Synopsis: The Pebble Pox pandemic is going around, and Boober predictably has a panic attack.
Original air date: February 4, 1985
The world is a scary place right now, what with COVID and the bird flu and the regular flu & cold season and salmonella and things like that. Luckily, when I’m scared I can turn to the works of Jim Henson for comfort, and what’s more comforting than an episode of Fraggle Rock? Today I’m watching Pebble Pox Blues, where Gobo gets… sick… and it’s highly contagious… and his friends have to travel deep within the caves of the Rock to find a cure…
Huh.
Timely.
As someone who, like Boober, gets very anxious about my health and germs and the like, this episode really spoke to me; as someone who is not a regular viewer of Fraggle Rock and has only really seen the first season, this episode introduced me to those darker aspects that Fraggle Rock is famous for among Henson fans. It was an interesting experience, to be sure.
The episode opens with Sprocket trying to avoid his annual vet appointment to get his shots. Doc tries to convince him to go, but is unsuccessful for the time being. It’s not that interesting to me but it sets the stage for the episode’s theme of being afraid, especially in the face of sickness.
Then we enter the Rock, where Gobo is lying in his cave, moaning and groaning in pain. Boober enters, complaining about another Fraggle having sneezed on him (super gross, I would complain too), and then notices Gobo is ill. After a quick medical questionnaire, it is determined that Gobo has The Pebble Pox, a disease that Boober dubs the most contagious sickness a Fraggle can have. In true Boober fashion, he begins to freak out, but his care for his friend briefly overpowers his anxiety and he declares he will travel to The Cave of Shadows to find the Doogan Berry, which is the cure for The Pebble Pox.
The majority of the episode is spent highlighting Boober’s health anxiety in different ways: when Wembley joins him on his journey to The Cave of Shadows, Boober sings him a rather catchy blues song about how sneaky and deadly germs are; when Wembley catches the Pox from handling Gobo’s maps, Boober keeps his distance, at the cost of moral turmoil over abandoning his friend or getting sick; while Wembley lays on the floor of the tunnel, sick and in agony, Boober uses his scarf to hold Wembley’s hand (which I thought was actually very cute) and to cover his mouth and nose. This intense anxiety rubs off on the impressionable Wembley, and causes him to catastrophize about how he’s going to die from The Pebble Pox!
Between scenes of Boober wembling (ha) over whether or not to help Wembley at the risk of getting himself sick, there are vignettes of Red and Mokey helping Gobo in his illness. It’s the classic struggle — sick person demands too much of their caretaker, thus frustrating their caretaker to no end. Gobo asks Red to remove a pillow from his bed only to ask her to put it back because his neck hurts, he asks for barley tea and radish toast and moss pack for his head, all while claiming that when she had The Pebble Pox, it couldn’t have been as bad as his case is now! Mokey attempts to cure Gobo with philosophy, only to be interrupted by his request for her to read his Uncle Matt’s exceedingly strange postcard. And I mean, like, exceedingly. He announces he’s in love with a cow, and that’s it. That’s the end of the postcard. Like. Okay. And then Gobo tricks Mokey in to thinking he’s asleep so she’ll go away. Alright.
As silly as these scenes with Gobo, Red, and Mokey are, I’m very struck by the idea of overcoming your fears to help your friends and people in need that is shown through Boober’s scenes. There’s a common joke among people with chronic anxiety, that your anxiety suddenly melts away when your friend needs help, say, ordering something at a restaurant. Any fear you might’ve felt is now nullified by the need to help your friend. It’s a very relatable experience to me so to see it portrayed so succinctly in this children’s show is kind of neat.
Boober struggles against his debilitating fear of germs and disease for the entire episode up until when sweet Wembley laments about how he’s going to die, even after drinking the Doogan Berry tea. Boober realizes that Wembley only thinks that and is feeling poorly to this extent because of him, because of the fear mongering and panicking he had done, and decides that enough is enough. He apologizes and admits that he can sometimes exaggerate how bad being sick can be, and that “Pebble Pox is a natural part of life”.
Fear and anxiety will make a mountain out of any molehill, but sometimes all you need is that little push to be able to reach the summit. Boober hearing Wembley’s cries, Sprocket wanting to show off for a girl — any reason is valid! “Do it scared” has been my mantra for the last half a year, and this episode really embodies that.
Unfortunately, Pebble Pox Blues ends with the entire Rock getting sick: the last shot of the episode is poor little Doozers on teeny tiny stretchers as Wembley comforts Boober after he discovers that he, too, now has The Pebble Pox. It makes sense, given their close proximity the entire episode, that Boober would get sick too, but it’s kind of an unsatisfying ending in my opinion since we don’t get to see how he handles it with his newfound bravery and coping mechanisms. Oh, well. A middling ending to an otherwise nice episode is, like being sick, not the end of the world.
Strongest Moment: “What about the poison cacklers?” “I’ll carry them too, Wembley.” This warmed my heart and exemplified the growth that Boober had gone through throughout the episode.
Weakest Moment: Whatever was going on with Matt’s postcard. :/
MVF (Most Valuable Fraggle): It feels obvious given that it’s an episode about him, but Boober takes the title this time! Overcoming your fears is very hard, good job, little guy!
Musical Highlight: Talkin’ ‘Bout Germs, a bluesy banger about how scary germs are with some cool germ puppets to boot!
Darkest Moment: Wembley lamenting about how he’s going to die from The Pebble Pox. This really spans across the entire episode, but comes to a head right after the two leave The Cave of Shadows and Wemb drinks the Dooganberry tea. He really, truly believes he’s going to die because of that catchy number Boober sang earlier! Boober apologises, of course, but seeing such a happy-go-lucky Fraggle accepting his end really puts a damper on your mood.
Fraggle Lore: Wembley has never been sick before this, allegedly! I guess allergy to bonkleberries doesn’t count…
One More Thing…: This episode is good at expanding Boober’s character past his anxiety in order to help his friends. I feel like it’s easy to get stuck in a Flanderization style trap with the Fraggles, so I’m glad they avoid it whenever they can.
Okay, One More Thing…: I don’t know what’s worse: the toothless Fraggles saying they get ticklish teeth with The Pebble Pox or the fact that teeth can be ticklish at all…
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by Moomin
