H50McMeta

Dear Anon,

I am happy to hear you are tempted to watch H50 and possibly join our lovely fandom 😊

I will admit that the question you sent me, isn’t as easy to answer, as one may think.

Before we start anything; yes, I realise that there is a difference between fanon and canon. However, I think we can all agree that there are many, many times, when the creators cross that often fine line, even repeatedly, but never really lead to anything; plot or character wise. Instead - regardless, if we’re talking about female or male characters - they force ‘heterosexuality’ on pretty much everyone, who has a greater amount of screen time.

Now, as for Mcdanno, Lenkov and queerbaiting... It is honestly a very long story; presenting every single example of queerbaiting on that show, would probably make me run of characters and space to even publish this post. But I will do my best to make a detailed summary of what happened; what’s definitely canon, what’s more fanon, so you can have a better understanding of what was going on, and decide for yourself what to do.

This is going to be long, though; so, fair warning ⚠️

Canon facts:

1. Steve and Danny, without a shadow of doubt, find one another attractive. Can you find your friends, even family members, attractive and never, ever have actual, sexual desire for them; or end up falling in love with them? Absolutely. But there is a very big difference between thinking of someone as beautiful/handsome, and checking them out at pretty much every given opportunity. At first, Scott Caan portrayed Danny as almost flustered and unsure, even slightly embarrassed or nervous, whenever he was looking at Steve in a certain way, especially a half naked Steve. By s4, Danny seemed to become more at ease about it, still continuing that checking out from time to time, but from then on, usually, being okay with it. Alex O'Loughlin on the other hand, generally portrayed Steve as the one somehow surer of that part of himself, from the start. The way he had been looking at Danny, practically from day one but surely from ep7 or ep8 of s1 onwards, was at the very least ambiguous. Heart eyes are one thing but there were times, when he, quite honestly, looked ready to eat Danno alive and not in the cannibalistic way at all. More than that, there is also the dialogue, which confirmed how attractive they found the other, or reassured each other of looking fine. I probably forgot most of what they said but here’s what I found/remembered straight away: Danny: A nice gif set of Danno finding Steve attractive. Steve: (1)‘D: Why do you look like James Bond and I end up looking like a waiter? S: He [some random man, who mistook Danny for a waiter] doesn’t know what he’s talking about’; (2)‘What’s up, good looking?’; (3)’...and this handsome thing, is my partner’. There are many times when Steven finds Danny attractive, either by saying so, or by clearly checking him out but I can’t find a good gif set/list of that now. If anyone reading this, would be willing to provide the link or a list, I would be grateful🙏

2. They are jealous, even slightly possessive of the other. Can you be like that with your friends? Sure, why not. But I imagine, it probably wouldn’t go like this: (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8) and continuing it in this scene (9), (10), (11), (12). There are many more moments like the ones above, from both sides, but I just wanted to give you a general idea of what I meant.

3. Scenes that - try as you might - have no heterosexual or platonic explanation whatsoever:

- So here, they spent yet another Valentines together, even though they both, once again, had girlfriends. Hell, in that scene at the table, the said women were seating literally across them. Because, you know, you can get past the fact that they had a safe word that weekend, or that they spent majority of the time together, or even that ‘Let’s switch the teams’ comment. But that? It’s probably a step too far from platonic or heterosexual. Next: Road? What road? Whatever this was supposed to be, or this, or this. Or here, not to mention that Steve literally booked them for a couple’s therapy treat there. Or even this one. Heck, this one as well, though it could possibly pass as fanon. But this one, really? And so many more, honestly.

4. Steve is obsessed with Danny. There’s no other way to explain his behaviour sometimes, even with his control issues, which, btw, are never as clear, as in his scenes with Danno: (1) He will always find a reason to mention Danny somehow, here too, and here. Here’s a nice sum up of some of it. Sometimes he even talks about something that reminds him of Danny, with Danno himself. You could argue that this proves his, eh, ‘fondness’ of Danno too. But, to be fair to Steve, we also know that Danny talks a lot about Steven, usually to his family: daughter, mother, sister. We see him actually talking about Steve when he’s not there, maybe just 2-3 times altogether but we know, for a fact, he is talking about him off screen, as it’s been addressed many times on the screen. Here’s an example of Danny talking about S.

5. People often mistake them for a married couple, yes. But THEY think of themselves as married too, Steve especially: (1), (2), (3)

6. You can, certainly, be deeply fond of your friends and/or siblings. You can even adore them. In fact, there is no denying the truth that Steve doesn’t just love Danny with all his heart; he adores him too. I don’t think he had ever looked at anyone with such adoration (fondness, yes, sometimes, but not adoration), as when he, quite often, tbh, gazes at Danno; not even his niece, nor his, I mean, Danny’s children. Honestly, his heart eyes, the intensity of his look, are often otherworldly when it comes to Danno, like here; and this? That’s just from s1 alone. When they just met, when Steve was still very much in his military mindset more often than not; and Danny was pissed off practically 24/7. Here, here and here, are mostly from later on but even that, is only a small part of everything. Danny looked at Steve with clear fondness and love, even desire, many times too, there’s no doubt about that; but most of the time, he was never as, eh, loud as Steven.

7. When drugged, dying or sleeping? They tend to dream about each other. Steve at least twice, possibly three times. First time in s5; where he makes Danny the hero of that story, gives him everything that he believes would make Danno happy and keep him in Hawaii; spends most of the time with him in that hallucination/dream; looks at him like this more often than not and makes sure to spend time with Grace too. He also makes his dream!Danny choose Steve as his partner, the way he once chose Danny himself. Heck, that entire episode, however heartbreaking at times, was also very suggestive in general, not just through Alex’s acting choices but also the dialogue itself 🤷‍♀️ To be fair, Steve’s, back then, female love interest, is very briefly mentioned too, BUT not even by a name, never showed or truly referred to, so make of that what you will. The second, subconscious creation of Steve’s happens in s9, where he dreams about being his own grandfather and making Danno his grandpa’s dear friend, while also proving once again, that he thinks of Danny as a hero, knows he’s smart and observant; and basically looks at him like this for majority of the episode. Third time, or rather, second timeline wise, would also be in s9. We never really saw anything, just know that Steve was hallucinating and his reaction to seeing Danny at first, could be read as suggestive. As for Danno... Well, he only dreams/hallucinates about Steve on the screen once, in s8, but damn; it’s such a telling episode. While nothing explicitly confirms that Danny dreamed of them being romantically involved, he still hallucinated of Steve sharing some really important moments in his children’s lives with Danny; they clearly spent their lives together; opened a restaurant together; kept saying ‘I love yous’ to each other; likely lived together, even as old men, etc. Here’s a gif set of some of their hallucinations/dreams.

8. It is proven (even if not directly said as such) in canon, that Steve is the most important person in Danny’s life, along with his children. I wouldn’t even say next to Grace and Charlie; but just as important as them to him, though clearly in a different way. Between Steve and Danny, the latter had never been the one to sacrifice himself and everything that’s important to him, just for anyone. Oh, he’s empathetic, has a big, big heart, he’d always protect the innocent and vulnerable people; but doing everything to save someone, without a second thought, without any limits? We only see him doing that for the ones he loves the most; his children, through avenging his brother, and for Steve. He went to North Korea for him, to Afghanistan; to Cambodia with him; he landed a plane on the beach and gave half of his liver to Steve; he practically told the CIA and the military itself, to back the hell off, more than once; went to Colombian prison, so Steve would be safe; was always, always there when Steven was hurting, in every sense of the word.

9. Danny is the very centre of Steve’s world. Was that ever said out loud like that? Not explicitly but every single acting choice on Alex’s part, kept proving that time and time and time again, like here. If you want to tell me that Peter Lenkov somehow didn’t see that happening, multiple times; it means he either never watched his own show; or was completely delusional about what the characters were actually doing on the screen. What was confirmed in canon however, is the fact that Danno is the person that Steven cares about most in the whole world. Steve, from the very beginning, was also doing more for Danny, than for anybody else in his life; lied for him, made sure (multiple times) that Danny would keep the custody of his daughter; did everything he could to prove to Danny how great Hawaii is, so he’d not have a reason to leave at the first opportunity; bought him expensive gifts, without any complaining; went with Danno to Colombia; later, did everything to get Danny out of the Colombian jail; in s3, he chose to rather stay and die with Danno, than live in a world without him; was there for Danny in some of the worst moments of his life; in series finale, he didn’t give a flying damn about anything or anyone, possibly national security included - all that mattered, was finding and saving Danny. You see, Steve, unlike Danno, would sacrifice himself for a lot of people in his life that he somewhat cared about, without any hesitation; countless characters, male and female, repeatedly used that against him. But while he went on a mission for and with many, it was mostly due to his SEAL’s training, the military devotion and the sense of brotherhood. Not always, no, but definitely 90% of the time; with Danny, he was almost always reacting and acting as Steve, the civilian he was relearning to be. Danno was also the only person that he couldn’t bear losing, as he never fought for anyone staying in his life, accepting that everyone leaves; not Catherine, nor his mother; just Danny he fought against losing. More than that, on multiple occasions, when he thought they were about to die, Steve made sure that Danny knows how much he loves him. So, think of that what you want but there’s absolutely nothing fanon about it.

10. They called each other ‘bro/brother/man/buddy/pal’, yes. But they also, not sarcastically, called one another stuff like ‘baby/babe/boo boo/sunshine/my boy/my Danno/many other’. Make of that what you will.

11. Speaking of the ‘my boy’ thing; Danny never said that to Steve but he said that twice about Steven to Catherine; Steve’s love interest at some point. Steve called Danno ‘my boy’ to Danny once, in s4. Other people, countless times referred to Danny about Steve as ‘your boy’ and to Steven about Danno as ‘your boy/man’. And they never corrected anyone, not even once. In fact, that one time Lou called Danny ‘his man’, Steve didn’t look too pleased about it but I suppose you can read that particular reaction as more ‘fanon’, than ‘canon’.

12. They said ‘I love you’ to each other more times than to anyone else on H50, ever; heck, more times, than any canonical romantic couple on that show. Did they sometimes add ‘pal/buddy/bro’ at the end? Yes. Other times, they definitely didn’t.

13. They lived together, twice. First, in s2, when Danny needed a place to stay for a while. They were driving each other mad sometimes, but it was clear Steve didn’t want Danny to move out; he even bought Danno a really expensive gift to help him with his insomnia, so they both could sleep at night. Eventually, Danny moved out, though; we never really learned why exactly. Second time they lived together, was in s10, when they both kept finding excuses for Danny to stay there longer, while never explicitly talking about it. By the time Steve left Hawaii, Danny was still living at their his place.

14. Suggestive dialogue. You see, acting choices, however telling, that’s one thing. But if you also consider a very ambiguous dialogue, or combine suggestive acting with even more suggestive wording; it is genuinely hard not to read Mcdanno as canonically non-platonic. Below, I have included just a few examples of some suggestive dialogue:

- Steve to Danny: ‘No, I will not bend over and cough, with your cold hands’. Sure... I mean, how could anyone ever read that as anything non-platonic, right? Just two straight bros, literally playing doctor with each other and saying 100% heterosexual things 👍

- Steve to Danny: ‘If I wouldn’t put my finger in you, we wouldn’t have this conversation’. And yeah, if you actually watched the episode, you know exactly what Steve was talking about and it wasn’t sexual, at all. But you know what? We, as the audience, were clearly supposed to read Steve’s line as suggestive. Why? Well, the other characters’ reactions to hearing it, were pretty clear - they all took it, as if Steve was talking about, pardon my language, literally fingering Danny, in a sexy way indeed

- Steve to Danny: ‘It’s for you. I wore it for you’

- Danny to Steve: ‘The bed... that’s big enough for two people’. Fun fact: Alex himself wrote and directed that episode; here’s that specific scene. Did we see them sharing that bed? No. But I, for one, am very grateful that we haven’t; otherwise Lenkov, once again, would have ‘teased’ people with it on Twitter and made more stupid comments; likely causing yet another drama within H50 fandom

- Danny to Steve: ‘You know, ah, I would have gone with the gay thing to keep our cover’. Fun fact: It was Daniel Dae Kim’s (Chin) episode. Still, when you think about it, logically, it would have made far more sense for Steve to consider that option himself; that keeping the said cover, would make their work definitely easier at that point. What’s more, they’d not be pretending at all; it’s not like they had to kiss on the mouth or anything; their normal behaviour with each other, was suggestive enough on a daily basis; so what was the problem? Especially, since Steve’s decision not to do it, did not make him appear any more heterosexual, just the opposite; nor did Alex’s acting choices in that episode, for that matter

- After Steve rescued Danny and Grace (though D. did half of the saving himself, tbh); Steve to Danny: ‘What, nothing? Nothing?’ - ‘I’m so happy to see you right now; I’ll give you a hug, I’ll give you a kiss, pick a base’. Obviously, Steve went for the hug but remember that a) Danno was clearly stressed about the whole situation; b) they were in public and neither of them ever seemed much into explicit displays of public affection in general, Danny especially, unless you mean his kids; c) however you want to read that scene, what is 100% canon, is the fact that Steve reacted as any other parent in that scene; he was also openly relieved to have Gracie and Danny in his arms; and they walked together out of there, as a family

- Also, this entire scene, once more. Like... does it really seem platonic to you?

15. Danny, apart from maybe one or two occasions, kept choosing Steve over everybody else in his life; one could argue, to some extent, even his children. In s1, he sacrificed his chance to get back together with Rachel, who was pregnant at that time, in order to help Steve and to a lesser extent, the rest of their ohana. As mentioned before already, he went to North Korea and Afghanistan for Steve, knowing he may not come back. They went together to Cambodia, though Danny knew it’s dangerous. He spent majority of the time with Steve, even when he was in relationships with other people. He openly shared his children with Steven; introduced him to his family members; they spent at least some of the holidays, like Valentines, Halloweens and Christmases together, on more than one occasion.

16. Steve, too, clearly kept choosing Danny over everybody else. Now, I know that after the series finale many are angry and disappointed with that character, I do. But, canonically, he always chose Danny; whether you like it or not, even when he was with Catherine, as he was hardly an innocent flower in that relationship. But that’s a thing for another time, so let’s just let it go, for now. There was only one time, ONE, when you could possibly argue he didn’t choose Danno; and no, it wasn’t in the series finale. At least, not in the way one could think.

Fanon things:

1. Steve and Danny’s sexual orientation. Nothing, absolutely nothing on the screen, explicitly confirmed them as heterosexuals; because believe it or not, sleeping with the opposite sex, doesn’t exclude other options, for anyone. Majority of the fandom thinks of them as bi or pansexuals. Some see Steve as the closeted gay and Danny as bi/pan. Others consider them more as ‘Danny-sexual’ (Steve) and ‘Steve-sexual’ (Danny). Next see them, or at least one of them, as people who discovered their sexual orientation later in life. As far as we know, neither Alex, nor Scott, ever called their characters ‘straight’, so🤷‍♀️

2. Steve’s post canon relationship with Catherine. Look, if you consider Alex’s opinion on that pairing, or his acting choices in the series finale, especially that plane scene; they definitely aren’t back together romantically. But let’s not kid ourselves that Lenkov didn’t have an unhealthy fascination with Mcrollins, for whatever reason. So yeah, if you want to follow his ‘logic’, Cath is worth nothing more than being a baby oven; and Steve is a complete idiot, with none, absolutely none amount of self-respect and worth left.

3. The sleeping arrangements at Steve’s house, when Danno was living with him for the second time. We were told, he didn’t sleep on the sofa, because of Eddie. Before Junior moved out, he obviously couldn’t have occupied that bedroom. I highly doubt that canon!Steve would be ok with Danny sleeping on the living room’s floor, especially for more than a couple of nights. For some reason, the 3rd bedroom that definitely had been there before, disappeared. So, where did he sleep? On the beach outside? In Steve’s bedroom? Who can say, who can say... Especially when he had Charlie over...

4. Were they aware of their likely non-platonic feelings? About their own, about the other one’s? Guess, it all depends how you see it. Anything is possible with these two, really; because they not only come across as soulmates in every meaning of that concept; they also, more often than not, are the very definition of idiots in love.

All of the above - canon, fanon and in-between - proves to you that Mcdanno love each other very, very deeply; one could say, somewhat obsessively, as they are, indeed, canonically co-dependent; Steve especially. What’s more, however, is that all of the above, whether you like it or not, also shows you the obvious queerbaiting; heck, queer coding really, on that show. But, just to be clear, the first three seasons, first two especially; weren’t that bad in terms of queerbaiting. The way it had been presented back then, practically showed you that it was genuinely leading somewhere; not that you are being obviously led on, by someone who is having a sick laugh at your expense, as it had been from s4 onwards. No matter how homophobic CBS is and you cannot deny that they are; the possibility of Mcdanno becoming canon in a romantic sense, was doomed the moment Lenkov gained more power over that show. Still, he spent years playing his audience, ruthlessly. Non-Mcdanno shippers included.

Finally, please, do not get me wrong but saying, as some people in this fandom - even certain Mcdanno supporters - things like:

- ‘That’s clearly Alex and Scott! Not Steve and Danny’

- Non-platonic Mcdanno is fanon only; canon made them purely ‘brothers for life’, ‘soulmates but the platonic kind’

- ‘Lenkov never promised making Mcdanno an endgame’

is rather odd, I am sorry. I’m not going to tell anyone what they should think or do, but come on; by such way of thinking, you’re practically calling yourselves delusional about what you repeatedly saw on the bloody screen, meaning, actually IN CANON. You are basically agreeing with Lenkov, with some other people, who kept bashing you for years, for shipping a couple that wasn’t explicitly canon and dared to be a same-sex one.

Yeah, Lenkov never promised us Mcdanno becoming canon in a romantic sense, despite what was presented on the screen; he’d probably rather cut his arm off first. But, by that way of thinking, he never explicitly promised any other endgame pairing either, Mcrollins or Rachel/Danny included.

Also, obviously, some of the acting we could see on the screen, had more of Alex and Scott in it, than their characters. They made Mcdanno, they created that dynamic; THEY, not Lenkov or anybody else on that show. He, at best, gave them an idea to work around, nothing more. They were Mcdanno, they gave them a real meaning, emotions, ways of thinking. They, as actors, who lived their characters for years, who understood them best. Is O’Caan and Mcdanno the same thing? No, of course not. But they co-exist, long story short. The fact that the actors, at least at some point, supported the idea of Mcdanno becoming romantically involved... Well, it surely affected their acting choices even further. But that doesn’t mean they were to blame for all that queerbaiting; because Lenkov definitely saw some truly ambiguous choices they made, and still decided to use them in the final cut, too many times to count. Had fun with it, ‘teased’ the viewers with it; while clearly not meaning to respect anyone’s wishes.

So yes, if you ask me, H50 is yet another show, full of obvious queerbaiting and queer coding; with abusive, homophobic and misogynistic man in charge, who had been fired years too late. But if you wish to get to know some interesting characters, the idea of ohana, the uniqueness of Mcdanno and see the beautiful scenery of Hawaii, with some Hawaiian culture presented too; I would give this show a try. Even with some really poor storylines at times, especially in the later seasons; even with the lack of any true character’s development in most cases; even with generally badly written and even worse treated females; even with all of the above; you can still enjoy this series.

Hope I could help.

Alex and Scott have extraterrestrial chemistry, and I'm losing myself in it.

My interpretation there was always tied to Hollywood writers being consistently unable to maintain a female character. I think a lot of a lot of the "strong male friendships" that end up romance coded come back to the way a lot of men don't know how to write men being vulnerable with women because they don't want to develop that woman, they're a fantasy that can't have that emotional depth, but characters need to be vulnerable with someone to be interesting, they already have 2 male characters that are developed enough, so they end up giving that vulnerability to other men and that ends up reading as gay since those men never have that level of connection with the women around them and an emotional connection will always be more appealing and the queercoding ends up accidental.

Thanks to digital film, any TV show today that has a decent budget is going to shoot an episode with several cameras and several takes so the cutting room has plenty to work with. Also, studios generally keep those working in the cutting room for the whole length of the show because otherwise you lose entire style of the show. The cutting room is where the real magic of TV happens.

And whoever was in the cutting room made CHOICES. They would choose the angle where Steve and Danny were framed like the couple would be in a rom-com. For example, most cop shows focus on the criminal or the witness in the scene - but the cutting room for H50 would choose the shots that linger on Steve and Danny instead.

This is why we get entire scenes where the cutting room chooses only the camera shots that pratically crop out the girlfriends. Or scenes where the cutting room slyly spliced in the actors fooling around. The butt pat is one famous example. And then there's insane shit, like Danny staring straight at Steve's butt - for absolutely no reason except the cutting room chose that camera angle.