How to get close to a man who's been wounded and is closely guarded in a hospital? Why not put pressure on his physician -- by kidnapping the doctor's pre-teen daughter if necessary? That's the basic plot of this, the third season opener of "Hawaii Five-O," marking the third match-up of McGarrett and Chinese agent Wo Fat since the show's pilot. But thanks to Ken Pettus' unexpectedly character-driven script, it became something quite different from the usual annual (or occasionally, as in this season, semi-annual) appearance of the best opponent McGarrett ever faced.
Hard-nosed American intelligence agent Sam Kavanaugh (well-played by Gerald S. O'Laughlin, sadly making his final guest appearance in the series) needs the information that a double-agent was bringing to Hawaii before he suffered a near-fatal gunshot wound -- and Wo Fat wants just as much to prevent the agent from ever regaining consciousness. So, he has the young daughter of the agent's doctor kidnapped, and warns him and his wife that if the agent survives the operation, their daughter will not.
It sounds like a pretty grim strategy, but in Pettus' hands it let viewers see a side of Wo Fat that hadn't been portrayed before. Khigh Dhiegh must have been delighted that, for once, his character got to be something besides just a one-dimensional bad guy -- Wo Fat was always charming, of course, but he was also always very much a killer. But here, he first protests to the girl's parents that he would seriously regret having to harm their child, telling them that he's "just as much a victim" as they and their daughter are. Then he assures them that if the doctor does as he's told, they can be certain that no harm will come to her -- using the curious logic that if he failed to keep his word and harmed her anyway, no future threat he might make would have any credibility!
Still, the real value of this script is in the scenes between Dhiegh/Wo Fat and the young girl. The actress playing the girl has little to say (although she does a believable-enough job with what she has). But Wo Fat fills in beautifully, asking her if she plays chess and responding with delight when she says that she does -- "So few women play chess . . . they seem to have no grasp for it!" Later, he tells her that he knew another little girl (strongly implying that it was his sister) who also was afraid when there was trouble in his country in the streets outside their house -- and that he had to calm both her and his mother. Next, he suggests that harm came to his sister when she panicked and ran outside -- actually having to catch himself before his voice breaks.
And finally, when she's fallen asleep, he admits to a henchman that he was trying to let her win the chess game -- without her knowing about it "of course." It's a glimpse of the human Wo Fat that was never seen again in the show, but for those fans who enjoyed all of his encounters with McGarrett, it left a mark that would remain even when his character returned to form. Kudos to Ken Pettus for slowing the story down enough to allow for these character moments -- and to Khigh Dhiegh for underplaying the role as he always did, so that these moments flowed quite naturally from a character so often portrayed as only a cold-blooded killer.
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