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QUAYLE

Quayle

Quayle was a foreign agent of fluid loyalties. His British accent suggested ties to the United Kingdom, but he had once sold out the British to the Russians, then double-crossed the Russians for the Ayatollah. He had taken on several missions for an organization with ties to East Germany which referred to itself as the "Tribunal."

Quayle's first encounter with MacGyver occurred when he was moving a planeload of stolen military computers, and MacGyver had stolen the plane back. That mission was the only blemish on Quayle's otherwise spotless record, and the Tribunal had punished him for his failure. Quayle knew that he had underestimated MacGyver, and he was anxious for a chance at redemption and retribution. When MacGyver returned from a mission to East Berlin carrying vital intelligence in the form of encoded microfilm, Quayle submitted to the Tribunal his proposal to eliminate MacGyver and destroy the microfilm before it could reach American intelligence. Although skeptical, the Tribunal authorized the operation based on Quayle's personal guarantee of success.

Quayle had been able to breach security at the DXS and had determined that MacGyver would be taken to a DXS safe house where Pete Thornton would personally handle his debriefing upon his return from East Berlin. In advance of MacGyver's arrival, Quayle rigged the safe house with a series of booby-traps which he controlled from a central location in the basement. He also enlisted Karen Blake, a DXS agent, as a collaborator. Both Karen and her brother worked for Pete Thornton, but when her brother was captured while on assignment in Czechoslovakia, Karen was told that he would be executed unless she cooperated with Quayle to recover the piece of intelligence that MacGyver carried.

Quayle took great delight in his scheme, considering it a game, and he was waiting in the basement of the safe house when Karen arrived with MacGyver and met with Pete Thornton and Mrs. Chung, a cryptanalyst assigned to the case. As he triggered various traps including windows and doors that slammed shut and locked, electronic devices that short circuited and exploded, machine guns activated by motion detectors, and video and audio surveillance in nearly every room, Quayle gleefully challenged MacGyver to come find him and to try to escape.

Mrs. Chung was accidentally injected with a strong sedative, and Thornton, who had not been familiar with Quayle or his history with MacGyver, was knocked unconscious by a strong electric shock when Quayle electrified his radiophone. MacGyver, however, used Quayle's enormous ego against him, and by creating a series of clever distractions such as electronic jamming and an improvised smokescreen, he was able to prevent Quayle from tracking him. MacGyver grew suspicious of Karen, and when he confronted her and learned the reason for her apparent betrayal, he convinced her to cooperate with him to capture Quayle and to use him as a bargaining chip for the release of her brother. Together they made their way to the basement of the house where they cut Quayle's power supply and lured him into the main power room. There a makeshift water cannon forced Quayle against the rewired electrical panel and the electrical shock knocked him unconscious.

Once again Quayle had underestimated MacGyver, and as Mrs. Chung and Thorton recovered, Quayle was taken into custody, and the security leak that he had initiated was plugged.

Portrayed by: Christopher Neame

Cross Reference: Karen Blake, Mrs. Chung, DXS Safe House, East Berlin, Tribunal

Episode Reference: Deathlock