G.I. Retro Episode 2 - Slave of the Cobra Master

In this episode of G.I. Retro, I break down Part 2 of the M.A.S.S. Device - Slave Of The Cobra Master! Duke is a prisoner at the Cobra Temple fighting for his life in the Arena of Sport, the Joes are racing to the Arctic to grab radioactive crystals for their own M.A.S.S. Device before Cobra can stop them, Snake Eyes puts his life on the line and more! 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Something in there bothers Snake Eyes, Tripwire.

SPEAKER_02 0:03

And I know better than to doubt Snake Eyes' sixth sense, Scarlet.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

A little sweeping scan couldn't hurt.

unknown 0:08

Let's stay back!

SPEAKER_00 0:11

G.I. Joe is on the move trying to capture the first element they need for their own Mass Device. Meanwhile, Duke is still captured and under the thrall of Cobra Commander and Destro. Will the rest of the world soon follow and become slaves of the Cobra Master? The miniseries that changed, everything continues. The Mass Device, part two. This is GI Retro.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Now, back to G.I. Joe.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Yo Joe and welcome everyone. Back to GI Retro, my love letter to G.I. Joe, a real American hero, as we revisit and celebrate each and every episode from the Sunbow Era. We are in the miniseries that started it all: The Mass Device, Episode 2, Slave of the Cobra Master. But before I get into that episode, I want to once again encourage and invite you all to truly re-watch the series with this show. All the episodes are available for free on YouTube. Very easy to find. They're put out by Hasbro. So whether you haven't watched since you were a kid or maybe have missed it altogether and were curious and needed an excuse, this is your excuse to come back to G.I. Joe, a real American hero. And it's going to be a lot of fun. It already has been with the support of the GI Joe community. So thankful uh to see so many of you already so far and people just finding this channel. However, you did it. Thank you for being here. So like, subscribe, and re-watch. This is gonna be great. So, with that said, let's get into today's episode part two in the Mass Device miniseries Slave of the Cobra Master, originally aired September 13th, 1983. Key players for this episode, as you might imagine, largely unchanged from episode one of the miniseries. However, there are some additions. Snow job in a big way, Tripwire, to a lesser degree. Uh, we've got Flash, Doc, and Cover Girl make an appearance, and uh even Gung Ho in the background. And from the Cobra side, almost no change whatsoever. Cobra Commander, Destro, Major Blood, and a dash of Baroness. So, a quick high-level overview of what goes on in this episode. Sort of a three-prong plot line. We've got Duke still captured by Cobra Commander and Destro. He's got the mind control headband on, and he is forced to battle in the arena of sport for their own sick amusement. He's got to find a way to escape. And then with the rest of the Joe team, Scarlet still running the show, working with Dr. Vandemir on trying to build their own mass device to combat Cobra. He tells them that they need three catalytic elements, the first of which being in the Arctic, in the sea of ice, they need to get these radioactive crystals. So that's the mission from the Joe side. And then Cobra still scheming, still using their own mass device, trying to bring the world to its knees and surrender to the will of Cobra so they can, you know, have their whole world domination thing going on, and frustration from Cobra Commander, maybe some arrogance from Cobra Commander that we see in this episode as well. So those are sort of the the three tracks that we have going on in this episode. My takeaway from re-watching this episode, well, I kept thinking about it it sort of felt kind of Empire Strikes-esque in the stakes and how everything was going for the Joe team, you know, in peril pretty much the entire episode, things not looking great for them. Not that they, you know, really aced it the last episode, obviously, with Duke getting captured and everything, but it continues on in this episode. What Duke goes through, the mission in the Arctic does not go great for them. So yeah, definitely sort of got the Empire Strikes Back, or I guess the Cobra Strikes again sort of vibe from this episode. Uh, want to talk about also the continuing relationship building and dynamic building of the characters. Very strong here. I talked about it in the first episode. They build on it here in Slave of the Cobra Master, but the rivalry and angst between Cobra Commander and Destro, their differing perspectives on how they conduct themselves, kicks up to another level here in Slave of the Cobra Master. And we see it a few times through the episode: the Bickering going to a whole new level.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

I was rather good, wasn't I? The mass device is not a toy for your amusement. These repeated demonstrations of its power have almost exhausted our supply of catalytic elements.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

It's time to return to our sport. Let us end this fast aspects. I don't feel there's anything that can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

That shows it was I who developed the mass device. I who made you aware of its potential.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

You! Without my money and organization, you'd be out in the rain watching a face rust!

SPEAKER_00 6:02

I love seeing the dynamic between Cobra Commander and Destro over these first couple episodes of the Mass Device, laying the groundwork for the rest of the series, that sort of professional jealousy, rivalry, and differing perspectives. I mean, Cobra Commander being very overconfident and sort of flippant with how he's using the Mass Device, and Destro being sort of more pragmatic and concerned, but also just the sniping, like I said, the reptilian poppin' jay line, probably my favorite quote uh of the whole episode. From Cobra Commander and Destro insulting one another, I want to jump up to G.I. Joe in the Sea of Ice. I loved this mission. They're going after the first catalytic element they need, the radioactive crystals. I love a good snow mission. I feel like uh a lot of people's favorite theater of battle for G.I. Joe is in the snow. There's a lot of great snow-themed G.I. Joe's. And look no further than getting introed to one of those this episode in Snow Job. We got the coordinates cold, pretty lady, and I'm talking cold. How do you read it? Really love Snow Job this entire episode. Thought he did great, was introduced in a really cool manner. Voice acting by Rob Paulson, excellent. I like the sort of the New England accent that he used, the Kennedy-esque one uh that he put on him there. It makes sense, being from Vermont and the Eastern Seaboard, that he would have that. Uh, but yeah, great intro for Snow Job, a new character being folded in here uh in a real American hero. And then we also got Tripwire. And I like Tripwire. I liked him growing up. Uh, but in this episode, I don't think he got the best of introductions. Tripwire, in this case, sort of was the you had one job, Tripwire, and you couldn't do it. They're going to the cave, you know, that's we see it's laden with the snake armor robots. They got these gun turrets on the the roof of the cave there. And he comes in with his his you know his mind detector, and he can't uh he can't suss out any of it. He blames it on the radioactivity, and yeah, just kind of a bit of a foul-up tripwire, if I'm being honest. So we'll see if he takes home the honors for for this episode. But beyond Tripwire not being able to get it done, I I really liked the whole sequence up in the Arctic. Uh, the battle with the snake armor robots, Major Blood pinning them down in the cave. Major Blood, you know, talking about foul-up. Major Blood, a little bit of redemption this week, perhaps, did not retreat. The Joes did escape, but he did not retreat, so that's progress. And also, we get just an epic, you know, what becomes the major blood gift that I see all the time is that Major Blood laugh from this episode. So, you know, yeah, some redemption for the major. Another moment when Joe is in the caves, pinned down by Major Blood and Cobra that I had to point out. I highlighted in my notes, so I didn't want to forget. But did you all catch this? We can stay here and learn the glow in the dark, or we can go out there and maybe get cut to pieces.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Snake Eyes! We'll try a breakout when he joins us. Come in, Snake Eyes.

SPEAKER_03 9:15

Acknowledge Snake Eyes! Acknowledge!

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Scarlet, Snake Eyes can't talk. What is he supposed to do in that situation? Not once, but twice. Snake Eyes, acknowledge. I I don't know if he's got something on the like his his walkie-talkie where he can communicate back non-verbally, but uh that that really jumped out to me uh in in watching the episode. I made note of it, so I had to make sure that I highlighted for you all here in case in case you missed it. Unintentionally funny. But really, the whole mission to the Arctic here in the Sea of Ice is a showcase and a highlight reel for Snake Eyes. I mean, from the moment they stepped to the cave, his sixth sense kicked in, he knew that there was danger, he detected it better than Tripwire and his devices did. Get him next time, Tripwire. But then the battle with the the snake armor robots, it's snake eyes that bails them out of that jam. And then, of course, most notably, sealing himself in with the radio activity to save the rest of his Joe team and point their way to escape, making the noble sacrifice. Huge, huge moment in this episode was very cool to see. It was it was interesting going back and re-watching it and showing Scarlett with so much emotion. You know, she thinks he's essentially just killed himself for the the good of the team. Again, making that heroic sacrifice sort of like Spock in the Wrath of Khan, right down to being on the other side of uh the glass barrier there. Uh, but yeah, that was that was Snake Eyes' moment definitely in this episode. And that was what the sort of whole piece up in the Arctic was about. They still don't have the radioactive crystals. Snake Eyes has them, so more on that to come if he makes it. I want to jump from the mission in the Arctic to Duke being captured by Cobra. He's being forced to perform in the arena of sport, but I like the the battling back and forth between, you know, Duke and this giant. The the whole arena of sport concept, I always I always thought was cool, you know, and like just the just the setup that Cobra Commander in this temple has this sort of Roman Emperor gladiatorial game setup, very sinister of him and very on-brand, uh, as Destro said in the first episode, very melodramatic of Cobra Commander. I gotta hand it to Duke in the arena of sport. He really showed out and showed what a prolific and proficient hand-to-hand combatant he was, even going against that monstrous giant. I mean, he was so good that even Destro decided it was better to let Duke fight for himself rather than be controlled. But beyond that, the real standout from these scenes, not a Joe, not a Cobra, but Selena, the slave girl, sticking her neck out, putting her life on the line to help Duke. I mean, she smuggled him that piece of gold to short circuit. The mind control headband gave him directions on where to go to escape. Even meeting him there, risking getting captured or caught by Cobra, probably certain death would await if that happened, but helps Duke make his escape. And Duke's escape, a big part of the episode, big sequence, and it's something that I know I've been looking forward to talk about because Duke's escape on the glider brings us to this week's but did you die moment of the week.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Did you die? I got shot, but did you die?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

So Duke takes off in the glider, making his escape. Cobra is on his heels in hot pursuit, and really there's multiple but did you dies here. We've got that Cobra Trooper that crashes into the cliff, but really this belongs to Duke as he crashes into the tree line, breaks multiple branches, somehow catches himself, lands perfectly in a hiss tank, takes off, driving it through whatever like swampland area, crashes that, lands into you know, more swamp water or whatever, and feigns drowning to the point where the troopers just assume he's dead. That is without doubt, our but did you die moment of the week, Duke's escape on the glider, pretty great stuff. And it also leads directly into our foul-up of the week.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

You're here because you're an industrial spray follow-up.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

Tripwire certainly made his case, not being able to detect anything with his devices, seemingly his his only job for being on that mission, but we'll give him a pass because of the radioactivity interfering and everything like that. But really, the foul-p of this week is the Cobra troopers. Cobra commanders, lieutenants, and rank and file really did fail him at every turn. I want to go back to Duke's escape when Selena hands him the piece of gold. He is able to hide it, and they search him. They saw her give him something, and they're not able to find it. And they just give him a quick search, be like, I guess he doesn't have anything.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

What are you holding? I saw him pass you something. Touch him.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Ah, nothing. And that led directly to his escape. Then with him on the glider going into the water and feigning drowning, they just assume he's dead. They don't they don't bother to shoot him or try and find the body. They just think they're gonna get rewarded by Cobra.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

He's got it. That'll be a bonus for all of us.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Complete, complete foul-up by the rank and file of Cobra this week. So from Major Blood last week to just the generic Cobra rank and file this week. Those are our foul-ups. And it let Duke get recovered by G.I. Joe. That's where we see Doc and CoverGirl. And Duke sort of doesn't really remember much. He just remembers a face, a beautiful face, and he knows he's got to go back and help rescue Selena, who is instrumental in his escape. And that just about wraps up Slave of the Cobra Master, except one more piece of business, one more piece of hardware, and that is episode MVP. And from my perspective, there were two great candidates for this week. One being Selena, the slave girl, helping Duke escape, putting her life on the line for no other reason than doing the right thing. Good on you, Selena. But the MVP for this week is Snake Eyes. The battle in the Arctic, like I said, was a showcase for Snake Eyes, and really you can't top the moment this week of him sealing himself in with all the radiation and essentially sacrificing what we assume would be his life to save the rest of his Joe squad teammates and really try and help save the world, essentially. So Snake Eyes taking home MVP honors this week. Feel free to chime in with your own picks for MVP or But Did You Die Fallop of the Week. You can do it in the comments. You can tweet at me at GI Retro Show or email me at james at giretro.com. Thank you so very much for joining me. That is going to do it for Slave of the Cobra Master next week, the worms of death. And if you didn't know, now you know. Take it away, Flint.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

And knowing is half the battle.