Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask (Part 2)

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 ### Season

 1

 ### Episode

 2

 ### Air date

 March 29, 2016

 ### Writer

 Kevin Vibert

 ### Director

 Sophie Kaner

 ### Transcript

 Link

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**Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask (Part 2)**  is the second episode of the first season of The Penumbra Podcast. It was released March 29, 2016. As of February 28, 2017, it is considered non-canon.

## Overview

Detective Juno Steel is looking for a killer, and he’s in the right place. Locked in the basement of a Triad restaurant, Juno and Special Agent Rex Glass have dozens of killers to choose from – thugs and waiters and middle-managers, all taking turns pummeling them. It should be pretty easy to pick out their culprit… if they can make it out alive.

## Episode Summary

Juno Steel and agent Rex Glass are in the Traid base chained back to back after being beaten up. Shu Fong, the regional manager, arrives and reveals the reason they kidnapped Cecil Kanagawa six years ago is that his shows are too good to beat. The Triad confirm Juno's earlier suspicions that he was being followed, and Fong explains that he wants to know what Croesus (who he does not realize has been murdered) is planning for his next tv contract. Fong offers them a quick death if they tell him what he wants, and Steel and Glass mock him instead. Fong reveals the old Triad leader, Shen Long, is dead and someone new has taken his place. Juno lies and promises the gangster a phone call with Croesus and Fong leaves the room.

In order to free them, Juno pulls out a plasma cutter he has kept hidden in his jacket and begins to cut away what the two were tied with. In the process, however, he accidentally burns Rex Glass who jerks suddenly and forces him to drop the cutter. Rex has Juno rake through his own back pocket for a replacement where he finds a long list of items, from a toothbrush to a compass, and finally manages to grab a heavy duty plasma cutter between two halves of a sandwich. When the two are free, they talk briefly, and when the topic of their families come up, Juno reluctantly reveals that he used to have a brother who was killed by his Mother.

Shu Long interrupts their escape attempt. Two of Long's guards fight Rex and Glass, and Juno catches a punch from a spiked knuckle duster which tears up his arm while pushing Rex out of harm's way. The two knock out the guards together, and Juno shoots Fong. Fong names Juno their enemy before Juno kills him. Fong's phone reveals in more detail that the Triad was under new leadership, which means that there was no way that whoever killed Croesus could have been a member of the Triad.

Juno and Rex then visit the local hospital where Juno expresses fondness for Rex as Rex fusses over his injury. A Doctor bandages him up and tells his to take the next four weeks off, but they both slip out quickly, ignoring that information.

Juno expresses interest in Rex staying after the case as they head back to the Kanagawas. Cecil meets them and tries to refuse them access to Croesus' office. Min, Cecil's step-mother, chastises Cecil and lets Juno and Rex into the office. Min expresses how upset she is over her husband's death and that they need to keep the death secret until they can script something suitable for the media. Juno reveals that Min probably killed Croesus' first wife, but her husband's death was far too messy to have been her style.

While approaching Croesus' office, Rex and Juno hear Cassandra screaming inside. Cassandra reveals that a contract Croesus had signed was missing: this means that Croesus had broken Cassandra's trust by signing her up after promising to free her. Cassandra admits to confronting her father about the contract. When she confronted him, Croesus had ignored her because he was too preoccupied with the glass case that housed the mask. Cassandra got so mad that she pushed him and he fell into the case.

Juno realizes then that not only have Min and a camera man been filming the entire confession but Cassandra was being fed lines throughout it. Cassandra doesn't get to escape her family and is sent to prison, which is coincidentally designed and owned by the family. Her next few years will be recorded for television as she rots in prison. Juno reveals to Min just before they leave that he knows it was her behind Croesus' murder all along, pulling everyone's strings as she wanted to ensure that the family's network had good material going forward (which Cassandra's imprisonment will generate) especially as Croesus drained their fortune by buying items such as the mask without having contributed any successful new streams in years by that point. In response, Min laughs at Juno, saying that it's a shame he has nothing to prove his theory with.

After leaving the Kanagawa estate, Juno and Rex go back to Juno's office. Rex asks what else had disturbed Juno back in Croesus's office besides the evidence of Min's involvement he had cited earlier. Juno asks Rex to stay with him instead of replying, and Rex kisses him. Juno enjoys the kiss but then arrests Rex for the attempted theft of the Mask before Croesus was murdered as well as for stealing Juno's safe keys out of his pocket as they kissed. Juno explains his conclusion by explaining that the cut on the mask's case was perfectly circular and that he had discovered Rex had a compass while digging through his pocket earlier. He clarifies that the attempted theft must have been disrupted by Croesus and that Rex Glass was using a fake name.

The police arrive as Rex offers Juno a plan for the two of them to run away together. Hyperion is no longer safe for Juno after the enemies he has made, both through the Kanagawas and the Triad, and Rex points out that coming with him will make them safer together. The police take Rex away, and Juno ponders the smell of Rex's cologne that was left behind in the office. While he thinks about it, Juno finds a note from Rex telling him to watch the surveillance footage of a specific street, emphasizing that he meant what he had said about running away, and signs it with what he claims is his real name, Peter Nureyev. Juno watches pulls up the footage and sees Rex, or rather Peter, has escaped police custody. Not only that, but his safe key is gone, having been stolen by Nureyev, and so was the mask.
As the episode closes, Juno expresses how he can't trust anyone in that moment.

## Cast and Crew

### Cast

Starring

* Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
* Noah Simes as Peter Nureyev
* Dan Squizzero as Shu Fong
* Sophie Kaner as Agent Sasha Wire, Cecil Kanagawa, and Cassandra Kanagawa
* Kate Jones as Rita and Min Kanagawa

* Additional voice work by Kevin Vibert and Ryan Meier

### Crew

* Kevin Vibert, Co-creator, Lead writer, Sound-effects designer
* Sophie Kaner, Co-creator, Director, Lead editor, Sound designer
* Ryan Meier, Recording engineer
* Ryan Vibert, Composer and performer of original music

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## Trivia

* This episode was re-released at the end of Season 1 with new voice actors and a new plot line--Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask Update (Part 1) and Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask Update (Part 2). This edition of the episode is no longer considered canon.
* Fans often shorthand this version of the story as "original Murderous Mask" or "ogmm."

## References

 One-Shots
 Bonus Episodes

 Other Episodes
 Live Shows