Special Guest Rick James hires the A-Team to help his friend C.J. Mack (played by the other Special Guest of the week, Isaac Hayes). Mack is due to get out of prison and James suspects that something is up — a correct suspicion, as the team is just in time to keep Mack from being shot. The team discovers C.J. Mack was marked for death after getting information on a robbery ring being run from inside the prison. But when the trouble proves to be deeper than it looks, the team will have to put on their own performance to save C.J. and unmask the crime ring.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Caught on Tape: C.J. Mack somehow got evidence against the ring inside the prison on the tapes he was sent for music.
- Engineered Public Confession: The team gets back the tapes containing the evidence against Warden Crichton. After they defeat the guards, Hannibal uses a tape recorder and the microphone to play back the portion about Crichton intending to kill Mack and anyone else he has to in order to keep his secret.
- He's Back!: C.J. does not intend to go back to music after getting out of prison, but B.A. objects, saying that music is what he does and he can't give it up. After the team gets him to play at one concert, he agrees.
- High-Voltage Death: The prison ring that's after Mack attempts to electrocute him by soaking the electrical equipment with water while he's on stage. However, Hannibal and Face turn up just in time to stop Quint from dumping the water.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Face and Hannibal have been captured and shut up in the workshop and are trying to figure out what to do. Hannibal remarks that it would be good if B.A. and Murdock were there. Then the antagonists open the door and shove B.A. and Murdock into the workshop.
- Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: The team is captured inside a prison, yet are inexplicably locked up in an unguarded workshop. The guards don't even bother handcuffing them.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The warden of the prison was behind C.J. getting kidnapped the day of his release. When chewing out the person he put in charge of the operation, he orders him to try it again, make it look accidental, and not mess it up this time.
- Moonwalk Dance: Rick James does the moonwalk during the opening concert.
- Special Guest: Rick James appears as in the role of himself as the client of the week. The main guest star of the episode, meanwhile, is Isaac Hayes as C.J. Mack.
