After much teasing, Hawaii Five-0 finally saw fit to tell us who the enigmatic Shelbourne was this week, and he is…
Joe White!
Yes, in the final moments of the episode, Joe told Steve that Shelbourne was an alias created by him and Steve’s father in order to deflect attention away from the elder McGarrett. Under the Shelbourne alias, Joe killed Wo Fat’s father.
(Say it with me: “My name is Wo Fat. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”)
I don’t know what I was expecting from the reveal, but I know it wasn’t that. After all the talk about Shelbourne, I was waiting for something that would make my jaw drop and pay off the lengthy wait for the answer. When I found out it was Joe, I wasn’t surprised. I was actually thinking that I should have seen it coming.
The question is now what?
Joe appears to be headed on his way off the island, but somehow I doubt we’ve seen the last of him. He’s been in the majority of episodes this season so he may as well stick around for the rest of it. I just wonder how much mileage is left in his character. How many more attempts on his life (and/or rescues by Steve) can we watch?
A lot of us thought Joe was calling Shelbourne a few episodes earlier. We now know that’s not true since Joe is Shelburne, so who was he on the phone with? The first guess is the person who helped him create Shelbourne — Steve’s father — but John McGarrett is dead. Are we going to find out later that he’s alive? And would that undercut the impact of his death and all it’s motivated Steve to do?
Or will it be someone we don’t yet know that the show will inevitably tease us about until the season finale in May?
The time is rife for speculation, so have at it: were you satisfied by the reveal of Shelbourne? What do you think is going to happen next? What do you want to see happen next? Sound off with your theories, rants and ramblings below!
Clacked by Brittany Frederick 
on Jan 17, 2012 @ 06:14 EST5EDT
While I’m obviously wrong about who Shelburne is, I’m still behind the idea that this story will eventually end with Steve finding that his mother is still alive.
I am thinking either Steve’s mother or a grandparent. It could go really soapy and have Joe be Steve’s father.
Wasn’t O’Quinn only supposed to be in 8 or 9 episodes?
As soon as Joe said it was him, I didn’t buy it. I don’t think the question has been answered yet. Joe realized that Steve wasn’t going to give up looking for Shelburne and decided to give him an answer. But, it’s a lie.
Shelburne is still out there.
Damn, had I know the great Terry O’Quinn was gonna be on this show I would have started watching it.
We never actually saw John McG’s body…