A Clue for Scooby-Doo
Captain Cutler’s ghost emerges from the fog on a cold, dark night.
It’s not cold enough to stop a beach party though! The Mystery Machine gang is grooving on the beach. Apparently, no one else showed up which isn’t exactly surprising. Shaggy’s excited for chocolate covered hot dogs. I feel like not enough is made of the fact that his choice in food is horrific. Scooby goes surfing and slams into Captain Cutler’s ghost who immediately gives chase.
His return to shore slams torpedoes the picnic and ruins all the chocolate covered hot dogs. :( Shaggy hides in an umbrella and runs behind a rock.
The next day, at the malt shop, Fred realizes that boats have been disappearing in the area. They go visit the local beach hermit Ebeneezer Shark, who has a name that I feel truly insane typing out. He claims that Captain Cutler’s ghost is behind the disappearances.
Ebeneezer tells the gang about Captain Cutler’s demise in a storm off the coast. I hope he also told the FBI. Apparently, he swore he’d return to get his revenge. It’s unclear who his revenge would be on. Weather? The fates? Kind of seems like his own fault. In any case, he’s chosen to take action by stealing rich people’s boats. Sure, whatever.
Ebeneezer has an old diving suit which the gang finds suspicious but realistically, a lot of people would have one in a seaside town. It’s not exactly a smoking gun.
Fred dispatches Scooby to go talk to the Widow Cutler. Scooby pretends his paw is broken to avoid knocking on the door so instead of knocking, they just break in. The interior looks like the witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel. There are canned hyena laughs and a witchcraft book. Widow cutler appears and says “Good evening” in truly the most bone curdling voice imaginable.
The widow says she couldn’t hear them knock because she was tending the light. Don’t worry lady, they didn’t knock!
She claims she brought Captain Cutler back from the grave with witchcraft. But she never thought he’d take the revenge he famously said he would take. Seems like an honest misunderstanding. She stirs a cauldron that Scooby drinks from but it turns out she’s just doing laundry. Good bit.
They see some glowing seaweed and Shaggy claims it’s the ghost. Good guess, Shaggy but last I checked, the ghost wore a diving suit. The seaweed goes in a drain pipe and Scooby puts on an overcoat with pillows to claim he’s too fat to go in. Velma offers him a Scooby snack and he immediately caves. Bad episode for Scooby knowing his worth.
The seaweed is some kind of fancy glowing fungus found ONLY in the Graveyard of Ships. The book with this info is very convenient but doesn’t seem very scientific. The gang decides to head for the graveyard of ships. Personally speaking, I wouldn’t.
They find a bottle with a letter in it floating in the water on the way out. Naturally, it seems like a clue. Shaggy reads it: “No deposit, no return.” Reader, I laughed out loud!
A phantom yacht goes by and vanishes in a rocky cover.
In response to this, Fred says “Like I always say, onward and downward. To the Graveyard of Ships, that is.” First of all, like you ALWAYS say? How many times have you been here, Fred? Does your family own a summer home down there? Second of all, I watched this episode so many times as a kid that this line has lived rent-free in my head. I have no idea why. I would kill to not have it go through my empty mind any time someone uses the common phrase “onward and upward”. No one has any idea what I’m talking about. Please help.
They’re about to go underwater when Scooby climbs one of the ship masts and refuses to come down. Shaggy unties the plank of wood he’s hanging onto and sends him plunging into the ocean depths. Look, I know Scooby can talk but is he diving certified? This seems unethical. Anyway, the gang splits up underwater which is literally the one thing you are not supposed to do if I learned anything from watching Open Water.
Captain Cutler locks Velma, Daphne and Fred inside an old ship. Scooby-Doo unplugs his oxygen tank, fills his suit up and catapults himself into Captain Cutler sending him sprawling. He then bounces off the ship’s wheel and flies into the hold of another ship. The bends kills him instantly and his head explodes. Just kidding, he finds a clue, glowing oxygen tanks! Beginning to think this glowing fungus is part of the mystery….
They find an old cannon and try to fire it at the ghost. At the last second, Shaggy remembers you can’t have fire underwater. Our best minds at work.
Scooby and Shaggy hide from Captain Cutler by pretending to be figureheads. It doesn’t go well but they free Fred, Daphne and Velma accidentally.
They follow Captain Cutler’s footsteps and find a secret underwater cave. Shaggy’s hair is blond in one of these shots! Whoops.
Inside, they find an underground cave with all the missing boats. They’re being painted over presumably to be sold at a markup. Time to catch this pirate!
They hook up a fire hose to a bar of soap and are going to just spray at him when he shows up. I mean sure, I guess that would work as well as anything.
Captain Cutler shows up and Shaggy instantly loses control of the hose firing it at Scooby instead who falls into a boat that just goes careening off into Captain Cutler. I love these beautiful idiots.
It turns out Captain Cutler is not Ebeneezer Shark but actually Captain Cutler who faked his own death! This is either very clever or stupid. The gang gets a mention in the newspaper the next day at the malt shop. Scooby drinks up Shaggy’s milkshake, There Will Be Blood style and the gang has a good laugh.
Overall Rating: 4/5 Scooby Snacks. A very funny episode with a clever/dumb mystery element.
Scooby Snack Stock Market: Scooby crawls into a drain pipe for 1 (one) measly Scooby Snack. Sell. SELL!
Where does the gang live?: The weather and coastal town would seem to indicate that they’re somewhere DEEP in New England. It’s hard to imagine a place like the Graveyard of Ships chilling outside of New York City or something like that.
Next: Hassle in the Castle, where Scooby dresses up as John Wayne and goes treasure hunting…