Friday’s second review from me. I love this episode and consider it a classic, and am surprised that it doesn’t have a higher rating on the site.
[rating=10]
Two thugs hijack T.C. in his helicopter – and Higgins with it – and force them to help an inmate escape from prison, before they crash-land on a deserted island. Magnum tries to find where they’ve ended up, but is walking into a trap. A classic episode…
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This review contains spoilers.
This is one of my favourite third season episodes. Granted, it does have a couple of areas where the plot could have been clearer, but even so, it is a great story with those key MPI ingredients – humour, drama, and action.
When T.C.’s helicopter crashes on the island, budget kicks in as it goes down behind some trees (even the announcer when this episode was shown on Channel 5 here in the U.K. picked up on that). When the Ferrari was destroyed at the start of the season in ‘Did You See The Sunrise?’, it could be assumed that Robin Masters, being so rich simply replaced it with another one; quite how T.C. gets his helicopter back in subsequent episodes to this one, however, is harder to explain.
Undoubtedly the best thing about the episode is the moments between Higgins and T.C. When the series started, Higgins was there just to act as a thorn in Magnum’s side in plots, but as the series was growing, so was the relationship between the different characters, not just Magnum and Higgins. The moment that T.C. insists that if the bad guys shoot Higgins, then they’ll have to shoot him too, is a very noble one indeed.
James Wainwright makes a good villain as Morgan Lyden, one of the season’s best in my opinion. Of course, TV bad guys being what they are, they decide not to kill Higgins and T.C., even when they start killing each other!
This story is also notable for the first time we see Rick’s aging underworld contact Ice Pick (first mentioned but not seen in season two’s ‘The Last Page’). However, he is played by a different actor to usual, Walter Chotzen. It is the character’s only appearance in the season; Elisha Cook Jr. would take over the role starting in the fourth season.
I love the final scene of this episode, where the gang all walk away (and T.C. stretchered) complaining – especially at Magnum. It is an amusing ending to a pleasing story.
I do agree with some other reviewers that the plot could have been clearer (not least as to who that other guy was in jail; I didn’t quite get that), but overlooking these small holes, I love this episode for it’s great character moments, and it has a lot of action too. I personally give this one a 10 out of 10.
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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:
* Near the beginning, when Magnum drags the injured driver out of the truck just before the explosion, they are obviously stunt doubles that are blown to the ground. Watch the driver – he lands in a totally different position to the next shot where he is on the ground next to Magnum.
* Many of the shots of T.C.’s chopper in the air seem to come from the Pilot of the first couple of episodes, as it has the much longer skis.
* I thought I’d spotted a great one here: after Magnum and Rick search T.C.’s office, Magnum reaches through the door again to lock it; only for one of Lt. Tanaka’s officers to simply push it open a few moments later. However, I’ve just spotted that A P Leyland beat me to this one.
* A note regarding the spelling of Ice Pick – the closing credits spell it as two separate words, as opposed to one single word.
* Higgins’ smoking habits have already been discussed on the threads for several previous episodes, and it seems he still smokes – T.C. says to him (when he’s struggling to get his breath and keep up) “I told you to stop smoking”.
* On the DVD version of this episode, all but the third commercial breaks are abridged.