#fjdkfdjkfd.

[itwoodbeprefect]

the great thing about falling really deep into a new media niche is developing opinions on many new things. the terrible thing about falling really deep into a new media niche is developing opinions on many new things

[five-wow]

i rewatched a tiny bit of 4.19 and i caught danny saying “why this guy? why the half dead guy in the closet?” and i had never really conceived of the place they find the dude used for bait as a closet but canon chose to make danny use the word explicitly, so now i just, fjdkfdjkfd. 4.19: the episode where steve and danny’s curiosity leads them into a closet together, the closet gets blown up around them by a bad guy along with the rest of the building, but details, pah, they navigate their way out of the rubble with a little support from their friends, and then they both make a big deal of saying i love you to each other for the first time. OOF. THE SUBTLETY OF METAPHORS.

[moonchair]

i hope the t*ckle stuff on ur blog doesn’t make u uncomfortable (i have a blog myself but i don’t follow u from it but i follow u on my main) and u just make cute gifs n stuff so i hope ppl aren’t being weird to u or anything xx

i mean i never get the appeal of the tickle thing bc i personally extremely hate being tickled, but no im not uncomfortable!! the tickle asks (or even art and fics in ur community) dont bother me at all & i wont hate it if ppl want to keep sending me asks like that, i do think yall are rly cute!!!! i would just scream about being noticed by the tickle ppl (in a good way tho!) instead of gushing over dnp being ticklish with u fjdkfdjkfd & thank u ur so sweet

[five-wow]

I WATCHED 10.22. HERE ARE SOME THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT. i promise they won’t all be in full caps, but i feel i should also warn you that this was not proofread.

the episode is starting! it has started. the start has started.

lots of flashbacks from 10.21 with VERY dramatic music in the background and it’s very much working on me. EMOTIONS.

oh my gosh we’re now getting a flashback (a new one, not “previously on”) to wo fat and victor hesse planning some evil shit with daiyu mei serving them tea and it is EVEN MORE DRAMATIC than the previously on was. i am IMPRESSED. also maybe laughing a little bit, but in a way where i’m genuinely enjoying the extreme “LOOK, THIS IS BAD” of it, gosh.

fun way to remind us of how it all started, with these two planning anton’s extraction! they get to show us bits and pieces from the pilot while we still get something new.

wo fat: “blood. is blood.” hmmm, the show seems to want us to think he has a point but i’m mostly amused this is coming from the ultimate bad guy because yes, that seems about right. (hashtag you don’t owe people anything just because you’re related to them, shuddup.)

daiyu mei looks all shy and awkward when wo fat asks for her input but i’ve decided that’s an act to keep victor underestimating her.

steve and cole are in a car and fjdkfdjk wait catherine is a super code breaker now? idk, she may have displayed some skills that leaned that way in the past, but now she’s suddenly well-known as one of the best in that field even though that’s not even her field as far as we know? i. i don’t mind catherine getting brought up in conversation but this is such an odd way to do it.

“we were together for a buncha years” hahaha, fandom never really knows how to define the start and end of their relationship and it seems steve doesn’t, either.

“she was the one that got away. what’re you gonna do?” well, look sad and frowny while this guy you barely know throws you a somewhat awkward look because you’re suddenly baring your heart to him, apparently! (for real though, i get that people will be upset at this phrasing and i’m sort of thinking this is a lead in to things i won’t like at the end of the episode and that’s bad but for what it’s worth, i don’t mind this at all! she did slip away from him at a time where he thought they were going somewhere else and he’s talking in past tense now.)

cole is worried he ruined steve’s day by bringing up catherine and that’s sweet, actually! seals emotionally supporting seals.

OOF it is TIME for danny to get ABDUCTED. also: i love that steve immediately drops everything, including the very important super secret difficult to arrange meeting to maybe finally get some insight into this cipher that doris left him, to race to wherever danny is in his car. i feel like alerting hpd (or anyone else in five-0 who might be closer) would be a good idea, but it makes a lot of sense for steve to need to Be There himself.

ohhhhh steve continually nearly crashing his truck while yelling for danny but only hearing gunshots over the line is 👌👌👌. THE ANGST. THE TENSION. very good, very good.

the camaro is BURNING. well that’s one way to smack us in the face with the end of an era, damn.

steve is ALSO BURNING because he obviously tried to get inside the car ahhhh.

fjdkf steve calls tani with instruction about cameras and tani asks if everything is okay because he sounds upset and all he says is “danny’s been taken” and that’s how tani an junior find out, poor dears.

steve, instructing hpd: “we’re looking for detective danny williams. you know who he is, my partner, right? we’re looking for him.” YOU KNOW WHO HE IS. MY PARTNER.

steve is already out of breath from sheer stress and he’s just standing around the tech table with the team, my gosh. (I LOVE THIS.)

danny, bloody and chained up and facing his captor, a woman he already knows is very, very dangerous: [makes a joke about exchanging insurance information because they burned his car] (LOVE HIM TOO.)

OOF though, daiyu mei lets danny know she knows he has two kids and the jokes are over because that’s definitely the line with danny, god.

here’s the scene from the one preview clip i watched! i’m really enjoying daiyu mei, by the way. she’s still a totally bonkers way to bring the threat of wo fat back even after he’s dead, but she is genuinely threatening.

“i have the person you care about most in the world” hello yes i’m still yelling about that one and might not stop soon

daiyu mei telling steve not to make the same mistake he did with his father and “allow a loved one to die” is so mean but so good and narratively pretty darn cool.

we’re not even eleven minutes in and we’re already at “come alone, commander, or your friend dies”. [insert that escalated quickly meme]

steve thinks he has zero options except give in to exactly what daiyu mei wants and it’s very unsteve of him but also fits perfectly with the mindset they’ve maneouvred him into over the past few episodes and with DANNY BEING GONE so i like it. i like that steve is very obviously freaking the fuck out.

never though i would say this, but... steve, you should listen to adam. it’s shocking, especially this season, but he is making an actual good judgment.

steve alone in the elevator on the verge of either a panic attack or breaking down crying and curling up into a ball is A LOT.

steve goes to the meeting alone, gets a location and confirmation that danny is alive and then hands over the cipher, and that’s good but also... i mean, for real, if he had just printed some random symbols on a similar piece of paper (maybe even the same symbols but in a different order!) how on earth would daiyu mei have known?

OH. OHHHH. danny does the badass steve-ish thing where he pulls himself up by his shackles to somehow get himself free, holy fuck, yes man.

IT WORKS. knocked out the guard, got the keys, got a gun - damn son. not only do we get worried out of his mind steve, we ALSO get bamf danny, ahhhh.

AND THEN HE GETS SHOT IN THE SHOULDER, which is where all those promo pictures came from obviously, and also means we’re about to tick off the hurt part of h/c in an even bolder font than we already had.

fdjkfdjkfd steve’s litany of comforting little nonsense lines while he’s dragging danny to the car and getting him into it and NOT GETTING BEHIND THE WHEEL BUT STAYING WITH DANNY IN THE BACK is killing me slowly.

fdjkfd steve hugging danny’s bloody face in his lap oh my god

apparently that wasn’t GOOD ENOUGH YET because then they’re at the hospital and steve tells the doctor’s what’s up and they’re about to roll danny away and danny, half dead and according to steve in and out of consciousness, somehow finds the time to try to grAB AT STEVE’S ARM BLINDLY. steve: “hey, i’m with you buddy, it’s okay.” DEAD. NOT DANNY, ME. I AM VERY DEAD.

the entire team is stressed and worried and just dead quiet, watching danny and steve. ohhhh boy.

oh fuck oh fuck steve is praying and red-eyed and furious and telling god “you wanna take somebody? take me. not him, you take me.” and i have a very big massive weak spot for exactly this.

cole comes to find steve to offer to figure out the cipher thing and steve has a very hard time giving a single flying shit and then HANDS COLE HIS GUN. welllll. just letting go of stuff they never would have normally left and right, here. i was kind of expecting steve’s badge to follow.

tani has a lot of good worried moments and i love that.

danny is out of surgery!!! steve gets to see him!!!

oh GOD we get a sad version of all for one while steve is in danny’s hospital room and grabs danny’s hand and i am. oh. oh. not okay.

STILL ONLY JUST PAST THE HALFWAY POINT OF THE EPISODE.

it’s honestly kind of weird that cole has this much screentime (i know he was supposed to be back for the season 11 that will never happen, but with the way things turned out that’s not very relevant anymore in story), but i mind it less than i thought i would have. i like him, and i’m glad he has quinn with him now, because i always want more of her.

danny wakes up and his slightly loopy conversation with steve has me fjdkfdjkfd. d: [says you’re supposed to be happy when a patient wakes up] s, like he might still be about to cry: “i’m happy.” d: “yeah? yeah, me too.”

steve is hurting and blaming himself for everything (very in character) and danny tells him he’s already annoying and that if he had a dollar for every time steve saved his life he’d have like twenty bucks (also very in character) and i’m glad for that bit of comic relief and they need it, too, but somebody also needs to give steve a good shake until the thought that this is on him leaves his head. if anyone except daiyu mei is responsible here, it’s doris. blame doris, jfc.

danny, after nearly dying and only just waking up in the hospital, while he still has trouble speaking: “put [the call steve is getting] on speaker, would you, i’m bored.” more jokes! but it also makes me go fjdkfdjk because you will not convince me that this is not danny, extremely injured, still trying to take care of steve by distracting him from all the misery they’re in.

fjdkfd OKAY SO. plot stuff: the cipher translates to coordinates that apparently lead to the place where the mcgarretts thought doris was buried. steve says he knows the place because his dad used to take him there and ? because i always thought john sent his kids away pretty soon after doris died so he can’t have had much time to visit her grave a lot with them, but also just, the drama of it, wow, doris. send your son an encrypted message that sends him to your fake grave, why don’t you.

jfkdsjlfksljfds the mcgarretts have a family mausoleum now, apparently, omfg. and there was still a space with doris’s name on it? even though they’ve known for how many years by now that she was still alive oh my gosh

cole is along for the ride to doris’s fake grave and steve keeps dropping these little nuggets from his family history and cole keeps (rightfully!) looking a little confused and/or alarmed, poor guy, hahaha.

daiyu mei is running full tilt and doing some mad parcour shit in a suit and what looks like high heels and there is a whole action scene here with lots of players and constant shooting and some one-on-one fighting, but i am fully distracted by the shoewear.

oh, false alarm, probably! not quite high heels, just something ballarina like with a very tiny heel. that’s better.

fjdkfjdkfd OOF daiyu mei nearly kills steve, steve gets the upper hand, daiyu mei says some things and we’re given another flashback to wo fat and victor hesse and this time also john when he was held hostage, and suddenly we’re told he’s not surprised that doris had a secret son (wo fat) and that he suspected her death was staged.

OH MY GU==fdj

okay so those were typos but i’m LEAVING THEM because “whatever happens next, don’t tell my son. it would be too hard on him.” HELLO JOHN, FUCK YOU JOHN. he wanted??? to keep this secret??? from steve??? and also he doesn’t even acknowledge that he maybe has more than just a son. maybe there is a person called mary out there somewhere? might ring a bell, if you think about it long and hard.

wo fat: “you’re a good man, john mcgarrett.” i really don’t know if we’re supposed to agree with things wo fat says but he’s mostly voicing the opposite of what i feel this episode.

daiyu mei to steve: “you are your father.” oh gosh. oh no.

ahh, here’s a point where cole’s presence really starts to take away from other characters. he shows up to steve and daiyu mei’s confrontation to back steve up, and that obviously should have been any other character that we’ve known for way longer and have way more attachment to (junior! that would have been so good, or maybe lou, who’s also been here for seven years, or tani, who keeps worrying), especially, very very much especially when steve goes “book her, cole”. that’s just confusing, too. so far the cole and steve parallels have been thrown at us and now he’s suddenly in danny’s place.

32 minutes out of 42 and we’re at “one week later” and steve hopping through his garden to get to the beach chairs where danny is sitting. this is good but worrying for how early it comes.

danny says he misses the very nice nurse who brought him jello and steve tells him not to confuse a caregiver for someone who cares and danny goes “yeah? you know jealousy is not uh, pretty on you.” and then they’re both awkwardly quiet for a moment. dear lord.

AND THEN THINGS WENT PEARSHAPED. danny: “you all packed?” my heart is sinking fast. maybe i should just quit here and leave it at danny telling steve jealousy is not pretty on him (which implies other things are pretty on steve - let’s get back to that).

steve to danny, who is talking up hawaii (which is of course very good): “who are you?” i am having FLASHBACKS to junior asking tani that exact same thing just a few episodes ago.

danny seriously questions steve’s decision to just up and leave hawaii a bunch of times and yes, danny, good, grill him. this is a stupid plan.

danny: “you know, it don’t feel like it’s gonna be okay. it feels like- my main dude is leaving me.” HI STEVE. MAYBE DON’T. MAYBE DON’T GO. MAYBE DON’T HURT DANNY.

“you got a phone, right?” we’re seriously at that point. we are. seriously at that point. wow.

steve forces danny to get up to give him the frigging tenderest, dopily smiliest hug and it is so very sweet yet so very wrong.

“I LOVE YOU, MAN.” / “I LOVE YOU TOO.” THEY DID NOT YELL THAT BUT I AM BECAUSE THIS IS ALL I’VE WANTED FOR TWO YEARS and now it’s under these circumstances which ugh BUT I AM STILL HYPED. THEY GOT TO SAY IT AGAIN. GOOD. FUCKING GOOD.

“don’t make me come looking for you” danny says after he sits back down and without another word steve starts walking away and then he stops and looks back and catches danny looking over his shoulder but quickly looking away again and holy fucking damn if this isn’t how stories go when they try to tell us that two characters shouldn’t be parting because they don’t want to. turn around, steve. it’s so easy.

EDDIE. my gosh, ANOTHER blond guy who loves steve to pieces and who steve Should Not Just Leave, wtf.

eddie gets an i love you too and then a kiss and my heart! is having a hard time today!

oh LORD there’s a knock at the door and it’s the whole entire team and lou!!! is making me cry!!! and everyone whispers how much steve means to them at him while they’re hugging him and fjdkfd what. why is he leaving! it’s starting to sound like a worse decision by the second.

i could cry at all of these goodbyes seperately but right now i am also crying at tani immediately hugging noelani when she joins the pile of people who have said goodbye. ohhhh.

EVERYONE IS CRYING. not cool. VERY UNCOOL. also, honestly, i love that danny got to say goodbye seperately and it’s fitting that he just can’t watch steve actually walk out the door but also... he should have been here, gdi. now there’s this huge emotional team moment and he’s absent and it’s weird.

steve boards a plane and sits down and his phone beeps and it’s danny texting him “miss you already” and i cannot believe this is actual canon and had to pause to kind of laugh/gasp for air for a little bit.

and catherine shows up! i’ve been braced for this so i’m not surprised and it’s less bad than i thought in many ways but also. they talk about cath driving danny’s car and steve says they can’t have danny williams driving his own car and if that’s true, then why the hell are you leaving, steve. what are you doing to danny? (also. uh. danny’s car kind of went up in flames? he has a new one already? i. what.)

cath asks if steve is ready and they hold hands and steve turns to look out the plane window and smiles and that’s very suddenly it.

you know what? you know what, for the most part, i absolutely loved this. i was prepared for VERY BAD THINGS and i don’t enjoy steve leaving at the end at all and i have MANY NOTES on how things could have maybe ended even better but i. i am okay with this. i am okay with this! that is honestly more than i thought i would be able to say and i’m just VERY RELIEVED right now.

as for the show ending with steve and cath... that was weird, but... he also held danny’s hand this episode and that was supposedly platonic, and steve and cath did not suddenly have a big romantic kiss or get engaged, so i am choosing to take this as a platonic reunion with a person from steve’s past he still cares about, someone who travels a lot and was in hawaii to break that code and therefore this makes sense. he leaves with cath, and then, in a few weeks’ time, he comes back to danny (the person he cares about most in the world), and canon just, y’know, forgot to mention that little tidbit. it happens.

anyway, i had EMOTIONS and i still need to let all of this sink in and i hope you’re all doing okay after this whirlwind of a thing and ahhhh, it is so very weird that it’s over now. 💖

[five-wow]

on to 10.16! the valentine’s episode!

fjdkfdjkfd a very worried-looking woman accepts a valentine’s bouquet and i was like, did she kill her husband and he’s lying on the floor somewhere and that’s why she looks so awkward about it? and then there’s a BLOODIED HAMMER and A BODY and i was probably right, omg, i love it.

oh! looks like she maybe called hpd herself? that’s an interesting twist.

oh my gosh, noelani is getting surfing lessons, and that alone is cute enough but then suddenly there’s a whoop and it’s tani on the beach giving vocal emotional support and I LOVE THAT. after a very, very long draught, this season is so good for us when it comes to female friendships.

lou is mad that adam put his niece’s life at risk, and that’s fair, but maybe... also be mad at adam for doing crimes? like, that’s bad? maybe?

fjdkfd we ended the last episode with danny and steve in the kitchen and that’s also their first appearance in this one. this is beautiful.

steve: “i do have a date, indeed.” danny: “with who?” steve: “a lady.” LISTEN, i am taking this as the “a lady” part being not just an evasive maneuver, but intended to be an actual answer, because it could also not have been a lady. bi steve. it’s canon now.

steve LOST COUNT of how many dates he’s been on with brooke (the lady he’s ironing his shirt for on valentine’s day) and he’s kind of smiling while he says it and that’s cute!! i like that for him!! but also. when the fuck did he go on all of these dates with brooke when he was also dating the vet in between, out of the running entirely for at least a month or two, and he’s been continually living with danny since he got back to hawaii and danny apparently knows nothing about these dates. what kind of stealth techniques has steve been employing? has he had brooke sneak in through his bedroom window at night so danny wouldn’t find out? how many times did he have to cancel a date because danny refused to sleep on the couch and there was no space left for brooke in steve’s bed? (i kid, but seriously, what is this timeline?)

danny: “i’m glad somebody has a life.” steve, pointing at danny: “oohhh, tani and quinn are going to the movies tonight...” fdjkfd, first bi steve, and now tani and quinn have a movie date. good stuff. i’m enjoying this.

fjdkfjdkf, steve, whAT. “tell you what, buddy, if i finish up early with brooke, i’ll give you a call, we can hang out.” i mean! that’s really sweet! but also very wtf, because he’s essentially going “hey, maybe this thing i have to do (date my girlfriend, ugh) won’t take very long and we’ll have time to hang! :D” and i just. god. i’m laughing, but i am so glad brooke is not a real woman because i feel very sorry for her.

danny a) recognizes signs of domestic abuse and b) has done his research and c) is appropriately gentle with this woman, even though they have her in custody and she’s already admitted to killing her husband and she potentially started an international conflict by doing so, and just. yes. good. this is a danny i love.

side note: adam is just randomly present at hq with the rest of the team when steve and danny are on the phone with them. and, oh my god. did he not just kidnap a suspect to make a secret deal with a yakuza boss? is that not the sign steve had been looking for, the reason why steve’s spidey sense had been tingling around adam? they still trust him currently and he’s just back on the job without so much as a warning? i mean, to be fair, steve is the type of guy to be all for crazy shit if it gets results, so maybe he’s glad adam did what he did, idk, but i am genuinely so confused at this point about what the writers are telling us about where adam stands, both with the team and in his own life, and with the yakuza, for that matter. is he now an active gang member while also trying to earnestly protect the law in five-0?

i love how this episode is escalating, omg. first we’re told the wife killed her husband, then he’s a thai diplomat, then the wife’s boyfriend killed the husband, then he didn’t, then thailand wants the wife while five-0 knows she didn’t do it and so they STEAL HER. taking a page out of adam’s book, i guess, though at least this time the entire team knows what’s going on.

except for tani and noelani, who are being held hostage by two amateur criminals in a convenience store, which is also a subplot i really like! honestly, not a bad moment in this episode so far.

okay, one very minor note though: please, for the love of all that is holy, do not let this woman they’re saving become a love interest for danny. they have a lovely talk in the back of a truck during the grand escape and that’s wonderful and good and i like it, but i can’t help but be really scared that the show is aiming to somehow make that romantic at some point because oh, dear lord, danny has dated enough abused women under questionable circumstances. doooon’t add a third one to the list, i beg of you.

the amateur criminals are trying to get cash that they need for MEDICAL CARE. god, i hate a world in which your options are a) commit crime or b) die. it’s a good plot, though!

kamekona is providing a safehouse for danny and the woman and he’s being very kamekona about it - warm and welcoming, but warning danny off of texting too much with kamekona’s phone because it’s ten cents per message - and it’s glorious.

oh dear lord. the couple robbing the store can’t afford the surgery the husband needs, so tani presents mandatory medical attention for prisoners as a solution, and that’s a good way to talk the wife down and probably also the best the couple can hope for in their current predicament, but it’s also very fucked up. you shouldn’t have to wave a gun around to get help for your brain tumor.

danny and the woman are found and get arrested, and the VERY NEXT SHOT is danny turning to steve in the car and asking how he got him out so fast. that WAS very fast, danny, you’re right. zero seconds has to be a new record, dang.

steve: “i may have promised yang that if she didn’t release you immediately i was gonna make a whooole lot of noise.” i do understand what this means, but i also enjoy the thought of steve literally making noise. any noise. if you don’t release danny, steve will appear at your door and start quacking like a duck very loudly. you’ve been warned, state department!

ahhh! they solve the case, find the actual killer of the abusive diplomat husband, make sure the wife gets to stay where she is and reunite her with the concerned doctor boyfriend who didn’t kill anybody!! this makes me very happy, all the more so because they won’t have her date danny if she’s already dating someone else, which puts my fears to rest. this season continues to be better about things than this show has been in the past and i appreciate the heck out of it.

adam gets an ominous warning to watch his back from a criminal he’s delivering information about hpd to. are we supposed to be on adam’s side? i’m still very confused.

fjdkfd, danny walks into the house to find the entire team getting ready for a night of hanging out and wonders if he invited everyone and forgot about it, and steve walks in, already chewing on something, and says “it’s possible, because you’re old now”. what a brilliant burn, steve. very impressive.

i won’t recount everything that happens because i know i’d end up writing a stupidly long paragraph but i do adore everything that happens and want that noted. the whole team just chilling and arguing about whether love actually is a romcom or a christmas movie? yes, please! a hundred of those.

danny takes steve aside to tell him he doesn’t have to worry about danny and steve gives an unconvincing reason for why he totally didn’t arrange this because he was worried about danny, which essentially makes it canon that he did plan all of this for that exact reason, which is SO EXTRA. they live together, they’ve spent the entire day together, and then steve cancels a valentine’s dinner with his girlfriend (who he told earlier that he didn’t want to involve danny in their relationship, because he’s too nosy) and invites like six other people just so he can hang out with danny again.

annnd they end up snuggled together on the couch. on valentine’s day. you know, like homies do.

THIS. WAS A VERY GOOD EPISODE. thoroughly enjoyed practically every second of it, 10/10, would like more like this.

[five-wow]

@hollywood-rose replied to your post “on to 10.16! the valentine’s episode![[MOR] fjdkfdjkfd a very...”

She's not formally a girlfriend at the moment ! But also yes. Him purposely specifying is like 👀 oh, you saying it could be a MAN? 👀 and also the dialogue of Steve saying he didn't tell Danny because Danny (jealously) accidentally ruins them was so funny

That’s a fair point! He only says they’ve been on a lot of dates, which still leaves a lot about where they’re currently at up in the air.

And honestly, yes, fjkdfd, this whole season has just been Danny going “Steve, you should date! you need to date, Steve! do it!” and then acting shocked and surprised (and definitely not jealous at all, no, nope, no siree) when Steve actually follows instructions.

[five-wow]

9.15 reaction under the cut!!!

is it just me or is every vaguely spanish speaking villain nicknamed “el diablo”? but hey, so far the only thing we’ve seen him do is tip well, so i’m inclined to not hate him too much, to be honest.

we’re barely a couple of minutes in and rachel is flirting. that is... flirting. at least danny looks slightly confused about it, omg (and hey, same) (but you know what the sad part is? i actually really love this premise of rachel and charlie taking shelter at danny’s during a storm and it could be so nice to see danny have a good relationship with his ex, but i don’t, as in do not, want them to turn that relationship into something romantic again, which clearly the show is angling for at the moment)

i’m glad they mentioned grace, though! no disappearing kids this time around! yay!

it’s kind of funny to me that the show keeps using “hpd doesn’t have enough man power so let’s send tani and junior out there to help them out” as a reason for why they’re doing hpd work, because i don’t actually mind, but... is calling on two people from five-0 who never even graduated the police academy actually going to do something about their problem in any meaningful way?

a shady guy who is staring at people from a car and says some cryptic spanish things on the phone!!! i think we’ve found a second Bad Guy, gasp

now he has a gun AND a knife. subtle.

not an actual complaint, but as a european sometimes i’m randomly reminded just how intensely American this show is, gosh. bad guy from random non-us country who has KILLED people, HUNDREDS, and death would be TOO GOOD for him so we need to put him in our WORST PRISON. [insert random speech from steve about a Good Navy Man who served his country and had a picture perfect american family that died]

tani and junior’s banter on the phone while they’re both driving through the storm is giving me life, aww. love them

there’s some heavy danny/rachel flirting and. i have SUCH conflicting feelings about this, because on the one hand, as an isolated scene, completely cut loose from all context, i actually think this is cute and the actors are good together and i like it? but there IS context and that means that this is a VERY BAD IDEA and it makes me extremely nervous. at least charlie comes to the viewer’s rescue with his reminder that he’s there too and he needs food, dear parents, you can’t feed him with misplaced sexual tension

random fbi guy has been chasing el diablo down for ten years and “that man cost me EVERYTHING I CARED ABOUT”. i’m so sorry, five-0 writers, because i know this was probably meant as very serious and gripping and you did your best, but i keep having to laugh at how perfectly, beautifully cliché this is

jerry and lou performing first aid on the wounded officer was a nice scene! i’m not sure how realistic it was, but i like that they took the time for that. usually random extras who get attacked either just die or are immediately whisked away into an ambulance or another random extra’s waiting arms.

charlie being put to bed is always sweet!! (and i like the parallels with that time steve put him to bed - more evidence for the Steve McGarrett Is 100% A Real Parent To Danny’s Kids argument)

fjdkfdjkfd oh my GOD this MUSIC after rachel implied they could use danny’s bed together WHY

and then they’re playing a dice game together instead of having sex. fjdkfjdk this is the GOOD kind of fake out, haaa.

not being able to hear your prisoner when he screams for help is kind of not great, oops

so they can’t keep their prisoner in the cell they had him in until now (because it’s full of gas) and they can’t keep him in the hallway, so steve says that their best option is to lock the guy in steve’s office. steve’s completely glass-walled office. are you... are you sure that’s your very best option?

lou’s story is nice!!! so far jerry and lou keeping watch over this injured guard might unexpectedly be my favorite plotline this episode.

of course all three of the fbi guys are taken out immediately so steve has to fight the Bad Guy all on his own in dramatic hand to hand combat. oh no, steve, babe

adam storms in just when steve is done. adam, my friend, your timing is awful.

i’m almost disappointed that junior came in and shot the guy that tani was fighting because i kind of loved that bit? tani managing just fine all on her own in that house full of people who aren’t very friendly towards her is my jam (although i will admit she was in a bit of a pickle there, at the end, so junior’s rescue might have been for the best :p )

i love charlie, omfg. he SHUSHES his parents (“i’m watching this!”) when they start up with some awkward nonsense about why they were sleeping on the couch together. thank you, charlie, because i didn’t want to hear it either. you’ve been all around wonderful this episode.

i’m not appreciating the meaningful looks between rachel and danny while rachel says “i had lots of fun”, but, you know, i can deal. it’s all been a lot less terrible than i was bracing myself for, i think? there’s been a lot of flirting but we haven’t seen anything explicit (no kisses, no actual sharing of beds, no literal “hey let’s get back together!” talk) and with a bit of willpower, it’s entirely possible to read this episode as very friendly exes looking after their kid together and having a fun night playing board games and falling asleep on the couch (with possibly some overt flirting from rachel, i’ll admit, but danny never really outright responds to that? so it could be interpreted as one-sided flirting, mostly)

there’s a knock at the door and it’s STEVE. AMAZING. adam could learn a thing or two from steve’s timing.

charlie launches himself at steve which is also very A+, and there’s a steve and rachel hug, which, unexpected, but i’m on board

steve: “also wanna make sure there was no... disasters, you know, natural or- otherwise.” I’M YELLING. that’s a jealous steve. you cannot convince me that wasn’t a jealous steve, or at least one that was unsubtly hinting “don’t date rachel don’t date rachel don’t date rachel”, especially with the camera cutting to rachel right after he says “or otherwise” while he talks about disasters that could have happened last night, holy shit

“that was a little awkward.” STEVE. I LOVE YOU

okay, this final scene i’ve seen, but can i just say that i absolutely love this??? i mean, a lot. A LOT.

“oh, i don’t call it a bribe. i call it pancakes.” YES, steve, you GET YOUR DANNY PANCAKES. EYES ON THE PRIZE.

and danny sputters and asks if steve is five after steve gives his very specific pancake order, but he GOES TO THE KITCHEN ANYWAY.

this is the happy end i didn’t even know this episode could have

final verdict: okay. OKAY. i’ve been very scared about how this episode would turn out, so maybe that has something to do with my feelings about it now because i’ve been expecting the absolute worst, but in the end i didn’t really mind it that much at all? most of the plots were pretty interesting, danny and rachel did some flirting but didn’t actually get back together (yet, because it is very obvious that they’re going there now, but i’m not thinking about that too much until it becomes an actual problem) and there’s absolutely room to interpret their interactions differently from what the writers probably intended (as in, room to ignore the romance they’re hinting at). and that last scene where steve suddenly turned up and got his pancakes?? that was perfect. 10/10 for that. best twist ending i could have hoped for, awww.