THE PROMETHEUS SYNDROME
Episode 7-04 [129]
7 October 1991
Efforts to help smoke out a psychopathic arsonist turn personal for MacGyver. He and Earl Stringer take a risky and unorthodox approach in attempting to disarm a bomb in a ramshackle building, and Earl dies in the explosion. Rachel is promoted to his position and blames MacGyver for his death, although others say she and Stringer were no longer friends after she suffered burns on her hands as a result of his firefighting methods. Upon questioning Betty, Earl's widow, MacGyver finds that Earl had mentioned that the fires involve a situation with a woman who died in a café fire two years earlier. The Prometheus figure, Ralph Boardman, is apparently avenging the death of his girlfriend Victoria by setting the fires. MacGyver confronts guilt-ridden Boardman by asserting that he himself actually set the fire, an insurance scam, that killed Victoria. MacGyver dismantles the bomb which threatens him and Rachel, and the two apprehend the arsonist before he escapes.
MacGyver: The woman, the café, are you going to check it out?
Rachel: If I think it's worth it. Are you going?
MacGyver: Not far.
