Timber! - Episode 41

[amyk]

Okay, I just watched this one again. I really like it a lot. I give it a 9 on the Sidney scale.

Is that older man who stands by and watches Lawrence get beat up at the gas station and his truck get torched the same guy who is later the one they deliver the logs to who betrays them?

I love Samantha and her chemistry with Face. I also think the BA / Billy storyline is cute, and I do really like the Murdock / Bigfoot storyline too. I like it best, I think, when Murdock's obsession has something to do with the episode, so for him saying this is "Bigfoot country" helps tie in his obsession.

And I like the VA breakout scene too....what again is "Thunderball" from? Is that from a James Bond movie?

Love the scam to get the truck, with the pine chiggers. And how Face improvises when he learns that the loggers were not even hauling pine trees.

Love the weapon made out of the logs for the final "battle" scene.

[quartermaster22]

I give this episode a 6/10.

Yes, THUNDERBALL is one of the James Bond films with Sean Connery. It is the Bond movie that seems to have been the one that was spoofed the most in THE SPY WHO MUGGED ME.

[amyk]

What do you like / not like about this episode?

[quartermaster22]

Hey Amy (and everyone else)... I've been swamped with a MAJOR work project. I'll be back soon to post my thoughts on TIMBER and Season 3...

[amyk]

Yeah, real life has to come first!

[Paper Crane Song]

Jun 3, 2017 21:35:00 GMT -5 amyk said:

Okay, I just watched this one again. I really like it a lot. I give it a 9 on the Sidney scale. 

I liked it too! Not as much as you though. I think it warrants a 6 on the Sidney scale from me. But this is probably an episode I would recommend if I wanted to introduce someone to the A-Team who had never seen it before.


Is that older man who stands by and watches Lawrence get beat up at the gas station and his truck get torched the same guy who is later the one they deliver the logs to who betrays them?

I think you're right! I was a little shocked at that plot twist I must admit. The treachery of the old astonishes me sometimes.

I love Samantha and her chemistry with Face.

Yeah I liked her little scam with Face and her ad-libbing, and his admiration of her during this scene. She seemed like an intelligent lady. Her hair annoyed me though. It was quite frizzy for most of the episode, and then in one scene it was perfectly straight. She didn't strike me as the kind of woman to straighten her hair, but maybe that's why she gets up super early at 5am, to sort her hair out.  

I also think the BA / Billy storyline is cute, and I do really like the Murdock / Bigfoot storyline too. I like it best, I think, when Murdock's obsession has something to do with the episode, so for him saying this is "Bigfoot country" helps tie in his obsession.

Yeah I liked his bigfoot storyline too. That kazoo or whatever he had was the most annoying sound in the world. No wonder BA got annoyed with him in the van, and poor old Face too getting kept awake by Murdock and then having to listen to that sound at 5am when he is probably feeling a little fragile. Oh yeah, a note on the 5am crowd - MAN there was a lot of people up at 5am. I said to my husband when we were watching it that I felt bad I wasn't up at 5am, being more productive with my day... But my husband reminded me that it's only a TV show.

Love the scam to get the truck, with the pine chiggers.

Yeah that was funny. One of the critters looked like a dried out frog. I like it how Face makes the scam so people WANT to do whatever they tell him, like the guy had to persuade Face to take the truck, like Face was doing him a favour.


And how Face improvises when he learns that the loggers were not even hauling pine trees. Yeah he is pretty good at thinking on his feet and adapting!

Love the weapon made out of the logs for the final "battle" scene.

My husband commented that he doesn't understand how they can be so accurate with bits of wood propelled by natural gas, whereas when they had the guns on the timber truck and were followed by the last car, Face couldn't hit it with his gun, Murdock couldn't hit it with his rocket launcher, and Hannibal only just managed to hit it with his gun.

My other impressions:

- I liked the bit where BA and Murdock are tied up in the lumber yard and they very ungracefully get free, with Murdock I think kneeling on BA's ankle and BA complaining. I laughed out loud at that bit.

- In the same scene, Face took a long time to untie himself. Maybe Murdock could have given him a bit more of a hand.

- I liked Murdock's lumberjack song, cool that Murdock is a fan of Monty Python!

- I liked seeing Beau Starr as the bad guy because he was in Due South as the head of the police station.

- Some blatant propaganda on the writers with BA and Billy and encouraging children to drink their milk and eat their vitamins!

- I didn't really understand the joke with the ham sandwiches at the end. Was it not Face's favourite?

[amyk]

Maybe this is only an American thing, but being a "ham" sort of means you are someone who likes attention. So I think that the joke was that Samantha knows that Face is "quite a ham" and that's why she said that about the sandwiches.

Do you guys not have that expression in England? (And even my use of "you guys" betrays not only my American roots, but maybe even also my midwestern roots, as I'm not sure that is used even in all of America.)

[Paper Crane Song]

Jun 24, 2017 19:20:25 GMT -5 amyk said:

Maybe this is only an American thing, but being a "ham" sort of means you are someone who likes attention. So I think that the joke was that Samantha knows that Face is "quite a ham" and that's why she said that about the sandwiches.

Do you guys not have that expression in England? (And even my use of "you guys" betrays not only my American roots, but maybe even also my midwestern roots, as I'm not sure that is used even in all of America.)

Ooooooh ok thanks Amy! No we don't have that expression in England. Thanks for clearing it up. (I was thinking, "is Face secretly Jewish? Have I missed something??"). 

Another thing I just remembered (and disliked) about this episode is when Face brings the lorry back, and the scene goes something like this: 

BA: "Nice work, Face".

(Face is happy)

BA: "Took your time."

(Face is sad).

When I saw that scene, I was like, "Whoa BA, not cool." 

[amyk]

Yeah, I don't like that part either, but I think maybe BA is upset because of what has just happened, and Billy could have been killed or Murdock could have been killed or paralyzed. So maybe he is taking his anger out on Face, even though Face had nothing to do with that.

[Paper Crane Song]

Jun 25, 2017 20:49:35 GMT -5 amyk said:

Yeah, I don't like that part either, but I think maybe BA is upset because of what has just happened, and Billy could have been killed or Murdock could have been killed or paralyzed. So maybe he is taking his anger out on Face, even though Face had nothing to do with that.

Yeah that is true, BA did have a bit of a stressful time, so yeah, maybe Face was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I guess I should remember that the next time someone speaks a little brusquely to me - you never know what they may have just been through. Like getting nearly blown up or having a tree nearly fall on them! 

[sidney]

Did Murdock sing enough of that song to have to pay royalties to Monty Python?

[amyk]

I think he messed it up....maybe that was on purpose so they didn't have to pay royalties? I think he should have said "wash my clothes just once a year" but I believe he said "wear my clothes just once a year" or something like that.

[sidney]

I remember Kevin Smith, the director of CHASING AMY, saying that they had to pay for 'Shorty, It's your birthday' because Ben Affleck improvised it into the scene. It was a shorter snippet in the scene than Murdock's singing of lumberjack.

[kellie]

Just Watched this episode, they're being shown on TV again & this is where we're up to. I love this episode, one of my top 10 favourites. The breaking out of the VA was great, how Dwight does those accents is incredible.
I like Murdock's version of 'I'm a Lumberjack', wonder if that was one of Dwight's ideas, bet he did change the wording himself, just seems like something he would do.
The whole Bigfoot thing is funny, all for 15 dollars! 😀 The way Murdock smiles when Billy tells him not to give BA Any jive about Bigfoot makes me laugh.
I've never understood the whole ham sandwich thing either! I always think I've missed something in the episode somewhere, so thanks amyk for clearing that up!

[Eclipse139]

Back to my complete rewatch after a short break and I'm up to this one. I think it's a great ep!

I understand the comments made about the team apparently suddenly having the skills and knowledge to work as lumberjacks - maybe we can put it down to army training?

I love BA and the little boy, especially when the Billy does his impression of BA and Murdock smiles. And I love that although Samantha doesn't fall for Face's charms in a romantic sense, she does seem to like him as a friend and it was fun to see her joking around with him at the end - although I didn't understand the sandwich joke either until I read this thread.

Like someone else said before, it was fun to see Beau Starr (from 'due South') playing a baddie in this one. He has smaller parts in a couple of other episodes, but he's the main baddie here and it looks like he's enjoying himself!

The scene with Murdock trapped under a tree was really dramatic and I really felt for him when he was singing 'I'm a lumberjack...' in that scene. He did seem to recover quickly, though. It might have been more interesting if he'd carried an injury for the rest of the episode, maybe just walked with a limp, just to show how bad it was. I loved how genuinely grateful he was to Hannibal and BA for saving him though.

There were actualy a lot of good Murdock scenes in this episode. All the Bigfoot stuff was fun, of course - although $15 didn't seem like much of a reward. There was one moment that made me quite sad - when Face gets him from the hospital, I thought it was very poignant that the nurse says that they never listen to anything he says. Murdock seemed quite shocked and upset by it and it wasn't part of the act because the nurse was talking to Face at the time and couldn't see him. It's not a very caring attitude for a nurse to have towards a mental health patient! I hope it was only that particular nurse who behaved that way and Murdock received better care from others.