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Recap / The A Team S 1 E 3 Children Of Jamestown

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The A-Team, with Amy in tow, raids Jamestown after a father hires them to save his daughter Sheila from the cult. While Murdock is able to get the clients to safety, Hannibal, B.A., Face, and Amy get captured by the cultists. Now they have to stay alive and fight their way out against overwhelming odds.

This episode contains examples of the following tropes:

  • Batter Up!: Hannibal tosses Face a bat to use against the monks the first brawl.
  • Cigar-Fuse Lighting: Murdock is flying a helicopter and dropping sticks of dynamite that he would light with a cigar.
  • Cult Colony: Jamestown. It's organized something like a fort with armed guards, and the cultists are kept under strict rules, including enforced "vows of silence".
  • Deadpan Snarker: Amy makes a few snarky remarks about the situation when the injured Face manages to invoke the Florence Nightingale Effect on a local farmer's daughter.
  • Declaration of Protection: When he realizes Amy is having trouble coping with the fear of death, B.A. tells her that he won't let anything hurt her.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The episode opens with Hannibal giving a voice-over narration explaining the situation. This was the only time in the series this happened.
  • Hiding Behind Religion: Martin James is always spouting off vaguely religious statements. However, Hannibal declares early on that his real motive isn't religion; it's power.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Martin James sentences the team and Amy to a trial, which involves running on foot from the cultists in jeeps while the cultists try to shoot them down. They manage to give them the slip by hiding against an embankment until the cultists pass.
  • I Don't Want to Die: When the captured team members inform her that she has to accept that it's possible they won't make it out in order to function under fire, Amy has a minor Heroic BSoD and says softly that she doesn't want to die.
  • Just a Flesh Wound: Face says this when the farmer's daughter is tending his injury (he got hit in the face with a rifle butt). To which Amy quips, "That's a fresh one".
  • Kill It with Fire: The team uses a home-made flamethrower to destroy the compound and defeat the bad guys.
  • Moment Killer: Face is giving the farmer's daughter a definition of "the jazz" and she's hanging on his every word. They're just about to kiss when Murdock comes up and says he can't find the bubble bath, and further disrupts the mood by revealing that he's looking for it because of Face's fondness for it.
  • Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Face takes one to the... well, face. When Hannibal asks how many fingers he's holding up, the bleary commando volunteers "Gargh... Blue... TREE!"
  • No-Sell: One of the cultists slams B.A. in the chest with a rifle. He doesn't even flinch.
  • Ripped from the Headlines: Martin James was presumably based on Reverend Jim Jones, founder and leader of the Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, which is best known for committing a mass suicide on November 18, 1978 by drinking poisoned grape Flavor-Aid.
  • Run or Die: Hannibal says this to Amy as they're fleeing the cultists on foot.
  • Running Gag:
    • In the beginning of the episode, Hannibal accidentally splits Face's lip during a pretend fight, and B.A. complains about it, saying that Face's smile gets them good hotel rooms. A few minutes later, when they meet up with Murdock, he complains about it too.
    • The team begins mocking the cultists who have them captive by wondering what they wear under the skirts of their robes. The cultists respond by hitting them in the gut. B.A. finishes it up, and the cultist hits him. He doesn't flinch.
  • Sinister Minister: Reverend Martin James, being an evil cult leader.
  • Team Hand-Stack: While comforting Amy, Face, B.A., and Hannibal stack their hands on top of each other.
  • Title Drop: The cult leader makes a reference to the "children of Jamestown."
  • Undying Loyalty: Murdock goes back after the others after dropping the clients of the week off safely, despite the immense odds against him.
  • Wardrobe Wound: Hannibal makes a big deal out of the fact that cult leader Martin James forced him to take off his ostrich boots before the manhunt. He even lists it to a local farmer as one of the grievances he has against James (along with the people he's got captive).
  • We Need a Distraction: Amy is given the task of distracting the guard at a farmhouse so Face can jump him.
    Hannibal: A man will make him suspicious.
    Amy: Let's hear it for Women's Lib!

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