#s1e15

Imelda: I am 100% still trapping you in this cult, but that is a trait I share and also desire carnally

(MacGyver 2016 s1e15 spoilers)

I just rewatched s1e15 and was wracking my brain for a bit trying to figure out why it felt so off to me. I mean, there's great parts! Jack punching a robot, Mac and Jack bickering about Jack clearing the room, Matty being weirded out by Mac crawling around on the floor while Jack didn't seem to have even registered it. Typical fun MacGyver-y stuff.

As maybe evident from my examples, I think looking just at Mac + Jack it holds up well. It's always delightful to watch them work together, and they even gave Jack some smart moments instead of reducing him only to the muscle and comedic relief. On several other levels, however, it has some pretty serious holes.

The biggest issue I felt was in emotional payoff. They were trying to kick it up a notch for the horror-esque vibe. I mean, they opened with a couple kids being brutally murdered. However every intense emotional thread didn't feel like it got paid off. The one that hit me the most, even on my first watch, was Jack's reaction when Riley gets kidnapped by a serial killer. The others also had a bit of a lackluster reaction, but Bozer kinda had one, and Mac I can begrudgingly believe might be more emotionally locked down in a situation like that. With Jack, however, it feels incredibly out of character.

Here's his expressions in the first scene we get with him after Riley is abducted. A little consternated I guess, but even his voice is breezy.

If you don't think it's that bad, let's compare it to his reaction when Mac is kidnapped by a serial killer. His line delivery being heartbreaking btw.

Or, hey, let's compare it to a multitude of other instances he was worried about Riley specifically.

Giving Jack a blasé reaction to someone he loves being in danger is probably the most out of character thing that could be done to him. The guy wears his heart on his sleeve, whether he wants to or not. He tears up and puts his face in his hand and paces. I guess I could try to make a Watsonian justification, maybe that he was dissociating from it, or his more extreme reaction was off-screen (what a waste?) and he's already compartmentalized to be able to function and get her back. It's just hard to try and engage with it in good faith as an intentional character moment when it felt so sloppy and out of focus.

So much of the episode felt just like horror/murder-mystery plot beats instead of character driven, which became so incredibly dissonant when said plot beats were as emotionally and psychologically extreme as they were. It flattened it all out emotionally, I honestly thought "...that's it?" the scene after Riley got kidnapped. How could I be hooked if the characters couldn't even muster up the emotion?