M.A.S.K. S1E47

The Lost Fleet

A huge quilted cloth balloon bulges against the wall of a cave.

In Reykjavik, where Matt Trakker sits on the advisory board of a geothermal plant, every boat in the harbor has lost its sails. Matt and Bruce Sato find scraps of sailcloth on the tundra, cut with blades as sharp as a laser beam, and conclude that only V.E.N.O.M. has an edge that sharp. Miles Mayhem is after Viking gold that has lain under snow and lava for centuries, and he will not blast for it. Instead his crew stitches sailcloth while the plant's steam is diverted, and Matt works out that a balloon of sailcloth filled with steam could lift an entire city off its foundation. Scott and T-Bob wander into the lava tunnels beneath the town and find the operation.

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Most V.E.N.O.M. plots end in an explosion, so it is a pleasant change to meet a scheme that begins with a needle. Every boat in a harbor has lost its sails, a pile of sailcloth sits on the tundra like snow, and the stitches are too perfect for cobbler's elves. The cloth was cut by blades as sharp as a laser beam, which narrows the suspects to one gang, and from there the episode keeps coming back to sewing jokes. Christmas in July, a sewing bee, sewing classes, a threat to sew someone's lips together; a good part of the first half is a tailor's shop with menaces.

The scheme is gentle on purpose, and that is the idea the episode is built on. Miles Mayhem is after Viking treasure that lay under snow and then lava for centuries, and when one of the crew asks why they cannot blast their way in, Mayhem refuses because blasting would destroy the very thing they came for. So V.E.N.O.M. is patient for once: it steals the sails, kidnaps what seem to be the town's sailmakers to stitch them, diverts the plant's geothermal steam, and plans to lift a city off its foundation in a balloon. Matt works out the plan aloud, and it is better for being so slow. The episode is about a villain who chooses care over force, and the heroes' job is to find out what that care looks like.

It is also, unmistakably, a postcard from Iceland. Matt explains geothermal energy to Scott with a cone of steam, someone guesses it is a new kind of underwear, and the town's volcanic origins turn into the setup for the plot: a subway of empty lava tunnels under the city, which later turns out to be exactly where the villains are working. It is a small, tidy piece of setup and payoff, and the show clearly enjoys being informative; the running gag with Icelandic food, from dried fish mistaken for a lollipop to a pickled herring memento that Scott receives in stunned silence, carries the same cheerfulness.

The animation puts its energy into fabric. Workers stretch a long white sheet over a drilling machine, a huge quilted balloon bulges against a cave wall, and when it inflates the cloth ripples and scraps fly through the air around Scott and T-Bob as they ride through the storm. Mud finishes the job: a brown star-shaped splatter, then a pool of swirling brown in the cave. The painted Reykjavik is neat, a row of colorful houses on a cobbled street and a blue house with a balcony, though the lava tubes themselves look like any other cave.

The standout is the balloon. A scheme made of cloth is hard to menace with, so the balloon gets plenty of movement: it swells, strains, settles on the cave floor in heavy folds, and a torn hole in the fabric shows red and blue shapes behind it. The sequence has the one thing the plot needs most, a sense that the thing V.E.N.O.M. has built is huge, and the fact that it is stitched together makes it easy to believe that it could fall apart.

The weakness is the title. The Lost Fleet promises ships, and what Matt actually describes is a Viking harbor buried by snowfall and lava, which the viewer sees only as a chest of gold vases and plates and a promise that the treasure will be out of the mud and on display next year. The finish is brisk: Scott's excuse is that he was making mud pies, and the city's power is restored.

It is a good-natured episode, built on a smart reversal and a taste for puns, and it earns its place by letting V.E.N.O.M. be careful. Mayhem wants the treasure undamaged, so his weapon is a needle, and the heroes spend the episode learning to respect it.

The M.A.S.K. wiki records this as the first appearance of Jacques LaFleur and Nash Gorey, and of their vehicles Volcano and Outlaw.
The wiki's continuity notes say Bruce Sato starts the mission as Thunderhawk's co-pilot and takes over the driving when Matt switches to Volcano.
The M.A.S.K. wiki points out that Miles Mayhem is dressed in his Outlaw uniform with the Python mask but still uses Switchblade as his main vehicle.
The wiki's errors list says Matt says "According to Spectrum" while wearing his Lava Shot mask, and that Sly Rax's mask lowers onto his head in a split-screen shot even though his motorcycle has no roof.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the Satoisms in this episode as the one about sugar and sweet nothings where one's teeth used to be, and the one about seeing nothing and seeing everything.
According to the wiki, Brendan McKane voices both Miles Mayhem and Jacques LaFleur here, and Doug Stone voices Matt, Bruce and Nash Gorey.
The M.A.S.K. wiki credits the story to Jina Bacarr, who is also credited as writer of Riddle of the Raven Master.
The closing safety tip, per the M.A.S.K. wiki, has Scott reminding T-Bob to hold the ladder he is climbing to retrieve a kite from the Trakker mansion roof.

Matt Trakker

Jacques LaFleur

Bruce Sato

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Nash Gorey

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

A dark-haired man in a yellow shirt talks across a cafe table to Scott Trakker.

A waitress in a red cap stands at a cafe table with Matt Trakker and others.

Matt Trakker smiles beside a bespectacled man in a mustard jacket under a striped awning.

Scott Trakker, in a horned helmet, rests his cheek on his hand at the table.

Matt Trakker and a bespectacled man in a mustard jacket sit with steaming mugs at a dining table.

Matt Trakker holds a steaming mug at the table with a faint smile.

Matt Trakker sips from a steaming mug, looking over its rim.

Scott Trakker raises a finger as he looks aside at the dining table.

Scott Trakker rests his chin on his fist at the table beside T-Bob.

Scott Trakker sits quietly at the table beside T-Bob and a dinner plate.

Scott Trakker sits with eyes lowered and a horned helmet beside his plate.

A seagull flies past the mast of a ship with a coral-red hull.

Matt Trakker, Scott Trakker and three others look out over a harbor from a dock.

Scott Trakker raises a finger beside T-Bob on a ship deck.

A bearded ship captain in a white cap gestures while a woman in red braids stands beside him.

Matt Trakker folds his arms beside Scott Trakker and T-Bob in a workshop.

A workshop wall holds an anchor, a fishing net, a painting and a chest of drawers with tools.

A red sports car with a lightning bolt leaves a trail of dust across a green plain.

A red car's tire and silver hubcap fill the frame.

Matt Trakker, Scott Trakker and a man in yellow stand behind a red car with raised doors.

Scott Trakker shades his eyes with one hand and looks into the distance.

Scott Trakker leans on a red car between Matt Trakker and a man in a yellow shirt.

Scott Trakker and T-Bob lift a tarp as they search on the ground.

Matt Trakker looks down and lifts a cloth in both hands against the sky.

Matt Trakker drives with Scott Trakker beside him and T-Bob in the back.

The red car's rear shows twin exhaust pipes and a mask emblem on the back panel.

Scott Trakker looks eagerly ahead beside T-Bob inside the car.

A screen shows blue line drawings of an agent, two portraits and a red helmet.

A man in overalls carries a plank in a workshop as a dog stands beside him.

A pile of grey boulders covers a dark cave opening.

The inside of a cave has curved rock walls with a sandy floor.

Workers stretch a long white sheet over a drilling machine inside a dark cave.

Cliff Dagger and a bespectacled man each hold a long pole in the cave.

Cliff Dagger points ahead with an eyepatch and a maroon cap, scowling.

Miles Mayhem scowls with a finger pressed against his lip.

A man in overalls and a man in glasses work at a table beneath a drilling rig.

A man in round glasses and overalls looks sideways under a large machine.

Miles Mayhem holds up a paper with writing and a symbol as a henchman faces him.

Miles Mayhem looks to the side, stern, as a dark figure turns beside him.

A man with a visor, mustache and goatee in a green jacket leans toward a vehicle.

A close view of a machine's orange seat and a silver gun barrel.

A row of colorful houses stands on a quiet cobbled street.

Scott Trakker sits at a kitchen table beside T-Bob, who wears a horned helmet.

Scott Trakker holds a pastry in his hand and looks aside beside T-Bob.

Scott Trakker shows a pastry to a waitress in red braids as T-Bob lies on his back.

Scott Trakker leans over T-Bob, who lies on his back on the floor beneath a table.

T-Bob and Scott Trakker tumble out of a blue house door and onto cracked pavement.

T-Bob and Scott Trakker scramble out of the doorway of a blue house onto a frosty road.

Scott Trakker reaches down a narrow brown shaft toward T-Bob, who is falling.

T-Bob looks wide-eyed straight ahead, his dome filling the frame.

T-Bob dangles in a rocky shaft, his arms stretched on cables.

T-Bob stares down with narrowed yellow eyes in a close view.

A deep crack splits a stone street, leaving a drop-off of brown rock.

A V.E.N.O.M. pilot in a blue mask and orange tie grips two control sticks.

Scott Trakker smiles while working on T-Bob with a round hatch open.

A masked figure in an orange suit and yellow goggles breathes through a tube in a cockpit.

A red car with raised doors and flame exhaust flies above a cobbled street between houses.

Yellow rings of energy swirl around a street lamp post in front of a yellow house.

Yellow rings swirl toward the upper left along a line of houses down a street.

Scott Trakker kneels next to T-Bob on a cracked street as two masked agents stand nearby.

A dark-haired man in an orange vest leans over a red car with its door raised.

A woman in a red cap hugs Scott Trakker and T-Bob beside Matt Trakker.

A red car with raised doors sits in the street as a man leans out.

A woman in a red cap puts her hands on Scott Trakker's shoulders next to T-Bob.

A power plant with three white cooling towers and low buildings sits in a green plain.

A big grey tank-like machine sits in a vast hangar beside a wall of control panels.

A man in glasses and a mustard-colored jacket speaks, one hand extended.

Matt Trakker rests his chin on his hand in thought as a dark-haired man listens beside him.

A green monitor shows yellow line shapes and a bar graph.

A blue and orange aircraft with an open cargo ramp rests under a pale sky.

Matt Trakker and a dark-haired man in an orange vest stand outdoors, both looking ahead.

An outline drawing of a boxy truck on large wheels stands on a grassy hill.

A brown-haired man in a striped sweater puts on a purple mask with orange eye patches.

Three men sit together in a vehicle, Matt Trakker at the right.

Matt Trakker looks serious in a close view beside two companions.

Matt Trakker and two companions look ahead with grim faces in a vehicle.

Three agents stand on a grassy slope beside a red car with its doors raised.

Matt Trakker folds one red-gloved arm across his chest, a gun barrel over his shoulder.

A blue gabled house stands between yellow and tan houses on a frost-colored street.

Scott Trakker stands with arms folded, T-Bob behind him, in a cellar scattered with wrapped jars.

Scott Trakker reaches toward a hole in the cellar wall beside a shelf of jars.

Miles Mayhem scowls with a half-smile in a very close view.

A blue truck stands in a cave near a huge white balloon, two tiny figures on the ground.

Scott Trakker rides T-Bob through a dark cave.

A red helmet with a blue visor and a yellow grille fills the frame.

A yellow-walled house stands at the edge of a rolling grass plain under a pale sky.

Miles Mayhem and a man in red-framed glasses sit in a truck cab, one driving.

A bulging balloon of white and tan fabric ripples as it inflates, scraps flying.

Scott Trakker rides T-Bob through a rushing storm of debris and brown flakes.

T-Bob clutches Scott Trakker as torn scraps whirl past them.

A mound of brown earth sits on a plain in front of a wall of billowing dust.

A burst of white dust and flying boulders erupt from the ground.

A treasure chest overflows with golden vases, plates and painted porcelain.

Four men stand with their backs to us on a rocky slope facing a distant village.

Scott Trakker looks aside in worry beside T-Bob in a cave.

Scott Trakker points a thumb behind him while looking aside next to T-Bob.

Miles Mayhem sits inside a vehicle seat, a helmet pulled back above his head.

Gold coins and flashes scatter in a dark cave in front of a truck wheel.

A white inflated balloon sits on a cave floor with a small red vehicle near it.

A big sheet of cloth drapes over lumpy ground in a cave.

A figure in a purple mask with orange eyes and a breathing apparatus sits in a seat.

A big truck with striped sides fires a red beam from its cannon in the cave.

A figure in a teal mask with orange ear flaps stares ahead.

Brown mud splatters outward in a star-shaped burst.

A striped truck trailer sits in a cave as white puffs and mud drift beside it.

A pool of swirling brown mud fills a cave with a few small figures at the centre.

A big sheet of cloth billows with deep creases.

A small torn hole in a big cloth shows red and blue shapes behind it.

A red mask with a blue chevron visor and yellow grille fills the frame.

A blue truck on big wheels sits on a green meadow, a red vehicle at the edge.

A blue house with a balcony and arched door sits on a cracked pavement.

Matt Trakker, Scott Trakker, T-Bob and three others talk together near a doorway.

Scott Trakker leans on a doorway beside T-Bob in an attic room.

A group of people stand around a table with a box on a wooden floor, seen from above.

T-Bob lifts a ladder on a patch of bare brown ground in a grassy yard.

A stone manor with many gables and red roofs sits beside a driveway, a ladder against one wall.

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