M.A.S.K. S1E57

Incident in Istanbul

A chess set in a gold box lies open on a table.

Matt follows an armored truck carrying the Emperor Constantine's chess set to the Topkapi museum, with Scott and T-Bob in the car, when the Galata Bridge opens for no reason and the truck vanishes. Matt finds a decoy, then tracks down the museum's Mehmed Bey and his driver, who remember only a bright flash. V.E.N.O.M. holds the chess set, takes a painting from the museum, and works out that together they point to the crown of Constantine hidden in a church. Matt calls in Julio, Calhoun and Gloria while Scott and T-Bob get lost in the tunnels beneath the old city, and V.E.N.O.M. and M.A.S.K. meet on the church's chessboard floor.

Well, somebody's figured a way to rook somebody out of something.

A bridge that opens when it should only do so at night, with no boat passing under it, is the kind of wrongness a mystery should start on, and "Incident in Istanbul" has Scott ask why before anybody has put on a mask, with Matt agreeing it is a good question. He is following an armored truck across the Galata Bridge, with Scott and T-Bob in his car, as it carries Constantine's chess set from Italian hands to the Topkapi museum. When the span rises the truck is nowhere on the other side. What Matt finds instead is an abandoned decoy, and the museum's Mehmed Bey and his driver turn up later after a computer frequency search, both remembering only a bright flash.

The episode is about a clue that comes in two halves. The chess set is said to be the key to a treasure that nobody has ever identified, V.E.N.O.M. takes it, then steals a painting from the museum, and the pair together point to a crown hidden in a church in the old city. M.A.S.K. works from the painting to the same church by its own road, so the two crews arrive in one building, and the plot becomes a question of who has read the clue first.

The writing is at its best when it plays with its objects. One agent remarks that a thief will not have pawned the set, Gloria says somebody has found a way to rook somebody out of something, and the chess puns keep coming at about the rate of the show's other running gags. The computer scenes carry the deduction: the picture is analysed, the church is narrowed down to a Byzantine basilica in old Constantinople, and the answer comes from a machine instead of anything Matt works out, though the scene is short enough to pass. V.E.N.O.M. gets the sharper dialogue, since its members insult one another all the way through the dusty search.

Scott and T-Bob take the bazaar, where Scott is offered a scimitar by a shopkeeper and leaves with a curved blade in his hand. The frames then turn blue and wet: a stone passage, a boat on dark water, and T-Bob bandaged around the body with a sword hilt resting on him. It is a long detour from the main plot, but it has an eye for atmosphere, and it ends with the pair back among the others, where T-Bob is thanked for retrieving the Emperor's headdress and answers with a pun about it.

The standout is the church floor. Under a decorated dome the floor is a giant chessboard with keyholes in it, and V.E.N.O.M. needs the pieces to turn them, so a heist film's vault door has been replaced by a game board. The frames show one man sprinting across the squares, another lying flat out on the checks, and a teal-masked agent looking off under the dome; the search is full of tripping and bickering, and the room reads at a glance as a game that the characters are stuck inside.

The weaknesses are in the joins. The opening mystery is explained by a throwaway exchange in which V.E.N.O.M. members mention that they rigged the bridge and that Bruno set it off while someone was at a cafe, so Matt's good question gets answered by the villains rather than by him. The finale then leans on Julio's Streamer mask and its oil gags, a thin payoff after a puzzle set up with this much care.

For all that, it is a sturdy treasure hunt, because both sides read the same clue and the contest is who gets to the floor first. The story closes on T-Bob's pun and the Turkish nation's thanks arrive in the same breath.

The M.A.S.K. wiki lists a conflict in which Julio's mask and his vehicle Firefly are both referred to as Streamer in the commands, although only his mask is called Streamer.
In the episode's audio, the M.A.S.K. computer names the place where Matt's search ends as the castle of the seven towers, once a Byzantine prison.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records this episode's safety tip as Scott and T-Bob playing in a parked vehicle, T-Bob releasing the emergency brake, and Matt scolding them for the danger.

Matt Trakker

Julio Lopez

Calhoun Burns

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Bruno Sheppard

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Scott Trakker smiles on a harbor dock with T-Bob's dome at the lower right.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob face a bearded man in navy as a man in brown walks off.

A red car with a yellow lightning bolt parks in front of a dark truck near a harbor.

A key turns in a large padlock on a gray latch.

A bearded man in a navy suit talks with Matt Trakker beside a ship.

A bearded man in a navy suit sits beside a driver in a gray uniform and cap.

A red car with purple stripes and a lightning bolt sits on a concrete pad seen from above.

A wide city of white buildings spreads along a bay with a long bridge crossing the water.

A traffic jam of buses, vans and an armored truck fills a city street seen from above.

A red sports car and a fruit cart move through street traffic among vans and an armored truck.

An orange bus and a cream car sit in a crowded city street.

A man pushes a wooden fruit cart in front of a red car and a truck.

Matt Trakker drives the red car with T-Bob in the back seat.

Matt Trakker speaks with an elderly man in a robe and turban on a stone terrace.

T-Bob walks among passersby on a stone terrace beside a stocky man in a dark suit.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob run along a sunlit plaza in front of a domed mosque with minarets.

A striped yellow and blue awning shades the back of a dark armored truck.

T-Bob looks up with wide eyes and a raised arm at the left.

Scott Trakker, T-Bob and a man in blue walk beside the armored truck and its awning.

Matt Trakker looks straight ahead in a blue jacket and cream turtleneck.

Scott Trakker gestures with an open hand as T-Bob's eyes peek out at the lower right.

The red car drives along a curving road in front of a glass office building.

Scott Trakker puts a hand on his hip next to T-Bob in front of a glass building.

T-Bob stands in front of a blue glass wall with one arm bent.

Shoppers look into the windows of a jewelry and antiques shop under arched fanlights.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob wait outside the shop while customers browse the window.

Curved swords and ornate scabbards lie on a blue display case.

A shopkeeper in a white turban speaks with Scott Trakker and T-Bob in the shop.

A mustached shopkeeper in a white turban smiles under hanging brass lamps.

The shopkeeper stands with his hand on his chest as T-Bob looks around the shop.

Scott Trakker raises a curved sword and looks sideways in the shop.

Scott Trakker walks out of the shop with a curved dagger in his hand.

Scott Trakker looks to the left with a serious face beside a cracked stone wall.

Scott Trakker runs toward a stone arch with a sword while a bonsai-like tree hangs over the entry.

Scott Trakker leans forward with an arm extended against a blue stone wall.

T-Bob carries a wrapped box and has bandages around his body.

Scott Trakker looks alarmed as he reaches along a stone wall in a dim passage.

A monitor shows a city map with a round district and the coastline.

A large domed church with arched windows stands behind a stone wall and fir trees.

Matt Trakker grabs a bearded man in a navy suit by the collar.

A bearded man in a navy suit stands beside a column and gestures outward.

A satellite with antennae and solar panels drifts above Earth.

A green wireframe drawing shows a mustached man in armor from several angles beside a helmet.

A white mansion with columns and a red roof stands behind a green lawn.

A woman pours a drink while two men sit at a table in a sunny room.

Gloria Baker stands in a kitchen in a white karate uniform with a spiked mace on the counter.

Vanessa Warfield and Bruno Sheppard smirk while a man in a head wrap and eyepatch looks on.

Miles Mayhem stands in a doorway in a blue uniform with gold braid.

Bruno Sheppard stands with his back turned beside a marble column.

Cliff Dagger adjusts a head wrap over his eyepatch.

A hand reaches into the chess box and lifts a white king.

Vanessa Warfield stands as a man in purple falls against a column and Nash Gorey kneels.

Vanessa Warfield, Bruno Sheppard and Nash Gorey look off to the side with surprised faces.

Scott Trakker peers over the edge of a wooden boat in a stone tunnel.

Scott Trakker stares with wide eyes at a blue stone wall.

A masked pilot in a blue helmet with an orange visor grips two white-gloved controls.

Scott Trakker raises a curved sword and gasps in a stone tunnel.

T-Bob with bandages across his head has a sword hilt resting on him.

Scott Trakker kneels on T-Bob as the robot floats on water in the tunnel.

A courtyard with a large dome and two minarets has a reflecting pool in front.

Matt Trakker sits at a table as a woman rests her cheek on her hand.

Matt Trakker sits at a table beside a mustached man in a blue and orange jacket.

Four people sit around a library table as a projector shows three chess pieces.

A masked figure in an orange helmet looks up against a blue sky.

A figure in an orange helmet climbs a thin rope over a large gray dome.

A framed painting of a sultan with attendants hangs on a pale wall.

A painting shows a sultan in a large yellow turban with four attendants and bubbles around him.

Matt Trakker looks off to the side in front of library shelves.

Four people sit and stand around a table in a book-lined room with a blank screen.

Gloria Baker looks ahead with a frown in an arched hall.

Gloria Baker and Matt Trakker stand side by side and look aside with focused faces.

A painting of a sultan and his attendants shows small bubbles around them.

A sultan in a gold turban has blue sparkling gems for eyes and a big mustache.

Bruno Sheppard, Cliff Dagger and Miles Mayhem stand together in an arched hall.

Vanessa Warfield and other V.E.N.O.M. agents stand in a hall as a light beam crosses the floor.

Miles Mayhem speaks sharply as Bruno Sheppard looks on behind him.

T-Bob raises his arm in front of a blue tunnel wall.

T-Bob walks down a stone staircase in a dim passage.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob stand against a brick wall in a dim passage.

Three people ride on top of the red sports car moving across a pale ground.

Gloria Baker and a dark-haired man in orange sit side by side with serious faces.

Matt Trakker sits in a car seat and looks forward with a calm face.

A mosque with a big dome and four minarets stands in a green park.

Two masked V.E.N.O.M. agents stand in a domed hall.

A woman in teal stands on a giant chess floor as a man in blue runs in.

A man in green lies spread out on a black and white checkered floor.

A masked man in green kneels on the checkered floor in a columned hall.

A teal-masked V.E.N.O.M. agent with an orange helmet looks to the side under a domed ceiling.

A man in blue falls headfirst on the checkered floor.

A figure in a blue and gold helmet and orange collar looks off beneath a decorated ceiling.

Scott Trakker looks worried between two pillars in a domed hall.

A teal-masked agent and a blue-helmeted officer stand side by side under the dome.

The teal-masked agent rests a red-gloved hand on the shoulder of the blue officer.

T-Bob peeks out at the edge of a stone archway.

T-Bob sits on the pavement leaning against a stone wall beside a green shrub.

The red sports car with purple stripes and a lightning bolt drives across a pale surface.

The red sports car flies with gull-wing doors raised and white exhaust along a palace wall.

A driver in a helmet with a blue visor grips the wheel of an orange vehicle.

A small orange aircraft sits on a green strip along a pale pavement.

A black armored truck drives in front of an arched stone building.

A driver in a tan helmet and blue visor sits belted in an orange cockpit.

A black armored truck with a gun mount fires a shot as a gunner sits on top.

Two riders on a black motorcycle with a sidecar ride across a plaza.

A driver in a tan helmet with a blue visor looks through a red windshield frame.

T-Bob raises both arms in front of a stone arcade.

Scott Trakker shields his face from a bright flash as T-Bob rolls beside him.

A framed painting shows a sultan in a yellow turban with four men.

A group of seven people and T-Bob stand around on a patterned carpet in a glass-walled room.

T-Bob looks up with raised arms in front of a carved wooden door.

Scott Trakker sits at the wheel of a car as T-Bob leans in at the left.

Scott Trakker looks startled as T-Bob tumbles toward him in the car.

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