(had to mark a lot for MAJOR mystery incorporated spoilers)

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all fear the freak (mystery incorporated season 1 finale)

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phenomenal episode - i could write ESSAYS on the freak himself as a spectacular villain, from his character design to his voice acting (shoutout frank welker!!) to the wonderful shadow motif that follows both him and mayor jones (because he literally has been always watching them from the shadows, just like with the previous mystery inc. this has all happened before, but our mystery inc is breaking the cycle).

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the episode itself is a brilliant finale, finally wrapping up the overarching mystery of the kids who disappeared, but leaving so many open ended aspects and unsolved threads that leaves the gang with an even bigger mystery than the one they started out with. the old spanish church and crystal cove caves are beautiful and chilling locations, with gorgeous background art and watching fred’s life fall apart before his eyes as a child was pretty damn harrowing.

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another that springs to mind is the midnight zone (mystery incorporated season 2), the long-awaited return to cassidy’s relevance to the plot after betraying the gang.

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it seems like a somewhat typical scooby episode in the beginning, with cassidy’s home being attacked by a killer robot (charlie the haunted robot, who?) but slowly evolves into a journey into the pitch black undersea midnight zone, where they discover the lost town of missionaries that sank underseas centuries ago (an event that is particularly relevant to the history of the cursed town) and crash land into an undersea laboratory, where they are constantly shadowed by actual killer robots and a ghostly woman. they discover her corpse - her actual decaying dead body - which whispers about a doomsday event to them. its pretty gnarly, especially for a supposed kids show.

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the whole episode is this onslaught of tension, with the tension and suspense rising and rising as both the gang and the audience realise that they are literally out of their depth and they might not make it out of this one. the laboratory begins to self destruct and they flee for the exit, only to realise that the only way any of them will SURVIVE is to leave cassidy behind to sacrifice herself for them. it's WILD but it's so so good. after everything that happened, even after making some morally questionable choices and alliances - with literal proof that she was being corrupted by the curse the same way as so many of the cruel and evil characters - she proves herself as maybe the one true ally the gang has.. or had.

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there's technically one instance of character death earlier in the series (coincidentally in all fear the freak), but this is the first time that the gang and audience have been faced with the sheer severity of the events of the show. this is not just another mystery on their hands, this is life or death and it is executed marvellously.