Spoilers ahead for the fall finale of Rescue: HI-Surf on Fox.
Christmas came to Rescue: HI-Surf in the final episode of the 2024 TV schedule, but most of the characters weren't exactly feeling holly-jolly by the end of the episode after a lot of bad decisions were made to endanger relationships and personal lives. At the same time, there was some great action for Hina and Kainalu in particular, which reminded me of what executive producer Matt Kester said about how the Fox drama approaches the "most extreme situations."
Dangerous Decisions In The Fall Finale
First things first! If you thought that Will and Em sharing a kiss would be treated as a mistake made in the heat of the moment, then the fall finale – called "Aftermath" – proved you wrong! (You can rewatch streaming with a Hulu subscription.) The two seemed prepared to start a full-blown affair, and the only thing stopping them was tricky scheduling. The true aftermath may not come for them until the new year with the 2025 TV schedule.
And I'm honestly kind of rooting for them both to deal with some consequences since they didn't seem to have overwhelming moral qualms with what they were doing. Guilt? Sure. Unwillingness to keep going? I'm not positive about that, although Arielle Kebbell and Adam Demos continue to have great chemistry. Fallout does seem inevitable, as Will's fiancé is going to return, although I'm definitely not rooting for Em to deal with consequences that go as far as tanking her advancement to captain. She'll be under closer scrutiny moving forward.
As for Laka, he's approaching rock bottom, if he hasn't hit it already. His attempt to get drunk and bed some tourists seemed to be going as intended... until he was out cold, and the two women who had been wooing him instead stole his wallet, his phone, and the valet ticket to steal his car. He's not oblivious, though, and he called Will out on reconnecting with Em.
Even Sonny's decisions might backfire on him in the new year, as he's running very low on favors to call in and he might not be able to help Em any further than he already has. He has seemingly had the best intentions this season, but that's not a guarantee of a payoff.
All of this said, good decisions don't necessarily make for interesting television, and I'm invested in seeing what comes next for the characters. Plus, Hina and Kainalu's hookup at the end of the episode might not backfire on them too badly. The promo for the winter finale suggests that things are going to get complicated for the roommates, however, if they're not on the same page. Take a look:
If you'd told me after the series premiere that Kainalu would be the character I'd be rooting for the most by the fall finale, I don't think I would have believed it! Fans will have to wait until the winter premiere on January 20 to see the fallout from just how much the characters endangered their status quo. Rescue: HI-Surf will remain paired with 9-1-1: Lone Star until its series finale in February.
What EP Matt Kester Said About Rescue: HI-Surf's Extreme Situations
Rescue: HI-Surf was recently showcased during a Warner Bros. Television Group press conference as one of the newest fall TV series. With the show featuring incredible rescues on a weekly basis, I asked: do the producers work to try and top themselves from week to week? EP Matt Kester answered, saying:
We work really closely [and] have relationships with the lifeguard community in Hawaii, and we really want to represent them in a way that we're showing the kind of things that they do on a daily basis, whether it goes from big, crazy rescues to the kind of day to day thing. We're on a rescue show, so instead of coming to the hospital and going through the ER table or going through the police precinct, you come to the tower, and those lifeguards sit in the towers and they see whatever comes across the beach and they're faced with whatever the ocean throws at them for that day.
Anybody who has ever watched first responder dramas like 9-1-1: Lone Star or ER or any of the three shows of NBC's One Chicago has seen what Kester describes as "big, crazy issues" plenty of times; these just happen to be set on the ocean and seem all that much more spectacular for it. The executive producer went on:
Really, where the show lives are in those moments where the job is such that you're sitting in the tower and you're joking around, and you're laughing and you're having a good time. These are your partners, these are companions, and you're enjoying yourself, and then it's immediately straight into, often, a death-defying situation where somebody's life is on the line. There's an immediacy to it and knowing that every time you get called to do something, you're going to now enter the most dynamic environment that you can possibly enter.
Matt Kester's words ring especially true in light of what went down in the fall finale. There were certainly intense moments with a heart attack out on the ocean and a boy trapped in a claustrophobic pipe with the tide coming in, as well as more mundane moments with Hina and Kainalu effectively babysitting. The EP went on:
I don't feel that we need to necessarily top anything so much that our desire is to show that ebb and flow of what the lifeguards do, from just interacting with the public on a daily basis to really putting themselves in the most extreme situations that you can and and seeing that there is that ebb and flow to the job [that] makes it unique.
I do still wonder if the Rescue: HI-Surf team will start to struggle to find new crises for the lifeguards to resolve as the show continues, since the story has already been harrowing in plenty of different ways. Of course, Fox has not yet renewed the series for a second season, so there's no need to look too far ahead just yet.
Interestingly, Fox originally had Rescue: HI-Surf set for the enviable post-Super Bowl slot in February that traditionally scores very high ratings for whichever show gets it. That slot will now go to the Season 3 premiere of The Floor.
It remains to be seen if that bodes poorly for the future of the Hawaii-set first responder series, but you can look forward to its return in the new year on Monday, January 20. You can also revisit the first half of the season over hiatus with all nine episodes so far streaming on Hulu.
