Menu Icon Search Icon

HASSAN

Hassan

Hassan was a leader of a small, impoverished village in India. To help improve their lives, the villagers had built a clinic, each contributing what he could afford. To supply the clinic, they had bought medicines from two Western businessmen in Chattur for a great deal of money, paid in gold, and Hassan's son, a doctor, had administered the drugs by injection, first to himself to reassure the children, and then to the others. However, the medicine had been tainted, and 26 people in the village had died, including Hassan's son. Hassan believed that God had struck him for his pride in his son, but he was determined to find justice by identifying the two businessmen and forcing them to take their own poisoned medicine.

Hassan knew that the two men had boarded the train for Rajmir, but because he did not know their identities, he and his followers planted explosives to destroy a trestle bridge and stop the train. Although Indian passengers were escorted safely to the village until the situation was resolved, Hassan announced that all Westerners aboard the train would be held hostage without food or water until they themselves identified the two men and turned them over to face justice.

MacGyver had boarded the train following a mission in India, and his fellow passengers included Andrea Collins, a courier for the US State Department, Andy Ellis and Laura Dillion, Americans who had recently met and had begun a relationship, James Grant, a British surgeon who had recently lost his right arm in an accident, Diana Kingman, a meek American young woman travelling with her domineering mother Eleanor, Peter Kramer, a mysterious European traveling alone, Paul Webster, an American, and Lyman and Blade, who wore the uniform of a conductor. Although MacGyver sympathized with Hassan's story, he would only agree to cooperate if the men were turned over to face trial, and on the memory of his son, Hassan agreed.

MacGyver fashioned a makeshift lie detector using Dr. Grant's sphygmomanometer and an alarm clock. Once attached to the device, Paul Webster was unable to respond truthfully, and he set off the alarm, revealing as he did so that his partner was Blade and that they had been responsible for the tainted drugs. Webster fired his weapon, striking Hassan in the right arm, and he attempted to escape by restarting the train engine. However, MacGyver had previously booby-trapped the control panel circuits to overload, and despite MacGyver's warnings, Webster threw the switch and received a fatal electric shock. Dr. Grant dressed Hassan's wound, and Blade was taken into custody to face trial in Rajmir. As the passengers returned to the train and were allowed to continue their journey by another route, Hassan made an offer to James Grant to remain and to help rebuild the clinic, an offer which the doctor cautiously accepted when Diana Kingman offered to stay behind and help him.

Portrayed by: Anthony DeFonte

Cross Reference: Badur, Batu Das, Blade, Andrea Collins, Laura Dillon, Andy Ellis, James Grant, India, Diana Kingman, Eleanor Kingman, Peter Kramer, Lyman, Paul Webster

Episode Reference: Slow Death