- Title: MacGyver (1985) – Deathlock
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Throwback Tuesday takes us back to the original improvisational MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) armed only with genius-level intellect, a Swiss Army knife, and whatever he can cobble together to solve the problems of the week. In most cases the original MacGyver did well with pulling off episodes on a limited budget, focusing on MacGyver saving the day with whatever he could get his hands on. “Deathlock” is one instance where the show could have used a bit more money to play with as MacGyver, Pete (Dana Elcar), a technician (Beulah Quo), and Karen Blake (Wendy Schaal) are all trapped within a mansion by an enemy agent wanting revenge on MacGyver.
The episode works well, although it does look like the script was written prior to the location being chosen as some of the lockdown doesn’t seem quite as secure as they should be to completely sell the premise. Although many of the booby traps aren’t as fearsome as they might be, the do allow for challenges that MacGyver is forced to overcome. The twist of Karen working with Quayle (Christopher Neame) isn’t surprising, nor is her eventual change of heart to help MacGyver take down the madman. The fact that Mrs. Chung (Quo) is knocked out in one of the earliest scenes only to wake up no worse for well after all the action has taken place is one of the goofier aspects of the episode.