Diamond Stick-Pin

Seymour throws Zeek the Beak out of his cab after one wisecrack too many. Hardware finds Zeek on foot, learns that the two have fallen out, and sees a way to turn it against Stargazer and the SilverHawks. He drives Zeek to meet Mon*Star, who plays the genial host and tells him to call him Boss, and then offers him a gleaming black limo: all Zeek has to do is be on call when the Mob needs it. As a present, Hardware gives him a diamond stick-pin to wear all the time. Once Zeek has gone, Hardware explains the plan. The SilverHawks used to take Seymour's cab on official business, so they will hire Zeek too, and the pin is a remote-control bomb.

At Hawk Haven, Stargazer orders the team to take a few days off and suggests a trip to Bedlama. With Bluegrass and the Copper Kidd on patrol there is no transport, Seymour's cab has overheated, and Seymour grudgingly tells Stargazer to call Zeek. On his way, Zeek has a run-in with the Space Bandits, and the pin ends up in their hands; they ride in Seymour's cab to Fence to sell it. At the Sini*Star Diner, Poker-Face and Melodia take it off them, and because they have been on Mon*Star's bad side ever since they tried to rub him out, they decide to give it to him.

Zeek drives Quicksilver and the Steel twins towards Bedlama, orders Seymour's cab out of the way, and the two end up brawling while a SilverHawk tries to part them. On Brim*Star, Mon*Star is twice talked out of pressing the button too soon, and when he finally does, Poker-Face and Melodia have just arrived with their present. The Mob nearly blows itself to bits. Zeek and Seymour apologise and make up, and split the fares for the rest of the trip.

Hardware gives Zeek a diamond stick-pin containing a remote-controlled bomb.

"Yeah, it's nothing, Zeek. That's what friends are for."

Zeek the Beak: "Your problem is you're jealous of me and my limo."

Seymour: "I suppose I shouldn't have thrown you out of the cab."

What is a friend worth in the Galaxy of Limbo? Peter Lawrence's script asks it twice, once of two cabbies who cannot stand each other and once of a gang that cannot stand anybody. Seymour throws Zeek the Beak out of his cab in the opening scene, and before Zeek has walked far Hardware has pulled up beside him, grinning, with an offer of a lift. What follows on Brim*Star is the best-written stretch of the episode, because the Mob are for once being nice. Mon*Star tells Zeek to make himself at home, and somebody in the room assures him, "Yeah, it's nothing, Zeek. That's what friends are for."[1]

A friend who gets on your nerves is a different thing from a friend who is holding the detonator, and Lawrence builds the plot on that difference: the Mob's generosity comes with a limo, a present and a condition, and the pin is a remote-control bomb that Zeek has been told to wear all the time. Seymour's friendship comes with nothing at all except a bad temper, and yet it is Seymour who, sulking and with a spanner in his hand, tells Stargazer to call Zeek when his own cab has overheated.

The staging shows the SilverHawks through the Mob's eyes. Most of their side of the story plays on a monitor in the fortress, first the hawk-shaped outline of Hawk Haven and later Quicksilver standing with his arms folded while Zeek and Seymour squabble in the road. Mon*Star keeps reaching for the button and his crew keep talking him down, first because the bomb could not blow up Hawk Haven and then because Quicksilver has stepped out of the limo, and the joke is that we know what the Mob does not: the pin left Zeek scenes ago.[2]

The weakness is the route the pin takes to get home. Zeek loses it in a run-in with the Space Bandits, who happen to hail Seymour's cab, who happen to sell it in the one diner Poker-Face and Melodia walk into, who happen to be in disgrace and decide to regift it to Mon*Star.[3] Every link is a coincidence, and the SilverHawks play no part in any of them; Steelwill and Steelheart do little more than ride in the back. The likely reason is the clock. A twenty-two minute story needs the bomb back in the fortress by the last act, and a chain of hand-offs is the quickest way to carry it there, but it leaves the heroes with nothing to do except referee.

The voice work is at its best in the two cabbies. Zeek's boast, "Your problem is you're jealous of me and my limo," gets its answer in "Just because you drive a limo doesn't mean you're king of the hill," and the argument has the rhythm of two people who have had it before. When it is over, Zeek says he is sorry and Seymour apologises back: "I suppose I shouldn't have thrown you out of the cab." It is a small line, played without fuss.

Back on Brim*Star, the present goes off in the Mob's own hands, and Mon*Star is left promising to lock whoever planned it in the deepest dungeon he can find. The Mob nearly blows itself to bits, and Zeek and Seymour make up and split the fares for the rest of the trip.

1 ^ It is hard to tell who says the line; Mon*Star and Hardware are both in the room. Zeek's dream of a limo of his own goes back to Zeek's Fumble, where he talked about one while still Seymour's partner.

2 ^ The first reason given for holding fire is that the bomb is not powerful enough to blow up Hawk Haven. The station was never at risk from the Mob's great plan; only whoever sat in the limo was.

3 ^ Poker-Face and Melodia say they have been on Mon*Star's bad side "Ever since we tried to rub him out." That picks up their scheme in Gangwar - Part I, where they tried to convince him a rival gang was after him and keep his takings.

1. Zeek, who was dreaming of a limo in Zeek's Fumble, gets one here as a gift from the Mob, on condition that he is on call whenever one of them needs a ride.
2. Hardware's reasoning is that the SilverHawks often used Seymour's cab on official business while Zeek worked with him, so they will hire Zeek's limo too.
3. The diamond stick-pin is a remote-control bomb set off from Brim*Star; Hardware tells Zeek to wear the pin all the time.
4. Stargazer orders the team to take a few days off and suggests Bedlama for sightseeing; they need a cab because Bluegrass and the Copper Kidd are out on patrol.
5. Poker-Face and Melodia say they are on Mon*Star's bad side ever since they tried to rub him out, following Gangwar - Part I; Yes-Man tells them they are persona non grata, then explains the phrase.
6. Hawk Haven appears on the Mob's monitor at 14:14, seen as the hawk-shaped station on its asteroid.
7. Both Zeek and Seymour address one of the SilverHawks as Lieutenant during the argument.
8. The closing quiz covers the Mariner, Pioneer and Viking probes, and the Copper Kidd finishes on twelve points.

One name enters the series in this episode.

• Gleaming Black Limo

Appearance lists compiled from the episode articles on the ThunderCats wiki, checked against this site's encyclopedia. Names we have no entry for are shown without a link rather than left out.