The Mask

"The Mask" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of Teen Titans Go!, and the sixty-ninth overall episode of the series.

Synopsis[]

Robin's past is cloaked in secrecy, and even his mask does more than hide his true identity, it also serves to hide a terrible secret!

Plot[]

The episode begins in the middle of the street where the Titans are fighting against Punk Rocket. However, they cannot handle his angry, loud music that nearly destroys Jump City. Robin decides to fight music with even worse music by viciously screaming at him. Punk Rocket blasts Robin with hypersonic waves from his guitar, which removes Robin's mask. Much to his agony, he quickly covers his eyes. He retreats to the Tower with the T-Plane after he crashes into a wall with the R-Cycle. Raven punches a surprised Punk Rocket, defeating him.

Robin crashes the T-Plane into the Titans Tower, reaching the bathroom for a mask replacement. After he finishes, the other Titans wonder about his mask issues. Robin states that by hiding his true identity, he was able to keep the other villains from spotting him, putting him and the Titans in danger. He also reveals the last time he did so since their original series of 2003, destroying the Tower. However, Raven assumes he has trust issues for not showing his face even to his friends. Robin leaves, and the Titans begin to have thoughts of what he would look like without his mask but to prove their theories, they are off to remove his mask. Eventually, they fail, as Robin still will not reveal his identity for how much he cares for Titans' lives. Later on, the Titans decide to move out for how Robin doesn't seem to trust them that they can keep a secret too for his true identity. Making Robin nervous, he finally removes his mask, much to Titans' excitement, revealed to have a handsome face with strong cheekbones, beautiful eyes, and a wide chin.

The Titans are amazed at Robin's face without his mask on, and they wonder why he had to hide it from them, as they would like to have a handsome face like his, while Robin claims that his face is a burden. While the Titans are crying about their faces for not being as handsome as Robin's, he tells them that it is also a reason why he did not desire to reveal it. Suddenly, a giant space ship made of shiny diamonds from outer space arrives on the Tower's roof, revealing it to be Klatak, the queen of the Marshrouvian Empire who is searching for beautiful creatures like her to be her king, as she found Robin matching his face with her's. However, the Titans do not allow her to take Robin away without a fight. As they start to fight against Klatak, she is invulnerable to "ugly and dark" powers, and her technology is too handsome.

Robin takes her out by himself, enough to overwhelming her with his beautiful face until she explodes, along with her spaceship. Now the Titans understand why Robin's identity needs to be hidden, they tell him to put on his mask and leave it on, for their sake and the world, even if it means that they will never see his gorgeous face again, they will always have the memory of Robin's beautiful face. They remember Robin's beautiful face and Robin hides behind the elevator, suddendly, Robin removes her beautiful face, revealing that it was a mask and silently celebrates that his plan worked and that his true identity is safe. Then Robin takes off his mask and reveals that he has a parasite-twin in his left eye, just like how Starfire thought he would look like without his mask at first. It ends with Robin giving his parasite-twin a grape as a snack as he munches on it.

Characters[]

Robin
Beast Boy
Raven
Starfire
Cyborg
Silkie (cameo in picture)
Klatak (debut)
Punk Rocket (debut)
Robin's Parasitic Twin (debut)

Song[]

You're So Amazing

Trivia[]

This episode aired one year after "Starfire the Terrible", and 10 years after the original series episode "Revolution".
This is Punk Rocket's first appearance in the series.
- This is also the first episode to reveal Punk Rocket as an enemy of the Teen Titans; his debut from the lost episode of the original series never aired on television due to its showing time, though he was seen (without lines) in the show's fifth season as a villain and an ally of the Brotherhood of Evil.
It is unknown how Punk Rocket removed Robin's mask very easily, but it took Beast Boy countless attempts without any luck.
An original spoof of Teen Titans was seen showing Robin's mask. The episode used was, of course, "Masks". The episode uses stock footage from that episode, with the addition of new rotoscoped footage where Robin removes his mask. Coincidentally, both this episode and that episode have the word "Mask" in their titles.
When Robin pulls off his actual mask, his (right) eye shape and brows are the same as Raven's.
In the original series' comic line, only Starfire is known to have seen Robin unmasked in "Regarding Robin". It is possible the other Titans have as well, or that he trusted Starfire more than them.
When Robin showed off his mask in the original Teen Titans series, the Team Titans Theme Song played instead of the theme song for Teen Titans Go!
Robin breaks the fourth wall when he says that took his mask off "for the original Teen Titans", mentioning the 2003 series.
- This line has had some confusion among fans, with the line implying that the current Titans are a different team, and Robin was the only one who wasn't replaced. This, of course, is retconned later in the series.
This is the first time that someone other than than Robin comes up with a crazy idea that turns out to be true: in this case, it's Starfire.
This is the first time three of the Titans have made up three different conspiracy theories. The second time being "Dignity of Teeth".
The ending of this episode proves Robin's appearance from "Sandwich Thief" true and his appearance from "Driver's Ed" to be false.

Continuity[]

The T-Plane reappears for the fourth time, whereas the R-Cycle reappears for the third time.
This is the eleventh time that Raven is seen unhooded.
This is the second time Robin has used part of his costume to conceal a deformity, the first being in "Baby Hands".
Robin's Parasitic Twin would later be featured in "Beast Boy's St. Patrick's Day Luck and it's Bad" when a close up of Robin's face shows him and Robin's other eye through his mask. He would also appear in "TV Knight 2", “Egg Hunt”, and "Intro".

References[]

The title of this episode is the same title of the 1994 fantasy slapstick action comedy film, The Mask, starring Jim Carrey as the title character.
- The title of this episode also shares the same title as a half-hour episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog about an abusive relationship, among other factors.
There is an assumed reference to 9/11 when Robin crashes the plane into the Titans Tower, but it appears more of a reference to him crashing the plane into Killer Moth's base in "Missing."
When Robin is about to show the original Teen Titans spoof, Silkie can be seen in a picture dressed as Batman.
The design of Robin's fake face may be a reference to the Handsome Face meme.
- It also may be a reference to the Handsome Squidward meme from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Two Faces of Squidward".
On one of the boxes Robin was putting his fake masks in, it says "masks of the phantasm", which is a reference to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
Robin's fake face may be a reference to Jacob Black from The Twilight Saga.

Errors[]

Robin's false face shows him having brown eyes. In actuality, they are meant to be blue. This may be because he's wearing a mask.
When Beast Boy is removing all of Robin's masks, there isn't a pile until all the Titans are present.
In the scene where the rest of the Titans imagine what it would be like to be handsome, each of them have trophies that are all male, yet Starfire and Raven are female. They did just imagine it, though.
In "Driver's Ed", Robin had tiny dots for eyes, but in this episode, he had normal eyes (like Raven's) and a little eye buddy.
- Although a possible explanation to this is that the face we saw in "Driver's Ed" was another mask like the handsome face.