Unfinished Business (8.8)

[J.J. Walters]

This is the official MM thread for Unfinished Business (8.8). 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: 1/20/1988
Due to insufficient evidence, the indictment against Quang Ki is dismissed, and Magnum's ex-wife and daughter find themselves in mortal danger.

[eegorr]

This may be the first time we see Maggie with her hair down, but it is not the last.

She has her hair down when she appears in the audience at Rick's wedding in part 2 of "Resolutions" as well.

[eegorr]

I watched this episode again last week on my DVR, recorded from WGN.

The credits indicate that Bob Harker played "Colonel Rockwell", but he was clearly Navy and there is no rank of Colonel in the Navy.

In several scenes he is shown in uniform wearing the insignia of a Commander, including the picture of him taken before he was captured that was in the dossier that Magnum saw in Buck Greene's office. Later, when his daughter is talking about him to Magnum she refers to him as "Commander Rockwell".

At the end of the show, as Magnum walks away from his sniper's nest without completing his mission (what a turkey ), the narration read by a newscaster (anybody else think this is Bernard Shaw?) refers to him as "Captain Edward Rockwell". Maybe he was given a promotion to Captain on his release (I think this was commonly done for returning POWs) but the insignia on the uniform he was wearing during the exchange was still that of a Commander.

The rank of Captain in the Navy is equivalent in grade to Colonel in the Army and one grade higher than Commander.

I was just wondering what others thought about the extent of this flub. Should the credits read "Commander Rockwell" or "Captain Rockwell"? I would say the former because that was his rank for most of the show.

[IslandHopper]

Looks like you found a good flub eegorr. I've seen the episode, but don't recall the credits or the rank displayed on Rockwell's uniform. However, I agree with you that it probably still should be 'Commander' if that is the rank on his uniform during the exchange. You're right the rank of Colonel is found only in the Army, Airforce and USMC. It does not exist in the Navy.

I would think that if Rockwell was a P.O.W. until his release which would have been 1987 or 1988 (whenever the episode aired), that the Navy would have probably had to provide the uniform to him through the Vienamese, as I'm sure his Vietnamese captors (NVA) wouldn't have had any Navy dress white uniforms since pilots are wearing flight suits when flying. If that was the case, the Navy certainly would have provided the correct rank of 'Captain' if that was indeed his intended rank. So, I think you are right. His rank should have been listed as 'Commander.' if that was indeed his rank when the exchange took place.

I also agree with you that the news anchor is Bernie Shaw.

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

[J.J. Walters]

Hey thanks for the info eegorr. I've updated the episode guide.

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

[lutherhgillis]

Maggie had her hair down for the first time in Death & Taxes from Season 7.

[Doc Ibold]

OK, excellent episode, and definitely one of the better ones of this season (and the show in general).

But I have one question.

HOW can Quang Ki do a video from jail bragging about his henchmen's handiwork? I'm sure they have something like GUARDS making sure things like that don't go down.

[Shermy]

[eeyore]

OK here is what I don't understand, Quwon Ki is set free--but at the end of the show he obviously has been held in captivity so they can exhange the men. Was his leaving the courthouse with his entourage staged by the military? just a way to make it look like he was a free man and the military was waiting in the wings to take him into captivity? And I'm not sure what his value was to the Vietnamese? It didn't appear to me he was running from them. What am I missing?

[stever]

What kind of silencer was Magnum using on his rifle? In some scenes it looked like a towel!
SR