Post by vwhassenfeffer on Aug 4, 2018 22:08:24 GMT -5
Can it be - an episode of WWW that no one else has written a summary of or even commented on yet? There are CalGal's always excellent screen caps, but not one cutting edge comment from anyone else? Oh, to take on such a pendulous weight of responsibility myself! And yet, as a dyed-in-the-wool Edgar Allen Poe fan, I feel I must step over the pit of my dilemma and hope I will be sharp enough to meet the challenge!
In some ways, I can understand Deadly Blossom being damned with nonexistent praise, containing as it does some of the most wince-worthy moments since TNOT Dragon Screamed. It starts out promisingly enough, with our heroes riding on horseback to the quaint, picket-fenced home of an important Navy Admiral, with the obligatory less-quaint assassin waiting in the bushes for them (is that why they call it an am-bush?). As our heroes dismount and, suspecting nothing, stride right up to the front door, the would-be assassin has the perfect opportunity to Gatling-gun them both down before they can find out anything but for unknown reasons doesn't bother to take any shots. Though listed in the credits simply as 'Polynesian' he is played by Mel Prestidge who played Lieutenant Quon on Hawaiian Eye starring Robert Conrad. Since he isn't given a proper name here, I will dub him Wile E. and this is the start of his soon-to-be-less-than-perfect evening. Incidentally, this episode also features a bit cameo by Soon Tek Oh (back when he was spelling it Soon Taik Oh) as the equally dignified 'Chinese Houseboy.' If the name Soon Tek Oh sounds familiar, it is because with 116 credits he was in half of everything, including Black Sheep Squadron starring . . . Robert Conrad. If this episode is some sort of post-and-pre reunion for Bob, only a Timelord may be able to tell!
Anyway, getting back to the heart of the matter, Jim and Arte find the Admiral and three of his buddies all sitting dead around the table having been killed by prussic acid in their wine and yet perfectly straight in spite of the labored breathing, foaming at the mouth and non-simultaneous violence such deaths should cause. They leave behind mysterious, garbled notes that all say "Y" and have badly drawn lightning bolts and the name of a lone person on them. Well, since they don't know how to die properly of prussic acid poisoning, we can't judge their writing and drawing skills too harshly now, can we? Meanwhile, outside, danger awaits! But our heroes are warned by the neighing and galloping away of their horses - good Blackjack! So they turn out all the lights of the house as they prepare to exit, except for the outside porch light which keeps them visible for the camer- uh, assassin! Wile E., fortunately, waits once again to fire until after he has been spotted by Artemus, who silently warns Jim in the nick of time. As our heroes scatter before the hail of bullets, we at last learn the reason for Wile E.'s hesitation. It turns out he has the same deadly marksman acumen with a machine gun as virtually every villain ever faced by the A-Team and could not hit the broadside of the Wanderer if he tried. This is a good thing, because Jim, in spite of knowing he was walking straight into an attack, has not made sure his gun is capable of firing, so he will have to clobber the creep with his fists instead, while Arte cleverly draws the guy's fire toward more bushes. Jim, however, could probably clobber Godzilla if he wanted to and has no difficulty with this. Our heroes then attempt to interrogate Wile E., who quotes at them in Polynesian, right before Arte spots another would-be assassin and yells "Jim, hard to starboard!" Jim manages to duck a flying Polynesian tomahawk, which hits and kills Wile E. instead. Cue opening title sequence.
Speaking of the Wanderer, we get a beautiful view of it chugging toward us as the episode's title is announced, and back on board, we learn what has our heroes so concerned. They are assigned to security detail for the King of Hawaii who will be arriving by ship in only a day and a half while they are still trying to puzzle together the murder of the Admiral and his buddies. With help from a message that arrives by homing pigeon (I know my hearing's going, but I'd swear Arte calls her Annabella rather than Arabella - an intentional Poe slip-in?) they realize that it all has something to do with the destruction of a ship called the Youngstown, which may have been sabotaged rather than struck by lightning, and the name on the slips of paper is that of the sole survivor of the Youngstown. Cute Odd Couple moment with our boys - Arte carefully unpins some of the notes from their bulletin board, while Jim rips others down without hesitation. Arte will go try to interview the survivor from the Youngstown, while Jim brings the Polynesian tomahawk to an expert on Hawaiian culture named Adam Barclay.
Wince-worthiest moment in this episode: After arriving at Adam Barclay's house, Jim is noticeably silent, awkward and surprised to find out that a man named Adam Barclay is Chinese rather than Caucasian - an observation that Barclay (whose father was English) comments on with less surprising bitterness, followed by a racial generality from Jim, who should know better than to offend his host a second time by making one. Jim also expresses some surprise that an expert and collector of all things Hawaiian also calls Hawaii home. Ouch. In spite of this, Barclay is grateful for the return of the tomahawk that was stolen from his collection the night before and invites Jim to dinner after expressing suspicious curiosity about the King of Hawaii's arrival in America. Jim, receiving a mysterious look from Barclay's beautiful but chilly Japanese secretary, accepts.
Arte, meanwhile, has gone to the hospital to interview the lone survivor from the Youngstown, who is in a catatonic state of shock. Just as Arte gets the poor guy to start snapping alert enough to tell him something, is interrupted by an alleged doctor who clobbers Arte over the head with a ceramic-shattering blow and then assassinates the patient before he can say anything more. Convenient timing! Jim has his own share of troubles after his dinner with Barclay. The sexy secretary takes advantage of a moment's privacy to warn Jim to flee the house via a side exit as killers are lying in wait for him outside again. Jim, sensing another trap, again attempts to walk straight into it and has a fight with about four armed attackers, one of whom manages to cut the back of his hand. He is saved by Barclay in the nick of time, as the streak of blood on his hand is so incredibly bright cadmium red that either the makeup boys are off their game or he is in an advanced state of carbon monoxide poisoning. Thank heavens it wasn't prussic acid! Barclay's secretary, Miss Haruko Ishuda, again tries to warn Jim away, but Jim is slipped a mickey by his host, who REALLY wants to know when and where His Majesty will be arriving, the better to assassinate the King. Jim not being willing to talk, Barclay has him strapped to a table beneath our Poe-ian device, the slowly swinging, razor sharp pendulum! Haruko, who is actually a Japanese secret agent herself, is tied up in a chair, the better to watch Jim's torture and death, since our villain doesn't intend to stick around himself, but leaves Jim a bell which he can strike with his head when he is ready to talk (fat chance!).
Arte, knowing nothing of this (that blow to the head may have damaged his Jim's-in-trouble radar) has disguised himself as a stevedore down at the docks with the help of an I.D. tag from the guy who clobbered him back at the hospital, but didn't kill him for some reason. He discovers that Barclay is having massive destructive rockets shipped to him disguised in crates labeled art objects. Seeking to avoid capture, Arte decides to become an art object himself and hides in the crate the better to be shipped along with it. I am thinking that Season 4's TNOT Pelican owes a lot to this particular episode.
Jim, meanwhile, trades verbal notes with Haruko while that swinging blade gets lower and lower, closer and closer. He manages to work the strap holding him down to the table loose enough that he can flip over onto his back, and with Haruko's help positions his hands so that the pendulum cuts through his wrist ropes rather than through him. He is then able to free himself the rest of the way and free Haruko. Then he rings on the bell so that Barclay's henchman Palea, hereafter briefly known as Wile E. II, comes running, gets in a fight with our hero, and then meets with a fate that is - dare I say it? - to be pit-ied.
Jim and Haruko flee to the Golden Gate area where our villain is planning to launch rockets that will sink the ship carrying the King of Hawaii on board. Since Jim briefly had him fooled, he isn't certain that the ship he is planning to sink is the right one, but he'll just take that chance. His choice is confirmed though when Jim and Haruko manage to avoid one more death trap, only to get caught by the villain's armed henchies. Fortunately, Arte is on hand, disguised as one of said henchies, and he is able to help Jim foil the rocket launch, while the villain's hideout winds up being set to explode a la TNOT Inferno, Deadly Bed, Falcon, um, a lot of other episodes come to think of it! Well, boys will be boys! The King of Hawaii is saved, all three of our good guys (er, two guys, one gal) escape, and California seaside property values are affected only minimally.
In spite of my comments here, I really do like several things with this episode, most of all the references to Poe. It does have its other wince-worthy points - a villain played capably by Nehemiah Persoff, who was right in at the beginning with TNOT Inferno and stuck around to become an underground terror. But I do wish the show could have dealt with its Asian-themed plotlines with more subtlety than we see here and in Dragon Screamed and Pelican. I also was a little unhappy with the tag, in which Arte apparently ditches his date for the evening so he can stay ogling the King of Hawaii's young female relations, as we gather Jim will be doing. All in all, a rip-roaring adventure, though!
Would be curious to know what the rest of you think of this episode - hint, hint!
In some ways, I can understand Deadly Blossom being damned with nonexistent praise, containing as it does some of the most wince-worthy moments since TNOT Dragon Screamed. It starts out promisingly enough, with our heroes riding on horseback to the quaint, picket-fenced home of an important Navy Admiral, with the obligatory less-quaint assassin waiting in the bushes for them (is that why they call it an am-bush?). As our heroes dismount and, suspecting nothing, stride right up to the front door, the would-be assassin has the perfect opportunity to Gatling-gun them both down before they can find out anything but for unknown reasons doesn't bother to take any shots. Though listed in the credits simply as 'Polynesian' he is played by Mel Prestidge who played Lieutenant Quon on Hawaiian Eye starring Robert Conrad. Since he isn't given a proper name here, I will dub him Wile E. and this is the start of his soon-to-be-less-than-perfect evening. Incidentally, this episode also features a bit cameo by Soon Tek Oh (back when he was spelling it Soon Taik Oh) as the equally dignified 'Chinese Houseboy.' If the name Soon Tek Oh sounds familiar, it is because with 116 credits he was in half of everything, including Black Sheep Squadron starring . . . Robert Conrad. If this episode is some sort of post-and-pre reunion for Bob, only a Timelord may be able to tell!
Anyway, getting back to the heart of the matter, Jim and Arte find the Admiral and three of his buddies all sitting dead around the table having been killed by prussic acid in their wine and yet perfectly straight in spite of the labored breathing, foaming at the mouth and non-simultaneous violence such deaths should cause. They leave behind mysterious, garbled notes that all say "Y" and have badly drawn lightning bolts and the name of a lone person on them. Well, since they don't know how to die properly of prussic acid poisoning, we can't judge their writing and drawing skills too harshly now, can we? Meanwhile, outside, danger awaits! But our heroes are warned by the neighing and galloping away of their horses - good Blackjack! So they turn out all the lights of the house as they prepare to exit, except for the outside porch light which keeps them visible for the camer- uh, assassin! Wile E., fortunately, waits once again to fire until after he has been spotted by Artemus, who silently warns Jim in the nick of time. As our heroes scatter before the hail of bullets, we at last learn the reason for Wile E.'s hesitation. It turns out he has the same deadly marksman acumen with a machine gun as virtually every villain ever faced by the A-Team and could not hit the broadside of the Wanderer if he tried. This is a good thing, because Jim, in spite of knowing he was walking straight into an attack, has not made sure his gun is capable of firing, so he will have to clobber the creep with his fists instead, while Arte cleverly draws the guy's fire toward more bushes. Jim, however, could probably clobber Godzilla if he wanted to and has no difficulty with this. Our heroes then attempt to interrogate Wile E., who quotes at them in Polynesian, right before Arte spots another would-be assassin and yells "Jim, hard to starboard!" Jim manages to duck a flying Polynesian tomahawk, which hits and kills Wile E. instead. Cue opening title sequence.
Speaking of the Wanderer, we get a beautiful view of it chugging toward us as the episode's title is announced, and back on board, we learn what has our heroes so concerned. They are assigned to security detail for the King of Hawaii who will be arriving by ship in only a day and a half while they are still trying to puzzle together the murder of the Admiral and his buddies. With help from a message that arrives by homing pigeon (I know my hearing's going, but I'd swear Arte calls her Annabella rather than Arabella - an intentional Poe slip-in?) they realize that it all has something to do with the destruction of a ship called the Youngstown, which may have been sabotaged rather than struck by lightning, and the name on the slips of paper is that of the sole survivor of the Youngstown. Cute Odd Couple moment with our boys - Arte carefully unpins some of the notes from their bulletin board, while Jim rips others down without hesitation. Arte will go try to interview the survivor from the Youngstown, while Jim brings the Polynesian tomahawk to an expert on Hawaiian culture named Adam Barclay.
Wince-worthiest moment in this episode: After arriving at Adam Barclay's house, Jim is noticeably silent, awkward and surprised to find out that a man named Adam Barclay is Chinese rather than Caucasian - an observation that Barclay (whose father was English) comments on with less surprising bitterness, followed by a racial generality from Jim, who should know better than to offend his host a second time by making one. Jim also expresses some surprise that an expert and collector of all things Hawaiian also calls Hawaii home. Ouch. In spite of this, Barclay is grateful for the return of the tomahawk that was stolen from his collection the night before and invites Jim to dinner after expressing suspicious curiosity about the King of Hawaii's arrival in America. Jim, receiving a mysterious look from Barclay's beautiful but chilly Japanese secretary, accepts.
Arte, meanwhile, has gone to the hospital to interview the lone survivor from the Youngstown, who is in a catatonic state of shock. Just as Arte gets the poor guy to start snapping alert enough to tell him something, is interrupted by an alleged doctor who clobbers Arte over the head with a ceramic-shattering blow and then assassinates the patient before he can say anything more. Convenient timing! Jim has his own share of troubles after his dinner with Barclay. The sexy secretary takes advantage of a moment's privacy to warn Jim to flee the house via a side exit as killers are lying in wait for him outside again. Jim, sensing another trap, again attempts to walk straight into it and has a fight with about four armed attackers, one of whom manages to cut the back of his hand. He is saved by Barclay in the nick of time, as the streak of blood on his hand is so incredibly bright cadmium red that either the makeup boys are off their game or he is in an advanced state of carbon monoxide poisoning. Thank heavens it wasn't prussic acid! Barclay's secretary, Miss Haruko Ishuda, again tries to warn Jim away, but Jim is slipped a mickey by his host, who REALLY wants to know when and where His Majesty will be arriving, the better to assassinate the King. Jim not being willing to talk, Barclay has him strapped to a table beneath our Poe-ian device, the slowly swinging, razor sharp pendulum! Haruko, who is actually a Japanese secret agent herself, is tied up in a chair, the better to watch Jim's torture and death, since our villain doesn't intend to stick around himself, but leaves Jim a bell which he can strike with his head when he is ready to talk (fat chance!).
Arte, knowing nothing of this (that blow to the head may have damaged his Jim's-in-trouble radar) has disguised himself as a stevedore down at the docks with the help of an I.D. tag from the guy who clobbered him back at the hospital, but didn't kill him for some reason. He discovers that Barclay is having massive destructive rockets shipped to him disguised in crates labeled art objects. Seeking to avoid capture, Arte decides to become an art object himself and hides in the crate the better to be shipped along with it. I am thinking that Season 4's TNOT Pelican owes a lot to this particular episode.
Jim, meanwhile, trades verbal notes with Haruko while that swinging blade gets lower and lower, closer and closer. He manages to work the strap holding him down to the table loose enough that he can flip over onto his back, and with Haruko's help positions his hands so that the pendulum cuts through his wrist ropes rather than through him. He is then able to free himself the rest of the way and free Haruko. Then he rings on the bell so that Barclay's henchman Palea, hereafter briefly known as Wile E. II, comes running, gets in a fight with our hero, and then meets with a fate that is - dare I say it? - to be pit-ied.
Jim and Haruko flee to the Golden Gate area where our villain is planning to launch rockets that will sink the ship carrying the King of Hawaii on board. Since Jim briefly had him fooled, he isn't certain that the ship he is planning to sink is the right one, but he'll just take that chance. His choice is confirmed though when Jim and Haruko manage to avoid one more death trap, only to get caught by the villain's armed henchies. Fortunately, Arte is on hand, disguised as one of said henchies, and he is able to help Jim foil the rocket launch, while the villain's hideout winds up being set to explode a la TNOT Inferno, Deadly Bed, Falcon, um, a lot of other episodes come to think of it! Well, boys will be boys! The King of Hawaii is saved, all three of our good guys (er, two guys, one gal) escape, and California seaside property values are affected only minimally.
In spite of my comments here, I really do like several things with this episode, most of all the references to Poe. It does have its other wince-worthy points - a villain played capably by Nehemiah Persoff, who was right in at the beginning with TNOT Inferno and stuck around to become an underground terror. But I do wish the show could have dealt with its Asian-themed plotlines with more subtlety than we see here and in Dragon Screamed and Pelican. I also was a little unhappy with the tag, in which Arte apparently ditches his date for the evening so he can stay ogling the King of Hawaii's young female relations, as we gather Jim will be doing. All in all, a rip-roaring adventure, though!
Would be curious to know what the rest of you think of this episode - hint, hint!