Rescue: HI-Surf Season 1 Episode 15 Review: South Winds

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

What a lovely little hour this turned out to be.

Rescue: HI-Surf Season 1 Episode 15 had some decent rescues and solid character work for everyone, which coalesced to craft an engaging hour the show desperately needed.

These hours remind you there’s a great premise under everything, but it’s been too inconsistent.

There were a lot of different storylines swirling around here, and maybe they overstuffed the hour, but it worked. 

Will and Em FINALLY decided it was time to talk, and even though it didn’t go as they may have wanted and they still need to have more extensive conversations, it was a step in the right direction.

Sonny’s a great captain, but even he seemed at a loss as to what to do about the former flames, who were keeping things professional but still existed in a tension-filled bubble they were unable to pop.

There was a great subplot involving Sonny and Laka.

Sonny took Laka under his wing in a very old-school manner, but perhaps more important than Sonny wanting to teach him something, he allowed Laka to teach him.

Sonny can’t be everywhere, and he can’t see everything. He’s not on the beaches and in the towers every day to take stock of everything. Technically, Em is part of his eyes and ears, but he couldn’t exactly ask her about herself.

Checking in with Laka, gathering his assessment of the situation, and taking his advice showed a level of respect and appreciation for Laka that should have filled him with pride.

And maybe it did, but because it’s Laka, he didn’t really let that show.

Instead, he seemed uninspired by the whole thing, like he never saw the point.

And look, if Laka wasn’t feeling the tutorial and the early mornings, that’s his right. He wasn’t wrong to feel how he felt about the situation, but he was wrong for not being open with Sonny and standing him up.

Laka’s biggest problem continues to be his immaturity, even when things aren’t his fault or when he’s not even technically in the wrong. He needed to have that conversation with Sonny if he wanted to have fun and not get up just as the sun was setting every morning.

Sonny’s not some dictator, and he’s shown on numerous occasions that he’s a sharp-shooter and someone who will listen. You may not like what he says, but he’ll take in the information you give him.

When Laka decided that he was going to ghost him, that made him look juvenile, and if Sonny hadn’t called him over to talk about it, who knows if Laka would have even apologized or tried to explain himself.

Laka’s desire to have fun and find an equal balance in his adult life after growing up much too quickly wasn’t the problem, but how he chose to behave was. 

Sonny’s understanding of Laka’s perspective and still wanting to work with him and give him extra responsibility shows how much Sonny believes in him. However, Laka still has some significant growing to do if he ever wants to be in the same stratosphere as someone like Sonny.

Hearing more about Laka’s family gave us greater insight into the man, as did learning about Em’s mom, who showed up just as she and Will were finally getting ready to talk.

Em seemed rather taken aback by Cindy’s presence, and even though we saw a few conversations between mother and daughter, it was never made explicitly clear why the two were estranged.

Em kept repeating that she couldn’t count on her mother and implied that she’d end up disappointing her one way or the other, but there wasn’t much insight into any specific instances from their past that made her feel that way.

Rescue: HI-Surf is becoming pretty notorious now for not divulging much character history. We’re heading into the season’s home stretch, and we still have many unanswered questions about the history of the series’ central romantic pairing, among other things.

It’s perfectly fine to forgo exposition dumps and show instead of tell. However, it sometimes becomes annoyingly frustrating when the series omits things that would be important for an audience to know for seemingly no reason.

If the hour had provided a few lines about Cindy’s past actions, prompting Em’s distrust, it would’ve helped us understand Em’s guardedness, shading in their fractured dynamic.

Instead, we just got them having variations of the same conversation, and Em decided out of nowhere that she wouldn’t be angry anymore because Will said so.

Will and Em’s talk centered more on Cindy’s sudden appearance than on their relationship, but it was better than their continuing to ignore one another.

During their talk, Will made it clear that no matter what happens between them, he’s always going to be Em’s friend, which is nice and all, but he owed her a lot more than that.

If you want to be pragmatic, they were both in the wrong by engaging in their affair. But Will owed Em an explanation about his cold feet and failures. He needs to share his realizations and conclusions with Em now that he’s processed everything.

Perhaps he thought that in the moments following Em and Cindy’s reunion, he should push his feelings aside and be a friend to her, which would be admirable, except they still have this massive chasm that needs fixing.

Em may be busy trying to rebuild with her mother in the short-term interim, but the two still need to have some talks.

They will always put everything aside to do the job as they did in the early rescue of the teenagers. Still, if they want to salvage their friendship, which it seems they ultimately do, they need to put everything on the table in a way they may never have.

Elsewhere during this busy hour, Kainalu found out his dad was selling the condo, meaning he and Hina would no longer be roomies. It was a shame they weren’t able to find something else together.

There’s a slow burn thing happening between the pair, and I am all about watching them slowly come together, but what was the point in splitting up their roommate era now?

Without them moving in together, they may have never become the friends they currently are, which was surely the point, but now what? They both are poised to move back home, which feels like a major step backward for both, and I’m not sure what new storyline it opens up for either of them.

Kainalu briefly contemplating owning a farm at the episode’s end felt highly bizarre, but so do a lot things during any given hour.

RIP to the Kainalu and Hina roommate’s plot! It was fun while it lasted.

Extra Rescue Notes

• Vince was exceptionally irritating and unfunny. He and Will getting up chest to chest and then scrapping in the public bathroom was SO weird. Who does that?

• The fraternity pledge getting borderline alcohol poisoning and being publicly humiliated via hazing was hard to watch. Those kids are lucky they left the beach without all kinds of citations.

• Whatever happened to Rosie? Will she and Kainalu ever have a thing? Or should we forget they ever met?

During this fast-paced hour, many things happened, so there should be much to discuss in the comments!

Leave all your thoughts so we can discuss!

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

Watch Rescue HI: Surf Online