The A-Team: The Beast From the Belly of a Boeing


episode number: season 1, episode 12 (1983)
viewing setting: home DVD, 6/22/04

episode synopsis: During a midair job, the team overcomes the hijackers, but Murdock is blinded and can't fly the plane, which is low on fuel.

impressions: This is a grade-A Murdock episode. Not only does he have to deal with being declared sane, but he singlehandedly takes out half the hijackers without being detected. We also finally get to see what happens when B.A. wakes up on a plane (much less one being piloted by a crazy AND blind Murdock and an on-the-jazz Hannibal!)

notable guest star: One of the hijackers is played by Xander Berkeley, who was John Connor's foster father in Terminator 2 until he ran afoul of the T-1000.

what the team builds in this episode: nothing, though B.A. was halfway through getting the hatch open when the plane took off early

Hannibal wisecrack highlight: impersonates the owner of the plane's airline and gets the hijackers to release all the hostages in exchange for himself and Face

B.A. toughness highlight: gets to say "You slap me again and I'll break your arm!"

Murdock insanity highlight: actually gets released from the hospital because the doctor thinks he's sane

Face scam highlight: comes up with a limo, and at the end he's quite obviously scamming the other guys out of their share of the payment for the mission

Amy usefulness highlight: gets to be ground liason for the mission and ends up forcing the control tower to help save the plane and the team

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