MacGyver Script Analysis: The Enemy Within

It's time for part 9 of my 139 part series where I compare an original MacGyver script with the final episode. Considering that Part 8 was 18 months ago, at this rate you can look forward to my series finishing in 2215.

My script for The Enemy Within is a final draft dated 1/3/86, and the episode aired on 2/12. Contributing writers are David Abramowitz, Bruce David, and James Schmerer. I reached out to Abramowitz to see if he had any commentary to offer, and he replied, "Sorry...I was rewritten on that one...I don't remember it."

Below are some highlights from the script, where text in bold and italics is a direct quote. 

• MacGyver speaks less gibberish German in the script than in the final episode, and there's no mention of applesuss or flugplatz. Esel! Ich bin eine Sovietische Offizier! Und sie ist mein Frau! 
• Bannister is described as rugged, good-looking, 41.
• The famous MacGyverism where he's hanging out the front of the car by his foot is mostly the same, but there's a spotter plane in the script, and the car gets its brakes back before it reaches the border. It's unclear how they make it across the border -- the script has the car turning on a side road.
• When MacGyver enters the Federal Building, he has some banner with a very pretty receptionist, Judy:
• Mornin', Judy.  ~MacGyver
• MacGyver! You back for a while?  ~Judy
• Back and gonna be resting my weary bones in about two minutes.  ~MacGyver
• Hey...need somebody to help soothe those bones?  ~Judy
• Judy, Judy, Judy...I need sleep, not action.  ~MacGyver
• MacGyver, what's he got?  ~Roger (a guy at a desk), after MacGyver leaves
• You wouldn't understand, Roger -- but I wish I had a little of it.  ~Judy
• Ingrid is described as an extraordinarily beautiful young blonde.  At one point she says to MacGyver, The name is Ingrid. And already I think I like you, MacGyver...a lot... which prompts an Easy there from Bannister. And if you think Judy and Ingrid are being forward with MacGyver, wait until you get a load of "the Tomanova woman."
• Pete Thornton is described: For the uninitiated, this is a character we have established in several prior episodes as a sort of liaison between the organization and MacGyver.
• In the script, MacGyver is unpacking his new house instead of packing his old apartment. He calls it his first house, and it's a cottage by the beach. Some of his possessions include copies of Scientific America and various tomes on biology and ecology, a couple pairs of skis, tennis rackets, a basketball, scuba diving equipment, hockey sticks and pads, a lacrosse stick and anything else that seems athletic.
• Viktoria Tomanova makes her entrance. 28. Sensuous, regal air, classic features. She wears a slightly over-large, uninspired dark dress, hair tied back in a sober bun. Little makeup. She's just arrived after a hard journey and looks it.  28!  That's about 30 years younger than she looks in the episode.
• MacGyver takes an unprovoked, out-of-character pot-shot at Tomanova:
• Pete, you absolutely can not do this!  ~MacGyver
• I don't have a choice, Mac.  ~Pete
• You're making this poor, dumb girl a human target!  ~MacGyver
• Then, MacGyver jokingly says she go to the symposium disguised as Princess Diana. 
• Viktoria enters the symposium in a reasonably breathtaking gown and is five-alarm gorgeous. Later, she's referred to by MacGyver as Gospods Viktoria Alexandrovna Tomanova (not sure how he knew all that). By the way, why did Pete need to bring Viktoria to the symposium and risk her safety and identity? Why not just take a bunch of pictures and show them to her later?
• Reverend Mather aims the gun at Viktoria, and it's unclear how he knows who to aim at. And when someone goes for the gun, the reverend goes all Jason Bourne and chops the gun down and smashes the man's wrist.
• There are two pathologists in the lab: a burly, middle-aged pathologist and his associate, a woman in her mid-twenties wearing a gown over jeans, sneakers, t-shirt who is washing off the other table and eating a sandwich.
• In both the script and the episode, MacGyver says "Six, two, and even" in regards to Mather being murdered. I wasn't familiar with that expression, but I learned that it originates from horse racing.
• Viktoria approaches the apartment and MacGyver, who hears someone outside, emits a harsh yell, yanks the door open, whips up the epee before he sees it's Viktoria.
• In my initial review of this episode, I said that the lowlight was the hint of romance between MacGyver and Tomanova due to the fact that she seemed old enough to be his mother. Well, thank goodness they didn't film what was in the script or else this might have been ranked in Mountain of Youth territory. Get a load of this:
• She turns and kisses him deliberately. A moment, he enters into the spirit of the thing. They break. She regards him with approval.
• Also, I notice a...little excitement between us, MacGyver.  ~Viktoria
• Yeah. I noticed too. And not all that little.  ~MacGyver
• He kisses her. She's startled, then yields to it. Considerable enjoyment. They break.
• Not at all. How many bedrooms do you have?  ~Viktoria
• Just the one.  ~MacGyver
• Good. Then should be no trouble finding it.  ~Viktoria
• She smiles with slow, infinite promise. MacGyver hesitates -- eyes her thoughtfully.
• Right this way.  ~MacGyver
• MacGyver proceeds instead to take her to the kitchen and does the science experiment on Reverend Mather's heart sample that we see in the episode. Once that's over, it's back to the romance. She shivers again. MacGyver takes her into arms, comfortingly. She turns to face him -- suddenly kisses him fiercely, her arms about him.  That sound you just heard was me throwing up in my mouth.
• When MacGyver takes Viktoria back to the symposium room to jog her memory, it's daytime instead of nighttime. For the word association exercise he does with her, when he says "MacGyver," she says "bed." Excuse me, I have some more vomit in my mouth.
• The final scene is quite different between the script and the final episode. In the script, MacGyver distracts Bannister, Ingrid, and Lem by playing the VCR tape and putting the sound way up (not sure how he has time to do all that without getting shot). Next, he and Viktoria run outside and split up. He grabs a fire hose and somehow uses it as a rope to quickly swing down a flight of stairs. He ends up in a boiler room and takes out a guy named Chenkov who follows him. He goes back to the symposium where he talks Bannister down (like in the episode), but then Bannister shoots Lem. MacGyver blinds Ingrid with a mirror from the mirror exhibit, grabs her gun, and then tells her, "You've lost" as the police and Pete enter. There's no heart attack for Bannister, but I'm feeling one last pang of nausea as Viktoria moves toward MacGyver in a romantic way before the curtain mercifully falls. 

The MacGyver Project Soundtrack

Have you ever wanted a 50+ minute mix of the greatest-ever themes from MacGyver? Well, today's your lucky day because I'm announcing the release of the official MacGyver Project Soundtrack! What took me so long to create a playlist of my favorite musical cues from the series? Your guess is as good as mine, but it's now ready for your enjoyment! 

There's so much great content from the series that it was hard to leave some things out, but that opens up the possibility for a Part Two someday. While I'm not a television historian, I feel quite comfortable in saying that there's no other show in tv history that has an original soundtrack with as much quality, inspiration, or spirit -- in fact, it's not remotely close.

Total run time: 57:04

    :01 - The Gauntlet Opening Gambit by God
  5:20 - Opening Theme by Randy Edelman
  6:31 - The Prodigal by Randy Edelman
  9:59 - Thief of Budapest Opening Gambit by Randy Edelman
14:19 - Trumbo's World Opening Gambit by Randy Edelman
20:02 - Nightmares by Dennis McCarthy
22:09 - A Prisoner of Conscience by Dennis McCarthy
23:11 - Pilot by Randy Edelman
26:22 - Ugly Duckling by Dennis McCarthy (based on Randy Edelman)
26:58 - Pirates by Dennis McCarthy (based on Randy Edelman)
27:51 - Twice Stung by Dennis McCarthy
28:38 - Three for the Road by Randy Edelman
31:27 - Bushmaster by Randy Edelman
33:09 - Out in the Cold by Randy Edelman
34:09 - Phoenix Under Siege by Randy Edelman
35:45 - Lost Love by Randy Edelman
36:46 - Ghost Ship by Ken Harrison
40:08 - Mask of the Wolf by Ken Harrison
42:41 - The Battle of Tommy Giordano by Ken Harrison
44:03 - The Survivors by Ken Harrison
44:58 - Gold Rush by Ken Harrison
48:53 - Strictly Business by Ken Harrison
52:27 - Good Knight MacGyver by Ken Harrison
55:18 - Slow Death by Dennis McCarthy (based on Randy Edelman)
56:16 - Closing Theme by Randy Edelman



The embedded player works best in Google Chrome.  You can download the mp3 by clicking here.

I hope you all enjoy this!  For more musical snippets, check out the MacGyver Online soundtrack page.

The Movie Project: Shoot to Kill

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

After stealing some diamonds and killing two hostages, a mystery man blends in with a fishing party as a means to escape across the U.S.-Canadian border. An FBI agent teams up with an outdoorsman to hunt him down and rescue the outdoorsman's kidnapped girlfriend. 

Memorable Quote:
How do I know you're not going to lower me down?  ~Stantin
Because I said so, you son of a bitch! Now tie on while I'm still in a good mood!  ~Knox

Highlight:

I like Tom Berenger's performance as the mountain man and hermit.

Lowlight:

The bad guy's reveal to the fishing party was disappointing. I'm so familiar with The Invisible Killer (more on that later) that I was expecting a similar lengthy build-up where we got to know about each of the fishermen and had a chance to go back and forth on who the guilty one was. Instead, we only got a few scenes with minimal character development before the reveal, and the most potentially interesting part of the movie was over before I knew it.

Most interesting piece of IMDB trivia:

Sidney Poitier's first acting role in eleven years.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• I'm taking a little break from my Die Hard watch, which is a break from my Indiana Jones watch, which is a break from my MacGyver fan fiction, which is a break from my podcast, to watch Shoot to Kill for the first time. This is the first in my series of Movie Project movies with a strong MacGyver connection. Not only was the classic MacGyver episode The Invisible Killer seemingly inspired by this movie, but it was also filmed in Vancouver at the same time (1988) as MacGyver, so there are a ton of familiar names and faces:
• Harv Zimmel, who wrote The Widowmaker, as one of the screenwriters.
• Milton Selzer as the jewel shop owner in the beginning. He appears in The Lost Amadeus and The Wall, where he also plays a shop owner.
• Walter Marsh as the guy they talk to in the parking lot who works for the guide company. He took a memorable turn as General Racoubian in Lost Love.
• Claire Vardiel as Mildred, the woman who complains to the police about her house being broken into.  She was in many MacGyver episodes and is most famous for her "Ain't you just the one, Ducky?" line from Legend of the Holy Rose.
• Blu Mankuma as an agent/policeman. He was in three MacGyver episodes, including The Invisible Killer.
• Jerry Wasserman as an FBI agent. Unlike the others, I didn't recognize him while I was watching the movie and only saw his name afterwards on IMDB.
• The opening at the jeweler's house and the pier is strong, although it's never stated how the feds know to investigate the jewelry store in the first place. It's also weird how Sidney can hear the voice whispering to him from the other side of the pier.
• Speaking of Sidney, he's 61 during this movie and looks good for his age.
• Just like The Invisible Killer, there's a bridge in the wilderness that needs crossing, and there's one guy in the group who's scared of heights and has trouble crossing it.
• 38:57 mark - One of Berenger's ropes breaks as he's making his way across a ravine, and he crashes into the mountain (twice, actually) with such force that he would surely be dead. Somehow, he comes out of it without a scratch.
• Kirstie Alley delivers a dispassionate, uninspiring performance as Sarah, and there's no real connection between her and Berenger.
• Why doesn't the FBI get some planes to surveil the area?
• Berenger and Sidney's ice cave looks really nice, although digging a cave that big with a small bowl would take weeks. 
• 1:11:28 - As the bad guy stops a truck and boards it with Kirstie, Berenger inexplicably doesn't shoot the tires with his rifle, instead choosing to chase the truck and then falling down in despair.
• 1:15:45 - Things start to go off the rails when the accomplice is tied up and convinced in 5 seconds that his house is about to be burned down. 
• Weird scene at the city plaza where the bad guy decides to bring Sarah along to his meet and hold her hostage in a public place. Sarah, for her part, is an agreeable hostage and doesn't try to fight back in the slightest.
• That brings us to the ending on the ferry where things really go off the rails as Sidney gets shot three times in the chest and falls overboard yet somehow manages to hold off the bad guy and shoot him underwater. Berenger jumps in to save him and then the movie abruptly ends.

Final Analysis:
Not a good movie. I was expecting some intrigue along the lines of The Invisible Killer, but The Invisible Killer is exponentially better. The first half of the movie has some promise, but it loses its way in the second half. While it was nice to see some familiar MacGyver names and faces, I'm ranking this in the Yikes tier. 

The Movie Project -- Die Hard 3: Die Hard with a Vengeance

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

John McClane, who is down on his luck and suspended from the NYPD, gets asked by a German named Simon to perform tasks around New York City in a game of "Simon Says," or else Simon will set off a bomb. McClane gets help from Zeus, a shop owner in Harlem, and they learn that Simon is the late Hans Gruber's brother. As Simon sends the NYPD on a wild goose chase looking for a school bomb, McClane realizes that his main motive isn't a bomb or revenge, but rather a bank heist. 

Memorable Quote:
He didn't say Jesus, he said Hey Zeus. My name is Zeus -- yeah, Zeus, as in father of Apollo, Mount Olympus, don't @#$% with me or I'll shove a lightning bolt up your ass.  ~Zeus

Highlight:

So much to choose from, but I gotta go with Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus and the chemistry he has with Bruce Willis. Buddy cop movies/shows can easily go wrong (see the MacGyver reboot as an example), but they strike the right tone here with hilarious, profanity-laced back and forths while still keeping the element of seriousness.

Lowlight:

The alternate ending, which is not officially part of the movie but is worth mentioning because of how nonsensical and bad it is.

Most interesting piece of IMDB trivia:

You would actually need four hundred eighty dump trucks to steal all the gold from the Federal Reserve.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• I still remember the first time I saw this movie -- it was the summer after 8th grade and I was spending the weekend away from home at a soccer tournament. One night, the team went to the movies, and most of the players went to see Congo, but all of the fathers went to see Die Hard 3, as did me and one other kid. I've never seen Congo, but I'm pretty sure that I made the right choice. 
• Interesting coincidence that the screenwriter, Jonathan Hensleigh, also wrote the Trenches of Hell Young Indiana Jones episode that I've been taking 5 months to watch.
• Detective Lambert is played by Native American actor Graham Greene, who I know from Maverick (coming at some point to The Movie Project) and Longmire. 
• 17:50 mark:
• "You interfered with a well-laid plan."  ~Simon
• "Yeah? Well, you can stick your well-laid plan up your well-laid ass."  ~Zeus
• Phone booths play a prominent role in this movie, but today there are only four phone booths in all of NYC (Colbert recently did a skit involving this). 
• Great scene in the car when McClane and Zeus are getting briefed by the FBI about who Simon really is. And Simon calling and identifying the FBI agents in the car reminds me of Viking doing a similar thing in the MacGyver episode Countdown.
• 48:42: 
• "They're shutting down the police band. All calls will be coming through this switchboard."  ~Sergeant Turley
• "And I'm gonna marry Donald Trump!"  ~Wanda Shepard
• Now there's a line that hasn't aged well.  
• 49:50: the classic Die Hard trope of the 30 bad guys walking with menace and purpose, yet unnoticed by everyone else on the street. 
• Inspired usage of the U.S. Civil War song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" during the bank heist.  
• Sam Phillips, who plays Katya, was an indy-pop singer with no previous acting experience when she was cast. The director thought she had the look of a German terrorist based on her CD cover -- that must have been an interesting first conversation. It's unclear if Katya, who has no lines in the movie, is incapable of speaking or just chooses not to. 
• Why are there only a couple of security guards at the Federal Reserve building? Even with the school bomb threat and officers being pulled in different directions, there should still be more than two people guarding 140 billion dollars! 
• When Targo, the big Hungarian, wants to go into the aqueduct and shoot McClane, Simon suggests blowing the dam instead. But shooting him would have made more sense considering that there was 13 billion dollars in the back of his truck. 
• At minimum, McClane and Zeus would have broken an arm and/or a leg from that fall onto the boat. 
• Always hard to watch the scene where Zeus gets ready to shoot Simon but doesn't take the safety catch off and then gets shot himself. That's on McClane for not thinking to tell Zeus about the safety catch. 
• Simon broadcasts a message inviting everyone who's "not in gridlock" to come watch the boat explode, but why does he give away his location, and why don't the authorities come in full force to grab him before he leaves the boat?

Final Analysis:

Quite simply the best action movie of all time. (Disclaimer: James Bond and Indiana Jones are adventure movies, not action movies). It straddles the line perfectly between action, drama, and humor -- even Charlie the bomb squad guy, the goofiest character in the movie, manages to fit in without being overly farcical. It's an updated and fresh sequel while still retaining the franchise's DNA, and it's also a great New York City movie.  Placing it in the Movie Project's Phenomenally Stupendously Fantastic category.

The Movie Project -- Die Hard 2: Die Harder

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

As John McClane waits for his wife to land at Dulles Airport, right-wing terrorists take over the airport's electronic communications and demand the release of an imprisoned Latin American dictator on his way to Dulles.

Memorable Quote:
Yippee-ki-yay, mother@#$%$.  ~McClane

Highlight:

The ending is brilliant. McClane is no match for Colonel Stuart's martial arts, and Stuart knocks him off the plane wing as he pulls the handle on the fuel dump. As the plane takes off and the bad guys are celebrating on board, McClane is lying in the snow and it seems that all hope is lost. Then, he casually pulls out a lighter and drops the flame onto the gas trail, and the flame catches up to the plane and creates a giant exploding fireball.

Lowlight:

It's unclear why the planes circling overhead couldn't just go to BWI, Reagan, or another nearby airport.

Most interesting piece of IMDB trivia:

The scene where McClane climbs the ladder from the service tunnels up onto the runway and then nearly gets run over by Esperanza's plane was filmed from eight different locations: Granada Hills, California; Los Angeles, California; Mojave Desert, California; Alpena, Michigan; San Francisco, California; Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; Lake Tahoe, California; Denver, Colorado. 

I find it interesting to see how much work it was to film this one scene, and it makes me appreciate movies from this era. If they were making the scene today, they'd just CGI it and it would look much worse.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• William Sadler, who plays Col. Stuart, had a recurring role as McGarrett's father in the new Hawaii Five-0.
• 3:47 mark -- the "12 big bad guys walking silently and with purpose" trope that is a Die Hard trademark.
• 4:25 -- Did they have passenger phones on planes back then?
• Great scene where McClane is sitting at a table minding his own business and observes the bad guys acting suspiciously. I also like his big gray sweater.
• Impressive job by the production team in filming the airport scenes against a backdrop of 100+ people moving in different directions. 
• The coach seats on the plane are luxurious. Thornberg wouldn't be complaining as much if he knew what the coach seats of today look like.
• "Hey Carmine, let me ask you something. What sets off the metal detectors first? The lead in your ass or the shit in your brains?"
• Speaking of Carmine, Dennis Franz is great in this movie. Another notable actor is Senator Fred Thompson as the FAA chief.
• I would have liked more of a backstory on Stuart, like why he was kicked out of military and is helping a dictator.
• I said about Midnight Run that it's not a movie you'd want to watch on cable because of all the bleeps, and the same applies here. On cable, the memorable quote above memorably turned into "Yippee-ki-yay, Mr. Falcon."
• 40:05 -- I like how McClane drops a quiet WTF when he hears the 40s music in the steam tunnel. 
• Why is McClane the only one out on the tarmac waving a torch to try and alert the landing plane?  Shouldn't there be a million fire trucks/police cars/etc?
• The blue cartridge/red cartridge plot element is clever, although Major Grant's men could just as easily have killed McClane and the few other good guys at the church instead of engaging in a fake firefight with Col. Stuart.
• The nighttime snowmobile scene is great, even if they make the outskirts of Dulles look like the Canadian wilderness.
• After all this and the authorities still haven't cleared people out of the airport?
• The part where McClane fires blanks at Carmine to prove a point is funny, but in reality he would have been shot by one of the police officers in the room who didn't know what he was doing.

Final Analysis:

Love this movie, and I'm putting it in the Outstanding category, which is one category above the first Die Hard. What makes it work is the great setting (snowy airport), bad-ass villain (Col. Stuart), the McClane/Carmine dialogue, and the standard Die Hard formula of McClane taking on a hundred guys. It's also worth mentioning that while McClane is a smart guy and a good cop, he's not an ultimate fighting machine or a Rambo type, and he's got an everyman quality that makes him endearing. 

The Movie Project: Die Hard

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

John McClane, a New York cop, goes to Los Angeles on Christmas Eve to visit his estranged wife at a company Christmas party in a skyscraper. During the party, German terrorists infiltrate the building and take the partygoers hostage, with their goal being the theft of six hundred million dollars from the company vault. McClane gets loose in the building and takes on the terrorists and their leader, Hans Gruber.

Memorable Quote:
Yippee-ki-yay, mother@#$%$.  ~McClane

Highlight:

Karl is a great henchman and the heir apparent to another blond German, Stamper from Tomorrow Never Dies. The actor, Alexander Godunov, was a world-class ballet dancer and appeared as an Amish farmer in Witness.

Lowlight:

The very end where Karl comes back from the dead and runs into the street for one last shot at McClane. The whole thing is silly: first, that he wasn't dead after seemingly getting his neck broken in the big chain; second, that he made it out of the building without anyone noticing him and got as close to McClane as he did; third, that Al was the only one with the presence of mind to shoot him even though there were 700 other cops around.

Most interesting piece of IMDB trivia:

Don Johnson and Richard Dean Anderson, both established action stars in television, were considered for the role of John McClane.

Hard to imagine RDA as McClane -- glad he stayed focused on MacGyver.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• Time to Die Hard! I thought it would be fun to revisit this series -- I'm very familiar with 3 and pretty familiar with 2, but I didn't remember 1 that well. And 4 and 5 I've only seen once (for good reason). 
• Die Hard was based on a book called Nothing Lasts Forever. According to wikipedia, the studio was contractually obligated to offer the McClane role to 73 year-old Frank Sinatra (!) due to his part in a 1968 film based on a previous book in the series. I don't think this movie would have worked as well with Frank. 
• I noticed a goof at the 9:57 mark: McClane touches "Gennaro" on the touch-screen locator map computer, and the name changes to "Gennero."
• One of my favorite Die Hard tropes -- the sight of 10+ big menacing Euros walking silently and with purpose.
• Alan Rickman (who we saw in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) excels as Gruber, and his performance is especially impressive considering that this was his first feature film. Also a good performance from Reginald VelJohnson (later seen in ABC's Family Matters) as Al.
• On the flip side, Argyle the limo driver didn't add anything to the story, and why was he partying with a teddy bear in the back seat for hours before deciding to do something? Even worse was Ellis, the smug company man who inexplicably approaches Gruber with plenty of swagger but no plan and no leverage.
• The walkie-talkie conversations confused me, like why sometimes it seemed like McClane and Al are talking in private, but other times the terrorists could hear everything. 
• Another Die Hard trope -- making McClane looking more than a little battered and bruised by the end of the movie. The bloody feet from stepping on glass looks painful. 
• I recognized Robert Davi, who plays FBI Agent "Big" Johnson, as the lead villain from License to Kill.  The FBI and police, by the way, do a terrible job of negotiating -- they just agree to release the guys that Gruber demands them to without asking to speak to any of the hostages or asking for any of them to be freed.

Final Analysis:

Good movie -- I'll put it in the Entertaining category. It's pretty even-keeled in that there's not much that jumped out to me as a highlight or part that I love to watch, but there's also not much in the way of lowlights either. Willis, Rickman, Godunov, and VelJohnson are all outstanding, and the plot makes for a great formula (good guy trapped in a place with a ton of bad guys). We'll get to Die Hard 2 next on the Movie Project.

Young Indiana Jones -- Episode 7: Love's Sweet Song

To Watch: Click Here

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

Indiana Jones and his friend Remy stop in Ireland to work and raise money on their way to enlisting with the Belgian army, and Indy pals around with a young lass and experiences the Easter Rebellion. Then, he goes to London and falls in love with a suffragette who had a similar childhood to him of traveling around the world. He proposes marriage, but she declines in part because he's leaving for war and in part because she wants to devote herself fully to writing. 

Memorable Quote:
If you speak French and Spanish, Italian is not hard to learn.  ~Indy

Highlight:
The language duel between Vicky and Indy is classic and one of the very few moments from this series that I remember from when I was kid. In particular, the quote above always stuck with me. On the surface, it doesn't appear to be that memorable, but I remembered it so it gets the honor of being the memorable quote!  I also remembered that she stumped him with Welsh and that she referenced the Jones surname as being Welsh in origin.

These two have great chemistry together, and the actress who plays Vicky (more on her later) delivers her lines with great zest.

Lowlight:

The storyline with the Irish playwright was slow and didn't add much. I would have liked to see more time spent on Indy's relationship with the Irish lass.

Brushes with historical figures:

• W.B. Yeats
• Sean O'Casey (playwright) and Sean Lemass (politician) -- hadn't heard of these two before
• Sylvia Pankhurst (suffragette) -- hadn't heard of her either
• Winston Churchill -- heard of him 

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• I don't have too much to say on the Ireland portion, other than the battle sequence is impressive (as in the previous episode), especially considering that this is early 90's network television.
• Fun scene when Indy gets on the double-decker bus and gets forcefully rejected after putting a move on a widow. I noticed the conductor and thought, "She's cute -- Indy should have gone after her instead." I thought at first she was just an extra, and so I was surprised when she ended up as the heroine of the story.  I was even more surprised when I checked IMDB after the episode ended and discovered that it was Elizabeth Hurley, future A-list actress and supermodel! I missed her name in the opening credits and had no idea that she was Liz Hurley. I also had no idea that she was so talented of an actress (the only other movie I've seen her in is Austin Powers) -- she really is outstanding in this role.
• Speaking of the bus, I like old-school double-decker buses. The only time I've been on one was in Disney World in the 80s -- they used to transport guests around Epcot's World Showcase until it was discovered that driving a huge bus through a jam-packed street full of tourists wasn't the best idea.
• I never knew that the Germans used zeppelins to drop bombs. Being inside a zeppelin doesn't seem like a good place to be with a target on your back, and I read online that the British did eventually start shooting them down. 
• Nice to see Miss Seymour again, and it's good of her to make Indy write to his father. 
• Some other notable guest stars: Julian Fellowes (creator of Downton Abbey, of which I'm currently in the process of watching for the first time) as Winston Churchill, and Vanessa Redgrave as Vicky's mother. We saw her in the first Mission: Impossible movie as the arms dealer Max, and I'm surprised this show was able to get an actress of her reputation for such a small part.
• 1:24:55 mark -- No words necessary in this scene as Liz's eyes do all the talking. Once again, she's really good in this episode! 

Final Analysis:

I have to say, this one tugged at my heartstrings a bit.  It didn't get to the point where I needed to reach for the tissue box, but I still found the last ten minutes to be quite poignant and melancholy. We can tell that these two are a perfect match and in love, but we also know full well that it's not going to work out between them in the end. The final scene on the train is very well done and heartbreaking at the same time. I didn't expect to top last episode so soon, but I really enjoyed Indy and Vicky's relationship, and I'm ranking this one 1 out of 7.