MacGyver » Season 4
Episodes 65 - 68 69 - 72 73 - 76 77 - 80 81 - 83
Easy Target
Original Air Date: May 1, 1989
Episode #081
Returning from a vacation-gone-bad, MacGyver and Pete Thornton are stranded when Mac's Jeep runs out of gas. Splitting up, Mac finds a gas station first, unaware that three terrorists have taken it over. Posing as the station attendant, Jonathan, the group's leader, notices Mac's Phoenix Foundation badge. He sells Mac a can of gas, and Mac walks back to the road. Jonathan radios a nearby cabin to send a fourth bad guy, Frank, to pick up Pete. A large truck hauling a tarp-covered piece of equipment stops at the station; Lisa, Armen and Jonathan kill the drivers and take the truck to the cabin. As Mac drives by, Jonathan and Frank zap his Jeep with an electromagnetic pulse, and the engine dies. They lock Mac in the cellar with Pete. Jonathan declares that his small group will show everyone how vulnerable Americans are. Since the Phoenix Foundation is well-respected, Jonathan wants them to remain alive as witnesses, but he rigs up a way to try to keep them out of trouble. The bad guys leave to continue work on their plan. Pete and Mac succeed in escaping. Hot-wiring a truck, they return to the gas station and find the phone lines - and the truck drivers - dead. As the clock strikes noon, a recorded message from the terrorists is broadcast, and Mac and Pete notice it on the television in the gas station. In the message, Jonathan says that the Soldiers of the Black Dove Front will cripple the city if their leader is not released. Putting the pieces together, Pete and Mac realize that the group has stolen an electromagnetic pulse generator (EMPG), and they will need a lot of power to make it work. They find the foursome at a company called Powertech, trying to charge a superconductor storage magnet, but in attempting to stop them, Pete is taken hostage. Jonathan's rush to complete the charging process results in Armen's death, and Jonathan shoots the stricken Lisa as she's about to fire on him. Frank and Jonathan leave with Pete and the EMPG. Mac finds them at the single vantage point overlooking the city. He knocks out Frank and Jonathan, but he is unable to shut down the EMPG. Using a cable, he directs the blast back into the EMPG, and Mac and Pete take cover as it explodes. Later, an Air Force colonel scolds them for destroying the top-secret device. Unapologetic, Mac and Pete are determined not to let the military cover up the incident.
Quotes
MacGyver: It's occurred to me that some friendships are like a good game of hockey. The right balance of teamwork and smooth skating generally adds up to a winning combination. Like me and Pete Thornton. Partner. Boss. Friend. You can't do much better than that. But sometimes things come up that test the best of friendships, and this weekend of skiing was one of them.
Pete: It wasn't my fault.
MacGyver: Whose fault was it?
Pete: The guy cut me off! What was I supposed to do?
MacGyver: Come on, Pete. Let's face it. You did not belong on that slope. It was for expert skiers.
Pete: Well, what are you telling me? I should've been on the bunny slope?
MacGyver: Well . . .
"Did I ask for your help? I could've handled him just fine." Pete, after Mac complains of being banned - for life - from the mountain
MacGyver: You said you were gonna fill it up when you went for pizza last night, remember?
Pete: Well, I didn't. I messed up. So sue me.
MacGyver (oozing with sarcasm): Oh, never mind. Why let a little thing like this ruin a perfectly good vacation.
Pete: Where are you going?
MacGyver: To find a gas station. And I suggest you look the other way.
Pete: Fine.
MacGyver: First one to make it back here with a can of gas goes after the other guy, okay?
Pete: Fine!
Jonathan: Phoenix Foundation. You work there?
MacGyver: Well, more or less . . .
"You've got an honest face. Just bring it back when you're done." Jonathan, after Mac offers a deposit on the gas can
[A van stops while Pete is walking along the road.]
Pete: You're the first good thing that's happened to me all morning.
Frank: I guess this is your lucky day, huh.
[He pulls a gun.]
"This place makes a corned-beef hash that'll make you think you've died and gone to heaven." One of the Vectrocomp drivers, speaking his last words
"Now what?" Mac, after the Jeep stops
"What's going on? . . . Hey, I was gonna return the gas can." Mac, recognizing Jonathan from the gas station
Pete: Would you mind telling us what's going on?
Jonathan: History in the making, and you two are going to be part of it.
MacGyver: You know, we'd be happy to just pass on that.
Jonathan: With strategy, timing, and the right technology, we will show the rest of the world just how soft and vulnerable you Americans really are.
Armen: The Phoenix men. Would it not be better if we killed them?
Jonathan: More questions, Armen? What we are doing is a first, and I want it witnessed.
Jonathan: The Phoenix Foundation is a corporate white knight. And when people come to them looking for answers, Phoenix will tell them the truth, and they will be believed.
Pete: So, how do we get out of here?
MacGyver: I don't know.
Pete: You don't know?! MacGyver, don't do this to me. Come on, think!
MacGyver: I'm tryin,' Pete. You know, maybe you can come up with something.
"Ever hear of a party game called Pass The Apple?" Mac, adding to Pete's idea for deactivating the grenades
Pete: Do you think they can really do what he said they could?
MacGyver: Yeah. How about you?
Pete: I don't think we can afford not to.
"First a witness, now a hostage. You are a valuable man, Mr. Thornton." Jonathan, attempting a compliment?
Colonel: Do you realize you have just destroyed a multi-million dollar piece of top-secret military hardware?
MacGyver: Sorry.
Renegade
Original Air Date: May 8, 1989
Episode #082
At night, MacGyver arrives at a Phoenix Foundation facility, unaware that a black-clad figure has snuck in by riding under his Jeep. As Mac enters and joins Pete Thornton to visit a scientist named Kozby, the intruder follows them by riding on top of the elevator. While Kozby informs Mac and Pete of his latest find, the intruder dons a protective suit, enters the lab, and steals a vial of anthrax. Exiting the lab with the vial sets off an alarm. Undaunted, the thief climbs back up the elevator shaft. Mac follows. On the roof, Mac recognizes the thief as Steve Morrison, a Navy SEAL who once saved Mac's life. Mac tries to follow, but Steve escapes with the anthrax. Soon, Mac and Pete learn that Steve was discharged from the Navy five months earlier. Looking for more information, Mac and Pete visit Commander Hilliard who reports that Steve was dropped after he grew unstable. Mac argues that the change in personality could be the result of the head injury that Steve received while saving Mac's life. Hilliard insists that Steve recovered completely from that wound. Steve phones Hilliard, wanting to meet. Hilliard and Mac go to the address, but entering the house sets off a booby-trap. Together, they defuse the bomb. Pete and the police arrive, and Mac shares a map indicating Steve's plan to go to Portland with his wife, Marie. Mac also finds letters to Hilliard from Marie asking for help; the letters were returned. Furious, Mac blasts Hilliard for deserting one of his team. Elsewhere, a police roadblock forces Steve to detour into a rest area. When Steve steps out to make a call, Marie finds the vial of anthrax. She confronts Steve who accuses her and MacGyver of being out to get him like everyone else. He runs into the woods toward an abandoned summer camp. Marie calls Mac, who arrives with Kozby, Pete, and Commander Hilliard. Marie overheard Steve talking to someone with a helicopter about coming to the camp for the anthrax. Mac borrows a motorbike and speeds into the woods toward the camp. Mac arrives to see Steve meeting with his buyers, Hans and Max. After the exchange, Hans shoots Steve, grabs the money and heads for the helicopter with Hans. Mac rides down and disables the copter. When the men exit, Mac grabs the anthrax, but they shoot out a tire on the bike. Wounded, Steve gets up and tackles Hans and Max, and Mac joins the fight. With the bad guys knocked unconscious, Steve turns a gun on Mac, demanding the anthrax. Mac pleads for Steve to let him help, and Steve finally breaks down. Later, outside a hospital, Marie reports the Steve is recovering well from the surgery to remedy the complications from his previous head wound. Commander Hilliard arrives to apologize.
Quotes
Kozby: One of the deadliest bacteria known to man. And one of the easiest biological weapons to manufacture.
MacGyver: I hope this isn't the good news.
Pete: What's the bad news?
Kozby: Well, you know the research and development budget?
Pete: Yeah . . .
Kozby: I kinda spent it all on the research part.
Pete: Could someone have taken a wrong sample by mistake?
Kozby: I know my people. They're not sloppy.
MacGyver: Steve?
Steve: You remember me.
MacGyver: Well, yeah. It's kinda tough to forget a guy who saved my life.
"Thanks for the ride in, MacGyver. I've got my own way out." Steve, about to slide off the roof on a cable
Pete: This is the latest report from the Navy. According to this, your friend Morrison was honorably discharged from the SEALS five months ago.
MacGyver: Discharged?
Pete: Yeah. A month before he left, they reassigned him to non-operational status. Now, what does that tell you?
MacGyver: That's the first step towards kicking him out altogether. Non-op is like death to these guys.
MacGyver: I don't get it, Pete. Steve Morrison was one of the best. Something had to have happened to make him do this.
Pete: Just exactly what are we up against here?
Kozby: Anthrax causes hemorrhaging to all the internal organs and prevents the blood from clotting. It has a fatality rate of eighty percent if untreated.
MacGyver: Just how contagious is it?
Kozby: It can be spread by the simple breathing in of the spores, or infected dust, or absorbed through the skin.
Kozby: And that brings us to the bad news.
Pete: What?!
Pete: Are you saying the container he has is fragile?
Kozby: I'm saying that the vial that he took has a lid designed for lab purposes only. Any environmental variation and . . . the seal will rupture.
Pete: He saved MacGyver's life. And took a piece of shrapnel in the head from a terrorist bomb doing it.
Hilliard: I'm aware of the mission, Sir.
MacGyver: Well, did it ever occur to you that his change in behavior might be the result of that?
Pete: What other explanation can there be?
Hilliard: Post-traumatic shock. A reaction to being wounded. Some men bounce back; some men don't.
MacGyver: And some men just get bounced out, is that it?
Steve: I'm sorry. You're all I got left. Don't you turn on me, too.
Marie: I won't, Steve. You should know that by now.
"You have two minutes before it detonates the bomb. Use that time to think about how you destroyed my life." Steve, in the recording to Commander Hilliard
MacGyver: This stack of letters. They're from Morrison's wife, addressed to you. She was asking you for help, and all you did was kiss her off every time with a standard form letter. What's that all about?
Hilliard: Morrison was discharged. His affairs are the concern of the VA now.
MacGyver: Never mind his "affairs"! What about him? He was part of your team. Your own man needed help, and you treated him like a number.
"What are you doing here, Commander? Doesn't the Navy have a form letter for a situation like this?" Marie, to Hilliard
Marie: The reason I wrote was to ask you to help me convince Steve to go back to the hospital. For surgery.
Hilliard: He recovered from the wound one hundred percent.
Marie: His personality changed; that's not a one hundred percent recovery. I studied every medical journal I could get my hands on. It's classic. He developed scar tissue, a lesion from that injury on his brain. That's the cause of all this.
Hilliard: Do you think I could have prevented that?
Marie: He admired you - until you shut him out.
Hilliard: I'm sorry, Mrs. Morrison. I don't make the rules.
Marie: That must be a very comforting thought.
Hans: What's the matter, Morrison? Don't you trust us?
Steve: Not hardly.
MacGyver: You need help, man.
Steve: There's nothing wrong with me!
MacGyver: Steve, you saved my life once . . . Give me a chance to return the favor.
"All I can say is, from now on I'm going to read all my mail. Personally." Commander Hilliard, apologizing to Steve and Marie
Unfinished Business
Original Air Date: May 15, 1989
Episode #083
Outside a prison, a newly-released convict receives information and a map to the location of a new target. Elsewhere, MacGyver, Jack Dalton, and Pete Thornton enjoy the great outdoors as they toil on Jack's latest get-rich-quick scheme: gold mining. Jack is disappointed with the results, but Pete and Mac aren't surprised as they recall (in flashbacks) Jack's previous adventures. Pete decides to go fishing, but he is soon taken hostage by the convict, who is wearing a mask. The convict shoots into the air to get Jack and Mac's attention and leaves a trail for them to follow. Mac tries to deduce who could have captured Pete, and more flashbacks reveal a couple of suspects. The convict ties Pete up at Whistler's Cliff and returns to spy on Jack and Mac. When Mac sends Jack to take the Jeep and go for help, the convict removes the mask: it's Deborah, a.k.a. The Negotiator. Deborah catches up with Jack and takes him to Whistler's Cliff. Soon, Mac finds a note, signed by Deborah, directing him to Pete and Jack. Recalling how he stopped Deborah the last time she tried to kill him, Mac reaches Whistler's Cliff. He steps from hiding to face her, and she explains that the last time, he won because she let her feelings get in the way. Mac asks why she went through so much trouble; she replies that she needed to see if she could look him in the eye and still pull the trigger. She raises her gun to fire, but Jack catches a rock with his foot and slings it at her. She turns toward Jack, and Mac knocks the gun from her hand. When Deborah dives for the gun, Pete trips her. She tumbles over the edge of the cliff but catches herself on a root. Noticing a ledge under her feet, she thinks she's safe, but she clings to the root and calls to Mac for help. When Mac tries to pull her up, she grabs a knife and slashes him. He reels back, and she stands on the ledge, which breaks. She falls to her death.
Quotes
"Wheels are over there. Happy hunting." The man outside, to the newly-released prisoner
Jack: The last big gold strike in the Pacific Northwest.
MacGyver: I wouldn't count on it, Jack. The only gold we're gonna find is residue from a vein that dried up fifty years ago.
Jack: We shall see, mon ami, we shall see.
"Have it your way, Mr. Perfect." Jack, after Mac corrects him on the names of the gold-mining equipment
Jack: I love it. I'm gonna be - we're gonna be rich!
Jack: That's it? That's my claim?
Pete: Well, what were you expecting? Bracelets?
Jack: You dream, you plan, you work, and you end up with a finger full of dust? What about my fate?
MacGyver: I think your fate's just dealt you about fifteen bucks worth of gold a week.
Pete: Jack, you are always going to be disappointed because you always want to take shortcuts.
Jack: I think of them as . . . calculated risks.
Pete: You mean miscalculated risks.
Pete: When are you going to learn that there's no such thing as a free ride?
Jack: This is the thanks I get for cuttin' my friends in on a golden opportunity?
"No way. I will never go into another mine with you. Not after that last time." Mac, setting up another flashback
"You know, this may come as a shock to you, Jack, but most people go out and work for a living, instead of dragging their friends from one disaster to another." Mac, probably wasting his breath
"Jack, you're a lost cause. There are more important things in life than treasure-hunting. Like fishing. Which reminds me: I hear the trout calling." Pete, about to abandon gold-mining for fishing
Jack: Who do we know who likes playin' games? Like dress-up, and murder?
MacGyver: Murdoc.
Jack: Pete's cabin is near here, isn't it?
MacGyver: Used to be.
Jack: He's a maniac. That guy never gives up.
MacGyver: No kidding.
"As far as I'm concerned, people who wear masks are cowards. Or too ashamed to show their faces. Which are you?" Pete, to his captor, who does not respond
MacGyver: Hold it, Jack . . . It could be booby-trapped.
Jack: Who'd booby-trap a wallet?
MacGyver: Who'd booby-trap a bed?
"Careful. That thing could be loaded." Jack, to Deborah, who is pointing a gun at him
Pete: You could've killed us all a dozen times by now. Why the game?
Deborah: Oh, this is no game, Pete. MacGyver and I have some unfinished business.
Pete: Yeah. I remember some of your unfinished business with MacGyver.
Pete: So, what do you want with us?
Deborah: You should know as a fisherman that live bait works best.
Deborah: I let my feelings get in the way . . . You know, I've always been able to find something in my victims that I could hate. It made my job so much easier. Gave me that edge . . . So, you see, MacGyver, that's why you won. Because I couldn't find anything about you to hate.
MacGyver: Sorry.
MacGyver: I don't get it. I had her. She was safe.
Jack: You did more than anybody else would've. She made her choice.
Pete: I just remembered the old fable about the scorpion and the turtle. The scorpion wanted to cross the river, but he couldn't swim. So, he asked the turtle if he could ride across on his back. The turtle didn't think he had anything to fear, because the scorpion certainly wasn't going to sting him or they'd both drown. So he said, "Sure, climb on. I'll take you across." But about half way over, the scorpion stung him anyway. Just as they were going under, the turtle turned to the scorpion and said, "Why? Why did you do that? Now we're both going to die." . . . Do you know what the scorpion's answer was?
[Neither Mac nor Jack says anything.]
Pete: "Because it's my nature."
Episodes 65 - 68 69 - 72 73 - 76 77 - 80 81 - 83
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