While You're at It, Bring in the Moon

Season 4, Episode 91
Original airdate: 2/8/72

Written by: E. Arthur Kean
Directed by: Michael O'Herlihy

McGarrett gets owned by an eccentric billionaire but helps him escape murder charges in the end.One of my favorite episodes, I've nicknamed it "Steve McGarrett's Guide to Handling the Press" in honor of the press briefing he gives in this episode.

Things begin on a roll, with McGarrett summoned to the estate of Morgan Hilliard, played spot-on by Barry Sullivan, where a murder is reported. While Danno and Chin head to the estate, McGarrett is intentionally delayed by a mysterious phone call.

In one of my favorite scenes in the series, director O'Herlihy sets up a visually interesting view of McGarrett walking into Hilliard's trap. Six hired guns are waiting to "escort" him to Hilliard. They disarm him and tell him, "No one wants to tangle with you, Mr. McGarrett, but we have our orders." You can tell they know they're on thin ice, but they've chosen their paychecks over any quibbles over the illegality of what they've been tasked to do by their wealthy boss.

Not realizing that their boss has been kidnapped, Danny and Chin start reviewing the crime scene, which conveniently comes with an audio recording of the murder.

No, these guys don't look suspicious at all.

A great shot as the McGarrett kidnapping brigade makes its way toward the docks.

McGarrett doesn't like this guy.

And he doesn't like him either.

And he contemplates the terrible fate that may be awaiting him at the end of this ride.

Danny and Chin go over the murder with the witnesses and realize that Steve hasn't arrived yet. The opening credits are unique in this episode, using a freeze frame of the underlying action for each card.

McGarrett is escorted aboard a yacht. There's a group of gawkers on the boat in the next berth watching the filming.

McGarrett is caught off guard by a sudden burst of decontaminating mist as he boards the yacht.

Hilliard gives McGarrett his assignment - find out who really killed his associate. McGarrett rants that no one takes him captive and gets away with it.

Hilliard is one of very few characters in the series who stands square against McGarrett and challenges him as an equal.

Would you care to see our wine list, sir?

McGarrett has to face the very curious press which knows he's been missing during a very high profile investigation. For now, he blows past them. Oh, but he'll give them the press briefing of their lives a little later.

McGarrett gets up to speed on the evidence while one of Hilliard's spies keeps tabs on the team.

The one thing that bothers me about this episode. Chin says the bullets must have come from the sauna yet the arrows at his feet make it clear they didn't. 

One of the witnesses, threatened by McGarrett as a potential suspect, uses the press against him. This has all the impact on McGarrett of a gnat smashed against the grill of a Mack truck.

In another great scene, McGarrett busts Hilliard's spy and records a message for the billionaire - he's going to the DA to get a murder charge against him.

Best McGarrett screencap ever.

Walking to the DA's office.

McGarrett gives the press their due in his briefing with them. You haven't had an effective press conference unless the reporters hit the deck.

The reporters are uneasy with McGarrett having the gun. They say they know he's sore with them and half-jokingly ask if the gun's loaded.

McGarrett goes into the sauna and suddenly the reporters take cover as they hear shots.

Or maybe this is the greatest McGarrett screencap ever. 

McGarrett leaves them with frayed nerves and a mystery to explain. 

Having finally convinced Hilliard back to shore, McGarrett goes over the scene again, this time making a discovery - one of the shots came from overhead.

This is Steve's happy face. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Danny, I think he's smiling. What do we do?

McGarrett smugly moves in for the kill only to be informed by Byers (played by the great Ed Flanders) that a high-powered rifle is aimed at the base of McGarrett's skull.

Just a hair-trigger away from death.

In thanks, Hilliard offers McGarrett a variety of riches. McGarrett just asks for a thank you which he finally gets.

Pau.

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.