Nitpicks

This is the original list of nitpicks made up from the conversations in our Nitpicks forum. The list is no longer maintained but kept here for reference.

001 PILOT
Mac rips up his green flannel shirt to use as a gas mask, but at the end of the episode he’s wearing it again
White long sleeve shirt changes appearance a little while after Mac rips up his green shirt.

002 GOLDEN TRIANGLE
When the guard comes to check on MacGyver tied on the rack we can see Mac’s belt on his pants. The camera then cuts to show his SAK on the ground, when it cuts back to Mac his belt is missing.

003 THIEF OF BUDAPEST
Yanna asks why the police brought her family to the prison and she asks MacGyver if it has something to do with the watch. When the camera is behind MacGyver and Yanna, you can see MacGyver lower his binoculars down to just in front of his chin. When the camera moves to MacGyver’s right side, the binoculars that should be right in front of him are nowhere in sight.

Whan MacGyver encounters Yanna for the 2nd time & asks her to return his swiss army knife and the watch she stole from him. After a bit of haggling the tells him “OK MacGyver, I’ll get you your watch” The problem here is that at NO point during their 1st or 2nd encounter did MacGyver tell Yanna his name.

While trying to get across the border, MacGyver and Yanna’s family are driving through buildings and outdoor restaurants. In one scene a grey security car pulls up to block the 3 cars and a guy in a white shirt and black pants can be seen slowly moving out of the way. Then, when the camera switches to the other side of the security car, the guy is gone even though he should be visible towards the center of the screen.

At the end of the car chase scene, when the bad guys come out of the pipe and go into the river, the car passes by the camera from right to left. At that moment, you can see that the two people inside the car are, in fact, crash test dummies

If you look at the number plates on the police cars, before MacGyver messes with the
traffic lights, then you’ll see that they’re Hungarian plates, but when they go to the
stolen scenes from the Italian Job, the number plates become Italian, then at the border
they’re back to being Hungarian again!

004 THE GAUNTLET
As MacGyver climbs out to repair the balloon hole you can see a rope running from the basket off to the right of the screen, pulled very tightly.. obviously to hold the balloon in place for the shot.

As MacGyver runs up the sand dune there is part of either a vehicle or rigging visible at the right edge of the shot.

Macs watch changes from black to silver when he’s waiting for the fireworks in the bell to go off.

Mac sets off the explosion by inserting the plug of a camera flash and activating the timer. This, however, is impossible. Plastique is a very powerful but very stable plastic explosive. A detonator is needed to set it off. A simple electric spark or current from a battery-operated camera would never initiate the explosion.

At the end, Kate takes a picture with a camera that has just been swum across the river. Most cameras don’t work very well when they have been submerged underwater. Hers was already broken so would have filled up with water as they crossed the river.

When Kate knocks out the solder with her camera, his hat comes off. But then when we see the next shot his hat is back on.

005 THE HEIST
The dice change positions from shot to shot while Mac is “polishing” them.

When the car dives out the back of the plane a Cameraman can be seen right behind the car.

This episode is supposed to be in the US virgin islands, yet all the scenes of the car in the air have endless desert below.

When Mac is opening the safe he tells the bird “It’s an octave too high.” He then drinks some of the wine out of the glass.  This would actually raise the octave rather than lower it.

When MacGyver puts the first end of the plastic tube into the light beam alarm in Catlins office, wouldn’t that have broken the beam of light and set off the alarm?

006 TRUMBO’S WORLD
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007 LAST STAND
MacGyver extinguishes the thermite torch (used to open the armored car) by pushing the end into the dirt. This wouldn’t work as thermite reactions use the oxygen from the metal oxide, not the air.

When Macs making the fertilizer bombs we see him take the engine start off the shelf twice (same shot). but in between these shots its clearly seen on the bench beside him.

When Mac gets the R/C plan down in the diner his shirt is dark green with Chinese type collar. When he runs outside with the plane his shirt has suddenly changed to a light gray shirt with a normal collar.

008 HELLFIRE
When Mac is fixing the spring on the truck engine. His hands are quite dirty in the wide-angle shots but nice and clean in the close-up shots.

As Mac and Bill walk into the dynamite shack.. you can see a gloved hand move from beside the crates of explosives.

009 THE PRODIGAL
The mother moves a few seconds after she dies!
When MacGyver is rigging the trap on the stairway his watch is missing in one of the shots.

010 TARGET MACGYVER
when MacGyver in cutting the tree branch, first he’s sitting up on the branch cutting with one hand then the next shot he is somehow standing behind the branch using both hands.

011 NIGHTMARES
The alarm reset button is on the top in one scene and on the bottom in the next scene.

The bundle of money being counted by the bad guys is blank on one side

As Mac falls after being hit by the bad policeman, his eyes are red, the same as they are when he’s drugged. Then in the next scene, they are clear again. (the scene is a cut from the later scene when Mac falls and is found by the girl)

At the beginning, the two Germans say “Colson is here personally for the pick up” referring to Pete Thornton. Colson was the character Dana Elca played in the pilot episode.

012 DEATHLOCK
When MacGyver pulls the suit of armor back in after it gets shot by the machine gun outside there are no bullet holes in it.

The suit of armor mounted on the trolley that Mac uses as a diversion has one problem. When it drives into a wall, the empty and hollow piece of armor explodes!

The automatic sentry guns Quayle (the assassin) uses are ordinary MP5’s with ordinary 30 or 50-round magazines mounted on some sort of automatic aiming mechanism. The real problem with that is that although the guns have limited magazines, that doesn’t stop them from firing hundreds upon hundreds of rounds…

When Quayle is flipping through the security cameras he looks at the room where Mrs. Chong and Pete are…  Pete disappears then reappears when he flips back to the room again.

013 FLAME’S END
When Ed Train is pursuing MacGyver at the nuclear plant there is a scene where you can see that someone is standing on the level just above where the action is taking place. The action is happening on a Sunday, and the only people at the plant beside them are Amy Austin, Tim Wexler, and the security guard, and all of them are in the control room while this sequence is taking place.

014 COUNTDOWN
Mac’s shirt changes color when he moves from his balcony to inside his apartment.

015 THE ENEMY WITHIN
In the scene where it shows that car has no brakes, you can see the engine and details exposed,  the car is supposed to be Russian but the text on components is English and in Latin letters – not Cyrillic, and you can clearly read “Brake Fluid” on the brake fluid tank cap.

when Mac climbs the car and camera changes to the other side of the turn, the police car blue light on the roof disappears.

When MacGyver, Peter Thornton, and Victoria Tomanova are at the science conference, watch the scene when Reverend Mather says “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please”, and we see a wide shot of the 3: MacGyver and Victoria have their hands down below waist level and they are not touching. The very next scene is a closer shot, but now they both have their hands above waist level and MacGyver is holding Victoria’s hand.

When MacGyver is making the “defibrillator” he cuts the cable off the microphone to use the power supply… microphones don’t have electricity running through them.

When the “local” throws the shotgun cartridge to MacGyver he catches it in his Right hand. But then the angle changes and we suddenly see him holding it in his left hand.

016 EVERY TIME SHE SMILES
When the first car stops and the second car flies over it and bursts into flames, when it lands there is no one in the car. When we see it later, we see the general and another soldier in the car

017 TO BE A MAN
The saddle on MacGyvers horse changes several times throughout the episode.

018 UGLY DUCKLING
When Kate shuts off power to the building, she types the command into the computer “close all circuits” when in fact it should be “open all circuits”. Closing a circuit means to complete a circuit so that power flows and open means to cut a circuit so that power doesn’t flow.

When MacGyver is copying the files from the lab computer, the type of computer and the table it’s sitting on changes between shots.

When Kate and MacGyver are triangulating with their watches, Kates watch changes through the scene.

019 SLOW DEATH
While MacGyver is talking to the one-armed doctor at the bar, the bartender moves from behind to bar to in front of the bar as the angle changes.

020 THE ESCAPE
When Mac fixes Khan’s stereo, he opens up the chassis. To fix the phase on a stereo, all you need to do is swap the wires between positive and negative on one of the speakers.

021 A PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
During the high-speed boat chase, the camera helicopter’s landing skid comes briefly into view as the camera is following the bad guys’ boat. It’s visible in the bottom right corner and is very noticeable.

During the high-speed boat chase, MacGyver picks up some petrol (gas) cans with “BENZIN” written on them in English. The scene is set in Russia, so the writing should have been in Russian.

After MacGyver helps Alexander Karsov escape the more secure cell-block and takes him back to the less secure patient dormitory, there is a scene where he plans to distract the male nurse in order to smuggle Karsov into the room. Watch when MacGyver says: “Come, I’ll show you the open gate”; there is a fast-moving, but clearly visible, shadow high on the room’s wall, right behind where MacGyver is standing, and judging by its shape it is a microphone.

022 THE ASSASSIN
The car pursuing Mac drives over some spikes and comes to a complete stop with the wheels practically on top of these spikes.  However, with no time passing between cuts, the car has instantly moved forward so that the spikes are not in view.

When Mac and the girl drive away from the cemetery, Mac puts his sunglasses on as the car starts to move, then as the camera angle changes suddenly his glasses are gone, and we see him put them on a second time.

How did Piedra know who his target was meant to be? and why did he continue his assassination attempt if he didn’t get paid?

023 THE HUMAN FACTOR
When MacGyver and Dr. Jill Ludlum are trying to figure out how to escape from the receding floor that will eventually dump them into an acid bath, MacGyver takes off his shoes, kicking them a bit so that they don’t get in his way, and then takes off his pants. He then uses his pants to hang from a pipe that runs across the room, right above their heads. All this action happens pretty fast since the retracting floor is not stopping for anything. However, when we see MacGyver and Dr. Jill Ludlum hanging from the pipe we can clearly see that MacGyver now has his shoes back on.

024 THE ERASER
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025 TWICE STUNG

When Kelly gets shot in the cocaine deal we see some blood in the center of his chest as the shot fades to black for a commercial break. When the scene fades back from black he has a lot more blood all over his chest.

How did no-one in the hotel hear the gunshots when the cocaine deal went bad?

MacGyver refers to the plane in which he begins the episode as a “T-38 Ace”. In actual fact, the NATO reporting name of the Northrop T-38 shown was the “Talon”, not the “Ace”. The “T” at the start of its name indicated its role as a Trainer aircraft. No manned aircraft could have been given the name “Ace”, as the letter “A” is used to indicate the start of the NATO reporting name for an air-to-air missile.

When kelly is laying on the floor after being shot, he breaks the blood bag under his shirt as part of the plan, but he pushes it too hard and the fake blood can be seen to squirt out of the bag straight over his head off camera.

026 THE WISH CHILD
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027 FINAL APPROACH
After MacGyver scares off the cougar with the waterfall the animal trainer’s head can be seen in the background as the cougar runs off.

028 JACK OF LIES
The first external shots of the plane flying at night show no logos near the nose but on landing at the airstrip there are two circle logos, one on each side of the nose.

029 THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
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030 EAGLES
In the scene where Mac tries to land the hang-glider on the tall rock. His hat changes in one of the shots and we can see its a stunt double.

When MacGyver’s tent pegs give out and he falls while hanging under the ledge, his hat disappears and then reappears.

031 SILENT WORLD
When Mac is matching the lake on his computer he says the search is based on shape and size. He never entered info or asked about the lake size.

In the scene where Mac falls and ends up hanging upside down his hat disappears in one of the shots of that scene.

032 THREE FOR THE ROAD
About 1/3 through the episode the Cadillac in which MacGyver and the elderly couple are travelling is shot and hit by one of the pursuing mobsters’ guns. We see the bullet punch a big hole on the rear left side of the car’s chassis, somewhere close to the tail-lights. However, for the rest of the episode we get to see several scenes in which the part of car that got hit is clearly visible and nowhere does the bullet-hole show up. It simply has vanished as if the car had never been hit.

Where did Mac find an extra pair of shoes and pants to fool the bad guy when all their bags where thrown out of the car

033 PHOENIX UNDER SIEGE
In the opening credits the title is mis-spelled as “Phoenix Under Seige”

When MacGyver and Harry are trapped in the vault with the gas, as MacGyver helps harry up onto the boxes
RDA accidently bangs into the wall of supposedly hard wood cabinets behind him and the entire wall noticibly wobbles.

034 FAMILY MATTER

035 SOFT TOUCH
The magnesium Mac uses to open the freezer lock ignites way too easy. Magnesium takes a lot of heat to ignite.

The winch on the front of Mac’s jeep appears and disappears through-out the episode.

036 BIRTHDAY
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037 PIRATES
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038 OUT IN THE COLD
MacGyver pulls a hot tray off food out of the oven then les than a minute later slowly removes the lid with his bare hands. (the lid should still be too hot to handle).

When MacGyver is trapped in the snow, those close ups showing him making the parachute are clearly not his hands.

039 DALTON, JACK OF SPIES
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040 PARTNERS
The account of how Pete and Mac meet conflicts with the previous story in Deathlock.

At the beginning of the episode Macs voice over says it’s Saturday. But at the end of the show Jack says its Sunday.

041 BUSHMASTER
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042 FRIENDS
The segments from the pilot episode where Mac fires the rifle is missing from the clips shown in this episode.

When Mac sees Kate is pregnant he acts like he thinks it’s his. But it has been at least a year and a half since they saw each other. There’s no way it can be his.

043 DOA MACGYVER
– When lancer is faking using the radio, he plugs the mic back into the phones jack instead of the mic jack.

044 FOR LOVE OR MONEY
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045 LOST LOVE (part 1)
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046 LOST LOVE (part 2)
When MacGyver and Jack are crawling through the air-duct. We see a low shot which has the rope used to hang the vent covert, already hanging down.

When MacGyver is setting up the motor and ropes to slide down from the air-duck, the rope which is ment to have the vent cover hanging at the end of it… seems to be moving around very freely as if it has nothign hanging on it.

047 BACK FROM THE DEAD
When Mac goes to the church with Jimmy his jeep has no doors or roof. When we see him race back to the house boat his jeep has doors.

048 GHOST SHIP
In one scene Mac touches the girl’s cheek with his right hand, but in the next shot it’s his left.

049 FIRE & ICE
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050 GX-1
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051 JACK IN THE BOX
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052 THE WIDOWMAKER
-Murdoc stabs the mountain brochure only once, yet we can see many stab marks under it

053 HELL WEEK
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054 BLOW OUT
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055 KILL ZONE
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056 EARLY RETIREMENT
After the bomb explodes in the hangar, it is said that 3 people were killed and 8 people were injured from the explosion.

There were only two people in the room anywhere near the explosion when it went off, and it appeared that that were far enough away that they weren’t injured by it.

Also, the worker that “caught fire” wasn’t even in the picture when the explosion went off?

While talking to Nikki about Webbers past, MacGyver says DSX instead of DXS

057 THIN ICE
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058 THE ODD TRIPLE
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059 THE NEGOTIATOR
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060 THE SPOILERS
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061 MASK OF THE WOLF
When Mac jumps from the roof and tackles the man, during the fight he loses his hat, but in the next close-up it is again on his head.

062 ROCK THE CRADLE
Printing plates which fall out of babies basket are really obvious fakes.

When MacGyver and Jack first find the baby in Jack’s hanger, Jack goes to his phone to call Child Services. But later in the episode Jack says his phone has been temporarily disconnected for the last year or so.

063 THE ENDANGERED
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064 MURDERER’S SKY
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065 THE SECRET OF PARKER HOUSE
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066 BLOOD BROTHERS
As Mac bends down to pick up bullets from the floor of the ‘old pump house’, his watch is missing.

067 THE OUTSIDERS
The jeep that Mac crashes has square headlights. After the crash the jeep has round headlights

068 ON A WING AND A PRAYER
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069 COLLISION COURSE
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070 THE SURVIVORS
The rocks in the cave move when Pete and Mac bump into them

071 DEADLY DREAMS
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072 MA DALTON
When Jesse Colton pulls over to use the phone booth the doors are wide open. But when he walks over to the booth the doors are closed.

How did the bad guy NOT notice Jack, Francine and Jesse watching Mac climb down the wall behind hi when they where SO obvious about it.

073 CLEO ROCKS
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074 FRATERNITY OF THIEVES
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075 THE BATTLE OF TOMMY GIORDANO
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076 THE CHALLENGE
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077 RUNNERS
The young Mac in the flashback scene has his hair part on the right hand side of his head. Macs hair part is on the left.

078 GOLD RUSH
First time we see the “prop booby-trap” it has blood on the end of it. Then we Mac pushes it out of the way, the blood is gone.

079 THE INVISIBLE KILLER
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080 BRAINWASHED

081 EASY TARGET
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082 RENEGADE
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083 UNFINISHED BUSINESS

The photo on Petes ID card shows him wearing the same casual fishing clothes as he’s wearing in the episode. Pete was a suit and tie person and certainly wouldn’t have dressed that way for his ID photo.

As MacGyver and Jack walk off to find Pete it starts raining. Yet later scenes show nice sunny day with dry clothes and surroundings. Even a cloud of dust as the gun lands in dry dirt. If the event had happened in the time frame of the episode (about half an hour to an hour after the rain) there would still be evidence of the rain.

In the flashback scene from “Partners” we hear Pete yell “It’s Murdoc!” but in the original scene, we never hear that line because they don’t yet know its Murdoc.

084 LEGEND OF THE HOLY ROSE (two-part episode)
085
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086 THE BLACK CORSAGE
After Sofia runs off from the phone where Deegan shot at her. We see Pete hang up his phone.
Deegan then asks the operator to run a trace on the open line.. Accept it won’t be open anymore because Pete hung up.

087 CEASE FIRE
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088 SECOND CHANCE
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089 HALLOWEEN KNIGHTS
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090 CHILDREN OF LIGHT
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091 BLACK RHINO
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092 THE TEN PERCENT SOLUTION
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093 TWO TIMES TROUBLE
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094 THE MADONNA
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095 SERENITY
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096 LIVE & LEARN
– The photo of the burnt paper shows the printing as being a perfect overlay while the paper its suposed to be on is crumpled up.

097 LOG JAM
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098 THE TREASURE OF MANCO
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099 JENNY’S CHANCE
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100 DEEP COVER
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101 THE LOST AMADEUS
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102 HEARTS OF STEEL
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103 RUSH TO JUDGEMENT
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104 PASSAGES
Both Macs parents have blue eyes, yet Mac has brown eyes?

Mac claims that he saw his father when he was 10. this conflicts with info given in Runners that James MacGyver died when Mac was 7.

When we first see Pete at the hospital looking in at MacGyver from the doorway, as Pete turns to walk towards Hakim, a Microphone can bee see in the top left corner between the light and teh East 2A sign.

105 TOUGH BOYS
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106 HUMANITY
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107 THE GUN
When the policeman is shot, we hear an APB which gives details of the car type,color, license plate and direction of travel, but non of this information is giving by the cop when he calls in the shooting.

Why was the gun loaded in the display case?

108 TWENTY QUESTIONS
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109 THE WALL
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110 LESSON IN EVIL
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111 HARRY’S WILL
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112 MACGYVER’S WOMEN
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113 BITTER HARVEST
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114 THE VISITOR
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115 SQUEEZE PLAY
When MacGyver fools the store manager into dialing the phone number of his crook-partners, he has a hidden tape recorder with him so he can record the sounds of the numbers as they are being dialed. As the store manager is dialing the last number, MacGyver says something quite aloud. However, when MacGyver goes to his car and plays the tape in order to try to figure out what the phone number was, his voice has now mysteriously disappeared from the tape

116 JERICO GAMES
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117 THE WASTELAND
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118 EYE OF OSIRIS
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119 HIGH CONTROL
How can everything be covered in snow and everyone wearing winter coats when Mac is ment to be living in LA?  It doesn’t snow in LA.

120 THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE
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121 BLIND FAITH
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122 FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY
Why did the bad guys spend so much time trying to get in through the doors and then drive a car through the wall, when the house has SO many windows they could have entered through.

123 STRICTLY BUSINESS
The car gets hit on the drivers side (Macs left side) but later all his injuries are on his right.

We see the car explode in a huge fireball, (and hear glass smashing) but then in the next scene is undamaged with just a small fire on the hood.

124 TRAIL OF TEARS
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125 HIND-SIGHT
Pete’s wife writes that the Foundation was more important to Pete than his family. But they’ve been divorced for 20 years, while Pete was working for the DXS…Not the foundation.

126 HONEST ABE
When MacGyver is in the helicopter with Abe as he awakes from being gassed, a microphone appears in the bottom right-hand corner twice.

127 THE ‘HOOD
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128 OBSESSED
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129 THE PROMETHEUS SYNDROME
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130 THE COLTONS
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131 WALKING DEAD
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132 GOOD KNIGHT MACGYVER (two-part episode)
133
– When Sir Duncon is charing at MacGyver, his “steel” lance can clearly be seen wobbling around.

134 DEADLY SILENTS
When Mac and Pinky are in the pool, why didn’t they just hold onto the handles in the side of the pool?

135 SPLIT DECISION
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136 GUNZ ‘N’ BOYZ
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137 OFF THE WALL
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138 THE STRINGER
Sam’s motor bike changes as he jumps it through the window.
If you watch carefully you can see the bikes luggage bag disappears in the same scene.

When MacGyver is looking at pictures of him and SAMs mother. Non of the pictures have RDA in them.

The first time Sam remembers his mom being shot, she falls backwards, later on when he remembers it again she falls sideways.

When Sam and Mac are on the ship MacGyver gets shot, but later when Sam is tending to him, Mac appears to have a broken arm… no gunshot wound.

139 THE MOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
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MOVIES

LOST TREASURE OF ATLANTIS
Why is there a Firey pool of water inside the volcano instead of lava?

You would never be able to see the planets in the sky with as much detail as they showed them.

When MacGyver lights the candle fuse a second time (after accidentally blowing it out) the candle wick is still white and unused.

TRAIL TO DOOMSDAY