H50 Ep: La O Na Makuhine

[the_other_sandy]

Look who's posting! I was still here on LJ even though I didn't post a lot over the summer. I accidentally drank the Avengers Kool-Aid and that fandom generates fic at a terrifying rate, so I spent more time reading than writing. But now I have H50 to squee about again! Too bad it wasn't quite a squeeworthy episode.

I think I'll save my many and varied issues with Doris McGarrett for the end and start with poor Malia. Honestly, I've been waiting for her to be fridged since Chin proposed. In fact, I was really surprised that bad guys didn't pop out of the woodwork and shoot her at the wedding. I was all set for her to die in the season finale, but when she turned out to still be alive when Chin got to her, I thought Show was going to surprise me and save her. But, no. Apparently the only way the writers could think of to give Chin a story arc was to kill off his new wife, because it's not like he doesn't have 147 relatives in law enforcement he could have issues with. I mean, Delano said he still had buddies in the department passing on information to him. What if one of them was a Kelly-Kalakaua cousin? If that family started feuding, it would involve half the island.

But poor Chin. He managed to maintain his full-on Terminator mode until he got home to a set table and chicken in the oven. Funny how it's always the mundane things that hit you the hardest.

On to Catherine. I actually like Catherine. I'm glad I'll be seeing more of her. I'm even happy to have another badass woman on the show besides Kono. But you know what I need? An explanation for her badassery. Not because she's a woman, but because all we've ever seen her do is sit behind a rather impressive array of electronics on her ship. I'm sure she's a Grade A badass in intelligence gathering and analysis, but she's not a field agent. Going through basic training should not give her McGarrett levels of ninja skills. If she's had other training, I would very much like to hear about it.

I would love to use this spot to talk about Steve and Danny, but sadly they had very little screen time again. And Danny never even got to rant about how he was relegated to sitting in the back seat of his own damn car.

And now I suppose it's time to get my Doris issues off my chest. I'm sure it was difficult for her to give up her family for what she thought was their own safety, but it seems like she thought all she had to do was tell her sob story and everything would be magically better, and then she got pissed off when it wasn't. Seriously, she spent the entire rest of the episode verbally attacking anyone who didn't give her a trophy for her sacrifice. Meanwhile, she's ordering Steve to understand her point of view while making no effort to understand how her "death" destroyed her family, because apparently it's all about her.

And really? "Just because I wasn't around doesn't mean I wasn't your mother?" Really? Because I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it means. You were dead to your family. There was no more actual mothering going on.

I didn't want all to be forgiven in the space of one episode, but wow, Doris is a real piece of work. And I really want to know what's up between Doris and Wo Fat that they didn't kill each other on sight. It's not just that Doris let him go; Wo Fat didn't even fire a shot and he was supposedly so desperate to avenge his father's death that he almost had a facial expression.

I'd like to put Doris in a category of characters I love to hate, but I don't actually want to hate her. She's Steve's mom. I don't want to hate Steve's mom. I wanted their road to reconciliation to be rocky, but right now I just want to slap her in the face with a wet fish. Thank goodness she won't be in every episode. I don't think my blood pressure could take it.

Comments

Doris...

[cattraine.livejournal.com]

aka BitchMom. I suspect she is either screwed Wo Fat to get to his father or is his mother too. Either way, Bitch with a capital B. So glad Danny called her on it and pointed out to Steve how she let Wo Fat go.

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

...he was supposedly so desperate to avenge his father's death that he almost had a facial expression.

LOL, oh my god, that was a brilliant line, it made me giggle like mad.

Totally on board with your feelings about Doris, though feeling less guilty about loving to hate her. She is Steve's mom, true, but Steve contrary to all indications, has actually carved out a real family of his own over the past couple of years that is there for him and gives him a lot of what he desperately needs. So yeah, maybe she can come off her high horse after a bit of humphing and harring and it'll be better, for now I really enjoyed her badass-mean bitch monster-in-law (to Danny).

Very same thoughts about Catherine, no explanation of why she would have SEAL-grade badassery up her sleeve left me going O:O at her involvement. Sure, Steve trusts her, but a quip about a stint in whatever badass-fighting-regiment she must have been in would have been nice.

It's just something I noticed a little while ago after a few deleted scenes surfaced on last season that threw a different light on things... I feel like what this show is really suffering from is that the wrong lines get cut. Can't put my finger on it, but I think they just pack too much stuff into any one episode and important logical and emotional connections land on the editing room floor, so we can gripe at the bad writing that's not actually that bad.

Is Doris Wo Fat's mother?

[(Anonymous)]

My wife suspects that Doris is Wo Fat's mother which would make him Steve's half-brother. I'm not so sure of this, but something strange is going on.

[bookwurm.livejournal.com]

I'm betting on Doris being Wo Fat's mother. Frankly, I hope that we find out she isn't Steve's mother after all, because she really seems to be a horrible person. She went out of her way to be nasty, pushy, and/or snotty to pretty much everyone. I did like the bit where Doris said, "If I hadn't faked my death, Wo Fat would have killed your father," and Steve replies, "Wo Fat killed him anyway." Yeah, that whole protecting-your-family thing? It didn't work so well.

I like Catherine well enough, but I hope that The Powers That Be don't try to shove her together with Steve as badly as they did Lori. If the chemistry works, great, but don't try to force it.

I felt so sorry for Chin in this episode. The one person in the whole cast with a fairly normal relationship, and it gets destroyed. Couldn't one of those umpteen relatives have dropped by to throw out the blood-stained rug and spoiled chicken dinner before he got home? Also, I really hope Chin doesn't believe Delano's crap about only a bad cop killing an unarmed man. Talk about extenuating circumstances.

[and-ed.livejournal.com]

I am very glad to see you posting/recapping H50 again...though I do understand the appeal of all things Avengers. =)

I understand your thoughts on Doris - I liked the character, but mostly because she's...messy. I like not knowing what she's up to/been up to but I really really hope they're not going to make her turn out to be Wo Fat's mother, too.