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Mac Gyver 2016 S 2 E 11 Bullet Pen

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Mac Gyver 2016 S 2 E 11 Bullet Pen Recap
Mac can't engineer his way out of this one.

MacGyver: I'm sorry. Are you saying that I killed a civilian?
Jack: No, no, wait a minute. I cleared that building myself. It was empty. Don't start playing the blame game...
Matty: The game's already started, Jack. The LAPD has a warrant for your arrest, Mac. They're on their way here now.

Mac is arrested by the LAPD when a man is found dead in a building he recently blew up. Is Mac guilty of murder?

As their friend fields questions from a world-weary detective, the team investigates. They find that the mission was even more complicated than they thought at the time, which might work in Mac's favour. But the bad guys are making plans of their own, with Mac in their crosshairs...

Tropes:

  • Abandoned Warehouse: The building Mac blew up is an abandoned office building.
  • All for Nothing: The case is ultimately solved because the criminal was already planning to kill Mac in the police station, rather than letting him be shipped off to prison (where he's out of the way/it'd be easier to have him killed), even attacking the officers escorting him. Mac promptly resolves the whole scenario completely on his own, saving the cops' lives in the process—disappointingly rendering the actions of the entire rest of the team throughout the whole episode, and Jack's rush to save him, completely meaningless.
  • Artistic License – Law: Mac is detained by the L.A. police in relation to one of his Phoenix operations, and the detectives say they're "charging him with domestic terrorism". While classifying a criminal act (murder, bombing) as being motivated by domestic terrorism can impact many things — sentencing, flight risk, etc. — there is no crime of "domestic terrorism", and no-one can be "charged" with something that isn't a crime.
  • Blatant Lies: As they leave the precinct, Detective Greer asks Mac and Jack what their actual job is. Mac answers, "I work at a think tank," just as Jack says, "I sell bathroom tile." He doesn't appear to believe either of them.
  • Call-Back: For Christmas, Matty gives Mac a box of paperclips, symbolising her acceptance of his quirks and that she's lifting her ban on his sculptures.
    Matty: It's time to let MacGyver be MacGyver.
  • Christmas Episode: The festivities are ruined when Mac is arrested. Murdoc whistles "Jingle Bells" instead of "Home on the Range" before shooting Cage.
  • Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Cage stopping by her apartment to get everyone's presents, only to be surprised and shot by Murdoc.
  • Clear My Name: Mac is charged with blowing up a building and killing a man inside, and the team has to clear him. The problem is, he did blow up the building in question (it was full of guns awaiting an illegal arms deal), and "I made sure the building was empty before I planted the bomb, so I didn't kill anybody" isn't a good defense in the eyes of the LAPD.
  • Friendship Moment: In a Flashback to the day of the explosion, Bozer is incensed when Sparky reveals that Mac's been letting him win at ping pong to help him feel better about losing Leanna.
  • He Knows Too Much: The gang whose meth lab Mac blew up storm the precinct to shut him up.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Mac is accused of murder when an abandoned building he blew up turns out to have been occupied. Phoenix can't do much to help him because espionage on U.S. soil is illegal. Mac is cleared at the end when it's revealed that the building was being used as a meth lab, was empty when Mac set the charges and that the victim was involved in the meth cooking.
    Greer: What you are, Mr. MacGyver, is a jigsaw puzzle. The picture on the box looks good, but lift the lid and all you'll find inside are a bunch of broken pieces. Your mom died when you were five. Dad left when you were ten.
    Mac: Lots of people lose their parents.
    Greer: But they don't all burn down their high school football stadium.
    Mac: That was an accident.
    Greer: Or a clue... to who you would ultimately become. In my experience, highly intelligent children with abandonment issues, a history of arson and an abnormal obsession with explosives don't usually wind up doctors and lawyers. You've spent your whole life looking for somewhere to put all that anger. It's just too bad we didn't catch you before all that rage cost an innocent man his life. There is only one way forward. You have to tell the truth, son.
  • Impersonating a Lawyer: Mac is arrested by the police who have no idea he's a federal agent and think he killed someone. The Phoenix Foundation can't pull the "secret agency card" to help him until they are 100% sure that Mac is innocent. However, they need to contact Mac, so Jack impersonates his lawyer and uses confidentiality to talk with him alone.
  • Insistent Terminology:
    Cage: You're not a grown man who believes in Santa, are you?
    Mac: I'm a grown man who cannot rule out the existence of Santa.
  • Mistaken for Terrorist: The LAPD charge Mac with murder and domestic terrorism after they find a dead body in an illegal gun warehouse he blew up because he didn't have nearly enough time to remove the guns as originally planned.
    Matty: Okay, Mac can't say anything. No matter what the cops throw at him, he cannot reveal that he's a covert agent working for the U.S. government. Murder charges are bad, but violating the Espionage Act? Way worse!
  • Mundane Utility: Bozer uses the skills he learned at spy school to conduct a Secret Relationship with Leanna. He's seen at one point, discreetly calling her to tell her her Christmas present is at a dead drop.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Whatever mission led to Mac and Jack in an elevator, dressed as Santa and a reindeer respectively, with an unconscious man in a sack.
    • Apparently, the start of Bozer's tradition of Chrsitmas pastrami involved a freak snowstorm in Mission City on the Christmas of '93.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Spotting the Thread:
    • When Cage walks Jack through the events before the explosion, they realise that a door Mac propped open was closed when Jack finished his sweep, meaning someone else came in without their realising.
    • When Jack brings him photos of the crime scene, Mac the former EOD tech realises the victim was killed elsewhere and the body was staged as if he died in the explosion.
    Mac: He couldn't have been that close to the blast when the bomb went off. Look. This guy, he should be covered, at that distance, in secondary blast injuries. Hundreds of tiny little wounds caused by flying debris. But he doesn't have any. I don't know where George Ramsey died, but it wasn't there. Whoever killed George brought in his body and covered him in debris.
    • Thinking back to what he saw in the building prior to blowing it up, Mac realises the ingredients for the explosive were a little too easy to find. Thinking back on what those ingredients were, he realises that the place was being used to cook meth.
    Mac: All right, I never really know if I'm gonna find what I need to make... well, whatever it is I need. But this time, I got lucky. Too lucky. Matches and aluminum foil are everywhere. But sodium hydroxide? Doesn't exactly grow on trees. [...] I was in a hurry, calculating exothermic reaction rates in my head, so I didn't really think about it at the time. But along with sodium hydroxide, I also found... cold medicine and nail polish remover, which can only mean one thing.
    Jack: You know, Mac, as much as I love it when you launch into a lecture I barely understand, but we're kind of on the clock here, so what's the point?
    Mac: Methamphetamine, Jack. Nail polish remover, cold medicine and sodium hydroxide are all key ingredients in the synthesis of meth.
  • You Have Failed Me: The "innocent civilian" Mac supposedly killed was in fact a security man for a drug cartel, who was killed for failing to protect the lab.

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