Curtain Call

Curtain Call is a 2 part episode in season 1 of the Adventures of Red Ryder. It marks the debut of Mudball.

Part 1
Late at night, Lester Cowl, a high ranking employee at Youngtech, heads to an abandoned building where he meets up with David Young, who demands that Lester hand over a briefcase full of papers about an employee that was accused of selling Youngtech equipment on the black market, when Lester hands over the briefcase, David reveals that he plans to kill Lester, since he has no further use for him, however, Lester grabs the case and runs, but several gunmen fire at him, but only succeed in shooting down a sign that knocks him out, when Red Ryder appears and knocks out all the thugs, but the fake David Young gets away. When police arrive, Lester says that David Young tried to kill him. On the way home, the fake David passes by a cinema with a poster for an actor called Tony Daniels. The next day, while shooting a movie starring Tony, Tony's friend, Matt, enters his trailor to find Tony looking for something, when Tony reveals that his face had been disfigured, Matt gives him some cream that reshapes Tony's face to his normal look, when Matt says that the cream isn't good for him, Tony decides he needs to get more on his own.

Meanwhile, Tony's supplier of the cream realises that Tony has failed him too many times and decides to have him killed. That night, Tony sneaks into the cream factory to steal a supply, but he is caught by his supplier's 2 top goons, Germs and Peck, the 2 hold him down and pour a massive supply of the cream over his face and leave him in his car to make it look like he had died in a car crash.

Meanwhile, Red Ryder is trying to find out who framed him for attacking Lester, since Lester and David are close friends. Ryder discovers that one of the goons for the men behind the attack is Jonathan Peck, and he tracks him down in the Ryder-Wing, holding him by his wrist from a claw, Ryder demands that Peck say who framed David Young, but Peck faints before he could say anything, so Ryder drops him in a pool and leaves him to the police.

Later that night, Matt finds Tony's car in an alleyway and finds that Tony is alive.

Meanwhile, the real David Young visits Lester in the hospital by sneaking through the window, but before he can explain anything to Lester, he alerts the police and David is arrested.

Meanwhile, Matt takes a closer look at Tony's car, and is shocked at what he sees.

Part 2
In Tony's trailer, Tony is demanding that Matt pack up all of Tony's clothes since he has to quit acting, Matt tries to console Tony and say that he can make a comeback, but Tony says he can't because of what he has become, a giant monster made of mud, Matt reminds Tony of what happened to him. Tony was a fisherman who was disfigured during an accident in a storm, his supplier came to him in hospital with a sample of his face cream saying it would fix his face quicker than any plastic surgery, the cream allowed Tony to chase his dream of being an actor, however, the cream's effects only lasted 24 hours and he needed more, but the supplier wouldn't give him any, unless he agreed to do some 'favours' for him. Matt reminds Tony of some of his best roles by showing him some photos of the roles, but every time Tony looks at a new photo, he changes into that role, which Matt points out, Tony realises that the cream the goons poured on his face must have fused with his DNA, so now he can change into anything and continue his acting career, but when Matt distracts Tony, Tony loses his concentration and turns back into a mud monster.

Meanwhile, David has just been released from jail and is picked up by Angelo. In the car, David changes to the Red Ryder suit and runs to the hospital, since the man behind the attack would be after Lester to finish the job.

With revenge on his mind, Tony reasons that his former supplier will send someone to finish off Lester Cowl, and that person will lead him back to his supplier. Tony infiltrates the hospital dressed as a male nurse.

Inside, Ryder catches the supplier's goon, Germs, trying to suffocate Lester, but Germs flees. Ryder chases him into a closet of Bacterial Viruses, which freaks out Germs since he is a clean freak. When Ryder catches up, he demands to know who set up David, but Germs doesn't talk. Ryder grabs a beaker of 'Wolf Fever', a supposed incurable disease, and places it on a shelf above Germs and asks again, but Germs hesitates and Ryder punches the wall, causing the beaker to teeter over the edge. Germs reveals that it was Tony Daniels, the movie actor, but Ryder thinks he's lying since no make up is that good, even for a movie actor, but Germs says he had something that others didn't, but before he can say what, a police officer enters and the sound of the door slamming open causes the vial to fall over, but Ryder catches it (And it is revealed to be mere Seawater). The police officer demands Germs to be handed over, but Ryder seems suspicious of the officer, who then attacks Ryder with a massive mud arm, revealing it to be Daniels, and abducts Germs.

Daniels attempts to kill Germs by throwing him off the roof, but Germs is saved by Red Ryder, Daniels tries to imitate Ryder, but is unable to do it fully, and Ryder realises that it's Daniels. Daniels attacks Ryder with an assortment of weapons formed from his own body. When police arrive, Daniels jumps off the roof and splatters into a pool of mud before slinking into the sewers.

At home, Daniels lashes out at Matt.

On a live TV interview, Tony's former supplier is given an interview about his face cream. An obese woman stands up in the crowd and mentions the downsides to the cream, but the supplier denies any negative qualities, eventually, the woman reveals herself as Tony Daniels.

Ryder sneaks into the studio control room. Tony tries to kill his former supplier, but is stopped by Ryder and the 2 engage in a fight, during which, Tony says 'Tony Daniels is no more, from now on, there is only me, Mudball'. Ryder is no match for Tony's powers. However, he is able to lead him to the control room where he shows him videos from his acting days. Tony is deluged by the memories and tries to impersonate them all at once, crashing into a panel and screams as electricity surges through his body, before he collapses. During his transformations, some officers notice one of his transformations is David Young. After he collapses, he says he would have done anything for a death scene like this, but is shamed he won't be able to read the reviews.

Lester recovers and is relieved that the real David Young didn't try to kill him. In the lab, Ryder studies a sample of Mudball's mud and discovers electricity has no effect on it

Trivia

 * Originally, this was meant to come between Toxinne and Breathing in Fear, but due to a slight case of writer's block, the author moved it to a later slot in the episode list.
 * This is based on the BTAS Episode 'Feat of Clay'
 * Originally, Red Ryder was meant to meet Mudball in Rollins Asylum after several strange events had happened, but this was changed
 * Originally, Mudball was meant to have been a fisherman who's body started to melt after he was knocked off his boat during a storm
 * This episode reveals David's middle name is Robert
 * Part one shows Red Ryder less times than any other chapter, as he only appears in about 3 scenes out of a total of approximately 8.
 * Also, unless the times Mudball impersonated David count, part one would also be the second time that and episode has starred Red Ryder, but not David himself.
 * Part one of the epsiode introduced Ronald Peck. Although Ryder mentions that he has fought him in the past, having arrested him between the events of First Ride Part 2 and Very Puzzling Part 1.