Do they ever fail?

[Katia]

What it says (odd things you think of at the gym because lifting is insanely boring).  Roll with me for a moment here because we'll have to sort of forget this is a TV show for a moment.  We already know they go on jobs we don't see on the show-- reference is made to past or future jobs we never see.

Do you suppose they ever have any jobs where they fail to do what they were hired to do and can't get rid of the bad guy/solve the problem?  Obviously we would not be shown these since they don't make for good TV (which is why you have to forget it's a TV show-- otherwise you will-- logically-- say "Of course they don't, because it doesn't make for good TV, and since it's all fiction, if it doesn't happen on the show, it doesn't happen." So try to think in-universe for a moment and pretend they have off-screen lives besides what we see on the show).

To me it seems it would be logical that they can't/wouldn't win *all* the time.  They're not infallible, surely.  Or, are they like TV-ad/ambulance-chaser lawyers in that they only accept jobs where they know for certain that they'll be successful?  (OTOH, we're talking about Hannibal... is he really always the golden child, or does he sometimes get too cocky and it comes back to bite him?  Certainly the other guys-- especially Face-- seem to imply that Hannibal's plans are trouble, but is that because they're flying by the seat of their pants, or because sometimes they really have ended up in a bad place because it doesn't work out?)

But, then again... if they do mention jobs we're not shown, I suppose if they did ever fail on a job, we'd hear about that, too?

(And an aside to this, briefly mentioned in the "mercenaries" thread-- do you suppose there are jobs they decline?  Why?  Too shady?  Don't pay enough?  Situation doesn't seem dire enough/people don't seem desperate enough?  {We know that some of their "tests" of potential clients seem to be for the purpose of gauging just how badly the people want to hire them/what lengths they'll go to.} They just don't believe in the cause?  Too dangerous?  Logistics don't pan out?  Already overbooked on other stuff?)

[HoudiniDerek]

They would definitely reject some clients, especially those on the wrong side of the law. Can you imagine if the real team had been approached in SHOWDOWN? So I am sure there are clients that don't make it past Mr. Lee, etc. We get that impression with all of the hoops.

I am not sure if they fail because they probably don't accept clients where there is too much ambiguity. But in BAD ROCK we see that something has gone wrong. I never was sure if they succeeded in that mission or not.

And technically, they failed to find evidence in Vietnam. Yes, Fulbright lied, but they could have looked for evidence there too. They definitely failed in the trial.

[amyk]

In some ways, I consider Fulbright being killed in Vietnam as kind of a failure, too. Yes, they did reunite him with his daughter, but to have the "client" not return from the mission alive seems like a significant failure, doesn't it?

[sidney]

I think lots of jobs fail, but Hannibal somehow works a plan out of the new situation and they get out of it.
Murdock going blind when he was supposed to fly them home in BEL AIR.
Hannibal being put in the hotbox for so long after the boys failed to show up and finish the plan in BORDER.
BA smashing the plane in JUDGMENT DAY.
Being kidnapped themselves in JAMESTOWN.

[Katia]

Mar 9, 2023 18:57:23 GMT -5 amyk said:

In some ways, I consider Fulbright being killed in Vietnam as kind of a failure, too. Yes, they did reunite him with his daughter, but to have the "client" not return from the mission alive seems like a significant failure, doesn't it?

Ohhhh, yes, I'd say so.