- The drug dealing crew is introduced as:
- Spider, a cruel looking hood with the disposition of a cobra.
- Watts, a lanky farm boy gone sour.
- Meat, the product of a truck mating with a moose.
- JD, a burned out long-hair.
- Young MacGyver reaches into the bottom drawer of his mother's dresser, and pushes aside old photo albums and war medals to find the gun, wrapped in a towel. He picks it up, holding it with reverence, enjoying the weight of it and the coldness of the steel. This moment takes place at the 18:44 mark of the episode. Interesting that it was his mother's dresser -- Ellen MacGyver was packing heat!
- It's funny how when Danny pushes the shelving unit onto MacGyver and then Chuck and Neil run in, MacGyver stands up and says, "It's Danny. He just ran out the back. He took a gun." What he should say is, "Run after Danny! He just left the store 5 seconds ago!"
- He [Danny] tumbles down the stairs, and hits the floor, unfolding in the identical position Jesse did. The gun lies in the same position as well. This doesn't come across in the episode.
- In the script, before doing CPR MacGyver uses his watch crystal to see if Danny is still breathing.
- Also in the script, Chuck says that he will stop selling guns.
- I'll tell you one thing; people are gonna have to buy their guns from somebody else. ~Chuck
- That's just the problem -- they always can. ~MacGyver
- In the final photo, they have their arms around each other's shoulders and all but Jesse have their guns drawn. That holds true in the episode also and I never noticed it before.
Monday, November 28, 2016
MacGyver Script Analysis: Blood Brothers
My Script Analysis series where I compare an original script with the final episode continues with Blood Brothers, which I recognize as a landmark episode despite it not being one of my favorites. This will be fairly short because what you see in the episode is pretty much word for word what is in the script.
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I never realized that TV scripts--at least for this series--used such kitschy descriptions of the characters. The description of "Meat" was particularly colorful. I guess I never considered "Watts", with his long dangling earring and vintage 80s male look as being a "lanky farm boy" either.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely interesting that it was supposed to be MacGyver's mom whose dresser he got the gun from, especially when MacGyver said it was his father who taught him how to shoot. But then again, by that age, MacGyver's father would have already been dead.
I always wondered what became of Chuck's firearms business at the end of the episode, but I'm glad that clunky/preachy bit of dialogue clarifying it was omitted from the script.
I noticed earlier that Jesse was the only boy in the end without his gun drawn, which I thought was pretty poignant foreshadowing of his general discomfort with guns.
I still love this episode!
And here I thought your opinion on this one had changed after all these years!
DeleteI would have liked to see the use of the watch glass to check the breathing. Otherwise they seem to have stuck close to the script. I suppose MacGyver's Mum had kept his Dad's gun with all the other memorabilia which does support the backstory of MacGyver's dad being dead by then. But he must have taught his son to shoot at a very young age. Even though MacGYver subsequently hates guns, he was a decent shot when he did use one, which does tie in with him being good at everything he does! I like the backstory and explanation of the gun phobia and enjoyed this one for that reason when I watched it first but by now I find that the plot, villains, and too much dwelling on the 'memory' scenes don't make for a great MacGyver episode.
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