A-Team Episode 3×17
“Skins”
- Location: Kenya, Africa
- Tank: No
- Disguises: Robot, airport ground crew
- Scam: No
- Flight: Yes, but since B.A. isn’t afraid of flying, it’s no problem…
- Fixation: B.A.’s “homeland”… (to be fair, we don’t absolutely know B.A. isn’t from Kenya…)
- Flips: 2
- Fee: $5,000
- Quote: “I love it when B.A. comes together” – Hannibal, when B.A. comes together and he loves it.
- Bonus Quote: “They don’t make the bad guys the way they used to” – Hannibal. I don’t think they ever made bad guys the way Hannibal thinks they used to.
- Who is that?? Jessie Lawrence Ferfuson, Navarro. This was a fun one… If you wait a few centuries, the USS Enterprise will encounter him–problem is, it’s one of the worst episodes of the show and most just pretend (for good reason) it never happened…
- Bonus Who is that?? In case questionable episodes of Star Trek aren’t your thing, how about N81GB, NC1161V. That’s probably a little cryptic: that’s our old friend, Beechcraft Model 18, registry number N81GB, playing “stunt-plane” to a Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior. Hint: It likes to take holidays in the hills while in plane sight.
This lady was very serious about typing her random characters. 
Guess who…
Did you know this blog was being written by a total nerd? It’s true! The episode opens at this super-rad computer tech show and there’s all kinds of good stuff in there! Old terminals, VCRs, and a cool “robot” with a voice that sounds quite a bit like a Cylon…
The last time we were in the Eastern hemisphere, we got another cut-away edit from someone getting shot. Still, since the edit did cut away, that leaves us with only three confirmed people-actually-getting-shot in the show (I mean it’s possible he died of a heart attack, we don’t actually know). Also, I love that we’re nearly three seasons done and the team is still preserving Mr. Lee’s identity as the primary point of contact for the A-Team.
Bad guys are poaching animals in Kenya, so it’s off to Africa, but first we get another lesson in Face Teaches Accounting. In short, ivory trade is big business. Fortunately, B.A. is no longer afraid of flying now that there’s a pretty girl involved, so it’s all aboard a 747. We’re treated to an audio-only fracas aboard the plane mid-flight as his nerves get the best of him.
The plan is pretty standard–find the bad guys, track them to who they’re working for, work your way up the chain till you find the head bad guy, and take the whole structure down. To do this, we use a lot of tech. Our heroes have gotten steadily more reliant on tech over the years, and this episode, it’s a tracker to follow a Jeep, a bug to listen in on a conversation, and a remote-detonator placed by disguised-Hannibal to force a plane down (our old friend, N81GB, actually–poor guy is always making emergency landings).
One of these days, I expect Hannibal’s mustache to just fall off, right in front of the bad guy. I don’t think he’s ever been caught in disguise, though most of his disguises have been pretty good. Still, it would be funny to see him try and explain it away, Face-style.
Speaking of Face, it’s really becoming another running theme that Face just always has trouble getting into Jeeps. It would help if Hannibal would wait for him, but still… something about Face and Jeeps, they just don’t seem to get along. Best to stick to flippin’em, Face. We also learn his revolver is a 357. That’s rather generic, but it’s still more than we knew about it before. The show has a very good fact-checking record, so I have no reason to doubt the accuracy.
The episode ended with a truly scary moment–the bad guy Jeep flipped, and the camera just cut away to another scener! I thought we’d lost some bad guys for a moment, but thankfully the next cut showed everyone emerging just fine. Whew!