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 122 - Faith, Hope and Charity

While recovering at the local inn, from a bear trap injury, MacGyver suspects another boarder may have been murdered by the mob.

This is one of my absolute favorite episodes! I was worried when I first saw it that it would become too sappy, but it was fantastic. I love how those old ladies dote on MacGyver like he's a child, and how Mac kind of begins to act childlike, pouting and not eating his oatmeal. Of course, who could blame him? That stuff looked like pure sludge.

RDA's acting in this one at the beginning is good, too. I know we've already mentioned how well he does pain, but his screams when the bear trap snaps around his leg seemed pretty convincing to me--poor guy! You can also see the look of pain on his face during that scene.

The mob angle did seem like kind of a stretch to me, although I'm not quite sure why. But I do like how an injured Mac and two old ladies are able to defeat them! It's a very cute and funny episode. I just watched it again during Christmas.

This was a very good episode. The bad guys were funny and so was MacGyver with that napkin over him and the food. Not so full action but a rather peaceful episode without any extreme form of violence. Few well found MacGyverisms. This episode has a good Home Alone style. I like the finale, with the music when they drive MacGyver away.

"Faith, Hope & Charity" - yes! This is one of my favorite episodes! It's just so funny!

It starts out with a serious mission for MacGyver, tracking the endangered gray wolf for Phoenix when he gets caught in a hunter's trap and get some charity from Faith and Hope. And then he has to help the two ladies escape mobsters with homemade traps- I agree that there's definitely a "Home Alone" feel to it (which are great movies, by the way)
"It's just two old ladies and a gimp!"
Hey- when it's MacGyver you're talking about, he'll make do with what he has and take you down!

There were lots of great MacGyverisms in this one- MacGyver with his homemade crutches and wheelchair, and especially the cayenne pepper on the mop, the rug on the stairs trick and the vacuum in the chili- it's so fun watching MacGyver and Faith and Hope outsmart these guys. And lots of great quotes from this episode too.
It's definitely just a really fun episode to watch- good one to pick you up from the blues.

(And it's neat to think of how the episode fits nicely with the Bible verse the title is taken from-"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Does that make MacGyver "charity"? )

Chili? I always thought it was tomatosoup.

I don't have the season 6 dvds.

Everywhere I look on-line it says chili or tomato soup.

Why am I remembering some kind of preserves? Blueberry?

Somebody watch the episode!!! Quick!!! It's driving me nuts!!!

*looks at the brat pack* Don't say it.

This one is cute and funny. Though Hope and Faith got to be a bit much by the end, they were just stereotypical enough to be amusing. Also, they were a lot smarter than they let on.

I got a kick out of the MacGyverisms in this one, too... proving that even when Mac is laid up, he's still dangerous!

Its a funny episode. MacsChick, I like as well how he's pouting and unbelievingly, nearly horrified repeating 'A week!'

I just watched it. Before you go completly nuts MacNymph; I guess you really like pie, this would explain why you remember only Blueberry! They had Blueberry pie in the oven.

As far as for the soup it doesn't say what kind it is but aren't there normally still also beans and meat in a chilli soup which makes it a little more thicker. So I would assume it's tomato soup.


Snowdiver

This is one of my favourite episodes! Mac is just so funny in his pain and it's nice to see him off his game a couple of times (eg. what sort of idiot would trust a hundred year old crutch to hold his weight while going down stairs?! ) Faith and Hope were perfect foils for him. Definitely a classic ep!

Oh, and I've always thought it was spaghetti sauce!

Mac
who wished she'd had a Faith and Hope when she got caught in almost the same scenario as Mac at the beginning of the ep

[color=orange]I just watched it. Before you go completly nuts MacNymph; I guess you really like pie, this would explain why you remember only Blueberry! They had Blueberry pie in the oven.

As far as for the soup it doesn't say what kind it is but aren't there normally still also beans and meat in a chilli soup which makes it a little more thicker. So I would assume it's tomato soup.

Okay, I'm talking about the MacGyverism. He stuck a vaccum into a "vat" of something and sprayed the baddies. I don't know anyone that makes a vat of chilli or tomato soup.

So I'm not really sure if you answered the question.




Grrrrr

Earlier on in the show they tell MacGyver...

"We have pies in the oven".

"Blueberry.. or specialty."

So if you take that quote into account, along with the sheer quantity that's in the vat.

Then you come to a conclusion that it’s probably the blueberry preserves they are using in their pies.



Attached Image

It looks like chocolate, but it's not on a double boiler.

It's blueberry preserves in that big pot on the stove. Remember, Faith and Hope are in the woods gathering blueberries for their pies and preserves when they first encounter Mac caught in the leg trap.

Faith: "...Ah... poor pickings - that early frost just killed what was left of the blueberries..."
Hope: "...I told you we should've been out pick'in every day. There's some left here - a little weathered, but they'll do for preserves...."

This episode is my favorite. I think it's the off-beat situations, blended with the photography and lighting, and the musical score that create a very special place for Mac/RDA to play in. And, just the quirky slightly off-kilter Mac/RDA things that go on... Remember after the sisters find him after he's fallen down the stairs - where they get him into the chair in the parlor and give him the cup of tea??? He promply falls asleep and upon awakening, checks out the tea left in the cup - a finger in the cup incident - was this was the first one??? How many times has Jack done that in Stargate SG-1? It's his trademark. Or when he first wakes up in the "Yellow Daisy Room" the camera's POV - "The Foot" and later his reaction to being told he's got to stay off his foot for "a week"... Great expression. Amazing how with hardly any dialog, RDA can create the humorous emotional level that's just perfect for the scene. I think there was alot of RDA's sense of humor in those scenes... his personal input.

I found this RDA quote: "...You have to suspend disbelief a little bit to buy into your situation and to the story and how the character will react. You have to tweak your credibilibity a little bit, is basically what it comes down to..."

"Way to go kid!!..." (The elderly lady caught in the grocery store hold-up at the beginning of "Blow Out")

I have to say its very red looking for blueberry's though.

It looks like blood splattered all over the bad guy.

Ah HA!, Egawd! and Whew!

Without getting a better look at it, it looks like a boiling-water canner. That, your quotes and the quotes Old Fan provided it all is coming back to me now. (and makes sense)

Didn't think two little old ladies would be making a vat of spicey chilli. Not unless it was sitting next to a vat of Milk of Magnesia

*BURP* Excuse me!

I'm going chock that up to they wouldn't actually spray a boiling blueberry/sugar concoction on their actors and they came up with some red goo.

Thanks Rocky! I can start my new year off without the certain doom of my memory is failing me.

The look on his face when he realizes he has to stay for a week.

Excellent ep! Actually, it's the very first episode of MacGyver I ever saw. I love the 'Arsenic and Old Lace' angle the story turns. I see a lot of Cary Grant's 'Mortimer' in RDA's performance. And the two sisters are a hoot! Love them both! Even the mobsters crack me up!

Fun episode from start to finish, including the attiude of the wolf in the last shot.

Excellent eppy, I like every episode that has wolves in it, so this one is great too.

I think it must be chili or something with chilipepper in it, as Mac puts chili powder onto the mop. I don't make tomato soup with chili powder

It was probably oatmeal with blueberries in it.


Hey, did anyone else notice the music that played over the scene where Mac takes his tumble down the stairs? Reminiscent of Hitchcock's 'Psycho', isn't it?

In the scene where the detective is killed by 'Mrs. Bates', he falls back down the stairs, and if I'm not psycho myself, the music they played in that scene of MacGyver was very similar. An homage, I think, to the great director of thrillers, Alfred.

YES! I'm so glad someone else noticed that! There's at least another episode where the music seemed straight out of Psycho, but this is the one I remember most clearly.

I'm so tone deaf I figured I was probably hearing things, so it's nice to know I'm not .

Mac

This episode is one of my favorites as well. Its well written and well paced and blends humor with the serious themes of murder and mayhem.

I was in my junior year in college in Northern Wisconsin when this episode aired. I think another reason I like this episode has to do with the issue of the grey wolf MacGyver was tracking. There was a similar issue in Ashland county when wolves began migrating into the area. At the time, they were listed under the Endangered Species Act, and the state of Wisconsin was required to develop a wolf protection and management plan. I found this particularly interesting, since I was studying this policy at the time, and the issues of poaching and habitat destruction were just two of the many topics that the wolf protection policy covered. When I watch this episode, I have many fine memories of my college days, as well as spending a fun time with my favorite show.

BTW, cooked bluberries tend to clump together and look a lot like beans. They also turn a bluish purple color that stains everything it touches. If you watch MacGyver when he picks up the money off the floor after spraying the bad guys with the stuff inthe pot, the color of the stains on the floor and the money is clearly a bluish purple color.

I think MacNymph hit the money when she said that they wouldn't use real blueberry preserves. Obviously they had to use something that wouldn't stain and also something which would flow easily through the "vacuum cleaner" without clogging what ever pumping system they had installed for the effect.

You actually can suck up preserves with a vacuum cleaner. My sister broke a jar of strawberry preserves on the kitchen floor when we were kids and cleaned up the mess with the vacuum. Mom was really when she came home and found the vacuum all gummed up with strawberries and broken glass. My sister got a royal butt reaming for that one. I'm just glad I wasn't home when it happened or I would have been in trouble too for letting her do it! Yeah, go figure parental logic.......

You can suck anything up in a vacuum cleaner as long as it will fit up the pipe. Whether it continues to work afterwards is a different matter... which is why that MacGyverism would never work.... hot sticky liquid through an electric motor... yeah right!

Unless it was a shop vac, which is made to suck up liquids.

um.. yeah I was talking about normal vacuums... but yes a shop-vac would suck anything up.. don't know if they have the blower function though.

My mom had a similar vacuum cleaner - "Electrolux" (brand name) - from the 1940s/1950's. That thing could suck up a bowling ball - it was that powerful, and small objects left on the floor... didn't stand a chance. The cooked blueberries would be soft and squishy - no problem for that vac. They just don't make 'em like that anymore. Belongs in a museum...

But the stuff in the pot was blueberry preserves. When preparing, after you've added sugar, it thins out and becomes that purple-reddish color. After refrigeration and cooling , it thicken up and gets darker. I've made it so I know - my grandmother's recipe. What a shame to waste all that good stuff on Gorman. It tastes best on some warm crusty bread with butter.

has anyone stopped to think that a vacuum cleaner is designed to catch dirt.. not blow it out through the top air vent?

The preserves would have to pass through the vacuum fan and probably over the motor driving it before it would reach the air outlet.

I guess it could be put in reverse. Anyway... I don't think they will be using THAT vacuum again...