Air date: November 26th, 1986
Adapted from: Branch Line Engines, "Percy's Predicament"
Daisy's time on the Island of Sodor is going badly for everyone concerned. Not only is she frightened of bulls and cows, she remains lazy, bad-tempered and stubborn; and refuses to do jobs she doesn't want to do, making excuses.
Percy grumpily shunts trucks one day, as Toby pulls in noticing Daisy has once again refused to take the milk wagon. Percy will have to make a special trip with it after his normal work is done. Wanting to help, Toby offers to take the milk if Percy fetches his trucks from the quarry in return. The crews agree to this and Percy sets off.
Percy goes to the quarry to fetch the trucks. Having never been there before, he starts enjoying himself by ordering the trucks about. The trucks don't take kindly to a stranger entering the quarry and giving orders and vow to pay Percy out. Once arranged into a goods train, the trucks lure Percy into a false sense of security by following him so quietly that he thinks they are under control. When Percy sees a sign saying "All Trains Stop To Pin Down Brakes", he whistles to the guard to pin down his brakes, only for the trucks to push him along. Due to warning the traffic at the crossing, The signalman is too late to switch Percy to the runaway siding and Percy crashes into a brakevan, destroying it and perching himself on top of the remains of a truck.
The next day, Toby and Daisy help clear up the mess. The Fat Controller arrives and scolds Percy, telling him that because of his bossiness toward the trucks, the branch line will have to be run with only Toby and Daisy. This leaves it in an awkward predicament. Percy, very much stuck in his own predicament, understands what he means.
The Fat Controller also tells Daisy off for her laziness, but gives her a second chance given how hard she worked after Percy's accident. Daisy is pleased and promises to work hard with Toby's help. Knowing Toby has a lot of experience with running a branch line, the Fat Controller is satisfied.
The next day, Thomas returns from the works and is happily reunited with Annie and Clarabel while Percy is sent away to be repaired. All the engines are now friends and Daisy learns a lot from Toby, leading her to become a really useful engine, even managing to scare a cow away all on her own.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Percy is mentioned to have never been to the Quarry before, despite visiting it to talk to Toby in "Percy and Harold" earlier in Series 2. This wasn't an issue in Branch Line Engines, as Percy's aforementioned chat with Toby took place at Ffarquhar in Percy the Small Engine.
- Alliterative Title: Percy's Predicament.
- Anarchic Order: In The Railway Series, this story takes place after "Bull's Eyes", which wouldn't be adapted for two more seasons. However, the narrator does mention Daisy's fear of bulls and cows at the beginning before showing Toby and Percy meeting up with each other.
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: The Fat Controller rebukes Daisy for her stubborn and lazy behaviour, but then acknowledges that she helped Toby clear up after the accident and also has given her a second chance.
- Bittersweet Ending: Despite Percy being sent to the works, Thomas returns and works with Toby and Daisy. This may somewhat be subverted since the narrator says "all are now friends", meaning that Percy may have returned from the works.
- Not in the book which states that "all three engines are great friends". The show likely altered this to avert Snub by Omission for poor Percy.
- Bowdlerise:
- In the UK, the trucks shout "Pay Percy out!", but in the US, it's "Pay Percy back!".
- When The Fat Controller reprimands Percy in the UK, he tells him that he hoped that his predicament will teach him to be careful with trucks. In the US, he advises him to be more careful with Freight Cars.
- Butt-Monkey: Percy, considering that this episode marks yet another accident for him in this season.
- Character Development: Daisy vows to become a hard worker... at least until 18 seasons later.
- Dark Reprise: The instrumentation for Percy's theme becomes harder and more frantic as he loses control of the trucks before eventually fading into the "Danger" theme.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The trucks send Percy colliding into a brake van for talking to them in a bit too bossy a tone.
- Dissonant Serenity: In the midst of clearing up the accident, Toby and Daisy didn't seem terrified of Percy's condition.
- From Bad to Worse: If Thomas crashing into the stationmaster's house and Daisy's lazy behaviour was bad enough, then Percy's accident with the trucks takes the cake. Thankfully, Thomas comes back.
- Funny Background Event: In the scene where the Fat Controller arrives, you can see a truck behind Toby seemingly laughing itself silly at Percy's situation. You might guess it's amused by how its fellow trucks took their revenge on Percy.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While it was mean of The Fat Controller to blame Percy for his accident despite the fact that it was the trucks that caused it, the fact that Percy had been ordering the trucks about probably hadn't helped things. Not to mention that his accident had nearly made a bad situation worse by leaving the Ffarqhuar Branch Line with only two engines to run it had Thomas not come back from the works the day after the accident.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Daisy's laziness catches up to her here after the events of the previous episode.
- Laziness Callout: After Sir Topham Hatt scolds Percy for his carelessness with the Troublesome Trucks, he scolds Daisy for her laziness, saying that engines on his railway work hard and he sends lazy ones away. He does, however, give her a second chance, having heard from Toby how hard she worked to clear the wreckage away after Percy's accident.
- Misplaced Retribution: Sir Topham Hatt reamed Percy for the crash instead of his driver, the trucks, the guard or the signalman.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Percy crashing to the brake van has led the branch line to being only run by two engines - Toby and Daisy. This was thankfully subverted as Thomas came back from being repaired.
- No Sympathy: For messing up so badly, the Fat Controller tells Percy he can wait in the wreckage until they find the time to rescue him. The trucks being squashed beneath the little engine can only groan.
- Rule of Three: Including The Flying Kipper and Brake Van, this was the third time in Thomas and Friends where an engine destroyed a brake van.
- Runaway Train: The trucks push Percy down the line, passing a sign saying "All Trains Stop To Pin Down Brakes".
- Series Continuity Error: The narrator mentions that Percy has never went to the quarry before, despite appearing there in "Percy and Harold". However, in said episode's adaptation from the books, Percy met Toby at the station instead of the quarry.
- Stock Footage: Footage from "Percy Runs Away" and "Percy and Harold" is used. The latter is particularly egregious since in that clip, Percy is pulling trucks full of slate, rather than the ballast he collects from the quarry.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- The Fat Controller reprimands Percy for his carelessness with the trucks, putting the branch line in a predicament after his accident with the brake van.
- After that, he calls out Daisy for her laziness, but gives her a second chance after helping Toby clear up the mess.
