The episode opens with a shot of a large office building. It’s ISO Headquarters! Inside, a man in a vague semblance of a security guard’s uniform (well, he has a security guard hat, anyway) is carrying a metal briefcase down a long flight of stairs. Reaching what appears to be the basement, he goes through a metal door. Beyond the door is a room full of computer equipment… and a large vault. The vault has a massive wheel on the outside, to use as an opening device.
The man puts down the briefcase and opens the vault, turning the wheel exactly as it needs to be moved, implying that he’s familiar with the opening of this vault.
All seems normal… except for the nasty look on the man’s face, which tells us that something isn’t quite right. Sure enough, the man opens the briefcase and inside we see some kind of bomb.
The man grins and chuckles evilly (See, I was right!) before closing the briefcase again. I guess he was just checking to make sure it was still there. He laughs more as he places it inside of the vault and closes the door.
Now we cut to a sparkling chandelier, hanging high above… the Science Ninja Team! They appear to be in some kind of lobby. All except Jinpei.
Why is Joe staring at the wall?
“Why do we always have to babysit Dr. Nambu?” Ryu yawns. “What kind of meeting are they having, anyway?”
“Apparently a new uranium mine has been discovered. I bet that’s what it’s about.” Jun guesses.
Oh look, Joe isn’t staring at the wall! It’s glass, and he’s watching businessmen file past.
“I’ll bet you Galactor’s going to try to make another move.” Joe says. Wow, if Joe really lives his life this way, it must be rather stressful. How many meetings does Dr. Nambu go to? And Joe expects all of them to involve Galactor? Yikes!
Of course, with what we saw at the beginning of this episode, we know that Joe is right to be suspicious. At least, this time.
“Hey wait! Hold on a second!” Ken shouts, as if this were some kind of emergency. “What happened to little brother?” Clearly Ken has forgotten Jinpei’s tendency to wander.
“He went outside awhile ago.” Jun explains. “He said he couldn’t stand sitting around.”
Of course, you don’t have to ‘stand’ if you’re ‘sitting around’… but I digress.
Outside, Jinpei is mightily impressed by a flashy-looking sports car in the parking lot.
“Whoa! That’s so cool!” he exclaims. “It must be rad to get to drive around in a car like this!” I think the ADV people were overdoing the 70s slang, here. JMHO.
“It even has a TV!” Jinpei drools. “I wanna ride!”
Now, see if you notice anything suspicious in this picture…
In any case, Jinpei is still drooling.
“I wonder who’s lucky enough to own such a bad car!” he exclaims. Ah, such a fitting tribute to Michael Jackson…
“Bet it’s a really pretty girl.” Jinpei chuckles. But he chokes on his words as he notices…
Yep. Did you see it in the earlier shot?
“It’s Galactor!” Jinpei shouts, in case you didn’t know what that devil head symbol meant.
And as he says that, a door to the parking lot opens up, and the man in the security guard hat comes out. Jinpei quickly gets underneath the car.
Hey, wasn’t this a low-slung sports car?
The man stops to open his trunk, tossing his hat inside. Jinpei tosses what looks like a rock at him.
Of course, the rock bounces off of the man’s belt and onto the edge of the trunk, just before it closes. This prevents it from locking.
Jinpei crawls out from underneath the car as the man gets into the driver’s seat.
Then, being the thoughtful, prudent boy that he is, Jinpei hops inside of the trunk.
Fortunately, he does think enough to try and contact the others, as the car speeds away.
Too bad the ‘engine is disrupting the radio transmission’! He can’t get through! And now I have to wonder… what kind of special engine is this? How can Joe use his bracelet in the G-2? How can any of the Science Ninja Team use their bracelets on a moving vehicle or mecha? Hmmm… a little too plot-convenient, if you ask me.
Back inside the lobby, Jun is trying to contact Jinpei.
‘That’s strange, there’s some kind of interference.” she tells Ken.
“Just keep trying to get in touch with him.” Ken orders.
But as Jun tries again, Dr. Nambu arrives.
“Hello! Sorry to keep you all waiting. Let’s go.” Nambu says.
“We can’t.” Ken says. “It looks like Jinpei decided to run off on his own again.”
“Well, he’s at the age where he’s always looking for some fun.” Nambu replies, in an almost fatherly tone. I don’t recall him ever being so magnanimous before!
“I’m sure he was bored waiting here.” the Doctor adds. “We can go ahead. He’ll catch up.”
“Groovy.” Ken replies, but then he starts thinking about Jinpei. “That kid is hopeless. Where in the world could he have run off to?”
And now we see where Jinpei is… it’s a Galactor base!
“I can’t believe I found a Galactor base without even trying!” he crows. “Cool!”
He is just trying to contact the others when he hears voices. Three goons are coming down the hall.
“I hear Lord Katse has a new plan in the works.” says one.
“Oh, really? That’s good news!” says another.
“Let’s hope we can pull it off, this time!” says the third.
Ah yes, casual conversation around the Galactor base.
“Lord Katse is supposed to issue an order soon.” the first goon says again, as the soldiers move away.
High up on the wall, Jinpei has heard everything.
“Galactor scumbags! Sounds like they’re up to something again!” he thinks to himself.
He gasps as he sees an opening into a large cavern, and a barred, but lighted, window in the cavern’s opposite wall.
Inside that room, our Captain of the Week is being briefed by a goon. The Captain is in a red and blue superhero-style costume, complete with mask. His blond hair is teased out beyond belief. I think he fronts a metal band as his secret identity when he’s not working as a Galactor superhero.
Ooh, turns out he’s not a Captain, he’s a Commander! It’s a higher-ranking CotW this time.
“How did the operation go?” Commander Metalhead asks.
“Phase One was a success, Sir!” the goon reports. “The ISO’s Headquarters were surprisingly easy to sneak into.”
“Good work!” Commander Metalhead replies. He has a bad British accent, as does the goon. Maybe they’re both secretly members of Spinal Tap?
“Move onto Phase Two immediately, Nigel!” Commander Metalhead orders.
“Those blimey bastards at the ISO would never even dream that we’d come up with a plan like this, Commander!” replies British goon smugly.
“If this plan is successful, we’ll be able to kill two birds with one stone!” Commander Metalhead replies. But he’s stuttering. And more than just once. Perhaps the ADV writers couldn’t come up with enough filler for him to say while the character was still moving his lips?
“All I have to do is press this little red button and ISO Headquarters goes up in flames!” Commander Metalhead stutters. The goon with him makes a ‘boom’ noise.
“I can’t wait to see Nambu and the Science Ninja Team’s reaction!” Commander Metalhead stutters again, Wow, this is pretty bad. Has he seen a speech therapist about this? Perhaps the Galactor Medical Care Plan doesn’t include such things.
Of course, Jinpei hears all.
“Man, this blows!” he thinks.
Jinpei would really think it blows if he knew that in BOTP, it’s his character who has the speech impediment.