M.A.S.K. S1E46

The Secret of the Stones

Scott and T-Bob look into a round temple chamber filled with blue light beams.

A satellite photo of the Yucatan Peninsula shows a bright burst of energy from a man-made rectangle the size of a city that appears on no map. Matt Trakker, Hondo MacLean, Alex Sector and the boys drive in to investigate and find four pyramids marking the edge of an ancient Mayan city. A Mayan priest guards a stone that makes other stones weightless, but only under the full moon. Miles Mayhem wants that power and talks of lifting Fort Knox off its foundation. V.E.N.O.M. steals the stone and flies off with it, and the theft turns out to be pointless, because it only works in one place on Earth.

People who do things at midnight in caves don't like you to know what's going on.

A prize that stops working the moment it is stolen is a fair setup for a cartoon, and The Secret of the Stones is quietly built around that fact. V.E.N.O.M. wants a stone that makes other stones weightless, and Miles Mayhem says out loud what he intends to do with it: not treasure, but a rock-juggling act for a circus to start with, and then Fort Knox lifted off its foundation and carried away. Meanwhile a Mayan priest makes it plain that the stone works only when the moon is full. The episode is about a power that belongs to one place, and the villains are the last to learn it.

The writing gets there by drip-feeding its rules. The stone needs moonlight, which the heroes learn when someone points out that the chamber below is shaped like a radio telescope antenna that collects moonlight and concentrates it on the stone; it needs a full moon, which means a day's wait; and when clouds block the moon the weightless rocks stop being weightless. The last rule arrives at the very end: the stone is a piece of a collapsed star, and the alignment with the moon happens at only one spot on Earth. Each rule is stated just before it is needed, a method that keeps the plot moving but leaves little room for the viewer to work anything out alone.

The humor is lighter than the premise. The priest warns the V.E.N.O.M. crew that the coming sun will trap them, one of them scoffs that his sun is a little small to do anything to them, and the priest later has to explain that he means the sun in the sky and not a child. T-Bob refuses to leave the Rhino because the jungle holds pythons, tarantulas, scorpions, cheetahs and gibbons, and a monkey then climbs into the cab beside him, which the episode uses to demonstrate the truck's ejector seat. Both bits are small, but they keep the mood of an adventure into an ancient ruin loose rather than solemn.

The standout is the stretch below ground. Scott and T-Bob have already spent a happy stretch with the weightless rocks, one of them light as a feather and good for feeling three times as strong, and then they follow the sound down a staircase, wait to see what is going on, and find the stone and the people after it. The radio-telescope idea pays off in the same scene, and the kids are the right witnesses, since they are the ones who have felt what the stone can do.

The weakness is the finish. After a long buildup to the moon, the stone and the full-moon rule, the resolution is a lecture: someone on the team says the stone is a fragment of a collapsed star, that it is the heaviest substance known, and that it is useless anywhere else, and Mayhem's craft has already begun to fall. The key fact is delivered by explanation after the fact when it could have been shown.

Still, the episode has a strong, simple idea, and Scott and T-Bob get to be the first people on screen to feel the power. The stone was never going to work for V.E.N.O.M.; the pleasure is in watching the show take its time to say so.

According to the M.A.S.K. wiki, there is no agent call-up for this mission because Hondo MacLean and Alex Sector have already joined Matt on the trip, and the M.A.S.K. Computer offers no other vocal input.
The wiki's continuity notes say Hondo joins Matt as Rhino's co-pilot, with Alex manning the command center.
The M.A.S.K. wiki's page on Rhino lists an ejector seat among the truck's weapons, the feature T-Bob uses in the episode to launch a monkey out of the cab.
The wiki lists the location as the Yucatan Peninsula, which matches what Matt is told in the episode about an oil company's satellite photo.
According to the wiki's errors list, Sly Rax shouts the command "Stiletto, fire" before blasting Rhino's tires, but the lasers that fire come from his Piranha rather than from his mask.
The M.A.S.K. wiki lists Graeme McKenna as both T-Bob and the Mayan priest here, and Sharon Noble as both Vanessa Warfield and the Mayan boy.
The wiki records T-Bob's line "People who do things at midnight in caves don't like you to know what's going on" as one of the episode's quotes.
The closing safety tip, according to the wiki, has Scott scold T-Bob for leaving toys lying around outside the game room, and T-Bob slips on another toy left on the stairs.

Matt Trakker

Alex Sector

Hondo MacLean

Miles Mayhem

Cliff Dagger

Sly Rax

Vanessa Warfield

Scott Trakker

T-Bob

A temple priest with a golden halo walks beside a boy in a feather crown past stone ruins.

The priest and the boy in a feather crown stand together by the ruins at night.

The priest wears a golden halo and a red headband with a star.

The boy in a feather crown raises both arms under a rock as the priest stands beside him.

T-Bob walks across a lawn carrying a yellow disc over his head, beside a big house.

A tiny T-Bob and Scott stand on the lawn in front of a large white mansion.

T-Bob carries a yellow disc over his head as he walks beside a stone step.

Hondo and a bald red-bearded man stand beside the red truck.

Hondo and the red-bearded man talk with Scott and T-Bob by the truck.

Matt sits at a control console while Hondo and a bald man stand near him.

Hondo folds his arms beside Matt and the red-bearded man.

Matt speaks beside Hondo, who stands with his arms folded.

A thatched hut village stands among palm trees.

A bearded explorer in an olive shirt reads a paper in a hut.

Vanessa Warfield, a V.E.N.O.M. officer and Cliff Dagger sit in a hut.

A suitcase of banknotes lies open on a wooden table.

A man in sunglasses and a green jacket leans near the V.E.N.O.M. group in the hut.

The man in a visor and green jacket bends toward Vanessa and the group.

Vanessa Warfield, the officer and a man in a beret listen as the bearded man stands in front.

The V.E.N.O.M. officer rests his chin on his glove, scheming.

The man in a visor and moustache talks while rubbing one gloved hand.

The boy in a feather crown watches the priest at night.

The priest braces a stone slab with a log as the boy watches.

A V.E.N.O.M. officer holds up a stone slab with a pole beside two helmeted men.

The blue-uniformed V.E.N.O.M. officer holds a pole under the stone slab.

Scott reaches toward the red truck door where T-Bob sits inside.

T-Bob sits in a seat reading a book.

T-Bob sits slumped in a seat with a book on his lap.

T-Bob looks surprised in the truck seat with wide yellow eyes.

Scott and Matt face the red truck as Scott raises a hand.

A monkey sits on top of T-Bob in a truck seat.

T-Bob tumbles upside down in the truck with the monkey at the edge.

T-Bob hangs upside down in jungle vines.

T-Bob dangles upside down in vines with blue light behind him.

The priest with a golden halo speaks next to the boy in a feather crown.

A V.E.N.O.M. officer in a hooded visor helmet stands with two masked men behind him.

The V.E.N.O.M. officer and two masked men stand in a stone chamber.

A stepped temple pyramid stands in a moonlit clearing.

A masked man in a grey diving helmet stands next to the officer in the stone chamber.

The priest and the boy face a group of V.E.N.O.M. men on stone steps.

The red truck stands in a jungle clearing between vine covered trees.

Scott and T-Bob look toward a pyramid in the distance.

Matt sits in a seat smiling as Hondo sits beside him.

Hondo, the red-bearded man and Matt look out at the horizon.

Hondo, the bearded man and Matt stand together by a pit while Scott and T-Bob wait.

The red truck sits in front of a pyramid at night.

Blue beams of light rise into the night sky as T-Bob looks on.

A faint image of Matt's face fades over Scott holding a gold disc by T-Bob.

Scott holds a gold disc and looks toward the pyramid with T-Bob.

Scott holds a gold disc and gestures toward a carved stone.

Scott holds a gold disc as T-Bob stands on a low ruin behind him.

T-Bob spins with yellow discs in each hand beneath a floating carved stone ring.

T-Bob stands with his arms out, his red mouth panel open.

Maze-like lines are carved across a big stone slab.

Scott sits on the ground next to T-Bob under a floating stone ring.

T-Bob lifts a stone ring with one arm as Scott leans on it.

Scott talks happily next to T-Bob.

Scott runs with a clenched fist beside T-Bob.

Scott and T-Bob run across the grass past a carved stone slab.

Scott raises both arms in the air beside T-Bob.

Scott and T-Bob stand by a carved slab that covers a stair hole.

Scott and T-Bob go down a long stone staircase.

Scott and T-Bob look down a dark stone tunnel.

Scott glances back while T-Bob waits in the tunnel.

The boy in a feather crown and the priest stand before a stone door as blue light shines.

Scott peeks around a stone corner next to T-Bob.

A V.E.N.O.M. officer in a gold visor stands near two helmeted men.

Matt, the bearded man and Hondo move around the red truck near a tent.

Hondo leaps near the red truck as two men stand by a pyramid.

Blue light beams shine across a round chamber with a small device at its center.

The red truck is parked on a dark plain, seen from the front.

Matt in an orange vest looks aside next to Hondo.

Blue spiral beams and a helmeted figure with a glowing purple device are in a tangle.

A circular stone floor carries three blue beams of light into the sky.

Matt and the bald man walk toward a slab propped on a wooden post.

Matt looks startled beside Hondo and the bearded man.

Scott smiles beside T-Bob in the temple.

A man in a grey diving helmet and goggles stands in front of purple energy zig-zags.

A man in a goggled helmet points a flashlight beam at a crouching man with a glowing item.

A mesh canister sits on a dark blue vehicle.

A crane hook lifts a large carved stone slab.

Matt smiles in an orange vest beside the bald red-bearded man.

Matt, a bearded man and Scott stand by a hoisted slab as T-Bob climbs into a pit.

The bald man gestures as Matt carries a blue cushion past Scott and T-Bob.

Masked figures walk toward the hoisted slab at night.

A masked man in brown, a helmeted man and a man in a blue hood stand close together.

The V.E.N.O.M. officer grabs the priest by the clothes.

The V.E.N.O.M. officer pulls a red scarf from the priest's neck.

The V.E.N.O.M. officer stands between two helmeted men.

The priest and the boy in a feather crown stand together.

A carved stone ring leans on its edge against a rock.

A small figure lies near a carved stone ring on a patterned floor.

The priest stands facing two masked men in brown jackets.

A helmeted man in grey and green stands beside a purple clad man by a vehicle.

The V.E.N.O.M. officer sits at the controls inside a cockpit.

A vehicle's headlight beam sweeps across a field with a tripod and a slab.

Masked men stand around a carved stone block as a spark flares on it.

A masked man in a brown jacket and a red and white helmet bends forward.

A glowing orange flash bursts above a cracked stone ring.

Scott holds a stone ring over his head as T-Bob helps.

A stone ring floats above a wrecked dark vehicle.

Two masked men run past a hoisted slab as T-Bob stands at the pit.

Masked men in brown and orange push a round shield while a man in a blue hood watches.

Two stone rings float above a stone stair as Scott and T-Bob run below.

A glowing blue crystal sits in a net under a vehicle as a man in purple runs.

Scott holds a stone ring over a masked man while T-Bob stands beside him.

Masked men push a round shield as a stone ring floats above T-Bob.

A blue helmeted pilot looks toward a pyramid below.

The blue-uniformed V.E.N.O.M. officer grips two control sticks in a cockpit.

A tiny red craft flies over a sea of jungle treetops.

A smashed dark helicopter with an orange canopy smokes in the forest next to a blue glow.

The V.E.N.O.M. officer walks toward a purple car with its door open in the woods.

The bald bearded man stands with the priest and the boy in a feather crown.

Matt smiles from a seat as Hondo, Scott and T-Bob look on.

Matt grins from the seat as Scott and Hondo watch beside T-Bob.

Scott points across a driveway as T-Bob stands in front of a house.

Scott holds a small pink toy beside T-Bob in a hallway.

T-Bob stands on a stair landing holding a small pink toy car.

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