I think I would have liked this episode more if it was a two-part episode. I liked the use of the music, and I thought the plot was excellent with the serial killer thing, but I was always under the impression that they kind of half-assed this one. I always feel cheated when I watch this episode because the Ripper referenced Philippe/La Bule, which makes you think that maybe there is some kind of connection to La Bule...the gold from the pilot episode maybe. Magnum ponders this and has several flash-backs to his 'Nam days with Philippe as well as when he killed him. As a consequence, I found myself thinking about this throughout the episode. After all of this, they just end the episode without resolving the connection to Philippe/La Bule, offering only Magnum's statement
"It wasn't the first time I had to accept that sometimes there were no answers."
I also found the Ripper's voice very irritating. I understand the writers wanted this guy to sound demented, but it was very annoying to me, a la Tracy Spencer, Betty Windom, Shelly Faraday, and Goldie Morris.
When Magnum found the Ripper's apartment, did he tell Lt. Page about it? Surely there would have been finger prints all over the room. They could have found the Ripper's identity through his prints since he was in the military, and in Vietnam at the same time Magnum was there.
How did the Ripper tie up Jeff Spangler's hands and feet? All he had was a knife. He had to put the knife down at some point in order to tie Spangler's hands and feet. Spangler could have run or jumped in the water to get away, or just beaten the guy senseless.
The MIA bracelet worn by the Ripper actually has Kenneth Lancaster's name on it (same name that appears on Magnum's bracelet). You can see this as the Ripper is holding his knife in his right hand while Spangler is walking into the War Memorial.
Spangler is obviously grateful that Magnum saved his life. After Magnum unties him, Magnum says
"Just do me one favor Spangler." Spangler says
"You saved my life, you name it." Magnum then says
"Don't mention my name." Spangler looks up at Mangum very sincerely and says
"You got my word on it Magnum." The next scene cuts to a shot of Magnum reading the newspaper article written by Jeffrey Spangler with the headline that reads:
“PRIVATE EYE MAGNUM GUNS DOWN RIPPER.” Nice.
The text of the article also mentions Magnum's name. What, did Spangler have his fingers crossed when he promised Magnum he wouldn't use his name? To add insult to injury, Spangler calls him a Private Eye in the headline. I wonder if this was intentional to illustrate what a little worm Spangler is, or if the writers forgot about Magnum asking for his name not to be used? Take a look at the article itself. The first paragraph is the same text that was used in the "Clever Canine" article that Magnum was looking at in the Ripper's apartment. The rest of the article is just filler, cut and pasted from other articles.
While Magnum is in the Ripper’s apartment he reads the various newspaper articles. The articles are about various cases Magnum has worked on. The interesting thing about these articles is that the first paragraph or two are actually about the cases Magnum has worked on. However, the rest of the article is just filler about other topics totally unrelated. For example the first article Magnum looks at is
“Thomas Magnum Honored by Cat Fans.”(Photo Play) The article is supposed to be two-and-one-half columns long. The first four paragraphs actually talk about the Cat Caper, but then the rest of it goes into totally unrelated topics
…“The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics also found that knives were used in 11 percent of the attacks other weapons such as sticks and stones in 13 percent and unknown types of weapons in 2 percent…” The same article then talks about radio advertisement and the way to a customer’s heart is through the
belly laugh. Then back to crime surveys and the mayor, etc. I thought two-and-one-half columns was a lot of space to talk about a guy saving a cat.
The second article
“Clever Canine Leads Private Eye to Casebreaking Clue.” The first sentence of this article is exactly the same as the Jeffrey Spangler article about Magnum at the end of the episode. Both articles say,
“Spaatz deserved all the credit for solving the case said Thomas Magnum, a local private investigator.” The article then says
“The four year old dalmatian belonging to Ms. Dorothy…" The scene then cuts to Magnum following the dog. I don’t know what kind of a dog that was, but it sure wasn’t a dalmatian. It looked more like the dog they used in
"The Ugliest Dog In Hawaii."
The next two articles are difficult to read, but no doubt they contain the same filler. The last article,
“Local Investigator Solves Psychic’s Murder Riddle” (from Fragments) talks about Magnum and the case, but the second column all of a sudden begins a new subject about the
“belly laugh” and advertising that we saw in the Cat article. The other problem (flub) with this article is that they refer to the psychic as Laura Griffins, however, her name is actually Laura Bennett.
There is a flub at the end of the episode as Magnum is paddling out on his surf-ski when he says
"I don't know why I started feeling the need to be by myself on the 4th of July. The day my Dad died." The flub is that Magnum's Dad didn't die on the 4th of July. His Dad was buried on July 4, 1951 as seen in
"Home From The Sea," so obviously his Dad died prior to July 4th.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)
Still, Kenneth Tigar is great as the crazed killer. 
