I can separate a good Five-O episode from a bad one, by judging how engaged I am with the story. If it's really holding my attention, I know it's a good (or perhaps great) episode. If it's somewhat holding my attention, but I'm frequently annoyed by its flaws, I feel it's an okay episode. If I can't wait for it to be over, or if it's really getting on my nerves, it's a lousy episode.

I was very engaged with "The Listener". For the first half, I was asking myself why I didn't remember it as one of my favorite episodes, especially because of the "full blown psycho" line which was personally connected to me. I thought that perhaps I just didn't appreciate it well enough when I first viewed it while in my mid-20s.

However, as the second half of the episode wore on, I realized why it wasn't a great episode. As Mike noted in his review, it was too repetitive. Cerebrus kept outsmarting Five-O over and over, and in fact Five-O made various bumbling mistakes which allowed him to come out on top.

When Dr. Fowler dropped the bag of cash for Cerebrus, why was the idiotic plan involving two Five-O cars getting off the freeway and trying to find it? Wasn't it obvious he would take the cash and run? Why wasn't the helicopter (seen later in the episode) utilized for this operation? And why didn't they at least make an attempt to sweep the area? It was embarrassing to see the guy still up on the hill, staring at Five-O looking at the empty bag.

And when they came up with the clever hospital ruse, how could they not have just listed the fake patient in official hospital records? Why did they have to manually warn each employee, thus accidentally leaving the chaplain out (who of course Cerebrus chose to call, of all people)?

The way Cerebrus was caught was also a bit disappointing. It was via an old fashioned traced phone call, and the only problem solving involved was guessing whom he'd be calling (which wasn't hard!) I would have much rather that the hospital ruse worked to catch Cerebrus, as at least it was creative and clever!

I knew that it was likely that Cerebrus would at least get punched out at the end. He was too sadistic and obnoxious to where any ending without him feeling physical pain would be unsatisfying.

I think Mike's rating of 3 stars was fitting -- great first half, and not-so-great second half.