M.A.S.K. S1E21

Mardi Gras Mystery

A bound man and woman face Miles Mayhem inside the cabin.

At the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, costumed V.E.N.O.M. agents try to snatch a girl named Becky, whose grandfather has just crashed a golf cart running on a powerful unknown fuel. Matt Trakker's computer traces the burned seat to Miles Mayhem, and mould on a straw hat leads M.A.S.K. to the lab of a missing professor and to branches from the fire trees she was studying, which grow only at one spot in a Louisiana swamp. The sap makes a fuel that would make V.E.N.O.M.'s vehicles unstoppable. While Matt and Dusty Hayes search the swamp and Buddie Hawks goes undercover, Scott and T-Bob meet Becky and fall into the quicksand, and M.A.S.K. has to beat V.E.N.O.M. to the trees.

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A title promises a festival, and Mardi Gras Mystery spends its opening stretch among parade floats before it walks into a swamp and stays there. The parade supplies costumes and floats, but the story is in the swamp, and the swamp belongs to someone else.

What the episode is really about is local knowledge. Every useful fact arrives from a person who lives there. Becky's grandfather found the fire trees and learned how to filter and boil their sap; the professor who studied them made the mistake of contacting a science council, and her message was intercepted; Becky knows the paths and the bog. M.A.S.K. spends most of the episode a step behind the people it is trying to protect, and the plot is at its best when it admits that.

The mystery is laid out in a sensible order. A cart doing a hundred miles an hour has blown its engine and left acid burns on the driver's seat, Matt reads it as a very powerful new fuel rather than gasoline, and the computer names the only known user as Miles Mayhem. Then come a ten gallon hat that belongs to the missing grandfather, a mould on a straw hat that matches the branches in the professor's lab, and a person there who says the tree she studies grows in only one place, Gardner's Point. Each clue costs a short scene and points at the next.

The voices carry the comedy more than the plot. T-Bob, told he is being dragged into another crazy mission, complains that it will ruin his make-up and laughs at his own line; Dusty, asked whether he feels like rounding up reptiles, says he has not been swamp sloppin' in a dog's age. When Buddie finally rejoins Matt after the cafe sequence, the explanation for his lateness is that he got hung up in a closet.

The quicksand scene is the standout, because it is the one place where the spine becomes an action. Scott has ignored his father's instruction to stay in the hotel, T-Bob sinks into the bog while protesting that he is still under warranty, and Scott and Becky are stuck too. Once they are out, T-Bob jokes about fishing without a licence, and Becky says she tried to warn them that the bog is no place to be after dark. Scott still sets off on the path he thinks his father took, T-Bob points out that Becky has lived here all her life, and Scott answers that she is just a girl. It is a small, sharp moment, and the show drops it faster than it deserves.

The weakness is that the festival is a promise the episode does not keep. After the parade scenes the city is reduced to a cafe where Venom holds a secret sale of the fuel and a closet where someone ends up locked, and the Mardi Gras of the title barely returns. The back half then moves quickly between the cabin, the captives and the chase, and the payoff to Becky's explanation of her grandfather's workshop is a line about taking the thick sap and giving Venom a ride it will not forget; it works, though a longer scene could have shown how the sap behaves.

Becky is right about the bog, and the sap she explains is what M.A.S.K. ends up using. Mardi Gras Mystery lets the person who knows the ground be the expert.

The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the closing safety tip as Matt asking Scott and T-Bob how to get help in an emergency, with Scott answering that he would use a phone and ask the operator.
The wiki's continuity notes say the V.E.N.O.M. seating shifts: during the parade kidnapping attempt Cliff Dagger rides in Piranha's sidecar with Sly Rax while Miles Mayhem drives Jackhammer with Vanessa Warfield, but later in the swamp Rax is Dagger's co-driver in Jackhammer, and in the escape Vanessa rides with Cliff.
The wiki points out that after Scott, T-Bob and Becky escape the quicksand their clothes are completely clean and dry.
According to the wiki, when Dusty blows a hole in the ground to keep V.E.N.O.M. agents away from the vehicles, the line "Right, chief, here it goes" is spoken in Buddie's voice.
The wiki records a laugh in the scene where T-Bob jokes about his make-up: Dusty and Matt are both shown laughing, but only Matt is heard.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's voice cast list credits Sharon Noble with Vanessa Warfield, the M.A.S.K. Computer, Becky and Professor Daily, and Mark Halloran with Buddie Hawks, Sly Rax and Cliff Dagger.
The wiki's page for Piranha lists a 2026 re-release in the second wave of The Loyal Subjects collaboration, renamed the Stealth Submarine Cycle.

Matt Trakker

Dusty Hayes

Buddie Hawks

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Scott and T-Bob in festival costumes stand among a clapping crowd.

Scott in a cowboy costume smiles beside T-Bob in a feathered headdress.

Scott, T-Bob and a man in a Robin Hood costume stand before parade floats at night.

A man in a Robin Hood costume holds Scott from behind as T-Bob stands beside them.

Hands grip the collar of a red-haired girl in a pink blouse.

Costumed revelers walk off while Scott, T-Bob and the girl in pink stand with the Robin Hood man.

A man in a chief headdress and sunglasses shakes hands with the Robin Hood man.

Blue ticks form a spinning circle against the night sky.

Tall balconied buildings line a New Orleans street under a starry sky.

A narrow street runs between lit balconied buildings at night.

A cowboy-hatted rider drives a small blue cart past a lit lamppost.

A pink spark of energy streaks across a street near a jazz club sign.

The small blue cart tips up on a rock as its cowboy-hatted driver lurches.

Scott crouches over a black heap while the Robin Hood man and T-Bob stand by.

The Robin Hood man stands with his back turned as Scott examines a black heap.

A computer screen shows a globe grid and a wave pattern.

The computer screen switches to chemical structure diagrams.

Scott lifts his cowboy hat as T-Bob's metal hand reaches toward it.

A cowboy hat covers T-Bob's head as his gray hands hold it down.

The Robin Hood man walks beside Scott and T-Bob down a lit street.

The Robin Hood man rests a hand on Scott's shoulder as T-Bob stands beside them.

A red wireframe jeep and a red wireframe buggy appear on a split display.

Two red wireframe pickup trucks appear on a split display.

A wristwatch with a helmet emblem sits on a hairy wrist.

Laboratory flasks and tubes stand on a bench in a chemistry lab.

Matt Trakker, Scott and T-Bob look down at orange twigs on a lab table.

A scientist in a lab coat joins Matt, Scott and T-Bob at the table of twigs.

Matt Trakker raises a hand to speak while Scott watches at the edge of the frame.

The scientist points as sparks rise from the twigs while Matt and Scott lean in.

Matt Trakker turns away from the table as the scientist folds his arms.

A heavy man in a blue uniform scowls in a swamp forest.

A gray-haired man in a visor smiles beside a mustached man and Cliff Dagger.

The heavy man in a blue uniform and tie speaks with his mouth open.

A large white mansion stands behind a green lawn.

Matt Trakker stands in a paneled room under hanging lamps.

A man in a red beret and blue glasses faces Matt Trakker, who is seen from behind.

Matt Trakker holds a window frame while a man in a magenta shirt stands beside him.

Scott in glasses and a fake beard stands beside T-Bob wearing a hat and mustache.

Scott in a beard and glasses stands next to T-Bob in a fedora while Matt's coat edge shows.

Guests gather around a table in a large hall seen from above.

Men in suits sit in rows facing a bald man in a gray room.

A man in a white suit and sunglasses speaks before a crowd.

A man in white folds his arms as Cliff Dagger and another man hold orange liquid.

A blonde woman in pink sits tied to a chair in front of a red curtain.

The tied woman looks on as a man in a red cap and blue glasses leans close.

The white-suited man stands in a doorway with two thugs and a man in a red cap.

Scott and T-Bob stand at the double doors of the white mansion.

Scott looks ahead in front of the mansion windows.

Scott points at his own chest as T-Bob rolls beside him outside the mansion.

Scott looks up with a hopeful look as T-Bob stands at his side.

An orange jeep drives toward the viewer down a forest road.

An orange jeep drives down a swamp forest road with T-Bob in the back.

Vines hang from trees in a quiet forest.

T-Bob rolls forward on his single wheel through the woods with Scott riding behind.

T-Bob sinks into pale quicksand with a worried look.

Scott and the red-haired girl sink into the quicksand up to their chests.

Scott, the girl and T-Bob are tiny figures in a pale sandpit in the forest.

Scott, the girl and T-Bob sit at the foot of a muddy bank under dark trees.

Scott and the red-haired girl hug T-Bob.

T-Bob stands on his legs in a sunlit forest.

Scott puts his hands on his hips beside T-Bob in the woods.

Scott stands with hands on hips and a worried look beside T-Bob.

Scott, T-Bob and the girl walk away through grass toward the trees.

Scott peeks around a tree trunk beside T-Bob.

Scott runs after T-Bob through the swamp forest.

T-Bob peers out from tall grass with wide yellow eyes.

A dark vehicle sits far back in a forest clearing.

A blonde woman wearing a blindfold and a pearl necklace sits bound beside a control panel.

Matt Trakker drives a red car while a masked agent in a blue-white helmet sits beside him.

A red jeep with a mounted gun drives along a dirt trail with a masked driver.

The red jeep and a red car turn onto a forest road from above.

A large black truck wheel rests in pale grass.

A black truck sits in the woods with a red car behind it.

An orange jeep rolls through a gap in the bushes with a red car at left.

A masked agent rides the red jeep through bushes.

Scott and the red-haired girl stand together with T-Bob beside them.

A helicopter sits on a grassy spit beside a swamp with small figures nearby.

Two armored V.E.N.O.M. agents sit in a black vehicle with its doors open.

Miles Mayhem gestures near a masked agent and bound hostages.

A blindfolded woman with a pearl necklace is held between two armored agents.

A red car with a hood scoop sits on a forest road.

A helmeted agent in red gloves leans on the hood of the red car.

A dirt track winds through sunlit tall trees.

The red jeep with a mounted gun drives away along the track.

Scott's hands work glass lab equipment with orange and blue liquids.

Scott looks ahead calmly in front of a framed painting.

Scott and the red-haired girl stand at a bench of flasks with T-Bob beside them.

Scott and the girl set up lab flasks on a long table beside T-Bob.

A helicopter and two cars are seen through a diamond-paned window.

A gray-haired man and a bespectacled woman stand tied together with agents behind them.

A man in a dark suit walks past porch steps of a wooden cabin.

Lab flasks stand on a shelf in a cabin while a glass bulb glows.

The captive couple, tied with rope, stand between two armored V.E.N.O.M. agents.

Miles Mayhem holds a rack of glowing test tubes.

The red jeep sits in tall grass with a driver at the wheel.

Two agents in helmets climb a mossy tree wall, one pressed against it, one kneeling.

Scott, T-Bob and the girl watch through a diamond-paned fence.

Scott looks out through the lattice window at a distant clearing.

A masked agent grips the tied captives as another holds the woman's arm.

The captive couple stand tied with an agent in a yellow visor and another in a white helmet.

Scott and the girl look over bushes with T-Bob's dome between them.

The front of a blue vehicle shows two gauges behind a windshield.

Miles Mayhem sits behind a cockpit dashboard in his visor helmet.

The inside of a pale dome window looks out onto tree branches.

Four figures stand in front of the cabin as two agents flank the freed captives.

The red-haired girl runs to the gray-haired man in overalls beside a masked agent.

Scott stands with the freed couple, a masked agent and a man in a red jacket.

A pickup truck is parked on a cliff above a picnic blanket.

Scott eats a drumstick at a picnic with T-Bob and two seated men.

Scott holds a chicken drumstick while T-Bob stares at him.

Tall trees stand in a quiet shaded swamp.

Scott points ahead as T-Bob stands in front of a white house.

A city street is seen from above, with taxis and a fire truck below.

Scott stands at a public phone on a city sidewalk.

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