Opals are Forever? At least 50 years!

[Bobbi]

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"!!!

[JeffH]

Don Knight is one of my favorite Five-O bad guys, and one of the very few to span Seasons 1-12 with his appearances.

[ringfire211]

Yep even in the terrible “The Kahuna” in season 12 Don Knight was the sole bright spot. He sure knew how to play a crazy twitchy bad guy really well!!!

[Mr. Mike]

From my review:

While Don Knight has typically pushed the envelope with his characters in previous episodes of the show, in this show he goes totally off the wall in a scene which must be seen to be believed, threatening Lynch with a gun and touching her in a creepy manner while hysterically blabbing away about having murdered the kids, who were threatening a multi-million dollar coral harvesting operation he was undertaking off the kapu beach. For the benefit of theater students who want a audition speech along the lines of "act completely crazy for two minutes and 20 seconds," here is the whole thing:

(Lamb tells Lynch at gunpoint...) Get in the car. We're going for a little drive. Get in. Come on. Get in. In the car. In. (She gets in the passenger seat.) All this trouble because I thought the rain would take care of the tracks. I found a bed of angel skin coral off Ilima Beach. Do you know what angel skin coral is? (She nods her head "No.") Some of the most precious coral in the world. There's a bed of it worth a million dollars out there. (Lynch: Is that why you killed the kids? They discovered your secret?) (He looks incredulous.) What else could I do? This modern generation, they wouldn't respect the kahuna's kapu. They wouldn't stay away. (Screaming) What else could I do?! (Lynch: So he's in it with you?) (He doesn't know what she is talking about.) Who? Kahuna? Kahuna? (He laughs hysterically.) No. No. I was lucky there. He put the kapu on before I found the coral. (Laughs again.) (Lynch: I see.) (He looks aside.) Technically, the coral belongs to Trans-Allied. (He sneers.) They're rich enough. They own everything. The bloody emporium. (Closes his eyes and yells.) I've put in 25 years behind that counter. They don't understand. They don't care. They don't... They don't care. Do you know why they call it angel skin? Its color is so much like the color of the skin of a beautiful woman. (He touches her face.) Soft, gentle, fragile. Oh, what a bloody waste. (She jerkily moves away from him.) Twitch and I'll blow your bloody head off. You sit still. You and me, we're gonna take a little ride together. Don't try a thing. (He grabs her chin.) Smile! (She bares her teeth in a phony smile.) Nice. Nice. Nice.

[ringfire211]

Good job bringing up that scene, Mr. Mike. As I said nobody does crazy like Don Knight!! He’s a joy to watch, even when he’s overacting to the hilt!

[epaddon]

Don Knight basically kept playing variants of his evil henchman role on "The Immortal" for the next decade in all his guest shots on other shows.