So, we meet Nikki as someone who's supposedly in love with MacGyver, accepts a proposition 6 months prior to the job obtaining the biological weapon at Lake Como, Italy (Episode 1x01 "Rising"), to work deep cover CIA with only one person in the CIA knowing she works for the CIA? And that this all happens or comes about, while she is supposedly working hard for DXS and in a relationship with Mac?

Her supposed betrayal in using the biological to gain entry (initiation) to the organisation, allowing full knowledge that while her fake shooting took her off radar, she understood that Mac could be shot for real and was, yet stated in 1x12 that she knew Mac would never let the virus be unleashed.

At the end of the episode titled Screwdriver (1x12) Mac says "So instead of Nikki being a traitor for a few months, it was Thornton for a few years."

But going back in time and episodes, at the end of the episode Metal Saw (1x02 "Metal Saw") we see Mac finding the secret stash of Nikki's passports, behind the fake electrical power point (/ socket) in the wall in Nikki's apartment. When Mac opens one of the fake passports up to view it, we see that the passport was established in 2012, four years earlier.

So yeah - I don't trust Nikki Carpenter is who she says she is at all.

I don't believe that she really is CIA, especially if only one person knew Nikki was CIA? How could that even happen? I'm sure there's a lengthy vetting process to hire someone into the CIA, training required before they'd be allowed undercover etc., especially with an op as important as taking down the Organisation. So IMO there's no way only one single person knew she was employed by them and now they're dead so there's no way to prove any of her story. Besides, couldn't the organisation already have other moles inside the CIA who'd been there for years undetected, who could have provided Nikki with what they needed to properly fake the authorisation codes?

In 1x12 Nikki states she doesn't know who the mole is, yet at the end of 1x08 (Corkscrew) Nikki goes to see Mac in the Diner with her own team hidden throughout the Diner, and starts throwing shade on Patricia Thornton, as just after she asks if Mac still has the key (which we find out four eps later opens the lockbox with the supposed evidence of the mole in it stating that when the time comes she'll answer every question Mac has, to which Mac replied "The only question I have is Why?", to which Nikki answers "Mac, C'mon! That can't be the only question! Did you ever ask yourself, what happened to Berkhov?" Mac replies "You know what happened, Berhov was killed in Exfil, his chopper was shot down in Syria". Nikki says, "And who told you that? Thornton?".....

Over a season later - No Nikki, no Thornton, no answers.

Kerry

You bring up some very valid points. I think the producers could really stand to be a little more organized in their plots.

So, I spent some of the weekend catching up on episodes of the reboot that I missed last season and I developed the opposite theory, I think:

PARTIAL QUOTE Jediferret 25 September 2016-10:41 AM in 1x1 "The Rising" episode discussion-page 3

I saw this and agreed, but at the time I thought this whole thing would involve Nikki being a combination of the original series' Lisa and Nikki and would end at that. But now I think they might be rolling at least one more original series character in there, too.

After seeing the open-ended-but-this-will-be-drawn-out phrasing of things at the end of "Screwdriver" (1x12), I think its possible they're going to put Kate Malloy in there too. As in SAM's mother, Kate Malloy! Being that she spent the night with Mac and they're not going to see each other for a very long time....I think Mac may well turn up at that house he threatened when they were in the diner and find a little kid--or maybe a nearly-grown kid if they do a jump in time on the series--that seems suspiciously JUST. LIKE. HIM!

Not only that, but I noticed that some of the other characters on the reboot look like combinations of more than one character from the original show. Take George Eads's Jack Dalton--he's really sort of a combination of original Jack (the friend) and original Pete Thornton (the big brother figure). And did anyone notice that Frankie Mallory, reboot Mac's crush from MIT, had shades of Amy Austin *and* maybe Mike Forrester, who did some gardening and spent college close to original Mac but got locked in the "friend zone" before she realized that she didn't want to be stuck there?

I think they're taking characters from TOS and combining them to make the new story.

However Kejovelapa, we might both be right. Nikki could easily still be a huge rat and end up having his kid anyway....wouldn't that be messy?

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

Now THAT would be an epic twist. Especially if she stays evil, and has Mac's kid anyway.

Thanks DragonDog & MacsMinx for your thoughts! And Thanks MacsMinx for your welcome! LOL, I should have thought to say Hi and this is my first post, but Dóh I forgot! I had been getting so heated thinking of this convoluted plot line they're building and just typed away, lol.

I have a feeling DragonDog that the producers are trying to play the long game here, they want the series to be around long enough to be able to draw and flesh out these current plot holes they are leaving us, they want them noticed, but don't want to give the game away just yet! It kind of reminds me of the story outline for a few other shows that I've enjoyed over the years (Ok, yes, I still enjoy them lol) such as White Collar, Supernatural to name just two. Production team decide to just drop these tiny clues here and there, which appear as plot holes but eventually become clues to a storyline that's hidden and ultimately leads to things that happen in season finales most often, but sometimes can be drawn out for up to 2 years of a shows life.

That's obviously just my opinion though. If the series end up being cancelled before they're able to resolve those issues I'll be very irritated as I rather dislike unanswered concepts which are in play right now, I loved the OG series MacGyver which I grew up watching and like many, totally loved RDA in that - but I actually love this new take on it.

It's been my thinking with this show, that this MacGyver has a team at this point, because he's about 10 years younger than RDA was while filming the original show. My brain explains it away like that and just enjoys it. I've watched every episode a number of times so far.

MacsMinx, you could be right about their possibly having combined some of the characters into one too! And Wow, wouldn't that just be a total plot twist and a half! Impressive and love the way you've outlined your theory too! I can see how following the idea of JediFerrett's comments and a keen eye for observation of the characters of both the OG and the new Mac can lead to this as a possibility for sure! Hmm, now I'll need to rewatch some other eps again, while taking this possible theory of yours into consideration also! Thanks!

I am very enthusiastic about following where these breadcrumbs lead, and to me they do feel like bread crumbs, though not ones that everyone might notice at first glance. Like that date on Nikki's passport - they focused in on that page in her passport, so I paused my playback and read the details therein, that's how I noticed her passport was dated from 2012. Considering this was then 2016, Nikki had that particular passport opened in a false name four years before the show started, which is roughly about the time that I believe Mac & Jack joined DXS? My time estimate on Macs timeline may be off a little though! What do you think?

Kejovelapa (Kerry)

That's true... They may add on to the plot later, and we'll see.

And a belated welcome from me!

QUOTE Kejovelapa 7 March 2018 -1:42 AM

I do too, Kerry, which in a way is nice--it means the writers and producers are putting forth the effort of planning and thinking things through. They probably started crafting the larger story while they were writing the pilot--or at least while writing the first few episodes after it.

I have a feeling the reboot might be similar in terms of long-range planning to another TV series denizen and I liked (we both mentioned it in the Obscure/forgotten TV sci-fi series topic in Mac's Loft) called Dark Skies. It only ran for one season: 1996-97, but its producers were trying to tell the story in an arc stretching from the early 1960s to 1999. A big plot point was one in which the main character, John Loengard, searched for his kidnapped son.

I think the reboot might be setting the stage for something similar. If Nikki does give birth to Mac's child, I suspect he could find out earlier in than on TOS and, of course, it's Mac, so he'll start trying to get custody--but I also think he will get thwarted several times along the way.

Kejovelapa, you're also very much right about this being a hazard if the show gets cancelled early on its run; that's exactly what happened to Dark Skies. They only got the story up to the late 1960s and had John find his son aging prematurely on a spaceship. I think the producers probably planned to have this event take place later in the series had the cancellation not forced their hand.

And what of Nikki's intentions?

The writers on the reboot are actually doing a really good job of keeping things vague--on purpose. Think of the alias on that passport of Nikki's that Mac finds near the end of "Metal Saw". The last name "Hunter" could indicate that she was watching Mac for a long time, hunting him....maybe she'll show up in a lynx fur coat on some subsequent episode.

However, read another way, perhaps Nikki is a MAlice Hunter, seeking justice with her life's work. Even if they never get Tracy Spiridakos back on the show (but if her character does indeed give birth to Mac's child)--they could still write her character out exactly like Kate Malloy on the original series: a heroic espionage-related death after hiding her and Mac's child away in a safe place....

At least they're doing a great job keeping us guessing!