M.A.S.K. S1E59

The Scarlet Empress

The large ceremonial statue rides on a raft floating on a river.

In Venezuela, Matt and Dusty find that Angel Falls has stopped flowing, and laser burns behind the falls point to V.E.N.O.M. Zuwata, an old friend in the temple of the parrots, tells them of the Scarlet Empress, a huge statue said to be hidden beneath the falls for a thousand years. Matt calls in Calhoun. V.E.N.O.M. puts the statue on a raft to float it downriver and sell to a jewel collector, while Scott and T-Bob get lost on the jungle trails. At the end Calhoun accidentally fires his Gulliver mask and shrinks the statue, and a passing bird carries it off.

Sorry, but I didn't bring my Superman outfit with me.

A treasure-hunt episode usually ends with somebody holding the treasure. In "The Scarlet Empress" the statue ends up in a parrot's beak, and the characters say aloud that perhaps the Empress is meant to remain a legend. It sounds like a cheat, and it works because the episode has quietly prepared for it from the first act.

Matt is in Venezuela with Dusty on a river-purification project, and a colleague, Sam, reports that Angel Falls has stopped flowing. The water level on the river dropped in seconds, Scott and T-Bob confirm, and the answer lies behind the falls, where Matt and Dusty find laser burns on the rocks and fish that smell of V.E.N.O.M. Zuwata, an old friend who lives in the temple of the parrots, tells them of the Scarlet Empress, a statue said to have been hidden under the falls more than a thousand years ago and never found. Matt fears that V.E.N.O.M. already has her.

The episode is about a legend that stays a legend. The statue is a thing everybody in the story has heard of and nobody has seen, and each piece of the plot moves it from rumour to object and back. The temple of the parrots matters because the white birds crowd around Matt and Dusty in the stone hall, and the elder sits with one on his shoulder; the final carry-off is then a joke set up in the first act, not a deus ex machina.

The writing is easy company. Scott and T-Bob fish with a bucket, go looking for Spanish-speaking worms, and bicker about whether T-Bob will convert to a motor scooter, which he swears he will never do and then does, so that Scott rides him through the forest. Mayhem treats the job as a delivery, floating the statue down a river on a raft under a cover of bushes, so that nobody sees the Empress, and he has already lined up a buyer in a jewel collector. The villains complain about how heavy she is, somebody tells a henchman to use his mask, and the wiki says its wearer calls it Samson.

The visuals do their work. The Empress is a tall figure with a large gold and turquoise headdress on a raft, small against a wide river and the waterfall behind, and an orange speedboat races beside her. Scott and T-Bob walk through a jungle path and past an anteater that in one frame licks T-Bob's mouth panel.

The standout is the ending. Near the end Calhoun fires his Gulliver mask by accident; the statue shrinks to the size of a carved figure and a large white parrot picks it up in its beak. Calhoun says the shrinking ray will wear off, though nobody knows where she will be when it does, and the line about the Empress remaining a legend closes the episode in a mood that is closer to a shrug than a victory.

The weakness is the time Scott and T-Bob spend lost. The middle of the episode gives the pair a long trail walk and an anteater, and the plan that matters is a suggestion to T-Bob, built on knocking the tops off ant mounds. The transcript is too thin in the last third to show how well it pays off, so this is a place where the episode asks the audience to trust a joke.

Seen among the late Season One stories, "The Scarlet Empress" is a light, odd treasure hunt, the one where the prize gets away and the show lets it go.

The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Dusty Hayes's Gator as making its final appearance in this episode.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's continuity notes say that after being rescued from the waterfall Dusty Hayes refers to the song Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head, which the wiki says was written for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's continuity notes say Scott mentions the Lewis and Clark Expedition after T-Bob tells him they are lost.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's continuity notes say Nash Gorey calls his Powerhouse mask Samson, which the wiki gives as an earlier name used during production.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's continuity notes say Miles Mayhem wears his Outlaw outfit and Python mask while still flying Switchblade.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists an error in which Calhoun's arm disappears from the shot just before the end, as he says the shrinking ray will eventually wear off.
Wikipedia gives the height of Angel Falls as 979 metres (3,212 feet). A character in the episode describes the waterfall as almost a mile high.
The M.A.S.K. wiki records this episode's safety tip as Scott telling T-Bob there is no such thing as ghosts when they pass an old vacant house.

Matt Trakker

Calhoun Burns

Dusty Hayes

Miles Mayhem

Sly Rax

Nash Gorey

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

Two shirtless jungle men with bowl haircuts look nervously ahead.

An explorer in a pith hat faces two worried jungle men.

Two jungle men crouch at the edge of a grassy bank, one pointing down.

Scott and T-Bob sit on a fallen log fishing in a jungle stream.

Scott stands on the log with his hands behind his back as T-Bob fishes.

T-Bob holds a fishing rod and looks down.

A soaked Scott wipes water from his face as T-Bob stands with a bucket.

Scott looks surprised beside T-Bob in the jungle.

A red sports car and an orange jeep are parked in a jungle clearing.

Dusty and Matt hold drinks at a table in front of a radio set.

Dusty and Matt stand with glasses of lemonade at a table.

An explorer in a pith hat looks up with a worried face.

The explorer spreads his hands and looks puzzled.

Matt, the explorer, Scott and Dusty talk around a table.

Matt and the explorer talk with Dusty, Scott and T-Bob in the camp.

Dusty, Matt, Scott and T-Bob stand together on a path by the water.

Four small figures descend a stone stairway beside a ravine.

Scott gestures to T-Bob in front of a dark stormy sky.

Scott bends over, hands on knees, beside T-Bob.

A tiny figure walks into a cave mouth behind a waterfall.

Matt reaches up with both hands to feel the cave ceiling.

Matt touches the cave wall while Dusty stands beside him by the water.

A jungle valley holds an overgrown pyramid, a tower and a cliff.

Matt, Dusty and Scott walk toward the pyramid with T-Bob beside them.

Scott and T-Bob walk along the path as Dusty goes ahead.

Matt and Dusty stand against a stone wall as white birds crowd around them.

A tribal elder with a headband and feathered staff sits with a white bird on his shoulder.

Matt, Dusty, Scott and T-Bob stand in a stone hall facing a seated elder.

Matt and Dusty talk on a grassy slope as Dusty points ahead.

Matt looks ahead with a calm smile against a mountain backdrop.

A tiny red car drives on a stone road toward a tall waterfall.

A blue line drawing shows a standing man, a helmet and two heads.

A horse with a yellow halter bares its teeth.

A green line drawing shows a standing man, a visored helmet and two heads.

Dusty, Scott and T-Bob walk beside Matt toward a red vehicle by the waterfall.

Matt explains something to Scott and Dusty as T-Bob stands by.

Scott rests a finger on his chin and looks down next to T-Bob.

Scott rides T-Bob like a motorbike through the forest.

Scott rides T-Bob along the trail with the front wheel up.

A helmeted agent steps from a red vehicle with its door raised.

A small orange craft hovers over a cliff edge beside a dark vehicle.

A figure drives an orange speedboat through streaming water.

A helmeted driver in a red, grey and white suit leans forward.

A dark helmeted figure ducks inside a vehicle as red streaks cross the frame.

A tall ceremonial figure wears a large gold and turquoise headdress.

A figure in an orange speedboat races along the river bank.

A tiny boat speeds across the river toward a misty waterfall.

A helmeted driver in a blue visor looks ahead from an orange boat.

A blue-clad figure grips two control sticks in a cockpit.

Matt drives a red car, gripping the steering wheel in a helmet.

The helmeted driver in the orange boat looks down.

The helmeted driver holds a hand to his chest in the boat.

A river sparkles as it winds through green jungle.

Scott and T-Bob walk side by side along a dirt trail.

Scott and T-Bob walk up a jungle path in the distance.

Scott and T-Bob stand over a grazing anteater in the jungle.

An anteater pokes its snout toward T-Bob as Scott watches.

Scott walks away from T-Bob along a sunny trail.

Two V.E.N.O.M. men drag a log by a truck and a red helicopter.

A grey-haired man with a moustache in a black vest raises a purple gloved fist.

A man with glasses leans back in a seat beside the moustached man.

A figure in a green hood and white suit walks along a bank.

The figure in the green hood glows red.

A red sports car with raised doors waits on the shore as an orange boat approaches.

An orange boat crosses a splashing river beside a willow tree.

Calhoun drives a black armed boat-car across the river.

A driver in an orange helmet looks ahead, strapped into a seat.

An anteater walks across a sunny clearing in the jungle.

Scott and T-Bob stand behind an anteater beside two termite mounds.

A figure in an orange suit with a green mask kneels on the raft carrying the statue.

Scott looks worried while peeking through bushes next to T-Bob.

A man with a rope and a moustached man watch a green-masked man by a raft.

Scott smiles slyly through the bushes beside T-Bob.

Scott points up with a finger as he smiles at T-Bob.

T-Bob's yellow eyes show red pupils as he holds a claw to his chest.

Scott stands in a clearing while T-Bob stands over an anteater's pelt.

An anteater licks T-Bob's mouth panel.

T-Bob stands by a termite mound as an anteater digs nearby.

The big ceremonial statue stands in the jungle with a green-masked figure behind.

V.E.N.O.M. men stand at the river while a figure in boots strides past.

The green mask on a hooded figure is shown close up.

The green-masked figure turns his head.

Three figures raise their hands by a lake where the statue stands on a raft.

An aircraft flies above the trees.

A calm river bends between jungle banks.

A truck, a red helicopter and a dark motorbike are parked in a jungle clearing.

Scott flinches while T-Bob stands next to him.

A helmeted figure with a red visor appears close up.

A red and blue helmet seen from behind fills the frame.

A figure with a red visor sits at the controls inside a netted cockpit.

A helmeted driver steers an orange boat through the water.

A helmeted figure is hit by red energy crackling over his chest.

A masked man in green clothes lies on the ground next to a tipped dark vehicle.

Scott and T-Bob watch from behind a bush as a dark vehicle passes.

The statue on its raft rolls forward on the water by the shore.

Gunfire flashes at the right as the statue floats on its raft.

The statue stands on a raft in the river with a truck on the shore.

An orange boat chases a black car through the river.

Water sprays across the side of a truck as a figure goes under.

The orange boat pulls alongside the black car on the water.

T-Bob blocks Scott's way while a white bird flies onto a raft.

A large white parrot clutches a small carved figure in its beak.

Scott crouches in surprise beside T-Bob on a hillside.

Helmeted drivers sit in a black car and orange boat on the river.

Three masked agents stand together beside a black vehicle.

Matt in a helmet folds his arms while Scott looks on.

Matt, Calhoun and Dusty gather close around Scott.

T-Bob's mouth panel is nibbled by an anteater as Scott and Matt look on.

Matt holds his helmet in his hands and smiles at Scott.

A blue-gloved pilot grips two control sticks in a cockpit.

A boy walks toward a rundown wooden house.

Scott talks and gestures beside T-Bob in a town street.

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