Hawaii Five-0 – Pa Make Loa / NCIS: Los Angeles – Touch of Death

• Title: Hawaii Five-0 – Pa Make Loa
• tv.com: link

With McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) still off on his own mission to find Shelburn and Joe White (Terry O’Quinn), Five-0 is called in to investigate a man who apparently died of smallpox. To help them in the  investigation a NCIS task force from Los Angeles (Chris O’Donnell, LL Cool J) arrives on the island tracking a terrorist (Craig Robert Young) who may be responsible for infecting the victim and putting the entire island at danger from an epidemic.

Kono (Grace Park) is able to discover the victim was part of an exmperimental drug trial for depression, but when Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Danny (Scott Caan) try to talk with the scientist in charge of the study, to see if could lead back to the man being infected with smallpox, all they find is another dead end.

Tracking the victim’s movements Five-0 discovers three other subjects from the study who may have been targeted and infected with smallpox without their knowledge, but by the team the finds them and the bad guys’ sophisticated secret base its too late. Using a play from McGarrett’s playbook Danny finds a way to coerce the location of the virus from the one member (Enver Gjokaj) of the crew they were able to capture.

Although Five-0 is able to stop Comescu, the doctor working on the project has already double-crossed his partners and made it to Los Angeles with all nine vials of the virus. The crossover works well enough, but I have to take issue with CBS deciding to make it a two-parter on both shows which is more than a little awkward (especially for those, like me, who don’t usually watch NCIS: Los Angeles.

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• Title: NCIS: Los Angeles – Touch of Death
• tv.com: link

Chin (Daniel Dae Kim) and Danny (Scott Caan) accompany Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Sam (LL Cool J) back to Los Angeles on the trail of Dr. Prodeman (Rob Benedict) who has already made it safely onto the mainland. Kensi (Daniela Ruah) and Marty (Eric Christian Olsen) to discover the identity of the woman who died on the flight and her connection to the man carrying a weaponized version of the smallpox virus and figure out what Prodeman has planned for the virus.

Although Sam and Chin are able to grab the doctor it turns out his involvement is only periphery to the case and has already turned the vials over to the doctor (Helen Eigenberg) behind the creation of the virus. Knowing the doctor plans to flee the country the next morning the need to find her only intensifies after Marty finds Revelations scripture about mass death and the end of the world written in large letters on her office white board.

The NCIS team tracks the doctor’s connection back to a militia group as well as some disturbing professional articles postulating that pandemics are a natural and necessary part of the evolutionary process. Her target – an international conference of students who will unwittingly spread the virus around the world.

Each episode let’s that show’s cast carry the story (the focus of changes slightly as the possible pandemic jumps shows) while still giving the guest-stars prominent roles. Not doubt I might have liked the second episode more if I was a regular viewer of the show, but the episode does a fair job of introducing the characters to new viewers. It’s not likely to get me to watch any more episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, but as a one-time thing the crossover works.