Pawn of Shadows

Pawn Of Shadows is the twenty-fifth episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Premise
The gang is attacked by a hi-tech assassin Obliteratrix, which leads them to investigate the mystery of the Cursed Treasure further with the assistance of H.P. Hatecraft.

Synopsis
Twenty years ago, the original Mystery Inc. investigate an old Spanish church and find a document with a picture of the Planispheric Disk. They are observed by a ghoulish figure, the Freak of Crystal Cove.

The gang meet for breakfast at the K-Ghoul station. Daphne wants to talk with Fred about their engagement announcement, but Fred is more interested in a new phone app that will tell him if his trap stuff is moved in the Mystery Machine. Velma gets out their disk piece to study.

A mention of a hot sauce brand by Scooby-Doo makes Velma realize the writing on the disk is backwards, and in Spanish. They also realized that many of the books in the Darrow Family Archives trunk are in Spanish. They load up the trunk in the Mystery Machine and head to the Darrow University campus to get H.P. Hatecraft to help with translations.

Hatecraft doesn't want to help at first. He is too busy trying to learn how to write like Regina Wentworth, author of the successful Dusk novels and Dean Natasha Fenk's current favorite. The gang offers to help him with his writing for teens, in return for Spanish work.

As they walk back to their car, Fred says that the Dean will never even know the gang has been there. Just then the Mystery Machine explodes in front of them. A figure wearing strips of black leather appears out of nowhere.

"I am the Obliteratrix," she says in a computerized-sounding voice. "I have only one purpose: to destroy Mystery Incorporated!"

They run, and the Obliteratrix fills their path with concussion bombs. They finally escape, only to discover they have charged into a Dusk reading by Wentworth, and the Dean is there.

Later, they watch as Wentworth and the Dean are interviewed by TV news people, with Wentworth snickering about Hatecraft being an "oldie olderson writer."

Meanwhile, Angel Dynamite and Mr. E watch on his monitors. Angel wants to help the kids, because she thinks Professor Pericles is attacking, but Mr. E just tells Ed Machine to monitor the situation and not to intervene unless absolutely necessary.

The gang thinks the Mystery Machine is gone forever, and Fred vows to avenge it. Shaggy and Scooby help Hatecraft with a critical reading of his teen novel. Velma, Daphne, and Fred dig in the library for clues. Fred's cell phone gives a belch. It means that the Mystery Machine is still alive.

They collect Shaggy and Scooby at Hatecraft's house, and Hatecraft "borrows" a campus van with Dusk advertising on the side. They get the Mystery Machine back intact, even though they have to face the Obliteratrix again in an old railroad yard, and Hatecraft loses his job when the Dean finds out about the van.

Professor Pericles watches the second fight on a TV monitor and considers coming to help the gang fight this new enemy, because he still needs them alive.

With the trunk back in their possession they quickly pick up a clue. The old books mentioncolored glass, and that reminds Scooby of the stained glass in the old Spanish Church where he and Pericles went the day Aphrodite attacked the town.

At the old Spanish church they discover a pin belonging to the old Mystery Incorporated. Soon after that, they discover the secret entrance to an underground shaft. But before they can look any further, the Obliteratrix shows up again. She nearly succeeds in trapping everyone, but Angel Dynamite shows up and fights her, eventually trapping her. When she is unmasked it turns out she is Alice May.

Alice May only pretended to put them in danger. All her attacks were special effects. The real purpose was to draw Pericles away from protecting his recently-stolen piece. The Sheriff takes Alice May off to jail again, saying he didn't know she had ever gotten out. The Dean shows up and offers Hatecraft his job back, because the Japanese song rights to his Char Gar Gothakon book are making money for the university.

Daphne asks Angel how she knew they were there. Velma says she had to tell the truth, so Angel admits to everyone for the first time that she is Cassidy Williams. She says that all the original members were forced to leave town by threats against their families after they found the "map." Cassidy warns that it could happen to them, and urges them to give their piece to Mr. E or Professor Pericles, she doesn't care which, to end the case and the danger to themselves.

Fred and the others refuse. They don't want to listen to Angel because she lied to them. Fred says, "The mystery isn't over until we say it's over." As the gang drives away, Angel calls out to them that the Freak is still out there.

Sure enough, the Freak is watching from on top of the church, muttering a threatening poem.

Villains

 * Obliteratrix/Alice May

Locations

 * Crystal Cove
 * K-Ghoul
 * Darrow University
 * H.P. Hatecraft's home
 * Abandoned railway yard
 * No Tell Motel
 * Destroido Corp.
 * Mr. E's lair
 * Old Spanish Church
 * Quest Research Laboratories

Continuity

 * Judy Reeves turns out to be a blonde, and so does Brad Chiles, in spite of the darker-looking hair in their old photos.
 * In this episode it is revealed that what looked like a simple bail-out of Alice May by Ed Machine was actually a jail-break. Mr. Machine released her from her cell without Sheriff Stone even being aware she was gone.
 * Because Angel Dynamite lied to the gang, they lose their trust in her.

Notes/trivia

 * This is the penultimate episode of season one.
 * This episode originally aired June 4, 2011 on Canada's Teletoon.
 * The woman who resembles Cass Elliot is in the audience at the Dusk lecture.
 * All of Daphne's sisters have been engaged, and they all handled the announcements badly, in Daphne's opinion. Particularly Dawn, who tried to train chickens to spell out her name.
 * There is a cameo by the cast of Johnny Quest.
 * On the wall of H.P. Hatecraft's office, to get him in the mindset of a teenage girl, he has two Wonder Wheels posters, a DC Comics Prez poster, Schleprock from The Pebbles and Bamm Bamm Show, Drak Jr. from the Drak Pack, Josie and Alexander from Josie and the Pussycats, Butch Cassidy from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids and one of Suzie and Stanley Chan from the Chan Clan band. This Suzie may or may not be the same as the Suzie Chan lookalike who attends Crystal Cove High School.
 * Shaggy says "...We've been teenagers forever." This a reference to Mystery Inc. being portrayed as teens for most of the franchise.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * The piece of the Planispheric Disk that Velma examines in Angel's trailer has the shape of the piece from the Jones mansion that should be in the hands of Professor Pericles (since A Haunting In Crystal Cove), not the piece from the Darrow Mansion the gang had.
 * At one point, the word "fuego" can be seen clearly written on the piece, not in mirror writing as Velma says later.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Season One, Part 2 - Crystal Cove Curse

Quotes
"Like, yeah, we've been teenagers forever."

- Shaggy