There's a full moon tonight, a signal for strange happenings to occur. An officer patrols the art museum, yet notices nothing. A kid outside barely escapes his flashlight. All the while, a woman with closed eyes in a painting seems to be quietly observing the events.
Speaking of art, Kero is posing for his portrait courtesy of Sakura. When the picture is finally done, he recoils in horror at the cutesy image, wanting to look badass. Sakura has to leave for dinner before corrections could be made, but Kero has diabolical plans of his own....
Today's class is a trip to the Readington Museum as part of an art class. While the rest of the crew go outside, Sakura stays behind with Madison to paint a sculpture, gazing in horror at Kero's vandalism while getting reprimanded for being too loud. Eventually, she decides to go outside where she observes a little boy getting caught by authorities for attempting to damage the painting from the opening scene, although he claims someone vandalized it by painting the woman there. Actually, I can't really tell if it is a he or she since the kid has a high-pitched chipmunk-esque voice. As the kid rushes to the painting angrily, the woman raises a hand, casting a spell on the entire room that mutes every sound. After the incident, Sakura observes the painting to be "The Smile", by Douglas Mills and picks up a tag. Outside, Sakura and Madison discuss matters, coming to the conclusion that this is obviously the work of...you get the picture.
Sakura sneaks out at night, but gets caught by Julian. Nervously, she comes up with an excuse that she was trying to get a closer look at the stars. Oblivious as usual, he tells her to not forget about the moon. Sakura asks him not to tell Tori, and because letting little girls sneak out at night without parental supervision is A-OK, Julian agrees. Sakura thinks she must have come off as a weirdo, but Kero reminds her that she's still got him. How reassuring.
Kero informs the girls that the Silent Card
◊, aside from its obvious muting ability, has another power, but he hasn't had time to figure it out. Thirty year sleeps will do that to you. Sakura, with not so eager anticipation, goes for her Once an Episode costume change, yet she's surprised that it's comparatively tame
◊ compared to the usual garish outfits. Regardless, it still makes her look suspicious. Madison managed to borrow the museum schedule which informs them they have only one hour to pull off this heist as the guard will come then.
Sneaking into the museum, they observe someone else has also come. Fearing he might be trying to steal the artwork, they play shadow puppets with Kero to scare him, but unfortunately, he gets knocked back into a heavy vase which takes all of Kero's effort to keep from falling. It turns out to be the kid from earlier that day, and when he wakes up, Sakura pretends she was just doing a ventriloquism act. The kid apparently thinks the girls are the one up to suspicious business, and that bat outfit certainly doesn't help abet suspicions, leading them to reassure him they are not trying to wreck the paintings. Sakura eventually lets slip that she knows the kid's name: Alex. Well, that's helpful.
Alex reveals his intentions were to fix The Smile, as it was a memory of his dead father that someone vandalized. Sakura glares at Kero for his vandalism, and offers to help. The three arrive at the painting as Alex prepares to peel off the woman from the oil painting and Sakura is ready to seal the card. The spirit has other plans, though, and teleports them out into the courtyard. This being The Silent card after all, Sakura convinces Alex that he should be quiet when they sneak in again. On their next trip, Alex accidentally drops his scraper revealing their presence. Okay. Operation Picture Fix: Take III! This time, Kero sneezes, and they get kicked out yet again. Unfortunately, time is up as the guard has arrived and he catches Alex sneaking in. This all looks like a job for a sneaky card. The Shadow. Sakura projects her image into the museum to free Alex and with the help of Madison's flashlight, raises it enough to seal Silent. Well, this makes up for Shadow being neglected in The Watery capture.
The officer, noticing the changed image, realizes the place is haunted and runs for his life. Oddly, The Smile turns out to be an image of a girl, and indeed as Alex runs towards the painting, her hat falls off revealing long flowing hair. Well, what do you know? They part ways in the end as Sakura and Madison anticipates Alex's own paintings appearing in the museum, speculating perhaps she'll paint Kero. Uh, girls, she's just a guest character, ya know.
In the light of the full moon, a young boy clad in green stands observing the surroundings, sensing a Clow Card with his glowing hemisphere.
Next time: Born in the Middle Kingdom, the blood of his ancestors flows inside him. His duty is to save the flower from evil deterioration!
