Don't Yank My Chain

Don't Yank My Chain is episode number 2.3 of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

HTF Episode Description
Falsely arrested by Officer Lumpy, Handy and The Mole go on the lam and dragging a heavy ball to their chain.

Falsely arrested by Sheriff Lumpy, The Mole and Handy go on the lam. (DVD)

Plot
As a lone car swerves down the highway we go inside to find Handy driving, while The Mole holds a map in the passenger seat. The car's fuel gauge quickly reaches empty and while the duo stops at a gas station to fill up, Lifty and Shifty emerge from the bushes to steal their car. Not long after taking off, they are stopped by Lumpy, a state trooper. The brothers begins to panic at the thought of being arrested, but they quickly come up with a plan upon gazing at Handy and The Mole's luggage.

Lumpy walks up to the car as a state trooper and takes Handy and The Mole's driver's licenses from Shifty, who now wears one of Handy's hard hats while Lifty wears a pair of The Mole's sunglasses and one of his turtlenecks. Lumpy glances into the backseat of the car to see both suitcases open with hard hats, canes and turtlenecks strewn about the car. Handy and The Mole come running up to the car, out of breath, and explain to Lumpy what happened. Lumpy looks at both groups and the licenses several times, trying to decide which group is the rightful owner of the car.

The scene changes to Handy and The Mole, badly beaten up by Lumpy, being locked up in jail due to Lumpy's stupidity and their protests going unheeded. Handy sees the keys to the cell and tries to grab them unsuccessfully, only to find that the cell door is unlocked. The two try to run away, but they are pulled back into the room by a heavy ball, attached by a chain to their legs. Later, Lumpy discovers they're gone and sounds the alarm, as Handy and The Mole flee the prison with The Mole carrying the heavy ball in his hands. They rest for a moment at the top of a hill, but The Mole sets down the ball towards the edge of a cliff. The ball rolls forwards, and both are dragged down a sharp, rocky cliff, where they are bruised and cut even further. During their tumble, a small portion of The Mole's turtleneck it ripped off by a sharp branch.

The duo land at a tree stump where a sledgehammer and a spike sit. While Handy holds the spike in his teeth above the chain, The Mole raises the sledgehammer above his head. He loses his balance, however, and stumbles back into a well, dragging Handy and the ball along with him. Back at the top of the cliff, Lumpy tracks Handy and The Mole using a bloodhound. The bloodhound gets their scent and takes off down the cliff, dragging Lumpy along behind him.

Meanwhile, Cuddles approaches the well that Handy and The Mole fell into, and begins turning the handle to raise the bucket. When he sees Handy emerge from the well, he gets scared and runs away screaming, allowing the bucket to fall and sending Handy plummeting back into the well. Elsewhere, the bloodhound finds the piece of The Mole's turtleneck on the branch that ripped it off, and instead of letting the dog sniff it, Lumpy grabs it and he uses it to blow his nose, then he confiscates the piece, then congratulates the dog.

Handy and The Mole finally make it out of the well and run away as they hear the bloodhound howling in the distance. Cuddles comes back to the well and calls out to whoever may be inside. He almost falls in, however, and clutches to the side of the well for dear life. The bloodhound approaches the well and looks in. Lumpy, not even looking into the well, drops and breaks the bucket on Cuddles' head. Cuddles begins falling and when he reaches the end of the rope, he is decapitated forcefully and his head and spine remain in the bucket. Lumpy pulls the bucket back up to find Cuddles' head floating in a pool of blood. He then throws it back down the well in disgust.

Handy and The Mole continue running, until they come upon a rowboat docked in a river. They begin rowing away just as Lumpy approaches, shouting after them. Handy finds a hacksaw in a toolbox on the boat, but as The Mole tries to cut the chain, he accidentally cuts the boat in half. The two almost drown from being pulled down by the ball, but they manage to pull themselves up on a log floating in the river.

Handy thinks that all is well, until he looks over and sees they are headed for a sawmill. They attempt running away, but a bunched up group of logs blocks their path. Handy tells The Mole to get in the water and leave the ball on the log so when the log goes up the ramp to the saw, the ball will be cut in half. Unfortunately, the ball falls in the water, dragging The Mole down and sending him straight into the buzz saw where he silently flails as his head is sawed in half. Handy, realizing he's next, spots the controls and dives at the off button with his head, managing to deactivate the saw. Handy briefly mourns The Mole's death, but he flees again, hearing the bloodhound howling not far off.

Things are incredibly difficult now, as Handy must pull the ball as well as The Mole's body, without any hands to aid in the process. This leads to his leg being worn away by the shackle around his ankle. He sees that he's next to a set of railroad tracks and upon hearing a train approaching, he gets an idea. He lays the ball and The Mole's body on one side of the tracks, while lying himself on the other side of the tracks, with the chains running over the middle. When the train comes, however, he gets dragged along by the train because the chain gets caught on a cowcatcher.

With the chain now latched onto the cowcatcher, Handy's tail and body start to file down from the extreme friction. Inside the train, Pop and Cub are passengers. Cub sees Handy getting tossed around, and he seems to enjoy watching him. Up ahead, the train is about to enter a tunnel. With all hope seeming lost, Handy begins to scream at the top of his lungs, just before his face slams onto the side of the tunnel, which kills him, and ends his suffering. At the other side of the tunnel, Cub waves goodbye to Handy, and when he turns around, it is revealed that Handy's severed eyes have landed on Cub's face, which as a pair of googly eyes/gag glasses. The sight of this is enough to startle Pop.

Meanwhile, down a road, Lifty and Shifty laugh at their victory for stealing Handy's car, that's until they realize the car runs out of gas. As the two brothers argue about this situation, they're completely unaware that the car stopped on the railroad tracks, where upon the crossing guards come down. Hearing the bells ringing and the train approaching, the brothers give a quiet "uh-oh" just before the speeding train rams into the car, obliterating the vehicle and killing the two raccoons.

Back at the tunnel, Handy and The Mole's ball weight comes bouncing out along the tracks and bounces down a cliff. Lumpy stands below, still looking for the fugitives. Suddenly, the ball lands on Lumpy's head, which smashes his skull. As the episode ends, the bloodhound sniffs the undamaged ball.

Moral
"A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link!"

Deaths

 * 1) Cuddles gets his lower body ripped off by the bucket of a well, decapitating him, leaving only his head and spine.
 * 2) The Mole's head is sliced in half by a buzz-saw.
 * 3) Handy is slammed into the side of a tunnel when he gets dragged along by a train.
 * 4) Lifty and Shifty are run over by the train that killed Handy.
 * 5) Lumpy's skull gets crushed when Handy and The Mole's ball weight falls on top of him.

Injuries

 * 1) Handy and The Mole are beaten up by Lumpy.
 * 2) Handy and The Mole fall down a mountain.
 * 3) Handy and possibly The Mole are nearly suffocated by their chain.
 * 4) Handy is hit in the chin right before falling down a well.
 * 5) Lumpy falls down a mountain.
 * 6) Cuddles gets bruises and scrapes on his face when a bucket hits him in the head.
 * 7) Handy and The Mole nearly drown.
 * 8) Handy's leg is shredded when he walks a lot.
 * 9) Handy's back and tail are shredded off his body.

Goofs

 * 1) The steering wheel in Handy's car at the beginning of the episode can be seen moving, even though Handy's stumps are clearly not touching it.
 * 2) The keys on the wall to the right of the cell disappear when Lumpy returns.
 * 3) The directions of Lumpy's antlers change numerous times throughout the episode, sometimes in continuous shots.
 * 4) Handy's black eye changes from his right eye to his left eye after he realizes the cell door is open.
 * 5) The leg that Handy's shackle is on changes throughout the episode.
 * 6) Handy and The Mole's ID pictures have their designs from the first two seasons of the internet series. (possibly as a reference to the first two seasons or to recycle animation)
 * 7) The positions of Handy's tools on his toolbelt change several times.
 * 8) The positions of the barn and farm house near the well change several times.
 * 9) The bucket isn't at the end of the rope when Cuddles is turning the handle, but when Handy and The Mole are seen out of the well the bucket is at the end of the rope again.
 * 10) Cuddles' watering can disappears when he runs away from Handy.
 * 11) The arc in the middle of Lumpy's sunglasses quickly goes from being dislocated, to disappearing, to reappearing when he finds a piece of the Mole's turtleneck.
 * 12) After The Mole's death, he isn't holding his cane, but he is seen holding it after Handy puts his body alongside the railroad tracks.
 * 13) Handy's tool belt disappears when he is dragged along by the train (though it may have fallen off, it is more likely his helmet would have fallen off first, which might be another goof).
 * 14) In the shot where the train was going to enter the tunnel, The Mole didn't appear at the side of the train.
 * 15) In the scene where Cub is wearing Handy's eyes, the Pac-Man shape of the eyes are the wrong way round. (facing left instead of right)
 * 16) Cuddles had more of a featuring role than an appearance role.
 * 17) It would be unlikely Lifty and Shifty would drive off in the jacked car if it was out of gas, unless they went to different locations while using up the fuel.
 * 18) Handy's hat stays on his head when he is being dragged by the train.
 * 19) When Cuddles fell into the well, he had a black eye and splinters all over his face. But when Lumpy brings the bucket up, the splinters and black eye are gone.
 * 20) The length of the chain becomes longer when Handy lays it on the railroad tracks.
 * 21) The small statuette of a hula dancing Giggles on Handy's car faces the viewer even when changing angles.
 * 22) The small statuette mentioned above disappears when Lifty and Shifty are in the car.
 * 23) Considering the size of Cuddles' head when it broke the bottom of the bucket, the blood in the bucket should've drained when Cuddles' head began to float.
 * 24) When Handy is killed, his blood is smeared all over the right side of the train. But when the train runs over Lifty and Shifty, the right side of the train is completely clean.

Trivia

 * The title of this episode means to not disturb or bother someone.
 * When this episode aired along with Party Animal and Ipso Fatso on YouTube, the alternate title for the conglomeration of the segments was named "Lesser of Two Evils." Lumpy, Cuddles, and The Mole appear in all three of these episodes. Cuddles dies in all three episodes, while Lumpy and The Mole die twice.
 * This is the only episode of the television series with three separate staring characters credited (Not counting episodes that star Pop and Cub and Lifty and Shifty as they are always listed together).
 * This is one of three of The Mole's regular starring roles where he doesn't kill anyone. The others are Out of Sight, Out of Mime and Spare Me.
 * This is the first TV episode that has a verb in the title.
 * This is the only time in the series where Lifty and Shifty successfully steal from The Mole.
 * Handy has a small statuette of a hula dancing Giggles on his dashboard. It doesn't have a bow, but instead it has a flower in its place.
 * The flag outside of the prison closely resembles the Canadian flag, which could possibly hint that the show takes place in/or is near Canada.
 * Handy's train injury is similar to Nutty's injury in A Sucker for Love.
 * Handy finding a hacksaw in the boat and The Mole attempting to cut the chain may be a reference to the movie Saw.
 * The concept of two handicapped people chained together near a bladed device may be an additional reference to "Saw."
 * This is the first episode of the first season of the TV series in which Cub survives.
 * This is the first episode in the TV series where no girls are featured (although you could consider Giggles' cameo appearance as a bobbling hula girl).
 * When Officer Lumpy locks up Handy and The Mole in prison, Handy seems to be shouting "What are you doing?!" to Lumpy.
 * This marks Handy's most torturous death to date.
 * Although Handy managed to escape death in the sawmill before being cut in half, he would later encounter it again in My Better Half, and not be so lucky.
 * Handy and The Mole's IDs feature their old designs from Internet Season 2 with Handy having flat buckteeth and The Mole's head being slightly smaller.
 * This is one of only two episodes where we see Handy without his tool belt on. The other is I Nub You.
 * Even though it looks like Cub's eyes have been grated off, the eyes were actually Handy's eyes, due to the fact that Cub's eyes aren't that big, and also due to the fact you could see Cub's eyes after Handy's eyes came off.
 * Handy's singing sound (at 0:30) can also be heard in the iOS game Deadeye Derby when the player is playing as Handy and he wins.
 * This is the first time Lumpy works with the police. The second time will be in A Bit of a Pickle, and the third time being A Vicious Cycle.
 * Lumpy's sunglasses only came off three times, amounting to only a few seconds throughout the entire episode.
 * This is the only episode to star both The Mole and Lumpy to feature both of them dying rather than just Lumpy dying.
 * The music that plays on the part where Handy and The Mole are caught by a runaway train is also played in the flash game Fire Escape.
 * The way Lifty and Shifty die in this episode is similar to the way Kenny dies from the South Park episode "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut", (Both got ran over by a train), the more obvious however is how Kenny died in the opening sequence of the video game, "South Park Rally."
 * When Lumpy was walking away from Handy and The Mole, you can hear Lumpy say "Shut the fuck up!".
 * This episode marks The Mole's first on-screen death.
 * This episode also marks The Mole's first solo death.
 * It is also the first time The Mole dies in a starring role.
 * This episode marks the first TV absence of Flaky.