In the Wake of Mary Celeste

In the Wake of Mary Celeste is the fourteenth episode of the first season of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.

Premise
Dr. Quest goes on a search for the legendary Mary Celeste, where it mysteriously disappeared in the Sargasso Sea.

Teaser
November 1872 aboard the ship the Mary Celeste. Captain Benjamin Spooner Briggs narrates the events of that day. Briggs hears an unearthly sound from the sea and a fog rolls in. His first mate Mr. George is captivated by the sound. A light shines on the ship beneath the water. Briggs with his wife and daughter hide in their cabin, but the light sweeps over the ship and falls on them.

Act 1
Present day, aboard the Questor at sea. Max Schumaker has been reciting the events from Briggs' perspective and is having an episode. Hadji tries to calm him, saying that "regressing to a former life can be a very trying ordeal." He is helping Dr. Quest solve the mystery of the Mary Celeste. Hadji talks Max through his state to try to get the ship's route that day.

At the Quest compound, Race is with Jonny, who's training for a triathalon.

On the Questor, Dr. Quest feeds information into the computer to calculate Mary Celeste's approximate location.

At the location, Dr. Quest and Max take the Sea Slug, an underwater submersible, to look for the wreckage while Hadji stays topside. They enter an unusually barren area and find the wreckage and note the coordinates. Max has a fit, apparently regressing back to his former life without hypnosis. He smashes some equipment and tries to open the airlock. Dr. Quest gets him under control and returns to the Questor.

While Max rests back on the Questor, Dr. Quest goes out in a small helicopter for a better look at the area. Beneath the ocean appears to be a "series of crop circles" and takes photographs. When he descends, he loses control of the helicopter and crashes. Hadji goes out in a boat and dives into the water, rescuing Dr. Quest.

On land, Race takes a call from Hadji while watching Jonny complete his triathalon. Hadji tells him what's been going on, asking him to join them. Jonny finishes, exhausted. Race congratulates him for competing, but Jonny isn't happy since he was "halfway down the pack", but Race points out that Jonny was the youngest kid in the race. Jonny asks for sleep, and Race tells him he can have it on their flight.

Race flies him and Jonny out to the Questor, but they find it abandoned. The crew has disappeared "just like the Mary Celeste crew."

Act 2
Race and Jonny go to the police for a search party. Unfortunately, the entire San Esteban Police Patrol Fleet is just about three guys.

Out by the docks, Jonny and Race are approached by a man named Vladimir Oistrakh who says he is a psychic investigator who might be able to help them. To prove he's legitimate, Oistrakh says that Race's first name is Roger, and he has a vision of a dark alley in Khartoum where Race killed a man with his bare hands. Race says that "only one other man knows about that—-and he's dead." Oistrakh says they should discuss his fee, and Race agrees, although he's still skeptical.

Aboard the Questor, Oistrakh conducts a seance and channels Captain Briggs. He greets "Mr. Bannon" and "young Jonathan", and brings warnings from his family and the crew of the Mary Celeste. He then channels Dr. Quest, who tells Jonny and Race that they must leave. Race picks up a speargun and points it at Oistrakh, saying that Dr. Quest would never tell them to give up. Race locks Oistrakh in a room, saying there's no way to escape.

Oistrakh escapes aboard a speedboat. Jonny says he thought he couldn't escape, but Race smirks, saying he knew he couldn't resist a challenge. Race and Jonny go after him in a jet ski. Oistrakh crashes into another boat, and Race stops to help the passenger, allowing Oistrakh to get away. But Race says he installed homing beacons on the speedboat.

That night, Race and Jonny sneak aboard another ship and find Oistrakh, who holds them at gunpoint. Oistrakh pulls off his disguise, revealing himself to be "Max Schumaker" who was working with Dr. Quest and Hadji, but Race recognizes him as Derek Ironwood, "another old pal from the agency."

Ironwood handcuffs them both. He tells them that while on assignment in Portugal, he learned that the Mary Celeste's real cargo was gold. When the first mate Mr. George learned the secret, he incited the crew to mutiny, leaving Captain Briggs and his family adrift in a life boat. While Briggs was rowing away, the Mary Celeste was pulled under by an inexplicable light. The first mate survived and told the story on his death bed. The man who heard it is the one who told Ironwood, who realized he could use Dr. Quest to find the gold. He throws Jonny and Race into a room with Dr. Quest and Hadji, who are both tied up and gagged. Iroonwood reveals that in three minutes, a bomb will go off in the engine room, causing "another tragedy in these mysterious waters."

Ironwood leaves in a speedboat with the gold from the Mary Celeste. Race picks the locks on his handcuffs and gets the Quest team off the ship before the bomb goes off. Jonny is upset that Iroonwood got away, but the others suspect he won't get far.

As Iroonwood speeds away, his speedboat motor gives out. A light from beneath the water shines on him, and he cries out as he and his boat are pulled down.

Characters
Main characters:
 * Dr. Benton Quest
 * Hadji Singh
 * Race Bannon
 * Jonny Quest

Supporting characters:
 * None

Villains:
 * Mr. George
 * Max Schumaker/Vladimir Oistrakh/Derek Ironwood

Other characters:
 * Captain Benjamin Briggs
 * Briggs's daughter
 * Mrs. Briggs
 * Police chief

Locations

 * New York
 * Genoa
 * Atlantic Ocean
 * Sargasso Sea
 * Maine
 * Quest Compound
 * San Esteban
 * Khartoum

Objects

 * Dr. Quest's laptop

Vehicles

 * Mary Celeste
 * Questor
 * Sea Slug
 * Catalina
 * Quest Mini-Chopper
 * Questor's Whaler
 * Ironwood's ship
 * Ironwood's speedboat

Notes/trivia

 * Jessie Bannon and Bandit are not in this episode.
 * A story about a ship going missing in the Sargasso Sea may be a homage to the first Jonny Quest episode The Mystery of the Lizard Men, in which the Quest Team goes to investigate ships going missing in the Sargasso Sea.
 * Robert Foxworth would later go on to voice Race Bannon in Season 2.
 * What ever it was that Sunk the Mary Celeste and other ships is never revealed however whet appear to be cropcircles like formations are seen under water suggesting a possible Alien origin and that aliens have a hand in this as to what end or who is unknown and never explained

Goofs

 * None known.

Home media

 * 🇺🇸 The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: Season One, Volume 2 DVD set released on March 27, 2012 by Warner Archive Collection.