Magnum P.I.'s Perdita Weeks Says to Expect a Happy Series Finale, With a Catch

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Magnum P.I. Season 5, Episode 18, "Extracurricular Activities." Read at your own risk!]

Perdita Weeks, the leading lady of the modern-day reimagining of Magnum P.I., finally has a new title: TV director.

In Wednesday's antepenultimate (or third-last) episode of the procedural drama, Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and Higgins (Weeks) investigate a young male professor who has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a female grad student, only to discover that the student in question is actually working as a foreign agent and planning to commit an act of bioterrorism in his research lab. (Higgins, however, saves the day in one of the most death-defying motorbike chases you will ever see.)

"I was very pleased to [direct an episode] towards the end because it gave me a long time to shadow a lot of really great, very seasoned directors. Everyone was really generous with their time and advice, and Brian Spicer, Eagle Egilsson, Marcus Stokes were particularly very helpful," Weeks told TV Guide. "[The producers] told me they were going to pair me with Katie Varney, who was one of my favorite writers on the show. And then with all the action to boot, it was quite big! My first day, I had 150 background [actors] in the university campus. I think I got to seven cameras at one point in the lecture hall. I've got a video of seven cameras because we had two units [of the crew], and I was like, 'Bring all the cameras! We need to get this done.' It was so much fun."

Meanwhile, T.C. (Stephen Hill) and Katsumoto (Tim Kang) take Cade (Martin Martinez) and Dennis (Lance Lim) on a camping trip before Dennis leaves for college in the fall — only for Rick (Zachary Knighton), the ultimate "glamper," to crash the party. What begins as a bonding experience for the fathers and sons turns into a particularly revelatory trip for Cade, who informs T.C. that he has been having second thoughts about continuing his education and instead wants to follow in T.C.'s footsteps by joining the military.

On a recent video call from her home in England, Weeks reflected on her directorial debut, the evolution of her take on Higgins, and what she will miss most about working in Hawaii.

Which part of the episode required the most preparation, and what was the most challenging for you to execute as a first-time director?
Weeks: The motorcycle sequence wasn't originally on the page. There was an outline [in which] Higgins somehow gets onto a bike, and there is a chase and we end up at the embassy, but we didn't really know what it was going to be. So I went and did a recce on a couple of weekends, and I found this amazing cultural plaza in Chinatown and worked out what I thought would be cool. I just loved the idea of the bikes going up the stairs, and I basically did a little mockup and sent it to the stunt coordinator, and I said, "Is this doable or is this incredibly dangerous?" And he went, "It's very dangerous but very doable." I was like, "Great! [Laughs.] Right answer!" He was like, "I know just the people who will get there." They got me the best stunt riders, great bikes, [and the stunt riders] got so behind the stunt. The producers were very kind in allowing me to spend quite a lot of money because those [shoots were on] weekends, and that's shutting down roads and breaking glass. They were very, very generous and supportive. And whatever crazy idea I wanted to do, they were behind it!

And you got a chance to do stunts in back-to-back episodes! In Zachary Knighton's directorial debut last week, you shot a very cool helicopter sequence, in which Higgins and T.C. save Jin from an armed woman.
Weeks: It was really cool. He called me and he was like [imitating American accent], "I'm going to have you be the hero. Are you okay with going in a helicopter?" And I was like, "Yes, great!" He's like, "You're going to be hanging out of it with a gun." I'm like, "Yes!," because I hadn't really been in a helicopter before. I'd only done 15 seconds in Season 1 or something up and down. I was mildly hungover.

I heard!
Weeks: Oh God! Zach has told everyone. [Laughs.] I was like, "This is not a good day." It's the most intense roller coaster I've ever been on — I do love rollercoasters — but it was great. And then [with] Doug, the helicopter pilot, we went on a little tour. I saw the waterfalls. I was like, "I'm at work right now. I'm being paid to do this. This is nuts!"

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As if the action sequences weren't enough, you were also tasked with directing those camp scenes with the rest of the guys in this week's episode, which I would assume was a lot of fun but required a lot of set-ups.
Weeks: Filming any scene that has a lot of people in it is a lot harder than it looks. There are just so many angles you've got to get, and then we were outside and the light was just going [away]. It was a scramble to get all those scenes but really fun. It was kind of like theater. We had to do some engineering with some big light screens, and we couldn't even get the cameras on to set until an hour and a half after the unit call because we were on the top of a mountain, and I couldn't get the cameras in. So, we were all ready to sort of go, but with no equipment. We all called it the unmakeable day, but we made it. [Laughs.]

What are some of the biggest logistical and practical challenges of directing when you're also acting so much at the same time? Do you have to rely on certain crew or cast members to be your eyes and ears behind the camera?
Weeks: It's completely necessary to have people that you trust, which I did. Tony Kuntz was my first [assistant director], and I had been working with him throughout the season, and he's just such a pro. He could direct an episode standing on his head, so there's him, my script supervisor Aaron and the [director of photography]. I would be like, "Have we got it? I don't have time to watch playback every time." Obviously, I say what I want. And then there were a few times, they were like, "We've got it," and I was like, "I'm not sure. I actually do have to look at this." And then I'm like, "I'm really sorry. We're going to have to do it again. That's just not what I want. I just needed something slightly different." The time pressure is really the hardest thing because we'd be doing 13 pages [of the script] some days. [We were] outside with the general public roads and it was mainly location-based, so that just adds a little extra layer of trickiness with the daylight, but it's all achievable.

How many days did you have to shoot this one?
Weeks: In the end, I actually think we did nine [days], which was very generous of the producers, because we had those three stunt days. One day was entirely [done by the] second unit. I was only there for one shot, which was the car chase sequence, and the stunt coordinator went off and had to do [the rest of it] completely alone because I was [working] on another episode. It was like delegation central! I cannot take all the credit by any means.

Do you have a favorite scene from this episode or a sequence that you're particularly proud of as a director?
Weeks: I really enjoyed the scene between the student and the professor. There was something about the lighting. I loved the house where we were filming it. It was a sort of Norman Rockwell painting — [that] was my idea. I had a really good cast, so probably that [scene] because it really developed from the script and we worked through it. Plus, the motorcycle chase because that's just badass. [Laughs.] I actually cannot believe that we did that.

Was there something about the directing process that you unexpectedly loved or found unexpectedly enjoyable, even though you were constantly trying to make these very rapid-fire decisions throughout the day? 
Weeks: I thought I would find literally telling people what to do a little more stressful, but it turns out I'm really bossy and I'm quite okay with it. [Laughs.] I think learning how to communicate in a succinct way is something that I really found I was able to do. Obviously, everything is a time crunch and you need to be able to tell people exactly what you want, and I just really enjoyed it. I was incredibly lucky to have such a receptive crew [that] I'm already working with — they're already mates, they're already friends, and there's a lot of goodwill that one might not necessarily have on a show that you hadn't been a part of for so long. So, in that regard, it just made things so much easier, for which I was very grateful. 

Back in June, NBC decided against ordering new episodes of Magnum P.I., after rescuing the show from CBS. How did you react to the news of the second cancellation, and how are you feeling about this bittersweet final run of episodes?
Weeks: Honestly, I just feel really proud. I'm really happy and lucky, feeling very grateful that we got to come back and tell a bit more of the story. I'm really pleased with where we end up. I'm pleased for the characters. It feels like a nice resolution. I'm content with where we will leave them. And whilst I will miss everyone very much, five years is a long time, and I think it's good to leave the party when it's still fun, when people still want to see you. The fan campaigns [to save the show] are really sweet.

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If this is indeed the end of the road for your iteration of Magnum P.I., what are some of your biggest takeaways from the last five years of working on this show, living in Hawaii, and immersing yourself in that culture?
Weeks: I was just extremely fortunate to have been on any kind of job that could last that long. It was my first American television job, so it was a huge learning experience. This is an industry that I love. I watch television. I just love everything about it. So, to have gotten to spend that many hours doing what you love, surrounded by really great people, was just really spectacular. Getting to know Oahu, this island in the middle of the Pacific that's the most remote landmass on the planet, is kind of nuts, but I know it really, really well. I learned to surf and met so many wonderful people, so I just [feel] a huge amount of gratitude and got some more really great friends from it. 

After hearing that you guys wouldn't be returning for another season, did you have a chance to commiserate and celebrate the run of the show with the rest of the cast? Did you feel like you wrapped things up personally?
Weeks: We did. I went back and managed to overlap with all of the main cast members because I had a storage [unit] to sort out. We had dinner at Zach's house, which has always been our kind of clubhouse, with his wife and his children. We had a little barbecue, and it felt like a proper closure.

Zach recently told me that by the end of the season, there might be a ring or rings on someone's finger. What can you preview about the last two episodes of the series?
Weeks: There's a bump in the road, but all ends well. There's a little twist coming!

That's a good logline. Looking back, how would you say Higgins has evolved in the time that you've played her?
Weeks: I love that Juliet softened. The character of Magnum is just such a good person, such a lovely human, that I think the close proximity to him really softened Juliet over the years. Obviously, she became incredibly attached to and reliant on him, and it was great fun having that banter with Jay and playing those scenes with the two of them bickering and getting on so well. It was a great honor to have played one half of a pretty fun couple.

Have you given any thought to what you'll do next?
Weeks: Yeah, I'll be doing a play for a women's domestic abuse charity called Refuge. I can't say officially because there are a few things [left to sort out], but I'm in England right now, and I'm staying here for the foreseeable future. So, [the next project] will be British-based, that's what I'll say. It's nice to be home after so long. It'll be fun to play someone else, but we'll see [what happens]. That's what I love about this job. You never know what's around the corner.

Magnum P.I. airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock. The series finale will air in 2024.