M.A.S.K. S1E25

The Plant Show

Condor flies past vine-wrapped towers.

Matt Trakker, Scott and T-Bob are at the Hollywood Bowl to see Brad Turner's band when giant vines burst up behind the stage and begin to smother Los Angeles. Chainsaws, fire and strong poisons do nothing, and Brad's Condor can zap the plants but cannot stop them growing back. Alex Sector identifies the vines as a hybrid of two extremely rare varieties known only in Brazil, which means someone is doing this deliberately, and Venom agents were seen in Brazil two months earlier. Miles Mayhem and Vanessa Warfield spread the growth with seeds and a beam generator, intending to make demands of California. Scott, told to stay at the hotel with T-Bob, orders a very large sundae and discovers that cold kills the vines.

Coming Soon!

The cure for the vines is cold, and the person who finds it is a boy with a very large ice cream sundae. The Plant Show sends the best-equipped people in Los Angeles after an indestructible weed and has them fail, one tool at a time, until a robot whose radio shorts out shows them what they were missing.

The episode is really about where answers come from, and the answer here arrives from where the grown-ups are not looking. Chainsaws, fire and strong poisons have all been tried and nothing slows the plants. Brad's Condor can zap the vines with its anti-matter ray, but they grow back as fast as he clears them. Alex narrows the plant to a hybrid of two extremely rare varieties known only in Brazil, which proves it is deliberate, and then reports that whatever Venom used left no trace and would take weeks to identify. By then the team has run out of methods.

Scott, meanwhile, has been told to stay at the hotel, and the order sends him to the one place where the answer is. He phones room service and asks for the biggest ice cream sundae they have, T-Bob's radio goes dead after the ice cream shorts it out, and the vines outside start to die. Scott's first reaction is that the ice cream is deadly stuff; he corrects himself a moment later, because it is the cold that kills them.

The writing is better than its setup suggests, because the vines are a threat with consequences. They threaten Hollywood's Chinese theatre, and a film crew shooting a jungle scene is dismayed to find the plants moving without being told. A running gag has T-Bob, rebooted, greet Scott with the question of whether it is morning already, and it is still funny the third time at the end.

The voices are tuned to the mood. Mayhem explains with genial menace that he wants California to be very impressed with his friendly little weed, and a V.E.N.O.M. voice complains that nobody is getting any loot out of all this work.

The standout is the room-service sequence, which is also the plot's hinge. It has the structure of a good joke and the logic of a good solution, and the pivot comes from the cast's two smallest members.

The weakness is the ransom. Venom's plan rests on demands to the state of California, and the only mention of it in the episode is a remark about covering as big an area as possible before making them. The state never answers on screen, so the clock is felt only in vines, never in politics, and Venom's defeat has no larger consequence. Venom also seems to hold its own antidote, a detail that is raised and then dropped.

Bruce builds a freeze bomb, the first he has ever tried to make, and it is fired from Rhino. The Plant Show is the series at its gentlest, with a threat that cannot be shot and a solution that needs no weapon, and it belongs with the stories where Scott and T-Bob are the quiet reason the day is saved.

The M.A.S.K. wiki lists the closing safety tip as Scott reminding T-Bob never to get an electric tool wet, after T-Bob accidentally electrocutes himself.
According to the wiki, the Hollywood Bowl, Griffith Park Observatory and Los Angeles are the episode's locations, and the vine-growing device is called the Ultrabeam Generator.
The wiki's page for the Ultrabeam Generator says it was attached to the nose of Switchblade so that Miles Mayhem could operate it while Vanessa Warfield dropped seeds from Manta, and that Bruce Sato later built a Freeze Bomb fired from Rhino's projectile launcher.
The wiki notes that footage of Bruce Sato dropping a stack of boxes during the agent call-up sequence was previously seen in the episode Death From the Sky.
The wiki says the hotel busboy who brings Scott his ice cream is voiced by Mark Halloran, doing an impression of the actor Dustin Hoffman.
The wiki's voice cast list credits Graeme McKenna with both T-Bob and Brad Turner, and Brendan McKane with both Miles Mayhem and Alex Sector.
The wiki's page for Condor, Brad Turner's lime green motorcycle that becomes a helicopter, lists a 2025 Version 2 released for the 40th anniversary, with smoother transformation, new missile and laser effect parts, vac-metal rotor blades and foot pegs.
The wiki records Bruce's Satoism for the episode as "There is no journey unless the first step is taken" and a second, "He who laughs at quicksand should be sure of his own feet."

Matt Trakker

Brad Turner

Bruce Sato

Alex Sector

Miles Mayhem

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Matt and Scott watch the concert with T-Bob between them.

Scott points excitedly toward the stage as Matt looks on behind him.

Matt and Scott gaze up at the stage with T-Bob in front of them.

T-Bob stands at a door with one arm raised.

Brad Turner, Matt and Scott gather by a grey door.

Scott steps toward T-Bob in a purple room.

T-Bob and Scott walk beneath thick vines hanging over a building entrance.

Thick green vines tangle around parked cars on a street.

Thunderhawk speeds along with its door open and Brad inside.

Vines smother the towers of a city at night.

Brad and Matt ride in a car as Matt gestures with an open hand.

A red wireframe of a truck appears from the side and the front.

A green wireframe shows a bearded man, two faces and a helmet.

A wrist device shows beside a hand holding a green bird at a cage.

Alex Sector holds a bird and a small grille beside a cage.

Matt looks ahead from a vehicle monitor with his seatbelt on.

Figures in yellow fire orange beams at vines on a night city skyline.

A man in a red vest spreads his arms at a console beside a bald seated man.

Matt speaks, his gloved fist at his side.

Matt rests a hand on Scott's shoulder as T-Bob and a man in a red vest stand by.

Scott looks up with a surprised face next to T-Bob.

Vines twist around two skyscrapers under a blue sky.

Vines crawl across a curved elevated road.

A masked agent in a yellow suit looks past a vehicle roof among vines.

Two panel screens show a sprouting seedling and a thorny green husk.

A street runs between office towers with vines at the edges.

Vanessa Warfield raises a fist beside a purple car and a steel tower.

Miles, Vanessa and a man in sunglasses stand behind a purple car.

A film crew shoots two actors in a jungle set as the director watches.

A cameraman films the actors while the director sits in his chair.

Green vines coil around two bare ankles in the bushes.

Scott pushes his goggles up his forehead beside T-Bob.

T-Bob faces forward with a small keypad on his dome.

T-Bob stands in a room beside a toolbox as someone walks off.

A white domed building stands among lawns with a stone obelisk.

Manta sprays jets of water from a nozzle on its hood.

Manta sits on a road with an engine block on its hood.

A masked agent in a yellow suit grips a mirror.

Condor flies in helicopter mode as it fires at a small craft.

Vines cover an elevated roadway with railway tracks.

Scott pulls a handle beside T-Bob outdoors.

A masked pilot in a blue and orange suit grips a lever.

Switchblade flies in helicopter mode through the sky.

A helmeted driver sits in a vehicle surrounded by vines.

A masked agent in a red scarf leans forward in profile.

A red vehicle flies through a tangle of vines.

Grey vines blur past in streaks.

A dark figure is tangled in vines in a blur of speed lines.

Scott and T-Bob stand beside a man in a dark suit near a dome.

T-Bob flies through the air with arms out above the vines.

T-Bob lies tangled in vines on the pavement.

Scott looks up from beneath T-Bob's feet among the vines.

A vine-covered garden grid seen from above.

A dense tangle of dark vines covers a large structure.

A giant pale tube lies draped in vines under a blue sky.

Small figures climb along vines around a pale pipe.

Scott's head sits beside T-Bob's keypad with lights.

A masked agent in a red scarf leans close to the camera.

T-Bob hangs upside down among the vines.

T-Bob dangles upside down with his yellow eyes visible.

T-Bob dangles upside down in the vines with his arms curled.

Scott and T-Bob sit belted in a car beside a masked driver.

T-Bob looks off to the side with a wide red mouth.

Brad Turner talks with Bruce beside the green motorcycle among vines.

Brad stands by the green motorcycle as Bruce and another man face him.

Brad smiles and touches his chin.

Brad sits on the motorcycle in front of Rhino, which has vines around its wheels.

A masked agent in an orange helmet looks down at the camera.

Golden rings wrap around Rhino as two figures stand in front.

A yellow-suited masked agent stands with his back to us among vines.

The yellow-suited agent inspects a vine in his hand.

Miles and Vanessa sit behind a car as a man in sunglasses crosses his arms.

A man in sunglasses strokes his moustache as Miles looks on behind him.

An overgrown city seen from above is covered in vines.

Alex Sector kneels among Brad, Bruce and a masked agent in a hangar.

Alex Sector types at a control console with two monitor screens.

Alex Sector and Matt look ahead inside a vehicle.

Rhino faces the camera as Brad rides up on the green motorcycle.

Thunderhawk sits beside Rhino on the street.

Alex works a control panel with two monitor screens.

Manta sprays a rooftop as a dark helicopter hovers nearby.

A tall dessert dish with chocolate sauce sits on a cart under a white cloth.

Scott smiles beside T-Bob next to a sauce-covered dish.

Thunderhawk with doors raised drives along with a masked driver inside.

Rhino seen from above with chrome stacks and glowing orange trim.

Scott tips a bowl of dessert up to his face.

Scott stands by the dessert cart as T-Bob sits on a sofa and a vine curls outside.

Thick dark vines cross each other against a blue background.

T-Bob's head and arm lie over a brown and cream swirled surface.

T-Bob rests his arm in a brown swirl as the camera moves closer.

Scott talks to T-Bob, whose dome has a brown smear on it.

Scott leans over T-Bob among vines and works on his dome.

A dense cluster of dark vines sprouts against a yellow sky.

Tall vines stand in a barren, cloudy landscape.

Brad leans on the Condor in front of a pylon.

Condor flies over a road between green fields.

A masked driver in an orange helmet grips a steering wheel.

Condor flies down a road ahead of two dark vehicles.

Brad grips the Condor's handlebars in front of a pylon.

A masked agent sinks into a crate full of red tomatoes.

Condor flies through the sky as a dark craft passes at left.

Vines sprout over the roof of a purple vehicle.

A swirl of yellow, red and purple shapes fills the frame.

A giant cluster of vines rises over a grassy hill.

Brad and Matt stand together under a blue sky.

Scott's hand tinkers inside T-Bob's open head full of electronics.

Scott kneels and holds a dish over T-Bob, who sits roped on the floor.

Scott smiles as he holds T-Bob's dome.

Matt, Scott, T-Bob and Alex stand outdoors in front of mountains.

Brad stands beside Rhino's open cab and cannon.

Mist and sparkling flecks drift over the vines.

The vines sag in a blue mist with white sparkles.

Brad, Bruce, Matt and Scott stand together and look up.

Scott points down the driveway as T-Bob stands beside him.

T-Bob stands in front of tall green hedges with a camera on a stalk.

T-Bob sits in a pool of water with electric sparks crackling around him.

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