See What Develops

right right

"See What Develops" is episode number 8.3 of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

Starring Roles

 * Splendid
 * The Mole

Featuring Roles

 * Lumpy
 * Sniffles
 * Russell
 * Giggles
 * Cro-Marmot
 * Handy
 * Disco Bear
 * Flaky
 * Nutty
 * Mime
 * Petunia

Appearance Roles

 * Cuddles
 * Toothy
 * Pop
 * Cub

Plot
Lumpy drives hazardly through town in his news van, causing stacks of newspapers to fly out the back. He enters the office building for The Daily Acorn and walks up to Splendid in his alter ego, a news reporter with a hat, thick glasses, and a tie. Lumpy holds up a paper and asks him where the photo for the lead story is, but Splendid shrugs his shoulders. Lumpy looks around the office for a photographer to accompany Splendid. Cuddles heads out down the elevator, The Mole unknowingly replaces a full bottle of water in the water cooler with a near-empty one, and Sniffles looks through the lens on his camera with great interest. Finding his man, Lumpy sends The Mole and a skeptical Splendid out to get the scoop.

Splendid and The Mole arrive at the grand opening of a supermarket, where Handy hangs a banner and Mime makes balloon hats for Giggles and Cro-Marmot and a balloon sword for Russell. The Mole tries to take a photo of this, but he ends up photographing himself. Inside the store, The Mole uses a flashbulb to take a photo of Nutty, Disco Bear, and Flaky, who work as clerks at the store. The smoke from the flashbulb sets off the sprinkler system, which shorts out the automatic doors. Outside, the Mole drops a flashbulb and, upon picking it up, accidentally gets behind a gumball machine, turns the crank, and releases gumballs. Nutty sees this and tries to run outside, but he slams into the malfunctioned automatic doors, whimpering in sadness at his lost treat.

Meanwhile, Mime, on his unicycle, rides over the gumballs and begins losing his balance. As the gumballs fly out from under his wheel, gunshot sounds are produced, getting Splendid's attention. He runs to a phone booth to change out of his street clothes, but Cro-Marmot is inside making a call. Mime makes it safely off the gumballs, but The Mole takes his photo, temporarily blinding him from the flash and causing him to crash into Handy's ladder. Handy grabs onto the wire of the sign he hung up with his teeth, while Mime has to start juggling some of Handy's sharp tools that have fallen off the ladder.

Splendid sees a second phone booth and gets in to change, but he has to stop when he notices Cub is staring in at him. Splendid sheepishly waves back at Cub, waiting for him to turn away. Mime ends up riding into an instant photo booth, where, through the four pictures that come out, we see that part of Mime's face was sliced off by Handy's tools. The shaved piece of skin is in the shape of a roll of film and The Mole, who dropped his film, accidentally picks it up and places it in his camera. Splendid sees the top part of Handy's mouth looks like it will break off, so he runs to the instant photo booth to change. He sees Mime's cut and mutilated body, so he instead runs into a nearby alley.

As he begins undressing, The Mole takes Splendid's photo and walks back towards the parking lot. Splendid is torn between whether to help Handy or to stop The Mole. He eventually rushes to Handy's aid when the top part of his mouth breaks off and he hurtles toward the ground. Unfortunately, Splendid isn't fast enough and Handy splatters on the pavement. Splendid sees a car pulling out of the parking lot and, assuming The Mole is driving, rushes over to tear the top half of the car off. He sees, however, that Petunia is actually the one driving and he ended up tearing her in half at the waist with her intestines connecting both halves of her body. He replaces the top of the car and uses his eye lasers to weld the car back together, but Petunia ends up crashing.

Splendid looks over and sees the silhouette of a figure that looks like The Mole approaching a photo development booth. He flies over and punches the figure, only to find that it is Giggles, her balloon hat resembling The Mole's photographer's cap and a stick of French bread resembling The Mole's white cane. Toothy, the clerk in the booth, glares angrily at a sheepish Splendid. Splendid sees The Mole walking back to The Daily Acorn building and rushes off to stop him. The supersonic speed he flies at tears the skin off Giggles' body and disintegrates Toothy's body in the backlash. He flies past the supermarket, where Flaky, Disco Bear, and Nutty have drowned in the rising water, shattering the glass windows. The Mole begins taking random photos, including several of Splendid which blinds him from the flash, causing him to fly into a building which quickly collapses.

Splendid sees The Mole has entered The Daily Acorn building, so he quickly runs up to the office, once more dressed as his alter ego. He finds he's too late as The Mole gives Lumpy his camera, but luckily Lumpy only finds the scrap of Mime's flesh inside. Splendid breathes a sigh of relief, but he accidentally freezes Cuddles with his ice breath. He tries reheating Cuddles with his laser eyes, but this only causes Cuddles to break into numerous ice cubes. Later, in the darkroom, Lumpy develops The Mole's photos, only to find that they are all poorly shot. He picks up Mime's flesh and decides to develop it. Just as the picture of Splendid's identity is about to be revealed, The Mole opens the door to the room, letting in light and overexposing the film.

Moral
"A picture is worth a thousand words!"

Deaths

 * 1) Mime is cut to pieces when he slams into a photo booth while juggling sharp objects.
 * 2) Handy falls from a great height to the pavement, where he splatters.
 * 3) Petunia is torn in half and then crashes her car.
 * 4) Giggles' skin is torn off when Splendid flies away at a supersonic speed.
 * 5) Toothy is disintegrated by the backlash of Splendid's sonic boom.
 * 6) Flaky, Disco Bear, and Nutty drown when the supermarket's automatic doors break down, causing water from the sprinklers to flood the store.
 * 7) Splendid possibly kills some Generic Tree Friends if they were in the building The Mole's camera flashes caused Splendid to crash into.
 * 8) Cuddles is killed when he's frozen by Splendid's ice breath and broken into ice cubes by his laser vison.

Goofs

 * 1) Lumpy's antlers change directions several times.
 * 2) The purple building next to The Daily Acorn building is not there at the beginning of the episode.
 * 3) The clock on the wall of the office reads the same time (7:00) before and after Splendid and The Mole do their report.
 * 4) The mole on The Mole's face changes places numerous times.
 * 5) When Lumpy exits the elevator, Splendid's ears are visible. When he's talking with Lumpy, Splendid's ears are gone. When he's with The Mole, his ears are visible again.
 * 6) Several things, such as the gumball machine, change places between the establishing shot of the store and the main action.
 * 7) Russell and Cro-Marmot don't have their balloon sword and hat before Mime gives Giggles her balloon hat, but they suddenly have them immediately after.
 * 8) The crank on the gumball machine goes from being on the right side to the left side between shots.
 * 9) Though the gumballs are outside the window when Nutty looks through the glass, they appear in front of the door when he runs to retrieve them.
 * 10) Cuddles' fingers and tuft of hair are blueish (like he has frostbite) before he is frozen.
 * 11) The Mole takes Splendid's photo well after Splendid took his glasses off, yet the photo Lumpy is about to look at shows Splendid still holding his glasses.
 * 12) One of the pictures Lumpy looks at shows one of his antlers even though The Mole didn't take a photo of him.

Trivia

 * 1) Splendid´s disguise as a reporter is a reference to Superman, in which Clark Kent also works in a newspaper.
 * 2) Splendid's place of employment, The Daily Acorn, is a reference to Superman's place of employment The Daily Planet. Both buildings house newspapers and both buildings have their titular object on top of the building (e.g., an acorn for The Daily Acorn and a model of Earth for The Daily Planet).
 * 3) Mime rides his unicycle under Handy's ladder, a superstition that brings bad luck.
 * 4) After The Mole takes his picture inside the supermarket, Disco Bear and Flaky shake hands and he actually winks at her.
 * 5) Splendid is ambidextrous, as he is seen writing with both hands at different times (either that, or it's an animation error).
 * 6) When Mime is riding over the gumballs, the noises resemble gunshot sound effects from many films.
 * 7) This is one of three episodes starring Splendid where he is not responsible for every death that occurs in the episode. The other episodes are Wrath of Con and Mirror Mirror, the first episode of the Splendid's SSSSSuper Squad series of Ka-Pow!.
 * 8) The only three characters that didn't appear in this episode were Flippy, Lifty & Shifty.
 * 9) Splendid trying to change into his superhero form in a telephone booth is a reference to Underdog and Superman, as both Shoeshine Boy and Clark Kent would change to Underdog and Superman in a phone booth.
 * 10) This is the second episode where Splendid is grossed out at a character's death. The other one is From Hero to Eternity.