‘Hawaii Five-0’ Boss ‘Really Comfortable’ With the Series Finale Ending

It’s fitting that the series finale of CBS’ long-running Hawaii Five-0 is called “Aloha” since we’re saying a tearful goodbye to Lt. Cmdr. Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin). After 10 seasons, Friday, April 3 marks the last episode of the reboot of the classic 1968-80 series.

Will McGarrett find a happy ending? You’ll have to watch the episode to find out but first, he’ll have to save partner and BFF Danny (Scott Caan), who is hurt when baddies — led by Wo Fat’s widow, Daiyu Mei (Eugenia Yuan) — will do anything to get the cypher that McGarrett received posthumously from his mother, Doris (Christine Lahti). Also in the episode, we’ll see flashbacks with villains Victor Hesse (James Marsters) and Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos), as well as McGarrett’s father, John (William Sadler).

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To find more about the series finale and how everything wraps up, TV Insider spoke with series creator and executive producer Peter Lenkov, who gave us insight into how he arrived on bringing the show full circle and completing a story he began in the pilot for the series in 2010.

Did you have an idea that the show might wrap up this season?

Peter Lenkov: In all honesty, I think every year will be the last year. So every year I try to do something that I could end the show with, that I could save face if it doesn’t come back. When I found out that the show wasn’t coming back, I only had to do some minor tweaks because it really did feel like not just the ending for McGarrett but the ending of the series. I’d always imagined the task force would continue and I had always imagined that McGarrett’s happiness, his peace of mind would be the end game because he came to the Island with such trauma that I wanted him to be able to go off into the sunset with some kind of peace.

Karen Neal/CBS

The episode does sound like it has a nice full-circle feel to it with Steve and the case his father left for him in the first episode.

I always had this image in my head right before the war broke out, the Japanese planning Pearl Harbor and seeing what that would have been like — that grouping of military heads deciding how they were going to attack Pearl Harbor and what that was going to be like. So I’d always had this idea of doing a scene where we saw Wo Fat and Victor Hesse planning the attack on McGarrett and his convoy and capturing the father. That was a scene that would’ve come days before the pilot started.

That image in my head of seeing those guys plotting that and seeing pictures of McGarrett for the first time — for them at least, surveillance photos, all that stuff — it just started me thinking about the mystery that his dad left him and resolving those questions that have been lingering for all these years. I have that Champ Box [from the show]. That’s the one souvenir that for me represents the show and the mysteries that have always haunted McGarrett through the course of the 10 years.

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The truth is I am certain that for me I think I did everything I wanted to do [on the show]. I’m sure for our audience, some of the audience, they’ll probably want more and that’s a good thing. But I really left it with feeling like I did everything that I set out to do. I feel really comfortable with the way the show ends.

I know one question I’ve seen people asking you on Twitter is whether we’ll see characters from Five-0 bounce over to Magnum P.I. given the Hawaii location?

I feel very comfortable and confident that Magnum will come back [for its third season] so the plan is to keep the 5-0 task force alive.  A lot of the actors that live there and we’ll try on a regular basis to bring them in and can keep it alive and keep the idea of Five-0 always on the periphery of our storyteller.

Hawaii-Five-0, Series Finale, Friday, April 3, 9/8c, CBS