Five-O Revisited: Which Way Did They Go?

Season 2, Episode 37
Original airdate: 12/24/1969

Written by: Meyer Dolinsky
Directed by: Abner Biberman

In honor of William Windom, who recently passed away, I decided to review this episode in which he plays a wily con man and a thorn in McGarrett's side. As much as I enjoy Windom in his two Five-O episodes, I most fondly recall him as the sadly vengeful Commodore Matt Decker of the Star Trek episode, "Doomsday Machine".

Setting up the ruse, Connors pays off a dying Five-O informant. Danny, the big spender, pays him $100. He doesn't seem entirely sure it's worth a penny. The "payoff" for the informant turns out to be a bullet. No one even knows he's dead until the Five-O team go looking for him later.

Danny & Steve head to the Iolani Palace to meet with the manager of the bank they think is going to be robbed. The manager is played by Harry Endo, soon to become the great Che Fong.

The team quickly narrows down the list of suspects for the heist. Connors, with whom Steve dealt in the past, is a possibility.

The first great verbal showdown between McGarrett and Connors, who messes with McGarrett by inspecting the various objects in his office.

The team wrangles with the possibilities.

The con goes down. While the Five-O team is defending the Bank of Hawaii, Connors is across the street robbing a currency exchange. Connors makes the mistake of trusting a thug with the exchange manager's wife.

McGarrett puts the pieces together at two crime scenes, the murder of the currency manager's wife and the gruesome discovery of what happened to their informant who gave them bum info.

McGarrett gets the facts on the informant's death. Doc Bergman isn't on the show yet so we get this guy.

McGarrett gets skewered by the press for getting bamboozled. I'm pretty sure you never see this newspaper stand before or after on the Iolani steps. I think the editor had it especially put there that day to really dig it in to McGarrett.

The second great McGarrett-Connors showdown. Don't they seem to be having a little too much fun?

Wait, don't tell me. I've heard this one before.

A car in the drink and two bodies with the currency robbery cash. McGarrett invokes his "it's too pat" maxim. Chin and Danny aren't on board.

Connors thinks he's literally gotten away with murder...and thousands in cash.

Meanwhile, McGarrett gets the kind of break detectives dream of - from a very attentive clerk. It sets him off to really break down the case.

Jenny provides the last bit of the puzzle that clinches it. Connors, in one last bit of audacity, sent the money to a currency exchange in Hong Kong run by a former police officer.