Water You Wading For

Water You Wading For is an episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series, the sixth of the first season. This episode introduces Flaky, the nervous female porcupine with dandruff in her quills, her friendship with Cuddles, and how this friendship can get the two of them into trouble.

HTF Episode Description
Cuddles is always trying to lure scared Flaky into some sort of trouble! In this episode, Cuddles wants Flaky to join him in the local swim hole... little does he know that what you don't see beneath the water can hurt you!

Plot
The episode begins with Cuddles jumping into a small pond, apparently having a relaxing swim. Cuddles tries to encourage the new Happy Tree Friend porcupine, Flaky to jump in. Flaky refuses, pointing to a "No Swimming" sign. Despite this, Cuddles still encourages Flaky to jump in. But Cuddles will soon learn there's a reason why the sign is there.

After Cuddles encourages Flaky to jump in again, bubbles start to form around him. Suddenly, a bunch of vicious piranhas jump out of the water and start attacking Cuddles. Flaky stands in shock, frantically looking around while trying to find a way to help her friend. Next, Cuddles start getting tossed around like a beach ball by a couple seals. Flaky attempts to help, but she doesn't do very well, as she tries to reach Cuddles with a short stick from a far away tree. One of the seals tosses Cuddles back on land, who is now slightly battered up. Before Cuddles gets the chance to do anything, an alligator pops out and chomps on Cuddles. The alligator resurfaces and Cuddles struggles in vain to keep its jaw open. Flaky, who just thought of something, tells Cuddles to stay there, while she runs off.

Cuddles, now missing the lower half of his body and brutally injured, starts crawling away. But before he can go far enough, a giant whale pops out and lands on top of Cuddles, crushing and killing him in a pile of blood and guts. Flaky, who now holds a life preserver with a rope, throws it onto Cuddles' crushed remains. Realizing she was too late to save her desperate friend, Flaky starts pulling back the life preserver while laughing nervously to the audience.

Moral
"Don't breathe under water!"

Injuries

 * Cuddles is tortured by many different animals.

Deaths

 * Cuddles is crushed by a whale.

Goofs

 * 1) Cuddles' position in the lake seems to change several times.
 * 2) When Cuddles is attacked by the piranhas, his pink cheeks do not appear on his face. Also, the bite marks on his body do not appear until he is about to be attacked by the crocodile, even though they should appear when he's being played with by the seals.
 * 3) There are two seals playing with Cuddles, but later when Flaky is in the scene there is only one. The other seal may have left though.
 * 4) When the two seals are playing with Cuddles, his body is one piece, but when he is tossed on land his right ear has bite marks and most of his left ear is gone.
 * 5) When Cuddles is on the side of the land, the alligator bites down on him and it leaves blood behind. When the alligator tries to eat Cuddles, however, Cuddles isn't bleeding.
 * 6) When the whale comes above the water (before it crushes Cuddles), the bite of the alligator in the land has disappeared.
 * 7) When Cuddles was on the land and his lower body was eaten by the alligator earlier, his blood was red, but when the whale lands on him, his blood was orange.
 * 8) When the alligator appears about to bite Cuddles, the water splash from the alligator can be seen in front of Cuddles' left ear.

Quick Shot Moment
In the scene before Cuddles gets crushed by the whale, there is a brief shot of Cuddles in the alligator's mouth.

Note: This is fixed in the Classics Remastered versions from YouTube and Mondomedia.com.

Trivia

 * This is the first episode where a main character is killed by an animal that is not a main character.
 * Flaky is the first character to break the fourth wall, as she nervously laughs to the viewers after she fails to save Cuddles in time.
 * This is, so far, the only starring role in which Flaky survives that is not debatable.
 * This episode is one of two episodes to have a title with a pun on water; the other episode is Water Way to Go.
 * This is the first episode to not feature a blue main character.
 * Cuddles' death is similar to Sniffles' death in As You Wish.
 * This is one of only two Season 1 episodes to have a moral that has anything to do with the episode, instead of just a random piece of advice like "Read a book" or "Eat your veggies!". The other is Nuttin' but the Tooth.
 * This episode makes Flaky the first main character to survive her debut without either injuring or killing herself or another character.