MacGyver: #104 Hellfire (S1E8)

*Edit: This episode was way better than I remembered it to be, so it's been moved up to #104.  I've adjusted the rest of the list accordingly.

*Note: I've decided to add another short section to my reviews (cleverly entitled "Opening Gambit"), because I find it interesting to see what, if anything, changes from what I remember about an episode before and then after I re-watch it.  So from now on, at the beginning of my reviews, I will have this section with my opinion on the episode beforehand, and why I initially put it where it is (or in this case, was) on the list, and then I'll write my post-ep thoughts under the "My Conclusion" section.

Episode Title: Hellfire
Episode Number: S1E8

Ranking: 104 of 138

CBS.com

Summary: MacGyver goes to visit some of his friends who have just struck oil, but when the gas ignites and threatens their livelihoods, they must take on the mantle of hellfighters if they want to save everything they've worked for.

Quotable Moment: 

Laura: [to Bill] Okay!  Look, you're going in!  This one last time.  But the two of you together.  That's the way you got this far. [to Mac] Look!  You'll fry your tail in there without Bill.  Damn it, he's the best!  So are you.

Best Part: Surprisingly, my favorite scene was where Mac and Bill try to get the dynamite out of the powder room without blowing themselves up (which Mac almost fails spectacularly at).  Despite remembering that part as boring, it turned out to be one of the most exciting parts, right alongside the firefighting scene at the end.

Worst Part: The ten minute lull about 25 minutes in where they focus far too long on Mac and Bill's getting the dynamite back to the site of the fire.


Opening Gambit: Much like with "Countdown," I put "Hellfire" low on my list because I didn't remember it to be particularly engaging or interesting.  As far as I recalled, it had its good and interesting moments, but for the most part, it fell flat for me.

A lot of this had to do with the fact that I generally find "man vs. man" or "man vs. self" conflict much more interesting than "man vs. nature."  I generally like "bad guys" that a character can more directly confront, whether those enemies end up being other people or his own inner demons.  But natural disasters?  Especially for a show like MacGyver, this is normally not my cup of tea.  There are quite a few rather tedious scenes that I remember dragging on a bit too long, and even though they are building the suspense and showing the delicacy and patience the situation requires, they failed, as far as I remember, to hold my attention.  Of course, that was probably a "me" problem much more than it was a problem with the episode itself - I typically prefer fast-paced action over slow-building suspense.



Thoughts:

• Is it just me, or does Richard Dean Anderson sound utterly bored in the opening voice over?  I would just expect something a bit more, well, enthused, when discussing people who chase their dreams!
• Interesting that Mac salutes the helicopter pilot.  Though it seems to be more playful than anything, you've got to wonder if this is behavior that he's still not entirely shaken off this early in the show, after his time in the military?  It's equally likely, however, that I'm grasping at straws after last week's review because I want more indication or at least mention of his time in Vietnam.  
• When Bill tells his buddy Pete, "This is my best friend!" I feel a bit embarrassed for him and can't help thinking, Funny... Mac's never mentioned you...  No, in actuality, I think this scene is adorable.  Like I said last week, "bromance" is one of my weaknesses, and I love how enthusiastically Mac is greeted by this guy.  Seems like a great friendship.  And the bro hug?  Even better than last week's!  He cracks me up, though, giving Mac that huge bear hug and going, "Get over here!  Get over here with me!"  Something about that is really endearing, and I find myself concerned that this awesome guy isn't going to last the episode.  I think I remember one of the two men getting blown up, and I can't remember if it's the best friend or the best friend's friend, and as terrible as this sounds, at this point, I'm hoping it's the best friend's friend, because I really like the best friend!  ... Confused?  Yeah, me too.
• I forgot how funny this first part is.  Mac, talking about his friend flying from Texas with his ".... fancy hat and ten gallon boots" is hilarious!  I guess he wouldn't be terribly familiar with these ol' southern things, seein' as he's from way up north and all but... *snorts* it's so funny.  Richard Dean Anderson does a fantastic job playing a lovable character, and Mac's the most lovable of them all! 
• And the adorableness continues with Mac standing around with Laura while Pete and Bill discuss their project, and he's juggling.  Fun fact: RDA was at one point a street mime and juggler, though he said he was so bad he'd have to actually tell people what he was pantomiming.  Also, here he's acting like a kid who wants attention from his mom or something.  "Laura, look!" he says as he juggles.  With just a hint of sarcasm, Laura grins back, "You are just amazing."  And Mac's response?  "A man of many, many, many, many, many, many talents!"  I'd completely forgotten about this scene, much like I'd forgotten about Roberta the robot in "Countdown."  Funny, isn't it, how positive things so often get overshadowed by their negative counterparts?  This moment is probably my top comedy moment in this review series so far!
• You've got to love just how trusting Bill is.  I mean, Mac's a trustworthy guy and all, but still, he doesn't seem to care at all about his hugging and going off alone with his wife.  But I guess that's one of the results of his having known Mac from childhood - they're such great friends that he knows just how great of a guy Mac is, and he knows that he doesn't have to worry about an affair or anything. 
• The episode turns pretty tough about eight minutes in, when Laura tells Mac about the time when Bill got hurt hellfighting, and she couldn't take the worry that it would happen again, so she asked him to choose: "hellfighting, or us."  At first, I thought this was pretty harsh of a request.  I mean, hellfighting was his life, and he was making a difference, saving lives.  But then I thought about my husband, and how much I worry about him even though he doesn't do anything so dangerous, and if he got hurt doing something he loved how I would beg him not to do it anymore.  I can't say that I would give him an ultimatum though, because if you love someone enough, his desires should come first, right?  But then, would his safety come ahead of his desires if said desires conflicted with his health?  MacGyver has always been good about presenting moral dilemmas such as this, and it really got me thinking.  I guess it's one of those things that you'd never really know how you'd react to unless, God forbid, it actually happened to you.  
• It's really sweet when Laura and Bill start slow dancing in front of the oil derrick, but then the sweetness is, for me, turned into humor when poor Pete becomes a third wheel and starts dancing on his own.  
• And... KABOOM!!!  And though Pete's got a broken leg, everyone survived.  I'm really hoping that I remembered incorrectly and that both Bill and Pete survive.  But still... maybe I'm getting a bit cynical, but it seems like they're making Bill far too likable (like they did with Charlie), and it makes me nervous they're prepping me to make his death that much more painful.  But maybe not.  Cynicism never looks good on anyone (except perhaps Richard Dean Anderson as Jack O'Neill in Stargate: SG1). 
• Oh dear goodness, Mac's southern drawl is painful.  "Ool daown thar."  Bless him, he tried.
• I can't tell you how much I love the fact that Mac's philosophy concerning dangerous explosives is, "Finders keepers."  That, and the fact that he's giddy pretty much throughout this entire harrowing episode, sums up his character perfectly.
• I wish Bill was in more than just this episode.  He and Mac crack me up.  "You want to live forever?"  "Thinkin' about it."
• Around 18 minutes in is where the part I remember as boring begins.  The tedious process of removing the explosives from the old mine and back to the derrick is tense at first, but it goes on for so long that it quickly loses its appeal for me, especially since, like in "Countdown," we know that Mac's not going to get blown up.  
• However, the scene where Mac is holding up the tipping boxes of dynamite while Bill makes his way out of the powder building is much more gripping than I remembered.  So I was wrong earlier; it's about the 25 minute mark that it starts to get a bit boring for me.  It takes a full ten minutes of episode time to get from the mine back to the derrick, and though it's fraught with danger, ten minutes is far too long in my opinion.  You can do a lot in an episode in ten minutes.  Bake a cake.  Win a fight.  Heck, you can grow up from childhood to adulthood in ten minutes if there's a montage!  The firefight itself doesn't even last ten minutes, and I think that it should be the tensest part of the episode, and should certainly take longer than driving the truck back to the fire.
• I had completely forgotten about Bill's attacking Mac to try to keep him out of the blaze at the end.  At first, it was a pretty nice emotional scene, but it quickly devolved into something less than dignified and more funny than dramatic.  There's something about Bill and Mac rolling over and over in the dust - and eventually falling in the pond - with Laura chasing them around yelling at them to stop that just sucks away the dramatic tension and makes me snort in laughter.  It's not necessarily a bad thing; I just know that funny's not what they were going for with this scene.  It gave me a laugh, though, so I'm not complaining.
• Still holding back giggles as Mac and Bill slosh their way out of the pond, I find myself thinking, "Well, Laura doesn't have to hose them off now, at least."
• Dang, even with a splint, that Pete can run really well on a broken leg.
• Never have I been more glad to be wrong!  No one died!
• I also love that MacGyver's idea of a vacation includes working on an oil derrick.  Again, sums up his character to a T.
• Even though it's cheesy, I find it great that the episode ends with a group hug.  Classic.

My Conclusion?

Although I can be a pretty opinionated and stubborn individual, I'm still big enough to admit when I'm wrong.  I went into this episode with a closed mind and memories that weren't all that accurate, thinking that the whole thing was boring and slow.  In actuality, most of the episode was engaging, with only about a ten minute lag there in the middle.  It has a ton of charm and heart, and there are too many cute Mac moments to count.  So, I've moved "Hellfire" up on the list, because it certainly needs to be higher than #135.  It's now #104 on my list!

I think the crowning achievement of this episode has to be the believable and likable characters.  It's not easy to introduce a childhood friend of your main character that's never been mentioned before, but MacGyver excelled at that in "Hellfire."  Bill, his wife Laura, and their friend Pete are each fun characters, though we don't see much of Pete except that he can do a mean rain dance (oil dance?) at the beginning and that he could be the Olympic champion of broken-legged running.  Bill and Mac especially have fantastic chemistry as friends, and I found myself completely sold on the fact that they're great friends even though Bill's never made an appearance or even been mentioned before.  They also managed to make believable, if not occasionally cheesy, conflict between Bill and Laura, and I actually became very invested in their relationship pretty early on.  That's not an easy feat!

And, to quote one of my favorite characters of all time (The Doctor from Doctor Who), "Everybody lives!  Just this once, everybody lives!!!"

Gotta love a happy ending!

Next week comes the real #135, an episode that I don't enjoy because very rarely do I ever enjoy a clip show, no matter how much I love the series itself.