Tonight 50 years ago, CBS aired "Flash Of Color, Flash Of Death" S06E09 of Hawaii Five-O.

They say diamonds are forever; maybe opals are too!

An Australian importer named Jeffrey Hobbs (Don Knight) enters Hawaii with a literal boatload of opals. He's out to off load them quick, including a bunch that aren't registered. This isn't Hobbs' first rodeo either as he knows how to quickly clear Customs with a set of registered opals.

Hobbs meets with Haggai (Kenneth Ing) to sell the opals but the pair are immediately robbed as they try to go about their business.

Hobbs is hit in the head and only sees the getaway car through blurry eyes. However, the plate is clear enough. He traces it to a kid who owns a VW Bug but it's the wrong car. This leads Hobbs to a auto shop where one of the robbers works. He makes up a fake story about tracking down a buddy, in this case Lee Franks (Raul Rojas). Hobbs catches up to Franks and shoots him dead.

This is where Five-O begins to close in on Hobbs. The key to everything is Haggai's assistant, Miyoshi Akura (E. Lynne Kimoto). She set the entire events in motion, as she knows the robbers, especially Hal Webber (Al Avalon). Webber and Franks work at the same garage run by a guy named Willis (Robert Basso).

Willis meets a nasty end getting hit by a dump truck as he trying to escape Hobbs. Hobbs isn't a nice character as he gets his revenge on Akura by locking in her in the vault near the end of the episode. He also intervenes with Akura and Webber's attempted sale of the stolen opals to Hoffmeyer (George Herman).

In the end, Five-O tracks everybody down and recover all the opals including the unregistered ones. Hobbs loses out all the way around and he deserves it!

Mr. Mike's review is here: https://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log6.htm#129

This is a solid episode and again, not one my favorites. It does have parallels with the later episode "Ring Of Life" also guest-starring Don Knight. Not exact copies, but close enough!

I did like the kid with the VW Bug. Although he wasn't on screen long, he gave us a taste of the average person on the street.

Happy 50th, "Flash Of Color, Flash Of Death"!!!