Hawaii Five-0 Midseason Finale Review: Chin Risks Everything to Rescue His Niece

If there’s one thing the blockbuster hit Taken taught us, it’s that a father will do anything to get his daughter back. Hawaii Five-0 has already shown some of that with the perilous situations Danny has had to face in order to protect his daughter. Now it’s Chin Ho Kelly’s turn to fight for the little girl he considers his Ohana. Last season Chin was shocked to learn that his brother-in-law, a man he despised more than anyone in the world for murdering his father, had a 7-year old daughter. Chin was even more shocked when in his final hours, his mortal enemy asked him to look after the little girl as his own. Chin owed Gabriel Wayncroft nothing, but nevertheless fell head over heels for Gabriel’s daughter Sara. Before moving to Mexico with her maternal aunt and uncle Chin was shaping up to be a wonderful father figure, with all the responsibilities and fear that come with being a parent. One phone call flips Chin into immediate father mode when he must save his niece Sara on the midseason finale of Hawaii Five-0.

Chin has a wonderful birthday party surrounded by all his friends. The only thing that would make it better is a phone call from Sara. Instead Chin gets a phone call from her aunt Maria saying that Sara was kidnapped on her way home from school. For her safety, Sara’s family can’t risk telling the local authorities that Sara has been kidnapped, so Five-0 is off to Mexico. They have no leads other than the van Sara was kidnapped in dumped on the side of the road with a badly burned body inside. While Max guides Grover and Danny through identifying a body over the phone, Steve walks into the lion’s den. Steve literally walks up to the most well-connected drug dealer in Juarez and asks him if he knows who kidnapped Sara. It helps that Kono is at the ready with a sniper shot if things went south. The only thing Steve gets out of this meeting is that this is one kidnapping they can’t risk a double agenda on. Give the kidnappers what they want down to the last peso, and they’ll get Sara back.

The problem is that once the kidnappers do make their demands, Sara’s uncle Jorge is forced to admit that the police relieved him of his funds, so they have nothing to bargain for Sara with. Because the top dealer in Mexico doesn’t want Steve bulldozing his way through the entire city, he gives Steve the name of the cop who stole the money so long as Steve promises to leave when it’s all over. Nothing says a trip to Mexico like invading a Mexican police precinct. Chin takes a page out of Danny’s book and shoots the dirty cop’s foot for good measure in exchange for the tapes recording Jorge’s calls to his clients. Once Kono gets her hands on the tapes, she has seconds to warn Chin that the whole kidnapping was a setup to get Five-0 to Mexico before guns start firing.

Max manages to connect a tattoo from the dead kidnapper to a cartel whose lieutenant Five-0 took out months prior. The whole thing was about revenge. With Gabriel’s last words in his head, Chin goes completely off the grid before Steve can relay his plan to infiltrate the compound where Sara is being held (though Steve’s plan is hardly fool-proof). In Chin’s mind, Sara is his child. He could not love that little girl more if he had created her himself. Had circumstances been different he and Malia would have raised her as their own. As things stand Chin doesn’t have anyone to go home to, but the rest of Five-0 does. He won’t risk Danny and Grover not getting home to their kids, so Chin offers himself up as a trade for Sara. Chin is fully prepared to die with only a few moments holding Sara as his last memories. As the episode closes Kono finds Sara safely in the car as Chin has already been carried off. We truly don’t know if Five-0 has a prayer of getting him back. If it was your child on the line, wouldn’t you risk everything if it meant they were protected?

We’ll find out Chin’s fate when Hawaii Five-0 returns in the New Year.