalawaia
 * Ma'a Tanuvasa
 * A sheriff
 * A sheriff