A-Team Episode 2×18
“It’s a Desert Out There”
- Location: Somewhere between LA and Vegas, near the border, on the Nevada side
- Tank: Armored Bus (with gun emplacements)
- Disguises: Uncle Ned the “Neon Natural”, Marshal
- Scam: Bus
- Flight: No
- Fixation: Alien Ancestors
- Flips: 1
- Fee: Unknown, non-zero
- Quote: “I’m thrilled to know you are your own person” – Hannibal, validating Tawnia’s self-actualization (while simultaneously shooting it completely down).
- Who is that?? Anthony James, Flagg. Hint: honestly, seeing this guy once is enough to put him in your memory for good.
There were a few things I remembered about this ep from the last time–those dune buggies were one, but mostly the unmistakable face of Anthony James. That’s one that sticks with you, even though the only other place I’d ever seen him (not realizing it) was as a Romulan in heavy makeup.
The opening play was to get the bad guys’ attention. This consisted of Hannibal absolutely cleaning up at the craps table. This was some James Bond level gambling prowess, here. I had to ask myself if he was cheating or not, but I suppose I’ll never know–either way, it was fun to watch.
The main plan was pretty clever this time around–as I watched them execute it, I thought they could actually be bad guys themselves, busting their fellow bad guy out of prison by pretending to be the US Marshal Bus. So really, they out-bad guy’d the bad guys with a better plan to accomplish the same ends. Fun to think not only are the A-Team obviously the best good guys, but they could totally be the best bad guys too, if they wanted to. But of course that’s beneath them, where’s the challenge in bad guy’ing when you can be the heroes?
There’s a fun scene where Face intentionally brings an expired transfer just so he can then present the extension. Hannibal wasn’t so impressed with Face’s artistry, but I appreciated it anyway. I always enjoy a bit of Face Teaches the Art of the Scam. He really should write a book.
The final battle was not much of one, actually. After a generous two hours to convert the bus into a tank, there’s a dune buggy/bus chase that disappointingly ends with only one of the four dune buggies getting flipped. The bus eventually has a tire shot out, and B.A. exits the vehicle and just punches out the remainder of the bad guys. Not sure why the bad guys didn’t use the guns we already knew they had. Anyway, the ending wasn’t particularly bad, it just left me with a “huh. Ok then.”