M.A.S.K. S1E42

The Artemis Enigma

A monk holds golden antlers at an altar in front of other kneeling monks.

While Matt funds the restoration of an ancient site in Athens, word comes that a monastery near Mount Athos has been robbed, though the monks insist nothing of consequence was taken. Matt learns that the thieves, V.E.N.O.M., have stolen the golden antlers of Artemis, which the Brotherhood has guarded for over three thousand years and which find gold the way a divining rod finds water. Mayhem's crew cannot make them work without the monks' words, so Matt asks the brothers to leave the monastery and lets V.E.N.O.M. come to him. The agents face down the thieves, and the antlers go back to Brother Nicodemus.

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Matt Trakker is paying for the restoration of an ancient site in Athens when he hears that a monastery near Mount Athos has been robbed, and he offers help to people who say they do not need it. Brother Nicodemus assures him that nothing of any consequence was taken, wishes him good day, and leaves a rich man with an offer nobody wants. It is a nice reversal of the usual episode, in which the victims are grateful and the hero arrives in time, and it gives the story some resistance.

What the episode is about is that the antlers are worthless without the monks. The golden antlers of Artemis have been kept for more than three thousand years by a brotherhood that uses them to find only enough gold to live on, and the thieves, once they have them, cannot make them work. Matt's answer is to ask the brothers to leave the monastery for a little while and to let V.E.N.O.M. come to him for a change; everything the villains want is in an object, and everything the object needs is in the people they took it from. It is also a rare case of Matt respecting a secret instead of prying it open, and the line that the team must respect the monks is the best thing in the first half.

The writing is at its best when the comedy is at Venom's expense. Mayhem addresses Rax as Mr. 007 while sending him back to join the congregation in disguise, and somebody else in the gang complains that nobody ever lets him go undercover. The exposition that the antlers belonged to the stag Artemis rode, and that Artemis was a real person, comes with an Incredible! from one of the visitors and a question about whether the other Greek gods were real people too, which gets only a vague answer, but it is the most interesting idea in the script.

Scott and T-Bob have a lighter subplot. Told to wait where it is safe, they try to find water on a mountaintop the way the monks find gold, which is to say by walking around, and when that fails they suggest running. It is a small scene and the kind the show does well, the two of them reasoning out loud with perfect confidence and no evidence. It also feeds the closing gag, in which T-Bob asks whether Scott's ears are still ringing from the bell and has to ask again!

The standout is the dig. Mayhem has the antlers, a gang standing around and nothing to show for it, so he gives Rax one more minute to produce the magic words the monk said. Rax can only remember that it had something to do with thanks, and is told he should have been recorded; he offers to go back and ask, and is told there are not ten years to spare. A gold miner has to have faith, someone says, and then, discovering that the shovels were forgotten, the diggers are told to use their hands. It is a well-built little scene of people discovering, in front of the audience, that they have stolen something they do not know how to use.

The weakness is the delay. Nicodemus refuses help, says that nothing of consequence was taken, and withholds the one fact Matt needs, and the episode spends a long stretch with the hero knowing less than the audience. When the finale comes it is crowded, with Rhino, Thunderhawk, Switchblade and Manta all on screen, a monastery on a cliff and a bell being carried from a tower, and the monks, whose relic it is, are not the focus of it.

The Artemis Enigma is a pleasant, small-scale story, but it keeps its best joke in the middle and its best fact at the start. It hands us a relic with a reason to be guarded, a plan that respects the guardians, and a set of villains who cannot remember the instructions.

The M.A.S.K. wiki says Miles Mayhem calls Sly Rax Mr. 007 in this episode.
According to the M.A.S.K. wiki, Gloria Baker is Alex Sector's co-pilot in Rhino on this mission, and Sly Rax and Cliff Dagger ride with Vanessa Warfield in Manta during the final battle.
The fan site maskforce.com notes that Manta is damaged in this episode and lists Alex Sector as wearing the Jackrabbit mask.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists several animation slips for the episode, including the golden antlers vanishing from Rax's hand when Switchblade picks him up and Rhino's fender and tire appearing gray instead of burgundy and black in a late shot.
The M.A.S.K. wiki describes the closing safety tip as taking place at T-Bob's birthday party, where Scott tells a boy not to play with fire.
The M.A.S.K. wiki credits Doug Stone with Brother Nickodemus (the wiki's spelling), Graeme McKenna with T-Bob and a Greek archaeologist, and Sharon Noble with the boy.
Wikipedia's list of M.A.S.K. toys and characters describes Rhino with Matt Trakker (Ultra-Flash mask), Bruce Sato (Lifter mask, the ATV portion) and Alex Sector (Jackrabbit mask) as its three riders.

Matt Trakker

Alex Sector

Gloria Baker

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

A monk in black lifts a sack beside a large woven basket.

Three monks stand beside the basket, looking down.

Five monks kneel on a slope beside two pack donkeys.

Monks gather at a cave entrance, one reaching toward the wall.

Two monks turn a hand crank on a rope winch.

A rope runs over a pulley beneath a tiled roof.

Tiny figures stand on the steps of a columned stone temple.

Matt stands beside a bearded man in a flat cap.

Matt and a bearded man watch workers kneeling by a column and a floor slab.

Scott watches T-Bob walk across temple paving with his arms out.

T-Bob waves one arm beside a stone column.

Scott stands with hands on hips in a ruined temple.

Scott stands with his back to the viewer, facing T-Bob between the columns.

Scott points to the side with T-Bob standing behind him.

Scott holds a small yellow tube beside T-Bob.

A bald, red-bearded man and Matt each hold a small yellow tube.

Brown hills with green patches roll under a pale sky.

A sack spills gold nuggets.

Miles holds a gold nugget while Sly Rax watches him.

A red-haired woman stands with arms crossed beside a pile of gold.

Miles gestures with a gloved hand toward a man in a purple shirt.

Matt drives while Scott and a red-bearded man ride with T-Bob.

A dark cave mouth opens in a gray rock face.

Matt, a bald red-bearded man, Scott and T-Bob stand together in the desert.

Scott raises one finger as T-Bob stands beside him.

Scott frowns while T-Bob raises an arm.

Matt, a red-bearded man, Scott and T-Bob face a kneeling monk on the sand.

Matt speaks, looking off to the side beside the red-bearded man.

Matt looks forward with a firm expression as the red-bearded man stands behind.

Hooded monks kneel facing an altar in a stone hall.

A bearded monk holds up the golden antlers.

Matt drives with the red-bearded man and Scott beside him.

Scott stares ahead with wide eyes.

Matt drives with the red-bearded man, Scott and T-Bob in the cockpit.

Thunderhawk sits on the sand with its door raised while three figures stand behind it.

Clay roof tiles slope over a pale monastery wall.

A masked agent with golden antlers on his shoulders stands against the sky.

The red-bearded man frowns beside Matt, who wears his gray flight gear.

Matt talks with a calm face in his flight gear.

The red-bearded man in a blue mask climbs out of the red vehicle.

A blue and white mask visor fills the frame.

The Switchblade helicopter swoops downward, rotor spinning.

Miles sits at the controls in a blue helmet with an eagle emblem.

A tiny figure climbs a gray rock slope.

Matt, helmeted, is ringed by green thorny energy.

Miles holds a gloved hand to his helmet inside the cockpit.

Scott looks up at two distant aircraft above a rocky peak.

The Switchblade helicopter flies above a cliff with a figure at the top.

Miles covers his visor with his hand in the cockpit.

The red-bearded man in a blue mask falls backward on a rocky slope.

The red-bearded man in a blue mask adjusts a wristband on a rocky slope.

The red-bearded man in a blue mask touches a wrist device against a rock wall.

The red-bearded man in a blue mask points at a cliff.

A red car lies in a rocky pit while a man stands on the ledge.

Miles grips two control levers in his blue helmet.

Black spiders swarm over a gray surface.

Spiders crowd a blue background in overlapping images.

The red-bearded man in a blue mask swings from a rope between cliffs.

A red car trails a line as it flies over a desert.

Matt drives in a red mask while a bearded man in a blue mask and Scott sit behind.

Matt sits in the cockpit with one hand on a lever.

A wireframe screen shows a woman and a red helmet.

A man in a gray shirt holds an oil can while a young woman speaks to him.

Matt smiles in his flight suit as a red-bearded man and Scott stand behind.

An aerial view of a walled monastery on a rocky peak.

Matt and the red-bearded man talk with a monk in a courtyard.

Matt clasps hands with the red-bearded man as a bearded monk stands at left.

Matt looks off with a smile beside the red-bearded man.

A bearded monk in a tall hat speaks calmly.

A monk, the red-bearded man and Matt talk in a courtyard.

Matt smiles with an open hand in front of a monk.

Scott stands with hands on hips beside T-Bob, who holds a pointer.

Scott and T-Bob stand in a courtyard with trees behind.

T-Bob steps forward as Scott looks on with hands on hips.

Scott and T-Bob walk across a courtyard seen from above.

Scott looks forward with a calm face.

A white church and garden plots stand on the monastery grounds.

Matt and the red-bearded man stand under a large bronze bell.

Sly Rax and Vanessa and another agent face Miles beside a brick tower.

Miles stands with his back to three agents at a brick tower.

Miles holds up golden antlers beside a giant boot.

Miles holds golden antlers and touches his tie.

Hands dig through sandy soil.

Vanessa stands behind Miles as he looks startled.

Miles flies through the air holding the golden antlers.

Three vehicles drive across a desert plain toward a helicopter.

A rider pops a wheelie on a dark motorcycle over rocks.

A rider crouches on a dark motorcycle with red stripes.

Miles clutches the golden antlers as a man in purple walks beside him.

Miles passes the golden antlers toward a masked man in purple.

A stone stairway zigzags up a rocky peak to a walled fortress.

Four agents walk across a cobbled courtyard with Miles carrying the antlers.

Miles holds the golden antlers between two masked agents.

Four figures walk toward a wooden door with a pair of antlers on it.

A treasure chest holds jewels, gold and a golden horseshoe shape.

Masked agents walk in a vault of jewels and golden objects.

Matt, in a red mask, steps forward beside a gold-masked agent and a blue-masked man.

Two big jet exhausts sit at the back of a purple craft.

An aerial view of the monastery on top of the rock.

Scott and T-Bob walk into a stone chamber with a ladder.

Masked agents run out as smoke and rubble billow from the cliff.

Rhino and Thunderhawk sit in the desert as figures run toward them.

The Switchblade helicopter swoops with a flash of light at its nose.

A jet exhaust slams into a purple craft in a burst of debris.

The Switchblade helicopter flies overhead with its rotor circling.

Scott beside T-Bob holds a rope, looking up.

Masked agents carry a large bronze bell from a tower.

The Rhino truck stands in front of a pale building with a helicopter overhead.

Miles sits in a cockpit wearing a blue helmet.

Rhino and Thunderhawk with wings flat sit on the sand beside two figures.

Monks, Matt, a red-bearded man, Scott and T-Bob gather on a rocky slope.

Scott puts his hands behind his head beside T-Bob at sunset.

Scott scratches his head beside T-Bob at sunset.

Scott smiles with hands on hips as T-Bob rests his arms on his chest.

Scott and T-Bob join a group of children wearing party hats.

A boy in an orange shirt kneels beside a fireplace holding a stick.

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