Every week I will be posting a new topic titled "Episode Discussion". In this we will discuss an episode, what we liked about it, what we didn't like, etc.


Episode 42 - Friends

At a surprise birthday party thrown for MacGyver by Pete Thornton & his friends, MacGyver reviews his life-threatening career and ponders resignation.

votes from 26th March 2006

Poor [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Average [ 2 ] [22.22%]
OK [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Good [ 5 ] [55.56%]
Excellent [ 2 ] [22.22%]
Total Votes: 9

Archived comments

I watched this one again recently. It's pretty decent, it shows a lot of memorable moments and stunts from the first 2 seasons. Might be a good intro episode for someone new to the show. There are some genuinely funny moments too, like Jack's disguise, MacGyver's reaction to his pregnant ex, and the banter between Jack and Penny. MacGyver's thoughts about retirement seemed really sudden and out of place to me though, and not the type of thing you'd be likely to admit at a party thrown in your honor. But it works as a plot device.

This was one of three clip episodes: Unfinished Business and Hind Sight are the other two.
I love Jack Dalton in disguise with the knife. Mac comes out of the bathroom, after using the bathroom and washing his hands, walks to his can of soda, takes a sip and the look on his face when he feels the knife and hears the voice that he doesn't recognize is priceless. Question:how does he not recognize the voice?
I love the party sequences with Penny, Craig Bannister, Jack, Pete and Grandpa Harry. I love the relatiosnhip that is shown between Mac and Harry. John Anderson was an amazing chaarcter actor. Anyone remeber Psycho? The car dealer? That cracks me up when I watch Psycho, and see Mac's grandpa Harry. Whoa!
Penny is a good chaarcter, but the only thing is how can anyone be that bubbly. She's like a female Jack Dalton, always in trouble. The difference is Jack has a brain and thank heaven Jack doesn't kiss Mac is every episode they are in, like Penny does. That bugs me.
Mac really for the first time considers resigning, and even admits that he would lie to go back to Minnesota and meet a woman and settle down. He is considering his life's direction. At the end he tells the group that when he was a kid his grandpa told him that a fella's life isn't worth much if he didn't share with a few folks along the way. (paraphrase)
Great episode!

That's funny. I was just watching Psycho the other night and noticed (a much younger) John Anderson. I didn't know he was in that.

This is a well presented clip show with some special moments of its own. I can't stop laughing about the facial expression of Mac when he met the pregnant Kate and her husband. The birthday speech is touching, it's lucky that he gave that speech and reminded him of the meaning of the work he does, so we could have him for 5 more seasons.

Pretty good for a 'clip show' I found it quite touching and showed how Mac had helped people in life changing ways. With comedy thrown in

Loved this one where Pete and friends reminds MacGyver of his past feets.

Ironic how scared he is when he sees a pregnant Kate...all the while he's got a preteen son running around somewhere out there lol.

I normally don't like highlights-episodes, but this one is great. Not only a great collection of clips (especially impressive when it was only the second season), but for once the "current" story framing them is actually somewhat compelling. It takes some suspension of disbelief to buy the set-up and Mac's failure to recognize Jack, but Pete is absolutely right that Mac wouldn't have come to the party under any other circumstances. There are also some great eighties relics, like the 5' disc in the first scene, Penny's hair and dress, and the fact that Kate's husband is "a linebacker for the Titans" (there was, of course, no such team in 1987 but there is now). I was going to nitpick Mac's reference to the Titans as "having a great season" in the present tense when it was March, but they could have been a USFL team(?)

I found Mac's ambivalence about his future believable too, although I'd have liked to hear more about what had gone wrong on the assignment in Central America that he'd just returned from. All in all, a truly great episode.

By the way, is it just me, or does Jack's eye not twitch when he tells Penny he studied in Milan?

This episode made me think: On what basis did Mac become "special agents" in the Phoenix Foundation? Did Mac ever get the kind of "special training" or what? Was he a graduate of military academy? Have there been specially trained?

If not, then how "civilians" like MacGyver who have a background in physics education (?) can be trusted to perform dangerous tasks?

To perform these actions in the episode "Pilot", "The Gauntlet", "Golden Triangle", and so on, at least once trained military.

Mac's backstory has always been a bit muddled, particularly since no two writers could agree on anything. Also, in the early episodes, he seems like a skilled fighter, which would make sense since he supposedly had some kind of training. In later episodes, though, he's portrayed more as an "everyman," who somehow manages to occasionally land a lucky punch on his opponents.

I have a hard time believing Mac ever had military training, since he wouldn't agree to use a gun, and no drill sargent is going to just say, "Oh, ok, you don't like guns? No problem, we'll make an exception for you." On the other hand, like you said, it's unlikely he'd get the kind of job he had, especially in season 1, if he didn't have some kind of formal military training.

Notice also that they completely change his back story with the first Murdoc episode. That episode portrays Mac as a nervous, somewhat awkward guy who meets Pete while driving a car. Yet, in Season 1, we know Mac has had training flying planes, fighting, etc. And in season 1 we're told that Mac and Pete met when they got stuck in quicksand, but "Partners" contradicts this. Trying to make sense of Mac's backstory is largely a waste of time, since even the writers couldn't be bothered to come up with anything consistant.

I sometimes think of Season 2 as a reboot of the series. It feels like they had one idea in mind when they did season 1, and then they decided to change course for Season 2.

We've discussed this in some depth in this topic about how the bomb disposal teams wouldn't nesasseraly be made up of all enlisted solders. It also discusses how MacGYver's hate of guns is probbaly the result of various life experiances.

Remember in the episode Tough Boys he says his dislike of violance is because he knows so much about it. Guns are probabaly along the same lines.

There's also this topic about MacGyver being a green beret clicky

Another hint from "Tough Boys" is that he recognizes the net arrangement as force recon ("they don't even make a manual for that!") Also, he mentions having been in Vietnam at least once. Since he graduated from college in 1973, he wouldn't have been drafted, which makes it somewhat more plausible that he was there strictly in a role that did not involve him carrying a gun.

I think this episode is boring. Its like the actors decided they couldn't be bothered acting, and the writers got slack and couldn't be bothered writing a proper script. This is 15 minutes of acting and 40 minutes or so of flashbacks.

I did love how Mac reacted to pregnant Kate - I doubt he carries condoms with him in that knapsack, but he could have used duct tape...hehe.

Why are people calling her Robin, though?

It's the actors name

Oh okay. Silly me, I should have known that.

This episode is actually rather good for a clip show. I like the premise, though it made me very curious about what actually happened when Mac got so close to being killed. Something definitely touched him on a personal level, and made him re-evaluate some aspects of his life.

I think most of us in his age have sometimes felt a touch of the birthday blues. Personally, I feel very much out of place if people throw a party for me like that, so I think I do at least have a clue what he feels like in that aspect too...

I noticed many of the clips were actually the opening gambits in their entirety. Watching them over again, I compared them to the new Citan ads, and found them very different from almost every aspect; story telling, dialogue versus action and just the general flow. In my opinion, the opening gambits work, but the Citan ads were much of a disappointment.

The look on Mac's face when he finds out that Kate is pregnant is just priceless. I think the thought of suddenly and unexpectedly becoming a father is so frightening that he simply forgets how long it was since they were together. And especially since she actually says it's his fault, too...

And I won't even mention the kissing scenes with Penny... oops, I just did. I pretend I didn't, and that I didn't see them, either.

Glad Mac didn't resign, or there would just have been two seasons of MacGyver...

A "Good" rating from me.

This is a good episode to me, even if it's a compilation of old episodes already seen (a million times).

Poor Mac, after he was close to dying in three different times his so called "friend" brakes into his house and points a knife to him

RDA looks sad for real in this episode, maybe for the co-worker who the episode is dedicated to.

They made the audience think that it was the very last episode until a few minutes before the end. Fortunately it wasn't

Flashback episodes were always quite popular in the 80's. Sometimes it was a way of saving on budget for the season when they spent too much on another episode or two.

I felt they did this once too many for Stargate SG1 actually. I called those "Earth" episodes where the entire episode was set on the base.

Whenever they showed these, I always thought to myself, "Oh! It's another Earth episode!"

Just watched Friends as I'm going trough the whole serie. Normally I don't like Flashback episodes, but this one is decent. It could be much better though, since I don't like how they changed these flashbacks. For example the opening gambit with the map, the original is just pure gold, but they changed fantastic Randy Edelman score among other things. I don't know, it just feels strange to see them that way. Why not to show them like we remember them in the first place. There are Jack, Pete, Penny, Harry, Kate and Craig at the party which is great, but we don't really get to see a lot of conversations between them. This episode could have so much more potential if it weren't just a budget saving episode.

Well the composers have to work too, you know. Also Unfinished Business and Hind-Sight are flashback episodes with new music on old MacGyverisms.

Mac meets with everyone throughout the episode and talks at least once too them and there's one flashback for each character. And you only have like 45 minutes to do so.

I must admit I am also not keen on 'cut and shut' episodes, but I did quite enjoy this one. Although the pair of characters annoy me I did like the way Penny pulled the rug from under Jack in the finish by informing him of the 'note' in the ladies area. They are two characters that are in the series for laughs, but every so often show a practical side to the character that you don't expect. I also liked the way that Mac wouldn't let Jack interrupt Penny's kisses LOL. Lucky Penny!

I think I enjoyed the show as I quite like Mac in moody introspective mode - given his job I am surprised it doesn't surface more often.

probably realised how foolish he had been to panic, deciding that Kate would surely have told him much, much sooner if it had been his/their baby ...

... life is full of irony.

It's not a wonderful episode but it has its moments. I like the scenes with Harry and Pete in particular. It was interesting to see MacGyver in a introspective mood.


3/5

The fact that MacGyver is introspective doesn't surprise me. I've always classed him as an introvert, especially since he's a loner. It would explain why he doesn't like parties and being formal, and also why he forms such strong bonds with people.

Seriously, MacGyver is my Dad on steroids... XD

I agree Jedi. I think living the life he lived would naturally cause you to be retrospective. If for nothing else, just pure sanity and survival!

I don't like "souvenir" episodes but it has small advantages like guest stars like Jack, Harry Penny or Kate ... one can appreciate the phoenix foundation, like jack's humor and mac's request to start a family. On the other hand, in France the dialogues of the souvenir episodes are not the same as their first broadcasts, and in the USA? are they different dialogues? 3 ⭐️

In English the dialogues are the same as original show. They are exact clips from the oriignal episodes.

In English the dialogues are the same as original show. They are exact clips from the oriignal episodes.

A yes it is true it is not redoubled, it is stupid on my part ... In any case thank you for your answer.
I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your website, it is a beautiful tribute to the Macgyver series and I am happy to find fans and even talk about it in 2020 ... Macgyver is eternal.