So I re-watched S11E18 "The Execution File" recently and I came away with something.
During the episode, Russ Hendrix (Robert Loggia) metes out his own version of justice due to the kidnapping and eventual death of his teenage daughter some time before.
In the mix is Lureen (Kaki Hunter), who reminds Russ of his own daughter. ... Or does she?
There's obviously a stronger relationship between the two as the episode goes on and Lureen spells it out for us at the end after Hendrix has been killed by a hired assassin (he doesn't die right away, he collapses at a criminal mastermind's place then dies).
It's this scene that I made my observation. Russ tells McGarrett as he lays dying that he's no better than Maggers (John Larch) who was the criminal behind the three pimps Hendrix killed in the show.
Well, yeah! Lureen's back story was that she was raped and beaten about a year before when she was 15. That would put her at 16 but Hendrix is far older, probably pushing 50 character-wise. I get they were trying to show that Hendrix genuinely cared about the girls he felt he was "rescuing" but I think the writers could have come up with something a bit better.
Out of curiosity, I checked out IMDb. Loggia was born January 3, 1930, so his real-life age matched to Hendrix well. Hunter was born November 3, 1955 making her about 23 at the time of filming.
I think if the writers made Lureen a bit older, the relationship between her and Hendrix would have made more sense and been less creepy. The way it is, Hendrix comes across as something of predator, albeit of different stripes, than the guys he literally gunned for.
I wonder if this isn't one of those things that looking back through the lens of today doesn't take it out context in some fashion.
Thoughts?![]()