Texas Lightning (2.18)

[J.J. Walters]

This is the official MM thread for Texas Lightning (2.18). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.

Original Air Date: 2/18/1982
Card shark Jeannie Lowry (aka "Texas Lightning") hires Magnum as her bodyguard at a high-stakes poker game aboard a luxurious yacht. But Magnum learns that the poker game is just a facade and Jeannie has criminal dealings on board a neighboring yacht owned by a shady individual named Thompson. When Thompson catches Magnum and Jeannie aboard his yacht, they escape, become stranded on a deserted island, and are presumed dead.

[J.J. Walters]

Just watched this again recently. Overall, a solid episode with a good ensemble cast (Seth Sakai, Danny Kamekona, Jack Hogan). Lots of unsavory characters abound, high stakes poker games, some great helicopter stunts, and Magnum is trapped on a small island with a beautiful babe. What more can you ask for?

And Matt Thompson has to be one of the most heinous villians ever seen in the show! The guy works on his marksmanship by releasing and shooting live pigeons, and he orders his henchmen to kill two people by knife! Tame by today's standards, but somewhat shocking for the early '80s.

[Shermy]

What more can you ask for?

How about Magnum cavorting around with a beautiful spy?

This episode also has one of those bittersweet endings that the series did so well. (It's quite similar to the one that would soon appear in Double Jeopardy.)

And that, as they say, is the hell of it.

[sophia]

I watched this a few days ago and I noticed something that could never be.
Her red fingernail polish.
At the end when she leaves the hospital her red nails look perfect.
After fighting with the bad guys, climbing the rocks, collecting wood for the
fire, grabing a hot fish rights out of the fire, etc.
Maybe they give manicures in the hospital.
Maybe this should be a flub.
Thought the episode was great, like when Magnum could take no more
and told her to shut up and then fixed her dress for her.
He is such a gentleman.
sophia

[Carol the Dabbler]

At the end when she leaves the hospital her red nails look perfect. After fighting with the bad guys, climbing the rocks, collecting wood for the fire, grabing a hot fish right out of the fire, etc. Maybe they give manicures in the hospital. Maybe this should be a flub.

She had her little sequined evening bag with her the whole time, and while she was sleeping in the hospital, we saw Magnum take apart what looked like a small compact (presumably for powder or blusher). I'm willing to bet that she also had a nail file and a bottle of red polish in there.

Comments on the Plot Outline: Jeannie's extracurricular activities were not exactly criminal, they were espionage. Also, the only yacht involved was Thompson's -- he discovered that she had broken into his safe (while out of the poker room supposedly "powdering her nose"), and that's when she and Magnum had to escape.

[Carol the Dabbler]

The title of this episode refers to Jeannie's "lightning-fast" dealing of cards, but she didn't look fast to me. Have I been watching too many fancy dealers on tv?

I wonder if they had planned to get a stunt-dealer for the closeups, then changed their minds?

[N1095A]

Interesting, TC wears the SEAL cap in this one.

[J.J. Walters]

Check out the establishing shot they used for the opening scene in Miami...



Based on the cars, it appears to be from the 1960s!

Couple of questions for you guys:

1) During the card game, there is this little exchange...

Chan: I've been admiring your most unusual ring all evening Mr. Magnum. May I ask its origin?
Magnum: Oh, it's a souvenir of a "visiteer" part of the world, sir.

I hear "visiteer", but it may be something else that sounds similiar. I have no idea what "visiteer" (or something similiar) could be. Any ideas?

2) Matt Thompson's helicopter, is that a Bell 206 JetRanger?



3) Is there any realistic chance at all that a single flare gun shot to the side could bring down the bird seen above?

[Doc Ibold]

1) During the card game, there is this little exchange...

Chan: I've been admiring your most unusual ring all evening Mr. Magnum. May I ask its origin?
Magnum: Oh, it's a souvenir of a "visiteer" part of the world, sir.

I hear "visiteer", but it may be something else that sounds similiar. I have no idea what "visiteer" (or something similiar) could be. Any ideas?

Hey James, I think he's saying

"Oh, it's a souvenir of a visit to your part of the world, sir"

With "visit to your" maybe coming out like "vizt-yer"

(Maybe Magnum had a few too many. He did have a scotch then, didn'[t he?)

[N1095A]

It indeed is a 206 Jetranger. My second favorite helicopter. Bell Textron ceased production of this model this year after over 40 years.
And no, I don't see how a flare could bring down the chopper. It wouldn't have enough force to penetrate vital engine areas, and if it did, so what? it wouldn't tear anything up like some kind of ammunition would. Maybe if there were a pre existing fuel leak? Maybe if it went into the cabin, and smoke blinded the pilot and he flew into a mountain or something.

[IslandHopper]

James, I agree with Doc, I think Magnum was saying "visit to your..."

[J.J. Walters]

Yeah, it must be "visit to your". I initially thought that, but the way he pronounces it, it really sounded like something different, like a word I've never heard, maybe military jargon, or maybe even something in French. Weird!

[Jay-Firestorm]

First review of the week from me; another really good episode IMO.

[rating=9.5]

On his birthday, Magnum is hired by a Texas widow to be her bodyguard at a high stakes game of poker. But the event is far from what she claims, and he gradually finds out that there’s more to her than meets the eye. A good episode, but so nearly a classic…

-----

This review contains spoilers.

‘Texas Lightning’ is a great (and often overlooked) later second season episode, which with just a bit of tweaking could easily have become a solid series classic.

The episode takes place on Magnum’s birthday, the first of two episodes written around it (the other being the seventh season’s ‘Forty’). Although some episodes are closely set to their original U.S. airdate, Magnum’s birthday here doesn’t seem to have any relation to the date of the original broadcast.

Julie Sommars as supposed card shark Jeannie Lowrie… I couldn’t quite make up my mind about her. When she was posing as the poker ace, I found it hard to buy, but then it turned out she wasn’t really a poker ace at all, so it kind of excused that a bit. She does have some good rapport with Magnum, and winds up being an interesting character with far more to her than is first let on.
I wasn’t sure about the later stages, stuck on the island, when she and Magnum obligatorily got kissy-kissy; I felt they definitely had a relationship of sorts going, but found this romance a bit forced and sudden.

Later stages of the story could have made the episode a solid 10, but I found the actual poker stages of the episode to be a bit average, and they pull the episode down from its potentially perfect rating.
Other than the poker scenes, I really like the story, and Magnum and Jeannie being stuck out at sea on the small boat, and ending up on the island, are some of the second season’s best scenes in my opinion.

And then there are the aerial shots, of T.C.’s chopper, and the bad guys’ Bell 206 JetRanger. The climatic scenes are some of the best featured in the entire series, and no-doubt helped inspire Donald P. Bellisario for his other popular series, ‘Airwolf’.

The closing stages of the story are a real twist, in a story that has already had a number of twists and turns. One thing I like about the series is that a story can start at one point, and end at somewhere completely different, in a place that you’d never expect.

Overall, I really like this story, which is, as I say in my opening, often overlooked. If only those earlier stages were better, this would be a series classic.

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Unless I missed one, Magnum smokes his fourth cigar of the series in this story (yes, I’m keeping count!)

* When Channel 5 (U.K.) broadcast this story in 2002,they made two edits: At the beginning when the fake Policeman have the agent in the back of the squad car, shots of the knife they are about to kill him with are edited out. Similarly, on the scene on Thompson’s boat when he is shooting live pigeons, the shot of his henchman about to be killed with the same knife are removed. Knife crime has been quite an issue in the U.K. in recent years, so I suppose they felt need to remove these shots.

[J.J. Walters]

Here's another amusing flub, sent to me by my friend "J.G."...

"While Higgins, T.C., and Rick are lamenting Magnum's apparent death on the leather sofa in Higgin's office, Rick stands, places his glass (cheap rye whiskey) on the end table, and then passes out intoxicated. As Rick stands to put down his drink, his shirt is clearly dry. Then, after he falls back on the sofa, his shirt is wet."

[Higgy_baby]

Great episode. 9.5 for me. As solid as it gets. This to me is pure classic MPI. Guns, babes, nasty villians, chopper dogfights, commie threats, the boys banding together....

Magnum bringing down the other chopper with one lucky shot from a flare gun, while the opponent has gone through about 8 mags on his M16 seems a little far fetched, but it's TV.

James, regarding cars in Miami, I see a lot of 70s cars. '73 Cougar and I think a '74 Pontiac at least. The red sports car at the top almost looks like an '80 Celica but I'm not positive. The footage doesn't look as far out of date as the 60s.

Lastly regarding the cheap rye whiskey, I have a cultural question. In Canada we call Rye what you yanks call 'Canadian Whisky'...CC, Crown Royal etc., definitely not the cheap stuff. I know better when I travel south than to ask for Rye, because it makes you sound like a hick. So what's with Higgins' comment? Also some old movies and songs like Don McClean's American Pie reference Rye. I've seen the odd bottle of Beam labelled Rye. So, what is the American connnotation of RYE?

And any Brits can weight in if it means anything in Old Blighty.