‘Hawaii Five-0’: Longtime Character Leaves Team After Being Shot

The Hawaii Five-0 Season 10 premiere Friday night revealed who was shot in the Season 9 finale and the character who plans to sit out the rest of the season. The episode began right after the finale ended, with the bullet landing in the stomach of Special Consultant Jerry Ortega (Jorge Garcia). Jerry thankfully did not die, and showrunner Peter Kenkov has as long as he is alive, he could always come back.

During the Season 9 finale, McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) was in the line of fire of Azra (Yasmin Dar), the wife of Omar Hassan. Jerry was in the life of fire, too, forcing fans to wonder which one of the main characters was hit by the bullet.

“Ua ‘eha ka ‘ili i ka maka o ka ihe” (“The skin has been hurt by the point of the spear”) began with the bullet puncturing Jerry’s stomach. The episode then jumped ahead two weeks to reveal that Jerry was alive, just still recovering from the wound. Jerry told Junior (Beulah Koale) he was thinking about Dungeons and Dragons at the time of his death and was wondering if that means he has not lived enough.

While he was in the hospital, Jerry continued assisting the team on their investigation. Afterward, Jerry told the team he wants to go back to his normal life.

“Joining the 5-0 has been the best thing to ever happen to me,” Jerry said. “Not just because it gave me a job and a sense of purpose, but… because it gave me an ohana.”

However, the “close brush with death” made him rethink his life. He decided to step away from the team to focus on his “next chapter,” which is to write a book about the connection between the Federal Reserve and the sinking of the Titanic. Jerry offered to help out if they need some special consulting in the future though.

Just because Jerry is stepping away from working with the team full time, fans should not be nervous that he will never appear on the show again.

“I think that we never really say goodbye to anybody on our show unless they’re dead,” Lenkov told Parade. “There are people that may leave, but people come back all the time on the show. I don’t want to give away any spoilers about anybody leaving the show, but unless they’re dead, there’s always that door that’s open for them to come back.”

The season premiere also introduced a new character, Quinn Liu, a former Army CID staff sergeant played by Katrina Law. Lenkov told Parade Quinn was brought in to expand the team with a character who has a “unique skill set.”

“She was former CID, got bumped down to military police, so she’s definitely an investigator. A lot of people that came to Five-0 didn’t come from a traditional law enforcement background,” Lenkov explained. “She does, even though it was through the military, and she really fits in. Why I say that is McGarrett, over the 10 seasons, has collected all these broken toys and turned that into a family, and she fits in perfectly.”

Hawaii Five-0 also stars Scott Caan, Taryn Manning, Meghan Rath, Chi McBride, Taylor Willy, Dennis Chun, Kimee Balmilero, Beulah Koale and Ian Anthony Dale.

New episodes of Hawaii Five-0 air on CBS Fridays at 8 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: Justin Stephens/CBS