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What are your favorite episodes of Magnum P.I.?

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What are your favorite episodes of Magnum P.I.?

Old 07-17-05, 04:29 PM
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What are your favorite episodes of Magnum P.I.?

Some people here, such as myself, are long time fans, and we know all 8 seasons of Magnum P.I. by heart.

Others here are getting acquainted (or reacquainted) with the series from the first 2 seasons being released on DVD.

Whether you know all 8 seasons, or just the first 2 seasons, what are your favorite episodes?

My #1 favorite is "Home From The Sea" from season 4. This is the treading water episode.
Spoiler:
At the very end of the episode, Magnum is rescued from the middle of the ocean, and we think that the problem has been solved. But then in the very final scene, we find out that Magnum's father died when Magnum was 6. What a powerful ending.


"Limbo" from season 7 is one of my favorites. This was originally to be the series finale. But then they decided to do another season.
Spoiler:
Magnum dies, and his ghost wanders the island. But then they changed it so he was really only in a coma, so he could live for another season. I hope the DVD includes both versions.


The two hour "Did You See The Sunrise?" from season 3 is awesome.
Spoiler:
This is the one where Magnum kills an unarmed man in the middle of the woods. But Magnum had to do it, or the man would have murdered other people later on, and the man had already murdered other people in the past, and the man had diplomatic immunity, so he could not be arrested.


The two hour "Ehcoes Of The Mind" with Sharon Stone from season 5, which was a bonus on the season 1 DVD, is really great.
Spoiler:
At the end of the episode, the Sharon Stone character blows her brains out. What a tragic ending.


"Unfinished Business" from season 8 is one of my favorites.
Spoiler:
Michelle gets murdered and Magnum goes psycho-crazy.


"The Woman On The Beach" from season 2 is one that I have always enjoyed immensely. This one is full of action, adventure, mystery, and romance.

"Black On White,"
Spoiler:
with the African Mau Mau
"Flashback,"
Spoiler:
Magnum wakes up in the year 1936
and "Faith And Begorrah,"
Spoiler:
with Higgins's illegitimate half brother who is an Irish priest
all from season 3, are really great.

The 2 hour "Memories Are Forever" from season 2 is also very good.
Spoiler:
We find out that Magnum was married in Vietnam.


"No Need To Know"
Spoiler:
I.R.A. terrorists
and "The Black Orchid"
Spoiler:
Bogart fans will like this one
from season 1 are awesome.

A little trivia: guest actress Judith Chapman appears in "The Black Orchid" from season 1, and in "The Woman On The Beach" from season 2, and in both episodes
Spoiler:
she plays a woman in the 1980s who likes to dress up and pretend to be a woman from the 1940s, but the characters in the two episodes are different, and the contexts are also different.
She is my favorite guest actor in the 8 season run of the series, and these are her only 2 appearances.

Well, those are some of my favorites. How about yours?
Old 07-18-05, 03:53 AM
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"Unfinished Business" must be the episode I have been wanting to know about.

There was an episode where someone dies and he goes wacko on some revenge trip, but while you see him going training and arming himself some wicked cool 80's industrial-ish music plays.

I'll remember that its in Season 8.


I kinda liked the "Murder She Wrote/Magnum" cross over episodes...probably because i like it when two characters from two shows or "universes" interact.

It probably also helps that both shows were on A&E back to back so you got to see the whole story play out. I hope the episodes are both included on the Magnum DVD.
Old 07-18-05, 10:42 AM
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Originally Posted by UAIOE
"Unfinished Business" must be the episode I have been wanting to know about.

There was an episode where someone dies and he goes wacko on some revenge trip, but while you see him going training and arming himself some wicked cool 80's industrial-ish music plays.

I'll remember that its in Season 8.


I kinda liked the "Murder She Wrote/Magnum" cross over episodes...probably because i like it when two characters from two shows or "universes" interact.

It probably also helps that both shows were on A&E back to back so you got to see the whole story play out. I hope the episodes are both included on the Magnum DVD.
Yes. That is "Unfinished Business" from season 8. The song is "The Brazilian" by Genesis, from their "Invisible Touch" album.

The Magnum P.I. episode that crossed over with "Murder She Wrote" is called "Novel Connection," and is from season 7 of Magnum P.I.
Old 07-18-05, 10:51 AM
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Oh man, the one where he takes Higgin's Ferrari and he didn't know about it.

I mean, that is right up there with the Dukes of Hazard show where they jumped the General Lee, ended up in jail, and then tricked Roskow into letting them out.

HOW DO THEY DO THAT?



Old 07-18-05, 12:36 PM
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"Limbo" is my favorite...too bad the series couldn't have ended on it. It would have been a great way to end things. The John Denver song ("Sometimes I Fly Like An Eagle") always reminds me of that show.

BTW,
Spoiler:
Magnum was in a coma in the FIRST version as well...but died at the very end. So in both versions, he was in a coma when he was walking around as a "ghost". The updated version only shows shots of a figure in a doorway at the warehouse where Magnum was shot...which leads into a storyline in the following season about an old nemesis from Vietnam.

Last edited by Shannon Nutt; 07-18-05 at 12:40 PM.
Old 07-18-05, 02:42 PM
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Originally Posted by grundle
Yes. That is "Unfinished Business" from season 8. The song is "The Brazilian" by Genesis, from their "Invisible Touch" album.

The Magnum P.I. episode that crossed over with "Murder She Wrote" is called "Novel Connection," and is from season 7 of Magnum P.I.
Thanks!
Old 07-18-05, 09:00 PM
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Shannon Nutt

The John Denver song is called "Looking For Space."
Old 07-18-05, 11:16 PM
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I didn't really watch the show all that much, but "Did You See The Sunrise?" is one of the most powerful and moving episodes of any show I've ever seen. I still get charliegoosebumps thinking about that last scene.
Old 07-19-05, 11:38 AM
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I'd also vote for "Did You See The Sunrise" . For some reason or another I never saw this episode in reruns, maybe they didn't show it as much because it was two hours. I didn't remember the title of this episode until I saw it above and was going to vote for the one with "Ivan" at least I think that was the guys name.
Old 07-20-05, 11:11 AM
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Here's a summary of "Did You See The Sunrise?" that I wrote a while ago. I wrote it from memory, so it might not be 100% accurate:

Spoiler:
We see some flashback scenes from Vietnam. Magnum, T.C., Cookie, and Nuzo are POWs at a prison camp called Doc Hue in Vietnam. Each captor is forced to stand up in a seperate cage that's barely big enough to hold him. Each of the four cells is hanging from a tree.

The prison camp is run by Ivan, a Soviet KGB agent. Ivan does terrible physical and psychological torture to his four captors.

Ivan calls T.C. a "n-gger."

One day, just for the heck of it, Ivan shoots Cookie in his leg. Cookie's femoral artery starts bleeding. Because Cookie's hands are tied, he can't use his finger to plug the leak. He slowly bleeds to death as the other three prisoners watch.

After being in the prison camp for three months, Magnum, T.C., and Nuzo manage to escape.

Now it's over a decade later. Nuzo comes to Hawaii to visit T.C. Nuzo claims that Ivan is after him, because they were the only prisoners to ever escape from Ivan's camp. Nuzo says Ivan was tailing him in Washington D.C. Nuzo also says that after his plane landed in Hawaii, he noticed Ivan was on the plane. T.C. is quite skeptical.

Nuzo amd T.C. talk about their memories of Vietnam. Nuzo gives T.C. chewing gum.

Magnum has a friend named Mac, who had appeared in quite a few episodes in the first 2 seasons. Mac works at Naval Intelligence, but he did not serve in Vietnam.

One night, Magnum and Mac are out at a restaurant. They're having a really good time, really enjoying themselves.

As they are leaving the restaurant, Mac takes the Ferrari keys from Magnum. Mac walks up to the Ferrari.

Mac says, "Hey! Let's drive up to Pali lookout and watch the sunrise! It ought to be beautiful!"

A car bomb goes off. Mac is killed instantly.

Magnum, standing about 10 yards away, is knocked unconscious. But he suffers no permanent damage.

The next day, Magnum watches the sunrise, and says, "Mac didn't get to see the sunrise. There are a lot of things that Mac won't get to do."

Magnum, T.C., and Nuzo all gather at T.C.'s house. They all agree that Ivan really is back in Hawaii, and that it was Ivan who had planted the car bomb, hoping to kill Magnum.

A few days later, while watching the sunrise, Magnum observes to himself, "This is the third sunrise Mac didn't get to see. I wonder if I'll be countng sunrises forever."

Magnum does a lot of investigating, and he comes to the conslusion that Nuzo is actually a Soviet agent who was placed in the prison camp as a plant. While in Vietnam, Nuzo was always giving T.C. chewing gum. The gum was laced with some type of mind altering substance.

Now that Nuzo is back in Hawaii, he's giving T.C. the gum again. Then, Nuzo injects a syringe with more chemicals into T.C.

The chemicals turn T.C. into a zombie. Nuzo convinces T.C. that he's back in Vietnam and the war is still going on.

In reality, a Japanese prince is visiting Hawaii. Nuzo convinces T.C. that the visiting Japanese prince is really Ivan. Nuzo tells T.C. that T.C. has to kill Ivan.

Magnum does more investigating, and determines that Ivan was involved in the assassination of Sadat in 1981.

Magnum also realizes that Ivan had deliberately allowed Magnum, T.C., and Nuzo to escape the prison camp in Vietnam. Magnum realizes that the reason that Ivan didn't kill Magnum in Vietnam was because Ivan knew that T.C. needed Magnum's help to leave the prison camp. Ivan wanted to make sure that T.C. got away.

Magnum puts two and two togther, and figures out the plot to assassinate the visiting Japanese prince. And Magnum realizes that Ivan had planted the car bomb to prevent Magnum from interfering with Ivan's plan to assassinate the Japanese prince.

While brainwashed from the drugs, and under Nuzo's influence, T.C. hijacks a military helicopeter, and flies to the building where the Japanese prince is. Just as T.C. is about to blow up the building, Magnum comes by in another heliopter, and Magnum says on the radio, "Abort! Abort! Mission cancelled! We're going home."

T.C. is taken to a hospital for detoxification. He suffers no permanent damage.

Magnum and T.C. know enough about Ivan killing Cookie and about Ivan killing Mac to have Ivan convicted of murder. But the U.S. government doesn't want to stir up trouble. So Ivan is given a fake idenity as a Bulgarian diplomat, and displomatic immunity to protect him from being prosectued. Then, Ivan is declared "undesirable" and asked to leave the country.

Ivan leaves the embassy to go to the airport. Ivan rides down the road in his chauffer driven car. Magnum tails the car.

Ivan's car drives along a road through the woods. Up ahead, Rick's car is "broken" with the hood up, and blocking the road. Ivan's car stops.

Ivan's chauffer gets out, and tells Rick to "Move the car." Rick says that the car won't budge. The chauffer looks at the engine.

Meanwhile, Ivan is sitting in the back seat of his car. Magnum walks up, opens the door, points a gun at Ivan, and says, "We're going for a walk."

Magnum and Ivan walk into the middle of the woods.

Magnum says, "OK. That's far enough."

Magnum says, "I know you killed Sadat. How many more guys like T.C. have you got out there? Who's your next target? Begin? Thatcher? Reagan?"

Ivan says, "You are a schoolboy. You don't have any idea."

Magnum points his gun at Ivan.

Ivan says, "I have diplomatic immunity. You cannot arrest me."

Ivan opens up his jacket and says, "Magnum, I know you. Look at me. I am unarmed. I know you. I know your code. You cannot shoot an unamred man."

Ivan continues, "I had you in my camp at Doc Hue for three months. I know you better than your own mother. Sure, you could shoot me, if I was armed, and if I was coming after you. But like this? No. Not you. Never."

Magnum puts his gun down.

Ivan says, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a plane to catch."

Ivan turns around, and starts to walk away.

Magnum stands there, thinking.

Magnum calls out, "Ivan?"

Ivan turns around and responds, "Yes?"

Magnum asks, "Did you see the sunrise today?"

Ivan answers, "Yes. Why?"

We see a closeup of Magnum. Magnum gets a very serious look on his face. Magnum holds up the gun, and points it at Ivan. And as we hear the gunshot, the camera freeze frames on the bright orange muzzle flash, and then the closing credits roll.
Old 07-20-05, 07:28 PM
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The two part "Did you see the sunrise?" and "Limbo" will always be my favorites. I have a special place in my heart for "Memories are forever pt 1 & 2", "The Jororo Kill", "Mixed doubles", "The arrow that is not aimed", any Luther Gillis episodes, and "Laura" with Frank Sinatra.
Old 07-21-05, 08:56 AM
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Originally Posted by devilshalo
The two part "Did you see the sunrise?" and "Limbo" will always be my favorites. I have a special place in my heart for "Memories are forever pt 1 & 2", "The Jororo Kill", "Mixed doubles", "The arrow that is not aimed", any Luther Gillis episodes, and "Laura" with Frank Sinatra.
"The Jororo Kill" has one of the best villains of any episode.

"The Arrow That Is Not Aimed" is a wonderful tale of friendship, and also has some really funny scenes.

"Mixed Doubles" is so badly cheesy that I can't help but love it.

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