The team encounters Lin Duk Coo, the Vietnamese cook who kept them and some of their fellow soldiers alive during the war, but all is not well — the man is quickly kidnapped and only the team's quick intervention saves him from being executed. Digging into the case, they find that the head of the POW camp where they were sent ordered Lin killed in revenge for helping the American soldiers, and a crime boss' son (also from the camp) is willing to help him do it. Now it's up to the A-Team to repay Lin and stop the bad guys once and for all.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Casting Gag: Marjoe Gortner, who plays a character named "Angel", was more famous for his life before being an actor. He was originally a charismatic child preacher who, after years preaching on the revival circuit as an adult, had a crisis of conscience and filmed a documentary in order to expose all the tricks and cons that he and other charismatic preachers use in order to fool people into giving them money.
- Character Witness: Lin slipped food to Hannibal, Face, B.A., and Murdock, keeping them alive. Years later, when he's being targeted for execution by the camp's old leader, he encounters them again. They remember what he did and are happy to take on the job of saving him pro bono.
- Every Man Has His Price: Stated straight up by Angel, when he tries to pay the team to let him go. They refuse his offer and give a counter-offer to return his bread truck (with a stash of drugs inside it) in exchange for Angel selling out General Chow. Of course, both sides were planning the whole time to backstab one another.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Hannibal does this when they find the drug stash inside Angel's bread truck, determining that the bags of white powder contain heroin. Angel does it as well when he gets the truck back, and in doing so realizes the team has replaced his heroin with powdered sugar.
- Hypocritical Humor: B.A. ignores Face when he tells him to be careful with the apartment, as it isn't actually his. But when the team has to go to B.A.'s hotel room at the end of the episode, B.A. chastises Face for putting his feet on the table, saying he'll scuff the finish.
- I Owe You My Life: Lin Duk Coo smuggled food to the POWs in the war camp, risking that he would be executed if found out. In the process, he saved the lives of a number of American soldiers, including the A-Team. Once they figure out he's in trouble, they are determined to return the favor.
- Please Shoot the Messenger: A former North Vietnamese cook who helped the A-Team out was smuggled into the U.S. along with a note along these lines for the smuggler's accomplice. He escapes, but is caught again. The murder attempt kick-starts the episode's plot.
- Revenge Before Reason: General Chow. He's one half of a highly profitable heroin smuggling operation, but he's willing to jeopardize the whole thing to get revenge on a cook who helped four prisoners escape from his POW camp ten years ago. His partner even points out how stupid it is, but he gets overruled.Thomas Angel: In case you've forgotten something, old buddy, we're in the narcotics business and not the revenge business. Now you've got the distribution pipeline set up from China and I've got the best distribution outlet there could possibly be and I don't see that revenge has got anything to do with it.
Chow: You are not of my culture. Perhaps you should ask your father about the laws of silence, the omerta of the American underworld. Perhaps he can explain revenge to you. - Running Gag: Face has (inadvertently) scammed everyone into believing he's a designer, Mr. Toney, and is staying in his apartment, which, being fancy, has rules, like "no messing up the common areas." Face having to explain the behavior of the rest of the team and the bizarre events that occur when they're around makes up a series of jokes over the episode.
- Something Only They Would Say: The team initially suspects Face might be right about Lin working at a particular restaurant when they get some of Lin's bread, as he had a habit of adding ginseng to it. Later, when asked how he can be sure it was Lin, B.A. remarks on his characteristic way of saying "ay yi yi" — apparently a corruption of lyrics from an old Western song he was taught by Murdock.
- You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: A non-supernatural version. When they were all POWs in Vietnam, Thomas Angel got in good with the camp commander, the corrupt General Chow who wanted to get into the narcotics business and thought being nice to the son of a major American crime lord would help in that. B.A. and Hannibal both point out that, while this collaboration would have made Angel a traitor to the country either way, it also put him into a position to help his fellow POWs. He could have talked the General into being nicer to the rest of them too, but he didn't, and is therefore responsible for all of the American soldiers who died from starvation and sickness in Chow's prison camp.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Thomas Angel (whose father is apparently a major criminal) tells Hannibal that he doesn't know who he's messing with. Hannibal makes it clear that he does know who he's messing with; he just doesn't care.
