#111: The Wish Child

Season: 2

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

MacGyver goes to Chinatown to pick up a friend's 14 year-old brother from a birthday party.  The boy is not at a party, however, but rather is with criminals while fraudulently pretending to be an ancient Chinese mythological figure, The Wish Child.  The boy is kidnapped and put on a freight to China, but MacGyver rescues him just in time.  

Memorable Quote:

"I changed my mind – I’m not taking that cruise."  ~MacGyver, after escaping from a shipping crate, to some perplexed dock workers.  

 

Highlight:

I enjoyed the part toward the end where MacGyver runs into a bad guy on the boat while pretending to be a mechanic.  First MacGyver drops a tool on the thug's foot and then hooks his belt to a wire and raises him off the ground while the thug repeatedly yells, "Get me down!" in an amusing voice.  

Lowlight:

Paul/The Wish Child's acting.  

Best MacGyverism:

Uses the smoke from a fire extinguisher to make a Wish Child statue appear like it's floating to distract Mr. Lee, though it's unclear why the smoke hides everything else except the statue.  

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

• For the intro, we have shots of people on the beach (mostly women in bikinis) while MacGyver's voice-over says, "I grew up in Northern Minnesota, and I remember snowdrifts that would bury whole parking lots, icicles longer than a hockey stick, and being stuck with three layers of clothing.  My favorite, though, was when they announced exposed flesh warnings on the radio to prevent frostbite.  When I came to California, I found it’s really a small world.  They had exposed flesh warnings too called beach parties.  The type of party that did away with frostbite.  Did away with most of the clothing too."
• Of course MacGyver is from Minnesota, but I hadn't known or remembered that it was Northern Minnesota.  I'm glad that's true and that he's not from Minneapolis/St. Paul or a suburb.  Nothing against the Twin Cities, but it's much cooler (and I suppose colder) to be from Northern Minnesota.  
• This episode has a ton of voice-overs, i.e. MacGyver talking to himself and we get to hear his thoughts.  I LOVE the voice-overs.  Sadly, it appears that RDA himself did not (I read that in the beginning of the Fugitive Gauntlet comic book).  They go away in the later seasons, and it's too bad because it is always nice to hear what he is thinking.  
• I used to watch MacGyver on USA network, and when I first rewatched the episodes on DVD, I sometimes noticed new scenes that I'd never seen before.  Almost like a deleted scene, it didn't make it into the televised show, but they stuck it in the DVD.  Now that it's been years since I've had the DVDs, it's hard to remember what was a new scene and what was not, but I think this whole beach thing is a new one.  
• After the beach, we go right into MacGyver's apartment where he is dressed like the Karate Kid and sparring with a woman in a mask who turns out to be Tia Carrere.  This episode also includes George Takei and James Hong - some nice star power here.  
• After the sparring, MacGyver gets a phone call, and it's for Lisa (Tia Carrere).  Turns out someone wants to finance her karate studio, and he wants her to fly to San Francisco immediately.  Not sure how the financier knew MacGyver's number or that she'd be at his apartment.  And maybe she should have talked to him for more than ten seconds before getting on a plane, because at the end of the day we learn things didn't work out for her.
• Nice foreshadowing where we see the dragon mask in a garbage can, and later MacGyver uses that mask on his remote control car to distract a guard.
• I like how MacGyver just walks right into the meeting room, Martin Riggs-style.   
• Unfortunately, his bravado only manages to get him knocked out and placed in a shipping crate full of fireworks over the harbor.  He blows out the side of the crate and finds himself hanging on while dangling in the air - a famous scene immortalized in the opening credits.  There are also some great lines like "No one told me the party moved upstairs," and "I was sitting on a pile of fireworks and some joker is outside playing shake, rattle, and roll."  I have no idea what that last one means.  
• I like Sam, the slick but good-hearted friend who knows the Chinese language and the neighborhood.  Too bad we don't see him in any more episodes. 
• Sam says that the Wish Child legend is "ancient" but also that it took place 400 years ago. Not exactly ancient.  But he did say something about the Wish Child being reborn at that time, so maybe it does go back earlier.  
• "Old Minnesota wisdom: If you don’t want to be touched, look downright untouchable." ~MacGyver.  You can never have too much old Minnesota wisdom. 
• For the second straight episode, MacGyver et al just walk away in the end from the bad guys without a modicum of urgency.  I like the word "modicum." 
• The end credits have a good shot of Karate Kid MacGyver.  Did you know that every end credit shot includes MacGyver?  True story.

Final Analysis:

I like this episode, despite the ridiculous premise of criminals believing the boy is a mythological figure.  Overall it's much better than I remembered - I'm not sure why I had it so low. I think I thought that the boy's acting really brought it down, and while it's not great, it's not a disaster. The villains are now starting to be more menacing and competent.  Overall, things are taking a clear turn for the better at the MacGyver Project.  Next up, we stay in season two for the first act of a two act drama.