3.12 - Fence + Suitcase + Americium-241

Airdate: Jan 11, 2019
Writers: Brian Durkin
Director: Ron Underwood

Guest Cast: Bridget Regan (Charlotte Cole) , Faran Tahir (The Fence) , David Kallaway (Darren Farragut) , Darren Darnborough (Lead Terrorist)
Greg Corbett (Lenny) , Angelo Diaz (Lead TAC Agent) , Andre Pushkin (Silver Wall Security Guard) , Samuel Moody (Sam)
Izabella Dzmitryieu (Caliope) , Jiri Stanek (Silver Wall Security Guard # 3)


The Phoenix teams up with a woman who’s a soccer mom by day but a master thief by night to catch one of her contacts, an underworld criminal,
who has hired her to steal a dirty bomb.

Good episode with a few twists and turns. Very Oceans Eleven/Mission Impossible

I think the episodes with just the one story-line all the way through are much better than the double plot episodes.

The bad guy was actually confused that there were three of them instead of four. Reference to Jack's absence maybe?


The table at the end made me think of Thanksgiving dinner


Watching the bad guys fall for the heroes' tricks sometimes baffles me. Like, you know you have to shoot her, but you all freeze to stare at the random tire that came rolling at you? I'd be confused too, but I think I'd turn to shoot, not continue staring


So many references to Original Series episodes! I got vibes from Nightmares (Bozer losing the pin down the grate), Easy Target (the toothpick replacing the pin in the grenade), Human Factor (pressure plates), and probably more I can't remember at the moment. I know some of those, maybe all of them, are a stretch, but that's just how I read it

Mac burning food reminded me of Family Matter

No there were 4 on the video they watched in the war room.

He knew that.. hence the confusion when only 3 turned up.

No there were 4 on the video they watched in the war room.

He knew that.. hence the confusion when only 3 turned up.

I just saw that on twitter. Still, I'm sure that's what a lot of viewers were thinking (I'm also running on like 5 hours of sleep, so I can't think straight)

What always baffles me is when we see things like Charlotte's family looking super happy through the window, and I think, "So they're having the time of their lives at the exact moment they drive up to look? Pretty sure that's not realistic"

I enjoyed this episode. I prefer one narrative arc rather than having a B story too. I loved the home touches with Mac and Bozer. and I liked the guest star.

No Leanna yay. I find her boring.

I usually am not a fan of Bozer in the field but I didn't mind it this week.

Riley got to shine. She and Mac are perfect together.

I did not miss Jack.

Loved the Mac hacks.

The dinner at the end was great.

It was a good episode, but not all that special to me. And I really felt Jack was missing.

I liked the storyline for 3x04 a lot and didn't really miss him there, especially since his absence was explained. I didn't care for 3x08 that much, and after the brilliant acting of 3x11, I really missed George being part of the team. I think he should have at least been mentioned.

Yes, the "accident" for 3x11 was faked but they still could have said he's recovering from bruised or cracked ribs... hurt his back when dragging the bad guys up that ladder at the end... it's not that difficult. You'd think people writing for a living and making stuff up every week would have some ideas for that

Preliminary Ratings: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/the-...-1-11-2019.html

All CBS shows have some of the highest ratings this season. They will probably fall again with the warmer temperatures. So far, these are the highest ratings for Season 3.

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Here's the blog post by Rhett Allain - Technical Consultant for the Reboot - about the "MacHacks" used in this episode: https://rhettallain.com/2019/01/13/macgyver...-americium-241/

Content:
> Toothpick in grenade
> What is a dirty bomb?
> Electromagnet
> Wall walk
> Mercury Switch
> Smartphone Radiation Detector
> Rolling Tire Bomb

I enjoyed this one. This show is definitely better when it sticks to one story per episode. And I know I'm in the minority, but I actually kind of like when Jack isn't in episodes. His constant jokes get a bit overbearing when he's there all the time (just like how the original Jack Dalton would have gotten tiresome if he'd been a lead character in every episode.)
I also like episodes that take time to develop at least one of the guest characters, and this did that well with Charlotte Cole. I thought they might be setting her up to join the Phoenix team, especially with Jack leaving the show, but I guess not. I could imagine her being a recurring character, possibly.

I prefer Jack being in fewer episodes as well. He's really annoying to me nowadays >_<

Lot of suspension of disbelief in this one, but one of the more entertaining eps this season nonetheless.

I know reading the female-dominated #MacGyver tweets aren't probably the best gauge of things, but I was surprised when about halfway through the episode I realized I hadn't particularly missed Jack. I think it was said well above comparing this Jack to the Jack from the original and how over-exposure of that character would have led to McGill's Jack becoming overbearing. It'll be interesting to see how the dynamic changes when Jack goes from missing a mission here and there to essentially not there at all though.

That said, I'm not much of a TV "shipper," but I do find myself particularly drawn to the combo of Mac and Riley. They work well together and play off together quite nicely. With Jack leaving, those two on assignments alone (really need to limit Bozer's field role...I like the actor and character but it all still seems so out of place) could be for the betterment of the show, JMO.

I'd definitely be for the return of Charlotte in a future episode. I enjoyed Ms. Regan's performance. Come to think of it, there have been scarcely few one-off characters that I'd really like to see have a return episode outside of Frankie and the Coltons (though I'd also like some resolution to the Nikki plotline ), so I guess that's why this one has stood out so much. Well, maybe Sarah, but that would be slightly pointless post-Eads.

Final Ratings: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/show...-1-11-2019.html

Sadly, MacGyver was the only show that was adjusted down in demo; losing the previous 0.8. Not much adjustment in viewer numbers. It's still the episode with the highest audience number this season.

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At least they kept their lead in viewers. and I wonder how accurate Nielson demos are. I thought CBS wanted to go a different way?

Yes, there was some talks about not using Nielsen anymore. But there's not really any alternative at the moment, so I guess they still rely on them.

A good one but not great.

Charlotte Cole was indeed a great character, well developed and I like to see future episodes with her. Nice red hair by the way.

Couple of great nods to original episodes. Of course the grenade was screaming to "find something to replace the pins." Looks like this Mac has a small case of mysophobia. Not too keen of picking up a toothpick, our Mac didn't seem to have problem to pick up that soda cup to wet the matches in Deadly Dreams. He's using the straw someone sucked on.

Really? You would shoot them or would you shoot the tire?

I was a little shocked how hard Matty plays her cards, though she made a more then reasonable proposal but then she went downright to blackmailing Charlotte and then I just figured that is not how Pete would play this game.

The fact Jack was absent in this episode... sometimes I miss him, sometimes I don't. He's either overbearing or very childish and superstitious and sometimes he can be really cool. This time I missed him. Bozer can not take his place and at this point, I think Charlie Robinson would be a great assett to the team. Someone who is as tough as Jack and knows how to protect Mac.

Also it seems that the fighting has taken a back seat the past few episodes, maybe due to Jack's absence?

Further it was indeed a little Mission Impossible and Ocean's Eleven style. This is actually the first episode where they relied more on improvisation and MacGyverisms then anything else. I was a little disappointed that they eventually did not use Mac's way of getting passed the pressure pads when it come down to it. So they showed how he would do it during the briefing (which is a nice storytelling technique) but they should've showed when it came down to it. He made something cool to get over it but he just ran over it when the time came to pass it.

Also again a brief moment where Mac is caught by the Russians but in the next scene he's out again and even back in the United States. That's one of those moments you really have to pay attention to what has been said because if you missed it, you might think you missed a scene even though Matty said she talked to the Russian government to get her agents free.

And once more Riley shows her field-skills by pretending to be Charlotte Cole. Riley's got guts for sure.

Really? You would shoot them or would you shoot the tire?

It's been so long I don't really remember. But I believe I meant look around and shoot in the direction the tire came from instead of acting like sitting ducks or whatever