The Big Blow (3.22)

[Rutledal]

I love the original title for "The Old Man and the Sea", "Grandfather's Fish".

[lutherhgillis]

About the shotgun blast, I agree that it was not possible to have occurred as in the scene. Even if the shotgun was shooting slugs, which I doubt, it should have at least blown out the candle...!

I mentioned earlier that you can see the hands of a crew member behind the wine barrell stabilizing it after it is shot. I am surprized that Island Hopper missed that one.

Is the wine cellar the same as TM's guesthouse set?

Also, what is with all of the upper staircase entries to a sunken floor plan deal? I understand the wine cellar but TM's pad, Rick's appartment, and it seems like there was another that I cannot recall now...

[Jay-Firestorm]

Ahh… ‘The Big Blow’. Such a simple episode, works so well.

[rating=9.5]

Robin Masters holds a high society dinner party, despite the hurricane outside, but the night is interrupted by two escaped convicts and their heavily pregnant accomplice. Worse still, one of the guests plans to kill Robin. A great ensemble episode…

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This episode contains spoilers.

‘The Big Blow’ is a popular episode with many MPI fans, and it’s not hard to see why. It has a great ensemble cast, and despite taking place in just one location (the main house of the Estate), has a great plot. It is also notable for having no voice-over narration by Magnum – if my memory serves me correct, the only other time there is no narration, is on the feature-length final episode, ‘Resolutions’.

I’ve said this with a number of third season episodes, but once again the opening trailer thankfully does not give too much away about the story, leaving a lot of surprises and twists.

The party guests are a varied bunch, with red herrings that each of them may wish to kill Robin Masters. The cast includes ‘Star Trek’s Scotty (who, despite being Canadian, still uses a Scottish accent here), and future fourth season ‘Airwolf’ and ‘Diagnosis: Murder’ star Barry Van Dyke.

On paper, a story that takes place entirely within the confines of the Estate’s main house may sound a bit limited and dull, but it really works. We also get to see some rare sets, including the dining room, the wine cellar, and the kitchen. In the case of the dining room, it is the only time in the series that I can recall it being seen.

This is also one of the rare instances in which we actually see Robin Masters (voiced by Orson Wells), though as always we don’t see his face. Later in the series, it would be hinted that Higgins is actually Robin, but this is one of the episodes that contradicts that theory.

As with many episodes of the third season and onwards, this is a character piece as much as an adventure, and works all the better for it.

Overall, a very enjoyable late third season episode. It offers something different, but still keeps the overall feel of the series. It deserves its popular ranking with fans.

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Other notes, bloopers, and misc.:

* A further flub regarding Higgins on the shortwave radio – he does not seem to press the microphone button to talk. Shortwave radios are not two way, and only one person can speak at once.

* Despite being filmed entirely inside, there seems to be a lot of looped (rerecorded in post-production) dialogue in this episode.

* Possible flub – Rick and T.C. arrive at the door of the main house without anyone buzzing them in through the gates. However, the indoor phone connected to the gate is seen to burn out, so maybe it rendered the system useless?

[Jay-Firestorm]

Something else I forgot to mention, when Five broadcast this episode in 2002, they edited out two lines near the begining about Magnum's "spastic fumbling" in the dark. It was probably harmless back in 1983, but today spastic is a politically incorrect word.

[Italian Ice]

Good review Jay, this is a very good episode that I saw recently.

I did have one question though that I wonder if anybody noticed.

At the end when TM and Robin confront Candice, she mentions something about Paris, but they never went into detail on this. Apparently there was some sort of "embarassement". I found this to be kinda silly since they didn't really dwell on this. It just kinda petered out. Unless I missed something, please let me know.

[Jay-Firestorm]

Good review Jay, this is a very good episode that I saw recently.

I did have one question though that I wonder if anybody noticed.

At the end when TM and Robin confront Candice, she mentions something about Paris, but they never went into detail on this. Apparently there was some sort of "embarassement". I found this to be kinda silly since they didn't really dwell on this. It just kinda petered out. Unless I missed something, please let me know.

Actually, I did rather feel this too. There should have been a more solid reason for her trying to kill him, and a more solid conclusion. After all, she'd just tried to kill Robin!

[lutherhgillis]

This one used total misdirection. The stage is set for the big party and Robin is supposed to be there. The hurricane comes, the thugs break into the party, a lady has a baby, Magnum tells Higgins he is on a mission to catch someone who will try to kill Robin, then at the very end, BAM, her nabs the bad guy and its over.

This one was not very predictable for me. Maybe they wrote it that way for this exact reason?

[J.J. Walters]

* A further flub regarding Higgins on the shortwave radio – he does not seem to press the microphone button to talk. Shortwave radios are not two way, and only one person can speak at once.

LOL! That makes FOUR flubs involving the shortwave radio!

[MaximRecoil]

2) When we see the shot of the hand pulling the gun out of the suitcase, it is a different gun than what we see Magnum taking away from Candace after she shoots "Robin"

The closeup shot of the gun in the suitcase showed a Walther PPK with a "silencer". In the next scene showing her walk up the stairs, the shadow of the gun on the wall was from a revolver. The gun she has when Magnum takes it away from her was also a revolver (the scene is too dark to tell what kind it was). This may have had something to do with Selleck needing the Walther prop (sans "silencer") for that scene.

[MACattack]

The best part of this episode was the cameo by Scotty (Janes Doohan) from Star Trek.

[MACattack]

Beam me up Scotty!!!

[robspace54]

Key Largo in COLOR and James Doohan. Not that great of an episode but we did find out that Higgy is a Doctor of Mathematics and does know something about birthing babies.

But this one does reinforce my thoughts that Robin is Robin and Higgins is ... NOT.

[steveadl]

Watched this episode last night and I realised I was remembering wrong. I thought this was the episode in which the power went out during a storm and TM went around to the rear of the estate main building, to the maintenance shed to turn on the generator.

Anyone tell me which episode I was getting confused with?

[Sam]

Kona Winds.

http://magnum-mania.com/Episodes/Season ... Winds.html

[steveadl]

Thanks Sam!