M.A.S.K. S1E14

Assault on Liberty

Gloria Baker stands glowing on the boat as energy rings circle the Statue of Liberty.

Matt Trakker and Scott are in the audience at a magic show when the Statue of Liberty vanishes. Duane Kennedy of the Peaceful Nations Alliance asks M.A.S.K. for help, and Matt demonstrates how a two-way mirror could have made the statue seem to vanish. A live broadcast then shows the statue standing in an Iowa cornfield, so the team flies out and finds a hologram generator and a V.E.N.O.M. ambush. The ransom demand follows: three billion dollars within three hours, or Miles Mayhem destroys the real statue on camera. Reasoning that it never left New York, M.A.S.K. searches the harbor, and Gloria Baker's Aura mask shields the statue as the deadline runs out.

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The episode begins in a theatre, with a magician in a top hat promising to make the Statue of Liberty disappear while Scott Trakker claps from the stands, so it is no surprise that everything afterward turns out to be a trick. The statue vanishes on cue, the magician swears he is innocent, and Matt Trakker shows how it was done in Duane Kennedy's office by making a coffee cup disappear with a two-way mirror: change the angle of the light and the eye sees something that is not there.

Here is what the episode is about: misdirection, and the question of who is steering your attention. The mirror is the first lesson, a live television broadcast of the statue standing in an Iowa field is the second, and the fight V.E.N.O.M. puts up in that field is the third, because it is staged to keep M.A.S.K. away from the harbor. Bruce Sato says as much in a pair of proverbs, about a fish and about a bird that fakes distress to lead you away from its nest, and it is to the script's credit that the supporting cast, rather than Matt, gets to name the pattern.

The craft is attentive to the premise. A hologram generator found in the corn is a tidy piece of design, since V.E.N.O.M. needs the broadcast to look authentic and the show gives us the equipment instead of waving at it. The ransom has a clock that we can see: M.A.S.K. sets its watches to countdown mode, and a close-up of a wristwatch ticking toward the deadline makes the stakes visible. The New York animation also pays attention to place, with a building tilting on its side over a gap, Thunderhawk hovering between glass towers with its doors raised, and a skyline that includes the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which the team scans because Mayhem's ego, they reason, would choose the tallest building available.

The standout is Gloria Baker's work with the Aura mask. She switches Aura to radio frequency mode to deal with the remote detonation, and the show then has her hold a protective field around the statue itself, rings of yellow energy circling it while she stands on a boat with her arms spread and her helmet blazing. She warns the others that she is running low on power and cannot say how long she can keep it up, so the sequence turns on a mask being stretched past its ordinary use and nearly failing, a better source of suspense than another vehicle chase! It also puts Gloria at the center of the finish.

The cornfield is the soft spot. A decoy has to be convincing enough to draw the team in, but the ambush, the explosion in the field and the discovery of the generator take up so much of the running time that New York gets a rushed second half: a plan to check an unfinished subway tunnel, a hunt for Mayhem's perch, and a detonation, all fitted into the last few minutes. A half-hour slot with a safety tip at the end explains some of the squeeze, but the trick wanted a longer fuse.

Still, among the early episodes this is one of the cleverer setups, because the premise is a conjuring trick and the script respects the rules of conjuring. Everyone in it ends up looking in the wrong place at least once, and the episode closes with Scott's own magic act, in which a magic mirror gets broken.

The M.A.S.K. wiki records the safety tip as Matt telling Scott to wear brighter clothing when crossing the street at night, since Scott was wearing a black magician's cape.
The M.A.S.K. wiki catalogues Bruce Sato's proverbs as Satoisms and lists these for this episode: one about an object that need not look like a fish to smell like one, and one about a clever bird that fakes distress to hide its real nest.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists a continuity slip in the cornfield battle: Piranha's lasers damage Rhino's front window in several places, but the window is shown intact afterward when Duane Kennedy contacts Matt.
The M.A.S.K. wiki notes that when Buddy says they were close to becoming popcorn in the Iowa field, he speaks with Dusty's voice.
The M.A.S.K. wiki points out that Mayhem tells Vanessa he thought she had taken care of the M.A.S.K. agents, although it was Rax and Dagger who set off the bomb in Iowa.
The M.A.S.K. wiki gives the episode's location as New York, New York, and names the following episode as "The Sceptre of Rajim".
The M.A.S.K. wiki's page for Firecracker, Hondo MacLean's orange pickup that transforms into a recon truck, lists this episode among its appearances.
The M.A.S.K. wiki describes Gator as an orange Jeep CJ7 Renegade that converts into a speedboat stored above the chassis, and lists this episode among its appearances.

Matt Trakker

Bruce Sato

Dusty Hayes

Buddie Hawks

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

Duane Kennedy

T-Bob

Matt Trakker stands with folded arms beside Scott and T-Bob in the crowd.

T-Bob sits among a tense audience with a tall man behind him.

The magician in a top hat and cloak hides his face behind his white gloved hands.

Audience members sit on bleachers in suits and dresses with T-Bob at the edge.

Scott Trakker watches the show with an older man and a woman beside him.

Scott Trakker claps his hands with a delighted smile.

Scott Trakker sits cross-legged next to T-Bob facing the stage, seen from behind.

A young man in a blue jacket and a boy in a sleeveless shirt sit in the stands.

The young man in the blue jacket and the boy beside him look up at the stage.

A crowd of spectators sits in rows in the stands.

The magician in top hat and cloak stands on a lit stage as a spectator clenches a fist.

The magician grins with a monocle on his eye.

Spectators leap up with raised fists and cheer in the stands.

Matt Trakker, Scott and T-Bob watch the show from the stands.

Matt Trakker looks forward with a stern expression beside a boy with dark hair.

Two hands clasp in a handshake in front of city towers.

Duane Kennedy sits at his desk with his hands clasped and a city skyline behind him.

Duane Kennedy smiles with his fingers laced together.

Duane Kennedy rests his cheek on his hand while Matt Trakker listens.

Matt Trakker sits across the desk from Duane Kennedy.

Window blinds show skyscrapers outside the office.

Matt Trakker holds out an open hand as he talks across the desk.

Duane Kennedy looks over his desk at Matt Trakker's back.

Duane Kennedy looks forward through a reflective screen.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand in a room full of monitors.

Duane Kennedy sits at the desk as Matt Trakker turns and gestures.

Duane Kennedy and Scott Trakker stare ahead with stern faces.

A cyan line drawing shows an armored man, a helmet and two faces of Bruce Sato.

Bruce Sato walks with a remote control in a city park.

A small blue aircraft flies between skyscrapers above the trees.

A man in an orange apron balances a tall stack of plates in a kitchen.

The man in the apron carries the stack of plates while another man in purple walks by.

A brown haired man in a white shirt lies on his back working under a truck.

A cyan line drawing shows a woman, a helmet and two faces of Gloria Baker.

A yellow race car with the number 3 sits among racing cars in front of a packed grandstand.

Agents sit around a round table seen from straight above in a circular room.

Four people sit around a dark table under a ceiling arm with clawed hands.

Agents in helmets stand with their backs to the camera facing a stone wall.

Black and orange explosions billow over a hillside.

A vehicle blurs through a golden canyon archway.

An orange Gator jeep flies over a dirt track with a gun firing.

A red Thunderhawk with a lightning bolt carries two helmeted figures through a field.

An aerial view shows a dirt road running through golden fields.

A radar grid on a black screen tracks a small blue dot.

A missile with a red nose streaks over the field firing beams.

A fireball bursts over the yellow field as the road runs beneath.

A masked man in a magenta jacket stands by the orange Gator jeep in the cornfield.

A dark vehicle drives along a country road beside a huge field.

Three masked figures stand among tall corn stalks looking up.

A figure in an orange suit and silver gas mask looks ahead in the corn.

Tall corn plants stand against a blue sky.

White cornstalks stand against a red field as a vehicle sits in the distance.

Matt Trakker faces away in his red helmet in the cornfield.

A figure in a yellow vest and helmet glows bright with arms spread wide.

An explosion bursts across the wheat field while a uniformed man watches from the left edge.

Agents stand in the field holding a helmet as smoke rises behind them.

Bruce Sato holds a device while other agents stand behind him.

A camera lies half buried in torn brown cloth in the dirt.

Bruce Sato crouches to pick up the buried device.

Matt Trakker faces the agents gathered in front of him in the field.

Duane Kennedy speaks from a monitor with his hands clasped.

Duane Kennedy appears on a small screen on the vehicle dashboard.

Matt Trakker fastens his harness while Hondo, Gloria and Bruce stand around him.

Hondo MacLean drives the orange Firecracker with a city skyline behind him.

An aerial view shows tiny cars on a street beside a big office block.

A street map of Manhattan shows rivers and city blocks with notes.

Bruce Sato reads a street map while sitting at the wheel.

A map of the southern tip of an island city shows streets and a dashed route.

Matt Trakker looks intently out of the cab beside a glass tower.

An orange hydroplane carries two people under a long suspension bridge.

Matt Trakker frowns and speaks from the cab of the Rhino truck.

The red Thunderhawk hovers between tall glass buildings with its doors up.

A figure in a lime green mask and helmet sits in a vehicle cab.

The green masked figure grips the steering wheel.

Large pieces of grey rock and rubble fall in a cloud of dust.

A masked driver sits in the cab of the Rhino truck with a rolling cart overhead.

A digital wristwatch shows the time 0:15 28.

A blue vehicle sits in a crater of rubble with the Rhino truck above.

A building tilts on its side over a gap as two small red vehicles move above it.

An orange suited figure in a silver gas mask looks ahead.

A man in a green mask and red jacket stands beside the orange suited figure.

The Statue of Liberty stands with her torch arm raised as seen from close beside.

The orange suited figure checks a wrist device while the green helmeted man looks away.

Gloria Baker hugs a driver as they steer a boat past the skyline.

An orange hydroplane carries two people across the harbor toward the skyline.

The orange suited figure in the gas mask leans over a control panel.

Gloria Baker raises both hands in her gold helmet against the sky.

Gloria Baker's gold helmet blazes with white light beside a man in a red and blue helmet.

Two tall skyscrapers rise over the harbor.

A red haired woman and a figure in a blue hood sit at a console.

The red Thunderhawk rises toward the camera with its wing doors up.

Matt Trakker smashes through a pane of glass as the pieces fly.

Matt Trakker sits at a window with two yellow beams crossing in front of him.

A helmeted figure with a blue visor sits in the back of an orange boat facing the skyline.

A black boat skims across the water with a figure standing on it.

A tiny red car flies between two tall buildings.

A city avenue runs between tall buildings with cars below.

A man in a blue vest rides a hovering board across a city street.

A vehicle with a yellow top hangs on the side of a glass building.

An orange suited figure crouches inside the statue while another climbs up outside.

A glowing aircraft hovers beside the Statue of Liberty in bright light.

The orange suited figure in the gas mask looks down.

Two rings of yellow energy circle a glass dome.

Miles Mayhem glares from the cockpit of a vehicle.

Matt Trakker holds his helmet with both hands beside the red Thunderhawk.

Miles Mayhem floats in the water in a splash.

Agents cheer and clap in a room, with Matt Trakker among them.

Matt Trakker and the other agents watch and smile with arms crossed.

A person in a top hat and cape stands in a spotlight beside a draped table.

T-Bob looks down startled inside a box framed by yellow lightning.

T-Bob looks sad with drooping eyes in front of a red curtain.

Matt Trakker and the other agents laugh together.

Scott Trakker points ahead while T-Bob stands beside him in front of a house.

A mansion estate with a tennis court sits under a night sky.

Matt Trakker points a finger at the cloaked figure in a top hat on a balcony.

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