The WORST episodes of MacGyver (2016)

Every episode of MacGyver (2016) ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of MacGyver (2016)!

Young Angus "Mac" MacGyver works for a clandestine organization within the U.S. government, relying on his unconventional problem-solving skills to save lives.

Last Updated: 12/19/2024Network: CBSStatus: Ended
The Rising
star
6.97
3480 votes

#1 - The Rising

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/23/2016

Angus “Mac” MacGyver and Jack Dalton, special agents for the Department of External Services (DXS), join forces to recover a missing bioweapon that has the ability to destroy hundreds of thousands of people with one single drop.

Directors: James Wan
Watch Now:Amazon
Metal Saw
star
7.30
2486 votes

#2 - Metal Saw

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/30/2016

MacGyver and the team attempt to rescue Sarah, Jack’s former CIA partner/ex-girlfriend who went missing in Venezuela after she obtained evidence to take down an international arms dealer.

Directors: Jerry Levine
Watch Now:Amazon
Awl
star
7.36
1956 votes

#3 - Awl

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/7/2016

MacGyver and the team are in Malaysia to extract a terrorist group’s money man, Ralph, who holds key intel on an impending attack. But the mission goes south when the man is shot, and now, with only a driver’s license and hand sanitizer available, MacGyver must keep Ralph alive in order to learn the terrorists’ plans.

Writer: David Slack
Watch Now:Amazon
Wire Cutter
star
7.50
1782 votes

#4 - Wire Cutter

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/14/2016

Mac and Jack partner with older versions of themselves, a Russian bomb programmer and his estranged handler, to shut down a Soviet-era warhead in Moscow. But when the antiquated computer needed to disable the warhead becomes inoperable, Mac must find a way to fix it with only duct tape and wire in time to prevent a new Cold War.

Directors: Joe Dante
Writer: John Turman
Watch Now:Amazon
C8H7ClO + Nano-Trackers + Resistance + Maldives + Mind Games
star
7.53
331 votes

#5 - C8H7ClO + Nano-Trackers + Resistance + Maldives + Mind Games

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/26/2021

Mac and Riley head overseas together to prevent a governmental collapse and inadvertently inhale new deadly microscopic technology.

Directors: David Straiton
Watch Now:Amazon
Quarantine + N95 + Landline + Telescope + Social Distance
star
7.53
362 votes

#6 - Quarantine + N95 + Landline + Telescope + Social Distance

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/22/2021

During COVID-19’s first stay-at-home order, as Mac, Bozer and Riley quarantine together, they try to stop a crime in progress at their neighbor’s house. Also, Russ’ romantic fling takes on a longer and more complicated turn when they quarantine together.

Directors: Andrew Ahn
Watch Now:Amazon
Rails + Pitons + Pulley + Pipe + Salt
star
7.54
338 votes

#7 - Rails + Pitons + Pulley + Pipe + Salt

Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/19/2021

When Mac and the team are unable to prevent Department of Defense intel from falling into Codex’s hands, Mac must scale a vertical cliff using only gear he can cobble together himself to prevent the info’s transmission.

Directors: Christine Moore
Watch Now:Amazon
H2O + Orthophosphates + Mission City + Corrosion + Origins
star
7.55
310 votes

#8 - H2O + Orthophosphates + Mission City + Corrosion + Origins

Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/16/2021

Mac and Desi travel with Bozer to his childhood home when his aunt dies in a tragic accident, however, they soon discover she may have been murdered for trying to expose the city’s contaminated water supply. Also, Riley, Matty and Russ continue to follow leads on their nano-trackers investigation.

Watch Now:Amazon
Dia de Muertos + Sicarios + Family
star
7.56
592 votes

#9 - Dia de Muertos + Sicarios + Family

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/26/2018

When Oversight’s attempt to capture a drug cartel’s leader goes bad, MacGyver and Jack rush to Mexico to pull their boss out while racing through the heart of the country during Dia de Muertos celebrations. Also, Bozer and Riley use Halloween as a distraction to gather intel on a man accused of treason.

Directors: Eagle Egilsson
Watch Now:Amazon
Toothpick
star
7.57
1684 votes

#10 - Toothpick

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/21/2016

Using only an armrest, a curtain rod, and a toothpick, MacGyver must fix a sabotaged train in order to protect a whistleblower who has proof that her boss is selling weapons to U.S. enemies.

Directors: Bobby Roth
Writer: Nancy Kiu
Watch Now:Amazon
Eclipse + USMC-1856707 + Step Potential + Chain Lock + Ma
star
7.58
352 votes

#11 - Eclipse + USMC-1856707 + Step Potential + Chain Lock + Ma

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/18/2020

When Russ is kidnapped, Mac and the team must break out a previously murderous psychopath, now pacifist, from prison to help find him. Also, while on the run, Mac and Desi are forced to confront their relationship issues.

Directors: David Straiton
Watch Now:Amazon
Royalty + Marriage + Vivaah Sanskar + Zinc + Henna
star
7.58
323 votes

#12 - Royalty + Marriage + Vivaah Sanskar + Zinc + Henna

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/2/2021

Mac, Desi and Russ go undercover during a royal Indian wedding to protect a princess whose policies could put her life in danger. Also, Russ and Sophia come face-to-face at the wedding, Bozer suspects Riley is up to her old hacking ways and Matty runs down a lead in hopes of getting to the bottom of Mac and Riley’s ingested nano-trackers.

Directors: Anne Renton
Watch Now:Amazon
Guts + Fuel + Hope
star
7.59
685 votes

#13 - Guts + Fuel + Hope

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/2018

MacGyver and Riley, with the help of Vasil, a distraught father, must find a way to drive a tanker filled with liquid oxygen through a region occupied by rebels and deliver it to a children’s hospital before they run out. Also, Riley helps MacGyver decide whether or not to allow his father back into his life.

Directors: Peter Weller
Watch Now:Amazon
Wrench
star
7.59
1615 votes

#14 - Wrench

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/28/2016

Using only a wrench and rope, MacGyver must diffuse a bomb set near the United Nations by his old nemesis, “The Ghost”, a notorious criminal whose work killed his mentor, and track him down before he strikes again.

Directors: Alec Smight
Writer: Brian Durkin
Watch Now:Amazon
Can Opener
star
7.60
1573 votes

#15 - Can Opener

Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/4/2016

MacGyver is tasked to go undercover as an inmate in a maximum security prison to break out El Noche, a notorious drug kingpin, using only batteries and salt, and track him to his cartel’s secret location and dismantle it.

Directors: Alec Smight
Writer: Brian Durkin
Watch Now:Amazon
Seeds + Permafrost + Feather
star
7.61
552 votes

#16 - Seeds + Permafrost + Feather

Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/15/2019

MacGyver and team are asked to solve a locked-door mystery when a man working inside a remote, ultra-secure international seed vault disappears.

Watch Now:Amazon
Roulette Wheel + Wire
star
7.62
1111 votes

#17 - Roulette Wheel + Wire

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/2017

MacGyver and the team go undercover in a high stakes casino to steal diamonds from a vault before a terrorist group gets there first and trades the jewels for a weapon of mass destruction.

Directors: Duane Clark
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Compass
star
7.62
1304 votes

#18 - Compass

Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/31/2017

Mac and Jack help Mac’s close friend from M.I.T. after she fakes her own death to prevent someone from killing her in order to suppress her scientific research.

Directors: Christine Moore
Watch Now:Amazon
Ruler
star
7.62
1390 votes

#19 - Ruler

Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/24/2017

Bozer’s first overseas mission goes terribly wrong when Mac and the team are blamed for a terrorist bombing and the Phoenix Foundation is forced to disavow them. Using a ruler and coconut oil to make disguises, the team must avoid authorities and clear their names without any support from back home.

Directors: Antonio Negret
Watch Now:Amazon
Bozer + Booze + Back to School
star
7.63
667 votes

#20 - Bozer + Booze + Back to School

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/2018

MacGyver, Riley, Bozer and Leanna go undercover on a college campus to smoke out a deep-cover operative who is recruiting students to carry out deadly attacks around the world. Also, Jack joins bounty hunter Billy Colton in the hunt for a bail jumper but is concerned when he finds out Billy offered Riley a job.

Directors: Tessa Blake
Writer: Nancy Kiu
Watch Now:Amazon
Corkscrew
star
7.63
1594 votes

#21 - Corkscrew

Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/11/2016

When MacGyver comes face to face with Murdoc, an international assassin hired to kill him, Mac must defend both himself and Bozer, armed with only a corkscrew and paper towel rolls. Also, Bozer feels completely betrayed when he finally learns Mac’s true identity.

Directors: Janice Cooke
Watch Now:Amazon
SOS + Hazmat + Ultrasound + Frequency + Malihini
star
7.64
343 votes

#22 - SOS + Hazmat + Ultrasound + Frequency + Malihini

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/12/2021

Mac and team rush to help when Matty’s former mentor, Ian Cain, and his embassy staff come down with a deadly, mysterious illness. Also, Taylor and Bozer work with Jerry Ortega to infiltrate a Codex cell.

Directors: Yangzom Brauen
Writer: Cindy Appel
Watch Now:Amazon
X-Ray + Penny
star
7.64
1085 votes

#23 - X-Ray + Penny

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/20/2017

When Murdoc drugs and kidnaps MacGyver, Mac uses a needle and his teeth to escape and join the team to save Murdoc’s next victim.

Directors: Bethany Rooney
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Improvise
star
7.64
719 votes

#24 - Improvise

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/2018

Three months after quitting the Phoenix Foundation and moving to Nigeria, Mac puts aside his differences with his father and returns when he hears Jack is the target of a murderous dictator he double-crossed.

Directors: Stephen Herek
Watch Now:Amazon
Hole Puncher
star
7.64
1302 votes

#25 - Hole Puncher

Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/7/2017

When the team intercepts a terror group's message meant for Murdoc, Mac poses as the psychopath to save the intended target and find out why they want Murdoc to assassinate him.

Watch Now:Amazon