User Reviews

So this episode splits in two topics

#1 follows a gun but very done plot of mob influence on a prize fighter

#2 has another Hawaiian indigenous ancestor type plot. There was not much in this plot and just seemed the "extra" to fill the in between scenes of plot #1. And I hope I get magnum and his crew are loyal to a code before the law...this seems to be a theme of defying the law. Even in front of the law officers and the officers just go along with it. And this episode takes a moral high ground of preserving ancestral kids skull. But makes a mockery of the law and the officers while also devaluing another kids body remains in preference to a Hawaiian persons remains

I still love this show. I know this is probably an important issue that needs to be highlighted. However I don't believe the execution to be great. I think the script writers in "the rookie" manage these topics much better and should become the new norm

There are three plots in this episode. The first plot involves Magnum trying to steal the Ferrari, in an attempt to circumvent Higgins' new security upgrade. When a butterfly flies in front of a motion sensor, the Dobermans come running. Magnum sends them running off using an app on his phone that sends out high frequency sounds. He sprays something (it looks like a can of deoderant) on the sensor rendering it useless. Magnum then gets in the Ferrari which is about 10 yards away from the sensor. However, the dogs reappear, snarling, which causes Magnum to panic and call for Higgins. In order for that to work, a) the motion sensor had to be able to alert the dogs and send them right to the Ferrari; b) Higgins had to have been in the office (or whereever the noise meters sent their signal) for her to know something was up; and c) She had to have the earmuffs ready and be able to strap them on to both dogs in about a minute's time. BTW, they were human-type earmuffs that didn't fit properly and wouldn't be able to stop the high pitch noise. They didn't look like noise-cancelling headphonse either.

The second plot is a damsel-in-distress scenario. Magnum and Higgins are initially hired to find Kai, who is an MMA fighter, because her father hasn't heard from her for 4 hours. Apparently she went to the wrong terminal at the airport and lost her phone. Magnum and Higgins find her and it turns out that a gang wants her to throw a fight or her father will be killed. As Kai's fight progresses, the father is found and saved. Kai is told and she promptly wins the fight. Magnum and Higgins are outnumbered when they meet up with the gang outside the MMA venue. Outnumbered until the cavalry show up, complete with a helicopter that sprays water on them (must be a new police tactic that I haven't heard of.) This part of the episode only requires the normal suspension of belief. We can totally believe that it's easy to find a kidnapped guy that could be on any of a bunch of islands. And that it happened in the nick of time so Kai didn't have to throw her fight. And that HPD showed up just in time to save Magnum and Higgins from sleeping with the fish.

The third plot involved a stolen artifact. A land developer, Owen Westbury, had recently acquired some Hawaiian artifacts. He had purchased them from a local antiquities dealer, Mr. King, that had a reputation for looting "hallowed sites." He asked Kumu to authenticate them. Among the artifacts was a skull that Kumu thought belonged to a boy that fought against Kamehameha. So Kumu stole it with the intent of giving it to the Cultural Center. She was caught and bail was posted by Magnum and Higgins. The M.E. carbon dates the skull to the 18th century which convices Kumu that she's right. At the end of the episode, Kumu and all the regular cast were observing a ceremony before reinterring the skull in the cave where it was originally buried. HPD shows up and threatens to arrest everyone. However, the M.E. produces a skull that she brought from her office that was used as a training skull. She claims that it looks enough like the real skull that Westbury wouldn't know the difference. Magnum claims that even if Westbury did notice, he wouldn't say anything because he would end up in jail himself because he knew the skull was illegally acquired by King. So HPD goes along with it. What's wrong with this story? Well, usually if a person is going to pay a huge amount for something, he'll have it authenticated before he buys it. And how does HPD know where Kumu is at that exact moment? Supposedly the cave is in a cliff, but no cliff was shown and cars can come right up to the cave. Also Westbury could very well have said something if he had seen that the skull was different - after all, he had reported the theft which had started this story. As far as HPD telling a fib, I guess the end justifies the means.

This is a great episode if you like worn out plots about throwing fights. Also in a second plot the police sre complicit in a crime rather than following procedure because the criminals are the "sympathetic" main protagonists. They all should have been arrested and gone through due process.