Hawaii Five-0 season 8 episode 6 review: McGarrett’s stress relief

Very few shows can achieve the delicate balancing act that Hawaii Five-0 season 8 episode 6. In some ways this was one of the funnier episodes of the season; yet, it also did touch on some serious issues such as stress management and how important that is for people. McGarrett has a knack of being completely on edge, and with that Danny and the rest of his friends set up an intervention.

There were funny moments aplenty in this scene, whether it be McGarrett blaming Eddie the Dog for setting him up, Dog the Bounty Hunter saying that he was against people being blindsided by someone showing up at their own home, or Junior Reigns completely kissing up to him — remember, Junior is living here rent-free. Danny ended up bringing on board a stress therapist named Chloe, and this brought on more comedy, including her taking a surprisingly big interest in Steve’s sex life that led to a “cargument” like no other with Danny on the subject. Things went from bad to worse for Danny though, when he was told that he was a significant source of his partner’s stress. She cited the many arguments, and also told him that his restaurant plan would probably be a significant source for even more stress.

The stress manager was on board for the case of the week, which was an especially important one when it comes to mental health awareness. The suspect at the center of it was a man with dissociative identity disorder, meaning that he would jump between different personalities depending on his surroundings and his threat level. His disorder spiraled out of control following the death of his mother and it kicked off a spree of violence by using one of his identities (a police officer) in order to interrogate two people before killing them.

When the going got tough for McGarrett in trying to identify the suspect, he ended up bringing in Alicia Brown for the second straight week to work on the case. Eventually, she was used in the hour’s central standoff as she tried to get through to him using her words rather than violence. She was able to get through to him before McGarrett fired off a bullet, meaning that this was truly a happy ending to the case. This man can now get the treatment he needs and there wasn’t any more bloodshed.

Chloe’s final evaluation

She wanted to tell him that he needs to quit his job and take up gardening, but that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, she told him that he should just organize himself better and make a schedule.

CarterMatt Verdict

Somehow, Hawaii Five-0 this week managed to alternate from comedy to pretty heavy drama in a way that felt effortless. As fun as much of the stress-relief story was, it did eventually lead to a serious issue: Danny being concerned over Steve’s health and future after learning about his radiation poisoning. He used the stress-relief exercises as a way to channel some of that worry.

The moment for Scott Caan and Alex O’Loughlin at the end of tonight’s episode has to be the best one of the season — at least in terms of pure emotion.

What’s coming up on Hawaii Five-0?

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