Echoes of the Mind (1) (5.1)

[Higgy_baby]

I not a big fan of this two parter and here's why:

1. I don't think Sharon Stone is all that hot. Check her out with no makeup in the passenger seat of the Porsche. A lot sexier women have graced the show IMHO. Stone can act though. (this is likely just me, because I also fail to see why guys fawn over Angelina Jolie)

2. Magnum at long last meets the love of his life and she's a tormented mental case.

3. Magnum just doesn't feel like Magnum.

4. Lady Ashley's interaction with her Eunic soliciter is the horrible old Hollywood Brit stereotype stuff way overdone.

5. The pic of young Higgie that Agatha keeps looks like another Art School prop boy mishap. No blousing of BD pants over left puttee is visible, don't even get me started on the Beret....

OK on the positive, I liked the way the show went out with a bang, a presumed bang to the girl's head in fact. Although I'm not a fan of the over serious Magnum PI episosdes, if you are going to do it, this is the way. Hawaii Five-O always ended like this. Something bad happens and BAM, right to credits. It hits like a punch to the gut. No cutsie denouement at the end to make us all feel good.

This opener is a sign that the show is changing, and why I think some folks have categorized Seasons 1-4 as having a different feel and in some cases their favourite Magnum era.

[J.J. Walters]

Never noticed this before, but the crew member that darts across the road in the opening shot, it happens just as the episode title appears!



LOVE this opening scene! One of the best in the series IMHO.

[MACattack]

Sharon Stone was smokin HOT in this episode. It's too bad her character was a totall schizo!

[Danno]

I love this episode for it's ridiculous 80s style.

It is OTT. Sharon Stone is perfectly cast. Her bad acting is perfect as a mad, hot bombshell driving a Porsche through the night while wearing Porsche aviators and the Blade Runner music pumping.

Magnum's mysterious connection to her is cheesy/camp absurdity.

'I'm not in love with her! ... But I'm afraid I could be.'
I mean, c'mon...! What is this?! The ridiculous script makes me take this episode lightly. Almost as if the show is making a parody of itself.

Hawaii looks hypercoloured. Higgin's Britishness seems turned up.
Everything about this episode is crazy.

[Jelly Doughnuts]

The one thing that really ticked me off about this ep is that I just felt really bad for Agatha, and I don't get why her and Higgy couldn't just hook up

I loved seeing Sharon Stone in this, and can clearly see why she went as far as she has in acting.

[Agatha]

I spent some time feeling badly that Higgins and Agatha didn't/couldn't hook up, too, Jelly Doughnuts, but in the end decided that she was really better off without him...as a husband, I mean. He got what he needed...some attention. And she got what she needed...someone to "mother." It would NOT have been good for them to be in the type of relationship where she would get the idea that she could actually depend on him for anything! And this episode is a perfect example of that.

This is one of my least favorite episodes because of the Sharon Stone story line and how frustrating it is for me that Thomas never finds someone to love. But then I realized that I was missing out on this really sweet Agatha/Higgins story line so have been watching it more lately. I LOVE Agatha's house and this is the only episode that we really see it...and get to go inside.

[Jelly Doughnuts]

I spent some time feeling badly that Higgins and Agatha didn't/couldn't hook up, too, Jelly Doughnuts, but in the end decided that she was really better off without him...as a husband, I mean. He got what he needed...some attention. And she got what she needed...someone to "mother." It would NOT have been good for them to be in the type of relationship where she would get the idea that she could actually depend on him for anything! And this episode is a perfect example of that.

This is one of my least favorite episodes because of the Sharon Stone story line and how frustrating it is for me that Thomas never finds someone to love. But then I realized that I was missing out on this really sweet Agatha/Higgins story line so have been watching it more lately. I LOVE Agatha's house and this is the only episode that we really see it...and get to go inside.

I guess you're right there re Higgy & Agatha. Poor Agatha though I felt so embarrassed for her, though it was a hell of an assumption to make!

And yes, I too found it really sad and frustrating that Thomas was left alone, again.

[zebra3]

Excellent observations IslandHopper!

And I agree, this episode is a little overrated. The diary, the guy in the closet, Magnum's premonition - all glaring plot holes.
.

Well technically he couldn't read the diary the first night as he would have, because he had to stay with her. And the body/person in the closet got creepier after you knew Diane had a split personality. I feel like a lot of this episode makes more sense and has more emotional heft after the ending. The man in the closet, the diary, the fact that magnum slept with a twin...the meaning of all of it changes once the episode ends and you have to go over it in your mind.

[J.J. Walters]

Ah... Did I say that? *ahem* Can I take it back? That was quite a while ago. This has become one of my favorite episodes!

[zebra3]

Haha understandable, but admit it, you were a little creeped out when you realized at the end of part one that there was a person in the closet (the man who she shot at, presumably). Then when you thought it might be her twin, you were a little more creeped out. Then when you finally realize that the corpse of a man (Was it her father?) was in there, it's ten times more creepy.

And yeah, can someone answer the question above?

[Agatha]

Do you mean the question about the man in the closet? I've always assumed that it was...hmm...Ted? Was that his name? The shrink that tried to help the Sharon Stone character get rid of her imaginary twin.

Just a guess, I guess!!

[zebra3]

Wow I kind of thought it might be her father even. We need absolute proof of this.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Doc Ibold: This is nothing. I was hunting up in Utah, must of been '68 or '69....

I'm not sure whether this is a correction or not. Most people probably do think it's "must of," so this could very well have been in the script, and/or Doc could very well have said it this way. But if the script writer and/or Doc had been paying attention in English class, it would have been "must have" or "must've" (which is what fools people, since it sounds so much like "must of").

Magnum: What happened to Lord Ashley?
Higgins: A bit of underdone potato. He choked to death.

Higgins may be half-quoting Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, where Scrooge attempts to dismiss Marley's ghost as merely an hallucination caused by "a fragment of an underdone potato."

@James, ... is there any reason why the 2 part episodes have two different threads? I just think it would be much more convenient with just one, ...

I agree, AJL -- though I suppose it might be difficult to combine the two existing threads now in any meaningful way.

James, could you just hop in your time machine and do them as single threads from the beginning?

[J.J. Walters]

"Must of"! LMAO!

You got me again Carol! Sloppy, sloppy work on my part! I need to re-watch some School House Rock episodes and get my head back in the game!

And yeah, it was a mistake on my part to separate out the two-parter episodes in the forum. In the episode guide, yes; forum, no. I'll see if I can merge them together in the forum. Thanks.

[Carol the Dabbler]

... yeah, it was a mistake ... to separate out the two-parter episodes in the forum. .... I'll see if I can merge them together....

All I can say is, good luck!