Welcome back to the further adventures of Black Panther and the Puzzle Pals in their pursuit of the final piece of whatever it is they’ve been looking for! Today we team up with friends new and old, criminally reformed and steam-powered, to solve history’s mystery of a missing Wakandan boat and finally finish that level-6 puzzle box T’Challa has been noodlin’ on for nearly three months. Hold on to your bloomers as things get steamy at the South Pole!
1. Taken to Task
So at this point we’re probably looking at a weekly bullet-point regarding a cold open featuring a skull-faced villain being an asshole to T’Challa. This week we’ve got a pretty sweet-looking Taskmaster voiced by the world’s finest Lex Luthor, Clancy Brown! Tasky is looking sharp and basically always does when redesigned from the pirate-booted George Perez costume created nearly 40 damn years ago. The little half-cape is pretty cool and his smaller stature is a neat departure from the hulking beefcake we usually see, though, he’s sadly missing his sword and energy shield but I guess he still would have met his end at the claws of our favorite feline. Stay-tuned next week for a Skull-Face cold open, probably.
2. Grampa’s Many Secrets
I couldn’t have guessed that this, or any, episode would be loosely referential to 1968 Cold-War thriller Ice Station Zebra but, uh, here we are. I really want to rip on Zebra but I like John Sturges so I’ll just move on. I’m excited that the show is again hewing towards espionage with the off-the-books investigation of a long lost steampunk sailboat, Yemandi’s Cutter, located under a polar ice cap at a Shield climate research base. The setting is pretty much the only thing spy-like.
T’Challa’s grandpa’s secret seems to be that he actually found the boat a while ago and just lied to everyone so he had a place to stash his sweet loot.
3. On His Captain’s Secret Service
Since Panther is still a Secret Avenger, Cap is our only consistent liaison with the world of organized heroics. Cap pulls some strings and easily finds the exact secret location of the final piece of the Wakandan royal family crest that T’Challa has been looking for. I get that Panther can’t be seen being aided by the Avengers because of, like, foreign policy or something but this whole Secret Avenger thing is more of an excuse for Cap to dip out of the tower and hang out with his cool absolute monarch friend. Regardless, Cap is always a super welcome addition to anything short of a double date especially considering the plot of this show makes significant strides every time he shows up. Mark my words, the next time Steve feels like hanging out shit will get done.
4. The Nesting Phase
Hawkeye is conveniently stationed at this insanely remote ice station code-named, no shit, “Zebra,” with Whitney Frost, the doctor he’s sweet on. These two were seen together last season in “Why I Hate Halloween” in which they develop whatever kind of romance that can be found while trying to kill fucking Dracula and his horde of slobbering murder demons in Eastern Europe. I get the vibe that Dr. Frost couldn’t care much less about Clint if it weren’t for the whole being on house-arrest in Antarctica thing but maybe she’s into him being obnoxiously whiny and petulant with a vaguely defined moral compass that makes Cap look like a bad boy. Clint essentially does nothing of value in this episode, he’s just kind of there to react to Frost’s turn and play the blame game.
5. Sssomebody Stop Her
The overall plot development is pretty simple here: Panther finds his last puzzle piece. The real fun is in another addition to the Shadow Council found in the villainous turn by Dr. Whitney Frost, AKA Giulietta Nefaria, AKA Madame Masque voiced by Wynn Everett who also played the character in Agent Carter! I really dig Frost’s transformation into Masque considering how bizarre the concept is: So, this ancient Wakandan ship uses technology different from what T’Challa uses now. Instead of knobs, steering wheels, computer programs with a user interface or something that makes sense the ship and everything on it is controlled by an incongruently-designed golden mask that interfaces (no pun intended) the wearer’s brain with the the whole ship .
I don’t get what’s goin’ on here but Masque floats around, contorting like she just climbed out of the well from The Ring and turns evil, accepting an offer to join Killmonger do whatever it is they’re up to presumably on a sick moon base. It’s all super sudden and makes up a bulk of the episode but it’s a nice way to duck out of that lame Hawkeye romance plot that wasn’t going anywhere but down with a sinking ship, literally.
