2.13 C02 Sensor + Tree Branch

Airdate: Jan. 12, 2018
Story: Timothy J. Lea
Teleplay: Adam Beechen
Director: Brad Turner
Guest Cast:Ashley Tisdale (Allie) , Kate Bond (Jill) , Eddie McClintock (Jimmy) , Jane Rumbaua (Tina Pham)
Fidelus Singleton (Oscar) , Kevin Patrick Murphy (Martin Chapman) , Juan Piedrahita (Bellman)
Michael Rubino (Ahmed) , Brian Brightman (Official) , Thom Scott II (Blake) , Dominique Mari (Bride)
Phillip Mullings Jr. (Groom)


While participateing in a challenge for government operatives to create robotic combat machines, MacGyver must help his biggest competitor, Allie (Ashley Tisdale), when her vehicle is hacked and heads to the Pentagon. Meanwhile, Jack attends his high school reunion, hoping for a showdown with his old rival who beat him out for homecoming king.

I liked this episode. Sure, the story was extremely cheesy, but that's kind of what made it appealing. It felt like something the original Mac might do. It reminded me a bit of episodes like The Human Factor, except that it was on the road, rather than in a building. And the team dynamic worked well in this one, as it clearly made Mac the hero/star, even though the rest of the team was still helping out (plus it made a change to see Mac teamed up with Bozer while Jack was off doing something else. Come to think of it, that's probably why Mac seemed more in charge. When Mac is with Jack, Jack usually overshadows him. But when Mac is with Bozer, Mac is clearly the leader.)

Okay, first of all... I know this is wishful thinking on my part, but that was a very cute look MacGyver and Riley shared in the beginning after they got back to Phoenix. Awww... (okay, probably reading into it too much)

When the competition started, it reminded me a bit of Hell Week at first, then felt more like Human Factor. (Thanks for mentioning that Miasma!)

I'm assuming Cage was written out of the show with her going back "home". Interestingly, it does leave it open that she could come back.... which is good because I remember when Nikki was written out of the original and she just kinda disappeared and never mentioned again.

It does seem like she has a larger role to play, so at least they could always fall back on that in a later episode.

I'm also glad that Matty has calmed down a bit, and hasn't lost her sass either. lol I don't mind sass, as long as you know it's not to be taken seriously.

And that ending... XD OMG! I about died.

All in all, great episode.

Miasma, great points... didn't think about those.

and they didn't even lie since Isabel Lucas indeed went back home to Australia to stay with family and friends


I think she has to come back because of that setup with Murdoc. He knows something about her about not using her real name and he shot her twice now.

The first time was a lucky opportunity, even if he hadn't know about her being with the team now and her being there. The second one was personal. He should have been on the run and staying hidden, yet he singled her out with the sole reason to shoot her. No funny games and wordplays exchange, no warning before he pulled the trigger.


Generally, I'm not that happy the way the Reboot has handled their female recurring characters so far. I still don't like the storyline with Thornton and don't even start about rebooted Nikki

Other characters that I liked right from the start and could have become recurring characters either don't have a chance to come back (e.g. Zoe) or "disappeared" as well (e.g. "Escape-Room-Girl"). Even Penny Parker was never brought back after her 2-second-guest-spot in the Crossover Episode and since she's also kind of an Easter Egg, I think that's a shame.

It would have been nice if the "Easter-Egg-Names" had a bit more "substance". Both Penny and Zito were more of an afterthought, and I'd rather have the boss of Phoenix still being Thornton (meaning either Sandrine Holt's character didn't turn out as a big bad or her character was named Webber or something else so that the new boss filling in could have been a Thornton).

Yes, I think so too.

While I'd liked to have Jack in the main storyline from beginning, it was a nice change to have Mac team up with Bozer. And I kinda liked Bozer this way - he has his talents, but he's not a fully experienced field agent and helps with whatever Mac comes up with.

Adam Beechen tweeted that the wrote this story in July. So no wonder this felt a bit of like Bozer "pre-Spy-School" to me - although they probably already had planned an outline for the characters the writers should follow, they didn't have all the finished scripts yet and didn't know all the "players" (e.g. directors, extras, locations) and what the actors would make with it. I'd really prefer this; it feels much more organic than "Super-Spy Bozer" to me.

Preliminary ratings are in: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/the-...-1-12-2018.html

Even if they get downgraded a bit, this will be a new record for S2.

Interestingly, Blindspot trended on Twitter above MacGyver (Peter Lenkov even made a quip about it). It also generates for traffic on voting sites (what people will be watching at night). But that just proves that higher social media traffic doesn't immediately translate into higher audience numbers.

Even in reruns, the Reboot has higher numbers on 8pm Friday than premieres of other shows. I'm pretty sure that as long as no main cast member of H50 or BB drop out, the entire Friday Night Lineup for CBS will get another Season.

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Not sure if anyone is interested in this kind of thing.

I keep track of the ratings for my blog posts and use an Excel Graph (because I can't remember audience numbers that well and I'm never sure what they actually mean )

I also visualize the linear estimates and as you can see, contrary to the Season 1 numbers (in red) heading down (probably also due to the high numbers of the Pilot Episode), Season 2 numbers are still heading up. It's possible numbers start dropping again (as TV shows tend to do when Summer approaches), but I don't think fans need to worry about getting another season.

In fact, the Reboot does better than CBS' new 2017 shows ("Seal Team" and "SWAT") which are also mainly episodic, team-driven action shows.

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All Season 2 ratings:

https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/macgyver...on-two-ratings/

and they didn't even lie since Isabel Lucas indeed went back home to Australia to stay with family and friends


I think she has to come back because of that setup with Murdoc. He knows something about her about not using her real name and he shot her twice now.

The first time was a lucky opportunity, even if he hadn't know about her being with the team now and her being there. The second one was personal. He should have been on the run and staying hidden, yet he singled her out with the sole reason to shoot her. No funny games and wordplays exchange, no warning before he pulled the trigger.


Generally, I'm not that happy the way the Reboot has handled their female recurring characters so far. I still don't like the storyline with Thornton and don't even start about rebooted Nikki

Other characters that I liked right from the start and could have become recurring characters either don't have a chance to come back (e.g. Zoe) or "disappeared" as well (e.g. "Escape-Room-Girl"). Even Penny Parker was never brought back after her 2-second-guest-spot in the Crossover Episode and since she's also kind of an Easter Egg, I think that's a shame.

It would have been nice if the "Easter-Egg-Names" had a bit more "substance". Both Penny and Zito were more of an afterthought, and I'd rather have the boss of Phoenix still being Thornton (meaning either Sandrine Holt's character didn't turn out as a big bad or her character was named Webber or something else so that the new boss filling in could have been a Thornton).

Didn't Penny come back in a later episode, though? "Flashlight" I thought.

Funny how Mac said that giving up his SAK "saved both my life, and Riley's" but he never mentioned that Jack got saved, too.

Anyway, it was a good episode. I really hope Matty was joking when she said, "If we lose, you're all fired!" Guess we'll never know.

I feel bad for Cage, but like I said, I never hated her anyway.

I think my favorite scene was the scene where Jack was in the bathroom, talking to himself, until the toilet flushed, and he realized he wasn't alone.

Quick question- why was it called "C02 Sensor + Tree Branch"? I don't recall Mac ever using those things in this episode.

He used the Co2 sensors from the car they were in when they were chasing the run away drone. He attached them to 2 tree branches and Mac and bozer held them out of their windows to detect the exhaust of the drone.

yeah, noticed that as well

Also thought it strange that Matty complained about never winning the contest before. I mean, she used to be CIA, no? Phoenix didn't exist a year ago or at least they didn't take part in the competition; so of course Phoenix has never won before. Or did she mean DXS has never won? Don't know, made me confused.

He used the Co2 sensors from the car they were in when they were chasing the run away drone. He attached them to 2 tree branches and Mac and bozer held them out of their windows to detect the exhaust of the drone.

Oh yeah, now I remember. For a minute there, I was worried they were getting lazy with naming the episodes again. I definitely prefer their methods for naming season 2 episodes then their methods for naming season 1 episodes.

He used the Co2 sensors from the car they were in when they were chasing the run away drone. He attached them to 2 tree branches and Mac and bozer held them out of their windows to detect the exhaust of the drone.

Oh yeah, now I remember. For a minute there, I was worried they were getting lazy with naming the episodes again. I definitely prefer their methods for naming season 2 episodes then their methods for naming season 1 episodes.

I still wish they'd use better titles for the episodes. These silly names are so completely forgettable, and it makes it difficult to have conversations about the episodes because I can never remember which is which.
For example, if I say something about "Strictly Business," you all know what episode I'm talking about. But if they had named that episode "Rifle + Wires," most of us probaby wouldn't remember which episode it was.

The silly names also just make it seem like the show is more concerned with gimmicks than with good story telling.

I always liked the idea of naming the Episodes after tools and ingredients used for MacGyverisms. Problem is, the MacGyverisms aren't that memorable - not sure if it's just the faster and modern storytelling or if their "overshadowed" by them trying to be funny.

Trying to remember the episode, what stands out for me is Bruno, Mac losing his SAK or the monkey, not the MacGyverisms. So if the episode was named "Monkey + SAK", I sure would remember it better

I don't really have a problem remembering which episode is which this season. Maybe because this time I'm on here, reading all the updates on production, so I find it easier to associate titles with the episodes. I get pretty mixed up with first season episodes, though. Those titles had pretty much nothing to do with the episode a lot of the time.

I always liked the idea of naming the Episodes after tools and ingredients used for MacGyverisms. Problem is, the MacGyverisms aren't that memorable - not sure if it's just the faster and modern storytelling or if their "overshadowed" by them trying to be funny.

Yes, very true. I was going to mention that in my previous post. Even though I'm not a fan of naming episodes after MacGyverism ingredients, it might work slightly better if the MacGyverisms were presented better. They rush through them very quickly in the reboot, so I don't even know what he's doing half the time, and that makes it difficult to remember.

(Hmm... I'm just thinking that if the original series used this same naming technique, "Legend Of The Holy Rose" could have been called "The Boot & The Pendulum," which would be a nice nod to Edgar Allan Poe. )

That sounds really pretty and poetic; I like it

Final ratings are in: http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/show...-1-12-2018.html

They managed to keep the 1.0 rating AND even added some more viewers - they haven't reached more than 8 million live viewers since Episode 1x15, so well done!

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YAAAAY!!! We should be getting a season 3 then!

At first I thought this was going to be a bad episode. The opening gambit with the monkey I was fine with. Jack naming him wrong "cappuccino monkey" and Riley's reaction was great when it armed the trigger. But the whole competition thing was like... oh no. I'm not competitive myself but I never liked those us-against-them attitudes. "We're going to kick their asses!" or scenes like when members of both teams start throwing mud or something.

Just glad it didn't turn out that way. We indeed more had a nod to The Human Factor. Technology that goes haywire and I guess we finally had more of a random adventure, didn't we? Not an actual mission. Only that name: Bruno. Sandy was much better. And it was nice to see Jack on his own for a change.

Good one.

And I'm pretty sure when it comes to the original show we can figure them out.

Slingshot + Hallucinogen?
Mirrors + Deprogramming?
Rockets + Plane?
Container + Explosives?
Jetpack + Ship?

It's actually kinda fun.

Another good one.

Blog post by Technical Advisor Rhett Allain about the MacGyverisms used in this episode: https://rhettallain.com/2019/06/30/macgyver...or-tree-branch/