MAGNUM P.I. Post-Mortem: Stephen Hill and Perdita Weeks Share What Comes Next for TC and the Team

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Sunday, April 23 midseason finale of MAGNUM P.I., “Charlie Foxtrot.”]

MAGNUM P.I.’s TC (Stephen Hill) survived his gunshot wound, but it came with a heartbreaking twist: He can’t feel his legs.

“TC goes into hibernation [when the show returns],” Hill tells Give Me My Remote. “He goes into his turtle shell, and we don’t know if he’s going to come up. That’s what the audience will be left with. How does he work through this? Because you can’t be mad at him. [For the audience], it’s like damn, well, we’re going to lose our protector, the guy that was the one that looks out for everybody. Now people have to look out for him. And how does he handle that? How does he actually handle people looking out for him? Because the person that needs the nurturing the most is typically the person that is nurturing everyone else. And how they handle needing to be nurtured themselves. That’s where we’re going to be able to explore with TC.”

“It’s a great story for TC,” Perdita Weeks, who plays Higgins, praises. “What happens to him in the following weeks and months, as we follow the characters, is really, really great, really interesting. He’s got such a good arc. And [Hill] played it so beautifully. So I’m excited to be able to see that.” (For more on what’s to come in 5B, here’s what showrunner Eric Guggenheim shared.)

Though the team tries to be there for TC, “he’s really isolating, but he has no choice but confide and lean in on Shammy,” Hill says. “Shammy’s there for him. Shammy was there for him the last time he got shot, as well…it’s interesting because the first time we met Shammy, he was down on his luck. And now we see him picking TC up off of the curb.”

The team is also reeling in the aftermath of TC’s injury. “I think it really shakes them, to a degree,” Weeks says. “He’s such a physically strong person, and a large presence, you know, literally that it’s pretty shattering having this. And really struggling with it, as anyone would with that sort of, potentially life-changing injury. It’s pretty scary. But it’s one of those things, that through hardship, comes stronger unions. And just sort of strengthened the group further.”

Weeks does think Higgins might actually understand what TC is going through, too. “It’s genuine concern, really, as a friend,” she allows. “She’s never been really been a support system for him….it’s more Rick and Magnum. [But with Higgins,] she would be the kind [of friend to get where he’s coming from]—like a wounded dog, you go off and die in the corner and you just don’t bother anyone with it. You don’t bother anyone with your pain. Just get on with it quietly and come back when you’re fighting fit.”



As TC is going through these changes, he’ll have another face from his past back in the second half of the season: His mom, Verna (Judith Scott).

“The mother character is connected to everything that TC is, in a way,” Hill says. “One of the reasons why he’s such a protector and such a great friend is he doesn’t want anyone to feel abandoned the way that he was abandoned. So that kind of shaped his character, as a person. When you’re dealt a traumatic experience in your life like that, you can either go you can either turn to the dark side, you can be down with the Sith Lords, or you can become a Skywalker and turn to the light side of the force. So I think TC, he’s the Jedi of his friends, right? He’s all about the positivity. But it’s all because of, you know, if you pull the string and you get to the root of it all. It’s because of his relationship with his mom.”

“[When we last saw] myself and Verna, we’re in between a beautiful Hawaiian sunset, one that I have seen in real life, many, many times…We’re sitting in a place called Magic Island,” he continues. “And that is one of the reasons why it’s so magical is you get to see that beautiful sunset every day…we got to sit here and do and be actors right now in front of this thing…But the reality is that relationship still has a strain on it. There’s more to come with him and Verna, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the audience seeing it.”

The moment also had an accidental bit of foreshadowing Hill ad-libbed. “You know when you’re a kid and your mother will buy you a pair of pants because you as a kid grow so fast?” he shares. “If you listen really closely, you can barely hear it, but I ad-libbed to her, as that sun is setting and the cameras pulling back, I say, ‘Remember you used to cuff my pants like this when I was a kid?’ and we laugh about that. It’s a beautiful thing…And so him dealing with his legs, it’s just interesting, that we get to see him revert to his childhood and now he has to deal with all the challenges of being an adult in a very harsh world, even if they’re in paradise in Hawaii.”

But Hill praises the show for continuing to deepen all of the characters on the show.

“I just love that the characters keep growing,” he says. “We see Shammy, he gets to do things where I’m not always around…everybody’s characters are just getting more dynamic. And it gives the audience more to sink their teeth into. It’s not just Magnum. It’s not just Higgins. It’s not TC. It’s not just Rick. It’s not just Kumu. It’s not just Katsumoto. It’s also all the people that are attached to each of their worlds, too. So the most exciting thing about the season going forward is that all the characters are expanding.”

RELATED:

• MAGNUM P.I. Post-Mortem: Eric Guggenheim on the TC Twist, 5B’s New Romance, New Foe, and a New Side of Magnum-Higgins
• MAGNUM P.I.: Perdita Weeks Previews the ‘High-Octane, High-Drama, Action-Packed’ Midseason Finale
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘Charlie Foxtrot’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I. Post-Mortem: Stephen Hill on That Shocking TC Twist
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘Dark Skies’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘Birthright’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘Dead Ringer’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘Welcome to Paradise, Now Die’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘NSFW’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I.: ‘Number One with a Bullet’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I.: What You Need to Know About the Season Premiere
• MAGNUM P.I. Season 5 Premiere: ‘The Passenger’ Photos
• MAGNUM P.I. at TCA: Live-Blog
• NBC Saves MAGNUM P.I.
• Report: NBC and USA Network Could Save MAGNUM P.I.
• CBS Cancels MAGNUM P.I., GOOD SAM, and HOW WE ROLL

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