Little is known about the international assassin Murdoc. He is, and has been, the best in
his line of work; his methods are, in his own words, "quick, neat, untraceable."
His mastery of makeup and costuming have made him difficult to identify, and he never
leaves loose ends - except, of course, in the case of MacGyver and his friends.
Murdoc had been known to the DXS for about five years prior to 1980, when he attempted to
kill Peter Thornton and MacGyver. This 1980 encounter resulted in Murdoc's apparent death
in a collapsing building. He did not return until seven years later, when he nearly
succeeded in blowing Mac and Pete up. Murdoc "died" in this confrontation, too,
after being careless with dynamite. But somehow, he escaped the explosion, and he
reappeared about a year later, to the surprise of a grieving MacGyver and Nikki Carpenter;
again, he took a "fatal" dive off the mountain known as the Widowmaker after
cutting his own climbing rope. The next time he tried to kill MacGyver, he staged an
elaborate musical, "Cleo Rocks," using MacGyver's friend Penny Parker as a pawn.
Posing as crippled director Jacques La Rue, he came very close to realizing his goal -
only to be defeated, once again, by MacGyver's ingenuity. For his "death" this
time, he plunged into a fiery pool after being electrocuted. Murdoc laid to rest his
vendetta, albeit temporarily, against MacGyver when he realized that MacGyver was the only
one who could help him rescue his sister, Ashton Cooke, from his vengeful ex-employer at
HIT, Homicide International Trust. This spirit of cooperation between the two, however,
did not last; after another of Murdoc's "deaths," he and MacGyver resumed their
deadly game of cat-and-mouse...with Murdoc, yet again, plummeting into a flooded mine
shaft. Murdoc's final regular-series appearance was as the right-hand man of a deposed
Central American dictator who intended to regain power; Murdoc made his exit by driving a
Jeep off of a cliff after a failed attempt to run MacGyver down.
Despite his nasty homicidal tendencies and twisted sense of honor, there are facets of
Murdoc's personality that are quite likeable. The assassin is a photography buff; to
assure his employers of a successful hit, he sends them a picture of the moment of the
victim's death. He showed his talent for musical composition when he wrote the score for
"Cleo Rocks," and he even fell in love with Penny Parker as he worked with her
on the production. He secretly supported his sister, Ashton, without revealing to her his
identity. If he hadn't become a hired killer, he probably would have chosen a career as a
photographer or a musician.
If Murdoc survived his last encounter with MacGyver (and it's very likely that he did),
then it is certain that he will try to kill MacGyver again. MacGyver is, after all, the
only blemish on Murdoc's otherwise spotless record. He's the one man Murdoc has failed to
kill. |
