Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) I'll Kill 'Em Again (1974) User Reviews

This is one to see...

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 14 August 2011]

Every season of "Hawaii Five-O", there are a few episodes that are must-sees--ones that you long remember and can enjoy repeatedly. "I'll Kill 'Em Again" is definitely one from season seven. Danny Goldman's performance as the villain has a lot to do with this.

The show begins with Eddie (Goldman) breaking into an apartment. Once inside, he repeatedly looks at a copy of a magazine article--he wants to get every detail of the crime he's about to commit just right. After stabbing a lady to death in this apartment, the killer sends a postcard to McGarrett with a victim's name on it. Oddly, it's NOT the name of the person he just killed but the name of a famous case Five-O worked on four years ago. It seems the guy is a copycat killer--and he's gotten this crime from a magazine. However, the guy isn't interested in doing just one crime--and it turns out that there were dozens of articles from this same series that Eddie has to go!

I like this one because it focused on the psychological--with a clearly disturbed killer. Plus, it was just much more memorable and interesting than the typical crimes on this show. I also LOVED the ending, as Eddie HAD to win in his fight with McGarrett. And, in a way, he does! Well done all around...although the correct diagnosis for Eddie would probably be Paranoid Schizophrenia AND Antisocial Personality, as he really had no regard for others or their pain. The doctor on the show indicated only Paranoid Schizophrenia...not that it matters.

Intense

[samwa-27311 · 9/10 · 10 July 2019]

Goldman does an excellent job of playing the psychotic.

Do not look at the quotes section, because it contains a real bad spoiler.

Good music also.

Copycat Serial Killer

[jn-02940 · 10/10 · 20 January 2022]

In this episode Eddie Joseph's played by Danny Goodwin plays a shy young man turned serial killer who's obsessed with copying other murders. Hawaii five 0 solved.

A bit sensationalist

[VetteRanger · 6/10 · 17 March 2023]

Of course I've seen this episode probably three times before ... first run and a time or two in syndication, so that my influence my idea that it's not the most original writing the series ever came up with.

A copycat killer has to prove that he's smarter than Steve McGarrett, then makes a basic serial killer mistake to put 5-0 on his trail.

In the meantime, the actor ... who specialized in quirky and disturbing roles ... does a good job of being as quirky and disturbing as he can be.

The entire premise and plotting is as simplistic as it could possibly be. You get sensational murders, and 5-0 can't solve them until it does. Ho hum.

Hollywood wet dream

[pmicocci-18908 · 4/10 · 22 October 2021]

Copycat killers are largely an invention of yellow journalism and Hollywood. Any article you find on the subject is likely to mention the same five or six cases, dating back to sensationalist yellow rags in the early 20th Century. The others will refer to the last several decades of the same century, based on a handful of Hollywood movies.

Why would a serial killer be motivated to copy someone else? There have been a handful of murders where the perpetrator claimed to have been influenced by this or that movie, by they were as likely to have been claiming so in view of a defense.

And who would actually believe that the skinny little antagonist of this episode would be capable of strangling an adult woman? Perhaps if had garrotted her by surprise from behind, but not face to face. It's not that easy to do, it takes at least several minutes to do, and the guy weighs about 97 pounds; an adult woman would stand a very good chance of fighting him off, but of beating the crap out of him in the process.

Poor Eddie

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 29 November 2023]

I am not an expert about copycat killings, so I cannot comment on that aspect of the plot as others have. But I do think it's a bit out of left field for a young man to suddenly want to kill people in the same way they had been killed before, without any real motive. It would make more sense if this was an old foe of McGarrett's who was using the information contained in the magazine articles to commit similar murders to throw McGarrett off balance, while setting up another crime. There needed to be a real reason to all this.

I don't quite buy the scenes where they trot out the psychiatrist, Dr. Judith Patrick (Linda Ryan) and she spouts a bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo to explain why this is happening. She's never met Eddie Josephs (Danny Goldman), and knows absolutely nothing about his life, so for her to make pointed observations and for McGarrett to just accept what she is saying as gospel is unrealistic. At best, she would just be theorizing, based on preconceived stereotypes about mentally ill people.

I did like the subplot involving the bookstore owner (Ivor Francis) who kept trying to give Eddie another chance to be a model employee. I figured he'd become one of the victims, but it was still nice to see someone who tried to help Eddie before Eddie's crimes really spun out of control.

It didn't seem plausible, though, that Beecham the bookstore owner would have already given Eddie's replacement a set of keys to open the store if he wasn't there. After all, she had only worked there for a day and a half! Also, the fact that she would just open up the place and start her shift without knowing that Beecham had been killed or at least wondering where he was, seemed silly.

Finally, I think the plot's biggest weakness was when McGarrett and Danny learned Eddie's address then went to his apartment. And from there, they were able to figure out where his next murder was going to take place? Even if they knew the next victim would be a prostitute, there would have been dozens of prostitutes and motels/hotels in the area...too many to narrow down so quickly. The idea that they could find the right place and the right room just as Eddie was starting to strangle the hooker was a huge leap!