Hawaii Five-O: Woe to Wo Fat (1980)
Season 12, Episode 19
2/10
Going out with a whimper
9 June 2014
Warning: Spoilers
During the course of the 12 years of "Hawaii Five-O", the episodes involving the Chinese communist spy, Wo Fat, were among the most clever and entertaining. Sadly, in this final episode of the series, Wo Fat and McGarrett have a big show down and it turns out to be just awful-- due to a serious problem with most every episode this season...bad writing. There just was no excuse for all the logical errors in this one and I felt really dissatisfied as I watched.

The show begins well enough. A top scientist is kidnapped--taken prisoner by one of Wo Fat's henchmen. WHile it's unbelievable, the premise is that they use some gas on her and two other scientists to make them very, very compliant--so compliant that they'll work on a dangerous project without question. Using the gas, Dr. Wo Fat has convinced them he's a benefactor of mankind and whats them to build a system similar to the so-called 'Star Wars' missile defense system that Preisdent Reagan announced only a few years after this aired.

Soon the Pentagon realizes something is afoot. Three top scientists who met eight years earlier at a conference discussing such a proposed system have disappeared--and that's too much of a coincidence to be random. So, they set off for Hawaii, as they predict that the leader of this old symposium will be the next on kidnapped.

So far, while the show is far-fetched, it was entertaining. The stupid stuff is about to begin. It seems that the man who will be kidnapped next looks almost exactly like McGarrett but with a gray beard and Beethoven wig!! The odds of this are about 2948237561020 to 1--and it only gets more absurd. Later, when Wo Fat kidnaps the fake scientist (McGarrett in disguise), he never once remarks that this scientist looks like his old arch nemesis!! Nor does he keep an extra careful watch on his! And, oddly, Wo Fat refers to himself as Wo Fat--and any of these folks might have heard about this international criminal! Does it get any better....no. Sloppy wing abound--such as when Wo Fat catches McGarrett and FINALLY realizes it's him. Instead of shooting him in the face, he gives him several hours in his room as punishment for his deception before he executes him--giving Steve LOTS of opportunities to escape and destroy the complex. And, speaking of complexes, why didn't they put it in Chinese territory --with lots of ships and planes nearby so as to make a US raid on the base at the end impossible?! Duh!!! All in all, a severely stupid show and one you might just want to skip--which is something you could also say for all of the final season.
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