Halloween time on Hawaii Five-0 is one of our favourite things about the show. And one of the best things about it, is Max and his Keanu Reeves character costumes. Masi Oka – who played Max Bergman since season 1 – may have departed in season 7, but he’s back for a special appearance in the final season. And of course it had to be the Halloween episode!
With one more spooky episode left for the show, we’re looking back at all the previous episodes set during All Hallows' Eve – plus Max’s costumes!
Season 2 Episode 7
Ka Iwi Kapu (Sacred Bones)
Keanu Reeves Costume: Neo from The Matrix
Ghosts, body parts, and a cold open reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project are the order of the day in this first Halloween-themed episode. It also introduces Max’s Keanu costume capers. To top all the guts and gore is an appearance by Robert Englund who famously played Freddy Krueger in the horror franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street. As if that weren’t enough to satisfy horror aficionados, it’s directed by Joe Dante – the man who helmed horror flicks Piranha, The Howling, and Gremlins. On a deeper level, the episode deals with Halloween’s truer origins, honouring the dead – something Danny ignores, to his detriment.
Season 3 Episode 5
Mohai (Offering)
Keanu Reeves Costume: Ted from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Films from the torture porn oeuvre – think Saw, Hostel, The Human Centipede – inspire the chilling backbone of this Halloween story. Max lightens the mood with his Keanu costume, while Steve and Catherine watch Child’s Play…on VHS!
Season 4 Episode 6
Kupouli ʻla (Broken)
Keanu Reeves Costume: Siddhartha from Little Buddha
Halloween starts on a light note with a beach screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Max is in attendance dancing the night away until things kick into zombie-mode when he gets infected by a raving doctor.
Season 5 Episode 6
Hoʻomaʻike (Unmasked)
Keanu Reeves Costume: Looks like Shane Falco from The Replacements but is Johnny Utah from Point Break
No Halloween episode of H50 would be complete without some trick-or-treating, which is just how this episode starts. It soon launches into a slasher tribute – with its very own fictional slasher pic, called Jack Knife. It’s even said to be released in 1984 – the same year that gave us A Nightmare on Elm Street and the fourth Friday the 13th movie. Joe Dante is back to direct and you even glimpse one of the episode’s victims watching the director’s own horror movie, The Howling.
Season 6 Episode 6
Na Pilikua Nui (Monsters)
Keanu Reeves Costume: Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny from Dangerous Liaisons
The episode starts out looking like it’ll be a tribute to that classic horror movie trope, schoolkids buying the farm, but goes Frankenstein on us instead. Joe Dante is back in the directing chair, Max has his Keanu costume on, and Jerry gets dressed up as Dracula. Considering that Keanu starred in an adaptation of Dracula in 1992, it’s a pity Max didn’t choose Reeves’s character, Jonathan Harker, for his costume.
Season 7 Episode 6
Ka hale ho'okauwel (House of Horrors)
Keanu Reeves Costume: John Wick from John Wick
What’s Halloween without a haunted house? Steve, Danny, Chin, and Lou tap into their inner Ed and Lorraine Warren as they investigate what appears to be a murdering poltergeist. There’s more holiday horror elsewhere, as Kono and Adam deal with a road trip gone wrong.
Season 8 Episode 5
Kama'oma'o, ka 'aina huli hana (At Kama'oma'o, The Land of Activities)
Keanu Reeves Costume: Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny from Dangerous Liaisons
Sadly, Masi Oka left during the previous season. Luckily, Jerry is still around to keep up the Keanu tradition – even if he does cover a character Max already chose. On a darker note, the task force hunt down a serial killer using Hawaiian folklore as inspiration for their killings. Grover, meanwhile, invokes Silence of the Lambs by visiting a prisoner on death row in Florida.
Season 9 Episode 5
A'ohe Mea 'Imi A Ka Maka (Nothing More the Eyes to Search For)
Keanu Reeves Costume: None
Hawaii Five-0’s Halloween episodes covered a lot of horror movie ground over the course of its run. During its penultimate season episode they pay tribute to urban legends, deadly summer camps, and a cabin in the woods. There’s no Keanu costume, but we do get Dr. Noelani Cunha dressed up as Scooby-Doo’s Velma.
Will Max carry on his costume tradition during his special appearance in the latest and last Halloween episode? Watch and find out.
Hawaii Five-0 season 10 airs every Wednesday at 19:00 on M-Net channel 101.
Stay tuned for more island intrigue at 20:00 with the second season of Magnum P.I.
Feature image: Masi Oka, Chi McBride, and Grace Park as Max, Lou, and Kono in Hawaii Five-0 season 5.