The BEST episodes of MacGyver season 1
Every episode of MacGyver season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of MacGyver season 1!
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.
#1 - Countdown
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/5/1986
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.
#2 - Every Time She Smiles
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/19/1986
MacGyver is on his way out of Bulgaria with a secret microfilm, when he meets Penny Parker, a beautiful, talkative American, who is on the run from her lover, a man named Stephan Frolov. She stashes some jewels on MacGyver, thus making him a suspect, and now MacGyver and Penny must flee Bulgaria together.
#3 - Nightmares
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/15/1986
When MacGyver comes home with some important documents, he's drugged by enemy agents and told that he will die in six hours if he doesn't retrieve the documents for them. But MacGyver, using an old prisoner trick, escapes. Now the only problem is convincing someone that he's not just another drunk.
#4 - Target MacGyver
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/22/1985
After blowing away a nuclear facility under the control of an aggressive world leader, MacGyver returns home for some peace and quiet, only to find his boss waiting for him. He advises MacGyver that a contract is out on his life and he needs to skip town for awhile.
#5 - The Gauntlet
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/21/1985
MacGyver attempts to get a reporter out of a Central American country with evidence linking a general to an illegal arms dealer. As MacGyver and Kate reach the border, it is clear escaping to Mexico will be no easy task, as the general and the arms dealer have every imaginable route severely guarded. There is no turning back. MacGyver must figure out how to get across the border, as his life, as well as Kate's, hangs in the balance.
#6 - Pilot
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1985
An underground lab is destroyed by a mysterious explosion. MacGyver is sent in to rescue the trapped scientists and stop a deadly chemical leak.
#7 - The Escape
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/16/1986
When a mother superior at a religious mission in North Africa asks MacGyver to help a young woman with something, he is glad to help. However, when he finds out the young woman wants him to break her brother out of jail, he may have taken on more than he expected.
#8 - Last Stand
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/17/1985
When MacGyver is on his way to a vacation, he takes the wrong way and ends up at a small airstrip where everybody seems to be behaving strangely. Too late, he discovers that the airstrip has been taken hostage, and he has been caught in the middle of a plane-hijacking attempt.
#9 - Slow Death
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/2/1986
MacGyver is somewhere in Asia to retrieve documents for his government. Soon after, a local tribe stops the train. They take all passengers hostage until the men responsible for the death of the tribal leader's son is found among the passengers.
#10 - The Assassin
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/7/1986
Posing as a watchmaker who manufactures bomb timers, MacGyver manages to catch a master killer—Piedra—before he attempts an assassination on a high-profile target. However, Piedra isn't about to be stopped for long.
#11 - Flame's End
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/29/1986
An old girlfriend of MacGyver's contacts him for help after she discovers evidence of uranium thefts from a nuclear processing plant where she works.
#12 - A Prisoner of Conscience
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/30/1986
Pete is made to believe that his Russian friend, Alexander Kharsov, is dead. When he realizes he's alive and being held in a mental hospital, he enlists MacGyver's help. Helped by Mariah, Alexander's daughter, they will try to get him out of there before he is killed.
#13 - Thief of Budapest
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1985
MacGyver travels to Budapest to meet with a Russian double agent who is in possession of a watch containing information about other Russian spies. However, before MacGyver can take the watch, the agent is killed and the watch is stolen. Now MacGyver must work with the Gypsies to get it back.
#14 - The Heist
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/3/1985
When $60 million worth of stolen diamonds destined for a relief charity end up in the hands of casino owner Jack Catlin, MacGyver must head to the Virgin Islands to try and get them back. With the help of Chris Rhodes, a senator's daughter, MacGyver masterminds a plan to break into Catlin's vault and steal them back.
#15 - The Golden Triangle
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1985
MacGyver is sent to Burma to retrieve a poison-filled canister from a crash site. While there, a drug lord mistakes MacGyver for a narcotics agent, forcing him into a confrontation.
#16 - The Enemy Within
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/12/1986
After a daring escape from East Germany where he gets rescued, and in the process saves a fellow operative with a quick mechanical fix, MacGyver thinks that he deserves some peaceful vacation time. But Pete lures him into baby-sitting a Russian defector who can identify KGB agents.
#17 - The Prodigal
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1985
A man wants to testify against his mobster brother in Federal Court, and MacGyver has the job of keeping him safe, but the man's mother is dying and he wants to visit her.
#18 - To Be a Man
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/5/1986
In Afghanistan, wounded and hunted by the Soviets, MacGyver is given refuge by an Afghan woman and her son. But they are themselves at the mercy of an Afghan thug, who will kill MacGyver if he finds him at his woman.
#19 - Deathlock
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/22/1986
MacGyver is trapped in a mansion with Pete, a code expert, and a government agent who may or may not be on their side. However, an old nemesis has electronically booby-trapped the entire mansion to make sure they can't go anywhere.
#20 - Trumbo's World
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/10/1985
Deep in the Amazon jungle, a horde of killer ants is destroying everything in its path. MacGyver helps his entomologist friend and the plantation owner to battle the ants before the plantation is destroyed.
#21 - Hellfire
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/27/1985
MacGyver visits some friends who are are drilling for oil. Their oil well catches fire and burns out of control. MacGyver is the only one who can stop the fire and save his friends' oil strike.
#22 - Ugly Duckling
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/12/1986
A 15-year-old genius accidentally hacks into a defective missile guidance system and attracts the attention of both the FBI and some black marketeers, who think that she may fix it for them. It's up to MacGyver to save her from being kidnapped by either side.