Emmie, I told you never to make that surprise stew again!
  -- a farmer (to his wife while running away from a giant germ)
Home Episode Summaries Season 2 Sins of the Fathers


"With Dial-Tone working for me, Serpentor is as good as finished."
- Cobra Commander (after Zarana informs him that Dial-Tone has joined Cobra)

Standing around a large well, Destro and a group of BATs and Tele-Vipers listen to Cobra Commander order a laser to be activated. Irritated about the lack of results, Cobra Commander orders the laser’s power to increase. A Tele-Viper acknowledges the order and turns up the power, however, the noise created by the machine causes everyone to grab their head in pain and the BATs to self-destruct.

Amid the ruins of his family's castle, Destro berates Cobra Commander, however, the hissing, silver-masked terrorist responds that Serpentor approved of his project. “Did it ever occur to you that perhaps he gave it to you as busy-work? To keep you occupied?” Destro testily replies. However, Cobra Commander assures Destro that the ultimate jest will be on Serpentor.

In the middle of the night and inside a dingy motel room, Dial-Tone listens to Hector Ramirez report on the exploits of the Joes in Northern Africa. While eating his dinner from a can, Dial-Tone remembers Shipwreck reporting on a radio that he and Wet-Suit found a Cobra sub and need back-up immediately. Dial-Tone tells Cutter about the heavily garbled transmission and is then soaked as Cutter races away in his WHALE. Riding aboard a Devilfish, Beach Head banks heavily and soaks Dial-Tone, who sarcastically shouts, “Thanks Beach Head! Just what my gear needed - another bath!”

After remembering Beach Head scolding him for not water-proofing his equipment, he recalls entering a locker room at G.I.Joe headquarters and being insulted by Wet-Suit and Leatherneck for his wardrobe. However, Roadblock, who recently re-enlisted with the Joes, walks up and offers to help the Joe find some trendy clothes.


But Flint interrupts the conversation, asks Roadblock for some privacy and tells Dial-Tone that his latest performance report as a Joe was not high enough for the review board. As a result, Dial-Tone’s reenlistment request was turned down. Flint then tries to cheer Dial-Tone up by pointing out that he made the team, an accomplishment reached by a very small number of people.

Dial-Tone is pulled of his memories by a knock at the door. A woman lets herself into the room, greets Dial-Tone as Mr. Morelli, and introduces herself as Chipper Doogan. After verifying with Dial-Tone that he is available for work, she explains that her company wishes to hire him to create a communications system and adds that it will be the greatest challenge of his life. Chipper Doogan asks if the ex-Joe is interested and after Dial-Tone stammers out that his curiosity is piqued, she explains that a car will pick him up tomorrow morning. She lets herself out of the room and Dial-Tone raises his hand in the air and happily shouts, “I got a job!”

Chipper Doogan enters a limo, removes her clothes to reveal herself as Zarana and explains to Cobra Commander that her voice analyzer confirmed that Dial-Tone was kicked off the Joe team. Cobra Commander then confidently tells her, “With Dial-Tone working for me, Serpentor is as good as finished.”

While workers unload equipment from a truck, Dial-Tone jokingly asks an elderly local man if he brought any snake and kidney pies? Chipper Doogan admonishes the man for entering their work area as well as Dial-Tone for wasting his time talking to the man since he has a large amount of work ahead of him.


In a barn, the old man removes his mask to reveal himself as Flint, who removes part of a hay stack and talks into a radio, “Checkmate to Bird One.” Mainframe and General Hawk pickup his transmission at G.I.Joe headquarters, and Flint reports that Dial-Tone is working on some Cobra project at the ruins of Destro’s castle. He then confesses that he hated lying to Dial-Tone that he was not part of the team. However, General Hawk explains that lying to Dial-Tone was necessary because of the possible use of a voice analyzer.

However, as the radio transmission ends, two Tele-Vipers intercept Flint’s radio message, triangulate his location and attack him while he is brushing a horse.

The horse kicks two of the Tele-Vipers into the air, however, the group of Cobra agents overpower Flint and beat him to the ground. “Give ‘im a couple of good ones for me, mates,” requests Zarana. “I don’t want to ruin me dress.”

Zarana and the Tele-Vipers enter a room carrying Flint in a bag. “Next time you send a message, Flint - try a carrier pigeon!” Cobra Commander mockingly tells Flint, as he sticks his head up. Cobra Commander then explains that even though Flint is unwilling to send false reports about Cobra’s failures, a new device created by his Tele-Vipers, called a voice modulator, will allow Cobra to send reports in Flint’s voice. As a result, Cobra Commander will have enough time to communicate with the creature before G.I.Joe or Serpentor know what is happening.

As Dial-Tone leans over the deep well, he tells Chipper that he can’t believe that anything is living at the bottom. However, Chipper tells him in a terse voice that he is only responsible for assembling the communication device, which is activated. And the well glows, the ground shakes and a triple-level feedback causes equipment to crackle with electricity before exploding. Chipper declares the project a disaster, however, Dial-Tone explains that because he was able to gleam enough information from the first communication, the second one will not fail.


In Flint’s voice, Zarana reports to General Hawk and Mainframe that Dial-Tone’s project was a failure and will take weeks to be rebuilt. With nothing else to report, Zarana signs off and turns to watch Flint’s reaction while he is chained against a wall and with tape over his mouth.

General Hawk turns to Mainframe and asks, “Well?” Mainframe explains that since Flint missed his last check-in time, he decided to build his own voice analyzer and, unfortunately, the message was from Zarana and not Flint. Realizing that Flint and Dial-Tone are as good as dead once Cobra Commander has whatever he wants at the ruins, General Hawk orders a rescue operation. Roadblock, Low-Light, Gung Ho, Lift-Ticket and General Hawk race to three Tomahawks and leave Joe headquarters in order to rescue their friends.

Part One - Part Two - Part Three


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