Magnum P.I.'s Jay Hernandez Talks The 'Uncharted Territory' With Higgins In The Next New Episode

Jay Hernandez as Thomas Magnum in Magnum P.I. Season 5
(Image credit: NBC)

Magnum P.I. is going strong with its first season on NBC, after original network CBS cancelled the show following its Season 4 finale. The fifth season has taken Magnum and Co. in some unexpected directions, and the next episode will in fact explore what star Jay Hernandez calls “uncharted territory.” The leading man stepped behind the camera to direct the April 16 episode and has previewed what to expect. 

The new episode on April 16 is called “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” and won’t exactly cover a kind of case that Magnum and Higgins have investigated time and time again. In an NBC video ahead of the broadcast, Jay Hernandez previewed:

With the episode I’m directing this season, it’s kind of like uncharted territory in terms of visually how we can tell a story, because Higgins is drugged and she’s having these hallucinations and there’s a lot of space for creativity there that feels kind of like outside of the lines of a traditional Magnum P.I. episode.

Yes, Higgins will be drugged in the new episode, which will send her inside of a psychiatric hospital. While viewers will have to tune in to see exactly what happens, it seems safe to say that something will go wrong if she’s drugged inside of a psychiatric hospital while on a case! According to Jay Hernandez, exploring this “uncharted territory” made for a nontraditional episode of Magnum P.I., and it sounds like fans could be in for a side of Higgins that actress Perdita Weeks hasn’t shown before. 

“Out of Sight, Out of Mind” won’t be the leading man’s first time behind the camera on Magnum P.I., as he directed an episode of Season 4 that also involved a character dealing with some unexpected hurdles, although not drug-induced. In that episode, Magnum spent the hour chatting with a guilt-induced version of Nuzo. Now, with his latest episode on the verge of airing, Hernandez went on to weigh in on what he’s able to do as a director that he can’t as an actor, saying:

Jay Hernandez as Magnum P.I., there’s a lane I gotta walk. Obviously the character evolves and stories change and all that, but that’s just one particular path that I have to walk. As a director, you just have this scope of creative influence increases, and you can kind of let your vision define what the episode’s gonna look like.

The upcoming episode will also see Katsumoto and Dennis leave Hawaii for the mainland to look at colleges, but – in true Magnum P.I. fashion – it will take a harrowing turn, which may be bad news after he got a big win not too long ago. Higgins’ storyline sounds more… well, psychedelic! It should be interesting to see how her hallucinations compare to the dream sequence from Season 4. 

The promo teases a possible Miggy proposal (after they finally came clean about their relationship to their friends without being caught in the act by all of them) as well as a possible explosion, with no way to currently say what’s real and what’s in Higgins’ hallucinations. Take a look:

As if the stakes weren’t already high enough, with killers on the hunt for Magnum, T.C., and Rick! All things considered, Jay Hernandez's latest episode as a director looks like one that fans won’t want to miss. The “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” episode of Magnum P.I. airs on Sunday, April 16 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, ahead of the latest episode of The Blacklist’s tenth and final season. If you missed any earlier episodes of Magnum Season 5, you can find them streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription!

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).