Mobile Armored Podcast Show

VENOM Unmasks Matt Trakker! (with James Riley!)

• Adam Moore and PJ McNerney • Season 1 • Episode 40

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It's Episode 40: "Eyes of the Skull"!

Matt Tracker dumps his kid to wander San Francisco (“What could go wrong?”) and immediately gets doxxed by Miles Mayhem’s X-ray crystal skull. VENOM finally learns MASK’s big secret…and celebrates with the most conspicuous bank heist ever—blasting a hole through downtown like it’s cosplay GTA.

Meanwhile T-Bob—750 lbs of anxiety in a metal romper—gets curb-stomped into a planter, springs back like Inspector Gadget, and later tackles Sly Rax so hard the poor guy technically dies off-screen. Matt’s rescue plan? Climb the Golden Gate cable in loafers, flash the skull at its own reflection, and trigger a plot-reset EMP that wipes VENOM’s memory faster than an Etch A Sketch. The payoff: Scott’s safe, the villains forget everything, and MASK still barely uses, y’know… masks. It’s 22 minutes of “highest stakes ever!” that end with Father-of-the-Year Matt sighing in relief no one touched his fortune—because losing his billionaire status would hurt way more than that whole kidnapping thing.

It's another episode of the Mobile Armored Podcast Show, featuring our #1 fan - James Riley!

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

Adam:

Welcome to the Mobile Armored Podcast show, the podcast that transforms into the kingdom of the crystal skull. My name is Adam Moore, alongside my co-host and best friend PJ McNerney. How's it going, pj?

PJ:

Yeah. I'm doing well today and I'm excited for this episode on so many fronts and I mean that genuinely, I realize sometimes I can be a little bit of a downer, but. love this episode, so I'm excited. I'm, I'm, I'm putting it out there. Right there. It kind of explains panda poo, but also we've got a great guest star,

Adam:

guest. Um, you all know him as your buddy spooky on Instagram. We know him as our biggest fan. He is the one and only. James Riley. Welcome to the podcast.

James:

Hey guys, this is a real honor, a real treat, I gotta say.

Adam:

huge treat for us. you've been with us since

PJ:

yeah.

Adam:

you've been reaching out to us, letting us know that you love what we're doing here, so we're just psyched to have you come in and join the fun.

James:

This is gonna be a lot of fun. I gotta say, this is a great episode.

Adam:

So, I have a question for you. What is it about this episode, that you love so much? Because this is one of the episodes that you called out like way back when you had listened to like episode two or three of the podcast Episode 40 Eyes of the Skull was on that short list. So what is it about this episode that you love?

James:

It's one of those things that actually, outside of the second season. It's one of the only times where like there's an acknowledgement that there are people behind those masks and that their lives are gonna be in danger if, something happens, you know? perfect example, as we'll see in the story. miles Mayhem is like, what Tracker? Oh my God. Like, he's like, he's basically realizing if somebody were to tell, Bain, oh, this is, oh, by the way, this is Bruce Wayne. Oh, okay. You know, that sort of thing.

PJ:

Bruce Wade, the billionaire, Playboy is Batman.

James:

I'll break the bat.

Adam:

Well, hey, so as we said, this is episode 40. Eyes of the Skull Venom Leader, miles Mayhem uses an ancient crystal skull that allows x-ray like vision to see through Matt Tracker's mask and discover his identity mayhem. Then kidnap Scott Tracker for ransom. And I mean, those are stakes right there. Everybody like, like he knows Matt is the leader of Mask. He kidnaps his son. these are the highest stakes we've ever had, I think. Well, there was the comet they were trying to bring down to destroy all of Earth. But in terms of

PJ:

That

James:

yeah.

Adam:

character, these are the biggest we've ever had.

PJ:

absolutely

James:

We've gotten used to them doing the cartoonish stuff here and there. Like, oh, we're chasing this. Oh, we'll take all this money. We could be funneling towards, actual progress in science Maybe like anti-gravity things or No, we'll just use it for terrorism. No. Now we actually have like, venom actually behaving like a terrorist organization. Yes, we're gonna kidnap this kid and we're gonna hold onto him until you do X, Y, and Z. It's like, okay, finally someone's actually doing something with, and, and it always bothered me until I watched the, do you guys, did you guys actually get the, the original 65 episodes on DVD when they released, by Shop Factory a couple years ago.

Adam:

only watched them online.

PJ:

no.

James:

Well, I watched them of course on tv, but also online. my long suffering wife, who was like, I don't know what any of this means, but I appreciate that you do and you appreciate this, that's great. she, got me that for Christmas and I sat down, I'm like, oh, there's actually bonus features. They have interviews here. And they interviewed a couple of the writers and they were basically like, well, we were told, like, one of'em was like, Hey, they just gave me a script. They said, here are the, here's the, the basics. you can't call outside these walls, but inside you can do whatever the heck you want. Um, you know, and just understand that it resets at the end of the episode. And one of the things was, you know, there's no, no one member of the team gets hit and like goes, we know bullets. There's lasers. Instead of the things like that, the, the basic kind of Geo Joe logic, you don't hit the main characters. If you hit the main character. They get wounded, seriously wounded, but maybe they go to the hospital and they're fine at the end of the episode. I don't know why Hondo seems to be the one who's been getting the brunt of that multiple times. He's wound up in a hospital room and him and Bruce are like, you know, always the victim, apparently. Go figure.

Adam:

once by Brad.

James:

Yeah. You know, his long suffering wave, Gloria, you know, but, it really reframed it for me in a way.'cause I'm like, oh, okay. So they were specifically told this, this wasn't just like a we don't want to be violent. No, no. We were told do not do this and stay inside these lines. And when you guys get to the second season, I'm really hopeful to see how you guys react to that. Because the second season, it's like, I rewatched it when she gave me the DVDs. it says it's the complete series. It's not the complete series, it's just 65 out of 75 episodes. Exactly.

Adam:

Because they they repackage the Final 10 episodes as masked the movie, and I know in certain regions that's what they did. Or it was a three part movie or something like that.

James:

Yeah, they took, half of them and stitched'em together because there's a lot like it.'cause I, of course, I was a dedicated fan. I found the movie, and watched it after rewatching the second season, they left out one or two big episodes. there's an episode where they introduced Ali Bombay it's basically him going back to his village. It's like, buddy, we just met you an episode ago and now we've got your entire life story. What is going on here? There's a ton of stuff that is very different about the second season. That is nowhere near the first season.

Adam:

we can't wait to get into season two, how

James:

Mm-hmm.

Adam:

episode 40? so we

James:

Right. Yeah. Sorry.

Adam:

on San Francisco, the Big Tomato. I don't know. Is that his nickname? I'm gonna use it. I love your Bay area.

James:

It future home of Star Fleet command.

Adam:

Future homo star Fleet Command. Oh, you're our guy, man. one of us

James:

Oh yeah.

Adam:

Um, so we're in an ornate auction hall and it's Matt and Bruce and Scott and t Bobb are there. they're auctioning off this kind of wooden tribal mask. and t Bobb says$38,000, like regarding one of the, the bids for a mask that doesn't even do anything. I hope I'm worth 38,000 when I'm 2000 years old. And Matt says, you're already priceless. Tbo Bob's response is, no, I'm already bored. Scott, let's go see Alcatraz, the famous prison. And I'm just like, damn. He's got an attitude today.

PJ:

What's interesting is like, he's like, oh, it's a max That doesn't do anything boring. Doesn't fire a whip, doesn't fire blades, doesn't lift people. I am done quick. Economics corner, mini corner. Just so people know, 38 K and$85 is worth approximately$112,000 today.

Adam:

mask.

PJ:

Yes.

James:

And the 9 99, we would've paid for the Scott and t Bob figure on the shelf is now worth maybe$15, although we'll go for probably 50.

Adam:

Well finally, the next item up is the legendary crystal skull. Matt gives a nice nod to Bruce who starts the bidding at$50,000.

PJ:

Did you guys have an issue with Matt nodding to Bruce? why does he need to do that? why does Bruce need to be his front man here?

James:

I never understood that. I'm like, okay, you're the guy holding the checks. why don't you sit down and take care of this? you can just write the check and say, Hey, that doesn't mind. Forget the auction. Just gimme the thing.

Adam:

Bruce to pay for it

PJ:

It's be

Adam:

Matt needs to keep his money clean of this?

PJ:

are saying?

Adam:

episodes back, with the virus that made the currency disappear. He made Bruce use his own 20 bucks. So clearly Matt has no regard for his teammates financial situation.

James:

But it's also like, okay, so, maybe it's a situation where Bruce is doing this because does he think that, if Bruce buys it, Bruce doesn't get that piece of his paycheck or something, is this coming outta your pay, Bruce? If you get less, then you keep less, you know?

PJ:

Oh, I get it.

James:

Yeah.

PJ:

So he's, forcing Bruce basically to be the best bidder possible. And it's like, look, go over this amount, that's coming out of your

James:

That's it.

Adam:

Can we also talk about the crystal skull though? I mean it's literally, it's like the crystal skull and the only time besides mask that I've really ever heard that term used is Indiana Jones, so did Spielberg watch mask and was he inspired by it?

PJ:

I think David Lynch just talked to Spielberg at their director's thing is, and they just said, Hey, you should watch this show. And Spielberg's like, yes,

Adam:

George

PJ:

crystal Skull It was a

James:

yeah.

PJ:

set of years for George at that point in time. Guys. I would just be careful. I mean, Lynch was having, like, it was rough for Lynch as well with 80 four's Dune, but I mean, George was going through some stuff.

James:

Yeah, but on top of that, you're also thinking like, okay, so if those are possible, it's also possible that Lucas and Spielberg, Lucas probably, were spending the nineties and the early two dozens watching ancient aliens

PJ:

Oh,

James:

is all over that. that's the only other place I've ever heard of this. Exactly. You know what it is,

Adam:

Yeah.

James:

that's what it's

PJ:

I wanna get back to this point later on'cause I feel like there's some interesting connections with Its origin story.

Adam:

shall we go to Economics Corner one more time here?

PJ:

It starts off at 50 K for the opening bid, which would be roughly 150 K today. Tbo manages to bid it up to 110 K, which is about 326 KI, I don't know if Matt just didn't care because he just gave Bruce a dirty look being like you're paying for that.

Adam:

do you think he makes TBO pay for it?

PJ:

yeah.

James:

is gonna work it off.

Adam:

intention? So you will work this off,

James:

it doesn't cost me anything to have my, have my, my robot. That is probably cost about the GDP of a small country. It doesn't cost me anything to have that robot go do tasks for the people and not just rake in the money. That's it.

Adam:

Well, suddenly the skull starts glowing And uh, fires these laser beams that blind everyone. And when the light show stops, the skull is gone. Dun dun.

PJ:

Did you guys love everyone's faces that point in time, but like, like just, just plastered with ridiculous looks across the board.

James:

All I could think was the, Great Muppet caper where they took the picture initially and then they see their eyes like.

PJ:

Oh yeah.

Adam:

Matt runs up on stage because I guess he just gets to do that at the auction house and the auctioneer is like, oh, Mr. Tracker, this is terribly embarrassing. You're our biggest buyer. my thought was, must be very nice to be a billionaire.

PJ:

he always gets the special treatment. also, guys, I got a question. I I can't let this go. If he's so well known as a buyer, does he need Bruce to be the go-between is he trying to hide that fact from other people? Because the dude just shouted it there in front of everybody.

James:

He's, I don't think it's laundering. I think he's probably trying to pay Bruce. So Bruce can pay off his gambling debts or his, mail order bride who knows what other things Bruce could have gotten into bad investments. He's like, look, here's the money. You just take it and use it to buy this and I'll pay you the difference or whatever. whatever you don't pay, comes outta your salary or something like that. But yeah, this sounds like a legit thing. He's trying to give him money, but he is trying not to give him money.

PJ:

All right. A new dimension here we're gonna have to keep track of, like, is Bruce, a, decadent gambler?

James:

wouldn't you be, you've got access to a scanning system that could see everything all over the world in 1985.

PJ:

I think you're laying into our theory that masks are the real villains of this show.

James:

Basically.

PJ:

we have deep suspicions that Bruce and Vanessa were in a thing. and now maybe it's more of a thing like that. A Bruce met her in some gambling joint someplace, Monte Carlo, he's trying to impress her with some cash. Wow. James blew blowing our minds.

Adam:

vector Bruce's life. TBO discovers a trap door in the stage, and, he falls into it, which leads to your standard mask. Underground tunnel.

PJ:

Do you think Venom's got like a boring company contract where they actually get those machines to, to

Adam:

the Magma Mole, so Yeah.

PJ:

yeah. Good call. Did you guys notice that the way T Bobb stood on the trap door was a lot like Solomon's gorge? same thing. We're falling into the, well, he's got experience in this.

Adam:

experience for sure. Um, they find a TBO down there. He finds a mini laser that was fired up into the skull to make it glow, which is a nice addition.

PJ:

It is rave technology. So Venom really could have, they're missing out again

James:

Yep.

PJ:

on being able to resell this stuff.

Adam:

Yeah.

James:

All you have to do is just bring it to the right place. toss some candy out into the crowd, so they think it's E and then just let it up. You're all set.

Adam:

and let it rock.

James:

There you go. Perfect.

Adam:

Vanessa goes to a lot of raves. Um, and probably sly if we're being honest. So we have this beat next where this kind of like Colonel Sanders looking scientist comes up on stage We did see him earlier a few minutes ago, bidding on the skull, but then was outbid by, t Bob's flailing arms. Colonel Sanders explains that the crystal skull has special powers and in the hands of bad people it could be very, very serious. he says it twice, So it must be serious, I guess if he says it twice.

PJ:

had

James:

The name's so nice. I

PJ:

where I like, and we're gonna come back to this again, but that information would've been useful yesterday

James:

Yep.

PJ:

to not have this go to an auction block. And what I really enjoyed, if you watched the beat in between his various serious lines, like everyone rightfully Give him the blankest stare in the world. because here's what happens, this old dude comes up and is like, it's very serious. Very, very serious. What do you guys do in that situation?

Adam:

and then he turns and walks away like that's it. No

PJ:

Yes.

Adam:

like additional information. You just. Walks away. I'm like, who let the drunk old guy in here?

James:

What is your name, sir? My name is Doctor Exposition. Bye.

PJ:

but he doesn't even explain anything. He just says it's very serious. Like, is it serious if it shatters on the ground and you could step on it, John McLean style, or like, what's the s like, wait, whatcha doing?

James:

no, no, no. That's three years from now.

Adam:

we need to make room for the mask computer to, be Doctor Exposition in this episode. Right? Because after this, they're driving in Thunder Hawk. Matt's paying no attention to the road whatsoever. It's distracted driving to the max, and he's just asking the computer to tell them everything about the crystal skull. And so the little download we get is that the Mayans created the skull and anyone who wears the skull can see through solid objects.

PJ:

Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention yesterday. does Matt not do any research on the shit he's buying?

James:

All he knows is it's expensive, so I want it. That is his logic. Start to finish. It costs money. Therefore I want it the second. It's worth nothing. He is like, get it out, throw it in the trash. I don't care. give it to the homeless person.

PJ:

I, James, I love it. He flew out the San Francisco with doing no research on these artifacts whatsoever,

James:

Yep.

PJ:

he saw price tags. Oh, that looks expensive. I'm going to put it in my library. but that information's in the computer so let's build out the world a little bit. does the Peaceful Nations Alliance know about it? Does the military, the CIA, some pervert, why hasn't any of these guys gotten a hold of it yet?

James:

Probably door number four, the pervert, but honestly, it seems like if it's gotten to auction, that means they either were like they found, here's my head canon

PJ:

Okay.

James:

Let's assume in this world that the Crystals call was discovered by Indiana Jones. He didn't know what to do with it. He's like, I don't really want to hand it to the government.'cause the last time I handed the government something, it disappeared into a box and they don't wanna show it or research it or anything else with it.

Adam:

men.

James:

So instead I will tell them to go, yeah, exactly. Top men. let's not repeat that mistake. this time I'm going to make some money off this and put it into an auction. it got stuffed in a box. And only in 1985 was it picked up by somebody who's like, I'm going through my old, my old, you know, boxes and such. I found this with the laundry here. Why don't you just go auction this off? I heard somewhere it has special powers. Let's use that and sell a couple things. So word gets out that there's a thing that actually is worth a couple bucks. but Matt knows it's worth a couple bucks. He's just like. I'm just gonna bid on it and get it. And, you know, Gloria can use it, on our date or something.

PJ:

We know how their relationship rolls. Gloria will be like, no, I'm wearing it on the date,

James:

basically, yeah.

PJ:

I look frightening in it. And I get to see you naked, Matt.

Adam:

I gotta ask though, the Mayans created this crystal skull.

James:

Did they?

PJ:

I is such a thing even possible?

James:

Yes.

PJ:

ancient aliens. Honestly, I

James:

Yeah.

PJ:

they've shown that in the, you know, that's who'd have the technology to pull this off.

Adam:

Yeah. this is half the plot of Kingdom of the Crystal skull.

James:

But also on top of that, we have. Proof from the very first episode or two, like the star chariot. Like they clearly, know that there are aliens. And I just love how Matt saw that and he is like,

Adam:

Mm-hmm.

James:

you saved my kid. Great, good for you. Now what else, what are we supposed to do with this? And it's like, you just proved aliens exist. How are you not

Adam:

I

James:

doing something about it? You know? And it's not even like the only time they've had like one or two other times. It's like, guys, what the hell?

Adam:

Mm-hmm.

PJ:

That's your answer right there.

James:

It's like, all that matters is my money. it's either that or it's a situation like from they live. Where the rich people all know that they're aliens like does. Matt know that they're aliens and he is just like, I'm procuring this for, this dude from Alpha Sari who just came by and was like, Hey, I need this then we need this back. I'm just trying to tie it in with as many eighties movies as possible here.

PJ:

Yeah, absolutely. we're with you.

Adam:

out that Miles is the guy who stole the crystal skulls. Surprise surprise. we're gonna go, test it out, right. See if it works. jackhammer fires a hole in the wall of a bank and they go to the safe.

James:

Very subtle.

Adam:

Don't you think like, that's what we're gonna set off the alarms. like, I'm gonna use this crystal skull to break into a bank, blow the wall open. sly asks him like, is this some kind of nickel and dime bank robbery?

PJ:

So what I love about this is he can see his eyes. He doesn't have his shades on. He's gotta be off the drugs.

Adam:

odd the re

James:

Exactly.

Adam:

where they don't put his sunglasses on. I don't understand like what the animation note was there.

James:

They were like, Hey, he finally used his clear eyes. he got the eyedrops together. he's, okay. He's clean for one episode and after this he's probably gonna be drinking again

Adam:

yeah,

James:

or,

Adam:

the events of the episode, he is definitely going to be back on the sauce,

James:

the amount of pain he is usually in, I'm kind of surprised he is not on oxy half the time.

Adam:

percent. So they go to the safe and Miles puts on the skull and turns that he can see through the door. Sees all the money inside and gold and stuff, but somehow he's able to discern the code to the electronic lock on the door using the crystal skull. If it was just, an analog, safe lock. Sure. I would get that. Turn the knob there. I see the, the,

James:

Yeah.

Adam:

pins falling into place or whatever. You can see electronic code with this,

James:

Can I just give us a technology corner here for a sec? I've been in it for like 25 years. I can tell you absolutely with certainty, there is no possible way to do that. Not at all. Like these things, even back in the eighties, they did, whether they could to prevent, fingerprints being on them because everyone saw movies and everyone was like, yeah, let's not do that because there's no fingerprint coding, there's no way to tell what the code is. But technology corner, that's it.

Adam:

the code on, like a Post-it note on the other side.

James:

That's the only way you can, and as an IT support, I see that constantly too. it's unfortunate, but it happens,

PJ:

so this, you guys already mentioned this, but I was wondering if they were trying to be conspicuous at this point in time after blowing a hole in the wall. Like, you know, like, oh, now let's be sneaky.

Adam:

have

PJ:

a good way to,

Adam:

safe door off as well, so what's the

PJ:

Yeah. I

James:

it's also like, yeah.

PJ:

show the power. So I get that.

Adam:

Well, I mean, so you bring

James:

Basically

Adam:

PJ is like. There are so many different ways he could have tested the efficacy of the, crystal skull. he could have been at the supermarket and like into, you know, a box of tricks to see what the toy inside is. he just could've like, put the mask on and looked at Cliff, you know what I mean? There's like, does it work? Does it work? I don't know. Let's go Rob a bank to find out, know. Well we cut to, Matt and Bruce and we're back in Thunder Hawk and they passed an alleyway. Um, and they see, uh, they see Jack Cameron Piana in there.

PJ:

Yeah. Okay guys, I've been curious, like, unless there's a standard venom license plate, what Bruce sees is a motorcycle with a sidecar and a Bronco, and then jumps to the conclusion it's gotta be jack hammer and piranha. Like, what if it's just someone else illegally parked? Do you guys ever wonder about this?

James:

the whole point of these things is like you're supposed to be able to drive these things all over the place, so dial it back a bit. One of my things, I actually was trying to write a mask movie. Like a screenplay. I could never get past the logic of doing mask these days because instantly you'd have anyone with a red Camaro would be a tar. Anyone with a black Bronco would be identified as being a bad guy, or anyone with a big rig that looked and was painted like rhino. I've had this happen in a parking lot where I've gone up to the wrong car. My wife has done the same thing. It's like you walk up to the wrong car and you're like, why isn't it unlocking? Why isn't that working? because it looks exactly like yours. then you look in the back and it's like, oh, hey,

Adam:

right.

James:

isn't my car shit. So you walk away but it's like, is there a sticker that he noticed or could he see that eagle eye

Adam:

back of

James:

because they're driving past and they don't see how do you like Bruce? Do you have that? Is it, is your vision really that good? Did, are the contexts working that well? I mean, are you wearing your mask and is it in zoom mode when you pass by? What's going on here?

Adam:

I mean to make some con some comment about how, you know, in the alleyway next to a bank on a Sunday, it must be venom still. That's quite the leap in logic.

James:

exactly.

PJ:

It just could be illegal parked, man. That's all.

Adam:

Matt kicks Scott and t VB out of Thunder Hawk and tells him to go ride the cable car and says, no funny business you two. based on their past experience with cable cars, this is probably not a good idea.

PJ:

Well, it's also not a cable car. It's a street car, right?

James:

Yeah.

Adam:

Like why does he say that

PJ:

Yeah. maybe they didn't know

Adam:

Mm-hmm.

PJ:

thing to call it. The only other option was to potentially bring them into battle.

Adam:

Yeah.

PJ:

but I question then, is that safer than San Francisco in the mid eighties?'cause I'm not sure that town was exactly where you wanted to be. No city really was in the mid eighties.

James:

I mean, you look and you're like, well, you know, put it this way. Does Matt really think that there's gonna be too much damage given that he's only had to replace Thunder Hawk twice now? Or have like serious repairs done to it? this is again probably one of the five of the year nominees right there, because it's like, what's worse sending them into the dangerous city on their own? does TBO have some kind of weird auto defense system that he is built into him? Like, is there, is it like, you know, with R 2D two where he is got like a little shock thing? He goes,

PJ:

I feel like we can answer that question

Adam:

Yes.

PJ:

soon.

Adam:

meanwhile, inside the bank, sly uses the crystal skull. I'm surprised Miles Leton, by the way. But nonetheless, sly uses it. He sees Thunder Hawk parked out front. And so Rey's gonna go out to greet them in Piranha. meanwhile, miles uses the skull to look through the mask helmets. And he discovers, and probably the coolest moment in the series so far Tracker is the leader of Mask. You know, and I watched all these episodes when I was a kid. I remember very few of them. So this is another one where I don't really remember what happens next. I, of course, I should have known and guessed that would somehow forget what happens, but I was really wondering would this carry through all future episodes? How cool would it have been if moving

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

Miles Mayhem knew that Matt Tracker was the leader of Mask and the sort of complications that. would ensue the fact that it probably wouldn't be capable of going back to Tracker mansion anymore. Um, that they would

James:

Yep.

Adam:

probably be on the run as we've surmised. You know, PJ, you and I talked about a lot in these past, series of episodes where they're always in different countries. of course not, but it's fun to imagine that's where the show would've gone.

James:

Yeah, I mean, you look at what the implication here is, and it's like if you had done this and just from here, gone to the second season, that would've been perfect bridge and that would've made perfect sense. I think everybody would've been signed on right there with you. I think that was one of the biggest mistakes to keep this as a bottle episode as opposed to like a, keep this like continuity going, you know? I just get stuck on that transition between first and second seasons and I'm like,

PJ:

I agree. The identity thing would be well taken care of at that point in time. Why? It's okay to do high stakes racing and not arrest venom at every race is still a question that we'll need to get into.

James:

oh yeah,

PJ:

this was freaking awesome. This is awesome. moment. Uh, I really did dig though, like it's a nice beat that Miles has no clue who Bruce is. He is like, who's that guy?

James:

dumb guy.

PJ:

And don't recognize the name Matt Tracker. That guy's public. it's the Bruce Wayne problem we talked about at the top.

Adam:

well, they, they get outta there. we go into the agent selection scene and Matt asks for the agents best suited for a mission in San Francisco. I wondered what the parameters are for this in San Francisco in the eighties. but you know, we actually end up getting, good choices. Here we get Gloria Baker, champion race driver, black belt in Kung Fu, team, Hottie and Matt's wife. the computer says, San Francisco Terrain calls for driving skill.

PJ:

My opinion on this was the computer has been watching a lot of star skin hutch and is now con, or bullet and bullet. Why? Yeah. It's not an or it's an and. been watching like all of those shows like, oh, yep, we're gonna need someone who can race in here.

Adam:

and then we get, dusty Hayes and the computer says, proximity to ocean may require amphibious capability. Not bad, unfortunately. No escape scenes though. so this episode is sadly

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

our favorite part, which is do they escape from whatever situation they're in?

PJ:

I, really would've loved the tagline from the computer saying Brad Turner in the area, unable to participate in mission located hate at Ashbury.

Adam:

I was gonna say. Well, Matt knows. He is like, uh, cancel that last one. Uh, computer. Brad's a little bit indisposed. everyone else approved. Send the mobile armor strike command. well, meanwhile. With, Scott and t Bobb just walking down the street and suddenly Rex shows up and kidnaps Scott and rather than do anything to help t Bobb just screams Scott. Now I'd like to point out being kidnapped off the street is entirely Matt's fault because he just told his kid like, get outta Thunder Hawk and go wander around. He absolutely would've been safer if Scott had stayed with his father, but of course, here's a father of the year nominee. James, as you uh alluded to earlier,

James:

Yep.

PJ:

I'll say that slide does kick t bobb in the face because he goes tumbling into a plant. But unfortunately we don't get the electroshock therapy thing. James, that you were hoping for as a

James:

Oh, well, better luck next time.

Adam:

can kick the, 700 pound tbo

PJ:

750 pound. Yeah,

Adam:

the sidewalk and into a planter next to a building. I mean, maybe the dude is like amped up

James:

Well,

Adam:

or something.

James:

he probably has steel toed boots.

Adam:

boots

PJ:

Why not both?

James:

Why not both? Exactly.

PJ:

we should paint a picture here for a second because when Sly arrives, he's got his full mask on. He's dressed in his standard motorcycle gear And I, I wanna point out that he's walking through the streets of San Francisco like this and nobody calls the cops,

Adam:

whatever. There's like five guys in masks.

James:

No. Last time we called the cops and got Clint Eastwood come on.

PJ:

few story points though, like Venom knows who Matt Tracker is. We've established that they're intentionally kidnapping Scott, because they know he's Matt's son and it's like, okay, when did they know this? Because they have met Scott and t Bobb many times.

James:

And it's not like the kid has different clothes or different appearances. He looks the same every time. It's like Matt doesn't have a laundry, like a laundry budget for the kid. He just gives him the same shirt and pants every time. It's like, I want you to be as recognizable as possible,

Adam:

the question too is, I mean, as Matt is known as a public figure, does that mean that Scott is known as a public figure as well, just because he is Matt's son?'cause otherwise, how did Venom know? This kid is Matt's son.

James:

Does he hang out with the rich kids of other rich parents or something like that? does he fly off to Aspen with Chelsea Clinton or head off with Michael Reagan or something, you know? Is he hanging out with like, like president's son? Does he hang with like, what, what's, what's the story there, Scott?

PJ:

Yeah. Really. Excellent.'cause we've mentioned a few times that he does have friends. We just dunno with whom. but there's a question if they know who Scott is. Isn't kidnapping a billionaire son? Always a good idea for a terrorist organization.

James:

Every time you'll get money

PJ:

Right.

James:

They won't send Liam Neeson after you.

PJ:

Got a couple decades before that's dangerous

James:

yeah.

Adam:

gentlemen, venom knows the identity of the leader of mask. Scott's been kidnapped. T Bob's been kicked in a planter next to a building. I gotta ask both of you what's gonna happen.

James:

I dunno.

PJ:

I don't know. don't know. No.

Adam:

We'll find out after these messages.

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

Adam:

we're back. And so far we've got a pretty decent episode, guys. Like, I don't, there's not much to really make fun of here up to this. I mean, we've made fun of

PJ:

Mm-hmm.

Adam:

but this kind of cliffhanger moment, Scott's been kidnapped like legitimately, it's

PJ:

scary.

Adam:

t Bob's radio is not working. he goes kind of mad, like he completely blows a gasket, but then transforms into scooter mode and decides he's gonna go save Scott himself. And I'm thinking good luck with that.

PJ:

You guys notice that he doesn't trust Matt to save the day. it's like a personal responsibility combined with Matt's not gonna be able to pull this off.

James:

So that leads, and then I think, um, the theory that I sent you guys a while back was, I think the reason he did that is because it feels like in order to get TBO as an AI working, whatever happened to Andy Tracker, Andy is probably Scott's real dad.

Adam:

Mm.

James:

And when Andy was critically injured They were able to save most of his body, but his brain was basically toast. he was close to death. He got himself uploaded into a computer and that computer got dumped into TBO at the last second because something happened in the hospital this is a lot of the stuff I was putting together for the movie I was trying to write

Adam:

wild

James:

and Yeah. to basically say you know, he is in an accident or Miles tries to take him out and then afterwards tries to finish a job at the hospital. And then, you know, we have, TBO basically is Andy Tracker, but with like a big loss of memory. he can do a lot of computer things. but the problem is that you give a computer anxiety. which is why we don't see a ton of TBOs out there, Matt abandoned the project. He just has the prototype and that's fine. But then Scott and t Bobb get close to getting, because Scott doesn't know, but Tbo does inside his head somewhere, know he's responsible for Scott for this.

Adam:

that's And I also, I

PJ:

I I like that.

Adam:

It's like this is why in a world of masks where a fully sentient AI is possible, a, it doesn't work very well, and b, you know, mask produced this thing. There's only, um, Brian, the brain the only other one, I guess the mask computer. But the

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

is kind of an amped up chat. GPT really, you know, Brian, the brain is the only one that's actually a fully functional ai. So that actually makes sense that it was kind of a fluke that TBO gained sentt.

PJ:

I like it.

Adam:

man, you know, our whole show is Head Cannon. Like that's

PJ:

Yeah,

Adam:

we do is try to make up

James:

Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Adam:

sense.

PJ:

we live on that all the time, so I'm treating T bob a little bit better from now on.

Adam:

Um, well we have a Piha t Chase sequence, and Racks is Fire and Lasers at tbo. and he scores a kind of hit on the ground, which causes TBO to fly through the air and fall into a fire hydrant. do we have a ragdoll award here for tbo? The fire hydrant goes through him?

James:

Yeah, but also you gotta consider TBO is big. He's got a computer and he looks like he's a solid thing, but how much is actually inside there? when he goes to motor scooter mode, that tire has to go somewhere,

Adam:

Mm-hmm.

James:

you know?

PJ:

Hmm.

James:

And there's probably a lot of empty space in there to accommodate the tire when he is walking around, like a regular person. And he probably landed on that and nut shoots out. But it kind of makes sense. he's gonna have to drain himself afterwards, but Sure. Yeah.

Adam:

the Writer Defense Award this episode, James.

James:

There you go.

PJ:

uh, congratulations. Uh.

James:

Oh, no.

Adam:

well we get back to the hotel. Matt and Bruce are there, shouldn't Matt be a little curious where Scott is, it's 10:00 PM Do you know where your child is?

PJ:

Should, yes. But is anyone surprised? No.

James:

not a chance. But again, that goes to the whole, like is this actually his kid? No, probably not. This is his nephew.

PJ:

So this actually then justifies tbo going ape shit to like, you know, try and get him back.'cause he is like, no, Matt's not gonna care.

Adam:

So the phone rings one of my all time favorite moments in the show The phone rings, Matt picks up it's Miles Mayhem, and I just love how he sounds on this phone call.

Hello. This is Miles Mayhem. Would you be the leader of Mask

Adam:

he's very polite, like, and I just thought it's like he's trying to sell an extended warranty.

PJ:

That reading is so good. Miles is having a great time.

James:

Yeah,

PJ:

Uh, question for you guys, how did Miles get through the hotel's phone tree to get to Matt's room?

Adam:

I'm calling for Matt

James:

DoorDash.

Adam:

because you know, he probably stays under an assumed name, right?

James:

Oh, of course. I used to do it support for a major network and I was privy to the secret names in the main address book for the company of who's who. I'm not gonna say who, but one of them showed up as Chopper. there, there's all kinds of like weird names that people pick so the people can't just hop in and just go searching through

PJ:

I love the idea of Miles having to be like, excuse me. I would like to speak to Mr. Butts. Mr. Seymour Butts,

Adam:

so Matt's responses, you have a wrong number. Like what kind of comeback is that's the best the leader of Mask has got is, Nope, wrong number.

PJ:

I really want Matt to put on a fake voice and be like, this is Joe Tracker, the plumber. Are you sure you have the right number?

Adam:

Uh, well anyway, miles reveals that he knows Matt is the leader of Mask and that he has Scott and Scott pipes up in the background, don't listen to him, dad. Scott is tough as nails. then, miles lists his demands. the first one is that the tracker fortune will henceforth be devoted solely to Venom's use. I thought that's a strange way to phrase that. Like, how about gimme all your money,

PJ:

I don't know if you guys thought this, I actually thought Miles was saying that more for the benefit of the rest of Venom in the room. Like I think he's trying to communicate Sly, you don't get to blow this on weed.

James:

Basically,

PJ:

And what I love about it is you see Matt's face when they get to the line about taking his fortune away and he is so sad at the of losing his fortune.

Adam:

It's the saddest I've ever seen him in the show.

James:

I can't wait my, my tears with a thousand dollars bills anymore. Why do I not?

Adam:

he thought Scott was dead in the Stard chariot episode,

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

the saddest Matt's ever been.

PJ:

Yes.

James:

Exactly. his life has been built on his fortune. Not the kid who has been dumped in his lap after the fact. this is,

PJ:

Yeah.

James:

yeah,

Adam:

And then Miles doesn't even get to

PJ:

I,

Adam:

any of his other demands

PJ:

Yeah. They cut the teeth up how much would you guys wanna hear what those other demands are?

Adam:

why would the writer decide not to do that and then do a, a, a cut to to t bobb? Because I, it wouldn't take that much unless they were running short on time. Like the episode was running long and they had to shave it down.

James:

That might be what it is because I can absolutely see them doing something like, have you ever seen the movie Airheads?

Adam:

Yes.

James:

they're like, we're doing fake hostages. And we are like, what demands are we gonna have? I don't know, a couple of, football helmets full of cottage cheese, nude photos of B author, you know, that sort of thing. And it's like, are those the demands that he's actually giving him? Things like that super weird things that he knows he can't do immediately, Or is there something else involved?

Adam:

And that great recipe for brownies, I heard you had Oh

James:

Basically,

Adam:

of whoever

James:

give me the recipe.

Adam:

on Thunder Hawk. Love that thing.

James:

Give me the KFC recipe.

PJ:

I want my brothers in arms who are imprisoned wrongly across the world to be released Asian, Dawn Liberty, Quebec like.

James:

No, no. Dear Asian Dawn.

Adam:

TEBAR busted to the hotel room. then we just, you know, to Boulder Hill. And, Matt is talking to, Gloria and Dusty via the Big Brother screen at Mask HQ there. and he tells them to bring all the masks, the secret data files, the identities of all the mask agents and the location of Boulder Mountain.

PJ:

Omo, wanna take a beat on this for a second? we're talking about exposing all of their ident, like everyone's gonna get a target on their back.

Adam:

I wanna bring up here. Like we didn't actually hear all all of Miles's demands, right? We can assume that these are his demands, but what if they're not? And Matt's just asking for all this stuff, like Miles are gonna sweep the deal. What if you keep Scott and I throw in the identity of all the mask agents?

James:

And let me keep my money.

Adam:

Yeah.

James:

That's it.

Adam:

Just let me keep the money. What about the kid? No, no, no. That's fine. I'm throwing him in with the deal. T Bobb points out the obvious. If you give venom all that stuff, it'll be the end of mask. Okay, thanks, captain. Obvious, but also that's what I'm talking about when I mean stakes. In previous episodes, when he's carving his face on the statues of the statues on Easter Island, and I'm saying we need some real stakes. In an episode of Mask, we're cooking with gas.

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

Matt says they need to learn more about the crystal skull, and so they go find, Colonel Sanders. Dr. Crowley, as we find out his name from the auction, explains that if he had won the auction, he would've returned the skull to the ground. And his quote is, it came to us at the wrong time. The world is not ready for the powers of the crystal skull. Would the world ever have been ready for it? But anyways. He says, he says it's gotta be destroyed.'cause the only way to destroy it is, to look into its mirror image. And at the moment of destruction, all knowledge gained with it is erased from the mind of anyone who looked through it. So that's a clever way to reset everything at the end of the episode. Like James, you pointed out, that's kinda like in the Bible of the show, right? You've always gotta wrap things up at the end, just the way they were. but also reinforcing, his status as the doctor exposition of the episode.

PJ:

Yeah. a couple things though. I feel like need to hold on this beat because there's a hidden implication here that this is not the first crystal skull. Right?

Adam:

In fact, aren't there a bunch of

PJ:

Like otherwise, how would,

Adam:

in his office there?

PJ:

but I mean, how would you know about what would happen that comes about from destroying it if there hadn't already been some example here,

Adam:

point.

PJ:

what else could the crystal skull do?

James:

So it's possible that the reason they know all this stuff is not because they've had, research or anything on it. It's possible that someone found the super secret manual, from the mind civilization that found all this stuff in the first place. And because they've gotta translate it from Alien to my end to English. a thousand different things got mixed up and convoluted along the way. It's like you convert something from PDF to Word, it's gonna blow up a thousand different things. do you really want to trust this translation? sometimes you get details, right? Sometimes you get screwed up

Adam:

Can we also hit on this point too about All Knowledge Gained is a race from the mind of anyone who looked through it, like, who looked through it Actually in this episode.

James:

Yeah.

PJ:

so what we've seen so far is Miles and Sly have looked through it, I imagine Miles told Cliff and Sly about Matt's identity. So I had this question like, are we like it? it so that it curses you to lose any knowledge obtained by looking through it either directly or indirectly,

Adam:

yeah. Like is it? Yeah. So like the second you put the crystal skull on, from that moment forward, it appears at the end of the episode that they lose all memory of anything that happened.'cause miles like, what's going on here? What are we doing here? as we'll find out in a few moments, right?

PJ:

right?

Adam:

So some fuzzy logic going on here.

PJ:

And do you guys think Cliff was just too dumb to remember? I mean, he must have sold like Cliff. We're, we're calling, Matt Tracker, who's the leader of Best. Okay.

Adam:

don't know. No matre, huh?

James:

Or at the end of the episode, miles is like, what the hell were we doing out here with this billionaire, And Cliff and LY are both like, dude, you told us to go capture this guy because he's a head of mask. And he is like, what are you nuts? That's ridiculous. That's like saying Bruce, when his Batman, nah.

Adam:

I love that.

PJ:

That fits with the mo we've seen from Miles and how he treats them.

Adam:

who told him miles,

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

Matt Tracker was the head of mass. Like, shut up, you dunderhead. All right. Well, gathers the team. the deal is he's gotta meet miles alone on the Golden Gate Bridge at Dawn, very romantic. Um, they need to figure out how to destroy the skull, and he says The very existence of mask depends on this, and again, great stakes.

PJ:

I thought this would've been an amazing two part episode to draw, because the thing I really hate is that so much stuff is going amazingly, right? This episode, and I just want more of it. I want the conversation where the mask team members say, like Hondo is like, look, I can get on that bridge and take miles out from behind. it's an us or them situation. There's some real heavy stuff here. And drawing it out, bringing some stuff, I mean

Adam:

Well to your point, I mean, didn't know what the true stakes were he called the team. Right. So that's why only Gloria and Dusty are assembled. But this is an all hands on deck type of operation. Like, you know that that jet can

PJ:

Yeah.

Adam:

fast. You might as well go back and get the rest of the team.

PJ:

Well they haven't come out yet, right? Well, they had they, because they had to tell them at Boulder Hill to go pack up the masks.

James:

Even if you gotta dig up there with a scissor lift, forklift or something and grab all this stuff and dig it out, you're still not talking more than like. An hour or two to get everything together. You know, you gotta download all this stuff to the disc. Okay, fine. Done. End of story. you pack everything into a special container. Okay, fine. but you're talking like maybe

Adam:

Mm-hmm.

James:

or two worth of work, and then you hop on the jet, which I never understood where they stored that damn thing. Like, is it in the mountain? Is it below the mountain?

PJ:

It's stored in the mountain right next to Airwolf.

James:

sure.

Adam:

it's all one team. in this conversation, by the way, about the very existence of masks depends on this. And what are they gonna do about the bridge?'cause Miles told Matt, he has to be alone. Bruce comes out with this gem. you can be alone yet not alone. I wanna strangle him. Like, yes, Bruce. That's the whole point, man.

PJ:

Oh,

Adam:

mean, it's hardly even a Sodom, it's just like

PJ:

really is.

Adam:

that he said, like, Hmm. Dusty says perhaps you can say something. I understand someday. So right off the bat, boom. Nice Buddy Hawks nominee there.

PJ:

We were, were doing so well, dusty. We were almost Buddy Hawks free this episode.

Adam:

it's great, I mean this is actually classic mask stuff'cause we have a Sodom, we have a Buddy Hawks nominee and here now we have a matte leap in logic because for some reason he's able to jump to the conclusion that t Bobb would go unnoticed by venom and therefore could be modified to help in this situation.

James:

What the hell, Matt? That's not,

Adam:

sly just saw t Bobb when he kidnapped Scott because he,

James:

yeah.

Adam:

for sure he's involved somehow.'cause he tried to save Scott and he kicked him in the face and shot lasers at him. So Sly would be like, Hey, that robot is in on it. We maybe shouldn't have him around.

PJ:

Okay, but maybe that actually works in the favor, because now Sly thinks this guy's a pushover

Adam:

Okay, well now you get the Writer's

PJ:

and

Adam:

defense Award.

PJ:

well, I'll prove it out in a second. When we get the next ragdoll, I.

Adam:

it's Dawn Golden Gate Bridge Mask gets into position and Matt and t Bobb wait for Venom. And then, venom arrives fanfare like they're firing lasers and for the heck of it, switchblades sprays, you know, fog all around. Matt actually offers to throw Tbo in with the deal. I thought it'd be hilarious if Miles was like, nah, it's okay. I don't want that thing.

PJ:

A robot has always fuck shit up for me. You keep it, huh?

James:

I don't have.

Adam:

miles lifts up the skull to make sure that Matt brought all the masks. And then in that moment, T Bobb uses his Inspector Gadget arms and pulls Scott and the skull away from Venom. And I'm like, that was the big plan after all this, after all the great stakes in this episode. That's what she came up with. All right.

James:

I mean,

Adam:

knocks miles and cliff down with like the cart full of masks and then, t Bobb gets some serious revenge against Sly by ramming him square in the chest.

James:

yeah, you look and you're like, okay. most of the time he's getting thrown around and that's one, that's one thing. But you get hit square in the chest. without any kind of protective armor you're asking for. That's like, there's a reason they, they call, they, they have like the instant death punch rumor, you know? That's, that's, that's definitely a thing. You can actually kill somebody by put them directly in the chest like that. It's funny, it's funny as hell, but oh my god, you're going to kill that man.

Adam:

it's, it's a

PJ:

So,

Adam:

nominee

PJ:

yes, so. I I wanna double down on your statement, James,'cause I did a little bit of the math on this. we've estimated TBOs about seven 50

James:

Mm-hmm.

PJ:

assuming he was running at 10 miles per hour, which I think is reasonable,

James:

Yeah.

PJ:

then that is like 2000 pounds on slides chest. He's dead.

James:

Like he got hit with a car going 60 miles an hour. That's, or a truck straight force right there. Not even oof.

Adam:

Well, RIP sly, see you in a minute. Matt grabs the crystal skull. Scott calls the mask team to move in, and we have our end of episode mask, venom battle. Matt starts climbing up one of the cables on the bridge for some reason, which I was like that, that's the best you got Matt. All right. T bobb extends a mirror from inside his head, so that's the big modification that was made. Matt just holds the skull up to the mirror and, the skull explodes miles and venom, forget everything.

PJ:

So what's fun is that he is like, you know, I changed my mind miles. You can have it back. And he tosses it like a grenade where it explodes in front of miles and go.

Adam:

he didn't know if it was going to have a big explosion but you could probably assume something bad was gonna happen.

James:

based on what the, physician was talking about, it looks at itself and it's destroyed. That just means it crumbles into dust or something. I wouldn't have assumed massive explosion, but, I just don't know. Matt, Listen, just for the, I know you're in San Francisco, I know you appreciate Herbie rides again, I love it too. That doesn't mean you need to climb up there and chase whatever you're chasing right now, because this is not a dream. This is a real thing. Your kid's at risk here. What are you doing?

Adam:

I mean, there's so many other places he could have gone than climbing up a cable on the Golden Gate Bridge.

PJ:

A hundred

James:

Thick as him.

Adam:

I know.

James:

Spiderman Now.

Adam:

I know. And and they made it seem like very, very thin. Those cables are not that thin on the Golden Gate Bridge. shark shows up fire, some fire bolts at Venom, which sends them running. So we got them taken care of. miles got off a shot of Viper, And melted the cable. So now Matt falls over the side of the bridge and

PJ:

Mm-hmm.

Adam:

on for dear life and the cable is about to break. Classic.

PJ:

Hey, he's got his line. Hey guys, I'm having a swing in time down here.

Adam:

Classic. That's how he deals with his trauma. we have a great moment too, TBS Mirror extender, accidentally gets caught on a switchblades landing bars and he gets carried into the air and over Alcatraz TBO kind of saved the day here, and now the writer is like, yeah, let's just toss'em in. beat'em up a bit.

James:

But also it's like, you know, talking about real world distances, that's not something that's right next to each other either. And it's like, I know, I know. I'm going way too real world here.

Adam:

we do here,

James:

But it's also like, you know,

PJ:

what we do.

James:

if Shark is firing from San Francisco Bay, there's a reason that the Golden Gate Bridge is as high as it is, you need to be able to fit up like aircraft carriers underneath on a regular basis. there's also the fact that Alcatraz is way the hell out there. theoretically you could swim there. Has it been done? Maybe once or twice? If he's really picking him up and dropping him somewhere, it's likely to land in the Bay or, you know, on, on land or something. But it's like, guys, come on.

Adam:

just do a little research. look at a map

James:

exactly,

Adam:

here.

James:

in the,

PJ:

people don't want to go to the rock.

James:

was the pom queen. it's the thing that bothered me about assault on Liberty as well. When they had everything at the Statue of Liberty. first off, that whole subway they imagined between the statue in New Jersey and New York. that's a good idea. That's never happened, and it's never going to happen because nobody wants that happening.

Adam:

right.

James:

Nobody wants that. But also it's like the Statue of Liberty is not like two seconds away. it's a big stretch. the Statue of Liberty technically is New Jersey. It's just legally New York,

PJ:

far ahead. Go ahead, go for it.

Adam:

and he is falling to his death and instead of lifter being used or anything like that, dusty uses the water hose on Gator to break his fall. I'd like to see the physics on that one. and now we get cut to the final scene out nowhere. We're in Alcatraz and they find tbo in a prison cell. It looks more like a zoo to me, isn't it kinda like outdoors? Like it doesn't seem like they're inside Alcatraz at all,

PJ:

thank God we paid off that joke because T Bobb had mentioned Alcatraz a few times and this was the linchpin of the episode right here.

Adam:

And that's it. That's the end of the episode. We cut to the more, you know, Scott and Tbo are in bed. I mean, don't you think he just would've plugged Tbo in and sort of, he would go into standby mode at night,

James:

doesn't he need like to not be in pajamas because there's tons of vents clearing out all the heat from his CPU or something

Adam:

Well, they, uh, look out the window and they see some people trying to steal a tire from a car in the street. says he'll call the police, but then it turns out they were only trying to fix the tire. Scott's lesson is, you should always call the police. Even if you're not sure anyone's doing anything wrong, it doesn't hurt. And my thought like, isn't that like swatting or doxing? Like you should always call the police. Like, okay,

James:

every Yeah, I just look at, I'm like, I saw that. I'm like, what kind of neighborhood are you living in with This might actually Might actually be happening, you know?

Adam:

Well, exactly. If

James:

yes. They might be.

Adam:

three in the morning, it's

James:

It's possible they're not going for the tire. They're probably taking the catalytic converter.

Adam:

Completely.

PJ:

Fixing a tire and boosting a tire looks remarkably the same. depending on what part of the process you're in. Both involve taking a tire off however involves putting it back on. So did you guys notice they say they're gonna call the police, but it doesn't seem like then they do

James:

Scott, what kind of neighborhood were you growing up in? Where you think you need to call the, like, yes, you should call the police, but how often is this happening that TBO is suspecting like, oh no, it's just somebody fixing their tire, and you're just like, call the police now.

PJ:

When you're in a gated community, like Scott is

Adam:

not even

PJ:

like,

Adam:

It's the gated mansion grounds like, and also

PJ:

that's true.

Adam:

exposure to the police because he's got Matt who has a vigilante team. It's more like, you know, call, mask and condor comes

James:

It is like, Scott, maybe may

Adam:

rays at these poor kids trying to fix a tire

James:

you just killed your friend. he was just fixing his tire. He was on my property. he shouldn't be here.

Adam:

have any

James:

He's not the right kind of person for my property.

Adam:

All right, well, then

James:

it's like, whoa, guys.

Adam:

shall we go to the awards? any thoughts on Father of the

PJ:

Let's do it.

Adam:

James, you first.

James:

I was trying to find some other thing, but I think the big one right off the bat was the obvious. he lets him out of the car, the top secret, safe car that's designed to let someone fly and not drop them when they fly around. I would trust someone a lot more in that car during a battle than not, but then I'm also like, what about, on the bridge, he is just leading, letting, letting him sit there and he is like, okay, we're, we'll, we'll he's, he's all the material, you know, you know, and we think, eh, is it for, is it for him or just for his fortune? You know, which one is it

Adam:

And he doesn't say anything like, you sent Scott over and I'll send the stuff. look, I've

James:

exactly?

Adam:

on that. I think leaving him alone in San Francisco in the mid eighties is the father of the year.

PJ:

A hundred percent.

Adam:

buddy

PJ:

percent.

Adam:

What do we think?

PJ:

sadly it's dusty. We've gotta make fun of Bruce after Aism.

Adam:

yeah,

PJ:

it's just

Adam:

the thing is it actually wasn't very confusing at all. Perhaps you can be alone yet. Not alone. Like, yep. I clock, I know exactly what you mean, So Dusty is clearly just trying to rub it in dust in

James:

So my siblings and I I'm the oldest of 10 kids

Adam:

10,

James:

Yeah, so we all grew up watching repeats of mask and all sorts of other cartoons as the oldest, my tastes kind of dribbled down to the rest of the kids as well. We all like Star Trek. We all like, you know, mask. We all like, you know, things like that. So we were talking at one point and we're like, you know, dusty Hayes is a stupid hick. And like my sister says that, I'm like, oh my God, you're right. He really is. He really like, and they don't even hide how,

Adam:

Yeah.

James:

he, how much of a, I hate to say stupid Hickey is, it's like he's just he's there to be the audience stand in to say, okay, you know, like someone has to say the stupid thing. Here we go, dusty.

Adam:

and they lean into that trope so hard in this show that it's almost like, a Buddy Hawks Award just for this portrayal of,

James:

Mm-hmm.

PJ:

yeah,

Adam:

quote

PJ:

yeah, a hundred percent.

Adam:

All right. Well,

James:

Yeah.

Adam:

on another Buddy Hawks Award. sly Rack's Ragdoll Award. What do you think, James?

James:

I gotta give it to the 2000 pounds. of force slamming into his chest. there is no way, you're walking away from that unless you've got like, some kind of super, or you got like a, even if like some kind of armor on you, you're really gonna be walking away from that with a heart attack or something. you're going to the hospital. It's just a question of how fast,

Adam:

Agreed.

PJ:

A hundred percent.

Adam:

but that kind of actually also then dovetails in maybe to the Roy Batty Award for the episode. pj, what do you think?

PJ:

I think we have a weird double award here where it's also T BP crushing his chest cavity with his head. Like, this isn't even like, you're pissed off. It's like, no, I'm. pushing your eyes into your skull now like this is Roy Batty. He wanted revenge. You kicked me in the face. You blew me up. Guess what? Your chest is gone now,

James:

Try insulting me when you don't have a heart anymore, asshole.

Adam:

Love it. and then finally, is this episode Panda Poo?

James:

Honestly, this is a great episode. It should have been a two-parter. it should have been expanded a lot. if you put this as episode 65 and then you had the racing series. It makes a lot more sense in that case. It makes so much, it's like, okay, that's when they figured this out. We have to do some backstory and transition between that. But it makes it, you're going in with a lot more built up that way. instead of just like yesterday. They don't know anything today. They know everything. What's going on, you know?

PJ:

A hundred percent. I could not agree more. I mean, this episode for me goes up there with one of our great ones. I think this becomes one of the four great ones where it's like we've talked about

Adam:

well,

PJ:

go ahead.

Adam:

I agree with both of you. These are the best stakes we've had in an episode that aren't over the top bond villain esque stakes, like pulling a comet down.

PJ:

Yeah. Yeah.

Adam:

episode though, I mean, there's a mask battle at the end, but it's kind of missing a lot of the use of masks, A lot of the, you know, vehicles like the Transforming, which is, remember this is a show based on toys that transform into other vehicles, you know, and then matched with powers. And we don't have a lot of it in this episode. So while the stakes and underlying like concept for the episode is are, are strong, the parts us, kids playing with our toys, like what's the inspiration for playing with our toys in this episode? There's not a lot of it in there.

PJ:

Yeah. I think I'll, I'm gonna double down on James's thought here, and if we combine all this stuff together, like the Construc cons, This should have been a two part episode. You lay it at the very end of the series and what it ends up with should be an all out mask venom battle. take every single character that we have seen, and it is the, hey, we're going at it now. then it ties directly into the racing series. I think it would work amazingly well. So again, I think it's and we want more.

Adam:

James, it has been so much fun having you on the

PJ:

I

Adam:

I hope you had as much fun as we did.

James:

Absolutely. This was amazing. I really hope you guys are able to invite me back at some point because I really do want to keep this going, you know?

Adam:

Somewhere

PJ:

I.

Adam:

and pick a handful and we'll get you on. Man, this was so much fun. it's always great to meet someone who's like one of us who watched the same stuff growing up, who quotes the same stuff the way we do. Like a fellow brother in arms here, man.

PJ:

Yes.

James:

This has been the dream tree, basically. Yes. Thank you.

PJ:

James, so great to have you on.

Adam:

well, now we're gonna turn to, episode, 41. next week will be stop motion Venom obtains an EMP

James:

Ooh,

Adam:

and threatens to loot bank vaults across the country by knocking out all electronics for miles around. Now we're talking

PJ:

Yeah, I

James:

yeah.

PJ:

keep on the stakes and doing it right. I do have a bet for you for next episode, Adam. There's gonna be nine words that will make you say, wait, what was just said,

James:

Oh no,

PJ:

I encourage you guys to watch it today to see what I'm talking about.

Adam:

well, uh, looking forward to that one. But for now, this podcast has to transform and head back to hq. I'm Adam Moore.

PJ:

And I am PJ McNerney.

James:

and I'm James Riley.

PJ:

Bye-bye.

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