MacGyver Mondays: "A Prisoner of Conscience" (Season 1, Episode 21)

Pay no attention to the man in the reflection (my first "screen shot" which is an actual shot of the screen :) )

Title: A Prisoner of Conscience
Airdate: 4/30/1986
My Age at Airdate: 2 years, 9 months, 14 days
Episode Type: Prison Break

The menu for the last disc of the First Season has a picture of MacGyver in a priest's collar. I can only assume that that is either from THIS episode or the Season Finale. It just seems to me that "A Prisoner of Conscience" stands much more of a chance for this kind of thing than "The Assassin" does, you know?

OPENING CREDITS

We open on the Kremlin in Moscow. Looks to be a pretty nice city. A motorboat is pulling up to a beach. And MacGyver is sitting on a bench eating an apple. Pete runs up to him and asks why he's there, Mac asks why Pete is there.  Pete left without notice and took a map of Russia, so of course MacGyver tracked him down. Pete is investigating the death of this Russian scientist guy who was killed because of being in contact with an American agent....Pete. 

Pete was helping this Russian guy deliver letters of political prisoners but the Russian guy got caught. And now Pete has heard that the Russians are after this guy (Let's call him The Postman)'s daughter.

So Mac asks how they're going to do it and Pete tells Mac that he doesn't want to endanger another friend.

MacGyver, of course, stubbornly refuses to be brushed off. Pete acquiesces but says that the Postman's daughter is going to be nervous about meeting new people so he should go by himself to make contact.

Mac lets him go for a couple seconds and then follows.

Pete goes to PD's house and she greets him warmly. Pete says that he's sorry, but she says that she has to be strong because the Russians are evicting her.

MacGyver walks up the path to the house and sees some potatoes. And then he moves on.

Then a car pulls up. MacGyver's voiceover tells us that this can only be the secret police and it looks like Pete has come to the same conclusion. Mac has hidden and Pete is preparing to help PD. 

She opens the door, they tell her to come with them, she refuses and Pete slams the door. Then, somehow, the police men (including the one that looks like the black-haired guy in Hall and Oates that was standing nowhere near the door, but I guess he was standing behind the guy that looks like EVERY RUSSIAN YOU'VE SEEN IN ANY MOVIE WHERE RUSSIANS ARE THE BAD GUYS) fall into the lake on which the house that PD lives in is located.

Pete and PD run for it. Mac breaks cover, grabs one of the potatoes and shoves it in the tailpipe of the police car. 




AFTER. So, that means that MacGyver is basically cribbing a trick from Axel Foley. Amazing

Pete, PD, and MacGyver run off. The soaking wet policemen try to chase in their car, but, of course, they break their car.

Our heroes run to the beach that we saw at the beginning, hop in a motorboat and take off. The policemen apparently have a boat on that same beach, so they get in that and take chase, occasionally firing a shotgun at their prey (stormtrooper aim, natch).

They need to get these guys off their tail. Mac and Pete start to tear up a blanket, ripping it to shreds. Hopefully that wasn't an heirloom.

Is Moscow really as much like Louisiana as it looks in this chase scene?

MacGyver ties the blanket to a gas can to jam the intake of their jet...thing on their boat. Oh and some lifeboats. He tosses all of that in the water and they run over it and then their boat goes ashore, the policemen get out and the boat blows up. Blows up? Really? Hmm

Well, it looks like everyone's safe and sound.....

WAIT. PD tells them that her father is not dead! He's incarcerated in like a mental hospital. Near Leningrad. She plans to get her father out. And Pete says he's going to help. And MacGyver says he will too.

So now we're in Leningrad. They have secured lots of official paperwork.

So now they're going to execute this plan. We don't know what it is. It's kind of like Ocean's Eleven.

Pete is posing as a doctor. MacGyver is playing crazy.

We also have Man Doctor (Bad) and Woman Doctor (I'm not sure if she's bad or not. Maybe not.)

Man Doctor takes MacGyver to the room with all the other crazy people (but there are political prisoners and actual crazy people)

We've got Big Guy, Room Leader, and Chess Guy.

Man Doctor takes Chess Guy's chessboard and Chess Guy kind of freaks out, but Mac puts on a crazy show where he snatches the board and starts making a scene. A guard runs in and Big Guy clotheslines him. Then more guards run in and MacGyver surrenders, but they beat him anyway. But Chess Guy gets his board back. 

Oh, I don't remember if it's important, but Room Leader had a little altercation with Man Doctor right before this, where he claimed that he was political and insulted Man Doctor, but then MD (hehe. MD) threatened to quiet him down and so he immediately withdrew his statement and acted crazy as a demonstration that he wasn't political.

Anyways. So Dr. Pete and Woman Doctor are touring the grounds. She's kind of old-school good, so that's good.

A guy comes and tells Dr. Pete that "his patient became violent".

So now Pete is with MacGyver who has been like, straight-blanketed. It's like he's swaddled. In fact, that's EXACTLY what he is, and I bet it's for the same reason. He had an outburst and swaddling is designed to calm you down. 

Mac and Pete have a brief exchange where Pete tells Mac that he only brought one set of lockpicks, even though they both need lockpicks. Pete needs them to get into the medicine cabinet to get the psychotropic drugs (for the after party) and Mac needs them to...well, break out of the whole place. Macgyver tells Pete that he'll take care of his own lockpicking needs.

MacGyver is talking to Room Leader. Trying to find The Postman. Room Leader doesn't have any information, but Chess Guy does. He tells MacGyver where The Postman is and then Room Leader decides to trust MacGyver because an impostor wouldn't take a beating just to save Chess Guy's chess set.

MacGyver breaks the light bulb of the lamp in the room and uses the filament as a lockpick. It is literally THE easiest lock picking I've ever seen in my life. Easy damn peasy.

Room Leader will create a diversion while MacGyver gets The Postman out. Only, when MacGyver gets up to the ward where The Postman should be, there are a bunch of rooms and a guard. 

So he goes into the janitor's closet (and inspirational "You Can Do It" music starts playing) he gets a bucket, stops up the sink and smears caulking compound on the side and rim of the bucket. He's making "Russian Crazy Glue". He pours another liquid all over it and then puts a mop handle through the bucket. He lures the guard into the janitor's closet. The guard grabs the bucket and his hands are immediately stuck to the bucket.

MacGyver sneaks by, but the guard sees him and hits the alarm. But Big Guy grabs him and holds him tight. The guards and doctors are on high alert, but I think they're all heading for the wing where Room Leader, Chess Guy and the others are making a huge hubbub. 

MacGyver meets The Postman. He tells TP that PD sent him. He picks the lock to TP's door. Just as easily. But the guards are on their way to the Ward where TP is being kept. TP tells MacGyver that he is the only prisoner in the ward and that his room will certainly be searched.

So MacGyver decides to take him out of there. He relocks the cell door.

The guards get to the Ward (It's called Ward Zero) and find the first guard hanging from a door by his toes. They open the door and he falls and Big Guy attacks them. 

Down in Ward K (the other ward), guards are arriving.

Meanwhile, Pete has snuck into Woman Doctor's office. He picks the lock to the drug cabinet and take some stuff, but then he hears a rustling at the door. It's a cleaning woman. Pete hides in a closet.

The guards have subdued Big Guy and Man Doctor is going to inject BG with something, but Chess Guy starts rattling off side effects that the drug will have. So MD threatens to burn the chess set. He tells CG not to touch the chess set until he gave him permission. CG is upset.

Mac sneaks TP down the hall.

The cleaning lady leaves and Pete sneaks out of the room. He drops something on the ground, but doesn't notice. He walks into the hall the MD is coming down. MD calls out to him, but he just walks across the hall into another room. MD looks in the first room and see the bag of drugs that Pete dropped.

The guard is asking MacGyver where he's been. MacGyver takes him over to the window while Room Leader sneaks TP into the room. Then RL asks the guard for some medicine and the guard leaves to get it.

TP and MacGyver talk about why Mac, Pete and PD are there.

Mac lets TP (and us) in on the second and third phases of the plan.  PD will pose as a local girl and work in the hospital's cafeteria. She'll somehow take out the guards (I'm thinking with the drugs, perhaps?) and then Pete will kick of Phase III somehow.

Pete and Woman Doctor are talking when Man Doctor casually bursts in. He accuses her and Pete of trying to steal drugs and sell them on the black market. He places the both of them under house arrest.

PD meets with the cafeteria manager. He tells her how to set the table and tells her she only has 20 minutes before the staff arrives to eat breakfast.

Big Guy is doing some Tai Chi. Man Doctor walks in and indicates the MacGyver is involved with the drug thing.

MacGyver starts to act like he's been investigating the same crime, but MD stops him and tells him he plans to subject the three of them (I guess Chess Guy, MacGyver, and Room Leader? to chemical interrogation.

Chess Guy snaps. He breaks his chessboard over MD's head. MacGyver kicks the gun out of the guard's hand and punches him. Then Room Leader breaks a chair over that guard's head. Mac runs for the door and double fist-punches the guard outside it.

Big Guy gags MD and wraps him tight in a blanket and holds him. Chess Guy gets his broken board and chess pieces and walks contentedly over to the table. Room Leader takes one of the guard's guns and tells Mac that he knows where WD and Pete will be. TP leads two prisoners we haven't met out to follow RL and MacGyver.

MacGyver gets Pete and WD. RL locks the guard he has at gunpoint in WD's office closet.

PD meets with Pete and MacGyver to get the drugs to drug the guards and the Cafeteria Manager comes out and asks what's going on. There's a tense moment, but then MacGyver just says

MacGyver: We're breaking out.
Manager: Oh
Pete: We wouldn't LIKE it if you interfered.
Manager: No no no. You can lock me in the closet, or the supply room, or the basement...
MacGyver: Closet will do fine.
--badass. It's important to know your adversary.

PD spikes the tea of the guards.

Chess Guy is playing both sides of a game with MD who is gagged and bound and trying to yell through his gag. It's a pretty delightful scene to see this mousy guy (CG) get the upper hand.

So now all the guards are slumping over and TP and PD are reunited. Right in front of the guards and orderlies.

WD agrees to help them. They all run off. They bag the guards in front of the building and all the patients escape.

TP says that he is now too big to kill. He will stay in Russia and continue his good work.

Now it's later. Pete has spread the word the TP is still alive. PD is going to go to America at her father's insistence so that she can't be used against him. 

There's lots of handshaking and stuff.

I'm not sure if WD is staying in Russia or not. I think not. But I don't know.

TP walks off and an excited crowd forms around him, thrilled that he's alive.

THE END.

So, I have a question. Who was the title "Prisoner of Conscience"? Is a prisoner of conscience the same thing as a political prisoner?

Anyways, I'll see you next week for the SEASON FINALE!!!! I guess that's when we'll see MacGyver in the priest's collar. Interesting :)

NEXT WEEK: THE ASSASSIN

MacGyver Mondays: "The Escape" (Season 1, Episode 20)

Title: The Escape

Airdate: 4/16/1986

My Age at Airdate: 2 years, 9 months

Episode Type: Prison Break, Arms Dealing

It's the last episode of Disc 5 and then we only have 2 more before the end of the first season!! So let's see what or whom MacGyver has to escape from.

OPENING CREDITS

We open on North Africa. A bustling cityscape. Mac is playing soccer with some North African kids at some sort of convent or something. There are nuns. 

A truck pulls up with a bunch of metal. And then this Blonde walks up with some clothing. The romantic theme music plays. MacGyver is smitten.

Whoa. She needs him to break her brother out of prison. Things just got real. Her brother is a medical missionary. He brought in some supplies. The government tried to take them because they're valuable, so he hid them and they locked him away.

HAHA. So she finishes telling him this and Mac's like, Ok let's get him out. And Blondie's like, But it's a maximum security prison! If she thought it was impossible, why is she asking Mac to do it?

So MacGyver is going to go in, see where things are. I guess he's going to get himself arrested. Two soldiers are picking on a storekeeper. Mac goes over there, and sprays them in the face with soda and boom he's arrested. Easy peasy.

Now he's in a truck with a bunch of other people.

And now he's talking to the Warden. The guy is a sleaze ball. Mac needs to get money or he won't be fed or have shelter. Such a corrupt place.

The helpful janitor takes him out of the room and they have some bonding time.

So now the prisoners are playing soccer. It's like a theme.

Mac asks Janitor who lives in this nice swanky section of the prison. Janitor tells him that Baldy, and his henchman, Mustache live there. Baldy owns the prison. Mustache is his enforcer.

While Mac is noticing Baldy and Mustache, and Baldy and Mustache are noticing him! Baldy tells Mustache to found out all he can about MacGyver.

Janitor takes MacGyver to his cell. He gives Mac the top bunk. Is that good or bad?

Janitor tells Mac that escape is impossible. Mac takes Janitor's soccer ball and his olive oil. It looks like he's making a papier mache something with the soccer ball as the mold. He's made a hot air balloon! He lights some cotton balls that he has attached to the wire at the bottom of the balloon and off it sails. One of the coolest things I've seen on this show.

Blondie sees the signal. She smiles and drives off.

MacGyver asks Janitor if he wants to come with him when he escapes, but Janitor says that he only has six months until he's released. And then Janitor realizes that not trying to escape basically means the prison has taken away his humanity and so he will help.

Blondie's Brother is being held in a special wing of the prison designated for political prisoners. Heavy security, extra guards, etc.

Mustache tells MacGyver that Baldy wants to see him. When MacGyver asks why, Mustache attacks him. Then MacGyver briefly gets the upper hand and Baldy sends two prisoners in to hold MacGyver while Mustache beats on him a little bit. Before Mustache can land the final blow, Baldy stops him and the three of them go back to Baldy's pad.

Mustache deposits Mac on the floor and Baldy gives Mac a towel to wipe himself up (so that he doesn't dirty Baldy's carpet).

Right off the bat, both men's attentions are drawn to a radio that sounds awful. MacGyver sets to fixing it. Haha right after he fixes it, he tells Baldy that he could also fix the refrigerator in his PCP (angel dust) lab. Which he says hilariously nonchalantly. Apparently the easiest drug to make in prison is PCP. Mac tells Baldy that he can double the PCP output if Baldy will get him in to see Blondie's Brother. Baldy agrees.

Hilariously, and bafflingly, they're going to do the visitation first. If I was Baldy, I'd have Mac do the drug stuff first and then, once I saw that he wasn't trying to blow up my operation or something, I'd hold up my end. 

I should write an instruction manual for MacGyver villains. It would be called Lock The Doors To Your Cars and Trucks: A Tutorial for Enemies of MacGyver and it'd go to the TOP OF THE CHARTS (the villainy advice hardcover charts)

So, Mac gets to see Blondie's Brother. It's the guy who plays Q on Star Trek: TNG. Everything's bugged and the Warden is listening, but Mac knows that he's not alone with the guy so they start improvising a little scene about gunships and huey choppers and stuff to throw the Warden off. 

The Warden hears the lie that BBQ (Blondie's Brother: Q) and Mac cook up about a whole bunch of money that BBQ hid and tells Baldy to find out everything about that and then kill MacGyver.

Janitor and MacGyver are talking. About friendship and freedom. Like Frenchmen and Americans of old. Mac asks Janitor if he knows how to run the PA system, but then a guard comes in before Janitor can answer. The guard tells Mac that his wife is here and they take him to meet her.

Of course it's Blondie. They kiss (kiss slut) and kiss and kiss. The Warden is listening to more false information, but he's slyly smiling. I wonder what that's about.

The next morning, MacGyver is peppy like he had a very enjoyable evening and he makes his way over to Baldy's place to work on the drug lab. He swipes a tape recorder under his jacket right away. And then Baldy leads him to the PCP lab.

Baldy begins to "casually" ask Mac about his meeting with BBQ. And then he leaves him alone. (Chapter 4 of the book: DON'T LEAVE YOUR ENEMY ALONE)

MacGyver starts to do something with a fan while Warden and Baldy have a weird, vaguely romantic moment.

Mac has hooked up a...like...those things that have rubber blades that you would use if you were making a cake but didn't have an electric mixer? You know? He hooks that up to the fan and gets the tape recorder going. 

Then he grabs some PCP (they're in nice little blocks!) and puts it in his jacket pocket. He pours some "volatile liquid" on the pocket and has made "a bomb you can wear anywhere".

Warden is preparing for the helicopter/gunship attacks. He's basically putting the prison on full alert.

Now he's fashioning a PCP bomb with a good old-fashioned ice timer. He's hooking wires up so that they'll touch the metal of this washbasin when the ice melts. And then the PCP will blow up.

Janitor brings BBQ's guard some food he likes and slyly tells BBQ to be ready to escape today at noon.

Mac almost forgets to take the tape recorder and take down the cake thing. Then he knocks on the door to be let out. Mustache leads him into the room where Baldy confronts him. About all the phony information. Mac gives him some more hogwash. And leads them out of the cell.

Blondie pulls up in a funky old-looking taxi, gets out and makes like she's having car trouble right in front of the prison gates. The guards at the door look interested.

Mac passes the coat with the PCP bomb and the tape recorder to Janitor.

He leads Baldy and Mustache to the fire pit and tells them that the information about the Swiss bank account where all the money was going to be deposited was buried under that fire.

Janitor sets a timer and sets up the tape recorder in the Warden's office. Then he takes the jacket down to BBQ's cell and tells him to light the pocket of the jacket in 3 minutes.

The timer in the Warden's office hits zero and the tape recorder (which has been switched to a faster speed) starts and plays over the PA. It sounds like approaching helicopters. The guards start to go nuts. They sound the alarm.

Mac throws ash in Mustache's face and punches Baldy. He runs off.

BBQ's guard gets a call and leaves.

BBQ lights the pocket and ducks out of the way. An explosion busts the lock and BBQ runs with Janitor down the darkened hallway.

The ice melts and the wire touches metal and the PCP lab explodes. The guards think that the choppers are doing all this.

Blondie gets her car and smashes the gate in. Mac quickly hugs Janitor goodbye and MacGyver and BBQ escape.

Warden tells Baldy that he will be in an isolation cell for the rest of his sentence. I guess Baldy's lucky Warden didn't kill him.

Blondie pulls the car in crooked and they all get out. BBQ goes and stands by another car, Blondie shoots the engine of the first car. And Mac is confused. BBQ says that they don't need MacGyver anymore and now they can kill him.

Blondie points the gun at him.

The story unravels. Mac has been played. Blondie is a Soviet agent. She's delivering weapons to the third-world. BBQ is an arms dealer.

BBQ: Must we have all this maudlin revelations? Just kill him and get it over with before the Gendarmes show up.
--Now THIS is a proper villain. Perhaps he can write my book.

Blondie is having a change of heart. She points the gun at BBQ and tells him that she won't be killing anyone. BBQ gets in the car and Blondie slowly backs towards the car. BBQ grabs her gun hand and fires at MacGyver (stormtrooper aim, but really you can't fault him for his poor aim with someone else holding the gun and him firing backwards and all) and drives off, leaving Blondie with Mac.

She says that if she doesn't get the weapons, BBQ will sell them to terrorists.

BBQ is driving up to a dock. Presumably it's where the weapons are. Mac and Blondie are following on foot.

Mac agrees to help Blondie if she'll agree to destroy the weapons if they find them.

BBQ is meeting with some terrorists.

Mac and Blondie find BBQ's car. They sneak in to where BBQ is showing the terrorists the weapons. Mac sends Blondie to go get the car, the terrorists are haggling.

MacGyver grabs a box of grenades that still use gunpowder (they're very old) and he's going to leave a trail of gunpowder that leads to the pile of the other grenades and the rest of the weapons.

He tosses one grenade near to BBQ and the terrorists, they duck for cover. And he lights the trail.

Blondie pulls up....in BBQ's car?! He left the keys in the car?! Sigh. I was so hopeful for him.

She pulls up right next to the lit gunpowder trail, but the wind raised by her arrival didn't disturb any of the loose powder and cause the flame to run out of fuel. So that was lucky....

Mac snatches the briefcase of money and hops in the backseat and they speed off.

BBQ's whole stash blows up.

Now we're back at the mission. Mac has turned the pile of scrap metal into a jungle gym. Blondie and Mac give the briefcase of money to the nun. (If she's a Mother Superior, it's still ok to call her a nun, right?)

And that's it!

THE END

Hope you enjoyed the episode as much as I did!

NEXT WEEK: A PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE