Season 6 is when the cracks really start to appear. MacGyver's tricks more often than not become less about throwing together ordinary items in ingenious ways and more about creating magic out of thin air. In the Episode "Humanity," for instance, he rips off the exhaust of a vehicle with his bare hands, then bends the piping into shape, making a sort of flare cannon. The flare payload is a magic item that we never see him make or source, we don't even see what he shoves in the pipe before a flare fires out.
Also frequent in season 6, you might be thinking that some of MacGyver actions make no sense. Sure, he tends to think of unlikely but creative solutions, but season 6 Mac has a tendency to REALLY over-complicate things. On more than one occasion he makes decisions that directly elevate the danger of the situation and increase the risk of him not achieving his goal, with a positive payoff being due to sheer luck rather than skill or intelligence.
This episode embodies some of the worst aspects of the series with a special emphasis on bad writing. This might be the worst-written episode of the whole show. It's utterly baffling how bad it is. I realize it's an attempt at an homage, but it fails miserably.
I hate this cast. Not that I hate the people themselves, but I hate that all of these stupid cameos were shoehorned into this show instead of the writers writing a different, better script for some of the lesser-known but genuinely enjoyable actors that often appeared on this show. Dick Butkus, James Doohan, Rich Little, Abe Vigoda, etc, it's an assembly line of stupid, pointless cameos shoved in with little thought paid to having a coherent plot. None of these characters or actors fit the show, at all, and their existence doesn't make sense in the context of the show, either.
I hate this story. What does any of this have to do with Harry or his will? Why does everyone suddenly know about this stupid gem that Harry somehow possessed? Why did Harry wait to tell Mac until after he died? How did he put the gem in the ice rink? WHY did he put the gem in the ice rink? Why did Harry turn into a cryptic riddler when writing his will instead of just giving Mac the information straight, you know, in a way that would actually fit his character? Why is Mac SUCH a naive idiot when it becomes convenient to the story?
See, that's the problem with this episode: it ignores everything great about the show and amplifies everything bad for the sake of a pointless, throwaway, cameo episode that likely no viewers wanted or asked for. And the worst part is that they tied the episode to Harry for no reason whatsoever. Harry Jackson is possibly the best character on the show, and to have this turd act as his final appearance on the show is just insulting.