httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-VRxbRuBjA
Between MacGyver’s 1992 finale and this modern-day CBS reboot, everyone has become a “Life hacker” or whatever, making Angus MacGyver seem less like the Junk Drawer Jesus he used to be and more like your high-school friend who posts clever interior decorating ideas on Pinterest.
An electromagnetThis is, hands down, the cleverest thing that MacGyver makes in the episode and it’s used in the first ten minutes.
“The Rising” kicks off with Team MacGyver infiltrating a fancy ball to find a generic bioweapon, and MacGyver gets past the guards by making one of these suckers out of copper wire, a battery, and a metal rod from a spare door hinge, all of which are improbably stored in the swank kitchen’s pantry.
MacGyver gets the magnet close to the guards, their earpieces go haywire, and they leave their posts just long enough for him to slip into the room w the bioweapon is held.
A parachuteThe next best invention doesn’t happen until the end of the episode, after the bioweapon falls into the hands of baddies who want to blow it up in the middle of San Francisco.
Unable to defuse the bomb, MacGyver instead removes the bioweapon, then uses his trusty Swiss army knife to fashion a parachute from the truck canvas and tie-downs, which quickly pulls him and the bioweapon away from the blast.
This inadvertently fills in the last piece of the puzzle: Nikki is alive and she’s the baddie selling the bioweapon.
The new MacGyver has a lot more in its arsenal, including all the typical procedural trappings, like a wisecracking crew and an ex-girlfriend who turns out to be evil.