‘Magnum P.I.’ Recap: ‘Consciousness of Guilt’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

MAGNUM P.I. -- "Consciousness of Guilt" Episode 517 -- Pictured: (l-r) Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum, Tim Kang as Detective Gordon Katsumoto -- (Photo by: Zack Dougan/NBC)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 517 of ‘Magnum P.I.’ To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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If there is one piece of advice that we receive often in this life, it would be that we should always trust our gut instincts, and there is merit to this bit of advice. After all, we’ve all had bad feelings come from that gut feeling that we ignored, only to have our concerns come to fruition. Not to mention, we’ve also had our gut tell us to go for it and we’ve reaped all kind of benefits from listening to it. Because our gut instincts just seem to know something, and truly we should follow it. If anything, the wonder of our gut instinct is top of mind today, simply because it was put on display during this week’s episode of Magnum P.I. on NBC.

For ‘Consciousness of Guilt’ saw two key characters have that feeling deep down in their gut that something was very, very wrong with a couple of issues they ran into in this life, and that they needed to follow that feeling to bring about justice in this world. One of those characters, was Gordon. Who easily put two and two together regarding a family dispute, that a man named Tate Walker brutally murdered his brother, likely for money. But alas, despite putting Tate under arrest and getting him to trial, Tate had some shady cards to play. The kind that put Gordon’s credibility at risk and of course… prompted a hung jury and his release. Which left Gordon feeling in his gut that something really dark was at play here. Because there was just something off about the murder and this push to be free and that prompted him to bring Magnum in to help.

Mainly because Magnum could investigate and well… it turned out Gordon’s concerns were justified. Because this slimeball went through more than one lawyer, in fact, his last one dropped him. All because Walker would not disclose some shady business dealings and that pushed Magnum to really dig deep and figure out what he was hiding, and what he uncovered, was downright awful. In that, the Walker family’s vast fortune was not only tied to all kinds of investments, but hush money payments for heinous crimes committed. Including murder, and covering up those payments and those dealings was part of the plan to keep such crimes a secret. But with a good push from this dynamic duo, they were able to expose Walker’s dealings and finally put him behind bars for a long time… courtesy of a good ol’ hunch from a powerful gut feeling. But of course, there was mention that there was more than one exploration regarding the power of the gut feeling in this tale, and the other one… was handled by Jin.

Because when he went to walk the dog of one of his regular customers, he ran into some oddities. For starters, she wasn’t home and had apparently hired a house sitter. Which would normally be no big deal, but she told Jin everything, and didn’t inform him of a two-week vacation. Not to mention, Jin was told that his customer was taking a cruise and she hated water. Which gave him a bad feeling in his gut. As though something bad happened to a valued customer. That prompted him to ask Higgins for her help on exploring that feeling, and while at first it seemed as though his concerns were nothing more than paranoia, following his gut… revealed that his customer was in trouble and the house sitter was a thief trying to wrest property away. But thanks to Jin, and Higgy arriving with T.C. via helicopter, that sweet little old lady was safe, and a thief was put behind bars.

All of which were perfect ways to point out, that we really should follow our gut feelings when they offer us strong concern or equally as strong hope. Because it means that our brains have figured something powerful out at a pace we never expected, and we simply need to act accordingly. But while that made for a delightful lesson through and through, make no mistake about it… this was also a fun and engaging episode. One that also featured Zackary Knighton’s (Rick) directorial debut and he slayed, plain and simple. Courtesy of a well-paced and at times, deeply cinematic tale that was fun (courtesy of a Jon Lovitz cameo) and featured some down-home justice. Making this a satisfying episode when all is said and done, one that reminds us of how much we are going to miss this amazing series when it says farewell three episodes from now. Until next time.

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