Synopsis: Wembley can hear water running through the rock. When he taps that water, it tastes sensational, but that great new taste comes with a dangerous price on the Rock.
Original air date: January 13, 1986
Okay, so you know how Fraggle Rock advertises itself as a fun children’s show with adorable puppets and top tier music, but then after you’ve been lured into watching it the episodes actually teach you about how to cope with the feeling of being trapped and what it’s like to be in a toxic relationship? Yeah, that’s what I’m about to do to you all. You came here looking for a lightly amusing review about an episode of a beloved television franchise so that you can enjoy the nostalgia of the wonderful work of the Henson Company, and instead, I’m about to talk to you about resource extraction.
I don’t know how many of you reading this have visited West Virginia, or have even been through the state on your way somewhere else. It’s beautiful. At least it is to me. The mountains are covered in trees. The roads running between them wind in graceful arcs giving you spectacular new views at every turn. There’s always something special tucked in the hollers between the mountains. It’s a place with still so much to explore. But when you drive through the state, there are turns you’ll go around expecting another stunning overlook, and instead you’re met with a bald hillside where you know there should be trees and other plants growing. There’s often also a not-quite-natural color to it. It’s an abrupt reminder of what most people first associate with West Virginia: coal, oil, and natural gas.
It’s called mining and mountaintop removal. It looks and feels wrong. It leads to water poisoning, habitat destruction and other environmental damage. But this is what it takes to reach into the mountains and take out the resources that power so many of the world’s machines and heat so many homes. If only it were as simple as building some pipes into the rock and allowing everyone to come and take what they needed. That’s what the Fraggles do in this episode that is an analogy for exactly this thing. And no amount of onomatopoeic rhymes sung by Wembley should make us forget that.
Wembley hears water in the rocks around him. His friends don’t believe that there could be water inside the stone. But he eventually digs it up in a Beverly Hillbillies striking oil situation. The Fraggles love the water. It tastes fizzy and refreshing. It keeps them awake so they can steal vegetables from the Gorg’s garden and retrieve Uncle Matt’s postcard without any danger at all. They praise Wembley. They want to give him the key to the Rock! But now Wembley hears something different when he listens to the rock, and it’s not something good. But he fails to tell anyone. The power of the water is too great. It provides too many benefits. Everyone has given him so many plaudits. They didn’t listen to him initially. Why would they listen to him now?
And that is exactly the situation that results in people making the poor decisions that lead to environmental destruction and constant sourcing of this now-perceived-as-necessary resource. And not just in West Virginia. It’s the situation that leaves so many people, including Gobo, to suffer the unintended but still very real results of unstudied and unchecked resource extraction. More people need to witness the problems of dependency on these non-renewable resources, speak up and make their voices heard in any way they can. Otherwise, where will it lead? Where has it already led? I think you know.
I wish this episode weren’t so timely as of the writing of this article. I wish that I could’ve written my other idea for a review that involved literary devices like onomatopoeia, alliteration and foreshadowing. But instead, I’ve taken to heart the lesson the Fraggles taught me. I’m speaking up, yes, even in a review about an episode of a children’s puppet show.
Okay, that’s over. Now you can get to the fun nostalgia bits.
Strongest Moment – It’s not one moment, but the collection of moments that Wembley attempts to warn everyone about the dangers of what he hears. It’s a fantastic illustration of how difficult it is to be one voice trying to speak truth in the midst of people who don’t want to hear it. But he persisted when he had good news to share. And then persisted when the news wasn’t so good either. Way to be an activist, Wembley.
Weakest Moment – The lullaby portion of the song “Sleeping and Dreaming (Leaping and Screaming)” kind of drags the pace of the episode. But it’s not much of a weak moment, because as soon as it progresses from the slower tempo “sleeping and dreaming” into the hyperactive “leaping and screaming,” that ramps the pace back up to where we need to be to understand just how much about the Rock Wembley’s discovery has changed.
MVF (Most Valuable Fraggle) – It’s gotta be Wembley. He shows an immense amount of self-belief when he continues to dig for what he hears. He wants to prove himself to his friends. And that confidence is key to the admission he has to make in front of all of the Fraggles later in the episode. It’s key for him taking charge in Gobo’s rescue.
Most Classic Moment – I bet you never would’ve associated “Pukka Pukka Pukka, Squeetily Boink” with such a dark topic, but you most certainly remember it. The onomatopoeic lyrics get stuck in your head even if you don’t know what they eventually rhyme with. It’s such a fun thing to sing and fun thing to do to describe the sounds we hear all around us.
Musical Highlight – Despite already mentioning it above, I have to mention “Pukka Pukka Pukka, Squeetily Boink” again because not only is it a classic moment for it’s earworm quality, but it also is the most Wembley song that Wembley has ever performed. The eye rolling, the joyful Doozer construction playing, the abandon with which he throws his body around are a perfect encapsulation of the character that Wembley has built up to this point.
Coolest Puppetry Effect – I doubt anyone else out there is saying this is “cool,” but Steve Whitmire is doing some work when it comes to making us believe that Wembley is actually hearing something on the other side of the rock. He has to make a puppet look like it has ears, that the ears work and that a piece of foam is a rock and contains a whole ecosystem in it. That’s talent.
Darkest Moment – The moment when Gobo falls down into the bottomless pit and then it cuts to commercial. What is the fate of our friend?
Fraggle Lore – Fraggles can fall asleep at the drop of a hat.
Obscure Character Watch – Felix the Fearless and Aunt Granny Fraggle make their second appearances in this episode (though their first appearances weren’t together) and, sadly, they’re also their last appearances. Aunt Granny Fraggle especially deserved more time in the spotlight. Just what makes her both an Aunt and a Granny in the realm of Fraggle Rock?
One More Thing… – Don’t even get me started on Doc’s scheme to grow all of his tomatoes rather than paying for them at the grocery store. It’s a lesson he teaches in five minutes of screen time about just how much time, money, effort, and resources it actually takes to produce just this one crop. And yet there are plenty of people who still think it’s simple and cheap and if we all did it, that would solve our food problems.
Okay, One More Thing… – Boober is probably the only individual who would enjoy the gelatin molds with vegetables in them that seem so prevalent in cookbooks from the 1970s.
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By Katilyn Miller – [email protected]
