Rescue: HI-Surf Season 1 Episode 18 Is The One Where Everything Gets Complicated

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

The penultimate hour of Rescue: HI-Surf turned out to be a rather sad event overall, leading you to wonder how things will ultimately play out for the finale.

Everyone was doing their own thing in certain ways, as there was no big rescue bringing everyone together, but there was a lot of learning going on. That’s the best way to describe the events, honestly.

Everyone learned something during Rescue: HI-Surf Season 1 Episode 18, but what will it all amount to moving forward? Well, that’s anyone’s guess.

This week’s most captivating storyline was about Kainalu and, by extension, Hina, as we FINALLY saw Hina express her feelings for the man who has slowly wormed his way into her heart all season long.

But before we get into the love confession gone horribly wrong, we have to discuss Kainalu and Daddy Emerson because this may be one of the first times I ever understood something the older Emerson preached.

Kainalu put a lot of time and effort into securing the land for the yurts, and he wasn’t just flying by the seat of his pants at all. He had plan, figures, and everything mapped out to a tee, yet his father’s first inclination when brought to the land was to laugh in his face.

And look, Daddy Emerson is a career politician, and this is much more his wheelhouse than Kainalu’s, but would it kill him to tell Kainalu he was proud of him upfront instead of waiting until he’d already hurt his feelings?

Kainalu is a good person; from everything we’ve seen, he’s also a good son. So, every time Daddy Emerson insists on knocking him down, it’s incredibly disheartening, especially when Kainalu seems mainly driven by a desire to help.

But having said all that, I did understand why Daddy Emerson had reservations. You should always be prepared for disruptions.

That doesn’t mean you need to go into every business decision expecting the sky to fall, but you should always be prepared if it does.

It’s not that Kainalu was unprepared per se, but he had all his ducks in a row and couldn’t really see beyond that.

When things with the water fell through, Kainalu immediately invoked the name of his father, and as much as it pained him to have to use that card and show his dad that he was unable to do everything on his own, he did it because again he was trying to help people.

People who were depending on him.

I appreciated that Daddy Emerson didn’t just shoot Kainalu down and tell him that he wouldn’t help him get fast-tracked to the top of the list just because he was being petty but instead showed him exactly why he couldn’t pull any strings for him.

Kainalu’s trying to do a good thing, but so is Daddy Emerson. And there are probably many other people on that list who are also trying to help, and Kainalu will have to wait his turn like everyone else.

But now while he waits, he can try to ensure that he has a solution for every other improbable hurdle that may appear in his path.

I felt terrible for Kainalu because he did put so much effort into everything, and considering how bummed he was about the situation, Hina could not have picked a worse time to admit she had feelings for him.

Hina has always liked Kainalu. Maybe it wasn’t love at first sight or anything, but she was always attracted and intrigued by him. She just never let herself feel it or admit it until now.

It’s not uncommon for your feelings to kick you in the gut when the object of your desire finds someone else, but this situation was especially messy because Rosie and Hina had a friendship first.

Hina tried to leave them alone, both to protect herself and to be respectful, but she hit her breaking point when Rosie asked her about inviting Kainalu to move in.

Time is hard to decipher on this series, so it’s unclear how long Kainalu and Rosie have been dating, but there’s no way it has been more than a few months at most.

I don’t doubt that Kainalu likes Rosie, but moving in together? Yes, he does need a place to stay, but are they at the stage in their relationship where that makes sense for them?

It’s hard to say, and Hina didn’t even give Kainalu a chance to absorb the information because she told him in conjunction with her feelings reveal, and it left Kainalu rightfully pissed off.

I love Hina, but that love confession was not great, and she had no comeback for anything he said because she wasn’t thinking about anyone but herself when she blurted it out.

Kainalu was mad because he’d hoped for Hina to return his feelings, but she seemingly only did so once he became unavailable. As the audience, we know she cared for him much longer than that and was scared.

However, he doesn’t know that, and a shellshocked Hina doesn’t defend herself.

My guess for the finale is that Kainalu will either double down on things with Rosie, letting his fear and anger win out, or he’ll take the chance and follow his heart, which has always been with Hina.

They better not leave us on a cliffhanger!

Speaking of following one’s heart, Em and Will are still awkward with one another, though this may be the first time Will has been open and honest with Em since we met the pair this season.

Em pumped the breaks on them, and Will didn’t understand that, so he verbalized that, which was a step in the right direction. It was so small, but it felt like a big step for Will to just express something for once!

But the Em drama had to be put on the back burner for Will because he got sued and suspended all in one day.

Vince was bad news from the minute he showed up during Rescue: HI-Surf Season 1 Episode 15. He was a bit too brash and overbearing, and his first impression was god-awful.

Did I think he was a drug dealer? No, but the more we learned about him, the more it became obvious that while he was a competent lifeguard, he had a whole other life going on, and it maybe wasn’t all on the up and up.

I’m surprised it took Will seeing that man overdose to finally believe Vince was dealing, but I guess that’s the kind of man Will is. Laka was always weary of Vince, and maybe there was some jealousy involved, but he could still tell there was something off about him, and the first suspicion was enough for him.

Will needed proof, and he didn’t even need to go to Vince to give him a heads-up. He didn’t deserve that courtesy.

The timing of all of this was horrendous because Will didn’t know that Sonny and Vince had just spent the entire day reconnecting and reaffirming their decades-long friendship, but at his core, Sonny isn’t a man who could turn his cheek at this.

This is life or death; their whole crew would go down if Vince were caught. Sonny has shown himself to be a good man, and no matter how much he may care for Vince, it’s hard to see him putting that above the hardworking people he works beside.

Vince had no respect for the job or what could happen to Sonny, and Sonny should show him the same courtesy back.

Elsewhere, Em was trying to escape the drama, and she met Max, a likable guy struggling in the aftermath of his best friend’s death and trying to fulfill a promise he made to him.

I loved that there was an organization that helped disabled veterans surf, and Em was the perfect person for it because she has a positive and helpful spirit.

Will would also be good at it, and I kept thinking about how working together would be so beneficial for that program.

But I digress. Em helped Max in many ways that day, and I felt for Max because you could see he was masking his pain and anger behind comedy and flirting, which can only take you so far when someone won’t let you get away with it.

Em was patient with him, and the two found a way to connect as the day continued. When they were talking afterward, I thought she would have an epiphany about life being short and then run into Will’s arms.

But luckily, it did not go that way.

That’s not to say we won’t lead into that in the final hour of Rescue HI-Surf Season 1, but until these two talk, I don’t want to see any more kissing or reconciliations from them!

Extra Rescue Notes

• Laka was hilarious throughout the episode, but perhaps none more so than when he told Will and Em they should split the wedding money Will is being sued over.

• Imagine you’re out skateboarding, you fall, almost die, and THAT’S how you find out you have a brain tumor.

• Does Rosie really not see that Hina is into Kainalu? I know Hina denied it, but she’s behaving oddly, and I struggle to see how Rosie could be missing that.

There is only one more hour to go this season!

In the comments, let me know how you felt about this one and what you’re looking forward to seeing in the finale!

You can watch Rescue: HI-Surf on FOX at 9/8c on Mondays.

Watch Rescue HI: Surf Online

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