The series premiere starts off as a typical mystery in which the gang, who aren't quite like you remember them, chase down a more menacing monster than we're used to and ending with Daphne stumbling onto a clue to a deeper, more dangerous mystery.
The episode provides examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: The episode’s title has this.
- Adults Are Useless: As per usual for Scooby-Doo, but justified here: The adults want the monsters for tourism no matter what happens. Averted with Professor Raffalo and Angel though the professor is the Monster of the Week but Angel sticks around for the rest of the series.
- Alliterative Family: All of the Blake daughters’ names start with “D”: Daisy, Dawn, Dorothy, Delilah, and Daphne.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Mayor Jones silently expresses shock and averts eye contact when Daphne reveals that they found a mysterious locket in the caves. His reaction suggests he is familiar with the locket.
- An unknown man contacts the Mystery Inc. over the phone at K-Ghoul.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: When Daphne asks “But if the cocoon is made out of Fruitmeir’s dessert…?” Shaggy excitedly finishes by saying they could have their own endless supply of Fruimeir’s if they catch the monster. Fred, knowing that’s not what she meant, finishes her thought by saying it probably means that the monster isn’t real after all since it seems to be made out of the town’s popular dessert.
- Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Turns out in this cartoon, radioactive material not only doesn't kill you, it makes for a delicious frozen treat.
- As You Know: The Cold Opening reveals that the Mystery Inc., unlike previous continuities, is not loved by the the town for debunking mysteries. It also turns out that this town is their hometown, as they still live with their parents. The Sheriff also reveals to the audience that Fred's father is the mayor of this town, revealing that the show takes place in a different continuity from Scooby Doo! Pirates Ahoy! as Fred's father in that film was an ordinary guy.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Daphne asks why Professor Ruffalo would need money when he's got a job as a teacher. The flat look the man gives them as a reply makes them realize it was pretty obvious why he needed money.
- Bait-and-Switch: When some construction workers find a cave filled with barrels of toxic waste, they ask their foreman what they should do:Foreman: Well, it’s pretty clear isn’t it? Those are radioactive symbols, meaning whatever’s inside is dangerous…meaning we need to open it right away. We don’t want whatever’s in there to mess up our schedule.
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Velma gives one to Shaggy when, as they’re reassuring Fred that they’re all to blame for what happened to Professor Raffalo, he tries to clarify that he had no part in stealing the body.
- Big "WHAT?!":
- The rest of the gang plus Angel Dynamite say this when Shaggy discovers that the cocoon is made out of Fruitmeir’s dessert.
- The Mystery Inc. gang also does this when it’s revealed that Franklin Fruitmeir can’t be the monster as they had originally suspected, because he was the one who called the cops about the suspicious activity at his restaurant.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: Not only do the barrels in the cave have radioactive symbols on them, but there’s also a large sign hanging above them that says “Danger”.
- Complexity Addiction: Fred’s Rube Goldberg Machine-like trap is absurdly over-complicated, so much so that it only succeeds in capturing him, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby instead of the monster.
- Continuity Cavalcade: Velma takes a tour group through the Crystal Cove Museum which features displays of monsters from the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? series including Space Kook, Miner 49er, Charlie the Haunted Robot, Phantom Shadow, Ghost Clown, The Creeper, and Captain Cutler just to name a few. There’s also the Luna Ghost from the 2002 live action movie.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Inverted. It turns out that Professor Raffalo is doing the scheme for money because he can't make a lot of money at his teaching job. Also averted with Frankilin Fruitmeir, who isn't behind the plot using his dessert to cocoon innocent people.
- Disguised in Drag: Shaggy and Scooby do this to investigate Fruitmeir’s as the female waitresses the shop is looking for, since Velma and Daphne had a good reason for not doing it: they refused.
- Dramatic Unmask: It wouldn’t be a Scooby-Doo episode without it. The gang unmasks the Slime Mutant and are surprised to find one of the only friendly adults in town, Professor Raffalo.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The Cold Open finds the gang in the county lockup on a trespassing charge, despite presumably solving a mystery and putting away an actual criminal. It's implied that this is a common occurrence.
- Establishing Character Moment: The gang's being chastised by their parents for upsetting the town's financial applecart tells us a lot about them and the town of Crystal Cove.
- Establishing Series Moment:
- Initially, the case seems to be a run-of-the-mill Scooby-Doo episode, where the gang has to investigate a suspicious local businessman. Then we come to the reveal, where the monster is unmasked, and it turns out to be their friendly science teacher. With this one dialogue scene, the series establishes that it knows all about the conventions of the franchise's formula and is dedicated to reinventing them with a witty modern spin:Emmanuel: I was trying to scare people away from the sewers while I dug my way in and got rich.
Daphne: But you've got a job as a teacher. Why would you need more money?
[Emmanuel gives Daphne a long, drawn-out, Surrounded by Idiots glare]
Daphne: Yeah, my bad.
Fred: Oh, yeah. Right.
Shaggy: You're really getting ripped off. - Mr. E's surprise phone call helps establish that this isn't just another Scooby-Doo series, and there's something huge lurking in the shadows of Crystal Cove...
- Initially, the case seems to be a run-of-the-mill Scooby-Doo episode, where the gang has to investigate a suspicious local businessman. Then we come to the reveal, where the monster is unmasked, and it turns out to be their friendly science teacher. With this one dialogue scene, the series establishes that it knows all about the conventions of the franchise's formula and is dedicated to reinventing them with a witty modern spin:
- Foreshadowing: Many things Velma brings up during the tour are major plot points. And so is that locket Daphne finds and Mayor Jones' reaction to it.
- Funny Background Event: As the gang is examining the cocooned body with Mr. Raffalo, Scooby is being attacked in the background by a squirrel.
- Generation Xerox: Daphne looks identical to her older sisters, and they all look like exact copies of their mother.
- Hand Gagging: Velma’s parents both slap their hands over her mouth to stop her from telling the tour group about how all of Crystal Cove’s monsters ended up being fake so that she wouldn't hurt their haunted tour business.Dale: Those were isolated incidents in Crystal Cove’s otherwise unblemished supernatural past of hauntings and paranormal happenings.
- Hands Go Down: Professor Raffalo asks his class if anyone knows what photosynthesis is and a bunch of hands go up. He then adds “And please, don’t say plant farts”, causing everyone’s hands to go down.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Slime Mutant is defeated by becoming cocooned with its own weapon.
- I Will Show You X!: Velma’s response to Sheriff Stone telling the gang to “Stay out of it!”Velma: [making a fist] I’ve got his "stay out of it" right here.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The lead foreman, voiced by Gary Cole, looks like his voice actor. Mayor Jones also looks like a younger and black-haired version of Gary Cole as well.
- Improvised Lockpick: Scooby uses one of his claws to pick the lock of the storage room in Fruitmeir’s, only to be met with the Slime Mutant.
- Innocuously Important Episode: At first, it seems like another lax action-adventure Saturday morning cartoon with the usual everyday problems between the cast. It starts to get noticeable that there's something bigger going on when Daphne finds a lost locket that has nothing to do with their current mystery, with Mayor Jones and an unknown caller apparently knowing what it means but refusing to divulge details for an unknown reason.
- Iris Out: The episode ends with one as Scooby delivers a dramatic Punctuated! For! Emphasis! “Scooby. Dooby. Doo!”
- It Has Only Just Begun: What the unknown caller says to the gang at the end of the episode.
- It's All My Fault: Fred blames himself for Professor Raffalo being cocooned, because he was the one who stole the body and brought it to him to investigate.
- Jerkass Has a Point: The gang’s parents would like their kids to focus on other hobbies and make different friends, since they can't just spend their whole lives chasing mysteries and getting into trouble. However, it's mostly because they want to mold them to fit their ideals, not what their kids really want or need.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Velma snarkily calls her parents, “reboot parents”.
- Luck-Based Search Technique:
- A classic for this franchise, a construction worker finds an underground cavern by leaning back on a brick wall and falling through as it crumbles behind him.
- Daphne, of course, does this by falling through a hole in the Fruitmeir’s storage closet that leads down into the Crystal Cove caves.
- Memento MacGuffin: The locket seems to be an object of emotional importance, as it holds a picture of a young woman and man.
- Monster of the Week: The Slime Mutant, a hulking creature resembling a human skeleton/muscular system coated in a thick layer of slime. It attacks by blasting an endless amount of slime from its hands, cocooning and dehydrating its targets.
- Mythology Gag: At one point, Daphne tells her parents "We're just solving mysteries, all the kids are doing it!" This may be a nod to Hanna-Barbara's numerous Scooby copycats over the years, many of which show up in later episodes.
- Oblivious to Love: Fred is completely oblivious that Daphne is in love with him, to the point of even remarking that they’re such great friends.
- Red Herring: Mr. Fruitmeir showed up in town relatively recently, came seemingly out of nowhere, and makes a dessert associated with the Monster of the Week. And yet, he didn't do it.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Unfortunately for Sheriff Stone, this happens when he rhetorically asks the gang why they think he has his badge.Velma: It came with the shirt?
- Rube Goldberg Machine: Fred's trap, and unnecessarily so. And he put the cage over the gang, instead of the monster! Oops.
- Secret Ingredient: Fruitmeir's seem to be made up of biohazardous if not radioactive material that had been abandoned for some time in the catacombs below Crystal Cove. Surprisingly, nobody seems to be disturbed by this revelation and instead focus on the fact that this means that the monster's weakness is that it is edible.
- Secret Relationship: Velma and Shaggy's, though it's only a secret because Shaggy is afraid of Scooby's reaction. This sets up most of the conflict in their relationship for the first half of the season and a bit afterward.
- Sickly Green Glow: The radioactive slime monster glows bright green.
- Skipping School: Despite having just gotten in trouble for their meddling, the gang cuts class to go follow a lead on another mystery.
- Sticky Situation: While imprisoned in a cage due to Fred’s failed trap, the monster sprays Fred, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby with its slime which sticks to them so thoroughly that they’re unable to move. That is, until they remember it’s just Fruitmeir’s and that they can eat their way out.
- Successful Sibling Syndrome: Daphne’s parents are worried about her hanging out with the Mystery Inc. gang because they want her to have a successful career one day like her quintuplet older sisters who are a doctor, a fashion model, a race car driver, a marine, and an astronaut (who wasn’t shown in this episode).
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: All of the kids’ separate conversations with their parents overlap each other.
- Wham Episode: What better than the very first episode to tell longtime fans that this isn't going to be a stand-alone Monster of the Week series? It does so by leaving the mystery of the locket open and getting contacted by the mysterious Mr. E, who ominously warns them that this mystery is much larger than they can only imagine, something the rest of the series completely proves true.
- Wham Line: When Daphne asks Professor Raffalo about the locket, he responds that he's never seen it before. As this means that the locket has nothing to do with the episode's mystery, it's the first sign that there's more to this series than a typical Monster of the Week show.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To the 1985 horror film The Stuff about a dessert treat found in a mine that no one can properly identify.
- You Meddling Kids: Lampshaded when Sheriff Stone has to remind Professor Raffalo of the phrase while arresting him.
- Mr. E: You can call me Mr. E. You should never have brought that locket out of the cave. You don't know what you've uncovered.
Daphne: Uncovered? Uncovered what?
Mr. E: A truth that should have remained hidden the truth behind the curse of Crystal Cove. The real mystery has just begun.
Scooby: Scooby...Dooby...Doo.
