In the first episode of Season 2, Thornton takes a job as Director of Operations at the Phoenix Foundation, and MacGyver follows, where he is hired as a "sort of troubleshooter." He is assigned to a variety of tasks, usually field operations such as conducting environmental surveys and testing security systems. In the fifth season, Harry dies of a heart attack, at which point MacGyver believes he has no remaining relatives. In the second to last episode of the show, it is revealed that MacGyver has a son, Sean "Sam" Angus Malloy. Sean's mother is the photojournalist Kate Malloy who MacGyver had met after college. Kate had been murdered in China several years prior to MacGyver meeting their son for the first time. After discovering and reuniting with Sean, MacGyver decides to resign from the Foundation in order to spend time with his son.