#he was always meant to be sort of snow leopard themed but in the end he just looks like this weird amalgamation of feline/wolf

[south-sea]

pathetic chilly beast

[magnumdays]

Magnum PI 2x20 - A Leopard on the Prowl review-ish

So I watched 2x20 after 2x19 both times and maybe that colored my view of it a little. In a both good and bad way. I enjoyed 19 so thoroughly I kind of just had a good feel going into this ep, since we started with some Miggy with the lads (always a good time) I had high hopes for this episode as well. At the same time I wasn’t sure how it was going to beat 19. Which it solved by not doing.

Yeah, as far as a season finale I’d say this one was pretty weak. Where was Ivan? Where was the personal stakes and involvement? Icepick is not a important enough character for us to care about and while there was some worry for Rick it all felt a tad bit lack luster - for a season finale. If not for the whole Higgins is leaving (which to be honest I was kind of figuring wouldn’t happen even with the way they’d been building it up) this wouldn’t have felt like a finale at all.

So yeah, this should have just been a normal episode. We could have skipped the Vigilant or Love tour ep. and used the Icepick plot for one of those instead and had a totally different season finale...maybe with Ivan? This seasons big bad? Or are they setting Ivan up as the whole series big bad? Because that would suck (as some of you know I found Ivan to be like the lamest bad guy ever.)

Yeah. That’s how I’d have done it but...

On the plus side we did get some nice moments, starting out we got Magnum worrying Higgins will go back to London and decide she wants to stay...maybe she’ll meet someone... (I swear, some lines make me think Lenkov is co-captain of the Miggy ship with me...)

And later when he’s out paddling he admits to himself he’s really going to miss her. We also have Miggy having a little bit of a thing with the “You’re bailing on our partnership - I’m NOT! Turing into a I’m sad you’re leaving but you know I’m still going to bother you all the time while you’re in England...” 

I feel like if Rick hadn’t shown up we might have gotten some more emotion here. But he does walk in and I guess that’s a symptom of this whole episode.

There are a lot of things that could have leveled it up but failed to, emotion vise. Like how about Icepick doing the robbery to keep Rick safe because someone was using him as leverage? Instantly I care more about him and there for would care more about everything.

Or actually having Magnum work to “fix” the visa problem rather than just randomly handing it off to Robin. I mean I already winged about this in the 2x19 review a bit but having Magnum actually have to trade some favors or make some promises would have been nice. Maybe having him reach out to some dangerous contact he had at the CIA from back in the days or something that could come back to bite him. 

Or radical thought HAVE HIGGINS ACTUALLY HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE UK. I didn’t think this was really a possibility even before watching the episode and while I don’t mind the whole “Higgy now owns Robin’s Nest” (in fact I really enjoy it) it did feel like a bit of a cop out. Like what was the point of the whole visa expiring and fake wedding fake outs? Nothing changed other than that she is now officially Magnum’s boss and own’s Robin’s Nest. Was that what it was all about? Then why not go there straight away and skip the whole fake wedding bit?

We had all this angsty build up with her deciding not to marry Mangum and then no one at all and time running out. It could have been a bit bittersweet and almost fixed the rest of the episode if it had just ended on Magnum and Higgins hugging at the airport or before she gets in the cab after everyone throw her a party. He could have gone “see you in six months”  and she’d be all “Count on it“.

I’m not sure if they didn’t go that route because they were worried about not getting renewed and thought this would be their last episode ever and they wanted to wrap it up neatly with a bow on top or what? 

It’s not like having a six month time skip would have been that big of a problem, or having the first episode of season 3 be Magnum constantly calling Higgins while she’s in London. 

With the time difference this could have been hilarious he’d be phoning her in the middle of the night because it’s day time in Hawaii and/ or the other way around. Maybe there could even be some totally implausible snow. Miggy could also both have matching calendars with the days counting down until she can return... Then we could have had 3x02 in England when Magnum and Gordon (and maybe his son) come for a visit. (I may or may not also already ranted about this and how great it could be.)

So yeah, this was a fine random episode and I’d have probably really enjoyed it a lot as one - but because for this I had “season finale expectations” it didn’t really do it for me. I did try to not even think of it like that on my second watch and that actually made it work a lot better.

I it does have stuff going for it; there are no unrelated off-theme subplots to get annoyed by, Rick gets some actual good reason for being in the story, the investigation is fairly tight if in true Magnum fashion rather unbelievable, the word “laptop-ing” is used, a crazy fight on top of a moving truck, the Ferrari for some reason being able to drive in reverse but not normally (is this a thing? that just seemed overly stupid to me but I know nothing about cars.)  

Plus we have Higgins saying goodbye to the lads, which is honestly like in my top ten Higgy moments of this season.

Verdict: My mother enjoyed it.

 In end we do get our faves looking adorable (I really love Higgy in red)

Look at my babies being all happy 

Seriously I kind of almost like this scene better as gifs because they look really-really happy when you just look at them, even if the conversation was somewhat...not what I’d been hoping for. In fact I actually want to talk about the weirdness of it; 

Magnum: “So you’re not going?”

Higgins: “Um, you want me to?”

Magnum: “No!”

Why would she ask that? She actually manged to sound like she’s genuinely worried he is unhappy about her staying - when she knows he is the one that set it all in motion. When he’s been working so hard to make sure she gets to stay. This is either terrible writing or brilliant writing because either they forgot Higgy knows Magnum did this for her OR they’re revealing just how important Magnum’s opinions are to her (and how she’s still unsure he really wants her around). I don’t know, maybe I’m reading too much into it but it seems a rather strange thing to ask otherwise.

Now onto  the next part of the conversation which is equally baffling.

Magnum: “I’m just... surprised. What did they do?“

I mean I guess he could be suprised if didn’t check in with Robin but wouldn’t he have called Robin to see how things were going on the visa thing? Shouldn’t he be saying “I knew Robin would come through for us you! What he/they do?” because he basically just trusted that Robin would fix it for him. 

By just having this conversation go maybe a little different 

“So you get to stay?”

“I do.“

(I’d love for her to say I do at some point because of the whole wedding that wasn’t...Maybe we could get a hug here... like come on guys! If there was anything that could have redeemed the whole thing a Miggy hug is pretty high on my list)

Slightly awkward stepping back moment.

“I knew Robin would come through for us you! What he/they do?”

It would just have read a lot better and given us a tad bit more payoff for the visa wedding wackiness that was the past few episodes. Which I’m still not sure why they did that because they sure as heck didn’t use it for maximum drama. I’d almost be able to believe they did randomly go to AO3 and check the popular fics and decided since Marriage of Inconvenience was kinda popular they should do something like that...and then failed utterly to execute it any kind of satisfying way. (I know I know, I’m giving myself way too much credit...)

Still, over all I’m not sure what I feel about this episode. There was nothing super wrong with it but it really wasn’t a finale. Higgins departure/ visa plot turned out to not really mean or change anything. No one but Icepick seemed to have more than like a second of feels during the whole thing. Some stuff just needed more.

So yeah, that’s my thoughts on the matter. I meant for this to be short because I didn’t think I had that much to say about this episode. As it turns out, I kind of sort of did. I guess that’s to be expected as it was the finale! What did you guys think? Love it or hate it? Somewhere in that even more dangerous “whatever zone”?