"Lease with an Option to Die" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of The A-Team
Plot[]
On the streets of Chicago, Mrs. Baracus listens to a football game on a portable radio until witnessing a gang harassing a woman, Karen. Learning the men are living in the nearby apartment building the women live in. Mrs. Baracus warns the men to behave as the woman goes inside to find that the apartment building super, Alvarez, who she learns is with the gang. The gang physically assault Mrs. Baracus, breaking her arm, and she tells them that she is going to call her son.
The A-Team recieve a phone call from Mrs. Baracus. An angered B.A. makes a plan with the team to get to his mother as quickly as possible, the urgency convincing him that they must fly, despite his fear of this method of travel. Murdock flies the team to Chicago, Hannibal and Face inducing sleep on the fearful B.A.
They arrive at Mrs. Baracus' home, learning that she nicknamed B.A. "Scooter" and introduced them to Karen. They have a meal as Mrs. Baracus and Karen tell them about the gang. Hannibal suggests they take over Mrs. Baracus' lease while she stay with Karen.
They meet with the other tenants of the apartment building, the A-Team offering to take care of the gang for them. Two gang members then interrupt the meeting and are fended off by the A-Team.
Murdock, playing a childlike character, does yo-yo tricks in front of the gang and Alvarez. They go to the apartment, where Hannibal is posing as "Mrs. Murdock," head of the tenants' committee. They vandalize the apartment and pay Hannibal to move out.
B.A. and Face follow Alvarez and the gang to Harrington Plaza, where the gang meet with the corrupt head of Harrington Management, David Plout. This prompts the team to send the "head" of the tenants' committee to meet with Harrington Management, who have no legal connection to the apartment building.
As Mrs. Murdock, Hannibal and Murdock meet with Plout, reading him a list of complaints to him. When he denies any involvement with the building, they tell him that Alvarez sold him out. When Plout threatens to have them thrown out, Hannibal shoots up the office and urges Plout to heed to the list of complaints or else he will report him to the housing commission.
Having tapped the phone line, B.A. listens in on a phone call from Plout to the company chairman, Phillip Chadway. B.A. and Face then follow Plout as he leaves to meet with the Chadway. While Plout is inside, Face hits his car with a sledgehammer.
Posing as Father Shawn O'Herlihy, Face meets briefly with Plout and Chadway about the accident and leaves them a bugged copy of St. Patrick's Proverbs for the Good Life. B.A. listens in on Chadway's plan to redevelop the apartment property into a hotel once the gang drives out the tenants.
The tenants' committee report the quiet activity around the building as Alvarez and Plout start a fire. The team try to learn who the legal owner of the building is, but are then forced to evacuate the building. Plout, Alvarez and the gang try to get away as Hannibal and B.A. put out the fire with a fire hydrant and drain pipe. The team catch the gang and manage to subdue them.
Chadway bails Plout out of jail and commands him to learn who the A-Team are. As face goes to city hall, Murdock and B.A. go to keep an eye on Chadway. Mrs. Baracus then tells Hannibal about when B.A. first joined the Army and her concerns for him over the years. She tells him that despite his fugitive status, she takes comfort in the fact that B.A. has a family - the A-Team.
Karen unsuccessfully attempts to get the records on who owns the building. Face then enters as "Matt Peck" from the Mayor's Office and manages to get a look at the records, finding the building to be owned by Nicholas Perry.
They track down Perry to the Golden Days Retirement Home, owned by Chadway. They meet with Perry, who denies owning the building, stating the ownership deal to have been forged. He tells them that he has been receiving solicitations since the supposed ownership. Perry then signs the property to Hannibal, who then calls Chadway, wishing to sell the property for $2 million, which Chadway says is too much. However, Hannibal blackmails the businessman.
Chadway goes to the building and meets with the A-Team with a check for the property and threatens them to stop interfering with his business. Chadway drives away with Plout, who has rigged a bomb in the building's boiler room. Mrs. Baracus tells the team that she witnessed Plout leaving the building and the team goes to the basement to find the bomb. B.A. manages to defuse the bomb with only seconds to spare.
At an event for Chadway's development plan, the A-Team interrupt with the evidence against Chadway, prompting him and Plout to run, with the A-Team in pursuit. After a shootout, the team manage to apprehend the men.
The A-Team have a celebration dinner with Mrs. Baracus and Karen, Murdock annoying B.A. with childhood stories B.A.'s mother had told him.
Comments[]
Face's disguise as Irish priest Sean O'Herlihy is named after one of the series' directors, Michael O'Herlihy.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- George Peppard as John "Hannibal" Smith
- Dirk Benedict as Templeton "Faceman" Peck
- Dwight Schultz as H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock
- Mr. T as B.A. Baracus
- John Vargas as Rico
- Wiley Harker as Nicholas Perry
- Liz Sheridan as Hildegard Henderson
- Gerry Black as Concerned Tenant
- Patrick Pankhurst
Guest starring[]
- Ray Wise as Phillip Chadway
- Brion James as David Plout
- Ismael Carlo as Alvarez
- Wendy Schaal as Karen
Special guest star[]
- Della Reese as Mrs. Baracus
Featuring[]
- Anita Jesse as Dorothy