The Love That Lies (8.6)

[rubber chicken]

Yeah, the rims really gave it away for me. They appear to be the very unique 944 type with the cut out oval sections, as seen in both links above. When I was younger I fancied I could buy a used 944, but it was just a pipe dream.

[Jay-Firestorm]

For some reason, I’d totally forgotten about this one. And I have to say, it was much better than I expected.

[rating=9.0]

With Carol in the middle of a controversial court case, Thomas moves her in with her mother for safekeeping. But when he takes the case of finding a woman’s adopted child, it emerges the child is Carol, and is torn if and how to tell his friend. Underrated…

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This review contains spoilers.

Although I’m familiar with just about every episode of ‘Magnum, p.i.’, for some reason my memory had totally forgotten about this one. As with all the eps they showed, I have an off air recording of it from when Five ran the series here in the U.K. in 2002-3, so I’d defiantly seen it, but, coming to watch it on DVD to review, I just had no recollection of it at all.

Reading the synopsis and rating, I really didn’t expect much from this one at all – even expecting it to maybe be the weakest of the season. How wrong could I be – although the more straight-out dramas often aren’t my thing in MPI, I really enjoyed this one.

Kathleen Lloyd is always good as Carol, as since she was introduced in the fourth season (and a lone third season episode, ‘Foiled Again’, played by a different actress) I had grown to really like the character. All of her appearances are good (Lloyd bounces off of Tom Selleck perfectly), but the stories specifically based around her usually particularly good. (With that in mind, I’m amazed even more than I couldn’t remember this episode!).

The opening of the episode is somewhat of a red herring, suggesting that it will be a different, legal based story, from what it ultimately becomes. Although Carol’s legal case does form a backdrop, the story soon evolves into a much more personal affair.

Magnum taking Carol to stay with her mother for safekeeping does seem like a bit of an obvious plot point in order to introduce us, the audience, to Carol’s mother, but I suppose for the reasons of storytelling, it is excusable.

Going by first impressions, I expected Eileen Brennan as Brenda Babcock, to be the standard MPI ‘annoying one-off female’ guest star. But as the story progressed and it was revealed that she is, in fact, Carol’s real mother, I came to bear her more. (I should have known the two plots would somehow intertwine, though – Magnum seldom has two separate cases on the go that don’t tie up eventually!)

The episode is mostly serious throughout, but does have some nice humorous moments here and there (I like Higgins’ amazement that Magnum has washed the Ferrari – little realising he’s done it to wipe the pelted eggs off; and the scene at the restaurant).

I was curious about the actions of Carol’s adoptive mother Abigail at the conclusion of the story, trying to pay Brenda to return to the mainland and leave her alone with Carol forever. Abigail comes across as a very decent person; I can only assume that this act was out of sheer desperation to try and resolve the matter.

This isn’t a good episode to show someone new to the series – it’s not a typical MPI showcase, and you probably need to have experienced some of Carol’s previous episodes to fully feel for her (this story defiantly wouldn’t work if it were a new, one-off character in place of Carol).

But, while I don’t always like this style of story, and wish we would see some more adventuresome cases from season eight (not necessarily action-packed, just more exciting adventures), I am pleasantly surprised by this episode. Even if I *had* recollected seeing it previously, I don’t think I would have cared for this one when I was younger, but my tastes have matured. From expecting it to possibly be the weakest of the season, I think it may even be one of my favourites.

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Another DVD version with no opening trailer – I’d seriously imagine that this episode had one on the original broadcast.

* Like ‘Forever in Time’ before it, this episode credits both Mike Post and Pete Carpenter as composing the music. Another episode produced earlier (but shown later) after Carpenter’s death?

* Magnum says that he makes a rule of not taking missing persons cases. Since when?! I know he mentions somewhere in season seven that he is not keen on these cases, but he has taken LOADS over the course of the series.

* I too noticed Carol’s new car (she sold her Golf in ‘Pleasure Principal’ a few episodes previously), but like others, it was too dark to really make out what it was.

* Higgins, T.C. and Rick each have one scene in this story.

[Coops]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_924

Definitely a 924S. You can tell by the front turn signal lenses.

[steveadl]

Here's a question I have out of left field: is Eve Anderson the person up the palm tree throwing coconuts down to Higgins? I freeze framed it but couldn't tell.

I ask as I remember reading a while ago on Rick Romer's blog that he remembers her climbing the trees and recalls her doing it for an episode of the show once. Or am I remembering wrong and making this up?

[Doc Ibold]

I don't know if it's this one, but I have a feeling it was "Ms. Jones"

[erock308]

"BTW, what kind of car did Carol drive? In the scenes when it appeared, it was always dark and I could not make it out."

Carols car was a Porsche 924 from the '85 - '88 models with the telephone dial wheels, note the absence of side fender flairs that were in the 944 line.

My insurance agent in the 80s had one, I had a red Fiero at the time... cool guy with my moustache, tigers hat and aviators on... who did I think I was...

[Carol the Dabbler]

I don't really buy the premise that Carol was born in 1955 and is only 32. She has always seemed much older than that primarily because she has a very responsible job, and always seems to be the mature one in the group (along with Higgins), not to mention the touch of gray hair she has had since her first appearance in season 3.

Kathleen Lloyd, who played Carol, was born on September 13, 1948 (did they use her real birthday -- though not year -- for Carol?). So she was actually in her late (not early) 30's at the time.

I think in "The Sting," Eileen Brennan ... was the bordello madam .... I don't know that she ever looked young and innocent, come to think of it! .... I think she's probably always been type-cast as the tough broad, though she was always good at it!

That's been my impression, too, so I was amazed to read (in The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book) that Brennan had been under serious consideration for the role of Laura Petrie! In fact, she was such a hot contender that the studio paid to fly her out from New York for the audition. As you might imagine, however, her interpretation of Laura was simply too vigorous and self-assured. Though producer Carl Reiner still considers Brennan a wonderful actress, he said, "We knew she would be too strong for Dick."

[Carol the Dabbler]

Kathleen Lloyd, who played Carol, was born on September 13, 1948 (did they use her real birthday -- though not year -- for Carol?).

To answer my own question, no, they didn't, just awfully close. In real life, actress Kathleen was born on September 13. In this episode, her character Carol was born on September 17, according to her birth mother's recollection, which Magnum repeats to Father-turned-father O'Shea.

Speaking of ex-Father O'Shea, Catholic priests didn't seem too fare well in this series. Patrick O'Shea dropped out, "Father Tim" turned out to be an undercover Viet Cong agent, and Father Paddy, well ....

[lembi]

Hi!
Did you noticed that the lisence plate is the same (DBO-527) as in 7.20 The Aunt Who Came to Dinner.


and

[Carol the Dabbler]

Hi, lembi -- Welcome to the forum!

Please excuse my ignorance of car models, but are the cars different, or is it just the lighting?

It's been a while since I saw either episode -- whose car(s) is it / are they?

And what does that bumper sticker say?

[lembi]

hi!
Not the car, it's the plate. Magnum investigates the ID in this episode, and the other episode too.
dbo-527 on both cars.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I guess the studio didn't own all that many cars, or all that many plates. (And of course they couldn't very well use a random license number, even if they didn't show the plate, because it might cause problems for the real owner.) So they were bound to repeat now and then. And in the days before DVD's, who would have noticed?

I recall noticing a few years ago while watching a show from the 50's (Perry Mason, I think) that a woman gave her address as such-and-such a number on Las Palmas -- which happened to be identical to an address that was being used then (i.e., just a few years ago) for writing to the studio for tickets or contest entries or something. The show needed a real-sounding address, so they just used on of the studio's addresses.

At least it's less obvious than all those 555 phone numbers!

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

Hi, lembi -- Welcome to the forum!

Please excuse my ignorance of car models, but are the cars different, or is it just the lighting?

It's been a while since I saw either episode -- whose car(s) is it / are they?

And what does that bumper sticker say?

One is a Ford Thunderbird the other is a Honda Accord. All I can make of the bumper sticker is Big Tony's.

[Carol the Dabbler]

A Google search brings up a lot of pizza places called Big Tony's. None of them seem to be in Hawaii at present -- but we're looking at a decades-old snapshot. Anyhow, the right-hand part of the smaller writing could say "pizza." Anybody have a Magnum-era Oahu phone book?

Side note: I said "Oahu phone book" rather than "Honolulu phone book" because when I was over there in the early 70's, that's the way things were organized. If you called Information, they didn't say "which city?" the way they do here on the mainland, they'd say "which island?"

[JJ Quincannon]

Hello all , I just watched this one last night and also it hit home much more to me now that I am lets say more mature although some here would argue that point. First of all Big Tony's is the car rental place that TC exchanges discounts with and Magnum has TC call over to Big Tony's to get an address to locate Carolls mother (boilogical). This was a little strange for me to see this as an adult because I was adopted as an infant and know how my Mom feared that someday my biological mom might show up trying to find me and turn Her life upside down. Now on the flip side I never thought of searching out my birth mother because it was probably a hard decision for her but the best for me to be given up for adoption and now I would never look her up. It would be hurtfull to the wonderful woman that raised me as well as endless possabilities for messing up my birth mothers life. Wow sorry to cary on like that-never put these feelings in print. Anyway that is why this episode hit home for me. PS I knew that I was adopted at an early age 6 or so and it had been discussed several times never really gave it a second thought until I got a little older.