MacGyver Season 1 Episode 2 Review: Metal Saw
Megan King
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I’m renaming this episode The Two That Got Away.
Both Jack&Mac™ have a hard time moving on from their former flames in MacGyver Season 1 Episode 2.
Jack thinks Mac’s obsession with bringing in Nikki has thrown off his A-game, and he decides to tell him so while Mac is creating IEDs in the front seat during their North Korean adventure. Even with Mac’s B game, they end up in the DMZ unscathed.
Did anyone else think it was weird that Riley and Thornton are basically sitting in a living room watching satellite feeds of a DIY-armored car chase through North Korea as if they are watching football on Sunday afternoon?
Back in L.A., the team barely has enough time for a celebratory drink (and a quick sweep of Nikki’s apartment) before the Phoenix Foundation is deemed “the agency of last resort” for the rescue of an American spy posing as a journalist in Venezuela. #hurryhomehannah
The twist? The spy is Jack’s ex, Sarah. Cue the cute flashbacks.
Mac, Jack and Riley head to Venezuela, where they pushed through crowds of people waiting for bread and toilet paper (I’m guessing) to find the “black site” where Sarah is being held.
If that means scary dudes doing scary things in a scary building then, yeah, a Blacksite.
Riley
Mac thrives at the black site, where he whips up a homemade welder to break in and then cobbles together a pair of night vision goggles to find Sarah; Jack helps them escape by plowing through the wall.
Really? You start your countdowns from 10?
Jack
After Sarah’s landlord is found murdered in her apartment, she vows to stay in Caracas to stop the arms dealer who held her captive. The gang agrees to help her out.
While Sarah, Mac and Jack stake out the bad guy’s compound, Riley heads to the local Caracas cyber cafe in order to upload the dealer’s ledger to the Phoenix Foundation.
The only problem? It’s a slow dial-up connection that is going to take up to eight hours.
Sarah: Who is this guy?
Jack: One of a kind?
So Riley sits in the cyber cafe, waiting on the intel to upload, when suddenly Director Thornton storms in from the back to save her from the armed men who storm in from the front of the cafe. So many storms!
At this point, I can no longer suspend my disbelief. The upload is supposed to take eight hours, right? Director Thornton was told about the ledger upload in Los Angeles maybe an hour in?
How did she have enough time to get on a plane from L.A. to a cyber cafe in Caracas in less time than it took to upload the ledger? And why wouldn’t the team just send Riley back alone with the thumb drive so she could personally hand it to the director?
Am I overthinking this?
After escaping the cyber cafe, Thornton and Riley show up just in time to see the the dealer escape from his compound on a motorcycle (after MacGyver figured out a way to blow up his compound)
I like your spunk. But we’re three people with two weapons
Jack
During the chase, there was another eyeroll moment that took me out of the story: the perfectly placed logs that formed a ramp in the middle of the road, which allowed the unarmed arms dealer(?!) to jump over the Jeep.
After the mission, everyone gathers to debrief at the Phoenix Foundation. They all were presumably on a plane for 7-plus hours, yet they all look like they teleported from Caracas. Did no one try to freshen up at all on the flight? I think MacGyver needs to add baby wipes to the survival kit.
It seemed like their Venezuela mission almost ended too quickly, and the producers were left with two minutes to fill at the end of the episode with basketball and burgers. (Speaking of filler, how unnecessary was that scene when Riley sits down at the cyber cafe and the creepy guy hits on her? Maybe I’m not in on the joke?)
Jack finds out there will not be a happy reunion with Sarah, as she is engaged, while Mac finds his ex’s passport(s) hidden in the wall, and they both realized that their most meaningful female relationship is with Riley.
At least we have each other. Don’t look at me; I know how weird that sounds.
Mac
If they could remain on one continent for more than a few days, these two won't be single for long.
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OTHER NOTES:
- Riley’s digit-by-digit approach when giving her number to Bozer is clever -- I hope he earns the entire number.
- The seemingly bulletproof blue car (sorry, not sure of the make/model) was the hero twice tonight. First when Riley opened the door to stop the guy running out of the bar and again when it busted through the building to free Mac and Sarah.
- MacGyver 101: Mom died at 5, dad left at 12, Grandpa made him leave basketball games early; he’s afraid of the dark
- Is it hard to believe that these two men, who are 20 years apart, are such good buddies? I’m starting to feel the big bro/little bro chemistry, but the more I look at George Eads, the younger Lucas Till looks.
Megan King is a staff writer for TV Fanatic.
