Work your cares away

I realize that no one cares about my fraggle posts. But I’d feel like a quitter if I didn’t finish.

Disc 4

#19 The Great Radish Famine The trash heap can’t sleep at night because she really wants the fraggles, doozers and gorgs to get along and realize they’re not all that different from each other. So, instead of telling them and talking things out, she makes all the radishes disappear. Radishes, you see, are the backbone of the very existence of all these creatures. Fraggles gather them to eat. The doozers take some from the fraggles, grind them into dust and make the doozer sticks (this is the first episode where this is explained, and it’s adorable). And if doozers can’t work and build, they’re just not doozers. The gorgs make a concoction out of the radishes that keeps them from becoming invisible. And none of the creatures really know this about the other.

But when times are hard, people never come together, they just blame one another. And the same is true for the inhabitants of Fraggle Rock.

The doozers fare the best. I don’t know what they eat, but it’s not radishes. So someone teaches them to knit, and they stay up beat, productive, and more adorable than you can imagine in tiny knit goods. The fraggles, however, are starving. Their primary source of food, radishes and doozer constructions have been depleted. And the gorgs, they’re heads are starting to disappear. And when Mokey ventures out to the trash heap, the trash heap says if she can gather in the garden with a doozer and a gorg, the radishes will come back. The trash heap has delusions of them all getting along, when of course they don’t. But still, she gives back the radishes. I think the lesson to be learned is about how things are more complicated than they may seem

No more is done with the doozers and the knitting. But there really should be

#20 The Garden Plot Fraggle rock is threatened from it’s two outlets to the outside. Sprocket is trying to get in, and Jr. Gorg is trying to smash the stupid rock he stumbled on. And the fraggles split up, to see what they can do about it. And each one is defeated.

We get a bit of back story from the gorgs. The rock on the gorg side that keeps the opening to the fraggle cave is called “kissing rock” and it’s where Ma and Pa gorg first kissed, some few hundred years ago. And one day, it’ll be where Jr gets his first kiss. Ignoring the fact that no one wants to think about the gorgs kissing, it’s nice to see them have a bit more emotional side. Because they really only exist to be large, dumb, slow and threaten fraggles. I don’t really remember the lesson in this episode.

#21 Gobo's Discovery Gobo thinks he’s lost the will to be an explorer. He remembers that he wanted to be a juggler when he was a kid, but Uncle Traveling Matt would only hear “explorer.” Juggling, of course, is a noble profession. But when needed, of course he shows his courage and saves his friends. Valuable lessons about things we want to do, are made to do, are born to do.

#22 Mokey's Funeral Mokey is an artist, and the fraggles don’t think she’s any good with building things, and they wont’ let her help with the boat. Meanwhile Jr has set a trap to catch any fraggle that ventures out of the cage. Since it’s Mokey’s job to collect the radishes, she figures it’s her job to figure out the trap. And she’s mad, because she heard the other fraggles making fun of her.

She comes up with a fantastic plan. She makes a dummy of herself (that only an artist could do) and puts it in the cage. So Jr moves the cage away from the opening, and she can get the radishes. But Jr sees the lifeless fraggle doll, and thinks he killed her. And we see another, softer side of the Gorgs, who really value life. And taking the life of any creature is a terrible thing, even one as small as a fraggle. And he holds a funeral. The other fraggles don’t know about the plan, and they see the funeral while peeking out from under their rock, and they think they killed Mokey, and prepare to steal her corpse for burying on fraggle grounds. She reveals herself, they all forgive each other, Jr finds out it’s only a doll. It’s actually a pretty good episode, full of lots of real emotion. And for the second time in one season we deal with the realities of death

#23 The Beast of Bluerock Having not learned any lessons all season long we completely rehash everything. 1. Red and Gobo are at odds, she wants to have a diving competition, Gobo has to go exploring because the gem of bluerock is only visible 1 day a year. 2. Wembly is stuck in the middle. Will he dive, will he explore. 3. Gobo leaves his pick-axe behind, and Wembly must overcome his fears and set off alone to give it to him.

And it all works out in the end, because after conquering his fears Wembly meets up with Gobo, they see the thing, and get magically transported back to the main cave, and win the dive competition.

#24 New Trash Heap in Town Fraggles apparently have communal dreams. And the one night Mokey decides not to sleep, they all have a dream where the trash heap appears and tells them to look within themselves for the answers to their problems. But, by nature, fraggles are impressionable pack animals and prone to mob mentality. Since Mokey has stayed up all night to paint some hairy worm (something no one has done before), the fraggles (the whole lot of them, not just the 5 friends) appoint her the new trash heap. And unlike the normal trash heap which they have to go through the gorg’s garden to see, there’s nothing stopping them from asking advice. And they stop thinking for themselves. Of course, only Gobo sees this until it gets ridiculous. And finally Mokey agrees, gives some ridiculous advice, and people stop listening. And a valuable lesson about thinking for yourself is learned by all.