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Hawaii Five-0 (with a zero) is a re-imagining of the 1968-1980 series Hawaii Five-O (with an O) that started airing in Fall 2010 and concluded in April 2020, running for 10 years.

It stars Alex O'Loughlin (Steve McGarrett), Scott Caan (Danny Williams), Grace Park (Kono Kalakaua), Daniel Dae Kim (Chin Ho Kelly), Jean Smart (Governor Pat Jameson) and Masi Oka (Max Bergman). In the new setting, McGarrett is a Navy SEAL whose father is murdered by an international terrorist he had been tracking, triggering the formation of what becomes the Five-0 unit, a special police force that operates above the normal state jurisdictions.

Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim have departed from the show due to difference over their salary for being involved in the show prior to airing the 8th season.

Put character tropes in the Character Tab, please. A recap page is also available.


Hawaii Five-0 provides examples of:

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    Tropes A to F 
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Hersh, a former art forger turned crime-scene clean-up man, hits on Kono when she's undercover to bust him and then continues to do so in various encounters afterward. When Kono has to protect Hersh from a killer, she heads to his apartment and finds a portrait of herself over his bed.
    Hersh: That was here when I moved in.
  • Aborted Arc: Lori was supposed to ride herd on the 5-0 team and keep them from violating procedure. This element is immediately forgotten and they return to their Cowboy Cop ways in the same episode with her joining in.
  • Action Mom: Doris McGarrett seems to have been one of these, and still is even though her son's grown up.
  • Affably Evil:
    • Danny's brother, Matt. He is a money launderer, Wall Street fraud, and lifesavings thief, but he knows how to have fun.
    • Saloni in "Powa Maka Moana". He's the leader of a group of pirates who rob people on a regular basis, but he's very definite that he robs from people who can take the loss, and he never hurts people. The fact that he doesn't appear the least bit intimidated in interrogation, and snarks back at Steve and Danny, helps.
  • All for Nothing:
    • In season 2, Jenna sells out Steve to Wo Fat for her already dead fiancé and Wo Fat kills her afterward.
    • In another episode, the team hunts for a teenager who's apparently been abducted by her boyfriend after he killed her father. They uncover evidence the father was abusing her and the boyfriend was protecting her only to find the girl set this all up in order to cash in on her father's million-dollar insurance policy. She allows her boyfriend to be killed, claiming to be innocent but is arrested. In interrogation, Steve and Kono drop the bomb: Her father had allowed his life insurance to lapse so the scheme wouldn't have gotten her anything anyway. Kono openly says "you got nothing" before they leave her in jail.
  • Almost Out of Oxygen: In "Ke Iho Mai Nei Ko Luna (Those Above Are Descending)", some of the team is stuck in an oxygen-deprived underwater lab. They're starting to get faint. Junior heroically swims out to drop off a emergency comm buoy. You think the problem is going to be the bends mentioned earlier, or maybe a conveniently dramatic shark. Instead, the hypoxia disorients him so he doesn't know where he is. If Tani didn't rescue him, he would've died.
  • Anti-Climax: The winter finale of Season 7 ends on a very intense and gripping cliffhanger with Chin, but come the first episode into the new year, the cliffhanger is resolved less than five minutes into the next episode. Not only that, but the following episode delves into a one-off story almost completely detached from the previous one and featuring Grover. Basically, all it amounts to is the previous episode ran long and the excess got tacked onto the beginning of the next one, and in doing so, the ending wasn't Spoiled by the Format. The winter finale could've aired as a slightly over-length special, but then it would be difficult to rerun it without chopping it down to fit a general-purpose sixty-minute time slot.
  • Anti-Villain:
    • SWO2 Graham Wilson, the SEAL with PTSD in "Ho'apono."
    • The bad guy in "Loa Aloha" is quite sympathetic at the end.
    • The villain of "Ke Ku 'Ana" declares war on the gun industry due to his son becoming a mass murderer.
  • Artistic License – Geography:
    • The pilot episode opens with a scene supposedly set in Pohang, South Korea, depicting it as being a mountainous jungle environment. Pohang is actually a heavily industrialized area with steel mills and shipping ports and is also far too north to have jungles.
    • For a show filmed mostly on location in Hawaii, there is a lot of artistic license, ranging from how they travel or respond to a location, to the naming of locations.
    • At the end of Danny's flashbacks to 9/11 in "I Ka Wa Mamua" during the third season, he sees police cars and ambulances racing past him to the burning Twin Towers. Yet the episode suggested that he and his late partner had learned that the drug deal was going down in Manhattan near the George Washington Bridge (and they're even shown crossing it to get there). That's way too far uptown for the towers to have been that close.
    • Steve's flashbacks to BUD/S were definitely not filmed at Coronado or even in California. The difference is so obvious as to be hilarious. Given how much exposure Coronado (and its view of San Diego across the bay) has had in movies and television recently, you kind of wonder how they thought they'd get away with that.
  • Artistic License – Gun Safety: To get the police out of the vehicle carrying the arrested robbers so they can get Catherine released in the fourth-season premiere "Aloha kekahi i kekahi", Steve fires into the air twice, something a Navy SEAL should surely know is dangerous and reckless regardless of the situation. Especially egregious in a show that's usually highly accurate with gun-handling and safety.
  • Artistic License – Law:
    • In "A ia la aku" (the first episode filmed in Hong Kong), the sedan Kono and Adam rode in has mainland Chinese plates, when it's stipulated by Hong Kong laws that mainland-based vehicles should have Hong Kong plates affixed at the front and back in order to be admitted into Hong Kong territory. Also in "Kupuʻeu", the sedan Kono and Adam use is LHD, despite having the correct Hong Kong license plates on.
    • In "Hana Komo Pae", it's mentioned that the Philippines has the death penalty, which is incorrect. It's not been used after 2006, but it could change since Duterte wants the death penalty be brought back as part of his campaign platform after he got elected in the 2016 elections.
  • Artistic License – Law Enforcement:
    • A few things in "Ua Hopu".
      • For instance, Interpol having a worldwide tactical team in Osaka, Japan. Which doesn't work since Interpol is a collection of police agencies working together by sharing intelligence. Although Interpol does have a tactical team responsible for protecting Interpol facilities in France.
      • Same thing with the uniforms of Japanese police officers. Although the basics are correct (e.g. vest, cap, shirt), the shoulder patches and the kanji for the vests are incorrect. In the episode, the kanji is portrayed as "特別警察官", which means "Special police officer" in Japanese. Although it's correct, all Japanese police officers have vests with the kanji "警察庁;", which means "National Police Agency". And don't get started on the Osaka Police crime scene investigators.
  • Ascended Extra: Lt. Catherine Rollins, McGarrett's on-and-off active-service Navy girlfriend who largely just serves to provide Five-0 with the lead to advance the case in the first season, becomes a full member of the regular cast in Season 3.
  • Astronomic Zoom: Used at the start of "E Malama".
  • As You Know: In "Ke Iho Mai Nei Ko Luna (Those Above Are Descending)", there's a body on the beach. Danny asks crime-scene tech Dr. Noelani Cunha if the body died from the bends. She says yes, and then explains the bends to the guy who clearly knows what the bends are and former Navy Seal McGarrett. In one of the shots, it even looks like she's talking straight to the audience.
  • A-Team Firing: You've got Danno, armed with an assault rifle, and Wo Fat, armed with a sniper rifle, firing at each other, with not even ten yards separating them. No one hits anyone.
  • Attack Drone: The plotline to the season 5 premiere involved a criminal who stole attack drones from a military contractor and uses them on innocent civilians.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Steve and Danny, constantly; specifically lampshaded at the end of "Makaukau 'oe e Pa'ani?", when after an entire episode of Danny trying to get Steve to take it easy after the last episode's surgery, Steve, while grinning at Danny, finally acquiesces to taking a couple days off and Kono, offscreen, says, "Aw, they in love again."
  • Badass Crew: The 5-0 team.
  • Bait-and-Switch Gunshot:
    • Subverted in "Kanalua". McGarrett and Danny have their guns drawn on the wounded survivor of the robbery at the beginning of the episode, who's got a hostage at gunpoint. All of a sudden, he falls to the ground, not from a gunshot anywhere but because he had died from his earlier wound. The subversion is lampshaded throughout that and the next scene, when Danny refuses to believe that McGarrett didn't actually do something, or even that he just knew the Mook would choose that exact moment to succumb.
    • Played straight at the end of "Malam Ka Aina" when Chin saves his cousin Sid.
    • And again when Danny saves Steve at the end of "Huaka'i Kula".
  • Bat Scare: After the Cat Scare in "Mohai", Danno gets his own scare in an allegedly haunted house form a flock of birds.
  • Batter Up!: Rollins carries one when she and McGarrett hear an intruder in the house at the beginning of "Propilikia". It turns out to be his mother.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Averted consistently: if anyone gets hit in the face, expect to see bruises. After a long and violent fight which involves destroying about half a house and getting captured and slapped around, Kono shows the damage.
  • The Big Board: The team uses the touch screen table version, with plasma screens.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In the pilot, McGarret and Chin Ho save Kono from some gangsters by driving a truck through a wall.
    • The Navy SEALs in "Makani 'olu holo malie" as they storm a Taliban compound to save Steve before he can executed live on camera.
  • Big "NO!": McGarrett yells one when Victor Hess shoots his father.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: After 100 episodes, it is revealed that Steve McGarrett happens to be a part of one. His mother, Doris McGarrett a.k.a. Shelburne, was tasked with eliminating an unknown Chinese man, but she bungles the mission and kills his wife. Out of guilt, she becomes the stepmother to that man's son, Wo Fat. However, she is pulled away by the United States, and Wo Fat's father disappears, leaving Wo Fat to believe he was murdered, which was his Start of Darkness. This makes Wo Fat McGarrett's stepbrother. His mother abandons Steve's family for her spy work, John McGarrett gets involved with Wo Fat and is eventually killed on his orders, starting his blood feud with Steve, and, after returning to Hawaii, Doris kept in touch with Wo Fat without Steve's knowledge, keeping this secret.
    • Chin's relationship with his family is also mangled. He himself took the fall for his uncle's crime, and was subsequently ostracized by the rest of his family, sans Kono. Then it turns out that his father's murderer is none other than his brother in law.
  • Big Storm Episode: "Kai e'e"note  is a subversion. Most of the typical problems associated with a Big Storm Episode crop up, but the threatened tsunami is fake.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • All episode titles except the pilot and season three's "Hookman" are in Hawaiian.
    • The name of Hiro Noshimuri (a season one villain), while not an actual Japanese name, is made of Japanese words; "Noshi" is a type of origami tied to ceremonial envelopes, "Muri" means impossible." Judging from the Google hits, the writers ate him at a restaurant.
    • In "I Helu Pu", we learn that Danny knows a few Russian phrases, including "I'm a police officer" and "Your vodka tastes like urine."
  • Bratty Teenage Daughter:
    • There are some concerns that Grace may play this straighter as she ages but aside from small things like lying about going to a party with Will Grover once, it's mostly averted.
    • Also averted with the victim in "Ka Ho'oponopono". At the beginning of the episode she's grounded, and its established that this is because she stole money from her father's wallet, but she only stole that money to help her best friend pay off a blackmailer, then admitted the theft to her father and accepted his punishment. Also, according to said blackmailer, a hacker who was spying on various kids doing drugs or having sex through their computer screens, the only thing she did in her bedroom was her homework.
  • Buddy Cop Show: Playing this trope incredibly straight with Steve and Danny, even though they are not the only main characters on the show.
  • Bulletproof Vest: The team is VERY consistent about putting these on when shooting is likely.
  • Busman's Holiday: Danno and Steve cannot take a mere hike through the jungle without stumbling upon a corpse, or having to save the kids trekking with them from being taken hostage by smugglers.
    • In "Ho'onani Makuakane", Steve attends a memorial at Pearl Harbor and ends preventing an assassination attempt.
  • Butt-Monkey: Danny's Nephew, Eric, played by Andrew Lawrence (of the Lawrence brothers fame), in the "Kapu" episode.
  • By-the-Book Cop: Danno tries to be this but it's tough when the Cowboy Cop is the boss and has been given license by the governer to basically do whatever the hell he wants.
  • Cain and Abel:
    • Danny, a straight cop, is the Abel; his brother, Matt, is a Wall Street fraudster, savings thief, and drug money launderer.
    • In a stepbrother example, Steve is revealed in the 100th episode to be the Abel to Big Bad Wo Fat's Cain.
  • The Caper: "Heihei"
  • Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Inverted with Steve and Danny. Lampshaded frequently by Danny when he rants at Steve about the rules of civilised society and how normal people behave.
  • Career-Ending Injury: Kono had to give up a promising surfing career some years before the start of the series due to a knee injury.
  • Catchphrase: "Book 'em, Danno."
  • Cat Scare: In the Halloween Episode "Mohai", the Five-0 team searches a dark alley for clues about a missing woman when Kono discovers something moving inside a garbage container. When she carefully opens it, a black cat hisses at her and jumps out of the bin, scaring her to death.
  • Character Death:
    • The Governor in the first-season finale.
    • Jenna Kaye in "Ki'ilua", midway through the second season.
    • Vince Fryer in "Ua Hala", the second season finale.
    • Malia Waincroft, Chin Ho's wife, in "La O Na Makuahine", the third-season premiere
    • Danno's brother, who was killed off-screen by a money launderer.
    • Wo Fat in the series' 100th episode, "Ina Paha", with a gunshot wound to the head from McGarrett.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The talkative granny that saw Kono and Steve's break-in to the HPD evidence locker in "Hana'a'a Makehewa" shows up as the one picking Kono out of a lineup in the Season 1 finale, "Oia'i'o."
    • In "Lanakila", Mary photographs all contents of the Champ box. In "Ke Kinohi", the bad guys have stolen the actual contents, so Five-0 relies on her pictures to continue the investigation.
    • In "Ho'opa'i", two agents on an FBI security detail are shot during a mob raid on an undercover agent's safehouse. One agent survives, but the other dies. Why? Because the ammunition used to shoot the survivor only contains half as much gunpowder as a normal round would have, making the wound it causes much more survivable. This reveals that the survivor is the mob's mole.
    • In "Powa Maka Moana", a woman survives pirate attack in which all of her friends get taken hostage. Her dramatic reunion with her lover is photographed and appears on the front page of the newspaper. For her safety, Five-0 keeps her name secret. When the kidnapper calls Five-0, he demands that she deliver the money, but slips into calling her by her first name. It is later revealed that the woman and her lover are the bad guys.
    • In "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau," it is revealed that the list of serial numbers for the $28 million in the HPD evidence locker, which everyone had thought was missing, was still intact. This allowed Chairman Akahoshi to determine that the $200,000 that Chin Ho "returned" actually wasn't the same money that went missing. However, that same list will also establish that $10 million of the $28 million isn't the same $10 million that was originally there — thereby exposing Five-0's unauthorized "borrowing" to ransom Chin Ho in "Hana'a'a Makehewa".
    • In "Malama Ka Po'e", Grover makes good use of the pocket knife his son gave him earlier.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Wo Fat, the Big Bad, is first seen as a golfing partner of the villain they're investigating midway through the first season.
  • The Chessmaster: Delano
  • Child Prodigy:
    • Grace and her fellow Aloha Girls in "Huaka'i Kula." Lucy is strikingly proficient in first aid, Grace digs an escape tunnel, and Sara MacGyvers a working cell phone out of the smashed-up remains of two different phones.
    • See also the Little Miss Con Artist entry below.
  • City of Adventure: There are an awful lot of high-profile murders, organize crime rackets, and attempted terrorist attacks in Hawaii; makes you wonder why anyone would want to vacation there...
  • Cool Boat: USS Missouri
  • Cool Old Guy:
    • Ed McKay, who served with McGarrett's grandfather in WWII, and who helps him with the hostage situation in "Ho'apono".
      McGarrett: Thought I told you to lie low.
      McKay: I'm an old man, I don't hear so well.
    • Lt. Commander Joe White, Steve's mentor and Navy SEAL instructor.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Kamekona, whenever he starts experimenting. His "corned beef burritos" didn't win much approval.
  • Cowboy Cop:
    • What McGarrett becomes, on the implicit approval of the Governor, with his new unit. Justified, or at least justifiable, in that McGarrett was trained as a special forces officer, and not as a police officer. He approaches a criminal suspect as an enemy to be defeated and not as an offender to be arrested and tried, and he has little or no appreciation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments because they don't apply to SEAL teams in combat.
      Danno: If you're going to be one of those "shoot first, ask questions later" types, I would like to be consulted, so I'll know when to duck!
    • Though normally a By-the-Book Cop, Danny crosses over into Cowboy Cop territory whenever it gets personal ("Mana'o" and "E Malma").
    • This gets brought so much that some bad guys and other people wonder if he's allowed to do it.
      Russian Consul (from 8th season): What kind of policeman are you?
  • Crossover: With NCIS: Los Angeles, which puts it and the original (thanks to Ed Asner's reprisal of August March) into the JAG-verse. Complicated by the original NCIS referencing the show in one episode (Agent Tony DiNozzo, natch), complete with Gibbs punning "Book'em, Danno-zo" to Tony at the end of the episode.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Chin Ho's backstory. Accused of embezzlement, he was dismissed from the Honolulu PD, disowned by his cop-pride family (except Kono), and separated from his fiancée. In "Ma Ke Kahakai" it is revealed that Chin Ho's Uncle Keako took the money to pay for Aunt Mele's black-market kidney transplant, and Chin Ho took the blame for him. Unlike the rest of the family, Uncle's disfavor towards Chin Ho is for taking the fall and not letting the old man own up to what he did.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: One episode features a rather angry Papa Wolf who bargains to be brought his daughter's killer so he can torture him to death for what he did.
  • Darkest Hour: Season 1 finale.
  • Dating Catwoman: Kono and Adam Noshimuri in "Ua Hopu". Chin Ho is already warning her of the dangers she can face if she continues the relationship.
  • Dead Guy Junior: Danno's daughter Grace was named for his former partner who died shortly before she was born.
  • Deadpan Snarker: In the snark-infested waters of Hawaii Five-0, Danno is the undisputed champ, but pretty much everybody gets their turn. See the quotes page for multiple examples.
  • Death in the Clouds: Season 2 Episode 15 "Mai Ka Wa Kahiko". A US Marshal, escorting a prisoner back to Hawaii, is murdered in the plane's lavatory. He is trying to call Danny at the time he is killed. An old friend of Danny's, the Marshal has recognized a dirty cop. The dirty cop had just been released from prison and blames Danny for putting him there.
  • Depending on the Writer: Happens with the utility of the Five-0's technology.
  • Desecrating the Dead: Finding out Freddie Hart's corpse has been mutilated serves as a Berserk Button for Steve.
  • Designated Girl Fight: While men might injure Kono, if there's a female villain to beat down, Kono will be the one doing it. Because we can't have male cops hitting girls. Averted in "Ma'eme'e": Kono goes toe-to-toe with a male Mook.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Kono reaches this after episode 2 of season 2.
  • Didn't See That Coming:
    • In "Hana'a'a Makehewa", Hesse forces McGarrett to steal ten million dollars in cash to save Chin's life. To protect himself, McGarrett assigns Kono to snipe the transaction. Predictable, yes? Well, who ever thought that Hesse never cared about the ransom money and would just burn it, then trigger the bomb anyway just to spite McGarrett?
    • And then in "Kai'e'e", we find out that the money's back in the evidence locker it was stolen from!
    • The season 1 finale, "Oia'i'o," is made of this trope. More specifically, who could have imagined that the Governor, of all people, was in with Wo Fat; that she was the one that replaced the $10 million; that she had Laura Hills car-bombed, and that Wo Fat was going to kill her and frame McGarrett for the murder.
  • Did You Actually Believe...?: Wo Fat uses this when he meets Steve for the second time. Now Steve knows who Wo Fat actually is, he holds the Chinese under gunpoint. Wo Fat not-so-subtly implies that a CIA analyst will have a "car accident" if Steve shoots him. Steve, being the good guy here, concedes.
  • Did You Just Have Sex?: McGarrett in "Nalowale".
  • Dirty Cop:
    • Chin Ho had been suspected of being one by the Honolulu PD and forced out when McGarrett recruits him. Most of the department still distrusts him. It is later revealed that Chin's uncle stole the money to pay for his wife's kidney transplant. Chin took the fall, and covered for him. When the truth comes to light, Chin tries to cover for his uncle again, but fails. He has now been cleared of the crime.
    • The arc that's slowly being constructed has McGarrett working on the investigation his father started into some kind of corruption in the force.
    • Detective Kaleo in "Mana'o," revealed to be the mole who betrayed Kono in "Pilot".
    • Koji Noshimuri, the ex-HPD Yakuza mook who killed McGarrett's mother.
    • In "Ho'opa'i", one of the FBI agents on an undercover agent's protective detail is working for the mob.
    • Danny's ex-partner was suspected of being a dirty cop, but is otherwise cleared.
    • Kono began hanging around with a group of dirty ex-cops after crossing her Despair Event Horizon. However, she joined them on the orders of the head of Internal Affairs to take down the group or risk trouble with him and the rest of HPD.
    • How Wo Fat was able to escape a Halawa Correctionals prison van in "La O Na Makuahine" thanks to Delano's informants in the HPD.
  • Distressed Damsel:
    • Mary, Steve's sister, is kidnapped in "Ke Kinohi". Subverted as well, because instead of whining and bitching and despite previously acting like The Load, she is able to communicate her whereabouts, giving Five-0 enough clues to rescue her.
    • Averted by Julie in "E Malama" as well. She more than holds her own, even though there are four armed contract killers after her.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: "Mo'o 'Olelo Pu," in which Kono runs into trouble while out on the sea solo and brings up memories of her mother while fighting to survive, will almost certainly bring back memories of "Home from the Sea" to Magnum, P.I. fans (in which a very similar thing happened to the main man).
    • "Ikiiki i ka la o Keawalua" with a Hawaii-based Western Terrorists with a neo-Nazi leaning.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: In "Powa Maka Moana", a bitchy stolen goods buyer barricades himself behind bulletproof bars. Steve gives him five seconds to come out peacefully and talk about the case. Danny literally begs that guy to yield, but he still refuses. Steve then opens the bars — with a hand grenade.
  • Driver Faces Passenger: McGarrett is especially bad about it, looking at his passenger all the time while driving, and even once turning around to face Danno in the backseat.
  • Drives Like Crazy:
    • Steve, usually when driving Danny's car.
    • Kono
    • Dr. Max, when driving Danny's car in the Season 2 opener, "Ha'i'ole".
  • Driving Question: Who is Shelburne? Answered, apparently, in the second season finale, "Ua Hala":McGarrett's mother, whom he (and we) thought had died years ago in a car bombing.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: In "He Kane Hewa' Ole":
    McGarrett: Okay, what about our John Doe #2?
    Danno: You mean Jack?
    McGarrett: You got an I.D.?
    Danno: No Ja — his head was in a box. Jack.
    Chin Ho: That ain't right, bro.
    Danno: Too soon?
    McGarrett: Little bit.
  • Dynamic Entry:
    • In "Ke Kinohi", the Five-0 team discuss on how untouchable the Yakuza in Hawaii is. The next scene is Steve entering a Yakuza bar by ramming the door with a motorbike. In the blink of an eye his team follow and line up the dumbstruck Yakuza guys.
    • "Ho'opa'i": Steve enters a mobster's gated estate by ramming the gates with Danno's Camaro.
  • Electric Torture: At the end of "Wahine'inoloa", in the third season, Doris is shown torturing a hit man she thought she had killed years earlier with a battery and jumper cables.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Sang Min, while he is a human trafficker, loves his Rwandan wife and son. He yields when Steve threatens to deport them back to Rwanda.
      Sang Min: What kind of cops are you?
      McGarrett: The new kind.
    • In the episode before Season 1 Finale, Sang Min turns himself in because he considers Wo Fat is too much to be associated with.
    • The pirate chief in "Powa Maka Moana": "I rob people. I don't hurt them."
  • Everybody Owns a New Chevy:
    • Danno has a new Camaro... which got blown up in Season 4. Danny gets a new one that is black.
    • Max also got one (yellow) after ditching his VW Beetle due to car trouble. (Subtle shout out nod.)
    • McGarrett has a crew-cab Silverado.
    • Kono, a new Cruze (which just went on the market in the begining of the series). Kono also owns a Chevrolet K5 Blazer
    • Averted: While we've seen Chin-Ho in Kono's Cruze and other Chevy products, he seems to tool around on a Harley-Davidson.
    • Averted in part: the pilot episode had a number of Ford Products. Danno drove a Ford Mustang, and the Honolulu Police Department used Ford Crown Victorias.
    • Un-averted by the end of the first season, as the HPD seems to have acquired a lot of new Impalas to replace the Crown Vics.
    • Averted once again in the season 2 finale, where the HPD garage is full of...Ford Crown Victorias!!
  • Everyone Owns a Mac: Averted after a few episodes of the first season that suggested this, thanks to a generous sponsorship by Microsoft.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies: Seemingly done at first in "Kupouli ʻla" until it's revealed that the "zombie" was a medical doctor who got doped up with scopamine.
  • Evil All Along: Governor Jameson per the season 1 finale.
  • Evil Plan:
    • Detective Kaleo in "Mana'o", the Dirty Cop in the pay of drug smuggler Ochoa. First, he killed Detective Hanamoa (Danny's old partner) and buried him in a luau pit because he was about to discover that Kaleo was on the take. To cover that murder up, he induces Five-0 to go after his boss Ochoa then shoots Ochoa dead during the climactic drug raid so he can't be arrested and questioned by Five-0. To make sure the investigation stops there, he then plants a gun on Ochoa's still-cooling corpse to make it look like Ochoa murdered Hanamoa. He almost gets away with it.
    • Nicole in "He Kane Hewa' Ole," who fakes her own kidnapping, murders her husband, and then sends her husband's severed head by courier to her father to bilk him out of $5 million for "ransom."
    • Susan and her boyfriend in "Powa Maka Moana". She engineers a pirate attack on young tourists, allows her coworker to be killed, pretends to be the lone survivor, and ensures that she's photographed as such by the local newspaper. This way, the pirate (her boyfriend in disguise) can demand her to deliver the ransom without arousing Five-0's suspicion, because it can be assumed he saw her in the paper and therefore deduced correctly that she's no cop for sure. If only her boyfriend didn't slip up and call her by her name...
    • Richard Cannon in "Ho'opa'i" orders a hit on the FBI agent who has infiltrated his father's criminal empire in order to frame his father—so that he can take over the "family" business.
    • Chloe in "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau" using chemical weapons to kill the owner of the company she worked for so she could continue her affair with the company's #2 man. She used chemical weapons so it would look like a terrorist attack and not a garden-variety crime.
  • Extremely Cold Case: In "Ho'onani Makuakane", the team investigates a World War II-era murder at Honouliuli Internment Camp. Everyone involved bar the victim's son and the man he accuses of the murder is dead.
  • Failed Attempt at Drama: In "Akanahe", Catherine attempts the typical dramatic entrance and "screen swipe" to move data from her tablet to the big board... only to botch it repeatedly until Chin has to lean in and do it right. She lampshades it.
    Catherine: So much for my dramatic entrance.
  • Fake Guest Star:
  • Fake-Out Make-Out: Danno and Kono in "Malma Ka Aina".
  • Faking the Dead:
    • Hiro Noshimuri, with Joe White's help. Becomes a minor Story Arc, as his son suspects Joe of murdering him and Steve has to prevent him from retaliating until he's able to convince Joe to tell the truth about what happened.
    • Doris McGarrett, in the show's backstory, but only disclosed at the end of the second season.
  • False Flag Operation:
    • The dictator's private security detail in "Po'ipu" is actually a hit squad hired to assassinate him.
    • The bad guy in "Kai'e'e" fakes a tsunami warning to fool the entire state of Hawaii.
    • The "pirates" in "Powa Maka Moana".
    • The mob hit in "Ho'opa'i" was part of an elaborate plot by the Big Bad mobster's son to frame his father for the murder of an FBI agent so he could take over Daddy's criminal empire.
    • The use of sarin in the milk is to make cops believe that this is a terrorist attack, not simple crime of passion.
  • Fanservice:
    • Hello, Grace Park in a bikini. Thank you very much!!
    • And in her underwear. (See Shameful Strip below.)
    • And shirtless Alex O'Loughlin.
    • And Daniel Dae Kim on a motorcycle.
    • Double bonus: Shirtless Scott Caan getting surfing lessons from Grace Park on the beach in "Kai e'e".
    • Ahem. Claire Van der Boom in "Loa Aloha".
    • The "Swimsuit Edition" photo shoot/crime scene in "Ho'ohuli Na'au".
      Danno: I'm going to talk to these models.
      McGarrett: Okay, well just stay with the questions that relate to the case.
      Danno: What's that supposed to mean?
      McGarrett: That means I know you. Just stick to the case.
      Danno: Hey. Hey. They're just women.
      Chin Ho: Who happen to be insanely hot and make millions of dollars.
    • The "Victoria's Secret" subplot in "Ha'awe Make Loa", with Danno guarding supermodel Behati Prinsloo. A supermodel whose name is pronounced "Be-hottie". What are the odds?
    • Danny as "Mr. November" in the New Jersey police calendar in "Kapu".
    • Four words: girl-girl surfboard chase ("Kanalu Hope Loa"). And yes, one of the girls is Kono.
  • Fanservice Extra: In season 6 episode 22. While Adam “Toast” Charles notices an extremely hot blonde woman who he notices she has a tattoo on her stomach that sticks out as she is putting her bag away.
  • Faux Fluency: In the pilot episode, McGarrett asks a young Chinese illegal immigrant her name, in Mandarin so badly pronounced as to be barely recognizable. McGarrett once again shows off his (not so) impressive Mandarin in "He Kane Hewa'ole". At some points it's somewhat acceptable for a non-native speaker, while at others it's hilariously bad.
  • Feed the Mole: Not necessarily false information, rather misleading. In the penultimate Season 6 finale, After Robert Cochran's Heel–Face Turn helps the Five-0 and Abby deduce the mole's identity (the HPD 911 dispatcher), Chin has a resident drop a tip, saying they have spotted Gabriel Waincroft. Sure enough, rather than call it in to HPD officers, the dispatcher sends some Yakuza mooks to the alleged location, where they're ambushed by the rest of the team. This is lampshaded after the gang members get Blinded by the Light.
    McGarrett: Looks like your boss gave you some bad intel, huh?
  • Fictional Counterpart: A few episodes reference the "King's Medical Center", instead of the real-life Queen's Medical Center.
  • Fish out of Water: Danny Williams, formerly of New Jersey, who doesn't like Hawaii, or as he calls it:
    Danno: ...this pineapple-infested hellhole.
    McGarrett: You don't like the beach?
    Danno: I don't like the beach.
    McGarrett: Who doesn't like the beach?
    Danno: I like cities, skyscrapers, no tsunamis, no jellyfish.
  • Framed Face Opening
  • From Bad to Worse: "Oia'i'o"
  • Fun with Subtitles: Notice that in the first three episodes Five-0's headquarters is subtitled "Governor's Task Force headquarters" as the team hasn't come up with a name yet.

    Tropes G to L 
  • Gender Flip:
    • Kono is now Chin Ho's female cousin (and has appeared in more episodes than Kono did on the original show!).
    • Governor Paul Jameson is now Governor Patricia Jameson, probably because Hawaii's governor at the time of the pilot was also female.
    • And the recurring character of Justice Department official Jonathan Kaye is now former CIA analyst Jenna Kaye. She turns out to be working with Wo Fat, but she performs a Heel–Face Turn before getting Character Death by Mr. Fat.
  • Generic Cop Badges: In 'Ua Hopu', the uniforms of Japanese police officers have vest patches that say "Special police officer" in Japanese (kanji). Actual vest patches have (kanji) writing which means "National Police Agency".
  • Giant Wall of Watery Doom: Season 1 Episode Kai e'e. The Tsunami warning system is taken over and a false warning sent out. This is going to be used by the bad guys to facilitate their robbing the police headquarters.
  • Good Cop/Bad Cop: Danny is good; Steve is bad. It goes the other way around when the case's about Danny's family, however.
  • Gunpoint Banter: McGarrett and Wo Fat in "Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio":
    McGarrett: What makes you think I won't kill you right here in this restaurant?
    Wo Fat: "The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out." Old Chinese proverb.
    McGarrett: "Say hello to my little friend." [cocks pistol under the table] Old American proverb.
  • Guns Do Not Work That Way: Usually averted pretty well, but "Hookman", the episode written by and guest-starring Peter Weller as an ex-sniper-turned-bank-robber who lost his hands and now wears prosthetics, and is seeking revenge against the cops who crippled him, goes completely off the rails:
    • He doesn't know the difference between a clip and a magazine, something that gets unforgettably hammered into every military recruit during basic training. Again, his character is supposed to be a retired Army sniper.
    • Weller's character makes precision shots with two prosthetic hands. Accurate shooting with any weapon requires very fine trigger control, as jerking, slapping, or otherwise improperly engaging the trigger will send the shot wild. The shooter needs to feel the tension of trigger pull and the breakover point (even "hair triggers" have some travel before they engage) in order to keep their aim steady and fire at their respiratory pause. This is impossible with even the most advanced prosthetics.
    • His first shot in the episode is said to be extraordinarily difficult. It was a center-mass hit on a motorcycle rider moving towards the shooter at low speed, inside of 150 yards, at a slight downhill angle. Actually not very difficult at all for a halfway-competent shooter, provided they have two working hands, which he doesn't (though the team doesn't know that).
    • Weller's character engraves the name of the intended target on each of his cartridges, because he's serious. Except that anybody should see how that's a bad idea, considering that the cartridge case contains a small explosive charge (gunpowder), which explodes in order to launch the bullet. So grinding a bunch of weak spots in the side of the case is... perhaps not something an alleged highly-trained professional would ever do. The resulting case rupture would have some kind of bad result, ranging from (at best) jamming the weapon so badly that you need to field-strip it in order to clear the stoppage (and need a gunsmith to make sure it's safe to fire again), to the receiver literally blowing up in your face (shooters poetically refer to this event as a kaboom).
  • Halloween Episode: "Ka Iwi Kapu". Five-0 investigates the murders of two college kids out shooting video for a documentary on legendary Hawaiian ghost warriors in an ancient Hawaiian graveyard at midnight on Halloween.
  • He's Just Hiding: In-universe, what McGarrett suspects is going on with his father's murderer, terrorist Victor Hesse, after shooting him off a cargo ship. He orders the Coast Guard to try to find his body. They haven't, but insist they'll keep looking. 'Course, it turns out McGarrett was justified in his caution.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Steve and Danny, who are both absolutely ready to die for (or simply with) each other, and have recently reached the point where they can actually say "I love you" to each other in complete seriousness.
  • Hitman with a Heart: One episode involves a hitman who takes out another hitman to protect a community in Hawaii made up of persons who the former was supposed to assassinate. Rather than carry out the murders, he relocated them to Hawaii, gave them new identities, and has been running his own witness protection program ever since.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: McGarrett and Danno catch a suspect putting a roofie into a girl's drink. They force him to drink it before carting him off. He passes out. They then awaken him with an air horn.
  • Hollywood Fire: The season eight premiere makes a big deal about the heroes having to act inside of a raging forest fire to catch their arsonist perp and airlift a house to save themselves. Despite the fact that the characters do make lip service about the dangers of smoke inhalation to the point of the perp taunting them about it, of course all the flames are CGI for actor safety and Hawaiian property's sake; the characters are in close proximity to the flames and smack dab in the middle of the worst of the smoke, and only look dirtied and disheveled for it, otherwise being perfectly fine even after extensive exposure. This gets especially blatant with Steve flying a helicopter into the gigantic plumes of smoke and coming out virtually fine.
  • Hollywood Healing: Considering how often these people get pounded like pieces of meat, they recover astonishingly quickly and without lasting damage.
  • Horrible Camping Trip: "Huaka'i Kula".
  • Huddle Shot: "Hauoli La Ho'omakai", being a Thanksgiving Episode, starts out with the protagonists, friends and family playing football, and we gets two huddle shots filmed from below, one for each team.
  • I Call Her "Vera": Sam Hanna dubs Danno's Camaro "Winifred". "Winnie" for short.
  • I Can See You: At 1:20. "Should have taken the deal. By the way, that's a nasty cut on your eye."
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the episode titles (except for the pilot episode and the season 3 episode "Hookman") are Hawaiian words or phrases. (The pilot episode is named "Pilot", and "Hookman" is a remake of the 1973 episode from the original series with the same name.)
  • Indirect Serial Killer: The Arc Villain of Season 7 is Dr. Madison Gray doesn't kill directly. Gray is a Psycho Psychologist who manipulates her clients into becoming serial killers for the sheer fun involved.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: The Governor, after McGarrett informs her that a very high-profile philanthropist and campaign donor is actually the head of the Yakuza in Hawaii. She doesn't play around either. When McGarrett starts to look for a glass for the beer, she quickly corrects his train of thought and starts drinking straight from the bottle.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: A group of pirates kidnap a yacht of rich kids, killing the captain of the boat with a female crewmember hiding and rescued. The leader of the group calls Five-O and demands that the girl reported on in the paper be the one to hand over the ransom money. Five-O lets her go in at which point, it turns out she was in on the whole thing. However, the bag is filled with newspaper as the police break into the area to arrest the gang. It turns out the pirate leader ruined his plan when he called the crewemember by her first name when the newspaper had kept it quiet for her safety.
  • Inheritance Murder: Features in some episodes, although it's not always played straight. One example: in the fifth season episode "Ka Hana Malu", the sons of a murdered couple are initially suspected of arranging it to collect a large insurance payout, but it turns out that the mother had actually arranged it herself to secure her sons' future. But in "Hoʻamoano", the suspect in the murder of a woman turns out to be her half-brother, who killed her in fear that he'll lose some of his inheritance to her.
  • Internal Affairs:
    • Sgt. Cage ("Mana'o"), who drove Chin Ho off the force and investigated Danny's partner post-mortem.
    • Chairman David Akahoshi in Chin Ho's Story Arc ("Ho'ohuli Na'au", "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau", and "Oia'i'o").
  • Irony:
    • Pauline in "Ho'ohuli Na'au" goes to great lengths to murder her father because he abandoned her and her mother, only to be told by Danno, as he arrested her, that her father had established a trust for her benefit and was planning to reconnect and make up for it. Even more ironic in that because she murdered the grantor of the trust, she forfeited her rights as a beneficiary.
    • In a similar vein, a teen sets up her boyfriend to kill her father over "abuse" that never happened, then arranges for him to get killed by the cops so she can inherit her father's life insurance...only to be informed while in jail that her dad allowed the insurance policy to lapse.
    • The Governor, whom Jack McGarrett has been investigating, authorizes the creation of Five-0 so she can keep an eye on Steve who subsequently takes up his father's investigation. We see how that finally works out in the Season 1 finale, "Oia'i'o".
  • It's Personal:
    • McGarrett in the Story Arc concerning the murders of his parents ("Pilot", "Hana 'a'a Makehewa", "Ke Kinohi", "Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio", "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau", "Oia'i'o", "Ina Paha").
    • Danno in "Mana'o", "E Malama", and "Loa Aloha".
    • Kono in "Ko'olauloa".
    • Jenna Kaye feels this way about Wo Fat.
    • The entire team in "Hana 'a'a Makehawa", when Hesse rigs the bomb to Chin.
    • And again in "Ki'iluna" when Wo Fat kidnaps McGarrett. Mr. Fat kidnaps McGarrett a second time in "Ina Paha", where a lot of questions are answered.
  • Just a Gangster: After Adam Noshimuri took over the Yakuza, he wanted to turn all the Yakuza on Hawaii legitimate. Unfortunately when his brother got out of prison he had other ideas.
  • Kansas City Shuffle: Delano pulls an epic ton of 24-style misdirections in Season 2 finale and Season 3 premiere. In "Ua Hala", he ordered a pissed-off ex-con to kill an HPD friend of Five-0's. When the police cordons the crime scene, the ex-con slips in a police car, sneaks her way to the HPD HQ, and sets off an explosion there. The ex-con's background leads the Five-0 to believe that the explosion is motivated by revenge, and indeed at the end of the episode it is revealed that Delano holds both Malia and Kono hostage and forces Chin to save them. In "La O Na Makuahine", his real endgame is revealed: 35 million dollars worth of drugs stored in HPD evidence room, which he could access by posing as a cleaner crew, which the HPD calls to clean their HPD after the explosion.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • According to a CIA analyst, Wo Fat is this. Subverted as of the series's 100th episode. After being arrested twice, and escaping prison twice, Wo Fat finally is shot and killed by McGarrett. Karma has finally caught up to him.
    • While vacationing in Hawaii, Clay, Grover's former police partner and long-time best friend, reports his wife has died in a fall, Max agreeing no evidence of foul play. However, Grover thinks something is up, finding some indications Clay has been having an affair. He gets Clay into interrogation and the classic setup of saying his girlfriend gave him up. However, knowing Grover so well, Clay sees he's bluffing and refuses to admit anything and Grover has no choice but to let him go. Worse, the next episode has Grover returning from Chicago to bitterly tell Steve that not only couldn't he find any evidence but all his cop friends have bought Clay's act. Thus, Grover is now a pariah accusing the "grieving widower" of murder. Grover is able to get Clay, not on the murder but on stealing money from a drug bust.
    • Ian Wright, an infamous hacker manages to escape the task force clutches by holding an airplane containing 300+ people hostage and willing to plummet them to their deaths, forcing them to comply to his demands. Subverted when he appears in the season 4 finale when Wo Fat has gotten him in his clutches and kills him.
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    • McGarrett describes the series' most famous phrase ("Book 'em, Danno.") as "catchy" when pressed by Danno himself.
    • In this series, as the odd haole (non local) out, he is the king of the Lampshade Hanging, especially when it comes to McGarrett's ridiculously illegal interrogation techniques.
    • In "I Ka Wa Mamua," Steve chides Danny for expecting Steve to perform a Sherlock Scan of their bomb site. Turns out Steve could pull that answer out his ass because of his experience with IEDs in the Middle East.
      Danny: Okay, what are you looking at?
      Steve: A fragment from the housing of the explosive device.
      Danny: And does that device have a name?
      Steve: [very seriously] Danny, you can't just walk into a bomb scene, poke a few things around, stick a finger in the air and say with any degree of certainty... [Beat] ...that this is a high-velocity, peroxide-based explosive moving at 17,500 feet per second.
      Danny: That, uh, that sounds pretty certain to me.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Danno in "Ka Iwi Kapu". He enters sacred ground without getting "cleared" first and being disrespectful to the site and his superstitious co-workers; a rock is thrown into the window of his Camaro as a result. TWICE. It gets even more worse though. Tipped off by an old lady in front with a dog (who politely informs him the elevator isn't working), Danno convinces the property manager to rent out one of the victims apartment to him reasoning that a crime scene would be a deterrent to would-be renters (since the manager would have to disclose this fact to would-be renters) and he is ready to go in and isn't afraid of the past history. On moving day, Danno talks to the property manager about putting in a pet deposit due to Grace wanting a pet. The manager informs Danno there is a no-pets-allowed policy. When Danno mentions the old lady out in front with the dog, the property manager informs Danno that he is describing an old tenant who died when she fell into the elevator shaft of said building several years ago. Cue Danno making a hasty retreat out of the apartment much to the disgust of his co-workers who helped him move in and fix up the apartment.
  • Life Saving Misfortune: One episode has Danny chaperoning his daughter Grace's school dance and finds out she's been secretly dating Grover's son William. He pulls William into a bathroom and does the standard Papa Wolf questioning, just before an armed group arrives and takes everyone in the dance hall hostage. Not being inside allows Danny to call the rest of Five-0 for backup and formulate a plan, and William to provide background information about his classmates to determine why a school dance would be a target.
  • Like an Old Married Couple: McGarrett and Danno.
    • Lampshaded in "Lanakila":
      Convict: Hey, how long you two been married?
    • and "Ho'apono" three episodes later:
      Tour guide: [caught in hostage situation] You talking to your wife?
      Steve: My partner.
    • and "Ua Lawe Wale" in Season 2:
      Lori: How long have you two been married?
    • and "Lekio":
      Tony: I'm gonna be your marriage counselor!
    • and in Season 3 by Danny himself during "Kanalua":
      Danno: Let's just say that, over the years, our marriage has become predictable.
    • and in "Kapu" Steve and Danny get mistaken for someone's parents:
      Sorority Sister: Kelly, your dads are here to pick you up!
      Kelly: Those aren't my dads.
      Steve: I'm sorry, you think I look old enough to be her father?
      Danny: ...That's the part you bumped on?
    • and in Season 4, "Kupu'eu", Joe White does an outright name-drop.
  • Little Miss Con Artist: In "Kai 'e'e", Grace dominates Kamekona and his friends at the poker table. They're only playing for candy, though.
  • Look Both Ways: A former-CIA assassin is killed by a bus after a lengthy firefight in a crowded street where nobody hits anything.
  • Lost at Sea: "Lana I Ka Moana" (whose title is Hawaiian for "Adrift") partially employs this trope when it starts with Danny and McGarrett getting their boat hijacked on a fishing trip, far enough offshore that it's no longer visible. The thief leaves them in the dinghy they found him in, which no longer has a working motor, and although it seems eminently possible they can save themselves (and eventually they do), at first Danny sees their situation as hopeless.
  • Love at First Punch: In the pilot, after Steve gets Danny shot from his recklessness, a thoroughly fed-up Danny punches Steve in the jaw and walks away. Steve's expression as he watches him go could be read anywhere from dawning respect to shocked adoration.

    Tropes M to R 
  • MacGyvering:
    • McGarrett regularly improvises fingerprint powder from ordinary household substances.
    • In "E Malama", we get an improvised flamethrower made with hair spray and McGarrett's field-expedient booby trap.
    • In "Ma Ke Kahakai", McGarrett makes his own splint after breaking his arm.
  • Made of Iron: If two characters get into a fistfight and one of them isn't highly inexperienced for the sake of dropping within seconds, you can expect both a hero and antagonist to straight up trash everything around them while never going down until someone gets the likely-fatal finisher. And if they're a Big Bad of an arc, even that is probably not enough to keep them down.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Wo Fat. He's the man behind:
    • Victor Hesse (revealed at the end of "Hana'a'a Makehewa")
    • Noshimuri and the Yakuza (implied strongly in "Ke Kinohi," confirmed in "Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio")
    • Sang Min ("Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau")
    • and even the Governor!! ("Oia'i'o")
    • Don't be shocked if he also has something to do with Danny's brother the money launderer.
    • According to Jenna Kaye, criminals don't work with Wo Fat, they work FOR him. Also she worked for him.
  • Marrying the Mark: Used twice. Turns into In Love with the Mark both times.
    • "Lekio"note : A male scammer marries a young woman as part of a scam on her father, a rich radio personality. When he actually falls in love with his wife, his partner in crime loses patience and kills the radio personality.
    • "A ia la aku"note  starts with 5-0 tracking down a runaway bride who spooked when unidentified man showed up at her fancy wedding. Turns out he's her older brother, who used to partner with her in Honey Trap scams. Media coverage of her upcoming marriage to a wealthy young man allowed her brother to track her down and demand a cut of her future husband's money. Subverted because she didn't know about her husband's money when they met, and had no intent to swindle him.
  • Mermaiding Swimsuit: A late-season episode opens with an underwater shot of a hotel swimming pool in which about a dozen mermaids are synchronized swimming. The Victim of the Week is an Avon representative Expy on a corporate "mermaiding" retreat with her colleagues. Tani admits to a childhood wish to be a mermaid, and at the end of the episode Junior treats her to a more budget-friendly version.
  • Mistaken for Gay: In "Kapu" Steve and Danny visit a sorority house, and one of the girls mistakes them for her friend's parents.
    Girl: Kelly, your dads are here to pick you up.
  • Mister Muffykins: In an episode, a ruthless Dragon Lady and slave ring owner they'd caught refuses to give any help to Five-0 in their current investigation... until Kono threatens to have her Pomeranian euthanasied.
  • Mixed Metaphor: Danno, when he gets worked up, creates some entertaining mash-ups of figurative language.
    Danno: I am really happy you are not afraid of anything, okay? I'm glad you have that G.I. Joe thousand-yard stare from chasing shoe bombers around the world, okay? But in civilized society, we have rules, all right? It is the unspoken glue that separates us from jackals and hyenas, all right?
  • More Deadly Than the Male:
    • Hillary Chaver, the villain in "Ha Uala". She sets a trap to take out Vince Fryer, gets shot by him as he dies, yet still hangs around long enough at the scene to shoot Max when he follows her blood trail, then steals a police car and leads the chasing McGarrett and Danno right to... HPD headquarters, knowing that it will prove difficult to distinguish her stolen cop car from all the other ones parked there. Then... she fools McGarrett in the hallway to buy time, manages to set up a gas explosion that injures about 20 cops as they try to flee the building, and goes to a nearby veterinary clinic where she kills the receptionist in cold blood, then, after getting the surgeon on duty to patch her up, kills him as well, and then engages in a final, fatal gunfight with the Five-0 team.
    • Dr. Olivia Victor, the psychopath psychiatrist in "Wahine'inoloa". She killed the victim from the Cold Open by shooting him nonfatally, then pouring gasoline all over him and dumping him into a burning sugar cane field. McGarrett sees through her, but can't convince the others, and his attention wind up with her getting a restraining order against him, which she then manipulates him into violating. She kills two more people before getting caught at the end of the episode.
  • Mr. Fanservice: The boys of the Five-0 team. In-Universe, too: Kensi Blye apparently got a little hot and bothered when Danno and Chin Ho showed up in L.A. in part two of the big crossover.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Kono, as if you hadn't already guessed. After all, she's played by Grace Park, AKA the most frequently-naked of the Cylon gals—not that anybody's complaining!
  • The Mole: In the first episode, a Hawaiian gangster has one of these in the Honolulu PD; after forcing an undercover Kono to undress to her bra and panties, he takes a picture and sends it to the mole to make sure she's not a cop.
  • Mood Whiplash:
  • Mugging the Monster: An episode starts off with McGarret picnicking with his girlfriend in his car... and a mugger shows up, trying to carjack them at gunpoint. Smash Cut to an annoyed McGarret dragging the scum to the police station — after ripping off his nose ring. The sergeant welcoming them finds this very funny, and comments to the perp that he picked the wrong guy.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • Said almost word by word from a victim's parent during one episode. In the episode, college students partying on a boat are captured by pirates. When the Hawaii Five-0 team informs the parents that negotiating with the pirates' demands is a surefire way to get their children killed, one kid's father doesn't listen and secretly gives the pirates 400K to spare his son, despite his wife's reluctance to disobey the Five-0 team. When the pirate group's leader got impatient with the Five-0 team not complying with the ransom demands, he kills a kid and dumps him onto the beach. Guess who's the slain kid? The other students? They eventually get rescued, and were unharmed.
    • Another parent says the line in a later episode in which said parent has been bankrolling the experiments of an unhinged doctor in the hopes of curing the behavioral disorders of his troublemaking son, only to be informed by Five-0 that the resulting treatment is fatal.
  • Myth Arc: Five-0 vs. Wo Fat, and the related mystery of John McGarrett's past.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The opening titles are clearly an homage to the 1968 original. This even includes the zoom in from the sky on each version's McGarrett at the beginning. No points for using a sped-up homage of the original series Season 1 ending credits with the police bike blue light racing thru Honolulu or the paddling canoe background video in later seasons, a homage to the original series Season 2 onwards ending sequence.
    • The beachfront cookout/make-out scene between Steve and Catherine at the end of "Nalowale" seems to be an homage to the beachfront cookout in the original series' pilot film "Coocoon".
    • The big black '74 Mercury Marquis sedan McGarrett senior had in his garage is one of the cars Jack Lord drove in the original series. (See this article under "The Ride", and this one in a car blog.) Steve decides to finish restoring it, and this was a minor Story Arc ("He Kane Hewa'ole", "Powa Maka Moana"). By the end of the first season, in "Oia'i'o," Steve has finished the restoration and the Mercury may even be his daily driver. (He drives it to Kamekona's place to obtain a gun for use in his Roaring Rampage of Revenge.)
    • Al Harrington, who appeared in six different roles in the 1968-80 original (including as Five-0 member Ben), plays an elderly surfer first seen in "Ke Kinohi". The role was originally intended for James MacArthur, who played Danny in the 1968 series and was the last surviving original cast membernote , but he died unexpectedly before the episode was filmed.
    • Dennis Chun, the son of Kam Fong (the original Chin Ho), has a recurring role as Sergeant Duke Lukela of the HPD, a character from the original series.
    • In "Palekaiko", Danny quips that people wear ties on cruise ships "so they can hang themselves when they get bored." This is a reference to the title of the original series' Missing Episode, "Bored, She Hung Herself".
    • Helen Kuoha-Turco, the hula dancer from the original show's opening credits, had a small role in "Malama Ka Aina".
    • More of a Mythology Carryover, but many viewers may not know, or have forgotten, that the original Steve McGarrett was also ex-Navy, albeit not a SEAL.
    • The season two finale "Ua Hala" translates to "A Death in the Family", the same name as the original show's season 11 finale in which Chin Ho faces Character Death. Interestingly, the situation this sets up also results in tragedy for Chin Ho's family, although this time it's his wife who gets it.
    • "Kai'e'e" tsunami plot is almost similar to two old Hawaii Five-O episodes: "Forty Feet High and It Kills!" (Wo Fat engineers a tsunami warning to kidnap a geneticist) and "Tsunami" (several geology students engineer a tsunami warning by holding the head of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center hostage while they rob a jewelry store posing as rescue workers).
    • In the original series, the governor was played by Richard Denning. In the new series, Governor Jameson is replaced after the first season by Governor Sam Denning.
    • "Hookman," a remake of/homage to the original series episode of the same name.
    • Edward Asner reprised his role of smuggler August March from the original series' "Wooden Model Of A Rat" in season two's "Kalele."
    • In the seventh season premiere "Makaukau 'ce e Pa'ani?", McGarrett encounters a man in a darkened chapel who gives him some advice. It's a CGI version of the original character as played by Jack Lord.
    • Deep-sea diver Blake Spencer's grandmother, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, in the season 2 episode "Mea Makamae" is played by Patty Duke (of The Patty Duke Show or The Miracle Worker), who guest-starred in the original series' season 5 episode "Thanks for the Honeymoon" in 1973.
  • Naked People Trapped Outside: In the third-season "Ha'awe Make Loa", Five-0 comes upon a suspect they'd like to talk to dancing in his yard wearing nothing but a hula skirt. As he flees, the skirt gets stuck on the fence, and he winds up streaking a busy street in his vain attempt to flee.
  • Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: In "Kekoa", McGarrett shoots a suspect, swinging a knife on a thong and approaching, in the leg.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The trailer for "Ke Kinohi" makes a big deal of the stolen Champ box and the kidnapping of Steve's sister. Five-0 managed to recover the box, and despite all of its contents being removed by the bad guys, it turns out that Steve's sister has photographed them for backup. And the kidnapping is solved within the first fifteen minutes of the episode.
    • The trailer of "Kai e'e" cut the episode footage together to make it seem like a tsunami really was going to crash down on Hawaii. In actuality, the tsunami was being faked by the criminals — something of a Call-Back to the original series, as a fake tsunami scheme was also used in "Forty Feet High, And It Kills!" — and the scene of a wall collapsing inward was a Big Damn Heroes moment involving a forklift.
  • The Nicknamer: Tony Archer in "Lekio" gives plenty silly nicknames to McGarret and Danno.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In the aftermath of Steve's rescue in North Korea, Joe White has to face the Navy inquiry hearing. At the end of said hearing, he is forced into early retirement.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • "Ke Kinohi"
      McGarrett: How do you know cop shorthand?
      Mary: Um, because I had this incident once in L.A.
      McGarrett: What incident?
      Mary: It doesn't matter, all right?
    • Danny refuses to talk about what happened in Niagara Falls.
  • Not Quite Dead:
    • McGarrett's mother, also known as "Shelburne".
    • The hitman she thought she had killed twenty years earlier in "Wahine'inoloa"
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Ian Wright who starts off as a slacker who gets fined for not paying parking tickets. Then Steve and Grove dwells into his backstory and learns that he is an infamous hacker known for hacking security codes and selling them to the highest bitter. Once they track him in the airport, he forces them to let him escapes by holding an airplane containing 300+ people hostage and willing to plummet them to their deaths if his demands are not met. By the time all is said and done, he has escape the island.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Lori and Danno being found handcuffed.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: Averted with the first Governor to a point (Pat Jameson), and lampshaded heavily with the second one (Sam Denning).
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • McGarrett has had several of these.
      • The first is in the pilot, when he hears that his father has been taken hostage.
      • The second occurs in "Ke Kinohi", when he sees the Yakuza boss complicit in his parents' death has a lunch date with the Governor.
      • The third occurs in "Ne Me'e Laua Na Paio" during the meeting with Wo Fat:
      • And then, in "Oia'i'o", when he discovers that the Governor is working for Wo Fat.
    • The whole team has one in "Kai e' e" when they realize that the crooks who generated a fake tsunami warning to cover a robbery are trying to steal the $28 million of drug money in the HPD evidence locker from which the team "borrowed" $10 million to pay Chin Ho's ransom in "Hana'a'a Makehewa". If they try to stop the robbery they'll be exposed as having appropriated the $10 million that Hesse threw into the fire. Then they have another one at the end of the episode, when they learn that someone else put the $10 million back!
    • The pirate/kidnappers in "Powa Maka Moana", when they see what's in the ransom bag is not 20 million bucks cash, but a bunch of yellow pages.
    • Joe White in "Ka Hakaka Maikai". Realizing that there's an intruder in his house, he pulls out the gun he keeps hidden in the freezer for just such an emergency and points it at the intruder, Wo Fat, only to find Wo Fat's already found it and taken the bullets out of the gun.
    • In "Ki'iluna" after being captured by Wo Fat, Steve attempts to engage him in their customary witty banter and is completely ignored. You can see on his face the moment he realizes that Wo Fat no longer regards him as a Worthy Opponent and he's pretty much screwed.
  • Odd Couple: Danny and Steve are this trope. The former is a hot-tempered, somewhat uptight cop from New Jersey, while Steve is a laid-back (white) guy from Hawaii.
  • Oddly Small Organization: Five-0, a state police agency, is a group of eight detectives at max. Justified in both this and the original as in real life, Hawaii is the only state that doesn't have a state police.
  • Older Than They Look: Grace Park was 37 years old when she began playing Kono. She looks about ten years younger. This gets especially weird when she plays Kono as a teenager in one of Chin Ho's flashbacks.
  • Only Sane Man: Danny, as a regular cop, is Five-0's voice of reason. In-universe, Danny sees himself as this to the entire population of Hawaii.
  • "Open!" Says Me: Happens regularly, with usually either Steve or Danny kicking in a door to get to a suspect or victim. This pretty much always works except for the one time it doesn't and then Steve just goes and gets a grenade from Danno's trunk. That works.
  • Origin Story:
    • In the 1968 original, the team was called "Five-O" from the very start, with no in-show explanation of how the name came about. The re-imagined version provides one. At the end of "Pilot", the characters are sitting around the office trying to come up with something better to call themselves than the prosaic "Governor's Task Force", but can't think of anything. Two episodes later, at the end of "Malama Ka Aina", Kono derives the nickname from McGarrett's high school football jersey number.
    • "Pilot" also has an origin story of sorts for Danny's nickname "Danno".
  • Pineapple Ruins Pizza: Among his many other complaints about Hawaii, Detective Danny "Danno" Willams mentions the pizza as one of the worst.
    Danno: I don't care where we are. Pizza and pineapple do not belong in the same air space.
  • Powered Armor: "Ka Haunaele" (Rampage) concerns an experimental suit getting stolen.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
    • "Pilot":
      McGarrett: There's something you should know about your brother.
      Hesse: What about him?
      McGarrett: He died the same way you did. [shoots Hesse]
    • Season 1 finale, "Oia'i'o".
      Wo Fat: Everything is under control. [shoots the Governor]
    • "Ka Hakaka Maikai"
      Wo Fat: Tell John McGarrett that his son will be along soon enough. [tries to kill Joe White]
  • The Plan: Wo Fat pulls off a beauty in "Oia'i'o".
  • President Evil:
    • Averted in "Po'ipu". The Evil Overlord flying in to Hawaii for a state visit is actually doing a Heel–Face Turn and coming to testify against his regime before a human rights tribunal.
    • The Governor. Seemingly averted for the entire first season until "Oia'i'o".
  • Private Military Contractors: White Fire in "Ohuna".
  • Product Placement: Where to begin...
    • One of Hawaiian Airlines planes is prominently shown in the opening montage and the company's facilities and planes have been used in the show. Partially averted in the Five-0/NCIS: Los Angeles crossover episode, where a fictitious airline replaces Hawaiian for those episodes. Which is odd, given Hawaiian does go to LAX among other California destinations.
    • Early on in the first season numerous characters — notably McGarrett — own and prominently use iPhones. In one episode a father and son are seen talking to each other via FaceTime, a scene which eerily looks like an Apple commercial. Kono is also seen with a MacBook Pro numerous times. What makes this interesting is that after many episodes with extensive Apple product placements, in "Mana'o" Chin asks Kono to "Bing it", when she doubts his knowledge about a modern artist. Sure enough, Kono whips out her LG Optimus 7 and we get a close up of the phone's screen for almost 10 seconds. Soon after this episode Danny gets a new Windows Phone 7, and the Apple logos on both Kono's laptop and McGarrett's iPhone are suspiciously covered up.
    • In the third season the characters are also making conspicuous use of their Surface tablets.
    • Steve, Danny, and Kono drive brand new Chevy products.
    • Various Hawaii businesses have had their names and products appear on the show, including Liliha Bakery, Kona Brewing Company, Waiola Shave Ice, and others. Most episodes will give at least one local company national advertising.
    • For a group of locals they spend an awful lot of time at the Tropics Bar of the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
    • The amount of Scenery Porn amounts to Product Placement for Hawaii itself as a tourist destination.
    • Lampshaded, smacked up against the Fourth Wall, and played for laughs when Kamekona is seen eating Subway footlong subs in "Pu'olo".
    • "Ha'awe Make Loa", in the third season, makes sure to regularly show us the Victoria's Secret logo along with its Fanservice models lounging on the beach. Oddly enough, the episode went out of its way to point out that the models are actually people too.
    • Mocked again in the fifth season opener, Aʻohe Kahi e Peʻe Ai, with a scene where Jerry "demonstrates" the automatic sliding door feature of his old minivan to Steve and Danny. Steve notes that the feature is very '90s.
    • Microsoft Surfaces also pop up, prominently used by multiple characters, weeks after their initial release.
  • Professional Killer: "Po'ipu," "E Malama".
  • Promotion to Opening Titles:
    • Masi Oka in season 2 and Michelle Borth in season 3.
    • Lauren German was sandwiched in between this and Fake Guest Star for most of her run as a series regular, shown as "Also Starring" in the first scene-post credits, before the actual guest stars were listed.
    • Jorge Garcia and Chi McBride in season 5. McBride got "Also Starring" treatment midway through season 4.
  • Proscenium Reveal: "E mālama pono" (Handle with Care) opens with the team raiding a warehouse and getting blown up. It's just Steve and Danny teaching HPD recruits.
  • Psycho Lesbian: One episode involves a stalker of Victoria's Secret models that everyone assume is a dude. Unlike the classic version of the trope, when they find out it's actually a woman, everyone just rolls with it without blinking an eye, treating her the same as a regular male stalker who just happens to be female. In fact, the primary target of her affections even grips about how people — not specifically men — see her as a fantasy, not a person.
  • Psycho Psychologist: Dr. Olivia Victor in "Wahine'inoloa".
  • Put on a Bus:
    • Catherine Rollins, in "Mea Makamae"; she's been assigned to a tour of duty in the Persian Gulf. It doesn't stick. "I Helu Pu" finds Rollins on McGarrett's arm during the Governor's party. And then McGarrett does his reserve drill on the Enterprise.
    • The bus was busy in "I Helu Pu". Lori Weston gets put on after resigning from the Task Force and going back to DHS.
    • Catherine again near the end of Season 4, vanishing into the wilds of Afghanistan in search of an old friend held captive there. This came after she spent two seasons as a main character.
    • Catherine must get frequent traveler points on those bus tickets. She comes back in the last episode of Season 5, but leaves again in the third episode of Season 6.
    • Max decides to fulfill his lifelong dream and joins Doctors Without Borders at the end of Season 6.
    • Chin Ho and Kono in the end of season 7.
  • Quip to Black:
  • Race Lift:
    • Type III in the case of Dr. Bergman, white on the original show and Asian-American (and with an actual first name) here.
    • And Capt. Lou Grover, also white on the original show but black here.
  • Racial Face Blindness: Pacific Island natives are usually grouped with Asian ethnicities, there are several times where suspects can't give a description of someone they met past "he was a haole".
  • Rated M for Manly: Played with. In some ways it is a World of Badass, and even the significant female characters tend to be Action Girl types more or less. Steve in particular manages to be both a Cowboy Cop and a Military Maverick, often at the same time. On the other hand everyone, including Steve, seems to have deep and complex emotions. The guys are also very demonstrative about it. Being a badass does not mean you cannot Man Hug your Heterosexual Life-Partner and tell him that you love him.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot:
    • Alex O'Loughlin had problems with addiction to pain meds. For the episodes filmed while he was in treatment, McGarrett was said to be away from the islands tracking down Joe White.
    • Grace Park was on maternity leave during the fourth season, which is why she was absent from several episodes. For such episodes, Kono was with her boyfriend Adam on the run from the Yakuza.
    • Scott Caan became a father in July 2014, his wife and newborn ended up staying in California (not Hawaii where the show's filmed), so he's missing from several episodes during subsequent seasons because of this.
    • Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park are not scheduled to appear in the 8th season due to failed negotiations over being paid less than Scott Caan and Alex O'Loughlin. Kono is apparently off investigating child sex trafficking, with the help of Chin's San Fran Five-0 (San Fran Four-Nine? Three-One?).
  • Red Shirt: If you're a Law Enforcement Officer in Hawaii, there is a slight possibility you might die when you're around any of the main cast or the prominent supporting cast.
  • Redundant Rescue: Of Max in "Ha'alele". The team enters as Max is standing over the killer, having freed himself from the chair he was tied to and killed him.
  • Refuge in Audacity:
    • A psycho serial killer holds his hostage at knife point just inches away from a cliff. Danny tries to negotiate with him and Hilarity Ensues:
      McGarrett: What are you doing? The guy is clearly a psychopath. You're trying to make friends with him. You're trying to connect?
      Danno: He's standing right in front of us! He can hear you.
      McGarrett: I see he's standing right here, Danny. But you're a cop. You're not a therapist, you know?
      Danno: Hey hey hey! I've been trained for this kind of thing, okay?
      McGarrett: What — what to bore people into submission?
      Danno: Don't listen to him, okay. His idea of communication is — is he drops a witty one-liner and then shoots you in the face. Don't worry about it!
      McGarrett: You know what — I might shoot this guy just so he doesn't have to listen to you talk.
      [when the killer gets distracted by the debate and lowers the knife, Steve shoots him]
    • As a whole, the "immunity and means" given to Five-0 are taken to ridiculous levels. Chin, Kono, and Danny are known to be a little "loose cannon" when the situation calls for it (the odd Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique occasionally crops up) but Steve definitely takes the cake.
  • The Remake: Season three's "Hookman" is a remake of the same-named episode of the original show (and also the first post-pilot episode of the revival to have a title in English rather than Hawaiian).
  • Retirony: In The Teaser of "E Malama", we find ourselves at an FBI safehouse, where a witness and a federal marshal are. The witness thanks the agent for his dedication to the job, including spending so much time away from his family. He says it's no problem. He's dead a few minutes later.
  • Revealing Cover-Up: Chin barters his house's deed for 200k cash, which he hopes can obstruct HPD investigation to his uncle's embezzlement, believing that the storage records have been lost. It turns out that HPD have serial numbers on the money stolen, and they ascertain that Chin's money isn't the drug money.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The Governor and Jenna Kaye, both by Wo Fat.
  • Ripped from the Headlines:
    • The plot of the episode "Kupale" is based partly on the real-life drama of the Hawaii Superferry.
    • The story of "La Po'ino" with the H5N4 bird flu strain follows some recent discoveries of bird flu in 2014. And also of the ebola outbreak in Africa.
  • The episode "Pahele" is based on the infamous Chowchilla kidnapping.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
    • The bad guys in "Lanakila" and "Loa Aloha".
    • McGarrett is on the verge of one in "Ke Kanohi", but Danno talks him out of it.
    • Danny is on one in "E Malama", and Steve can't talk him out of it.
    • An undercover FBI agent appears to go on one of these in "Ho'opa'i".
    • McGarrett goes on one in "Oia'i'o", confronting the Governor at gunpoint.
  • Room Full of Crazy: Where McGarrett's mother and her pals are planning the caper in "He Welo 'Oihana".
  • Ruthless Modern Pirates: The first season episode "Powa Maka Moana" dealt with a Spring Break Cruise being attacked and the kids kidnapped.

    Tropes S to Z 
  • Saved by the Platform Below: In episode "I Helu Pu", McGarrett goes over the side of a building trying to save a drunken suicidal man. Danny rushes to the ledge only to see they have both fallen onto a balcony.
  • Save the Villain: What started out as executing a warrant for Gabriel Waincroft's arrest becomes this trope for Five-0 when the Yakuza try to kill anyone in their way of getting to Gabriel, which in this case is Five-0.
  • Scenery Porn: Yes, Hawaii is beautiful, but the way the show portrays it, it's like paradise on Earth.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Yakuza boss in "Ke Kinohi" is the state's primary benefactor. Averted in a sense, because while Steve cannot prove his involvement in his parents' death, he manages to arrest the boss for breaking in to his house, kidnapping his sister, and stealing the Champ box.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
    • The whole point of the new unit.
      Governor Jameson: ...Your task force will have blanket authority to go after guys like Hesse, and get them the HELL off my island. Your rules, my backing, no red tape....
    • And this is being deconstructed slightly in season 2, as the fallout from the season 1 finale is coming back to haunt Five-0. The new Governor is keeping them on a much tighter leash, assigning them a team member of his choosing to keep an eye on them. And it turns out that Captain Fryer used a full police investigation of Five-0's behavior as leverage to get Kono to work for him.
    • Deconstructed more in the season 3 opening episode, where Steve is on the phone with the Governor trying to explain and justify the actions of Chin-Ho's custody of Delano and his absconding at the season 2 finale plus Wo-Fats escape orchestrated by Delano earlier in the episode. Steve then tells Danno and Shelbourne riding in the car that the Governor is gonna open an inquiry into the whole fiasco over Chin-Ho's abuse of Five-0's immunity.
    • Deconstructed even more in "O ka Pili'Ohana ka 'Oi" where the Governor orders Grover to leave the HPD permanently since his actions were not authorized and has wasted the police's resources in finding his kidnapped daughter.
  • Sequel Episode: In "Kalele", Ed Asner reprises his role of art smuggler August March from the original series' 1975 episode "Wooden Model of a Rat". Doubles as Mythology Gag.
  • Shameful Strip: A Hawaiian gangster forces an undercover Kono to strip to her bra and panties to prove she's not wearing a wire.
  • Sherlock Scan: Jenna Kaye performs one on a Corrupt Corporate Executive in "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau".
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Chin Ho's weapon of choice.
  • Shout-Out: Frequent, see the subpage.
  • Show Within a Show: Season 3 Episode 21 "Imi loko ka 'uhane" is told from the viewpoint of a morning/daytime show host's perspective. The show films a day in the life of the Five-0 team. The host even calls it a Very Special Episode.
  • Shown Their Work:
    • Steve wearing the appropriate AOR2 camo, being an ex-SEAL commando.
    • "Ho'onani Makuakane" touched up on actual issues with Japanese-Americans being interned in camps in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor was bombed by Imperial Japanese military forces, as well as the existence of the 442nd Infantry Regiment, made up of Japanese-Americans with one Korean-American.
    • In "La Po'ino", the Kosovo Liberation Army is no longer an active organization as mentioned by Joe during a debriefing.
    • When Danno is living with Steve briefly, they have an argument over the three minutes Steve has allotted for showers. This is called a "Navy Shower" and is a real thing.
    • The team tends to use realistic room-clearing tactics, such as canting the gun to the side when approaching a doorway from an angle. This is an uncommon but accurate technique.
    • "Ka laina ma ke one" shows the existence of the Nation of Hawaii, which is an actual pro-Hawaii separatist movement. Bumpy is even shown as a guest star.
  • Smug Snake: Marco Reyes in Season 5. This Colombian drug lord thinks it's a good idea to kidnap Danny's brother Matt in order to retake the $18 million Matt had stolen from Reyes. Every time he interacts with Danny — a notoriously hot-blooded Five-0 officer — it's with a smug smirk on his face, which gets him punched in the gut a few times. When Danny and McGarrett finally bring him the money, Reyes dutifully returns Matt — inside a barrel. Reyes is so smug he doesn't even bother eliminating Danny, despite the latter swearing to kill him. Apparently Reyes thought threatening the life of Danny's daughter would be enough to ensure his continued existence. Danno and McGarrett promptly overpower his bodyguards (offscreen), and Danny puts a bullet in Reyes's head.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Kono has been the primary female in the cast for awhile. While every so often they introduce a new woman to the team, these characters have a habit of getting written off after about half a season. While this season they introduced Catherine as a regular cast member, Kono was offscreen for most of the fall, and now it seems Catherine's getting the same treatment. C'mon writers, America can handle more than one woman investigating a murder/terrorist cell/bank robbery at a time.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Between Danno and Tony Archer in "Lekio". With a bit of Reality Subtext here, since the latter's actor is James Caan, father of Scott.
  • Special Edition Title:
    • In "Hookman", the titles are done in the style of the original series (including having an Episode Title Card).
    • In "Imi Loko Ka 'Uhane", we see the opening credits of the fictional Savannah Walker Show, and the other titles are done in the same style.
  • Spot the Imposter: When Grover and his family are threatened by a mobster, an old FBI contact of Grover hustles them to another island. He has them met by a pair of agents from a field office to drive them to the airport but on the way there, Grover drives the van with his family away. He tells his wife that the two "agents" look like they've never set foot on Hawaii before, no tan lines of any sort and they're part of the gang with his "friend" having set them up.
  • Story Arc:
    • The mystery of McGarrett's mom's apparent death, and the contents of the "Champ" box, which leads to McGarrett discovering that the Governor is in league with Wo Fat — just in time to be framed for the Governor's murder.
    • The missing money which led to the disgrace of Chin Ho. The arc is resolved in "Ma Ke Kahakai", where it is revealed that Chin's uncle embezzled the money and Chin took the blame to cover for him.
    • Danny and Rachel getting back together — or not.
    • And, potentially, the fallout of Danno's brother's corruption. Even this one may end up relating to the first two.
    • Kono's dismissal from the force, and her resulting involvement with a shady group of ex-cops ("Hana 'a'a Makehewa", "Oia'i'o", "Ua Lawe Wale", "Kame'e", "Mea Makamae") before it was revealed that she was not going corrupt after all.
    • Once Doris McGarrett was revealed to have been alive after all all these years, the mystery of her relationship with Wo Fat. Why did she let him get away at the end of the Season 3 premiere? Because, as it turns out, she had raised Wo Fat as a stepmother after she killed his real mother. This fact isn't revealed until the 100th episode, two years after the Season 3 premiere.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Steve and Danny have very different approaches to the law, though they establish something of an understanding over the course of the pilot.
  • This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Invoked by Danny to Steve regarding Ms. Pac-Man, of all things:
    McGarrett: You ever make it to Double-Pretzel level?
    Danno: Triple-banana, bitch.
Now with commemorative T-shirt!
  • That One Case:
    • For McGarrett, it's the Story Arc concerning the contents of the Champ box and his father's relationship with the Yakuza and Wo Fat. At least Fat is dead, but now the question is what happened to his father?
    • For Chin Ho, it's the drug case where the $28 million was seized. Led to Chin Ho being blamed for embezzling $200,000 of it. Subverted. In "Ma Ke Kahakai" it is revealed that Chin already knows who the embezzler is.
  • Toilet Paper Prank: In a B-plot of one of the Halloween episodes, Danny Williams finds his house TP’d and wanting to find the perpetrator. Near the end he looks under his bathroom sink cabinet to find all the toilet paper gone, leading to the revelation that his daughter Grace was one who TP’d their house due to peer pressure from her friends. She does however state that she chose his house because she didn’t want to vandalize another person’s home.
  • Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: When a couple of tourists with a little boy find themselves in the same elevator as the Five-0 police officers, fully geared in bulletproof vests and guns out, as they are pursuing a wounded suspect hiding in a grand hotel. Complete with Hawaiian elevator music.
  • The Unreveal: We'll never know what Five-0, the HPD and the FBI found in the safe of the serial killer in the end of "Pukana".
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Danny's competency as a cop is often overshadowed by Steve's extreme amounts of badassery, Chin's disgrace arc, and Kono's Fanservice and Badass. But in "He Kane Hewa'Ole", he is the first one who correctly deduces the culprit's plot. Lampshaded by Steve, who asks, "When did you get smart?"
    • Max Bergman is tied to a chair, knocks himself over while the bad guy is out of the room, uses a piece of glass to cut the ropes, gets back into position then stabs the bad guy with the shard of glass when he comes back into the room.
    • Lt. Catherine Rollins (arguably if she ever was before), who is now part of the regular cast and handled one of the attackers at the end of Season 3 premiere quite well.
  • Tonight, Someone Dies: "Ua Hala"
  • Torture Always Works:
    • Somewhat averted. McGarrett uses psychological torture in the first episode to get info (by threatening a man's family). In the second, however, it's not shown whether his method would actually provide information as it's interrupted. Danny then chews McGarrett out for his actions, specifically pointing out information gathered through torture is inherently unreliable.
    • Hilariously averted when Kono takes a suspect's little dog from her arms, then orders everyone else out...
      McGarrett: How'd you get her to talk?
      Kono: Told her the dog would be put down once she went down to lock up. Promised I'd find it a home if she cooperated. [the guys are dumbfounded] What? It's not like it's the dog's fault.
    • And there is a Take That! to 24 in Ohana:
      Danno: If a suspect dies, he no longer has the ability to speak! Ergo, he's useless to us!
      McGarrett: [to guy he's hanging off roof] You think anybody's gonna care? You just killed two people, buddy! I'd be doing the world a favor!
      Danno: That's enough!
  • Torture for Fun and Information: McGarrett seems to have taken lessons from the Gene Genie himself when it comes to inventive interrogation:
    • In "Pilot", McGarrett threatens to deport Sang Min's family to war-ravaged Rwanda.
    • In "Malama Ka Aina", McGarrett and Danno convince an associate of the Samoan mob that they're leaving him in a shark cage with vicious man-eating sharks and chum, when in actuality, the sharks are harmless and the chum is just water. Steve and Danno crack open beers and watch the guy freak out.
    • In "Lanakila", McGarrett threatens a corrupt prison guard with a trip to the cell block:
      McGarrett: Billy, so help me God, you answer incorrectly one more time, I gonna put those scrubs on you myself and then drop you in general population. How long do you think you'll last there?
    • In "Nalowale", McGarrett and Danno witness a suspect drug a girl's drink in a club. Danno tells the suspect to drink it, if he "didn't do anything to it", and if he doesn't drink it, Danno will break his teeth and make him drink it. He drinks it, and passes out. McGarrett wakes him up in an interrogation room with an air horn.
    • In "Mana'o", Danno ties a suspect to the hood of his car, then proceeds to drive around the streets of Honolulu like a madman to get information out of him.
      McGarrett: Just for the record, if I pulled something like this, you would be reading me the riot act on proper police procedure.
      Danno: No. I'd probably just arrest you.
      McGarrett: Compared to this, hanging a guy off a roof and throwing a guy in a shark tank is pretty tame.
      Danno: You know what? I disagree. Shark cage is way worse.
      McGarrett: Whatever. You're wrong. I'm just saying, to be clear, next time I get a free pass, okay?
    • In "Alaheo Pau'ole", Chin and Danno discover a small cache of weapons in a murder suspect's home. When the suspect tells them that the grenades in the cache are fakes, Danno makes him hold one and takes the pin out, which immediately makes the suspect start talking. Also elicits a What the Hell, Hero? from Chin:
      Chin: You've been hanging out with McGarrett too long!
    • In "Pa Make Loa", Chin and Danno literally pump a suspect for info by threatening to pump him with a deadly virus his boss was trying to buy. They do give him the contents of the vial, but Danno tells the guy later it was a shot of Vitamin B.
    • Big Bad Wo Fat was just as fond of this trope as Five-0 was, as demonstrated in "Ina Paha".
  • True Companions: Invoked in show in "Ohana", which is the Hawaiian word for Family.
  • Truth in Television: In Season 1, the team used to talk on their phones while holding them and driving their cars. Turns out Hawaii has a series of "Hands Free" laws on the books for each County (City & County of Honolulu has an exemption for Law Enforcement if done during the officers official capacity and scope, which could apply to the team). However, in Season 2, the team seems to be using a ton of hands-free devices while driving.
  • The Cameo: Several celebrities have shown as guests. Sam Choi, Michelle Wie, Dog The Bounty Hunter and Bumpy Kanahele are examples of those celebrities.
  • Undercover Cop Reveal:
    • Sid in "Mala Ka Aina".
    • Kono in "Ma'eme'e".
    • Westley in "Ua Nalohia".
  • Un-Confession: A unique example in the 200th episode. Steve is dreaming of his grandfather, a cop in 1941 investigating a missing woman. In the dream, Steve and his partners (versions of Danny and Jerry) hunt down a mobster and Steve threatening him to tell what happened. The man blurts "I'll tell you what happened"...and then sirens go off as this is the morning of December 7th and the attack on Pearl Harbor (where Steve's grandfather was killed) is happening. At which point, Steve wakes up yet oddly the dream allows him to figure out what happened.
  • The Unfair Sex: The number of Victims of the Week that were taken in by women whom they thought loved them is truly astonishing. When a main character (like Steve or Chin) is so involved, a Hidden Agenda is nearly guaranteed. One could be forgiven for thinking Kono to be the only trustworthy female character on the show.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Hillary Chaver to Delano.
  • Variations on a Theme Song: The 200th episode "Pua A'e La Ka Uwahi O Ka Moe" has Steve looking into a case his grandfather worked in 1941. The show does a dream sequence set then with the opening theme having a '40s "big band" vibe to it.
  • Vertigo Effect: Used halfway into "Hana 'a'a Makehewa" after showing how Chin Ho wound up with a bomb strapped around his neck.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: McGarrett and Danno.
    • The penultimate scene in "Loa Aloha" exemplifies this. FBI has been hunting Danny's brother, Matt, for Wall Street corruption. Steve reveals to them that Matt has a boat in dock, to which the FBI proceeds to pursue. However, Matt is then revealed to be escaping by his private jet, where only Danny knows its existence. As a cop, Steve does not lie; as a friend, he does not betray Danny either. Danny's quiet "thank you" before leaving Steve perfectly crowns the scene.
    • In the Season 1 finale: Danny, in an earlier scene, has promised to catch up with Rachel and Grace at the airport on their way back to Jersey. At the episode's penultimate scene, instead of going to the airport, he catches up with Steve just as Chin Ho arrests the man, swearing that he will get his buddy out. This scene is juxtaposed with Rachel and Grace leaving the airport in disappointment as Danny doesn't show up.
  • Was It All a Lie?: In one episode, a computer hacker's girlfriend reveals to him that she's a murderous Russian agent planning to sell a stolen NSA file on the black market, and holding him prisoner to force him to decrypt it. The hacker questions if there was any truth to their relationship.
    Hacker: Was any of it real?
    Russian: Well, definitely not the orgasms.
  • Wham Episode:
    • "Hana'a'a Makehewa". The human trafficker in the pilot, Sang Min, escapes; Victor Hesse returns from the dead; the Five-0 team crosses the Despair Event Horizon by stealing cash from a police evidence locker in order to save Chin's life; and most importantly, Wo Fat appears.
    • "Ke Kanohi": McGarrett's sister is kidnapped by the Yakuza, and then Steve discovers the identity of the corrupt HPD officer who killed his mother, who is the brother of the Corrupt Corporate Executive who heads the local Yakuza. McGarrett and Danno arrest the Big Bad on a golf course, not realizing (just yet) that one of the other golfers in the foursome is The Man Behind the Man, Wo Fat.
    • In the season 1 finale "Oia'i'o" Five-0 is a little bit messed up. By the end of the episode McGarrett is framed for the murders of Governor Jameson and Laura Hills by Wo Fat, Danny misses the plane while trying to stop Steve so a pregnant Rachel thinks he's abandoning her and Grace, Kono is under investigation for her part in the unauthorized "borrowing" of the $10 million in "Hana'a'a Makehewa," and Chin Ho has apparently abandoned Five-0 for HPD.
    • The season 2 premiere ends showing showing Wo Fat kill Hesse while disguised as a prison guard, then leave in a car driven by Kaye.
    • In the penultimate episode of Season 2, "Ua Hopu" (Caught), Steve McGarrett arrests Wo Fat with the help of the Japanese police force. The episode ends with Wo Fat entering his prison cell.
    • In the season 2 finale, "Ua Hala", Fryer is killed, Max gets shot but survives, Chin Ho is blackmailed into getting Dirty Cop Delano out of prison and forced to make a Sadistic Choice between saving his wife Malia or Kono, who are respectively shot and tossed into the ocean bound and gagged, Danny is contesting custody of Grace because Rachel is moving to Las Vegas, and McGarrett finally learns that "Shelburne" is his mom.
    • The season 3 finale's got a couple, including but not limited to Kono leaving Five-O and Hawai'i to go on the run with Adam, Charlie Fong getting stabbed, and Doris promising to tell Steve the truth about Wo Fat. (She doesn't; the question remains unanswered until the 100th episode.)
    • Speaking of the 100th episode, quite possibly the biggest doozy the show has produced yet. Wo Fat captures Steve for the second time in the program, and, after torturing him for information about his father, reveals that Doris adopted him after she killed his mother by accident, but was forced to abandon him by the United States. This means Wo Fat was Steve's stepbrother all along, which apparently was the secret Doris had kept from Steve during Season 3, and was the reason she did not kill him in that season's opener (and vice versa) when he held a gun to her head. McGarrett is able to escape his restraints, and Wo Fat is finally gets his via a bullet to the forehead from a gun that Steve is able to obtain.
  • Wham Line:
    • In "Ua Hala":
      McGarrett: Mom!
    • And then two episodes later at the end of "Kanalua"
      Rollins: She never even left the island.
  • What If?: The 100th episode explored this a bit thanks to Wo Fat injecting Steve with drugs. What if Steve's father had survived? Well, Steve would have stayed with the military; Danny would be a Hawaii-loving, still-married man who employs Steve's interrogating techniques (and who loves being called 'Danno'); Chin Ho would be captain of the HPD; Kono would be a four time world-champion surfer who never joined 5-0; Max would be a doctor at the hospital; Kamekona would be a serious criminal serving time in prison; and Jerry would be homeless and crazy.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Danno does this to Steve on regular basis. (Example: see the dialogue under Deadpan Snarker and Torture for Fun and Information above.)
  • Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Chin's family, who are made up of cops, ostracized him when he was suspected of stealing the money and kicked from the force. We never seen nor hear of any of them ever again after Chin's uncle confesses to being the one who stole the money to the point that it seems like he and Kono are each other's only family.
  • White Male Lead: An arguable and problematic example given that Hawaii is primarily asian yet most of the main characters are white.
  • Witness Protection: "E Malama"
  • World of Snark: With all five of the main cast being top-notch snarkers along with most of the recurring characters and even the villains, you'd think Hawaii is called the Snark State.
  • Wrestler in All of Us:
    • In "Heihei", McGarrett busts out a standing dropkick, kips up, and then takes the bad guy down with a combination crossface and armbar.
    • Kono has started doing kip-ups as well. In "E Malama", she also spears a would-be assassin through a glass door.
    • Catherine's another one since she did a scissor kick. But this is a bit of a mix since the attack is also a martial arts move too.
  • Yakuza: A central antagonistic threat throughout the show, and where Adam Noshimuri comes from. They're also powerful enough to manipulate the police and politics on the island, and will pick fights with whoever gets on their bad side even if they try to avoid open confrontation. The wars with Mexican cartels and the Chinese Triad also keep them on the backfoot.
  • You Do Not Want To Know: Wo Fat to Steve twice: once in paraphrased form in their first-season sushi shop encounter when he warns him "you may not like what you find" if he continues looking into the circumstances of his parents' deaths, and then with those exact words near the end of the fourth-season premiere, "Aloha kekahi i kekahi". Despite this and other people getting in the way, Steve persists, and he finds out the truth about his mother raising Wo Fat from Fat himself in episode #100, as well as learning that Wo Fat's father is still alive.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Wo Fat was especially fond of this trope.
    • At the end of "Ke Kanohi", the Five-0 team learns that the corrupt HPD officer who (allegedly) killed McGarrett's mother, and who was the next target on Five-0's list, has been found dead.
    • Defied by Sang Min at the end of "Ua Hiki Mai Kapalena Pau" — he surrenders to Five-0 because he's a "loose end" and Wo Fat doesn't like to leave "loose ends" alive.
    • In the Season 1 finale, "Oia'i'o", the Governor is killed by Wo Fat after McGarrett learns that she's in with Wo Fat, and he confronts her. All while neatly setting up McGarrett for the murder.
    • Victor Hesse in the Season 2 opener, "Ha'i'ole".
    • Jenna Kaye, after she delivers McGarrett to him in North Korea.
    • Hiro Noshimuri, who was tracking him on Joe White's orders.
  • You Killed My Father:
    • Steve McGarret to Victor Hesse and then Wo Fat.
    • Max Bergman to The Trashman, who killed his mother.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In the ending of the first part of the second Hawaii Five-0/NCIS: Los Angeles crossover, "Pa Make Loa", Danno, Chin Ho, Callen, and Sam managed to recover the Small-Pox vials from Dracul Comescu before he could sell them to Chechen terrorists in Hawaii. It seems that their case has been closed for good... until Officer Kalakaua calls and reveals that the "vials" that they recovered had in fact contained saline, and that the real viruses were taken by the doctor who was allied with Comescu, who presumably betrayed him and was planning to release the virus in Los Angeles.

 
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Hawaii Five-0 Reboot Credits

At the end of the Canadian premiere of the ''Hawaii Five-0'' reboot, a promo for ''Glee'' aired during the credits.

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