Hawaiian Pili Grass Houses: Hawaii Five-0 2010 When the Light Goes Out

Summary: Does modern construction deter a third home invasion less than Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes in the Hawaii Five-0 episode When the Light Goes Out?

Traditional hale moe or sleeping house, reconstructed in 1902, is made from pili grass (Heteropogon contortus) thatch, uhihui (Caesalpinia kavaiensis) wood and 'uki'uki (Dianella sandwicensis) cordage; Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (designated as Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History); Jan. 13, 2013: daryl_mitchell, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

The adage and the Hawaii Five-0 2010 active police procedural episode When the Light Goes Out, the House Is Dark Dec. 7, 2018, address Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes and modern construction.

Director Gabriel Beristain and writer Paul Grellong borrow the olelo au ("advice") Pio ke kukui, po'ele ka hale for Season 9's 10th episode, series' 203rd overall. The last episode in the 2017 component of the 2017/2018 season concerns an assassination attempt against Hawaii Five-0 task force Lieutenant Commander Steven McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin). Home-invading assassins damage the McGarrett dwelling, as did those during Season 1's death of John McGarrett (William Sadler) and defensive custody of General Pak (Ric Young).

McGarrett elicits Kamekona Tupuola's (Taylor Wily) expertise in electing replacement woods for modern construction, not for Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes, after the second home invasion.

Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes furnished each extended family with separate sitting (hale noho), sleeping and storage (hale noa) and storage and working (hale ku'ai) houses.

Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes gathered around the hill of the chief's (hale ali'i) stone-foundation house with woven-mat floors and meeting and storage (hale papa'a) house. Their inhabitants had communal pili grass children's and women's (hale 'aina) and men's (hale mua) eating houses and hula drum (hale pahu) and instruction (halau) houses. They included among their communal installations canoe (hale wa'a) and fishing (hale lawai'a) houses, hardware-like stores and meeting-room houses (hale ku'ai) and weaving (hale ulana) houses.

Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes joined pili grass as braided layers and ukiuki grass (Dianella sandwicensis) as ties into moisture-, pest-, wind-resistant thatched roofs and walls.

Harvested and wild-growing pili grass, known commonly as black spear-grass, bunch spear-grass, piercing grass, stick-grass, tangle-grass, tangle-head, twisted beard-grass and wild oats, keeps a brown-green fragrance.

The coastal subtropical, tropical, warm-temperate Heteropogon contortus (from Greek ἕτερος, héteros, "different" and πώγων, pógōn, "beard," and Latin contortus, "contorted") leads four- to five-year life cycles. Cultivated, erect forms of the Poaceae (from Greek πόα, póa, "fodder," and Latin -āceae, "resembling") bamboo, cereal, lawn, pasture, savannah grass family member mature from seeds. Cultivated vegetative cuttings and wild-growing fibrous roots nurture prostrate forms in rock soil pHs 5 to 6 and 31.49-inch (800-millimeter) annual rainfall through 2,000-foot (609.6-meter) elevations.

Pili grass, outlined scientifically in 1817 by Johann Roemer (Jan. 8, 1763-Jan. 15, 1819) and Josef Schultes (April 15, 1773-April 21, 1831), occupies 2-plus-foot (0.61-plus-meter) openings.

Each green-grained fruit's grooved, tan-yellow 0.14- to 0.18-inch- (3.5- to 4.5-millimeter-) long seed pushes against bristly, 1.97- to 3.94-inch- (5- to 10-centimeter-) long, red-brown, twisted awns.

Awn-tipped bisexual and awnless male stalked spikelets queue up at tips and at bases and tips of 1.18- to 3.15-inch- (3- to 8-centimeter-) long central-stemmed racemes. Two- to 5-foot (0.61- to 1.52-meter) habits horizontally and vertically atop fibrous-rooting thick roots reveal blue-brown-green 3.94- to 11.81-inch (10- to 30-centimeter) by 0.24-inch (0.6-centimeter) leaves. Pili grass near Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes supplied ashes and leaves for coconut-mixed traditional medicines and for black dyes, floor pads, stuffed mattresses and tinder.

Hawaiian pili grass traditional homes turn up where their inhabitants treasure trust, unlike the thugs that threaten John (William Sadler) and Doris (Christine Lahti) McGarrett bloodlines.

Hawaii Five-0 special task force Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) is unaware that his mentor and former commanding officer, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Joe White (Terry O'Quinn) is leading them to his final resting place, against his favorite tree, a Ponderosa pine, on his Montana ranch, in CBS TV's Hawaii Five-0, season 9, episode 10, Pio Ke Kukui, Poele Ka Hale: CBS Hawaii Five-0 episode 9.10 promotional photo via SpoilerTV Dec. 7, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Traditional hale moe or sleeping house, reconstructed in 1902, is made from pili grass (Heteropogon contortus) thatch, uhihui (Caesalpinia kavaiensis) wood and 'uki'uki (Dianella sandwicensis) cordage; Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (designated as Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History); Jan. 13, 2013: daryl_mitchell, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/daryl_mitchell/8502131860/

Hawaii Five-0 special task force Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) is unaware this his mentor and former commanding officer, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Joe White (Terry O'Quinn) is leading them to his final resting place, against his favorite tree, a Ponderosa pine, on his Montana ranch, in CBS TV's Hawaii Five-0, season 9, episode 10, Pio Ke Kukui, Poele Ka Hale: CBS Hawaii Five-0 episode 9.10 promotional photo via SpoilerTV Dec. 7, 2018, @ https://www.spoilertv.com/2018/11/hawaii-five-0-episode-910-pio-ke-kukui.html

For further information:

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