Recap / Scooby Doo Mystery Inc S 1 E 26 All Fear The Freak

In the second part of the season close-out, the gang confronts its darkest hour when the Freak of Crystal Cove is unmasked; the revelation is only one of many, many shockwaves that will set Season Two up to be a lot more dramatic than we're used to from a Scooby-Doo cartoon.

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The episode has examples of:

• Adaptation Distillation: The online game, Crystal Cove Online, compresses the story.
  • The plot kicks off with Shaggy and Scooby being told by Velma to go see Fred at City Hall in the middle of the day. Fred is suspicious of his dad and wants to look through his office. While Shaggy and Scooby do that, Fred gets arrested by Sheriff Stone, who also then arrests the duo after they fight off the Freak's shadows.
  • The mooks of the chapter are the Freak's shadows.
  • After Mayor Jones and Sheriff Stone let them go, Fred reveals to Shaggy and Scooby that he's engaged to Daphne. They're more accepting of it than in the actual episode.
  • Ed Machine's death is not seen.
  • In the end, Mayor Jones reveals Fred's true parentage without being asked about it.
  • Since Shaggy's parents are omitted from the game, instead of the duo being told they're getting split up while Scooby is left alone in the car with the piece of the Disc, Shaggy and Scooby walk away from the scene with the piece, only to be robbed by Pericles.
• All There in the Manual:
  • According to the online game, the silent alarm went off when the kids broke into City Hall, which is how the Sheriff (and presumably Mayor Jones as well) learned about their break-in.
  • The online game suggests that the Freak has super-speed rather than teleportation, which would explain how he managed to get from one area to another in a short amount of time in some scenes.
• Badass Boast: Scooby gets a pretty good one:
  Scooby: I'll get the gang back together, Pericles! We'll be coming for you, or my name isn't SCOOBY-DOOBY-DOO!
• Big Eater: Shaggy's bed is actually his back-up (and fully stocked) refrigerator.
• Blackmail: The original Mystery Inc. broke up and left town because they were being blackmailed. Pericles forged documents implicating their parents for various crimes, and the Freak threatened to turn that material over to the police if the kids didn't hand over their piece of the disc and permanently leave town.
• Book Ends:
  • The gang find themselves in jail for trying to solve a mystery, just like in the first episode.
  • The online game reveals that the Gang got caught in City Hall because the silent alarm went off. This is what alerted Mayor Jones, Sheriff Stone, and Mr. Fruitmeir to go to the Fruitmeir Shop when the Gang caught the Slime Monster in the first episode.
  • Fred talking to his dad at the fireplace and Fred chasing the Freak. Fred pursues his father, only to be pushed away. Mayor Jones, realizing what he’s just done to Fred, backspaces for the sake of his son’s well-being. Fred still goes after his father in order to discover the truth, resulting in a heartbreaking discovery about Fred’s parentage and ruining the image of his supposed father in his eyes.
• Break the Cutie: Where to start? Fred (or whatever his name is) found out that Brad and Judy are his real parents, he broke his engagement with Daphne, Shaggy is about to be packed off to military school and everybody blames Velma for what went wrong.
• Broken Pedestal: Mayor Jones becomes this to Fred (and the Sheriff).
  • In the promo for this episode, this trope was represented with a brief clip of the framed photo of Fred's supposed mother falling to the ground and shattering.
• Call-Back:
  • The episode presumably directly happens after "Pawn of Shadows", as the gang immediately acts on their declaration to finish what their predecessors started.
  • Mayor Jones being an alumni of Darrow University is brought up again, and it turns out he attended because he wanted to use his history major to find the treasure of Crystal Cove.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Fred does this to his "father" at the end of the episode for his crimes and all the innocent people he hurt along the way, including Fred himself.
• Chekhov's Gun: The article about a baseball game on the back of the "photo" of Fred's "mother" is what allowed Fred to determine whether or not she really is his mother — it has a date, which matches the birthday his father told him. It sounds like Mayor Jones hastily came up with a lie about Fred's mother and Fred's birthday by just grabbing an article out of a magazine.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not only did he arrange things with Pericles to betray the original Mystery Inc., Fred Jones Senior screwed Pericles over and packed him off to the animal asylum.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: Ed Machine says "Get in this car if you want to live." to Shaggy and Scooby running from the Freak.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: While on a crumbling cliff, Fred nearly catches the Freak, but the Freak kicks him away and leaves him to die. Just as Fred is about to fall and cries out for help, the Freak goes back and grabs him before he falls, saving his life.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Rogers are having a still-life night again, just like in Episode 3.
  • The Blakes express disdain for not only Fred, but also Mayor Jones, which was brought up in “The Dragon’s Heart”. He seems to have caught on and the feeling is mutual now.
• Downer Ending: Mayor Jones is revealed to be the Big Bad of the season, he stole Fred from his real parents — Brad and Judy, Fred breaks up the Gang and ends his engagement with Daphne to look for his parents, Shaggy is getting sent to military school, Scooby is getting sent to a "nice" farm, Daphne blames Velma for all of this happening because she didn't tell them the truth about Angel sooner, Ed Machine is dead, and Professor Pericles steals the Gang's piece of the Planispheric Disc. However, Scooby refuses to give up.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Fred is incredulous that so much effort, grief, and pain has occurred over a treasure that no one's even sure actually exists.
• Easily Forgiven: Averted. Mayor Jones' good deeds this episode aren't enough for Fred to forgive him in light of Fred realizing that he was kidnapped from his real parents and his apparent father has been lying to him his entire life.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mayor Jones is revealed to be a villain and he kidnapped Fred from his real parents. Nonetheless it turns out that he did love Fred as his own son, saving him from falling off a cliff.
• Exact Words:
  • When Fred notices his father is looking at the photo of his mother, he asks if he misses her. Mayor Jones snaps at him for sneaking up on him and doesn't answer the question. As it turns out later, no, he doesn't miss her, because that woman is not his wife nor Fred's mother.
  • The Freak threatened to hurt the original Mystery Incorporated's families. The previous episode suggested physical harm, but it turns out he meant legal harm. Although physical harm is something he's capable of...
• Extremely Short Time Span: The episode starts at midnight and ends before the sun can even show. In addition, it is implied that "Pawn of Shadows" happened earlier that day.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing:
  • Mayor Jones is the only parent not with the adults confronting the kids at the old Spanish church.
  • Angel looks surprised and angered when it is revealed that the Freak is Mayor Jones. As we find out within the next minute, he was an ally of the original Mystery Incorporated, making their relationship personal.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Literally. When Fred goes to talk to his father at the beginning of the episode, after Mayor Jones snaps at him, the shot of Fred backing off emphasized the shadows on the wall, specifically that of Mayor Jones. The Freak appearing is emphasized with his shadow looming over the gang.
  • How did the Sheriff know the gang was at City Hall in the middle of the night? Since Mayor Jones apparently knew what the kids were up to, it's possible he placed an anonymous call to the police (like he did with Pericles twenty years ago) before he went to confront them as the Freak.
  • Mayor Jones doesn’t participate in the argument at the police station, despite having every reason to be mad that they were snooping around in his private office. He already knew what the kids were up to and was more concerned about stopping them rather than playing the blame game.
  • As his dad drags him out of the police station, Fred tells Shaggy and Scooby to hold on to the Disk piece while Velma keeps the map. That’s how Mayor Jones, disguised as the Freak, knew where to confront Shaggy and Scooby for the piece, and knew where the gang would go (the Spanish Church).
  • The Freak stops to rescue Fred from falling to his death once he hears him crying out for help, something none of the previous monsters have done. He did it because he has a close personal relationship with Fred, being his adoptive father and all.
  • Pericles tells the gang that many have died trying to claim the treasure. Next season will explore the history of the town in more depth and touch on the multiple teams of mystery-solvers that were ultimately corrupted by the treasure.
• Hidden Badass: As the Freak, Mayor Jones seems to have some athletic prowess, including superhuman strength (he smashes Shaggy’s fridge bed by punching it and isn't slowed down), Offscreen Teleportation or he can run really fast, and isn’t too bad at rock-climbing. And it also turns out he’s skilled in Frame Ups, including document forgery.
• History Repeats: Both Mystery Incorporateds fall apart after meeting the Freak.
• Internal Reveal: The rest of the gang and their parents learn that Daphne and Fred are engaged and want to marry right after graduation. No one is pleased.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Mayor Jones facepalms when Fred announces his engagement with Daphne because once again, Fred has no idea what he's gotten himself into—he has no plan after graduation, he wants to marry young, and so forth.
  • Nan Blake blames Mayor Jones for not teaching his son any better, though it’s not like she’s done a better job either.
• Limited Wardrobe: The gang's parents show up at the police station and the church in their normal clothes, even though it's past midnight and they likely came to both scenes immediately. Realistically, they would have changed from their sleeping clothes and thrown on whatever available acceptable clothing without thinking that much about how stylish it looks.
  • At least justified in the case of Shaggy's parents, since they were doing their Still Life art that night.
  • Also possibly justified in Mayor Jones's case, who might've still been in his suit when he realized the kids were snooping around in his office and he needed to put his Freak costume over his clothes right away so he could confront them.
• Living Shadow: When the gang are walking through the corridor of the mayor's office, they cast a shadow from the window in front of them... and then the shadow pulls away from them to form that of the Freak.
• Monster of the Week: The Freak of Crystal Cove, a mysterious being behind the disappearance of the original Mystery Incorporated who seeks the pieces of the Planespheric Disc.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Implied to either be this or Please, Don't Leave Me as the reason as to why Mayor Jones was looking forlornly at the photo of Fred's supposed mother at the beginning of the episode. Since he probably wasn't thinking about the woman in the photo, it can be assumed that either he did feel guilt over lying to Fred or he was scared of what would happened if Fred knew the truth.
• Never My Fault: When Fred and Daphne reveal that they're getting married right after graduating from high school, Nan screams at Mayor Jones that "This is your fault!" for bad parenting, despite her not being that much better. (And funnily enough, it turns out later in the episode that Mayor Jones is responsible for a lot of other bad things besides Parental Neglect...)
• Nothing Is Scarier: What Professor Pericles did to Ed Machine offscreen has yet to be detailed. All we know is that it wasn't pretty and Word of God confirms that he killed him.
• Offscreen Teleportation: The Freak manages this with Shaggy and Scooby.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business/Out-of-Character Alert:
  • Mayor Jones is not as eccentric as he has been in previous episodes. At the beginning of the episode, he apologizes for snapping at Fred and even tells him that he loves him, which at first seems ungenuine until he quietly adds “I hope you know that.” This is due to his paranoia over being discovered at any time now by his own son.
  • Previously, other monsters would not have cared less if someone like the Mystery Inc. got hurt. After spending the entire episode learning that his father may have ulterior motives, what causes Fred to realize that his supposed father is the Freak is when the latter saves his life. However, his trope is not put into effect regarding Mayor Jones' Papa Wolf moment, since Fred, though surprised that the Freak saved him, has always held out that his father loved him and presumably counted on that to confirm his theory that his father and the Freak are one and the same.
  • During the final act of the episode, Fred is completely serious and doesn't answer when Daphne asks him why he brought his photo of his mother along with them to the church.
• Papa Wolf: For once, Mayor Jones (in disguise as the Freak) saves Fred's life when the cliff they're on is about to crumble. This is after he just kicked him away right at the edge of the cliff and tried to run away seconds ago.
• Pet the Dog: At the beginning of the episode, Mayor Jones apologizes to Fred for snapping at him when he asked if he was okay, then tells him that he loves him and hopes he knows that. Doesn’t redeem him for what he’s done when we find out at the end, but he did come to love him.
• The Reveal:
  • Fred is not the son of Mayor Jones and the woman in the photo. Mayor Jones kidnapped him from his real parents, Brad Chiles and Judy Reeves, to keep them away from Crystal Cove so he could have the treasure for himself. Mayor Jones chose the photo of a woman from a magazine to convince people that Fred is his biological son, he just happens to take after his supposed mother.
  • Mayor Jones is the Freak of Crystal Cove and made up the Curse of Crystal Cove to scare off the original Mystery Inc. from hunting down the treasure.
  • Mayor Jones is responsible for breaking up the original Mystery Inc. and caused them to go into hiding, having blackmailed them as the Freak and with help from Pericles. When Brad and Judy tried to return to Crystal Cove two years later, he kidnapped Freddie from them as further insurance.
  • Mayor Jones is responsible for giving Pericles his scar and putting him in jail.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Mayor Jones explains that Pericles knew more about the map than he let the original Mystery Inc. to believe. The Professor cut a deal with Jones to obtain the treasure for themselves, and he came up with the idea to blackmail the kids into leaving town. Once the kids complied, however, Mayor Jones immediately betrayed Pericles and ensured he'd be arrested for causing the kids' disappearances.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • After Mayor Jones snaps at Fred, we’re given a roomwide shot of Fred backing away from his father, referencing the growing rift between them.
    • In the same shot, there's also an emphasis on Mayor Jones's shadow on the wall.
  • The recurrence of the Freak's shadow looming over the gang. Not only is it looming over them physically, but it also references that he's been the Big Bad of Crystal Cove for the past twenty years and holds a lot of responsibility over the show's Myth Arc, including what he did to the kids' predecessors.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The Gang's goal in attempting to finish what the original Mystery Incorporated started fails. None of what they do in this episode achieves anything other than discover the truth about Mayor Jones, which results in the Gang breaking up after having already suffered through enough strain this entire season. Bringing out their piece of the disc out into the open ultimately results in Pericles getting a hold of it as well.
• Sincerity Mode: At the beginning of the episode, Mayor Jones tells Fred that he loves him and quietly adds that he hopes he knows that.
• Starcrossed Lovers: The Blakes continue to show their dismay for Daphne and Fred's relationship, with Barty fainting at the revelation of their engagement while Nan tells off Daphne. Mayor Jones, on the other hand, doesn't like it mainly because he finds their sickeningly sweet relationship to be annoying and ridiculous, and also isn't entirely fond of the Blakes either. Nan drags Daphne away from City Hall while Mayor Jones holds back Fred from going back for her.
• Tempting Fate: Fred says in defense of his engagement with Daphne that he loves her as equally as he loves the gang, traps, mystery-solving, and his father. By the end of the episode, after learning that his supposed father is actually his kidnapper, he calls off the engagement, disbands the gang, and turns away from mystery-solving to uncover his own mystery of what happened to his real parents, who are strangers that live outside of his known world.
• The War Has Just Begun: Scooby's reaction to being taunted by Pericles is to vow to reassemble the gang and hunt him down.
• Was It All a Lie?: The following exchange:
  Mayor Jones: Fred, you're still my son, I raised you!
  Fred: You used me.
  • Let's not forget Sheriff Stone's reaction to the whole thing. We don't get to see Mayor Jones's response to that, though.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The parents demonstrate that they don’t like each other, with Mr. Rogers telling Mrs. Dinkley to shut up for proposing a hippy punishment and Mrs. Blake blaming Mayor Jones for their children’s marriage engagement while he looks suitably annoyed at her.
• Wham Episode: Let's see now: Fred (or whatever his parents named him) has left town after breaking things off with Daphne (who, like Velma, is grounded for a year or so) and declaring the gang dissolved because it's tainted by association with a city he hates, Shaggy is being packed off to military school, Scooby to a farm, Mayor Jones really is one of the most evil characters of the franchise, and everyone except the dog blames everything on Velma; about the only thing that keeps this from being the worst ending ever is that Scooby is determined to make things right... with extreme prejudice.
• Wham Line:
  • The truth about Fred's parents.
    Fred: That still doesn't explain what happened to my mother. I wanna know where she is.
    Mayor Jones: The truth is... I don't know. I assume she's still with Brad Chiles.
    Daphne: Wait, are you saying that Judy Reeves is Fred's mother? But that would mean--!
    Mayor Jones: Brad Chiles is your real father.
  • Fred breaking up the team, wanting to leave town to find his parents.
    Fred: Mystery Incorporated is dead.
• Wham Shot:
  • The photo of Fred's mom falling to the ground and shattering... and there's a magazine article on the back of the photo.
  • The Freak stopping in his tracks when he hears Fred crying out for help, followed up by him grabbing Fred, saving him from falling to his death.
  • Combined with Wham Line, Fred solemnly unmasking the Freak, who turns out to be Mayor Jones.
    Fred: The Freak of Crystal Cove... is my father.
    Everyone: Mayor Jones?!
• What the Hell, Hero?: The gang suffers a good deal of friction as a result of Velma keeping Angel's secret for so long and Fred and Daphne keeping their engagement a secret.
• "You!" Exclamation: Professor Pericles when confronted by the Freak.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Angel says this after the Gang locked her in studio before they leave.
  Fred: Sorry, Angel. The adults in this town have done enough harm. We're gonna finish this one on our own.
  Angel: Please, you have to believe me! The curse will destroy you just like it destroyed my friends!
• You're Not My Father: In the ending, Mayor Jones tries to convince Fred that he can't turn against him, because in the end, they're still father and son. Fred shuts him down.

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Pericles: What an amusing turn of events.
Scooby: <gasps> Pericles!
Pericles: Don't be afraid, Scooby. I've no reason to hurt you, I have what I came for.
<Pericles reveals that he has Mayor Jones' piece>
Scooby: The mayor's piece! You have it!
Pericles: Two down, four to go. Until we meet again, auf wiedersehn, Scooby-Doo.
<Pericles flies away>
Scooby: I'll get the gang back together, Pericles. We'll be coming for you, or my name isn't Scooby Dooby Doo!