So this episode gave me a small amount or trouble, mainly because I always thought the tone of this episode had some whiplash to it. The Snowman when we first meet him originally acts the way he does (laughing at Courage's suffering) because he a real reason to be angry at Courage and the episode still makes him look a little evil. Then we see him going down a hall thinking about friends that are no longer there, leading us to believe that he's going to be a more sympathetic villain. Then we see his scheme is to steal gene's from humans that'll likely leave them dead makes you not want to feel bad anymore.
I can understand that the writers wanted him to be a more sympathetic villain, but I think the writing for the episode could have used just a touch more development.
Thankfully the Snowman's second appearance in the series does him proper justice. Onto the story.
Avery wrapped her blanket tighter around her form to try and stop herself from shivering. Of all the rotten luck, they just so happened to end up in the Arctic because her uncle just had to think that they were getting a good cheap deal on a timeshare. It sounded like they would be going someplace exotic and not in someplace so barren and cold. Right now she, her aunt, uncle and Courage were all sitting near the warm stove that Muriel was currently cooking at, all of them dressed in winter clothing that wasn't doing too good a job to shield them from the cold air around them. Of the four of them, Muriel was the only one who seemed comfortable while the rest of them were trying desperately to stay warm.
Eustace was currently sneezing up a storm as Avery held her fingers over the stove in a desperate bid to warm up when Eustace said, "Where did it say that Silver Springs Timeshare was in the Arctic? I wanted palm trees."
Avery shot him a glare and said, "It was in the fine print Uncle Eustace. I told you to read it before we agreed to it. Then again, why would you even try to get a mail order timeshare anyway?"
Eustace was about to argue, but he continued to sneeze instead.
Muriel on the other hand was unfazed as she continued cooking dinner and said, "I think it's a lovely change from all that hot sun."
Avery shook her head and said, "Yep and now we run the risk of hypothermia. What lesson can we learn from this Uncle Eustace?"
Eustace only sneered and said, "S-s-stupid cold."
Avery moved her hand to the wrist where the bracelet remained attached to her and rubbed it. One major downside to the bracelet was that the skin it clamped to got even colder due to the bracelet being made from metal and got much colder than the air around them. There was no way she would be letting Eustace live this down anytime in the near future.
Muriel pulled out some bowls and set them on the table saying, "You'll all feel much better after some nice hot soup."
Muriel opened the door to the stove and took notice that the fire was getting a little low and said, "Courage, could you go out and find us some more wood? The fire is mighty low."
Courage turned away and began to whine, indicating that he didn't want to go out there.
Eustace was having none of it and said, "Get that wood before I FREEZE TO DEATH!"
Courage whined once more and ran to the entrance of the igloo.
Avery turned to Muriel and said, "There's not going to be any wood out there. We're in one of the most barren places on the planet where plant life doesn't even grow. What makes you think he'll be able to find some wood?"
Muriel continued stirring the soup and said, "Well the folks who left us the wood here before us must have some stored somewhere near here. Not sure why they wouldn't store it right by the igloo."
"Yeah well if he doesn't get the wood soon, I'm taking one of these wooden stools and throwing it into the stove myself. Whoever made this timeshare is just reckless. Seriously, who thought this was a smart idea and why would someone market it?" Avery complained some more and tightened the blanket around her some more, breathing into her free hand.
Eustace growled again and said, "WHERE'S THAT STUPID DOG WITH THAT STUPID FIREWOOD?!"
It was Avery's turn to growl this time due to the combined frustration of the cold weather and her uncle's rotten attitude towards Courage and she said, "Uncle Eustace he just went out the door a few seconds ago. Give him a minute or two."
"He's probably having some trouble finding the wood is all," Muriel said as she picked up the pot of soup and poured some into Avery's bowl. "Now lets just have some soup while we wait for him."
But just as she was pouring some soup into Eustace's bowl, Courage came running back in screaming at the top of his lungs. He ran to them at the table, pointing to the igloo door and babbling like a madman.
Eustace glared at Courage and said, "Stupid dog! Where's the wood?"
In a move that made even Eustace jump, Courage morphed into a more monstrous version of himself, complete with icicle teeth and ears and wooden limbs, just roaring at them. It was a move that made even Muriel chilled from fright rather than the cold. Then he morphed back into himself, still babbling and waving his arms around and finishing with a whine.
Muriel regained her soft expression and said, "Courage, I'm sure it's just some wee thing passing through. Let's sit down and have some soup."
Courage did as he was told and sat down next to Avery.
She pat him on the head and said, "I think the cold and memories of Nowhere might be getting to you boy. Hardly anything can survive the climate out here."
Sure she was used to seeing strange and bizarre things, but was all back in Nowhere. Here they were, thousands of miles from home where none of that strange or spooky stuff could find them so the reason to worry about any of that was greatly diminished. Knowing Courage, anything could trigger his fear at this point. Not that there wasn't a reason not to.
Eustace glared down at Courage and said, "What are you doing at the table?"
Courage cringed and got down from his seat, carrying his bowl with him all while Avery shot another glare at her uncle. He really was doing everything he could to infuriate her. Eustace tried to get a spoonful of his soup, but as he pulled his spoon out, he brought the whole bowl of soup with it, having frozen solid to the spoon.
Eustace whined some more as he messed with the frozen soup and said, "What's this?"
Muriel however laughed and said, "It's frozen. Isn't that a laugh?"
She knocked the frozen soup against the table as Avery held up her soupsicle and said, "Seriously? How cold is it out here? Why would they build a timeshare here?"
Muriel looked down at Courage and asked, "Did your soup freeze too?"
Avery looked down and cringed. Poor Courage must have tried to drink his soup directly from the bowl and now his tongue was stuck right in the middle of the frozen soup itself. He whined as he tried to lift the frozen broth and his tongue off of the ground, but failed to succeed at it. It eventually got to the point where he began swinging the frozen soup around with his tongue in an effort to free it, winding him a few times.
Avery set her head down on the table in aggravation, but then was jolted upright as she heard Courage scream once more, followed by a shattering sound. She looked over to see him run to the table babbling once again, pointing at the window. But as they looked at the window, there was nothing to be seen. Courage continued insisting that he had seen something and even morphed back into the monstrous ice monster again, nodding his head as he returned to his normal form.
Deciding it'd be prudent to at least make sure that there was no one around to bother them, the entire family crawled out and looked around the icy plain surrounding them. Just like at the window, not a thing was to be found.
Eustace had had enough as he looked down at Courage and said, "That's it! If you don't get me some firewood, you'll be sleeping with the icicle."
Courage went back to pointing and barking, but Eustace was having none of it. He pulled out his creepy green mask and placed it over his face, terrifying Courage and making him run off in terror. Eustace raised the mask up from his face and laughed at Courage's expense.
"And don't come back without the firewood neither," Eustace said maliciously and continued laughing as Courage ran across the frozen tundra.
This was promptly followed by Muriel taking her frozen soup and shattering it against Eustace's head, making him cry out in pain. Avery smirked and did the same thing with her soup on the other side of him, making him cry out some more.
"Ow! What did I do?" Eustace said as he rubbed his aching head.
Avery glared at him and said, "Just go back inside Uncle Eustace. You've done enough for one day."
Eustace grumbled, still rubbing his cranium as he crawled back into the igloo and Avery looked in the direction that Courage had run off in.
"I should go get him. It's freezing out here," Avery said and was about to follow him, but Muriel pulled her back.
"Courage knows his way back and his fur and coat will keep him warm until he gets back. You're more vulnerable to the cold however," Muriel said and guided Avery back into the igloo.
Avery looked back in the direction Courage ran in and believed that her aunt was right. She wanted to go after him, but he'd have an easier time in the snow than she would. So instead of arguing, she did as she was told and went back inside. It was at least amusing to see her uncle holding a broken off piece of ice against his head where they had hit him.
Some time later, the rest of the family was sitting in the igloo, trying their best to stay warm. Courage had yet to return with the firewood and the room was not getting any warmer. Avery just hoped that he'd hurry up, not just to warm the room up but because she didn't know how long he'd be able to last out there. It wasn't too long when they heard a knock at the front of the igloo, making them all look up.
Eustace looked over at the door with a glare and said, "Better be that dog with the firewood."
Eustace got up from his seat and crawled to the door. All Avery could make out was him saying, "You're not the dog."
That's all she was able to hear before Eustace was pulled out through the door and someone else came in. She didn't get a good look before something cold got her in the side of the head and she blacked out.
When feeling eventually returned to Avery's senses, she quickly realized that she felt colder now that she had before. She slowly opened her eyes to see that she was no longer sitting in the igloo that they had spent their entire stay in. If anything, it looked like that she was now sitting in large room with walls made of snow and ice. She wondered just how this massive structure could be standing with it's incredible weight, almost seemed impossible.
Sitting nearby, tied to a chair was her uncle Eustace, who looked more frightened than she had ever expected him to look. She turned her head to the other side of the room to see her aunt Muriel seated there, also bound to a chair. Avery realized that she too was seated and tried to stand up, only to find that she couldn't move any of her limbs. With some trepidation, she looked down to see that she was also tied to a chair and with no means of breaking loose. Her dread grew when she then noticed a lab table with various scientific supplies sat in the center of the room with various chemicals ready for use.
"Okay, you can get me out now," she whispered to no one in particular.
She looked down to her wrist, which was uncovered and she saw the bracelet on her wrist was flashing. Like it was trying signal to someone or something. She tried pulling her arms free again, until she heard the sound of someone approaching from a nearby doorway. The thing of it is though, it didn't sound like someone was walking towards her. It actually sounded like someone was shuffling towards her.
She was surprised though when, instead of a person, a snowman with greenish blue eyes and wooden stick arms was shuffling through the frosty floor and entered the room with a couple of bottles with him as he crossed over to the table and set them down on top of it.
'So something was scaring Courage out here,' Avery thought in her head.
She looked at him and said, "Hello?"
He looked at her and said, "Ah, so you're awake. Didn't think I got you that hard, but guess I underestimated my own strength. No matter, at least you are unharmed."
Avery didn't feel reassured and said, "Yeah, anyway what's going on here? Why did you just grab us? Who even are you?"
She looked at her uncle who looked too cold and scared to even say anything. Her aunt Muriel still seemed a little bewildered and was currently speechless.
The Snowman mixed a couple of chemicals together and said, "My name is Snowman and I just need you three for a few experiments. You see, I have a problem going on and I need you three to help me with it."
"So why kidnap us? Why not just ask us for help instead?" she asked angrily. She was really not happy to be forcibly inconvenienced for something he could have just simply asked about.
The snowman chuckled and said, "Because I knew you'd never agree to what I need you for. You see, the temperature here in the Arctic are gradually getting warmer by the day. Earlier this year, it even got above freezing one day. That was so miserable. That's nothing compared to one day last year where it was even worse. One, horrible horrible day."
The snowman suddenly dropped his calm demeanor and Avery swore that as she looked at him, his expression went from one of confidence to one of anger and sorrow. Like he was remembering something horrific that had happened. She was about to ask, when he shook his head clear and went back to his work.
"No matter now," he said as he picked up what looked like a water faucet from the table. "Melting will no longer be an issue with me once I extract the anti-melting gene from one of you. Then melting will no longer be an issue... for me that is."
Avery looked between herself, her uncle and aunt and asked, "But there's three of us here. What do you want for all three of us for?"
He chuckled and said, "It's simple young lady. In addition to discovering the human anti-melting gene, I've also found a method to potentially turn people into snowmen using chemicals. You young lady will make a perfect test subject for that. If it's successful, then the old lady's anti-melting gene will help with you."
Avery felt her blood run cold, this time not from the frozen climate but from the implications the snowman was giving off. It sounded like he had been through something traumatic, but was using his pain to go to dramatic means of dealing with it. He was willing to hurt people he didn't know just to keep his personal experiences from repeating.
"Look, I'm sorry something happened, but-" she started to say but was interrupted.
"But nothing," the Snowman said. "Humans drove me to this, so don't preach to me."
He picked up one of the faucets and shuffled his way over to Muriel who still looked dazed and barely even flinched as the Snowman pressed the faucet to Muriel's forehead and it somehow remained attached to her. He then shuffled over to Eustace and did the same to him.
Avery looked down at her wrist and saw that the bracelet glowing again. She wriggled her wrist as best as she could and was able to get it to slip up to the rope and watched as the rope began to smoke. She looked at the Snowman and Eustace again as Eustace began to shake. Avery glanced around, noticing Courage was nowhere in sight. Maybe there was hope they could get out of there before it was too late. She looked again to see that the bracelet was speeding up the process of burning through the ropes.
"Now relax," the Snowman said to Eustace. "This won't hurt. And think of all the good it will do."
With that, the snowman turned the tap of the faucet on Eustace's head, making him yelp as the snowman did so. Avery watched as a thick green drop of liquid began to ooze from the faucet, the Snowman laughing as he watched. As the drop came loose, the snowman caught the drop in a test tube and laughed some more as he did so.
"Eureka! I have it!" The Snowman said as he held the test tube up.
'Oh no!' Avery said in her head. 'Uncle Eustace.'
"Hey!" Eustace cried out. "That's mine."
Avery glared at the Snowman and said, "You have no right."
The Snowman looked at her said, "You'll understand once I've turned you young lady."
Before she could say anything else, Avery was startled when one the walls of the room broke inward and a sleigh drove itself inside. She was confused until she heard a familiar scream coming from the driver's seat of the sleigh.
Avery smiled and said, "Can always rely on that dog."
The sleigh got caught on a chunk of ice and Courage was sent flying as he continued to scream. He even flew right through the Snowman's torso, startling him and causing him to spill the contents of the test tube.
"No!" The Snowman cried out as he jumped after the drop of anti-melting gene. "No! No! Noooo!"
He was too late though as the loose drop hit the frozen ground, making it useless. Avery wanted to smile, but she couldn't bring herself to. She really just wanted to pity him. He was so desperate for a means of survival, so desperate that he was willing to sacrifice other people in order to do so.
"Blast!" The Snowman yelled and looked at Courage. "You stupid dog! Do you realize what you've done?"
"That's what I tell him all the time!" Eustace said from his seat. "You stupid dog, you stupid dog. He don't do nothing right."
Avery shook her head and refocused her efforts on the ropes. She could already feel them loosening around her. Nearby, the snowman just chuckled and pulled a lever, making icicles fall all around Courage, seemingly trapping him.
"No matter," the Snowman said. "I still have two more humans at my disposal. So sorry young lady, but it seems my little experiment will have to be put on hold. I might be needing your anti-melting gene anyway."
Avery tried to ignore him and began wriggling her arms to loosen the ropes some more.
"As for YOU," the Snowman said and pointed at Eustace. "Well, it's just a matter of time."
He chuckled darkly as Eustace began to shake in his seat. Nearby, Muriel finally found her voice and began to scream, even calling out to Courage for help.
'Just hold on Aunt Muriel, I'm almost free,' Avery thought as she began to feel the ropes fall away.
Back with Courage, he began to lick one of the icicles trapping him in place, making it melt rapidly in the process. He freed himself at the very moment that Avery was free from the ropes. Wasting no time, she grabbed a glass pitcher from the table and ran over to the Snowman, just as he was beginning to turn the tap of the faucet on Muriel's head. She ran to him and quickly jammed the open pitcher onto the Snowman's head, startling him and making try to pry the pitcher off of him.
"Assassin! Let me out of this!" The Snowman yelled angrily as he pulled at the pitcher. "I can't get this thing off my head."
Courage jumped onto Muriel's lap and pulled the faucet off of her head and freed her from the ropes. He even lifted both Muriel and Avery over his head as he ran to Eustace and began dragging him along the ground by the leg. As he placed the three of them into the sleigh, he and Avery looked back to see the Snowman getting his head free from the pitcher. Courage cringed in fear and began dragging the sleigh along as he ran from the cave.
"I'll get you for this!" The Snowman hollered from the cave entrance and looked to check the thermostat.
Courage didn't stop and kept running across the frozen tundra and climbed into the sleigh, letting the momentum and inclines guide them as they made their escape. The four of them huddled together as they slid down the frozen hills, but chanced a look back. They saw the Snowman chasing after them, sliding down the hill as he went.
"Dog! Young lady! Prepare to meet your doom!" he said as he closed in on them, even laughing as he moved closer to them.
The sled made it down from the hill and out onto pure ice.
"It won't be long now. I will not be denied," he hollered to them.
"Oh Courage! What do we do?" Muriel said fearfully.
Eustace was starting to look a bit sickly as he clutched his forehead and said, "I'm feeling a bit... warm."
Finally, the sled came to a stop right in the middle of the ice, causing Courage to let out another scream. The Snowman laughed even more, now that he knew there was nowhere for his prey to run. Courage merely reached into his parka and pulled out a pickaxe. He wasted no time and began hacking away at the ice surrounding them. He hacked and hacked until cracks began to form in the ice around them. The Snowman continued sliding towards them, but then the ice finally cracked apart into ice flows, allowing them to drift away safely.
The Snowman however, was too late to notice that the ice had broken apart.
"No! Nooo!" he cried as he tried to stop his descent towards the icy water.
His efforts were in vain though as he landed in the icy water and appeared to drown before them. The family could do nothing but watch as they drifted further away.
'Poor guy,' Avery thought as she turned away. 'I hope now he can find peace.'
What they didn't see however is that as they floated out of sight, the Snowman bobbed back up to the surface, now trapped in a block of ice. Instead of being angry about it, the Snowman actually looked a little pleased.
"Ah, the first FROZEN Snowman. That's not too shabby," the Snowman said, somewhat pleased with his current situation.
The very next morning, the family continued floating out to sea. Only now instead of the four of them, only three of them stood on the ice, Eustace having melted into a puddle of water during the night.
Avery shook her head in pity at the sight, even cringed at the thought that that could have been her or Muriel as well. Would have been them if it weren't for Courage.
"Poor Eustace," Muriel said as she looked down at the puddle and glasses. "I don't know what we're going to do with him now."
Courage on the other hand, pulled a sponge from his parka and began soaking up the water from the puddle, leaving only the glasses behind. A whistle in the distance caused them to look up and they could see a large cruise liner approaching them.
Avery and Muriel smiled as Muriel pointed at the ship and said, "Oh look you two, we're going to be saved."
This caused both Courage and Avery to let out sighs of relief.
A few days later, the family was back at their farm. Muriel and Courage sat in Muriel's rocking chair while Avery sat by them, flipping through the channels on the TV and a pitcher of water sat in Eustace's chair with Eustace's glasses sitting in the pitcher.
"Stupid dog," the water gurgled.
Avery picked up the ad for the timeshare that they had used and said, "Well Uncle Eustace, did we learn anything?"
"Bah!" gurgled the water.
She crumpled up the ad and said, "Never use a mail order timeshare is what I think."
The water didn't say anything and Avery leaned down to Courage and whispered, "Remind me to have Shirly take a look at him, she might be able fix him. No rush though."
Courage laughed and nodded in agreement.
That's it for this episode. Hopefully I fixed the problems I had with the episode, just a little bit.
Next chapter? Revenge Of The Chicken From Outer Space