plot hole- so did murdoc clean out macs place to set up jack dalton to lure macgyver to help him, and if so how did murdoc know that jack had done that several years before? murdoc stated jack was off on a wild goose chase, but if murdoc somehow enticed jack to clean out macs place to elict macs help, why would jack take off before mac got there.

when mac is in death row in the vietnam section he reaches out for a helmet from behind the sandbags. if you watch carefully the gunfire gets set off a second before RDA starts to move.

When Mac falls through the trapdoor, he drops Jack's cap which falls into the corner of the cage. Also he falls on his feet than to his chest, the next shot he's on his back holding Jack's cap.

murdoc shoots out macs back tire but we see the same wheel and tire later on.

Mac checks out phone, fixes tire and drives to cemetary?

I also noticed on death row where mac reaches for the bamboo
in the sand. If you notice closely you'll see the sand kick up right where
his hand is. This indicates to me his hand would have been shot before he picked
it up.

Considering Murdoc's otherwise spotless record, you should think he is one of the best and you might wonder why he actually needed Mac to save Ashton. He knew about the testing facility, he probably did it once before. Of course maybe the snakes would've killed him. But I think he could've managed himself quite well on his own, if he is such a great killer. He'd probably just brought his gun and shot the slithering creatures. Of course if that was the case we wouldn't have this classic episode.

Old Biff Tannen should use his cane on Macs head : you would think by now hed learn that Murdoc is , you know , actually a madman

So him to team up with Mac is a jump shark moment

Having the hero to team up with his arch enemy is like one of the most interesting ideas this show has. That's why this is a classic amongst fans.

I'm totally with you on MacGyver getting the cane from Ol' Biff, but is it really jumping the shark if Murdoc is a madman? If somebody is legitimately insane, is anything really off-limits? Insane people are *supposed* to do unusual or unexpected things; otherwise, they wouldn't be insane.

Not to mention that Murdoc might be crazy, but he's not stupid. He'd know that his chances of surviving Helman's trap would be greater with Mac's help than without it, and even if he doesn't trust MacGyver (because in his line of work you can't trust anyone), he still knows that Mac's moral code prevents Mac from any double-crossing or trickery. Mac has proven himself many times to be resourceful, creative, clever, and fit for just about any challenge. Murdoc is the best assassin in the world, and MacGyver has beaten him more than once---meaning that MacGyver is in some ways better. So it makes sense that, when seeking an ally, Murdoc would choose someone just as good as or better than he is himself. And with MacGyver along for the ride, if Murdoc had died there in Helman's lair, at least he would've taken MacGyver out along with him, ensuring that his worst rival wouldn't outlive him. Murdoc is definitely a lone wolf, but choosing MacGyver as a partner for that particular escapade was actually a fairly logical choice in some ways.

Of course, Murdoc could've just been adhering to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition: "Every now and then, declare peace. It confuses the h*** out of your enemies."

Completely agree, and it also gave a whole new dimension to Murdoc's character. Ashton and the lengths that he went to in order to protect her added a lot of humanity and depth to this otherwise villainous person.

Well said, Sanguine!! I see Mac and Murdoc as Yin and Yang. Both have their own talents, strengths, and weaknesses. And Ashton definitely added a humanity to Murdoc's character.

Am I the only one who found it odd the number of times they called Ashton "Murdoc's sister"? At the beginning Murdoc called her "my beloved sister, Ashton" and at the end he screamed, "MacGyver, get Ashton out of here" but otherwise he constantly said "my sister". It wouldn't bother me if Nicholas didn't constantly call her "Murdoc's sister" as well, especially in the recording he sent to Murdoc. The recording said "your sister" so many times that I was like, "Is she a nun? Do you not know her actual name?"

Helman may very well not have known Ashton's name, and if he did know it, he probably didn't care. Remember, Helman is a criminal. He didn't care about Ashton and he didn't see her as a human being. He was using her as a means to an end. Constantly referring to her as "Murdoc's sister" instead of by her name adds distance. It's a way of dehumanizing her. For a professional hitman, dehumanizing and distancing yourself would be very good things. People like that can't afford to be emotionally affected by anything, especially not their victims. Treating victims as objects instead of people is what would allow Helman to kill people and still be able to sleep at night. So, no, he probably didn't bother to learn Ashton's name. Knowing what her relation is to Murdoc is all that he would need to know. She was a pawn to him, nothing else.

Now, Murdoc, on the other hand---it's a bit more unusual that he didn't use her name, but I honestly didn't notice it all that much when I was watching. I do know that from personal experience, I often refer to my brother as "my brother" when I'm talking to my friends or coworkers. I know that people like that probably won't remember my brother's name because they don't know him personally, so I call him "my brother" instead of using his name just to make the conversation shorter. That way, they won't have to ask, "<Insert name here>? Who's that?" and I won't have to say, "Oh, he's my brother..." I just skip straight to the end of the conversation. Now, Mac seems to be fairly good with names, but even so, I doubt that Murdoc would necessarily want to advertise Ashton's name. He's a slightly paranoid assassin, after all. He doesn't need that information getting out to anyone who doesn't need to know, and the walls have ears. It's dangerous for anyone to even know that he has a sister, let alone what her name is.

There's also the production issue. Obviously, I don't know any backstage details of the filming of MacGyver, but in general, television shows are not filmed in order, and they're not filmed in one take. In addition, they go through a great many script writes and rewrites, over and over again, until the writers and the directors and the producers are satisfied. Sometimes, the scripts will even change on the final day of filming! So it's possible that for much of the filming, the actors may not have actually known what the character of Murdoc's sister was going to be called! The scenes in which she's mentioned by name could very well have been filmed last.
Some of that could also have been the personal choice of the director, or some of it could have been ad-libbing by the actors. And I'm sure that, just because of the nature of things being out of order, the people involved with it probably didn't realize that they were repeating that phrase so many times. With filming, there are so many things going on all at once and it's all so busy that things can easily get overlooked or jumbled.

(But I could be wrong about all of that, naturally; that's just my extensive reading and my amateur theatre experience talking! )

I did find it odd that Helman introduced himself on the tape he sent to Murdoc. "Hello, Murdoc, this is Nicholas Helman, your mentor..." Yeah, I'm pretty sure that he knows who you are, Nicky babe, but you do whatever you feel like you need to do. I would say that it's for the audience's benefit, but considering that Murdoc had just explained Helman's identity seconds before, I don't think that's the case. So that must have just been an oversight or something.

Good point, Sanguine, bringing up the production issue. That could be the case. I write my fan fic in spurts so it's often not until the final proofreading that I find I used a word to much, etc.

Couldn't a case also be made that Murdoc doesn't call her by name for the same reason as Helman? Ashton doesn't know Murdoc's her brother, right? (I'm still a little foggy on their background). Anyway, it could be Murdoc's way of keeping his own feelings and emotions in check as well by distancing her. And the fact that he uses her name at the end when all heck is breaking loose kinda supports that...things are no longer ordered and disciplined so emotion takes over and he (unconsciously?) calls her Ashton.

Aaaahhhhh!!! That didn't even cross my mind, but that actually seems very likely! That is *absolutely* something thst Murdoc would do!

I don't really mind that they didn't refer to her by name, but that recording Helman sent said "your sister" three times in a row, and it seemed redundant. He could've at least used a pronoun!

Murdoc says that Helman is the only one who knows the identities of the "Royal Flush" members. Yet when Sonja finds him, she tells Helman, "I found Murdoc. Someone else is with him. I think it's the joker." or something like that. Either Murdoc was wrong, or Sonja was just really suspicious of Mac's behavior.

I wouldn't be surprised if she were suspicious of Mac, because let's face it, he did *not* do a good job of impersonating an assassin. But is it possible that Sonia recognized their faces, even though she didn't know any names? After all, knowing a general description without a name to go with it wouldn't be overly helpful in identifying a perp, especially without any other information (I.e., fingerprints, address, etc.).

I wouldn't be surprised if she were suspicious of Mac, because let's face it, he did *not* do a good job of impersonating an assassin. But is it possible that Sonia recognized their faces, even though she didn't know any names? After all, knowing a general description without a name to go with it wouldn't be overly helpful in identifying a perp, especially without any other information (I.e., fingerprints, address, etc.).

True. I was kinda wondering about that. Sonja always seemed a little smarter than her boss, so maybe she had more right to be suspicious.

I always found it funny that Mac and Murdoc went through all that trouble to break into death row, when that is where Nicholas wanted them in the first place.

Obviously they didn't know that or else Murdoc could have walked in and been escorted down to death row and Mac could have followed and thus killing half the episode lol.

That's actually true but why taking the easy way in? Just like in Lost Love, Mac could've just checked in to steal the Ming Dragon, yet he prefers to be hanging underneath a truck and sneaking his way in instead. It's just more fun.

Besides, maybe that would've happened, if Murdoc didn't turn off the lights.

The only way I've been able to justify this is that Jack was doing it to Mac again, and that's when Murdoc intercepted him and sent him on the "wild goose chase", so Murdoc wasn't the one who cleaned out the apartment.