What a splendid idea!

I am sorry of what i wrote seemed negative. i have enjoyed your stories about Mac and Sam. I was at a difficult point my life when The Stringer aired. I found out at 14 teen from my cousin that I had a half bother. That has never left me finding that out. So when The Stringer aired that was so powerful for me because it was real. I was never intended to find out that I had a brother. When I found him a few years ago it was a moving experience. And to find out that he was in the army just like my dad. We share the same father. My brother was always told about his dad, but his mother never really tried to introduce him to my dad or myself and my sister. I was going to meet him last year but it became to difficult for him yo go through it. I do know that some day he will want to know his other family. This is way I love the mac and SAM story so much. It is real. I know that there is this about it that are silly I mean come on it is TV. Its going to happen. i have read a lot of fan fiction stories that have Mac and Sam in them. So soon I hope when I can get myself together long enough and finish editing my story. i plan to give my own version of the stringer and also fill in the holes. It I think should have been a 2 hour movie or ending. thanks everyone for reading.

Sheila, you didn't seem negative to me; not at all. A key point, for me, is that it's not actually unrealistic for the unknown sibling -- or offspring -- to appear, even though it seems like a cliche. Your experience, and Traveller's are illustrations. (My own family past included a rumour of an unknown uncle, but I never found out the truth of that story.)

..and I haven't even told you about the brother who came into my life a few years ago. The result of a short affair my father had when my mother was pregnant with... me.
So the cliché is alive and kicking.

As for the screenplay, guess who my favorite candidate for the leading part would be?

I voted OK.

I didn't like the old "main character finds out he had a son" bit. The adultery bothered me a bit. And the ending was too abrupt.

What adultery are you referring too?

I guess the fact that Mac had a child out of wedlock bothered me.

Please don't bring religious ideals into this, at least not too much, this isn't the forum nor website for that. I'm sure we all know plenty of "proper" families with major problems, relationship issues, divorce, but none of that is really relevant here.


(sorry Rocky, I know it's not my place, but)


Mac had several relationships, that's very clearly shown or implied. Those arn't my morals or lifestyle, but they were Mac's, so I just have to accept that as part of the show. You could argue that Mac should have been more responsible, but that probably goes without saying.

I just put my opinion.

You're right, I know. I guess I'm over reacting a little. As long as you don't go all political, how Mac's "conservative" or "liberal" lifestyle was to blame, we're good.

Adultery means "voluntary violation of the marriage bed" or "breach of law(ful marriage)".

There was no marriage or marriage bed involved therefore it's not adultery by most peoples (including the laws) interpretation of the word

I know some religions sometimes try to push this meaning to imply that any pre-marital sex is violating your future marital bed; if that's your interpretation, then that's explained why you called it adultery and we can move on.

This isn't the place to get into a discussion about whether we agree with that interpretation or not. We've been there and done that once before (a long time ago) and I really don't want to go there again.

So lets just be grateful that we have differing opinions that actually give us something to discuss and mule over - imaging how boring this place would be if we all agreed with each other.

Getting back to the actual comment now...

I think the child out of wed-lock probably threw quite a few people off balance. I've just been trying to think if this would have been pushing the boundary at the time the episode was made? I can't really remember where society was at around that time.

Of coarse that would only be one of a number of things which were quite off-putting about this episode.

In some respects it was almost like they were destroying the character to ensure none followed.

I didn't mean to offend anyone. I apologize, if I did.

No offense taken here. Your point is valid. The long lost child was totally out of character and completely out of sync with the shows over all themes.

It bothered me at first about MacGyver haveing a son, then the back story came up on that episode and all that bothering about his son came into light, just wish MacGyver had a daughter.

No offense taken either. I've just read so many articles online where crazy people spew comments about Bush, Obama, or quote bible verses, that I kinda over reacted. You had a right to state what you thought, and you seem pretty rational, so it's ok.

Hooo! I got a good laugh out of that that. That's putting it mildly. One could be forgiven for not including this ep in their own person canon, maybe even season 7 in it's entirety. Well, maybe that's not quite fair, I still havn't watched two or three eps from it.

Hmm, never looked at it that way. Interesting. It's possible, stranger thing have been done.

I agree. It does bring to mind that situation with Kate Connelly though. I mean, we were clearly meant to think there was the possibility of her being pregnant with Mac's child in Friends (which is a discussion all it's own, omg and eew). 8-| Maybe Mac should have carried something besides matches and duct tape in his pocket. Hoo! Thank you, I'm here all week.

Ahem. Sorry.

Sure glad you wern't around to give them ideas.

It didn't really bother me that he had a long lost son

While the episode certainly had its problems, the "child out of wedlock" thing wasn't one of them for me. I don't think it's ever implied that Mac never gets laid. Sure, by later seasons, they cut down a lot on that (to the point where it actually felt a bit unrealistic), but earlier in the series, we KNOW he's getting some action. The Kate Connelly example is a good one, but also look at the bounce in his step after his conjugal visit in "The Escape." Clearly he had some fun the night before. And he's had a ton of ex-girlfriends from highschool and college, not to mention Deborah.
And it's possible to have an accident even when trying to be careful. It doesn't make someone a bad person, and I don't think it changes Mac's character at all.

I agree...it didn't change his character...in some respects the show made him out to be a saint (with the helping people, the no guns and violence, no alcohol, no smoking, no drugs etc) but I am sure in his younger days he was no saint and all his experiences shaped him in some way or the other...he has his flaws and all...I guess it made him a lot more human...

Yeah, I think they actually made him TOO saintly at times. In a way, finding out that he had a child out of wedlock is a nice reminder that he's human.

@Rocketeer

I don't see how they destroyed his character. He finds out that he has a grown son. It's not as if he finds out that he has a five-year old who will need constant supervision. The impression I got at the end of the show is that his son will be a part of his life, but I still think Mac will go on to have tons of adventures with AND without his son. Heck, look at the two tv movies-- no mention of his son in either of those. SAM has been taking care of himself for a long time, so he won't need daddy to watch out for him.
And while it's true that he left the Phoenix Foundation, I don't think that will put an end to his adventures. Look how many times Mac has gotten into adventures that had nothing to do with the foundation. Besides, I STRONGLY suspect that if Pete was ever in a jam and needed Mac to help with an assignment, Mac would be there without a moment's hesitation (although, he could have shown a BIT more emotion when saying goodbye. That always seemed wrong to me. I don't know if it's the way it was written, or the way RDA acted it, or a combination of both, but Dana was the only one putting emotion into that scene.)

My theory is that Sam is actually Murdock in disguise, and somewhere between the series final and the Tv Movies, Mac uncovered the truth and killed him. For good this time. By stabbing him through the heart with the toothpick taken from his swiss army knife. ;p

I'm wondering if R meant destroying the character in an overall sense of this episode, or maybe over the whole course of season 7? That's what I had in mind when I agreed, not just because of a son. Season 7, and this ep in particular were very anti-climatic imo. It's like the studio decided to wrap it up and didn't give a damn any more. Of course moving back to a boring looking California location didn't help matters either, especially after Vancouver, and the house boat, which to me is as synonymous with MacGyver as a Jeep and swiss army knife. But the move just goes along with ending the show and not giving a crap, I guess. Then we have the issue with Pete having so little screen time, that was off putting too (I actually plan to write a little article on him in the near future). Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not giving season 7 and the final episode proper credit, but recently I watched the entire series and I really enjoyed each season, with the exception of this one. Why is that?

That's because RDA is a jerk. Wahaha! Just kidding. I don't think the show made him into a saint all that much. Maybe it did go overboard with helping people, poured on the sap a little thick, but that's ok. Believe it or not, there are some people who don't drink, smoke, or use drugs. I don't. But not exactly for moral reasons. Alcohol taste terrible to me, like drinking gasoline or something you pour into an engine -- cigarette smoke gives me a migraine -- and weed smells really, really nasty to me, like rotten moldy leaves or somethin'. I dunno what Mac's reasons are, I don't think he ever explains. Different strokes for different folks.

Mac had an aversion to violence? I don't know, he punched out A LOT of people! Hit them over the head with stuff too. He had an aversion to killing, that would be more accurate.

That would be hilarious.

Because compared to all the other seasons, season 7 sucked and the last episode was an extreme let down.

Seaven season was a big let down to me asd well, i wanted MacGyver to go something else going back into the woods which he hadn't done that in a long time. Or help a friend in need ot bring back Nikki for that last season to see how the fans would react. The movies was too a big let down as well. but thats another story all together. the writers could of used there brains on this and made something up that no one saw comeing.

Like Murdoc busting in and mowing them all down with an uzi then standing in the middle of his bloodbath roaring with evil laughter at finally killing off MacGyver. Then just as he reaches his climax they all come back to life and jump up saying "Ha! Now you know how it feels!!" and take him down.



Yeah I know, it's silly, but still better than what the writers came up with.

If that happened then Murdoc wouldn't have anyone to stand up to him and

wouldn't have a challenge each day of his life and he be trying to raise MacGyver

out of the grave, and then go after him again and again.

Oh i know what they should of done had Muroc bury MacGyver alive, knocked him

out cold and see how he would get out of that.

Ok, I do agree about season 7 being lame.
The only thing that I think Season 7 got right is that it returned to being about adventure, not about moral issues. It's just a shame that so many epsiodes (in a short season) were devoted to stupidity ("Good Knight MacGyver," "Honest Abe," the boxing episode, "The Mountain of Youth," "The Coltons," "Off The Wall", "The Hood", etc, etc, etc)
It really did feel at times like they just stopped caring.

Also, I can't figure out why the Phoenix Foundation wasn't used more. I understand that Dana couldn't be there as much, but there were ways around that. Mac could start the episode already on an assignment. We wouldn't NEED to see Pete giving him the assignment. That's how most of season 1 was done, actually, and it worked fine. As I've said before, when Mac quit the foundation at the end of season 7, my reaction was, "Oh, that's right, I forgot he used to work there" (well, not really, but that's how I felt.)

Maybe the writers were trying to phase out Phoenix so his retirement wouldn't be so sudden.

Here's how I would have done the final season of MacGyver:
1. No long-lost son.
2. A lot more Phoenix Foundation assignments, and they would be serious episodes. No stupid campy stuff like "Good Knight MacGyver."
3. Towards the end of the season, start a multi-episode story arc, in which the following happens:
- Nikki returns
- Something seems wrong at Phoenix. It would be subtle at first. Maybe just power-struggles in the background. It would get more intense over several episodes (kind of like how they gradually introduced Pete's glaucoma.)
4. By the time we get to the series finale, Mac, Pete and Nikki discover some serious corruption at the Phoenix Foundation, which would pose some kind of threat to world peace, and they end up having to go renegade to fight it.
5. By the end of the finale, Mac, Pete and Nikki have basically saved the world, but Pete is so disillusioned and worn out that he decides to retire. Pete and Mac have an emotional farewell, and Pere offers Mac his job. Mac turns it down, and Nikki ends up getting the job instead. Mac decides to take some much-needed time off, but promises Nikki he'll be back.

I finally got to watch this episode today. You could really see the wheels turning in Mac's head when it put it together. He looked a bit awkward, but one thing I didn't like is the fact that he never questioned the fact he was a father.
If a woman had had a baby and didn't tell her partner, I'd be demanding a paternity test just to make sure.
But then Mac has always been the kind of person who would accept something like that. He can be naive at times.

Not sure what all the virgin religious stuff is. Did we expect Mac to be perfect? Mac isn't religious, so you can't expect him not to do what a hot blooded man would do. Sex is normal and healthy and just because you don't like the thought of sex outside of marriage, doesn't mean you have to expect a TV character to do the same.
And by the way, there was no adultery committed. Adultery is when you are married and you cheat. It is wrong and we know that Mac, if married, would never EVER commit adultery.

Besides, has RDA ever married? Nope. Yet he has a daughter. I think Mac's not marrying is partly based on RDA never marrying. RDA probably doesn't think you need to be married in order to have a good relationship and it sounds like Mac thought the same thing.

Btw I am 28 next month and still a virgin and yes, I am proud. But I do not wish to marry and I intend on having children. I should not be expected to find a marriage partner before I become a mother. So if that means I will sin, then I will happily sin hundreds of times over!!!

I liked the ending. It was sad to see Mac leave like that, but the way they wrapped it up made it clear it was the final episode. I enjoyed it.
But what I can't stand is that the MOY which is the episode after this one is listed as the last episode on my DVD. It is not the last episode. But apart from that, awesome episode.

I did hate the water jet thing. Maybe the pressure would get them a few feet off the ground, but 20 feet or more? Hell no. Cheesy and not a good MacGyverism if you ask me.

If Mac didn't discover he had a son, what else would have motivated him to leave the Foundation?