Well folks, I tried my best to avoid spoilers in last week’s episode of Magnum P.I. But given the nature of “Charlie Foxtrot”, that’s no longer an option. Not only does this tense episode finally give closure to what happened last time, but it also brings the Greene saga on the whole to an end.
This week picks up immediately where last episode ended. Poor T.C. is about to get shot dead after taking gunshots already, just when Shammy rolls in and blasts his assailant away with a timely shotgun. Unfortunately, T.C. is still bleeding out when an ambulance is called for him. Meanwhile, Magnum and Higgy have no idea what’s happening and are enjoying some alone time. She’s teasing him about being nothing like her childhood crush, Dudley Moore, when Thomas goes downstairs to secure some bordeaux. Suddenly Rick frantically calls and tells her about T.C., the lights go out, and masked assailants fan out to assault the Robin’s Nest.
Higgy puts the hurt on them with a butcher knife and fists upstairs, while Magnum finds a creative use for a corkscrew in the wine cellar. It’s a frantic, heated fight in the pitch-black environment, but both of them come out on top.
At the hospital, Shammy is waiting in agony for a prognosis on T.C.’s condition when Magnum calls, only to realize that Rick never made it there. Turns out, poor Rick was kidnapped and thrown in a car trunk after being tazed. Which begs the question, why was Rick kidnapped when all the other members of his unit had targets on their backs?
At La Mariana, Gordon finds Thomas and Juliette in hiding and catches them up on the sad news – Detective Childs is dead. Which I was actually really sad about. He’s grown on me as a character in recent weeks. Sure, he was a hard ass, but he deserved better than to get blown up by mercenaries.
As for poor Rick, he’s alive but in dire straights. Turns out, he was the one that took the kill shot on Hadid back in the day, so perhaps his kidnapping was for personal reasons. He isn’t content to wait and find out. He pries open the emergency kit in the trunk, finds a flare, and tosses it in the front, causing a crash. In the chaos, he gets free and finds his phone, but it’s not long before armed men atop ATVs and dogs are in pursuit.
One of the people that raided Robin’s Nest is in custody, named Paul Swyzak. He was the leader of the band of mercenaries, but someone hired him as well. Higgy does her tech thing and runs voice analysis using his phone. Turns out, the person footing the bill was someone they all thought dead – a CIA analyst named Nadine Amherst, who apparently faked her own death.
As for why she’s going to all this trouble, it’s simple. Hadid was her asset, and she developed feelings for the man and had a baby with him. Then, years later that boy died of tragic health complications, and a furious mother unleashed her wrath on the men that killed her man.
“Charlie Foxtrot” is a hard episode for Rick. After escaping the car trunk he’s on the run in the forest, being hounded, and he decides to make a recording in case he’s killed. As for T.C., he survives his surgery, but he may not walk again. Kumu does her level best to comfort his adoptive son, Cade, but he’s heartbroken and scared. Shammy meanwhile is doing surveillance in a chopper, and just as he’s running out of fuel finds the vehicle that took Rick, getting the info to Gordon and Magnum.
Meanwhile, Thomas is agonizing over the harm done to his friends and worried about what might happen if either Rick or T.C. doesn’t make it. He and Higgy follow Rick’s trail on foot with Gordon’s blessing. They quickly find Rick’s phone abandoned in the brush, and Magnum watches a heartbreaking video left for Suzie and Rick’s child, Joy.
Suddenly, the vehicle taking Swyzak to custody is pulled over. A U.S. Marshal uncuffs the man, and tells him that Nadine sent him. Then we see Rick brought face to face with Nadine herself. She only wants to know one thing – how Hadid died. We get a flashback to the raid, and see Hadid was a coward, using a woman as a human shield before Rick sniped him dead. Nadine doesn’t like this story and is gearing up to torture the truth out of him when Swyzak arrives. Just one problem – Nadine didn’t release him. It was actually an elaborate ruse by Magnum and the company to find Rick, and it worked just in time!
Gordon and several armed cops arrive, taking Nadine into custody, but Swyzak pulls a runner. Magnum chases him, and a fierce fight breaks out, though it ends with Thomas kicking the brute through a wall.
The episode ends with some sweet moments. Suzie reunites with Rick, Magnum hands Rick his phone back, Higgy comforts Cade, and then Magnum, Rick and T.C. all share some unspoken words in the hospital. A satisfying end to the Greene saga, though I do wonder if we’ve seen the last of Nadine Amherst. Now the question is how will Season 5 keep the pressure on for Magnum and friends in the next part?
