M.A.S.K. S1E29

A Matter of Gravity

The orange Firecracker pickup floats in a pink beam of light.

A locomotive carrying coal is left crumpled near Philadelphia and the coal vanishes, leaving only a giant crystal. Matt and Hondo follow gravity ripples to Mayhem in Switchblade, whose weapon destroys Hondo's Firecracker. V.E.N.O.M. armors its vehicles in crystal and heads for the Philadelphia Mint. M.A.S.K. brings in Bruce and Gloria, uses Alex's coordinates to find the weak points in the crystal, and sends Gloria on an end run against Mayhem. Hondo, left without a vehicle, is shown Night Stalker, the Hurricane.

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A locomotive crumples under a red beam, the engineer runs clear, and the only thing missing from the train is its coal. "A Matter of Gravity" keeps its opening mystery plain: nobody sees the weapon, a conductor points out that fifty trucks would have left tracks and there are none, and the one clue is a boulder of pale blue crystal that Scott and T-Bob find lying in the forest.

The M.A.S.K. computer says the crystal is not of natural origin but was compressed into shape by some extreme force, and a scan finds ripples in the Earth's gravitational field. The trail leads to Vanessa, then to Mayhem in Switchblade, and then to the part the episode is really about: Hondo's Firecracker floats in a pink spotlight, slams into a tree and breaks into shards. The wreck is the event. Everything that follows is an answer to the question of what Hondo drives next.

This is the spine of the episode, and the plot is built around it: a crushed Firecracker at one end, a blue Hurricane at the other, and Hondo with no vehicle in between. The computer picks Bruce and his Rhino for the mission and notes that Shark's weapons may be of value, the fight moves to Philadelphia, and Hondo spends it on the sidelines wishing he had something to drive. The episode closes on a line from the garage, "Meet Night Stalker," which feels like the one payoff the story owed him.

The writing leans hard on money and gravity puns, and Scott's cover story helps: he has a school report to write about money, which is how he and T-Bob come to be standing at the Mint wondering aloud about spearmint and peppermint. Someone remarks that it sounds like a matter of some gravity and is told they have been around T-Bob too much, and T-Bob's nickel-and-dime joke at the Mint earns a threat of confinement to quarters. It is a lot of wordplay for one show, but the plot's main device, a weapon that makes things heavier, is its own pun, and the script does not pretend otherwise.

On the craft side the gravity beam gets the strongest staging. The pink spotlight that lifts the Firecracker, the red rings that spin out near a window in Philadelphia, and the pale crystal that shatters into fragments across a building give the beam a visible reach. The standout is the Firecracker's end, a run of shots that moves from a truck hovering in a pink glow to a smash against the tree to splinters.

The solution is stacked. V.E.N.O.M.'s crystal armor is broken by Alex's coordinates for the fracture points, with the explanation that the crystal is like diamond and will fracture if struck in the right spot, and Bruce suggests that the ugly one could not bear to see its own face, so Gloria is sent on an end run while the others draw Mayhem's fire. Two good ideas in one fight is a lot, and the Mint, the stated target, is barely seen: a look over a railing from Scott and T-Bob, then a street battle. The fan wiki also lists a run of continuity slips, including T-Bob walking about undamaged right after being squashed and Thunderhawk's door missing and restored from shot to shot, so the animation is not at its most careful.

It is a busy episode and a good one, because the gravity weapon is a fair threat and the vehicle swap gives Hondo an arc: he loses the truck and is handed a new one!

The M.A.S.K. wiki lists this as the first episode featuring Hurricane, identified as Night Stalker, and its Hurricane page gives this episode as the vehicle's first appearance.
The wiki's Hurricane page says the toyline's original color guides named the vehicle Night Stalker, that Mattel owned the rights to that name, and that it was changed to Hurricane, which explains why several episodes use the earlier name.
The wiki's Hurricane page lists a 1986 toy and a 2026 re-release in the second wave of The Loyal Subjects collaboration.
The wiki points out that the episode's safety tip about the kitchen garbage disposal is virtually the same as the one in 'Caesar's Sword'.
The wiki says this is the first of four first-season episodes in which Sly Rax does not appear, the others being 'The Spectre of Captain Kidd', 'The Royal Cape Caper' and 'Stone Trees'.
The wiki records that the shot of Thunderhawk converting to jet mode and taking off is used three times, and that the second use is flipped horizontally, putting Matt behind the wheel on the opposite side.
The wiki lists Sharon Noble as the voice of Gloria Baker, Vanessa Warfield, the M.A.S.K. Computer and the news reporter Jude Wilson in this episode.
The wiki's Buddie Hawks page lists this episode as a non-speaking cameo for him, and the wiki's Condor page lists a brief cameo for Brad Turner's vehicle.
The wiki notes that an unmasked, mohawked V.E.N.O.M. henchman is seen unloading raw crystals from a truck with a bulldozer.

Matt Trakker

Hondo MacLean

Bruce Sato

Alex Sector

Gloria Baker

Buddie Hawks

Brad Turner

Dusty Hayes

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

A train engineer runs from a yellow locomotive glowing under a red beam of light.

The crumpled yellow locomotive lies on the tracks in front of a line of hopper cars.

A blonde TV reporter holds a microphone on a television screen showing the countryside.

Scott Trakker runs through a doorway with T-Bob rolling beside him.

Matt Trakker sits at a chess board across from a man in a green suit.

Scott Trakker stands at a computer console with his back to the camera.

T-Bob carries a tray with a plate on it.

Matt Trakker shakes hands with the man in the green suit while Scott looks on.

Scott Trakker smiles beside the man in the green suit.

Scott Trakker raises his fists at the console between Matt Trakker and the man in the green suit.

Scott Trakker runs through a doorway with one arm out.

Matt Trakker points ahead from a seat beside Scott in a vehicle, with T-Bob in the foreground.

Scott and Matt Trakker look ahead from the vehicle with T-Bob at the bottom.

Matt Trakker and uniformed men stand beside overturned blue hopper cars in a trench.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand small beside the huge crumpled locomotive.

Scott Trakker smiles beside T-Bob.

Scott Trakker leans over T-Bob in a grassy field near the crushed locomotive.

Scott Trakker rides on top of T-Bob in a forest.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob look ahead nervously in the woods.

Two pairs of feet stand on a forest path in front of a pale blue crystal.

T-Bob wears a blue crystal casing over part of his head.

The red Thunderhawk with raised doors sits beside the orange Firecracker pickup on a forest road.

Matt Trakker drives with his hands on the steering wheel.

Scott Trakker sits on a crystal boulder with T-Bob lying beside it.

Scott Trakker climbs down from the crystal while T-Bob lies next to it.

T-Bob lies on his back on a dirt road with arms and legs in the air.

T-Bob sits against a tree trunk with his eyes squinting.

T-Bob sits against a tree while a squirrel runs past.

A small bird sits on a nest on top of T-Bob's head.

Scott Trakker reaches toward a masked driver in a red vehicle with T-Bob beside him.

The red Thunderhawk with lightning bolt stripe drives down a road in a sketchy-lined shot.

The red Thunderhawk flies over a clearing full of blue crystals.

A masked driver steers past a windscreen view of blue crystals.

A blue truck and a small orange vehicle drive along a forest dirt road seen from above.

The orange Firecracker pickup kicks up a cloud of dust as it speeds along.

The orange Firecracker pickup slams into a tree trunk with a red blast at its wheel.

The red Thunderhawk drives along the forest road.

The red Thunderhawk raises its gull-wing doors and hovers off the road.

Hondo MacLean stands beside the front of the orange Firecracker pickup.

Scott Trakker rides T-Bob along the road between the trees.

Scott Trakker grips T-Bob's side handle as T-Bob glances sideways.

Scott Trakker crouches on the road with T-Bob.

T-Bob stands upright on two legs next to Scott Trakker's kneeling leg.

The orange Firecracker pickup appears in a side mirror behind a purple dump truck.

A purple dump truck loaded with crystals drives out of the forest throwing up dust.

Scott Trakker lies on his back on the road while T-Bob stands nearby.

The orange Firecracker pickup wrecks against a tree in a pink beam.

The orange Firecracker pickup hovers in a pink spotlight with a mask figure on its roof.

A masked figure flies through the air wrapped in yellow energy with one arm raised.

The orange Firecracker pickup breaks apart into shards and fragments.

The red Thunderhawk sits in a forest clearing under a pink glow.

Matt Trakker drives in his helmet with a gloved hand on the wheel.

Matt Trakker grips the wheel and turns his head.

Matt Trakker leans forward behind the wheel.

A black and white negative flash shows a gloved hand reaching out.

T-Bob runs down a country road away from the camera.

Miles Mayhem sits belted in his gold visored helmet and eagle cap.

The red Thunderhawk skids to a stop with its doors raised and dust rising.

Hondo MacLean climbs over the crumpled orange wreckage.

Matt Trakker, Hondo MacLean, Scott and T-Bob stand by the Thunderhawk on the road.

A pink wireframe display shows a red Rhino truck in two positions on a dark screen.

A cyan outline portrait of a man's face appears on a dark monitor.

A computer monitor shows cyan outlines of a man and two faces next to a pink helmet.

A computer monitor shows a cyan standing woman and two faces next to a pink helmet.

Two agents in white karate uniforms spar while a bespectacled man stands by in the gym.

A bearded man, a man in an orange vest and a woman in yellow sit at a table.

Agents sit in chairs around a round table with a lit grid in the middle.

A woman in yellow and a man in an orange vest clap their raised hands together.

A white Porsche parks next to a large truck in front of pine trees.

A man in an orange vest opens the door of a white car beside a red truck.

The red Thunderhawk hovers toward the camera with its doors raised.

Scott Trakker kneels beside T-Bob in a sunny room.

Scott Trakker holds T-Bob in his arms and looks up.

Scott Trakker looks aside with his hands behind his back next to T-Bob.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand in front of a big grey office building.

Scott Trakker raises a finger to make a point next to T-Bob.

Metal bars and holes run through a piece of machinery.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob peer over a railing.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob lean over a stairway rail looking down.

Scott Trakker points down while T-Bob looks the same way.

Matt Trakker drives in his helmet and orange scarf.

The red Rhino truck drives along a forest road.

The Rhino truck follows a white car on a city road with a red Thunderhawk above.

A man on a bulldozer pours yellow grain into a blue dump truck.

The white Shark races past city buildings with the red Rhino truck behind it.

A goggled man sits beside an orange-suited figure in a gas mask inside a vehicle.

The Rhino truck and the red Thunderhawk drive side by side down a city street.

A black screen sits inside a metal clamp held by grey mechanical fingers.

A grey vehicle tumbles over on its side, kicking up puffs of smoke on the street.

The front of the white Shark appears in front of colored city buildings.

The white Shark drives down a city street between old buildings.

A blue schematic on a red screen shows a car and a pair of crosshairs.

A white car passes a city street as a flying vehicle flickers in the background.

Gloria Baker drives the white Shark in her gold helmet.

Red energy rings spin out near a window while blue lines radiate.

Matt Trakker grips the steering wheel in his helmet.

A purple vehicle is buried beneath jagged splintered wood.

A window and part of a building are covered by a pale crystal structure.

The crystal shatters and a window explodes into fragments.

An orange-suited figure in a silver gas mask sits in a vehicle.

The orange-suited figure in the gas mask raises one finger.

The Rhino truck and the red Thunderhawk drive up a street between old buildings.

The red Thunderhawk sits beside the Rhino truck's cab as a red beam crosses the wall.

Gloria Baker sits at the window of the white Shark in her gold helmet.

A masked figure in a purple and orange suit with wings drops toward the street.

A heap of dark cloth smokes in the street where the winged figure landed.

Matt Trakker smiles with his hands on his hips in front of Scott Trakker.

The red Thunderhawk drives toward a gas station at Boulder Hill.

Matt Trakker faces a blue car in the garage with two mechanics.

The wheels and fenders of a blue vehicle sit in the dark.

A blue Hurricane with big wheels and mounted cannons sits against the canyon wall.

A group of agents gathers around the blue Hurricane in the courtyard.

The red Rhino truck stands at the base with a flatbed trailer.

Scott Trakker cooks at the stove while T-Bob stands at the kitchen counter.

Scott Trakker looks into a pot beside T-Bob.

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