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The Negotiator | |
Season 3, 059 | |
Airdate | 7th March 1988 |
Written by | Calvin Clements, Jr. |
Directed by | Charles Correll |
Episode Guide | |
Previous The Odd Triple |
Next The Spoilers |
The Negotiator is the 15th episode of Season 3 in the original version of MacGyver.
Summery[]
MacGyver leads a Phoenix Foundation environmental study that may prohibit the building of a billion-dollar marina, and the developer hires a hit woman named Deborah to stop him.[1]
Synopsis[]
Act One[]
MacGyver observes some seagulls gathering on a beach he wants to do a study project on. A lawyer named Mr. Remick meets him observing the beautiful scenary of the shore and is crass about MacGyver protecting the beach from development since his company wishes to get their marina built on it. Remick is confident his reports make it the perfect ground for the marina, but MacGyver warns a breakwater would risk sludging the beach. The lawyer promises there are more beaches for the birds, but MacGyver warns those beaches are running short. Unmoved, Remick offers to get MacGyver on board as consultant and pay him a hundred grand a year. MacGyver wants to meet with the board about an additional three week survey. If his fears are right, then the Phoenix Foundation will be allowed to execute an environmental impact study project. Remick is worried that the two billion dollar marina project will be cancelled and wants to assure him he will find out about the real world.
Departing, Remick signals to a tow truck driver and gives chase to MacGyver's passing jeep. While MaCGyver gives a signal to pass, the truck rams the jeep to try and run MacGyver off the road. He retaliates by spraying fire extinguisher to force the truck driver to stop; The truck driver flees.
The next day, Steven Knapp the head of his construction company promises his new marina will provide housing for hundreds of boats and facilities, thousands of jobs and paychecks. MacGyver explains there is more to the beach than taking water samples and soil tests. He asks for three weeks to finish preliminary testing; Should his concerns be right, an eighteen month study project will be in order. Despite Remick's protest, Knapp insists on breaking ground while promising to throw it all away if his project were viewed as an environmental disaster and allows the three-week study. Nikki points out that the stolen tow truck and the vanished driver adds up to no evidence. With the Phoenix delegation on their way out, Remick is concerned that MacGyver won't come to their side and wants to try another method, but Knapp hopes to find a better solution to their problem.
Knapp arrives at an art gallery to meet negotiator Deborah who observes acrylic paintings. He offers her two hundred and fifty grand to either get MacGyver on their side or out of the way. Deborah hopes to deliver the best deal to accomplish the task since his own attempts are not working out. Knapp shows to her a file on MacGyver but the negotiator wishes to do her own research. Knapp's reason for bringing her in is because he did his own survey on the beach and if the Phoenix Foundation carries out their thorough study, the beach might be washed away.
Deborah goes to the beach to take photos of MacGyver doing his work. She then slips into his house boat reading a Darwin Societ report on acid rain. She also sees a newspaper article on the Phoenix team at a toxic waste hearing. She plants a listening bug into a plug outlet and goes to her hotel room to listen in on MacGyver's activites. She types in her profile on her target while MacGyver plays his guitar and types in three options on how to deal with him, "Buy him off? Scare him off? Love him off?.
Act Two[]
Deborah is returning from some shopping when she hears MacGyver making himself breakfast. From his house boat, MacGyver learns that there were no finger prints on the tow truck and is defiant in Knapp's company's attempts to scare him off while Deborah is trying on her jackets. At a car dealership, she gets a VW Beetle car.
At an art class, MacGyver is painting a hockey goalee. Also partaking in the class is Deborah who accidentally drops her paint brushes. She is painting a sea otter since most people can never tell the difference between one and a muskrat. She explains she is painting for the Darwin Society. She also claims she wanted to go with Deloris Forchuk to New Zealand for coral reef studies and helped on the acid rain article. MacGyver offers to compare notes even as neither he nor Deborah drink coffee.
He and Deborah spend time over the next couple of days.
At the beach study site, MacGyver explains to Deborah he has a track record with the environmental work. She was surprised how MacGyver survived the speeding truck and refused the buy off attempts. She wonders if they tried to kill him off yet. MacGyver shows his study project is important because if Knapp's marina gets the go-ahead, the breakwater would cause the tide to stagnate, pollution would sky-rocket, fish would die off, birds migrate and the ecosystem would be thrown into chaos while big business would have a new place to call home with their yachts. They spot Nikki preparing explosives for seismic readings but MacGyver advises against it. Nikki and Deborah introduce one another and continues her work. MacGyver admits he is rough on people taking risks. While MacGyver offers to show the tide pools, this gives Deborah an idea.
That night, she makes a profile on Nikki Carpenter and wearing her lynx coat breaks into her apartment finding the neighbor's dog present. She offers a surprise; a knife in a threatening manner.
Act Three[]
At the house boat, Deborah and MacGyver spend time when Nikki calls up saddened by the death of her neighbor's dog who was knifed. Deborah is concerned that the marina company is trying to get MacGyver again. He hopes to keep his close friends safe. At the Phoenix building, MacGyver says there were no prints in the apartment and Knapp wants to treat the incident as an attempted burglary. Peter Thornton is concerned someone is leaving a warning for MacGyver and Nikki suspects Knapp hired a professional.
At her hotel room, Deborah prepares a bomb and detonator and has added a "Kill him off?" option to her list of solutions.
At the docks, Deborah offers to take MacGyver away and insists the marina get built in the end. MacGyver does not trust big businesses like Knapp's company. He promises to take the negotiator away somewhere when the business is done. She helps him shuffle off never knowing a surprise was planted by Deborah on the boat. When the boat is a good distance away, the negotiator sets the bomb off blasting MacGyver into the water. She watches with a cynical stare.
At the hospital, MacGyver is in his bed out of emergency and Deborah meets Peter Thornton. The doctor says the burns on his eyes are only superficial so they neet to protect his eyes or he could lose his eyesight forever. They and Deborah visit the downed MacGyver in his room and Pete says the divers saved him from drowning. Deborah claims the explosion gave her no hope. Unfortunately for the police, the wreckage has been carried away by the tide. Thornton hopes to continue digging for valuable clues to nail the assassin.
That night, Deborah is late for meeting her boss; Knapp is worried MacGyver wearing glasses and using a cane will be enough excuse to shut his marina down. When MacGyver gets home from the hospital, Deborah has arranged a trip to the Tower Point cliffside so as to possibly throw him over the cliff.
The next day, MacGyver returns home but Thornton proposes taking him to his house for protection. Deborah arrives and when Thornton departs, the negotiator helps MacGyver with his movement before announcing a reservation at the Tower Point Lodge that night. With MacGyver having no choice but to accept it, this allows Deborah to make her move.
Act Four[]
That night at the Phoenix building, Nikki shows the autopsy report on the dead dog, knifed to death and lynx hair in the mouth. Nikki suspects it was Deborah who broke into her apartment and Thornton recounts a similar fate for Joey Tartanna. Thornton tries to warn MAcGyver but he is not there. A storm comes in and Thornton tries to call up the mobile phone on MacGyver's jeep. Just as MacGyver answers, Deborah disconnects and she blames it on the storm. Thornton is concerned that Deborah will finally do away with MacGyver. Upon seeing a police blockade, Deborah proposes turning back to a gas station with a phone on the way back.
They arrive at the closed garage. Isolated, Deborah pulls out her knife and using his hearing senses, MacGyver swats Deborah with his bag. He tries to hide before Deborah recovers and takes off his eye bandages. She calls out for his inevitable death and is startled by birds. With his vision blurry, he throws a lead pipe to distract her. When she runs outside, MacGyver weakily heads to his jeep and gets out a charger cable and hooks them to his jeep and empties fluid. Heading back inside, Deborah finds the discarded eye bandages while her adversary prepares a trap for her.
MacGyver calls out to her and Deborah warns she gave him every chance to close the deal, but he chose to defy that. She promises Knapp will name the marina after him post-mortum and carelessly steps into the puddle. MacGyver electrifies it and knocks her out since she was wearing rubber shoes. He confiscates her knife and wants to renegotiate the deal.
Epilogue[]
On the final day of the hearing, Knapp's delegation is present but the Phoenix delegation is absent. Not wanting further delays, Remicks insists the marina get the go-ahead. But the Phoenix delegation arrives late with a good reason for it; Their survey certifies an eighteen month impact study. And not only is Knapp's marina cancelled, he will be placed in prison a "touch longer than that". Thornton says Knapp tried to have MacGyver killed and while the businessman tries to deny his role in the hit, MacGyver presents Deborah who has been brought in by police. As a negotiator, her testimony against Knapp is the best deal she ever made. This leaves Knapp crestfallen and Deborah saddened that her relationship with MacGyver had to end in a tragic manner.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
Recurring Cast
- Elyssa Davalos as Nikki Carpenter
- Kristian Alfonso as Deborah
Others
- David Ackroyd as Knapp
- Ned Bellamy as Remick