The villains in this episode are not much of a threat to Spider-Man.
Played by Ellen Bry, the character of Julie Masters didn't seem to be anyone special when she was introduced in the The Captive Tower episode of The Amazing Spider-Man. She was just a rival reporter who had a habit of messing with Peter Parker (Nicholas Hammond) when he tried to take pictures. She is an important character, though, as she is present in all of the remaining episodes.
Julie first returns in A Matter of State - and since The Captive Tower draws comparisons to Die Hard, it's funny that the story of this episode (which was written by Howard Dimsdale and directed by Larry Stewart) begins at an airport, which was the setting of Die Hard 2. But unlike Die Hard 2, A Matter of State does leave the airport behind before long.
The trouble begins with the mugging of an airline passenger who is carrying top secret NATO defense plans in his briefcase. The airport terminal is shut down so the authorities can search for the thieves, but reporters like Peter and Julie are told that it was shut down as a precautionary measure because an airline passenger might have come in contact with a communicable disease. Peter suspects there's something else going on here because he spots representatives of the FBI and the State Department on the scene... and he also knows that the bad guys are still around because they set off his "spider sense".
The way this show indicates Peter is sensing danger by having his eyes flash and envision the source of the danger in negative image is always going to be amusing to me. I can't believe that's the best way they could think of to show that he feels like something's wrong.
Julie is the one who really needs to be concerned about the danger, because she managed to get a picture of theft mastermind Andre (Nicolas Coster). She didn't intend to, she was trying to take a picture of someone else but Peter sabotaged her mid-snap just like she does to him - so it's interesting that all the trouble to follow is caused by Peter and a childish act.
Andre knows Julie took a picture of him. He and his cohorts are set to make $2 million selling those NATO plans, and they can't have this reporter messing things up for them. They set out to handle the Julie situation in any way possible. Luckily, her frenemy Peter is keeping an eye on her, and sometimes Peter steps away to put on his Spider-Man costume.
A Matter of State is a very low-key episode of The Amazing Spider-Man, with a large portion of the episode playing out like a thriller while Julie sits in her apartment, Peter tries to figure out why the thieves are targeting her, and we wait to see what they're going to try to do to her. With Spider-Man around that thriller set-up isn't so thrilling; a handful of guys who steal a briefcase and follow that up with some breaking and entering aren't much trouble for Spidey to handle.
The baddies do manage to keep Peter on edge for the duration, but the result is one of the lesser episodes of the show up to this point. At least we get two moments of "spider sense" to chuckle at.
My favorite scene in the episode is set in the office of Peter's boss J. Jonah Jameson (Robert F. Simon). When Julie wants to inform Peter, who is at work, that someone tried to break into her apartment, she calls Jameson's line. As Peter answers the phone, Jameson barks out, "Since when does he get calls on my phone?" Classic Jameson outrage.
Later Jameson gets outraged again when Peter admits to him that Spider-Man took a picture that he has submitted. Jameson's secretary Rita (Chip Fields) hurries Peter out of the room and tells him she wanted to get him out of there before Jameson could start asking questions he might not want to answer, a strong indication that she might have figured out Peter's Spider-Man secret. He involves her in his investigations often enough, it would make sense if she did figure it out.
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