Hawaii Five-0 season 8 episode 14 review: What happened with Tani’s brother?

Going into Hawaii Five-0 season 8 episode 14, we were already very much worried for Tani Rey. The previews promised something big happening to the character, and we knew that she had a difficult relationship with her brother. That relationship caused her to grow up at a pretty young age so that she could try to keep him on the straight and narrow … to varying results.

Tonight, everything was taken up a notch after Adam, in the process of his own investigation tonight, found Koa Rey suffering from an overdose. What happened to Koa was a sad reminder of an opioid crisis that was tearing the area apart — to go along of course with the ever-increasing gang activity. Through most of this episode we saw Adam working to assemble a new team; however, in the process we also were reminded that not everyone is going to be altogether interested in serving as a CI. We met Jessie tonight, a woman who got an offer from Adam to join the team. However, she was not altogether interested in that at first … but she came around later when she started to learn more about Adam’s brother and that he was telling the truth about his history.

Let’s go back now to Koa. The good news is that he somehow managed to survive the overdose; also, were it not for Five-0 he would probably be in an even worse spot. While he recovered, the two parties had to have a serious conversations regarding his addiction and the secret that he had long kept from her. He promised that it wouldn’t happen again but that wasn’t enough. That would never be enough in this situation.

Let’s spend a moment here giving some praise to Meaghan Rath; this was by far her best performance on the show tonight. We haven’t known Tani all that long but the story with Koa definitely makes you feel for her.

Other stories

To go along with everything going on tonight with Koa and with Adam, the Five-0 also was tasked with taking on a diamond smuggling case. Phillip Phillips of American Idol fame did a good job in here of playing Voss, who worked alongside a smuggler and was doing anything and everything he could to get some contraband for himself. It looked for a little while as though he was going to be able to get away with what he wanted, but eventually we saw him at the center of a tense stand-off with Five-0 … until he was shot. (Well, it’s pretty clear we’re not going to be seeing Phillips guest star on this show again.) It just so turned out that Voss had swallowed the diamonds to get off the island okay.

Also tonight, we learned about a robbery that happened at Steve and Danny’s restaurant when Danny forgot to lock the door. This led to some bickering and they put the police on the case; yet, in the end this case had a pretty heartbreaking end. It just so turned out that the tools that were stolen were to help people trying to survive after a tragic fire. Steve and Danny don’t exactly have all the information about where the tools went, but they don’t really need it. For now, what matters is that they’re going to move forward and the restaurant project will still move forward.

Related – Want to see when Hawaii Five-0 will be returning to CBS with new episodes?

Final Verdict

Hawaii Five-0 tonight was emotional at times and certainly funny at others. The restaurant project hit a snag (at least for now) and we got to learn more about Tani Rey than ever before.

What did you think about this Hawaii Five-0 installment as a whole? Share some of your thoughts/reactions in the comments! Also remember that, as always, you can like CarterMatt on Facebook for some additional news on Hawaii Five-0 plus other shows we cover. (Photo: CBS.)