How ‘Hawaii Five-0’ Landed Chuck Norris for Its Penultimate Episode

There are only two episodes left of CBS’ long-running Hawaii Five-0 before we get a final “Aloha” and viewers will see how it concludes in next Friday’s finale.

But in this week’s episode (which was originally scheduled to air in a two-hour block with the finale on April 3, but bumped up due to the NCAA championship cancellation), Lt. Cmdr. Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) receives a posthumous letter from his mother, Doris (Christine Lahti), which contains a cypher that everyone seems to want. Case in point: McGarrett’s right hand, Danny (Scott Caan), is attacked by someone willing to kill to get their hands on that cypher.

The episode also marks an appearance by TV veteran Chuck Norris (Walker, Texas Ranger), a guest star executive producer Peter Lenkov has had his eye on for awhile.

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“I’d been trying to get him on the show for years,” Lenkov tells TV Insider. “His son [Eric Norris] is our stunt coordinator and Chuck is in Hawaii all the time.

“Every time I’ve asked, it’s just the logistics didn’t work for whatever reason. I think I just begged so many times that he just had mercy on me and did it,” he adds.

CBS

In the episode, Norris plays what Lenkov calls “the perfect role for him.”

First, we have to meet the character of Lincoln Cole (Lance Gross) who comes in and, we’ll find, was trained by Norris’ character, retired Sergeant Major Phillips. “Joe White trained McGarrett and I wanted somebody with just the same kind of weight of that. So if he trained Lincoln Cole, he definitely was trained by the best,” he says.

Hawaii Five-0, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS