After delving deeply into the lore of
The Elder Scrolls---namely, the works of Michael Kirkbride, writer of Vivec---I have come to consider the possibility (merely the possibility, mind you, not the probability) that Murdoc’s ability to seemingly return from the dead is the result of CHIM. Only 2 (maybe 3) characters in the
Elder Scrolls video games have been able to use the power of CHIM (as far as I know), but I’m beginning to think that Murdoc might be the one
MacGyver character who knows it.
Essentially, CHIM is being self-aware of one’s existence in the world and being able to gain control of it, much like a lucid dream. In order for Murdoc to achieve CHIM, he would have to become aware that he is living in a fictional world---and realize that he therefore has the power to change the course of events written in the story. In other words, if Murdoc were to become self-aware, then he could learn how to save and reload, as in a video game---thus giving him endless lives and, by extension, endless opportunities to kill MacGyver.
What I’m trying to say here is this: what if Murdoc’s endless attempts to kill MacGyver (and recovering in superhuman fashion) are just the result of Murdoc giving himself unlimited lives and reloading to try again? What if his “new face” from “Halloween Knights” was just him loading the game fresh to renew his health bar? Falling from a mountain should have killed or at least paralyzed him, yet he returned in “Cleo Rocks” with nary a scratch---perhaps because when you restart a video game, you go back to your last save with no permanent damage. Think about it: why does nothing seem to stop Murdoc? How can he survive everything? Why does he have no fear of death at all, even when basic survival instinct should kick in and cause him to flinch? Maybe because for him, there isn’t a real risk of death. If he “dies,” he just changes the ending and tries it again.
Furthermore, what if dream sequences like “Serenity” and the axe dream from the beginning of “Obsessed” were instances of MacGyver subconsciously remembering messy attempts that Murdoc decided to delete or overwrite? The idea that these events really happened is supported by MacGyver and Pete finding that tangible Swiss at the end of “Serenity,” so at the very least, that one episode wasn’t entirely a dream. Yet it wasn’t entirely real, either, so it’s plausible that perhaps those events took place in an alternate timeline---much like what might happen when a player creates and abandons a new save slot.
With the idea that Murdoc possesses CHIM, one might ask why Murdoc didn’t just use his power to stop Helman from kidnapping Ashton, or to save her from the avalanche that killed her. My thought on this is that, when you play a video game, you don’t have control over NPCs beyond how you interact with them in-game (or for Murdoc, in-life). There are actually exceptions, but since
MacGyver doesn’t come with a construction kit like
Morrowind, let’s assume that Murdoc doesn’t have that power. If Murdoc, unlike
Morrowind’s Vivec, can’t mod the world around him and can only change his own timeline, then it makes sense that he’d still have to get MacGyver’s help to take out Helman and would still be helpless to save Ashton---because all of them would be considered Non-Player Characters. Actually, the idea that he might fruitlessly continue to reload the world in various attempts to save Ashton’s life is a tempting story idea, but I digress. Basically, being able to change his own life doesn’t mean that Murdoc would be able to use CHIM to become omnipotent.
This lack of omnipotence would also explain why Murdoc wouldn’t simply zap MacGyver with a lightning bolt to kill him, but there’s another explanation for that, too. It’s evident from various parts of the show that Murdoc has his own twisted sense of honor, and also that he relishes the chase and the game. He’d rather toy with MacGyver than kill him outright, so even if he did possess the power to just strike MacGyver down, he probably would still set up one of his elaborate schemes just for the heck of it.
I realize that this probably doesn’t make a ton of sense to anyone who isn’t familiar with video game concepts, and I apologize for that. Still, the idea of Murdoc being the lone person in his universe who is fully aware of what his life is---and being the lone person capable of manipulating it---really intrigued me. I hope that maybe this could at least be a topic of further discussion later on!
