MacGyver – Pliers + Scissors – Reviews

Pliers

Looks like Mac’s going back to school!

In ‘Pliers,’ MacGyver goes back to his old school to do a demonstration except it doesn’t go as planned. After class, gang members kidnap the star student from the class.

It was nice to see the interaction and similarities between Val, the school girl, and Mac. She’s in a single parent household and a science genius; basically, a mini-MacGyver! After Val is kidnapped, the off-duty team go over to her fathers to help, however, he doesn’t want them too. However, they find out he is lying and knows who has taken his daughter.

They must improvise on getting Val back without harm. There are a few mac-hacks in this episode but none that really stand out. The improvisation was the best part, they were not planning on saving Val or even doing a mission. Keep in mind Thornton didn’t even know any of this was going on until the end! I liked how she had to keep up their mess at the end.

We see the treehouse where Mac grew up and a little bit more about past, I would like to see more of his background/family in a later episode, though. Even though the episodes are getting better this one sticks out as a little boring.

Rating: 3/10

Scissors

It’s Christmas time and one member of The Phoenix foundation has gone missing.

I have to say this episode was a lot better than the last. It has to be in the top 3. We learned a lot about Riley's past, as well as a bit about Jack’s too. It was great to finally know a more in-depth reason as to why Riley went to prison. She was contacted by a group called The Collective who wanted her to hack into the NSA otherwise they would kill her mother. She hacked into the and left traces so she would get arrested and have no reason to hurt her mother. However, they found out she was released and captured her mother once again.

At the start, Riley disappears with no trace of where she went. Thornton calls the team as there was a hack into the NSA, and we all know who went to prison for that before; Riley. Bozer sort of knows where Riley would go so he joins the team to find her before someone else does.

Mac, Jack, and Bozer end up in Canada to watch her hand her laptop over to a van which is holding her mother captive. After saving her mother from suffocating, Thornton wants Riley, her mother, and Bozer back to her. But that is not what goes to plan, Riley goes with the team to shanghai. After hacking some camera’s, They find the guy who has her laptop and they pose as tourists to get into the building, but not before Mac makes a siren above the building.

Mac, Jack, and Riley get locked in and find out the building is actually the Chinese military command center. They find that The Collective has used the software on Rileys laptop to fire missiles at the US. Rileys stops all but one of the missiles going off and Mac has to come up with a plan fast to stop the US counter-firing.

He decides to make a satellite to make the missile think California is further away than the GPS has shown. The world is saved because of The Phoenix Foundation once again. Mac and Riley have a heart to heart about Jack and at the end of the episode, Jack and Riley talk about why Jack walked out after beating her abusive father up. It was nice to see them have this talk after all this time, as well as Diane and Jack have a talk about their relationship too.

Overall it was a great episode with lots of heart to heart talks and past stories.

Rating: 8/10