Mac: So, we're supposed to get El Noche to do what? Tell us where his secret hideout is?
Thornton: Actually, I was thinking that he could show us, after we help him escape from prison. Once he's out, like a wasp, he'll fly back home to his nest, and he'll lead us right back to his stronghold. Then we take him and his lieutenants down, and end the Merida reign of terror once and for all.
Jack: Yeah, that's one of the craziest plans I've ever heard and I love it.
Thornton: Actually, I was thinking that he could show us, after we help him escape from prison. Once he's out, like a wasp, he'll fly back home to his nest, and he'll lead us right back to his stronghold. Then we take him and his lieutenants down, and end the Merida reign of terror once and for all.
Jack: Yeah, that's one of the craziest plans I've ever heard and I love it.
MacGyver goes undercover in a maximum security prison. His mission is to befriend a cartel boss, El Noche, and stage a jailbreak to find the cartel's HQ. But when Mac is made during the breakout and taken prisoner, Phoenix must race to find him.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Medicine: Mac is tortured by being made to inhale pure nitrogen gas, which is compared to waterboarding. However, it's too much carbon dioxide that causes discomfort; inhaling nitrogen gas would only make him feel lightheaded before he passed out and died from lack of oxygen. It's not clear why this decision was made as the show has depicted at least semi-realistic torture methods elsewhere.
- Artistic License – Prison: Mac has to befriend a cartel boss in supermax and escape with him in order to find his HQ. The method he uses wouldn't work as it involves things like light fittings that wouldn't be in supermax and areas that prisoners wouldn't have access to. This is presumably because the showrunners didn't want to show an escape method that would work, or couldn't think of one.
- Badass in Distress: Mac is abducted by a cartel, tied to a chair and tortured before being rescued by a SWAT team led by Jack.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Mac being in prison brings back bad memories for Riley.Thornton: [Mac]'s a trained operative. He'll be fine. You survived prison, didn't you?
Riley: Barely. And there wasn't a day that went by where I didn't think I might not see the next one. - Defiant Captive: After a round of torture, Mac has a confession to make.Mac: I'm ready to... I'm ready to tell you... how much I love your mustache.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Riley's been giving Bozer one digit of her phone number every time he helps with her parole officer. When he helps her get an apartment, she gives him a digit for that too.
- Great Escape: Mac must break a cartel boss out of prison.Mac: [Voiceover] So, now all I got to do is approach a notorious drսg lord, get him to trust me, break us both out of one of the toughest prisons in the country, and then score myself an invite back to his hideout in Mexico. Oh, and did I mention that in the 22 years since this prison opened its doors, not one person has ever escaped?
- Hollywood Hacking: Played with when Jack has to be walked through some hacking for Riley.Jack: Done. That's some pretty serious hacker skills, isn't it, Riley?
Riley: You changed an entry in a spreadsheet, Jack. You could maybe get fired from an accounting firm.
Jack: Yeah, well, I feel like a hacker. - Punk in the Trunk: Mac is taken prisoner by the cartel and transported to the cartel's HQ in Mexico in this manner. He uses the situation to his advantage by tapping wires together to make the rear lights flash Morse code. It's a slim hope, but thankfully the message somehow gets back to Phoenix, who track the car to its destination.
- Shout-Out:
- Mac uses the alias Frank Morris, a real person who was played by Clint Eastwood in Escape from Alcatraz.
- Riley calls Jack Forrest Gump when she has to walk him through some hacking.
- Jack quotes The Shawshank Redemption. Mac is impressed he made it as long as he did.
- Spotting the Thread: El Noche makes Mac as an agent when he avoids killing a guard during the escape.El Noche: A prisoner facing as much time as you wouldn't think twice about killing someone standing between him and freedom.
- Water Torture: Variation. The cartel boss has Mac tortured by forcing him to breathe pure nitrogen, which he explicitly compares to waterboarding. Which begs the question why he doesn't just waterboard Mac, or use literally any form of torture that doesn't involve a massive gas tank in kicking distance.El Noche: You know, I got the idea of this technique from an article I read about you Americans and your love of waterboarding. You see, inhaling pure nitrogen won't kill you right away... it'll poison you slowly. I'm told it feels like drowning. Very uncomfortable. So after a little of this, you'll be begging me to tell me even your darkest secrets.
