"Mason + Cable + Choices" – MacGyver S03E22 Review

And so with "Mason + Cable + Choices" we get a series finale with a new enemy. And no mention of the old ones.

To the show's credit, they hired Peter Weller to play the new Big Bad, Elliott Mason. And he's very... Peter Wellerish. Evil, ominous, at least as smart as Mac. The creative team establishes Elliott's evil credentials by killing off one of the show's many recurring characters, Charlie Robinson. Which they did on the original MacGyver with Charlie Robinson in just one episode and a not-recurring villain.

And were Mac and Charlie really such buddies? Again more a case of tell, not show. Charlie only appeared in four episodes: it's not exactly the stuff of which far-reaching father-divorcing friendships are made of.

But how does Charlie (Emerson Brooks) die? That's the first 30 minutes of the episode. After an anti-bomb robot explodes while defusing a supposed bomb, Charlie goes in and gets abducted by Mason. Charlie has already called Mac in, and when Team MacGyver get there, they discover Charlie is gone. They track his cell phone to an outside elevator on an office building. The team also discovers Mason has planted barrels of hydrochloric acid in a nearby hotel basement. If one device is defused, the other one will go off. Mason calls to tell Mac that he can't save both and has to choose.

Mac comes up with a solution, but Mason has already anticipated him. Charlie learns about the choice and sacrifices himself to save the hotel people. Mac is all broken up, and the team discovers Mason was responsible. He's an ex-FBI agent specializing in deceit and deception, and they track a component to his location and arrest him. Mason explains his son was killed in an operation created by James (Tate Donovan), and he plans to destroy everything James loves. Mason then escapes thanks to a fake tooth that's a gas bomb. He also MacGyvers a temporary oxygen tank out of a water bottle that he asked for, which is a nice touch.

Phoenix goes into lockdown, but that's part of Mason's plan, too. He sets the servers on fire, and toxic fumes fill the building. They eventually manage to crack a window and get everyone out. James is in a safe room choking to death, but Desi blows up the door using a flash-bang and gets him out. Mac chases Mason, who has timed his operation so precisely that there's a helicopter waiting for him just as he gets to the roof. Mason nyah-hah-hahs, promise that it's just the beginning and flies off in the helicopter.

At the end, James reveals Mac was the asset saved in the operation James planned. This cheeses Mac off and he tells James to leave his house. Also, Desi stops by for a beer and offers to have dinner with Mac to tell him what she owes Jack in return for his telling her about Cairo.

I like the episodes that spend more time doing things then spending time on Team MacGyver's personal issues. So "Mason" is a decent episode in my opinion. Even better when they mix what few personal issues the episode has--who doxxed the team, who planted the bomb in the SUV--with doing things. That does make the episode a tad rushed, since they introduce Mason and try to establish him as a major Phoenix-wrecking threat in one episode. Yes, there's been build-up with the doxing and the bombing, but it's not like we got shadowy glimpses of Peter Weller secretly operating behind the scenes.

There are also several unanswered plot points. The Riley/Billy break-up, and Murdoc. Jack does get a mention since the actor doesn't want to be on the show. I've never been a big fan of Jack, and his absence has both let the much-more-charismatic Desi (Levy Tran) step up, and somehow made Wilt more tolerable. TV magic, I guess.

FYI, Wilt is still useless in this episode. It's good to be a Mac friend, I guess.

Matty looks concerned, Riley does techno stuff, Desi shoots people. Same old same old.

Lucas Till gets to be a little less easygoing, since he watches his friend die and then discovers James sacrificed Mason's son to save Mac. And Mac's new hatred for his father seems a little arbitrary: he was fine with James until he learned that he was the asset James set up the operation for that got Mason's son killed. So he's okay with Mason's son dying for some random schmuck, but not for him? I suppose it makes sense, but it could just as easily go the other way and still make sense.

It also overlooks the same thing that a lot of TV show characters did: Mason is a master of deceit and deception. For one thing, why doesn't he tell Mac that Mac was the asset his son was sacrificed for? Apparently he just hopes James will tell Mac the truth, rather than do it himself.

For another, no one questions that Mac is doing exactly what Mason wants him to do by breaking up Mac and James. Given that Mac's emotions are heartfelt, wouldn't it still make sense to set those aside until after Mason is captured? No one on network TV shows thinks, "Hmm, maybe this is what the bad guy wants me to do and I shouldn't do it." But then again, I'm not a TV character, so what do I know?

Then again, maybe I am? Hmm...

Finally, there's the fact that nu-MacGyver doesn't have a good track record with recurring bad guys. We only get David Dastmalchian as Murdoc about three times a season. I doubt the casting department can hire Peter Weller to show up more often. So Mason will either be referred to off-screen several times, or only show up during "event" episodes like mid-season and season finales. Which means we'll get more generic episodes, another subplot or two, a continuation of the Riley/Billy break-up (Biley?), maybe something with Wilt and the more-absent-than-not Leanna. The often-hinted-at Mac + Desi (Mesi?) relationship. And James trying to reconcile with Mac in season 4.

And will we ever see anything more of Mac's girlfriend from the beginning of this season? Yeah, she and Mac supposedly broke up because of the danger his lifestyle put her in. But is she really gone for good? And will that doomed romance (and the previous couple of romances and hinted-at romances?) mean Mesi is doomed as well?

So overall "Mason" was a good one-off. How it plays out in season 4, we'll see. I don't have great hopes, but hey, the creative team managed to surprise me by making Wilt palatable. And Weller has the chops, which I thought could never happen, to play a continuing bad guy, if they let him. So maybe they'll pull a few more rabbits out of their hat.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?