After the death of his grandfather Harry, MacGyver meets with Harry's lawyer, Wilton Newberry. Newberry informs MacGyver that there was a codicil to the will. It specifies that MacGyver should go to Mel's Auto Storage after 10 a.m. that day to pick up something special. There's also a card with a message from Harry saying for MacGyver to keep his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel. MacGyver remembers when Harry told him the same thing as a child as he let him drive.
Bill Cody finishes the last day of his prison sentence and is released. Another prisoner, Tiny, chases after him and tries to give Cody his special recipe book. Cody insists that Tiny keeps it and leaves in a taxi. Two bikers, Earl Dent and Big Mama, follow him. A black van follows them.
MacGyver talks to Mel, owner of Mel's Auto Storage, who explains that Harry left him a car and reserved a spot for it at Speedy's Garage. Mel also has a note from Harry, which talks about taking his larcenous friend to a robin, and the chicken's a wild goose. Mel pulls away a sheet to reveal Harry's gift to MacGyver.
Later, Cody arrives at Mel's and wonders where the Gift is. Mel tells him it's at Speedy's garage. Cody leaves and Big Mama follows him while Earl pays Mel a visit.
Cody gets to Speedy's Garage and discovers that MacGyver is working on Harry's gift: a blue '57 Nomad station wagon. Cody, an old friend of Harry's recognizes MacGyver from when he was a child and vice versa. He claims that he wanted to pay his respects to Harry, the only person who ever visited him in prison. However, Cody casually asks if MacGyver found anything in the car. MacGyver gets it going while outside, Earl catches up to Big Mama and tells her that MacGyver got the Nomad from Mel's. They're also looking for something inside the car.
As MacGyver gets the Nomad working, he prepares to drive it out and Cody points out that the radiator cap is missing. MacGyver goes to a nearby supply store and Cody starts searching the car. He finds an envelope with a note in it for him. However, Earl and Big Mama come in and knock him out, then drive away with the car, narrowly missing MacGyver.
MacGyver reports the theft and the police take his statement. Cody reads the note, which mentions a bird and tells him to go to the habit on third. Cody thinks it's referring to the Chicken Habit drive-thru on Third St. The phone rings: it's the driver of the black van, who tells MacGyver where the Nomad is. MacGyver and Cody go to the address, a warehouse, and see Earl and Big Mama searching the station wagon. MacGyver sneaks in and tells Cody to get the police, but the ex-convict inadvertently starts up Big Mama's bike, which smashes through the door. The bikers capture MacGyver and Cody and put them in a mechanic's pit, and then start lowering a car on top of them. Big Mama explains that they want a valuable diamond pendant, and Earl learned about it when he shared a cell next to Cody's. Cody finally gives in when Big Mama threatens to shoot MacGyver. He tells them that Harry took the diamond pendant out of the Nomad and hit it somewhere else, leaving the cryptic note about the Chicken Habit. Satisfied, Earl lowers the car, trapping them in the pit.
Once they're alone, Cody explains that a jewelry storeowner, Biff Arnold, hired him to steal the pendant so he could file an insurance claim. Cody would keep the pendant. However, the insurance company went out of business and never paid Biff. Cody tried to get Harry to help him and the best Harry would agree to do was keep the pendant in a safe place. MacGyver grabs an air hose and inflates a spare tire tube beneath the car, lifting it up enough for Cody to climb free. Cody keeps applying air to the leaking tube but it gets stuck and MacGyver barely gets clear before the tire blows and the car crashes down. Cody insists they go to the Chicken Habit but MacGyver realizes Harry's note to him indicates that the drive-thru is a "wild goose."
Earl and Big Mama go to the Chicken Habit and start taking apart the giant chicken drive-thru speaker. Meanwhile, MacGyver figures out that Harry's note refers to a nun, Sister Robin, who runs a soup kitchen on third. They go to see her and she reveals that Harry left a package there for Cody. However, Sister Robin was supposed to insist that Harry have a meal there first.
Big Mama and Earl don't find anything in the speaker. The man in the black van goes into the restaurant, captures the worker, and tells the bikers through the loudspeaker that they should go to the soup kitchen.
Cody makes soup for the soup kitchen using his special recipe. Sister Robin gives him the package containing the pendant as well as four notes for MacGyver. Earl and Big Mama arrive and take the pendant, but once they're gone MacGyver tells Cody that it had a scratch and was just costume jewelry. The notes say to put them side by side, and that they'll teach a lesson to Cody at center. An errant breeze knocks one of the notes to the floor and MacGyver realizes it has a drawing on the back. He puts them together and realizes they show a hockey rink.
MacGyver drives to a nearby rink, the one Harry drove him to when he was a child. He remembers that Harry kept his skates and hockey stick in the back and discovers they're still there. He skates out onto the rink and remembers how he played in a Pee Wee division championship game. During the game he tripped the opposing player and won the championship. However, a disappointed Harry told him he was no winner. Young MacGyver told the referee what happened and they lost the tournament… but MacGyver learned a valuable lesson.
Realizing what Harry meant by teaching a lesson at center, MacGyver chips up at the ice in the center of the rink and finds the real pendant. He tells Cody that Harry wanted him to realize that what's important is how one lives, not how much you have. Harry set up the whole thing in the hopes that Cody would realizes that he's needed at the soup kitchen and should use his culinary talents. Also, Sister Robin's lease runs out and she needs the money from the sale of the pendant to keep the kitchen running.
Earl and Big Mama arrive, using Sister Robin as a hostage. They demand the pendant and MacGyver slaps it across the ice past Big Mama. She slips trying to grab it and drops her gun. A fight breaks out and Cody goes for the pendant. Earl grabs him and MacGyver slams the biker through the Plexiglas shield. The pendant goes sliding across the ice to a new arrival: the man in the black van. Cody recognizes the man: it's Biff Arnold, the man who hired him to steal the pendant. Years of failure and poverty have driven Biff insane. He rambles away in a variety of voices and readily gives MacGyver the pendant and the gun when he asks for it.
Later, the soup kitchen customers are all yelling for Cody, who is starting his first day there. However, he hasn't arrived and Sister Robin is worried. Cody finally comes in and admits that he was heading for the airport. However, he had a chance of heart when he heard Harry's voice in his head, asking him where he was going. Cody gave in and came back to the soup kitchen. He hands over the diamond pendant and then goes to work as the crowd cheers him on.
Written by Gadfly on Nov 10, 2019