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Is Jonathan Higgins Robin Masters?
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:20 pm
by Styles Bitchley
For the life of me, I can't find a specific thread devoted to this subject, so forgive me if I'm creating one out of turn.
I just thought there was a lot of digression into this territory in the
Birdman of Budapest thread and it surely deserves a place of its own. So here's where James left off (quite controversially, I must say...)
J.J. Walters wrote:When you look at the later episodes that feature Magnum's suspicion of Higgins/Robin, particularly the scene in "Paper War", it's clear that Magnum believes there is a person named Robin Masters who has jet-setted around the world drinking Lafite Rothschild and eating caviar. Indeed, Magnum has met him several times and was standing right next to him in "The Big Blow"! But the person with all the power and money, the person who actually wrote all those tawdry pulp novels, the person who owns all those properties (including Robin's Nest) is Jonathan Quayle Higgins III! Magnum correctly deduces that Higgins is pulling all the strings. He had to create this facade so his family name wouldn't get sullied.
Consider this key passage from "Paper War":
Higgins: What on earth are you talking about?
Magnum: The big lie Higgins, admit it! You're Robin. YOU are Robin Masters!
Higgins: I-I'm laughing at the sheer absurdity of the accusation.
Magnum: No, no, no, you're laughing, because you're trapped. YOU have NEVER laughed like this. Now admit it. You've spent all these years, pretending to be Robin's employee, because you didn't want anybody to know that you write cheap pulp novels.
Higgins: (laughing wildy) And who, may I ask, is the man we know and address as Robin Masters?
Magnum: I don't know, some little guy with a voice like Orson Welles and a body like Truman Capote that you hired to pose as Robin. And it was very interesting casting. You weren't satisfied with the nom de plume. You developed this whole persona, to create the kind of playboy you envisioned writing cheap pulp, so YOU could devote yourself to serious writing.
As far as the yearbook thing goes..... that's a tough one to explain away. Plastic surgery, maybe?
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:16 pm
by KENJI
I think Higgins is not R.M. based on a few episodes, one being J. Digger Doyle where he is giving Robin his resignation over the Audi's tape recorder /dictaphone just before the ambush. If you are the real Robin why would you take this step, as there is no real need. Which means you would be leaving your own house and the front you have carefully put together and going where....Robin's chalet or..? Also Magnum has so much access to info. via Maggie, Mack (until Ivan came along) and being a world class private investigator that it should be easy for him to find out something as simple as this. I loved they played this guessing game with us, but at the end of the day my vote is no.
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 6:31 pm
by AmandaByNight
I don't think he's Robin Masters either, but it really comes from not introducing the idea until later in the series, and I was too settled into how it was originally intended.
Many disagree with me, but I just can't get that part of Magnum filled brain to go there!
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:36 pm
by Thomas_Magnum
I don't feel that Higgins is Robin, either. In "Italian Ice", Katrina says that she remembers her father, Robin and Higgins playing chest, etc, with the servant (Higgins) beating them. Hummm...
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:33 pm
by Pahonu
Thomas_Magnum wrote:I don't feel that Higgins is Robin, either. In "Italian Ice", Katrina says that she remembers her father, Robin and Higgins playing chest, etc, with the servant (Higgins) beating them. Hummm...
I think this scene is the most powerful evidence against Higgins being Robin. This isn't just Magnum or Higgins arguing here. A third party recollects Robin being beaten in a chess game by Higgins, a servant. How incredibly elaborate a scheme would Higgins have had to devise for this to have taken place! It is a fun little ploy by the writers in later seasons, but it simply doesn't hold water in light of information like this from earlier episodes.
Of course, Magnum wasn't privy to this conversation so he wouldn't have considered it in his theory. I agree with James, that Magnum seems to be proposing that there is a man they know as Robin Masters, who lives this lifestyle, but it is Higgins who writes the pulp novels and controls the purse-strings. I guess our favorite detective is simply wrong on this one.
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:47 am
by stever
What about the end of Squeeze Play when Robin shows up to confront Buzz with Higgins standing right there?
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:21 am
by Majordomo
My feeling is that Higgins is not Robin...pretty much for many of the reasons already cited. I do like the inference that Magnum makes saying Robin sound like Orson Wells, lol.
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:10 am
by J.J. Walters
If it's good enough for Magnum shouldn't it be good enough for the rest of us?
But seriously, the whole Higgins/Robin thing was obviously only added later on (in Season Seven) as an amusing aside. The idea wasn't even planted until the later seasons. Heck, they were even hoping to use Orson Welles onscreen as Robin at one point, but then he died. Having said that, I still think most of the pieces fit for a "Higgins-writes-the-novels-makes-the-money-but-some-guy-named-Robin-Masters-takes-the-official-credit" scenario as Magnum suspects. But we'll never know for sure, which I think is kind of cool. When Higgins says, "I lied" in the last episode, what exactly did he mean?
Is it really that much of a stretch to think that Higgins is a super successful ghostwriter? He does spend a lot of time at the typewriter.
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:53 pm
by Higgins (aka Bondtoys)
I totally agree!
it's pretty obvious that in the first seasons Higgins and Robin where scripted to be 2 different people - just in the last 2 seasons (if I remember correctly) that thing came up.
I find it very amusing but Magnum was incorrect in his assumption like he was wrong by guessing, that Higgins would use the match-heads for his cannon
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:18 am
by Styles Bitchley
Hmm. What if Higgins and Robin were a writing duo who published only under Robin's name to maintain a "brand." That would account for the writer named Robin Masters and open up some possibility for the Higgins theory.
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:32 pm
by Seaver41
give the writers credit for HOW they came up with the character history revision. If the argument was b ased solely on previous episode evidence, then it is clear Higgins is NOT Robin Masters. That said, the argument presented by Magnum is that there is a man paid to run around the world being Robin Masters is a tough one to completely dismiss.
Too many characters over the course of ths how 'know' Robin Masters from earlier in life, so that to me kills the idea unless you simply accept the writers revisied history and episode continuity doesn't matter. I myself fall on the side of show history meaning something and refuse to buy in to Higgins as Robin.
In the end, they did not betray history and define Higgins as Masters, but rather left viewers with the clever cliffhanger of sorts. I like to look at that as the silly storyline coming full circle and being done.
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:01 pm
by AmandaByNight
Seaver41 wrote:give the writers credit for HOW they came up with the character history revision. If the argument was b ased solely on previous episode evidence, then it is clear Higgins is NOT Robin Masters. That said, the argument presented by Magnum is that there is a man paid to run around the world being Robin Masters is a tough one to completely dismiss.
Too many characters over the course of ths how 'know' Robin Masters from earlier in life, so that to me kills the idea unless you simply accept the writers revisied history and episode continuity doesn't matter. I myself fall on the side of show history meaning something and refuse to buy in to Higgins as Robin.
In the end, they did not betray history and define Higgins as Masters, but rather left viewers with the clever cliffhanger of sorts. I like to look at that as the silly storyline coming full circle and being done.
I totally agree that the writers did not betray the show's history. It was a great idea and well played out. I mean, we are not the only one debating this. Casual Magnum viewers have also asked me how I feel about this. It was definitely an interesting twist, even if I still want to picture Orson Wells on the other end of the typewriter!
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:54 pm
by J.J. Walters
Seaver41 wrote:Too many characters over the course of ths how 'know' Robin Masters from earlier in life, so that to me kills the idea unless you simply accept the writers revisied history and episode continuity doesn't matter. I myself fall on the side of show history meaning something and refuse to buy in to Higgins as Robin.
Yes, but what if Robin Masters is a real person? Maybe Higgins crossed paths with him in the early 60's somewhere in Europe (or perhaps SE Asia or Northern Africa, wherever) and said, "I'll write the books, you'll get the credit, we split the profits 70-30 and I'll pay all your expenses. All you have to do is make the appearances. I'll be in Oahu if you need me. Use the red line when you call." ..... Ok-ok, I'll stop now. Who knows, it could be either scenario. It's a fun mystery for sure, though!
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:42 pm
by burny
one LARGE thing that seems overlooked - the mag would never have been invited to stay on the estate if the hig was robin masters.
in season 1, the hig's contempt for magnum being there was pretty blatant.
so how would have magnum been allowed to live there if higgins was truly 'the man'.
so in my book, the hig is not robin. it was just a plot device that surfaced in
later episodes. good fun, tho.
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:52 am
by Styles Bitchley
burny wrote:one LARGE thing that seems overlooked - the mag would never have been invited to stay on the estate if the hig was robin masters.
in season 1, the hig's contempt for magnum being there was pretty blatant.
so how would have magnum been allowed to live there if higgins was truly 'the man'.
so in my book, the hig is not robin. it was just a plot device that surfaced in
later episodes. good fun, tho.
What if "Robin" told Magnum he could stay at the estate without consulting with Higgins? Perhaps the two authors had a tumultuous relationship like the one between TM and JQH. Higgins would be stuck having to keep up the charade for fear of letting the secret out - which could account for some of his...er, curmudgeonly behaviour. I could almost see revisiting some shows to hear the conversations between Robin and Higgins that explain the behaviour (loopholes) we all know.