"Bears gone Primal."
Even an otherwise light-hearted show about three friendly bear brothers who want to get along with everyone does have its fair share of horrifying stuff.
Spoilers below are unmarked.
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Season 1
Pilot
- When two children shove Panda around for ruining the party, Grizzly gets angry and defends Panda by roaring and mauling a little boy, slashing him in the back with his claws. The boy runs away crying, Grizz immediately realizes what he just did and starts to apologize. It was very out-of-character for Grizz and the moment it suddenly happens is startling.
Burrito
- In-Universe example: In his adulthood, Grizzly still has nightmares about getting stranded in a tree during a thunderstorm as a cub. Also out of universe, seeing baby Grizz completely helpless is creepy if you're an adult or parent...
Primal
- The promotional artwork
◊ for this episode is already scary in itself. It's just Grizz in front of a campfire alone at night, which wouldn't be so bad by itself... if not for two pairs of ears sticking out from behind the bushes in the background. - This episode is generally considered to be the scariest of the series thus far, and for good reason - After Grizz tries getting the bears to adjust back to how nature intended for them to live, a starved Ice Bear and Panda revert to very violent and scary looking forms and turn on each other before rounding on Grizz. That the episode ends on a chillingly ambiguous note doesn't help matters.
- The moment where Ice Bear looks at his arm... and it momentarily changes to a shot of his arm in primal form, claws and all, with an unsettling sound effect to boot.
Nom Nom
- Nom Nom's big plan to regain his fame. Trick Grizz and Panda into a pool, dump sharks in, and then go to rescue them. He made a note on his whiteboard showing a picture of a rescued Grizz and Panda and it said "Probably dead". Dude didn't care if they got eaten, so long as he could get famous again.
- When Ice Bear tries to stop the movie, Nom Nom tricks him into falling into a hole and covers it with a tarp. And because of Ice Bear's soft-spoken nature, nobody can hear him.Ice Bear: (weakly) Ice Bear...*cough*...Ice Bear is down here.
Jean Jacket
- The titular jacket bears the snarling face of a tiger, and brings good fortune upon those who possess/wear it. Unfortunately, this good fortune corrupts the bears, but their attempts to get rid of it fail. This especially pertains to the climax when, due to the heavy wind, it actually manages to fly around and attack them. And the episode ends on a disturbing scene implying it will bring misery to a new trio of friends.
Tote Life
- The bears getting obsessed with their massive collection reusable bags and eventually almost everything in their house is totes. The lights in their house have all been turned off, and their house is crammed floor to ceiling with totes, like something out of Hoarders. Grizzly wears the totes like a robe while showing signs of Sanity Slippage, Ice Bear makes a "tote wrap" that Grizzly tries to eat, and Panda is seen dating a dummy made out of totes, with another one sitting on the side of his room that he introduces as "my ex".
- The worst part is that, during this, all three bears seem to have become super creepy, but in different ways. Grizz is constantly hunched over with a creepy grin and a mad glint in his eye, like some sort of ghoul or goblin. Panda is the very picture of Dissonant Serenity, acting like nothing is wrong despite all evidence to the contrary. And Ice Bear just looks... completely dead on the inside. While we’re used to seeing him express zero emotions, he looks and acts here like he just got his soul sucked out by otherworldly forces.
Charlie
- Charlie's Caveshare pictures, consisting of blurry photos taken from a distance and shots of him peeking out of the bushes with white eyes, are downright creepy.
Brother Up
- The wolf pack. Unlike when Panda and Ice Bear went feral from hunger in "Primal," the wolves are portrayed as vicious and dangerous. This is demonstrated when Charlie points out the huge claw marks the wolves left in the trees.
Emergency
- Ice Bear attempts to slice the crab stuck on his ear off with his axe. It's very unsettling, especially for people who may know somebody who has done self harm or committed suicide.
- Ice Bear's behavior when the crab pinches his ear, period. He starts running around the house erratically (at one point running outside and crashing through the window to get back in), forcing Grizz and Panda to hold him down and tie him to a chair. He's in so much pain (not that it's immediately noticeable) that he can't even speak coherently.
Hibernation
- Grizzly becomes so desperate to try and hibernate that he has a nervous breakdown, hallucinating that the bear from the "Good Night Grizzly" pop-up book is talking to him. It encourages him not to give up, and even takes him into the world of the book... but it won't let him back out when Grizzly has second thoughts about spending the rest of winter away from his brothers.
Season 2
The Island
- There's already the worries of young Grizzly, Panda, and Ice Bear getting stranded on an unknown island. But then there comes Dave, stranded on the island with Karla. After the cubs uncover a hidden box of supplies, Dave runs off with it and throws them and the box into a quicksand pit. As they sink, he reveals his full intent of manipulating Karla into loving him by depriving her of any means to escape the island until "the time is right". As Grizzly and Panda so rightly put it, the guy was a creep of the highest level.
- Not like he didn't deserve it, but it's still disturbing to realize that Dave was left stranded in the island alone.
Yuri and the Bear
- Ice Bear is nearly killed a couple of times, first by Yuri when he finds him trespassing in his tent, then by the hunters when he gets caught in one of their traps.
- It's implied that Ice Bear's mother was skinned by hunters, if the polar bear skin the poachers are seen holding is anything to go by. Of course, it might have been some other polar bear's skin, but that doesn't make it any less dark.
Creature Mysteries
- Tabes getting trapped in the fire around the roof of the bears' cave and falling unconscious. If Charlie hadn't rescued her, she would've died.
Season 3
Ralph
- Just the fact that Ralph sees throwing people off a bridge potentially to their death as merely a practical joke.
Planet Bears
- The bears nearly going primal again (all three of them this time.) as they fight over the last piece of food in the cave. It takes the puppy sports show on TV to calm them down and split the food.
Coffee Cave
- Ice Bear's Sanity Slippage after becoming addicted to coffee, with bloodshot red eyes to the point of attacking Grizzly and Panda with his axe when they try to help deprive him of caffeine.
Charlie's Big Foot
- Panda is whisked away from his brothers, strapped to an operating table, and drugged in spite of his absolutely frantic struggles. His brothers are told that security will be called if they try to intervene, leaving them to sit helplessly and wonder if they can do something or if they're cutting him open already. Charlie sits and stews in the fact that the person he adores most in the world is in danger because of him. And all because they went into the hospital for a very common injury.
Lucy's Brother
- Clifford, who has a peanut allergy, has a jar of peanut butter spill on his head.
The Nom Nom Show
- Nom Nom drowning. What really makes it is the audience laughing as they think it's just an act.
Ice Cave
- Ralph hiding in the darkness, about to ambush Ice Bear at night, making it look like he was going to kill him.
Pigeons
- Brenda and the Pigeon Cartel attempting to drop Grizz to his death by dragging him from top of the state prison.
Hurricane Hal
- Wallace, Panda, Ice Bear, and Chloe all come extremely close to death. Ice Bear and Chloe's scenario is especially horrific as we see Chloe slowly fall in front of the subway, hers and Ice Bear's faces are all too real. Out of all the situations, theirs feels the most hopeless as Ice Bear jumps in front of the speeding subway. If it weren't for the blackout, it's horrifying to imagine what would happen. At best, Chloe would've survived although extremely injured. Also traumatized after seeing Ice Bear take the hit for her and most likely lying on top of her, dead. Sweet dreams, Chloe.
- Chloe and Ice Bear's faces are pretty real and hard to look at when Chloe's about to be ran over. Ice Bear then jumps in front of her to take most of the impact. This especially upsetting considering they were the most doomed out of all the characters. It's really hard to imagine how the scene would've gone on if it weren't for the extremely convenient blackout happening.
Vacation
- When Nom Nom's heart unexpectedly stops beating while talking to his doctor.
- The beeping device on Nom Nom that monitors his stress level. If it beeps too fast, the doctor very bluntly tells him that he'll die.
- The crazed fans. Special mention goes to the guy hiding in Nom Nom's luggage who wanted to collect his nail clippings, and one guy in the airport who turns his head around 360 degrees.
Beehive
- Seeing the Bears become Brainwashed and Crazy by the Queen Bee to the point they are willing to kill Tabes when she tries to take the hive away.
Season 4
Lil' Squid
- The eel, which they first find in a dark tunnel.
Mom App
- The moms feel robotic, being so one-dimensional and being treated more like products than people. Plus the way they seemingly vanish immediately upon being canceled comes off as especially disturbing.
Charlie's Halloween Thing 2
- The first segment has some truly horrifying zombie animals attacking the bears, including a raccoon doing the Exorcist Head.
- The Internet Troll from the third segment can be pretty unsettling, like when he makes Chloe think she and the Bears have gotten rid of him, only to possess Panda and cruelly snatch her hopes away.
- Panda's face and laugh at the end of the segment after giving the movie a bad review implies that the Troll is still possessing him. In fact, the face alone is terrifying.
- In one of the alternate realities in the fourth segment, Charlie is a wanted criminal, and his former friends and neighbors are all undercover cops who want to bring him to justice.
Adopted
- It's very disturbing and clear something's incredibly wrong the moment they open up the dark room full of decapitated teddy bears. It's then revealed that it was caused by an angry gorilla, who then snatches little baby Panda away and aggressively holds him. The angry faces Carl makes can be pretty scary too, considering what he might do.
Braces
- Seeing Panda go insane with power and to kill the people in the city by controlling their cellphones for teasing him is legitimately terrifying as well as a Tear Jerker.
