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The Best Episodes of MacGyver

Every episode of MacGyver ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of MacGyver!

Binge this in 4d 8h•Peaking at 8.4/10

He's everyone's favorite action hero... but he's a hero with a difference. Angus MacGyver is a secret agent whose wits are his deadliest weapon. Armed with only a knapsack filled with everyday items he picks

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    MacGyver Season 3 Episode 8 - The Widowmaker
    8.4/10(522 votes)

    #1 - The Widowmaker

    S3:E8

    MacGyver is forced out of his grief over the tragic death of a friend by a madman with a score to settle from their past association.

    Director:Michael Vejar
    Writer:John Whelpley

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  2. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 18 - Partners
    8.2/10(455 votes)

    #2 - Partners

    S2:E18

    MacGyver and Pete meet at a wrecking yard, both thinking that the other one arranged the meeting. Soon an unknown assailant captures them inside a big truck. Their only clue is an obituary for them and Jack Dalton.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writers:Bill Froehlich, Mark Lisson

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  3. MacGyver Season 4 Episode 15 - The Invisible Killer
    8.2/10(433 votes)

    #3 - The Invisible Killer

    S4:E15

    MacGyver heads up a trip with four other Phoenix Foundation employees into the wilderness as part of a stress reduction program. After discovering that a prison bus accident has freed several prisoners, the employees begin to question each other's behavior. MacGyver must now figure out which man, if any, is not to be trusted before it's too late.

    Director:Dana Elcar
    Writer:Chris Haddock

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  4. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 11 - Phoenix Under Siege
    8.1/10(471 votes)

    #4 - Phoenix Under Siege

    S2:E11

    While retrieving tickets for a hockey game at the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver and his grandpa Harry get caught in the middle of a woman's plot to blow up the building using a bomb that she herself made. They try to escape, but are locked in. Now they must figure another way out before she activates the bomb.

    Director:Gilbert M. Shilton
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. MacGyver Season 4 Episode 9 - Cleo Rocks
    8.1/10(422 votes)

    #5 - Cleo Rocks

    S4:E9

    Penny Parker's big chance in a major professional role is threatened from two directions: a money shortage and several deaths linked to the musical she is set to perform in.

    Director:Chuck Bowman
    Writers:John Sheppard, Rick Drew

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  6. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 6 - Halloween Knights
    8.1/10(398 votes)

    #6 - Halloween Knights

    S5:E6

    An old nemesis enlists MacGyver's help to rescue someone important to him—and she's scheduled to be executed during a Halloween Party put on by a professional assassination organization.

    Director:Charles Correll
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of MacGyver

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  7. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 14 - Countdown
    8.0/10(539 votes)

    #7 - Countdown

    S1:E14

    A mysterious person who calls himself "Viking" has just bombed the cruise ship Victoria, underway in the North Pacific Ocean. He demands six million dollars or another bomb will go off within hours. So MacGyver gets called in, along with his old Vietnam bomb-defusal partner, Charlie Robinson, to disarm it. But when they get there, they find out there's more than one bomb on the ship. Complications arise when MacGyver's partner sets off one of the bombs, and the bomber decides that DXS operated in bad faith and refuses to hand over the bomb-disarming instructions after he gets the extortion money.

    Director:Stan Jolley
    Writers:David Ketchum, Tony DiMarco

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  8. MacGyver Season 3 Episode 9 - Hell Week
    8.0/10(439 votes)

    #8 - Hell Week

    S3:E9

    A desperate physics student goes off the deep end and boobytraps a college lab when he fails to win a science competition and to live up to his father's high expectations.

    Director:James L. Conway
    Writers:Leonard Mlodinow, Scott Rubenstein

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  9. MacGyver Season 4 Episode 1 - The Secret of Parker House
    8.0/10(457 votes)

    #9 - The Secret of Parker House

    S4:E1

    MacGyver accompanies Penny Parker to an old house she inherited from her Aunt Betty, who mysteriously died 30 years before. When strange things start happening, Penny is sure that the house is haunted.

    Director:Michael Vejar
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 21 - Passages
    8.0/10(361 votes)

    #10 - Passages

    S5:E21

    Frantic with worry about his gravely-ill Grandpa Harry, MacGyver experiences a strange near-death phenomena, seeing his parents again, when he's injured by a man who's stolen an ancient Egyptian relic.

    Director:William Gereghty
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 22 - The Assassin
    7.9/10(471 votes)

    #11 - The Assassin

    S1:E22

    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.

    Director:Charles Correll
    Writer:James Schmerer

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  12. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 1 - The Human Factor
    7.9/10(481 votes)

    #12 - The Human Factor

    S2:E1

    MacGyver and Pete are testing a new security system at the Strategic Research Development Administration. MacGyver successfully bypasses the security and meets Dr. Jill Ludlam, the system's designer. She tries to turn off the security system, but it doesn't realize that it was just a test. MacGyver and Dr. Ludlam are then forced to find a way out, as the security system, named Sandy, tries to destroy the "intruders."

    Director:Charles Correll
    Writer:Robin Bernheim Burger

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  13. MacGyver Season 3 Episode 4 - Ghost Ship
    7.9/10(479 votes)

    #13 - Ghost Ship

    S3:E4

    While mapping the wilderness for the Phoenix foundation, MacGyver stumbles on a deserted ship and finds a runaway girl who tells him that the rest of crew was driven away by Bigfoot.

    Director:Michael Vejar
    Writer:Stephen Kandel

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  14. MacGyver Season 3 Episode 15 - The Negotiator
    7.9/10(402 votes)

    #14 - The Negotiator

    S3:E15

    MacGyver becomes infatuated with a woman while conducting environmental-impact studies. However, what MacGyver does not know is that the woman was hired to "persuade" him to skip the studies—and if necessary, kill him.

    Director:Charles Correll
    Writer:Calvin Clements Jr.

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  15. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 2 - Legend of the Holy Rose (2)
    7.9/10(350 votes)

    #15 - Legend of the Holy Rose (2)

    S5:E2

    MacGyver and an old friend dash around the world searching for the artifacts necessary to locate the Holy Grail, just one step ahead of a ruthless man on the same trail.

    Director:Charles Correll
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. MacGyver Season 5 Episode 4 - Cease Fire
    7.9/10(339 votes)

    #16 - Cease Fire

    S5:E4

    During some tough negotiations between two neighbouring states, one side plants a sniper in the vicinity. When Mac discovers the sniper, he fights him, but loses the man and the accusations go out against Mac. Wounded and forced to run, he hides at a private girls' school, where one of the young ladies becomes his only hope to prevent further bloodshed.

    Director:Bill Gereghty
    Writer:Chris Haddock

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  17. MacGyver Season 6 Episode 6 - Lesson in Evil
    7.9/10(336 votes)

    #17 - Lesson in Evil

    S6:E6

    Dr. Zito returns to menace MacGyver and Murphy when he escapes after his latest sanity hearing, leaving a series of nasty clues designed to give Mac a crash course in evil.

    Director:Bill Gereghty
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. MacGyver Season 7 Episode 13 - The Stringer
    7.9/10(337 votes)

    #18 - The Stringer

    S7:E13

    While working with Chinese dissidents to expose illegal labor camps, MacGyver gets unexpected help from a young photojournalist who claims to be his son!

    Director:Michael Vejar
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot
    7.8/10(2442 votes)

    #19 - Pilot

    S1:E1

    When a science lab studying the ozone layer mysteriously explodes, MacGyver is called in to rescue the scientists that are trapped underground. It's soon discovered that the explosion cracked a tank of sulfuric acid, and MacGyver is in a race against time before the Army uses a missile to seal up the base.

    Director:Jerrold Freedman
    Writer:Thackary Pallor

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  20. MacGyver Season 4 Episode 6 - The Survivors
    7.8/10(355 votes)

    #20 - The Survivors

    S4:E6

    While on assignment to test field agents for the Phoenix Foundation, MacGyver and Pete discover the wreckage of a DEA plane shot down by dangerous drug smugglers.

    Director:Michael Caffey
    Writer:W. Reed Moran

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  21. MacGyver Season 4 Episode 7 - Deadly Dreams
    7.8/10(374 votes)

    #21 - Deadly Dreams

    S4:E7

    MacGyver gets involved in the search for an escaped serial killer. Soon he comes to the conclusion that the killer had help from another prisoner—an even more sinister man.

    Director:Les Landau
    Writer:Stephen Downing

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  22. MacGyver Season 6 Episode 19 - Strictly Business
    7.8/10(320 votes)

    #22 - Strictly Business

    S6:E19

    Murdoc wants to come out of retirement, but his former employers at Homicide International request that he take out MacGyver as a demonstration of his sincere desire to rejoin them.

    Director:Michael Vejar
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. MacGyver Season 1 Episode 10 - Target MacGyver
    7.7/10(550 votes)

    #23 - Target MacGyver

    S1:E10

    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.

    Directors:Ernest Pintoff, Lee H. Katzin
    Writer:Terry Nation

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  24. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 10 - Three For the Road
    7.7/10(408 votes)

    #24 - Three For the Road

    S2:E10

    A retired actor and his wife stop at a motel on the way to Los Angeles. MacGyver rescues them from a drunkard who nearly makes a mark on their car. MacGyver is supposed to meet a mobster-turned-informant at the motel, but the meeting goes wrong. The mob shows up and kills MacGyver's friend before he can give MacGyver what he promised. Instead the bag lands in the old couple's car, where the old actor finds it and discovers it full of money.

    Directors:Alan Crosland, Jr.
    Writers:John J. Sakmar, Kerry Lenhart

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  25. MacGyver Season 2 Episode 16 - Out in the Cold
    7.7/10(392 votes)

    #25 - Out in the Cold

    S2:E16

    When MacGyver and Pete go skiing, a man switches poles with MacGyver, only moments before being gunned down and killed by his former friends. But the gunshot starts an avalanche, which covers MacGyver completely, leaving it up to Pete to convince the mountain rangers to stage a search and rescue before the next avalanche comes. As MacGyver finally is dug up, the gangsters are there, waiting for him, and whatever is hidden in that ski pole.

    Director:Cliff Bole
    Writer:Stephen Kronish

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Widowmaker" is the best rated episode of "MacGyver". It scored 8.4/10 based on 522 votes. Directed by Michael Vejar and written by John Whelpley, it aired on 11/16/1987. This episode scored 0.2 points higher than the second highest rated, "Partners".