Lease With An Option To Die

 

Intro teaser

Henchman: This is a changing neighbourhood.
[Henchman knocks Mrs Baracus down the steps.]
B.A: No one puts their hands on my mother and lives to tell about it!
[Cut to B.A. tossing henchman overhead.]
[Cut to B.A. and Murdock in the plane cockpit.]
Murdock: Just sit back and enjoy the pleasures of air travel.
[Cut to B.A. with breathing mask on as he falls asleep.]
[Cut to Mrs Baracus.]
Mrs B: Well if you weren't such a wimp about flying...
[Cut to Hannibal having a pop at the bad guys.]
Hannibal: Why don't you two slimeballs bug off?
Henchman: Says who?
B.A: Says me.
Hannibal: Throw them out, Murdock.
[Cut  to bad guy sailing out of the window.]
[Cut to Hannibal in drag and a wheelchair confronting the boss bad guy.]
Boss Bad Guy: Mrs Murdock.
[Murdock pushes Hannibal in the wheelchair.]
Boss Bad Guy: I don't want any of them to get out of this alive.
[Firefight.]

Someone's been rash enough to mess with B.A's mother, B.A actually got on a plane and some bad guys got a kicking.  Looks promising.

 

Plot

On the steps of a large apartment building a lady is being hassled by a group of thugs.  An older, black lady intervenes and gets shoved down the steps for her trouble.  She warns the bad guys that her son will come and sort them out.  Just guess who it's going to be...

Cut to the A-Team van where the phone call comes in for B.A.  His mum is apparently under the impression that he is the 'leader of the A-Team'. 

B.A. is Not Happy that someone has hurt his mum and and wants to go straight there as fast as possible, even though that means flying.  Face scams them a private jet and Murdock tells B.A. to just relax and enjoy the flight.  Instead he panics on takeoff and Face and Hannibal send him to sleep with a doped oxygen mask.

They arrive at Mrs Baracus' home.  B.A. is delighted to see his mum and Murdock is running around with a video camera to record the moment.  B.A. introduces the rest of the team and they all play along to let her go on thinking he is the leader.

They come up with a plan to take over the lease and form a tenants association.  The other residents aren't convinced it will work and several of them feel to threatened to come to the meeting Hannibal sets up.  After the thugs interrupt the meeting and are roughly tossed out though, everyone feels far more confident.

Out on the steps the thugs are still hanging around.  Murdock pushes past them and plays in the street with a yoyo, acting like a small child.  When they hassle him he tells them he's just moved in.  They tell him he'll have to get out again soon.

The thugs burst into Mrs Baracus' apartment where Hannibal is now installed, in drag, and pretending to be Murdock's mum.  The thugs smash up the place threaten to break Murdock's fingers and tell them they should leave.

When the henchmen leave Face and B.A. follow them to Harrington Plaza where they pick up a pay-off, so Mrs Murdock and her rather odd son H.M. pay a visit to Harrington Plaza.  Hannibal presents a list of complaints about the building then pulls out a machine gun, shoots up the glassware and leaves.

Meanwhile B.A. has tapped the phone and overhears the developers talking about the building once they drive out the tenants.  Face scams his way into the building posing as a priest who accidentally hit one of their cars and plants a bug hidden in a bible.  They listen to the plot to drive out the tenants in order to tear down the building and build a new development.

The tenants association is in full swing and patrolling the building, which is just as well as the bad guys start a fire.  The team evacuate the building but the extinguishers are faulty.  They improvise with a drainpipe and nearby fire hydrant to put out the fire.  They see the guys who started it running from the scene and beat them up.

Face and Karen, one of the other tenants, go to the City Hall to find out who owns the building.  It's a Mr Perry, but when they visit him he's living in an old people's home and knows nothing about it.  Chadwick-the-evil-developer has been buying up buildings in the name's of the OAPs in the home, which he owns as well.

Hannibal gets Perry to sign the building over to him then contacts Chadwick and offers to sell it to him for $2million.  Chadwick refuses at first but agrees when Hannibal threatens to expose him. 

Chadwick meets with Hannibal and brings him a cheque.  Hannibal tricks him into admitting to driving out the tenants, not knowing that Murdock is hiding nearby with the video camera.

All is not so easy of course and Chadwick has the henchmen plant a bomb in the building.  Mrs Baracus sees them leaving and the team search for the bomb.  B.A. finds it and, after some tense moments, disarms it--leaving everyone but Hannibal looking very rattled.

Chadwick, meanwhile, is throwing a party to celebrate his new acquisition.  A party which is quickly interrupted by the arrival of the team with a video showing all the underhanded tricks he pulled to get it--complete with commentary by Murdock.

A firefight ensues as the bad guys try to escape.  Chadwick heads for the helicopter on the roof but finds Murdock already there.

In celebration the team have Christmas dinner (even though it's July) with Mrs Baracus (who likes Murdock a whole lot more than her son does.)

 

Bad Guys

Your average Evil Developers.

Chadwick

Wants to build a big hotel on the site of the apartment building and doesn't care how he gets rid of the tenants first.

Albarez

The super at the apartment building and lead henchmen.

Assorted other henchpersons

None too bright.

 

Good Guys

 Mrs Baracus

Was wonderful.  Utterly believable as B.A's mum and her interaction with the rest of the team was beautiful, particularly with Murdock.  Loved the little remarks about B.A. as a kid (Scooter!).

Karen

Another tenant and handy lawyer-type.  Fancied Face of course.

 

Hardware, Action, and Scams

Mrs Murdock and H.M.

Oh dear me.  What a pair.  I think the only possible explanation for their getting away with that, was the bad guys were utterly confused.

Face the Priest

A rather sweet, hapless Irish priest who sadly ran into the Evil Developers car.  What a shame.

Scamming City Hall

Rather nice, clever little double-act.

Beating up the Bad Guys

Lots of it.  B.A. was flinging people right left and centre and I don't envy that pipe-wielding bad guy the kick in the teeth Murdock gave him.

Fires and Bombs

They were lucky lucky.  Murdock should by rights have cracked his head open on that fall--gravity obviously likes him, and picking a random wire to snip seems a good way to spread yourself and the building all over the street.

 

Random Remarks

The plot is utterly unoriginal--what is it with those run-down, red-brick, apartment buildings that every Evil Developer wants to tear them down and build a shopping centre/hotel/casino.  Is this some American thing I'm missing out on I wonder?

Anyway, I love this episode in spite of the pedestrian plot.  Mrs Baracus is wonderful and there's loads of lovely character moments.

I love the way the whole team play along to let B.A's mum go on thinking he's leader with Hannibal gently prompting him with the plan.  And the way they support him on the plane--even Murdock was quite calm and restrained.

I did like the way the video camera Murdock had been playing with for the whole episode actually came in useful for the Expose The Bad Guy routine.

 

End Frames

Murdock playing with yoyo.
Murdock hugging Hannibal-in-drag.
Face-as-priest.
Murdock pointing video camera at B.A.
Murdock popping up out of the skip and giving Hannibal a thumbs up.
Face jumping on bad guys.
Face throwing one of the bad guys off the balcony.
Murdock doing Cat's Cradle with the yoyo.
Hannibal-in-drag pats Murdock's hand.

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