3.4 THE EIGHTH PART OF THE VILLAGE
Hawaiian shirts: 2 teal with white/purple flowers, classic jungle bird
Island Hopper shirts: 2 black or navy tank with grey logo, dark green with white logo
Body Count: 3 one bodyguard, 2 bad guy riflemen
Shirtless: 1 swimming in the tidal pool
Little Voice: 0
I know what you’re thinking: 0
When I write HTBAWCPI: 0
Investigator corrections: 0
Magnum injuries: 0
Higgins musings: 1
4th wall breaks: 1
Negotiations: 0
Famous guest stars: 1 Ogre!
Magnumometer: 11
So, did those two thugs in the pool hall think Rick & TC had bazookas hidden under their newspapers? Because that's about the only thing with a muzzle the width of a beer can. That one pushed suspension of disbelief right up to the breaking point for me.
It was commented that TM seemed out of character in this episode, that he was unusually harsh at the beginning toward Asani. I, however, just attribute that to foreshadowing, i.e. TM knows instinctively that something is not right. Even if he hasn't consciously figured it out yet, he knows something's rotten in Denmark and that comes out in his "call her father and send her home" attitude.
The "paging fetish" got quite a workout, for once not at a hospital or airport, but at the docks. Here are all the calls that came over the PA while TM was in the warehouse:
Mr. Akiola, come to receiving
Max, into the office on the double.
Get me a forklift on aisle 14 wiki wiki.
Aisle 23, you're slowing up.
One brace to the loading dock. Stack 'em on dock six.
We need a supervisor in aisle 14.
Stanley, report to personnel right away.
Episode Guide fixes needed:
1. "which at the time was the last remaining
wood-flame structure in the downtown Honolulu area." Pretty sure that should be
wood-frame structure....although wood-flame explains why it was the last one.
2. "The Hiaku that Sato..." s/b Haiku.
3. "They talked after the war when he found Sato in a Russian camp." There is no Russian camp, Higgins says "After the war l found him in one of our prisoner camps."
Continuity flub: TM is seen wearing the team ring on his right hand throughout the episode, including while driving the Ferrari and talking to TC in the chopper on the radio. However, in a shot shortly after that one, we see the hand-double driving (I believe I will call him The Pale Driver henceforth) and he has no team ring on, not even the usual upside-down one.
CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS
Higgins: [seeing Magnum attempting to sew his ripped pants leg] What amusing workmanship.
Magnum: l suppose you can do better.
Higgins: Of course. l put in a few turns as a batman, you know.
Higgins: lt was 1942, summer. l'd been transferred from North Africa to New Guinea and attached to the Australian Seventh Division. We were to push the enemy back across the island, across a spine of mountains. 100 miles in that terrible jungle. We called it the Kokoda Trail. Ever heard of it?
Asani/Mioshi: l have heard of the battles for Okinawa and Saipan and lwo Jima but never this Kokoda Trail.
Higgins: A place worth forgetting. lt could rain an inch in five minutes. The mud was black, full of disease, and of course we were killing each other. Your father's men and my men. After six months we were all starving. Malaria. My platoon had been lost for a day when we stumbled across your father's squad lying in a stand of kuani grass. Those who were still alive were without ammunition. So were we. And...too weak even to use our bayonets. Or at least, we didn't. We had some rations to spare and they had quinine for our fevers. That whole day, your father and l did not exchange a single word. One day of reason among so many of madness.
Asani/Mioshi: l understand now why he says he owes his life to you.
Higgins: And l to him. After the war l found him in one of our prisoner camps. We talked then and we have written over the years. We have never once yet spoken of that day on the Kokoda Trail.
Asani/Mioshi: Perhaps because he cannot bear the guilt of squandering the new life you gave him.
Higgins: l would hardly say that. He's an enormously wealthy and influential man.
Asani/Mioshi: Yes. He has wealth and influence. But he no longer has the soul of a man.
Higgins: You're too harsh. Sato is capable of great understanding and sympathy. l'm living proof of that.