A-Team Episode 3×22
“Bounty”
- Location: This should have been easy–clearly the same place as Labor Pains since they make the same jump over the same bridge that’s out (they’ve had an entire year to finish that bridge, what gives?). But turns out I never got a location for that ep. Off to go fix that–meanwhile…
- Location: somewhere not far outside Los Angeles, California
- Tank: The Van (with automated machine guns!)
- Disguises: No
- Scam: Address from phone record
- Flight: No
- Fixation: Being in love (not actually a schtick)
- Flips: 0
- Fee: NA
- Quote: “Its ok, he’ll be back in a few days. This actually happens a few times a month–they’re usually a bit more subtle, but at least their disguises are getting better.” – V.A. Hospital Nurse of the week. Ok, she didn’t actually say that, but I’m sure she was thinking it.
- Who is that?? Wendy Fulton, Dr. Kelly Stevens. Hint: there’s a simple reason she and Dwight had so much chemistry…
Right off, there are some continuity errors with Murdock’s video game. As we approach the room, he’s playing Vanguard on his Atari 2600, but the sounds we hear are from Yars Revenge (also a 2600 game). Then, when the bad guys actually break into the room and capture him, he’s playing what looks like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, a game that, as far as I can tell, was only ever on Intellivision. Anyway, I always enjoy seeing what’s up in his room, and his God, Guns, and Guts shirt makes a cameo hanging on his wall, too.
Video game-related plot holes aside, some red-neck bad guys pick up Murdock in the hopes of using him to capture the A-Team and claim the bounty on them (because apparently in the 80’s we were still putting bounties on people?). Decker gets wind of things, too, and it’s a fight to rescue Murdock before Decker gets the drop on them all.
Murdock hides in the back of a van belonging to a nice lady veterinarian. Her dog trusts him, so she trusts him–I liked the idea that a veterinarian would trust the instincts of her pets. And I’m sure Homer (her dog) and Billy get along fine, too. Meanwhile, the rest of the team already has a leg up on the bad guys, having tapped a phone line. Face is tasked with linking that phone number to an address, and I couldn’t help but think how handy Amy’s computer would have been. I’ve read computers can be used to research things.
Decker knocks out The Van’s CB antenna necessitating Plan B. That’d be Face taking on the persona of the Facial Phantom of the Airwaves and broadcasting over AM radio to try and make contact with Murdock (after slipping the actual DJ, Cowboy Bob, a mickey). Poor Cowboy Bob, but could have been worse–they could have used B.A.’s 2×4 on him. Contact is established, but soon Decker is on their tail again, and our heroes make a getaway over a very familiar bridge that’s out.
Ditching Decker, they make a simple pick-up, everyone’s reunited, and–there are still 10 minutes left of the ep. So Murdock’s new friend is taken captive by the bad guys. Plenty of time for some tank buildin’! I was stumped this time, I had no idea what they were building and only properly understood it once deployed against the bad guys. The bad guys lose, and in a rare turn, Murdock gets the girl.
It was really nice to see Murdock care so much for someone, and to see his character stretched–this is a side of him that I think we all know is there, but there’s never been any reason for us to see until now. As it turns out, I almost posted this without discovering a crucial fact about this episode: Wendy and Dwight were not yet two years married at the time of this ep–they were practically newlyweds still! So yeah, there’s the chemistry.