- Rick confesses and is jailed for the murder of a "hit man."
- The episode opens with emergency vehicles approaching a crime scene, and Thomas Magnum trying to dissuade a zealous detective that the broken nose he suffered during a skirmish with the detective would not result in a police report. Rick shows up and needs to talk to Thomas, so both are loaded into an ambulance and taken to the hospital.
Rick tells Magnum he thinks his friend "ice pick" (Elisha Cook) is in trouble, that a contract for his life has been issued, and wants Magnum to look into it.
At the club the next day, HPD Lt. Tana comes to arrest Rick for the murder of an underworld informant, and Rick confesses in Magnum`s and Higgins presence. He is taken to jail and Magnum goes to talk with T.C. They both believe Rick is innocent but they suspect there is more to the story.
Magnum and T.C. goe to see Rick at HPD and they play good cop / bad cop to get Rick to cooperate about his involvement and to help locate Ice Pick. Rick does not cooperate, so they leave Rick and set out in different directions, T.C. will fly to the remote location Ice Pick uses to hide and check things out, Magnum goes to Ice Pick`s home but only sees guests, and they do not cooperate with where Ice Pick is. Thomas meets Frank Foley (Lyman Ward), Ice Pick`s accountant going over Ice Pick`s taxes, and he too is unsure of where Rick`s friend is.
Meanwhile throughout the episode, Higgins is seen in various vignettes interviewing candidates to replace Rick as manager, but they all have some idiosynchrosies that the viewer can tell do NOT impress Higgins, but rather appall him.
Magnum goes to his friend Carol Baldwin to try and get some information on the DA`s case as he knows no murder weapon was found, and some other circumstantial evidence is missing to connect Rick, plus charges have not been formally made against Rick. Carol does her best to deflect Magnum as she suspects he is fishing, but she accidently does reveal the gun was not found.
Magnum relates about a childhood memory of a Walter Pidgeon, a bird that kept flying into a glass door seeing only the direct path, missing the fact (since it is a bird of limited intellegence) that there are opennings on either side of the door. Magnum suspects something still is not right with Ice Pick`s involvement and goes back to talk with Foley who is no help.
At Rick`s house, T.C. witnesses removal of several of Rick`s belongings including an AK47 assault rifle that Rick brought back from Vietnam as a collectors item. The police are taking everything into evidence for ballistic testing. Rick`s lawyer gets the results and shares with Rick that he passed gunpower burn and ballistic tests run on the rifle (meaning that the gun was not used in the murder), but Rick still insists he killed the victim and washed off the residue from his hands. His lawyer is stumped by Rick`s refusal to help with the case, and also tells Rick he will never put him on the stand regardless of what Rick is trying to cover up. A photo is delivered to the Club where Rick works showing Ice Pick in the trunk of a car with a lot of blood. Magnum takes on the task of going to tell Rick Ice Pick is dead, which Rick refuses to believe.
Magnum follows Foley to a securities bank and sees him leave with a briefcase full of suspected money. As Magnum confronts Foley, asking about the briefcase and why previously Foley did NOT mention that he has full power of attorney of Ice Pick`s assests, the detective from the beginning of the episode arrives, he forgot to get Magnum to sign the report absolving the detective of any wrong-doing. During the distraction Foley runs and Magnum and the detective follow, only to see Foley speed off.
A woman`s skirt is caught in the door of the car however, so Magnum and T.C. get airborne in the Island Hopper Helicopter and pick up the trail. They see the car with Foley heading toward Ice Pick`s remote hideout and after landing watch to see the car arrive and an alive Ice Pick great it and Foley.
T.C. and Magnum infiltrate the hideout and subdue the exterior guards, and Magnum confronts Ice Pick about the frame and that how could he allow Rick to take the fall. Ice Pick assures him that is not what he ordered, just as Foley enters with an Uzi automatic and starts shooting up the hideout. Magnum, Ice Pick and then T.C. take cover with Magnum and T.C. returning fire. Foley is hit and goes down, and when questioned by Ice Pick about the betrayal says he was offered a lot of money for it.
Ice Pick visits HPD and sees Rick, telling Rick never to take the fall for him again, he stands for himself. He also tells Rick the case has been solved, that Foley`s gun was traced to the murder, and Rick will be free to go in a few hours after his attorney clears all the paperwork. When released, Magnum and T.C. are walking out with Rick when Carol (DA) approaches with a federal marshall, Rick is under arrest for illegal importation of the AK47 and alterations to it (e.g. it is fully automatic). The episode ends with Rick again in prison (a federal one this time) being placed in his cell.
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