Leave it to Magnum to have sympathy for a young, misguided criminal.
After all, Thomas had been where Ryder found himself on Magnum P.I. Season 4 Episode 16.
Granted, they took the anger they felt when their fathers died too soon in very different directions.
Magnum enlisted in the Navy and served his country as a SEAL, spending time as a P.O.W.
Ryder got suckered in by his neighbor down the street and blew up an office building.
Still, Thomas could relate to what Ryder had been going through, missing his father and lashing out at his mother.
Magnum also wanted to spare Nora and Ryder the glare of publicity that comes from being in the spotlight, remembering his experience after escaping from a P.O.W. camp.
He knew that telling H.P.D., even Katsumoto, would result in a circus-like atmosphere at Nora’s home, which it did.
With Ryder Public Enemy No. 1, there was no way this went smoothly for anybody who supported Ryder in any fashion.
Naturally, Gordon was peeved that Thomas and Juliet didn’t loop him in. But all they knew for sure was one mother’s intuition, not a great reason for which to call the police.
So it was effortless for them to rationalize looking into the case themselves a little before taking that step.
Now friendly neighbor Pete, Ryder’s sounding board from down the street. Didn’t he seem suspicious from the get-go? Was he chasing after widow Nora, or did he have something more nefarious in mind?
The latter, it turned out, although it took far too long for everyone to get there. And poor Ryder ended up paying the price.
Part of this should fall on Ryder. When Pete threatened to kill Nora if Ryder didn’t plant the bomb, that would have been the ideal time for mother and son to have a difficult conversation. She could have told him what an unlikely scenario that was.
Depressed teens do dumb things. It shouldn’t cost them years in prison, however.
At least no one believed that Ryder acted on his own. He admitted as much to Thomas and Juliet before he clammed up. He couldn’t give Gordon the simplest of correct answers during interrogation.
When Katsumoto forgave Thomas and Juliet for covering for Nora, they started working together again. After all, they regularly do the extra-legal actions that he can’t.
Magnum and Higgins did the intelligent thing and tracked Ryder’s movements before the bombing. That allowed them to stumble onto the nursery, a place that uses fertilizer, which just happened to be owned by Pete.
Thomas didn’t hesitate to break into a locked shed, which, surprise, surprise, housed the bomb-making components.
That must have qualified as exigent circumstances because Gordon didn’t hesitate to use the blueprints found there to check out the rest of Pete’s heist plans.
That robbery was relatively easily foiled with a borrowed generator, and Katsumoto almost smirked about his plans to let the robbers stew inside the locked vault for a time.
The TPTB deserve credit for not letting off Ryder scot-free since he was coerced into being the fall buy for the bombing.
That left Magnum brooding into his beer essentially about the path not taken. That could have been Thomas if he hadn’t, well, done the noble thing and enlisted.
Fortunately, Juliet was there to point out his logical flaws and make him feel better about his past decisions.
And they almost came to that romantic moment when she nearly touched his arm as they were talking. In the end, they remained just the best of friends.
Higgins’ friend Maleah asked the question that viewers had been pondering: When will Juliet and Thomas get together, now that their respective significant others are gone?
Higgins sidestepped any answer. But it’s probably never since rarely do the culmination of those will-they-or-won’t-they relationships result in better T.V.
For every one that works, there’s a half-dozen that don’t. Until Magnum is wrapping up, don’t expect that happy ending.
Now that T.C. has got Cade back to something resembling an everyday life, maybe he can get one as well.
While helping to feed first responders at the explosion site, he spied Mahina, a woman whom he had had a one-night with then ghosted.
Indeed, T.C. had done so with the best of intentions. An old flame had wandered again through T.C’s life, and he wasn’t in the best headspace to start something new.
Fine. Life happens. But how hard was it to call Mahina and explain his screwed-up situation rather than leaving her hanging?
Rick and Kumu were baffled by such atypical behavior by T.C. But when Mahina didn’t even remember T.C., they told him to run with that.
T.C. naturally failed to listen, attempting to stir Mahina’s memory of their night together. He smartly followed up that with a heartfelt apology for his failings.
Mahina tracked him down at La Mariana, revealing that she remembered their date. She could have just read the truck as well, but no matter. They are back together for at least one meal, and let’s see what happens from there.
To review Magnum’s background, watch Magnum P.I. online.
Isn’t Thomas an empathetic character?
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Should T.C. and Mahina be a couple?
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Dale McGarrigle is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
