Mobile Armored Podcast Show

T-Bob's Got The Touch

• Adam Moore and PJ McNerney • Season 1 • Episode 28

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If you had "firing gigawatts of electricity into T-Bob" on your BINGO card, you win! Yes, potentially destroying Scott Trakker's one and only friend is how M.A.S.K. plans to foil a V.E.N.O.M. plot. Hey, at least they have a plot, unlike last episode's disaster. This episode also weighs in with the most dad jokes per minute of any episode so far. So get ready to groan along with us on this week's episode of the Mobile Armored Podcast Show!

https://www.instagram.com/m.a.s.k.podcast/

Adam:

Welcome to the mobile armored podcast show the podcast that transforms into a bullet train name is Adam Moore alongside my co host and best friend, PJ McNerney. How's it going PJ?

PJ:

I'm good, man. It's good to be like you said before the pod, it's good to be back in the saddle.

Adam:

It's be back in the saddle. We did take a week off everyone. We apologize. But PJ had some Irish dancing

PJ:

I did.

Adam:

to do. The

PJ:

I have joined now. I've done so far three performances of Irish dancing. and when I, when I had done that, I had only two rehearsals at that point in time. So I don't know if I should award myself a Buddy Hawks award because according to Ancestry DNA, I am 97 percent Irish. And so I think I was just trusting basically into my ancestral history and whiskey. I

Adam:

2 percent is Mongolian. It's a really odd mix.

PJ:

really wish it was because like when I first did this whole thing, like I was expecting like, Oh, I'll find out all these things about where I'm from. It's no, you're from this part of Ireland. And it was like Galway.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

this, it was

Adam:

Oh,

PJ:

2 percent Wales and 1 percent like English or something like that. It's like, PJ, you're white, I kind of disappointed. Like I would just like, just a little bit more than a ghostly pale to my DNA.

Adam:

Afraid not. Afraid not. Well, we will see if we can post some of the dancing on our Mobile Armored podcast show Instagram.

PJ:

Oh, yeah, we'll do that.

Adam:

in the meantime, episode 28. It's called Blackout. Venom has a new vehicle called Blackout, which is capable of draining power supplies. Indeed! Indeed! Indeed! it is. We were talking about the uh, Pandapoo rating for this episode.

PJ:

Yeah. So it's a new rating. Listen, folks if you've been paying attention, if you've been listening in order, Last episode, we had an artist rolling around in panda poo Then being forced to make statues for Miles and Co. And that's, it's just awful. Everything about it is awful. So that is our, our, our hopeful nadir to all episodes of Masks. So, The question is, Is this episode Pandapoo? What do you think, Adam?

Adam:

I do not think it's Pandapoo.

PJ:

I agree.

Adam:

I think we have avoided the Pandapoo rating for this. It's above Pandapoo. But below, but far below Rotex.

PJ:

Most things are, though.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

It's a hard bar to hit.

Adam:

Yeah. Well, let's dive in, shall we? We open on Mount Fuji. So here's our second visit to Japan in the series so far that train is racing by and it's Matt, Scott and T Bob on board in a first class cabin must be very nice there. Scott calls it Matt's train, which at first I said, yeah, of course he has his own bullet train. But uh, it turns out Matt just invested in it so we can create our Own bullet trains here in the U S. So first of all, what Matt own? And second, how's that bullet train going in the U S Matt?

PJ:

here's my answers in opposite order.

Adam:

Uh

PJ:

Believes he's got enough money and lobbying power. He's going to be able to break through whatever legislation is needed to bring that bullet train to the U S he is sadly wrong. this is going to be one of the, big failures. Like Matt does not like, there are too many other interests involved. He's not getting

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

train in the U S

Adam:

Big rail has the has the lobbying power to defeat the bullet train.

PJ:

indeed. And then that's gotta be one of the most highly investors in the world.

Adam:

really is.

PJ:

Elon Musk, decided to model his life on Matt trackers? I'll have factories in England and I'll make boring machines and, Vehicles that fly.

Adam:

And AI controlled submarines. And bullet trains. I'm Matt didn't create the Blackout vehicle.

PJ:

It turns out that the guy who made the bullet train is the guy who created the blackout vehicle. And I got some theories about this that I think make some sense, actually.

Adam:

Well, meanwhile, speaking of Blackout, a really cool hovercraft vehicle, it's all in black, crashes through the fence of a power substation. And these two robot arms come out and start sucking the power out of the substation.

PJ:

Yeah let's talk about this hovercraft for a bit because it is fucking cool looking

Adam:

Very

PJ:

it is like something out of like Robotech

Adam:

Yeah. Right Okay. Uh huh Uh Huh. Huh.

PJ:

a short circuit to the ground. So every bit of electricity is going into the vehicle itself. Which is crazy. if you wanted to try and make sure that everything went into that vehicle, that actually makes sense, make it a hovercraft,

Adam:

Right. That's a lot of power right?

PJ:

it's a huge amount of power. So this is engineering corner. How much juice is this actually absorbing and spoiler alert. We're going to be absorbing all the electricity of Tokyo and I had to do some research and math on this one, but like for a medium sized city, which Tokyo is not, it is way bigger, but it's about day. It takes about a gigawatt hour of energy per day. Now a city like Tokyo or New York city probably pulls in something closer to five gigawatt hours. But for the

Adam:

Uh

PJ:

Of some math right here, let's just say it's two.

Adam:

right.

PJ:

Okay. So what is the most, powerful vehicle, like almost on the road today? And that's a Tesla Roadster two it's second generation, which is expected to have a 200 kilowatt hour battery. Blackout has an energy capacity that is one million times the most advanced modern electric car, in around the same physical space. It's an incredible amount of energy density.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

Yeah, now most of the time I would be really quick to jump to say Miles should be selling this instead, but I'm going to hold that because I do have a working theory later on for how this actually might make sense. But I do have a side question for you because

Adam:

Uh Huh.

PJ:

Adam, is this vehicle manned or unmanned? Because it definitely has a windshield to

Adam:

I would not want to sit in that vehicle.

PJ:

I get it. I get it. But like, do you think there's a venom henchman somewhere in there? Like some unnamed, like Bob or Joe or something like that.

Adam:

So what we will learn later is this vehicle was created to take power from one location and bring it to a place where there is an electrical emergency. Why do you design it to be so evil looking? It is, it's like, It's a bad guy vehicle. It's black, purple trim on it. It does not look like a happy, like we're here to rescue you. It here to kill you. And like, if is someone in it, the person who, who comes out of it would be some sort of electrical villain.

PJ:

Do you, here's a, here's a question. Do you think this was its original paint job? Or do you think it was like some kind of like white or beige or something like really neutral and soothing. And then Miles is like, you know what? Painted something else.

Adam:

But it's still a pretty menacing looking machine. I think the vehicle blackout, there's a person called blackout inside it, who is pure energy.

PJ:

Okay.

Adam:

well, we cut back to the train and as the power is getting sucked out of the region, it's also getting sucked out of the train as well, and everything metal gets pulled to the roof of the train, including T Bob.

PJ:

Yeah. So is like, it's like the writers did like half a job in terms of like understanding this, because it is true. If you run electrical current through a piece of metal, you generate a perpendicular magnetic field.

Adam:

Mm hmm Yeah Yeah.

PJ:

do is that a bullet train is made of an aluminum alloy, aluminum is light and it's strong. It's what a lot of electric cars are made of. But aluminum itself is not magnetic, and it's only weakly attracted to magnets. So there might be some sort of iron or steel component to the metal.

Adam:

Uh

PJ:

Generated by the short circuit. That's causing all the other metals to become magnetic and become attracted to whatever it is in that alloy. Of course, this is probably giving

Adam:

Okay.

PJ:

to everyone on that. Train

Adam:

Yeah and it's also, it's also giving you the writer's defense fund award,

PJ:

I am totally like batting for the writers on this one. So like, I'm, I'm, I've definitely getting the award on this one. Either way, it's pretty bad engineering given how much it's short circuited.

Adam:

another poor Matt Tracker investment um because then the train controls catch fire no like, no way to that down. train comes to a stop, T Bob falls from the roof onto Scott. How is Scott not severely injured by this? T heavy.

PJ:

So he should have at least have a broken leg,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

we're to believe Adam that so much of Scott's bones have been replaced by metal already.

Adam:

that T bob is some sort of super light aluminum alloy. But I times that he's not that.

PJ:

he's not.

Adam:

Well, Matt Waltz is right into the cockpit of the bullet train and the engineers know him.

PJ:

Yeah,

Adam:

And we got a little Buddy Hawks award for the bad Japanese accent here. But we've got more of that coming.

PJ:

it's actually stunning like anyone who's not Bruce Sato like is getting like a bad Japanese accent award and this is our second time in Japan like we've seen not awful Japanese accents before outside of Bruce so this is like a weird conundrum like what the fuck guys

Adam:

Yeah, no, I know. Uh, The engineers claim that the train is at fault for causing the power outage. So they're basically blaming the train for the big outage that affected the area. But Matt is going to prove a straight shooter. And this is our first of so many dad jokes in this episode. I think they have crammed more dad jokes into this episode of Mask than any other. The Mask, the dad joke density in this episode is the highest we've ever seen.

PJ:

the highest and it's spread over everybody. Like basically everyone has a bad dad joke. I really enjoy like, we're seeing this, like. continuation of a trait of Matt.

Adam:

hmm Yeah.

PJ:

the sub was like loose? he wants to make sure that his investments are working for him.

Adam:

That's my sub.

PJ:

That's my sub. This is my bullet train. Like

Adam:

I'm surprised the mask logo isn't on the train. Well, meanwhile, Venom is meeting in an old hangar somewhere where Miles christens this new vehicle, Blackout, and it turns out Miles Never paid the Japanese inventor the two million dollars for making it. before we found out, I was wondering, what did he do to the inventor?

PJ:

If he'd been smart, he would've, Andy Tracker. That guy may

Adam:

Yeah Yeah, why even promise the guy, why not just kill the inventor and take the weapon? Maybe in case Blackout didn't work, he wanted to return it?

PJ:

maybe what's great though, actually, if we think about this is that since he never paid the money to the invest inventor he didn't. I don't think probably provided any materials except maybe one thing to the inventor. The inventor is out of pocket now for whatever materials went into Blackout.

Adam:

Yeah, don't worry, whatever Matt invested in the bullet train, I'm sure covers for that.

PJ:

He redirected the funds

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

So Matt's inadvertently the cause of Blackout.

Adam:

Yep, absolutely.

PJ:

Do you love it? Like Miles sticks with the theatrics with this naming?

Adam:

It's also kind of on the nose though.

PJ:

another dad joke here, when they talk about the inventor, Cliff's like, guy sure got a yen for money. Get it? Yen. For. Money. Miles was like, we get it, knucklehead. And you know what? That is the FU that I'm hoping for through a lot of the dad jokes here. And Sly has to think about it.

Adam:

He does. He, he like really like chin like, Hmm, yen.

PJ:

Would kids get these jokes, man?

Adam:

I feel like rising Japanese economy was big in culture back then. If you think of a movie like Gung Ho, for example.

PJ:

Oh

Adam:

So I wonder if as kids we understood, we knew what the yen was.

PJ:

Yeah. That's a really good point. Okay.

Adam:

maybe, maybe, or, you know, I mean, it's a dad writing this script. So

PJ:

He's a dad with concern about the rising yen.

Adam:

Well, we found out that Blackout can also shoot a high voltage blast destroying almost anything. Um

PJ:

The scientists about that one?

Adam:

doesn't seem the way it was designed.

PJ:

It's like, I want to make sure that I can deliver electricity and destroy things.

Adam:

Uh, Miles reveals that they need to get one more collection of power. And he says, and this one's going to be a Miles Mayhem Stinger special. What the heck does that mean?

PJ:

I, I was wondering about this. Do you think, I was trying to, I was trying to justify it somehow. Do you think that the original name of Blackout was Stinger, then they changed it because they had a vehicle coming out with that name?

Adam:

No, because in the same episode he calls it blackout and there's a stinger like it the lines are all there So I have no idea what it's talking about a stinger like, You know like a cord used on a movie set But now we're really out in left field here. And a kid's going to understand what he's doing, unless like you get stung when you get electrocuted, it's like a sting, but I don't know, man. I don't know where he's coming from with this.

PJ:

It's weird. It's like undeniably weird.

Adam:

Well, Matt, Scott and T Bob are in Thunderhawk, just kind of flying around. And Scott asks them why they are cruising around. And T Bob asks, yeah, what is this, the fifties? What the heck does that mean?

PJ:

Yeah. This was like, a couple of things that occurred to me on this one. I thought the cruising joke was like, Oh, it's cause cruising was popular in the fifties. Kind

Adam:

I would imagine that. Why

PJ:

how bored is Scott now of like being in a flying car? That now it's so passe at this fun and time.

Adam:

are we just flying around in a Camaro, dad?

PJ:

Yeah. I'm bored.

Adam:

But I mean, who this episode, like Stinger and then Cruising? I mean, there are some jokes I think kids get. I think there's others that kids won't get. Like grandpa write this episode?

PJ:

Yeah. It's okay. There some amazingly cool animation and battle sequences in this episode.

Adam:

Agreed.

PJ:

like that bit, like really cool. The dialogue interstitials here are just like, Come on like, stop it.

Adam:

they spot the substation that Blackout attacked and they see the fire department putting out the fire and. Now, Matt reveals that the bullet train isn't the only reason they came to Japan. He says Venom's in the area. So first of all, we got a Father of the Year nominee right here. Bringing your child to a location where a terrorist organization is known to be working. Yet again. But also, is Matt timing the investment in the bullet train to his investigation of Venom? Like Is it always a coincidence that Matt is like, well, Venom's in the area and the bullet train I funded happens to be going on its inaugural run. I guess I'll go there with my son.

PJ:

I was wondering about this and again, I feel like I'm going to a star for the defense award fund this time. I was wondering if Matt thought this was actually a boondoggle. It was like, ah, you know what? It's I've gotten some Intel. They might be there, but it's probably like some BS stuff. So I'll bring, and I want to do my bullet train. let's just check it out. This will all go solo. And I'll take my kids cause it's probably be fine. I don't know. Like it's I'm that one's a reach. That one's a reach, man.

Adam:

It really is. meanwhile, Blackout is at it again. It sucks all the power out of the airport.

PJ:

Yeah. Now this was like, felt like a lot of terrorist cruelty here.

Adam:

Mm hmm

PJ:

At causing a lot of planes to crash.

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

Venom is earning its terrorist title this time around. They're out for blood.

Adam:

Thunderhawk is flying to the airport, and off in the distance they see the glow from Blackout sucking out the power. And Matt says, either they're making a Japanese monster movie down there, or I need my vision Thunderbolts. info Or Matt, maybe there's a third possibility.

PJ:

yeah, I agree, it was a little bit of a flirt for me with the Buddy Hawks award. it's like, you know, my vision is wrong, or it's a monster movie. are known for that.

Adam:

or it's blackout.

PJ:

It's just like that thing you're after. So the control tower tells all the planes that they need to circle in the air because are you losing power? immediate thought was, this is the plot from die hard to five years before die hard to

Adam:

It turns out that this show has inspired so many films and entrepreneurs past 40 years. It's crazy.

PJ:

it really is actually like we're, it's we've got AI, we've got

Adam:

Yeah, yep Yeah, well Matt spots Switchblade in the sky. Venom! He sends Scott and T Bob to go hide in a hangar while he masks up and races towards the power substation.

PJ:

he's got a line in here where he's like, so now they're in the utility business. Huh? Like again, kids,

Adam:

other line in this episode is a dad joke.

PJ:

Oh yeah. Up until like really soon, it's like, it's kind of dad, it's jokey all the time and the stakes are played for laughs.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

And now Scott and T Bob are just in some random hangar.

Adam:

it turns out, it is a pretty safe place for them to be, considering what's about to happen to uh to Thunderhawk. So Miles does spot Thunderhawk, and he says, What a shocking surprise to see you, Mask. Hope you're feeling energetic. Hug Hug.

PJ:

is doing it. This episode.

Adam:

And uh, we have a Thunderhawk versus Blackout land battle, which is odd because Thunderhawk can fly and Blackout can't.

PJ:

Yep.

Adam:

But, okay Um, And then during this chase is an oil tanker that gets flipped over. T Bob and Scott are watching this all from a top, some oil barrels outside the hangar and then blackout hits Thunderhawk causing it to flip over, but somehow Matt survives. So we've got a Slyrax ragdoll award nomination right here.

PJ:

Yeah, I mean it's dramatic. Everything in this sequence is dramatic cause like Thunderhawk is outgunned. It's got Blackhawk and Switchblade on its tail. and they do some real damage to it. I really enjoyed them knocking over that oil tanker,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

definitely manned. They show a

Adam:

Oh, there's a guy in there.

PJ:

yeah, he is frightened, and like my first thought when it turned over was, is he dead now?

Adam:

Yeah, so add to the body count right now. then T Bob, he falls down the stack of oil drums that he and Scott are standing on, and he goes unconscious. Like, how is that possible? He's a robot.

PJ:

I mean it was like, unless Scott was fucked with his circuits enough. It's like too many times there's something rattled inside of him.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

I thought a better play would have been either to have a laser, sorry, have T Bob be hit by a laser,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

have his energy be sucked out somehow by Blackout, like

Adam:

Yeah. Well, that would have been good writing.

PJ:

that is true, huh? T Hawk's fucked up, man. They got this great shot of it completely upside down

Adam:

I'm,

PJ:

open.

Adam:

wings open, it's upside down, the windshield is cracked, the headlights are cracked uh, survives, somehow, but yeah, Thunderhawk is, is messed up, it seems out of commission. Which is a few moments. Matt tries spectrum laser on Blackout, it just sucks up the power. Then Blackout shoots at Matt, sending him flying.

PJ:

Yes.

Adam:

is a major ragdoll nomination. He got hit with, I don't know how many kilowatts of electricity. And he went flying and went unconscious.

PJ:

It is some really cool stuff happening here. First off, like when you fire a spectrum laser, if you actually watch it, the laser arcs. To the collection point, which kind of implies there's some sort of like semi spherical electric field around it that is drawing the power in, which is cool.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

then that laser blast, man, he is flying through the air.

Adam:

No, he's, he's dead.

PJ:

And again, like joking this aside, if you look at kind of the substance that's here, like venom shut down an airport threatening, like who many, how many? Thousands of lives and they were like, up mad.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

they're a credible threat again.

Adam:

And Matt is outnumbered, outgunned. And he's getting beaten by, by Venom here. So yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I mean, Venom has ratcheted up the tension. No more vacuuming up change from the floor of a for Venom. They're back on top.

PJ:

Comically, we never get a threat from them to the country. So

Adam:

that's true.

PJ:

we don't precisely know if they wanted to go to one of Tokyo's casinos and use blackout so they can repeat their vacuuming

Adam:

You make a really great point. They have the threat, but they do not have the threat. What they're looking for. a terrorist I HAVE A BOMB! And? That's all.

PJ:

I have it. I'm going to use it. What do you want? I've given you my demands. He's done that in Japan before, so I'm

Adam:

He has.

PJ:

If it's like a cultural thing or it's like he keeps forgetting.

Adam:

He's too polite to let them know. This culture.

PJ:

They're freaking out.

Adam:

They'll just offer something. Well, Miles says, Sweet dreams, Mask. Let's go, Blackout. Your performance has given me a real charge. it. Stop

PJ:

Just you keep undercutting like the severity miles of and the weight of what you're doing. We want to give you more credit, but you're not helping it. Okay. did you think that miles thought that Matt obviously would think of him as the mask leader was dead. mean, I, is that why he doesn't fire a few missiles to like. Finish him off because I could buy it.

Adam:

Yeah, the guy got hit with like a gigawatt of electricity.

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

He's dead. mean, and Miles takes it pretty chill. He's like, sweet dreams, mask. Like that's

PJ:

He

Adam:

He's not like yes, I finally did it. He's like, yeah, let's go. Makes a joke and gets out of there. Ice cold, Miles. You got your mojo back. Look, it's a real nightmare situation out there. We got Matt unconscious, Thunderhawk is destroyed, now the flipped over oil tanker starts leaking out, and a fire breaks out, and the oil slick is headed towards Matt. T appears to be dead. Scott is freaking out. His dad's about to get burned alive. it's Over.

PJ:

Yeah. There's some real stakes right now. And this moment from the perspective of Scott is undeniably scary.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

it's a really scary moment.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

about to die. His robot's out of commission.

Adam:

Yeah. Trauma. He's psychiatrist yet again, but PJ, I got to ask you the question, what's happen?

PJ:

I don't know. I don't know.

Adam:

We'll find out after these messages.

Come on, Jeebop. Mask will be right back. Oh, boy. Back to mask.

Adam:

And we're back. When we left you, Scott was in a full on panic attack. I mean, things are really, really bad. His dad's about to get burned alive right before his eyes. His idiotic robot is no longer functioning. And uh, I mean, I guess there's at least the money he'll inherit.

PJ:

He and Gloria are going to inherit a lot of money

Adam:

Very true. Scott digs around inside T Bob's head, gets him to wake up, transforms into scooter mode, and they go out and rescue Matt.

PJ:

Scott has very few dad jokes, but I actually thought this was a great line to motivate it. Cuz he says dad's too heavy for me to pull away from the fire and it's like yeah, that's okay That's a really good motivator Like that's the reason you need t bob and then they do some honest to goodness Heroics like of pulling him right because they could die too.

Adam:

Right. No, they pull him like about two feet away from the getting to him.

PJ:

did you notice that Matt didn't really thank them?

Adam:

Ha.

PJ:

he gets is this exchange where T Bob's like, I'm either really weak or you are really heavy. Scott basically is like, maybe you need to start a workout program. And Matt says, he's already a heavyweight in my book. And there's just like these smiles and moment of silence,

Adam:

Well, yeah, I mean, first of all, how about thanks for saving my life, and two, at least a little recognition of T Bob, not a single recognition of his son,

PJ:

I know! I

Adam:

everything to save his life.

PJ:

mean, in theory, T Bob could have survived the fire. But not Scott!

Adam:

Despite Thunderhawk being basically destroyed, Matt is able to use the computer to assemble a mask team. So here are the agents. We get Alex Sector, and we learn from the computer that his planning abilities will be integral to the operation. Okay. Bruce Sato, whose design capabilities. Could come into play. Okay. We have Gloria Baker, champion race driver, black belt in kung fu, team hottie, and Matt's wife. Excellent driving abilities necessary. Should we see if any of those skills come into play?

PJ:

Yeah, let's do a grading of this one again. I like these accents. I

Adam:

Mm

PJ:

Of fun, but I do feel like they feel checkoff gun like, like you have to pay it off

Adam:

So the mask jet lands in Tokyo. Uh, Might as well get a travel time check here.

PJ:

It's about 12 hours as

Adam:

hmm

PJ:

Flight from Denver to Tokyo. So it's, and when you see it land, it's during the day and we just saw blackout at night. So

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

it's plausible. It got there, at the next

Adam:

yeah. All right. Good job, mask. Thunderhawk rolls up to meet the jet. How in the world is Thunderhawk still drivable? I

PJ:

Scott, remember that time you had to put Thunderhawk back together after I destroyed it in Solaria park, Time to put those skills to good use again. boy, dad, I'm ready.

Adam:

mean, I guess they had 12 hours to work on it.

PJ:

That earlier lesson we've had where it's like, don't build electronics, like with that robot thing,

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

know that's to be bullshit because we see it and over again.

Adam:

right.

PJ:

also it probably means Scott was hopped up on some kind of upper all night long in order to get this vehicle. Ready.

Adam:

Matt was just pouring Mountain Dew into him.

PJ:

Mountain Dew and cocaine.

Adam:

Well the team goes to visit the inventor who also worked on the bullet train, we pointed out earlier, the guy the bullet train also created Blackout. This guy's accent. insultingly bad. is a major BuddyHawks nomination

PJ:

I was so shocked when I first heard

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

this voice was.

Adam:

yes.

PJ:

And I know it's trying to distinguish itself from Bruce. But I mean, I was like, wow did they hire Micka Rooney from? Breakfast at Tiffany's,

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

that level of just outlandish,

Adam:

it's so bad. It is so, so bad.

PJ:

In this sequence, they do manage to ask and answer the question, how can it be used for good? Which I actually thought was a good question to ask because you're right. It seems like a really just Evil vehicle.

Adam:

Right. And as we said, the original purpose was to draw electricity from one source and deliver it somewhere else where there's an electrical emergency, right? Like I don't know. How about a uh, a tsunami takes out a nuclear power plant. But like a dozen other ways to do this. Like you don't need to a really evil looking vehicle that sucks power out of the power grid. Mm hmm Yeah. Mm hmm Mm hmm Yeah.

PJ:

And again, writer's defense award winner today we know that mask and venom vehicles are able to do really incredible things like have a Camaro fly. And last episode, we saw both Manta and Thunderhawk make the flight from Beijing to Easter Island, and we know there's an exotic power source that is in both the vehicles and the mask, and we see the masks get charged in the star chamber, which implies it's like very compact and powerful and energy efficient. So I was wondering, what if the tech for the energy storage on the vehicle is actually what's used for blackout? Like this is actually the scientist didn't invent that,

Adam:

Okay.

PJ:

was basically given that by venom and it's still sort of military grade or beyond

Adam:

Okay.

PJ:

grade. So that's why it's under wrap. So

Adam:

Okay, I'll go with you.

PJ:

so then it's like, what was the scientist actually working on then? And then I was maybe the scientist. on the charging equipment necessary to make it fast enough to work with that energy storage system.

Adam:

All right. I'm still with you. Okay Okay.

PJ:

all this, why is Matt Tracker then stopping the creation of the electric car? We now investigate his Boulder Hill holdings?

Adam:

Huh.

PJ:

he have oil interests because he runs a gas station? Or is this all just military grade equipment that, we can't let out there?

Adam:

Yeah, well, I would imagine that Matt has investments all over the place. I mean, we can go way back to that episode video Venom, where Venom was going to destroy an oil refinery. That was probably Matt's oil refinery.

PJ:

A good point!

Adam:

Yeah, Matt's got his hands in everything. Matt, and from another, in another world, Matt is a supervillain.

PJ:

Yeah! Venom is actually the rebellion against him.

Adam:

There you go. We've cracked this wide open.

PJ:

was one detail that they missed, though, in terms of questioning?

Adam:

Yeah, didn't mention anything out a high voltage blast or blackout. how is that supposed to help in an emergency? In case there's a panic, take people out.

PJ:

Crowd control.

Adam:

So the inventor says, like believes his father, the man said he was going to pay me two million for building the machine. Instead, he stole it. I mean, it just I just gotta like, it's pretty suspicious. Some dude in a military uniform walks in and says, Hey, that's cool. I'll pay you two million dollars for it. Oh, great. I'll pay you later. Here's my card. It says Matt Tracker it

PJ:

so I was wondering are we to believe this? Like he says, like a man believes his father, did this scientist transfer some of his latent paternal trauma and feelings to miles mayhem?

Adam:

This guy's just bouncing back and forth between Miles and Matt as a father figure.

PJ:

This really is. Maybe that's why Matt has some sympathy for him because of his own conflicted feelings towards Miles.

Adam:

I would also like to point out that the M. A. S. team is there, it's Matt, Gloria, Bruce, and Alex. But Scott and T Bob are also there. What are they doing there? Send them to the hotel.

PJ:

It's a hotel out of power.

Adam:

Send them to the hotel! Who cares?

PJ:

Just drive all the way there, Scott.

Adam:

Yeah, just figure it out, man. Plug T into the TV and watch some Japanese game shows.

PJ:

Scott, you're used to both being in a foreign country alone, as well, for which you do not speak the language as well as riding T Bob out in the open.

Adam:

be fine. So Alex asks if there's any way to shut Blackout down. And the inventor says, it would be like short circuiting the sun. invention is a single minded shark in a sea of plenty. So we've a pretty sadoism here, but also what in the world has he created? be like short circuiting the sun.

PJ:

It's such a moment of like, is this like this guy is mistranslating it or like what did you create for 2 million, sir?

Adam:

Yeah, I mean, also, or is it just hubris? Uh, I think we'll figure a way to do it, because by the way, they short circuit it with T Bob later on, so.

PJ:

true. It's really true.

Adam:

hears that sadoism, and he one ups him, and says, For every poison, there is an antidote. And I think if we left these two guys alone, be just going back and forth all day.

PJ:

I know I was wondering like, is this like just their characters? Like they just want to one up like, Hey, this is my really cool saying. or how much is this the writers being racist again, in terms of thinking like, this is how people in Japan speak to each other. They speak in Coen's all the time,

Adam:

So they realized that if they can overload blackout circuits, they can defeat it. And Bruce just gets to one up the inventor here and says, and when giants meet a storm will follow,

PJ:

which is weird. Okay. I mean, It's, it is like, at first glance, it feels like, Oh well, this makes a lot of sense. But then if you think about it, it's like, wait, what?

Adam:

huh? Giants and storm. Yeah. I picture dropping the mic though, when he says it, it's like a storm will follow Mike drop middle finger to the inventor. And he walks out. Well, Matt says that they're gonna make their own high voltage machine. That could be an electrifying experience. And it's nice to see Gloria getting in on the dad jokes there.

PJ:

I felt like this was evidence that Gloria is starting to lean into a role as Scott's mother making shitty jokes.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

also, is this her only line in the episode?

Adam:

is her only line in the episode. Come on, Gloria.

PJ:

come on, writers.

Adam:

Well, Matt says that he and Alex have a plan called Operation Horseshoe. The plan is for Rhino, Shark, and Thunderhawk to fire electrical impulses towards T Bob and use him as an electrical conductor. How is that not going to destroy T Bob?

PJ:

I mean, I'm wondering if Matt has a side goal here of maybe destroying T Bob. Of just like, all right two birds with one stone

Adam:

I mean, if you think of I guess it's the easiest collateral damage they have. It's like, well, I don't want to waste one of the vehicles and I can't use my son as an electrical conductor, but I Bob. I mean, if the plan blows up, what have we really lost?

PJ:

Guess if you believe that T Bobs got to the same sort of storage capacity as the vehicles, then maybe?

Adam:

Keep on trying to defend those riders.

PJ:

I know, I know, I feel like, you know, I've went I've, I've went whole into big masks Big Kenner.

Adam:

Meanwhile, Venom is on its way with Blackout to another power station. And Miles says. I'm glad I have a front row seat for this light show and enough with the dad jokes guys Come on.

PJ:

this episode would be ten times better if you stripped every dad joke out of it. like it, every single time it just undercuts the threat there's a credible threat there, like it's actually a fun, credible threat, but every single time one of these dad jokes goes in, just take it out.

Adam:

anyways, Alex makes some modifications to T Bob and Scott assures T Bob they should trust Matt Should they though?

PJ:

it feels very sketchy to me. This definitely again, it's like that maybe should have gotten one more vehicle in there.

Adam:

Yeah

PJ:

And then Rhino probably would have been the best one for the center. But now, Alex has made whatever modifications to magnify electricity threefold through T Bob

Adam:

Yeah,

PJ:

and Scott makes the David and Goliath comparison.

Adam:

I guess we're, we're approaching biblical times here for T So he's getting very, very reflective here. Well, Matt that Tokyo's power is being drained. And so it's time to take off for Tokyo. And Matt says, let's shed a little light on the subject. And then Gloria strangled Matt for the dad jokes, and Matt is dead. Well, Tokyo's power goes out, Mask shows up, and Matt says, Start the horseshoe, and we go into our final Mask Venom battle of the episode. Blackout gets a few shots off but I guess the Mask vehicles have lightning rods now?

PJ:

so it's interesting because the mask vehicles aren't totally fucked up now, they're able to

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

power, but it knocks them around. So, I mean,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

it actually is kind of a nice balance between deus ex machina technology and like being destroyed. So it's like,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

we can stay in the fight.

Adam:

Right. Piranha fires a missile at Thunderhawk, but Matt uses Spectrum Deus Ex Helmet and sends the missile back towards Piranha.

PJ:

Sly has got this crazy line in there. It's not even a dad joke, but he said, I sent it first class, but you sent it, but you come back to me Parcel post. And it was like, again, like

Adam:

What?

PJ:

wasn't even a dad joke. That was just weird.

Adam:

Rhino sends a laser blast from Jackhammer back towards Jackhammer, blowing out its tire. We have a cool shark manta face off. Gloria fires two missiles. Thanks. With such precision, that they lodge themselves in Manta's headlights and sends the car driving backwards. wild one, Gloria is a crack shot, so I deny that. But why don't the missiles just blow up Manta?

PJ:

So I think this is so we've seen this constantly. Gloria loves to show how badass she is. And she wants an audience. So she uses her crack shot skills, which, again, she's got like, the theatrics in her as well. And she wants Vanessa to know. Yeah, I'm fucking badass,

Adam:

I could blow you up, but I In fact, so what happens is, Manta goes flying back into Jackhammer, flips over, lands upside down on top of Jackhammer. And assuming Vanessa survives That's a major Sly Rax ragdoll nomination right there.

PJ:

it is. It really is. Yeah,

Adam:

forms the horseshoe. They turn on their energy absorbers. So now they have lightning rods and energy absorbers. T Bob's turn to shine. He runs out into of the horseshoe. They fire their energy bolts at T Bob, who kind of like claps his hands in front of him they conduct the energy and he fires it out at Blackout, destroying it. And, kind of cool, right? hear the from the Transformers

PJ:

I, here's the thing. And if people, and assuming this uh, goes out intact, I did hear the touch, but because this is the low rent version of it, I did hear the boogie nights. Yeah. mark Wahlberg, Marky Mark's version of the touch from that movie. So it was definitely kind of more the low re version, but I did notice like V like T Bob's eyes are pretty mean. Like he's like in it to win it. Like he's got, like he's got the face, he's got the eye of the tiger.

Adam:

He really does. He's gone Roy Batty in that moment.

PJ:

has.

Adam:

mean, I guess, though, I mean, was T Bob really necessary in this operation? Couldn't they have just fired their three lightning bolts at Blackout all at the same time?

PJ:

Yeah, they totally could have. They try to justify it with that line that T Bob has the ability to magnify the energy by threefold, which is however that happens. I mean, Think it was basically like, we want to have like a fun, we want this set piece. of seeing T Bob basically fire an energy blast? Is it necessary? Absolutely not. I do want to revisit that question from earlier, though.

Adam:

Huh.

PJ:

Is there someone inside that thing? Because they did now.

Adam:

are dead. I mean, there a scrap of blackout left after the explosion.

PJ:

Yes.

Adam:

It's like vaporized,

PJ:

Yeah. Hey, if you were Miles Mayhem, would you start to pay attention to this robot, this egg shaped robot that keeps foiling your plans? Because he did have an up close and personal experience back in Cold Fever, and he clearly saw him.

Adam:

I think he definitely has some cognitive decline. Well, Venom escapes and Miles says, this isn't lights out for me. So he goes ahead and he Leaves one last dad joke behind like a piece of panda poo as he off into the night. Thank you, Venom.

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

Uh, um, You know, it's just kind of smiles and a very long overhead shot

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

the episode is like 10 seconds short. So they just extend the shot and it's a very slow

PJ:

Yeah. I noticed that too.

Adam:

So, let's look Shall grade the team based why the computer selected them?

PJ:

let's do it.

Adam:

Okay.

PJ:

Alex, how did his planning skills help the operations?

Adam:

They uh, they planned a horseshoe.

PJ:

Okay. I guess that works. Bruce was called upon because of his design skills. So what did he design here?

Adam:

He designed some really good Sado isms.

PJ:

Where most of his lines really just went upping the scientist.

Adam:

Yeah, I mean, you would have thought that he would have designed Like the engineering for the horseshoe operation,

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

but no, nothing.

PJ:

Okay.

Adam:

Gloria was uh, what driving skills needed.

PJ:

Yes. She did drive her car.

Adam:

drove her car. Well done, Gloria.

PJ:

those missiles to say F you Vanessa. Also she's married to Matt, so

Adam:

given one line. Anyways, that's the episode. The more you know moment Scott and T Bob are riding around in scooter mode and they're talking about Sunday drives and things like that. And then suddenly, two kids ride by on a bike. One kid's riding on the handlebars. They hit a rock and the kids fall off the bike. And Scott says, You should never ride two on a bike. In the most smug way, You I've ever heard come out of Scott, like he's so uppity in that moment.

PJ:

He really is. And like, like the thought I had, because like, I, I think Scott and us forget the fact that he is the son of a billionaire. And he is saying this to two kids who like, there's no kids in the same economic bracket as him,

Adam:

anywhere in the world.

PJ:

but the kids who are going to be riding two on a bike, aren't in a high economic bracket. So I just really felt like he was like, this is a class moment for him.

Adam:

really was.

PJ:

And like those kids would be like fuck you. Not all of us can afford to have our own scooter. Rich kid, our own robot scooter. Yeah.

Adam:

One is I believe one of the kids was wearing a helmet, which is new the eighties and they've already done this lesson before. Haven't they? With T Bob, wasn't T Bob riding on the front a and he fell off.

PJ:

Yeah. I think, and Matt got really fucking pissed.

Adam:

He got really pissed.

PJ:

So I wonder if like the real lesson here is. Don't be a dick if you have more money than other kids. I feel like that's actually, if it's a repeat, let's say, can we dig something else out of this? Cause he's a dick to these kids

Adam:

I think the lesson is be a dick because Scott like rides off into the sunset and these are injured on the ground.

PJ:

in the middle of the street.

Adam:

So the lesson is kids be rich, afford your own bike. right. take a look at our The Buddy Hawks award.

PJ:

Oh man. Whomever voiced the Japanese scientist, I

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

and pretty much everyone else that isn't Bruce Sato. I, Oh.

Adam:

Yeah. So unnecessary. Father of the year award.

PJ:

there's a lot of stuff here. You could have Matt taking his son into danger multiple times. You could have basically Matt not thanking his son for saving his life. I thought it was making his son's only and best friend. And Manny, part in a highly risky maneuver that's likely to fry at circuits.

Adam:

Yeah, I agree with that one and just the, just bringing your son to a known terrorist location again.

PJ:

Again,

Adam:

I mean, you've got a giant mansion. Just leave them there. So anyways,

PJ:

an indication of this like, you know, Gloria is like, no, I don't want to watch him while you

Adam:

yeah,

PJ:

some adventure in Japan. Either, either take us all together or take him yourself.

Adam:

That's, that's a great What was Gloria doing all this time?

PJ:

We never see any of these cutscenes for them leaving.

Adam:

Oh yeah. What was she, she was shopping

PJ:

I don't

Adam:

or whatever. Well the Sly Rax Ragdoll Award. What's there's so many nominations this episode.

PJ:

many nominations, man. I mean, We had, we just had that great one with Vanessa.

Adam:

Huh.

PJ:

a minor one of T Bob. I thought Matt getting fucked

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

blackout though. That was a hardcore moment.

Adam:

Yeah. No, there were, it was twice in a row. One is Thunderhawk gets completely ruined and is upside down and he crawls out of it and then gets hit by, you know, hundreds of kilowatts of energy Matt's dead. He is, he is dead. R. I. P. Matt. We will see you next episode. So yeah, so I guess uh, Pandapoo. Not Pandapoo, entirely. No.

PJ:

I think it's Venom's on track again, like they're becoming credible, still would love to see them threatened to find out what they wanted, as ransom and whatnot. I think if you had dialogue, that was not everyone making a dad joke every time this would have been a good episode bordering on great like it's great animation. there's some real credible threats that are there. Like what damages it is the dialogue is shit.

Adam:

Mm hmm

PJ:

Are awful and Venom doesn't pull it's demands forward.

Adam:

I feel like this would be a, without all that, it would be a fair episode bordering on good because there are no stakes. so you have this thing, what are you going to do with it? So well,

PJ:

We got the Roy Batty. I forgot about that one.

Adam:

yes, we do have a Roy Batty award. I don't think it's an award. I think it's, he has gone Roy Batty.

PJ:

Yes, he gets to actually like, fuck some shit up,

Adam:

He does. He really does. Well, that is it for episode 28. Episode 29. A matter of gravity. Firecracker is destroyed in a battle with Venom and Hondo gets a new replacement vehicle, Hurricane, in the end. And there's a note here that Hurricane was called Nightstalker in this episode.

PJ:

So there's fun trivia for that next time. But, whoa! You

Adam:

a big one.

PJ:

you and I have been inserting change and continuity into every episode thus far to fill in the blanks. But this is actually something that has lasting consequences.

Adam:

Yeah. it's a, and it's a great toy. Hurricane was one of my favorites of the mask toy line. I, I played with it until it broke and I think I had to get another one.

PJ:

Hurricane was super cool. It's also interesting because episode has been teased. Since the opening credits of the first episode,

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

we've seen this other vehicle forever. And it's like, what is this?

Adam:

Well, it's interesting too, because. We see other vehicles get completely wrecked, like in this episode, bounce back either the next episode or within the same episode, like this episode.

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

This is one where Firecracker is so destroyed that they cannot reconstruct it. So I'm very eager to dive into into this episode.

PJ:

So the spoiler alert on that is that it does show up in later episodes again, But hurricane still around too. So it's, bizarre. but regardless at the time that it happens, it's pretty dramatic

Adam:

Yeah. We're going to find out next week, but for now, this podcast has to transform and head back to HQ. I am Adam Moore.

PJ:

and I am PJ McNerney.

Adam:

bye.

The mobile armored podcast show is written, produced and edited. Bye Adam Moore. And PJ McNerney.