#90: Tough Boys

Editor's note:  This recap is best enjoyed while listening to this song. 

Season: 6

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

Four teenagers are in a vigilante group called the Tough Boys where they dress like ninjas and burn down crack houses.  They believe their next hit to be their biggest job yet, but it's a trap laid by a drug dealer to ambush them.  MacGyver figures out who the mastermind behind the Tough Boys is and stops him from blowing himself up along with the drug dealer.  

Memorable Quote:

Tough boys, tough boys, they're coming at 'ya!  To-To-To-Tough boys, tough boys!

Highlight:

Pretty much any scene with MacGyver and Hines, an old-school, hard-nosed Marine who clashes with MacGyver at any turn even as they come to an unlikely alliance.  Hines is played by Richard Roundtree, a great actor who was the original Shaft.  He is tremendous in this episode, and his scenes with MacGyver are pure gold.  The dialogue is great and the tension palpable as Hines tries to bully and intimidate MacGyver, but MacGyver doesn't back down.  Some examples:

• "Nobody interferes when I'm working with my kids.  Nobody undercuts my respect when I'm in a session, do you understand me?" ~Hines
• "What I understand is that you were sticking a kid's head in a bucket of water and nobody does that in front of me, do you understand that?"  ~MacGyver

• "What are you going to do, stand there and watch?  Get your shoulder over here."  ~Hines
• "What for, so we can both have broken shoulders?"  ~MacGyver
• "Paint cans?  Oh, I see, you're going to take the sensitive approach."  ~Hines

• "Do you understand me?"  ~Hines
• "Yes Sir!"  ~Kids
• "Let me hear it again!"  ~Hines
• "Yes Sir!  ~Kids
• Yes sir. ~MacGyver mouths and roles his eyes
• "Is that a frown I notice on your face, Mr. MacGyver?"  ~Hines
• "Yes sir."  ~MacGyver

Great stuff. 

Lowlight:

The ending is a bit odd where Manny calls the press to watch him kill himself and the drug dealer. First of all, why is he killing himself too?  And the press doesn't seem alarmed by the fact that there's a bomb about to go off - they are just calmly filming everything.  And we don't see any police until after MacGyver and Hines get on the boat and get Manny to stop and then we see about 12 of them run into view. 

Best MacGyverism:

Runs a hose through a ladder and knocks the bad guy off a balcony with the force of the water. 

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

• A rockin' opening scene to start Season 6!   You can see it in the video link at the top of the post. I like it - good way to hook the audience right off the bat.  This episode came out in 1990, and it appears as if the writers were inspired by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which came out earlier in the year.  And the song - that is one catchy tune!  This was clear by the fact that I was singing it to myself for the rest of the day after watching this episode.  Let's add it to the music list.   
• This episode is like a who's who of MacGyver guest stars.  To name a few:
• Coco = Brian from Gunz 'N Boys
• Manny = Enrique from The Treasure of Manco
• One of the bad guys = the guy who shot MacGyver in Trail of Tears
• Drug dealer = a guy in a lot of other episodes
• In fact, the last two guys team up as drug dealers again in another episode yet to be reviewed
• 11:00 mark - good scene where the Tough Boys are watching a tv report about themselves and MacGyver stands and watches them in the background unnoticed. 
• 17:00 - cool how MacGyver notices that Hines is a southpaw and that Angel's bruise was done by a right-hander.  We don't often see MacGyver as having extraordinary hyper-observancy, but it's a good trait for a hero to have.  
• Let's take a moment and reflect back on the last 6 episodes.  We've had:
  • a dream in the Old West
  • an adventure in the Romanian wilderness
  • a Native American vision
  • a courtroom drama
  • two inner city episodes
  My point is that MacGyver as a series was incredibly diverse.  These episodes were even from the same seasons (5 and 6) and yet they were very different.  Another show that I enjoyed as a kid was Quantum Leap, and that was very diverse also in that every episode was in a totally different setting.  In today's day and age, there's usually one story arc that goes through an entire season, and that has its advantages too, but I do like how there are many unique, one-of-a-kind episodes that give this show and character great range and depth.  

Final Analysis:
Another one that was much better than I remembered.  We'll see how the rest of them are, but I fear I have this one too low.  As stated above, the scenes with Hines and MacGyver are fantastic and the music adds some extra oomph.  Next up, we're getting out of Season 5/6 issues and dreams and going on an old-fashioned MacGyver adventure!