Rapture (6.11)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the sixth season

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How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
2
2%
9.5 (One of the Best)
4
5%
9.0 (Excellent)
9
11%
8.5 (Very Good)
17
21%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
20
25%
7.5 (Decent)
13
16%
7.0 (Average at Best)
7
9%
6.5 (Not So Good)
3
4%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
3
4%
5.0 (Just Awful)
3
4%
 
Total votes: 81

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Doc Ibold
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#16 Post by Doc Ibold »

golfmobile wrote:
Secondly, what did finding the old WWII airplane on the ocean floor have to do with Keliki'i's being killed "accidentally" by his father when his father blew up HIS father-in-law on the boat so he could sell the business and get the money? Was the WWII aircraft just some kind of red herring here? Why would the kid's swimming ghost be drawing TM to the WWII plane wreck?

And the ending where the father just flies off into the wild blue yonder never to be heard of again -- uh, no justice there. He could have gotten clean away and started a new life. You got the feeling no one ever followed up much to find a murderer!! Just, oh, well, he flew away.

I found that rather lame.

Otherwise I like the ghost/spooky episodes generally. They just need to make sense. This one, I felt, fell a little short there.
My take was that it was a pretty week attempt at some sort of allegory, since Steven was the only one with a World War II plane on the islands?

I was thinking, why didn't he just haunt the pane hanger, but I guess because he died in the sea, he had to haunt the sea?

I agree with you golf, the ending did seem a bit lacking. They could have added a line "a few months later they found Steven's plane crashed into a hillside. It wasn't that he was running from the law, it was that he was running from himself."

BAM!

You get the point and and the sense of justice is accomplished. The flying out to sea and never being seen again? Unfulfilling. Like he's going to pop up somewhere and say, "Hey, I committed a double homicide on my father-in-law and son" Yeah, that guys's underground for sure.

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golfmobile
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#17 Post by golfmobile »

Doc,

LOL! Okay, now I don't feel so bad that the WWII plane didn't make any sense. It really DIDN'T have anything to do with the rest of the plot -- it wasn't even the plane that Steven flew away in! And if he was such a collector of historic airplanes, why did he want to sell his father-in-law's business to the guy with the air charter business? That entire part of the plot was illogical, so it's okay for it to puzzle me. Another sample of how the writers/producers, etc., never let a logical story get in the way of producing a 45-minute episode for that week.

I went back and listened tonight to all the times the place where they were diving was said, and I swear it STILL sounds as though TM is saying Kahuku. And when the reporter that Rick took TM to says it, it sounds like Kuahuka or Kahulu. There's just no way I can twist it (listening-wise) to be Kakuku. Of course, in the show it is called a "lagoon" and not a bay. So maybe it's a fictitious place for the sake of the story.

This episode would have a lot more appeal if not analyzed this closely, I guess. Good quick entertainment, just don't think about it too much or try to have it make sense later. :lol: :D

Still, with its flaws, I liked it, mostly.

golf
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IslandHopper
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#18 Post by IslandHopper »

golfmobile wrote:I'm missing something here.

Secondly, what did finding the old WWII airplane on the ocean floor have to do with Keliki'i's being killed "accidentally" by his father when his father blew up HIS father-in-law on the boat so he could sell the business and get the money? Was the WWII aircraft just some kind of red herring here? Why would the kid's swimming ghost be drawing TM to the WWII plane wreck?

And the ending where the father just flies off into the wild blue yonder never to be heard of again -- uh, no justice there. He could have gotten clean away and started a new life. You got the feeling no one ever followed up much to find a murderer!! Just, oh, well, he flew away.

I found that rather lame.

Otherwise I like the ghost/spooky episodes generally. They just need to make sense. This one, I felt, fell a little short there.

golf
The WWII plane that Keliki'i pointed out to Magnum (F4U Corsair) was his way of telling Magnum that the person that killed him owned a WWII era airplane. I thought this was a bit of a stretch since the F4U Corsair is a single engine fighter and the plane Keliki'i's father owned was a twin engine Beechcraft Model 18 or U.S. Army AT-7/AT-11 or C-45 or a U.S. Navy SNB-1 & SNB-2/Navy JRB2 general purpose aircraft. It's been a while since I've seen this episode, but I think the writers dealt with Magnum's wild deduction with Higgins stating that he had studied Aristotle... (and numerous other scholars), he had toured college campuses, "but nothing in my life has prepared me for the workings of the Thomas Magnum mind...Astonishing." I guess the writers acknowledgement of Higgins' disbelief is supposed to make it more believable to the audience.

Justice did prevail in the end. At the end, Magnum's narration says "Steven Parker's plane was lost at sea" and something about Steven joining the two people he sent to a watery grave.

Does anyone know the aquarium where most of the dive scenes were filmed? It was an aquarium, right?
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

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#19 Post by J.J. Walters »

The dives scenes were filmed at Sea Life Park, in the "Hawaiian Reef" tank.

The plot is a little farfetched in this one, but I like how we get to see Magnum do some fine sleuth work with some ingenious deductive reasoning (even if it does involve him "tuning in" to the netherworld again). I don't think Jessica Fletcher (or even Det. Robert Goren) would have been able to solve this one. ;)
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Kwanzaa
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#20 Post by Kwanzaa »

I don't like the trips taken into the nether world. They got a little too psychic for more in several episodes. However, they were in keeping with the times. There was a great deal of psychic stuff going on in the 80s by Hollywood types and in the press.

I enjoyed seeing the library and watching the guys hang the waterbuffalo head. That was a great scene.

Kwanzaa

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golfmobile
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#21 Post by golfmobile »

Somebody else listen to the early scenes of the episode and see what it sounds like they're calling the lagoon. The reporter says it, then TM says it. I think it's mentioned a couple more times in the episode, but I didn't listen all the way through again.

Anyone?

golf
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rubber chicken
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#22 Post by rubber chicken »

golfmobile wrote:First off, Magnum mentions where they are diving a couple of times and I thought it started with "Kuhu--" something, but James says it's Kakuku and it sure didn't sound like that to me when TM said it.
I'm confused, in the episode page James uses Kahuku, not Kakuku. I second James' Kahuku Lagoon. That's what the subtitles are and that's what it sounds like, but it is a bit hard to hear it. When Magnum says it at the playground is easiest to catch. But anyway it's just a made up name...

It's located here on the west coast, making it the only location on that coast I know of so far. The official name is Ka‘ula Bay (the location marker in this link is incorrect). It's more common name appears to be Secret Beach.

Image


I too enjoy seeing the library in this episode. Anyone else find it funny that Magnum is on a roller stool when the highest book shelf isn't even above his head? He gains about a whole 6 inches of height. ;)

Image
Last edited by rubber chicken on Sun Sep 06, 2009 5:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#23 Post by Lily »

Yes! I also thought that the roller stool was rather strange, as it looked very out of place in a library that size! I would have expected to see Robin Masters library lined, floor to ceiling with books, and one of those ladders on a track to reach the higher shelving.

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#24 Post by J.J. Walters »

rubber chicken wrote:It's located here on the west coast, making it the only location on that coast I know of so far.
How about that! At last, a west coast filming location! And right next to a really nice looking resort/golf course (Ko Olina Golf Club). Thanks again RC! :)
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rubber chicken
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#25 Post by rubber chicken »

I finally got to the airport location, which many people probably correctly guessed as Dillingham Airfield. The scene was shot right here.

Interestingly, this location is very near the west coast. It's actually further west than Ka‘ula Bay (mentioned above). The only other location closer to the west coast shoreline (that I know of so far) is the beach bunker from Past Tense (3.5). So this episode had just about the two most "out there" locations.

And so often, locations in the show are given false names or directions to them are simply made up. But this location is described as "... a small airfield, couple of hangers, out past Mokuleia." Which is all pretty much correct. The town of Mokuleia is three miles to the east.

Image

Here's a great page about the history of the field, with many photos included.

And this page also tells the history, and has great high quality photos from the 1940s.

For Lost fans, this is copied from the wikipedia page: "The TV Series Lost has filmed several scenes at Dillingham Airfield, due to its remote location close to the North Shore, where the series is primarily filmed. The fuselage from Oceanic Airlines flight 815 is also stored at Dillingham, and is transported to the beach when needed for filming."
Last edited by rubber chicken on Sun Sep 06, 2009 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#26 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

Another good episode IMO – season six really seemed on a roll at the point; miles better than season five. Shorter review than normal though – just couldn’t find that much to say.

[rating=9.0]

While scuba-diving with T.C., Magnum is amazed to see what appears to be a young boy at the bottom of the ocean. All his friends are sceptical, but Magnum is sure that it is the ghost of a boy who was killed in a boating accident. Another good episode…

-----

I know that I often cite the fifth and sixth seasons as the weakest of ‘Magnum, p.i.’s run, but I have to say, at this point in the sixth season, they were on a pretty good roll, with a decent run of stories.

The episode contains some really impressive shots of Magnum and T.C. deep sea diving (actually filmed at Hawaii’s Sea Life Park), once again highlighting the show’s high production values.

I wonder if this is another episode affected by the Anderson Estate (used for exterior shots of Robin’s Nest) being unavailable for some of the sixth season (see review for ‘Paniolo’)? In the episode, only the (seldom seen) library set is used, and thinking about it, the episode previous to this, ‘Blood and Honor’, didn’t feature any exterior shots either.

I enjoy the story and find it quite engaging. By this point, after the conclusion of the second season’s ‘The Woman on the Beach’, and the end of season five’s ‘Mac’s Back’, we know that ghosts exist in Magnum’s ‘universe’, and it is interesting to see how the ghost of the young boy is explained.

Not much more to say on this one; suffice to say, I find it a decent episode, and while not MPI at it’s best, is another example of the sixth season thankfully being better than the fifth.

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* No other notes on this one, other than, besides the second act break, all of the act breaks on the DVD version are abridged.
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#27 Post by J.J. Walters »

Jay-Firestorm wrote:* No other notes on this one, other than, besides the second act break, all of the act breaks on the DVD version are abridged.
Jay, what about Haunani Minn (Llima Parker)? Haunani appeared in The A-Team's "The Sound of Thunder" only a few months after this episode aired. Come on man! ;)

I also coincidentally just discovered that John Bennett Perry (Stephen Parker) is Matthew Perry's (Chandler on Friends) father, and was the Old Spice "sailor" in numerous commercials in the 1970s. Interesting!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

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#28 Post by Jay-Firestorm »

James J. Walters wrote:Jay, what about Haunani Minn (Llima Parker)? Haunani appeared in The A-Team's "The Sound of Thunder" only a few months after this episode aired. Come on man! ;)
I don't like to keep mentioning The 'Team on and MPI site :lol: If I did that I'd have like a hundred notes on each ep lol
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#29 Post by steveadl »

Interesting tidbit I picked up on. Most of the underwater scenes (with exception to beginning of opening scene where it's a wider angle and clearly open ocean as well as last couple underwater scenes where TM finds the necklace) are filmed in the big tropical fish aquarium/tank at Sea Life Park.

I remember walking through the aquarium/tank when I was there last year. It has the big coral support structure in the middle which you can see often throughout the flashbacks in this episode. Also, if you take note with the underwater scenes involving TM, TC and the boy - each shot is fairly tight and only lasts for a few seconds before cutting to a different shot and angle. This is because the tank isn't very large and you'd be able to swim from one side to the other in probably 10 secs or so.

They're shooting inside the tank throughout the episode;
- 3:18, at the top left of the screen you can see the square metal frames and glass of the viewing windows
- 4:53 a very obvious window in the centre right as TM is seeing the boy for the first time
- more windows at 5:09 & 8:48

This wasn't meant to be a flub spot post, but I was writing while watching the episode and was amazed at how many times you could see the windows when looking for them! :wink:

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#30 Post by LION »

somebody tell me im not seeing things, in the rapture episode, the part where magnum is in the koho bar talking to Stephen Parker. right at the line where stephen parker says i dont know if i will the next time. cutting the subtitles on might help you pause the dvd at this spot. i see tc's island hoppers van in the window between the wood shades go by. please someone check this out and tell me thats not tc van go by. pause it at this spot thats clearly tc island hopper van going by.

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