A-Team Episode 3×19
“Moving Targets”
- Location: Northwest Africa, Likely Morocco
- Tank: No
- Disguises: No
- Scam: No
- Flight: Yup. Almost 3 seasons down and we’re still knocking out poor B.A…
- Fixation: Pasadena Murdock, Adventurer
- Flips: 0
- Fee: Unknown, non-free
- Quote: “I’m throwing a party for you–so come on down, and we’ll wax your butt for you!” – Hannibal, taunting it like a boss (an 80’s boss who likes to keep it clean enough for TV).
- Who is that?? John Saxon, Kalem. Hint: We’ve seen him before, but only with dark glasses.
Well, we’re just starting right in then! The A-Team is in the middle of an assault on someone’s north-African fortress. As it turns out, they were just pen-testing 80’s style (that is, with guns). Since they got in, they win the rights to escort the princess to her wedding. Right off, I suspected the princess would be trouble–those Romulan shoulder pads just scream duplicity. But the ep has several characters that all have the potential for intrigue, and it keeps you guessing.
Speaking of guessing, I love the continuity of Face using his measurement skills again. Anyway, the party narrowly escapes an ambush, boards a plane, crashes a plane (but not before princess earns herself an ominous musical cue), and captures a bad guy who sings like a canary (seriously, it was like the guy couldn’t wait!), revealing that princess was the leak.
But let’s rewind for a moment–I love that Murdock has crashed another plane. It’ll be interesting to go back and compile all the statistics when I’m done with the show, but I suspect Murdock’s failure rate when it comes to planes is alarmingly high. Of course the lesson here is if Murdock’s flying, respectfully request a helicopter instead–he’s never crashed one of those (probably because crashing a helicopter is far more dangerous). The plane crash also leads to an amusing running gag of us trying to figure out what exactly B.A. plans to do to get even.
Face, meanwhile, almost suffers from death by distraction again (should have followed the guidelines, Face) after being knocked out by bad guy while distracted by the girl. We find out soon enough that princess is not only the leak, but in love with one of the bad guys. Bad guy, of course, is only using her and pretty soon we’re all locked up in a well-appointed–wait, what? A prison? And there isn’t even a welding torch? Either way, the montage music starts, B.A. uses some of his gold as a screwdriver (supporting my theory that B.A.’s gold is invisible until needed), and soon enough, we’re out.
Except we’re not–now our heroes booby trap the entire lower deck of the ship (we’re on a ship) during a second montage (woo-hoo, bonus montage!) and Hannibal delivers a most gracious invitation to their captors to come check out the cool stuff they made. Finally, after a rather convoluted beginning and middle, we come to a familiar end.
There’s one loose end I have to mention, and that’s the character of Fatima. She didn’t have a lot of lines, but they definitely played her as if she’d have a lot more to do with things. She was the first guest star the camera focused in on, and they created some obvious conflict between her and princess in the first act–only to never revisit her. For this plot inconsistency, as well as a complete lack of disguises, scams, tanks, or flips, I must unfortunately give this ep a rating of no more than average.
And just so I don’t leave any lingering questions: B.A. decides to go home by boat, taking the team with him. Only the boat is a freighter, and since freighters can’t take passengers, the rest of the team gets to paint it into a passenger ship. I’m with Hannibal–I think eating a cigar would be the better route.