Mac's Back (5.3)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fifth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
14
12%
9.5 (One of the Best)
18
15%
9.0 (Excellent)
49
42%
8.5 (Very Good)
17
15%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
8
7%
7.5 (Decent)
5
4%
7.0 (Average at Best)
2
2%
6.5 (Not So Good)
3
3%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
0
No votes
5.0 (Just Awful)
1
1%
 
Total votes: 117

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J.J. Walters
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Mac's Back (5.3)

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

This is the official MM thread for Mac's Back (5.3). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.


Original Air Date: 10/11/1984
Diane's suicide triggers memories of others that Magnum has loved who have been killed, sending him into a spiral of depression. Magnum's sanity comes into question when he thinks he has seen his old friend Lt. Mac MacReynolds walking down the street. But Mac is dead, so who did he see?
Last edited by J.J. Walters on Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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N1095A
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#2 Post by N1095A »

Ah, the 80's. Nowadays, if Magnum stopped in traffic looking the way he did, and (had to be) smelling of beer, he'd have been arrested for DUI. Lucky he knew the cop who came up to him.

At the end, when Mac's ghost is lighting Magnum's cigar, we very briefly see the medals on his uniform. Although it is a super quick look, you can see a Vietnam campaign ribbon. According to Magnum in "Did You See The Sunrise?" Mac "wasn't in 'Nam"
"But Higgins, I can explain."

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#3 Post by Tuan Vu »

Yahoo! I saw this episode for the first time and loved it! It was great to see Mac back. I know it was Mac coming back to get back at Magnum for all the times Magnum conned him.

It was also fun to see downtown scenes shot right outside from what is today Murphy's bar and grill. The Taquito's Mexican restaurant we see in the episode, I believe, was a real restaurant at the time, but today O'Toole's Irish pub occupies that spot.

Also, the alley where Magnum first confronts Mac (alias Father Jim) is where I used to walk past every day to and from work for many years when I worked at the Bank of Hawaii on Merchant Street. "Lost" recently has filmed there now and then, and I would have to walk all the way around the block whenever they were filming.

Finally, I think that is Jade Moon playing one of the ladies at the poker game. She's been a well-known news reporter in Hawaii for many years now and she also writes a weekly column for one of the local newspapers here.

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J.J. Walters
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#4 Post by J.J. Walters »

Yeah, this is truly a great episode. It has it all. The complete package.
Tuan Vu wrote:Finally, I think that is Jade Moon playing one of the ladies at the poker game. She's been a well-known news reporter in Hawaii for many years now and she also writes a weekly column for one of the local newspapers here.
Which one?

This one?

Image

or this one?

Image

According to this page, Jade didn't enter the news business in Hawaii until '86, so she would have been an "unknown" here.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

Tuan Vu
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#5 Post by Tuan Vu »

Jade Moon is the one on the top photo.

She's gained a few pounds, but she's still very pretty.

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#6 Post by Magnums Little Voice »

This one was just OK, found Mac or not Mac a bit annoying, but it had some funny parts too.
Thought the carry over from the previous episode was good, tho Magnums stick on beard looked a touch moody.

:?

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#7 Post by VM02 »

I watched this yesterday after both echoes of the mind eps, and enjoyed it more than I expected. I love the littering scene on the beach between TM & Higgins. I thought Hillerman did a good job conveying his characters concern for TM, all the while making it clear that neither of these guys is comfortable directly talking about feelings and the issues that occured in EotM.

I think this episode works to bring back Jeff Mackay. I wish they had retired the Jim Bonnick character after this episode though. A lighthearted con-man character wasn't a bad addition, but bringing back Mackay to play him and having TM call him "mac" was always one of the -very few- things I didn't like about the series.

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Doc Ibold
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#8 Post by Doc Ibold »

Has anyone ever noticed that the opening credits seem a little sped up in this one?

(Music track)

Maybe its just me, but it seems like they tried to remix it or something like thaat

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#9 Post by J.J. Walters »

Yep, it's an alternate version of the theme song. The drums and guitar are very different and the horns sound more up front in the mix.

That's the kind of show MPI was. A guy like Mike Post will throw in a different version of the theme song, for one episode only, just to mix things up a bit, just for fun! :)

http://magnum-mania.com/Audio/Theme_Son ... rnate.html
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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#10 Post by Coops »

James J. Walters wrote:Yep, it's an alternate version of the theme song. The drums and guitar are very different and the horns sound more up front in the mix.

That's the kind of show MPI was. A guy like Mike Post will throw in a different version of the theme song, for one episode only, just to mix things up a bit, just for fun! :)

http://magnum-mania.com/Audio/Theme_Son ... rnate.html
Ugh, I forgot how lame the guitar solo is in that alternate version. Uber ugh.
Image

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#11 Post by IKnowWhatYoureThinking »

I've never noticed that. I'll have to go back and watch it for the theme song.

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Doc Ibold
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#12 Post by Doc Ibold »

James J. Walters wrote:Yep, it's an alternate version of the theme song. The drums and guitar are very different and the horns sound more up front in the mix.

That's the kind of show MPI was. A guy like Mike Post will throw in a different version of the theme song, for one episode only, just to mix things up a bit, just for fun! :)

http://magnum-mania.com/Audio/Theme_Son ... rnate.html
Allright, I was thinking the drink or two I had beforehand was steering me wrong.

I heard a lot more cymbals on this one.

We should do the Magnum theme in cowbell!

:twisted:

Thanks y'all!

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#13 Post by Carmen »

We should do the Magnum theme in cowbell!

LMAO, very good idea
Sometimes I get so lucky, even I don`t believe it (TSM)

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#14 Post by A P Leyland »

In retrospect ECHOES OF THE MIND doesn't really stand up to close scrutiny - memorable more for Sharon Stone and the ending than the plotline which meanders, has an out of sorts Magnum at the centre of it and a funnier (and oddly more heartfelt) Higgins subplot. But this? this is why I enjoy this show and truly believe it is an underated masterpiece of 80's TV.

Other 80's shows would have had a humourous tag at the end of ECHOES part 2 in which Higgins did something silly, Magnum smiled and everything went back to normal. MAC'S BACK showed the true consequences of what had just happened to TM and the first 15 minutes are just marvelous. It becomes 'just another episode' a bit in the middle but the nifty, supernatural ending redeems it. Terrific stuff.

Andy

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#15 Post by Tuan Vu »

Here is Jade Moon (who played one of the women at the gambling scene) in a commercial that ran in Hawaii in the 1980s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTgZppV_HaM

The commercial was rather well-known at the time.

It's interesting that she did not have a speaking part in either the commercial or the Magnum episode, but then she later went on to become a popular news reporter in Hawaii.

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