G.I. Retro - The Worms of Death

In this episode of G.I. Retro, I break down Part 3 of the M.A.S.S. Device - The Worms of Death! Snake Eyes is lost in the Arctic glowing with radiation poisoning, the Joes and Cobra are forced into an uneasy truce at the bottom of the ocean, and something giant, screaming, and angry is about to wake up.
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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Looks like a pretty bad neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 0:03

Uh I wouldn't say that. See?

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Yo, Joe, and welcome everyone back to G.I. Retro, where we are revisiting and celebrating the sunbow era of G.I. Joe, a real American hero, one episode at a time. We are in The Mass Device, the miniseries that started it all for G.I. Joe, episode three, The Worms of Death. But before I break down this episode and share some of my highlights, I wanted to take a beat and do a little mailbag segment with you all because I really appreciate all the comments you've been sharing. And I want this to be part of the GI Joe community. I want this to be an interactive thing. So I've highlighted a few comments that I wanted to just sort of share and respond to here for you. So here we go. From Spring Flood Pop One, I believe. Sorry if I'm if I'm butchering your username, but I believe that's Spring Flood Pop One. Uh, they say something you've pointed out about this miniseries twice now that I love. At this point in the show, Scarlet really is second in command of this team. She leads the team for two episodes straight until Duke comes back. That's unusually progressive for the time. And even in the second miniseries, when Flint comes along, my guy, and commandeers that title, she's still at least third. And since both Duke and Flint are MIA during most of that one, spoiler alert, she is leading for most of it. Starting with the third miniseries, she was always paired up with either Duke or Flint, usually Duke. I wonder why. And under them in command. So that unfortunately stopped. Even more so during the second season when Hawk, Beachhead, and Sergeant Slaughter all jumped ahead of her. But it was nice while it lasted. Scarlett's always been a favorite of mine. Well, thank you very much for sharing it. And I agree, Scarlett's great. She's one of the most iconic. I think she's a lot of people's favorite G.I. Joe's. And it is really cool going back here to this first miniseries. And to your point, it really, you know, the line is there. Duke's captured. Scarlett is in charge. She's leading the missions. Definitely took a little bit of a step back this week. She's not as highlighted, but in the first two episodes of the miniseries, she really got some great moments to shine. You know, I point out she's the one that came up with some of the solutions that help get G.I. Joe out of a jam. So yeah, we love Scarlet. Whether you ship her with Duke or with Snake Eyes, Scarlet's great. All right, this is from Largo 621, Largo 621. And he's talking about last episode, Slave of the Cobra Master and Snake Eyes. This was the episode that cemented Snake Eyes as the best damn Joe, in my opinion. Shame the show never used him this well again, at least to my memory. I've not watched the show in its entirety since I was a kid. So looking forward to seeing if I'm proven wrong. So yeah, we'll find out together. Definitely in the early going, I feel like from my memory, Snake Eyes got more uh standout moments. Certainly in this mini-series, uh, he gets to be like super awesome, you know, making the sacrifice, the Spockyan sacrifice last episode, and we'll go into what happens to him this week and beyond. But yeah, we'll find out together. We'll we'll I'm sure Snake Eyes has some some more highlight moments to come, to be sure. And this is from uh keeping with the the Snake Eyes track here, Z3 WHA6. Snake oh, he's talking about so when I pointed out Scarlet last episode asking Snake Eyes to acknowledge her over the communications device. Uh Z3 had this to say Snake Eyes likely had a modified unit with the ability to transmit Morse code, dot dot dot, or something like that. Yeah, I I'm I'm sure he probably had something for the the vocally impaired as as Snake Eyes is, but it's it was just it was an unintentionally kind of funny moment if you caught it. So yeah, thank you. Thank you for giving that solution though. I'm sure they probably had some type of uh Morse code situation. And then a couple quick hits here. One from Bad Air 647. I forgot how good the animation was at this time, and then from Robert Logan 53-54, not only the theme song, the score throughout the show is perfect. And I want to co-sign both those comments. Uh, you know, in watching this, I feel like I haven't taken enough time to give both of those things really their due. And not that I take them for granted, but the animation is so choice. I I really love this style. I love it so much more than a lot of the animation we even see today, you know, especially the computer-generated stuff. I just I feel like actual cartoons, you know, look look better than the computer-generated stuff. I so I I really love the style of G.I. Joe Real American Hero. And to Robert's point about beyond just the theme song, yeah, all of the music in G.I. Joe is tremendous. And I was I was thinking about it this week, you know, some of the jazzy sort of action sequence music really re reminds me a lot of the anime Cowboy Bebop, and just got me thinking that, you know, maybe they drew some inspiration from that because there's a couple of particular fights in Cowboy Bebop with the sort of jazzy music underneath it. It's like, ah, that sort of feels a lot like what they do in G.I. Joe. But thank you all for sharing your opinions. Keep dropping your picks for you know, MVP and Fallop and all that good stuff, and just sharing your opinions at large with the show, and we'll we'll keep getting to them uh as we go along here.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Now back to G.I. Joe.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Let's get into the episode once again, part three of the Mass Device, The Worms of Death, originally aired September 14th, 1983. A lot of the same players that we've seen throughout the miniseries, but with some new Joes showing up here. We've got some first appearances. Snake Eyes Pet Wolf Timber makes his first appearance here, Torpedo in a big way, this episode, and then we got Short Fuse stepping into the spotlight as well this episode. So the sort of hierarchy view of what's going on in the worms of death. We've got Cobra Commander essentially sort of trying to bully the rest of the world, still threatening the entire world with the Mass Device, much to the chagrin of Destro, who is all too aware that Cobra Commander is, you know, being very flippant about the resources and fuel for their Mass Device, and again, seeing that tension continue to build.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Surrender to the new order of Cobra starting at noon tomorrow, or suffer my wrath! Devastation! Ruin! Chaos! Egotistical Peacock. Doesn't he realize our supply of catalytic elements is too low to activate his wild threats, and an empty threat destroys our credibility?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

I mean, from calling him a reptilian Popin J last week to egotistical Peacock Destro, he's he's got the he's got the one-liners at Cobra Commander's expense going. And, you know, Cobra Commander writing checks that his mass device can't cash, but to his point, the rest of the world doesn't know that. While Cobra is trying to refuel up their mass device, G.I. Joe is trying to get on the board with their first element. Again, Snake Eyes, he's got the canister of the radioactive crystals, but he hasn't met back up with the Joe team yet. So they've got zero in terms of the elements here. But let's let's keep it with Snake Eyes. So he made the sacrifice last episode sealing himself in the cave with all the radiation and everything like that. Um, you know, and to the earlier comment about the animation, there's a part here where we see Major Blood sending in the robots to clear out the cave. The animation is so good. There's there's a clip of Snake Eyes in the cave watching these robots going to work where you see the reflection of them in his goggles. I don't know. It just I it was such a cool shot to me while I was watching it, so I wanted to highlight it here. But Snake Eyes stumbling out of the cave to the shock and awe of Cobra Troopers and Major Blood. You know, he's he's he's he's glowing like a traffic cone as he's stumbling out of there, still with the canister, and everybody's kind of shook to see him. They're they're stunned that anybody could still be alive. So much so to the point that Major Blood just lets him go as opposed to, you know, gunning him down. I mean, Snake Eyes, you know, the commando Snake Eyes is such a huge threat, but Major Blood thinks that, well, he's just gonna drop dead eventually anyway. That's kind of a mistake, Major. You don't want to end up back on the fallop of the week, but stay tuned for that. So Major Blood lets him go stumbling into the wilderness. That's where Snake Eyes meets Timber caught in a trap. Snake Eyes decides to free him, and once you know it, he's got a friend and companion for life in the yet-to-be-named Timber. And they are, you know, again, stumbling through the elements together. Snake Eyes, this you know, radiation poisoning coursing through his body, continuing to weaken him, meets up with a polar bear. Snake Eyes clearly overmatched by the polar bear, and so is Timber. They're getting knocked from one end of the screen to the other. Not a fair fight, especially with the radiation poisoning, but you know, big ups to Snake Eyes for trying to fight a literal polar bear in the state that he was in. That's when the day is saved by this blind woodsman, this blind hermit. He's got like a stun gun, uh, almost out of like the Mandalorian, and is able to subdue the polar bear, rescues Snake Eyes and Timber, and takes them away on his dog sled. And, you know, I mean, way to save the day. Another civilian really stepping up in a big way. We had Selena, the beautiful slave girl from last week helping rescue Duke, and now this blind hermit saving Snake Eyes and Timber's life here, and later on seeing him cure Snake Eyes of the radiation sickness wasn't he just needed like some herbs and spices or something. But you know, bailing snake eyes out of the jam tells him where he can find a boat to get home. The whole nine. This guy really was huge this episode. Uh, but we're gonna keep pushing forward. G.I. Joe gearing up for their mission to the depths of the ocean. So, of course, they need a deep sea expert. No, not deep six, but we do get the introduction of torpedo this episode, and I loved Torpedo's introduction.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Look at that, check it out.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

I just I love Torpedo's first scene, him being sort of a ham when he's getting the applause and then getting splashed with the water. Great stuff. And this is just an excellent first episode for Torpedo, as you might expect, considering the major action sequence happens underwater, which is what we're about to get to. G.I. Joe going to the depths of the ocean to find that heavy water for the mass device. And almost immediately, G.I. Joe makes a catastrophic mistake. It's tripwire and stalker buddy system swimming together, cracking wise about the environment, and Stalker knocks on this seemingly harmless rock structure, and that would awaken the tube worms. The titular worms of death are awake. G.I. Joe, unaware at this moment, and as they arrive on the scene, so does Cobra being led by the Baroness, and that starts this great underwater action sequence that I just love. I was thinking as like this might be the best or my favorite sequence of the whole miniseries so far. It's a great underwater battle. It's like James Bond's Thunderball, but even better. And it's the most we've really gotten to see Cobra and G.I. Joe mix it up, sort of on an even playing field at this point, and lots of DYDs from the underwater skiffs blowing up to when the two worms get involved and are constricting both G.I. Joe and Cobra alike. I mean, their peril is to the viewers' great benefit because this was an excellent scene. I loved it. And it led to Torpedo asking for permission to uh wheel and deal with Cobra and tries to make a bargain with Baroness. And I loved this.

SPEAKER_05 13:55

Prepostolance! Collaboration with the enemy is out of the question.

SPEAKER_06 14:00

I second thought your idea has with the understanding that once we are free, we will slip the pool of heavy one from our feet.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Alright, Baroness, you've got a deal.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

So G.I. Joe able to cut the deal with Baroness and Cobra. Duke finally susses out the weak point in the tube worms. It's to essentially destroy the base of their home so they start floating up towards the surface, and the pressure causes them to explode. Uh, that's a that's a DYD if there ever was one, and a pretty grisly solution from Duke and the Joe team. But I mean, I get it. They're horrible monsters, and you gotta do what you gotta do. Also, uh the sound effect of the two worms, truly terrifying, and also, I believe, the same sound effect as the worms in the G.I. Joe movie, which we'll get to much later on in this series. But yeah, uh, a really pretty gruesome solution that they just sort of move on from. It's just like fade to, okay, we won. They don't show any of them exploding or anything like that. But we we cut back to G.I. Joe and Cobra, uh, ostensibly going to split the heavy water, the element needed for the mass device, when Baroness decides that she's had enough of this alliance.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Thank you for a successful but extremely temporary partnership, too. Now, give us your heavy water as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

We had a deal, Baroness.

SPEAKER_04 15:49

A deal with Cobra? Surely you can't be serious.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Classic Baroness with the quick double cross. Can't trust her. I love it, and Morgan Lofting, may she rest in peace. Just such a great voice actress, nailing it with the line delivery, the signature baroness laugh. It's all here in this episode to be enjoyed, and it's just as good as you can remember it. Really awesome stuff. So G.I. Joe gets half the heavy water as they make their escape. Cobra also gets more to keep fueling their own mass device. And let's go ahead and jump back to the G.I. Joe base now, and we get Short Fuse in a big way here with a potential solve for the G.I. Joe's. It's a bit of a Hail Mary, but Short Fuse and Steeler have come up with a plan. They've made their own crewed satellite to launch into space and destroy Cobras, crippling the Mass Device. Dr. Vandomir seems impressed. They go with it. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Destro is tipped off of the impending danger. And then he makes a choice. He decides to use the last remaining fuel of Cobra's Mass Device to transport a squad of troops into space to destroy the Joe satellite. And believe it or not, that is going to bring us to our but did you die moment of the week.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Did you die? I got shot. But did you die?

SPEAKER_01 17:46

We have just feeled the fate of TI Joe, and you're our future fate.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

First of all, I love Cobra Commander saying Cobra rules so much. Might be my favorite line from the episode, in an episode with some really great delivery, by the way. But we're here for the DYD, and this comes from Robert Logan5354. He says, I didn't see the mass device until I was an adult, and I noticed something really crazy in it. The vehicle drivers were left behind at the base and cobbled up their rocket, for which the introduction and launch sequence alone was hilarious in its simplicity to shoot down the relay satellite. No argument. In response, Destro uses the last of Cobra's mass device fuel to teleport a squad of armored troops into space. They appear floating in space around the satellite, shoot the rocket down with their rifles, and the camera cuts to Joe headquarters. Those Cobra troops died, most likely of asphyxiation in their apparently pressurized battle armor. Where was standards and practices that day? And Robert makes some tremendous points that that was the last of Cobra's mass device fuel. So that was a one-way trip. And if you watch the clip, that explosion very well could have taken them out as well. So I think Robert makes a great point. That is our but did you die moment of the week. So from there, we get Cover Girl emerging. She's picked up Snake Eyes. We get this great moment with him reuniting with the team, especially Snake Eyes and Scarlet reuniting. Very interesting for all of you that you know have Scarlet and Snake Eyes together. So even in this miniseries, we see Scarlet and Duke with the flirtation, and perhaps uh with Snake Eyes here as well. So that one's for you all. But why I really wanted to bring this up is this great cliffhanger that we get at the end of the episode. Snake Eyes has the canister with the radioactive crystals and G.I. Joe celebrating. They're back in the game, they just need one more element. But of course, it's booby-trapped, this paralyzing gas. It's a great cliffhanger. Duke struggling to stay awake, but they all get knocked out, and that is where we end the worms of death leading into the next episode. So that's where the plot line for the worms of death ended, but we've still got a couple things to settle here. And let's start with the foul-up of the week.

SPEAKER_07 20:26

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

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Thank you, Sarge. So we had a couple candidates here. I mentioned Major Blood towards the start of the episode. Choosing to let Snake Eyes go alive instead of just ending him right there could definitely be considered, but I really think that the runaway winner actually comes from the Joe side. So let's roll that footage one more time.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

Looks like a pretty bad neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

Oh, I wouldn't say that. See? Joe Graffiti.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

I hate to do it, but I have to do it. Stalker waking up the worms of death, just needlessly, you know, cracking wise and knocking on the rock formation. Everything that followed in that underwater chaos is pretty much on him. So this week's fallop of the week is Stalker. And from one end of the spectrum to the other, we have to give out episode MVP. Two main candidates in my mind. And once again, similar to last week, one is not even a Joe, not even a Cobra. The blind hermit really, really did some heavy lifting in this episode. I mean, he saved Snake Eyes in Timber. He deradiated Snake Eyes. He recovered the canister, all for a blind guy. Oh, yeah, he also named Timber, which is huge and underrated. I was really tempted to give it to him. I feel like this is, you know, obviously, this is going to be his only chance to get an award. You know, it's like an aging pitcher that finally has a great season as a chance to start the all-star game, but I couldn't do it. I as great as he was, he just wasn't quite good enough to overtake this week's episode MVP, and that is the Baroness. She showed out this episode some great lines, great moments in this episode, leading Cobra's team and the underwater mission to get the heavy water, double-crossing the Joes, forcing them to retreat, all great stuff. I mentioned the voice acting from Morgan Lofting, all of that just really elevating this episode. I really feel like this one was for the Baroness. My apologies to the blind hermit and all of his loyal supporters for MVP. Just not quite enough. Had a strong case, but just not quite enough to overtake the Baroness. We're just three episodes in, and she's already shown how lethal, how competent, and how memorable she is in every scene. So Baroness, definitely the MVP for me. And I think overall, really, the Worms of Death, my favorite episode of the Mass Device miniseries so far. Next up, Duel in the Devil's Cauldron. The final element of the Mass Device is in a volcano, because of course it is. Be sure to like, be sure to subscribe, be sure to re watch along with me here. That is going to do it for this edition of GI Retro. And if you didn't know, now you know. Take it away, Flint.

SPEAKER_07 23:47

And knowing is half the battle.