This show is rife with
Ho Yay between Danny and Steve. Several characters have asked them how long they've been married. They fight like an old married couple. And then we have this line from Danny to Steve while they're on a case:
Danny: They have a cleaning crew for that, babe.
- We now have three counts of "babe", two from Danny to Steve and one from Steve to Danny.
- No, scratch that, "babe" is officially the most used nickname from Danny to Steve aside from animal (which can be interpreted all on its own) whereas Steve is the only person aside from Grace who calls Danny "Danno" and the only one who uses "D" on occasion. Make of that what you will.
- The end of the holiday episode.
- In the very first episode, Steve and Danny have a moment where they sit on the beach, watch the sunset, have a couple of beers and connect. The setting is impossibly romantic, and the fact that Steve was shirtless when the scene began, didn't hurt.
- In episode 9 when an old Navy buddy of Steve's shows up, Danny immediately dislikes him and begins acting like he's jealous. Steve even asks him if his behaviour is due to jealousy.
- In the latest episode, Danny signs 'I love you'
◊ at Steve. - The HUGS (plural now).
- The 'carguments' can be be interpreted as such.
- Halloween. On the couch. Watching "The Notebook". Steve has his arm around Danny, who relaxes back onto it. Catherine is at the opposite end of the couch with Gracie between her and the guys.
- Apparently the cuddling was Scott Caan's idea and they decided to Throw It In!. So, it wasn't scripted but no one thought it might be taken the wrong way. Hmm...
- Danny has basically been turned into the motion trigger for a bomb that will kill him. Steve refuses to to leave him as the bomb tech tries to disable the device even though he will be killed too if it blows up. The subsequent hug once the bomb is defused includes Steve looking like he is about to cry in relief.
- Steve and Danny show up at a sorority house to question a person of interest. Upon seeing them, one of the sorority girls calls out to another, and this happens:
Girl: Kelly! Your dads are here to pick you up!
Kelly: Those aren't my dads.
Steve: I'm sorry, you think I look old enough to be her father?
Danny: That? That's the part you bumped on?
- Steve shows up in full dress uniform at the family courthouse for Danny's custody hearing for Grace. Danny leans in and adjusts his tie for him. This is complete with them both glancing around with shifty expressions, because they know how it looks.
- In "Ku I Ka Pili Koko" they actually say "I love you" to each other (and of course they hug - again).
- In "Pe'epe'e Kanaka", they have one of their usual bouts of Snark-to-Snark Combat, mutually casting aspersions on each other's relationships with their respective girlfriends. Steve ends it by telling Danny to go to physical therapy (from the previous episode's injuries) saying he hopes it hurts, a lot. Then they part ways with Steve saying "I love you", and Danny saying "Love you too".
- "Makani 'olu a holo malie". Steve has gone with Catherine on an unauthorized mission to rescue the child of a man who once helped Catherine from being turned into a suicide bomber by the Taliban. Steve gets captured and beaten. Catherine calls Danny on a satellite phone to tell him what happened. Next thing, Danny has managed to get himself onto a military troop transport bound for Afghanistan purely so he can be there when Steve is rescued by the Army. He sits vigil at Steve's bedside and refuses to leave when ordered by the Army and CIA.
- There is also the fact that Steve can't keep himself from smiling when Danny starts to rant at him/the world, no matter what the rant is about. It's a smile that seems to say he expects and loves these moments. That it lightens his mood significantly whenever it happens helps too.
- Ina Paha, aka the "What if..." style 100th episode, takes the Ho Yay to formerly unknown heights. There is no explaining away the gazes held too long for two guys who have just met, the way Steve seemed fixed on Danny when they found him and Wo Fat's body or that even people who don't ship them wondered if there was going to be a kiss there at the end. And while the ending sequence does focus on everyone, it comes across like a summary to a love story between the two of them. If that was not deliberate then the producers need to clean their glasses once in a while.
- Also, Steve's hallucinations seem to say that he thinks the world of Danny, that if anyone could have saved John McGarrett it would have been him, that he could do anything and deserves a perfect life more than anyone. He thinks the world of his partner and sees him as his own personal hero (Tumblr fandom agrees on this).
- The fact alone that Scott Caan, yes Danny's actor, states that he hopes for a relationship between the two in the future has made him Fandom's official Captain for the McDanno ship.
- The Stakeout episode proves that even the writers are starting to ship them. Not only is the marriage counseling back but now they spend a whole episode, which spans a couple of days, in the same room together. Steve gets them Mistaken for Gay again, this time as an actual married couple (Ruth approves), and when Steve clears up the misunderstanding Danny just says he would have preferred they stick to the gay-story. Not to mention that Steve actually opens up to Danny about something in his past following which Dany promptly buys him a guitar that is worth a couple thousand dollars.
- That is according to the writers who live-tweeted that Danny could have just bought an engagement ring. They're not even trying to be subtle anymore.
- In Season 7 episode 16 "Poniu I Ke Aloha" (Crazy In Love) Danny and Steve are on a joint Valentine's Day getaway with their girlfriends, arranged by Lynn and Melissa behind their backs. Danny panics over being romantic with his girlfriend in front of Steve, and they agree on a safeword to use when Danny feels uncomfortable. Then they proceed to spend the rest of the trip together without their girlfriends. The episode ends with a double date that gives the impression that Danny/Steve and Lynn/Melissa are the respective couples. Danny Steve get cozy, and at one point Steve slings his arm around Danny and strokes Danny's ear.
- In Season 7 episode 18 "E Malama Pono" (Handle with Care) Danny and Steve have to skyjump together. While they are waiting for the jump Danny is seen sitting on Steve's lap complaining about having to jump.
- In the same episode Steve finds out that Danny is thinking about retirement and what he wants to do when he retires. He is surprised and hurt that Danny didn't think to discuss the decision with him and include him in it. Danny questions why he would include Steve in his retirement decisions and this conversation takes place:
Steve: Okay, let me ask you a question. If you were still married to Rachel and you made a decision like this, a big decision that affected her, how would she feel if you didn't tell her about it?
Danny: Are you comparing my failed marriage to our relationship?
Steve: Are you going to answer the question?
Danny: She'd be upset.
Steve: Thank you.
- A little later, just before the bomb is about to explode, Steve asks Danny to name the restaurant he would like to open after he retires Steve's, so that even if they're not together they'll be together still.
- This episode is full of McDanno gold nuggets. When Grover tells Steve that the terrorists seem to have been targeting Five-0 Steve turns around to look at the Five-0 Ohana but seem to only focus on Danny.
- In Season 8 Episode 6 "Mohala I Ka Wai Ka Maka O Ka Pua" Danny orchastrates an intervention for Steve and hires a stress management consultant to help Steve manage his stress. At the end of the episode, after the consultant gives her advise (which includes advice to Danny to be more positive because his negativity seem to stress Steve) Steve questions why Danny would think hiring her was a good idea. Danny reveals that he lies awake at night worrying about Steve's health ever since Steve revealed that he is suffering from radiation poisoning.
- Scott Caan's voice breaking and his expression really sells how worried Danny is about the possibility of Steve dying.
- In I ka wa ma mua, I ka wa ma hope, while Danny is shot he imagines what life will be like for Five-0 and its Ohana. In every single scene, bar one, Danny imagines his future with Steve. Even in scenes where it makes sense for Rachel, his ex-wife, or Melissa, his current girlfriend, to be the one next to him, he imagines Steve. During Charlie's graduation from the police academy where it makes the most sense for Rachel or Melissa to appear, it is instead Steve he imagines sitting next to him, cheering his son on and arguing about which of them is Charlie's role model. In the last scene, where he imagines himself as a old man, it is Steve he sees sitting in the rocking chair next to him while they watch the sunset. There is not even one mention of any significant other of Steve nor Danny.
- Can they be any clearer about who Danny imagines his future with?
