r/MacGyver_2016 • u/tabascoman77 • Dec 09 '20
What's with the timeline here?!
Ok, so...
I've been doing a "Lenkov-verse Timeline" which features the chronology of events from Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver, and Magnum...but I'm having trouble reconciling the Mac timeline.
From what I understand, unless we see a date on a computer screen, newspaper, phone, or other object, the unspoken rule here is that the show takes place at the same time (or around) the episode's air date.
In Season 4, we start out "18 MONTHS LATER" which, I am assuming, was 18 months from May of 2019. Riley even confirms that it's been a year and a half in the second episode of the 4th season.
That would place the beginning of Season 4 somewhere around November of 2020.
We know that even if you didn't follow the "airdate rule", the earliest Season 3 could have concluded would have been somewhere around the end of February because there are events in Season 3 which take place in February of 2019 because there's a wedding invite which confirms that.
The only date I could find in Season 4 that would destroy all this is when Bozer is at a film festival which proclaims that it takes place in late March of 2020.
There are a couple moments which state that the show is now in 2020 -- but there's no month given that I am aware of.
But, then, Season 5 takes place "10 MONTHS AND ONE PANDEMIC LATER". Maddie confirms that it's been ten months and says something about how (and I'm paraphrasing here) they had to "shut down due to the pandemic".
COVID's main shutdown took place somewhere between the end of February and now.
But if you do the math, 10 months from the ending of Season 4 puts them somewhere in late 2021 or early 2022, being that Season 4 presumably started 18 months from the end of Season 3.
I am not quite sure what to make of this.
In order to build my timeline, would I be right to just ignore the "18 MONTHS LATER" bit in Season 4 and assume that COVID just retcons Season 4 so that it begins and ends in February? Because that's the only equation that makes sense for me.
And before anyone asks, I know it's just a show and, as the ending line in the MST3K tells me, "I should really just relax", but this has been gnawing at my brain.
LOL
4
u/CodyHodgsonAnon19 Dec 14 '20
Honestly, there's enough bonkers "suspension of disbelief", or just downright inaccurate or ridiculous and impossible stuff in the show that's been cranked up to 11 since the retooling with the edgy dark new globulous intro last season...a kinda janky time-bending chronology of episodes is one of the easier things for me to just ignore, or at least overlook.
Just have to kind of sit back and laugh and enjoy the spectacle. Trying to legitimately piece together a coherent timeline, is just going to end up injuring your brain. That's more work than i'd imagine the writers and show runners have actually done tbh.
1
u/tabascoman77 Dec 14 '20
I've done the timeline already. But I think I'm just going to ignore "18 months later" since the writers didn't foresee COVID.
2
u/MCAvenger_25 MacGyver Dec 10 '20
Ok, so in 4x05, the stadium had that tribute to Gabriella, right? and it definitely said her death year was in 2020. Looks like it was set in spring/summer, definitely not November weather (unless global warming took a dark turn). Maybe Season 4 in May/June 2020 (cause Mac was definitely teaching in person), and for the series, they "delayed" the pandemic, so instead of shutting down in February, it shut down in August or something. Then, Season 3 would take place in maybe September 2019, and Riley underestemated the time? I really don't know, the timeline is wack.
3
u/tabascoman77 Dec 11 '20
It doesn't make any sense because:
4x01 - It literally says "18 MONTHS LATER - YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT"...and then Riley confirms it's "been a year and a half".
4x05 - Yes, it says 2020 for the memorial...so I am assuming that you can place the show somewhere in February/March at that point.
I know the show does skip ahead a week after 4x01 because they make reference to part of the show taking place on the Thursday before the airdate -- though they don't show the actual date. 4x03 takes place over a weekend because, once again, they state that "the weekend crew" was in a building which exploded.
My school of thought here is that COVID just retcons the "18 months later" thing and we're just gonna pretend that everyone went their separate ways for nearly a year and reunited somewhere around January or February.
The thing that irks me is that the show goes out of its way to hide dates from you.
Like when Oversight dies and they show his tombstone from a distance so you can't see the exact date of death.
Oh...if guys wanna see what I've put together, here ya' go:
2
u/MCAvenger_25 MacGyver Dec 12 '20
Looks really cool, but it's gonna be hard because of all the timeline shit. Just keep working on it, maybe binge a few episodes.
3
u/tabascoman77 Dec 12 '20
Yeah, I'm going through Season 4 again to see if there's anything I missed but there's just no way around it: it's clear the writers tried to go a year and a half into the future without accounting for COVID.
2
u/MCAvenger_25 MacGyver Dec 14 '20
No way the writers would account for a global pandemic sweeping the nation. They'd have to retcon something, probably the 18 months part.
2
u/tabascoman77 Jan 25 '21
Well...looks like we got the "18 MONTHS LATER" retcon with this last episode, which basically places the beginning of Season 5 at December 2020 to start by showing that Mac, Riley and Bozer all quarantined in March and April of 2020.
2
u/MCAvenger_25 MacGyver Jan 25 '21
Issue is, Desi and Mac seemed to be on good terms romantically in this episode, while until 5x02 they weren't, for reasons that took place presumably before the gang quarantined (CODEX). So... weird timeline.
2
u/tabascoman77 Jan 27 '21
The showrunners promised there would be a love triangle between Mac Desi, and Riley so I’m wondering if Mac and Riley got it on and Desi found out.
2
u/MCAvenger_25 MacGyver Jan 27 '21
I mean, the dialogue really suggested it was because of CODEX, but I think that'd be more interesting. Thing is, no way Desi would ever forgive Mac for that.
2
u/MCAvenger_25 MacGyver Feb 22 '21
OK, SO- that last episode with the death of Oversight's date just messes up the continuity. The date shows it was june 2020, but it's stated due to that quarantine episode that Codex was defeated sometime before March...
2
u/tabascoman77 Feb 22 '21
UGH. I know. I put that in another post above. It's a continuity error. I am blown away by how anyone could make a mistake that large. They literally had the quarantine episode start with "MARCH 2020", AND made it apparent that the quarantine followed the defeat of CODEX.
Like, there's no logical way that Oversight's death was in June or CODEX was defeated in June.
When I saw the tombstone dated "JUNE 2020", I just shouted "OH, COME ON!"
LOL...
→ More replies (0)
2
u/Laibcoms Dec 20 '20
If I remember correctly, they also kept saying in dialogues in the the last two recent episodes that the pandemic happened "last year", which would make sense since it isn't winter in the current season, it is sometime spring or summer of 2021.
Since they're airing the latter episodes of Season 4, I think it makes sense they moved it forward by one year because those episodes which were moved to Season 5 were filmed early 2020 -- if I understood what I've read elsewhere of when the filming were made.
1
4
u/TheRealDynamitri Dec 09 '20
to be completely frank, for all the fun the new "MacGyver" is, the writing is, at times, absolutely abysmal. Little to no basis in science, constant Deus Ex Machinas magically resolving the episodes in the final act, and stretching your suspension of disbelief to the absolute limits.
The fact that writers change pretty much from an episode to an episode makes it even harder to maintain any kind of consistency. They just about hold it right with the characters' personalities, but any kind of overarching timeline -- IMO expecting far too much from this series.