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Recap / The A Team S 3 E 12 Hot Styles

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Face's latest romance with a model named Rina is rudely interrupted when a couple of gangsters, led by Johnny Turian, pull her away during a date — but even stranger is her resistance when the team rescues her. Although Hannibal wonders if this is simply a part of her life she didn't share with Face, the team learns otherwise when they investigate the situation further. In his attempt to steal a set of highly-guarded fashion designs, Turian will stop at nothing, and Rina's life isn't the only one in danger.

This episode includes examples of the following tropes:

  • Batman Gambit: The team's plan to defeat Turian involves giving him a bunch of fake designs in place of the real fashions he plans on ripping off. The original plan is to have Rina, who is supposed to be delivering the stolen designs to Turian, swap those out with the fakes. Face realizes that whatever Turian has on her has her completely under the villain's sway and that she'll certainly rat the team out again... so he doesn't make the swap, but tells her he did, resulting in Turian destroying the real designs and sending the fakes to his boss after all.
  • Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: A large part of the plot revolves around the Damsel in Distress's unwillingness to let Face and his friends save her. It turns out the villain is also holding her young son, and she's afraid he'll be hurt if she tries to escape.
  • Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Rina covers her young son Eric's eyes briefly while Face and the other two are punching out Turian and his men.
  • False Reassurance: When Rina begs Turian not to hurt Face, Turian tells her he's not going to; the sharks are.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Murdock calls Hannibal El Jefe ("the boss") in one scene.
  • Hypocrite: Face complains about Rina leading him on when she was really dating Turian. Hannibal points out that he didn't tell her he was a fugitive from the government. Rina also calls Face out on it... at which point he calls her out as well.
  • I Have Your Daughter: Gender Flipped; Face can't understand why Rina keeps resisting his efforts to rescue her, until the two of them are aboard Turian's yacht and Turian's men bring out a little boy — Rina's son Eric.
  • I Know You Know I Know: When Turian gloats to Face that he's already too late to stop him from stealing the designs, Face reveals that he suspected Rina would be frightened enough to inform on him and hence he didn't replace the film. Turian sent the decoy roll with Murdock's designs to his boss and tossed the real roll into the harbor.
  • Pop the Tires: Turian shoots out the front tire of Face's Corvette to stop him from chasing them.
  • Preemptive Apology: Just before leaving the yacht, Hannibal apologizes for the hole in it. When Turian asks what hole he means, Hannibal holds up a grenade.
  • Spoiled by the Format: The team finds the antagonists and rescues the girl a short way into the episode, so obviously something else will have to be wrong to fill up the remaining minutes.
  • Title Drop: When working on their plan, Hannibal promises to deliver some "hot styles" in place of the fashions Turian is trying to rip off.
  • Watch the Paint Job: The others somehow talked B.A. into letting Murdock drive his precious van while he's getting there and a Running Gag through the episode is the worry that something will happen to it. Strangely, except for a few moments early in the episode, Murdock takes this charge very seriously, worrying about odd sounds and keeping the heat on high to keep the carpet fluffy. Of course, all this is ruined when Murdock accidentally drives the van off a dock at the end of the episode.
  • You Are Too Late: Thinking that Face wants to get back the fashion designs, Turian gloats that he's too late; Turian already mailed the film to his boss. However, Face then reveals that he tricked Turian into mailing the wrong film.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once Rina has gotten the fashion designs for him, Turian tells his men to throw her, her son, and Face overboard.

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