J.J. Walters wrote:I just saw this episode again recently. This one seems to get better with repeated viewings. All for one and one for all! Tyler Peabody McKinney may be my all-time favorite "episode character" of the show. Robert Forster is just fantastic in this role! "Outasight!".
Also, when Tyler says Magnum was "the best at bringing back scalps", what exactly does this mean? I've heard of guys bringing back ears and other "things" to prove their "hit count", but never scalps! Is it just a figure of speech?
Hi JJ,
I agree with you 100% on Tyler being a great character portrayed by one of the best character actors ever, Robert Forster. Forster owns the screen whenever he appears,
as he usually does - when allowed - in whatever production he is in on TV and the movies. Credit Selleck and cast for letting him steal every scene and getting the best lines(some of the best in the series) in this episode. Almost any other lead actor would never let a guest actor shine like that, TS is indeed a very big man.
Tyler: "I think it's about time we stopped putting conditions on the words freedom, and commitment. You live them or you don't. And that's why we're here."
Magnum, wryly ironic: "And the action."
Tyler, battered & wounded: "Yeah. Only right now the action hurts too much."
As Rick leaves the Thai hotel bar to go off to bed, the B Girl he was partying with coldly makes a remark which the guys picks up on though none of them except
Higgins understands the lingo. Magnum asks what she said. Higgins: "She said she was looking into the eyes of a dead man." Great scene!
I think this episode provides the key to who Rick is with his almost innocent romantic delusions about the daughter of the old villager he later has to gun down as
his training and circumstances requires.
Rick is shattered when he sees the look on his 'beloved's' face when he kills her Dad. Though he was doing his 'duty', for the greater good, Rick seems always to differ
from his comrades in that they are more easily able to put their emotions and humanity in check. Thomas has to walk over and take Rick's pistol away, just in case.
This is as opposed to Magnum, who casual fans of the series mistakenly view as a sports car driving PI in paradise who is merely eye candy for the ladies that he
chases non-stop.
The stone cold warrior Magnum is actually quite dark and not someone you'd ever want to cross in a way that resolves him to decide you are a mortal
threat to him and his own. If the job calls for someone to hunt down the enemy and remorselessly kill, he is your man, be it in Vietnam or home in Hawaii.
Hence Tyler's assessment of Magnum, which a stone faced Magnum can't deny though his new life in Hawaii is his attempt to bury that Magnum
forever -
Tyler: "And you was the best guy I ever seen at going behind the lines and coming back with the scalps."
That would never be Rick or TC. Higgins, yes, maybe that's part of his unspoken bond and shared regret with Magnum.