Magnum PI finale review: Hannah’s quest has a costly result
After making her first appearance earlier this season, tonight Jordana Brewster returned as Hannah, his ex and the person responsible for making all of Magnum and his gang prisoners of war in the first place. Going into this episode, all of the evidence that she had suggested that she was not the greatest person in the world — you could still make that argument.
Yet, through this episode we also did learn more about who she is and what her real motivations are — and, at the end of the day, they were benevolent in nature. She just wanted to help her father. That’s it. She wanted to save him, but in doing so, she constantly put the lives of Magnum and his friends in danger. When she came to Magnum needing his help tonight, he had a pretty difficult decision to make. Did he help her at the expense of potentially alienating Rick and TC? It’s something that he had to think about, but in the end, he was convinced this time around that Hannah was trying to be truthful — that she really did need his help in saving his father.
Much of this finale was about 1) learning if Hannah was telling the truth and then 2) seeing what came about on the other side of it. There was a ton of action here amidst this search for answers, and there also just so happened to be a number of laws broken along the way. While Magnum well in hard to the latest Hannah hole (can someone trademark that?), some other character still had their suspicions — Katsumoto included. This is why he continued his search and it’s probably a good thing — she has to be held accountable, and she also did end up fleeing the scene of the guest house at one point.
In the aftermath of Hannah’s escape, the team immediately started to become divided as to her reasoning. She may have just done this to avoid Katsumoto and buy them a little bit more time, but she’s certainly got a way of going rogue on plans and not really telling anyone about them in advance. If she just was a tad more consistent, don’t you think that she’d have some more allies?
Hannah did end up redeeming herself and saving her father … but in the process of it, she was gunned down in the closing showdown. Hannah is gone. Her place in Magnum’s future is, as well. Even though we only saw this character in a couple of episodes, this was still really emotional. It was Magnum saying goodbye to a certain part of his life.
The aftermath of everything
Magnum gets a chance to move on with his life, but he’s going to have to repair his relationship with Katsumoto in the process. We also think that he’s going to need to buy Rick and TC a few beers after what he put them through in this episode — Higgins to, given that he’s interested in having a proper tag-team enterprise with her in the future. (Maybe that’s a season 2 story…)
CarterMatt Verdict
This episode proved to be a nice culmination of the season — there was a ton of action (a Magnum PI staple) but also an attempt at some real closure for Thomas, something he’s been yearning to have for years. It may have been tear-jerking by the very end of it, and we at least know that there’s a clean slate now when it comes to this painful chapter of his romantic life.
What did you think about the Magnum PI finale overall? Be sure to share some of your thoughts in the comments. (Photo: CBS)