The Round Up

The Round Up (Ka hopu nui 'ana) is the 12th episode of Season 8 in the remake version of Hawaii Five-0.

Synopsis
When an FBI agent who was cracking down on organized crime is killed, McGarrett rounds up every gang-related criminal on the island to find the culprit. Also, McGarrett tasks Adam with forming a new division within Five-0 to take on organized crime.

Plot
If you find yourself in the opening of a Hawaii 5-0 episode, you should really not talk like this. Don’t talk about how excited you are about an upcoming event or how you’re two days away from retirement and just want to spend more time with your family.

Unfortunately for poor FBI Agent Douglas Fisher, his wife utters these fateful words just before someone delivers a bomb to his house.

Before we can find out whether Fisher, his wife, and adorable daughter survive the blast, we flash back twenty-four hours to an important meeting with Tani. Fisher is on the island to investigate a recent spike in gang activity. It’s sort of funny that just now they’re noticing all the violence. In the past few weeks there’s been a Christmas-themed armed robbery, a hostage situation, a serial killer, and the arrival of a bioweapon on the island. It’s been pretty violent for a while.

Fisher, in his eagerness to get to work, takes a strongarm approach when dealing with the team. He believes that the gang war was sparked by Michelle Shioma’s death and has something to do with Adam’s return to the island. He and his partner first approach Tani with an offer. If she can get them the information they need, they might be able to put in a good word for her with the FBI. Tani declines. She may not have been on the team long, but she knows what to do when someone is threatening a member of 5-0. She goes to Steve, who makes it clear to Fisher that Adam, despite his previous ties to the Yakuza, is protected by the team.

Although Fisher is just trying to do his job, picking Adam as the first suspect to question wasn’t the greatest idea. Still, Steve immediately comes to regret their exchange when he’s sitting in the morgue, staring at the bodies of Fisher and his family.

No one survived, and the team understands the punch in the gut this is. It may be a hell of a first day for Junior, but everyone’s committed to getting justice for the Fishers and their little girl. They just won’t be able to do it alone.

Steve coordinates with the National Guard and HPD to target “Suspected Sites of Organized Crime” as the caption helpfully informs us. If it was that simple, I’m not sure why they needed to call in the FBI in the first place.

The different squads manage to sweep up eighty-seven suspects at once, but there are still some big gang heads unaccounted for. With an assist from Kamekona, Steve narrows down assignments for his teammates. Junior is after Luis Alvarez (although he’s really just serving as backup for HPD) and Tani is in charge of bringing in Damien Bautista (who she has a history with). Meanwhile, Adam is being harassed by Fisher’s grieving partner.

Lou and Steve are after Hector Garcia, who is unhelpfully not in the safe house they raid. That’s what they think, until Eddie leads straight to an underground tunnel.

He even manages to catch Hector before he can escape.

Although Damien still seems fond of Tani, he doesn't seem to have gotten the memo that his ex is working for 5-0. He also doesn’t seem to know anything about Agent Fisher when Tani questions him. Before Tani can take him in, the rest of his gang shows up. Damien offers to call them off if she lets him go, but she pushes him off the balcony instead. He lands in the pool below, and Tani manages to bring in her assignment.

While Tani manages an impressive collar, Junior isn’t happy about serving as backup. Steve tells him that its all about baby steps, but when Luis shoots the two HPD officers after him, Junior goes in alone. By serving as a one-man SWAT team, he manages to take out Luis.

Now, the team is at 169 suspects in custody and believe that someone knows something about the bomb. After a lot of exhausting interviews, the team concludes that all the gang members are telling the truth. No one had the means or opportunity to take out such a high-profile target.

Luckily, Jerry is able to give them a new suspect. Brandon Kenzo may be the mastermind pulling the strings. He orchestrated an island-wide gang war, took out his main competition, and disappeared before the team could find him.

The only person who could have a lead on Kenzo is Adam, who is currently indisposed talking to Agent McNeal. Steve isn’t happy. He gets into a shouting match with the agent, and McNeal drops a bomb. Adam visited Michelle Shioma hours before she was killed.

Steve isn’t stupid enough to suspect Adam of killing her, but he’s taken aback by this betrayal of his trust. Adam admits that it was a mistake. All Michelle wanted was to make sure that her kids were safe and she was willing to pay Adam a lot of money to make sure it happened. Adam shut her down, even after she claimed to know a life-changing secret about him.

Adam makes it up to Steve by finding Kenzo for him. Adam strolls in to the hideout and gives Kenzo a countdown. Kenzo isn’t willing to go so easily. He takes particular offense to Adam calling the team “my people.” However, Adam manages to talk Kenzo down and negotiate a peaceful surrender. Kenzo basically denies everything the team accuses him of.

Before they can learn anything else from Kenzo, Jerry calls with some bad news. Someone has broken into the rendition facility and freed the prisoners. Jerry delivers this news in the most matter-of-fact way. To be fair, elite teams of bad guys do storm 5-0 facilities on a regular basis. They still haven’t figured out the identity of that random guy who took them hostage in the hospital.

After an intense firefight, the team realizes that they might have gotten played when they arrive on the scene. Someone killed the Fisher family specifically to spark this wave of arrests. It put all the gang heads in one place. When Steve realizes that the unknown mastermind killed all the heads, he realizes that someone has been making the team do all their dirty work for him.

The whole team is shaken up, especially Tani. She may have been on the opposite side of the law when it came to Damien, but she knows that the only reason he is dead is because of her. She offers to take on the monumentally difficult task of informing his family.

Junior is also having a tough time. He initially resented the fact that Steve wanted him to act as backup, but now he’s blaming himself for the loss of life at the arrest. Tani gives him some advice that she should take herself. These deaths are not on them. There is one person responsible, and the team will make sure that that person will face justice.

In the last scene, Adam catches Steve contemplating a very bad day. There has been a massive amount of death in this episode: the Fisher family, police officers, and gang leaders. No one is being held accountable. The men that hit the rendition facility had no ties to organized crime, and Steve knows that he needs everyone on board to tie them to the mastermind. He officially offers Adam a job on 5-0 as the head of a task force specializing in organized crime. Finally, the gang will stop running into Adam randomly shopping all the time, and he has a place with them.

Quotes
Lou Grover: CSU's been at it for an hour. Looks like there's no evidence on the incendiary device.

Steve McGarrett: Yeah, well an explosion that size, we're gonna get any evidence from the crime scene, either.

Lou Grover: Witch means we probably have zero chance of tracing the bomb back whoever it was that made it. Oh, look at that. Sorry, kid. Hell of a case for your first day on the job.

Junior Reigns: Yeah. Yeah, we got off the phone with Sergeant Lukela and he says that HPD has a four-block perimeter around the blast site. And right now, they're currently canvassing the neighborhood.

Tani Rey: Yeah, they also got officers doing door-to-doors. No one's seen anything yet.

Lou Grover: Well, that's just perfect. So we got on evidence and no witnesses.

Tani Rey: Well, there's no shortage of suspects. Remember Agent Fisher went on TV this morning, he declared war on every gang on the island?

Junior Reigns: Gang that was in Fischer's crosshairs could be a suspect.

Steve McGarrett: So we'll bring them all in. Every single one of them, anyone who has any connections to OC on this island, we'll bring them all in, we'll press every single one of them until someone rolls and talk. 'Cause I'm telling you, somebody has to know something about this.

Lou Grover: Listen, don't shoot the messenger, but on island of million people, as many people we got here that could be connected the OC or violent crime, you're talking about a suspect pool that could be well into the hundreds. Now, how do you suppose we bring all those people in here?

Steve McGarrett: We're gonna need some help.

Lou Grover: What's with the stink eye, Eddie? I thought I was you Uncle Lou. Hey, man. Why he looking at me like I'm the vet or something?

Steve McGarrett: You're sitting in his seat.

Adam Noshimuri: Listen. A few days after I got back to Hawaii, Michelle Shioma reached out to me through an intermediary. She wanted me to come see her.

Steve McGarrett: You didn't say no?

Adam Noshimuri: I did. But then I got to thinking about what she could possibly want, and... I don't know, I guess my curiously got the better of me.

Steve McGarrett: What was it that Shioma had to tell you?

Adam Noshimuri: My hunch is she, was bluffing but... I'd rather not know what is was than be in her debt. Which is what I told her right before I walked out. Listen, Steve, I'm sorry. I should have come to you the minute her people reached out to me.

Steve McGarrett: It's okay. I don't blame you for going to see her. I'm just glad you didn't take that bait. Adam. You know that guy named Brandon Kenzo?

Adam Noshimuri: Yeah. Yeah, I know Brandon. He's a Yakuza lieutenant.

Steve McGarrett: Not anymore. Word is he's running the organization now that Shioma's gone. We think he's the one who killed her in order to assume full control of the Honolulu faction. We also think that he's the one responsible for this recent surge of gang-on-gang violence.

Adam Noshimuri: That's is bold play.

Steve McGarrett: It is a bold play. Here's the problem-- he's gone to ground. We need to find him. Now, Adam, a guy like you, with your connections... Look, if anyone can find him, you can.

Adam Noshimuri: You need my help, you got it.

Adam Noshimuri: Everything okay?

(Steves sighs, sits back in his office chair and looks tired)

Steve McGarrett: I haven't had a day as bad as today for a long time. Just everything - the way it went down, you know? Rendition facility. The fact that whoever murdered Agent Fischer, his wife, his six-year-old daughter.. that person's still out there. They're not behind bars. They're not dead in a hole. I'm just having a little trouble with it, you know.

Adam Noshimuri: Looks like there's a new player on the scene and they don't like competition.

Steve McGarrett: That's my guess. Right?

Adam Noshimuri: Yeah, you're chasing a ghost.

Steve McGarrett: No, Adam, we are chasing a ghost. That's why I called you here tonight. I need your help. I want you to head up a special division within the Five-O Task Force that focuses solely on organized crime on this island. Now, you got the connections. You know how these guys think. You know how they act. I want you to help me find who did all this. Now, listen. I know it's a lot for me to ask you to walk back into that world..

Adam Noshimuri: No, Steve. You don't have to convince me. I'm in.

Trivia

 * Despite being credited Scott Caan do not appear in this episode.

Cast
]


 * Officer Ojoa
 * Nelson Omandam
 * An HPD officer who is injured whilst trying to arrest a crime boss; Junior saves him.
 * Agent Fischer
 * Kip Pardue
 * An FBI Special Agent who tries to crack down on gang violence and is killed along with his family when a package bomb explodes on his doorstep.
 * Agent McNeal
 * Gonzalo Menendez
 * A crooked agent who is convinced Adam is dirty.
 * Damien Bautista
 * Jon Chaffin
 * A crime boss.
 * Hector Garcia
 * Marcelo Palacios
 * A crime boss.
 * Laura Fischer
 * Alexandra Hasenbank
 * The wife of FBI Special Agent Fischer and victim of a bomb.
 * Brandon Kenzo
 * Lanny Joon
 * A Yakuza lieutenant and subordinate of Michele Shioma.
 * Alexandra Hasenbank
 * The wife of FBI Special Agent Fischer and victim of a bomb.
 * Brandon Kenzo
 * Lanny Joon
 * A Yakuza lieutenant and subordinate of Michele Shioma.
 * A Yakuza lieutenant and subordinate of Michele Shioma.