Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the third season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
10
11%
9.0 (Excellent)
22
24%
8.5 (Very Good)
25
27%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
17
19%
7.5 (Decent)
6
7%
7.0 (Average at Best)
8
9%
6.5 (Not So Good)
1
1%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
0
No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 91

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Doc Ibold
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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#31 Post by Doc Ibold »

I think this was one of my favorite Magnum episodes, as I watch it right now. Lots of inside jokes (Jay Rickley Schnieder), a great cast, and Higgins flying down a hill in a wheelchair. Plus TCs private investigator garb straight out of Flashback. Ricks identification of Sorensen simply by hearing he's left handed is also pretty funny.

The most interesting part of the episode is that none of this (save for the orchid growing case) ever would have happened if the Ferraris brakes hadn't failed. Had they not failed, Magnum would never have investigated and never found the link between Enoka and Sorenson.

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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#32 Post by charybdis1966 »

Doc Ibold wrote:The most interesting part of the episode is that none of this (save for the orchid growing case) ever would have happened if the Ferraris brakes hadn't failed. Had they not failed, Magnum would never have investigated and never found the link between Enoka and Sorenson.
You're right there Doc, but then leads me onto think that the fact the brakes failed means that Hiiggins was right and it WAS Magnum's fault for not getting the car serviced properly that the accident happened.

I'd imagine TM would have had to forego some estate privileges to pay for that gaff, unless in all the commotion Higgins forgot, but knowing JQH I doubt that.

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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#33 Post by marlboro »

I liked this one. A good mystery, some nice Magnum/Higgins interaction, and a guest appearance by the great Keye Luke.

There were a ton of red herrings in this episode. Everyone looked guilty.

For those that are confused, I think it boils down to this:

The guard, Sorenson, kills an internee

The killing is witnessed by Goto and Enoka

Enoka blackmails Sorenson for decades to further his business and political interests. Goto knows nothing of this.

Magnum incorrectly assumes (just like with his matchstick/cannon deduction) that Higgins accident is related to Higgins research into sand island.

Once Magnum gets Goto to ID Sorenson, Enoka knows that his political future is likely doomed. He kills Sorenson to prevent that from happening.

He plans to kill Magnum too, and believes that Goto will go along with it due to their lifelong friendship. He is wrong.


So Magnum was completely wrong about absolutely everything in the episode but still managed to come out on top. Higgins' accident, the girl and her father, the kid growing "pot," Goto being out for revenge - they were all just red herrings. Magnum's "little voice" must have taken the week off or something.

"Oh - my - Goooooooood!"

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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#34 Post by Milton Collins »

This was a good solid 8 for me. Some interesting Hawiian culture about sand island and an incredibley funny scene with higgins taking a "ride" down the hill in the wheelchair, outstanding!! I see Nancy Nakamura for the first time and I believe she will be back with us in season 5's "Love for Sale Boat". Cute girl!

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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#35 Post by ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan) »

I enjoyed this episode but I was torn between giving it a 8.0 and 8.5 - between Pretty Good and Very Good. I went with Pretty Good but now I'm leaning towards Very Good. It's better than "Basket Case" (which I rated Pretty Good) but not quite as good as "The Arrow That is Not Aimed" (which I rated Very Good). So it's somewhere in the middle between those two. Can I give it a 8.3? :wink:

The Japanese/WWII connection is definitely a plus (I love history, like Higgins) and there are some really funny moments between Magnum and Higgins. James Shigeta and Keye Luke are also great to watch in whatever they appear in. Shigeta of course is best remembered by modern audiences as the ill-fated president of Nakatomi Corporation in the action classic DIE HARD. I personally thought he was fantastic as mobster Joe Matsukino (alongside Nehemiah Persoff) in the classic season 1 episode of HAWAII FIVE-O "Deathwatch" back in 1968.

There is one thing I don't understand about the very beginning - when the internees are being led into the camp and the gates close behind them there are 3 Japanese men in suits standing before the internees. These 3 men then tell the newcomers "Welcome to Sand Island, we are your friends" and bow down before them. What was that all about?? Were these Japanese some higher-ups in the camp? Were they some go-betweens between the American guards in charge of the camp and the Japanese internees? Maybe I missed something.

Milton Collins mentions that this is the first he sees the actress playing Nancy Nakamura and that she returns in another episode. The actress (Marilyn Tokuda) actually first appeared earlier this season in "The Eighth Part of the Village".

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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#36 Post by MaximRecoil »

I hate the typical brake failure trope in general, because it makes the driver (Higgins in this case) look like a fool for acting as if the brakes are the only possible method of stopping, or even slowing down the car. Why not remove your foot from the gas pedal for starters? That alone will slow you down quite a bit. Additionally you can downshift, and engine braking will slow you down even more. Higgins, like other victims of this trope, did neither of those things.

On top of that, one failed brake line doesn't result in the complete loss of brakes in any car made since about the mid-1960s, because they have dual-reservoir master cylinders, which places the brakes on two separate hydraulic circuits. The most that you can lose from one brake line failure is the brakes to two of your four wheels. Additionally, the emergency/parking brake is entirely unaffected, because it is cable-operated, not hydraulic. Higgins of course, didn't even try the emergency/parking brake, which, combined with his remaining brakes on two wheels, removing his foot from the accelerator, and progressively downshifting through the gears, would have stopped the car in plenty of time.

Furthermore, aside from impact damage which might happen if you take the car off-roading and a big rock in the ground catches your brake line, about the only thing which will cause a brake line which had been working all along to fail out of the blue is rust damage on the steel lines or dry-rot or some other form of rubber deterioration on the flex lines. However, that Ferrari was almost brand new, as the previous one was replaced after exploding at the beginning of the third season, and I doubt Robin Masters would buy a used car. And even if he did buy a used one, it was a GTSi, so the oldest it could have been in 1983 was 3 years old.
Last edited by MaximRecoil on Fri Sep 28, 2018 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#37 Post by karolis »

Coops present: check

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Season 3 Top up to this episode:

1. Black on White
2-3. Did You See the Sunrise?
4. Flashback
5. Off Sound Mind
6. The Eighth Part of the Village
7. Forty Years From Sand Island
8. The Arrow That is Not Aimed
9. Past Tense
10. Almost Home
11. Heal Thyself
12. Birdman of Budapest
13. Basket Case
14. Ki'i's Don't Lie
15. Mixed Doubles
16. Mr. White Death
17. I Do?
18. Foiled Again

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#38 Post by ENSHealy »

No need to know! wrote:
wilko wrote:Anyone else notice that Magnum's closet under the steps has a light in it? When he runs into it to hide from Higgins and his scimitar you can see the inside is lit when he opens the door.
I did just now.
I don't actually think there's a light in the closet. If you watch closely as the door opens, the "light" moves down the crack on the hinge side of the door as it gets opened farther, which is just what would happen as the light from outside the closet shined in as the door was opened. Also, it's not bright enough to be a light in the closet, it looks like the same ambient room light. I think that's just light from the guest house main room/set shining into the closet.
ImageImage
marlboro wrote:Once Magnum gets Goto to ID Sorenson, Enoka knows that his political future is likely doomed. He kills Sorenson to prevent that from happening.
Why does Goto knowing that Sorenson is alive mean that Enoka's political future is doomed? Is it based on the assumption that Goto would go public with accusations against Sorenson now that he knows he's alive and wasn't killed on Guam? Also, Enoka shoots Sorenson at the same time as Goto is ID'ing him, so Enoka could not have known that Goto had ID'd Sorenson before deciding to shoot him. So why does Enoka shoot Sorenson? It just doesn't make sense to me.
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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#39 Post by ENSHealy »

40 YEARS FROM SAND ISLAND
Hawaiian shirts: 1 Classic jungle bird
Island Hopper shirts: 1 maroon with white logo
Body Count: 1 Kirin Nakamura
Shirtless:
Little Voice:
I know what you’re thinking: .5 Magnum says it out loud to Higgins
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
Magnum injuries: 1 Rifle shot, right shoulder.
Higgins musings:
4th wall breaks: 1
Negotiations:
Famous guest stars:
Magnumometer: 5.5

Potential magnumania usernames: Macho Taco (taken), Burrito Machismo
Higgins Clubs: Anglo Saxon Canine Corps

I have a lot of questions about this episode. I rated it a 7 before reading the forum, which reminded me about all the great back-and-forth between Magnum, Higgins, Rick and TC. I probably didn't give it enough credit, but the main plot premise was so thin that I just couldn't get past it. Why does Enoka kill Sorenson? We know he didn't try to kill Higgins, it was just failed brakes, but I don't believe we're ever given a plausible reason why, as he said himself, Enoka would kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. At the time he shoots Sorenson, he doesn't know that Magnum is going to ask Goto to ID Sorenson. He goes down blazing with the rifle based solely on the possibility that Goto would go to the police, thereby revealing his business partner to be a killer? Why not just shoot Goto? It's too big a hole in the plot for me to get past.

Other questions:
1. Was there a romantic subplot that was mostly left on the cutting room floor? In the opening, we hear Nancy coyly and flirtatiously reply to TM's dark alley comment, and then later when Nancy says "You're treating me just like Goto" Thomas replies "Not exactly" with a tone that indicates his mind may not be 100% on the case.
2. Why is a German mechanic with a unibrow working on the Ferrari? They couldn't find an Italian in the Islands?
3. When negotiating with T.C. Magnum refers to his "commission." Presumably he means the fee he's collecting for checking out J. Rickley's soon-to-be son-in-law. Why does he refer to it as a commission? Seemed very odd.
4. Thomas says he's going to play golf with Sorenson again and that he's bringing Goto along to ID him. If they were going to play golf together, why does Sorenson get back in his car, like he's about to leave, after his brief conversation with Magnum?
5. In the climactic scene, Enoka says to Goto that Magnum is the only thing standing in the way of their freedom. What can he possibly mean? Even if Magnum blows the lid off Sorenson as the killer, what possible threat is there to either Enoka or Goto's freedom? Is he somehow trying to make Goto think they'd be imprisoned for being silent about a murder for 40 years? I just don't quite follow where he's going with that.
6. Which one of these was supposedly the orchid growing fiance? The Lost Allman Brother or James Lofton's stunt double? (Apologies for the obscure Packer reference...hopefully some other cheesehead out there will get a chuckle out of it.)
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Stray observations:
1. In the Episode Guide, under Flub 2, it refers to Magnum's "normal boat shoes" but then to the other pair of shes as just "dark brown shoes." First, I'd call the initial shoes the "normal grey boat shoes" and then the brown shoes are what I would call Magnum's "normal brown boat shoes." He is seen wearing them all the time, they aren't just a stray pair of brown shoes that popped up. A minor quibble, but it came to mind.
2. Possible additional flub: when Higgins' wheelchair starts rolling down the hill, you can see a string tied to it. Over the course of several frames you can see the string bouncing up and down as the wheelchair rolls away.
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3. Possible additional flub: the pillows under Higgins feet are the same pillows from the honeymoon bungalow in I DO?.
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CRUCIAL CONVERSATIONS

Magnum: The kid was into growing things, probably something innocent. But, on the other hand, if it was so innocent, how come his van had more security than Robin's wine cellar? The lock on the back was an Oppenheimer Regal Tri-Bolt, the sophisticated kind of thing you'd expect to find on the gates at Fort Knox. There's probably a handful of locksmiths and very talented B and E guys who can finesse an Oppie. And a decent private investigator here and there.
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#40 Post by ENSHealy »

J.J. Walters wrote:I do believe you guys are correct! It certainly looks like a scale model. That's quite a bit of work for a 7-second shot!

Image

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I wonder if this is the diorama at the Manzanar National Historic Site Visitor Center? The mountains in the background caught my eye, as they don't look anything like Oahu mountains, especially since they appear to be snow covered. Perhaps they sent a B crew to Manzanar for the shot? Pretty expensive junket for such a short shot, though. Maybe it's footage lifted from something else.

Found this picture of the Manzanar diorama online:
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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#41 Post by ENSHealy »

Apparently there is also a Manzanar diorama at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. It would have been much easier to film something at that one, however, it was founded in 1992. Perhaps the diorama was already somewhere in the LA area prior to being at the museum? Found the picture below here: http://lasnapshot.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... tokyo.html

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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#42 Post by ENSHealy »

ENSHealy wrote:40 YEARS FROM SAND ISLAND
Hawaiian shirts: 1 Classic jungle bird
Island Hopper shirts: 1 maroon with white logo
Body Count: 1 Kirin Nakamura
Shirtless:
Little Voice:
I know what you’re thinking: .5 Magnum says it out loud to Higgins
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
Magnum injuries: 1 Rifle shot, right shoulder.
Higgins musings:
4th wall breaks: 1
Negotiations:
Famous guest stars:
Magnumometer: 5.5

Potential magnumania usernames: Macho Taco (taken), Burrito Machismo
UPDATE - 40 YEARS FROM SAND ISLAND
Famous guest stars:
Hawaiian shirts: 1 Classic jungle bird
Tigers Cap: 1
Island Hopper shirts: 1 maroon with white logo
Shirtless:
OMG/Extraordinarys: 1
Higgins Organizations: .5 Anglo Saxon Canine Corps
Higgins musings: .5
Negotiations:
Body Count:
Bullet wounds: 1 Rifle shot, right shoulder
Little Voice:
I know what you’re thinking: .5 Magnum says it out loud to Higgins
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
4th wall breaks: 1
Magnumometer: 7.5
Magnumometer Moments: https://vimeo.com/381594437
Last edited by ENSHealy on Sat Feb 12, 2022 5:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Forty Years From Sand Island (3.18)

#43 Post by ☨magnum.t »

What stands out the most to me in this episode is that its the first in which Magnum wears his POW-MIA bracelet. It is theme with the episode and he will wear it for the duration of the series until season eights "Unfinished Business."
That reminds me of the time....

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