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 51 - Jack in the Box

In the deep south MacGyver and Jack are held in a prison camp and forced to dig for lost millions believed to be buried in a zinc mine.

Votes from March 2006
Poor [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Average [ 0 ] [0.00%]
OK [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Good [ 6 ] [50.00%]
Excellent [ 6 ] [50.00%]
Total Votes: 12

Archived posts

No, no, not the money, not the money, noooo!!!

Hee hee. I say definitely. By then it'll probably mostly involve regaling his grandchildren with highly exaggerated tales of his exploits while Mac periodically informs him that his left eye is twitching. wink.gif

I did pick up on that! On occasion, you have to wonder whether Jack really drives Mac that crazy. I mean, Mac IS always jumping in with both feet to help Jack when he gets in trouble, no matter how many times it happens. If he were really that irritated by it, he would find a way to say no and stick to it... but I think he really winds up having a ball when Jack is involved. ("Now, Mac, don't tell me you're not having just a little bit of fun!" was one of my favorite scenes from Jack of Lies... here's Mac, grinning like the Cheshire Cat even though he's supposedly PO'ed.) Better yet, he would probably find a way to avoid Jack altogether, and/or end the friendship completely.

I don't know about anyone else, but I say that Rick and Bruce should have done a comedy series together! Wouldn't that have been a hoot?!

Hey I remembered that movie! Cool Hand Luke. Great movie--watch it and the you'll see the similarity in the guys in charge!

I think it shows how close they are... THey are like brothers...no matter how P'd off Mac gets with Jack, or how irritated he is by Jack... he's still gonna be there if jack needs help.

Helping people in need, regardless of how you feel about them is one of the main charecteristics of MacGyver... I think the whole Jack Mac thing is one of the tools the show uses to emphasise that charecteristic.

That was me! I love that movie. And it is creepy! Same guy??? I dunno. Anyone? Anyone?...


You know what bugs me about the whipping scene...does anyone else think Mac was just too passive in the background? I don't think anyone was holding him back or anything and there really wasn't much of an expression on his face. With Mac's stand against injustice I expected him to react pretty strongly to what was happening to his friend.

Mac was probably thinking Jack was well overdue for a good whippin!

Considering the place they where in... and the kind of people running it...what was Mac going to do. If he stepped out of line he'd be the one getting whipped or just get shot.

I just realized that the guy playing Wrigley in this episode is Robin Mossley.. who of course comes back in later seasons as Wilt Bozer, along with other various characters.

I love Robin Mossley! He gave a most memorable performance in one of my favourite SG-1 episodes 'Window of Opportunity' as the distressed archeologist that turned on the time machine.

Didn't he also play Alexander Shannon in the Mac ep. 'Legend of the Holy Rose'? That boy is nothing if not versatile!

I'm likely to stir a little controversy with this review, but I don't care. This is how I feel.

There are a couple of reasons I might not enjoy an episode of MacGyver. One of the lesser reasons is that an episode is hard to watch. "Black Rhino" and "Passages" (to me) suffered from this, because they were either tedious or bad, and failed to be entertaining, merely being an exercise. "Jack in the Box" is hard to watch, too, but not for the same reason: it's because the episode is so negative and idiotic that you want to start beating up your television.

Starting at the beginning: Jack Dalton is assaulted by a police officer, thrown through a window and arrested. Nobody in the entire restaurant seems to care, and not even his "friend" Louella attempts to do anything. (Yes, I know they couldn't exactly call the police, but do something!) Then Mac comes along, is assaulted unprovoked, accused of carrying a concealed weapon and is trucked off to the labor camp. Then, he is informed that a "J. D." is dead, and we cut to commercial.

Of course, that was just a cheat, and Jack is being held in the "sweatbox", and soon begins to inform Mac of the "plan" that he has, while eating chicken legs held under a floorboard. (Did that seem a little gross to anybody else?) So then Mac tries to stage a diversion by blowing something up, and the two escape. Bodine has his gun pointed at them when Pepe shouts. He rotates 90 degrees and shoots Pepe. Cut to commercial.

We come back, and Dalton is brutally whipped across the back. Some little hick informs the warden about the plan, and the two escape, and Lyle turns them in. Louella acts submissive. They come back, and lead the warden and Bodine to the treasure, where they are nearly blown up. The two are disposed of, Mac takes the lit stick of dynamite and shoves it in the treasure case, and destroys the money.

Now, throwing it in the pond should have been sufficient. The ending put on it makes the entire episode, as Marc Scott Zicree might say, "the worst kind of cheat". We suffered through over forty minutes of unbearable torture so that the ending can put the leads back where they were at Point A. WHY? Why did we sit through that, only to have absolutely no outcome? WHY?

Why are the performances so bad? There are ways to play evil without being brash and cruel, but Lance LeGault disregards those and goes for a completely over-the-top, awful characterisation. (The script is partially responsible here, too.) As Lyle, Eugene Butler is merely idiotic, as is Diane Robin as Louella. Even the leads are generic and flat, with none of the energy and originality usually present. The only bright spot is Luke Askew as the warden, who plays with precisely the sort of menacing evil that I described above. He's the only halfway decent performer here. WHY?

Why is the script so negative? I loved the previous Dalton episodes, especially "Jack of Spies", because they were essentially cartoon. They were occasionally serious, and gave just enough drama to propel the episode, but existed primarily as light action. This episode has the characters wade through the for about forty minutes and gives no satisfactory ending. WHY?

Why should I watch this again? I won't.

Who also played that time thing operator in "Window of Opportunity" in SG-1

Seems to me your watching this show out of context.

This is an 80's and 90's TV show and needs to be watched in the context of an 80's and 90's TV show.

Acting and TV shows where different back then.

I didn't really enjoy this episode that much. I like Dalton. He's a funny fellow. But I am kind of tired of seeing him put people in danger because of his money-making schemes.

I admire Mac for being such a good friend.

poor MacGyver thinking his friend had died in the beginning, and then you feel sorry jack when he is whipped.

I liked the episode, especially because it kind of reminded me of the movie "O'Brother Where Art Thou". George Clooney could totally play Jack Dalton. But Jack has a heart and a soul when his friend gets shot. At least Jack's left eye didn't twitch which means he wasn't telling Mac a lie.

Sorry it took me a bit longer than usual to post this--I've been extremely busy since I got home from my parents' house on Sunday...

I really liked this episode, though!

Starting from the beginning, I *love* the first sequence when you get a first "tour" of the house boat--you can so totally imagine MacGyver living there!! It's almost as if it's a character on its own between the third to the sixth season!

It's really neat to see a glimpse of Mac's and Pete's friendship too, before Mac leaves, searching for Jack...

I don't know whether the police would consider a SAK a weapon by my country's definition, (I don't care, really, I always carry my MacGyver kit in my purse), but those policemen were obviously collaborating to recruit more people for the mines, looking for *any* reason to arrest people.

You can really see how well Mac and Jack know each other, and how close they are, despite Mac's annoyance that he's being "dragged along." Jack is very aware of Mac's soft spot--he brings up the fact that he lost a plane and risked his life because of Mac, making him feel guilty. It's so obvious that poor Mac is always ridden by feelings of guilt deep within, thinking he's not doing enough for his friends and family...

Regarding the chicken under the floor boards--I hope it hadn't been sitting there too long...
I've got a theory here though--at home, and whenever possible, it's obvious that (past season one) Mac chose vegetarian and healthy food over anything else. Yet, I don't think he's overly rigid--if it stands between eating whatever's available or starve, he wouldn't choose the latter; there are a few other (past season one) episodes where he does eat what looks like meat, and even drinks coffee when he's offered. Might just be something that was overlooked by the writers, but it would make sense; he *is*, foremost, a survivor and uses whatever's available for the moment.

Anyway--I think the part set in the mines was very suspenseful indeed! The MacGyverism with the lamps was awesome... that kind of lamps are yet another one of those things that probably wouldn't be used today.

It was very sad to see Pepe getting shot... he was a very helpful and warm hearted man. But it added more depth to the story.

I think Mac chose to put the dynamite inside the bag using the money as an extra padding--explosives are not my field of expertise but maybe the water would have been enough to contain the explosion. It was a clear indication, though that money doesn't mean that much to him, unless, of course he'd get it as a bonus to donate to people in need...

So, how do I rate this one... Well, it's a rather week "Excellent," but an "Excellent" nevertheless.

You bring up something that keeps bugging me about Jack, and this episode is a fine example. Jack plays with Mac's guilt feelings in a way that is totally unfair. I mean, the sheer nerve to blame Mac for something he, Jack, was responsible for in the first place: it was Jack who forced Mac into coming with him to rescue the 'botanists', by 'kidnapping' Mac's furniture. That's the way Jack operates most of the time. He doesn't just ask Mac to help him out, he pressures him, he lies and cheats, cons him into it. That's my main reason for not liking Jack very much. Okay, he can be funny at times, but overall he is a guy who thinks only of himself, trying to get rich fast, and he uses Mac to get it. And Mac, who is the real friend, falls for it every time, because Jack knows how to play him. Real friends don't use each other like that.

And the 'carrying a concealed weapon' bit is a very obvious set-up to arrest Mac – after Bodine has been given a signal by the redneck outside the cafe.

I liked this episode. Jack is not my favorite because he uses Mac and I don't like it when someone gets used. But Mac is a good friend and helps Jack when he can. I agree he likely gets a bit of a rush in doing so.

As far as the dynamite...I agree it was not the best idea to throw the suitcase towards their exit, but I can guess why he did not throw it into the water. He had just used the hook and machinery to drag the Sheriff into that water. No matter what someone has done to Mac he's not going to kill them if he can help it. Had he thrown the dynamite into the water, likely the Sheriff would have been Toast!

Mac's a good guy, remember?

I'm fairly certain that even here in England, people would legally be allowed to carry a .

This episode appeared to be implausible even by the usual standards. Louella being the only female character didn't help. They would have been better off deciding not to bother having any female characters at all.

I've always loved this episode - another frustrated MacGyver lol... but he gives Jack the lecture speech at the end, and Jack goes "what are friends for?" which pretty much sums up the Mac/Jack dynamic.

Yes the premise is far fetched, but that's 80s tv for you

Plus Mac blew up Jack's money, which was hilarious too. Good combo of serious and funny overall.

Jack Dalton episodes are so entertaining. You really never know what Jack is going to say or get Mac tricked into doing. 80s TV shows so different, in a good way, from the shows that are popular now. They did a great job of portraying the little town where they ended up and the way strangers would be received. Strangers are noticed and the townspeople would be wary of them. Especially someone like Jack Dalton.