It took a trip to the body shop to get the hood open.  it wasn't the cable at all.  The pin was stuck in the hole and just wouldn't release on the driver's side only.  With the passenger side popped up, we were able to get it raised enough to get a tool in there and jiggle that pin to release.  There for a little while we thought we were going to have to unscrew the hood from the front supports so we could move it back and forth.

Of course we adjusted it to avoid future lockdown!! And I ordered the backup release cable.  I've got religion now.