The BEST Episodes of MacGyver
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
Last Updated: Oct 3, 2020
Network: ABC (US)
MacGyver follows the adventures of the laid-back, extremely resourceful secret agent Angus MacGyver. He prefers non-violent conflict resolution whenever possible and refuses to carry or use a gun. MacGyver works as a problem solver for the Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles. Utilizing his education as a scientist and his experience as an operative in the Department of External Services (DXS), he is able to solve a range of problems usually with the help of his ever-present Swiss Army knife.
#1 - The Legend of the Holy Rose (1)
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired Sep 18, 1989
Opening gambit- The Airplane: MacGyver rescues a man who is being held against his will on a high cliff, with a home-built para-glider. MacGyver and an old friend dash around the world searching for the artifacts necessary to locate the Holy Grail, just one step ahead of a ruthless man on the same trail, who will do anything to get to it before they do...
8.60 
#2 - The Legend of the Holy Rose (2)
Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired Sep 25, 1989
MacGyver and an old friend dash around the world searching for the artifacts necessary to locate the Holy Grail, just one step ahead of a ruthless man on the same trail.
8.37 
#3 - Lesson in Evil
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired Oct 29, 1990
Dr. Zito returns to menace MacGyver and Murphy when he escapes after his latest sanity hearing, leaving a series of nasty clues designed to give Mac a crash course in evil.
8.34 
#4 - The Outsiders
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired Nov 28, 1988
MacGyver helps an Amish family, who saved his life, from having their farm seized by the government.
8.31 
#5 - Jenny's Chance
Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired Feb 19, 1990
MacGyver, Dalton, and Thornton go undercover to expose a murderous money launderer.
8.30 
#6 - Black Rhino
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired Nov 13, 1989
MacGyver takes off for Africa, where the youngest of the Colton brothers has decided to take on deadly rhino poachers single-handedly.
8.25 
#7 - Murderers' Sky
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired May 9, 1988
When the head of a American-Chinese shipping company is attacked in his office by a killer, MacGyver and the man's grandson—who is heir to the company—must find out who was behind the attempt on his life.
8.22 
#8 - For Love or Money
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired May 4, 1987
MacGyver is forced to work with a ruthless freelance agent to rescue a human rights activist who is being held in a psychiatric hospital in Czechoslovakia. The rescue is an apparent success, until the secret police then kidnap the activist's wife to get him back.
8.17 
#9 - The Challenge
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired Feb 27, 1989
An inner city youth club is threatened when a black resident is framed for auto theft by a neighborhood racist who'll stop at nothing to close the center—even murder.
8.13 
#10 - The Black Corsage
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired Oct 2, 1989
Mac and a bounty hunter join forces with a bulldog named Frog to track down a Bulgarian defector who was the accidental witness at a murder and who is now being stalked by the killer, who needs a map she doesn't know she possesses.
8.11 
#11 - Strictly Business
Season 6 - Episode 19 - Aired Apr 8, 1991
After enlisting MacGyver's help in saving his sister (from a previous episode), Murdoc wants to come out of retirement, but his former employers at Homicide International request that he take out MacGyver as a demonstration of his sincere desire to rejoin them. Knowing that MacGyver is the only contract that he failed to execute, Murdocs agrees to "clear" his otherwise perfect record. MacGyver, returning home one night, finds Murdoc waiting for him at his dinner table- with dinner waiting. Murdoc sets MacGyver up for execution and forces MacGyver to admit defeat to him- or be killed via cyanide. After that, Murdoc warns MacGyver of his intention to kill him and then leaves. MacGyver knows the professional killer is not bluffing- and he knows he will use anybody and do anything to get to him...
8.09 
#12 - GX-1
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired Nov 2, 1987
Mac and Nikki race to recover equipment from a downed experimental plane before the Soviets, who are using a psychic to guide them to the wreckage.
8.07 
#13 - The Secret of Parker House
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired Oct 31, 1988
MacGyver accompanies his friend Penny Parker to an old house she has inherited from her Aunt Betty, who mysteriously died 30 years before. When strange things start happening, Penny is sure that the house is haunted. However, MacGyver tries to convince her that there's no such thing as ghosts, but then he starts witnessing the strange events, too.
8.07 
#14 - The Visitor
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired Dec 3, 1990
Mac uncovers an out-of-this-world scam when he investigates some mysterious indentations in a farmer's field.
8.06 
#15 - Blow Out
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired Dec 21, 1987
MacGyver teams up with colleague Nikki Carpenter to find out who is behind the attempts on her life. When they find out that the man who tried to kill her is connected to two terrorists who blew up a local post office, MacGyver and Nikki must find out what the terrorist's next target is before it's too late.
8.03 
#16 - Two Times Trouble
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired Dec 11, 1989
MacGyver tries to help an old friend who believes her jealous twin sister is trying to kill her.
8.02 
#17 - The Ten Percent Solution
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired Nov 20, 1989
The Phoenix Foundation purchase of a Nazi art treasure leads Mac to a concentration camp survivor who claims family ownership of the painting and an `Aryan nation' group actively working to create their own country.
8.02 
#18 - Rush to Judgement
Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired Apr 16, 1990
MacGyver risks judicial displeasure when he breaks jury sequester to investigate the scene of a racially charged murder, and discovers evidence that drastically alters the interpretation of the facts.
8.01 
#19 - Rock the Cradle
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired Apr 18, 1988
Mac and Jack return from a flight to find an abandoned baby in Jack's hangar, complete with a desperate note from the mother and his own endowment fund hidden in his diapers.
7.99 
#20 - The Invisible Killer
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired Apr 10, 1989
MacGyver heads up a trip with four other Phoenix Foundation employees into the wilderness as part of a stress reduction program. After discovering that a prison bus accident has freed several prisoners, the employees begin to question each other's behavior. MacGyver must now figure out which man, if any, is not to be trusted before it's too late.
7.98 
#21 - Phoenix Under Siege
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired Jan 5, 1987
While retrieving tickets for a hockey game at the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver and his grandpa Harry get caught in the middle of a woman's plot to blow up the building using a bomb that she herself made. They try to escape, but are locked in. Now they must figure another way out before she activates the bomb.
7.95 
#22 - Early Retirement
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired Jan 18, 1988
While testing a new nuclear bomb defusing team at the Phoenix Foundation, a deadly explosion kills three men. Pete blames himself for not inspecting their equipment better and resigns from his job out of guilt. However, Pete is replaced by a not-so-trustworthy man—one who may have been connected to the explosion.
7.95 
#23 - The Stringer
Season 7 - Episode 13 - Aired Apr 25, 1992
While working with Chinese dissidents to expose illegal labor camps, MacGyver gets unexpected help from a young photojournalist who claims to be his son!
7.93 
#24 - Three for the Road
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired Dec 15, 1986
A retired actor and his wife stop at a motel on the way to Los Angeles. MacGyver rescues them from a drunkard who nearly makes a mark on their car. MacGyver is supposed to meet a mobster-turned-informant at the motel, but the meeting goes wrong. The mob shows up and kills MacGyver's friend before he can give MacGyver what he promised. Instead the bag lands in the old couple's car, where the old actor finds it and discovers it full of money.
7.89 
#25 - Countdown
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired Feb 5, 1986
A mysterious person, who calls himself "Viking", has just bombed a cruise ship. He demands six million dollars or another bomb will go off within hours. So MacGyver, with an old friend from Vietnam, Charlie Robinson, is sent to disarm it. But when they get there, they find out there's more then one bomb on the ship.
7.89