This episode is one of the best -
I know what you're thinking....(wait for it)....
and you're....RIGHT! It's not "one of the best" for the
Magnum story line, but it is a SOLID episode. I ALMOST rated it a 10 - but to me, that is almost blasphemy with Magnum PI, because the 10.0 episode is to be imagined in your head for eternity, and in the last day of eternity we will watch the 10.0 episode
we have written
The episode flows throughout - and to me represents the culmination of the BETTER second-half episodes of Season 5. Season 5 does have a definite lag to it, but there are several episodes prior to this one that are really good, though not quite "classic."
This episode struck me in a couple of ways, on this, my first viewing:
It's season 5, the dramatis personae for Magnum has been pretty well established, they can tell whatever tales they want with this framework - the setting, the characters, etc. And they do this well in this episode...
The other impression this episode made on me is due to the comparison/contrast between Magnum PI and Jean Claude Fournier (forgive me if I spell his name incorrectly). In the climactic scene, Magnum interrupts Jean Claude's murderous act of vengeance - retribution, and we the viewer become privy to the contrast of the French hero's existential ethics vs. the American hero's (Magnum's) existential ethics. While both are heroes in their own way, Magnum embodies the American sense of ethics/justice, in that he (notably, he is accompanied throughout the episode by Carol in her professional role) prefers a more formal justice to be obtained (and I reach when I say "Justice" because I know he insinuates what
will people think of Jean Claude for such a murderous, wanton act of retribution? But is not the
judgement we pass on ourselves via our conscience, our "little voice," the ultimate
judgement that we are borne to suffer as
terrestrial beings)?
As in "Fragments," Season 5.6, we confront a sense of the Fatalistic -- definitely more to the point Deterministic, as in pre-destination. Magnum (and Carol) interrupt Jean Claude in the moment of his satisfaction, his
jouissance, in the climactic moment of his vengeance...the dueteronomical 'eye for an eye' justice, and TS interjects with his own
Raison d'être, and we are left to witness that Magnum's justice cleaves to the "Justice" of what unfolds...that is almost to say, the justice that is Holy.
"This then is the formula which describes the states of the self when despair is completely eradicated: In relating to itself and in wanting to be itself, the self is grounded transparently in the power that established it."
~Kierkegaard "The Sickness Unto Death"
but...let us also not forget this wonderful awkward scene of Magnum's karaoke...wow! what an excellent episode..