2-5 Skull + Electromagnet

Airdate: 27 October 2017
Writer: Lindsey Allen
Director: Liz Allen Rosenbaum
Guest Cast: Jeananne Goossen (Harper Hayes) , Isaiah Stratton (Commander Wheeler)
David Carr (Bill Kearns) , Shaun Mixon (Pilot) , Philip Fornah (CIA Tac Team # 1)


The team is pulled away from their Halloween plans when they head into the dreaded Bermuda Triangle to retrieve the Vice President’s son after his plane goes down with a mysterious prisoner on board.

They follow each other like lemmings and seem to have no life or where to go 'after work' but to hangout at "boywonder" 's pad! Not a bad episode but the dark/boring/unimaginative settings are back after a respite from last episode.


.... Like, how does any villain stand a chance against the 'M-Team" .... it's like a human neural network with their constant comms, interactions & collaborative skill set. This aspect is the antithesis of the original MacGyver where Mac was constantly the underdog in numbers, was going solo for the majority of the episodes, and had to improvise on the fly and with nobody to justify it to in real time - that was the bulk of the magic. All gone ..... but not forgotten now!

That's what a lack of a decent TV show budget will do to you

I'm more weirded out that they're still hanging around in this house that has been invaded by Murdoc and/or his goons twice. Not to mention that they didn't move Phoenix, either - not only was security breached and Phoenix invaded, but the bad guys got into the systems. They had access to personal files and stuff. They would have gotten information about all agents and handing them out to other bad guys, surely?

But I think we'll see Jack's appartement soon; so they'll have another place to hang out with each other

I loved this episode. The Halloween costumes, scaring Bozer and Jack all about the Bermuda Triangle was great.
I thought there were some good bromance moments and I loved how Mac created a thermal device and magnet.

Still not a fan of Cage and need to understand why she always needs saving? The last 3 episodes show her in some kind of peril and she is becoming the sole focus. This overt flirting with Mac is becoming too forced. She is a CIA operative and can't seem to handle herself. She was told by Mac to stay in the plane and then she came up behind him and then she tells Riley that Bozer is afraid of an Octopus. Who is she to tell that?

I hope the writers have a plan and it makes this all worthwhile in dealing with her character. I hope we find out her secret soon before any romance. UGH!!

I liked the episode, but it didn't leave the same kind of lasting impression as the last two episodes. I feel like I have already forgotten too much about it to write some more

Guess I have to rewatch it first.

But overall, I mostly liked that it was another kind of "MacGyver in the wilderness" episode, although the next one is similar in location (in fact, I believe they might have filmed both episodes in the same area).

This was a good one, possibly my second favorite of the season. The atmosphere of this episode is what really made it stand out, I think. The overall tone of it reminded me a bit of Ghost Ship and The Silent Killer. Always nice to see Mac in the woods. Overall, this second season is off to a better start than season one.

I still wish this show would occasionally develop the villains a little bit. Aside from Murdoc, most villains on this show are extremely shallow. We never see them planning anything, discussing their motivations, arguing with each other... nothing. The only exposition we get about the villains usually comes from Matty telling the team about them. I recall Lucas mentioned something about how it's good to have more people on Mac's team so that he gets a bit of a break, but I think a better solution would have been for the writers to give more screen time to the villains. This episode's villain had the potential to be a really cool character, but we barely saw her.

I finally got around to watching this episode. Lol New season of Stranger Things came out yesterday morning, so... yeah... XD

ANYWAY, not an awful episode. Not great either. Kinda boring.

But I blame it on the fact that Supernatural and Stranger Things just started their new seasons, so my attention is diverted elsewhere.

Harper Hayes looks like a discount Alice from Resident Evil Retribution. Lol

I really wasn't all that into it... then again, I kinda stopped paying attention around the time Jack started talking about the Conjuring. I know James Wan is an executive producer, but his horror movies suck. I know because my sister and I just watched Annabelle Creation and we laughed our way through the whole thing.

Wait... what happened again?

Preliminary Ratings are in: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/the-...10-27-2017.html

Well, we knew Sports would win the ratings today. Also, there was more competition in Netflix dropping the 2nd Season of "Stranger Things" and the premiere of the newest Season of "Blindspot".

Looking at the numbers, I guess it could have been a lot worse. The show lost in viewer numbers, but it still held the 0.8 rating. If you exclude the Series Game, it even won the time slot.

CBS could have decided to do reruns instead, but they knew ratings would suffer due to the game and still decided to air the Michael Jackson Special and new episodes of MacGyver/BlueBloods.

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Good point!

The villains were not very memorable in Season 1, so I was hoping that would change for Season 2. Not fleshing out Harper for this Episode was another missed opportunity, sadly. But I guess since they want to do multiple storylines and give every character of Team Phoenix appropriate screen time, that's not going to change.

I loved the nod to "The Assassin" by hiding the metal under her skin to pick the handcuffs. (Or was that Zito? I'm a BAD bad fan .) Too bad she didn't get more screentime.

But it looks like "The Gost" will be back in Episode 12, so she might come back, too? After all, she would be a worthy member for Murdoc's collective.

You were right. It's "The Assassin." I loved that part, too! I love seeing little throwbacks like that.

I hope she joins HIT, and I hope that her character is fleshed out more if she does. They have a very valuable opportunity there. She'd be a way better villain than that Fletcher cat. Why didn't Murdoc recruit her first?

Did anyone but me find Jack's reaction to Mac's electromagnet hilarious? Crossing himself with the sign of the Triangle?! That was so funny.

I actually liked the setting for this one because I thought the WWII base was really interesting. I wish that they had shown more of it. I liked watching Mac using the old equipment and finding that 70-year-old can of corn. ...I would've eaten that.

Final Ratings are in: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/show...10-27-2017.html

The rating adjusted up to 0.9. This is the best of Season 2 so far and improves the chances to get renewed for another season.

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Well, you have to wonder in general why someone of the team constantly needs saving, considering they're supppsedly better than the others and get missions other agents of other agencies are not capable to take on

Also, every character gets abducted/held hostage or disappears at some point and needs to be rescued/found. I think Cage is up soon for "disappearance"; according to one of the on-set interviews before the Season 2 Premiere back in September. So she will be the focus once again, I'm afraid.

It's interesting that CBS decided to bench the new episodes of "Seal Team" and "Criminal Minds" today opposite the Series World Game: https://twitter.com/TVLine/status/925736295535726593

They air reruns instead. They apparently didn't feel the need to do that with "MacGyver" last Friday

A World Series 'Game 7' on a week night is a much different animal than a game 3 (non elimination game) on a Friday night. A game is not just a game within the ratings system. Like,,, I don't know anyone who won't be watching the game tonight!!!

When I was bingeing this this past weekend, I noticed something that's bugging me.


Cage: I'm afraid of drowning. I fell in a neighbor's pool when I was four. I've been deathly afraid of water ever since.

MacGyver: I'll get you out of this, don't worry.

Back in episode 2x01, exactly four episodes before this:

MacGyver: *explains that his plan involves climbing into a water-filled tunnel*

Cage: I should be the one going down there. This whole mission was my idea.

Me: ????????

Well done in noticing that!

I guess we can file that under the Original Pilot were MacGyver fired a gun - the character and its background wasn't established enough yet.

Thanks

To be fair, this was just before Mac explained about the possibility of drowning, so maybe Cage was willing to do a bit of swimming, but she did say "deathly afraid of water" so IDK

Good catch you... bad job writers.

After that amazing ending in the last episode which looked like a cliffhanger, I decided to watch another one, only this episode didn't have anything to do with the previous storyline and I was like: huh? Not only this episode didn't had anything to do with the last one, that was like the least interesting so far. Where did Jack's superstition suddenly come from? He was nagging the whole episode.

I do like their new plane though. Any idea on the model? I've seen a similar plane in Mile 22.

Harper Hayes did look like a formidable villain. I was just distracted by her mole. Somehow I was thinking: Deborah? But I would've casted Gina Carano instead.

Furthermore this was the least interesting episode so far, so I'm not going to waste more words about it. I was a bit bummed out that they didn't pick up where they left off, then again they need to fill an entire season.

Murdoc broke in the houseboat twice and they didn't move Phoenix either after Victoria James tried to blow it up with the bomb. She also had access to everything that night. But this is nothing to be weirded out about.

Blog Post by Technical Advisor Rhett Allain about the MacGyverisms in this episode: https://rhettallain.com/2019/05/20/macgyver...-electromagnet/


Looks like Rhett is trying to finish Season 2 up as well. It's nice that he takes the time to do posts for every episode, even though it's quite a while since they aired.

For Halloween, thank you DashboardOnFire for your advice. very good episode, perfect for an evening "thrills" without violence.

I like the episode. Been a while since I've watched it...

I like the episode. Been a while since I've watched it...

yes I like it too and also references to various films are always welcome.