Round and Around

Episode Number: 112
Season Number: 6.6
Air Date: 10/24/1985
Writer: Reuben Leder
Director: Reuben Leder
Producer: Reuben Leder
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

James Grant Benton (Kika), Kwan Hi Lim (Lt. Tanaka)

Guest Stars

Larry B. Scott (Ron Pennington Jr.), Sheila Frazier (Sheila Pennington), Bob Minor (Ron Pennington Sr.), Rummel Mor (Andy Wen), Whip Hubley (Stu), Warren Fabro (Sammy Garns), Maile Kinimaka (Maile), Peter Bourne (Tourist), Francis Yoshida (Tran Nguyen)

Episode Brief

Ron Pennington, a friend of T.C. and Magnum's on their basketball team, is shot dead when interrupting an armed grocery store holdup, and they discover his son is linked to the murder.

Rating

7.6

(36 votes)

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Notes

¹ This is the seventh "T.C.-centric" episode of the series, following "Thicker than Blood" (1.12), "Past Tense" (3.5), "A Sense of Debt" (4.8), "Paradise Blues" (4.15), "Under World" (5.5) and "Tran Quoc Jones" (5.9).

² This episode has the unusual block credit of 'Produced, Written and Directed by Reuben Leder'. This is the second and last episode of Season Six to be lead produced by Reuben Leder. All other Season Six episodes will be lead produced by Chris Abbott.

³ Magnum P.I. stunt coordinator/stunt man (and Roger E. Mosley's stunt double) Bob Minor guest stars as T.C.'s friend Ron Pennington (credited as 'Robert L. Minor'). In the great fight scene climax between T.C. and the two drug dealers/robbers, Bob Minor is clearly identified as Roger E. Mosley's stunt double throughout most of the fight. Since Bob Minor also played the character of Ron Pennington, T.C.'s friend who was killed, this creates a bizarre, surreal situation where it almost appears as if Ron Pennington had returned from the grave to avenge his own death!

⁴ The library room at Robin's Nest is seen for one of the few times in the show. It is seen again in a few episodes time in "Rapture" (6.11).

⁵ Rick only has one scene in this episode.

⁶ List of notable filming locations:

• Kapaolono Community Park (701 11th Avenue) - "playing basketball"
• Ala Moana Beach Park (Magic Island, McCoy Pavilion) - "Paradise Pedicab Co."
• Fort Ruger Market, in Kaimuki (3585 Alohea Ave.) - "Alohea Market" (where Ron is killed)
• Diamond Head Memorial Park (529 18th Avenue) - "gravesite of Ron Pennington Sr." (ID'd by rubber chicken)
• Private residence in Wailupe - "Pennington home" (ID'd by rubber chicken)
• Diamond Head Memorial Park (cemetery), next to Hawaii Film Studio.

⁷ Our bra' Kika (James Grant Benton) is seen again. He's been promoted from pedicab driver to pedicab manager (of Paradise Pedicab Co.). We'll see him again in "The Treasure of Kalaniopu'u" (6.9).

⁸ Waimanalo (Oahu) is mentioned by Rick (as the location of a "chop shop"). Waimanalo is the location of The Eve Anderson Estate, the estate used as Robin's Nest (which in the show is supposed to be on the North Shore). Rick even says, "You'll never believe where it is", which may or may not be an intentional "inside reference" by the writer.

⁹ We see Icepick's daughter Hilda, although she is only seen in the background behind Rick, and she has no dialog. Rick tells Magnum that in return for Icepick giving him some information he had agree to "the big one" - it's more than dating her, although we never find out exactly what it is!

¹⁰ Higgins mentions Sir Arthur Conan Doyle again. Here, he references the 1887 story "A Study in Scarlet", the first story to feature Sherlock Holmes.

¹¹ Early use of television product placement; Gatorade is seen (several times) and mentioned by name. T.C. and Magnum share a Gatorade in the closing scene, a subtle reminder of Ron Pennington's death.

¹² Ron's gravestone says that he was killed on September 3rd 1985.

¹³ The scene with Magnum and T.C. running through the tennis court in a foot chase is different in the closing credits. In the episode, Magnum runs/stumbles through the tennis balls, and in the closing credits he jumps over the fallen tennis ball holder! (Noted by John M.)

¹⁴ The closing credits also use an edit of the theme song usually reserved for feature-length, two-parters like "All For One" and "Deja Vu".

Quotes

¹
(Higgins has just been talking to Magnum about the brilliance of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the character of Sherlock Holmes)
Higgins: On the other hand, you have a detective like Chandler's Phillip Marlowe who plotted along and mumbled in the most incomprehensible plots. Chandler himself in his later years said that even he did not understand the "long goodbye", but nevertheless due to his acute sense of human nature, not only the "how", but the "why" people do what they do, Marlowe was able to, in the last chapter, finally confront the villian, even though we do not know exactly how he got there. The point is, he did.

²
Magnum: I'm not really sure which kind of private investigator I am - the Holmesian-type with the constant deductive mind, or one with a Marlowe-type intuitive sense of the darker side of human nature. Hopefully a combination of both. At any rate, it doesn't matter, not when you have a "little voice". I don't know, maybe a gently nagging "little voice" is just another way of adding what you know to what you feel, but right now mine wasn't "gently nagging", it was screaming! (Narration)

³
Magnum: Hi, guys. (smiles)

⁴
Higgins: Rick did call an hour ago to say the chaps at the chop shop had no idea how to reach the house boys who ditched the Continental.
Magnum: It's "home boys".

Flubs

¹ During the big fight at the end, you can easily identify Roger E. Mosley's stunt double, Bob Minor, several times. This creates an amusing situation, because Bob Minor played the key character of Ron Pennington Sr. in this episode, and Ron is supposed to be dead!

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