Ghost Writer (2.12)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the second season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
4
4%
9.0 (Excellent)
6
6%
8.5 (Very Good)
22
21%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
27
25%
7.5 (Decent)
22
21%
7.0 (Average at Best)
10
9%
6.5 (Not So Good)
6
6%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
5
5%
5.0 (Just Awful)
3
3%
 
Total votes: 106

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ENSHealy
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#61 Post by ENSHealy »

T.C. changing his mind about not helping Magnum and arriving *dead on time* with Rick;
I took this as one of the (first?) instances of TM's friends being able to sense when he is in danger. Of course the most obvious example is 4.1 Home from the Sea. It's not that he changes his mind, he just senses that TM is in real danger. Also, although we all know the guys would all lay down their lives for each other, they rarely (if ever?) speak of it, so I found T.C.'s line when they spot Thomas on the roof interesting: “There’s my Thomas! Here we come, baby!” It just seemed a tad outside the "macho line" they usually adhere to.

Elisha Cook's makeup (and his role) is so bad it almost kills the whole episode. The only reason I bumped it up to 7.5 was Patch Mackenzie and the fact that in at least two of her outfits, she seems to have taken the Charlies Angels approach to foundational garments.

As far as what T.C. was delivering, even though the container was totally wrong for it, I always assumed we were supposed to believe it was whatever cryogenic agent the bad guys were using to keep Farber frozen. Which would explain the heavy gloves they used to carry the case also.

Last but not least, for the sniper to have drawn a bead on Thomas lying on the couch like he did, he would have to have been aiming through the window on the stairwell landing. For that to work, the shooter would have to have been about 30 feet in the air over the property next door (assuming the actual estate layout) or over the tidal pool (assuming the guest houses fictional location behind the main house portico).
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The Institute for Advanced Magnum Studies

"I woke up one day at 53 and realized I'd never been 23."

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f14peter
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#62 Post by f14peter »

another security camera flub, besides the well-known one of the so-called ceiling mounted camera giving us a shot of Magnum at the door from about three feet off the floor ... the video feed the security officer watches as the ceiling mounted camera pans about the room is without any doubt what so ever shot handheld, equally without doubt by a cameraman on a ladder. The movement of the camera is wobbly and doesn't follow an even arc as it pans. The biggest tell is at one point, the lens and part of the body of the camera actually mounted in the room appears in the upper-right corner of the screen.

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karolis
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#63 Post by karolis »

SignGuyHPW wrote:I actually really enjoyed this one. My main gripe is that the opening scene didn't make complete sense to me. I understand TC was paid a huge sum of money by the Farber people to make deliveries. The fact that it was some kind of dangerous material never came into play the rest of the episode nor did the fact that they were supposedly worried about competitors.
ENSHealy wrote:As far as what T.C. was delivering, even though the container was totally wrong for it, I always assumed we were supposed to believe it was whatever cryogenic agent the bad guys were using to keep Farber frozen. Which would explain the heavy gloves they used to carry the case also.
I actually though that T.C. was delivering some kind of cryogenic stuff too. T.C. even used a glove, it indicated to me that this stuff may be freezing.

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Last edited by karolis on Wed May 16, 2018 10:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

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karolis
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#64 Post by karolis »

Personal Season Two episodes top up to this one:

1. Tropical Madness (loved this one)
2-3. Memories Are Forever (1 & 2)
4. The Woman on the Beach
5. Dead Man’s Channel
6. Wave Goodbye
7. Ghost Writer
8. The Sixth Position
9. From Moscow to Maui
10. The Taking of Dick McWilliams
11. Billy Joe Bob
12. Mad Buck Gibson

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karolis
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#65 Post by karolis »

That makeup...

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J.J. Walters
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#66 Post by J.J. Walters »

karolis wrote:That makeup...

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LOL!! :D
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#67 Post by ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) »

J.J., you haven't yet corrected on the main page the address of where Virginia Fowler is staying. It's not Hanapepe Place (as in All Roads Lead to Floyd) but 10 Poipu Place. It's the next cul-de-sac over from Hanapepe Place.

I have to agree with you all about Patch MacKenzie - a total babe! Love that low-cut dress too! How Magnum turned her down when she was coming on to him is beyond me! :o Especially when he force-kissed the totally unattractive ballerina with the ugly personality in the previous episode. And he doesn't get involved with clients he says?? What the heck was that????? Come on, Thomas. Get with it.

Jon Lormer as Farber's "gentleman's gentleman" (LOL!) Barker was a hoot! Loved all his scenes. Lormer appeared in hundreds of things on TV and film. I remember seeing him in quite a few BIG VALLEY episodes, usually as a doctor.

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Re:

#68 Post by MaximRecoil »

Jay-Firestorm wrote: When Magnum and co. find the real Harold Farber, encased in some kind of chemical deep freeze, and learn that the other Farber is a clone of sorts, the story dives into science fiction territory. Now, I love science fiction in shows where it fits in, but I don’t think it works in MPI. Yes, the occasional ‘ghost’ might work, but not this kind of plot.
There was no science-fiction in this episode. The fake Farber wasn't a clone of any sort, he was just some bum off the street (he even drinks "muscatel", AKA: "bum wine"). That's how the old lady could tell it wasn't him despite not having seen him for several decades (which she confirmed by checking for the scar on his chest). If he were intended to be a clone, he would look the same as the real Farber.

Nifty911
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#69 Post by Nifty911 »

This might have been covered, but the chauffeur/butler guy just happens to make his way onto the estate and into the guest house????? Talk about security lapses. LOL

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ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#70 Post by ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) »

Nifty911 wrote:This might have been covered, but the chauffeur/butler guy just happens to make his way onto the estate and into the guest house????? Talk about security lapses. LOL
It wasn't the butler/elevator guy (John Lormer). It was some other old guy who worked for the old lady.

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Chris109
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#71 Post by Chris109 »

IvanTheTerrible wrote:
Nifty911 wrote:This might have been covered, but the chauffeur/butler guy just happens to make his way onto the estate and into the guest house????? Talk about security lapses. LOL
It wasn't the butler/elevator guy (John Lormer). It was some other old guy who worked for the old lady.
And Jon Lormer never aged. He always looked old.

He died because he mocked the Lawgivers. But, in the end, he obeyed the will of Landru.

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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#72 Post by Kevster »

Chris109 wrote:
IvanTheTerrible wrote:
Nifty911 wrote:This might have been covered, but the chauffeur/butler guy just happens to make his way onto the estate and into the guest house????? Talk about security lapses. LOL
It wasn't the butler/elevator guy (John Lormer). It was some other old guy who worked for the old lady.
And Jon Lormer never aged. He always looked old.

He died because he mocked the Lawgivers. But, in the end, he obeyed the will of Landru.

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Great ST reference.
Trust Me!!!

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T.Q.
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Re: Ghost Writer (2.12)

#73 Post by T.Q. »

Fourth Wall anyone?

Missed it.

Or none?

Thx
Knocking my rubber chicken or my sloppy habits is within the rules, but you're attacking my character. I would like to think you don't mean that.

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Re:

#74 Post by Nifty911 »

J.J. Walters wrote:Awesome, thanks again guys! :)
rubber chicken wrote:(employer of Oscar, the man who's found by Magnum in the guesthouse)
This is one of my favorite scenes of the entire show! It made me laugh so hard, my sides hurt! After nearly being sniped to death on his own couch, Magnum finds this myserious older guy (Oscar) lurking in the shadows of the guesthouse. Still half asleep, Magnum fumbles around looking for his .45 while continually telling the guy, "stay right there .... you stay right there" (while waving his finger at him). He finally finds his .45 in a duffel bag in his closet. He pulls it out, cocks it, and tells the guy, "Now, why are you here?". He soon realizes the gun isn't loaded, so he tells the older guy (who, by the way, through this entire time seems infinitely more scared and befuddled by the situation than Magnum is) again to "stay right there" as he loads his gun! LOL! After finally finding and loading his gun, he at last gets to question the old guy as to why he's in his house late at night! Oscar never moves an inch the entire time. LOL!

Magnum's expressions and the look on Oscar's face as all of this is going down is just hilarious! Oh, and Patch McKenzie (in a night gown) is also observing this whole bizarre situation going down, which just adds to the greatness of the scene. ;)

I'm watching the entire series again, from start to finish. It's been so long and I dont have time to go through each thread.

How did Oscar even get on the property? How does he know the estate layout, to know how to get to the guest house? Where are the dogs? So many things wrong with this scene.

I guess we must assume Higgins let him in and pointed him in the direction, but that late at night? And would just letting anyone in like that seem "normal"?

This might be the biggest flub in the entire series.

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Re:

#75 Post by ENSHealy »

IvanTheTerrible wrote:I have a question about the fight on the roof at the end. Did one of the bad guys get thrown off the roof by Thomas? Sure seems like it. Rick is fighting Arthur (Alan Fudge) while Thomas fights the other guy. I think Thomas punches him or something and then there's a scream like the guy flew off the building. You don't see him after that. Just Arthur who gets knocked out by Rick.

Any ideas?
That scream is Rick, with the first of two "Thomas!" screams, it's just that the first one he doesn't enunciate very well, so it just sounds like a generic scream. But it's definitely Rick. (We see Rick's stunt double fake punch Alan Fudge twice, then it cuts to Thomas who punches the other guy. That guy falls at Thomas' feet, and Rick's yell comes just after that. Thomas then runs over to Rick.)

Check out the video here https://vimeo.com/370212569
Ensign Healy
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The Institute for Advanced Magnum Studies

"I woke up one day at 53 and realized I'd never been 23."

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