![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brendala
This episode is a bit weird and I’m torn on whether to call it “cute” or “mildly disturbing”.
The episode begins with the kids taking a limo ride to Daphne’s house.
Daphne has just redecorated her bedroom, and she wants to show off her new digs to her friends. Upon their arrival, they spot a team of local burglars trying (and failing) to break into Daphne’s house.
She says this is a nightly occurrence that the fabulously wealthy have to learn to live with. But the Blakes aren’t worried because they have a top notch security system run by a top notch security guard: Mr Gordon.
Daphne is excited to show off her new room. But when she opens the door, the room is empty! Someone has stolen Daphne’s entire bedroom and it’s up to The Scooby Doo Detective Agency to find out who done it.
…right after Daphne recovers from her dainty faint.
The gang is unsuccessful at reviving Daphne. Luckily, her parents come in and her mother is able to rouse her by warning her that lying about could wrinkle her dress.
Speaking of Mrs Blake, I think we can all tell what she spent most of her money on…
....that’s right. Jewelry. ~_^
Anyhoo, Scooby sniffs out Mr Gordon in the closet. Prompting Fred to accuse him of the crime (he accused someone other than Red Herring first! I think the world is ending!!). Mr Blake proceeds to scold Freddie and tells him that Mr Gordon is just investigating the robbery. Mr Gordon can’t understand how the place got robbed since he has the place surrounded:
And how!
Mr Gordon apologizes to the Blakes and says he wouldn’t blame them if they fired him. But they still believe in him (uh, why? He effed up pretty majorly here) and Mrs Blake suggests he bring out “you know who”. Enter: ROBOPUP! The latest in “puppy technology”
Velma, little tech nerd that she is, is instantly impressed by Robopup. And this does not please Shaggy and Scooby one bit! Shaggy says that Robopup can’t compare to a real dog. One of the reasons is because Robopup could never fetch a newspaper like Scooby can
But Robopup one ups him by bringing in a whole truck full of newspapers
NOBODY NEEDS THAT MANY! Scooby wins!
Mr Blake proceeds to rub salt in the wound by talking about all the cool features Robopup has (radar, sonar, cable TV, turbo drive, etc). But Shaggy defends his dog against the pompous snob by saying “There’s more to puppies than radar! Robots can’t give wet puppy kisses!”
Robopup tries to one up Scooby again. But his “wet puppy kisses” leave a lot to be desired…
Who the hell wants to be hosed down with drool when they cuddle their dog!? Point goes to Scooby!
Daphne says “thanks but no thanks” to her parents and insists that The Scooby Doo Detective Agency can handle this case (GO DAPHNE). But her parents are lazy snobs and insist that she sit back and let Mr Gordon handle it. But Mr Gordon says he has no problem with the kids helping and even offers to let them borrow Robopup. Velma says that Robopup could be “really helpful”. And Robopup proceeds to rub even more salt into Scooby’s wounded ego by sucking up to Velma so much that even she gets a little weirded out. It seems that poor Velma's habit of attracting creeps isn't limited to humans.
Does Robopup think that Velma is Scooby's girlfriend or something? WTF!?
Shaggy and Scooby are determined to prove that Scooby Doo is still the #1 doggy detective and Scooby gets right to work by sniffing for clues. His nose leads him right into the kitchen. Causing Daphne to get mad at him for trying to goof off and have a snack in the middle of the investigation.
Robopup uses his newfangled clue radar and tells the kids to follow him. But Shaggy and Scooby refuse to put up with his crap and go off to solve the mystery on their own! But first, they decide to raid the Blakes’ fully-stocked mega-kitchen (can you blame them? I would totally do the same thing!). Sadly, before they can eat, a ghost chef appears and starts chasing them while shouting “Sacré Boo!”.
Meanwhile, Robopup leads the others to a set of footprints. Velma is still impressed by Robopup (but is wisely keeping her distance from him).
And Freddie is sure that Mud Monsters are responsible for the robbery on account of the footprints being made of mud. Velma thinks Fred’s stupidity is kinda cute. Daphne just finds it annoying (as usual)
Velma finds a flower in the mud pile. But before she can examine this clue further, Robopup leads them outside and pulls Scooby and Shaggy from the bushes. This causes Fred to accuse THEM of stealing Daphne’s stuff! I guess this is Red Herring’s night off or something.
Shaggy says they were just hiding from the ghost. The others have no clue what he’s talking about; so Scooby demonstrates.
Daphne asks what a ghost chef would want with her furniture. And Shaggy guesses that he’s opening a restaurant and needs a place for his customers to sit (not a bad guess, actually). Daphne starts giving her “there’s no such thing as ghosts” lecture; but is interrupted by her family’s gardener, Mr Conroy.
Robopup’s clue radar goes off when he notices the mud on the gardener’s feet (it’s just like the mud inside). This is all the evidence Fred needs to jump the guy and demand to know where he buried Daphne’s stuff.
Mr Conroy admits that he’s an ex-con; but claims he gave up stealing after discovering his love of flowers in “the joint”. He then wisely leaves just as Fred starts to sum up his big conspiracy theory:
Fred posits that, “Shaggy and Scooby befriended Daphne as toddlers to gain access to her house. Then they met Mr Conroy in prison somehow. And then the Mud Monsters showed up and....”
While Fred continues talking, the scene pulls back to show the rest of the gang ignoring him so they can discuss the legitimate evidence. We then get this...disturbing exchange between Shaggy, Scooby, and Daphne.
-Daphne: So it was a monster chef?
-Shaggy: YES!
-Daphne: A ghost that cooks food?
-Shaggy: Yeah! I was terrified. And yet, mysteriously attracted to him at the same time!
-Scooby: Ree, too!
O_o.
.....Y’see people!? THIS is what happens when you take Velma away from these two. They get weird! In a bad way!
*ahem*
Let’s move on from that and never speak of it again
Anyhoo, Daphne doesn’t know why a dead chef would be haunting her house. So she decides to ask her parents about it. Mr Blake says there’s no such thing as ghosts; but the one they described reminded him of a chef named Pierre
According to Mr Blake, the pair had a huge fight and Great Grandpa Blake kicked Pierre’s ass out (LITERALLY)....
....and commemorated the occasion with a series of paintings (I wonder if he did this for every former employee). Mrs Blake concludes the story by telling the kids that Pierre Goulash swore to come back one day and take everything the Blakes owned. And, right on cue, the ghost returns.
Shaggy starts flipping out and screaming “the ghost is gonna get us!!”. Prompting the entire Blake clan to remind him that “THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS GHOSTS!!” (Now we know where Daphne gets it). Of course, Mr and Mrs Blake’s insistence on the ghost being a fake doesn’t stop them from fleeing in terror and leaving the children to fend for themselves when the chase begins. Man, rich people make crappy parents!
Scooby inadvertently manages to trap Chef Pierre in a curtain and buy the gang time to escape…
Take THAT Robo-douche!
...and formulate one of their classic “trick the ghost with silly disguises” plans. This time, Shaggy and Scooby play sassy waitresses while the others play the roles of impatient restaurant customers. While Chef Pierre is cooking their ridiculous orders, they all get the hell out of dodge
Once they’re relatively safe, Robopup leads them to a new clue. Velma praises him for a job well done; and this does not make Scooby happy.
The kids open the door to find the Blakes’ head butler packing his bags. Fred accuses him of not only being the thief, but also of being **drumroll** Red Herring in disguise!
When the butler’s mask doesn’t come off (because he never HAD one), Fred demands to know where Red Herring could be. Robopup helps out by going to fetch Red!
At a VERY inconvenient time!
Needless to say, Red is NOT happy that Fred dragged him out of his house during bath time (and he’s probably considering a restraining order right about now).
Anyhoo, Daphne asks her butler why he’s leaving. And he says that he already told her father that he wants to quit and go to culinary school. This little tidbit piques Fred’s interest. But Daphne insists that they find more evidence before jumping to another wild conclusion.
Robopup springs into action.
Which causes Velma to gush at what an amazing feat of technology he is and causes Scooby to get pissed off and try to reclaim her attention by finding some clues of his own. He doesn’t have much luck; but at least he walks away with his dignity
....for a little while
Turns out Scooby fell into the mansion’s east wing. Which has gone unused for years because the Blakes forgot it was there.
Scooby does a random wild take. Causing Robo-jerk to mock him yet again. But the jokes on him because Scooby actually found an important new clue: one of Daphne’s stolen barrettes!
In the meantime Velma opens a door and finds a freakin SUBWAY STATION! When Freddie asks “You have a Subway Station in your house?”. Daphne nonchalantly replies, “Yeah. Don’t you?”.
Daphne squees with happiness when she finds her entire bedroom set next to one of the subway cars. She also thanks Scooby for solving the mystery and getting her things back (take THAT Robopup!).
Naturally, Scooby takes this opportunity to gloat. But his happiness is short lived when Chef Pierre comes after them. Robopup finally does something useful and starts playing the chase music.
I love how practical Daphne is here. Getting her hair done while simultaneously keeping the ghost at bay. You go girl!
*****CUE RECYCLED DANCE ANIMATION****
At the end of the song, the kids trick the monster into running right into the Blakes’ indoor olympic pool. And Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma don’t think he stuck the landing very well.
The kids hide out in the gardner’s shack while they figure out what to do next. Freddie is sure that the butler, gardener, and the Mud Men are working together on the robbery.
The rest of the gang continues to ignore him and focus on what Velma is doing instead. She says she has a plan.
CUT TO THE BLAKE MANSION SUBWAY STATION
Chef Pierre is loading Daphne’s stuff into one of the cars. All of a sudden, Scooby pops out of the dresser and leads the ghost into Velma’s trap.
Now that it’s safe, Mr and Mrs Blake come out of their hidey hole and congratulate the children on a job well done. Then they chide Shaggy for calling Chef Pierre a “ghost”
Honestly, at least Shaggy stuck around to catch it. They just sat in the west wing counting their money while Shaggy and the others were being chased around by a psycho. So, IMO, if Shaggy wants to call the ghost “Elvis”, they really have no right to tell him he can’t.
Anyhoo, Fred starts to accuse Red, but Daphne cuts him off because she’s sick of his nonsense and just wants to get her stuff back. Daphne accuses the gardener because of the muddy footprints they found all over the house. But Velma scuttles in and tells her that the gardener is innocent. So Shaggy and Scooby accuse the butler because he was in a hurry to leave. But Velma says that only one of the adults in the house had feet small enough to make the muddy footprints they found. And that adult was…
…Mr Gordon, The Blakes’ head security guard! Turns out Mr Gordon planted all the evidence pointing to the gardener in order to throw the kids and the other security guards off his trail.
Just as the everyone is celebrating the end of the mystery, Mr Gordon pulls out his trump card: ROBOPUP! Turns out Robopup was purposely leading them to the false clues, trying to steer them away from the real ones, and buying Mr Gordon time to pack up Daphne’s stuff and get out. Robopup incapacitates all the humans with a lasso and tries to go after Scooby, too. But Scooby Doo is not going down without a fight
....a very, very short fight
Just as all hope seems lost, Scooby finds Robopup’s remote control. And gives the metal mutt a taste of karma.
Later, we see Mr Gordon deliver the obligatory “I would have gotten away with it…” speech while getting hauled off.
After that, we see Scooby doing something with a workbench.
Velma approaches Scooby and apologizes for trusting Robopup and hurting his feelings. And Scooby tells her that he’s not mad and assures her that he still loves her (d’awwww)
Unfortunately, this adorable moment becomes disturbing when we find out what Scooby was doing with that workbench: He was making a lamp out of ROBOPUP PARTS!!! And it’s not a talking, sentient lamp either! It’s just a....dead lamp! O_o
GOOD LORD! I guess I can no longer say that there’s zero precedent for the insane, jealous, and violent version Scooby Doo that we got stuck with in Mystery Incorporated. Pup-Scooby may seem innocent, loving, and sweet. But if you come between him and his favorite BFFs, he will go all Ed Gein on your ass!
Velma closes out the episode by cheerfully declaring, “We should have known that no machine can ever replace a pup named Scooby Doo”. But we all know what she was really thinking. She was thinking, “Note to self: tell parents that adopting a pet into Casa Dinkely would be a BAD idea!”.
Overall, I liked this episode a lot. Yeah, the ending is a little creepy (as is Robopup’s apparent belief that Velma is Scooby’s girlfriend or something); but everything else was great. The mystery was well done and the episode didn’t feel cluttered despite the fact that there were a lot of conflicts going on at the same time (tons of different suspects, Daphne being the “victim of the week”, Scooby’s jealousy of Robopup, Velma letting her tech nerd side get the best of her common sense, etc).
So, what do you guys think? Was the episode disturbing, adorable, or just weird?
