Audio problem: The episode opens with a news report, which itself opens with the words; "In Belfast, Northern Ireland, where a bomb blast destroyed an office building last Tuesday, a special task force under the command of Brigadier General Alistair Folkes", etc. The report runs for a minute, then the phone rings and Higgins, off-camera, answers. The audio of the TV fades in and out to leave room to the relevant conversation, but you can still hear that it's going in a loop, repeating the exact sentence it started with and moving on from there word by word. (00:02:00)
Continuity mistake: Magnum tosses his bag over the wall. The bag bounces off a tree and falls vertically next to it, but when Magnum climbs the wall, the bag is by his landing point, not by the tree. (00:04:00)
Other mistake: When the lads chase Magnum at the beginning, first of all they take a disproportionate amount of time to reach him, and secondly, the same footage is reused, so they effectively sprint past the same tree (with the same 2 dead leaves and straw by it) twice. (00:04:40 - 00:05:05)
Continuity mistake: When Magnum works on picking the lock to his own home, the plant next to the door is the characteristic Swiss cheese plant; it has 'holes' in the leaves. The dogs arrive and scratch at the door, and the plant is now a different one. The table and chair appear also to have moved - probably it's footage from a totally different moment or location. (00:05:00)
Continuity mistake: When the lads arrive by the door, the mail slot is shut in blatant disregard to close-up of Selleck's face grinning through it. (00:05:00)
Continuity mistake: Magnum says "Hi guys!" to Zeus and Apollo through the door; the blue fabric of his duffel bag shows through the hole, but when he gets grabbed and frisked from behind, the bag is away from the door's hole. (00:05:10)
Other mistake: Magnum is taunting the dobermanns while he's grabbed and pushed against the door by two dudes. They are big, and armed. The room is normally lit. There is just no way he could get inside and somehow Miss their presence. Especially the one coming at him from his right; there is a railing on that side of the landing. Magnum would have literally bumped into him; it's not that because he was out of frame he was not existing. (00:05:15)
Continuity mistake: Two dudes bend Magnum over the railing the moment he gets inside the guest house. His arm is restrained behind his back at first, then all of a sudden his arm is in front of the railing, but it's bent behind his back as it gets back to the overhead angle from before. (00:05:20)
Visible crew/equipment: When Magnum complains to Higgins about the security personnel, just as they both walk down the stairs, lighting equipment is visible at the top, left side of the screen. (00:06:15)
Continuity mistake: Magnum reaches the bottom of the stairs of 'his' quarters and makes a bitter comment about Robin's taste in guests. In the shot with just the two girls, the one with the jacket is glancing with her arms folded; they were relaxed down her sides before the cut. (00:06:30)
Visible crew/equipment: After Mandy has Suzie's introductions, Higgins makes a crack about Magnum then heads to the stairs. There are three wide shots of Magnum with the two women, and a piece of equipment is visible beside the chair at the right side of the screen, which is gone in the women's semi-closeups. In the third of these wide shots, as Magnum walks toward the bedroom for the first sleeping shift, we can see crew member movement at the bottom, right corner of the screen. (00:06:55)
Continuity mistake: One of the guests sounds eager to know more about Magnum's exciting line of work. Mandy has towels in her arms, and she holds them in a different way (left hand above the opposite wrist, or below the elbow) depending on the camera angle. (00:07:00)
Visible crew/equipment: Towards the end of his phone convo with Rick, Magnum peeks through the window. As he is sitting back on the bed, on the curtains you can see the shadow of the boom mike going down and then up again. (00:08:50)
Continuity mistake: When Magnum is talking with Mandy at the tidal pool once the other girl left them alone, the towel in her hand changes position quite noticeably - it shows a lot more of the yellow-brown pattern in the close-ups, and blue in the first and last angle. (00:10:00)
Continuity mistake: Higgins gives Magnum back the envelope with the incriminating photos. Magnum puts it under his arm; the envelope sticks under the flap of the breast pocket. Change of view, and the envelope is covering it. (00:11:45)
Other mistake: The photographer takes shots of the Brigadier on the balcony. The Brigadier is wearing a shirt and pants, fairly casual as expected. When Hooker is left alone in the dark room of the terrorist, he is looking at pictures of the Brigadier wearing a white jacket and bowtie, which is the outfit he will wear at the party several hours later. (00:12:30 - 00:25:35)
Continuity mistake: Magnum leaves the hanger and the bag in Rick's hands as he tries the jacket on. Rick asks "What is this, the tailor shop?" with the hanger in the left and the bag in the right, but they switch in the next shot. (00:13:15)
Continuity mistake: As he does his Hooker bargain, Magnum takes a sip of beer, held in his right hand. Hooker agrees saying "All right, all right" and the bottle is popping in frame from the left. (00:15:45)
Revealing mistake: There's a neat and funny transition between the moment Rick tosses in the bin the orange juice bill that he knows Magnum will never pay, and a sponge being thrown into a bucket as Higgins polishes Robin Masters' Audi. The sponge though comes in from the right, way off Higgins' position. It's not John Hillerman that tossed it, but some stagehand. (00:16:40)
Continuity mistake: Magnum sits on the couch and tells Mandy that his life is not "that exciting." Selleck's arm is on the back of the couch, Robin Dearden's isn't, until the angle changes, and then both have their elbows sticking out. (00:18:35)