Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) Wednesday, Ladies Free (1971) User Reviews

Nice little time waster. One of the better episodes.

[irivlin · 7/10 · 9 March 2024]

SPOILER ALERT.

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS EPISODE.

A silly ending (as is usually the case). Turns out that the private investigator - Jerry - murdered his wife and wants to pin it on the psycho who's going round murdering a specific type of woman.

Towards the final minute of this episode, McGarret accuses Jerry of killing his wife. All Jerry had to do was say "No I didn't". Instead, he fesses up.

They say confession is good for the soul. (But only in Hawaii 5-0)

As my title says, this is one of the better episodes. Hard to believe that Jack Lord died about 25 years ago (it's 2024, as I'm writing this). The killer, who looks so youthful, died about 3 years ago, aged 91. The years are passing by so rapidly....

The script writers seem to insist on putting some kind of twist at the very end. The trouble is that it happens so often, it's lost its impact.

An enjoyable episode with too many plot holes

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 17 March 2010]

This episode is pretty good on one hand, but rather weak on another. On the positive side, the killer's m.o. is pretty weird and creepy. He kills women and then paints them up identically--with blonde wig, tons of makeup and lipstick. The corpses are pretty scary looking, but also look identical due to the murderer's craftsmanship--he's quite the makeup artist...and freak.

As McGarrett and Five-O investigate, they inexplicably allow private investigator, Jerry Rhodes, to follow along and see what they are doing. While Rhodes' own wife was apparently murdered by this same madman, why they would let Rhodes become involved makes no sense--especially since in earlier episodes McGarrett would not even let COPS be involved in cases when their own family members or friends were killed. In season one, a cop whose boxer son is killed is taken off a case. Later, Tom Skerritt plays a cop whose wife is murdered--and McGarrett orders him to take time off work and stay out of the case. And, in season three, Danno's girlfriend (played by Anne Archer) is murdered and McGarrett takes him, temporarily, off the case--as Danny ends up beating up a man in his zest to solve the case! So why let Rhodes become involved when he's only a private citizen?

There also is a problem because on a couple occasions, McGarrett or Rhodes had information or clues that they seemingly pulled out of thin air. How Rhodes was able to locate the killer was painfully difficult to believe and how McGarrett was able to learn that there were two killers seemed to come out of left field as well--making this a weak episode logically. However, because it is still enjoyable, it's worth seeing.

Ok but often dull and boring

[fbm72751 · 4/10 · 6 February 2021]

The premise is fine but for one too much screen time for Monte Markham and not enough of the Five-O team--after all that's why I primarily watched the show. The scenes of the killer doing the make up on the victims are too long and drawn out. I have no qualms about the psycho being pumped full of lead later on. It does have an interesting twist at the end & that being our guest star isn't what he made himself out to be.