- Magnum: So you're going to kill me if I don't help you find your son?
Shima: The sushi you ate was laced with a deadly poison. You have eight hours to live. However, if you find my son, I'll give you the antidote. So no, I'm not going to kill you, Mr. Magnum. I killed you five minutes ago.
Yakuza boss Osi Shima hires Magnum to find his kidnapped son. When Magnum refuses, the boss adds a little extra incentive; the antidote to the poison Magnum just ingested.
Tropes:
- False Flag Operation: The kidnapping is made to look like the work of a Korean gang who blame the Yakuza for the theft of their drug stash. This was all arranged by The Starscream of the Yakuza, so the two sides can decimate each other in a gang war and he can take over.
- Guile Hero: When Magnum is told he'll be working without his usual partners (to prevent him sneakily getting the cure elsewhere), he correctly guesses his phone will be confiscated. So he pulls it out under the table and and dials Higgins, who quickly guesses what's going on and records the conversation. This allows the gang to search for a cure while Magnum solves the case.
- Incurable Cough of Death: The first symptom of the poison.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Magnum gets smacked around after being caught sneaking into the Korean mafia's Abandoned Warehouse where he thought Shima's son might be being held. Zia rescues him
- Poison and Cure Gambit: Initially thinking his client is the owner of a suchi restaurant, Magnum is happy to accept a free sample. He's less happy when he learns that the sushi he ate was poisoned to force him to work the case. He's less happy still when Higgins learns that Shima didn't bother getting the antidote after all, intending all along to leave Mangum to die.
- Ship Tease: Rick is concerned by how hard Higgins is taking the threat to Magnum's life. For the record, she's talking about waging a one-woman war on the Yakuza:Rick: Are you okay?
Higgins: Truthfully, not really. I mean I'm holding it together. But thinking about losing Thomas is making me...
Rick: Scared.
Higgins: And angry. I think about life without him. And then I think what I'd do to whoever took him away.
Rick: I know how you feel. Trust me, we all do... . But what we need to do right now, is be on our "A" game - for Thomas. - Shout-Out: To Dead Man Walking.
- Spotting the Thread:
- Zia's story - that she impressed Shima by shooting a cop, allowing him to escape a police raid - seems a little too convenient for Magnum, who correctly guesses that she's an undercover cop. She also gave herself away by saving him from the Koreans.
- He guesses that the Koreans weren't involved with the kidnapping when he sees the car they allegedly used is dusty and plainly hasn't moved in weeks. This suggests that The Starscream who supplied that information was lying, and therefore involved.
- Surprise Inspection Ruse: Jin of all people thinks of a way to get more information; he barges into the sushi restaurant posing as a health inspector and plants a bug. Then T.C. arrives looking for Magnum, prompting the owner to call Shima for instructions. This allows Higgins to get Shima's number and hack his phone to get the contact information for his poison provider.
- Title Drop: When it's revealed that Shima has no antidote, Magnum describes himself as a "dead man walking."
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Magnum correctly guesses that Zia Min, the Yakuza "babysitter" shadowing him on the case, is an undercover cop.
- Wham Line: Higgins and Rick find the poison supplier, who provides them with a drug to buy Magnum time but reveals that he doesn't have the antidote. That's kept in another facility, which Shima never bothered to visit.
- What You Are in the Dark: Knowing that Shima has no antidote and never intended to save him, Magnum chooses to spend what may be his last hours preventing a gang war that will kill innocent people.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Zia protects her cover by getting Magnum to shoot her in the arm.
