Paper War (7.8)

[J.J. Walters]

This is the official MM thread for Paper War (7.8). 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: 11/12/1986
It's the ultimate battle of wills when a feuding Magnum and Higgins are trapped in a building elevator that is set to be demolished.

[lutherhgillis]

I know it could not be possible if we are to believe the earlier episodes where Robin makes an appearance and all of the episodes where Robin's friends come by to visist. All of these friends know Robin and Higgins so there is no way Higgins could be Robin. I'm surprized the writers were allowed to go in this direction since it clearly violates any continuity from past seasons. Even though, it would be cool to think that for all of those years, Magnum was sparring with the real owner of the estate. All of the tit for tat exchanges and deals that were made. All of the tricks and jokes played on each other. I still like the show and I am glad they kept it pretty consistent over the years.

[J.J. Walters]

Ah, but what if Robin is real, but he didn't write the novels? What if Higgins wrote the novels, but he didn't want to be associated with it publicly for fear that it might sully his family's name? Higgins is a ghostwriter. Robin gets all of the credit, half of the profits, and occasionally has to make "appearances" to perpetrate the ruse. It all fits nicely.

Of course, we now know that Orson Welles was set to be revealed as Robin Masters before he died, but anyway .....

Great episode though, one of the best! Top 5 for sure. I havn't seen this in over a decade. I can't wait to get my hands on the Season Seven DVD!

By the way, welcome to MM lutherhgillis!

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Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

[Doc Ibold]

I agree with James, executed properly, it COULD have worked. However, there is one major issue with that (excluding the J Digger Doyle/Big Blow theories).

Going back to my guilty pleasure of "Birdman of Budapest".

Assume that Higgins is Robin Masters and has some guy jetset around the world to create the Robin Masters mythos (as noted by James above). Now, we would also have to assume that all of the yearbooks in there were of the original Robin Masters (aka Higgins).

So, when this Elizabeth Barret shows up as Robin's old schoolteacher, wouldn't she have recognized Higgins as Robin instead of "Higgins"?

Conversely, given the twist in the end, if Higgins WERE Robin Masters, wouldn't he recognize that this woman was an imposter from the very beginning?

Just my two cents.

Or, now that I think about it, what if there WAS a guy named Robin Masters, and he was going to be a writer. However, he turned out to be a hack, but a hack with a penchant for debauchery. So, Higgins meets up witht his guy, says "I'll write, you party. 50/50 down the middle, and I want an Estate in Hawaii but I don't want you around"

Fascinating...

[IslandHopper]

I too like the twist in the episodes which make you believe that Higgins may actually be Robin Masters. I agree with James that if Higgins was Robin Masters he could have hired an actor to play the part of Robin in order to deflect attention away from Higgins, because Higgins may have been embarrassed to have the novels associated with the Higgins name. I think this could have been pulled off rather easily. In regards to Robin's friends, most of which were celebrities, it can be reasonably assumed that he didn't meet these people until he was a famous writer, so they would not have known he was merely an actor playing a role.

If I had to chose between Higgins being Robin Masters or not, I would have to say "not." The main reason why I would say this is because of the episode, "J. Digger Doyle." In that episode, the bad guys were trying to steal Robin's tapes of his newest novel. Robin even came to Hawaii and was picked up by TC in his chopper in order to retrieve his tapes from Magnum. If Higgins was Robin Masters, wouldn't he have known where the tapes were? Magnum said that Robin had given him the tapes for safe keeping. Why would Higgins have gone through this elaborate charade of the tapes kept in Magnum's guest house if he was really Robin, especially considering that there were bad guys willing to kidnap and kill in order to get the tapes. Would Higgins have willingly endangered Magnum, TC, Rick and himself and exposed them to automatic weapons and possible death merely to perpetuate this charade? I don't think so.

Additionally, during the final episode "Resolutions (part 1 or 2) I believe I recall Higgins telling Magnum that he really is Robin Masters. However, at the very end of Resolutions, while at Rick's wedding, Higgins said to Magnum that he "lied" referring to his earlier comment to Magnum that he really was Robin.

Again, I really like this twist in the show, but I don't really think that the writers and producers came up with the idea that Higgins may be Robin until much later in the series. If they had this idea from the beginning it could have really made for some interesting twists and stories, and could have made this idea much cleaner. I do not have any inside information on how or when the Higgins/Robin Masters idea was born, but it just seems that it was developed much later in the series. What was the first reference to the possibility of Higgins being Robin Masters? I don't remember any reference in the first six seasons, but I am not sure. I'm sure someone out there knows the first reference.

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The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

[Doc Ibold]

IslandHopper,

I want to say there is a reference in Season 5 or Six when Higgins says he wants the keys to his Ferrari and Magnum calls him on it.

Something to the effect of "Your Ferrari, when did it become your Ferrari and not Robin Masters?"

[IslandHopper]

Thanks Doc, I'll have to watch for that.

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The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

[J.J. Walters]

[N1095A]

While trapped in the elevator, Magnum tells Higgins that he has an uncle Otis who was an elevator repairman. When he was young, TM used to go along with him on service calls. Higgins suspects him of making up the story. TM later admits he did have an uncle who repaired elevators, but his name wasn't Otis.

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"But Higgins, I can explain."

[IslandHopper]