Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the fifth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
12
14%
9.5 (One of the Best)
32
37%
9.0 (Excellent)
15
17%
8.5 (Very Good)
12
14%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
6
7%
7.5 (Decent)
4
5%
7.0 (Average at Best)
1
1%
6.5 (Not So Good)
0
No votes
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
1
1%
5.0 (Just Awful)
3
3%
 
Total votes: 86

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mandolabar
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#31 Post by mandolabar »

I thought I remembered Higgins encountering, and being done with, Lady Ashley earlier in the season...I went back and found it, it was Season 2's Computer Date.

I guess she lost weight? Had plastic surgery? Oh, well, I'll happily suspend disbelief for the great Higgins plotline in this one. John Hillerman is a master; and Gillian Dobbs does a very good job as well.

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MaiTaiMan
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#32 Post by MaiTaiMan »

mandolabar wrote:I thought I remembered Higgins encountering, and being done with, Lady Ashley earlier in the season...I went back and found it, it was Season 2's Computer Date.

I guess she lost weight? Had plastic surgery? Oh, well, I'll happily suspend disbelief for the great Higgins plotline in this one. John Hillerman is a master; and Gillian Dobbs does a very good job as well.
Yeah, the aspect of Higgins and Lady Ashley in this one was somewhat of a non-continutiy, as you're right...supposedly Higgins was done with Ashley in "Computer Date." But I loved the whole saga with Higgins and her in this superb 2-parter! So, like you I was willing to forego the plotline and character not matching up from the past episodes. :)
"It was more ironic than a Robin Masters novel--she thought he was dead, he thought she was dead...and only the chauffeur knew the truth! He should have been the butler!" "Lest We Forget"

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Kiekoes
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#33 Post by Kiekoes »

Definitely did not expect the ending! Turns out she was 'another Michelle' after all. :(

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MaiTaiMan
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#34 Post by MaiTaiMan »

Kiekoes wrote:Definitely did not expect the ending! Turns out she was 'another Michelle' after all. :(
Huh...another "Michelle" :?: :?:
"It was more ironic than a Robin Masters novel--she thought he was dead, he thought she was dead...and only the chauffeur knew the truth! He should have been the butler!" "Lest We Forget"

Croix de Lorraine
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#35 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

nha trang wrote: After having started watching the DVDs, and reading comments on here about a kind of "sea change" in the episodes coming up, I realize that my favorite Magnum is the jovial, good natured one trying to stop from hearing the score of the game, making a chili dog, fumbling with an automatic coffee vending machine, pulling rubber chickens, Kaline glove, and gorilla mask out of the closet...
I'm the opposite. I like Magnum's imperfections, but there's something about a 40-year-old going on 12 that puts me off on a very deep level.

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#36 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

zebra3 wrote:
308GTS wrote:I've gotta say that this two parter is a real turkey. I've tried and tried to find something that might redeem it but I just can't.

Firstly, why on earth would Magnum fall in love with a total psycho like Diane/Deidre when he knew for some time that they were one and the same. As much as I like Sharon Stone, she's a superb actress but in this she's just lame, sorry but I just cannot see why anyone would like this episode.
I believe I can explain this, just as Higgins did:
"She is beautiful and vulnerable."

Come on, most guys (Esp. Magnum) are suckers for a pretty damsel in distress. She is gorgeous and clearly troubled and TM being TM, he felt compelled to help her.
This. It's in our genetic makeup. It's like women being attracted to money.....ooops, did I really type that? :wink:

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#37 Post by Croix de Lorraine »

miltontheripper wrote:This one had it all for me, not to mention watching a horribly done rotweiler attack on Magnum that literally made me laugh out loud.

You could clearly see the stuntman's face. :)

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#38 Post by Seaver41 »

zebra3 wrote:
308GTS wrote:I've gotta say that this two parter is a real turkey. I've tried and tried to find something that might redeem it but I just can't.

Firstly, why on earth would Magnum fall in love with a total psycho like Diane/Deidre when he knew for some time that they were one and the same. As much as I like Sharon Stone, she's a superb actress but in this she's just lame, sorry but I just cannot see why anyone would like this episode.
I believe I can explain this, just as Higgins did:
"She is beautiful and vulnerable."

Come on, most guys (Esp. Magnum) are suckers for a pretty damsel in distress. She is gorgeous and clearly troubled and TM being TM, he felt compelled to help her.
I'm no expert on love, but they way it seems, you can't help but feel the way you do. Sometimes, as Higgins said, it's just right.

I do not believe the insertion of Michelle in part 1 was any accident. Magnum couldn't save her, but he obviously felt on a subconscious level that he could save this one. That's how I took his sticking around. that plus when he asked her about committing suicide and she answered yes, it bought her some credibility....at least enough to make him doubt that everything the evil twin said was true. I felt the continuity was maintained and only when he knew it was the same person did he next have interaction with her. I liked this episode.

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Re: Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

#39 Post by marlboro »

I didn't care for this two parter. Mainly due to it being too predictable. The twist was obvious from early on in the first episode. I also thought it was kinda lazy to have Magnum meet the (new) love of his life because of some psychic flash.

The Higgins half of the story was better, but the stereotypical English upper crust scenes involving Lady Ashley weren't so hot.I think it would have worked better if the Duchess hadn't been played in such a two dimensional way. Have her be a decent person, but just be a little too dignified for her own good. Basically have her be Higgins from the first season personality wise. Basically build the episode around her being shocked at the way the season 5 Higgins has evolved as he's become friends with TM. TC and Rick. Not a big class war message or anything - just a slowly dawning realization by both she and Higgins that he is not the same man he used to be. And that may be a good thing. Maybe have Paddy come in with some sage advice at the end to deliver the moral of the story.

Highlights:

1) Higgins falling back on a story to tell Agatha the truth. Great scene.

2) TC spraying Rick with oil

3) Hot, young Sharon Stone

4) Faith and Begorrah - Paddy's back!

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Re: Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

#40 Post by SignGuyHPW »

I thought it was great. Higgins realising that he'd made a mistake by not getting to know the Lady Ashley as she was presently instead of relying on memories of her from 40 years prior was interesting. Coming up with trying to scare her off by imitating his half brother only to have the real half brother come in and do it was great comedy. Magnum's sudden realisation that Diane and Diedra were the same person once he actually sat down and read the diary was one of the better scenes in the series. It was like he felt like he'd let himself and his client down, was scared about what she might do, and angry for not catching on to the clues she'd given him all at once.

I wasn't a big fan of the parts with Rick and TC at the BBQ really. It kind of seemed forced in there just to get them into the episode. The Gloria character seemed really cold to me as well. I didn't care for her at all. I was a little iffy on the whole Agatha/Higgins deal when he went back to her for advice too. It was like he spurned Agatha and then it ended up being for no reason since he didn't want to give up his title to marry Lady Ashley either. It almost made Higgins out to be totally cruel towards Agatha who still helped him anyways.

One of the things that made this episode stronger for me was knowing that they continued the story into the first part of the next episode. They didn't just drop it and move on to the next story. The body falling out of the closet was a bit odd, but I presume it was the psychiatrist that had come to take her back. It was a little baffling as to why there was no blood trail in the house when Magnum and Higgins searched, but I could chalk it up to her having cleaned it up when she made it look like a break in attempt.

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Re: Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

#41 Post by Sir Fearing »

Higgins and Agatha seem to have a secret knock 8)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Lmxrue0o0 (5:10 and 29:03)
Half a world removed from England

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Milton Collins
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Re: Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

#42 Post by Milton Collins »

Just watched these two again, absolutely fantastic episodes! Love the story, Sharon Stone (wow!), the back story with Higgins, and the fact that another love interest for TM goes up in flames! Makes him a more believable "human" character. I always love watching this two parter, in the bottom half of my top ten episodes!

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Re: Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

#43 Post by BWheelz54 »

I think there's something humorous about how people who so love one show can have such different opinions of individual episodes. Looking through all these entries on this forum, I've learned that some of my favorite episodes are some of the very same shows that others just don't like at all. Well, Echoes of the Mind, parts 1 and 2, go down as, by far, my least favorite episodes of the entire Magnum run.

Magnum PI seemed to me to have been kidnapped by totally different writers in Echoes of the Mind. Magnum suddenly seems like some love-struck, adolescent boy at the sight of Sharon Stone, who's putting on the same old role of , "hey, look at me play the role of a crazy woman like I will throughout my entire career." Ug. Just can't stand how Magnum falls so hard for this female character.

And by the end, Thomas Sullivan Magnum, who has shown such resilience through the previous episodes, and who has weathered so much loss and travail throughout his life, is drowning in the bottom of a bottle. Ug. Ug. Ug. Oh, how I just don't like these episodes for Echoes of the Mind at all.

But that's cool, isn't it? Hey, Magnum did something right to appeal to so many people, to continue to appeal through all the years that have suddenly followed. But, I just don't like this two-parter. I tried to go back and watch it again just before Netflix pulled the show down. I thought I might appreciate it better on a second viewing. But it was WORSE! I couldn't get beyond the scene at the beach where Magnum meets the Sharon Stone character. Yuck! Yuck!

:higgins:

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Re: Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

#44 Post by TSMIV »

I just watched this episode and I loved it - one of the best MPIs I've seen in a long time. Two key takeouts for me - (1) superlative acting from John Hillerman - a treat to watch and (2) did anyone else think it was uncanny when Sharon Stone was cutting up the ice to prepare a drink for Thomas ? She did exactly the same thing a few years later in 'Basic Instinct' when she was preparing a drink for Michael Douglas ! :higgins:

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Re: Echoes of the Mind (2) (5.2)

#45 Post by MaximRecoil »

The woman who played Lady Ashley (Carolyn Seymour) was born 11/6/1947, making her 36 when this episode aired (almost 3 years younger than Tom Selleck), and she was playing Higgins' old flame from 1939, which was 8 years before she was born.

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