Face drags Murdock along to the 20 year reunion of the orphanage where he grew up, Angels Guardian Orphanage. Shortly before getting run off by General Fullbright, he discovers that his old friend Barry has gotten himself into trouble and needs help. Barry believes he has found the wreckage of 17th century Spanish galleon La Santissima and is being hounded by pirates seeking the galleon's treasure of gold, silver, and jewels.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Asshole Victim: The team has to scam up a boat to try to get to the wreckage of La Santissima before the villains do. Fortunately, the boat they choose to go after is owned by a rich slob who throws beer bottles in the ocean, finds the idea that one of his beer bottles might have killed a porpoise to be hilarious, and is a jerk to his son.
- Bad Habits: Hannibal poses as a nun in order to save Face from Fullbright's trap at the beginning of the episode, thereby providing the amusing image of a cigar-chomping nun firing an uzi.
- Continuity Nod: The limo Murdock uses to drive Face to the reunion at the beginning belongs to his psychiatrist, Dr. Richter, previously shown in "The Doctor is Out". On the other hand, see Series Continuity Error...
- Honey Trap: Rebecca Piper was Face's unrequited childhood crush, who Face once wanted to "take for a walk by the garden pond." She uses this to lure him into a trap in the hope of collecting the bounty on his head.He insists that she's not like that and must have been forced into it by General Fullbright, until she tries it again at the end.
- Idiot Ball: Face attending his orphanage's reunion, and under his real name no less. General Fullbright read about it in the orphanage newsletter, and talked one of Face's old "friends" into setting him up. The rest of the team thoroughly chews Face out for it.
- Never Accepted in His Hometown: Every single person at the reunion knows exactly who Face is and most of them have been swindled by him multiple times already. They don't hate him, but none of them take him seriously and absolutely none of them buy into his lies about what he's done with his life since leaving the orphanage. He even gets sold out to General Fullbright by his own unrequited sweetheart, Rebecca Piper.
- Pirate Booty: Face scammed Barry as a kid by selling him a fake treasure map promising this, actually traced from Treasure Island with place names altered to be more California-like. There's also a real treasure, which is what the villains of the week are after, though this treasure was never actually in the hands of any pirates. The ship's captain scuttled his own ship in order to keep privateer Bouchard from getting his hands on it.
- Pirate Parrot: Upon hearing that La Santissima was an old galleon carrying gold, Murdock becomes obsessed with pirates, and moreso with their parrots. Barry points out that Bouchard, the pirate named in the sunken treasure myth, never owned a parrot. Barry does own one, though, much to Murdock's delight.
- The Pollyanna: Barry was by far the most common victim of Face's cons, some of which were actually pretty cruel. Despite this, he doesn't hold anything against Face and even considers him to have been a good friend. Apparently all of Face's cons ended up turning out good for Barry. Being conned out of his tennis shoes made him better at running, and he set a state record for the 440 yard dash. On another occasion, Face stole another kid's bicycle and sold it to Barry, but when Barry explained the situation and returned the bike those two became good friends, the other kid grew up to become a tax attorney, and now he does Barry's taxes every year for free. Most of all, Face scammed Barry out of his tickets to see The Allman Brothers Band in concert, with Barry staying at the orphanage and pretending to be Face. This resulted in Barry meeting and being adopted by a loving family, who thought that he was the wonderful Temp Peck kid they'd heard so much about. Barry has actually never forgiven himself for taking this opportunity away from Face.
- Series Continuity Error: According to the episode "Mind Games", Face's original real name was Alvin Brenner. He only became Templeton Peck much later in life, and after going through four other names first. No one from the orphanage knows him as Alvin, or Al, or any of the other names he went by. There are potential explanations, but the episode never explores them.
- Shout-Out: The fake map Face sold to Barry as a kid was traced from an illustration in Treasure Island. Murdock also makes reference to Bluebeard when listing off famous pirates, though as he notes Bluebeard was not a pirate but did have many of the same bloodthirsty traits.
- Shown Their Work: Although not as famous for piracy and privateering as the Caribbean, there were also trade routes in the Pacific, carrying valuable goods from the East Indies to ports in the Americas, often stopping in Monterey, California to resupply. This route did see its own share of piracy, and in particular the privateer Hippolyte Bouchard (mentioned as the one who attacked La Santissima) did sail to California for a raid on the city of Monterey. The only mistake is the dates. The ship is stated to be from the 17th century, but the Monterey trade route wasn't widely used until the 18th century when the Spanish crown ordered all ships to do business through that city, and Hippolyte Bouchard's privateering career took place in the early 19th century.
- Swiper, No Swiping!: The heroes need to reach into the cage of Barry's pet parrot in order to find a chart he hid there, but the parrot is so riled up from the villains trashing Barry's office earlier that it tries to bite everyone, and won't even let Barry reach inside. Hannibal takes the cage and tells the bird straight up "if you bite me I'll turn you into a feather duster", which instantly pacifies the animal.
- Traffic Wardens: Barry's sister Elaine is one of these. She takes her job very seriously. She gets Murdock's limo towed at the beginning of the episode, stops her explanation about the people who just robbed her house in order to tell the A-Team that their van is illegally parked, and later recognizes the villains' car because it had a broken tail light and she had intended to ticket it when she saw it before.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Going for a walk by the garden pond." The orphanage garden with its romantic reflecting pool was a popular spot for teenagers at the orphanage looking for a romantic rendezvous, and it was well known that if a girl agreed to a walk there it meant she was ready to go all the way.
