Sean Angus (Sam) Mollay Although SAM appeared in only one episode, the series finale "The Stringer," his introduction had a profound effect on MacGyver's life. He is the son of MacGyver and Kate Malloy, a photojournalist MacGyver was involved with in his post-college years. After his mother,Kate, was murdered by Chinese soldiers, SAM vowed revenge on Chan, the general who executed her. His chance for vengeance came when he and his father confronted Chan on a freighter, but MacGyver talked SAM out of killing Chan. SAM and MacGyver set off on a motorcycle journey together at the end of the series' seven-year run. Read full bio

I only gave poor SAM an average because of fic potential. On the show, he was simply abyssmal...and not the actor, etc...but the character...horrible idea...well, just the way they did it...Little Orphan Annie, much? I mean, it gave them a way to end the show, but still...wow...

But maybe that's just me...

And he sure is fun to play with in fic...lots of angst and struggle we can put poor Mac through on that one!

I liked SAM just fine. Dalton James was a great choice to portray him. And yes, there had been some long-lost children introduced for other characters previously, but I still didn't see that coming for MacGyver. It was a way to end the series alright.
I just didn't like the way they introduced SAM's character. I don't see why he couldn't have been the long-lost son MacGyver never knew he had from his long-lost wife who died in China.
And perhaps the whole scene in "The Gauntlet" and "Friends" (with Kate) went over my head as a child, but I don't think the show ever indicated that MacGyver was sleeping with women he wasn't married to during the show.
MacGyver is a great role model in a lot of ways, but I was quite disappointed to see that he had commited adultery.
Still, it's not an unforgiveable sin- it just shows that MacGyver has his flaws like everyone else. At least MacGyver did the right thing and took care of his son and became a real father to him after reuniting with him.
But anyway, it would have been nice to see some further adventures with father and son in an 8th. Season or in some TV-movies or something. In fact, if the WB really wanted to make "Young MacGyver", I would definitely have watched it if they had used Dalton James as SAM- that would rock!

So why did MacGyver look so horrified when he saw that Kate was pregnant?

And why did she have to tell him that the baby was her husbands and not his if they hadn't slept together?

Well, I have to agree with Rock. And today, I'm feeling a bit more charitable towards SAM...but that's another story for another day.

I believe that MacGyver eats red meat, that his mouth fits nicely around some curse words from time to time, and that he can be quite the ladies man, if you catch my drift. Mac isn't pure as the driven snow, but that's what makes him a real person and thus an interesting character to write about and read about and watch.

I am lost, for several reasons. First, he didn't sleep with the journalist, at least not according to the way they were speaking in "Friends."
And, the picture Sam had of Kate Malloy was NOT the same woman in the first two episodes. She was blond and had straight hair. If they were referring to her, why not use a picture of her from the actual episodes?
So, I always assumed it was a different Kate. How could it possibly be the same woman who played in the first and second season?

The photojournalist in "The Gauntlet" was a brunette, and the character was named Kate Connelly. She and Mac did not know each other prior to meeting in that episode.

Sam's mother, Kate Malloy, was Mac's girlfriend in his last year of college. There would have been a dozen years between the two relationships.

I've never had a problem with Mac's having had physical relationships with either woman. They were all consenting adults, after all. I enjoyed the different style of the romantic subplots in both episodes.

I think the scene in friends was all about them not making Kates husband jealous.

If they really hadn't slept together, she wouldn't have had to tell him the baby wasn't his would she.

There's nothing in the dialogue in "Friends" that precludes their having been lovers. They're in an awkward situation with Kate's husband standing there -- which would not have been awkward if they hadn't spent the night together In "The Gauntlet".

Compare the pick-up scene in "The Negotiator": the dialogue in that scene does not prove that Mac doesn't drink coffee. Yes, he says he doesn't -- under circumstances that make the statement unreliable.

Ok, that makes sense. So we never saw Kate Malloy on the show, right? She just got made up at the end?
I was under the impression they did not sleep together, because I distinctly remember watching the episode when I was a kid and Mac says, "But we didn't...." and then she introduces her husband.

Kate Connelly was the photo journalist that Mac met in 'The Gauntet' and 'Friends'.
Kate Malloy was Sam's mother, and we never saw her in any episode, besides the photos of her in 'The Stringer'.

I don't suppose it occurred to the folks making the TV show to take into consideration that it might be confusing to name all the female photo journalists in Mac's life 'Kate'! LOL

Mac knows a lot of Kate's and Lisa's throughout the show so I can see where the issues are. It was like the writers couldn't think up any other names that worked.

I liked Sam as a character. I wish that Mac and Kate had been married, but Mac sort of explains that as does Sam. Kate was Mac's college sweetheart, but left on assignment (in Brazil) and never told Mac that she was pregnant. She was like Mac and was always "on the road to somewhere else". Still I feel that she should have given Mac the opportunity to decide, and to know that he was going to be father. Mac had that right. Maybe Kate thought that she would be a burden to Mac? Who knows? I agree that MacGyver's relationship history leaves a great deal to be desired. But that's a wonderful thing about fanfiction. If you want to design a female character to be the great love of Mac's life and have him get married and repent of his ways you can! You can have him do almost anything in fanfiction. But I think that for a woman that "loved" him to leave him and not tell him about the baby is just wrong.

I wonder what happened to Dalton James who played Sam and Lisa Savage who played Kate in the flashback sequences. Lisa Savage was in the movie Beaches. She played a blonde that Barbara Hershey's character's husband had an affair with. It's a chick movie I know. I apologize to all the guys.

Sam is an interesting character both to end the series with, and in fanfiction.

My favorite Sam scene in the dialogue between Mac and Sam at the loft where Sam is telling Mac about his childhood, his name, his mother's death and Mac is sitting there listening. Pondering his life and what might have been. Life is in a large part about the choices that we makes. "Every action has a reaction" --to quote Mac and physics. Every action has a consequence. You have sex with someone you love, but are not married to (and unprotected sex at that- which we can assume since it was the early 1970s-maybe not) and you can end up with a baby. It can happen to us married folks too-I know from experience.

The water pressure MacGyverism is a little far fetched. And where is Mac's bullet wound? Issues that have with he episode have not only to do with the whole Mac/Sam/Kate thing.

Sam is a good character to be the catalyst to make Mac want to leave LA and the Phoenix Foundation. How else would you have ended the show? Never ended it? RDA would hardly go for that. Killed off Mac? Noooooooo!!!! Then how? They needed closure.

I liked the idea of him having a son; I think it was a great way to end the show. Of course he would want to spend time with his son, and he is getting too old for the kind of work he does. So they left it pretty open as to what his future career would be like. I liked that.
I do think it a bit farfetched that Kate wouldn't tell him about his child-that's a pretty low thing for a woman to do unless the man is a total loser, unlike MacGyver. He had a right to know. I know she died when he was young, but please, nine years is a long time to not tell a guy he has a child. Pretty unfair of her, I think, but what the hell? How else could he have a son he didn't know about?
I liked Dalton James as Sam. I think the resemblance between him and Mac was good, and he did a nice job. Shame his career didn't do much except for a soap opera.
As to Kate Connelly, I don't think she and Mac slept together. I think Mac was just nervous because her husband was standing there, big guy that he is. Somehow I doubt she would show up at his party if she had slept with him (even if he did save her life). How would you tell your husband that? I am married so I am imaginging this..... "Um honey, there's this party for this guy that saved my life. He's a great friend, and I only slept with him once, so you don't have to worry..." That would NEVER fly! LOL In reality I would imagine her sending a card.
My husband would probably say, " Uh, well if he saved your life I guess you should go...but don't mind if I stay at home...." LOL

I was satisfied with the ending, I only wish that he would have been in the other 2 Mac TV movies after the season ended. It is as if he lost ties with his own son, I wish they could have made the movies as them working together. But as for the character I thought he was just right as a son for Mac.

I thought S.A.M. was a pretty good character, though I think maybe they could have made him a little less smart just to add to the show. I mean just 'cause he's Mac's son doesn't mean he'd be so smart. He'd never even met Mac before.

I think you've missed the point a bit.

SAM was smart because it's genetic intelligence. He has the MacGyverism chromosome. Thats what they where trying to get across.

MacGyver was born that way. His brain is wired differently to most other people and thats a genetic thing he passed onto his son.

As Pete said "he's a chip off the old block"

I think you've missed the point a bit.

SAM was smart because it's genetic intelligence. He has the MacGyverism chromosome. Thats what they where trying to get across.

MacGyver was born that way. His brain is wired differently to most other people and thats a genetic thing he passed onto his son.

As Pete said "he's a chip off the old block"

Yeah...Okay. That is just weird. Moving on...

I think you've missed the point a bit.

SAM was smart because it's genetic intelligence. He has the MacGyverism chromosome. Thats what they where trying to get across.

MacGyver was born that way. His brain is wired differently to most other people and thats a genetic thing he passed onto his son.

As Pete said "he's a chip off the old block"

Yeah...Okay. That is just weird. Moving on...

How is it weird?

It gets into the whole nature-nurture thing. How much of who we are is genetic vs environmental? SAM comes off as beyond cheesy to me. The whole 'chip off the old block' thing was cliche to the point of nausea. (He had a locket, folks! A locket!) I agree with Murdoc. Just because he was Mac's son does not mean he'd be smart, and he certainly would not be that similar to his father. How many of us are that similar to our parents?

I've seen The Stringer once.

Not an ep I'd watch again.

The only thing I get from this ep is the Mac angst about Kate not telling him. That makes for good fic fodder. But SAM? Ugh. Oh, except for the fact that I do NOT see Mac and SAM's future together as roses and rainbows. I see more angst...and we all know how I feel about angst.

I'm with you on this one, Jackwabbit. I watched The Stringer only twice in my life--once when it first aired, and the second time was when I used it to research a fic I wrote where Sam wasn't Mac's son but someone posing as his son. I guess that shows you how I feel about the character, too.

first and foremost I like alot of us did not expect to see MacGyver have a child more less a son. hes just no the type of guy you find sleeping with every woman, he has to fall deeply in love with the woman before he goes to that stage.

I voted him average for the fact that, welll,he split up Mac and Pete. I only watched The Stringer when it first aired and that was it. I cried so hard I had a headache. I think too that it was cold that Kate fifn't tell Mac about SAM He would have been an excellent daddy, but it kinda would have ruined the show. Still could have ended better.

According to the back story provided in The Stringer. MacGyver didn't just jump into bed with SAMs mother. He was in love with her.

I agree that the illegitimate/unknown child angle is a bit of a let down for the show.

Hi!
I am a new here.
I love this young boy. He was good enough. And RDA is sad about the shots, he is talented actor.

(Sorry, my English is not very good, but I wanna learn. )

According to the back story provided in The Stringer. MacGyver didn't just jump into bed with SAMs mother. He was in love with her.

I agree that the illegitimate/unknown child angle is a bit of a let down for the show.

I think a daughter would have been more of a shock then a son.

A daughter would have been an interesting challenge for Mac don't you think?

But he had always got interesting challenge, and he always make up something.

He would have been the most over protective father in the world, but it would make for a interesting story line. To see a female version of Mac getting herself out of trouble using only what she had on hand.

Hmmm...Mac's inability to commit to women is revisited often in the series. When I say "commit," I am referring to marriage. His character wasn't promiscuous, but his being married wouldn't have worked for the show. His character had a free spirit, full of wanderlust. Marriage (and children) would have killed his character. That is why SAM came at the end of the series. We get to remember Mac as he always was, without the alterations to his character that Fatherhood would have most definitely caused.