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 139 – The Mountain of Youth (the lost episode)

MacGyver joins Jack Dalton in Kabulstan on a search for a fountain of youth, but finds himself battling nuclear terrorists in the process.

Jack Dalton back for one last time? Check. An adventure in a foreign land? Check. MacGyver wearing classic khaki pants? Check. This episode has all the makings of classic MacGyver action, and I completely dug it. I voted good/excellent on this one.

I have rarely seen MacGyver so righteously indignant as when he parachutes in and confronts Jack. I love this part- MacGyver's really pi**ed! Mac seems to have a limitless supply of patience for Jack over the years, but when MacGyver seethes "Casimir Funk?!" in that vehement way, I think he's really gonna kill ol' Jack! Love it, love it. Does anyone else find humor in this scene? I do! Lots!

Mukti and her K-mart hair extensions were vaguely annoying, for no particular reason.

Wonder what MacGyver and Dr.Lang say to each other before Lang exits the jail?

Good MacGyverisms, awesome Mac n' Jack dynamic, great message...I give it a , + 2 extra credit points for full-tilt campiness!

I voted good and the episode starts very good. When I was a kid it was one of my favourite scenes when we see Mac coming down with parachute, folding the parachute together and putting his jacket over it. The mullet is also very well done again. Love it when he gets that lock of hair out of his face.

Yeah. Me too.
'Mac!!!'
'Jack!!!'
'You came for me.'
'Nothing's broken?'
'Fine.'
'Ok, than can I BREAK YOUR NECK!!!'
That scene is indeed hilarious.
Also I liked to see the remains of Jack's crashed airplane. Wasn't that the same plane as in On A Wing and a Prayer. It always reminds me of that one.

Not really and dude she's pretty. That water really seems to work!! Nah, forty-two? She seemed more like halfway her twenties.

I just have this thing I'm not certain of. Isn't Baba the same guy from The Outsiders?

Mac said: Puckachi. Probably meaning 'jerk' or something.

Yeah, Jack constantly whining about that water and MacGyver always telling him to shut up. The last two were great when they're escaping: 'Will you stop?!' and when they're looking at the pump house he just snaps: 'Shush!'

Jack has indeed a few good moments. When they're shooting his cans to bits and when he goes to steal water and puts a tube in his sock. I would've put another one in my other socket too to outsmart MacGyver. But then again he could've asked for them both as wel.

When they're caught is hilarious as well when they find Jack's papers, MacGyver gives him that look of: 'You see? That's what happens!' but than they read his papers. 'The Phoenix Foundation!' You should see his face change.

And perhaps this episode reveals a last MacGyver skill. He's stealth. How he snuck in that office, bangs that guy against the desk and steals the videotape.

Overall a good entertaining episode and that last one to take fully place in a foreign land. And the only one of this season.

No. Ned Romero isn't in the Outsiders.

I had to go with excellent on "The Mountain of Youth". I'm so glad they decided to air this episode. It's one of the highlights of the 7th. season for me. It's so great to see Jack Dalton back one last time. He's always such a fun character to have on there. And once again, MacGyver has to come to his rescue, parachuting down into Kabulstan. That part was cool- and then when MacGyver about throttles Jack- that was hilarious!
He goes from acting very concerned about Jack- and then quickly flashes to anger!
So again, reluctantly, MacGyver has to help Jack out of a jam.
And I thought the MacGyverisms were pretty cool. When they were locked up and Mac messed with the door controls- and jammed the doors open.
And when they rammed through the gates with the ladder- that was pretty neat. And then overloading the pumphouse was another good scene.
I agree with the earlier comment about MacGyver's stealth- you could see a good bit of that here too.
This was an excellent way to go out on a bang when they brought back this episode, after the finale had aired.
And I thought it was neat that maybe Jack Dalton had finally learned a lesson at the end of the episode, regarding the water from the fountain of youth. He actually leaves it behind and MacGyver throws his hands up in exasperation and happiness- "Will wonders never cease?"
An excellent episode and just plain fun to watch.
And with this review, it's hard to believe we've come all the way through all the MacGyver episodes!

(And for those who haven't seen the TV-movies- "MacGyver: Lost Treasure of Atlantis" and "MacGyver: Trail to Doomsday", I would highly recommend those as well. Hope they make it to DVD soon.)

Yeah, what will we discuss from now on, once we're through with the movies as well?

Revive the discussions in Assignments since all went lost during the crash.

I only saw this eppy one single time (which is quite exceptional for me)
I do remember I liked it a lot, though to me it wasn't the right season finale.
I know that should've been The Stringer, but still.

I voted good for this ep because it's classic season 1 MacGyver, but doesn't quite come through. I saw it for the first time when I got my season 7 DVDs and it left me feeling disappointed. I'm not sure exactly what the issue is, but there's just something 'off' with it. At least, we have Jack and Mac back together for one last adventure!

Probably the really bad blue screen effects.

Mac

Though the blue screen effects were off at times, I liked this episode. It gave us one last chance to see Mac and Jack together at their best! I remember being thrilled that they were showing one more episode of MacGyver.

Shannontor

Jack's back and he's up to his usual mischief.
This episode was good fun. Not the best but I enjoyed it. I always love the banter between MacGyver and Jack.
I want more Jack!!!

Loved this episode. I was sooo happy when ABC announced that there was a "lost" episode after watching the sad "official" series finale. IMO, this was one of the best episodes of season 7. So glad we got to see one last adventure with Jack Dalton.

So does this take place before or after "The Stringer"?

Before.

It's actually a season 6 episode. It's all explained here in our FAQ section.

How could you not rate 'Excellent' with Jack and Mac going for a treasure hunt together?

I have one questin, though: why the eppy called 'Mountain of Youth' and not 'Fountain of Youth'?

The acting in this episode is absolutely awful. I tried watching it just now, and I had to turn it off after the first five minutes. It's as if RDA just completely forgot how to act. I've seen more convincing performances in school plays, and I'm not exagerrating. What happened?!! I know he was pretty bad throughout a lot of season 1, but he got much better as the series went on. In this, he's worse than ever.

I don't think so. The Coltons is a Season 6 episode. This is season 7. You can tell by Mac's hair. In the Colton's it's shortish (also,he's driving the blue car), in this episode, it's definitely season 7 hair-- blonder and longer.

EDIT: I just read the FAQ and it confirmed my suspicions-- this is Season 7, and The Coltons are Season 6.

Yeah your right. I got confused with the changing between the Coltons and MOY episodes.

I think it really shows that they'd all had enough and it was time for the show to end.

People get tired and they'd been doing the same thing for 7 years.

They where ready to move on.

I wonder if the bad performance was a contributing factor in how they decided to omit this particular episode. I mean, I know they had to omit one of them because of The Coltons episode, but was it purely a random decision, or did they look at this one and say, "Well, this is pretty weak, let's omit this one."
I remember when this first aired, I was so excited to be getting one more episode, and I had a friend visiting from England at the time, so I kept telling him, "You're going to love this show! It's great!"
I was so embarassed then when it actually came on! He just looked at me and said, "This is REALLY daft, you know?" I had to agree.

Loved it one last shot for Jack Dalton to become rich.

Okay, I decided to give this episode another shot, and stuck through the atrocious acting by RDA.
It's actually not THAT bad once it gets going, and it's a shame it starts off so horribly. Once they get to the water plant, things improve, and it feels like a good old fashioned Mac/Jack episode.
The odd thing is, it often feels like RDA is channeling Dexter more than Mac in this episode, particularly when he's arguing with Jack. The little facial twitches, etc, are very Dexter-like.

I know this is a late reply, but I'm going through all the episodes and voting on them. I gave this episode a good.

If Jack Dalton hadn't been there, I would have given the episode an OK. I guess the acting and the plot made this episode seem like a cliche to me. Sorry if I offend anyone.

I am watching this episode now. I can't believe I remember it from 20 years ago! Only seen it once, too, and there are parts of it that I clearly remember. Other parts are a bit fuzzy, but its pretty to see it again when the last time I watched it I was about 8 or 9!

Yeah. Me too.
'Mac!!!'
'Jack!!!'
'You came for me.'
'Nothing's broken?'
'Fine.'
'Ok, than can I BREAK YOUR NECK!!!'
That scene is indeed hilarious.

Hahahahahhah lol

OK. It's got Jack, dragging Mac into something he hadn't bargained on and nearly getting battered for his trouble. Rarely have we seen Mac so hopping mad with one of his friends! It's in a hostile foreign country with dodgy soldiers. It's got a cause to champion and stuff to blow up. It's got a puzzle to solve and locals who are up to something. It's got Jack doing the right thing in the end, thus staving his inevitable appointment with Mac's one-stop-knockout-drop punch for another day.

It's a great last hurrah for our intrepid band. All it needed was Penny to be on holiday there, visiting an old flame who just happens to be a soldier in the local army...

Seriously, what's not to like!

Just finished watching this one, and while it is a better ep from this season, I still can't say I enjoyed it. Something is off, like it has a crummy, cheapness to it, and as was pointed out, the acting is bad as well. Plus the racial stereotyping is cringe worthy. Although I'm not certain what ethnic group they were trying to portray, it was still bad. And disappointing final showing for Jack, he deserved better, something featuring an aircraft that wasn't in pieces on the ground.

Kabulstan, Militants in Pakistani Military Berets, H Bombs, suppressed Buddhists. Cool! This was good episode that had decent flow and a provocative script. telepathic powers, terror, fountain of youth, Mad Jack, an even madder Mac, and a mad, mad, mad Chinese scientist that exchanges some foreign language trash talk with out hero, cute chick being groomed by our famous adventurer, great macgyverisms sans ubiquitous SAK. And even a relic from the distant past (DRUMROLL) - a vhs videotape - holding the super secret evidence.

I rated the episode as Ok".

Although a better episode than some of the other season 7 eps, the charm of the early seasons had run dry.

Yes, there were a few highlights. Jack of course, Even Roya's guest appearence was a real delight. I was familiar with Roya's prior acting roles which made it hard to accept her as a foreign character.

I just watched this again. Lots of food for thought. We learn at the very end of the series that Mac is 'Enlightened' (among many defintions and interpretation one from wiki: "a state characterized by infinite compassion, wisdom and skill") that he knows it, and that he had some kind of telepathic connection with Bubba/Meer(sp ? ). Was that the ultimate secret to his quick thinking success and in having such a clear & creative mind - especially under constant heavy adversity?

What religion were the people of Ammukash Valley? Where they suppose to be Buddhist or some sort of cult? If they were Buddhist, wouldn't the leader be addresses as 'lama' or 'master' ? ..... but 'Bubba' seems to be more of an Indian honorific and often associated with 'Godmen', Sadhus, cults et al.

At any rate, a bit of unusual ending to it all and lot's of room for discussion. Also, why was the episode lost? Was it really lost or was it that it dealt with spirituality, nukes, & terrorism and thus didn't meet with initial approvals?