In the opening scene, a prisoner, Roy Parrish, is being sentenced in District Court following repeated escapes. This time, the judge sentences him to life. On the way to the prison transport, however, he escapes.
Five-0 arrives at the scene of the escape to accompany Grover and SWAT. The team learns Parrish had been soliciting phony real estate investments and killed an investor who became wise to his scam.
When McGarrett and Danno get back into the camaro, Parrish is inside waiting for them. He takes their guns and gets Danno to handcuff McGarrett to the steering wheel. He holds a gun on both of them. As they near a checkpoint, he calls Grace and tells her Danno wants her to hear something. Then, he tells Danno if they don’t make it through the point, Grace will hear Danno die. McGarrett calls Grover and gives him a false lead from Chin, sending everyone at the checkpoint to the North Shore. Parrish then smashes Danno and McGarrett’s cell phones and they stop a vehicle to switch cars.
During the carjack ride, Parrish tells the two he was set up from the get-go. He wants to find the only witness, not to kill him, but to clear his name.
Meanwhile, Chin and Kono visit Parrish’s daughter. On the way inside, they meet two FBI agents who stop to compare notes with them about the case. When they get inside, they discover she has no feelings for him. She has kept numerous letters he has sent her over the years from prison, all un-opened.
Back in the car, Parrish tells McGarrett and Danno that he answered an ad from a Mr. Sullivan, and that led to the whole set-up. A murder then took place for which he was framed. McGarrett decides Parrish would not go to all this trouble if perhaps the story were not true. They need to find that witness. The information they need is on the smashed phones, but Danno remembers the witness’ address.
Grover calls Chin and tells him McGarrett has given him a dead-end lead. Upon speaking with Chin, he finds out the whole thing was a fabrication. They surmise that McGarrett and Danno must be in trouble. The camaro is located, the owner of the car found in the trunk. Grover and the SWAT team next catch up to the trio in the stolen car. As McGarrett attempts to outrun them, he slams on brakes, and, as Parris is thrown forward, Danno overpowers him and takes the gun. Danno and McGarrett now have control.
Grover reports to Chin that something odd is happening. He saw Danno holding the gun on Parrish, and McGarrett outran the SWAT team. All roads lead to the witness.
Meanwhile, McGarrett, Danno, and Parrish arrive at the home of the witness and find him dead. Without warning, bullets fly, and they take cover. As gunfire is exchanged, SWAT arrives on scene and kills three gunmen shooting at the house. Parrish is gone. And, while identifying the dead, Chin recognizes one of the shooters as one of the supposed FBI agents leaving Parrish’s daughter’s house. The other phony agent is identified as Julian Lynch. Everything adds up when they investigate Lynch. He set Parrish up to take a murder rap when Parrish answered an ad for work.
McGarrett and team arrives at the scene where an HPD officer has followed Parrish’s daughter. The officer is dead. Parrish and his daughter are surrounded by three gunmen, Lynch being one of them. He has used his phony ID as an agent to get Parrish’s daughter to lure Parrish to them. As the scene unfolds, they shoot Parrish, just as Five-0 arrives and shoots them. Parrish dies, with his daughter telling him she has always loved him.
At the end of the episode, Parrish is posthumously pardoned, and the last scene fades with his daughter reading the letters he sent her.