Mac and Jack's "manniversary" weekend in Vegas is rudely interrupted when they're run off the road and abducted. Waking up locked in a fallout shelter, they find themselves subjected to CIA-style interrogation that echoes Mac's first ill-fated mission with DXS.
Meanwhile, the Phoenix team hold a fake fashion shoot to steal a diamond.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Geography: Jakarta, Indonesia is an Asian Metropolitan city, but is depicted as the Middle East. Sago worms are apparently a Papua New Guinean delicacy.
- Call-Back: Flashback Jack offers to introduce Mac to Nikki after the mission.Jack: She's a real egghead, just like you are. You'll like her a lot.
- Canned Orders over Loudspeaker: How Griggs communicates his demands before revealing himself.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite what he put them through, after overpowering Griggs Mac and Jack carry him out of the bunker with no apparent resentment. They discuss how what happened to him could easily have happened to them, and intend on getting him help.
- Faking the Dead: Mac forces Griggs to show himself by rigging a fake gun and pretending to shoot Jack. When he does, they both take him down.Jack: Next time, we're faking your death, pal, 'cause getting killed hurts.
- Hypocritical Humor: Jack's Vegas plans leave very little room for disagreement.Jack: And finally, ending our first night with a show, a show of your choosing.
Mac: What? I get a choice?
Jack: Yeah, as long as it's the Legends of Metal tribute or the Blue Man Group, which, really, I think there is no choice there. - Leeroy Jenkins: When Mac notices a hidden camera behind an air vent, Jack takes the lead on how to handle the situation.Mac: How do you want to play this? We act like we don't see it, or...?
Jack: Hey, hey, whosever watching! Ha, ha, ha, we get it. Very funny, joke's on us! I tell you what. Come in here, and we'll have a little chat. Okay? We can work this out like adults. This is ridiculous!
Mac: I'm glad we talked that out first. - Mercy Kill: Mac's fake killing of Jack is staged this way, so he won't slowly drown as a lacerated aorta fills his lungs with blood.
- Misplaced Retribution: Griggs is behind the abduction, intending to take revenge on Mac and Jack for leaving him and his partner Hadley for dead in Indonesia. However, his own supervisor ordered them to leave, wrongly informing them that Griggs and Hadley were dead. Somewhat justified as Griggs is traumatised by his experiences of captivity and clearly not stable.
- Oh, Crap!: Jack has misgivings about Mac's plan to use some thermite he made from metal shavings, potassium permanganate and hand lotion.Jack: It'll burn through chains! Let's do it!
Mac: ...And maybe our feet.
Jack: Our feet!? C'mon, dude! [Muttering] I need my feet. How we gonna run outta here without our feet? - Sadistic Choice: After being forced to kill his partner to survive, Griggs tries to force either Mac or Jack to kill the other before they can escape. They Take a Third Option as Mac fake-shoots Jack.Griggs: [Over loudspeaker] One lives, one dies. One lives... one dies.
- Shout-Out:
- In a flashback, Jack introduces Mac as "Derek Smalls".
- On waking up chained in a bunker, Jack is reminded of Saw.
- Something Only They Would Say: The bunker is filled with references to Mac's disastrous first DXS mission, such as Sago worms which are an Indonesian delicacy. In addition, although their shoes, socks and belts have been removed, Mac still has his Swiss Army knife, which suggests their circumstances are a specific message.
- Spotting the Thread: Mac and Jack realise the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques they're being subjected to are from the CIA textbook, suggesting their captor is a former ally. Between that and the Jakarta memorabilia, Mac works out Griggs or Hadley must be the culprit.Griggs: [In Flashback] But Hadley's right about one thing, MacGyver. When you sit down with a terrorist, you should be packing more than a pocket knife.
- Technobabble: Played with when Matty starts to explain how Princess Zahra's diamond can act as a data storage device.Matty: Colored lasers negatively charge tiny defects in the... You know what? Ask Mac when he's back. The bottom line is the tech works, and the data in her possession needs to be in ours.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Mac's unspoken reaction to some of Jack's Vegas plans.Mac: You want us to ride a roller coaster after hitting eight buffets?
Jack: I like a challenge. - You Wake Up in a Room: After being run off the road to Vegas, Mac and Jack wake up chained to the floor of a concrete room, and must figure out who took them and why, as well as how to escape alive.
