Magnum, P.I. (TV Series) Tran Quoc Jones (1984) User Reviews

Solid Magnum

[pensman · 8/10 · 8 June 2012]

This episode is quite involving. A young Vietnamese of mixed blood, Tran Quoc Jones, has managed to get himself to Hawaii supposedly in search of his GI father. Living on the streets of Hawaii as a seller of souvenirs and such, he accidentally witnesses a murder. The murdered woman had managed to slip something into Tran's bag beforehand. The murdered woman was the one who had contacted Magnum to hire him but when he arrives at the appointment she is not there and he ends up befriending Tran totally unaware of his connection to the murdered client. The plot itself is quite strong and has one of the more believable endings of any episode of any TV show; there is no happy resolution. It is too bad the actor portraying Tran, Roland Harrah III, died quite young (21).

Compassion

[bmiller59 · 9/10 · 30 May 2021]

This episode illustrates the bond that the entire team has...most importantly the compassion of them as well, especially TC. GREAT episode.

Sad but good!

[ironmaidengod · 9/10 · 6 August 2020]

One of my favorite episodes. Cast has especially good chemistry in this one and child actor is phenomenal.

Sad postscripts

[safenoe · 10/10 · 2 December 2022]

This is a very poignant and emotionally bonding episode, with the appearance of Tran Quoc Jones, played by Roland Harrah III. Tran's mother is Vietnamese and his father a white American, and he lands in Hawaii with his street smarts to search for his father. The bond between Tran and T. C. was incredibly moving. I was hoping Tran would make more appearances in the series, but not to be unfortunately.

I did some internet searching and found that tragically Roland died in 1995 at the age of 21. How depressing was this news, and officially it's unclear how he died.

Jeff Mackay makes another welcome guest appearance in this episode.

Why didn't they bring him back

[RONY-3 · 7/10 · 11 January 2014]

In the end of this episode, Tran Quoc chose to go back to the streets which is very sad. TC said he was going to try and see if he has any other family out there. So why not have a follow up episode where in they do find his family and they try to find him. But he gets himself in trouble. So Magnum and TC have to save him then reunite him with his family. It should be noted that Roland Harrah who played Tran Quoc would also appear in two episodes of another Bellisario show Airwolf. Who knows if they brought him back would it have an affect on his life, in other words would he still have died? As I said it's so sad. Who knows maybe he can Magnum's daughter would have made a cute couple.