Bobbling along on the crystal-blue Pacific sounds like a dream.

But, of course, it was almost a death cruise to nowhere on Hawaii Five-0 Season 8 Episode 9.

Sure, it was one questionable action after another. But that just ramped up the tension.

One woman escaped from a floating deathtrap, and the assumption was that she was an innocent victim who got lucky.

Sure, her story that she woke up and spied a man with a gun, so she beat feet was semi-plausible. That she did it in her cocktail dress,  wrestled free a lifeboat and escaped unnoticed, not so much.

Junior picked the wrong day to shadow the team. He helped Jerry figure out how to zero on the yacht, with bodies lying all over the deck.

Having a bring-your-Junior-to-work day was a clever way to inject him into the action. Next, he'll be the official intern now that Jerry has graduated to a badge-carrying team member. It's like how Eddie is the unofficial mascot and search dog.

Before long, maybe after the hiatus, he'll graduate the Police Academy and slide right in there. After all, he's been around perhaps more than Danny this season.

So soon, Junior and Tani were following everyone's favorite squabbling bros onto the badly misnamed yacht, Serenity. Unfortunately, their latex gloves didn't offer much protection against a Third World-produced bioweapon.

Now, since this storyline had holes you could have driven McGarrett's truck through, there were a few unanswered questions: How did a bioweapons developer from the Ukraine come to be peddling his wares in Hawaii? What possible reason did he have to employ Monique? What were the unnamed buyer's plans for the weapon?

How did the land-based unit of Five-0 go from Adam's "Let me make a call" to busting said buyer and making him set up Monique? Did Adam bust out some rusty Yakuza mind trick? I would have liked to have seen that, but it happened offscreen.

I know. I know. We don't watch this series for the coherent narrative. We watch it for action, and there was plenty of that.

First, there was Monique running away from both Five-0 and a large HPD contingent. They used that well-established cop-show pursuit tactic (borrowed from old Westerns), cutting her off at the pass. Then, her getting shot after stupidly pulling a gun on a dozen officers allowed Grover to dramatically prevent the medics from aiding her while he sweats the antidote out of her.

At least we were spared that chestnut of talking the suspect into surrendering peacefully. She was involved in helping to sell a bioweapon, however badly, so that wasn't going to happen.

But the highlight was the Great Antidote Rescue. Of course, a storm developed just as Grover set out by chopper with the cure. The phrase "We're only going to get one shot at this" pretty much told you how things were going to develop.

First, the cable snapped, causing the case to fall into the roiling ocean. Naturally, McGarrett jumped in after it. But he's not the superhero he once was thanks to radiation poisoning, so McGarrett Junior jumped in after him with a life preserver. Then slender Tani hauled in both their asses.

Yes, I get it, adrenaline. But I figure adrenaline would be canceled out by the bioweapon to which they'd been exposed.

It's not McGarrett hauling a burning cabin out of a forest fire with a chopper on Hawaii Five-0 Season 8 Episode 1, but it's up there on the disbelief scale.

The quiet moments with McGarrett and Danny, when they thought they were dying, were enjoyable, especially with the strains of "Margaritaville" in the background. It naturally didn't last, as they were arguing away in quarantine at episode's end.

I've liked the development of Tani. She's a hybrid character who can complain like Danny and jump into reckless action like McGarrett. Now that she's no longer the low person on the totem pole with Junior's emergence, she's much sassier as well.

She and Junior have an intriguing relationship. They're both insecure newbies on an established team. At times, I think there's a spark between them, but mostly I'm getting a brother-and-sister vibe. It will be interesting to see which way that goes.

Jerry's been cleaned up. I'm hoping that means that he'll be treated as a more serious character, although I still want him to be the team goofball. Just don't treat him as a project anymore.

I'm still not sure about the plans for Adam. There's still no organic way to work him in. He used to run a criminal empire, so he's definitely got a skill set that can be exploited, but how?

19 TV Characters Uninvited from the Family Feast

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SPOILER ALERT: Next week features back-to-back episodes, with Danny in peril in one and the narrator in the other. It's a great chance for viewers to get their Scott Caan fix before the holiday hiatus.

To catch up on the new characters' development, watch Hawaii Five-0 online.

How did you like the new Jerry? Is Junior being worked in properly? What was your most unrealistic moment? Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.