Well, that was a peek at what will never be.

Lincoln Cole unofficially joined the task force on Hawaii Five-0 Season 10 Episode 21.

It's going to be a short tour of duty, which will end with the series finale on Hawaii Five-0 Season 10 Episode 22.

A little more than a month ago, it was widely rumored that Lance Gross would become a series regular on Hawaii Five-0 Season 11.

But things change, as it was announced the show was ending shortly after that.

Based on this episode, Lincoln would have been an intriguing addition to the team.

But if Alex O'Loughlin or Scott Caan were through, Hawaii Five-0 needed to be done as well.

There's just no replacing either Steve or Danny.

Lincoln got a solid introduction nevertheless.

A mysterious good Samaritan rescues a woman and her son from a pair of bank robbers, killing one of them.

He had combat moves as good as McGarrett, killing a man with his bare hands.

So, yes, that was eyecatching right off the bat.

There's nothing Five-0 likes better than a mystery and a busboy saving a family before disappearing into the night definitely qualifies as that.

Lincoln just had the bad luck of killing the brother of a crime-syndicate leader who now wanted revenge, especially since he likely sent his brother into the mess of a bank robbery.

Hector had to blame somebody since he wasn't likely to blame himself.

Things got stranger once the DNA Adam recovered help to identify Lincoln, a highly-skilled Marine with the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team.

Lincoln just happened to be AWOL and had no immediate connection to Hawaii.

Except for one of his former superiors.

As far as Chuck Norris's appearance, I call criminal misuse.

You don't have Walker, Texas Ranger on the show and have him do nothing more threatening than holding an ax. Seriously underutilized.

I don't care that he's 80. He still looks intimidating.

It was a good thing that Junior caught up to Lincoln and Steve when he did or Lincoln might have overwhelmed McGarrett and escaped again.

Lincoln ended up right where he needed to be in protective custody. He was safe from Hector and his gang and McGarrett could talk him through his survivor's guilt.

After hearing his story, it was clear that Lincoln shouldn't have been blaming himself. He acted in good faith on bad intel. As Steve pointed out, war is messy.

The big question is why there wasn't at least an HPD unit sitting on Sylvia's apartment, as she was such an obvious target for Hector.

McGarrett thought he'd had the hard decision taken out of his hands by the MPs. But, in the end, Lincoln escaped from three MPs to exchange himself for Sylvia and her son.

Fortunately, Five-0 got word of his escape in time to save Lincoln from his suicidal decision. The only surprise was it took as long as it did for Five-0 to mow down Hector's gang, since they had the high ground and the sniper rifles.

It's good to see that Steve still had the pull to get the charges against Lincoln tossed. After all, he was just getting his head straight after a traumatic event, something with which the Marines should have helped him.

The fact that Lincoln offered to help McGarrett with his cipher is a sure sign he'll be back next episode as well.

Speaking of that cipher -- what?

Hadn't Dolores played with Steve's head enough while she was living and doing her spook thing? Why does she have to come back and further haunt him from the grave?

McGarrett would have been smart to just toss it in the trash and forget about it. But no, it's his inheritance so he'll have to figure it out.

A better question is why is it important enough that someone would send a burglar to the house of the task force's commander to steal it?

If Steve wasn't already curious, he'll have to solve it now, especially since the cipher indirectly resulted in Danny's getting beat up.

Even though the end of the series was announced a month ago, Peter Lenkov must have had some inkling it was happening before that.

With current conditions, much rewriting and reshooting would seem unlikely. McGarrett's growing sense of melancholy through the season seems to be pointing toward his exit.

Both Tani and Junior were aware of Steve's mounting unease, but Danny was the right one to confront him.

It was nice for them to have a mostly serious talk, so much of what was on Steve's mind got laid out there.

Maybe spending some time in New Jersey will help him to appreciate how good he's got it.

So what's left to wrap up in the finale?

Daiyu Mei, Wo Fat's widow, is still at large, so that storyline needs to get wrapped up.

Then there was the case that John left for him 10 years ago, which Steve would definitely need to solve before he moves along.

Also, there has to be some way to get Jerry in the finale, if only for a cameo.

To take a look back before the finale, watch Hawaii Five-0 online.

What did you think of Lincoln?

Who is after the cipher?

How will Steve depart?

Comment below.

Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on X.