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 74 - Fraternity of Thieves

A Phoenix Foundation employee caught selling classified information turns out to be someone very close to Pete Thornton… his son!

votes from May 2006
Poor [ 1 ] [7.14%]
Average [ 0 ] [0.00%]
OK [ 3 ] [21.43%]
Good [ 8 ] [57.14%]
Excellent [ 2 ] [14.29%]
Total Votes: 14

Archived Posts

Posted by: MacGyverGod Feb 5 2006, 12:13 PM

Posted by: rockatteer Feb 5 2006, 05:12 PM

Posted by: Kim_K Feb 6 2006, 12:07 AM

Posted by: Tomms247 Feb 6 2006, 01:18 AM

Posted by: MacGirl Feb 8 2006, 07:45 AM

Posted by: MacGyverGod Feb 8 2006, 10:42 AM

Posted by: rockatteer Feb 8 2006, 04:03 PM

The original actor (T. Scott Coffey) would have been older in this episode, so I think its more likely that they couldn't get Coffey for the part to had to re-cast the role.

Posted by: MACGYVERISMYDAD Feb 9 2006, 09:35 AM

Sjaop Posted on Mar 16 2006, 09:32 PM

Yes MacsChick, you nailed it. That is exactly what he looked like!

*Uchm* I'm not a guy, so I'd just want to say: Affirmative!

Toni Posted on Mar 23 2006, 10:11 AM

thlayli87 Posted on Apr 28 2006, 06:56 AM

MACGYVERISMYDAD Posted on Apr 29 2006, 07:27 AM

rockatteer Posted on Apr 29 2006, 10:32 AM

Watched this one tonight and also Family Matter so saw the Michael episodes.

The best part was (for me) the scene after Pete and Mac catch Michael with the RAINES unit. Dana Elcar was supurb!!

Also one of Papillion's lines about FBI, DXS, CIA all the same in alphabet soup---that's very close to a quote from the movie North by Northwest--Cary Grant and directed by Hitchcock. Anyone else here like Hitchcock movies?

One scene I really like in this episode is when Michael's talking to MacGyver about how he was playing the "clock and dagger" game like his father did.

And MacGyver tells him something along the lines of his father never sold out his country.

Don't really know why I like that scene, I just do.

I always liked the MacGyverism with the photo-fixer too... even though it was pretty far fetched in how it worked.

I thought this one was a good one loved the part where MacGyver comes to the aid of Pete.

Anyone else notice how when Pete is telling Micheal that friends stand beside each other no matter what, he looked over at MacGyver after he said it?

Kinda felt like a very subtle acknowledgment from Pete that MacGyver has always been there for him.

This episode was one of the more boring ones. Didn't catch my interest much and I found myself staring out the window more often than not. But that's just me.

One thing which has always bugged me about this episode was how fast Pete was cured after drinking the sodium sulphate. Digestion off takes about 20 minutes before it starts entering the blood stream, so to see Pete drink and then be instantly cured didn't seem right to me. However the other night I "fly on the wall" type police show where they take cameras out with the highway police, anyway they got called to a guy who was diabetic and his blood sugars had dropped way down while driving so he stopped functioning and ran off the road, they gave him a drink of sweet orange juice and within a couple of minutes they were seeing an increase in blood sugars again, which all points to proving me wrong.

Apparently (and this does make sense when I think about it) liquids absorb much faster than food, presumably because it doesn't need to be "digested" as it's already liquid so just needs to be absorbed. SO Pete could have been cured a couple of minutes after drinking that liquid, although they showed it as instantly, but I guess you could argue that was for timekeeping and story telling purposes, who wants to watch them just sitting there waiting for 2 minutes?

If you watch closely MacGyver gives a look of acknowledgement back to Pete too. It's one of those moments where a look speaks a thousand words.

I just watched that episode to see what you meant. Dawww... lol I do like Mac and Pete's relationship. Though, there are times I often wonder if it's a brotherly like relationship or even a father/son relationship. You can tell they really care about each other... and I'm sure part of it is because the actors care about each other as well, so it comes off more naturally on-screen.

I've always thought of it as a father son relationship, I think mostly because Pete was older and MacGyver's boss so seemed more like a father role, although upon reflection now as I type this, it could well have been a brothers relationship.

But which ever label you want to stick on it, they are certainly best friends. They know how each other thinks and they know with absolute certainty that they can trust their lives to each other.

A espionage plot that involves Pete's son. We see Mac following a suspected mole at the beginning of the episode and ending up being killed. MacGyver links the dead man to Michael Thorton. Mac and Pete catch him taking photos of the classified blueprint. The plot thickens as Michael agrees to help catch the ringleader. He is kidnapped and about to be killed until Mac and Pete come to the rescue. Modern critics point out that Cold War based episodes date the series and younger post Cold War viewers can't relate to MacGyver. My daughter likes MacGyver so even today the show can find a audience. Overall the episode was good, I found the Macgyverism used by Pete's son scanning his Dad's I.D. To get into the lab pretty cool and it was not used by Mac ironic.

It is these moments of non-verbal communication that, for me, sets the show apart from most others. Mac expresses so much through facial expressions and gestures in so many of the episodes. That's why I can't watch it and knit at the same time....you can't just rely on the dialogued to get the whole point. And yes, I'm a rather poor knitter so have to look down at what I'm doing!

I would have enjoyed this episode much better if it hadn't been Pete's son, or if Mike had realized what the group was doing with the info and came forward to stop it himself to protect his Dad that would have been better. As it stands we have two episodes with Pete's son and in both the son is pretty awful and angry with Pete. The episode undoes the progress made from the last one - even worse since Pete thinks they are making progress. So yeah, 3/5 - plot is not bad, but give Pete a break with his family already!

Pretty solid episode overall, not the best of the best either, but it has little assets, like the girl who offers Mac to dance, I have this scene, the snow, because it makes me want to watch this episode the winter warm under my quilt, the shopping center, or the gym, the owner of Papillon very pretty, plus the actors like Papillon or Gordon have a good role and as a bonus they benefit from a good dubbing in France ... It's true that it's not my favorite episode either, but I regret the lack of enthusiasm of the fans for this one, it is a little underestimated ...

Indeed, Pete gives Mac a little glance, when he talks about friendship, Mac in return gives him a little smile, to say to him like "it's true" it is a recognition towards the two men ... he do not forget that RDA and Dana were really friends, a sincere friendship like we don't do anymore today, and seeing this scene, that's when we realize that this series is unique, we will not see never again a real friendship elsewhere and even less today ... MacGyver will always be whatever happens a unique program ... Bravo to RDA and Dana Elcar for this friendship.

If you watch closely MacGyver gives a look of acknowledgement back to Pete too. It's one of those moments where a look speaks a thousand words.

For me it remains one of the most beautiful scene, because a look from RDA like this says it all ... RDA is really a great actor.

Honestly you should watch this episode again, give it another chance ... a few years ago i had watched it and i didn't like it, and in hindsight i just saw it again tonight , and frankly I changed my mind, so yes it's not the best episode, but far from being bad, it has a lot of strengths, and RDA and his gaze that says it all ...

MacPhoenix trailer

https://dai.ly/x4yevzm