Finally, an episode that shows Magnum and the gang moving forward.
For the first time in a couple of episodes, Magnum P.I. Season 5 Episode 8 embraced the hit-squad storyline, as it should be.
Thomas chased their only weak lead, the elusive harbormaster T.C. had asked about Greene, to a marina in San Diego. What an obvious place for a harbormaster to hide out!
Granted, Lewis Peele was a reasonably weak lead, knowing precious little about who hired him. “Brown hair” wasn’t much of a description to go on.
And why didn’t Magnum bring Higgins along for backup? He lucked out that the hit squad leader likely hadn’t given Peele a second thought since his last call.
But Thomas couldn’t have known that to be the case. Peele was a loose end that needed tying up. And he was stupid enough to use an ATM near where he was hiding, which made him easy to locate for a talented hacker.
But this was another “divide and conquer” episode in which Thomas and Juliet work on two cases. That way, viewers are spared scenes of their being overly protective toward one another.
This strategy meant Rick got blindsided into protecting Peele with Magnum while Higgins and her transporter, T.C., found themselves safeguarding a wacky new character.
The most crucial storyline involved Thomas and Rick investigating who was after them, even if they made little headway in the case.
At least they recognized the weakness of Magnum’s plan, having Peele call to draw out the killers so that Thomas could slap a tracker on their vehicle. The killers opted to take out the loose end, Peele, instead.
They safeguarded the useless Peele anyway with a bulletproof vest and traded up to his shooter, Kane, wisely letting Peele exit stage right.
Sadly, being just a foot soldier, Kane didn’t know much either, although he realized that Thomas and Rick were part of the black ops team his squad was seeking.
They wouldn’t have gained the little traction they did if Rick hadn’t had an NSA contact to provide intel when their local source (Katsumoto) failed them.
Kane did pony up the squad leader’s name, so Magnum is slowly working his way up the food chain.
Also, Rick discovered that three people connected to the Hadid mission had recently died under mysterious circumstances.
Add that to Higgins tracing Kane’s pay back to the CIA, and it appears that some rogue element at that agency is attempting to erase any sign of that mission for whatever self-serving reason.
The other significant development was the return of Shammy, T.C.’s right-hand man (not to be confused with Cade, T.C.’s right-hand boy).
Since Shammy simply popped up in the middle of the La Triviana trivia contest, we should believe he’s been there offscreen this whole time. T.C. just hadn’t let him come out to play.
He more than made up for that in this episode.
Shammy has always been helpful with any of the cases he’s been involved in. But, with the resident P.I.s tied up, he decided to take things further. He and Kumu would investigate the theft of the masks like Magnum and Higgins, only without the romance.
See, that’s a sign that he’s been around this whole time, knowing about that relationship that only recently went public.
Shammy and Kumu displayed excellent teamwork. From the tread, he identified the type of sneaker the thief wore. She used social media to find a photo of the thief.
Then, in true Thomas and Juliet fashion, they called in Gordie to make the collar. Some things never change.
However, after meeting the burglar’s mom, Kumu refused to press charges.
The only opportunity missed was to have Shammy use his mechanical skills to fix the mom’s car. That would have been a feel-good moment.
Finally was the least consequential of the three storylines as Higgins and T.C. flew to Maui to help introduce a bizarre character, who hopefully will never resurface.
Nolan Pierce was a reclusive tech billionaire who hired Juliet to find out who was behind the drone buzzing his estate. He had to bring her in since he impulsively fired his security team recently.
That’s how Pierce was: self-involved, to the point where he had separate panic rooms for himself and his staff, so they wouldn’t have to be together in a crisis.
The setup made for some fun scenes, such as T.C. ordering a latte to be flown in from Kona and Higgins on horseback shooting down a drone.
It was a pleasant twist that the people behind the drone could have cared less about Pierce, his ego to the contrary.
Instead of being paparazzi after photos of the recluse, it was a hit squad after his pilot Valentina because she had tipped off the DEA to the activities of her former boss, a Venezuelan drug lord.
It was encouraging to see that T.C. had armed his chopper after he and Shammy were skyjacked on Magnum P.I. Season 4 Episode 2.
As Pierce and his staff watched from the panic room, he and Juliet made short work of the hit squad.
To revisit the hit-squad storyline, watch Magnum P.I. online.
How did you like the progress of the hit-squad investigation?
Were you happy to see Shammy again, and would you like to see more of him?
Did Kumu make the right call in not pressing charges?
Comment below.
Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.