S11E03 - “Deadly Courier” - Plot

Act One

A taxi arrives at a house where a man Walter Sherman (John Zenda) delivers a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist to Soames (Lee Stetson) who is working on cracking a Chinese code. Soames expected Sherman the night before but his story is he got in late. The code is "an ancient Manchu dialect, with a random numerical sequence" and not the easiest puzzle to solve. Sherman sticks around while Soames begins opening the case until hit with a spell of dizziness. Sherman steps outside, then makes his way to the front door and begins running off the property because the briefcase had a bomb in it! Soames is killed instantly as his out building goes up with a boom. The chauffeur (Chuck Couch) tackles Sherman before he can completely escape. Sherman doesn't fight back once tackled: he actually looks dazed.

In the governor's office, McGarrett can't believe what he's hearing: the governor states empathically Sherman wasn't involved! Mr. Enslow (Stephen Elliott) who is in charge of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence. McGarrett says Sherman has been booked on murder one and the DA is preparing to indict. Enslow explains he's worked with Sherman for the last seven years and he's above suspicion. The problem is the State Department can't testify for him because it will give away a major intelligence operation. Enslow adds the briefcase "locked and chained to his wrist under supervision prior to takeoff in Singapore" and they have no idea how the bomb got into it. The governor tells McGarrett someone must find Sherman innocent without State Department help. Enslow is adamant about Sherman's innocence but can't provide any details on what happened and neither can Sherman!

McGarrett, Danno and Duke walk to the Palace with McGarrett telling them the puzzle they need to solve. Duke provides a scenario: the bomb would take a couple of hours to rig and could be done with the case still attached to Sherman's wrist if he were sedated and didn't know it. McGarrett tells them Sherman landed Monday afternoon but didn't go to Soames' until 18 hours later and McGarrett wants to know where he was during those 18 hours.

In the laboratory, the technician (Winston Char) briefs there isn't much to go on but the detonator was made by an expert. There isn't much left of the case, but what's worse is all the paperwork is missing. The only thing in the case was the bomb! McGarrett picks up a scrap with the technician finding 'H.K.A." stamped on it. McGarrett surmises it's a luggage shop insignia that will need to be tracked down. McGarrett leaves.

McGarrett goes to see Sherman who is less than cooperative at HPD next. Sherman tells McGarrett Enslow is only interested in the State Department and not him after McGarrett says Enslow is "genuinely concerned". McGarrett asks him some routine questions: he sat next to a woman on the plane but only talked a few minutes, he didn't nod off and didn't drink anything. Sherman says, "nobody had a chance at the attachŽ case. Nobody even got close to it and it never left my wrist". Sherman tells McGarrett of his evening: by the time he got to the hotel and "got cleaned up" it was late thus the delay going to Soames' house. That night, he went to a café close to the hotel, walked back to the hotel and turned early: alone with the case the entire time. The only phone call he made was to Soames the next morning just before taking a cab to the house. According to the affidavit, Sherman then took the case into Soames' study and after he opened one lock, Sherman went outside sticking with his story that he had a touch of something, maybe having issues with jet lag. McGarrett is troubled by the fact Sherman ran away when the explosion happened. Sherman doesn't have much in his defense telling McGarrett to talk to State because they didn't tell him everything!

In McGarrett's office, he confronts Enslow about holding out information. McGarrett shows him what they got from the case: 'H.K.A.' but it doesn't match any Singapore shops. However, there is a shop in Honolulu that matches: Hakima's Leather Emporium. McGarrett suggests a switch was made but before he can go into it, the phone rings: it's Duke who says he and Danno are in Sherman's hotel room as they've tracked him from the airport. According to all the information they have, he checked in at 6:40 p.m. leaving his key at the front desk at 8:00 p.m. but didn't pick it up Monday night. Everyone remembers the briefcase attached to his wrist from the cabbie to the hotel employees. Danno then takes over the call saying the maid told them the bed wasn't slept in Monday night! As well, the cashier at the café doesn't remember anyone with a briefcase chained to his wrist. McGarrett notes this information passing on what he's found out about Hakima's and wants to meet them there in about an hour. McGarrett returns his attention back to Enslow who comes clean about Sherman: he's actually an electronics expert finding bugs and turning them into two-way transmitters. While the documents he was carrying are gone, Enslow points out they don't know how the information was obtained. If the State Department testifies, Sherman's cover is blown. As he leaves, Enslow tells McGarrett to stay with it but McGarrett knows Enslow is still holding out!

Act Two

McGarrett meets Danno and Duke across the street from Hakima's and walk over. The place explodes just as they get there! Fortunately, they're okay and go in to see what's left. The man inside is dead and Duke keeps the growing crowd back. McGarrett and Danno search inside finding a similar case and a "little old bomb-maker". A detonator is with and McGarrett says he can tell the lab what it was made of. Danno surmises the hardware could have been switched Monday night to the new case with the bomb set to explode when both locks were opened. McGarrett still feels they're way behind the people behind this scheme.

HPD arrives on scene and Five-O turns it over to them. McGarrett wants Danno to go through the invoices he saw on a spindle in the back office and use a cover because the "gang is lethal". Danno plans to go to a concert that night but if he finds anything, he'll call. McGarrett and Duke take off as Danno finds the invoices zeroing in on one for 24 briefcases from Seaside Import-Export Company.

Danno goes to Seaside Import-Export with a story that he was Hakima's customer and he was told about them. A woman (Irene Yah-Ling Sun) greets him asking if Hakima sent him but he corrects Miss Kahuana that he's only a customer and notifies her about Hakima's death. She leads him into he office where they discuss his situation: he had a custom order that he needs in a hurry. While they talk, Danno is being looked at every which way including fingerprinting, x-rays and normal surveillance by a group of three technicians in another room led by one man (Colin De Silva). She calls Sulaine (Haidee Inazu) to serve tea as the surveillance continues as Danno keeps up his story about carrying papers to a home office in Delaware. In the other room, a complete printout is made on Danno and brought in by Sulaine who serves the tea to Danno. Meantime, Miss Kahuana tells Sulaine to give the green light to Rajah Sin for "the program". Danno realizes too late, he's royally screwed!

Act Three

In the other room, Danno is sedated and strapped to a chair with multiple electrodes attached to him. Miss Kahuana walks in asking how Danno is; Rajah says he's still sedated. She tells them they only have 12 hours so they need to get cracking and wake him up with more drugs. There's a bright light in Danno's eyes as they begin the electroshock torture. The start of it is for him to forget who Marla Kahuana is and she orders shocks until they get there. They plow more drugs and work on "visuals".

In the governor's office, McGarrett isn't happy about the entire situation because the governor just gave him another issue: a security detail that is "short and quick. And high priority". McGarrett doesn't trust Enslow as far as he can throw him and would have "several hundred" questions for him if it weren't for his "impeccable credentials" because he was the only one who knew Five-O was going to Hakima's store. McGarrett can't help but wonder if the explosion wasn't meant for them. McGarrett changes the subject to the security detail: there's a flight arriving at 12:40 p.m. from Hong Kong and someone is changing planes with the governor wanting "no slip-ups". It's McGarrett's worst nightmare, as he must coordinate with Enslow about it because it is in his wheelhouse. McGarrett calls Duke as the governor tells McGarrett that Enslow has arranged for Chief of Psychiatry, Doctor's Hospital (Patricia Herman) to see Sherman and they want McGarrett to be present in the jail visiting room. Once Duke is on the phone, McGarrett tells him to get a hold of Danno as he wants to see both of them in the office in the morning.

The sun rises over Honolulu and the torture continues including the use of colored glass. Marla plants false memories into Danno's head, as he's more confused as ever. She makes sure he recalls every detail and orders electroshock with a clap as punishment.

McGarrett shows up at the visitor's room as Dr. Angela McBride introduces herself. Dr. McBride explains she's there to try to figure out why there are discrepancies between Sherman's story and the facts, as they are known. She suspects the "time interlude" is drug-induced. Meanwhile, at Seaside Import-Export, the torture continues with Danno recalling specific details of the night before of false memories. Back at HPD, McGarrett and Dr. McBride go over Sherman's story again especially the swap but Sherman insists a swap didn't happen. At Seaside, the torture is worse because they're asking Danno to commit treason but he resists! Danno finally gives up agreeing to their plan to pass the information on the new courier flying through Honolulu. At HPD, Sherman cannot recall visiting a luggage repair shop. Sherman also insists he didn't know anyone in Honolulu except his contact Soames. Meanwhile, Danno recites exactly what he's supposed to, much to Marla's satisfaction. Back at HPD, McGarrett verifies Sherman took a cab straight to Soames' house without stopping anywhere. As Sherman confirms what he told the cab driver, a light reflects off Dr. McBride's pendant into his eyes and it's enough to trigger Sherman's programming! Dr. McBride jumps on it because she recognizes something is amiss because the light obviously bothers Sherman. When she tries to examine his eyes, Sherman freaks out in front of them and takes Dr. McBride's case saying he needs to get it fixed. McGarrett and Dr. McBride now know he's been programmed and have a plausible explanation for the time lapse. At Seaside, Marla wraps up her diabolical crap by waking Danno and breaking the hypnosis but not the programming. Once Danno is standing, she asks for his gun and they load it. She then asks him about Sulaine, whether he has ever seen her before. When he says he hasn't Marla orders him to shoot her and he does!

Act Four

McGarrett walks with Enslow on the Palace grounds telling him about what they discovered about Sherman. They talk about the programming and how it was targeted into a specific area of the brain and drugs were probably used. Dr. McBride is working on Sherman's "decontamination" as they talk. Enslow comes clean about the security detail: the new courier Russell is coming in with the rest of the documents that went with the ones Sherman brought. The plan is for Enslow to take the documents to Washington himself. The plane lands at 12:40 and Enslow plans to have the case and be airborne by 1:00 p.m. McGarrett plans to be at the airport with him.

McGarrett walks into his office to Duke who hands him a file and there's still no sign of Danno. McGarrett calls Captain Santos at HPD about the airport security detail. As McGarrett is on the phone, Danno shows up in time to hear the details of flight 820: gate 11 at 12:40 p.m. McGarrett tells him Five-O will cover the plane and the terminal area. He greets Danno who gives details of his night that are false memories. Danno briefs Seaside is "perfectly legitimate". McGarrett then briefs them on what's going on: another State Department courier switching planes. He wants Danno to met the courier and take him down the stairs to an Air Force plane where McGarrett and Enslow will meet them. He then wants Duke to cover Danno with HPD outside the jet way. Danno and Duke leave as McGarrett calls the governor.

Outside, Danno wants to take his own car giving Duke a story as they take off for the airport. Meantime, McGarrett closes the loop of coordination with the airport security office telling Lieutenant Saunders flight 820 is a little early. On the way, Danno calls Marla with all the details and she gives him new instructions to bring the courier down the jet way telling him they'll see him at the airport. Marla tells her team they'll have 30 seconds to grab the case and will have to do it in the terminal. They go to the airport.

McGarrett arrives at the airport as the flight lands. McGarrett looks over everything as the flight parks with Enslow standing by the Air Force plane. With the jet way in position, the plan begins to unfold. Danno waves to Duke from the jet way so as not to give anything away. As the courier is about to exit, Danno redirects him down the jet way where Marla's guys knock out the courier! They remove the case and take off as Marla grabs Danno and goes in a different direction! Meanwhile, Duke and the HPD officers he's with scramble up the jet way. McGarrett makes it inside yelling at Duke to get the case from Marla's guys who haven't made it out yet. They're caught as Danno and Marla ride the escalator toward McGarrett. She orders Danno to shoot McGarrett but Danno fights the order. As McGarrett brings Danno out of the hypnosis/programming, Danno aims his gun at Marla as she tries to escape only to be caught by Enslow!

In McGarrett's office, Duke asks how they got to Sherman in the first place and McGarrett guesses she met him on the plane. Danno doesn't seem to be worse for the wear as he brings in his report. He still has the false memories and McGarrett bursts his bubble: Danno struck out!