Remembrance of Courage Past
Original air date: 11/22/2002
Production code: CCD-413a
While drinking milk, Courage recounts the past of his parents. This leaves him staring off into space for a long enough time for Muriel to notice something's wrong, so she grabs him and Eustace for a trip to the vet. The same vet that stole Courage's parents from him and launched them into space. Courage couldn’t save them, but he did escape, and now he has to see if he can stop the same from happening to his adopted family.
Perfect
Original air date: 11/22/2002
Production code: CCD-413b
Courage is feeling out of place due to all of his imperfections. However, a ghostly schoolteacher shows up to give him classes on perfection in the attic. After various attempts of doing simple tasks, such as walking, talking, and brushing his teeth perfectly, the teacher ghost gets so overwhelmed by Courage's inability to cope, that she melts. Courage learns that his differences are what make him himself, and that he's perfect the way he is.
"Remembrance of Courage Past" features examples of the following tropes:
- Aborted Arc: One could say this about Courage ever reuniting with his parents. Dilworth, however, seems to be okay with ending it how it is.
- Art Shift: Courage's flashbacks are animated is a more limited, simplistic style to appear more like a foggy childhood memory. These scenes were animated by the late Michael Sporn, a friend and colleague of John Dilworth's.
- Asshole Victim: The cruel Veterinarian.
- Bittersweet Ending: Courage defeats the Cruel Veterinarian, saving his adopted family and ensuring that nobody else will be launched into space, and his previous victims, including Courage's parents, are shown to be alive and well (and quickly extract justice against him), but they're still trapped on another planet with no indication that they'll ever be reunited.
- Covert Pervert: While Courage is scrambling about the vet's lab, he comes across a door with a woman showering inside. He quickly closes the door, but not before opening it again for a second glance.
- Grand Finale: This episode is close, involving Courage facing off against the veterinarian that shot his parents into space and defeating him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The cruel veterinarian. Years of launching innocent dogs into space (Including Courage's parents) and Courage finally sends him off into his own rocket to get mauled by his own space dogs.
- How We Got Here: This is where we learn why Courage was "abandoned as a pup" by a dumpster in an alley, as shown in the intro of every episode of the show.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The veterinarian is sent back to the unknown planet, where the dogs he had previously stranded there, Courage's parents included, proceed to viciously maul him.
- Mad Doctor: The veterinarian who sent Courage's parents into space is clearly not all right in the head, due to his belief that sending dogs to space will somehow make them stronger, which was based on two posters of muscular space dogs that he saw in his clinic.
- Mood Whiplash: The final flashback is how Courage was adopted by Muriel after the flashbacks of how Courage lost his parents.
- My Greatest Second Chance: After Courage failed to save his parents from blasted off into space by the veterinarian, he prevents his history from repeating itself being saving Eustace and Muriel from the same fate and blasting the vet into space to put a stop to him once and for all.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: The vet gives a really satisfying one when he ends up on another planet and confronted by all the dogs he sent there, including Courage's parents.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know shit gets real when Eustace's scary mask doesn't frighten Courage in the absolute slightest.
- Origins Episode: "Remembrance of Courage Past" mainly serves to reveal the full details on how Courage was found and adopted by Muriel, as well as the cause of Courage's paralyzing fear and paranoia.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The vet has red eyes and he is responsible for Courage becoming an orphan.
- Resolved Noodle Incident: The opening of the show states Courage was abandoned as a puppy, but the audience is never given an explanation as to why. This episode finally gives the answer.
- The Scream: Courage uses his to stun the vet at the climax, grabbing his stethoscope and screaming into it.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: When Courage's memory of his separation from his parents is triggered, he becomes catatonic.
- Trauma Button: Seeing a picture of lost dogs on the back of a milk cartoon triggers Courage's childhood memories of the last time he saw his parents, and how he lost them, sending him into a severe Heroic BSoD.
- Trauma Conga Line: As it turns out, Courage ended up going through one hell of a time during his youth: First, he saw his parents being dognapped by the evil veterinarian, then when he goes out to rescue them, he ends up seeing all sorts of terrifying things in several rooms of his clinic, leading him to run around screaming in terror (including several animals being imprisoned, especially several dogs), and finally, he sees his parents being launched into space by the same veterinarian and ends up being chased by him, but he manages to escape through a garbage chute before he watches his parents being shot into space by the veterinarian's rocket, sadly waving goodbye before Muriel finds him and decides to adopt him. All of the horrifying things that he saw that day are what caused him to have such paralyzing fear and paranoia in the first place.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The veterinarian is most likely the most evil villain on the show. Not the scariest, but definitely the biggest one you want to punch in the gut.
- Violence Discretion Shot: We never see what the dogs on the other planet do to the vet when he winds up there.
- Wham Episode: This episode shows just exactly what happened to Courage's parents and why he became so paranoid and fearful.
- Your Favorite: We learn that Courage's favorite food is chicken dumplings. He's drooling in anticipation as Muriel gets the food ready, so much so that he starts gnawing on his chair, and is visibly, and audibly, enthusiastic when he digs into his meal.
"Perfect" features examples of the following tropes:
- Art Shift: The nightmare sequences are rendered in a variety of art styles, such as CGI and stop-motion animation.
- Be Yourself: The fish in the bathtub restores Courage's spirits by saying that even if he's not perfect, he's fine the way he is and can accomplish anything.
- Berserk Button: Courage's teacher absolutely detests anything flawed.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The perfectionist teacher's last line as she melts into nothingness: "Now you'll never reach the perfect level of perfection!"
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Courage steps outside of the bathroom at the end, he sees Muriel's bubbly baklava and Eustace's cracked bugle, and then comes to the realization that it's okay to not be perfect because everyone has imperfections, thus becoming more confident in himself.
- Grand Finale: There is no monster tormenting the Bagges, just the teacher tormenting Courage. When he learns to accept himself, the teacher is defeated and Courage is happy.
- I'm Melting!: The "Perfect" Teacher does this in a fit of rage when Courage accomplishes something that is both perfect (in that he has accepted himself) and imperfect (he didn't do what she wanted).
- Nightmare Dreams: Courage endures five of them in "Perfect", all of which seeming to be manifestations of his self-esteem issues.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: One of Courage's nightmares has a crowd of people laugh at him while he's juggling because the hair on his lower half has been shaved off.
- Sadist Teacher: The teacher relentlessly bullies Courage over his imperfections, and her expectations for him are nigh-impossible for him to achieve.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Eustace isn't exactly kind to Courage in the finale, but at the end he doesn't mind him sitting at the table, and he laughs with Muriel about their imperfections as opposed to his usual griping.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The fish tells Courage this at the end.
