Foiled Again (3.8)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the third season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

Post Reply

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
3
3%
9.0 (Excellent)
20
20%
8.5 (Very Good)
36
36%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
24
24%
7.5 (Decent)
10
10%
7.0 (Average at Best)
2
2%
6.5 (Not So Good)
2
2%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
0
No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
2
2%
 
Total votes: 100

Message
Author
User avatar
rubber chicken
Master Location Sleuth
Posts: 691
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:53 am
Location: Great Lakes region

#16 Post by rubber chicken »

I can never remember these things... was it known that TC was from New Orleans before he wore the hat for the first time?

User avatar
Doc Ibold
Maniac Emeritus
Posts: 1741
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:16 pm
Location: Detroit

#17 Post by Doc Ibold »

rubber chicken wrote:I can never remember these things... was it known that TC was from New Orleans before he wore the hat for the first time?
I think it was b/c the first time we find out TC is from N.O, was in "Operation Silent Night" in Season 4

User avatar
Carol the Dabbler
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: Indiana, USA

#18 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

golfmobile wrote:... with TC's being originally from New Orleans, I would have thought "they" would have put a Saints hat on him ... a la Magnum's Tigers hat!
Actually, isn't Magnum supposed to be from Virginia, and the Tigers are from Detroit? (Or am I thinking of the wrong Tigers team?) Anyhow, maybe TC likes the Falcons for some other reason, or maybe he just thought the hat was cool -- or maybe somebody gave him the hat.

User avatar
IslandHopper
Master Flub Spotter
Posts: 729
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:08 am

#19 Post by IslandHopper »

Carol the Dabbler wrote:
golfmobile wrote:... with TC's being originally from New Orleans, I would have thought "they" would have put a Saints hat on him ... a la Magnum's Tigers hat!
Actually, isn't Magnum supposed to be from Virginia, and the Tigers are from Detroit? (Or am I thinking of the wrong Tigers team?) Anyhow, maybe TC likes the Falcons for some other reason, or maybe he just thought the hat was cool -- or maybe somebody gave him the hat.
You're right Carol. Magnum is supposed to be from Virgina, but I guess he wore the Detroit Tigers cap because he (TS) was born in Detroit, and as a consequence was a fan of the Detroit Tigers.

TC also wears a Los Angeles Lakers cap during the series too. I want to say that he also wore a Los Angeles Raiders cap, but I may be mistaken about this.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

User avatar
Carol the Dabbler
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: Indiana, USA

#20 Post by Carol the Dabbler »

Funny, I had it in my head that TS was from Chicago. But you're right, IH, that does explain why TS would want Magnum to wear a Tigers cap (though it doesn't explain why Magnum would want to wear it).

Along the same lines, it's easy to understand why Roger Mosley would want TC would wear a cap from LA, since that's where Mosley is from (but we still don't really know why TC would wear a cap from either Atlanta or LA).

User avatar
Doc Ibold
Maniac Emeritus
Posts: 1741
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 8:16 pm
Location: Detroit

#21 Post by Doc Ibold »

Carol the Dabbler wrote:Funny, I had it in my head that TS was from Chicago. But you're right, IH, that does explain why TS would want Magnum to wear a Tigers cap (though it doesn't explain why Magnum would want to wear it).

Along the same lines, it's easy to understand why Roger Mosley would want TC would wear a cap from LA, since that's where Mosley is from (but we still don't really know why TC would wear a cap from either Atlanta or LA).
I think R.E.M. (or the writers) was trying to play up the hometown thing as well, because there was the Atlanta one, then I think a 49ers one, then Raiders, and then Lakers in the final 2 seasons (which makes some sort of sense since R.E.M. is from L.A.).

T.S. was born in Detroit, but moved to SoCal at an early age (but not early enough to forget about the Tigs!). Was it ever REALLY explained why Magnum loved the Tigers? I know somewhere along the line someone said it was because they were his Grandpas favorite team, but I don't remember an episode where that was explicitly stated. We do know Al Kaline (or as Higgins refers to him as "that Canine chap") is Magnums role model, so that may explain it.

Lily
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 253
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:12 am
Location: Canada

#22 Post by Lily »

Really liked this episode as it was centered around Higgins. However I also agree that it seemed quite out of character for TC and Rick not to be more concerned that Higgins was in a really serious situation.

User avatar
Carmen
MPI
Posts: 695
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:39 am
Location: Germany

#23 Post by Carmen »

Watched this one again today and noticed that a mic. is visible in the left corner in minute 39. over Magnums head. Looked somehow funny how it appeared in the Queens picture suddenly :D
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it (TSM)

User avatar
IKnowWhatYoureThinking
Macho Taco & Coops Connoisseur
Posts: 1885
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 9:19 pm
Location: NC

#24 Post by IKnowWhatYoureThinking »

I'll have to check out this episode again and see if I can spot the mic.

User avatar
Carmen
MPI
Posts: 695
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:39 am
Location: Germany

#25 Post by Carmen »

I never see things like that when watching it on TV, but S3 I am watching now on my computer and I find that somehow "more intense"
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it (TSM)

User avatar
Jay-Firestorm
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 387
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:01 am
Location: Berkshire, United Kingdom
Contact:

#26 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Wednesday / Thursday’s review. I didn’t used to like this episode much, but re-watching it, it’s actually not so bad!

[rating=8.5]

Magnum tries to get to the bottom of things when Higgins is accused of murder after an old adversary – who once snatched away the woman Higgins loved – is killed during a fencing competition. A much better episode than I remembered…

-----

When I first saw this episode, some years ago, I wasn’t overly keen on it. I found the story a bit dull, and it was a noticeable dip coming after a run of top-notch episodes.
However, coming to watch it again last night to review, it’s actually not such a bad episode.
Indeed, it is a slight dip in quality coming after a number of third season greats, but it is still a reasonable story, and far from the worst in the season.

This is a ‘Higgins-centric’ episode, and John Hillerman pulls it off perfectly. When the series began, Higgins was just an (almost generic) thorn in Magnum’s side, but the character soon developed, and as much as he was against Magnum a lot of the time, audiences really started to care for him.

Notable is that District Attorney Carol Baldwin makes her first of a number of appearances in the series, but played by a different actress, Patty McCormack. From the character’s next appearance, in the fourth season’s ‘Distant Relative’, Kathleen Lloyd will take over the role.
Oh, and talking of notable, this episode contains a very rare appearance of Higgins’ bedroom!!

Dana Wynter is effective as Higgins’ old sweetheart, Velma Troubshaw, and pulls it off much better than she did as a different character in the second season’s disappointing ‘Double Jeopardy’. Once again, all English characters are shown to be upper-class and talk with a posh accent, but I’ll overlook that.

Throughout the story I was trying to guess who was really behind the death of Higgins’ old rival. The only real fault is that the story is stretched out slightly, which begins to show a bit later on.

The episode is very much a character piece, really making you feel for poor Higgins, and is very low on real action, other than the climatic punch up at the mill.

Overall, this isn’t one of my outstanding favourites, and not one of the best of the season, but it is a reasonable story, with it’s highlight being a great performance by John Hillerman.

-----

Other notes, bloopers, and misc.:

* Surprisingly, when Channel 5 broadcast this episode in 2002, they did not edit out William Troubshaw twice calling Higgins “knob”. Not sure about Stateside, but in the U.K., knob is slang for penis and considered very crude.

* Once again, all of the commercial breaks are abridged on the DVD version.

* Regarding the disappearing “days” on the audio track, on my version recorded from Channel 5, Magnum says “It was definitely not one of my better days in paradise”, with the “days” clearly heard.
JAY FIRESTORM

Facebook: Jay Gathergood / Twitter: Jay_Firestorm NEW BLOG: http://thea-teamcaptured.blogspot.com/

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!!

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#27 Post by J.J. Walters »

Jay-Firestorm wrote:Surprisingly, when Channel 5 broadcast this episode in 2002, they did not edit out William Troubshaw twice calling Higgins “knob”. Not sure about Stateside, but in the U.K., knob is slang for penis and considered very crude.
Heh! I didn't know that! :shock:

I always assumed that when Troubshaw said "long time old knob", he meant "long time old friend". So, he was calling him "an old penis"? :?

Boy, the show sure didn't hold back on any of the derogatory British slang did it.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

User avatar
rubber chicken
Master Location Sleuth
Posts: 691
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:53 am
Location: Great Lakes region

#28 Post by rubber chicken »

Odd, not knowing the British slang word "knob" I at first guessed the writers thought they were saying something else. But I looked up some British slang definitions for knob:

link:
1. The penis.
2. An idiot, an objectionable person.


link:
5. (British, slang) The penis.
6. (slang) (pejorative) A contemptible person.


So if he was saying "knob" William Troubshaw could have been calling Higgins a contemptible or more likely an objectionable person. I'm doubting that he meant penis, especially since his wife was right there and she was actually in between William and Higgins. He might have been a jerk to Higgins, but I don't think he was the kind of man to hurl a simple penis insult over his wife's head. :oops:

Image

But there's also nob:
- noun Chiefly British Slang.
a person of wealth or social importance.


He could have used this facetiously, meaning Higgins was below their social standing or class. Or since they went to school together, William Troubshaw could have been highlighting the fact that Higgins had not quite risen to the elite social or economic standing that William had. Or he simply could have used nob correctly, as they both attended "one of the most prestigious public schools in all of England" and saved his insult for his next line: "You're looking well. Well-fed that is."

But then there's also this definition for nob:
an elegantly dressed man (often with affected manners)
A person in a superior position in life; a nobleman. [Slang]
I had to look up "affected manners" :? ... "Intended to impress others (esp in the phrases give oneself airs, put on airs)." Higgins could be accused of this by an unfriendly person.

So I'm thinking it was the word nob he used, not knob. The subtitles can be wrong sometimes, but nob is what they choose to use here.
Last edited by rubber chicken on Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
lutherhgillis
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 528
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:54 pm

#29 Post by lutherhgillis »

Wow, I never thought about it. I just assumed knob was a word that meant 'bone head' or 'dunce' or something similar.

Willie was a jerk of jerks, that's for sure.

This one caught me by surprise the first time I watched. I suspected the wife and then the son but never the sugarcane plant foreman. Oh well, I was a little young and naive when I saw this one it the 80s...
Who's Dot Matrix, and what has she got to do with this?

User avatar
Jay-Firestorm
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 387
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:01 am
Location: Berkshire, United Kingdom
Contact:

#30 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

We can now all take degrees on the meaning of the word "(k)nob" :lol:


It does have those meanings, but if I was walking down the street here in the UK and said "How you doing you knob", I'd probably get a black eye!! :lol:
JAY FIRESTORM

Facebook: Jay Gathergood / Twitter: Jay_Firestorm NEW BLOG: http://thea-teamcaptured.blogspot.com/

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!!

Post Reply