Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5.0
4.5
This is the amount of time I can stick to every week.
The perfect blend of action laughs, relationship exploration, and drama makes HI-Surf Season 1 Episode 4 the best hour yet.
Have they found their footing? It’s probably too early to tell, but this is exactly the kind of episode the show should be aiming for.
So far, the series has relied on big overall saves to open things up or dominate most of the way. Here, a series of rescues feels more like 9-1-1 or a similar program, where various emergencies occur and allow for different forms of rescue.
This approach allows for action while also injecting some humor into things. They even meet a potential love connection while saving lives.
Em is a capable, business-focused team player who goes above and beyond. She’s the lifesaver you want on your team and I almost wonder if her team knows how lucky they are to have her.
The first time she rescues two people caught in an ill-advised sand trap, Em puts her nursing skills to use, a move that impresses firefighter Sean so much that he looks at Em like she’s Like the most impressive man he had ever met.
I just care about them giving them life and romance outside of the overall desire for Will, which isn’t overdone but is still very much there. The longing look in their eyes and the smile that doesn’t reach their eyes will tell you that these two have not forgotten each other.
Although Will appears to have broken up with Julie (they are engaged, after all), he still looks at Em with a twinkle in his eye at all times. They’re more subtle, but not so subtle that neither side seems to want to get over the other.
Sean is nice, likable, and a natural flirt, which never hurts. He expresses his interest and then lets Em reciprocate or decline.
They haven’t established Em and Will and their “love story” in case they get reunited at some point, but Em deserves to have some fun and spend a good night with a man who’s interested in her.
It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.
Especially during the proceedings, it’s something that’s been bothering Sonny and Em since Rescue HI-Surf Season 1 Episode 1, and hit Sonny as he weighs whether to go to Zion Memorial.
Juxtaposing the lawsuit and the parents’ pain with the grief and loss Sonny felt over Zion’s death was an interesting way to break down how Sonny felt and how many people felt after they felt they were responsible for the tragedy.
What happened to that little boy was a tragic accident, and while a critical mistake was made, it’s unclear if the outcome would have been different. It will be up to the courts to decide issues such as liability as the case progresses.
But Sonny was not satisfied with this. This was completely different from his previous performance, and his performance was more careless.
At this juncture, it appears Sonny and Em have swapped places or something in their responses to the lawsuit. Sonny marches to the family’s home to plead his case, while Em doesn’t even bother to hire a lawyer.
I understand what Sonny was thinking, but he was lucky the guy didn’t throw him out from behind. Right or wrong, it takes a lot of courage to go to someone’s home and tell them that they blame themselves for what happened to their child, and that they can’t blame anyone else for what they feel is their fault.
It was a heavy thing to say out loud, but Sonny felt comfortable saying it because he was fighting the same demons.
He wasn’t in the water or on the beach when Zion passed by, but he still felt responsible for what happened because he was there to protect Zion. Zion should keep him safe, especially while doing something they both enjoy.
For that matter, Sonny and his father always wondered about the “what ifs” because that’s only natural: hindsight and all.
But no matter how many times you ask yourself that question, it won’t change what happened, and that lawsuit will hurt those who rescued their son from the water. That’s just the truth, but how Sonny goes about getting his message across feels a little hard to swallow.
That line could have been much worse, but it resonated with a grieving person who might see the hurt in Sonny’s eyes for the people he couldn’t save reflected back in him.
Sonny has been trying to avoid his grief as much as possible, but it won’t go away, and I felt bad for him when he was turned away at Zion Memorial. Sonny was filled with sadness that he didn’t know yet how to deal with.
When he is ready, he should go back to that counseling center because, as we have seen, avoiding the raw pain and devoting himself to work and everything else will not help him or anyone else.
Bree is a grieving mother who lost her son, and we don’t know what the relationship between her, Sonny, and Zion is like. But she believed her son would still be alive without Sonny, which was a hard pill to swallow for Sonny, and it was for me too.
But that also goes back to the father in the lawsuit, right? It’s all connected, and over time, Sonny and Bree can actually have difficult conversations and begin to heal.
Even if they never heal together, hopefully they can both begin their own journeys to heal from Zion’s loss.
The rest of the hour is filled with various rescues, including the first real shark emergency you know is about to happen and some interesting new dynamics, with Sheena and Kainaru becoming roommates thanks to Rakka’s intervention.
It makes perfect sense that Sheena needs to move out and start living her own life. You can love your family and do whatever you can to help them, but you can’t always do it at the expense of your own life.
Sheena has her own responsibilities, and if moving into her own space would help her, I support that decision.
Now that she’s moved in with Kainaru, she’s almost unbearable half the time, which adds an interesting layer to their dynamic. Sheena is reluctant to do this, but Kainaru is less irritated by the prospect of living with his crush.
Sheena clearly harbors some resentment towards Kainaru and she is not wrong in doing so. However, considering they were colleagues and now roommates, hopefully she can find a way to get to know him beyond the first impression he’s trying to shake off.
I keep saying this (and I hope I’m proven right!), but there’s more to Kainaroo than meets the eye. Yes, he’s privileged and uses that privilege to his advantage, but beyond that we know nothing about the man.
I’m not ready to dismiss him completely.
Will Will need to write something off completely? Become a firefighter.
Sorry, that’s harsh, but it’s reality. He’s counting on getting the job and finally giving his fiancée some peace, knowing he won’t be frolicking in the waves with his one true love.
But Will didn’t get the job, even though he was qualified, and Laca’s explanation didn’t put him off. My question is, didn’t he know that his chances of getting the job were low before he applied?
Did Raqqa tell him throughout the process about the sanctity of the job?
Will is understandably frustrated, but what he does next is crucial.
Additional rescue instructions
- Raqqa is more likable here, even though he’s a inflammatory little thing half the time. One thing I love about Laca is that he may be a player, whatever you want to call him, but he’s a very good lifesaver.
- That guy with his leg cut off, oh my god! That won’t grow back, my friend, but the mushrooms helped him in that moment.
- Who else thought the team would meet Em and Sean on a date?
In the next hour we will be nearly a quarter of the way through the season! With that in mind, how do you feel about things so far?
Let me know in the comments so we can discuss!
You can watch Rescue HI-Surf Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.
Watch Rescue HI: Surf Online
