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Angus MacGyver
Lucas till
Biographical Information
Real Name: Angus MacGyver
Title: Agent
Status: Active
Born: March 23, 1990
Originally From: Mission City, California
Current Location: Los Angeles, California
Interests: Penny Parker (First kiss)
Franklin Mallory (Unreciprocated)
Nikki Carpenter (Ex)
Allie Winthrop (Love interest)
Zoe Kimura(Love interest)
Nasha (Ex-girlfriend)
Desiree Nguyen (Girlfriend On-and-off love interest)
Riley Davis (Love interest)
Parents: Ellen MacGyver, née Hayes
James MacGyver
Family: Harry MacGyver(Grandpa)
Gwendolyn Hayes(Maternal Aunt)
Education: Mission City Junior High (Middle School)
MIT (College, Dropout)
languages: English
Italian
Ukrainian
Mandarin
German
Dutch
Affiliations: The Phoenix Foundation (Currently)
Codex (Formerly/Undercover)
DXS (Formerly)
United States Army (Formerly)
Physical Description
Height: 5'10
Status: Alive
Episode Count: 94
Character Information
First appearance: The Rising
Portrayed by: Lucas Till
GALLERY


Character Flag - American Male Military Agent DXS The Phoenix Foundation Season One Season Two Season Three Season Four Season Five

Angus MacGyver (born March 23, 1990) is an agent of The Phoenix Foundation, the son of its former Head James MacGyver known as Oversight and his wife Ellen MacGyver, nephew of Gwendolyn Hayes, Ellen MacGyver's sister and a key member of its flagship team. In May 2020, with encouragement from his aunt Gwen, he defected from the Phoenix Foundation to join its dark counterpart Codex which turned out to be an unsanctioned undercover operation in order to stop Codex from the inside. Unlike most field agents, Mac prefers non-violent and/or non-lethal confrontation and has an impressive set of improvisation skills, speaks at least four languages and has a very strong background in science.

Early life

Angus MacGyver was born in the year 1990 on March 23rd. His mother died when he was five years old and his father, James MacGyver left him when he was ten. As such, he was raised by his paternal grandfather Harry MacGyver in Mission City. When he was twelve he found a dog in the woods behind his house whom he adopted and named Archimedes. Mac admits that his dog wasn't much to look at. Archimedes would often try to escape so Mac's grandfather installed an invisible fence to keep him in the garden. Mac was uncomfortable with the idea of the dog he loved getting a painful electric shock so he replaced the electric shock mechanism with one which made a high-pitched sounds only dogs could hear.

He attended Mission City Junior High School along with Wilt Bozer. He grew close to his science teacher Arthur Ericson, who was very supportive of Mac, allowing him to stay in the lab after school to complete experiments. Mac began to rely heavily on this support after his father, left. MacGyver was bullied at school, partly because of his first name, by Donnie Sandoz among others. At one point another boy called Justin Wright stole MacGyver's sneakers and threw them out of the window of the school bus as revenge for MacGyver incinerating his moped. Though he was a model student, Mac was not above breaking into the science building after school hours to do somewhat more controversial experiments that ranged from building miniature nuclear reactors to creating lightning indoors, a penchant which earned him a reputation among the staff. While at high school, Mac had a "huge crush" on his lab partner Darlene Martin. After losing a bet with Wilt Bozer, Mac was forced to ask Darlene to prom and she rejected him harshly. Mac would later claim he hadn't wanted to go to prom anyway as he wanted to watch a live shuttle launch on TV that night instead.

After leaving high school MacGyver attended MIT for two years before dropping out to join the military as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal expert. He dropped out because he was inspired to enlist when his grandfather called him to tell him that his old war buddies died. He wanted to help soldiers who were facing real problems instead of solving theoretical problems. He was deployed to Afghanistan and served for three years, during which time he met and befriended a brash Delta sniper named Jack Dalton. When they were discharged, Mac was recruited by the ultra-secret DXS. DXS soon partnered him with Jack Dalton, who had originally joined the CIA for a short stint before being transferred, and the two worked together for another three years before the events of The Rising.

Season 1

In the onset of the series, MacGyver has been working as a field agent in DXS under the purview of Director Patricia Thornton for just over three years while partnered with Jack Dalton, his security and intel specialist, and Nikki Carpenter, a senior computer analyst whom Mac had also been dating for the past two years. He currently shares his home, which he inherited from his grandfather who's since passed, with his best friend Wilt Bozer who like the general public believes that DXS is just a Think-Tank.

In the series premiere, Mac, Jack, Thornton and Nikki infiltrate a high-end criminal/terrorist party in Italy to steal a bioweapon from a notorious terrorist. The operation goes awry due to bad intel but Mac nonetheless steals the device containing the weapon. Fleeing the scene with Jack, they are confronted by a man named John Kendrick holding Nikki hostage. Mac gives up the bio-weapon, but Kendrick shoots both him and Nikki anyway, killing her and badly wounding Mac before fleeing with the weapon. Three months later, Thornton recalls Mac back into action to recover the bio-weapon Kendrick stole. To help them, Mac and Jack recruit expert hacker Riley Davis and track Kendrick to San Francisco. At his hotel, Mac uses tinfoil and ammonia to set off the hotel smoke alarms and flush out Kendrick but is distracted when he suddenly sees Nikki alive in the hotel. They chase Nikki into an alley outside but she escapes with Kendrick, revealing that she has been in league with him the entire time. Riley, however, tracks Nikki down again to a private plane which Mac forces to ground, allowing them to capture Nikki and discover that the target of the bio-attack is San Francisco. They track down the weapon on a covered truck on a city highway, whereupon Mac parachutes into the truck, disarms the goons guarding it and succeeds in disabling the weapon. Later on at a gathering in his house, Mac re-names the newly-reformed DXS The Phoenix Foundation. “The Rising

Two weeks after Nikki's escape and following a botched mission in North Korea as well as an accidental altercation with Bozer, Mac is investigating her former apartment covertly but gets busted by Jack. The two are then deployed along with Riley to Venezuela to liberate an American spy named Sarah Adler captured by authorities while tracking a notorious arms-dealer. Mac breaks into the compound through a steel door using pocket change and car batteries and constructs a rudimentary set of night-vision glasses before having Riley darken the whole building, allowing him to slip past the guards and break Adler out of her cell. He and Jack then take Sarah to safety but are stymied when Adler refuses to leave Venezuela without busting the arms dealer first. Left with no other choice, Mac and Jack aid Sarah in flushing the dealer out of his compound using mirrors, a stick, a lens and sunlight and chase him down when he tries to flee on a super-bike. Their job done, Mac and the team return home. Mac later returns to Nikki's apartment again and discovers a hidden key before rounding off the day with a barbecue at his house with Jack, Riley and Bozer. "Metal Saw"

In the aftermath of a death-defying mission in Somalia, Mac returns home to L.A. only to be summoned to the Phoenix almost as soon as he walks in the door, exasperating Bozer. After picking up Jack at the graveyard where Jack Sr. was buried, Mac and his comrades are briefed by Thornton on the mercenary terrorist cell D-77 and are subsequently deployed to Labuan, Malaysia to track down the D-77 financial handler Ralph Kastrati. Using wifi-chips and a soda can, Mac breaks into Ralph's house with Jack and bring Ralph out but are ambushed by D-77 as they do so, during which Ralph is shot in the chest. Mac treats the wound using hand-sanitizer, duct-tape and a driver's license even as they are engaged in a high-speed car-chase with D-77, which is won when Mac uses a lighter and a head-rest to create a smokescreen and blind their pursuers. With Ralph deteriorating, Mac performs a surgical procedure to prevent him from suffocating using hand-sanitizer, his knife, a tire-jack, wire-rods and the windshield wiper pump on their car. With D-77 still searching for them, Mac and the others take refuge in an office-building, whereupon Mac formulates a plan to pretend to kill Ralph using eye-drops, beta blockers, dental floss and a ballpoint pen so as to trick D-77. Though it works initially, Mac's plan is derailed when D-77 steal Ralph's body so as to dismember him. Mac and the team follow them and rescue Ralph using refrigerator coolant and improvised gas-masks before waking him with a big injection of insulin and glucose. They successfully evacuate Ralph and gain the upper hand against D-77. With the mission completed, later that evening Mac goes back to helping Bozer shoot a movie scene with Riley before sitting down with Jack to have a beer and write a letter to his estranged father. "Awl"

A few months later Mac comes home from town to find his friends and teammates in the living room for an intervention set up by Bozer after he found Mac's laptop scanning for Nikki; Bozer and Penny not being aware that Nikki was actually still alive. Fortunately a mission came up and ended the intervention quickly; a Phoenix agent was killed infiltrating a Russian mercenary cell led by a disgraced Soviet colonel, compelling Thornton to send Mac and his team to pick up a Russian scientist/defector in Virginia to get his help with a nuclear bomb in the hands of the Russian mercenaries. After picking up the scientist and then his handler, Mac and the group fly to Moscow to find an old Russian computer in a safehouse needed to disarm the bomb which Mac then makes portable by hooking it up to a modern laptop battery. Unfortunately they are interrupted by ex-Spetznaz soldiers under orders from the Russian colonel who had tracked them to the safehouse. Fleeing into an escape tunnel, Mac uses flour, a clock, duct tape, copper wire and batteries to make a bomb to cover their escape but in the confusion, the scientist is taken by the colonel's men. Despite this, Mac and his team are able to track down the colonel's base were the bomb is to be set off and while Thornton and Jack deal with the colonel, Mac, Riley and the handler rescue the scientist though in doing so the portable computer keyboard is damaged. Mac rigs up a system of wires, a bolt, a rusty hook and an old gear to complete the damaged keyboard and uses the Y2K Glitch to give them another 100 years-worth of time to disarm the bomb, ending the danger. "Wire Cutter"

Following a failed attempt to catch up to Nikki in Lisbon, Portugal, Mac and the team are redirected by Thornton to Berlin, Germany to catch up to and protect a whistleblower from a German arms corporation named Katarina Wagner who's life is in danger from her employers. Soon after they find Katarina on a train bound for Berlin, a German mercenary team infiltrates the train, forcing Mac to hid Katarina while they deal with the mercenaries; for extra protection Mac gives her an electric razor that he turned into a tazer. Mac and Jack then pretend to be a pair of drunks so as to ambush some of the mercenaries; in the melee Mac uses a can of air freshener as a flamethrower and a pair of tweezers to jam his opponent's gun before jump-kicking him out a window. This causes the mercenaries to go dark, forcing Mac and the team to creatively dodge them as they appear. Mac hides Katarina in a closet briefly and then emerges with her only to see another mercenary headed their way; making a split-second decision Mac passionately kisses Katarina to disguise the two of them. The mercenaries see through the ruse and chase the group down the train but are stopped when Mac jams a door with a fork. Mac and the others arrive at the back of the train but are met by another mercenary who Mac blasts out the train side-door using a rolled-up magazine and a train torpedo. The mercenaries abandon the train but not before setting the train on a collusion course with the approaching station. Unable to stop the train or uncouple the cars, Mac uses a pipe, rust, a road flare and magnesium to make a thermal lance to cut through the train car connectors. The lance works but in the process Mac and Jack are stranded on the runaway section of the train while Riley and Katarina are on the other side. To stop the train, Mac goes underneath the train and switches around the train's positive and negative motor cables, slamming it into reverse and slowing it down just in time to prevent a crash. Bidding farewell to Katarina, Mac returns home and reenters Nikki's apartment but once again finds nothing. "Toothpick"

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Personality

MacGyver is an introvert, normally keeping his feelings to himself and compartmentalizing to stay focused on the mission at hand. This enables him to work well under pressure and in Jack's own words, Mac's ability to adapt is not some gimmick he does, it's his survival mechanism, having lived through a lot of heartbreak in his life. He thinks logically and strategically when on missions, making him the brains between of the operation.

While lying is part of the job, Mac does not like it when he has to lie to his friends, especially Bozer, whom he has known since childhood and share a brotherly bond. When Bozer discovered Mac's real job after a deadly encounter with Murdoc, their relationship became strained, but when Thorton threatened to lock up Bozer because he was a security risk, MacGyver threatened her with him quitting rather than have his best friend put away for life. Bozer soon realizes Mac's reason for Lying was to protect him. And Mac arranges for Bozer to be recruited rather than imprisoned or spyed on.

Mac is a pacifist by nature and prefers to take down his opponents non-lethally if possible. To that end, he does not use guns in the field, preferring to rely on his mind and environment to get him out of a sticky situation. He is not above killing to defend his team-mates, innocents or himself as a last resort as evidenced by his taking out a mercenary on a train by blasting him out of a door with a torpedo while the train was going at break-neck speed or taking out the goons with guns chasing he and Jack on a boat in the pilot episode, but it is nonetheless a rare occurrence.

Skills

  • Peak of Human Physical Conditioning: From his time in the army and with the Foundation, Angus is in top physical condition and possesses great levels of physical strength, endurance, stamina and agility.
  • Genius-Level Intellect: His greatest asset in the field is his amazing intellect. Possessing an almost encyclopedic knowledge of sciences ranging from chemistry to engineering, Mac puts this knowledge to use in the field by creating ingenious ways of overcoming any foe or obstacle in his way, most notably using the environment around him to create various devices to aid him and his friends on mission.
  • Multilingual: Can understand limited conversational Mandarin, and is fluent in Italian.
  • Explosives Expert: Because of his profound scientific knowledge and his army training, Mac is an expert in explosives, able to diffuse intricate explosives, and create an explosive reaction from scratch.
  • Expert Hand-to-hand combatant: After his training in the army, he became skilled at hand-to-hand combatant, able to hold his own against trained soldiers and use almost anything around him for his defense.

Relationships

  • Jack Dalton: Mac's friend since his days back in the army, Jack is Mac's partner in the field and has a strong, almost brotherly relationship with him. Having watched his back for years, Mac trusts Jack with his life and likewise, Jack has learned to trust Mac's knack for improvising in the field as it has saved their lives on more than one occasion. Jack is also something of the voice of reason for the introverted genius and often has to coax out what's bothering him. However, after Jack's death and capturing the villain responsible, Mac suffers an emotional breakdown from losing his friend.
  • Wilt Bozer: Mac's best friend from childhood, Bozer is much like a brother to Mac, often putting up with his many haphazard inventions and accidental mishaps throughout their lives. However, their relationship became strained for a while after Bozer discovered Mac's double life as a spy, but upon learning why, he forgave him. Since then, Bozer operates as support, either in the field or back at headquarters and he is also the first to tell whenever something is going on with Mac.
  • Riley Davis: Joining the Phoenix after Nikki's supposed 'death', Mac was a bit wary of the tough hacker, fearing history would repeat itself until it was revealed Riley was sent to prison in order to protect her mom. Since then, Mac and Riley have built a strong relationship based on trust, similar intellects and their shared habit of teasing Jack. It became so strong in fact, Riley seems to know whenever Mac has an idea, learned how to improvise in the field from him and the two of them have gone on missions together. Mac has even adopted calling her nickname Riles, like Jack did. Since Jack's departure, the two have grown closer still, sharing the same arcade hangout they had with Jack and she regularly comforts him whenever the stress becomes too much for him to bare. In Season 4, after a harrowing mission involving a WW2-era bomb, Riley started developing feelings for Mac, but kept them hidden after he got back together with Desi. Even so, she moved into Mac's place after her breakup with Aubrey, comforted him after his father died, but the strain of seeing him and Desi together forced her to find a new place to live. When Mac seemingly defected from Phoenix, Riley knew this had to be part of a plan and defected herself in order to help him, ultimately succeeding in stopping Codex. During the COVID-19 Lockdown, Riley was forced to live with Mac for a month during which, Mac acknowledged they had a moment in the kitchen. Things finally culminated during a mission against Murdoc, who revealed Riley's true feelings for Mac over a video he recorded, leaving Mac both shocked and hurt. At the end of the mission, Mac showed up on Riley's doorstep, asking if her feelings for him were gone, possibly implying he has feelings for her as well.
  • Matilda 'Matty' Webber: Mac's no-nonsense boss at the Phoenix, Matty was initially against Mac's regular use of improvising as she believed it could one day kill him. However, she also respected him for his tenacity and willingness to prove his methods work. Since then, Matty has shown trust in Mac's methods and abilities, knowing there is no other operative. However, upon learning Matty knew his father, he started to lose trust in her, until it was revealed Mac's father was Oversight and Matty risked her career to give Mac the answers he needed, repairing their relationship in the process. Matty also serves as something of a maternal figure in Mac's life and is willing to do anything to help her, even if it meant going against protocol. She also affectionately calls him 'Blondie' as a nickname.
  • Desiree 'Desi' Nguyen: Jack's replacement since his departure, Desi got off to an awkward start with Mac by breaking into his house while he was showering. The two have learned to work together in the field and started to develop an attraction towards each other. However, in Season 4, it was revealed that they broke up because without their job at the Phoenix, they had little in common and were always fighting. By the fifth episode, they resumed their relationship, but due to various pitfalls owing to the death of Mac's father, Codex machinations and a lack of trust between them, by Season 5, the two broke up again until episode 3.
  • Russ Taylor: Mac's new boss who bought the Phoenix, Mac had little trust in Russ because of his past as a Private Military Contractor but they slowly started warming up to each other. But, Russ started to worry about Mac's mental state after the death of his father and believing he was sympathizing with Codex's methods. His fears came true when Mac defected from the Phoenix and Riley soon after, not realizing it was part of their plan to bring the organization down from within. However, Russ's own history blinded him from seeing it until Mac and Matty forced him to stand down and explain himself. After stopping Codex's doomsday plot, Russ and Mac had trouble trusting each other until a harrowing mission together forced them to rely on each other to survive.

Notes

  • He is the third youngest member of The Team.
  • He is almost exclusively referred to as Mac by his friends, except for Matty Webber who habitually calls him Blondie.
  • Has a scar on the left side of his upper chest where he was shot by John Kendrick. [1]
  • He is afraid of heights. [1]
  • Dated Nikki Carpenter for 2 years. [1]
  • Mac states that the KGB disbanded before he was even born, making his birth year after 1990. [2]
  • Mac enters his birthday digits into Nikki's phone as "0323", meaning March 23. [3]
  • Mac was already enrolled at M.I.T. at 17 years old. [4]
  • Can hot wire cars and drive stick. [5]
  • True to form, Mac carries a red Victorinox Swiss Army Knife everywhere he goes and considers it his most important possession. He has used three models so far, one given to him by his grandfather that he lost to a monkey, another which was given to him by Jack Dalton as a replacement which he later lost during a mission in Mexico and a third one given to him by Matty Webber when he rejoined the Phoenix. [6]
  • Can expertly pick locks. [7]
  • He burned down his father’s toolshed when he was seven, regularly broke into the science lab after hours to do more experiments while in middle school, made lightning in the gym, caused a nuclear meltdown on the football field and routinely made his own fireworks complete with real gunpowder.
  • Confirms he lost his mother when he was 5 years old. [8]
  • MacGyver's blood type is AB Negative.[9]
  • While in the Army, MacGyver held the rank of Specialist.[10]
  • Flashbacks of MacGyver's time in Afghanistan show him wearing the unit patches for the 10th Mountain Division and the 71st Ordnance Group (EOD).
  • It was revealed that he once orders two bubblegum cosmotinis on a date with Desi

Appearances

Season One
The Rising Metal Saw Awl Wire Cutter Toothpick Wrench Can Opener Corkscrew Chisel Pliers Scissors
Screwdriver Large Blade Fish Scaler Magnifying Glass Hook Ruler Flashlight Compass Hole Puncher Cigar Cutter
Season Two
DIY or Die Roulette Wheel + Wire Muscle Car + Paper Clips X-Ray + Penny Skull + Electromagnet Jet Engine + Pickup Truck Duct Tape + Jack Packing Peanuts + Fire CD-ROM + Hoagie Foil War Room + Ship Bullet + Pen Mac + Jack
CO2 Sensor + Tree Branch Mardi Gras Beads + Chair Murdoc + Handcuffs Hammock + Balcony Bear Trap + Mob Boss Riley + Airplane Benjamin Franklin + Grey Duffle Skyscraper + Power Wind + Water UFO + Area 51 MacGyver + MacGyver
Season Three
Improvise Bravo Lead + Loyalty + Friendship Bozer + Booze + Back to School Guts + Fuel + Hope Dia de Muertos + Sicarios + Family Murdoc + MacGyver + Murdoc Scavengers + Hard Drive + Dragonfly Revenge + Catacombs + Le Fantome Specimen 234 + PAPR + Outbreak Matty + Ethan + Fidelity Mac + Fallout + Jack
Fence + Suitcase + Americium-241 Wilderness + Training + Survival Father + Bride + Betrayal K-9 + Smugglers + New Recruit Lidar + Rogues + Duty Seeds + Permafrost + Feather Murdoc + Helman + Hit Friends + Enemies + Border No-Go + High-Voltage + Rescue Treason + Heartbreak + Gum Mason + Cable + Choices
Season Four
Fire + Ashes + Legacy = Phoenix Red Cell + Quantum + Cold + Committed Kid + Plane + Cable + Truck Windmill + Acetone + Celluloid + Firing Pin Soccer + Desi + Merchant + Titan Right + Wrong + Both + Neither Mac + Desi + Riley + Aubrey
Father + Son + Father + Matriarch Code + Artemis + Nuclear + N3mesis Tesla + Bell + Edison + Mac Psy-Op + Cell + Merchant + Birds Loyalty + Family + Rogue + Hellfire Save + The + Dam + World
Season Five
Resort + Desi + Riley + Window Cleaner + Witness Thief + Painting + Auction + Viro-486 + Justice Eclipse + USMC-1856707 + Step Potential + Chain Lock + Ma Banh Bao + Sterno + Drill + Burner + Mason Jack + Kinematics + Safe Cracker + MgKNO3 + GTO Quarantine + N95 + Landline + Telescope + Social Distance Golden Lancehead + Venom + Pole Vault + Blood + Baggage SOS + Hazmat + Ultrasound + Frequency + Malihini
Rails + Pitons + Pulley + Pipe + Salt Diamond + Quake + Carbon + Comms + Tower C8H7ClO + Nano-Trackers + Resistance + Maldives + Mind Games Royalty + Marriage + Vivaah Sanskar + Zinc + Henna Barn Find + Engine Oil + La Punzonatura + Lab Rats + Tachometer H20 + Orthophosphates + Mission City + Corrosion + Origins Abduction + Memory + Time + Fireworks + Dispersal

References

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