Hawaii Five-0 season 8: Is there an ideal Steve McGarrett endgame?

Hawaii Five-0 season 8 will premiere this fall on CBS (don’t worry, there’s reruns to get you through the summer drought), and at the moment, it’s probably little to no secret that Steve McGarrett faces a sad future.

All you have to do is look at the Hawaii Five-0 season 7 finale to get a greater understanding of just how bad this could be for him. As a result of his actions earlier this season to defuse the bomb (with a car battery bound to his chest as his only protection), Steve found himself diagnosed with radiation poisoning. This isn’t something you can just recover from and his doctor told him that the long term prognosis isn’t good. It’s a long, arduous process to emotionally handle this and physically he has to do what he can to battle it.

The first question we have on our minds is: How much danger is Steve really in when it comes to dying from this? The truth of the matter here is that there are so many variables that can go into it. It’s possible that the poisoning has latent periods and doesn’t impact his life too much. Or, it’s possible that some side effects and symptoms could come earlier, and he could find himself physically incapable of doing his job anymore.

While Steve told Danny in the finale that while this isn’t good there are some options to look into and there is some truth to that. The person who is going to be the judge of his own health is Steve himself, and knowing him, he’ll probably be incredibly stubborn through the entire process and refuse to accept anything happening to him as something that will slow him down forever. That being said, radiation poisoning can be deadly and even the strongest of people may fall victim.

The Alex O’Loughlin tie-in

There was much made already of the news that O’Loughlin may be departing the season at the end of season 8 unless he changes his mind (please, please, please), and it’s no secret that this reveal for Steve could tie into that. There is a story path to McGarrett and Danny eventually both leaving the force to go into business running a restaurant together (if Danny lets him in as a partner that is). It’s a little more low-stakes, but you gotta believe that it’d still be the most dangerous restaurant in the country given that they’ve made MANY enemies since they first took on the Five-0 job.

It’s possible that McGarrett could be killed off by this radiation poisoning, but it feels unlikely. This is the sort of thing you do when you either know that the actor will not be returning at all moving forward, or there is no other way to sensibly write the character out. With Steve, isn’t it possible that you station he and Danny’s restaurant on another island, and have them referenced here and there on the show moving forward? Also, let’s not forget that Hawaii Five-0 is a show that is ultimately about hope and family, so killing Steve seems a little dark for this show and we predict that there may be a fandom meltdown of epic proportions.

The ideal ending

For most fans, it’d be Hawaii Five-0 going on until season 20 with Steve / Danny banter galore! Alas, that’s unlikely to happen. If season 8 does turn out to be the final one for O’Loughlin, the hope has to be to let Steve take control of his own life. Having him sidelined because of something he can’t control would be extremely sad, so it makes more sense to take the power back and be the author of his own fate. Steve’s never allowed a criminal on this show to beat him; why would he choose to let something like this destroy him? If radiation poisoning was a physical thing, he’d chase it down and beat it to a pulp.

In turning this over to you, is there any imaginable fate for Danny that you foresee at the end of Hawaii Five-0 season 8? Be sure to share in the comments below! If you are looking for more scoop on the show then head on over to the link here. (Photo: CBS.)