Nikki Carpenter: Despite what you may think, I don't want you dead.
Mac: I'm just gonna trust the other gun-toting psychopath on this one. I think you might know him 'cause you hired him to kill all my friends.
Mac: I'm just gonna trust the other gun-toting psychopath on this one. I think you might know him 'cause you hired him to kill all my friends.
Secrets are revealed when Mac faces down an assassin who's been hired to kill him. An assassin who goes by the name of Murdoc...
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Murdoc whistles "Home on the Range", the state song of Kansas, which is David Dastmalchian's home state.
- Artistic License – Art: Mac proves he should stick to the science when he and Jack examine a painting he declares to be a Chardin. Chardin was known for realistic still lifes and portraits rather than the abstract painting shown.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Among the things Bozer learns about Mac in this episode. Unfortunately, he's already learned that Murdoc loves them.Bozer: Please tell me you got a gun, too!
Mac: Uh, I never use 'em.
Bozer: [Slides over to Jack] Jack, I'm gonna hang with you until this is over. - Foreshadowing: When Patty, Jack and Riley are held hostage, Murdoc shoots Patty to incentivise Mac to hurry. However, despite being The Sociopath and having multiple hostages, he only shoots her in the arm. A later episode reveals that she's the one who hired Murdoc, meaning this was a setup to make her look innocent.
- I Have Your Wife: Murdoc takes Bozer hostage to lure Mac into a trap. Later, He takes Patty, Jack and Riley hostage in a similar ploy.
- Insistent Terminology: Patty to Mac.Patty: Mac, you can't help anyone if you're dead.
Mac: So I'm under house arrest?
Patty: I prefer to call it protective custody. - Internal Reveal: Bozer learns that Mac is an agent when Murdoc takes him hostage. Murdoc takes great pleasure in revealing to Bozer that his best friend's been hiding the truth from him for years.
- I Shall Taunt You: Murdoc likes to send taunting texts to his victims.
- Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: Lampshaded when Mac is placed in protective custody and Thornton makes a point of removing all furnishings from the room on the grounds that he'd probably be able to turn a chair into a cannon or something if they didn't. He still managed to escape, using wire from the ceiling fixtures and an electrical outlet.
- Properly Paranoid:
- Patty's precautions turn out to be justified when keeping Mac contained. In fact, they're insufficient.
Mac: I don't even get a chair to sit in?
Patty: No, because you would figure out how to turn that chair into a cannon, or a...
Mac: Come on, I'd need propellant to make a cannon.
Patty: See? You're already thinking about it.- A later episode reveals Thornton as the mole, not Nikki, meaning she presumably set Murdoc on Mac using a photo that could "only" have come from Nikki to make sure he wouldn't believe her if she reached out to him... which is exactly what she tries to do in the closing scene, and is rebuffed by an enraged Mac who thinks she tried to have him killed. So that was a pretty sensible precaution on Thornton's part.
- Shout-Out: Murdoc is referred to as "Suspect 218", a reference to his first appearing in episode 2.18 of MacGyver (1985).
- The Sociopath: Murdoc is an out-and-proud, card-carrying example of this trope who works as an assassin because he enjoys it.
- Spotting the Thread: The photo of Mac that Murdoc was given could only have come from Nikki, proving she's the one who hired Murdoc to kill him. The events of "Screwdriver" suggest that Patty got hold of it somehow and used it as a form of Divide and Conquer.
- Villainous Respect: After Mac rescues Bozer and escapes using some wine bottles, Murdoc sends him a text composed of wine bottle emojis and the words "You're fun".
- Wham Episode: Murdoc enters the picture. Bozer learns that Mac is an agent.
