Magnum P.I. Season 4 Episode 2 Review: The Harder They

Magnum and Higgins were back together but not much has changed.

The reunited P.I. partners went straight back to work on Magnum P.I. Season 4 Episode 2 like their six-month separation never happened.

They were first shown letting a bail jumper escape because Magnum’s Ferrari wasn’t meant to be used as an all-terrain vehicle. It’s good to see Thomas treats Robin’s property at least as well as a rental car. And Juliet’s pert accent and a P.I. badge just didn’t do the trick.

But they were soon back to helping the downtrodden against those who treat them badly, agreeing to investigate an ex-con’s recent suspicious death that had been ruled an accident.

Sure, it ended up being Strangers on a Train yet again. But Hitchcock’s classic film became an enduring classic for a reason. So it wasn’t lazy writing but instead an homage.

Once Nokoa’s boss told the pair about the opiates in his system, they were reading to chalk it up to a bad end for an ex-con. Nokoa’s wife should have let them in on that little detail.

Fortunately, they did their due diligence, only to find out that was a lot more to Nokoa than they had previously been made aware of, opening up a new suspect in the father of the man supposedly killed by Nokoa.

Finding out the father and Nokoa’s boss attended the same grief support group, and that both of their loved ones’ killers had been subsequently murdered themselves, made the situation much clearer. I mean, the enduring concept behind Strangers on a Train led it to become a cinematic and TV trope.

The tragic part was that the hedging witness admitted that Nokoa wasn’t guilty in the first place. So the father murdered for absolutely no reason.

But the case was almost secondary to the fact that Magnum and Higgins were back together again. Kind of, sort of.

And they were attuned enough to each other to realize that they each had a secret that they were keeping.

A regretful Juliet was forced to leave Ethan behind in Africa for another month. 

Will viewers see Ethan again? Probably, sooner rather than later. It’s hard to have a love geometric shape without at least three sides.

But it’s likely going to be that the moment has passed for Higgins and Ethan. He’s got his patients, she’s got her secret mission from Mi-6. Who can make the time?

Also, how many times have we seen the brainy cute woman gravitate against reason to the charming dolt?

It was a little disappointing that we heard nothing about that mission. It’s probably going to pop up about every sixth episode with a resolution late in the season.

It didn’t take a detective to realize that something had changed in Thomas’s life. (When will Magnum realize he’s the weak link in their partnership?) His home didn’t look like a sty and smelled like a Bath and Body Works.

Also he and Lia are so damn awkward around each other. How has the normally sharp Katsumoto failed to pick up on that yet? It took Higgins about one introduction to do so.

Likewise, Thomas determined that something continues to be off about Juliet, long after the jetlag should have worn off. She skillfully deflected.

She now knows his secret while he remains suspicious but clueless. So they’ll drop back into their prickly relationship, which is probably for the best. They’re living and working together, which all goes away if they become a couple and later separate.

It was encouraging to see T.C. come to the fore again. He was doing right by Shammy and later on, Shammy certainly returned the flavor.

Shammy has been a great addition to the series: a wounded veteran who has gone through the darkness and is working his way out the other side.

It was natural that Shammy be nervous about taking his first solo flight. It took T.C.’s peril to get Shammy out of his head enough to fly away and find professional help, rather than attempt to rescue T.C. himself.

It’s a wonder you don’t hear more about tour choppers being skyjacked, what with operators needing to fill seats to pay for their gas.

The pair that skyjacked T.C.’s chopper wasn’t particularly bright, as they enabled their buyers to steal the drugs they’d hoped to sell to them.

T.C. struggled to get free of his captor while Shammy got in the head of the other skyjacker, knocking him out from a seated position before crawling to the chopper to get help.

Good hire there, T.C. Two pilots mean twice as many tours, right? Maybe a second chopper someday?

Now that Higgins has returned, Kumu is free to do more enjoyable things with her time, like listening to a lovesick Rick as he bemoans his lack of creativity as a bartender. (That makes sense since Betsy Phillips [Suzy] is married to Zachary Knighton [Rick] in real life.)

Since Rick is still talking about Suzy, we can expect to see her again, after Phillips completes whatever project earned her a hiatus. She classes up that bar so let’s hope so soon.

To revisit Magnum and Higgins’ relationship, watch Magnum P.I. online.

Who breaks up with their significant other first, Magnum or Higgins?

Were you glad to see Shammy again?

Is it time to give Rick something to do outside the bar?

Comment below.

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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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