This is a timeline/chronology of characters and events for the Hawaii 5-0 (2010) reboot.
Anyone who wishes to use this may do so. Please message me via Fan Fiction Dot Net's PM service if you have spotted any mistakes or want to add anything I have missed or that needs updating. Please note that I have no way of replying to or contacting "Guest reviewers" unless you have an email address/Fan Fiction account.
This timeline doesn't go much beyond Seasons 1 and 2 in detail, thought all 4 seasons are included (Version 1.1 was completed in January 2014 and in the UK transmission of Season 4 is pending). Also, although NCIS, and NCIS: Los Angeles exist in the same universe as Hawaii 5-0 and there have been a couple of cross-overs, I cannot interweave the NCIS: LA timeline, etc., and stay sane, so this is purely Hawaii 5-0. On saying that, of course, we all know that the events of NCIS Season 10 taking place in Washington D.C. were contemporary with (took place at the same time as) the events of NCIS: Los Angeles Season 4 in LA and the events of Hawaii 5-0 Season 3 in Hawaii. If you want to 'expand' your in-universe or crossover genre writing then you could consider the above to also be contemporary with Numb3rs Season 5 and Castle Season 5 (in-universe) and Warehouse 13 Season 4 (crossover) so forth – at what point does your head explode?
Apology: I read the original request for a Hawaii 5-0 timeline on AO3 at the bottom of a posted story but can't find the author or the story now. If you're out there, I hope you spot this.
This was intended to be a general outline only.
It is somewhat complicated by the fact that the show uses real details, e.g., birthdays, of some of the actors for their characters, but not for others. For example, Scott Caan, Michele Borth, Mark Dacascos, Masi Oka, and Jean Smart all seem to have their real birthdays or ages used, whereas Alex O'Loughlin, Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park, Taryn Manning, William Sadler, Christina Lahti, Teilor Grubbs, Taylor Wily, Dennis Chun, Brian Yang, Chi McBride and Richard T. Jones all seem to have their birth dates/ages "adjusted" to be older or younger than reality.
There's also the fact that for some reason, not sure why, only some of Alex O'Laughlin's tattoos are "canon" – both the two big ones on his shoulders are official, but neither of the two squiggly ones above his nipples are shown on screen; the tramp stamp is semi-official in that originally I think it was banned by the network but everyone forgot about it so every time "McGarrett leaps on a baddie" the viewers can all see he's got it. Oh well, not my problem, that's why you get paid, Continuity Editor of 5-0!
Certain biographic information is also not given "in universe" i.e., on screen during the televised episodes, though some titbits are given in the deleted scenes, but since not everyone has or cannot afford to buy box-sets of TV shows with these additional scenes/commentaries, I have tried to "double source" data from televised episodes that every viewer will have been able to see.
SOAP BOX MOMENT/Channelling my Inner Danny Rant: Why? Why? In Season 4 of A Town Called Eureka a brilliant unknown person whom I shall laud greatly had a wonderful realisation of just how extremely frustrating it is to constantly be bobbing out of an DVD episode to watch deleted scenes and then have to "remember" where they fit in context to make the televised episode (edited for yet another Haemorrhoid Cream advert) make (more/any) sense. This brilliant person then gave us a box set with several extended episodes. It was a thing of beauty to have episodes where you could watch it all the way through without having to bounce around like a rabbit dosed on LSD. Why can this genius not be rolled out across all networks for their TV DVD box-sets? DVDs Don't Have Adverts! So why not reinsert the deleted scenes into the episode Where They Belong. Extended Episodes Rule! And it will also make the DVDs more attractive to buy if you realise you get to see a bit more than "just what was on TV". Okay, moving on:
Key to timeline abbreviations:
S4:15 – S = season, 4 = which season (currently 1-4) and 15 = episode number
Lanakila = title of episode referred to
C. or c. = circa or about
Bef. = Before
Bet. = Between
Aft. = After
? = Query re person or event OR to signify that fact/data/name is unknown/not given in canon
Lt. Cdr. Dr. Capt. – Rank, i.e., Lieutenant Commander, Doctor, Captain, etc.
* = Nota Bene (NB) additional note regarding a specific point
KIA = Killed in Action
OSE/OSEs = Off Screen Event/Off Screen Events – a vital tool for TV shows that only have 40 minutes to tell a story. This is where characters later on in the episode or season or series know information or facts that they were not there to see, hear or learn of first-hand. Viewers presume an OSE where that character was brought up to speed on events to avoid having to gift the character(s) with intermittent psychic powers to explain how they know stuff.
Important: Please see end of timeline for note about the dates given below.
Hawaii 5-0 is a modern, contemporary-set show of the "police procedural" genre (crime-thriller/murder-mystery).
Therefore, aliens, ghosts, vampires, elves, dwarves (of the race of people variety, not the medical condition variety), clones, teleporting, alternate universes (not to be confused with parallel universes which is a bona fide scientific quantum theory) are all Alternative Universe stories – e.g., Doctor Who, Supernatural, Star Trek, Stargate: SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, Sanctuary, The Invisible Man, Moonlight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and so forth.
Crossovers or interactions with shows or other fan-fiction such as Castle, Elementary, Sherlock, Criminal Minds, Lie to Me, The Mentalist, Numb3rs, Magnificent Seven ATF/MCAT AU Fan fiction series, The Sentinel, A Town Called Eureka (and Warehouse 13 possibly) are not AU stories as they exist in this universe. Hawaii 5-0 exists in the same "universe" as JAG, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: Red (pilot), so characters from all three shows exist in Hawaii 5-0, which means that references to or the (guest) appearances of "General Sarah McKenzie" "Cdr. Harmon Rabb Jr", "Harriet and Bud", former SEAL Admiral AJ Chegwidden, Paris Summerskill, Timothy McGee, Jethro Gibbs (Gibbs' dad) et al, are all canonical.
Timeline of people, places, events in the Hawaii 5-0 universe
Updated February 2014:
Before 1932:
Steven McGarrett meets, courts and marries an unknown woman, possibly Texan, possibly named Joan, in view of Season 4? No information regarding Steven McGarrett is given; however, it seems likely that his father's name was John McGarrett.
c. 20th July/mid-July 1932:
Conception of Deborah McGarrett [Carol Burnett] 26th April minus 40 weeks gestation is 20th July. A healthy 'full-term' gestation of a human foetus is considered to be a minimum of 38 weeks, ideally 40 weeks and a maximum of 42 weeks.
26th April 1933: (dies early 2014*)
Deborah McGarrett is born to Steven McGarrett and his unnamed (so far) wife, probably in San Antonio, Texas [Carol Burnett's actual birthday and birthplace.] It is likely she was born on the mainland and not the Hawaiian Islands. In S2;14, John McGarrett uses the name 'Aunt Deb'. I have been unable to locate the episode where I am sure that Mary said "Aunt Em" and I may have misheard it.
In S4:9, Danny says to Steve, 'Your dad's sister?' since Deb has never been mentioned on screen except by John to Steve in flashback, the fact that Danny knows who she is and her relationship to Steve means there must have been one or more OSEs where Steve and/or Mary tell Danny and Kono (Chin Ho already knows who she is, presumably, from being John McGarrett's police partner) who Aunt Deb is.
* Aunt Deb visits Oahu at Thanksgiving 2013, where she advises Mary and Steve of her inoperable brain tumour; since she does not die in the episode, and to my knowledge no funeral has been shown for her – we must assume that she dies in 2014 as surely the show will reference/mention this – perhaps Mary leaves Joan in Danny's care whilst she and Steve attend the funeral – or perhaps, Deb's funeral in LA could/will be used as a crossover episode with NCIS:LA – there Steve and Danny and Mary are, in LA (where Mary used to live and had a scrape or two with LAPD) and they get tangled up (again) with Callen and Co.?
Before 1941:
Steven McGarrett joins U.S. Navy; is a U.S. citizen but his State or Territory (or District of Columbia) of origin is unknown. As of 1941 there were 48 states in the Union (Alaska was made a State in 1959 and Hawaii in 1959). The District of Columbia remains neither a State nor Territory as of 2014. As of 2014 the U.S. has 50 States, 5 major Territories (Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands) and 11 minor territories (comprising of individual Pacific Islands largely small atolls and islets) and one District. In theory, Steven McGarrett could have come from any of them.
Circa 25th May – 8th June 1941:
John McGarrett conceived – John McGarrett born posthumously on 15th March 1942 subtract 38-40-42 weeks = conception c. May/June 1941. Birth date shown on headstone in S1:4 Lanakila is March 15th 1942 to September 20th 2010. (*William Sadler actually born in 1950)
7th December 1941:
Pearl Harbour attack (retaliation by Japanese for Roosevelt's Pacific blockade). Death toll: U.S. Navy & U.S. Marine Corps 2117; U.S. Army: 228; Hawaiian civilians: 57; total American and Polynesian dead = 2402 people. The Japanese lost 32 Air Force and Navy personnel, bringing total dead to 2434.
This does not include persons who died later on in the near or further future as a result of injuries or illness caused by the attack – for example, in the UK, 9 year old Kevin J. Theaker had severe asthma. He died on 30th July 1966 when he watched the Football World Cup and when England scored the 4th goal that won the World Cup, his excitement triggered a fatal asthma attack; on 9/11 a 60-year-old Christian minister who looked out of a window across the river and witnessed the first plane hit the Twin Towers suffered a heart attack due to the shock and died. Persons who died at Pearl Harbour or later due to shock-induced asthma, heart attack or other attack-attributable factor were not counted in the death toll.
The attack largely failed in its aim due to a combination of the bombers missing the factories further inland on Oahu that would enable rapid repair and rebuilding to take place and the fact that the ships harboured at Pearl were by then largely obsolete training ships and the more dangerous modern warships were all out in the wide ocean and so were undamaged.
Officially 4 battleships were actually sunk: the USS Arizona, USS West Virginia, USS Oklahoma and USS Utah.
Of the 2117 Navy & Marines killed, the vast majority were 1177 of the 1400 aboard the Arizona at the time, caused when a bomb directly hit the powder magazine, causing chain-reaction explosions.
There were 34 'pairs' of brothers; including a set of twins (1 KIA, 1 survived) three 'trios' of brothers and one father & son (Thomas and William Free both KIA) serving aboard the USS Arizona at that time, including William (KIA) and Masten Ball (SURVIVED). The famous Sullivan brothers, all five of whom would be KIA aboard the USS Juneau on 13th November 1942, joined the U.S. Navy to avenge the death of William Ball at Pearl Harbour (I am not sure why, unless they were related to him?) Kenneth and William Warriner were the only set of brothers where all survived; all others had all or at least one KIA. In canon, Steven McGarrett was one of the Arizona casualties.
15th March 1942:
John McGarrett is born posthumously at Pearl Harbour Naval Station to Mrs McGarrett. Throughout the series, the character is always referred to as John instead of as Jack by everyone, including his friend Joe White – e.g., S2:1 – except in a flashback scene in S4:13 where Chin Ho is recalling events surrounding his father's murder when John is referred to as Jack. I would suggest either name is okay as they are viewed as interchangeable.
The show's portrayal of John seemed very much to be as an only child in flashback apart from the throwaway line in S2:14, until we get to S4:9.
In Polynesian culture, and the US South, and in British culture, it is traditional for children to refer to wider adult relatives and honorary long-time friends of their parents as "Aunt" and "Uncle" even though the genetic relationship between the adults may actually be cousins, or unrelated long-time friends, etc., so there was scope in fan fic to create a 'relative' who was actually a cousin or unrelated lifelong family friend – like how Steve refers to 'Uncle' Ben Keiko and Troy Ookala in the Hookman remake. As it happens, this wasn't the case as Deb was John's biological sister.
No information on the wider family of Doris or Jack (other than children Steve, Mary and in S4 John's sister, Deb) is given. Both Mary and Steve confirm they were sent to different places by Jack in 1992 (S1) – see entries below for 1992 – which means there could be a second living relative – although whether related to Doris and the other to Jack is unknown.
C. 4th April 1942?:
Possibly birth of Doris Unknown; later CIA agent codename "Shelburne" and Mrs Doris McGarrett. In real life both William Sadler (John McGarrett) and Christine Lahti (Doris) were born in 1950, but it makes sense to make them the same age for ease if you are the poor Continuity Editor or a scriptwriter for the show, and of course for writing fan fic (see also 1952)
c. 4th April 1950?
Possibly birth of Doris, which is Christine Lahti's real birthday. However, this depends on the mythology for the show – see 1964.
c. 13th September 1951
Birth of Patricia Jameson [Jean Smart]
15 July 1952?
Birth of Joseph White in Montana? Jack met Joe in 1976 (S2:1, Ha'i'olei) but if Joe was still actively serving in the US Navy in 2010 as a SEAL instructor at Coronado, he had to be younger than Jack McGarrett by several years, as 1942 + 60 years (maximum retirement age) is 2002. For Joe to still be a Lt. Cdr at nearly mandatory retirement age after an active career as a SEAL, at which point he should be up in the rarefied "gods" territory of Admiral White (e.g., as with Admiral A.J. Chegwidden in JAG), he obviously did what he thought was right rather than followed orders well. When Joe had to take early retirement for helping rescue Steve from North Korea in 2012 he was already at mandatory retirement age anyway.
July 1960:
John/Jack McGarrett is 18 and graduates High School (Kukui High?) presumably joins U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.
26th February 1964:
Wo Fat [Mark Dacascos] is born. John* would have been 22 years old at this point. Although Wo Fat is high level Yakuza in S1, the name Wo Fat is actually Cantonese, and means "sending out" or "sending forth from". Wo Fat's Cantonese name and his Yakuza position may indicate that it is a pseudonym, as in that the Yakuza 'sent him out/forth' to Hawaii.
There is no such language as "Chinese", but there are 7 major Chinese languages plus many dialects. Mandarin (still the official language of China) was once ascendant until the 20th Century, whereas now Cantonese (second of the seven) has become more widespread. In Mandarin 'Wo Fat' is Zhōu Rùnfā. The remaining three to seven languages are Hakka, Min, Wu, Xiang and Gan.
* As of S4, none of Doris's backstory, or even if that is her real name, is known. For many fan fic stories it is easiest to assume she was born in 1942 like her husband, John McGarrett or else that she was born in 1950, as Christine Lahti really was. However, if Doris was born in 1942, she would have been 22-years-old in 1964. Yes, old enough to be Wo Fat's biological mother (although she would also have had to have been CIA to be an Occidental woman in an Oriental culture so soon after WWII). However, if Doris were born in 1950, she would only have been 14 years old in 1964, so could not be Wo Fat's mother. However, whether born in 1942 or 1950, it is also possible that Doris had befriended Wo Fat's real mother and that this woman died and Doris raised Wo Fat until she was reassigned by the CIA and met John McGarrett…and entirely possible that she was Wo Fat's mother but not Steve's – See also S4:2.
After 1964 and before 1992:
Doris supposedly kills Wo Fat's father – whether she did is unknown.
14th June 1969:
Kamekona is born [Taylor Wily/Teila Tuli]
Update February 2014
4th August 1970*:
Chin Ho Kelly is born; one of his parents is Japanese** (S4:10) despite Chin Ho being a Chinese name like Wo Fat. His paternal ancestry is also Irish (Kelly is an Irish name). In real life Daniel Dae Kim is Korean. "Police officer" is apparently the "family business". As of 2011 at least 2 living cousins who are police officers have been seen on the show: Kono Kalakaua and Sid "Liufau"; who as of S1:3*** (04/10/2010) has a wife and 1 year old daughter.
* Daniel Dae Kim was born in 1968, however, softballchic34's review pointed out that that the banner at Chin Ho's High School Reunion read: Welcome back Kukui High School Class of 1989'. Since in the US High School ends at age 18, subtract 19 from June 1989 and you get June 1970. Since Chin (Kim) was born in August, he would have been 18 in August 1988 as he started his final year of High School in September 1988 and would have had his 19th birthday in August 1989, about 6-7 weeks after graduating High School (the same applies to Danny Williams, etc.) so his final year of High School would be when he was age 18 but in his 19th year of life.
** The degree of cousinship between Kono and Chin is not specified, though there is clearly an age gap between them (in real life Kim is 6 years older than Park). Let's assume that they are first cousins, i.e., one parent of each are siblings. If so, since they have different surnames, Chin Ho's mother must be the sister of either Kono's father or mother.
Since Chin Ho has a Japanese parent, this must be his mother, as Kelly is an Irish/Caucasian name. However, Kono's surname Kalakaua is ethnically Hawaiian (Polynesian) so her father is Polynesian not Japanese. The easiest solution is that Kono's mother and Chin's are or were (Chin's father is dead, we have no knowledge of his mother or Kono's parents) full or half-sisters.
If we add in the extra ingredient of the only other cousin we know (Sid, see below), whose surname is also ethnically Polynesian, assuming he is also a first cousin means that his mother is presumably a sister of Kono's father. On saying that, the degree of cousinship could be more distant – in my fan fic story Danny Boy, Sid, Chin and Kono share a mutual great-grandmother of great wit and beauty who had a fondness for sailors and tattoos and a tendency to forget to tell one lover about the existence of the others, which is partly why Chin, Kono and Sid look so different.
*** In S1:3 Sid's surname is never given, but the actor is credited as Sid Liufau.
23rd September 1971*:
Birth of Louis Grover [Chi McBride] in Chicago, Illinois, colloquially known as "Chi (pronounced Shah) town".
* Chi McBride was born in 1961. As with Terry O'Quinn's Joe White character, I thought that about 10 years would need to be knocked off the age for the character to be real life plausible – whilst 42 (early middle-age – see end of timeline for information about dates) is quite reasonable for the character of Lou Grover to be able to up sticks and move to Hawaii and rebuild his police career, 52 (mid middle-age) is far less realistic. Given how close 52 is to the mandatory retirement age of U.S. law enforcement officers** – 57 years contingent upon 20 full years of service – it is simply not believable that a 52-year-old man would restart his career after so many years in his home for the sake of 5 years.
** There are slightly different rules in different states as I understand it, but generally an individual has no choice but to retire at age 57 if they have completed 20 full years' of service – ironically, the only way a dedicated officer can retire after age 57 is if he or she interrupts their service so they need to "make up" 20 full years' service. We know this applies in the State of Hawaii because in S1:15, US Coast Guard Commander Samuel Hale is deliberately made redundant by the State legislature just before he reaches 20 full years of service so they can avoid paying him his old age pension.
11th September 1973:
Jack McGarrett, Troy Ookala, Duke Lukela and Ben Keiko take down a gang of armed bank robbers; Curt Stoner [Peter Weller] becomes 'Hookman' when he has both lower arms blow off by the explosives he was holding. In 2013, Stoner murders Keiko and Ookala.
15th November 1973:
Birth of Grace Tilwell [Sydney Tamiia Poitier] presumably in New Jersey. Killed 9/11
C. 1974 – birth of Michael Noshimuri
27th December 1974:
Max Bergman born in Honolulu – real identity unknown, except that at least one or both parents were Japanese. Adopted parents Bergman which is a Jewish name; Max confides to Danny that his birth mother was murdered by the serial killer "Trashman" and his investigation into the jailed man – Richard Branch – and his expertise as an ME in forensics has enabled him to realise that Branch is innocent (S2:20). All the victims were unmarried mothers who left their babies at the church. It appears that Max's birth mother may have used a pseudonym so his biological family details – parents, grandparents, siblings, etc., are not known to him. Max worries about the medical/hereditary he will pass on to any children in view of his own autistic, OCD and eccentric traits.
© 2014
All applicable parts
The Cat's Whiskers
Continued in Chapter 2…
Update February 2014 posted 9th February 2014