A-Team Episode 2×20
“Harder Than It Looks”
- Location: Point Vicente Lighthouse, California
- Tank: No
- Disguises: Cabbie, Henchman, Gate Guard
- Scam: No
- Flight: No
- Fixation: A subtle bit of hand-fidgeting (tinker toys, etc.)
- Flips: 2
- Fee: Unknown, but probably a lot
- Quote: “You’re gonna let me go now or I’m gonna blow ya’all away” – Face. Wait, no, the mission target. Wait, what?
- Bonus Quote: “Now you see, this is why you don’t have as many visitors as the terrorists up the road do.” – Hannibal, the wisenheimer
- Who is that?? Point Vicente Lighthouse, itself. This thing is the closest lighthouse to LA, so anytime someone needs a TV show shot at a lighthouse, this is usually where they go. (Fine, I admit it, no, I didn’t recognize anyone, so I’m going with the lighthouse.)
This one feels like 24 but in the 80’s. You have terrorists, a bomb, kidnapping. Throw the ticking clock on, and you’re basically there. This week, the team goes in for a “piece of cake” op to rescue a rich guy’s daughter being held for ransom. B.A. and this big guy beat the daylights out of each other for several minutes straight (and B.A. does a sweet Street Fighter 2 move on him years before that game came out) while the rest of the team goes in to rescue the girl. By the end of B.A.’s fight, we can already see where the episode title came from.
Or can we? Next, we’re introduced to the rest of the bad guy crew–including some bad girls. I would say this is an enlightened, forward-thinking, equal-opportunity episode of The A-Team, but a few minutes later Hannibal ends up punching out the mission objective to quiet her after she refuses to cooperate with her own rescue. Oh well, at least he did it off-screen… I’m gonna just go with “it was the 80’s!” and leave it at that. Anyway, we can see where the ep title came from.
Or can we? Our heroes “rescue” the girl and are soon being chased by a pair of bad guy Jeeps. I’m sure my reader knows what Jeeps are for by now, but we’re in for a special treat as we get a double-double pair of grenade-ramped Jeep flips (woohoo!) but not before putting a few bullets in The Van’s gas tank. After the getaway, our mission target reveals that she’s in love with one of the bad guys, but don’t fear, this being 80’s TV, we don’t do Stockholm Syndrome. Her boyfriend is not really a bad guy. This means, among other things, the team will be going back in to rescue him–and they’ll be using the same plan. Which, of course, is brilliant. At least according to Hannibal… It may help that they’ll also be rescuing the half-million dollars (part of which would have been their fee) they lost during the op. Anyway, we can now see where the ep title came from.
Or can we? The team goes back in, with some fun editing between the bad guy plan and the parallel execution of our heroes’ plan. They rescue the boyfriend, but it’s too late–the terrorists are already on their way to blow up a dam. Why? We don’t exactly know, but there are no planes to hijack, obviously. Now Hannibal and the team have to take down the entire organization and get rid of the bomb. And they have less than 2 minutes. At least we can now see where the ep title came from.
Or can we? Just as they’re about to run out the door with the ticking bomb, B.A.’s old friend shows up again. And promptly scrams as soon as they tell him what’s in the box. Good guys win.
This was a fun ep, and I had a couple of very important closing thoughts. First, a bad guy pro tip: if your time bomb has a two-minute timer and the good guy is attempting to get rid of it before it blows up the thing you want blown up, don’t tell them they have two minutes–tell them they have 5 minutes.
Special Feature: Conspiracy Theory
The GLA. The GLA is a militant organization, this much we know. They’re well organized, and firmly believe in their cause. But what the acronym stands for is not revealed in this episode. I submit to you, dear reader, that we have seen this organization before. In fact, it was founded by someone we know quite well. It was founded by one H.M. Murdock.
Golf ball. Liberation. Army.