Make It ’til Dawn is my least favourite episode of the series to date, it has a lot going on with a number of different narratives but none of them are given their due. Written by Gene Hong and Tera Tolentino this Hallowe’en episode first aired on 25 October, 2019.

Magnum (Jay Hernandez) gets paired up with Jin (Bobby Lee) to work on a skip trace that leads them to a Hallowe’en party dressed as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, respectively. Meanwhile, Higgins (Perdita Weeks) and Rick (Zachary Kingston) are investigating a haunted house, T.C. (Stephen Hill) and Kumu (Amy Hill) are standing over a recently unearthed Hawaiian altar, a heiau, that is discovered on a construction site.

Finally, Katsumoto (Tim Kang) is involved in a manhunt for an escaped serial killer (on Hallowe’en?!) an arc that is going to weave itself into two of the other story narratives in this episode.

All of them would have made a solid A-story if they were fleshed out a little, but in the end, they all play like b-stories that don’t get enough time to develop or enough screen time.

It’s not that it’s not fun, it’s that it could have been much better. I like seeing the team get paired off, and it’s fun to see the combinations, all of which give characters the chance to shine, and also shows that they can all do comedy, action, and the occasional scare.

Bobby Lee is always a welcome guest star, and there are some great character moments throughout.

Lie, Cheat, Steal, Kill brings some trouble between Magnum and Abby (Brooke Lyons) when she doesn’t come to him right away about a case he could work, one that could put her career in danger.

Written by Alfredo Barrios Jr., this episode was first broadcast on 1 November, 2019. When a fellow investigator (look it’s William Forsyhte! playing a crossover character from Hawaii 5-0) offers Magnum and Higgins a case, he’s stunned to learn the client is Abby.

Abby reveals that she defended Neal Conlon (Jesse Bradford) from a murder charge, getting the case dismissed, but she soon begins to suspect that he’s actually guilty. She wants Magnum and Higgins to flush Conlon out and lead them to the body.

But they find more than one.

Is Conlan murdering women and then writing bestselling novels about them?

When the gang gets too close, Katsumoto and Magnum plan a sting, and Kumu volunteers to help out, something that puts her in trouble, but she’s quick-thinking and soon they have a way to catch and stop Conlon once and for all.

This is a fun episode and has some great character moments, it’s living within its established continuity, and also in the grander Lenkov-version of Hawaii. But sadly, this case saw Abby’s law license revoked, and she decided to leave the island, leaving Magnum behind. So after a fun arc for the pair, Abby moves on, and she knows that there is something between Higgins and Magnum whether they know it yet or not.

There are more investigations next week when I explore more of Magnum P.I. – The Complete Series on DVD from Paramount Canada. Aloha!