MacGyver episode 18 review: Hawaii Five-0 crossover and moments of joy
At times, crossover episodes can be corny. You’re trying to force characters together who typically are not, and there often isn’t a whole lot of chemistry that is there built-in.
On MacGyver episode 18, it was clear at about eight or nine minutes into the episode that there wasn’t a whole lot of a reason to be concerned. Seeing Mac and Jack interact with Chin and Kono from Hawaii Five-0 was incredibly fun, especially as Jack slowly began to realize that he had zero shot of getting with Kono and that she was happily married. Also, you had a delightful subplot with Bozer trying to help a dog in need while receiving romantic advice from Kamekona regarding his relationship with Riley.
Let’s back up now and get to the premise: Mac and the Phoenix Foundation team were in Hawaii in order to lend a helping hand following a mission. They learned that a disaster had occurred, and they wanted to lend a hand to the relief effort. Unfortunately, there were also some bad guys who they needed to take out, and the overall level of danger really started to escalate when it was clear that they had the ability to turn rookie shooters into expert marksmen. (Basically, the movie Wanted.)
MacGyver over time has mastered the art of solving widespread crises with little to no resources, and here, he was forced to do so again after his rescue efforts to a group of high-ranking doctors found himself without an escape plan. Therefore, he had to both save himself and these other people, while communicating with Jack remotely and trying to resolve the dangerous problems on the outside. He was able to figure things out with the doctors in plenty of time to help keep the bad guys from getting off the island. They pulled it off, but not without a few danger spots on the beach. The guys teamed up with Kono and Chin once more, and the day was saved! No surprise there, but the how was what made it so entertaining.
Didn’t an issue of this magnitude merit a little more help from the Task Force? Sure, but probably due to scheduling Taylor Wily, Grace Park, and Daniel Dae Kim were the only actors from Hawaii Five-0 to appear this time. That was a little odd in the context of the story, but understandable from a production point of view. (We did get a good sense that Jack and McGarrett had a history, and a funny one to boot. That gave us a chance to have a reference in the Five-0 episode after the fact.
Bozer’s jealousy
We saw Bozer have a MacGyver moment in helping a dog with a broken leg, but then he also had a little bit of a crisis of the heart after he saw Riley speaking with a tech guy. Enter Kamekona to make him feel better! It lifted his spirits, and so did the food. He better remember that advice given that Riley got the tech guy’s number. Also, he found the dog’s owner … which was both good and kind of sad when we learned that he had grown so found of the pooch.
Overall, a worthy crossover
One final side story was MacGyver’s hesitation over a birthday party, which is something that stemmed from some past insecurities. After the mission tonight, though, he agreed to let Jack throw him a bash back in Los Angeles.
This was a heck of a fun hour. The interplay with the two casts was fun, and we’re glad that there were some MacGyver character moments through in even in the midst of the crossover. Here’s to more of them! Grade: A-.