'MacGyver' Season 4 Episode 12 Review: A spy thriller with action, adventure and just a hint of romance
Spoilers for 'MacGyver' Season 4 Episode 12 'Loyalty + Family + Rogue + Hellfire'
Another fast-paced, high-octane 'MacGyver' adventure is here and it brings some major changes to the world of Angus "Mac" MacGyver (Lucas Till). In Episode 12 titled 'Loyalty + Family + Rogue + Hellfire', Mac and Riley Davis (Tristin Mays) deflect from the Phoenix Foundation and sign on with the global eco-terrorist organization Codex, but there's more going on under the surface.
The episode begins with Mac being captured by Codex operatives during a morning run so that his aunt Gwendolyn Hayes (Jeri Ryan), Codex's leader, can have breakfast with him. After this strange incident, a series of events take place that leads to Russ Taylor (Henry Ian Cusick) and Matty Webber (Meredith Eaton) heading to Washington and the US government tasking Russ's military contracting agency Spearhead Operations with eliminating Codex leadership.
Realizing that Taylor wouldn't hesitate to murder innocents in the pursuit of his goal, Mac chooses to free the captive Codex agent Scarlett (Amber Skye Noyes) and steal Tesla's superweapon Shiva before leaving to find his aunt. Riley joins the two along the way and that's when the truth comes out.
Frustrated by how Taylor and Gwen are both playing with the lives of people, Mac has decided to infiltrate Codex and end their plans from the inside. His connection to his aunt is pretty important for this to work but the episode does reveal that Gwen has someone she reports to as well, which means this strategy may not be as successful as Mac might hope.
In either case, Taylor's soldiers launch a Hellfire missile at the Codex base and Mac is barely able to stop it using Shiva. Taylor tells Matty that he is not on Mac's side anymore and that if it comes to the point where he has to kill Mac and Riley to take out Codex, he will. Meanwhile, Mac and Riley are finally accepted into Codex and taken down into their true base: a vast underground city housing all the Codex operatives and their families in preparation for the coming doomsday.
While we were hoping that Mac going rogue would be a ruse, it was still satisfying to get confirmation and the episode itself was a thrilling affair with plenty of action and drama. The show is really starting to feel like a proper spy thriller now and as a bonus, we also saw Mac and Riley hold hands at one point which, combined with the fact that Mac's girlfriend Desi Nguyen (Levy Tran) has clearly turned against him, has definitely got us excited to see whether the two might become a couple down the line.
'MacGyver' Season 4 airs Fridays at 8 pm ET on CBS.
