Brief Summary: Under the sea, under the sea…
Summary: Open on a shot of the ocean which pans over to a building built on stilts over the water. Inside, Flint is talking to Wet-Suit via radio, checking in on the status of Wet-Suit’s mission. Wet-Suit tells Flint that the ‘science guys’ have found something totally awesome.
We then cut to Wet-Suit and get our first glimpse of the totally awesome thing: an underwater city that looks pretty standard as far as cartoon underwater cities go. Wet-Suit tells Flint he and Dr. Simms, a male scientist, are going to check things out further.
As they’re looking about, a group of Cobra Eels attack and a stray Cobra blast opens a glowing energy source that releases a huge glowing eel-like creature. Wet-Suit tells Flint about the attack but says he doesn’t need back up because he can handle the Eels.
Note: later in the episode, the eel-like creature is referred to as a light-snake. So, in order to avoid confusion between the glowing eel and the Cobra Eels that’s what I’ll be calling it.
Wet-Suit and Dr. Sims flee the light-snake, but an Eel blows down an arch and traps the pair under rubble. The light-snake then grabs the Eel (which kind of looks like a BAT) who then vanishes in a flash of light.
Flint becomes alarmed when Wet-Suit’s radio statics and cuts off suddenly. It’s on this mini-cliffhanger that the intro ends and we cut to the theme song.
When we come back from commercial, the Joes are preparing to go after Wet-Suit and Dr. Sims (and the other scientists, one would assume though Dr. Sims is the only one we ever see any sign of and Sims more or less vanishes after this scene anyway).
Cobra, on the other hand, is in the area because Cobra Commander figures that the undersea city must be full of treasure! Destro is skeptical, thinking that the Commander is letting his imagination run away with him. Attempts to raise the Eels over the radio are unsuccessful, leading the Commander to assume the Eels are stealing his treasure. He threatens to dock their pay if they don’t answer, but they still don’t respond.
The Joes arrive on the scene of the undersea city and marvel at it. Flint wonders if maybe the city is Atlantis, while Scarlett hypothesizes that maybe a smart dolphin culture built it. Heavy-Duty, on the other hand, darkly speculates about twenty-eyed aliens who suck off your face for breakfast.
Cobra spots the Joes, but lets them move along unscathed. Especially after they find treasure lying around on the ocean floor.
“I’m filthy rich!” crows Cobra Commander.
“Well, you’re half right,” murmurs Destro.
Joes find the big glowing “power core” in the center of the city. While they’re investigating it, Cobra shows up for another shoot-‘em-up. The Joes’ submarine is destroyed and Cobra surrounds the Joes. The victory doesn’t last for long, however, since the light-snake attacks again, this time going after everybody, Cobra and Joe alike.
The Joes make a run for it, splitting up in an effort to try and throw the light-snake off the track. Which would work except that the light-snake splits in two.
When the light-snake grabs someone, they vanish.
And why the heck would anyone bring Road Pig along on an underwater mission?
The Eel chases the Joes into a dead-end. Duke selflessly lures the light-snake away from Flint and Scarlett. He gets caught and vanishes and shortly afterwards, Scarlett is also snagged by a light-snake.
Flint and Heavy-Duty are now the only Joes left. Flint radios for help, but on the surface the Joes have been captured by Cobra.
Road Pig crashes his mini-sub scooter thing into Cobra Commander. Oddly enough, this only dislodges Road Pig from the scooter and doesn’t kill Cobra Commander outright. Or even injure him. For his troubles, Road Pig gets caught by the light-snake and vanishes.
Flint and Heavy-Duty try to come up with a plan to save their fellow Joes. Destroying the power source is out since that would only create more light-snakes. They figure that the snakes are part of the city’s defense system.
The Joes find the Cobra sub and make plans to try and get into it to use the computers inside to try and shut down the power grid.
On the Cobra side, Destro wants to leave but Cobra Commander isn’t about to leave while the Hammerhead is only half full.
In an effort to take out the Joes, Cobra manages to take out their own sub. Destro and Cobra Commander retreat to the Hammerhead, a wheeled vehicle that apparently works well underwater.
Joes escape using manta rays. REAL manta rays. As in they grab onto the tails of manta rays and allow the animals to drag them off.
Cobra Commander and Destro chase the Joes in the Hammerhead and manage to crash into some underwater pillars. Cobra Commander accidentally initiates the Hammerhead’s self-destruct sequence. Destro tells the Commander that he can’t stop the sequence and that the Hammerhead will blow up in ten minutes.
Cobra Commander and Destro flee the Hammerhead. The light-snakes show up and snag both Destro and Heavy-Duty, leaving Cobra Commander and Flint as the only folks unsnagged.
At least until Cobra Commander gets snagged by a light-snake.
Flint runs from a light-snake and ends up opening a door. He steps into a room and finds the others in weird bed-like things. They’re kind of like the cryogenic storage chamber things in Alien and Aliens. Flint shoots at one of the light-snakes and activates an alien mechanism that begins talking about the bio-scan being complete.
Flint talks to the alien life form and finds out that the city was built by her people as a place to study the lifeforms of earth. The base was abandoned after the alien’s people were wiped out due to fighting amongst themselves. The alien says that the light-snakes were intended to gather life-forms to be studied and she apologizes for the inconvenience to the Joes and Cobras. She releases them and offers to help them leave the city (which is still in risk of being blow to kingdom come thanks to the self-destruct on the Hammerhead).
The alien gives them access to the only escape vehicle in the city. Being complete bastards, the Cobras steal the sub and escape to the surface. Being complete morons the Joes stand by and watch as the Cobras steal the sub and escape to the surface. Seriously, they make no attempt to stop Cobra, even to say “Hey, no! That’s our sub!”
The alien asks why the Joes are still there, since there was plenty of room on the escape shuttle for them. The Joes explain that humans are also in conflict with each other. Scarlett does tell the alien, “thanks for trying.”
The alien then tells the Joes that she’ll get them out of there. She uses the light-snakes to teleport the Joes back to the surface. Meanwhile, the city blows up.
On the surface, the Cobras flee in terror when they see the light-snakes arrive.
The alien appears and tells the Joes not to permit their people to destroy themselves the same way the alien’s people destroyed themselves. Scarlett says that they’re trying. The alien tells the Joes that trying isn’t enough, believing is. The alien ends on the message that peace is important. And the Joes close with “Peace” instead of “Yo Joe!”
Commentary: On the whole, not a bad episode. It’s worth noting that Marv Wolfman also wrote for Sunbow and is a very well-known name in the comics’ field. You might have seen a couple movies based on a certain day-walking vampire hunter that Mr. Wolfman created.
The alien in question is a nebulous blob of fire-like material, kind of like some sort of energy being. The action is pretty straight-forward: Joes and Cobras fight and an alien intelligence plays a deus ex machina role. The alien city is wiped out largely to remove it from the cartoon’s continuity (but then, most of the McGuffins in any cartoon series are usually wiped out by the end, in order to keep them from ever being used again).
The alien’s message is pretty straightforward too: Do what I say, not what my people did. The message of peace comes near the end of the episode and, thankfully, isn’t rammed down our throats. Then again, if the Joes and Cobras stop fighting, the cartoon series ends and then where’ll we be?