My take on the accuracy and plausibility of MacGyver Season 1 Episode 7: Can Opener aired November 4, 2016 on a scale of (Accurate, Probable, Possible, Unlikely, Bogus).

If there are any other statements or events you would like me to analyze, please add a comment with a brief description and the time in the show.

1:48 Gas truck, Fire hose, and cable lock to create a ring of fire

Unlikely (guess): It's not clear why the gas truck has a nozzle on top. It is unlikely that the cable lock would create a tight enough seal. I think it is unlikely that a bullet would provide enough heat to ignite the gasoline.

10:19 Riley: "They ran a security update and patched the hole in their system I was using as a back door."

Accurate: Calling it a "Back Door" might not be 100% accurate; however having a reliable exploit for a known vulnerability would be just as good.

12:20 An inhaler won't spray, because the pin in the cartridge is missing.

Possible: While using a piece of a fork to temporarily replace the pin could work, it would probably not be that reliable. Additionally, the problem is with the cartridge and not the inhaler, so inserting a new cartridge would have fixed the problem.

17:02 Jack: "'Jail', what an idiot. I just bypassed his password.
Riley: "It was in sleep mode Jack. You literally could have hit any key."

Bogus: Jack hit 9 keys to type 'jail'. Then the screensaver (not sleep mode) turned off when Jack pressed <enter>. It should have turned off when the first key was pressed.

19:58 Mac: "A towel soaked in water can pack a pretty good punch. Add some powered bleach to give it a little bit of a sting. Wrap the whole thing in a sheet for extra range, and you have yourself a weapon from the middle ages called a flail."

Possible (guess): While the towel soaked in water is not an insignificant amount of mass, I doubt it would be hard enough to reliably incapacitate an attacker.

26:42 Hydrogen electrolysis

Unlikely (guess): Mac uses a radio battery, salt from food, and water to create hydrogen. It's hard to tell if the battery contains enough power to produce enough hydrogen and I have no idea how much hydrogen would be necessary to blow the steel door out. I highly doubt they could survive the pressure necessary to blow out the door. Using the wires from the light fixture to ignite the hydrogen appears realistic. He only undoes a wire nut, so he could be fairly confident of not shocking himself.

31:00 Ladder from shelves

Unlikely: Mac's paperclip screwdriver would not be stiff enough to unscrew most shelve. Most shelves use the shelves as the horizontal supports, so it is not possible to use one end as a ladder once the shelves have been removed.

31:53 Chemical embrittlement

Bogus: Fire extinguisher (CO2), Alcohol to create a very cold liquid to embrittle steel bars. Mac does not put enough of his mixture on the bars to possibly do anything.

35:57 Manually flashing a car's taillight

Accurate: Auto electrical systems run on 12V so Mac can safely touch the wires with his bare hands.

37:50 Torture using Nitrogen

Bogus: According to Wikipedia, inert gas asphyxiation does not cause pain, since pain comes from high CO2 levels.

39:08 Pressure vessel rocket

Bogus: Somehow Mac is able to magically kick the valve off of a nitrogen tank, turning it into a projectile that perfectly takes out the bad guys.

My take on the accuracy and plausibility of MacGyver Season 1 Episode 6: Wrench aired October 28, 2016 on a scale of (Accurate, Probable, Possible, Unlikely, Bogus).

If there are any other statements or events you would like me to analyze, please add a comment with a brief description and the time in the show.

2:15 Airbag to shatter glass and blow a hole though at least 3 feet of loosely packed dirt.

Unlikely (guess): While the airbag should be powerful enough to shatter the glass when placed directly against it, it is unlikely the airbag would have enough power to blow a hole though 3 feet of loosely packed dirt.

9:10 Mac: "3D Printed Polymer Detonator, invisible to X-rays"

Bogus: The packaging could be 3D printed out of plastic so it is invisible to X-Rays, but at 9:22 the internals of the detonator are shown to contain AA size batteries, a 7 segment display, wires, and PCB which contain metal and would show up on an X-ray.

10:19 Using bomb suits, a dumpster, and car to direct the blast of a bomb into the sewer system.

Unlikely (guess): It's hard to tell how much the bomb suits would direct the explosion; however, the manhole cover is probably at least 1" thick steel (most covers that are greater than 24" in diameter are at least 1" thick according to Neenah Foundry) vs. a dumpster that is 1/8" steel. Also, the car is parked on the plastic lid of the dumpster to hold the dumpster down.

13:15 Riley: "GSM SIM chips have a 15 digit serial number"

Bogus: My T-Mobile GSM SIM Start Kit has a 19 digit SIM Card Number.

15:20 Smartphone (can't tell what type) camera on a long ribbon cable

Unlikely: I can't tell what type of smartphone MacGyver uses; however, most modern smartphones keep cables as short as possible:

• Samsung Galaxy S7 – ifixit.com Teardown Step 10
• Google Pixel XL – ifixit.com Teardown Step 9
• Motorola Moto X – ifixit.com Rear Camera Replacement Guide Step 37
• Huawei P9 – ifixit.com Teardown Step 5

16:45 A smoking computer with embedded plastic explosives will explode soon...

Bogus: Plastic explosive can burn; however, fire will not cause plastic explosive to explode.

18:00 diesel fuel will dissolve plastic explosive

Unknown

36:00 Disarming a bomb: a bolt must be unscrewed with a rope

Unknown: This seems highly unlikely to me.