Steve McGarrett has built a true family in Hawaii as the leader of the Hawaii Five-0 Task Force. He has built this family out of “broken pieces” that fit together to create the ultimate crime-fighting team.
However, McGarrett’s real family plays into tonight’s episode of Hawaii Five-0 on CBS. Doris McGarrett makes her return to the show tonight, as Steve and his mother face off in a tense situation.
Who is Doris McGarrett?
Portrayed by Academy Award-winner Christine Lahti, Doris McGarrett has played a very important role in Hawaii Five-0 without appearing on many episodes.
See, she is not only Steve McGarrett’s (Alex O’Loughlin) mother, but he thought she had been dead for 20 years.
Doris was a former CIA agent who retired to raise her family but then had to fake her own death in a car bombing in order to protect her family from a man named Wo Fat (Mark Dacascos).
See, she killed Wo Fat’s mother when she was with the CIA and that put a target on her head from him when he grew up.
In the Season 2 finale, after Steve put Wo Fat in prison, he was sent to a house in Japan to meet the mysterious Shelburne and stood face-to-face with his mother, realizing that she was still alive.
Season 3 then featured Doris McGarrett in a large role as she worked with her son before leaving at the end of that season.
In Season 4, Doris disappeared and Steve began to fear that she was dead, but then learns at the end of the season that Doris killed Wo Fat’s mother and she took him in as a son-like figure after that.
However, physically, Doris did not return to Hawaii Five-0 until Season 7. In the 150th episode of the show, Steve went to Morocco to rescue his mom after he learned she was detained there while trying to break Wo Fat’s father, Yao Fat (George Cheung), out of the facility.
Steve helps break Yao Fat out and helps his mother escape. In Season 8, Steve learns that his mother is back with the CIA.
Preview of Hawaii Five-0: Ka ‘i’o
In some nice trivia, Steve McGarrett himself directs the new episode, as actor Alex O’Loughlin takes the director’s chair in an episode where he goes off the grid to save his mother.
The CIA comes to Steve and tells him that Doris McGarrett has gone rouge and might have killed her own partner. This sends Steve to Mexico by himself to try to find and save his mother.
Based on the teaser for the episode, Doris is as secretive and combative as ever before with her son.
Hawaii Five-0 airs on CBS on Friday nights at 8/7c.