Little Girl Who (7.7)

[SelleckLover]

Woohoo! My son got me Season 7 for Christmas! This is the first episode I watched from it. (Last night) Every time I see this episode I bawl my eyes out at the end! I think this is one of my favorite episodes, dunno why. I just like it. I even have a script of it that I won on eBay. It was interesting to note the changes they made, and how it differed from the episode that actually aired. For example, Lily's name was Leah throughout the script.

[N1095A]

I just rewatched this episode. What a great well written and heart wrenching episode! At the end when Lilly runs back to TM, it kind of tore my heart out. I was a little PO'd when Michelle said "I could stay with you" or something like that, and they stare at each other for a moment, then say nothing, and she leaves anyway, makes me dislike her even more. She's Magnum's achiles heel, and she knows she has him by the "you know whats". What a user.

[Doc Ibold]

I just rewatched this episode. What a great well written and heart wrenching episode! At the end when Lilly runs back to TM, it kind of tore my heart out. I was a little PO'd when Michelle said "I could stay with you" or something like that, and they stare at each other for a moment, then say nothing, and she leaves anyway, makes me dislike her even more. She's Magnum's achiles heel, and she knows she has him by the "you know whats". What a user.

Plus she has "Mall Hair"

[maggiepoole]

I just rewatched this episode. What a great well written and heart wrenching episode! At the end when Lilly runs back to TM, it kind of tore my heart out. I was a little PO'd when Michelle said "I could stay with you" or something like that, and they stare at each other for a moment, then say nothing, and she leaves anyway, makes me dislike her even more. She's Magnum's achiles heel, and she knows she has him by the "you know whats". What a user.

Plus she has "Mall Hair"

LMAO! OMG that is all I see now!! Well, it was the 80s, big hair was in!

Michelle did seem distant in this episode. Like she had become hardened by it all. But, I don't think she expected Lily to turn around and run back to Thomas. Her emotions showed through there.

After watching these episodes again. I am becoming to like Michelle less and less. Especially for the whole Limbo episode. How stupid can you be, just pick up a phone! Instead you risk your own and Lily's life (not to mention Magnum's...again!) to ease your conscious over marrying another man. She could have left well enough alone to in Memories Are Forever. But, I guess we wouldn't have this good plot line. But, I certainly couldn't have stayed away from Thomas. She tried to be so righteous and noble, but in the end all she did was use Thomas. "But, once again I had no choice". He forgave her everything. Thomas blindly loves, and that is one of his endearing qualities.

[MPS]

I've got a question that's been bothering me since I first saw this episode, more than 20 years ago.

Michelle is, we are assuming, at least partially asian. (This seems to be the concensus on the boards.) Lily is "supposed" to be the child of Michelle and the general, right? Wouldn't he (the general) have noticed Lily's very western looks? Is he so head-over-heels in love with Michelle, that he just ignores it? How does Michelle keep doing this to guys?

Yes, I know, suspension of belief is crucial when wathcing MPI, but I had to ask.

I guess that's more like 3 1/2 questions, not just one.....

[Carmen]

I think he knew, surely he was able to count back... and add 1 to 1

[MyGod!]

Something I'm quite confused about, can anyone clarify?
Why did Michelle have to leave at the end? was she being taken into protective custody by the U.S. Military? Or taken back to Vietnam for intelligence reasons? Or going back on her own accord to Vietnam?

I know this might get cleared up once I watch some fo the other epsiode, but i's been bugging me, I must be missing something...?

[Rutledal]

I think Michelle sort of enters a military version of the "Federal Witness Protection Program" because, as seen in the season 7 final, the people that killed Nguyen are probably still after her because she known "too much".

Also dialog in this episode places it some six months after "Death and Taxes", when Magnum gives Maggie flowers he says it's to congratulate her on her promotion which she marks was six months ago. At least it gave me the impression that he had not spoken to her since the promotion.

[A P Leyland]

Really good episode. The only bum note for me was the guy's death at the end when magnum shot him. The "hears an off-screen gunshot when a character is in the crosshairs, only for it to be another character shooting the bad guy" was a cliche 20 years ago and that in itself isn;t so bad but the actor's 'death' was just so awful. A small moment in an otherwise flawless episode but still.

Deborah Pratt also appeared as Marella in AIRWOLF and wrote one of that series best episodes - FALLEN ANGEL. I believe she was also Producer/Writer on QUANTUM LEAP and delivered that show's opening narration.

Andy

[AJL]

A good and touching episode, though it had some plot holes, but then again, which episode doens't.
I always had one major complaint about this episode though, that I can't believe nobody's mentioned yet. In the end when Magnum says "I could go with you" but then says "But that would make you that much easier to find" or something along those lines..... That's just a horrible argument. Weren't the writers able to come up with a better excuse? Lots of couples have gone into witness protection without ever getting tracked down (and for the very very few that maybe was, whats to say that was because they were a couple???). In fact, if they know about Magnum (as it is said by Buck), that is a good reason why he in fact should follow her into the program, not to stay out of it! If they know as much about Michelle and Magnum as Buck suggests, and want to get to Michelle as badly as suggested, what would hinder them from using Magnum to get to Michelle?
This just bugs me to no end and, while not a flub in the common sense of the word, respresents to me one of the biggest flubs in the series. It just makes no sense, the logic is all over the place.
Can anybody please explain to me what I (hopefully) misunderstood about that whole situation???

[MACattack]

Good Father's Day episode!

[Jay-Firestorm]

This is definitely one of my Top 10 episodes, a classic.

[rating=10]

With her life endangered by Vietnamese assassins and forced to go on the run, Magnum’s estranged ex-wife Michelle leaves her five-year-old daughter Lily Katherine to be safeguarded by Magnum, leading him to once again try to find his elusive wife. Classic..

-----

This review contains spoilers.

Well, where to begin… ‘Little Girl Who’ is a classic ‘Magnum, p.i.’ episode, and stands as one of my all-time Top 10 favourite episodes of the series.

The episode is penned by co-creator Donald P. Bellisario’s then wife (and who also portrayed T.C.’s girlfriend Gloria in a couple of fourth and fifth season episodes) Deborah M. Pratt. After writing the so-so fifth season episode ‘Little Games’, here Pratt comes up with an excellent tale, and it’s a shame she didn’t write more for the series.

The story is a continuation / sequel of sorts to the second season’s feature-length / two-part ‘Memories Are Forever’, which had been referenced in a number of subsequent episodes. Although ‘Little Girl’ who can be watched 'stand alone', it is one of the relatively few MPI episodes that is probably more enjoyable if you have watched the first part of the story (‘Memories…’) first.

There are so many great touches and moments in this episode, and is one of those stories that I can watch over and over again.
Magnum being left with a young girl who is speaking in a tongue he can’t understand (although in a slight contradiction, in the first season’s ‘China Doll’ he indicates he can speak some French) is wonderful, and thankfully, they didn’t go down the over-cutesy path in which they could so easily have taken.

There are also a couple of great Higgins moments, none more-so as when Magnum catches him enthusiastically acting out some war story or other to Lily.

The climatic scene, at the Byodo-In Temple, is well-shot, and adds just the right amount of action to the story.

As with some other fans, the only thing I didn’t really understand is why Michelle couldn’t have stayed with Magnum at the end of the story. I am assuming that it would have simply been far too dangerous for both of them, with continual assassination attempts, but in reality it just wouldn’t have worked within the context of the show. Although it is a noticeable niggle, I’m prepared to overlook it and it isn’t enough to spoil my love for this story.

All-in-all, this is a wonderful story, and is MPI at its best. As I say, definitely one for my all-time Top 10.

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Another case of the DVD version having abridged act breaks… why do they have to do that?!

* Just a tidy up note – the main page for this episode has the information about Deborah Pratt twice.

* T.C. and Rick only appear in one scene in this story.

* When Five broadcast this story in 2003, I watched it “live” that day as well as recording it (normally I recorded it and watched it in the evening). It stands out in my memory because half-way through, my cat stepped on the controller of my video recorder (as I was using then) and stopped the recording! Luckily I only missed a few seconds as I started it up again, but much cursing at the cat followed!

[MrMoustache]

guys death - yes a cliche!

maggie - she also was mad at him for cancelling a dinner date (which implies they've had contact) and sounded a bit forlorne when she thanked him for the flowers. she's smitten!

i actually cried at the end of this one. i love kids myself and anything with a good story and kids in it will get me crying.. one of the things I like about MPI is the frequent involvement of kids, which i think is a good allegory, since rick, TC and thomas are just big kids themselves. one of my new favorite moments is when higgins is jumping all over the couch and thomas walks into the guest house "was that the assault on the couch at burma or the sofa at the sudan?" "I just dropped a rare and expensive coin... ah here it is!" the girl that playedlily is also so adorable. She even told the lads goodnight! that was so cute..

[MrMoustache]

I just rewatched this episode. What a great well written and heart wrenching episode! At the end when Lilly runs back to TM, it kind of tore my heart out. I was a little PO'd when Michelle said "I could stay with you" or something like that, and they stare at each other for a moment, then say nothing, and she leaves anyway, makes me dislike her even more. She's Magnum's achiles heel, and she knows she has him by the "you know whats". What a user.

Plus she has "Mall Hair"

i too found michelle unsually cold here, quite a hard contrast from the previous visit. but then again, she's more duty bound than magnum is emotional and her husband did get killed, but then again, youd think she'd still be happy to have magnum. maybe she's mad that she had his child... or at least resentful she had the "fling" because it opened up old wounds.

[Little Garwood]

What makes this episode (my rating- "Excellent": 9) is the fact that Thomas thinks that this is his daughter fairly early on, but we, the audience, know it right away. This adds a huge emotional weight--a key word in my reviews of season 7-- to this episode and this is MPI at its "mature best." The knowledge of Lily/Thomas makes the entire proceedings heart rending.

"Little Girl Who" is another great entry in the Magnum/Michelle storyline and I liked the flashbacks to "Memories Are Forever", which I've always considered the first truly great MPI episode. That we have "Memories Are Forever" as backstory compliments "Little Girl Who" effectively.