'Hawaii Five-0' Season 8: Are Kono, Chin, Steve Leaving Five-0? O'Loughlin to Direct an Episode in Upcoming Season
The Five-0 Task Force might have done the best they could to bring one part of a human trafficking ring down on the season finale of "Hawaii Five-0." But where Officer Kono Kalakaua (Grace Park) is concerned, their best will never be enough.
Although helping 10 girls get back to their families was indeed a huge accomplishment, in the wider scale of things, it barely made a dent. This was what Kono felt when they convened back at the Five-0 headquarters after an intense rescue mission that only brought them to the realization that there's so much more work to be done in dozen other states and in a hundred other hubs.
Five-0 will do everything they can to help, but Kono feels she can do a lot more aboard a plane bound for Carson City, Nevada, where one of the human trafficking hubs were located. Will this mission take the youngest member of the task force away from the team for good? Will she be able to stop herself from pursuing this cause beyond Carson City?
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On the other hand, Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin), the fearless seemingly invincible leader of Five-0, may be on the verge of a health-related predicament. The end of season 7 also left his fate in question when he admitted to Danny Williams (Scott Caan) that he has acquired radiation poisoning when they dealt with that dirty bomb from months ago. And although he also assured Danny that he's not going anywhere anytime soon, this revelation has nevertheless put McGarret's fate in question.
O'Loughlin has reportedly been throwing hints that he might leave the show after season 8, but series creator Peter M. Lenkov has already dismissed the idea of McGarrett leaving Five-0 in a recent Tweet saying, "I wouldn't bet on that."
One thing's for sure; O'Loughlin is all set to direct an episode in the upcoming eighth season. In an interview with Collider late last year, the actor said that since he's on set everyday and has pretty much learned how to shoot scenes and tell a story, he believed it wouldn't be "that foreign" for him to sit on the director's chair.
"After all this is over, I hope directing is a part of my career," O'Loughlin said.
One other question left by season 7 is Chin Ho Kelly's (Daniel Dae Kim) decision on whether or not to accept a pending offer to head his own special task force akin to Five-0 in San Francisco. And since the medical drama Kim developed with David Shore has been picked up by ABC, this raised the question of whether or not the actor will be staying as a regular on "Hawaii Five-0."
But this is a notion that Kim himself is quick to dismiss.
"They're independent of one another," Kim told TV Guide. "Acting and producing are reflective of two sides of my career that I'd like to continue to pursue. I'm equally passionate about both," he added.
"Hawaii Five-0" will return later this year for its eight season on the same Friday timeslot at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
