Pardner.
The One With… the exploding bracelets.The Erdmann gang, a group of notorious criminals, have developed a new and ingenious method of getting civilians to do their dirty work; they strap timed explosives onto their wrists and plant the key where they want the explosives taken. Their first victim barely survives - thanks only to International Rescue's new fireproof rescue elevator - but the records of the Erdmann gang do not.
Furious at this development, the British Secret Service (most-likely MI6) send their agent Southern to infiltrate the gang, armed only with a radio-transmitter pen. While Southern is able to infiltrate the gang's effort to break into a plutonium store, he's captured by one of the guard robots and left to die. It's up to International Rescue to reach the explosives before a nuclear holocaust engulfs England!
- Artistic Licence – Chemistry: In reality, diacetylene is highly flammable and is about as good as petrol when used in a fire extinguisher!
- Awesome, but Impractical: A storage bunker for nuclear materials guarded by humanoid robots is just cool, no matter how you look at it, and there are obvious advantages to their having no need to ever leave their posts or worry about radiation effects. Unfortunately, these particular robots are slow, clunky, and can only disable any intruders by grappling them. And can be disabled by a single shot of an EMP gun. There appear to be no alarms, cameras, or even a single human guard just to look at the place and make sure nothing is happening.
- The Cameo: For reasons unexplained, Thompson Tower from City of Fire appears as a hideout for the Erdmann gang, although given the event happened before City of Fire, it's easy to speculate that the tower hadn't been opened yet.
- Contrived Coincidence: One wonders what exactly the Erdmann Gang's plan was in the quite likely event that Prescott hadn't stopped to pick up that hitchhiker.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Southern has the Erdmann Gang members at gunpoint and is about to lead them away, when the final Conveniently Timed Guard robot sneaks up behind him. He doesn't notice until the robot has already restrained him, allowing the gang members to escape.
- Drives Like Crazy: Thomas Prescott. Justified; you'd drive like that too if you had a bomb strapped to your wrist and only 30 minutes to reach the key to take it off.
- Elevator Failure: Caused by a honking great explosion.
- Explosive Leash: The favoured tactic of the bad guys in this episode.
- Faking the Dead: Thomas Prescott, the first victim of the Erdmann Gang's MO with the explosive bracelets, is saved in time by International Rescue, yet the local press (under direction of the authorities, according to Commissioner Garfield) decides to publish a fake newspaper article that Prescott has perished in the fire, in the hope that the Erdmann gang will feel safe enough to try the same trick again. It works.
- Hostile Hitchhiker: Prescott becomes a victim of the Erdmann gang when he picks up a hitchhiker, who turns out to be a member of the gang and straps the bomb to Prescott's wrist.
- Karma Houdini: While the Erdman gang leader and some of his henchmen are killed when their helijet is shot down, the hitchhiker who places the Explosive Leash on Thomas Prescott is apparently never caught.
- No OSHA Compliance: The elevator that Prescott gets trapped in has no emergency brakes, something that has been a standard feature since not long after their inception in the 19th Century.
- Relocating the Explosion: Scott does this at the climax of the episode by taking the bracelets with him in Thunderbird 1 and dropping them into the ocean.
- So Crazy, It Must Be True: Following his rescue, Prescott tells the cops all about the hitchhiker and the explosive bracelet. Surprisingly, the Chief Investigator believes him. As he explains to another officer, not only does Prescott have no criminal history, but the building's fire safety measures had been sabotaged and most importantly, the fire destroyed vital information on some of the country's most high-profile criminal gangs. When the investigators find the bracelet, it confirms Prescott's story.
- Spy Fiction: Leaning a little towards Stale Beer. The visual style was heavily inspired by The Ipcress File, which the crew had seen that weekend, but there's also some Bond shout-outs (It wouldn't be until "The Man From MI-5 that they'd go "full Bond").
- Stairs Are Faster: When he finally arrives at the office, Prescott has to wait for a painfully slow elevator, while he (literally) has a ticking timebomb attached to him. And after disposing of the bomb, he takes the same slow elevator to leave the building,which leads to him getting trapped inside and needing rescue. Maybe he should have used the stairs.
- The Tag: The final scene is Southern having dinner with Lady Penelope, telling her how sadly it is the end of his career as a secret agent, as his cover is broken. She sounds interested in the life of a secret agent, not letting on that she is one herself.
- Tin-Can Robot: The storehouse's (rather adorable) guardbots. Leads to a little Zeerust.
- Western Terrorists: the Erdmann gang.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Prescott when he is arrested after his rescue. Fortunately for him, the authorities do believe him about the bomb bracelet considering that a. Prescott was a model citizen so it makes no sense why he would suddenly commit a terrorist attack, b. the explosion destroyed files regarding the infamous Erdmann gang, c. It’s too crazy for him to have made it up and d. the sprinkler system had been sabotaged. Then Prescott's story is confirmed when the remains of said bracelet are recovered from the debris.
