Once Upon a Time Part 2

Season 1, Episode 20
Original airdate: 2/26/69

Written by: Leonard Freeman
Directed by: Michael Caffey

The trial begins and McGarrett desperately tries to find solid (or really, decomposing) evidence against Dr. Fremont. He's irked that the most they can charge her with is one "lousy" count of interstate sale of goods.

Hey, let's stand right in front of the elevator full of people trying to get out to have our conversation.

Freeman. The Man behind The Man.

McGarrett and Zipser quickly develop a close bond. Rainy days will do that to you.

McGarrett is not above using his charm on Zipser. Of course, he gets his way...and Zipser's car.

Tom and Mary Ann have it out. She knows he sent for Steve whom she won't talk to anymore.

 McGarrett goes digging through the death records for any suspect death handled by Fremont. This is a scene that should be boring (tediously flipping through death records) but aside from the rather engaging qualities of McGarrett and Lord (see also, e.g., the scene where McGarrett is quietly, methodically inspecting the suspect's room in "Hookman"), the involvement of the "chickie baby" clerk, who enjoys having a "live one" in the records office for a change, provides a nice twist. It's a nice twist for her at least.

 

 

 

McGarrett finds a family that recently lost someone to Dr. Fremont. The writing and acting is very good in this scene, and I always find it moving. McGarrett expresses great compassion for them while also trying to talk them into an exhumation. The mother says to him, "It's so easy for you. It's so easy for cops." Not this cop.

 

Unearthing the coffin in the middle of the night. The autopsy fails to determine a cause of death because the casket was of poor quality, allowing air and water in. Zipser asks McGarrett how many autopsies he's been on. He answers, "Hundreds, thousands..." Zipser asks if any of them were easy. McGarrett concedes that none of them were easy.

 

 

 

The circus resumes. Zipser and McGarrett pull a stunt that catches Fremont in her great fraud. In the process, we learn how much personal info Mary Ann provided Fremont about Steve, including a history of polio and an appendectomy.

Who doesn't love William Schallert? He chews up a lot of scenery here as counselor Herbert. He told an interviewer that Lord said to him that he liked the Southern accent he was using but suggested pronouncing Hawaii as "Huh-why-ya" because that's how Southerners pronounce it. At one point, the judge says to Herbert, "I presume you are coming to a point with all this verbiage?"

If looks could kill.

Zipser and McGarrett switch the blood sample for food coloring and down goes Fremont in grand fashion. Steve leaves the courtroom quietly alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Ann and Steve overcome the terrible rift Fremont had caused.

Pau.

Once Upon a Time - Part 1

Season 1, Episode 19
Original airdate: 2/19/69

Written by: Leonard Freeman
Directed by: Michael Caffey

This two-part episode takes a rare detour into McGarrett's family. He goes to L.A. to bring down a quack doctor who has been "treating" his sister's dying baby boy. His sister, in desperation, has become a believer, but despite the rift it causes between them and the pain it causes his sister, McGarrett can't seem to help himself - he has to bring out the truth. Ever since I first saw this episode many years ago, I've never forgotten McGarrett's line, "who made me big daddy to the world?" and Danny's comment to him, "Steve, just this once, can't you back off?"

Given that this is a first season episode, and a two-parter, written by Freeman, it is interesting in what it shows about Freeman's concept of McGarrett.

This is, I think, the longest opening of any Five-O episode, as we watch an obviously fraudulent doctor manipulate a mother whose baby boy is ill. We learn shortly that the mother and child are McGarrett's sister and nephew.

May bears the bad news to Steve, an urgent message from his brother-in-law.

Despite the news, Steve takes charge of the calendar. Chin gets to give a speech on law and order. He asks, "For or against?" Much to his chagrin, Kono gets "all the leg work." Steve apologizes to Danny for "bailing out" on him. Danny asks if there's anything he can do. Steve tells him to "mind the store."

Steve arrives at his sister's place in L.A. Steve mutters, "This smog could choke a skunk." Nancy Malone is wonderful as Steve's sister, Mary Ann. You sense all the love and devotion for her big brother but also the torment over her baby's illness and torn loyalties between Steve and Dr. Fremont.

John Carter is equally good as the also tormented Tom Whalen (a good Irish name), Mary Ann's husband, whose own courage to face his wife with the truth founders and leads him to summon Steve to do it for him. Steve asks Tom about his unwillingness to tell his wife the truth, "And what happens when the baby dies?"

 

Steve wastes no time beginning his hunt for his prey, the fraud Dr. Fremont. He recruits Frank Zipser of the F.D.A. whose skepticism is overcome in good time. McGarrett finds him a "prudent and thorough man." McGarrett has purchased one of Fremont's "miracle" machines with the express intent of transporting it across state lines. Sounds like "jurisdictional entrapment" possibly. McGarrett's posture as he sits is as impeccable as his posture standing.

Mary Ann and Steve argue about Steve's plan to bring down Dr. Fremont. He tells her, "I'm here because I love you. Because you and Tom and the baby are my family. The only family I've got." He also tells her that Dr. Fremont "couldn't cure a ham."

"I'm a cop. Remember, sis?"

He brings her to tears with his brutal honesty.

McGarrett pays Dr. Fremont a visit to give her a warrant. Joanne Linville is a hell of a lot of fun to watch in this role. She tries bribing him. She has a lot to learn about McGarrett. She also tries seducing him. He replies, "I'd rather take up housekeeping with a cobra."

This is how I react when I'm served a warrant.

She regales him with her unusual life story. In the end, the fun and games are over and the game faces are on. She tells him, "When somebody hurts me, I hurt back." The pawn is Steve's sister. She tells him, "Your sister won't forgive you for as long as she lives."

Back in Hawaii, bad news again. Steve takes a call from L.A. He breaks down and Danny tries to talk him through it. It's one of the most powerful scenes on the show. I hate to think of where Lord may have gone emotionally for this scene.

 "Steve...just this once, can't you back off?"

"Who the hell made me big daddy to the world?"

 

The courtroom showdown begins. It's a circus, not a trial, at the outset. The judge understandably adjourns until the next day.

Pau.