Breakout (S03, E13)
In which an A-Team trio learn bad luck lies on the road.
We open on the set of the latest Aquamaniac movie, where Hannibal takes a call from Face who explains he won’t be joining him for a few days. Meanwhile, BA and Murdock are driving up to the studio together – and seem to be getting on well.
BA pulls the van into a gas station to fuel up, just as a few men with guns are robbing the place. With BA inside the sop, the men hop into the van and force Murdock to drive away. Thinking fast, BA jumps into a parked car and gives chase.
The men tell Murdock to head for a house where they’re going to take care of a family. With BA close behind and no intention of helping further, Murdock slams on the breaks. In the aftermath, BA and Murdock overpower the men just as the police arrive. All four are arrested, with the two robbers claiming BA and Murdock forced them to steal!
At the Police Station, Murdock calls Hannibal, realising that BA’s fingerprints will trigger in the system and alert Decker to his whereabouts. The Colonel sets off on the two-hour drive as, true to form, Decker takes the call and orders his men to assemble.
Seemingly without any due process, the police take Murdock and BA to work on a chain gang in the desert, digging ditches. They’re taken with the two robbers, who’s attempt to threaten BA backfires as he rips a pole from the ground to defend himself.
Back at the station, Hannibal arrives in disguise as Colonel Decker to retrieve his team’s personal effects and learn their location. Just as he leaves, the real Decker turns up – much to the Sherriff’s confusion.
Over at the chain gang, a woman pulls up on the side of the road with a puncture. As the cops go to help, she pulls a gun on them and shoots one in the shoulder. She frees the two robbers who are more than happy to leave BA and Murdock behind to tend to the injured cop.
Despite facing arrest, the two decide to take the cop to the hospital to save his life. Decker heads to the same location, ordering the building locked down. Murdock calls Hannibal from inside and tells him about the family the robbers threatened to hurt earlier. Hannibal heads off to help, while Murdock wheels BA out in disguise as a Doctor and patient, stealing an ambulance for their escape.
At a nearby bar, we learn the robbers are part of a gang looking for $100,000 they think is hidden at their old partner’s farm. He died a while back and the gang think his widow and son know where the money is hidden. The girlfriend who helped the robbers escape isn’t too happy with the plan but is threatened by the leader to keep quiet.
Hannibal arrives at the widow’s farm just in time, the phone lines have already been cut and the gang is closing in. Barricading the family inside the farmhouse, Hannibal gathers the ammunition from the house and rigs up the gas pipe from the cooker to a hose. A shootout begins, with Hannibal outnumbered and outgunned.
On their way to help, the ambulance breaks down leaving BA and Murdock stranded in the middle of nowhere. To make matters worse, they hear Decker closing in over the radio. The two managed to camouflage themselves by the side of the road while MPs search the abandoned ambulance.
Hannibal is running out of bullets at the farmhouse and turns to the hose, lighting the gas and blasting flames at the gang. He forces the men back but knows it’s a losing game. The gang release the breaks on a car and roll it towards the house, crashing through a wall and ending the fight with Hannibal and the family captured.
Out in the desert, BA and Murdock find an old chassis and rig up a buggy frame with a sale to start moving again. Before long the reach the farmhouse and find the tense standoff.
To stall for time, Hannibal pretends to know where the money is buried. He counts paces out from the barn and starts digging. Meanwhile, BA and Murdock get into position with BA setting a car on fire and Murdock hiding in a scarecrow. As the burning car rolls towards the group, Murdock jumps into action and Hannibal fights his way through the men with BA joining soon after.
With the gang defeated, the A-Team sneak away as the Sherriff arrives – called by the gang leader’s girlfriend. The mother and son won’t say a word about the team after their help, and the Sherriff says he doesn’t blame them.
As the team drive away, there’s one more piece of bad luck left – they drive right past Decker who turns his car and starts the chase all over again.
Let’s wrap up with a few key questions.
Does Hannibal wear a disguise?
Yes. He dresses up as Colonel Decker in a costume Face was going to present him for his birthday.
Does BA get on a plane?
Nope.
Should someone be dead?
No. Hannibal gets close to a few of the gang with his makeshift flamethrower but its meant to warn them away not roast them alive.
Breakout (S03,E13) is an unusual episode of The A-Team, with Face only appearing in a few scenes by telephone – leaving Hannibal, BA and Murdock to adventure as a trio. With Hannibal working on a new Aquamaniac movie, it’s BA and Murdock who find themselves unwittingly drawn into problems when they get tangled up in a robbery and arrested.
Chained up and digging ditches, the two have to fight off the robbers and warn Hannibal about a bigger plan to threaten a widow and her son for some hidden money. It’s fun to see the team split apart without a plan, and acting both out of self-preservation and their sense of duty. The story works well without Face, though it’s always a shame when one of the team is missing. You get the sense that the next time they meet up, Templeton won’t believe a word of this one.