Matt Trakker's Daddy Issues

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It's Episode 39: "Green Nightmare"! Matt Tracker’s “cultural‑exchange” flight to New Guinea nosedives, unleashing an episode where MASK forgets its own name: almost zero masks, barely a vehicle, but plenty of wildly offensive mud‑people stereotypes. While VENOM cosplays as jungle gods, Scott rewires a live breaker panel mid‑air (Father‑of‑the‑Year, Matt!), T‑Bob swallows a bug and turns into slapstick bridge timber, and Alex cheerfully suggests mowing down the locals. It’s 22 minutes of lore teases and face‑palms that somehow squeezes a crystal‑powered super‑weapon, crocodile wrestling, and raccoon‑eyed tribal masks into one giant, “Wait… what show is this again?”

Join Adam and PJ for another unforgettable episode of the Mobile Armored Podcast Show!

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Episode Transcript

Adam (00:13):
Welcome to the Mobile Armored Podcast show, the
podcast that joins the NAACP incondemning this episode of Mask.
I am Adam Moore, alongside myco-host and best friend PJ
McNerney.
How's it going, pj?

PJ (00:29):
I'm doing well, Adam.
it's funny we've just come off.
The last episode where we'vemade comments about the
bifurcated nature of mask,

Adam (00:39):
Yeah.

PJ (00:39):
it's sometimes like, what the hell is this story doing?
Combined with some really coolstuff.
it's fascinating and horrifyingwhen you hit an episode where
aspect overwhelms the other indramatic fashion And what's
really unfortunate, there'sactually a lot of cool things
inside of it that are driven by,at Mach One.

Adam (01:03):
a hundred percent.
let's set the scene for asecond.
it's episode 39.
green Nightmare, and the logline is Venom agent Vanessa
Warfield sabotages, MattTracker's private jet, which
crashes into the jungles of NewGuinea while returning a
priceless gem.
His father was entrusted withthe rest of the mask team goes

(01:23):
to rescue them.
So on the surface, That's areally cool episode.
but now getting to your point,there's a lot of cool world
building and mask lore in thisepisode, but there's hardly any
mask in the episode at all.
I find that extremelyfrustrating.
Like, I don't know if there's asingle mask vehicle that

(01:45):
actually touches the ground inthis episode.
And are any masks ever put on.

PJ (01:52):
yes to both, but only at the very end, it's a different
episode.
it misses, and because it'sdifferent it could have worked,
but it doesn't.
it's missing a lot of the coreelements.
So we don't get the teamassembly, we don't get the

Adam (02:09):
Right,

PJ (02:10):
we don't get Thunder Hawk.
there's

Adam (02:12):
We don't.

PJ (02:12):
of things that are just absent here.
And again, there are so manyplaces where in isolation it
actually works really, reallywell.
There's a lot of smart stuffgoing on.
It's unfortunately overwhelmedby this terrible, pervasive
racism and native representationthat is just over the top.

Adam (02:33):
Yeah, I mean, we open on a stormy night in the jungle.
We're not quite sure where yet,but of course we'll find out.
It's in New Guinea.
Um, and I am not even sure howto describe the insanity that's
going on.
So we have brown skinned tribes,people dancing in masks, more

(02:56):
like the bag that Sandman wearsand Batman over their heads, and
they're in this temple bowingdown to the chief who says to a
pagan idol, behold the planetsmove to their places.
The prophecy shall be fulfilled.

(03:17):
And that right there needs someunpacking, I have to say.
we may be kind of, you know,jumping.
a little bit further ahead inthe episode with this, but the
prophecy is what?
That, the man from Broken Birdwill return a star of life?
Okay.
So that man is Matt Tracker'sdad.

(03:39):
the star of life is a crystalthat powers the mask, helmets
But is that a prophecy or just areminder like, Hey, by the way,
I'll be back someday to returnthis aren't prophecies kind of
more, prophetic as opposed tocircling a date on a calendar.

PJ (03:57):
they should be.
and it would be nice to knowwhat is like the stones in
Indiana Jones and the Temple ofDoom were what brought the
fertility to the land.
It's what, gave, the sort ofvitality and when they were
taken, everything went to shit.

Adam (04:15):
Right.

PJ (04:16):
nothing of that here.
Like, as far as

Adam (04:18):
No.

PJ (04:19):
like our idol will have both eyes back is kind of like the
understanding that I got out ofthis, which was like, okay,
yeah, I get it.
Like when something's busted andyou, you lent someone to someone
a couple decades later, you wantit back.

Adam (04:33):
Yeah.

PJ (04:33):
I guess I would prophesize Adam that, one of these days I
will get you your birthday giftof the autobiography of Lee a
Coca.
So that's my prophecy to you.
Okay.

Adam (04:45):
It has been prophesized, and so I will pray for that day
to come when my birthday giftarrives

PJ (04:53):
the way

Adam (04:53):
in the mail.

PJ (04:54):
the way you pray is wearing grass loin claws and with a mud
helmet on your head.
to be fair, like, and, and it isgonna be very difficult for any
defense here, Adam.
Okay, I'm gonna say it'simpossible, but terms of, hey,
what do these people actuallylook like?

(05:15):
It's actually a fairlyone-to-one representation based
on whatever National Geographicphoto they picked that day.
should they have done thisdifferent question?

Adam (05:26):
just to kinda wrap up what's happening here with the
tribe, after saying soon manfrom Broken Bird will return a
star of life, the chief opens abox and pulls a picture out of
it of a white man that looks alot like Matt Tracker, only with
a very thin mustache standingnext to a dark-skinned

(05:47):
tribesman.
And he puts that picture infront of the idol as an
offering.
we then cut to the trackermansion and we're in one of the
multiple labs that exists in thetracker mansion.
And Alex's hard at work,electrocuting a crystal, and he
cries at last a perfect crystal.
Matt explains that, this crystalis the power amplifier we use to

(06:11):
charge our masks.
Alex says that for years they'vebeen trying to duplicate it.
And Matt explains to Scott thatthey've been doing this because
of a promise that yourgrandfather made many years ago.

PJ (06:26):
Okay, so slam the brakes on right there.
Because this is actually kind ofamazing

Adam (06:34):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (06:34):
not gonna touch this,

Adam (06:36):
Yeah.

PJ (06:36):
which is, now we actually have intimate knowledge of how
the masks work.

Adam (06:41):
for many episodes of this podcast we have talked about
what is the power source, is itradioactive?
If so, have all the mask agentsbeen irradiated

PJ (06:51):
Right,

Adam (06:52):
So now the radioactive properties of this crystal have
not been identified, but they'reall in a room with it.
So either Matt still doesn'tcare or it's not radioactive.
Nonetheless, we now know this iswhat powers mask.
Very cool.

PJ (07:09):
So this, but did Matt's father actually understand the
power that was in that crystal?
Did he invent the technology formasks?
and we're never gonna see this,but would the Mudman masks
actually be an inspiration forthe masks they wear?

Adam (07:26):
Yeah,

PJ (07:27):
what does this mean for Venom?
How do they charge their masks?
Do they have a duplicatecrystal?

Adam (07:33):
that's what I was saying at the top of the pod.
Like there's so much cool worldbuilding here and it's so
frustrating.
They do nothing with it at all.
Matt's dad gets a crystal ofpower from a tribes person.
We will learn later that thedad, and then I guess Matt later
on, promised to use it for thegood of the world.

PJ (07:56):
Right.

Adam (07:56):
So basically you get a crystal and say, thanks.
I'm gonna use it for the good ofthe world.
What does that.
Mean, there's another worldwhere this is like Matt's number
one dime from Ducktails, like hebuilt his billion dollar empire

(08:17):
on this crystal of power.
there's so many ways this couldgo, but he just gets a crystal
and away we go.
When did they realize that thiscrystal had such great power?
and does Miles know about it?

PJ (08:32):
again, they made a choice here and we're gonna be roasting
that choice for the mudmanthroughout the episode, the
masks they wear are made of mud.
a really cool thing to tie ittogether would be what if that
crystal or it's sister crystal,charges those mud masks to do
something again.

Adam (08:51):
Yeah,

PJ (08:51):
we can inspire this thing and connect these dots together

Adam (08:55):
the fact is to do this episode right, you would need a
two-parter.

PJ (08:59):
Absolutely.

Adam (08:59):
you really would need

PJ (09:00):
Yeah.

Adam (09:01):
a full 44 minutes of screen time to tell this story.
maybe the original writer hadthat idea.

PJ (09:08):
Maybe.

Adam (09:08):
and the story editor when it came in was like.
No, that's not what we do here.
I'm just gonna chop it up intoan episode that fits our 22
minute format.
maybe somewhere, in somelandfill in Burbank.
There are hard decomposingscript pages that answer all
these questions, butunfortunately we're left with

(09:29):
this.

PJ (09:30):
name is Rosebud.

Adam (09:35):
Well, we cut to the tracker Mansion, rape, I mean,
library.
and Matt shows Scott, hisfather's journal that catalogs
his encounters with the NewGuinea Mudman.
so there's a Buddy Hawksnomination I think, for the
Mudman.
Did you do any research onwhether the term mudman is from

(10:00):
National Geographic or anything

PJ (10:02):
I think I did, and I think it, it's not, obviously the
right name, but if you go toWikipedia, they're called the
Soro Mudman.

Adam (10:12):
Mud?
Yep.

PJ (10:14):
I'll say that the encounter of the Mud men or even calling
them, this isn't in and ofitself a Buddy Hawks nomination,
I think.
But that's all I'm giving thewriter again, we're about to hit
an avalanche of Buddy Hawks atthis point in time.

Adam (10:30):
Yeah.

PJ (10:30):
it's like fun.
You've encountered a nativetribe?
I'm almost certain the depictionof their practices at the top
was of his buddy Hawks worthyacross the board.

Adam (10:41):
Yeah.

PJ (10:42):
you know, just the notion of I encounter a native tribe.
I'm like, okay, that's not.
It's not a buddy Hawkson,

Adam (10:47):
Okay.

PJ (10:48):
but

Adam (10:48):
Granted,

PJ (10:48):
hold on

Adam (10:50):
yes, Scott says Those masks sure are ugly, and t bobb
says, yeah, I bet.
For Halloween, they scare eachother by wearing suits and ties
than Matt chuckles.

PJ (11:03):
And there's your buddy Hawks right there,

Adam (11:05):
Yeah.

PJ (11:06):
So, we'll call balls and strikes, but it's like, thanks T
Bob.
for reminding us what you'vebeen programmed to do.

Adam (11:12):
Yep.
Now, we learned that 30 yearsago, Wargo, the native person in
the picture with Matt's dad andMatt's father saved each other's
lives.
What do you think about thatimage, by the way, of, of Matt's
dad?
First of all, it's a spittingimage of Matt, except for that
thin mustache.

PJ (11:30):
it's an interesting art direction and maybe a slight bit
of laziness you just say like,ah, it looks like Matt.
Exactly.

Adam (11:37):
Yeah.

PJ (11:38):
Errol Flynn mustache.

Adam (11:40):
Yep, yep.

PJ (11:41):
you don't see too many mustaches like that in the show.
In fact, there's only one I'maware of that even closely looks
like that.
Miles Mayhem.

Adam (11:52):
True.
But Miles is very bushy

PJ (11:55):
Well,

Adam (11:55):
Now if he started with an Errol Flynn one and it just kind
of over the years grew, thensure.
But are you saying that maybeMiles is Matt's dad?

PJ (12:05):
that's a theory we held on earlier.
this episode seems to debunkthat.

Adam (12:10):
We don't know for sure that Matt's dad is dead.
What Matt later on tells Wgo ismy father is no longer with us,
so it could mean he no longerwith us as in mask.
he's now with Venom.
So let's leave that door open.

PJ (12:33):
Let's leave it open

Adam (12:35):
Alright, we cut to a flashback and we see Matt's
father's plane go down during acyclone in New Guinea.
Wgo, rescues.
Matt's dad from the plane, andthen the plane's gas tank
explodes and Wargo getsseriously injured by the
explosion.

(12:55):
I love the trading places.
It's like, I'll save you fromthe plane.
Now I have to save you from myplane that exploded

PJ (13:02):
it.

Adam (13:02):
while you were saving me.
but now Matt's dad nursed, wgoback to health and in gratitude,
WGO gave Matt's dad the tribe'smost precious possession.
The crystal.
Don't they have two crystals,though?
One in each socket of the eyesof their idol, so,

PJ (13:22):
I wanna touch on that in a second, but I do wanna say
there's a series of images hereand I'd like to do a little bit
of a game.
So there's one where, WGO islaying on the floor of a cave
and

Adam (13:34):
mm-hmm.

PJ (13:35):
is kneeling over him.
And then another where Matt'sdad is nursing him by, giving a
cup of water or something likethat.
And another where Wgo is kind ofluxuriously reclining while
Andrew Tracker brings a bunch offruit.
let me ask you a question, Adam.
Let's say instead of Argo, itwas a scantily clad native

(13:55):
woman.
No judgment, but what would webe interpreting is going on
between those two characters?
And why wouldn't we assume thesame here?
No judgment.
just saved each other's lives.

Adam (14:09):
I mean, this is definitely the beginning of a love story.

PJ (14:12):
this is their love story

Adam (14:14):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (14:15):
Dreamweaver could be playing right now, for these two.

Adam (14:20):
Yeah.
And I'll point out too, theassortment of fruit that Matt's
dad pulls in, he's got bananas,papayas, oranges, looks like
grapes.
What?
Jungle, are they in that has,this is cornucopia.
It's like, it seems like he wentto the grocery store and came
back.

PJ (14:38):
Well, he really wanted to make sure that, WGO was, well
fed and felt satisfied.

Adam (14:44):
Well, rock was like, no, no, no, I'm fine.
I think it's time to go.
He is like, no, no, no, let'sstay here in this cave together,
you and I, who else do we needin this world?
But the two of us.

PJ (14:54):
I mean, look, they had a traumatic event, a very intense
event happen.
They both nearly died, and so Ithink

Adam (14:59):
Yeah.

PJ (15:00):
They're latching on to that preciousness of life

Adam (15:03):
Yeah.

PJ (15:04):
of them.

Adam (15:04):
if only it's just society tore them apart.

PJ (15:09):
tore them apart in so many ways.
It was the 1950s or sixties.
It was a different time.
one little comment on thecrystal being given,

Adam (15:16):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (15:17):
that had occurred to me much later on, which was assuming
that Wgo is giving this crystalto Andrew, is there an
implication that, listen, savedyour life, you saved mine, but
my life is so much moreimportant than yours.
So I must give you this crystalin common sense to balance the

(15:38):
scales here.

Adam (15:40):
that's a great point.

PJ (15:42):
Hey, I'm the chief.
You're some random white guy.
here's the crystal.

Adam (15:50):
so Wargo saves Matt's dad.
Then Matt's dad saves Wargo,who, by the way, his life
wouldn't be in danger if hehadn't tried to save Matt's life
in the first place.

PJ (16:03):
True.

Adam (16:04):
so then Matt's dad keeps him imprisoned to the cave for
days, weeks, we don't know toquote unquote nurse him back to
health.

PJ (16:15):
Oh, I see.
So this is a ransom

Adam (16:17):
I think he's like, I nursed you back to help.
I could have left you there todie.
What are you gonna give me?
WGO does give him this crystal,and Matt's explaining to Scott,
he is kinda like wrapping up theexplanation, is that Wargo
trusted Matt's father to use thecrystals to benefit mankind.

(16:38):
And Matt promised that he'dreturn it to Wargo after he'd
learned the secret of its power.

PJ (16:45):
What power.

Adam (16:47):
Right,

PJ (16:48):
Wait, what's the power?
this is a frustrating bit aboutthe script because it reverses
the facts coming into evidencebecause

Adam (16:57):
right.

PJ (16:58):
know the power now by virtue of the fact that it charges the
masks.
But what proof of there was backthen, so it's like, it's an out
of order operation.

Adam (17:07):
Yeah.

PJ (17:08):
Matt promised Wgo

Adam (17:10):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (17:11):
asks about Matt's dad later on.
It actually presumes that Mattmet Wargo with his dad.

Adam (17:18):
Or they went back another time.

PJ (17:20):
they went back

Adam (17:21):
Yeah.

PJ (17:22):
like in between the first encounter in this one.

Adam (17:25):
What do you think happened in that meeting?
Like, Hey, Rago, here's my sonhaven't unlocked the secret yet.
I would've called, but you haveno phones here.
So I had to come and tell youthat in person

PJ (17:38):
what's great that we could actually add one more thing to
that meeting because both WGOand Matt have a picture
identical picture, means

Adam (17:48):
that's true.

PJ (17:49):
took the picture, got the film developed with duplicates,
and then either with Matt or

Adam (17:54):
That's true.

PJ (17:55):
himself, came back to give a picture to Wgo.

Adam (17:58):
So he definitely had a moment.
He's like, remember the cave?
Remember those times?
Do you ever think about it?

PJ (18:04):
What if we stayed there?

Adam (18:05):
Imagine life would've been so much different, Mor Igo.
different as he looks down athis son.
Well, back to the Trackerlibrary.
And Matt says, so how about it?
Scott wanna take a trip to NewGuinea?
Scott says very excitedly, we'regonna explore a real jungle.
And I don't understand why he'sso excited.

(18:27):
'cause this is not the firsttime they've explored a jungle.

PJ (18:30):
So I think he's excited because Matt has asked him as a
father and Scott knows he is notgonna be left in the care of
someone while Matt sleeps with afloozy

Adam (18:42):
Okay.

PJ (18:43):
because, Scott leaps up into Matt's arms and Matt looks
actually quite fatherly in thatmoment.

Adam (18:50):
Notice though he doesn't hug Scott.

PJ (18:52):
that too.

Adam (18:53):
Scott jumps up and wraps his arm around Matt's neck and
Matt holds onto the book andjust kind of smiles.

PJ (19:00):
Mm.

Adam (19:01):
Right.
Interesting.
A child touching me.
Fascinating.
T Bobb has to throw in his 2cents here and he says, I get
nervous when I see crocodile inthe dictionary and Scott and
Matt laugh and I'm gonna goahead and nominate this for a
Roy Batty award for Scott andMatt laughing at t Bob's fears.

PJ (19:20):
A hundred percent, Like, just always putting them down.

Adam (19:25):
we cut to Matt flying his awesome high tech jet to New
Guinea.
I'm surprised though he's notflying Thunder Hawk.

PJ (19:32):
Yeah.
this is the first time in a verylong time.
have no Thunder Hawk in this

Adam (19:39):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (19:40):
and I, you know, the distance from Denver to Papua
New Guinea is 7,600 miles At

Adam (19:46):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (19:47):
roughly 10 hours, so I was presumably he just didn't wanna
sit in his mask outfit for

Adam (19:52):
Yeah.
Maybe, but you know, think aboutthis.
It's an episode of mask.
We've seen no masks yet.
I mean, it started like anepisode of Mask, a very
culturally inappropriate,representation of a native
tribe.
we meet Alex.
We're in a lab.
We're doing crystal sciencestuff, but there's been no mask

(20:14):
vehicles, no mask, helmets, nomention of mask, really.
At all.
And to transport them to thelocation for the episode is a
vehicle we've never seen before.
And I'm gonna go ahead and placea wager we'll never see again,
which is Matt's private jet thatfor some reason he likes to fly
himself.
I mean, I'll give him that.
It's a cool jet.

(20:35):
He likes to fly stuff.
It's fun for him.

PJ (20:37):
Yeah,

Adam (20:38):
how is this an episode of Mask Aside from the fact that
these are characters who haveappeared in Mask before?

PJ (20:43):
it's an episode of Mask because we saw Masked Mudman at
the top.

Adam (20:47):
And there was the theme song at the beginning, which
clued us in.

PJ (20:50):
Oh,

Adam (20:51):
imagine if you know it's in syndication, right?
As a kid.
So imagine if this is the firstepisode you tune into, do you
wanna watch another episode ofthis show?

PJ (21:00):
I just assume it's about some billionaire and his son
getting into trouble with theirrobot all the time.

Adam (21:05):
how confusing would it be?
at the tail end of the episode,a big jet shows up with a
semi-truck in it that shootslaers down.

PJ (21:13):
It's

Adam (21:13):
you're like, an 8-year-old kid eating your lucky charms
after school watching the show.
And you're like, what is goingon here?

PJ (21:21):
It's a

Adam (21:21):
Well,

PJ (21:22):
huh?

Adam (21:23):
they land in New Guinea and go through customs it turns
out the Prime Minister's officealerted customs that Matt would
be arriving.
It must be very nice to be abillionaire.

PJ (21:35):
I would love to hear that call where like, that's like,
Hey Jerry, guess what?
I'm coming into town just so youknow, I'm just swinging in,
gonna do some stuff, so I'll bebouncing

Adam (21:44):
Yeah.

PJ (21:44):
airport.

Adam (21:45):
I will alert customs immediately,

PJ (21:47):
right.

Adam (21:47):
probably assuming that Matt is bringing in weapons of
mass destruction with him as heusually does.
But the next line from thecustoms agent is, I understand
you're bringing in an extremelyrare gemstone.
So the Prime Minister, in thatsame conversation, if they asked
like, well, why do we need tolet this guy in so quickly?
The Prime Minister would'vesaid,'cause he is bringing in an

(22:09):
extremely rare gemstone, likebizarre.
Why would the Prime Minister'soffice tell anyone this.

PJ (22:15):
It's on the off chance they frisk him and find this
gemstone.
It's like, just so you know, incase anyone gets outta line,
it's a gemstone, it's rare.
let him go.
my only thought was, we know ina second that this agent's on
the take.
it's possible that the contactin the PM's office is on the
take as well.

(22:35):
'cause the PM's not gonna callcustoms.

Adam (22:37):
the agent says, I'll expedite your documents
immediately, and once again,must be very nice

PJ (22:44):
Private jet flying wherever you want.

Adam (22:46):
wherever you want.

PJ (22:47):
of the line, be treated with respect all, all the time.
It's great.
Great.

Adam (22:53):
Yeah, by the way, while they're in, in line in customs,
just wanna point out that aninsect crawls into tbo, which
causes him to start giggling.
This will become quote unquoteimportant later on in the
episode.
I'm always curious though, Ifeel like this has happened once
before, maybe twice before withtbo, it doesn't seem like he's
sealed very well.

PJ (23:12):
It's true.
And is also a weird choice onthe part of the writer

Adam (23:19):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (23:19):
to do this.
Like, why, why?
It's my question to you.

Adam (23:24):
Yeah.
And we'll get to the big payoffof it.
And I think once again, we'llask why.
Well, as you alluded to, thecustoms agent goes into a back
room and meets with sly racks,and Sly gets rough at the guy,

PJ (23:38):
what's great about this sequence is the guy says, oh
yeah, match tracker's here withthe gym.
Without saying a fucking word,sly pushes him against the wall.
Like it's a really hard push.
Like it's just like he's angry.
It's like,

Adam (23:53):
Yeah.

PJ (23:53):
what kind of gem?
It's like sly, why do you care,man?
Like, come on.

Adam (23:57):
Do you know what kind of gem it is?
Sly?
Like why does it matter?
But yeah, the agent responds.
I didn't ask.
I didn't want him to getsuspicious.
What about my money?

PJ (24:06):
So in my mind it was like, yeah, not asking actually in
order to stay conspicuousactually makes a lot of sense to
me.
it also occurred to me, Hey, slymiles, Vanessa, why not just
kidnap the billionaire?
It doesn't even matter that heis the, the leader of mask.
It's like, wait, we have abillionaire.
Let's just kidnap him.

Adam (24:27):
Meanwhile, Vanessa Undercover as a maintenance
worker, places an overridedevice on Matt's jet.

PJ (24:34):
Okay.
This was actually one of themost unbelievable parts of the
episode for me.

Adam (24:39):
Yeah, Vanessa.

PJ (24:40):
undercover maintenance worker, because she would get
hit on by everyone on the staff.
Cliff would be a much betterchoice here.

Adam (24:48):
Also with her flaming red hair,

PJ (24:51):
Yes.

Adam (24:53):
Hey, you don't look familiar.

PJ (24:55):
Unless had she been in this job for a number of weeks to get
undercover?

Adam (25:02):
There's no way that Vanessa Warfield would agree to
anything like that.
I think Cliff is absolutely theright choice for this.
I don't know why it was Vanessa,but anyways, we're back in the
air and suddenly the steeringgoes out on the jet as
predicted, and now we cut toManta following behind with

(25:23):
racks.
And Vanessa inside Miles tellsthem to follow closely.
He doesn't want any mistakes.
And Vanessa says to Sly, who issitting next to her, I'm sitting
next to the world's biggestmistake.
Like Ouch.

PJ (25:39):
You know, on a couple different reads of that line, I
was wondering, she saying thatwhatever happened between the
two of them was a mistake

Adam (25:47):
Is she saying that adding him to the Venom team was a
mistake?
Is she saying the fact that hewas born at all was a mistake?
That's where my head went and Ifelt really, really bad for Sly.

PJ (26:02):
I, I had actually interpreted it as it was a
mistake for her to get drunkthat night with him and have
relations.

Adam (26:09):
Okay.
Well I think they all fitprobably.

PJ (26:12):
All the above.

Adam (26:14):
Matt asks Scott to disengage the autopilot, by
sending him to like thiscomputer room in the back of the
jet Scott goes in there andcompetently knows exactly what
to do, which is proof that Scottis a genius.

PJ (26:27):
It's true also that computer room's insane,

Adam (26:31):
Yeah.

PJ (26:31):
like

Adam (26:32):
What kind, I mean is this Air Force one, like do they have
let's actually talk about it.
I would assume Matt has somepretty impressive
countermeasures

PJ (26:39):
you

Adam (26:40):
on his private jet.

PJ (26:41):
but if so, wouldn't he be able to counteract whatever
they've got?

Adam (26:44):
Yeah, I agree.
why does his private jet needand it's not really a computer
room.
it actually looks like it's abit of a boiler room is this a
steam powered private jet?

PJ (26:56):
It's true.

Adam (26:57):
rather than I guess press a few buttons, Scott and t Bobb
pull a couple of wires.
autopilot is disengaged Mattregains control.
However, the bug that crawledinside of t Bobb earlier causes
him to go haywire and he kind ofhe pulls all sorts of wires out
shorts out the plane's computerand.
They're going down.

PJ (27:15):
once again, this bug bit's a bit contrived for the entire
episode

Adam (27:20):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (27:21):
also unnecessary.
It seemed

Adam (27:23):
Yeah.

PJ (27:24):
bring that plane down.

Adam (27:25):
How about Manta, which has lasers on it.
fire at the jet that would'veworked too.
Again, it's an episode of MaskFolks, like, let's have a mask
episode.
Anyways, uh, sly and Vanessahave a lover's quarrel inside of
Manta, causing one of the wingsto get damaged.
Vanessa calls Miles and statesthat Manta is out and they have

(27:47):
to meet back at the airfield.
Um, uh, folks, PJ puts the bestlittle Easter eggs in the, uh,
in the rundown.
You've yet to catch, catch me,but one of these days I.
I'm going to give someinaccurate information about

(28:07):
what happens in the episode.
Well, anyways, Matt's planecrash lands stopping short of
going over a cliff, but theysurvive.
But then the natives show up andgreet them with blow darts, and
as the natives start to approachthe plane, t Bobb says, go away.
We already gave at the officewhy?

PJ (28:27):
I don't know.
if it wasn't such a nonsequitur, I would nominate it as
a buddy Hawks.
it is so many steps removed fromwhat

Adam (28:35):
Yeah.

PJ (28:36):
supposed to mean.
It's like,

Adam (28:37):
it makes no sense.
But now the locals.
Start pushing the plane over thecliff

PJ (28:43):
why?

Adam (28:43):
no, exactly.
Why are they like, no rules havebeen set up for this tribe.
you know how there's that islandoff the coast of, it's like
India, Pakistan, Bangladesharea.
There's this island wherethere's, there's this,
indigenous tribe that's neverbeen met by the developed world.
anyone who's ever approached hasbeen fired at by like poisonous

(29:05):
darts So there's actually neverbeen any true interaction
between them.
This is not that tribe.
I'm trying to figure out why,because earlier the prophecy
about the broken bird crashingfrom above was spoken of, is
this not a broken bird from thesky?

PJ (29:22):
So I think what will come to know really quickly, it's a
different tribe.
and again, you're a hundredpercent right.
There really is no.
Like everything is inferred.

Adam (29:32):
Yeah,

PJ (29:33):
like what venom's about to do to bell lock these guys.
at this point, venom hasn'tshown up, so the best we've got
is this chief doesn't want thishunk of metal on his lawn, and
so therefore it's like,

Adam (29:46):
yeah,

PJ (29:46):
Like that does not belong here.
I don't care who's inside.
just get it gone.

Adam (29:51):
Well, the plane, does go falling off the cliff.
They all go down falling totheir doom.
at least they're all gonna dietogether.
But I really gotta wonder what'sgonna happen.

PJ (30:01):
don't know.
I don't know.

Adam (30:04):
We will find out after these messages.
We've got them in sight.
Hold on.
Mask will be right back.
Now watch what Mask does.
We're back when we left you.
A group of natives pushed Matt,private jet off a cliff sent
Matt, Scott and t Bobb fallingto their doom.

(30:26):
They hit the bottom, they'redead.
Who will carry on the maskmission.
And that becomes the question

PJ (30:32):
Gloria

Adam (30:33):
the remainder of this.

PJ (30:34):
have to deal with the loss of her husband and stepchild
through the billions of dollarsthat she's just inherited.

Adam (30:40):
Yeah.
And if she takes over mask,she'll have the venom problem
solved in one episode.

PJ (30:46):
Yes, she'll have a lot of problems.
I feel like she'll deal withvenom in one episode and then
take on something with a littlemore meat, like the Iran Contra
scandal,

Adam (30:55):
yeah.

PJ (30:55):
you know, just tensions in the Middle East, the Cold War,
like

Adam (30:59):
yeah, absolutely.
that is actually not whathappens folks.
the plane lands in a tree.
Matt, Scott and t Bobb are stillalive somehow without a scratch,
and so I'm gonna nominate themall for a sly racks ragdoll
award here.

PJ (31:13):
A hundred percent on the sly racks.

Adam (31:15):
Switchblade appears and opens fire on that group of
natives who had pushed the planeover and appears to open fire
for no particular reason at all.

PJ (31:26):
Or racism.

Adam (31:28):
could be.
Yep.
Buddy Hawk's nomination then.
Yeah.

PJ (31:32):
or then again, switchblade will frequently fire at folks
for no reason at all.
So it

Adam (31:37):
Yeah,

PJ (31:37):
be a hatred of humanity in general.
Maybe it's not racism, maybeit's

Adam (31:41):
yeah, sly and Vanessa jump in with Piranha and they also
open fire.

PJ (31:47):
So

Adam (31:48):
Yeah.

PJ (31:48):
you notice, like one of the shots,'cause this one scene
basically has a lot of nativesbeing hit, one of the natives
gets hit squarely in the ass.
So we're

Adam (31:59):
And his like, like steam or smoke coming off his butt as
he is running away.
Yeah.
I haven't seen a lot of peopleget hit by lasers, run away
while their flesh is smoking.
Seems more like a cartoon effectthan anything in real life.
But anyways, what's fun is thatslide gets hit with sleep darts,
from the tribe's people, andalmost drives piranha off a

(32:20):
cliff.
Fortunately, Vanessa in thesidecar, grabs the wheel, puts
the brakes on just in time, andshe says, just like Rex, he
falls asleep and I wind up withthe nightmare.
Is this a reference?
To the time he got her pregnant.
Is this the mistake she wasreferencing?

PJ (32:37):
I mean, she did say he was the biggest mistake in the
world.

Adam (32:40):
There you go.
switchblade Lands and MilesReveals himself wearing a native
mask and says, stop, I commandyou.
I am your fire God.
And they start worshiping himand I give him a Buddy Hawks
nomination.

PJ (32:55):
So Adam, I have a question for you.

Adam (32:58):
Yeah,

PJ (32:59):
did he get that mask from?
some local curio store and

Adam (33:04):
Or did he make it outta construction paper?

PJ (33:07):
and this was not the original plan.
Did he know

Adam (33:12):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (33:12):
this way?
So he actually did this in

Adam (33:14):
Yeah,

PJ (33:14):
needed to pull, like I said before, a bell lock.
or is this a Hail Mary?
Because he didn't expect thingsto go down this way.
It's like, oh shit.
none of this is what I expected.
Let me get my mask on that Ibrought just in case.

Adam (33:26):
I'm confused.
Help me out here.
What was the plan again?
Miles one, two, steal Matt'sgemstone.

PJ (33:36):
Yes.

Adam (33:37):
Okay, that's why we're here.
So many questions.
I guess the idea then was thatMatt called the New Guinea Prime
Minister's office and said, Hey,I'm coming with a gemstone,

PJ (33:50):
Right.

Adam (33:51):
clear the way for customs for me.
And then that's how theinformation got out so someone
was on the take in the NewGuinea Prime Minister's office
called Miles and said, Hey,there's a dude coming in with a
crystal.
I mean, everyone knows who MattTracker is, so if Miles's like,
oh, Matt Tracker, he is got acrystal must be valuable.
there is nothing laid out inthis episode that explains why

(34:12):
Venom is really here, why theywant the crystal, how they found
out about it.
no setup or informationwhatsoever.

PJ (34:19):
No, there's not.
And again, there's so many goodplaces where a connection would
be amazing.
Like Venom needs the crystalbecause their duplicate is
failing them for charging theirown masks.

Adam (34:33):
Great.

PJ (34:33):
venom had gotten a hold of this duplicate of a crystal
somehow, like through AndrewTracker's father.
there's easy ways to, cinch it,to make it really work well
together.
And again, we're just kind ofinferring across the board here.

Adam (34:50):
No, I mean, this goes back to there is so much world
building that could have beendone in this episode that they
just whiff on.
They just don't even, they swingand they miss by a mile.
I mean, what would've had tohave happened though is that
Venom would've had to havediscovered that Matt is somehow
connected to mask, if he hasthis crystal of power, which

(35:11):
okay, out of just over halfwaythrough the series could have
been an interesting turningpoint.

PJ (35:16):
Yeah.
you can actually get around thatby, you know, tracker Industries
is a major supplier of weaponsto mask.
it's actually a weird leap thinkof the idea of a billionaire
being the head of a paramilitarygroup.
you could easily see abillionaire being a supplier of
material

Adam (35:36):
Sure.

PJ (35:37):
group.

Adam (35:37):
absolutely

PJ (35:38):
You don't have to give away the ghost of the secret
identities, but also create thatconnective tissue.
I don't know, it just helps usget invested into the world even
more.

Adam (35:47):
But they do none of that.

PJ (35:49):
Nope.

Adam (35:49):
what happens next is that for no reason whatsoever, the
mask jet shows up the big giantblue vehicle carrying mask.
Jet shows up.
Alex Dusty and Brad are onboard.

PJ (36:03):
So few things.
We have to either believe thatthere was a time jump of at
least 11 hours, or Matt hadsaid, you know what, we need the
mask Jett following, just incase, or related.
There's always mask agents likea standby alert team flying
around when Matt travels just incase.

Adam (36:21):
Well, and then this would take me back to what I said very
early on when he got his firstfather of the year nomination,
this episode where he was like,why would you bring Scott to a
place where Venom might beoperating?
the only reason you'd have maskin their mask jet, just kind of
following where Matt goes is inthe event Venom shows up.

PJ (36:42):
or it's like, oh, because I'm a billionaire and I need
security.

Adam (36:45):
in which case they've done a pretty bad job because he
crashed in his plane, could havedied there.
Natives pushed his plane off.
A cliff could have died there,and now they're, you know, Matt,
Scott and Tbo are runningthrough the jungle, pursued by
the natives, switch plates, alsofiring in them.
They reach a river, they can'tcross because of crocodiles.

(37:08):
They turn t bobb into a bridgeto cross the river.
But the bug inside t Bobb causeshim to wiggle, which sends Matt
and Scott into the water aboutto be eaten by a crock.
again, the team trailing Matt toprotect him to this point, has
done an awful job.

PJ (37:25):
Brad was allowed to fly, which is why they were delayed
by a couple hours.

Adam (37:28):
Okay, well speaking of that crocodile, just as they're
about to be eaten by it, whichby the way, Matt does nothing to
try to save Scott.
He just holds him and saysScott, t Bobb actually, sticks
his foot out to hold the Croc'smouth open.

PJ (37:43):
he's got his angry eyes on too, in this

Adam (37:46):
He does,

PJ (37:47):
like,

Adam (37:47):
he really does.

PJ (37:48):
with the wrong family asshole.
Like, I don't know what happensto that crock, but I don't think
it's gonna be pretty.

Adam (37:55):
I feel bad for the crocodile.
it was just living its life

PJ (37:59):
Just living its

Adam (37:59):
doing its crocodile thing.
And then here comes Matt, Scottand t Bob.

PJ (38:04):
Ooh.

Adam (38:04):
And

PJ (38:05):
Ah,

Adam (38:06):
it probably wasn't trying to eat them.
It was just swimming along andhappened to open its mouth.
Uh, well they are, uh, they'resaved of course.
Matt Scott and Te Bber runthrough the jungle and they
arrived at a walled off tribalvillage.
They kind of hit a, hit a deadend, and they're surrounded by
these angry, natives tribespeople.
They're about to be killed whenthey lean against a stone wall,

(38:28):
which spins around kind of, youknow, Indiana Jones style.
and it brings them face to facewith the mudman from earlier.

PJ (38:36):
So this is actually like, in the world of it, a pretty
terrifying scene.
jumping from the pan into thefire.

Adam (38:45):
Yeah.

PJ (38:45):
given that we know momentarily, this is where
Argo's village, it's

Adam (38:50):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (38:50):
weird that the chief doesn't come up to see these random
white folk being tied up.

Adam (38:55):
I agree completely.
He just, I guess he just hangsout in the temple and waits for
broken bird to fall from skywith power Crystal.

PJ (39:03):
Yeah.
Someone's gonna return it.
By the way, they're

Adam (39:06):
Yeah.

PJ (39:06):
I mention they're white?
If you see some white peoplecome by, just'em into the
temple, huh?

Adam (39:11):
They're the ones inside the broken bird.
And by broken bird, I meanplain, you know, the things in
the sky.
Anyways, venom.

PJ (39:19):
hit the ground, according to my knowledge of them.

Adam (39:23):
So stay away.
Wait for them to explode.
And then you wanted, we wantedto give up the other crystal
venom, by the way, arrivesoutside this native village, to
attack, miles Yells at.
I guess so.
I guess the thing is he has histribe of natives

PJ (39:39):
Yes,

Adam (39:39):
versus this tribe.

PJ (39:40):
yes,

Adam (39:41):
Something we have to infer by watching the episode that is
not explicitly stated, but heyells at them to attack when he
gives the order.
Why does he need them to attack?

PJ (39:52):
I have no idea because you know, my thought was Miles could
blaze the video village downwith switchblade,

Adam (39:58):
one Missile from Switchblade destroys the
village.

PJ (40:02):
is he power tripping again?
Is it's like, I get to likethese folks around.

Adam (40:07):
Just awful episode.

PJ (40:09):
Yeah.

Adam (40:09):
so much interesting stuff and such a poorly written
episode.

PJ (40:13):
Yeah.

Adam (40:14):
so inside the village, Matt, Scott and t Bobb are tied
to posts, ala, star Wars the buginside t Bobb causes him to
dance around, which causes adistraction.
Matt Unties himself and Scott,and then he lifts up T Bobb who
is still tied to the post andthey run away towards the
temple.
How strong is Matt t Bobb iswhat?

(40:35):
700 pounds

PJ (40:36):
Yeah.

Adam (40:37):
the weight of a giant tree?

PJ (40:39):
we know from past episodes that Scott Juices, so where do
you think he got the steroidsfrom?

Adam (40:45):
the power crystal, I guess.
they do run inside that templefrom the beginning of the
episode.
and he holds out the crystal andsays, I'm returning this to you
and I.
Wgo says you, Andrew, and Mattsays, I am his son, my father.
He has left us, whichcontradicts what we thought
earlier, which is that Matt as achild with his dad, must have

(41:08):
gone to the village,

PJ (41:10):
Well, it is super hard because Matt said he told this
to Wargo

Adam (41:15):
right?

PJ (41:16):
because of the art direction, I mean the art
direction was not well thoughtthrough here to say, let's just
make Andrew Matt with amustache.

Adam (41:26):
Yeah.

PJ (41:26):
the confusion on Margo's part is understandable, given

Adam (41:30):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (41:31):
looks like Andrew shaved

Adam (41:32):
Yeah,

PJ (41:33):
and

Adam (41:33):
yeah,

PJ (41:33):
Matt had a lot of pimples when, he met Wargo a couple
decades ago.
I mean the confusion that's inthis has a lot to do with the
writing and the art direction.
I will say, I mean, you know, I,were right.
There's an ambiguity here aboutwhat does he left us mean.
assuming it was done to say thathe passed away, this

Adam (41:54):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (41:54):
right way in an eighties cartoon to state that it's a,
it's

Adam (41:57):
Yeah.

PJ (41:58):
but it's like, oh, he left us.
But that said, I kind of, sortof wanted the line to be like my
father, left us.
He lives in West Palm Beach.
Now, the altitude wasn't goodfor him anymore, so he wanted
something where it hydrates theskin

Adam (42:15):
wargo says he was a good man many seasons ago.
He saved my life.
You have used it for good.
And Matt says, but of course nowthis is referring to the
crystal.
So let's discuss.
Has Matt really used the crystalfor good?
yes.
Now, how is Venom powering itsvehicles and masks?
Is it the crystal as well?

(42:36):
So he's used it for good venom,has used it for bad.
Matt and Miles worked togetherto develop the mask technology,
which means that Miles knows thecrystal exists.
How many lives have been lost asa result of the unleashing of
the power crystal's power,through these masks?

(42:57):
the property destruction, Idon't know if we can say he's
used it for good.

PJ (43:02):
So I'm gonna back on Winston.
In this case, Adam.

Adam (43:05):
yeah.

PJ (43:06):
asks you if you are a God, you say yes.
So I don't think Matt reallywants to recount the number of
times an earthquake machine or avenom sub blowing up, costs the
lives, uh, many, many peoplebecause of the existence of this
crystal.
It's like you've done good withit.

(43:26):
Of course, of course,

Adam (43:28):
absolutely.

PJ (43:29):
Hmm.
Oh yeah.

Adam (43:31):
about the bad people outside my village?
Yeah.
I don't know how they got there.
Oh wow.
I don't know how they got there,crystal, that they must have
gotten it from some other tribe,I guess.
a man runs in and says somethingto the chief in the native
language, and I guess Mattspeaks it because he responds,
yes, my enemies are after me.
I need your help.
And so what happens is they'retrapped in this temple,

(43:51):
completely surrounded, there'stoo many to defeat.
Um, and, uh, the mask jet showsup.
rhino fires down from inside thejet.
You'd think they'd put weaponson the jet itself, but I guess
it's not necessary.

PJ (44:06):
I think Alex doesn't like it to be easy.
He wants to fire with achallenge

Adam (44:12):
Yeah,

PJ (44:12):
we've seen this before when they were India, I think when he
is parachuting and shooting atthe elephants.

Adam (44:18):
that's right.

PJ (44:19):
firing at stuff while landing?

Adam (44:21):
Yeah.
Now Alex's line, by the way, isTally ho mow him down.
Is Alex suggesting that theymassacre the natives?

PJ (44:31):
typical imperialism and a Buddy Hawk's nom forum.

Adam (44:35):
Oh, for sure.
Now, continuing potentially onthe Buddy Hawks, nomination
pathway.
Brad uses hocus pocus to makethe natives think that their
giant God has shown up and istelling them to run away.

PJ (44:49):
okay, we're gonna talk about this again in a moment, but, if
the implication from Alex is tomurder the natives, Brad is just
as horrified as we are, in which

Adam (45:02):
Okay.

PJ (45:02):
he sees the use of a God to scare them off as actually the
far lesser of two evils.

Adam (45:08):
Sure.

PJ (45:08):
So he is like, oh my God, we're not gonna mow him down.
Alex, what the fuck?
yeah, it's a god.
oh, they ran away.
I'm sorry, Alex, you don't getyour blood this time.

Adam (45:19):
Gotcha.
Okay, that's, well, thanks Brad.

PJ (45:22):
ho, hold on.
But just, but hold that thought.
Okay.

Adam (45:25):
Yeah.
well, now Dusty uses theelectric Ouch.
To shoot sly off, piranha slyflies hundreds of feet into the
air and into the jungle wherehe's then chased by a warthog.
this is a ragdoll award forsure.

PJ (45:42):
Yeah, this is more butt shots

Adam (45:45):
Yeah.

PJ (45:45):
it's a square aimed at his butt.
He goes flying.

Adam (45:49):
Yeah,

PJ (45:49):
we've seen this from Dusty before.
He does like shooting people'sbutts, specifically slides and
Vanessa's,

Adam (45:56):
yeah.
There's a lot of, a lot of, butaimed laser blasts in this show,

PJ (46:01):
There

Adam (46:01):
I have to say.
And amazingly, the laser blasts,they're set to Stu because,

PJ (46:07):
Burn.

Adam (46:08):
or they're set to burn.
Not kill.
There's a setting in betweenstun and kill, which is actually
burn, which they rarely talkabout in science fiction
franchises.

PJ (46:18):
It is true.
It is really true.
want them injured.

Adam (46:22):
It's char set faces to jar.
back to Brad.
He, opens fire on the natives atthe door of the temple, causing,
causing them to flee.

PJ (46:38):
So,

Adam (46:38):
The guys

PJ (46:39):
here's the thing.
this was like, at first when Iwas going through the episode, I
was like, I can defend Brad.
And then like, no, I can't.

Adam (46:46):
nope.

PJ (46:47):
'cause now he doesn't seem so concerned with the native
safety.
The buddy hawks is back in thetable.
And I do wanna point out themain cannon on Brad's condor is
an anti-matter Ray.
So, Adam, do you know whathappens when matter meets
anti-matter?

Adam (47:04):
Enlighten us.

PJ (47:05):
it causes an explosion.

Adam (47:08):
It must be very isolated anti-matter ray, because it just
cause little bursts of likeexplosions on the ground.

PJ (47:16):
he is also wrecking war, Argo's like Temple Hut.

Adam (47:19):
Yeah, thanks a lot.
venom flies away.
I guess they assume they'redefeated and they fly away and,
everything turns out fine.
they're inside the temple,things are good.
but the bug is still inside tboand so he dances around, which
causes everyone including, allthe tribes people to laugh at
him.
So I guess we're just gonna goahead and do another Roy Batty

(47:41):
Nam here at the end of theepisode.

PJ (47:42):
Daddy, at the end.

Adam (47:43):
And that is it.
That's the episode of Mask AShow purportedly about, good
guys who drive vehicles thattransform into weaponized
vehicles who wear masks of powerversus bad guys with the same
exact, uh, set of tools.
and in this episode.
There was, a minute total

PJ (48:05):
Yeah,

Adam (48:05):
of that stuff in it.
So let's see if the more youknow is going to, redeem the
episode in any way.
We're back at the village withWargo.
Scott sees some berries growingand he wants to eat one.
Turns out they're poisonous.
Matt tells him they could giveyou a pretty good stomach ache
or worse.
So the lesson is don't eatberries.

(48:27):
Got it.
What's worse?
A pretty good stomach ache, orworse death, I guess.
Anything in between that?

PJ (48:34):
diarrhea.

Adam (48:37):
Oh.

PJ (48:38):
would, okay, so it's clearly wgo because he says his name,
but Wgo was previously able tospeak English.
Here he is speaking in hisnative tongue.
So Matt has to translate for himby saying, I think what Wargo is
trying to say is those berriesof po poisonous.

Adam (48:54):
Right.

PJ (48:55):
then they say, thanks, Virago.
That's good advice in anylanguage.
So they all start laughing,including Wargo.
So now he understands Englishagain in these 30 seconds.
I think that Wargo and Matt werefucking with Scott and

Adam (49:11):
totally.

PJ (49:11):
this is actually berries that Matt wants to pick for
Brad.

Adam (49:14):
Because yeah, they could give you a pretty good stomach
ache or diarrhea or death orhallucinogenic enlightenment.

PJ (49:25):
The real power of the crystal is now known.

Adam (49:29):
It was never the crystal.
It was the berries.
Well, and we are out.
Let's take a look at our awards.
The Roy Batty Award.

PJ (49:38):
there was a few, but to me it was everyone laughing at t
Bobb at the end.
He's been suffering from adebilitating bug and

Adam (49:46):
Yeah,

PJ (49:47):
And even the natives think it's funny.
So it's like, ah, but a funnylittle robot and he's just in
pain really.

Adam (49:53):
the Sly Racks Ragdoll Award.

PJ (49:57):
we did get that butt shot with Sly Racks.

Adam (49:59):
I mean, he flew hundreds

PJ (50:01):
did.

Adam (50:02):
meters through the air and crash down in the jungle.
that's a classic.
Sly racks should be dead moment.

PJ (50:09):
be.
And honestly, at any otherepisode for me it would be the
winner.
But t Bobb and Scott in the jetfuselage crashing to the ground,

Adam (50:19):
no.
Not the ground.

PJ (50:21):
into a

Adam (50:21):
In a tree.

PJ (50:22):
a tree with shit flying all around like they should all be
dead.

Adam (50:27):
Yeah.
I agree with you on that, but I,I do like sly racks with a
classic ragdoll moment.

PJ (50:31):
is true.

Adam (50:32):
Uh,

PJ (50:32):
one.

Adam (50:32):
So Matt, father of the Year award.

PJ (50:36):
I'm gonna go off the beaten track because I kind of occurred
to me thinking through, I'vedone some electrical work in my
own home, You know, working,opening up the panel and hooking
up new circuit breakers.

Adam (50:48):
Yeah.

PJ (50:49):
the idea of sending Scott to not turn off, but to unplug the
breaker panel is not something Iwould ask my kid to do,
especially when the juice islive.
this feels really neglectful tobe like, yeah, just rip out that
wire from that breaker panelright there to help us out.
Like, it's like, okay.

Adam (51:11):
Yeah.
and also Scott's instructionsbecause they come up here when
he tells t bobb, I'll pull thered one.
You pull the green one.
Yeah, no, I, I, I agree with youon that one.
I thought just bringing Scottwith him on the trip alone was a
father of the year moment, but,yeah.
Putting him at less at risk ofelectrocution.

PJ (51:29):
Yeah.

Adam (51:29):
Sure.
The Buddy Hawks Award for thisepisode.
I meant to say this at the topof the episode, but we are now
bringing, guest hosts onto theshow.
We decided not to bring a guesthost onto the show this episode
because.
How Flagrantly Buddy Hawksawarded this episode is.

(51:53):
So I guess let's dive in.
what's not actually a BuddyHawks nomination in this
episode?

PJ (52:01):
I'm gonna make an argument that Matt and Scott well no, T
Bob actually gets a Buddy Hawkseasily.
But Matt and Scott

Adam (52:08):
Yeah,

PJ (52:08):
don't as far as I can tell, they don't

Adam (52:11):
okay.

PJ (52:12):
And they're going out to meet the tribe, which is not

Adam (52:16):
Yeah.

PJ (52:16):
into unto itself.

Adam (52:18):
Okay.
Fair enough.

PJ (52:19):
dusty, as far as I can tell, makes no statement he is
attacking the tribe.

Adam (52:25):
True.

PJ (52:26):
Vanessa doesn't do anything, as far as I can tell to go after
to, uh, something that'sflagrantly offensive.

Adam (52:35):
All right.

PJ (52:35):
it.

Adam (52:37):
Yeah.

PJ (52:37):
is me putting my fingernails into the dirt to try to, to
really sift through this stuffbecause

Adam (52:44):
Okay.

PJ (52:44):
everyone else gets hit with a nomination.

Adam (52:47):
All right.
I'll go with you on that one,including, the writers

PJ (52:50):
writers all

Adam (52:51):
or the writer of this episode.
It's just across the board.

PJ (52:55):
Yeah.

Adam (52:55):
but yeah.
What, Let's talk about thecharacters themselves who are,
buddy Hawks nominees.

PJ (53:00):
yeah, we have the statements coming from, tbo, which is kind
of

Adam (53:05):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (53:05):
stuff, but then

Adam (53:06):
Yep.

PJ (53:07):
this four-way tie that was all relatively tied to the same
thing.

Adam (53:11):
Yeah.

PJ (53:11):
Miles, mayhem, and this is actually in order of how they do
this, miles, mayhem, sly Racks,Alex Sector and Brad Turner.
Each of them either opened fireon natives or made the statement
mow'em down.
maybe Alex was meaning venom,but you know what, maybe be a
little more precise with thelanguage next time, Alex,

(53:33):
because, you mow grass down,which is, there's numerous of,
there was very few venom agentsand a lot of natives of that
quote unquote enemy tribe.

Adam (53:43):
Yeah.
I'm Alex Sector all the way onthis one.
For the, for the buddy hawks.
Mow'em down is just like,there's simply blades of grass
in his eyes to be chopped down.
Not even humans.

PJ (53:58):
I have to balance this out because, there's one thing where
someone yells something racist.
There's another thing whenpeople attack other people for
being raised.
So like Alex, as far as I couldtell.
I guess he did fire on, fromwith Rhino.
You're right.

Adam (54:14):
Yes he did.

PJ (54:15):
guess of, you know, he's the, the first among equals I
suppose of.

Adam (54:19):
he really is.

PJ (54:20):
Alright, good

Adam (54:21):
Congratulations, Alex.

PJ (54:23):
it out at the end.

Adam (54:24):
Yes.

PJ (54:25):
I do have one honorable mention,

Adam (54:28):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (54:28):
which are the natives themselves.
one tribe just pushed Matt'splane over the cliff.
the other tribe tied Matt, Scottand t Bobb to stakes.
it could be because these wereforeign invaders.
I can't quite be sure, but

Adam (54:43):
I'm gonna give the natives a pass on this one.

PJ (54:45):
I think that's fair.
We're talking about a dropcompared to an ocean.

Adam (54:50):
Well, is this episode Panda Poo?
I'm gonna let you go ahead anddive in to what I know as a
complex, nuanced, andmultilayered look at this
episode, I'm going to say yes.

PJ (55:03):
and that's where we're gonna end up.
Yes.
This is panda poo.
I really wanted to thinkthrough, you know, it's not so
much what this episode is.
It's what it could have been.
and it, I think it probably justdeepens the panda poo of the
whole thing because thecharacterizations of the natives
in this episode are terrible.

Adam (55:22):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (55:22):
you know, it's like,

Adam (55:23):
Yeah.

PJ (55:23):
like,

Adam (55:24):
Yep.

PJ (55:24):
congratulations, you've walked, back into this
territory.
Writers, when you separate out,like a lot of the, that like
Venom's plan actually does hangtogether in a lot of ways and is
not panda poo.

Adam (55:37):
I'm okay.
I have to call foul on that one.

PJ (55:41):
it.

Adam (55:41):
What plan?

PJ (55:42):
I,

Adam (55:43):
They're there and that's it.
they want a gem for some unknownreason and they learned about it
for some unknown

PJ (55:49):
they

Adam (55:49):
method.

PJ (55:50):
and insiders on Matt, and they did enough thinking through
to

Adam (55:55):
Allegedly.

PJ (55:57):
Well, they know, I mean, at least the customs agent,

Adam (56:00):
Okay.

PJ (56:01):
I agree there's a lot of stringing together here, but
they put Vanessa Undercover,they had that autopilot control
device.

Adam (56:11):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (56:12):
they's a lot of pre-planning that goes into that.
you know, even Vanessa and Slyfollowing them, like they didn't
intend for the jet to crash.
So they actually had basicallylike this calculation that was
going

Adam (56:28):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (56:29):
And

Adam (56:30):
If we understood why Miles wanted the crystal,

PJ (56:33):
I

Adam (56:34):
we understood what was at stake for the greater world, if
he got his hands on the crystal,and if they actually threaded
together any kind of a plot forhow Venom learned all this stuff
in the first place, then yeah,I'd agree with you.

PJ (56:48):
The motivation is left entirely to speculation.

Adam (56:52):
Yeah.

PJ (56:52):
it's really just like, Hey, there's, I don't know.
I could be reaching for awriter's defense award that
should never occur.
at least this time it's nothappenstance.

Adam (57:02):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (57:03):
some indication that Venom is doing some thoughtful
execution here.
And

Adam (57:08):
Okay,

PJ (57:09):
is if, if Sly and Vanessa hadn't fought before they were
about to make love, theywould've caught Matt Scott and t
Bobb.

Adam (57:17):
Uhhuh.

PJ (57:17):
And honestly, if

Adam (57:18):
That's true.

PJ (57:18):
if it's not for the day of ex mask, jet

Adam (57:21):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (57:21):
wins this one,

Adam (57:23):
Yeah,

PJ (57:23):
And

Adam (57:24):
true.

PJ (57:24):
it's like,'cause a lot of times we'll award the panda poo
based on Venom's fucking up.
And I can see myself a way thatVenom actually was executing
competently.
clearly a lot of spots wherethey're not,

Adam (57:39):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (57:40):
like Miles's, curio mask that he got made of paper bache,
sly shooting natives for somereason it's like, nope, you're
just racist now.
And it goes to this whole thingabout so many missed
opportunities in this episode.

Adam (57:55):
Yeah.

PJ (57:56):
bit of this lore of the mask, powers from the crystal.
We get a little bit about masks,Matt's dad how is he connected
to all.
We don't ever do this connectionbetween, like I said, at the
top, the Mudman masks and themasks themselves with powers.
Like, there could have been

Adam (58:10):
Yeah,

PJ (58:12):
primal and cool and connected.
So yeah, this is panda poo.
there's so many ways it actuallycould have been great, if not
for the blatant and racism andthe real, misses left, right,
and center.

Adam (58:25):
Agreed.
And you know, I'm curious aboutthe next episode because it also
has, I.
Potential to be great

PJ (58:33):
Yes.

Adam (58:33):
it's episode 40.
it's called Eyes of the SkullVenom Leader, miles Mayhem uses
an ancient crystal skull thatallows x-ray like vision to see
through matte tracker's, mask,and discover his identity
mayhem, then kidnap ScottTracker for ransom.
This is all great and continuesto grow the world of Mask If

(58:57):
Miles finally finds out who theleader of MASK is.

PJ (59:01):
It does.
I'm looking forward to uswatching it, and really digging
into it because I think, again,we're seeing a lot of smart
things

Adam (59:09):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (59:10):
is great'cause you want venom to be credible.
we'll see basically, let's seewhat happens with this one.
I have a general question'causeI'm thinking now we're, we're
turning the page onto 40.
We're hitting a new.

Adam (59:22):
Mm-hmm.

PJ (59:22):
episodes, the thirties felt like a bit of a slog.
am I wrong in thinking that?

Adam (59:28):
Yeah.
I think in a lot of ways, maybewith an exception or so, it felt
like they strayed from what theformula of a mask episode is.
I mean, there were early ones,which, were dumb to a degree,
but they all fit the formula,Venom does the thing.
Mask is assembled.
We see the vehicles.
they got their helmets,preferably some escape scenes

(59:49):
for the mask agents, a couple ofvenom mask battles, and we're
out.
And they were like, yeah, okay,cool.
Great.
This is fun.
The thirties were overall, uh,a, a miss, For the show.
So I'm hopeful for the forties.
Also, I know that we're gonnaget some new characters coming
in, so that'll be interesting aswell.

PJ (01:00:07):
I'm looking forward to it as well.

Adam (01:00:09):
same.
I hope you're all lookingforward to continuing the Ride
with us and our guest hosts whowill be joining us.
but for the time being, thispodcast has to transform and
head back to hq.
I am Adam Moore.

PJ (01:00:20):
I am PJ McNerney.

Adam (01:00:22):
Bye-bye.
The mobile armored podcast showis written, produced and edited.
Bye Adam Moore.
And PJ McNerney.