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PHOTO BY MARIO PEREZ / COURTESY CBS
A scene from the “Magnum P.i.” episode “A Bullet Named Fate” in which a guilt-ridden Thomas Magnum follows the clues his private investigator friend, Harry Brown (William Forsythe), left behind when he was shot while working a case Magnum passed onto him. Pictured here are Hernandez, Erin Pineda as Melinda Mosley, and Taylin Yuen as Isabella Kai.
They say that fate is a cruel mistress, but for Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and his friends, fate usually intervenes in their lives for a good reason. In this week’s episode of “Magnum P.I.”, titled “A Bullet Named Fate,” Magnum and Higgins (Perdita Weeks) assist Det. Katsumoto (Tim Kang) as they work together to find out who shot their friend Harry Brown (William Forsythe). Harry was shot while working a case Magnum handed off to him, which leaves Magnum feeling incredibly guilty.
Based on a story by Scarlett Lacey and Neil Tolkin, who also wrote the teleplay, and directed by Doug Hannah, the episode has Magnum working hard to solve the mystery behind who shot Harry. As he and Higgins work the clues to help Katsumoto, the trio find several leads to an old missing child case Harry worked years before.
The episode also has a moving secondary storyline involving Kumu (Amy Hill) and TC (Stephen Hill) trying to stop construction around an ancient Hawaiian heiau, the same one they spent the night protecting in the Halloween episode, “Make it ‘Til Dawn.” Most non-Hawaiians may not understand our kuleana, or responsibility, to protect sacred Hawaiian sites. Yet Kumu’s strong convictions and explanation of the situation may help to make sense of the need to stop development in areas that are sacred to our people.
ALL IN THE CARDS
At the start of the episode, we see Harry Brown bleeding and running away from his shooter just as he falls and tries to call Magnum. Luckily, he survives and is brought to the hospital where Magnum’s friend, Dr. Noelani Cunha (Kimee Balmilero), calls to tell him that Harry has been shot.
Friendship is a major theme in “Magnum P.I.” and an important element in Magnum’s life. So when Harry is shot while working a case Magnum asked him to take over, Magnum gives up an important client in order to find out why Harry was shot. Since the case Magnum gave him was to find an heir for the probate court, he and Higgins are stumped as to why that would have put Harry in danger.
A TWIST OF FATE
As they dig deeper, they find that while looking for the heir, Harry stumbled across an old case he worked for the parents of a missing girl, Isabella Kai (Hawaii actor Taylin Yuen). While working the probate case in a neighborhood, Harry recognizes the pink bike the girl was riding the day she went missing. Harry finds where she is being held and the woman holding her, Melinda Mosley (Erin Pineda), shoots him. Melinda blames Isabella for her daughter Peyton’s death and has her locked in a small shed behind her house.
Magnum calls Katsumoto after finding the shed. Katsumoto and HPD search the house for clues and find Peyton’s remains in the floorboards of the house. Magnum tells Katusmoto that Melinda was dealing with a mental disorder and Katsumoto puts his badge on the line to get Melinda’s medical records to perhaps find where Melinda has taken her. When Magnum and Higgins finally find the pair, it is Magnum who talks Melinda into surrendering and letting Isabella go. It is one of Magnum’s best traits, his ability to reason with those who are unreasonable.
When we see Isabella reunited with her parents, we can see why Katsumoto got aggressive with a doctor to get Melinda’s records. He blames Magnum, saying “before you came into my life, my professional record was spotless. Now crossing the line has become a regular thing.” Perhaps he knows sometimes he may have to push the envelope a bit to save a life.
KULEANA
The episode certainly brought forward the theme of kuleana, or responsibility, in the main storyline. Magnum felt it was his responsibility to take care of Harry, even bringing Harry’s darling dog to the hospital to be there when Harry woke up after surgery. When Magnum apologizes for putting him in a situation where he was shot, and Harry tells him, “Call it fate, call it destiny, call it whatever you want. But old Harry was meant to be there.” Fated or not, it was Harry’s kuleana to find Isabella.
But the secondary storyline, in which Kumu and TC stop construction near a heiau, solidified the theme of kuleana. While it seemed like a small story in the episode, it did highlight the issues and themes in the current protest on Mauna Kea, where Hawaiians continue to exercise their kuleana and practice civil disobedience to stop the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Our heiau are sacred to us, and for the most part, some of the last tangible markers of our people and our culture. The stories of our people not being allowed to speak Hawaiian in school are true, and it wasn’t until 1986 when a “bill allowing Hawaiian as a medium of instruction in the public schools was passed in the Hawaii State legislature.” Kumu is right when she says, that we are not going to go back to the days when we are not allowed to speak Hawaiian. But “preserving our culture is a never-ending struggle for us” and it certainly made a strong impact to watch those scenes portrayed on “Magnum P.I.”
Wendie Burbridge writes the “Five-0 Redux” and “Magnum Reloaded” blogs for staradvertiser.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
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