Title: Deathlock
Airdate: 1/22/1986
My Age at Airdate: 2 years, 6 months, 6 days
Episode Type: Escape, Espionage
OPENING GAMBIT
East Berlin.
MacGyver is in a coffin. He is trying to get out of East Berlin. "Dying to leave".
The vehicle transporting "the body" is driving along. The "mourners" are standing at the border. The soldiers are checking the documents. And they're letting the transport through. Wait. They're stopping the car. They're pulling out the coffin and telling the "mourners" to come get it. Ok. They're walking, they're walking. There's a call at the guard station! The East Germans are running after them, the "mourners" are dumping the coffin over the edge of the bridge. MacGyver hits two switches and BOOM, parts of the coffin blow off and reveal a jet ski that he races away on. And he does a couple of cocky maneuvers to really stick it to them.
End of Gambit. Hm. There wasn't much to that, was there?
OPENING CREDITS
We open on a shipyard. The camera pans over to a building. A snooty fellow is in a spotlight being taken to task by 3 shadowy figures. Oh. This guy was the guy that lost track of MacGyver in East Berlin. So that's why the opening gambit.
I think this guy's name is Quail. I will be referring to him as Snooty, but I wanted to point out that his name is Quail.
The triumvirate is giving Snooty another chance to stop MacGyver from delivering the information he got out of East Germany to his bosses.
A helicopter is landing on a building and a bunch of suits are standing around on the ground looking nervous. MacGyver walks down the stairs and stands awkwardly among them. All of a sudden a flashy red sports car pulls up and a bleach-blond beauty comes over to MacGyver and greets him. She says he's from Pete Thornton. They're going to get away from the nervous guys/hit men.
Mac puts on his Southern twang and kisses her (kiss slut) and they get away.
They drive up to a mansion. An electric gate closes behind them. She tells him that Pete has set up a special safehouse.
MacGyver: Been at the company long?
BBB: Why?
MacGyver: I thought I knew all the pretty girls at the office
--Macgyver: Irrepressible flirt or sexual harassment suit waiting to happen? You be the judge.
In a telling bit of foreshadowing, he comments that safehouses aren't normally mansions. And sure enough, we see Quail (ok, I can't help it. His name is QUAIL. I don't need to call him something snarky. Quail will do just fine, thank you) watching them in some sort of control room.
Pete comes down the fancy staircase and greets MacGyver. They start sharing war stories for BBB. Men. Always showing off.
Small talk, small talk.
Quail watches, Quail watches.
MacGyver meets an old Asian cryptologist. She goes to put the camera or the film or the list or whatever into the computer to decode, when all of a sudden, the computer turns on and starts going haywire!
Suddenly Quail comes on an intercom, says "Trick or Treat, it's April Fool's" (ok......) and BLOWS UP the computer.
Then he bars all the windows and flips several switches. The door to the room starts to close. Asian Cryptologist runs for it and, even though Mac shouts for her not to, grabs the doorknob and is pricked with a pin and goes stiff. Quail tells the gang that she is merely sedated.
MacGyver recounts his previous encounter with Quail. And Quail lays out "his game" on literally the clearest black and white TV I've ever seen.
Pete, not understanding the technology in use, shouts at Quail, asking if this is all about the camera or film or list or whatever and Quail says that his instructions are to destroy it and take care of them.
BBB looks worried and Quail tells her it's all in a day's work.
Pete runs to the phone to call for help, but it CRUMBLES in his hand. CRUMBLES. And then it sparks once he's dropped it. How do you rig a phone to CRUMBLE? Quail is truly a diabolical genius.
Quail signs off by challenging theme to TRY to escape. To TRY to find him.
They leave the room and head for BBB's car. But it's gone!
Quail activates the motion-sensitive Machine Guns (like you do).
Mac tests the door to the outside. It's not electrified. He slowly opens it. Nothing. But it MUST be booby-trapped. They wheel a conveniently place suit of armor over and lean it out....where it is blasted by the machine guns. Quail laughs diabolically.
They gather the armor up into a nearby sheet and head for the kitchen.
Pete: Well, here it is
BBB: Why here?
MacGyver: You can find lots of handy stuff in a kitchen. Let's look around
--MacGyver, summed-up in three lines.
They keep Quail talking. Building up his ego. Meanwhile MacGyver goes around the kitchen plugging appliances in and stationing Pete and BBB by them.
MacGyver takes a metal bowl, pokes a hole in it and attaches it to an electric juicer axle.
They turn on all the appliances and jam Quail's radio signal, so he can't see or hear them.
Pete chooses NOW to mention that he has a radio phone in the room they just came from. I guess that would have been something handy to mention WHEN WE WERE IN THAT ROOM.
Pete leaves to go get it and Quail sees him go. Pete checks on Asian Cryptologist.
BBB starts talking to MacGyver about how she used to play International Spy as a kid. Meanwhile, MacGyver is working.
Pete goes to the closet and opens the case with his radio phone. He frantically talks into it when all of a sudden, Quail is on the screen. Quail flips a switch and the radio phone shocks Pete, knocking him out.
BBB nervously says that she guesses it's HER turn to distract Quail. MacGyver puts down what he's doing. A saxophone starts playing. He takes her by the shoulders, tells her it's going to be ok and kisses her (kiss slut).
She leaves and starts walking down the hall.
MacGyver attaches a bunch of batteries together, puts that onto a cart next to a hand mixer. He attaches the beater from the mixer to the wheel of the cart with a rubber band. Turning on the mixer now makes the wheel of the cart turn!
Quail is sitting in his control room when all of a sudden, there's a knock at the door. He grabs his gun and opens the door. IT'S BBB!!! She's working for Quail!
But she's having second thoughts. She's worried that they're going to find out what she's up to. And she's also scared of Quail.
Quail hints that she has someone close to her to worry about. I guess we'll find out what that's about soon enough. He sends her back to the kitchen to monitor MacGyver's movements.
MacGyver is attaching the top part of the armor to the cart.
BBB moves a bit of a painting outside the kitchen to reveal a peep hole. She tells Quail about the cart and replaces the bit of painting. Then she runs to a staircase, rests her chin on a newell post, and whispers "Help"
Mac has taken the hinges off the back door of the kitchen. He lets the cart go and draw the machine gun fire with the armor. Then he slowly crawls behind it below the sight of them (and Quail's cameras). He sends the cart rolling one direction and runs in the other direction while the guns are shooting at the cart. He leaps over several hedges and is making a run for it.
Quail comes on the loudspeaker and tells MacGyver that he has Pete and that MacGyver can come back and get him in the Trophy room (the room where Pete and Asian Cryptologist are passed out). He will turn off the guns so that MacGyver can come back.
Quail and BBB are having a bit of a tussle about orders. She just wants to retrieve the film (confirmed that it's film) and Quail wants to have his revenge. He tells her to go to the Trophy room to get the film from Pete. He says Pete won't stop her because he has given Pete "the shock of his life".
She walks into the Trophy room to get the film and sees Pete lying on the ground. She screams and MacGyver runs in. She tells MacGyver that Pete's dead by electrocution. He checks Pete's pulse and tells her that Pete's not dead.
So they leave the both of them and go back to the kitchen. MacGyver lays out his plan to go down to the basement and cut the main power supply. Meanwhile, he's gathering vinegar, baking soda, a pot, and a fire extinguisher.
She asks him what he's doing. MacGyver embraces her and pulls out the radio she's been using to communicate with Quail. She asks him how he knew and he tells her 2 reasons:
1. She was too quick and cool getting him away from those hitmen. And the hitmen didn't follow.
2. She assessed electrocution from across the room? I don't THINK so.
She tells him she didn't know Quail was psychopathic. He asks her how much she was paid and she reveals that her brother is being held hostage. And that, kids, is how you write a female character that is BOTH the double agent AND a sympathetic character. MacGyver doesn't have to do any Crying Game-esque shower crying for having kissed a double agent but we still get the reveal of her working for Quail. Genius.
MacGyver tells her that if they catch Quail, they can use him as a bargaining chip to get her brother. And if the bad guys don't go for that, MacGyver will go into Czechoslovakia and personally retrieve her brother.
So they're going ahead with the basement plan, but Quail activates machine guns in the house (this house is SUPER swanky, you guys. Armor, hidden peep holes, lots of machine guns....it must have a tremendous resale value). These guns, Quail explains, are attached to moving lights. Basically the guns shoot whatever is in the light. To me? It makes more sense to have hidden guns WITHOUT a visual indicator for where they're shooting, but I'm not a professional, so I could be wrong.
MacGyver quickly mixes the baking soda and vinegar into the pot that he has placed on a nearby pedestal. This creates a smoke screen and they get away. BBB leads MacGyver to a secret passageway that is apparently off the grid of Quail's cameras.
She tells MacGyver where Quail's control room is. He says that maybe it's time for Quail to come out and play.
They set up a bunch of metal piping to alert them when Quail starts heading to the power room after they cut the power. Then they go to the power room.
Mac has BBB stack a bunch of junk around the room. Casual clutter, he calls it. He basically wants to only give Quail one direction to walk when he comes in. Meanwhile MacGyver is attaching all the wires from the circuit breaker to what looks like a wheel like you would see on like a water main or something.
He sends BBB to go get a mirror. He sets the mirror up so that they can see Quail without him being able to see them. He has also set up a pressurized water cannon that he can control with a rope.
Then they cut the power. Quail happens to have a flashlight right there. So he starts to head for the power room.
In the power room, BBB kisses MacGyver "just in case". Man, the 80's were CRAZY for kissers, huh?
Quail knocks over the alarm barricade, so they know to hide. He shoots the door open and cautiously advances. He walks past the mirror that they have set up, so BBB adjusts it. Like an idiot. Quail sees her hand and shoots the mirror. But what's worse is that he knows where they are.
He tells them to get up. They do and BBB tells Quail that MacGyver is setting a trap. She goes to his side and Quail prepares to shoot MacGyver. But then BBB pushes Quail into the position that MacGyver told her they needed him in and MacGyver activates the water cannon, pushing Quail into the exposed wires and disarming him. MacGyver runs up and, right before he delivers the KO punch says:
"This one's free of charge"
Which sounds like a corny cliched line, but then you realize that it's an electricity pun. A BEAUTIFUL electricity pun!
Something that happens often on MacGyver is that Mac will punch someone and then shake his hand because of it hurting. I like this. I feel it offers a realism. I've never punched someone super hard, or at all in the face, but I would imagine that it would sting the puncher. And I like that MacGyver addresses that.
They go to check on everyone else.
EPILOGUE
Pete is on the phone with his people and MacGyver and BBB are telling a freshly woken Asian Cryptographer that, basically, they don't need her help anymore. Or something. Basically patting themselves on the back for defeating Quail. Smug non-cryptologist bastards.
Welp, that's it for Deathlock! See you next week!
NEXT WEEK: FLAME'S END
ALSO: In two weeks, I'll be doing a MacGyver Monday on my all-time favorite MacGyver episode, appropriately titled "Countdown". I don't know if I'll be doing something special with it, but I have watched it more than any other episode, so I have a LOT to say about it. Don't miss it!
OPENING GAMBIT
East Berlin.
MacGyver is in a coffin. He is trying to get out of East Berlin. "Dying to leave".
The vehicle transporting "the body" is driving along. The "mourners" are standing at the border. The soldiers are checking the documents. And they're letting the transport through. Wait. They're stopping the car. They're pulling out the coffin and telling the "mourners" to come get it. Ok. They're walking, they're walking. There's a call at the guard station! The East Germans are running after them, the "mourners" are dumping the coffin over the edge of the bridge. MacGyver hits two switches and BOOM, parts of the coffin blow off and reveal a jet ski that he races away on. And he does a couple of cocky maneuvers to really stick it to them.
End of Gambit. Hm. There wasn't much to that, was there?
OPENING CREDITS
We open on a shipyard. The camera pans over to a building. A snooty fellow is in a spotlight being taken to task by 3 shadowy figures. Oh. This guy was the guy that lost track of MacGyver in East Berlin. So that's why the opening gambit.
I think this guy's name is Quail. I will be referring to him as Snooty, but I wanted to point out that his name is Quail.
The triumvirate is giving Snooty another chance to stop MacGyver from delivering the information he got out of East Germany to his bosses.
A helicopter is landing on a building and a bunch of suits are standing around on the ground looking nervous. MacGyver walks down the stairs and stands awkwardly among them. All of a sudden a flashy red sports car pulls up and a bleach-blond beauty comes over to MacGyver and greets him. She says he's from Pete Thornton. They're going to get away from the nervous guys/hit men.
Mac puts on his Southern twang and kisses her (kiss slut) and they get away.
They drive up to a mansion. An electric gate closes behind them. She tells him that Pete has set up a special safehouse.
MacGyver: Been at the company long?
BBB: Why?
MacGyver: I thought I knew all the pretty girls at the office
--Macgyver: Irrepressible flirt or sexual harassment suit waiting to happen? You be the judge.
In a telling bit of foreshadowing, he comments that safehouses aren't normally mansions. And sure enough, we see Quail (ok, I can't help it. His name is QUAIL. I don't need to call him something snarky. Quail will do just fine, thank you) watching them in some sort of control room.
Pete comes down the fancy staircase and greets MacGyver. They start sharing war stories for BBB. Men. Always showing off.
Small talk, small talk.
Quail watches, Quail watches.
MacGyver meets an old Asian cryptologist. She goes to put the camera or the film or the list or whatever into the computer to decode, when all of a sudden, the computer turns on and starts going haywire!
Suddenly Quail comes on an intercom, says "Trick or Treat, it's April Fool's" (ok......) and BLOWS UP the computer.
Then he bars all the windows and flips several switches. The door to the room starts to close. Asian Cryptologist runs for it and, even though Mac shouts for her not to, grabs the doorknob and is pricked with a pin and goes stiff. Quail tells the gang that she is merely sedated.
MacGyver recounts his previous encounter with Quail. And Quail lays out "his game" on literally the clearest black and white TV I've ever seen.
Pete, not understanding the technology in use, shouts at Quail, asking if this is all about the camera or film or list or whatever and Quail says that his instructions are to destroy it and take care of them.
BBB looks worried and Quail tells her it's all in a day's work.
Pete runs to the phone to call for help, but it CRUMBLES in his hand. CRUMBLES. And then it sparks once he's dropped it. How do you rig a phone to CRUMBLE? Quail is truly a diabolical genius.
Quail signs off by challenging theme to TRY to escape. To TRY to find him.
They leave the room and head for BBB's car. But it's gone!
Quail activates the motion-sensitive Machine Guns (like you do).
Mac tests the door to the outside. It's not electrified. He slowly opens it. Nothing. But it MUST be booby-trapped. They wheel a conveniently place suit of armor over and lean it out....where it is blasted by the machine guns. Quail laughs diabolically.
They gather the armor up into a nearby sheet and head for the kitchen.
Pete: Well, here it is
BBB: Why here?
MacGyver: You can find lots of handy stuff in a kitchen. Let's look around
--MacGyver, summed-up in three lines.
They keep Quail talking. Building up his ego. Meanwhile MacGyver goes around the kitchen plugging appliances in and stationing Pete and BBB by them.
MacGyver takes a metal bowl, pokes a hole in it and attaches it to an electric juicer axle.
They turn on all the appliances and jam Quail's radio signal, so he can't see or hear them.
Pete chooses NOW to mention that he has a radio phone in the room they just came from. I guess that would have been something handy to mention WHEN WE WERE IN THAT ROOM.
Pete leaves to go get it and Quail sees him go. Pete checks on Asian Cryptologist.
BBB starts talking to MacGyver about how she used to play International Spy as a kid. Meanwhile, MacGyver is working.
Pete goes to the closet and opens the case with his radio phone. He frantically talks into it when all of a sudden, Quail is on the screen. Quail flips a switch and the radio phone shocks Pete, knocking him out.
BBB nervously says that she guesses it's HER turn to distract Quail. MacGyver puts down what he's doing. A saxophone starts playing. He takes her by the shoulders, tells her it's going to be ok and kisses her (kiss slut).
She leaves and starts walking down the hall.
MacGyver attaches a bunch of batteries together, puts that onto a cart next to a hand mixer. He attaches the beater from the mixer to the wheel of the cart with a rubber band. Turning on the mixer now makes the wheel of the cart turn!
Quail is sitting in his control room when all of a sudden, there's a knock at the door. He grabs his gun and opens the door. IT'S BBB!!! She's working for Quail!
But she's having second thoughts. She's worried that they're going to find out what she's up to. And she's also scared of Quail.
Quail hints that she has someone close to her to worry about. I guess we'll find out what that's about soon enough. He sends her back to the kitchen to monitor MacGyver's movements.
MacGyver is attaching the top part of the armor to the cart.
BBB moves a bit of a painting outside the kitchen to reveal a peep hole. She tells Quail about the cart and replaces the bit of painting. Then she runs to a staircase, rests her chin on a newell post, and whispers "Help"
Mac has taken the hinges off the back door of the kitchen. He lets the cart go and draw the machine gun fire with the armor. Then he slowly crawls behind it below the sight of them (and Quail's cameras). He sends the cart rolling one direction and runs in the other direction while the guns are shooting at the cart. He leaps over several hedges and is making a run for it.
Quail comes on the loudspeaker and tells MacGyver that he has Pete and that MacGyver can come back and get him in the Trophy room (the room where Pete and Asian Cryptologist are passed out). He will turn off the guns so that MacGyver can come back.
Quail and BBB are having a bit of a tussle about orders. She just wants to retrieve the film (confirmed that it's film) and Quail wants to have his revenge. He tells her to go to the Trophy room to get the film from Pete. He says Pete won't stop her because he has given Pete "the shock of his life".
She walks into the Trophy room to get the film and sees Pete lying on the ground. She screams and MacGyver runs in. She tells MacGyver that Pete's dead by electrocution. He checks Pete's pulse and tells her that Pete's not dead.
So they leave the both of them and go back to the kitchen. MacGyver lays out his plan to go down to the basement and cut the main power supply. Meanwhile, he's gathering vinegar, baking soda, a pot, and a fire extinguisher.
She asks him what he's doing. MacGyver embraces her and pulls out the radio she's been using to communicate with Quail. She asks him how he knew and he tells her 2 reasons:
1. She was too quick and cool getting him away from those hitmen. And the hitmen didn't follow.
2. She assessed electrocution from across the room? I don't THINK so.
She tells him she didn't know Quail was psychopathic. He asks her how much she was paid and she reveals that her brother is being held hostage. And that, kids, is how you write a female character that is BOTH the double agent AND a sympathetic character. MacGyver doesn't have to do any Crying Game-esque shower crying for having kissed a double agent but we still get the reveal of her working for Quail. Genius.
MacGyver tells her that if they catch Quail, they can use him as a bargaining chip to get her brother. And if the bad guys don't go for that, MacGyver will go into Czechoslovakia and personally retrieve her brother.
So they're going ahead with the basement plan, but Quail activates machine guns in the house (this house is SUPER swanky, you guys. Armor, hidden peep holes, lots of machine guns....it must have a tremendous resale value). These guns, Quail explains, are attached to moving lights. Basically the guns shoot whatever is in the light. To me? It makes more sense to have hidden guns WITHOUT a visual indicator for where they're shooting, but I'm not a professional, so I could be wrong.
MacGyver quickly mixes the baking soda and vinegar into the pot that he has placed on a nearby pedestal. This creates a smoke screen and they get away. BBB leads MacGyver to a secret passageway that is apparently off the grid of Quail's cameras.
She tells MacGyver where Quail's control room is. He says that maybe it's time for Quail to come out and play.
They set up a bunch of metal piping to alert them when Quail starts heading to the power room after they cut the power. Then they go to the power room.
Mac has BBB stack a bunch of junk around the room. Casual clutter, he calls it. He basically wants to only give Quail one direction to walk when he comes in. Meanwhile MacGyver is attaching all the wires from the circuit breaker to what looks like a wheel like you would see on like a water main or something.
He sends BBB to go get a mirror. He sets the mirror up so that they can see Quail without him being able to see them. He has also set up a pressurized water cannon that he can control with a rope.
Then they cut the power. Quail happens to have a flashlight right there. So he starts to head for the power room.
In the power room, BBB kisses MacGyver "just in case". Man, the 80's were CRAZY for kissers, huh?
Quail knocks over the alarm barricade, so they know to hide. He shoots the door open and cautiously advances. He walks past the mirror that they have set up, so BBB adjusts it. Like an idiot. Quail sees her hand and shoots the mirror. But what's worse is that he knows where they are.
He tells them to get up. They do and BBB tells Quail that MacGyver is setting a trap. She goes to his side and Quail prepares to shoot MacGyver. But then BBB pushes Quail into the position that MacGyver told her they needed him in and MacGyver activates the water cannon, pushing Quail into the exposed wires and disarming him. MacGyver runs up and, right before he delivers the KO punch says:
"This one's free of charge"
Which sounds like a corny cliched line, but then you realize that it's an electricity pun. A BEAUTIFUL electricity pun!
Something that happens often on MacGyver is that Mac will punch someone and then shake his hand because of it hurting. I like this. I feel it offers a realism. I've never punched someone super hard, or at all in the face, but I would imagine that it would sting the puncher. And I like that MacGyver addresses that.
They go to check on everyone else.
EPILOGUE
Pete is on the phone with his people and MacGyver and BBB are telling a freshly woken Asian Cryptographer that, basically, they don't need her help anymore. Or something. Basically patting themselves on the back for defeating Quail. Smug non-cryptologist bastards.
Welp, that's it for Deathlock! See you next week!
NEXT WEEK: FLAME'S END
ALSO: In two weeks, I'll be doing a MacGyver Monday on my all-time favorite MacGyver episode, appropriately titled "Countdown". I don't know if I'll be doing something special with it, but I have watched it more than any other episode, so I have a LOT to say about it. Don't miss it!
No comments:
Post a Comment