MacGyver: #134 MacGyver's Women (S6E8)

Episode Title: MacGyver's Women
Episode Number: S6E8

Ranking: 134 of 138

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Summary: When Maria presses MacGyver to consider commitment, MacGyver dreams that he's a cowboy in the wild west who helps two mail-order brides escape from a group of outlaws.

Quotable Moment: 

Maria: Are all American men frightened of marriage?  Or is it they are frightened of women?

 MacGyver: Oh, come on.  What are you talkin' about, "all American men"?

Maria: Okay.  Some American men.   Like cowboys, who are faithful to their horse, but not with a woman.

Best Part: When MacGyver escapes the noose and signpost trap with only his belt buckle and upper body strength.

Worst Part: The mustache.

Opening Gambit: Like I said in the last post, I am not a fan of dream episodes.  Much like clip shows, they seem pointless to me.  However, I think that dream episodes are generally more useless than clip episodes because they contribute nothing to the show.  I can only think of a handful of episodes from the dozen or so shows I watch that I can actually get behind because they do actually further the character, inspire character growth, or contribute in some way to the plot of the show.  "MacGyver's Women" is not one of them.  To me, it's just an excuse to dress Mac up in a cowboy costume and plop him into the old west just for kicks.  It doesn't fit with the formula of the show, and it doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things.  I've said this before, and I'll say it again: if you're going to add an element to a story, it needs to be something meaningful.  If it's just there for fun or a joke, then you're not doing your job as a storyteller justice.

But I'll admit, it isn't even the fact that it's a dream episode that's got me putting "MacGyver's Women" (and next week's episode) this low on the list.  Well, not entirely.  After all, "Good Knight MacGyver," while still not up there on my list, is significantly higher than the western episodes.  No, my biggest problem with this episode (and call me shallow if you wish; I'll stick to my guns 'til the end) is that stupid, ugly mutant caterpillar that attached itself to Richard Dean Anderson's face and then died there.  Don't remember a mutant caterpillar?  Scroll up to the picture from the episode and take a gander at that atrocious mustache.  Even from that angle, it's hideous, and I can't take Mac seriously with that thing on his face.  There are plenty of outlaws in the western episode that are clean-shaven - why can't Mac be like them?  I know, I know - it sounds really petty, but the mustache really, really bothers me.  A lot.



Thoughts:

• I don't like Maria.  Unlike Nikki, I find her a bit pushy and annoying, and not nearly as cool.  Nikki and Mac had great chemistry in that love-hate way, and their interactions were always fun.  Nikki never was afraid to let Mac have it if he was being stupid, but Maria's more prone to pouting and backhanded comments.  Nikki was awesome, and Maria's just bland
  
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• It's really weird to see Kate Murphy in this episode, because the only other episodes she's in are the super-serious (and pretty freaky) ones with Dr. Zito, who is actually the only MacGyver villain to actually scare me a little (and the fact that he's played by the incredible Mark Sheppard in the reboot makes me incredibly giddy, but that's neither here nor there). Kate's so out of place in an episode that's so far removed from reality.  Maybe she's finally free to be herself after Zito's put away for good, and that's why she's so carefree in this episode, but it's just out of character.  And it's not like she and Mac are best buddies or anything.  They're friends, and they've faced the unthinkable together, but she's got a key to his house?  And just lets herself in?  And since when is she involved with the Challenger's Club?  Who's this Jenny?  Why's she just going to let herself and Jenny into Mac's house without asking to see if Jenny could stay with him?  Why's a cop wanting a teenage girl to stay with a grown man, anyway?  Wouldn't it be more appropriate for a woman, maybe Murphy herself, to let Jenny crash until the home problems are fixed?  And who is Jenny, anyway?  The only Jenny I can remember in the series is the teenage prostitute from the season four episode "Runners," but I don't think this is the same actress (and I use the word actress loosely, because what this girl does can barely be defined as acting).  Why is she so cozy with MacGyver?  Why call him lover?  So many burning questions!
  

• I do have to admit that I like the scene where they're all in the living room eating Chinese and the girls are talking about how men are afraid of commitment and Mac is distinctly ruffled, enough so that he bows out early and goes to bed.  This scene also further solidifies the reasons I don't like Maria.  She makes these passive-aggressive comments to Mac about how American men are terrified of commitment.  This is not the way to make a guy want you more, M.  In real life, being pushy like this would only serve to drive him farther away.
  
  
• I told myself before watching this episode that maybe the mustache wouldn't be as bad as I remembered.
  
  
• I was wrong.
  
  
• I do love how Mac's ingenuity carries over into dreamland.  It adds a bit more character to the otherwise pretty generic western setting.
  
  
• I'm so confused about the two brothers who "struck gold."  If I heard correctly, one's Milt Bozer, and the other's Wilt Bozer.  But doesn't MacGyver have a friend named Wilt Bozer in the show (I know he does in the reboot, but I'm pretty sure he's based off a guy in a couple episodes of the original), and isn't he a black man, not a pasty, whiny white guy?  Why's this guy's name Wilt Bozer?  Why not come up with another name for him?
  
  
• This episode presents nearly all men in the old west except MacGyver as absolute pigs.  They're disgusting.
  
  
• The whole scene with Pete is weird.  They should have had Jack be this snake oil salesman - he'd be perfect for it!  Pete isn't the trickster conman in the show.  He's more like Mac's nagging mother than anything, and yet they've got him trying to sell his so-called tonics and harassing the ladies with his charlatan skills in the rain in the middle of a road.  How is this not Jack Dalton's character?  Maybe they just couldn't get Bruce McGill for this episode, but he would've been perfect.
  
  
• That one guy who gets shot running his mouth off to Jesse James about how Mac stole his woman is a real idiot.  This guy should know how dangerous his "friend" is; no amount of alcohol should dull your senses so much that you laugh at a dangerous outlaw who has just received bad and potentially humiliating news.  Hate to say it, but this guy totally got what was coming to him.
  
  
• Despite my feeling like she's totally out of place in this episode, I like Kate in it.  However, I have a deep, abiding distaste for both Maria and Jenny.  The way they try to flirt with Mac so unabashedly, without any decorum is pitiful - especially Maria.  The scene at the water where Mac walks in on her bathing and instead of trying to cover up or practice any sort of modesty she invites him to look at her and even get in with her is highly uncomfortable.  Is she really this shameless?  She doesn't even know this guy that well, and she's already acting out David and Bathsheba with him.  Thankfully, Mac is too much of a gentleman to acquiesce.
  
  
• I do have a theory though: Maybe Mac just smells really, really bad, and Maria's desperate to get him to bathe, so she tries to seduce him into the water.  That's why she offers him the use of her lye soap.  He's just a smelly cowboy, and she's a gal with sensitive olfactory receptors.  Sure... that's it.
  
  
• Wait a second.  I just realized, this is Mac's dream.  So Mac's dreaming that these women are throwing themselves at him, and he's dreaming about Maria without clothes... so maybe he's not as much as a gentleman as I thought - though, I know that in actuality, you can't control your dreams, unless you're a lucid dreamer, which would be awesome.  I don't know, though, maybe Mac is a lucid dreamer, because other than the setting, this dream is pretty darn normal.  I mean, if my dreams are anything to go by, there should be a part where his grandmother shows up but she looks like Frank Sinatra but he still knows that she's his grandma, or where a dinosaur in roller skates asks Wilt Bozer to the prom, or where the Wicked Witch of the West swoops in on a giant pickle and steals all the lye soap in the town.  Seriously, I have weird dreams, and most people's dreams are nonsensical, even if while they're happening they make perfect sense.  So it's odd, now that I think of it, that Mac's dream is coherent, chronological, and that there's no Murdoc with a hook for a hand and/or an offensive Spanish accent.
  
  
• Plot-wise, this episode isn't bad in and of itself, other than the fact that it doesn't contribute to the arc of the show.  If it were a different show (perhaps one that was already a western), it wouldn't be bad at all.  The two plot lines of the mail-order brides and the Bozer's non-existent gold mine work well together and overlap at several points to make the story more interesting.
  
  
• Despite myself, I really enjoy the scene where Mac escapes the noose trap, although I have to call bull on how easily he's able to turn his belt around with his hands tied behind his back.  I can barely get my belt through the loops when I have full range of motion and can actually see what I'm doing.  But still, that escape is pretty exciting.  And I'm one who really enjoys seeing my favorite characters in pain or danger.  (I'm not a terrible person, I promise; it's called "whump" and it's a real phenomenon, particularly in the female community.  There's a lot of speculation as to what causes us fangirls to enjoy seeing our favorite - usually male - characters suffer, and I'm not sure which theory I ascribe to.  But I do know that I always enjoy it when Mac has to get himself out of a tough spot.)
  
  
• I'm not quite sure I understand the point of the bounty on Maria's head for supposedly killing her brother-in-law.  It doesn't really add anything to the episode other than a bit of drama.  Is it supposed to be linked to Maria's questionable beginnings in "The Wall"?
  
  
• Again, the men in this episode are absolute pigs.  The unspoken horror of what would have happened to Jenny if Mac hadn't saved them is terrifying.
  
   
• I love that little pig that runs around in front of the shack the whole time.  It's so cute!
  
  
• The Bozers are idiots, but at least their little gold mine distraction got the bad guys' minds off of the women for a little while.
  
  
• I do really like the scene where Mac tries to convince the bad guys that Jenny's terribly ill and that they have to take a bath, right now, if they're going to live.  These have to be the stupidest baddies Mac has faced in the series, and it almost works - but the head honcho comes back and recognizes them before they can get the women out of there.
  
  
• It is fun to see Mac and the Bozers interact when they've been locked up together in the shed.  "We have to a-tone for our sins."  "A-tone?"  Morons.
  
  
• Mac's plan at the end is pretty great, throwing those stones drenched in that alcohol down the chimney.  (I don't know what proof it was, but judging from Mac's reaction when he sniffed it, it was strong.  Mac's reaction was like that GIF of that cat that's been going around the Internet - you know, the one where the person puts a flower on the cat's head and the cat jerks its head back like he's been slapped and then looks like he's just smoked a joint and is going on the ride of his life?  I may be the only one who remembers that, mostly because I spend an inordinate amount of time looking at cat memes and videos online.  But that's neither here nor there.  Don't judge me.  It's rude.)  The bad guys think they're being shot at, which gives Mac, the Bozers, and the women time to escape.
  
  
• Well, the Bozers didn't turn out to be so bad after all.  It was sweet that they gave the money to the girls to help them out.
  
  
• I can't help but cringe when each of the girls kisses Mac before they leave.  Both Kate and Jenny do a pretty good job of avoiding the mustache, but poor Maria, well, she has no chance for escape.  Mac grabs her and kisses her full on the mouth, and I'm sure she's going to be picking hairs out of her mouth a week from now.  Yuck!
  
  
• I find it odd that Maria lets herself into Mac's bedroom and kisses him awake.  I mean, that's fine if you're in a serious, intimate relationship, you're married, or you're in a fairy tale, but for two people who are dating and who have just now started to talk about the possibility of commitment, that seems pretty forward to me.  Maybe I'm just old-fashioned.  Or maybe I just don't like Maria (not just because she's not Nikki, but that does play some part in it). But regardless, Mac doesn't seem to mind.  What I really don't understand about this final scene before Maria leaves to get ready for her Phoenix assignment is why Mac has suddenly had a change of heart.  Nothing happened in the dream to change his stance.  Maria didn't do anything especially helpful, other than throw herself at MacGyver shamelessly.  She really didn't even contribute all that much to the plot.  So why is he suddenly wanting to commit?  They didn't really even deal with the issue of commitment in the dream at all.  It was about rescuing the girls from the outlaws and teaching the Bozers how women should and should not have been treated.  So why this sudden change of heart?  I can't really bring myself to care too much, though, because Maria's leaving, and if I remember correctly, she won't be coming back.
  
  
• The ending is great, though, when Mac touches his upper lip after Maria leaves, just to check and see if the mustache is really gone.  I don't blame him.  That thing is perhaps the ugliest bit of 'stache I've ever seen - good riddance!

My Conclusion?

I'll admit, my husband and I had quite a few laughs when we watched this together yesterday.  Most of them were because of plot holes and inconsistencies (or in some cases, a side character's sub-par acting), but some were genuine chortles of enjoyment.  It's not a bad episode.  It just doesn't fit the kind of show that MacGyver is, and it also does nothing to further the plot, and that's why I have it so low on my list.  I don't think that my opinion has changed any from my Opening Gambit; the episode was pretty much what I remembered it to be.  It's enjoyable for what it is, but it's not one I'll be watching again anytime soon, if ever.  Interesting, but generally pointless.  Just like that mustache.

My husband is going to start giving a few of his own thoughts from these episodes, as we thought it would be really interesting to see how our opinions differ.  He's actually three years younger than me, but he grew up watching MacGyver because his parents introduced it to him, while I didn't start watching it until last year.  Plus, he's a guy, has a different perspective on some things, and is a thespian himself, so he has insights on direction, writing, and acting that I lack, so it will be neat to get a bit from his perspective as well.  I'll probably add "Jake's Corner" on a little later today, either on this particular post or as its own post, but he hasn't jotted his thoughts down yet, so I'll have to wait a bit.

What did you think of "MacGyver's Women"?  I'd love to know what you think in the comments!  Next week, we'll be covering the other Western that's low on my list for pretty much the same reasons this one is - though it's got a few bits to it that make me like it much more than "MacGyver's Women."