Season 3, Episode 1&2: Did You See The Sunrise?

 

Magnum's 3rd Season kicked off with a jam packed two-hour season premiere that would end up being one of the signature episodes of the series.

The Set Up: Magnum is watching Stalag 17 on VHS and flashes back to Vietnam to a period in 1972 when he and TC were captured by the Viet Cong and held prisoner in hot boxes for three months. In that time, there were a couple of other prisoners taken and housed in similar cages near them. They were routinely tortured by a Russian agent named Ivan. Ivan is shown shooting one of the prisoners to death and routinely calling T.C. the "n" word(which is a shock to hear on a network tv show). After awhile, T.C., Magnum, and another G.I. prisoner, Sebastien Nuzo, escape through the jungle. (Nuzo looks a lot like "Billy Bob" from the season #2 premiere...)

Fast forward to present day(1982), and Nuzo shows up in Oahu to visit T.C. He tells T.C. that he was on lunch break from his post office job back on the mainland and saw Ivan walk by him. So, he decides to fly to Hawaii(instead of call) and tell T.C. He goes on to say that Ivan followed him to Hawaii. T.C. starts to get paranoid.

In the meantime, Magnum's navy buddy Mac, who routinely helped Magnum in previous cases by looking up classified information to help him in some cases, tells Thomas that he's resigned from the Navy. To cheer him up, Magnum allows Mac to tag along on a date he had previously made. While at a touristy restaurant, Mac slips away to the bar to see the ever troublesome Colonel Buck Greene(played by Lance LeGault). Mac was coerced into helping Buck Greene keep track of Magnum for the weekend for some unknown reason. Unfortunately, when leaving the restaurant, Mac offers to get the Ferrari to bring the three of them home. When Mac starts the car, it explodes, killing him instantly and sending Magnum and the date to the hospital.

Magnum has a bruised face and sprained arm, but he's more upset about Mac. Buck Greene shows up and Magnum knows something is up. Magnum walks home and tells Higgins what happened. Higgins is surprisingly understanding. Then T.C. shows up with the news about their torturer Ivan that might be on the island trying to kill them.

T.C., Nuzo, and then Magnum leave from T.C.s apartment to find Ivan after they shake off the government vehicles trailing them. Before they get too far, two of the government agents are shot. Who shot them? You guessed it, Ivan. T.C. and Nuzo head into hiding in the woods. Magnum tends to the injured agents until Buck Greene lands his helicopter there. Magnum punches Buck out because Buck hasn't been telling him all he knows.

We now jump over to Navy headquarters where we find out that intelligence has shown that the Russians are in Hawaii doing "something" and there is also a high level Japanese delegation in town. Magnum gets dropped home when he then finds out from Higgins that Rick called. TC borrowed Rick's Mercedes and was acting funny, complaining of a headache and his memory being foggy. Magnum then heads back to Navy headquarters and looks up info on their old friend Sebastien Nuzo. In the computer, he is a different person.

It is then revealed that Nuzo was a Russian agent all along assuming the identity of a dead soldier, implanted with T.C. and Magnum in Vietnam. Apparently, they also drugged T.C. and hypnotized him to kill on command. It was also the reason, they were able to escape back in 72. The Russians knew they could use T.C. in the future. The same drugs were now being used by "Nuzo" to reintroduce the kill command in TC. TC and Nuzo then blow through a Marine checkpoint and TC punches out a Marine on the way to highjacking a Marine helicopter. He then flies to blow up the Japanese delegation. Magnum is able to work with the Navy to intercept T.C. in time and talk him out of the hypnotic state. T.C. is then sent to Walter Reed for detox and evaluation. The Nuzo spy was captured and was now saying nothing.

Unfortunately, the whole scheme could not be pegged on Ivan as he had a Hungarian diplomatic passport and there was no direct evidence of his guilt. As Ivan is leaving for the airport, the road is blocked by a broken down Mercedes, the driver goes to help Rick who pretends to not understand why the car won't move. In the meantime, Magnum pulls Ivan from the car at gunpoint and leads him to the woods. Magnum points a gun at Ivan, but Ivan explains that he knows Magnum has honor and would never shoot an unarmed man. Ivan walks away. Magnum calls to him. When Ivan turns around, Magnum executes him in retaliation for killing Mac and poisoning T.C.

Side Note: When Buck Greene is grilling Magnum about why the Russians might want to get to him, a female lieutenant defends Magnum for a bit. Buck Greene interjects "I'll have your cute little butt up on subordination charges" Ugh