By the Numbers

A soldier on R&R from Vietnam (Johnny Crawford as Jerry Franklin) waits for his wife to appear from one of the buses carrying family members, but she never shows. A fellow soldier tries to cheer him up, showing him a winning lottery ticket that he bought, and asking him to do the town with him. Franklin declines the invitation.

But the soldier with the lottery ticket has trouble collecting from the person who sold it, a fight ensues, and the soldier is stabbed to death in the fight. An investigation ensues that draws in a local nightclub owner, Philip Lo, who tells FIve-O that he knows nothing about the killing.

Meanwhile, Franklin, upset that his wife has apparently blown him off, takes up with a prostitute at a local bar. They go to her place, there is a scream, shots ring out, and Philip Lo is shot dead. Although you don't see any of this happen, you only hear it happen.

So the soldier's stabbing is apparently dropped while the search is on for Franklin, who McGarrett thinks was set up to take the fall for Philip Lo's killing. Five-O apparently forgets all about the stabbed soldier even though it was important enough for the governor to tell McGarrett to make solving the soldier's murder a priority. It was an odd case of a pretty big plot hole in a Five-O episode.

When the first original series of Hawaii Five O in 1968, thousands of American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam. Hawaii is the perfect spot for them to relax and recuperate from the trauma of war. The episode begins with a soldier looking for his wife on a tour bus. Another soldier shows him his ticket and goes to collect only to get killed in an alleyway. The first soldier seems heartbroken that his wife hasn't come from Wisconsin while he is on leave. The episode is satisfactory overall. The acting was fine as always.