'Hawaii Five-0' Scene Spotting — Tsunami? Don't believe the hype

A tsunami heads toward Honolulu and the head of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center is mysteriously missing. Chin Ho (Daniel Dae Kim) rightly says coincidences like this take a lot of planning. Let's review as we fly to the filming locations around paradise. Again, you can see all the top locations on our 'Hawaii Five-0' Scene Spotting page »

A fantastic smorgasbord of surfing scenes rolls into Kono (Grace Park) giving Danno (Scott Caan) a surfing lesson at Ala Moana Beach Park, when suddenly the state's tsunami sirens start wailing. (Wasn't that chopper in the air awfully fast?) We soar over Kahala toward Diamond Head, then over Aina Haina as we settle in on McGarrett's (Alex O'Loughlin's) house, aka the Bayer Estate, where McGarrett and girlfriend/Navywoman Catherine dash out of bed with corresponding tsunami calls — a killer wave set to arrive in about three hours. But the Five-0 unit isn't helping with the evac: The head of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has gone missing. Dum dum dum!

After the commercial break we get quick shots of the H-1 Freeway packed with fleeing Honoluluans — although that's really the H-1 on any weekday — the Costco in Iwilei and Aliiolani Hale (Five-0 HQ).


An inside look of Diamond Head Crater as seen from the rim. Bret Robertson/Creative Commons.

The unit heads to what we are told is the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach. That is, in fact, where that facility is located — but where they were actually filming was the federal Pacific Disaster Center, which is housed in Diamond Head Crater, a former military facility. Information gleaned there and at the missing Dr. Russell's home leads them to believe the satellite transmitting the buoy data has been hijacked. Sure enough, Catherine pinpoints a layered signal broadcasting from the Ala Wai Boat Harbor.

Our boys race onto Kalanianaole Highway near Kalani High School heading east (the wrong direction, away from the harbor), but they still manage to get there. Once there, they hunt down our signal stealer in a lovely boat but not at the boat harbor — across the channel at the Waikiki Yacht Club (the Ala Wai is a county-owned facility, the WYC is private). Danno stops our hacker cold with the boom of a boat — all the sailors out there know what that feels like.


The Waikiki Yacht Harbor includes the boats and facilities in the foreground. The Ala Wai Boat Harbor is across the channel in the background. Coconut Wireless/Creative Commons.

Back to Aliiolani Hale (nice angle!) and eerie scenes of deserted downtown Honolulu, Ward Avenue and Kalakaua Avenue, where McDanno spin out in the McGarrettmobile — again east, but where they're heading is west to Kewalo Harbor, where our cornered hacker has traced the false tsunami signal. They free Dr. Russell and take down the perp holding him.

But wait! The perp is former Coast Guard. It turns out one of the primary leaders of the evac effort is the Coast Guard commander, who wanted the area near police headquarters evacuated so they could take the infamous $28 million in drug money that the Coast Guard and Honolulu Police hauled in some years back — the same drug money now $10 million lighter after Five-0 stole it to save Chin Ho from Victor Hesse. Tangled web, weaving, etc., ...

Five-0 races through Kakaako down Pohukaina Street next to Pipeline Cafe to intercept. And they do — they nab the commander, the money stuffed into flood bags — although oddly not from the same place where Five-0 originally took the money (filming location just behind the Advertiser building), but at Aliiolani Hale (below). Hmm, guess we'll just toss the writers that one.


Cliff1066/Creative Commons.

Another lovely shot of Waikiki at Sunset as McGarrett faces the governor to account for the $10 million that surely everyone in power knows is missing. But he's let off the hook, and we're not sure why. Chalk this up to "what's next" along with whatever's coming with Wo Fat. Until the next one...

Missing locales: Couldn't place with certainty the school where Danno picks up his daughter. At the beginning of the season there was a quick hit of him picking her up at Manoa Elementary, but that's not where this place is. Also, any thoughts on which corridor played the governor's office?

The Quotable Danno

• "How am I supposed to know where my feet are if I can't look down?"
• "We can't do that at the top of a mountain?"
• "What, no Gold Star?"
• "Wild guess is that's not Dr. Russell." — when they spot the blonde, female, tattooed, young hacker.
• "Naughty, naughty, naughty hacker."

And a special shout out to Mamo (Al Harrington) for "Somebody's blowing smoke up somebody's okole."