Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! Week Day 1: "Professor Huh?" Review

One of the things many people asked for in the survey last week was for me to post more reviews on the blog. So, I thought, is there any better way to celebrate the series finale today than to post a review of the series finale?

I do realize, however, that Boomerang did choose to air "Pizza O'Possum's / The Curse of Half-Beard's Booty" as the series finale, rather than "Professor Huh?". However, besides the fact that "Professor Huh?" wraps up the series more logically, head writer Jon Colton Barry also confirmed that it should have been aired as the series finale. Since I trust JCB fully, especially when we're talking about Boomerang and their wacky scheduling decisions, I've decided to observe "Professor Huh?" as the true series finale even though it aired differently in the US.

Without further ado, here's my review of both parts of "Professor Huh?"

The episode starts off at a high-security prison. A prison guard is getting ready to feed the prisoners' the dinner they requested (along the way, we get to see several previously incarcerated BCSD villains). The prison guard is getting ready to feed a prisoner his meal request, which is what any normal person would request for dinner - a picture of the space station astronauts with the words "I DON'T HAVE DIMPLES!" written over it with orange marker, all garnished with a lime peel. Pretty standard request, right? Much to the prison guard's shock, the prisoner is not in his cell. He has escaped, while somehow getting a live llama (with a self-destructing note, I might add) into his isolated jail cell. The entire prison goes on lockdown, only to have the prisoner attack the prison ward.

The rest of the episode starts like a standard episode - at least, at first it does. The gang is invited to a bank by the president Gary Moon. They are escorted to President Moon's office by his assistant, also named Gary Moon. After they get in to see President Moon, he reveals that he was not actually the one that hired them. To Fred's horror, the person who asked the gang to come was his old detective friend, Rose, whom he has since broken off contact with. Rose blackmails Fred with a nonsensical request that he must drop a Caesar salad into the ocean (very good threat by the way, I should try that with one of my enemies some time! lol), which prompts Rose to ask him if it makes him want to say "Huh?" Fred's face immediately turns gaunt, and he drives to the prison with the gang. The security guards are initially reluctant to let him in, but once he says that he is Fred Jones, they allow him to enter. 

The gang quickly finds out that the escaped prisoner is named Professor Huh?, and he is actually Fred's father. Fred explains that him and Rose had worked to solve the Professor Huh? case when they were kids, but eventually realized it was his own father committing the crimes. Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby wait outside for Fred, Daphne and Velma, but find a "conveniently placed pretzel stand" near the prison. They order two pretzels sandwiched between two larger pretzels, served on an even larger pretzel. (I'll admit I laughed pretty hard at this, though it actually sounds kind of good haha) The person who serves them appears to be a hand puppet, and gives them a man's sneaker instead of what they ordered. Shaggy and Scooby demand to speak to the manager, who reveals himself to be Professor Huh? (who is also connected to the hand puppet). As Shaggy and Scooby usually do, the cowardly duo run away from Huh? and hide in the Mystery Machine, hoping he didn't follow them.

The rest of the gang returns to the Mystery Machine to find a frightened Shaggy and Scooby. They say that they ran into a strange man with hand puppets who attacked them, which Fred identifies to be Professor Huh?. As they drive away, Huh? is revealed to be hiding in the back seat of the Mystery Machine. As the gang panics, Professor Huh? declares "I am not a Canadian citizen!" (One of the best lines from Huh? in the episode!) The gang confusedly asks "huh?" to which Fred says "exactly!"

The gang stops the van and bails out, whilst they split up. Shaggy and Scooby go into a haircut salon, and Professor Huh? follows them. As usual, Shaggy and Scooby dress up to trick the villain, this time as hair stylists. Because Professor Huh? never does anything for a logical reason, he requests that Shaggy and Scooby shave his eyebrows off and put them on his shoulders with a Croissant. Shaggy and Scooby become confused and inform Huh? that they do not know how to do that. Professor Huh? shows them how, and actually removes their eyebrows with a Croissant (complete with razor sound effects, which I thought was an interesting touch) and puts them on their shoulders. In confusion, Shaggy and Scooby run out of the salon and realize Professor Huh? has tricked them and ran away. In one of the best moments of the first part, Shaggy and Scooby finally realize how it feels to be tricked and yell out in frustration.

Fred and the gang find Shaggy and Scooby and ask them if they are okay, to which they say "we don't know!" as they put their eyebrows back in their proper position on their faces. The gang finds a subway ticket in the back of the van from Fred's father, much to Fred's confusion, as Huh? doesn't leave clues, or do anything for any logical reason. Fred gives the example of the time Professor Huh? committed a crime against an armed forces base, where he inexplicably hot-glued multivitamins to all their helicopters. (Btw, that is an awesome sounding crime lol) The gang follows Huh? to the Subway station, where they run into him and he chases them singing the "Happy Birthday" song. The gang climbs on top the train, just as Professor Huh? nearly catches them and subsequently yells "baboon face!" in frustration when he is unable to catch up to them. The gang eventually loses Huh?, but quickly realizes that he was leaving them clues to go to the space station.

When they finally arrive at the space station, the gang finds Huh? tampering with the security system. In a bold move, Fred handcuffs himself to Huh? twice (the first time he accidentally handcuffed Huh?'s pet llama). Rose appears with the police and accuses Fred of working with his father. Fred says that's ridiculous and the gang confirms that he would never help anyone commit an illegal act. Rose alludes to the fact that Fred is keeping a secret from them, prompting Fred to reveal that he chose to protect his father as a child. Despite that he had enough evidence to put his father in jail for his crimes, he covered up the proof. However, Rose found out about what Fred was doing and had his father arrested and thrown in prison. Rose claims that this is enough evidence to have the police arrest Fred and the gang, but before they can, the gang escapes with Professor Huh? on the space shuttle.

....and cue the suspenseful music to signify the end of part 1!

Part 2 picks up with Professor Huh? sitting by a fireplace, recapping to his audience the events of the previous part. He warns kids not to try this at home, but then shouts "TRY IT AT THE DENTIST'S OFFICE!"

The gang is still in orbit with Professor Huh?, but Fred reminds them of the modifications he made to the Mystery Machine while they were "in space!" Fred sets the Mystery Machine to airplane mode, and programs it to come up and rescue them. The gang jumps out of the spaceship into the Mystery Machine, whilst Professor Huh? stays behind and kindly reminds them "That delivery took more than 30 minutes. That means my zebra is free!" The gang lands safely on the ground, leaving the fate of Huh? unknown as the rocket crashes and blows up.

The gang goes incognito in the outfits of the team from "Grand Scam" and paint over the Mystery Machine with white paint. The police quickly realize what's going on and chase them, but Fred activates the new "split up" function of the Mystery Machine, which quite literally splits the Mystery Machine in half. The majority of the police chase Fred, per his ex-friend Rose's request, but one car chases Shaggy and Scooby. In an odd turn of events, Shaggy and Scooby end up behind the police car and pretend to be policemen. They pull the real policemen over, whilst taking a picture of them and then asking them if they had seen the people in the picture. The policemen dimwittedly believe the ruse, and Shaggy asks where they last saw themselves. The real police say they are right there, to which Shaggy answers "Good, then you couldn't have gotten very far!" before speeding away in the Mystery Machine. The policemen realize they have fallen for a trap, and one of them yells in frustration, claiming "it just came out."

Still fugitives from the law, the split-up gang runs into each other (literally) and the Mystery Machine comes back together. They become trapped by the police, but Fred drives off the bridge in order to escape. Rose and the police believe that the gang has met their demise. Unbeknownst to them, Fred had planned it that way all along and switches the Mystery Machine to "bottom feeder mode." While underwater, Velma realizes her phone is being tracked and begins to wonder if Rose is part of a conspiracy. Meanwhile, Fred reminds Daphne of her beef with all sea creatures (from "All Paws on Deck") and uses it to the gang's advantage. Daphne gets the sea creatures riled up, and they attack the police and military boats, allowing the gang to escape in the Mystery Machine while in helicopter mode.

The scene switches to Rose and her gang entering the bank to see Gary Moon. Gary says he believes Rose is now committing illegal acts, and says he will have no part of it. Rose admits that she is committing illegal acts in order to frame Fred and the gang, so she can become the most successful mystery solver ever. The gang then comes out of a closet and catches Rose red-handed. Gary Moon reveals himself to actually be Fred in disguise, and the "Fred" that caught Rose was actually Shaggy in disguise. Oddly, Scooby is in the bottom half of Fred's costume as well (which looks unimaginably uncomfortable, as there's physically no way he could have existed in that costume lol). Velma and Daphne reveal that they are actually dressed up as each other, because they wanted to be part of the fun and felt left out.

The gang recorded Rose's confession on Fred's phone, but Rose grabs the phone from him and throws it out the window. Just when all seems lost, Professor Huh? drives the helicopter-mode Mystery Machine up to the window and gives Fred the phone, so he can clear his name. He also complains the potato chips are stale, despite that there aren't actually any potato chips in sight lol. Professor Huh? says he wants to turn himself in, but Fred uses his remote control to seal his father inside the van, and allows him to escape in the van. Rose and her group are tied up and taken into custody by police.

The next morning, Fred goes out to his garage (his house is painted the colors of the Mystery Machine, which I found a stylistically interesting addition to the episode). He finds the Mystery Machine parked in the garage, and expects to find his dad waiting in the van for him. He opens the van, but instead finds Huh?'s llama with a note. The note reads, "I love you son. This note will self-destruct in 3, 2, 1." The llama then eats the note, leaving Fred no trace of the note or his father. End of series.

Aww! Doesn't that get you right in the feels? </3

Admittedly, I was so sad when I watched this for the first time! I was totally like, "It can't end like this! It's supposed to be a happy ending!" lol. 

I absolutely loved this episode, and it was a great way to end the series.  The dialogue was very witty in addition, which is one of the things I really loved about this show. Daphne's "That must be one bad llama to end up in here!" comment when she sees the llama in jail is priceless! The references to past episodes, in particular, were a really nice way to wrap the series up neatly. 

Easily my favorite part of the episode was Professor Huh? I love jokes that are just silly for no other reason than to be silly, so naturally Huh? was awesome. I love randomness too haha. Daphne's comment that she finally liked Fred's father was similar to the way I felt, as I have a bit of an eccentric sense of humor, so I tend to appreciate off-color jokes more. I wish, however, that Huh? would have been more random in part 2. His jokes were great in the first part, but in honesty, his jokes in the second part were kinda lame, other than the dentist's office and zebra ones. I heartily enjoy the idea of a villain committing random crimes for no logical reason haha.

I thought the story arc with Rose was really clever as well, especially how it tied in to the season 1 finale and "Ghost in the Mystery Machine." As I mentioned, I loved the ending as well, but I felt it would have been stronger if it somehow tied back into the gang's friendship, as that's what the underlying plot of the series was. 

Overall, these two episodes were great and I absolutely adored them. I'll be optimistic here and end with saying that I hope they go down in Scooby history!