| The Aceman Cometh | |
|---|---|
| Season 3, Episode 9 | |
| |
| Air date | 8. December, 1997 |
| Written by | Duane Capizzi |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous When Pigs Ruled the Earth |
Next Have Mask, Will Travel |
The Aceman Cometh is the fifty-fourth episode of The Mask: The Animated Series.
Summary[]
In this series finale, Stanley's dog Milo is kidnapped by Pretorius and Stanley summons the help of Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (from the movie and animated series of the same name) to find him.
Plot[]
The Mask and Milo are enjoying a day of peace and tranquility at Landfill Park, but they are suddenly attacked by Pretorius, who is using a special device to absorb and steal the intelligence of famous scientists. During the confrontation, Pretorius accidentally hits Milo with the device and while the Mask gets distracted attending to Milo, Pretorius escapes but realizes that the intelligence his device absorbed has been downloaded into Milo's brain. Later that night, while Stanley is asleep, Pretorius uses his tentacles to sneak into his apartment and kidnap Milo.
The next day, Stanley is horrified upon learning that Milo has been kidnapped, but can't risk putting on the Mask, for the Coco Bongo is hosting a limbo contest tonight and Stanley thinks the Mask will be distracted by that instead of locating Milo. Fortunately, Stanley watches a commercial advertising the services of Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, so he decides to hire him.
Ace quickly arrives at Stanley's apartment and while Ace's pet monkey, Spike, uses the bathroom, Ace starts looking for clues to find Milo. He and Spike interrogate Mrs. Peenman, who gets locked up in the bathroom Spike just used and admits she didn't kidnap Milo. Ace then attempts to check Stanley's closet out, but Stanley prevents him from doing so, not wanting Ace to find the Mask. Just a few seconds ago, Stanley had thrown the Mask into the closet after finding Spike, Ace's pet monkey, playing with it.
Ace agrees to continue his investigation elsewhere, and Stanley, having come to the conclusion that he can't trust Ace, decides to put on the Mask and search for Milo himself. Ace watches the Mask come out of Stanley's apartment and believes him to be responsible for Milo's disappearance. A fight ensues and the Mask chases Ace to the Coco Bongo and wins the limbo contest. Kellaway, having parked next to the Coco Bongo, attempts to arrest the Mask yet again, until Ace listens to a report from Kellaway's car. According to the police, the MacGuffin Space Center is under attack by two assailants, one of them being identified as a dog.
Since a dog is present at the space center, that must mean the Mask is innocent, so he and the Mask agree to save Milo and stop the kidnapper together. They ambush Pretorius, Milo's kidnapper, at the space center. Pretorius, having used Milo to infiltrate the space center, allows the Mask and Ace to take Milo, for he no longer needs Milo for his plan. Much to the surprise of both the Mask and Ace, Milo suddenly proves to be capable of human speech. He reveals himself to be Professor Quartermass, an astronomer working at the space center, and his mind was suddenly transferred into Milo's body by Pretorius. That must mean that Pretorius' device can switch its victims' brainwaves and transfer them to different bodies.
The Mask, Ace and Quartermass return to Landfill Park, the place where the body switch happened, and find Milo, whose mind is now in Quartermass' body. Quartermass, using his new dog nose to track Pretorius' scent, discovers that Pretorius has travelled to an abandoned power station. The Mask and Ace infiltrate the power station, but not before Ace reveals that he knows that the Mask and Stanley are the same person. Milo behaves around the Mask the exact same way he behaves around Stanley, not to mention that Spike took photographs of Stanley putting on the Mask at the apartment.
The heroes encounter Pretorius, who reveals that he used Quartermass' knowledge to steal a satellite probe from a mission on Mars which contained a fossilized cranium of a prehistoric Martian lifeform and used its DNA to create his own Martian lifeform. As the Mask fights the Martian, Ace reaches Pretorius' mind-switching device and attempts to return Milo and Quartermass to their rightful bodies. However, he gets into a fight with Pretorius and the device starts switching everyone's minds. The Mask, Ace, Milo, Spike and Quartermass are returned to their original bodies, but Pretorius and the Martian are trapped in the wrong bodies and, as punishment, the Mask and Ace lock them up in the same satellite probe, and send it back to Mars.
Sometime later, Ace and Stanley part ways, but not before Spike gives Stanley the photos that reveal his secret identity. Unfortunately, Spike has taken the Mask, and now, Stanley has to chase after Ace to get it back.