A-Team Episode 2×11
“Steel”
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Tank: Armored Construction Vehicle
- Disguises: Aquamaniac, Construction Worker
- Scam: Admittance into Bad Guy lair (not much goes right after that)
- Flight: No
- Fixation: He’s a dog (note the ironic cat-themed shirt)
- Flips: 2
- Fee: Unknown, but no implication there wasn’t payment
- Quote: “Almost predictable by now, isn’t it?” – Face, speaking almost as though he’s seen an episode or two himself…
- Who is that?? I’ll tell you who it’s not–it’s not Amy, she’s been disappeared without a word! Alright, alright, fine…
- Who is that?? Norman Alden, Mickey Stern. Hint: “You can start by sweeping the floor”
You don’t get much more budget than using Universal Studios itself as your set. The Tour of Universal Studios was a fun treat, though–I remember going on that tram tour when I was a kid, seeing the burning house, driving through the parting Red Sea. Now that I think about it, this was probably product placement at the time. We meet our clients on the studio lot, and also get another call-out to Mr. Lee from them.
The aural-only introduction of Murdock’s dog act was a lot of fun–all we hear are the barks, growls, and crashes and it’s left to our imagination what’s really going on in there. Face’s casual doling out of treats to keep him placated as he cons the nurse was a nice, understated gag.
Back at with our clients, B.A. has somehow gotten himself a gold hard hat, which he’ll be in for the rest of the ep. I picture that conversation going something like:
Mr. T: “I want B.A.’s hard hat to be Gold.”
Director: “Uh, well, that’s–“
Mr. T: “Good.”
(Actually, I hear Mr. T was quite a gentleman, I just like to imagine it this way)
We get our second of two wink-and-nods to the audience when Face and Murdock arrive on the scene and Face delivers our Quote of the episode. Earlier, we sourced an iconic scene of Dirk Benedict (who formerly fought Cylons on Battlestar Galactica) doing a double-take with a Cylon centurion. This would become a regular part of the opening credits roll. That, by the way, would be the same credits roll that no longer has Amy in it. [sad face]
It’s not often we see Face so completely and unrecoverably lose control of scam, but boy did things go wrong for him this time. It started with an atypically-able henchman (hench-woman, actually) seeing straight through the ol’ charm routine and taking things to her boss. The boss being equally canny, actually took her concerns seriously, and from that point, every attempted squirm on Face’s part to get out of things is immediately countered. Eventually Face makes an escape thanks to an alcohol fire, and in their pursuit, I had to laugh at the bad guy getting back into the still-smoking car when they went to chase him down.
This particular bad guy, being tied to the mob, and having already proven himself by employing and listening to competent subordinates, is considerably more capable than our usual thugs, and the montage reflects this with the cleaning and lubing of the guns. The team is aware of what they’re up against and I loved the extra attention given to the weapons to ensure everything is in tip-top shape. There are several close-up shots, and it’s neat to see the weapons in such detail.
The final battle opens with some terrific lines from Hannibal and our heroes clearly have the superior tactical position. The bad guys all drove in as a single unit. The team, meanwhile, have taken up positions surrounding the entry point, all on high ground (save B.A., who’s in this episode’s tank–and his golden hard hat, because of course he is). Murdock’s role with the dynamite is especially effective in sewing chaos. We also get a nice cameo from Baby, Hannibal’s M-60 machine gun from last season’s Holliday in the Hills. Short of the flame thrower way back in Children of Jamestown, this is about as awesome as we’ve ever seen Hannibal. In the end, we see that, while a mob boss may have better tactics than the usual thugs, military special ops wins the day.
It helps that it’s the 80’s and these are the good guys.