NBC’s Magnum P.I. on Sunday night closed out the first half of Season 5 with the climax of the “Vengeance for Ahmed Hadid!” arc that was set in motion in the season opener.

Picking up not long at all after the harrowing events of last week, the episode “Charlie Foxtrot” opened with T.C splayed on the hangar floor after being shot by the assassin. As T.C. tried to reach for his gun, the gunman closed in for a kill shot — only to get taken down from behind by a  shotgun-wielding Shammy.

Meanwhile, Magnum and Higgins at home were aiming to decompress with some Dudley Moore and a mature Bordeaux, which Thomas went to fetch from the wine cellar. But while he was away, Higgins spied several armed men skulking across the lawn. What followed was the series’ very best action sequence ever, as Juliet very much held her own, taking on the arriving gunmen with a mix of close-quarters combat, martial arts and even using the baddies’ guns against them. Thomas meanwhile dashed back upstairs upon hearing the gunfire, and took out a goon or two himself, until the threat was neutralized.

Having learned of T.C.’s shooting and Detective Childs’ death, and upon realizing that Rick had been abducted, Magnum and Higgins worked with Katsumoto’s people to find Rick, who from his kidnappers’ trunk had very cleverly managed to steer them into a crash using a road flare. Rick had scrambled into the forest after fleeing his captors, and fearing the worst (but with no cell signal), he recorded a goodbye video for Suzy — to whom he said “I love you,” amongst other mushy words — and their daughter Joy. Rick, we’d learn, did his best to fend off his ATV-riding pursuers, but fell short and got dragged away to their mastermind.

The mastermind behind this plan to avenge terrorist Ahmed Hadid’s years-ago assassination by Magnum and his black ops squad was CIA Agent Nadine Amherst, who is not dead. Amherst, Magnum & Co. learned, had fallen for Hadid years ago, as his handler, and even bore him a son. But said son died recently, it triggered Amherst to seek vengeance, especially against triggerman Rick. Pressed by Amherst to recount the details of the Hadid op, Rick said that upon storming their target’s hideaway, Hadid held an innocent woman at gunpoint, which Amherst refused to believe. But before she could employ enhanced interrogation techniques on Rick, Magnum & Co. arrived to save the day.

In the immediate aftermath, Rick reunited with an arriving Suzy (though he would later quietly delete his “I love you” video). Rick and Thomas then visited a hospitalized T.C., who had learned after a long surgery — and then sadly apprised Cade and Kumu — that he had no feeling in his legs, and only had a “chance” of walking again.

What did you think of Magnum‘s first 10 episodes on NBC, the midseason finale, and the fact that Thomas was not, as it seemed, moved by seeing Rick’s video to say those three not-so-little words himself, to Juliet?  

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