I had thought last week’s Magnum P.I. would be great because of my favorite former convict, Jin. Turns out, all the show needed to do better was an Amish kid, Higgins in a chicken suit and the fantastic Patrick Fabian. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning of the latest episode, “Run With The Devil.”
Though most episodes start with a small, humorous anecdote, I really have never seen anything like Higgy in a chicken suit, hawking nugget fliers for a place called Chicken & Brisket. Unable to resist, Magnum makes many horrible puns, but she’s there for a reason. She’s playing lookout for someone that skipped bail heading to a pawn shop across the street. When he finally shows up and she flashes her badge, poor Juliette is knocked on her feathers. Magnum checks on her first before chasing the guy at full throttle.
Not to be outdone, Higgy gives chase as best she can in the cumbersome suit, at one point accidentally rolling with a frustrated ‘bollocks.’ So it was surprising that Thomas was the one to get crashed into by someone’s windshield. Then the chicken lady manages to collar the criminal, though her suit loses a wing in the process. Sadly, she doesn’t wear the hilarious suit the entire episode.
At La Mariana, Gordon is devouring a juicy looking burger and bacon as Rick stares hungrily at his plate. He’s trying to shave off a few pounds so he can fit into his dress suit for a Marine Corps ball, so he’s only eating kale and cucumber smoothies. He’s fighting the dreaded baby weight, and Gordon is having a lot of fun torturing the man. T.C. arrives, and to Rick’s dismay he’s not planning on attending. Mahina was his plus one, and after they broke up, he has no interest in going. Lucky for him, Rick’s not content to let his buddy sit it out.
Though Magnum is in a sling from his crash in the chicken incident, he still notices an Amish kid named Jacob placing missing girl posters on cars. He and Magnum talk, and it turns out his sister Hana is missing. Thomas asks if it’s unusual for people to leave the community, and Jacob insists his sister wouldn’t just leave him and his parents. He fervently thinks she’s in trouble and asks for help.
Kumu is tasked with contacting Jacob’s parents via the general store in Pennsylvania. As the two investigators continue researching, they find Hana stayed at a hostel in Hawaii, scooping ice cream. Then Thomas finds Hana on social media, noting she recently adopted a puppy. They track the mutt to her former residence, but only find Hana’s roommate. She says she loved showing the wider world to the Amish girl, but Hana lost her job. Somehow she kept paying rent, and then started bringing sketchy guys by. Eventually the roommate woke up one day to find Hana and all of her belongings gone. She also shares Hana had been spending a lot of time in nightclubs and bars before she left, which is the next lead our team follows, leaving Jacob with Kumu.
Back with Rick’s misadventures, he starts trying to find a date for T.C. to attend the ball. There’s a sweet girl named Emily benefitting from La Mariana’s free wifi, and Rick chats her up. It’s clear the girl thinks he’s asking for himself, but when he reveals he’s helping a friend and overshares, he scares Emily off. Suzie arrives with lunch, and suggests Rick try a celebrity date for T.C., since helping veterans is good publicity.
Back with Higgy, she’s been asking several places about Hana, and finally finds a lead at one nightclub. The bartender says he noticed Hana, but that she went by Chloe. She seemed badly drunk and kept getting hit on by men. Then one guy left with her, only for the bartender to find him screaming about how Hana and some guys robbed him. Also, it turns out Hana wasn’t drunk, except on club soda.
Gordon helps fill in some blanks. He knew Hana by reputation and had been hunting her for weeks. Several open cases paint a bad picture, including shoplifting, credit card fraud and a marijuana dispensary robbed at gunpoint with footage of Hana and 3 others. Maybe our little Amish girl has broken bad?
Jacob doesn’t believe Hana went criminal, and neither does Magnum. He thinks it would take longer than a couple weeks to totally discard all her values. Thomas is convinced she’s being coerced. Then Higgy finds a similar case involving a girl named Nora, so they head to the prison to talk with her. As for Rick, next he stalks an actual celebrity named Malia Manuel, and asks her to help T.C. out. He also overshares again, but somehow Malia is game to help out.
As they talk with Nora, Magnum and Juliette find that the men with her took her phone away, and threatened her with harm if she told anybody about them. When they push for a name, she provides a guy named Ben. With Gordon at the helm, SWAT then raids his place, only to find corpses. Not Hana’s, just the men that were using her.
Kumu seems to be bonding with Jacob over Hawaiian food, and talking about diversity as a strength and respecting different cultures. Then she gets called back by Jacob’s parents, and finds a problem. Jacob isn’t Jacob. His name is actually Saul, and he’s only 14. He stole his cousin’s ID to help find Hana, but the rest of his story tracks. The problem is Kumu is really hurt by his deception.
Meanwhile Thomas and Juliette decide to look for someone that Hana’s merry group of thieves might have harmed, and who may have retaliated by killing everyone but her. They find the marijuana dispensary was bankrolled by a private equity group. And wouldn’t you know it, the guy in charge, Sam Bedrosian, is played by none other than Patrick Fabian! AKA Howard Hamlin from Better Call Saul! He’s clearly shifty and nefarious, but when they ask to trade for Hana, they realize he doesn’t have her. Though it’s very likely his men are responsible for the carnage they found at Ben’s place.
Thomas thinks Hana escaped, and is ready to look for her. There’s just one problem – Saul got upset and ran away from Kumu. He’s busy placing fliers again when he gets a call about Hana, which he foolishly responds to. When Magnum and Higgins search for his phone later, they find it by a dumpster. Then it rings and the person on the other line wants to trade Saul for his sister, and the money she took with her.
They manage to track Hana by a saying Saul kept repeating, and find Hana took refuge with a pastor. The only problem is she doesn’t have the money Bedrosian’s men want, as it was stolen from her. So now they have to find a way to trade money they don’t have for Saul’s life.
It culminates in a tense standoff, as the armed men holding Saul are ready to kill him when Thomas shares they don’t have the money. But they have something better – Bedrosian bound and gagged in their truck! That does the trick, and they get Saul back. But not before Bedrosian swears revenge on them, so I fervently hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the talented actor.
Despite Rick’s best efforts, T.C. isn’t interested in going to the ball with a date, so he goes stag. Suzie and Rick are both ready to get crunk, and T.C. is just ready to enjoy a quiet evening. But then Mahina arrives as his surprise date! She’s gorgeous as always, and it looks like maybe their relationship isn’t over. Which is good, since T.C. needed a good break after his painful stint in recovery.
“Run With The Devil” ends with Magnum and Juliette watching Saul and Hana playing on the beach, as the adults talk about whether or not they believe in god. A really solid and fun episode of Magnum P.I. Here’s hoping Patrick Fabian shows up again to cause some trouble for our team of investigators.
How do you think the episode’s title, “Run With The Devil,” ties into the various elements like chicken suits, the Amish, and Patrick Fabian’s role in the storyline?