Brief Summary: There is no ‘I’ in ‘Team’.

Summary: Pathfinder is moving through the jungle, using an arm-mounted buzzsaw/weed whacker device to cut through ground cover. Behind him, a group of Joes are slowly following. The Joes are on their way to take out a Cobra lab.

As Pathfinder’s moving along, Ambush leaps out of a tree and knocks him to the ground. Pathfinder is, understandably, angry about this. After all, they’re supposed to be going after Cobras, not each other. They bicker about Ambush’s lack of teamwork and Pathfinder accidently trips a Cobra trap.

Gnawgahyde and Metal-Head pop up and open fire on the Joes. Metal-Head takes out a Joe vehicle and is very happy about it. Deleriously happy, in fact. Salvo fires back at the Cobras, knocking them ass over teakettle. Metal-Head fires back but is out of ammo (not that he seems to notice since he keeps firing). Gnawgahyde grabs Metal-Head and drags him along with him.

Ambush prevents Pathfinder from jumping the Cobras, telling Pathfinder that it makes more sense to follow the two back to their hidden Cobra base. It’ll be a lot easier than trying to find the base cold.

Sure enough, Metal-Head and Gnawgahyde inadvertently lead the Joes back to their base and reveal the secret entrance. Pathfinder and Ambush follow them inside and Ambush immediately takes off on his own. Pathfinder grumbles about this, but grudgingly sets out to accomplish his task by setting explosives.

As he’s snooping about, Pathfinder comes across Cobra Commander working in a chemistry lab. He taunts CC and ends up running from a group of Vipers. As he’s running along, he comes across Ambush who says he’s set his explosives so they’ll have to go back the way Pathfinder came. Which is highly problematic, since Pathfinder’s been setting his explosives as he’s been going along.

The base blows up., burying everyone inside in a massive pile of rubble.

Salvo arrives on the scene and goes down into the pit to try and rescue Pathfinder and Ambush. Stumbling over some rubble, he accidentally frees Cobra Commander first. The Commander throws a vial of liquid at Salvo. The liquid turns to gas, knocking Salvo out.

The other Joes arrive and rescue Pathfinder and Ambush from the rubble. They also find that Salvo is pulling a Duke (i.e. slipped into a coma).

Cut to a hospital room where Pathfinder, Ambush and Salvo are recuperating. Ambush and Pathfinder are also arguing with each other over who’s fault it is that Salvo’s hurt. The arguing doesn’t last long before both Joes are apologizing to Salvo for getting him hurt. Then, each tries to take the blame onto themselves. Thankfully, this scene is played more for sincerity than smarm.

Cobra Commander cuts into a TV broadcast (as is his wont) to announce his latest plan to the world:

“Here at Cobra Labs we’re always working on better living through chemistry.” This explains a lot, don’t it?

Apparently, the brain trusts at Cobra Labs have created a behavior gas that transforms the human brain into a radio receiver, ready to receive broadcast commands from Cobra Commander.

Cobra has a group of missiles ready to deliver the gas into the atmosphere unless the governments of the world pay Cobra fifty billion dollars.

Cobra Commander then proceeds to demonstrate his new gas by showing how well it works on Salvo. Which is more than likely just to show the Joes how well it works, since nobody else can see Salvo since he’s in the hospital. And even then, the only Joes who can see how well it works are Pathfinder and Ambush.

Salvo breaks out of the hospital, jumping out of the room’s window (which is thankfully on the first floor) and charges for a conveniently located helicopter parked nearby.

Demonstration complete, Cobra Commander closes his broadcast with the following: “I want my money in unmarked bills and take your time to think about it because before long, I’ll be doing all your thinking for you. “ Once again, a transcription doesn’t do justice to this scene. At the last part, Cobra Commander’s voice sounds very menacing, down right threatening in fact.

Rampart calls Pathfinder and Ambush to tell them that Cobra has ordered all Joes be confined to their base for the duration. Pathfinder and Ambush are now the only Joes off the base. …Not that Rampart is suggesting the pair do anything, no no…Grid-Iron would have a fit…

So, of course Pathfinder and Ambush sneak out. And they do so dressed as nurses. Female nurses. Grid-Iron calls the hospital via viewscreen to check on Pathfinder and Ambush. Ambush, in a female falsetto, tells Grid-Iron that two such fine physical specimens as Pathfinder and Ambush will be up and around in no time.

Right before Grid-Iron calls, Pathfinder does ask why it was that they couldn’t sneak out as male nurses, to which Ambush replies that these outfits are camoflague. Which does make sense in a way. If they snuck out as male nurses (or orderlys or doctors), it’d be pretty obvious that it was Pathfinder and Ambush sneaking out. Okay, so it’s pretty obvious that these two women aren’t really women but hey, it worked! And if a stupid plan works, it’s not stupid.

Well, okay, yes it is. At least in this case.

Note: Grid-Iron calls Ambush “Nurse Ratchet”, who was a character in the book/movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Nurse Ratchet, like her Joe counterpart, was not an attractive lady. I don’t think this was supposed to be Nurse Ambush’s actual name, just an Easter Egg for older viewers.

Pathfinder and Ambush ride away from the hospital on a moped. Flying overhead, Metal-Head spots them and prepares to open fire on them. Not because he knows they’re Joes, but because he just wants to shoot at a target. This is presented as a kind of “ohboy, toy!” rather like a cat with a paper wad or catnip mouse or even a foot that just happens to be sitting there minding it’s own business…Ow! Dangit Basil!

Cobra Commander tells Metal-Head to leave the nurses on the moped alone and return to base.

“I’ll bet that Cobra flyboy thought you were cute,” Pathfinder teases Ambush.

The Joes use a rebuilt one-man copter thing to go after the Cobras. They end up bailing out when the copter falls apart around them.

Inside the Cobra base, Cobra Commander is yelling orders at a Range Viper, telling him to be careful while positioning a mirror. They’re using the mirrors to give the illusion that they have an entire group of missiles ready to rain down mind-controlling gas on the planet. In actuality, they have only one missile loaded with what remains of the gas.

Unfortunately for the Range Viper, he manages to break the mirror.

Then, Metal-Head says that this whole scam is giving him a big ‘bang’. This, of course, causes his rig to fire and he blows up another mirror.

Showing amazing restraint, especially for him, Cobra Commander tells Metal-Head and Gnawgahyde to leave, now.

The Gruesome Twosome head out to do a fly by the Joe base. When they get there, they discover that the Joes are violating Cobra’s orders. Joes are in the air and on the ground. Gnawgahyde and his crew open fire on the Joes, giving us the prerequisite Joe vs. Cobra battle for the episode.

On the ground, Rampart takes out a group of Cobra missiles, cackling happily as he does so. He compares the shoot-out to a video game, even going so far as to call out scores. He’s rather like a slightly less manic version of Metal-Head.

Gnawgahyde and Metal-Head eventually retreat, heading back to the Cobra base. The Joes follow them, leading Cobra Commander to muse: “The Joes double crossed me? You can’t trust anyone these days.”

The Joes show up at the Cobra base and prepare to do battle. Inside the Cobra base, Ambush has vanished on Pathfinder again. Pathfinder goes in search of him and ends up saving Ambush from an ambush by Salvo, who is still under Cobra’s mind control.

The Joes hit the Cobra base and overrun it. Cobra Commander gives the order to fire the missile. Gnawgahyde protests, saying that the missile will blow up since the engine is shot. Cobra Commander tells Gnawgahyde that that’s the idea and sends out the order for his troops to put on gas masks. Pathfinder and Ambush hear the order and put on gas masks of their own.

Bullhorn leads the Joes in to the Cobra base, where they get a face full of gas.

Cobra Commander then orders the Joes to attack Pathfinder and Ambush, which they do.

Pathfinder and Ambush grab Cobra Commander and drag him off with them. Their reasoning being that anything that happens to them will happen to him.

Cobra Commander tries to get himself out of the jam:

Cobra Commander: “Metal-Head! Come back!”
Gnawgahyde: “He may be an idiot, but I’m not. C’mon, Metal-Head, run for it!”

Cobra Commander gives up and activates the antidote, turning the Joes back to normal.

Before the Joes can take Cobra Commander off, Gnawgahyde shows up in that weird-ass helicopter/tank hybrid that looks like Vortex and Brawl had a kid.* Cobra Commander and the others make their escape and Pathfinder and Ambush both try (and fail) to stop the escape.

Cobra Commander gets a huge laugh out of this: “Once again the Joes have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory!”

Gnawgahyde takes it upon himself to burst Cobra Commander’s bubble. “You just blew fifty billion bucks,” he says and advises the Commander that perhaps he shouldn’t be the one to talk about losing anything.

Ambush and Pathfinder bicker once again about teamwork and Ambush’s lack of it.

Grid-Iron breaks it up and tells the boys that he’s going to give them another chance, but “Do me a favor guys, no more blonde wigs Pathfinder. Ambush, you look terrible in a dress.”

Commentary: This was the first episode of the DIC series after Operation: Dragonfire. On the whole, it’s one of the stronger episodes of the series. No doubt it benefits from being made so early in the series’ production run.

This episode is atypical in that Cobra Commander is fully in charge in this episode. And his plan is pretty damned sensible. No destroying the ozone layer to sell suntan lotion, no taking over a kindergarten, no football games using Sgt. Slaughter as the ball. Just a relatively straightforward bluff intended to net Cobra fifty billion bucks.

Now, it seems to me it would have made more sense for Cobra to simply release the gas and take over the world, which was probably the original plan. But the destruction of the base in the first part of the episode necessitated a change in plan. Hence the smoke and mirrors of the second half of the episode.

This is easily one of the best episodes of the first season of the DIC episodes and is well worth searching out.

* If I recall correctly, this vehicle is called the Dominator. And for those of you who might not be up on your Transformers lore, Vortex and Brawl are two members of the combiner team called the Combaticons. Vortex turns into a helicopter and Brawl into a tank.