Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. Recap/Review/Preview

To paraphrase the great sports announcer Keith Jackson: "Whoa Nelly!"; it's been a long time since we had a new Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. episode and now that the second half of Season 1 is set to air on Cartoon Network starting tomorrow, it's time to do a first half recap, in the style of John Madden, Peter Gammons and all the best sports analysts of the past.

First let's begin with what brought us to this moment:

Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma now live in the city of Crystal Cove, "The Most Hauntedest Place on Earth" or whatever the show claims it as.

Don't ask me why this changed from Coolsville, I have no idea; anyway, here's some of the main facts we've learned from Half 1 of Season 1(and despite what CN thinks, IT IS NOT A NEW SEASON!), it is the remainder of season 10.

First, there is some sort of curse on Crystal Cove, which has not been fully explained quite yet. But we do know the following about the curse:

One, it has to do with several disappearances in the history of Crystal Cove, including the following:

An entire town of missionaries sometime during the 16 or 1700s possibly (I forget the exact date).

A group of Spanish conquistadors looking for gold, again during the 16, 17 or 1800s, I forget the exact date.

And finally, the disappearance of the Darrow family (whose fate apparently will be brought up in an upcoming episode).

In addition, the members of a detective group like Scooby Doo and company called Mystery Incorporated suffered some kind of horrible fate, which is unknown at the moment. However, we do know they disappeared and that disappearance seems to be tied in with the curse somehow.

Second, someone named Mr. E who has apparently been helping the gang (while it is unknown whether he is quite exactly friend or foe at the moment) in their quest to solve the curse of Crystal Cove.

There have been rumors and possibilities of Mr. E’s identity including:

Angel Dynamite, a Disc Jockey at a radio station named K-Ghoul; in addition, she may be related to Cassidy Williams, one of the members of the original Mystery Inc.

The sheriff of Crystal Cove, Bronson Stone(no I am not making that name up), voiced by Patrick Warburton AKA Joe from Family Guy, Kronk from Disney’s the Emperor’s New Groove, etc.; the sheriff and the mayor of Crystal Cove seem to be good friends, so does that mean he is Mr. E? Or maybe he’s helping Mr. E? Then of course there’s the possibility that he is working with the mayor to protect the secret of the curse of Crystal Cove.

Then we have the mayor himself: Fred’s dad; is he really Mr. E? and if so, is he hiding something else from Fred and the rest of the gang? Was he a member of the original Mystery Incorporated? If he was, why is he hiding it? Does he not want Fred to suffer the same fate the original Mystery Inc. did?

We also have Professor Pericles, the original MI’s pet parrot; we saw him in the episode “Howl of the Fright Hound”, but apparently he was sort of an animal Hannibal Lecter and had to be confined to an animal insane asylum. He is now apparently very intelligent and there could be plenty of parallels to the way Scooby and Shaggy are engaging in a tit for tat, or was, with Velma. Maybe the first Mystery Inc.’s Shaggy was in love with the first MI’s Velma and possibly Professor Pericles didn’t like it and wanted to stop things right then and there.

In addition, there is the fact that Fred’s mom is missing, or has not been seen in the show yet; where is she? Could she be Mr. E? and if so, has Fred’s dad been hiding this for all this time? It’s certainly possible.

There have been people who said Velma’s mom is Mr. E, or one of his helpers. Is this true? And if so, is Velma’s mom hiding something?

There are a few other suspects including Franklin Fruitmeyer, and the CEO of the Destroido corportation(from the Cicadas episode); so the mystery is far from being over.

While the Curse of Crystal Cove could be something supernatural, we know the mayor and the sheriff, as well as the rest of the gang’s parents don’t want MI to solve the curse mystery because apparently the town is using monsters and ghosts as part of its revenue stream.

Does this mean that the mayor and sheriff want to cover up the curse by pretending to help the gang, only to be leading them possibly on a giant wild goose chase? Who knows at this point.

We also found out that Daphne found a locket shaped like a magnifying glass with the pictures of two people inside. It appears that the two people are two members of the original Mystery Inc., or it would seem that way at least.

Also, Daphne is trying to win over Fred (and seemingly succeeding; well sort of) and Velma is stuck between Shaggy and Scooby and trying to win over Shaggy as well. So far, Velma has been dumped by Shaggy, who seems to like Scooby better then her.

People have complained that Velma is a real ***** in this series, and it would seem that way. But the real question is: can the gang figure out these romantic issues before they break up and Crystal Cove remains haunted? I think so, as the gang have already temporarily broken up and reunited, because of the mystery at hand.

Speaking of which, the gang has been given a trunk (stolen by Mr. E by the way) full of artifacts from the Darrow University Family Archives(there’s that Darrow name again); along with that, Mr. E left the gang a note saying “If the first Mystery Inc. had this trunk, maybe they wouldn’t have disappeared.” Or something along those lines. Why did he say that? What does the trunk contain after all? Watching the episode “The Shrieking Madness” it would appear that it contains the entire history of Crystal Cove; if it does, will the gang figure out these clues before it’s too late?

Another thing to consider is what is the curse? Some have speculated it is a cursed treasure, which would make sense considering the conquistadors that vanished during the 1800s(I think); if this is true, what does it have to do with the original Mystery Inc.? Is it possible that the original group of teen sleuths found the treasure, only to have something happen, and the group vanish and Professor Pericles gain whatever powers he now has?

If the treasure is part of the curse, and it did cause Mystery Inc. to vanish(the original MI), what does it have to do with the current town? And where’s Fred’s mom; as I’ve thought a few times watching the show, there are too many questions, with not enough answers.

However, judging by the way things are going, things may be resolved in the second half of season 1, which starts tomorrow night. And it starts off with a bang, an episode where we see Scooby Doo, Captain Caveman, the Funky Phantom, Speed Buggy and Jabberjaw and their friends all working together for once; this is going to be an epic episode and I will not give anything away to anybody, but it promises to be a doozy.

Until tomorrow, this is your friendly Scooby Doo blogger saying: Stay tuned to this blog; because things are going to get quite hairy in the 2nd half of Season 1 of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated.