Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
The season opens with a two-part Soviet scheme around a Chinese jade dragon, forcing MacGyver to confront a former lover he believed dead. Jack Dalton helps him steal back the artifact to free her, but her apparent captivity gives way to doubts about whether she is cooperating with the Russians. Other assignments take Mac to an abandoned Alaskan tanker with a Russian stowaway, and to East Germany with colleague Nikki Carpenter to destroy a crashed aircraft before Soviet forces recover it.
Mac and Nikki face a pursuer after Mac’s close friend is lost on a dangerous cliff. He has little time to grieve before the same enemy forces him back toward the ledge. In another case, a bombing puts Nikki in danger because she may identify the attacker. Mac also returns to his university, where a student’s failure in a physics competition deepens his despair, and investigates a genetic experiment after its satellite crashes to Earth.
Pete’s Foundation role is shaken when a nuclear warhead explodes during disarming. He accepts responsibility and retires, but Mac suspects the new director arranged the sabotage. Other cases take Mac to Minnesota hockey, where he challenges a father pushing his son toward violence for scouts, and to a polluted river, where a veteran witness is framed for murder after agreeing to testify about illegal dumping.
Later, Jack finds an abandoned baby in his hangar, while counterfeiters and the FBI close in over stolen printing plates. In the finale, Mac and Pete investigate an attack on shipping-company head Mr. Chung and find his grandson Luke at a monastery. After Chung dies from suspected poisoning, Mac and Luke uncover the cartel’s takeover plot, escape captivity and stop its pressure campaign. Luke refuses to sell and accepts responsibility for the company.