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 76 - The Challange

A youth from an inner-city club where MacGyver volunteers is framed for theft by a white supremacist.

Votes from May 2006
Poor [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Average [ 0 ] [0.00%]
OK [ 0 ] [0.00%]
Good [ 4 ] [20.00%]
Excellent [ 16 ] [80.00%]
Total Votes: 20

archived posts
Posted by: MacGyver Feb 20 2006, 05:16 PM

Posted by: MacGirl Feb 20 2006, 06:59 PM

Posted by: Amy Feb 21 2006, 01:37 AM

Posted by: MACGYVERISMYDAD Feb 21 2006, 01:58 AM

even a person as self controlled as mac gets upset and its ok but he just had to let his agression out and it was on the wall. lol. you can just feel his pain and you feel like you would not have liked what he saw when he first spun booker around and cringed. the ending was great as well as you believe macs gonna pistol whip larson, mac which by the way also shows how anger makes you do crazy things because mac dispises gun and here he is ready to pistol whip larson with one. i think its great how he controls himself and then he tells the police to get him outta my sight!!. great ep

Posted by: MacGyverGod Feb 21 2006, 05:16 AM

Posted by: Lothithil Feb 21 2006, 07:23 AM

Posted by: Old Fan Feb 21 2006, 08:19 AM

Posted by: MACGYVERISMYDAD Feb 21 2006, 09:26 AM

Posted by: rockatteer Feb 21 2006, 09:48 AM

Posted by: MacGirl Feb 21 2006, 10:32 AM

Posted by: MacsChick Feb 21 2006, 04:26 PM

Posted by: MacNymph Feb 26 2006, 07:56 AM

The Columbian Necktie is when the victim throat is slit open and the tongue of the victim is pulled through the opening.

Posted by: rockatteer Feb 26 2006, 09:30 AM

I wander if thats actually real, or just an urben legend.. because if you think about it..your tongue is part of your troat..it doesn't just hang there its all attached, so you can't just pull it out like that.

I just finished watching this one after putting the kids to bed. Wow!! Every time I see it still remains so powerful. Favorite part--that's hard to say maybe Booker's speech before the City Council. Mixed with the pool playing scene--back and forth--great editing. Anyone notice Mac's laugh when he hugs Booker-almost the most he laughs in the whole series--and such a polar opposite from grief, rage and angst that we see a few scenes later when Booker is killed. And soemthing that gets to me everytime is when Booker says to Larson as he knowingly is about to be killed "Killing me won't close the Challenger's Club. You can't murder an idea." Then Larson spouts more and Booker says "Come on" something like that. Talk about courage in the face of evil and death. The character of Booker impresses me everytime I watch.

It was the heaviest episode I have ever saw so far, and it was one of the few moments that MacGyver was really, really furious! The last shot was great, I would probably hit Lawson hard before handing him out to the police!

I prefer treehugger MacGyver over social worker MacGyver. Episodes that have Challenger's Club - stuff are among my least favorites, but The Challenge is best of them.

Ending with Larson shows how different character MacGyver is compared to almost all other TV-show characters; you just can't provoke violent reaction out of him.

I understand the message of this episode, but I dont think I'll ever watch this episode again. Its just to heavy. And the way Booker died, it's just too...

And to be honest, I really prefer the Indiana Jones Mac or the Special Agent Mac eps.

Is there a scene missing on dvd? In the beginning was there a scene of Cuba Gooding Jr. asking for the job and the man giving him the keys and Cuba driving away?

Don't think so...

but there is a scene with Ray (Cuba) getting in the van and Larson coming out and like Ray was stealing the van and the ensuing chase ending with Ray being arrested.

it starts at about 3 minutes into the episode. It does seem to fit the purpose of providing a degree of mystery about whether Ray's telling the truth or not, so I don't think it's been edited at all.

Also the DVD versions are supposed to be the full original US broadcast versions of each episode.

I liked this ep none the less there isn't much MacGyverisms in it.

I watched this once and don't think I could watch again, too heavy for me.

I've had the season 4 DVD's for quite a while. Last week or so I decided to watch them through. I didn't remember the powerful season when Mac finds Booker. Now, I know why! I'm watching a DVR'd version Sleuth ran yesterday. Right in the middle of it they cut to a commercial and did not come back to the same scene. The whole punch into the wall was missing.

I thought this was one of RDA's best performances--and they cut it? Yikes!

The scene I remember most about this episode, was the raw emotion on Mac's face when he found his friend dead. Pounding the wall, and coming close to smashing the face of the murder in; and young Ray saying MacGyver. It was a well written story, and I agree with the rest of you. It is a sad state that the world treats one color better then another, no better then it did 20 some years ago. In God's eyes we are supposed to be equal in every since of the word.

I just noticed that one of Larson"s goons shows up again wearing the exact same clothing in the episode 10% solution. It's the guy with the Romper-stomper guy with the black jacket and jeans rolled up to his boot tops.

I noticed he's also wearing a MA-1 flight jacket like MacGyver's navy blue one.

I watched this episode this evening and was really struck by the emotional Mac. Two very powerful emotional scenes, when he discovered Booker's body and also when he went after the guy in the end. I think he knew that Booker was dead even when he was standing at the door but the sheer powerfulness of the anger that Mac had was fascinating to watch as usually he is calm and collected. And you can just see the disbelief in his eyes when he realises that he is holding the gun.

A very dark and dramatic story!!!
It was a little strange watching Mac in this episode, especially when he discovers the body of his friend!!!
Very dramatic scene!!!

I voted good!

Yeah I think a lot of people have it as one of their favorites, or must watch episodes because of that scene.

It's about the only time we ever see MacGyver totally lose it.

I feel like I'm piling on, but just want to add that this episode was really, really good. I don't know if it's the best, but definitely the most powerful. Social problems often appeared on MacGyver, but this is one episode where they pulled out all the stops to show just how ugly those things got. And if it's this powerful when I see it now, I can only imagine how it was in 1989 when urban violence and race-based politics were a much bigger issue.

Loved Larson, more exactly, loved to hate him, still the worst human being in the entire series (which is why you see Mac almost get violent at the end: it takes a really sick person to draw that reaction out of him). Also loved the social commentary, from Larson's newspaper that read "Black Welfare Robbers Picking Our Pockets," to his thinly-veiled-racist rhetoric at the hearing, after which he immediately turns around to imply Booker's the real racist because there are supposedly no white kids at the Challengers' Club. Nixon and Reagan would have been proud.

Also,

and

I liked it all. One of the things I liked about the show was the versatility and the way MacGyver dealt with all kinds of completely different situations, rather than being solely a show about secret agents or social workers or whatever.

This episode really stands out to me for a couple of reasons. First of all, it not only makes a point about racism being bad, but it drives it home. Hard.
Second is that (I know this has been mentioned already, but oh well) it's the only episode where we see such strong emotions out of the normally cool and collected Mac. It's also the only one (the beginning scene in the pilot in which he fires the semi-automatic at the bad guys doesn't count) where we see mac lose his temper and actually try to hurt (or kill) someone when not in self defense. It shows that he isn't a model of perfection, and really makes his character seem much more real, which is one of the things I love about this show.
If you're only going to watch a few episodes, watch this one.

I know what you mean. Michael MacRae was brilliant when it came to playing slimy characters with a thin veneer of respectability. He plays a very similar character in Blind Faith, and I think that character just might have given Larson a run for his money for the title of "worst human being in the entire series."

Saw this again yesterday (I've been throwing myself a MacGyver marathon, due to being in a situation where I don't have much work, and I'm applying for jobs in my new field... and doing a lot of waiting for interviews.)

I noticed something interesting: I think this is the first time in the series we've seen Mac really emotionally vulnerable, *and* willing to reach out to someone else for comfort. We saw him vulnerable in Widowmaker, but for whatever reason, he couldn't accept the comfort that Pete was offering him. Mac has always been the strong one whom everyone else leans on, but here, the tables get turned, and he needs to lean on Ray. A good observation: that even the strongest of us can't always handle the turmoil that life brings, and that there's no shame in turning to someone else for support.

I just checked, that scene is in the flashback we see when Ray is telling his story to the court.

We don't see it in the beginning.

This is my fave episode of Season 4. Racism sucks and its sad that it still exists in this day and age.
The scene when Mac discovers Bookers body was one of the best scenes in the whole series.

But I have to disagree with comments about the part where Mac grabs the gun and is about to bash Larson with it. I thought it was incredibly bad acting on RDA's part. You can see how fake that yell is, its almost like RDA is so used to playing a cool calm and collected Mac that he found it difficult to make him sound angry. That scene doesn't make Mac sound angry at all, it just sounds like RDA was having a real hard time with being angry.

I dunno, maybe its just me, but I have watched this episode many times and every time I see that scene I cringe at how bad it is.

Very good episode. Every time I watch it, I want for a different outcome for Booker. Everyone does a real good job of driving home their emotion in this episode. You can feel Macgyvers desperation and pain as he puts his fist violently through it. For once you see Mac loose control and punch a hole in something out of anger. I for one am all about the action hero style episodes over the later style episodes but this is a must see.

This episode contains a RDA scene I'll never forget. The scene when he finds Booker dead. When I first saw this episode, I literally got tears in my eyes, I felt him. Such a powerful scene. No music just RDA being totally emotional, grieving.

I think that scene was one of the best RDA's performances I've seen (so far, still have to watch the rest of the show). To me also by far the most memorable one (before I saw that scene, I thought ''Widowmaker'' camping Pete-mac was). Seeing Mac in such pain. It got to me so much I had to write this post.

An excellent episode.

The trick shot MacGyver does in the pool hall was actually made by actor Garry Chalk who played Det. Sweeney in both Zito episodes and later was the Russian Colonel Chekov in StarGate SG:1

LOL For a minute there, you confused me because Det. Sweeney died in Deadly Dreams... so I was like, how was he in Lesson In Evil? Then I remembered there was a flashback. XD

I actually love that scene at the pool hall. I kinda wondered how they pulled that off.

Interesting.

And doesn't he do it well...
Extremes of emotion can look overdone and cartoony so easily if they're not done just right, and RDA hits this bang on the nail.

I liked this episode, even if it is one of the heavy ones. Booker has to be one of my favourite minor characters, and I like the balance of Mac helping Ray and then Ray being the one to rein in Mac when he's about to batter the bad guy. It's a nice touch at the end of the scene that it's Ray holding Mac safe and not (as is more usual) the other way round.
Well done, guys, well done.