#S01E20 Hole Puncher

[authorangelita]

Watching the softball game opening of S01E20 Hole Puncher and thinking about Jack coaching Riley's childhood softball team. Giving them rambling pep talks with mangled metaphors and taking them out for ice cream afterward.

[authorangelita]

It's that time again! Here's a little missing scene/post-episode scene with Jack and Mac for @macgyverrewatch2020 S01E20 Hole Puncher.

~~

Jack glanced at the clock on his microwave while he cleaned his P30. It was nearing 3 am, and he had no intention of going to bed yet or maybe at all tonight. There was half a pot of coffee left in the Bunn, and his cell phone was fully charged. He was just waiting for the –

A guitar riff from "Enter Sandman" broke the calm of the night. The irony was not lost on him that Riley had set that ringtone for the insomniac in their little family. Jack tapped the accept button and then the speakerphone button with his least greasy pinky finger.

"Hey, hoss, awfully late, isn't it?"

The line was quiet, but he could hear the muffled sounds of Mac pacing across his back deck. "Jack," his partner breathed like he was afraid of speaking any louder.

That raised Jack's hackles like a dog catching sight or sound of a rattler on the ranch. "Mac," he matched the tone and volume despite being alone in his own apartment.

"I can't sleep," Mac confessed, still speaking in hushed tones. "Every time I close my eyes, I see Josh dead, but really dead, not just staged in a bathroom to look dead. There's blood on my hands, and... he's dead. I killed him."

It was such a monumentally bad idea to let Mac go undercover as Murdoc. Jack should have fought harder against it, should have offered himself up as the imposter.

"You didn't kill anyone, bud. Josh is alive and well and home with his family, thanks to you."

Mac took a few minutes before he finally said, "This doesn't feel like a win."

Suppressing a sigh, Jack wiped his hands off with a rag, grabbed the phone, and went in search of his keys. "It might not feel like it now, bud, but I think you'll change your mind. Maybe when Josh sends pictures of their new baby in a few months. Or maybe when you get some sleep and can look at this with fresh eyes."

His partner was quiet again, and Jack's soul ached at the fact that Mac was beating himself up so hard about this mission. Especially since the outcome had actually been one of their better ones.

"Listen, you sit tight, and I'll be there in fifteen."

"No!" Mac protested immediately and vehemently. "You don't need to come over. I just... I needed to hear your voice. I'm okay. I'm going to try to sleep now."

"Calm down, bud. I won't come over, but I'm not ready to stop talking yet." Jack sat down on his couch and made himself comfortable. "There's a condition to this plan, though. You need to go and get into bed."

"Jack-"

"No arguments. I can make it there in 10 minutes. I've done it before."

"Okay, okay." The background sounds indicated Mac was doing as Jack asked, so he waited for the sheets to rustle before he started to talk.

"Did I ever tell you about when I was a rodeo clown for about three months? Well, I lost a bet, and my buddy Bull – that was not his real name but damned if I can remember it now – dared me to be a clown. You know what? I was good at it!"

Jack rambled on about the rodeo circuit for another twenty minutes until he could hear that Mac's breathing had deepened and evened out in sleep. He ended the call and headed to bed himself, hoping that Mac would rest well.

[authorangelita]

S01E04 Wire Cutter - Meta Thoughts About Mac's Living Room

Friends, I'm super bored at work today. Let's discuss Mac's living room for a minute. I took this screenshot for my missing scenes post about S01E04 Wire Cutter.

Starting on the left, there's an entire 5 gallon bucket of softballs and a bat. It's the bat that, to me, implies he's playing the game instead of using the balls for an experiment of some kind. We know Phoenix has a softball team from S01E20 Hole Puncher, but we didn't know that when episode 4 aired. Now I want to know the Phoenix team stats – how many games won, lost, and forfeited for mission-related reasons. Who's the best hitter? It's Jack, isn't it?

Thornton's expression in this screenshot is a third of the reason I chose this one. (Another third is Jack's hands thrown up in the air, and the other third is that it was the only one that didn't have a credit name on it.). She looks like a disapproving mother about to wag her finger.

I just noticed that Mac's fireplace doesn't have a mantel. I'm from the east coast where all fireplaces have mantels, but now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing many, if any, mantels when I lived in LA.

I also love that the bike is sitting there, and no one seems to care. I mean, they've all been there a while, obviously, so they could have already discussed the oddity of it. Or they are just used to Mac's quirks. Also, Mac packed his tools up in the toolbox.

Actually, it just occurred to me how neat and clean the house is. Do we think it's Mac that needs to have everything neat and orderly? Or is it Bozer? I'm leaning toward Mac on this one. I just don't see Bozer picking up Mac's tools unless there's some urgent need to do so.

That rug looks like a hazard. The edge near Mac is curled up, which means I would trip on it every single time.

The TV is way too small for that size room, but we'll let it go. Mac has probably engineered a projector and screen for when they have Bruce Willis movie nights.

Is Riley holding one of the softballs? She doesn't seem like a fidgeter, but this room is full of nervous energy.

Jack's hands thrown up crack me up for some reason. He's all 'WTF dude?' back there.

I'm not sure what the art is behind Jack. It looks like a distressed American flag painted on reclaimed wood. In the second screenshot below, you can see that it's the US. Not something I really see Mac or Bozer picking out for the house. Maybe it was a gift? I know Mac is a vet, but the distressed nature of it makes me think it's not something he would choose.

I'm not sure what's on top of that gray cabinet. I couldn't find a better shot of it. At first, I thought it was oversized chess pieces, but there aren't enough of them.

There appears to be a pokemon ball on the coffee table – ha! I took a better screenshot of the coffee table (Old trunk? Foot locker?), and I still have no idea what that is. I also don't know what the other doodads are. Maybe something for the bike? It's definitely a Mac project of some sort.

You can't really see it in the wider screenshot, so I took a better one of this area. There's an electric guitar beside Jack and some stereo equipment, including a turntable, hidden behind Bozer. There's also a ton of vinyl back there. My guess is that Mac inherited those from Harry.

Back to the guitar, I get the feeling that it's Mac who plays it. Playing guitar has a lot of mathematics to it, and Mac can distract himself from thoughts about Nikki or failed missions or whatever craziness by losing himself in playing the guitar and determining the mathematics behind the melody.

On a side note, the couch looks like the most uncomfortable couch ever. It just doesn't seem to have much padding. It's also leather, which is a very noisy material. (It must have given the sound department fits when they shot in here.)

The right side is washed out by the sunlight but there's plenty of space back there for Mac to put his bike where it's not right in front of the TV. Right? Also, the fake missile prop is back there, meaning that Bozer has not returned it to Penny yet. I don't think he ever does.

Bonus! There's a pink teddy bear on the table across from the front door. My best guess is that Bozer's side gig is babysitting kids in the neighborhood – Boze has to be great with kids! – and one of the girls left it behind. Also, there's a coin-operated horse ride kinda hidden over there that I never noticed before. Mac's house has the oddest and most interesting things in it!

[ao3feed-macgyver2016]

by SabriSonne

AU-tag for 1x20 "Hole Puncher": They have kept the cellphone from last time - the time Mac went undercover as Murdoc. One year the phone rested in the locker in Bozer's lab, everyone forgot it, no one remembered it - till it suddenly rings. (Warning! Violence and graphic discription of torture in later chapters!)

Words: 280, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: MacGyver (TV 2016)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: Gen

Characters: Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016), Riley Davis, Wilt Bozer (MacGyver TV 2016), Matilda "Matty" Webber

Additional Tags: Assassin - Freeform, Kidnapped Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Angus Macgyver (Macgyver 2016), Torture, emotional stress, Gags, Restraints, Waterboarding, Electrocution, Mac posing as Murdoc, Missions Gone Wrong, Protective Jack Dalton (MacGyver 2016), Non-Consensual Drug Use, Chloroform, Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016) Whump, Episode Tag, Episode tag 1x20, Episode: s01e20 Hole Puncher, Hole Puncher