Hawaii Five-0 season 9 spoilers: Taryn Manning returning as Steve’s sister!
The show’s official Twitter account (citing a post from the Orange is the New Black actress’ Instagram page) confirmed the news on Friday with one of the funniest of photos (which CarterMatt has for you to check out below). She’s back in Hawaii, hopefully crafting a story that is fun, unique, and one that explores the sibling dynamic that is there between Mary and Steve. The two have been through it all, in between their complicated childhood and the experiences that they had together in the earliest seasons. Of course, they’re older now and in that way their relationship is more evolved … but that does not keep Steve’s protective brother instinct from coming out in moments where the situation calls for it (isn’t that the job of all brothers?). That’s always going to be with him, really no matter what the situation is. It’s one of the reasons he’s a cop in the first place — he’s transferring his nature as a big brother to the better part of Oahu and trying to fulfill that role for everyone there. His badge is basically his big brother stamp of approval for the island.
It’s been a minute since we’ve seen Manning on the show — or, to not speak metaphorically, it’s been a couple of years and then some. She last appeared on the show back in 2016 and before that, she was last on in 2013. Since the runaway success of Orange is the New Black her guest spots are a little more few and far between, but always still appreciated. There really aren’t too many chances on Hawaii Five-0 to actually harken back to Steve’s childhood and explore the man before the badge — or even the man before the camouflage. Mary brings us a part of Steve that no one else can.
So when is this appearance going to actually air? Think at some point in April. There’s a new episode tonight (check out a sneak peek here — it looks hilarious) and then on the other side of that, there’s another new episode coming next week. After that, we’re embarking on the annual NCAA Tournament hiatus — a chance to catch our breath, watch some basketball, and then prepare for an epic run of stories to close out the season! Executive producer Peter M. Lenkov already confirmed to CarterMatt in our recent interview with him that there is going to be a full run of 25 episodes this season (the same as the past few), so rest assured that there’s all sorts of good stuff still to come.
Is family a big theme of season 9 in general?
It sure seems that way, but isn’t that really the over all theme of this show whether it’s the family we have or the family we make? Tonight, we’re seeing Rachel’s mother for the first time, and we’ve already had a good chance to explore the complicated relationship between Junior and his dad. Meanwhile, we’ve explored a lot between Tani and Koa and we saw all of Grover’s extended family for the first time. To think, there’s still plenty of time and nobody quite knows what’s coming at the end of this season! It could be another family story … or just some other action-packed adventure that leaves us shouting in agony that we have to wait until season 10 to see the other side. (We’re just assuming that there will be a season 10; otherwise, a completely different kind of shouting is going to go down over here.)
Excited to see Taryn Manning back on Hawaii Five-0?
Be sure to sound off in the comments! (Photo: CBS.)