The Flip Side Is Death

Four men come up with a brilliant plan to rob a bank, but only get $250,000. LOL Even in 1973 dollars, that's not a lot to risk everything for. And after all the recent brilliant plans that McGarrett and 5-0 have painstakingly solved, this one comes apart at the seams rather rapidly, as the ex-con in the group (played by Don Stroud) becomes increasingly paranoid about the attitudes and performance of the two Hawaiian gang members.

After one is question by 5-0, Stroud shivs him in a hotel elevator, and then goes after the other. In this episode, it's Dano, not Steve, who has the inspiration to solve a major part of the case.

This is a lot more real, in terms of how criminals deal with each other, than some other episodes in the season. :-)

In "The Flip Side Is Death" we find out that Art Walker (Peter Haskell) needs the bank robbery loot because his music business is in trouble. It isn't overtly mentioned, but we learn why when it is revealed that he is a distributor of 8-Track cassettes, a format that, while certainly conducive to portable listening, had a shot lifespan with consumers due to reliability and usability. One of Five-0 strengths isn't fleshing out the characters of the good guys. Al Harrington's Ben, for example, doesn't even have a last name. It is therefore refreshing in this episode to learn that one of the patrolmen is a fan of Santana. It made me wonder what Danno liked to listen to in his free time. He didn't seem to have any qualms about smashing a Bob Dylan 8- Track cassette so perhaps he was one of those die hard folk fans who would have booed Dylan when he plugged in an electric guitar at Newport. And McGarrett seemed to show interest in playing the guitar in earlier episodes, but then apparently gave it up. Don Stroud played drums in "The Buddy Holly Story" but he doesn't get to do anything musical here; he just acts real mean and makes an excellent bad guy. In keeping with the music theme it should be noted that this episode was directed by Paul Stanley. I wonder if he ever directed Jean Simmons in anything?