Today in MacGyver-History: 1987 Mike Forrester fell to her death while climbing the Widowmaker with MacGyver.

I feel sad for her. She was totally in tune with the sort of things he liked to do, but he evidently wasn't interested in the sort of committed relationship he had been in with Amy or Deborah-who-became-a-nun or Karen.

I always felt bad for Mike as well. But Mac had a pretty good point... I never really thought he rejected her, but was simply just trying to remind her of how important she was to him. She was putting herself and their friendship down a bit, and it was obvious that hurt him to a degree.

And interesting note though... when asked if he had ever been in love, Mac responded "Yeah, once." We never did know who he was referring to. I always wondered if he meant Mike or Kate Malloy. I say that because he seemed to be "in love" with everyone else, which is why they seemed to be short lived.

From my experiences, real love and being "in love" are two different things.

I think it's so sad. I don't think he was interested in a relationship. Despite the fact she had no interest in killing him, framing him for murder, becoming a nun or trying to tie him down (symbolically).

According to MacGyver's history, he's been in love twice.

Season 2, The Road Not Taken - He was going to ask Deborah to marry him.

Season 3, Lost Love - He was going to bring Lisa back to the US to be his wife.

It has to be said that the writers back then were pretty rubbish and keeping track of character history.

Also fairly terrible at thinking of women's names. Yes, yes, of course a lot of women are named Kate or Lisa or Deborah. They're popular names with long histories. But the writers could have tried a little harder to make it easier for people to keep track of the characters.

I'm not really sure if he wanted to bring Lisa back to be his wife in the US. She told him she was married to Kosov and that they both wanted to defect. So he knew where he stood.

I don't think it matters to whom he was referring to when asked by Lulu if he was ever really in love. I always thought Deborah since that was his most recent relationship at the time. But it could indeed be someone else from way before the show as well.

It doesn't matter... I just thought it was interesting. Trying to understand a fictional character as inconsistent as MacGyver is pretty much impossible. XD

Though, at this rate, I think MacGyver just failed basic math... but so did Einstein, so it's all good. lol

When I saw the thread's title, I thought the actress had died.

Anyway, on the subject of Mike Forester, I always thought it was a shame that (a) they couldn't get the original actress for both episodes, and (b) that they didn't use the character more frequently. I really liked her in her first episode (not so much in Widowmaker.) It would have been great to see Patricia McPherson play her a few more times, and that also would have made her death more impactful when it finally happened. As it was, I didn't really care much when Mike died because we'd only seen her once before, and she felt like a completely different character.

Yeah, I felt like Mike was a bit of an underused character... much like Deborah from Negotiator. There's a lot of wasted potential there.

Of course, I loved Patricia McPherson... and I instantly recognized her because she was Bonnie in Knight Rider.

Well, if we're going down the relationship tour, just remind yourselves why certain characters weren't used because of certain of fans.

Sometimes I think a lot of potential has been wasted to make MacGyver even better. Fleshing out the characters even more and bigger storylines.

But I never paid much attention to Mike, but considering the history she has with Mac, yeah maybe she deserved better. She only has those first five or six minutes in The Widowmaker while in Jack of Lies it's practically about her the whole episode and they really seemed to be close since Mac was pretty infuriated when Jack told him she was held captive. And since they travelled the world together, it seems natural. So yeah, maybe there was more to it.

That had to be a ton of fun, Jack, Mike and Mac, on their globe-trotting adventures!

I think a lot of Mac's pre-season 1 adventures would've be a ton of fun. And as Mac said Jack saved his life when they went scuba diving.

That was after she was caught... he asked her to marry him before they went on that final mission.

Man I also thought something worse from the subject line!

I was always frustrated that it was supposed to be the same Mike in the widowmaker - she had a completely different dynamic than the first Mike - I can't even imagine those scenes on the cliff working with the first actress. They were so awkward, and the first Mike was so natural with Mac and Jack (definitely did not appear to be pining).

I would say Deborah is the clear winner if Mac says he was in love once, since he was going to ask her to marry him. He gave Lisa a ring, but he had known her way less time, and after all she was deceiving him. He probably doesn't like to look back on that time as being in love since it was (at minimum partly) a lie.

The love was before she was caught.

Yes but if you looked back at a "love" you had and knew it was a lie, you would probably feel manipulated and not want to include it when tell telling people about your past love life!