Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated Episode 22 Review

Well, it's time again for another blog and another review of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. Sorry for the lateness of this blog, but as with last week's blog, it's a bit late because my laptop screen is on the fritz, and until I get it fixed or the situation resolved, the blogs are going to be fairly late each week.

No update on SDMI in Canada this week, or at all because the season is finished in Canada, and so far there's no update on what's going to happen with season 2 as of yet. Now, on with this week's episode which is called "Attack of the Headless Horror".

Let's see: for starters, our villain was yet another one of the headless villains in Scooby Doo over the years(seems to be a long history of that on Scooby Doo; Headless Horseman, Headless Spectre, etc.).

As for where the villain came from, one of Fred's heroes, Dr. Rick Spartan, an Indiana Jones type of adventurer(sort of like Melbourne O' Reilly from WNSD) was exploring the Amazon jungles and he was met with a headless creature who was upset because Dr. Spartan kept exploring tombs and in the creature's mind was plundering them as well.

Eventually we come back to Crystal Cove, and the gang(well, just Fred) rushing to school to see the new biology teacher(Dr. Spartan). Apparently Fred is a huge fan of Dr. Rick Spartan(much like he was of Melbourne O' Reilly in the WNSD era), and eventually he and the gang get to have dinner with him at Dr. Spartan's house.

During the course of the episode we get some pretty funny moments, like Fred wanting to see some Shrunken Heads that the doctor has(but no one else wants to see them obviously), Dr. Spartan showing the gang all his trinkets and such, except for a clown mask which he bought in Reno, and Dr. Spartan continuing to call his guide and assistant Cachinga a native, even though he went to Oxford and his name was Charles something.

But as usually happens, the creature comes looking for Dr. Spartan and finds him at his house. After consulting Velma's mom, she tells the gang they need to speak an incantation in order to get rid of him; a couple funny moments in this segment included Velma's mom mentioning she could get a talking jackal(but the gang of course settled for Scooby) and Velma's mom interrupting she and Shaggy trying to get reacquainted with each other.

Later, after the incantation was read, and after the gang went to the botanical gardens which is where they needed it to be when it was incanted, they were confronted by the Headless Horror again. This time though, after a chase, the gang called in the sheriff and had Cachniga arrested for being the creature, problem is they were wrong.

After a chase through the hospital Dr. Rick Spartan was at(after suffering an injury during a previous creature attack), the gang captured and unmasked the creature. Of course, the horror is not Cachinga, but instead it is Marion Spartan, Rick's wife; she thought if she could scare him enough, he would leave the life of adventuring behind(which obviously didn't happen).

Back to Shaggy and Velma for a second before finishing up: Shaggy and Velma got a chance to talk to each other over drinks while waiting for Velma's mom, and again at the hospital. Clearly Velma and Shaggy still secretly have some feelings for each other, but not anything that Velma wanted to say aloud.

Because outside the hospital, Velma told Shaggy that she just wanted to be friends and she didn't have the same feelings that she had before. I of course have to call shenanigans on this one, especially Shaggy's reaction; Shaggy was dissapointed when Velma said they should just be friends, a total difference from Velma's reaction when he said the same thing.

Velma was majorly upset when Shaggy told her that he just wanted to be friends, partly because she felt he was choosing Scooby over her. Shaggy my man, as one guy to another: YOU SCREWED UP!!!(sorry for the all caps); you could have easily avoided this by explaining to Scooby about you and Velma very early in the series, and then maybe talked to Velma's mom about getting Scooby a girl dog for him, while Velma and Shaggy went out together and spent time together.

Maybe a double date with Scooby and his new girlfriend, and Shaggy and Velma might have eased some of the tension in the group. Heck bring back Scooby Dee if you wanted Scooby to have someone special, but maybe reintroduce her as a dog that belongs to one of Velma's mom's friends or something, instead of what she was in her original appearance, mainly Scooby's couisin.

In my opinion both Shaggy and Velma are majorly at fault here; Shaggy for first of all not knowing how to manage his time properly between Scooby and Velma, and second on his timing of telling Velma that he wasn't ready for a girlfriend yet. While Velma's at fault for being too controlling, too demanding, and not just letting Shaggy be who he is, that's what this relationship should relaly be about; both of them liking each other for themselves, not trying to change each other or anything like that.

I'm keeping that in mind in my sort of hiatus from fan fic writing(until I get the laptop screen fixed or a new laptop or whatever, I won't be doing that much writing). When things do get resolved, you can bet my version of the Shaggy/Velma relationship is going to get interesting; as for the Shelma couple in this show, it's more then likely did for now, but the two of them are still friends and that works.

However, the entire gang is going to have some major challenges as we get into the final 4 episodes of Season 1. Next week, Mayor Jones(or if you prefer, Crystal Cove's answer to Rod Blogovich) is going to be front and center for the mystery, which should be pretty interesting if the plot is any indication.

For this week's episode, I give it an 8; decent mystery, good Shaggy and Velma relationship stuff, but it's docked points for lack of suspects. Seriously, why does SDMI seem to have few suspects for each mystery? Anyway, I shall return next week, with another blog, and another review of SDMI, until then stay tuned.