Brief Summary: Cobra tries to destroy the Joes through their dreams and we learn that Low Light had an abusive childhood and is apparently an Alice Cooper fan...
Summary: We open on Lifeline, alone, staggering through a blizzard when he hears Iceberg calling out to him. Making his way toward Iceberg, he finds the other Joe spread-eagled on the ground groaning out his last. Iceberg tells Lifeline that he's dying.
Lifeline tells Iceberg that he won't let him die and gives him something to counteract Iceberg's hypothermia. Iceberg tries to tell Lifeline to save himself but Lifeline won't hear of it and continues to try and save Iceberg.
A giant cobra (as in snake) shows up. Iceberg tells Lifelien that the snake is what killed him and begs Lifeline to kill it. Lifeline says that he can't kill it (and to his credit, he sounds very upset by this).
Cobras (as in the guys in the tacky blue suits) attack, riding Trouble Bubbles. They fire on Lifeline and Iceberg, who again begs Lifeline to kill the giant Cobra. Lifelinea gain says that he can't kill the thing, since he refuses to use weapons.
Unlike many of the other times when Lifeline has refused to use a weapon, this scene has some actual bite to it. Lifeline is clearly torn between his desire to protect and save the Joes and his ethical stance against weapons.
The ice under Iceberg breaks and he sinks under the water, Lifeline yells for him to grab his hand but the only thing he's able to snag is Iceberg's laser pistol.
The giant cobra hisses at Lifeline, who raises the gun and fires at the creature only to have the gun twist in his hand and turn into a snake that turns on him. Lifeline screams and tosses the gun down, only to be engulfed by other, larger snakes that come from seemingly nowhere.
It's at this point, Lifeline wakes up screaming. It was all a dream, he's safely in his room, wearing his PJs (which is a nice touch, since cartoon characters then and now have this stubborn refusal to change clothes ever. )
Lifeline gets out of bed, grabs his glasses and we cut to a lounge where a Godzilla-style movie is playing on the TV. Lifeline walks over to the TV, carrying a cup of coffee. He turns off the TV and takes a drink from his cup.
"I'm watching that," says a disgruntled sounding Low Light.
Startled, Lifeline turns to see Low Light sitting in the dark in a corner. "Low Light! I should have known you'd still be up. Dont' you ever sleep at night?"
"I try not to," says Low Light.
Lifeline walks over and sits down near Low Light, telling him that he's had a nightmare. He also mentions that he's read Low Light's medical file and knows that he has nightmares too. He asks Low Light how he deals with them:
"How do you stand having them every night of your life?" "You make do, you have no choice," says Low Light in what is, for me, the best damn line of the entire GI Joe series. Not just because of the sentiment but because of the weight of feeling that the voice actor puts into the line.
We cut to nameless Cobra base #8739 where Serpentor and Dr. Mindbender are discussing the success of Mindbender's latest device, the Somulator. Mindbender tells Serpentor that the Somulator is working better than expected. Serpentor reminds Mindbender that there's no room for failure as this is not one of Cobra Commander's pathetic schemes (no, it's one of Serpentor's pathetic schemes!).
Mindbender explains that the Somulator's psychic waves triggers nightmares to drive their victims mad!
"Not mad, Dr. Mindbender -- at least not yet. I need the Joes to work for me," Serpentor says.
Cut to: The Joes are attacking a Cobra base, again in the arctic. Hawk's leading the attack, the Joes following him in Skystrikers. They take out the base and move in, only to be attacked by a giant cobra (as in snake). Hawk orders evasive manuvers, but the Joes are destroyed.
Hawk laments the loss of his team, blaming himself for leading the Joes to their deaths. He charges the snake, ejecting after his Skystriker is destroyed only to be devoured by the serpent.
One thing I have to credit this episode with is the fact that they give the Joes real reactions. There's no stereotypical, macho bullshit. Hawk is anguished by the loss of his team, he's genuinely afraid of being eaten alive.
Hawk also wakes up screaming from his nightmare and, like Lifeline, he's wearing PJs. It's also interesting that we get to see his whole face, without it being hidden behind his helmet.
The next day, Jaye is walking down the hall toward Hawk's office when she runs into Lowlight. She greets him, asking how it's going. "You don't want to know," says Low Light, leading Jaye to wonder what's up with him as Low Light walks off. She shrugs then heads into Hawk's office.
Hawk has his head in his hands. Jaye asks if he's okay. Hawk tells her about having had a nightmare. Jaye says that she did too. Hawk tells her that hers couldn't have been worse than his. She says she's not sure, hers had her singing the National Anthem at the Superbowl. Hawk asks how this is a nightmare.
"I wasn't exactly in dress uniform," says Jaye with a blush.
Beachhead (?) comes over the intercom, telling the Joes to get a move on as the Dreadnoks are attacking an oil rig.
Hawk orders the Joes to the Tomahawks, telling them to play things by the book, no special heroics.
Meanwhile, the Dreadnoks are practicing a form of criminal ecology, telling the rig workers to be nice and quiet and they'll live to drill another well -- then the Dreadnoks can siphon the oil from that one too!
Then, the Joes arrive -- which is what the Noks were waiting for. As the Joes go in for the attack, the Noks inflate a giant snake, just like the one from Hawk and Lifeline's dream. This causes Hawk to freak out -- again, nice touch -- so much so that he pulls a wild, evasive manuver and nearly loses control of his helicopter and himself. Jaye yells for him and finally Hawk manages to come back to himself. He goes in after the snake himself, ordering the other Joes to stay back.
He manages to take out the inflatable snake and the Joes go in after the rig workers. The Noks run like wet mascara after leaving a bomb behind.
Dial Tone tells Hawk they've got less than two minutes before the bomb goes off.
While the Joes free the hostages, Hawk and Leatherneck go into the rig to check for survivors. With just seconds to spare, Hawk and one last rig worker make it to the Tomahawks and the Joes take off as the rig explodes.
Back at the Cobra base, Mindbender is very pleased with the results at the rig. With an inflatable snake, he managed to make Hawk freak out. In a matter of weeks, he tells SErpentor, the Joes will be worthless as soldiers.
Serpentor, naturally enough, doesn't want to wait weeks. He wants results NOW!
Back at Joe base, Hawk is getting a checkup from Lifeline. Lifenline tells Hawk that he's okay, but that he's not the only one who's been having nightmares. He's report number twelve; all the Joes are becoming tense and even Lifeline himself hasn't slept in five days. Something is wrong but nobody knows what and things are getting worse.
Hawk's worried because he screwed up in battle. This scares him.
We cut to Iceberg at a drive-in movie with his girlfriend (the girl from Iceberg Goes South). She's sighing happily over the sci-fi movie on the screen, while Iceberg is falling asleep. In fact, he lands on his horn, much to the anger of those around them. His girlfriend pulls him back up and has him lean against her shoulder as he drifts off again.
That's when Mindbender and Serpentor, who've been watching Iceberg on a monitor, go in for the kill. And Dr. Mindbender uses the phrase "to the max" not once, but twice. Bad Mindbender! BAD!
In his nightmare, Iceberg is skiing along, having a good old time when he goes through a brick wall that vanishes before he crashes into it. He realizes that this is most likely a nightmare but has no idea how to fight against it. Before he can even come up wiht a strategy, he's attacked by a giant Cobra that spits fire at him. The cobra surrounds him with a circle of fire, causing him to sink under the water, flip over and end up trapped upside down, stuck in place by his skiis. And as if that wasnt' bad enough, then he gets attacked by an underwater cobra.
Then, he wakes up screaming.
Cut to: the exercise room in the Joe base. Various Joes are exercising as Hawk comes in and tells them to look alive, that they need exercise. Sci-Fi and Dial Tone complain about being tired and unable to sleep because of their nightmares. Hawk tries to pep them up, while he climbs a rope, telling them taht they have to stay on alert because if they don't, that's the moment when Cobra will strike. Iceberg tells Hawk that he doesn't want to think about Cobra anymore. Hawk is about to answer when the rope he's been climbing turns into a cobra. He screams, lets go of the rope and falls.
And wakes up screaming again, this time in his office. Lifeline brings him some coffee, askign Hawk if he's alright.
Hawk asks Lifeline what's happening to the Joes. Lifeline says none of them are letting themselves sleep. Sleep is when the nightmares come. Lifeline says that the Joes can't take much more of this. "GI Joe is falling apart."
Cut to: the Joe barracks, 3:45am. Various Joes are trying their damnedest to not sleep. Mainframe is up, working on his computer, with huge, black bags under his eyes. There's also a few quick cuts to a pair of Joes trying to sleep (I think it's Iceberg and Alpine, it's hard to tell since they're not in uniform) and Quick Kick karate-chopping his pillow before falling into it, face down.
We then cut to Cross Country who's working on his Havok and Leatherneck and Wet Suit who are playing cards. At least, until Wet Suit accuses Leatherneck of cheating and they start swinging punches at each other. Then, they bump into Cross Country and their spat turns into a full out brawl.
At least, until Low Light shows up: "Cut it out!" he yells. 'All of you! These nightmares are making everybody act crazy. Now, cool it or I'll show you a real nightmare."
Leaving the three of them behind, Low Light heads out of the motor pool, musing that the others can't take it like he can. He walks over toward a tree where he sits down and promptly falls asleep.
And promptly wakes up in a demonic looking junkyard, populated by evil-looking rat/car hybrids. "Where am I?" he asks, in accordance with the laws of a narrative universe. "Who's there?"
Low Light's dad's disembodied voice taunts him, telling him that Low Light is a coward and a wimp. Low Light begs his father not to say that, the fear and anguish in his voice a real contrast to the low, threatening growl he's spoken in for the rest of the episode. His father's voice tells him that he has to kill twenty rats to prove to him that he's not a wimp. Low Light agrees, but his father ups the ante, telling him that he'll have to do this in the dark. Low Light screams as the headlights on the evil rat-cars go out.
Serpentor and Mindbender watch as Low Light's nightmare unfolds. Mindbender tells Serpentor that they're getting a response from Target #6. Serpentor tells Mindbender to increase the dosage on Low Light, that he wants to see the Joe crack like an egg.
Now, what I wonder is, how much of this initial part of Low Light's nightmare was created by Dr. Mindbender and how much was created by Low Light himself. Part of me wants to say that pretty much everything prior to Dr. Mindbender turning up the juice is pure Low Light but, really, there's no way of knowing.
Anyway...
Low Light walks through the junkyard o' Freudian goodness, looking for rats. He's armed with a rifle and as he stalks the rats, some of the car/rat hybrids that populate the junkyard are stalking him in turn. As he fires at them, they morph into snakes, but Low Light stands his ground.
"I ain't running this time, Dad! I'm not a kid any longer! This time, I'll get those blasted rats!" Low Light screams, firing at the rat-cars which morph into snakes. He continues firing. "You gotta be tougher than that! I'm no wimp any more! I'm a GI Joe and nothing stops a GI Joe! Nothing!"
As Low Light continues to resist, Mindbender turns up the power. Low Light faces one of the giant snakes that have thusfar managed to defeat the other Joes. He continues railing against the nightmare: "You gotta be tougher than me and these days they don't make anyone tougher! Hear me Dad?!"
Low Light defeats the giant snake and stands on top of a junker car as the sun comes up in the dream world. "What do you think of your cowardly sone now, Dad?" he asks.
The next day, Low Light walks into the commissary (though an animation glitch shows that he's already there), feeling chipper. Dial Tone asks who made him Little Mary Sunshine.
"Had a good dream last night," Low Light chirps. "Fought some snakes, and won."
The others realize that they've all been having dreams about snakes, cobras (naturally) and begin to put the pieces together: the fact that they're all dreaming about the same thing means that it's a Cobra plot. Wow, really? Snake motif in everyone's dreams and you think it might be Cobra? Color me shocked.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mindbender is getting read the riot act by Serpentor who is not pleased by the fact that Low Light managed to beat the Somulator. Mindbender tells Serpentor that he can take things to the next level by going into the Joes' dreams and directing them himself, though this could cause the ruin of the entire plan. Serpentor wants results though, so Mindbender plans to do exactly that.
'Course, at the same time, the Joes have come up with a way to strike back at Mindbender. Basically, they're using a reworked EEG machine to let Lifeline know when the Joes are dreaming then they'll route the Joes' dreams through Low Light and let him fight Mindbender's dreams.
In the dream world, the Joes are in Low Light's dream, which means he's off screen for the first bit. At first, things go bad for the Joes. Alpine tries to rescue Iceberg and falls to his death, Mainframe turns into a robot, Dial-Tone loses the ability to speak, Jaye gets literally blown away and Hawk can't make a decision out of fear of killing his men in the process. But, Hawk manages to pull himself together enough to temporarily bring the Joes together. They form a circle and hold hands, realizing that if they stay together, they can defeat Cobra.
Mindbender appears in the dream inside a column of fire. He taunts the Joes, trying to demoralize them but is cut short when Low Light arrives with a pack of junkyard rat-cars. He's riding on the back of one of the rat-cars and taunts Mindbender: "You call this a nightmare? I'll show you the stuff that mightmares are really made of, Mindbender!"
The rat-cars attack Mindbender's giant cobras, who turn from the Joes and fight against the cars. Mindbender tries to get the snakes to forget about the rats and go after Low Light but to no effect.
"No way, your dreams are powerless. I'm in control!" Low Light taunts as he grows into Super Huge Economy Sized Low Light . He picks up an ice floe and slams it into Mindbender, who is a giant column of flame at the moment, yelling. 'Now, welcome to my nightmare!"
This causes Mindbender to be the one to wake up screaming and, in a fit of dream-induced hysteria, destroy the Somulator. How he'll explain this to Serpentor is left as an exercise for the student.
The Joes wake up, feeling better now that it's finally over. Hawk and Lifeline look over at Low Light who is still asleep and muse that he didn't just defeat Mindbender, he's also defeated his own personal demons. Lifeline urges the others to let him sleep since this is the first good night's rest he's had in years.
End of Episode, Roll Credits.
Commentary: Nightmare Assault is one of those episodes that people who claim the cartoon isn't as good as the comic should be made to watch. In the space of 22 minutes, in a cartoon made in the mid-1980s, we get to see a very good handling of personal fears and child abuse that doesn't stoop to beating us over the head with morals. That kind of writing for TV is rare, it's even rarer still in kids' shows where too often people presume that kids have to have everything spelled out for them in exacting detail lest they Not Get It.
This is also a great episode for Low Light fans because, let's face it, it's his showcase episode. It's all about him. Yeah, he's not in it for very long but he gets the best lines, he gets to save the day and we get to see him being himself.
My biggest complaint about Nightmare Assault is that it takes the Joes so long to figure out that Cobra is behind their nightmares. But then, a certain level of willful ignorance is essential to shows like GI Joe and Transformers. You can't have the good guys figure things out too fast or the show won't run for the full 22 minutes. And, to an extent, it makes sense that the Joes might not want to sit around and discuss their dreams with each other. Dreams, even nightmares, can be tough to remember once you wake up. Not to mention potentially embarassing.
Does anyone else wonder if Mindbender had a hand in Jaye's singing at the Superbowl dream? Or if he video taped it? I mean, he's evil after all. And how the heck does Cobra manage to track the Joes when they're not in their base? Or in their base for that matter? Did they send out a bunch of Naturalist Vipers to tag the Joes for migratory purposes? Yeah, yeah, I know, plot convenience just like the Six Degrees of Snake-eyes from the comic but rank speculation is the first right of being a fangirl, damnit!
My favorite thing about the episode is that we find out Low Light was abused as a kid in such a subtle and non-overbearing way. And that Low Light is shown not as a victim but as a survivor. He couldn't fight against his dad when he was a kid, but he grew up to become strong despite his father's attempts to squish. That's a nice understated message for the kids right there. Oh, and that a Big Deal is not made out of the issue, but instead the audience is left to draw their own conclusions about the situation. Yay!
That and I love the line "You make do. You have no choice" because, well, damnit it's true. Sometimes life sucks and all you can do is make do, there's no other choice. Though part of me wonders if Low Light said it to try and shut Lifeline up. I mean, you got to figure the guy who stays up all night is probably the one who gets stuck listening to the problems of people who can't sleep.*
I also think I might have found a very back-handed, subtle but still painful pun in all this: "Welcome to My Nightmare" is an Alice Cooper song (I first heard him sing it on "The Muppet Show" when I was a kid). Low Light's first name? Cooper. Owie.
Overall, this is an episode not to be missed. Excellent writing, good story and you get to see Low Light master evil junkyard rat-cars!
Fun Fact: Charles Adler, the voice of Low Light, went on to become the voice of Buster Bunny in Tiny Toons as well as the voices of Cow, Chicken, Little Red Guy and I think I. R. Baboon in Cow and Chicken on the Cartoon Network.
*Blowing Own Horn Section: I used the idea of Low Light staying up at night watching TV for two fanfics, Making Do and Wonders Never Cease, which are available at Fanfiction.Net in the GI Joe section. They're under the author name of kepulver.