“Hawaii 5-0” is over. M6 broadcast the season 10 finale this evening, which also serves as the conclusion to the series. But before the cancellation, the writers had thought about a possible season 11. This is what would have happened in the sequel.
Attention, the following paragraphs contain spoilers on the end of season 10 of Hawaii 5-0 broadcast this evening on M6! If you don’t want to know anything, don’t read on!
After 10 seasons and 240 episodes, Hawaii 5-0 ended in April 2020 in the United States on CBS and this Saturday July 24 in France on M6, offering a nice conclusion to its hero, Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) , who, freed from questions about his family background, ended up leaving Hawaii in the company of Catherine Rollins (Michelle Borth), his ex-girlfriend. Certainly promises a bright future.
But this tenth season of the hit detective series was not originally intended as the last and it was only by learning quite late of the chain’s decision to put an end to the adventure that showrunner Peter M. Lenkov made some tweaks to the final episode’s script to turn it into a satisfying series finale.
In particular, leaving aside a few cliffhangers which were in theory to open towards a season 11, as he revealed to the American site TVLine last year: “There are a handful of little cliffhangers that had to be cut. In all there are 12 minutes of this episode that we didn’t use”. So what would Hawaii Five-0 Season 11 have looked like if it had seen the light of day?
A new member in the team… and a return?
The first element revealed by Peter M. Lenkov concerns the new kid Lincoln Cole, played by Lance Gross in the last two episodes of season 10, who would have become a regular and would have joined the ranks of the team full-time in season 11 since McGarrett asks him in the finale “to ensure permanence in his absence”.
“I’m a huge Lance fan and I think he would have been great as a new member of the team”, says the showrunner and creator of the series. But according to him, the rest of the series would not necessarily have happened without McGarrett since he admits that in a “ideal world” Steve reportedly returned to Hawaii after “travelled the planet like in Kung Fu”.
“He needed a moment to breathe, so the idea was to see him leave for a while and then come back. And if we could have done season 11 we would surely have shot the first two episodes without him”, continues Lenkov. Because even if it had been announced that Alex O’Loughlin wanted to stop this year anyway, Peter Lenkov seems convinced that the channel and the studio could have changed his mind: “If the studio had wanted to continue with a season 11, I have to think that they would have tried everything to make it stay”.
Karen Neal / CBS
Complications for Tani, Junior, and Adam
As for the other characters, a cliffhanger at the end of the last episode of season 10, deleted by Peter Lenkov, would have opened up a new plot for Junior (Beulah Koale) and Tani (Meaghan Rath), probable source of complications in their relationship. .
“Remember, Junior had killed her ex’s boyfriend in season 9 and Tani would have discovered that his guilt caused him to provide for Layla”, reveals the showrunner of the series. “It’s a plot that would have continued in season 11”.
And Adam (Ian Anthony Dale) would have seen his future darken and would have had to face the consequences of his actions towards Kenji. “Adam was reportedly visited by a Yakuza who basically said, ‘What you did to corner Kenji is against all of our principles, so we’re going to stop protecting you.’ little cliffhanger”.
But following the announcement of the cancellation of Hawaii Five-0 by CBS, Peter Lenkov therefore dropped these openings to the sequel and chose to rewrite the finale in order to offer a more closed and “definitive” ending. to his characters.
The Hawaii 5-0 finale trailer, also available on Salto: