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The Worst Episodes of MacGyver

Every episode of MacGyver ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of MacGyver!

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20-something Angus MacGyver creates a clandestine organization where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Worst Episode
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    MacGyver Season 1 Episode 1 - The Rising
    6.1/10(1473 votes)

    S1:E1

    Angus 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.

    Director:James Wan
    Writer:Peter M. Lenkov

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  2. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 2 - Metal Saw
    6.4/10(1069 votes)

    S1:E2

    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.

    Director:Jerry Levine
    Writer:Craig S. O'Neill

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  3. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 3 - Awl
    6.6/10(940 votes)

    S1:E3

    MacGyver and the team are in Malaysia to extract a terrorist groups’ money man, Ralph, who holds key intel to 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.

    Director:Matt Earl Beesley
    Writer:David Slack

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  4. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 4 - Wire Cutter
    7.0/10(907 votes)

    S1:E4

    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.

    Director:Joe Dante
    Writer:John Turman

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  5. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 1 - DIY or DIE
    7.1/10(723 votes)

    S2:E1

    Using a cell phone and soccer ball, MacGyver and the team search for a Navy SEAL who is believed to be alive in captivity in the Middle East.

    Director:Stephen Herek
    Writers:Craig S. O'Neill, Peter M. Lenkov, David Slack

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  6. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 5 - Toothpick
    7.2/10(874 votes)

    S1:E5

    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.

    Director:Bobby Roth
    Writer:Nancy Kiu

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  7. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 9 - Chisel
    7.2/10(809 votes)

    S1:E9

    With only a chisel and matchbook, MacGyver and team must defend themselves the U.S. embassy workers in Latvia from extremists who are attempting to retrieve their leader. Also, Bozer faces a big decision now that he knows who Mac really is.

    Director:Brad Tanenbaum
    Writers:Bret VandenBos, Brandon Willer

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  8. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 11 - C8H7ClO + Nano-Trackers + Resistance + Maldives + Mind Games
    7.2/10(754 votes)

    S5:E11

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

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 13 - Large Blade
    7.3/10(739 votes)

    S1:E13

    On the way back from capturing a war criminal, Mac and Jack’s helicopter crashes in a remote area of Kazakhstan, injuring their pilot and allowing their prisoner to escape with Jack’s gun. Using a large blade and a water bottle, MacGyver must get help as the pilot’s condition worsens and before the war criminal takes them as prisoners.

    Director:Sylvain White
    Writer:Andrew Karlsruher

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  10. MacGyver Season 3 Episode 4 - Guts + Fuel + Hope
    7.3/10(609 votes)

    S3:E4

    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.

    Director:Peter Weller
    Writer:Rob Pearlstein

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  11. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 6 - Quarantine + N95 + Landline + Telescope + Social Distance
    7.3/10(687 votes)

    S5:E6

    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.

    Director:Andrew Ahn
    Writers:Andrew Karlsruher, Stephanie Hicks

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  12. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 6 - Wrench
    7.4/10(835 votes)

    S1:E6

    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.

    Director:Alec Smight
    Writer:Brian Durkin

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  13. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 7 - Can Opener
    7.4/10(818 votes)

    S1:E7

    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.

    Director:Alec Smight
    Writer:Brian Durkin

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  14. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 10 - Pliers
    7.4/10(764 votes)

    S1:E10

    Mac and the team have no time to reminisce while visiting Mac’s and Bozer’s hometown when they immediately start searching for a kidnapped prodigy from Mac’s old middle school, Valerie.

    Director:Lee Rose
    Writer:Brian Durkin

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  15. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 11 - Scissors
    7.4/10(765 votes)

    S1:E11

    MacGyver and Jack search for Riley, using a microwave and a power strip, after she mysteriously disappears and hacks into the NSA, possibly unleashing World War III. Also, Bozer goes on his first official mission, and Jack opens up about his history with Riley’s mother, Diane.

    Director:Stephen Herek
    Writers:Nancy Kiu, Lindsey Allen

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  16. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 14 - Fish Scaler
    7.4/10(697 votes)

    S1:E14

    Using a fish scaler and some fishing wire, Mac and Jack must track down a corrupt FBI agent who has framed a man for murder. Also, everyone on the team is terrified to get their first performance review from Matty, their tough new boss.

    Director:Eagle Egilsson
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 16 - Hook
    7.4/10(680 votes)

    S1:E16

    While tracking down the dangerous fugitive Aaron Deckard, Mac and Jack face the notorious Colton family of bounty hunters who already kidnapped their mark. Also, Bozer and Riley try to hack into Jack’s CIA file to find out about his history with Matty.

    Director:Tawnia McKiernan
    Writer:Nancy Kiu

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  18. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 17 - Ruler
    7.4/10(692 votes)

    S1:E17

    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.

    Director:Antonio Negret
    Writer:Andrew Karlsruher

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  19. MacGyver Season 4 Episode 6 - Right + Wrong + Both + Neither
    7.4/10(514 votes)

    S4:E6

    When Russ’ first love, Emilia, is kidnapped by the same rebels he fought during his private military contract days, he takes the Phoenix team to a small, impoverished town to rescue her and rid the town of the rebels for good.

    Director:Roderick Davis
    Writer:Andrew Klein

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  20. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 3 - Eclipse + USMC-1856707 + Step Potential + Chain Lock + Ma
    7.4/10(634 votes)

    S5:E3

    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.

    Director:David Straiton
    Writers:Jim Adler, Stephanie Hicks

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  21. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 12 - Royalty + Marriage + Vivaah Sanskar + Zinc + Henna
    7.4/10(592 votes)

    S5:E12

    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,

    Director:Anne Renton
    Writers:Andrew Klein, Monica Macer

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  22. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 14 - H2O + Orthophosphates + Mission City + Corrosion + Origins
    7.4/10(521 votes)

    S5:E14

    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.

    Director:Christine Swanson
    Writers:Teresa Huang, Josh Brown

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  23. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 18 - Flashlight
    7.5/10(706 votes)

    S1:E18

    When Mac and the team travel to Hawaii to aid in earthquake relief efforts, they team up with Chin and Kono from the Five-0 task force to rescue a group of government scientists trapped in a building. However, as they work on the complicated rescue, a group using the chaos as a distraction aims to steal the top-secret weaponry from the scientists.

    Director:Jonathan Brown
    Writer:Lindsey Allen

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  24. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 2 - Muscle Car + Paper Clips
    7.5/10(631 votes)

    S2:E2

    Using a necklace and a microwave transmitter, Mac and the team attempt to locate Riley after her first solo mission with a group of dangerous hackers goes off the rails

    Director:Ericson Core
    Writer:Nancy Kiu

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  25. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 6 - Jet Engine + Pickup Truck
    7.5/10(615 votes)

    S2:E6

    Using a cassette player and a plastic bucket, Mac and the team attempt to extinguish a massive oil wellhead fire in a Nigerian village, set by a rebel group, which is trying to topple its government by destroying their most valuable resource.

    Director:Stephen Herek
    Writer:Andrew Karlsruher

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Worst Episodes Summary

"The Rising" is the worst rated episode of "MacGyver". It scored 6.1/10 based on 1473 votes. Directed by James Wan and written by Peter M. Lenkov, it aired on 9/23/2016. This episode scored 0.3 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Metal Saw".