hawaii five 0 - steve mcgarrett *updated*
(i was actually working on this before i posted the little thing about the last episodes of season 4, but i decided to post this anyway. ;) you can never have enough Steve whump, even if it isn’t very realistic, or often enough. okay.)
that being said, Hawaii Five 0 is my weakness. i’m not kidding. i have an obsession with this show. but especially with Steve Mcgarrett. his personality definitely works well for us avid whumpers, because he is reckless, definitely has a “hero complex”, and thinks he is “Superman”. thus, he should get hurt a lot.
but that’s the problem. he doesn’t. and when he does, his injuries are really down-played, which is a huge bummer. for example:
season 1, episode 1: punched multiple times in the face, shot in the arm. oh, he’s fine… just has a few bruises, and needs his arm bandaged.
season 1, episode 9: slashed in the arm, fighting with his old friend new enemy, also punched in the face a few times, and had a nice cut above his eyebrow. his arm gets bandaged, tada. he’s fine. (i do love this scene, though.)
season 1, episode 20: falls backwards off a cliff (he was trying to climb back up after spotting a dead body while hiking with Danny) after a rock hits him in the face. lands on his arm. it’s broken. he gets taken to the hospital, gets a cast, and then tackles a guy a few hours later. no pain. really?
season 2, episode 1: stabbed in the gut in prison (it’s a long story - you’ll have to watch it) and we get some nice sweaty, half-unconscious Steve in the ambulance, before he jumps out of a moving vehicle, and eventually makes it to Max’s place where Max bandages his wound. and he’s pretty much fine after that - even jumps onto a moving motor-boat, slams into the side, and gets up without any adverse effects. ha.
season 2, episode 10: he’s captured by Wo Fat, tortured (hit in the face, hit in the stomach many times, shocked with cattle prod.) and is at the end of his rope when Danno and the team show up to rescue him in North Korea. this episode as actually pretty good whump-wise. i think i’m just upset that they ended it with that, and in the next episode, he’s totally fine - just a few scars on his face from his ordeal.
season 2, episode 16: hit by a freakin’ car while chasing a suspect. he’s knocked unconscious, and is bleeding, and after he goes to hospital, and gets a few band aids on his face, he’s totally fine for the rest of the episode. pretty much. there are a few delightfully whumpy moments, though. (also, i totally ship Steve and Lori.) oh, and he also falls off the roof of a hotel. sure, he lands on one of the room’s patios about 15 feet below, but still. ouch?
season 2, episode 22: involved in a plane crash, knocked unconscious, fights Wo Fat, nearly gets shot. once he gets back to Hawaii, not a word is said about it. sorry, babe, but you’d be hurting. seriously. (couldn’t find many pictures for this episode. sorry. but i do love this moment.)
season 2, episode 23: shot in the back - he was wearing a bullet proof vest, but still - gets up, not another word is said about it. I MEAN COME ON. you were still shot. that’s a lot of velocity. (broken ribs, at the very least?)
season 3, episode 17: dislocates shoulder, supposedly. he’s in some pain, they immobilize his arm, and he goes to the hospital to get it ‘put back in’. after that, he throws a football the length of half a football field, and is only slightly uncomfortable. (my brother dislocated his shoulder before. it hurts. a lot. and it takes about 3 weeks to heal.)
after throwing the football… like a very cute idiot.
season 4, episode 1: gets jolted pretty good landing a helicopter, and is apparently quite exhausted by the end of the episode. this is actually pretty accurate. after landing the helicopter, he’s pretty stiff and sore, and needs help standing up.
season 4, episode 8: shot in the arm. sure, it was just a graze, and he gets it bandaged up in an ambulance and all that. but still. he was shot. aaaand, once again. it’s pretty much ignored for the rest of the episode.
now his arm is bandaged. and he’s totally fine.
(there is a little deleted scene that portrays the discomfort of his injury a little more accurately; i was actually rather frustrated that they cut it out, because it’s a sweet little tidbit. definitely gives a more ‘human’ portrayal of SuperSEAL Mcgarrett. you can watch it here.)
season 4, episode 19: Steve and Danny are caught in an explosion that destroys an underground garage, and are stuck for almost the entire episode. the whump is sadly downplayed - Steve is unconscious after the explosion, but once he wakes up, any side-effects from having hundreds of pounds of concrete dumped on him are completely ignored. (Danny also gets a piece of rebar through his side, but once Steve removes it, his injury is pretty much ignored as well. seeing some patterns, H50 writers. there are some sweet moments between the boys, though.)
season 4, episode 21: while in Afghanistan with Catherine in an attempt to rescue the son of a man who saved Cath’s life years before, Steve is captured by the Taliban, and tortured / badly beaten for information. he is almost beheaded, but it saved just in time, thanks to a phone call from Catherine to Danny, and our beloved Williams’ persistence and determination. the whump is actually pretty accurate in this episode (although I love our boy so much, it’s hard for me to watch it) but - like all the times before - the next episode completely ignores all physical and emotional trauma. (H50 is actually pretty good on the whump scale, just not on the follow-up.) this episode also has very good emotional whump, due to the fact that Catherine stayed behind in Afghanistan.
(confession: i cried this entire episode. *clears throat* not kidding.)
season 5, episode 1: Steve is shot in the leg by a drone targeting civilians in the last half of the episode, and - kudos to Alex - the portrayal is pretty realistic, minus the part where Steve chases the suspect down (and catches him). he’s later taken to the hospital and has his leg tended to.
(danny versus the balloons. ;) ^^)
okay, this is basically a rant of how Steve recovers too quickly, but i mean, really. i love his character so much. and H50 does do pretty good whump, but even without the whump, this is a show worth watching. i promise.
note: this list is now complete, except for the latest episode (5x07) which i will be excluding for a few weeks, just to be safe.
*disclaimer: none of these images are mine, but are (according to my knowledge) used with the permission of the owner.
