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| MacGyver Online Forums > Episode Discussions > 1-11 Scissors |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 16 December 2016 - 12:59 AM |
 1-11 Scissors Airdate: Dec. 16, 2016 Writer: Lindsay Allen and Nancy Kiu Director: Stephen Herek Guest Cast:Michael Michele (Diane) , Nicholas X. Parsons (Millenial) , Sean Michael Weber (Jaden) Lyman Chen (Guard) , Joshua Chang (Tech) , Tze Yep (Lead Security Guard) While MacGyver and Jack search for Riley after she mysteriously disappears and hacks into the NSA Bozer goes on his first official mission, and Jack opens up about his history with Riley’s mother. |
| Posted by: Joe SAKic 16 December 2016 - 06:34 PM |
Who did the ho,ho,ho at the end and as the credits were rolling? Sounded like Winkler.  Not a bad episode and we start to understand a bit more why they seem to travel around like a herd of sheep. I think Jack's everyone's daddy-0.   Okay, seriously, nice tip of the hat to Vancouver but the scene was so closely cropped that you didn't get the feeling you were in Vancouver ... not! Not enough resistance inside Chinese high security building for a trio of foreigners that stuck out like a sore thumb. Liked the GPS-spoof-macgyverism and, accordingly, the graphics were really good at first and then really bad in the end and as the missile blew up. Thought they went a bit over-board on the past/present relationship thing and it upstaged the drama intensity in at least one key point in the sequence Good Christmasy episode and Deano crooning at the end with the macgyvered snow falling was well done. Bozer's not going away folks! |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 17 December 2016 - 12:17 AM |
| I haven't seen the episode yet, but from what I've read on Twitter it seemed like more people have been tuning in to tweet about it; and the tweets seemed overall positive - at least I didn't see many negative ones (contrary to other episodes). The Hashtag #MacGyver was also trending 5 or 6 minutes earlier than last week. I'm a bit surprised they didn't end the episode in a huge cliffhanger as i suspected - but I guess that will be in Episode 13 (since they had ordered 13 episodes originally and that one would have been the season finale). |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 17 December 2016 - 02:23 AM |
| Twitters always positive though. Facebook seems to have all the negative comments and twitter gets all the positive comments. |
| Posted by: KiwiTek 17 December 2016 - 03:41 AM |
Loved it! Best episode so far!  This is what I was hoping for right from the start. It felt like MacGyver. It feels like some of our concerns have finally been addressed in this episode. I'm really hoping they stay like this. This is the first episode I want to go back and re-watch. If you know anyone who hasn't watched watched, or is unsure if they will like this reboot... this is the episode to start them off on. You may need to explain the phone numbers thing between Bozer and Riley at the end and possibly how Jack already knows Riley, but other than that it stands pretty well on it's own. |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 17 December 2016 - 06:19 AM |
| I'm not sure this was a real episode of the reboot - because I didn't see that many guns in this one! Just kidding, of course. See, this episode just proved you don't need Jack running around with a gun and aiming at people all the time! Well done! |
| Posted by: DXS 17 December 2016 - 07:52 AM |
| Enjoyed the episode but I HAVE NIT PICKS!!!!! 1. How in the H*** did Riley just SUDDENLY "go to Canada" from Los Angeles? You don't just "suddenly decide to disappear and go to Canada from Los Angeles...." Fly or Drive. Driving..... Mapquest says 1200 miles, could do two or three days..... 2. How in the H*** did Riley even GET INSIDE Canada? She has a record. These days, you need a PASSPORT (didn't use to when I was a child....) to even get into Canada, and Riley has a criminal record! If you have a criminal record, you can't even cross the border! Unless she has an "official" one from Phoenix and used it...... falsely..... 3. How in the H*** did MacGyver, Dalton, and Bozer get to Canada that fast to rescue her? No evidence they flew.... 4. How in the H*** did they all get from Canada to Shanghai so quickly? 5. And when they got back home, it was still "just a day????" Ok, regarding the bomb on Riley's mom..... when they cut the ties on the hand, all of a sudden the neck thing got tighter? What kind of rigging was that? And the episode was titled SCISSORS. Where in the **** were the scissors? Or are all these "titles" just figurative? Meant as a description? |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 17 December 2016 - 08:15 AM | ||
MacGyver used scissors to cut the cable of the thing around Diane's neck. That's my biggest nitpick, though. Yes, leverage makes it easier, but I still think the scissors wouldn't be strong enough to cut through such a thick wire-cable. |
| Posted by: Miasma 17 December 2016 - 10:14 AM |
| I felt this one was a slight step down from a few of the recent episodes, but it was still better than some of the earliest episodes. This is now the second episode in a row that did not have Jack using his gun! Are those days over? Fingers crossed! Interesting to note that the first Hawaii 5-O Christmas episode also featured a scene with a bomb strapped to someone's neck. Apparently Lenkov associates neck bombs with Christmas. haha. One thing I'm curious about-- why don't we see Mac's Jeep more? Instead, Jack is always driving him around in a generic car. I think that's bad for two reasons: 1. We don't get to see the Jeep, and 2. It makes Mac look less in charge when he's always relying on someone else to drive him around. (To be fair, though, in this episode, I assume they must have flown to Vancouver, so it makes sense that they would rent a car there, rather than Mac driving all the way there in his Jeep. But still, in future episodes, I want to see Mac driving his Jeep more often.) Overall, this was probably the strongest episode yet in terms of character development, and the action scenes were fun. It just required the audience to shut their brains off in order to overlook certain things. |
| Posted by: DXS 17 December 2016 - 10:55 AM | ||
No kidding! See my "nitpicks." And yeah, on the jeep..... WE WANT THE JEEP! Bozer was still useless, except he did point them to where Riley MIGHT be..... |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 17 December 2016 - 11:32 AM | ||
Now that's romantic  |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 17 December 2016 - 11:36 AM | ||
When episodes play abroad, it makes sense that they rent a car and that the rental car most likely isn't a jeep (I think we had a black one in Episode 2). But I guess budget-wise, they don't have the jeep at hand all the time but rent it when they need it? That might change if/when they order a second season... |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 18 December 2016 - 02:42 AM | ||
I just realized that MacGyver used scissors twice: to cut the rope from Diane's neck and to take the yellow key card of that Chinese Security Guard... |
| Posted by: Miasma 18 December 2016 - 05:53 AM | ||||
Yeah, you're right, most episodes take place overseas, so it makes sense that we don't see Mac's Jeep. Though I think they missed an opportunity last week when they went back to Mac's old school. That would have been a perfect time to feature the Jeep. As for why Mac doesn't drive more, it occurred to me that it's probably because Mac often has to do MacGyverisms when they're driving somewhere. |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 20 December 2016 - 02:01 AM | ||||||||||||
She didn't really decide to go to Canada she was sent there to meet the bad guys. And since they are an international criminal organisation, you would expect they would have had some form of private aircraft waiting for her. Remember she said she was contacted by the Collective 2 weeks ago and being a master hacker that would be ample time to change her records in the TSA's systems as well as organize tickets etc to get her to what was obviously a pre-arraigned meet point.
Do we need every little detail shown on screen? Do we need to see them renting a car in Canada as well or do we make some assumptions for the sake of keeping pace and flow of the story?
You'd have to assume the Phoenix Foundation has, or charted, a private plane. Even then it's pushing it. On the other hand there was mention of a teleportation device so..... 
what makes you think that? Bozer said he rescheduled Xmas eve when he heard they were hold up in a Chinese prison. I go the impression from that comment that they had missed the real Xmas.
No. If you re-watch it you can see she's gasping for air before they cut her hands free. The bad guys must of set it off as they pushed her out of the van.
What did MacGyver use to cut the rope off her neck and take the access card from the guard while Jack and Riely argued? |
| Posted by: Jediferret 20 December 2016 - 11:52 AM |
| I don't think I've said anything about this episode yet... lol I thought it was very well done. This one definitely felt more like MacGyver, as he took an interest in the problem between Riley and Jack while at the same time trying to fix the problem at hand... VERY typical MacGyver. Great acting on Tristin Mays' part as well... I absolutely love her and her character of Riley. Also interesting to point out, and I'm glad I'm not the only one, but there seems to be a bit of chemistry between MacGyver and Riley... I'd totally be cool with MacGyver/Riley instead of Riley/Bozer. It almost feels like that's the path they're going down, but not sure yet. Guess we'll see, eh? I give it a four our five.  |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 20 December 2016 - 12:15 PM |
| MacGyver really felt like the "leader of the pack" in this episode. He was giving the orders and getting the others to help him do stuff like we saw int he original show. This is the first episode I've really felt that. |
| Posted by: Joe SAKic 20 December 2016 - 01:29 PM |
| Yeah, I mean this episode was okay but with a decided soap opera turn. There's a fine content line between action, tech, & emotional/relationship subplot variables and in order to have a certified "MacGyver" feel to it, and I think they overcooked the latter by a couple of minutes in this shoot and imo. Albeit, it was the 'Christmas Epiisode' which tend to lay the emotion thing on a bit more thick & saucier in most TV series'. ' |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 13 October 2017 - 08:44 AM |
| There will be a rerun of this Episode tomorrow Saturday, October 14 at 8pm: https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/Scoop-MACGYVER-on-CBS-Saturday-October-14-2017-20171010 |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 14 June 2018 - 02:59 PM |
| Final ratings via Showbuzz: |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 24 June 2018 - 09:42 PM |
| now that must be a bit frustrating... |
| Posted by: Dragondog 25 June 2018 - 06:13 PM |
Passive-aggressive level: Expert  |
| Posted by: MacGyverGod 9 October 2018 - 02:32 AM |
| So, the first Christmas episode with Chinese bad guys and the end of the world? I'm in. First of all I have to agree with most here. I do think the bad guys here are a little underused, simply a plot device but never fleshed out until now. But it wasn't until later in the original as well I think that bad guys got some or more scenes on their own to clear out their plans. I think 1 or 2 scenes are more then enough to lay out their plans and one in case they need to adjust their plan. Sometimes it is indeed hard to tell in what kind of timeframe to episode is set because mostly everything happens within a day. Though it is hard to believe they can go to Canada and China and be back on time for Christmas Eve. For all we know it was New Years Eve, but why only have one party if you can have two? Also interesting that Patricia was in Christmas mood as she kissed Jack on the cheek in the end. This was pretty good episode with a few great moments between Jack and Riley. The fake/real arguments. She smacked him twice and he didn't know if she was serious or not. Also the bomb device was cool touch. We were going into Saw territory. Would've also been a nice episode title: Saw but maybe it should've been called: Cannibal. |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 10 October 2018 - 11:21 AM | ||
I feel this is something Lenkov isn't really interested in - it's the same for "Hawaii Five-0". The only villain ever being fleshed out and made interesting is rebooted Wo Fat - the guy that evades McGarrett again and again; similar to rebooted Murdoc. I've seen only a handful of scenes with only being the villain present, and I dare say that of 95% of the scenes I've seen, it was always a Wo Fat episode. Not sure how it is on "Magnum" since I've only seen the pilot. I understand that they want to focus on the main cast, but I feel the episode and the pacing would profit if there was rather a single storyline with a focus on the bad guys as well instead of 2 storylines featuring all regular cast members and never the villains. |
| Posted by: DashboardOnFire 28 January 2019 - 01:58 PM |
| Here's the blog post by Rhett Allain - Technical Consultant for the Reboot - about the "MacHacks" used in this episode: https://rhettallain.com/2019/01/28/macgyver-season-1-episode-10-science-notes-scissors/ As usual, he added some YouTube videos with it. |