A-Team Episode 2×02
“Recipe for Heavy Bread”
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Tank: Armored Bread/Drug Van
- Disguises: Caddie
- Scam: No. Aside from Face’s entire alternate life outside the team.
- Flight: No
- Fixation: Golf Ball Liberation Army
- Flips: 1
- Fee: NA
- Quote: “Let’s let Saigons be bygones” – Ok, Wow. That is quite possibly the cleverest 80’s bad guy ever
- Who is that?? John Fujioka & Mako, General Chow & Lin Duk Coo. Hint: In 2001 we’ll see them together again in 1941.
This is another Fee: Not Applicable episode–that is, the team isn’t actually working for a client, they’re just do-gooding ’cause that’s what they do. There’s a running gag through the whole episode of Face desperately trying to hold onto his comfortable status of living amongst the rich and snobby. The team is… not helpful.
The plot is your standard bust-the-drug-lord affair, with a little Vietnam lore thrown in for good measure. Murdock’s schtick in this episode wasn’t up to his usual standards, but did I love Hannibal’s indulging of it. This time our guest star was a Vietnamese camp guard who secretly brought food to mal-treated POWs. After taking the bad guys’ bread delivery truck, the team quickly discovers $10 Million worth of heroine stuffed inside the loaves. The bad guys, furious at this, actually manage to get one up on our heroes through some creative hacking–after connecting to some kind of automated call-routing system (the show called it an “operator”), the bad guy traces the location of a call our heroes made. The ensuing helicopter assault tears the place up, but to our great relief everyone emerges ok ™.
Then we get to the good part–the team has a little something special in the oven for our bad guys–a pistol pita pocket, assault rifle on rye, a little shotgun sourdough, and several bang-bang baguettes. I must say, the team truly did rise to the occasion–the armored truck gave great cover, but the bad guys’ cardboard box cover was a bit half-baked. (Knead I go on?–’cause I totally can: I’m on a roll and I didn’t even mention the knuckle-sandwich Hannibal delivered. I mean it was the yeast he could do, really… let me know when these get stale…)
The final battle takes place on the roof, and then a car chase–I was super excited to see Amy not just use a gun earlier, but actually flying the chopper! (Hey, it’s totally implied!) Took her a whole season, but she finally feels like a true member of this team.
After the dust settles, and with Face’s lavash abode now toast, the team finds themselves loafing around B.A.’s crumby flat. Our guest star whips up a special batch of fortune cookies as a thank you, and this episode is a wrap. I enjoyed the Recipe for Heavy Bread. It’s a lot of fun–any way you slice it.
2 Replies to “A-Team Episode 2×02”
It’s interesting that you didn’t think Murdock’s golf ball liberation army was up to snuff. This was one of the biggest gags in early internet A-Team obsessed fandom. There was a blog named after this and I think they even had t shirts. It’s long gone though i think.
Heh, leave it to the Internet to sieze upon the lamest of Murdock’s schticks and run with it. I stand my my assessment–the Golf ball Liberation Army ranked right down there with Captain Cab. Now trashbags–that was classic!