Autumn Warrior (7.13)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the seventh season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
3
4%
9.5 (One of the Best)
8
11%
9.0 (Excellent)
13
18%
8.5 (Very Good)
22
31%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
16
22%
7.5 (Decent)
5
7%
7.0 (Average at Best)
3
4%
6.5 (Not So Good)
2
3%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
0
No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 72

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J.J. Walters
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#11 Post by J.J. Walters »

Hehe SL!

Not that it matters either way, but for the record, by "looked her up" I meant "online search", not "looked her up in a huge stack of Playboys"! ;)
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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SelleckLover
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#12 Post by SelleckLover »

OK James, glad you cleared that up! :D

Herman
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Higgins timeline addition:

#13 Post by Herman »

Higgins made the mistake of cooking fish for his host, Abdul ben Bashi. Bashi, raised in the desert, didn't recognize the fish and thought Higgins had cooked his pet iguanas. He ordered Higgins to be stripped and staked out in the sun to bake until dead. In the face of this punishment Higgins had the wit to request wryly that in deference to the modesty of Bashi's wives, he not be stripped.

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Jay-Firestorm
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#14 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Last review of the week for me. Although not quite a classic, this is a pretty good episode IMO.

[rating=9.5]

Survival expert Higgins goes away on a weekend camping trip with a small group of teenage offenders, but things turn nasty when the group leader is shot dead, leaving the offenders hunting down Higgins on the remote tropical island. A good story…

-----

This review contains moderate spoilers.

Season seven through up a number of quality episodes, and I consider ‘Autumn Warrior’ to be one of them. It is a great story, centring on Higgins, and I would say that it is one of the most memorable from the latter end of the show’s run.

I really like Higgins as a character, so it is great to have an episode that shows despite aging, he is still more than capable of defending himself.
In fact, I would say that outside of the “Higgins’ half-brothers” episodes, this is my favourite Higgins-centric storyline from the show.

With Higgins away, back at the Estate, Magnum uses the opportunity to try and arrange a party – even if no-one else seems that interested. This leads to a few mildly amusing moments, although I did feel that after a while these scenes started to get in the way of the main plot slightly.
I would have instead to have seen the time used to develop the teenage offenders a little more – self-appointed leader Doug doesn’t quite seem as bad as he should be.

There is also the interesting note of Robin Masters phoning for Higgins while Higgins is away, throwing into doubt the possibility that Higgins may really be Robin (a notion introduced a few episodes previously in ‘Paper War’), although maybe it was once again an actor that Higgins had hired to play Robin? In fact, I go with the suggestion of some other fans that Higgins may have deliberately got the fake Robin to phone while he was away to botch any plans for a party that Magnum would likely have!
Either way, the fact that Robin phones for Higgins, sending Magnum and T.C. off to the island, does seem a bit over-convenient plot-wise, but does not really spoil the episode overall.

The island scenes are well shot, with some good scenery. Although it is clearly a double used for some of Higgins’ more strenuous shots, it is still good to see ol’ Jonathan Quayle in action and giving the bad guys (or bad teens!) a thrashing.

Despite the couple of dodgy points I have made above about this episode, I still really like it. I wouldn’t say that it is quite a series classic overall, but I’d definitely rank it as a classic in terms of the season.
And it has a classic “Oh… my… GOD!” ending to boot!

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Nothing else to say on this one, other than: James – a radio ID is called a callsign. :)
JAY FIRESTORM

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My A-Team site - http://thea-team.org aiming to be the most detailed A-Team site on the Net - if I ever get around to updating it!!

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J.J. Walters
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#15 Post by J.J. Walters »

The rarely seen 'Estate Escape Tunnel', built into the fridge in the kitchen...

Image

It's hard to tell, but there appears to be a TV set off in the distance!

:)
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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Doc Ibold
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#16 Post by Doc Ibold »

James J. Walters wrote:The rarely seen 'Estate Escape Tunnel', built into the fridge in the kitchen...

Image

It's hard to tell, but there appears to be a TV set off in the distance!

:)
James, its just another one of those interdimensional portals, just like when Magnum walks under the arch to go to the guesthouse.... which is on the other side of the estate.

:wink:

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#17 Post by coy »

very classic.. I spend almost of my day watching those clips. nice!

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Styles Bitchley
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#18 Post by Styles Bitchley »

Yes indeed. An excellent Higgins-centric episode. It's so great to see him in action.
"How fiendishly deceptive of you Magnum. I could have sworn I was hearing the emasculation of a large rodent."

- J.Q.H.

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#19 Post by Bes »

Agreed, one of Series 7's best episodes; and that's saying something given how good the season is as a whole.

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#20 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

Decent episode, with two caveats:

1) Magnum really grates me when he behaves like a teenage girl. I know they were trying to make a point about turning a page and all that, but isn't that long overdue when you're a 43-year-old war veteran with a moustache?

2) Having chubby old Higgins jump from trees is overstretching verosimilitude a bit.

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Re: Autumn Warrior (7.13)

#21 Post by Stelth »

Random thoughts on Autumn Warrior:
The whole idea of Thomas' lame party was kind of sad. Mr. Belding being killed with his own AR-7? I think Zack was somehow responsible. Rambo Higgins, in his camo vest was kind of fun but required a lot of suspension of disbelief. The delinquent quickly sabotaging T.C.'s chopper in less than a minute? That was really a stretch. The scene where the kid knocks Thomas out with the hollow plastic butt of the AR-7 was silly...that light weight gun has the heft of a toy. If someone hit you with one, it would probably just make you mad. Higgins' well-lit dirt floored cave was very Gilligan's Islanesque. Magnum's reaction to Higgins' ass kicking was fun. And Rick's gal-pal, Marge was a nice piece of ass. The capper was Higgins being pissed over the bearded queen was a nice touch at the end. A better than average episode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-7
Last edited by Stelth on Thu May 29, 2014 9:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Autumn Warrior (7.13)

#22 Post by SignGuyHPW »

Great episode I thought. It was rare that they let Higgins actually use his miliatary skills successfully so this was a great change of pace. Normally they'd have Higgins try something and fail as comedy and they did it with the net here, but to switch it to where he's surviving these kids who are armed without much trouble was a good way to make him regain some credibility. It was kind of a foreshadowing episode since Magnum slowly started to become much more of a responsible adult in the last season and change. I think part of that stemmed from this party making him realise that he couldn't hold a wild party without permission using the same group of people as 10-20 years prior.

The person responsible for the kids being the catalyst for them escaping was an interesting twist. It was also interesting to see how each kid reacted differently once murder was involved. The only real things I didn't understand was how Magnum got hurt with such a lightweight weapon (it was obviously very lightweight and was described as not being too powerful) and how the kids expected to actually escape and get to where they were wanting to go. I know they were young kids, but it's a pretty big stretch for them to take a rubber raft to the mainland or even back to where they can catch a commercial flight when they'd be considered missing fugatives.

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Re: Autumn Warrior (7.13)

#23 Post by EZiller »

Always enjoy seeing the Sgt.-Major in action. I guess the juvenile prison farm cancelled the work release program after this fiasco.

TSM's behavior with Higgins being scheduled out of town reminded me of myself in high school or college years when my parents went out of town during the summer. Party time! TSM seemed a bit too old for this, but what I wondered was why they couldn't get hardly anyone to come to RN for a blowout??? Especially if Marge and Donna were going to be there!!! Top Ten MPI babes!

9

PS-I just googled Pamela Jean Bryant-very sad news. She died in 2010, age 51, evidently had a very bad asthma condition.

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Re: Autumn Warrior (7.13)

#24 Post by Milton Collins »

I just watched this one again and I really enjoy this episode every time I watch it. Higgins heavy episodes are always good! And a Mr. Belding appearance, hilarious! The guy playing the young Higgins in world war 2 at the beginning looks incredibly like Val Kilmer, anyone else agree on that? And how fun to see Higgins running around setting traps and turning into Rambo/Steve McGarret Higgins! Love how Higgins finds the "secret cave" on the island, that guy is so resourceful! Glad to see that you guys noticed Marge and Donna (I know I sure did, wow!) and moved them to the Magnum babes list. The whole party thing cracked me up! Who WOULDN'T want to hit a party at the Robin Masters estate? I know I'd drop any plans to go to a party at some rich authors house in a heartbeat. Still, I get that they were trying to show the maturation process of TM and the group. Love the ending with the beard on the picture, classic Higgins rage at that one lol!

2 small observations:

-In the 30 seconds TC and Magnum got off the chopper and went over to the abandonded campground, the two juvenille delinquents were able to see that the chopper had been left vacant, run up to it, and jack it? Not very realistic.

-I agree with those of you who said that TM would not have been knocked out by that little rabbit gun. I know that they wanted Higgins to be the hero here and save the day but that was a little off to me. That thing was tiny and would not have put that giant gash on his head.

But small observations aside, a unique plot and a fun episode all around.

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Re: Autumn Warrior (7.13)

#25 Post by SignGuyHPW »

Milton Collins wrote: -In the 30 seconds TC and Magnum got off the chopper and went over to the abandonded campground, the two juvenille delinquents were able to see that the chopper had been left vacant, run up to it, and jack it? Not very realistic.
My guess would be that they could hear the chopper coming for a while before it landed and were able to watch them. That'd give them time to be prepared to disable the chopper and get back to where they were unseen. Granted, it was quick, but it'd have lost something if Magnum and TC had stopped them at that point.

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