Synopsis: Red and Wembley meet Skenfrith, a creature who changes shape and personality based on what others think of him. He starts out as cute and cuddly until Ma Gorg changes him into a monster for them all to reckon with.
Original air date: February 18, 1985
I am a parent of a six-year-old. Since they were old enough to have a concept of what in this world is “normal,” they have had the capacity to be afraid. There are many things that a child does not have the world experience or context to explain and anything that cannot be explained or understood can be an opportunity for curiosity or for fear. Which of these options they react with in that moment is highly dependent on the context in which they encounter it.
Imagine amorphous shadows dancing across a shaded window in a building you’ve never been to before. What’s on the other side of that window? Do you want to know more about it or do you want to escape the situation? Are you encountering it in the daytime or nighttime? Are you there with other people who are supportive of you no matter how you’re feeling or are you alone? Do you have an easy way to back out if investigating proves to have been a bad decision? What other resources do you have to support you? Are you tired? Are you happy? Are you half asleep? Do you even want to be there?
All of these factors and more can affect the reaction we have to mysterious and potentially threatening situations. And how someone responds that first time can have a lifelong impact. Just look at Doc and Sprocket in this episode. Doc spends the entire episode trying to change Sprocket’s reaction to spiders and other creepy crawlies only to fail to recognize that he has a similar reaction to bats despite having his entire life to examine this feeling in himself.
As a parent, it’s my job to create the most supportive environment I can for my kid to encourage them to approach these new situations with curiosity instead of fear. But what happens when we don’t have a loving and trusted support person behind us? What happens when we’re out in the world on our own or at night when others are asleep? How do we give ourselves and our kids the strength to not immediately and often permanently assign the reaction “avoid” to certain people, places and things?
This Fraggle episode provides one possibility by creating a fuzzy creature that can demonstrate the way our brains play a part in how we’re feeling. This fuzzy creature, Skenfrith, can be anything we want it to be depending on how we think of it, a being completely controlled by our thoughts and the thoughts of everyone else interacting with it. This device is fairly successful in illustrating how fear can morph and change depending on whether we can see the object of our fear, depending on if there are other people with us and depending on what those other people say about it.
Skenfrith begins as a friendly, furry possible-pet that Junior captures in a cage. Wembley and Red come upon him and they assign him pigtails and a love of swimming. When Skenfrith wants to go swimming in the gorgs’ flooded basement, we then get Ma’s vision of what could be lurking down there. Something with three eyes and fangs. And in proclaiming this to be the case, she not only changes Skenfrith, she spreads fear in Junior, Pa and Wembley. And it takes a lot of effort and growth and external support for everyone to come back to a place of curiosity and understanding, something we could all use more of in this particular moment in history.
So if you find yourself with others who are having a difficult time facing a situation that they do not understand, regardless of how you feel about it, be the supportive presence who will help them turn to curiosity instead of fear. And we’ll all live together just that much more harmoniously.
Strongest Moment – The moment when Red and Wembley flip between which of them is afraid and which one of them understands that the monster is actually Skenfrith. Before either of them speaks, you know that the switch has occurred. And it’s a wonderful show of their characters too. Red can rationally know something, but as soon as it’s time for action, she can become daunted by what she sees. Whereas Wembley is much more afraid of things in potentia and better understands the situation once it is in front of him.
Weakest Moment – Frankly, the firm repetition of and rigid adherence to “it’s all up here,” meaning in their heads, for their approach to life. While yes, it’s important to use our mental tools to work through emotions, but that’s best done when we’re not in the midst of fear or another strong reaction. Real fear isn’t controlled by the rational parts of our brain and it very quickly assumes control over those rational parts. So there’s really only so much thinking we can do before the adrenaline spikes and we go into fight or flight mode. Also ending the episode saying, “If we believe our friends will be okay, then they will be,” really brings this metaphor to a screeching halt.
MVG (Most Valuable Gorg) – There are only two Fraggles in this episode (and Traveling Matt), Red and Wembley. And while they both have a lot to contribute to the story, I think it’s more important to recognize Ma Gorg for her full character arc here. She goes from in control of a situation (including being the one to conjure the monster in the first place) to frightfully out of control, trapped with both the Fraggles and the monster of her own creation. And then she slowly, out of necessity faces the Fraggles who then help her come around to understand her mistake
First Appearance Of… – Skenfrith first appears in this episode and never again in the original series. But like two other one-off characters who are yet to come, he leaves a pretty big impression.
Musical Highlight – This episode, surprisingly, has only one musical number, “Now You See Me (Now You Don’t).” Wembley and Red sing it with Skenfrith at the beginning of the episode as a demonstration of Skenfrith’s ability to change based on the whims of others. The rocking guitar and driving percussion are a bit overshadowed by the boings and sci-fi sound effects as Skenfrith transforms.
Coolest Puppetry Effect – When the Fraggles set out into the basement waters to find and save Skenfrith, they board a boat made from a gorg matchbox and use the matches to row. Seamlessly the episode cuts from the animatronic Fraggles paddling away from Ma to the hand puppet Fraggles paddling up to Skenfrith. And the action of rowing is perfectly believable in both situations.
Darkest Moment – When Skenfrith changes from the adorable creature at the beginning to the monster in the basement, it could be genuinely distressing. To see something pleasant we thought we understood transform into something totally other, even when we know how it happened, can make us doubt our own senses. That’s pretty frightening too.
Also, Pa prodding Junior into the basement as bait for the monster is a pretty dark insight into Pa’s personality.
One More Thing… – Between this episode’s cleaning obsession, last season’s Doomsday Soup spring cleaning and the fact that the gorgs have a talking trash pile, I think it’s time someone has an intervention with them about their relationship with cleaning and clutter. Perhaps we could get Marie Kondo to discuss what sparks joy in them?
Okay, One More Thing… – Red asks Wembley if he feels something in his “little green bones.” Are Fraggle bones the same color as their fur?
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By Katilyn Miller – KTLyn@ToughPigs.com
