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Two Times Trouble
Season 5, Episode 093
Wiki
Airdate 11th December 1989
Written by Robert Sherman
Guest Stars Audrey Landers as Carla Yeats
Terry David Mulligan as Frank Rogan
Babs Chula as Eve
Dana Still as Dr. Farrell
Directed by Michael Preece
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Previous Episode
The Ten Percent Solution
Next Episode
The Madonna

Two Times Trouble is the 10th episode of Season 5 in the original version of MacGyver.


Summery[]

Roxie Yeats, a childhood friend of MacGyver's who is now a rock star, is filming a video for the Phoenix Foundation's Rock Against Drugs campaign. Roxie is just the sort of high profile and talented musician the foundation needs to make the campaign a success, but all is not well in her world: everyone says her singing hasn't been the same lately, her latest album failed to produce even one genuine hit, she is suing her manager Frank Rogan for a larger share of her song royalties, and in what is said to be an increasingly typical outburst, she rebels against the video's director, Eve, when she instructs Roxie to be less playful and sexy and more sombre and aggressive. Roxie says she is quitting the project and storms out. MacGyver goes to Roxie's trailer and persuades her to continue with filming the video.

MacGyver walks Roxie back to her apartment building, where they are nearly killed in a sabotaged elevator. MacGyver suspects Rogan of trying to kill Roxie in order to get out of the lawsuit, but Roxie is convinced that Rogan is innocent and her identical twin sister Carla is the one attempting to kill her.

Roxie won't explain why Carla would want to kill her, so MacGyver looks up Carla. He notes that Carla's painting talent has blossomed impressively and catches up on old times before inquiring about the feud with her sister. Carla says that Roxie was in a mental institution for some months, which her management kept out of the press, and ever since she got out she's been suffering from paranoia, attributing all her recent near-fatal seeming accidents on Carla. When MacGyver gets back to the video set Roxie says Carla called her to gloat about MacGyver's visit, and accuses him of taking Carla's side against her. Not knowing what to think of the hostility between the once inseparable twins, MacGyver asks Pete Thornton to arrange an interview with someone at Roxie's mental institution.

Impersonating Roxie, Carla summons Rogan to Roxie's apartment, saying she wants to call off the lawsuit and discuss a new record deal. When he wanders onto her balcony, she sneaks up behind him and pushes him over the edge. He falls to his death.

A preliminary investigation concludes that Rogan committed suicide in order to escape the lawsuit, since there is no sign of forced entry and Roxie has an airtight alibi for the time of death. However, Roxie confides in MacGyver that Carla has a key to her apartment; she didn't change the locks, even after she began to suspect Carla was trying to kill her, because she was still holding out hope of a reconciliation between them. MacGyver is skeptical that Carla would have murdered Rogan; she had no motive. Roxie insists that Carla would murder anyone close to her just to hurt her. Roxie was once in love with Rogan, and she believes the elevator attempt was triggered by jealousy over MacGyver renewing his acquaintance with Roxie. MacGyver is skeptical of this as well, since he and Carla haven't been a couple since high school.

The interview at the mental institution reveals it was Carla who was institutionalized, not Roxie. This sends MacGyver's thoughts in a new direction. He snoops around Carla's apartment and notices a painting of two people mountain climbing, one with a knife in hand.

He takes fingerprints from both Roxie and Carla's apartments and finds the prints match. Since identical twins do not have identical fingerprints, this confirms MacGyver's theory: Roxie fell and died during a climbing expedition with Carla, and unable to deal with the loss, Carla tried to keep her alive by taking her place, maintaining separate identities as Carla and Roxie through a split personality.

Roxie finishes the music video to Eve's great satisfaction. However, as she is about to leave she spies a woman who she is convinced is Carla, and chases after her. MacGyver searches the studio and finds Carla, who tells him she has been searching the studio for Roxie but hasn't been able to find her. MacGyver explains that Roxie is dead, and brings Carla's memories of the mountain climbing incident back to the surface. Carla is still unable to accept Roxie's death, so she decides to murder MacGyver to prevent his further dredging up those memories. After knocking him out with a wrench, she ties him up with bindings used for the video and dumps him into a water tank. She then takes a revolver out of "Roxie"'s drawer in order to commit suicide.

MacGyver breaks one of the water tank's floodlights with his heel, then uses the broken shards to cut his bindings in time to stop Carla from killing herself. Carla is re-institutionalized, and MacGyver resolves to visit her often. Before he leaves the institution, Carla asks him to smile for her, saying she has always loved his smile. MacGyver obliges her.

Trivia[]

A key factor in MacGyver's final deduction is that identical twins do not have identical fingerprints. This is because fingerprints are not shaped by genetics, but by contact with the individual's environment while in the womb.

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