The Most Dangerous Thing McGarrett Did On Hawaii Five-0
Hawaii may be known for its tropical weather and laid-back vibe, but CBS' hit procedural Hawaii Five-0 turned the dial on the explosive action in the aloha state all the way up. The premise of the show established on the first episode of Hawaii Five-0 — an elite team sanctioned by the governor to tackle the state's biggest crimes with few restrictions — results in wild gunfights and teeth-shattering explosions basically every episode. All of the members of the Department of Public Safety task force get down and dirty at some point, but none of their records match that of Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin).
McGarrett seems like the cool, calm, and collected type when compared to his chatty and impulsive partner, Sergeant Danny Williams (Scott Caan), but he's proven time and time again that he can pull some crazy moves at the drop of a hat. Many of the wild stunts he engages in to save the day are pretty par for the course in terms of action-oriented TV crime dramas, but a few go above and beyond. Even though McGarrett is undoubtedly doing it all for the right reasons, some of his antics go past rising to the call of duty and cross over into being downright dangerous. In fact, it was dangerous stunts that O'loughlin incredibly pulls off that ultimately led to the need for O'loughlin needing to leave the show. There's one incident in particular that nearly took things too far.
Here's the most dangerous thing McGarrett did on Hawaii Five-0.
The time McGarrett used a grenade to blow open a door
On the season 1 episode "Powa Maka Moana," McGarrett and Danny are trying to get into the back of a pawn shop, which is blocked off by both a sturdy metal gate and an owner who insists he won't open up without a warrant. Fed up, McGarrett pops out to his car for a moment, leading Danny to question if he's planning on driving the vehicle through the pawn shop. However, McGarrett has a more localized solution in mind.
McGarrett returns to the pawn shop ... with a grenade. The owner rationally guesses that the grenade isn't real, because what kind of law enforcement officer detonates an explosive on private property in order to conduct an illegal search? Sadly for the owner, he was making his assumption based on the rules of the real world, not Hawaii Five-0's world.
The grenade is very real, and after McGarrett straps it onto the door, everyone barely makes it out of the blast radius before it explodes. The dangers of this action are two-fold: not only is it literally dangerous to all parties involved, but it's also a pretty reckless move for McGarrett's career. He doesn't face any repercussions for the incident, but it's not a stretch to imagine him needing to testify in court as to why he set off an explosive in a commercial building in the middle of the day.
Little did we know at the time, in the exchange at the pawn shop, there was foreshadowing for another very dangerous moment yet to come on the series.
McGarrett came to the rescue by almost running over his teammate
Danny likely didn't realize he was giving audiences a preview of coming attractions when he asked McGarrett if his plan for the pawn shop door was to ram the car through it. But considering the reckless behavior his partner engages in throughout the series, it was only a matter of time before that suggestion became reality.
On the season 7 episode "Wehe 'ana," Danny is guarding a coma patient who has important information about a local cartel. Seeing an opportunity to silence the potential witness for good, the cartel sends a hit squad to take him out and everyone in their way. The cartel hitmen lay siege to the safe house that Danny is hiding the patient in, and quickly begin to gain the upper hand.
That is, until McGarrett crashes into the scene. Literally. After Danny gets a call from his partner asking for help finding the house, there's a honk outside, and then McGarrett's truck blasts through the living room, taking out the hitmen in the process.
This is another reckless action that looks like heroics only because McGarrett got lucky. He had no way of knowing where everybody was in the house, and when he crashed through the wall, he had just as likely of a chance of running over Danny as he did the cartel members. And it's not the only time he took a big gamble involving a moving vehicle.
McGarrett somehow survived jumping off a bridge onto a moving semi-truck
Even though McGarrett's many reckless actions put him and his colleagues in danger, they do come from a place of wanting to help. That was never more true than on the season 7 episode "Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono." While on the trail of a human trafficking operation, the team ends up in a high-speed chase with a semi-truck full of kidnapped young women. Without a way to stop the truck safely, it looks like the traffickers might evade capture.
Things take a turn when McGarrett shifts into X-Games mode. While the truck barrels through a tunnel, he waits at the top for his window of opportunity. When the truck exits, McGarrett jumps from the top of the tunnel and lands on the storage container where the women are being held. Miraculously, he doesn't mess up the timing and splat on the pavement, or roll off, or break a leg in the fall. McGarrett even manages to use a portable welding tool (without proper protective eyewear) to cut a hole in the top of the truck, fight off an armed bad guy, rescue half the women by loading them onto a police truck that drives up from behind, and then detach the trailer from the cab to save the rest — all without any injuries worse than a few scrapes.
Like ramming a car into a house or setting off a grenade in a pawn shop, McGarrett's crazy stunt easily could have gotten nearly everyone involved in the truck chase killed. But thankfully for the citizens of Hawaii and fans of Hawaii Five-0, he's just too good at his job for that. Or extremely lucky. Probably the latter.