A-Team Episode 2×15
“The Battle of Bel Air”
- Location: Bel Air, I guess?
- Tank: Chopper with mounted M60
- Disguises: No
- Scam: Chopper (and Face’s attempt at a love life)
- Flight: No
- Fixation: No
- Flips: 0
- Fee: NA
- Quote: “Do you think she discovered our plan to assassinate Sheikh Fatasi at 2 o’clock today?” – Bad guys, telegraphing it like Western Union
- Who is that?? Kurtwood Smith, Mr. Carson. Hint: take your pick: That ’70s Show, a Senator attempting to hold Jack Bauer accountable, or (and this is the correct pick): The President of The United Federation of Planets!
“Come, bad guy, let us discuss our plans to assassinate the oil magnate at 2 o’clock today.”
“Oh, that is a good idea, fellow bad guy, it is good to discuss how we will be assassinating him at 2 o’clock today.”
“Yes I thought so, assassinating oil magnates at 2 o’clock today is, after all, our plan.”
“Yes, a plan to which I hope no one is listening.”
“Oh quite, it would not do to have, for instance, some heroes listening to us as we discuss our plans.”
“The plans to assassinate that oil magnate at 2 o’clock today, you mean?”
“Those same plans, yes.”
So yes, it’s quite possible that we got just a slightly convenient conversation (or two) this episode… This was an odd one. First off, we got a new Amy. Her name is Tawnia. Or Tanya. You pick.
There was a clock that periodically appears on-screen which instantly reminded me of 24, as did a rather threatening interrogation at gunpoint by Hannibal. This episode also had some eerily quiet moments, as if they’d left out a soundtrack–and other scenes had only a very sparse snare drum pattern for background music.
The ep opens with some antics with Decker that are only so-so; they end in another gunfight in the middle of LA that nobody notices. Face works his own angle for a bit, unsuccessfully hitting on Tanya (I’m going with the cool computer spelling over the title card spelling), then getting himself thrown out a window into a pool. There’s a great gag, really a nod to those familiar with the show, when he finds the Aquamaniac on set and instinctively puts the cigar in Hannibal’s mouth–who’s not actually in the costume at this time, so it quickly begins to fill with smoke.
I was really hoping Mike was a gun, but the skunk gag was pretty good. Some more stuff happens, and eventually we end the show with a chopper chase. Now the chase was fine, and we even got some great “Hannibal shooting a big gun with his cigar in his mouth” action, but the end of the chase was, without a doubt, the most spectacular “and don’t worry, everyone emerged fine” moment ever. The bad guy chopper plows into a sheer rock face head-on, crumples, explodes, and crashes to the ground.
And everyone emerges fine from the still-burning wreck.
The episode closes with Tanya sort of… maybe?… getting herself onto the team? The last line is her saying they can really get to know each other, which I strongly felt was a line Amy used early on, and the team’s reaction would fit that gag, but I can’t verify it (I tried–but not very hard). I leave it as an exercise to my reader.