Most SHOCKING Episode of Courage The Cowardly Dog

There's no such thing as perfect. Your beautiful just as you are, Courage. With all your imperfection, you can do anything.

The Bathtub Barracuda is my favorite moment of the episode. It's so heartwarming, spooky, and insanely weird, just like the series as a whole.

I think the dream is suppose to symbolize that the perfectionist teacher was always watching. In every image there is many eyes for things that only have two, or only two big ones for the spider instead of it’s small eight. With the words “right now”, adding agency to the message. You are being watched right now.

I'll take a third option, Shawn. I think one explanation for Di Lung showing up is that Courage hallucinated him too in that scene as someone to compare himself to. Di Lung is shown to be so overconfident and think so highly of himself that it makes sense to me that Courage would see him as the opposite of himself in this episode.

Despite the moral not being as impactful or the progression not being as fun as other episodes, this still ranks among my favorites for one reason: John Dilworth KNEW at the beginning of the season that the series was not getting renewed. He WANTED the series to end with this episode, and if I remember correctly, it was because so much of the series had dealt with strange abstract horrors and situations and had so many other wild moral lessons children weren't usually parsed, but he did it all in the vein of entertainment. And something so many other series did was ground all these morals into children; things for them to worry about, considerations about their worth and how they are performing ON TOP of the judgement they got from their parents, school, friends, and so on. The tutor's appearance being that of an oldschool teacher with a ruler was no coincidence, it was a blatant allusion to a common authoritative figure children could immediately recognize and feel slightly unnerved by as it was someone they could all relate to along with the subject matter. Everyone has been talked down to by an authoritative figure and everyone has been lambasted for not doing something the right way. And John wanted the final message of the series to be a reminder to never concern yourself too much with what the world tells you is the "Right" or "Wrong" way to do things. It's not even just that you'll mess up sometimes, it's that you have to hold onto that inner child and creativity, to never let go of that side of yourself, which is why all of Courage's mistakes at the beginning of the episode and the picture he draws at the end are so... Childish. And that picture is especially important from a writing standpoint, because while the chicken coop got painted like a clown house and the windmill blades were replaced with a children's toy, the PICTURE was a follow-up and "final test" among various other stringent tests that teacher had put Courage through. Think about it, Courage had to carry books on his head, walk straight, was even psyched out into SLEEPING "perfectly"... And her final test is to write a number. Something so simple and trivial. Courage, more likely than not, could have made a normal 6, had it be perfectly fine and STILL been punished for not doing it the way the teacher wanted, but in an ultimate act of (innocent) defiance, he did it in the most creative, childish way possible and was PROUD of what he made, something that destroys his demon in the process who just can't handle the idea of him having approached the matter in any way other than how she had anticipated. And this might all sound redundant to some of you, but I'm not thinking of Courage the Cowardly Dog, the TV Show, when I say this. I'm thinking of Courage the Cowardly Dog, JOHN DILWORTH'S CREATIVE WORK OF PASSION, when I say this. Remember, John was an abstract artist and a sorta've low brow animator who got a chance to make Courage purely off of a goofy little pilot he made back in the day on the What a Cartoon show. John, by all accounts, was an extremely unorthodox animator and the exact kind of zany, experimental creative that you just don't see often nowadays. He was told at the beginning of this final season that he wouldn't be renewed again and he had seen where Cartoon Network was heading from there. The fact that he wanted his final message to simply be true to yourself is incredibly inspiring and wholesome for as simple as it sounds because HE HIMSELF is an living example of that very idea.

I think I have an idea for the weird dream. Usually the biblically accurate angel imagery is paired with the phrase, “Be not afraid” which matches Courage’s cowardly nature and facing how to not be afraid. Or the eyes thing might be the whole “all eyes on you” feeling when wanting to be perfect for the perception of others?

One of my favorite details looking back on this episode is the look and you'll blink moments with the Villain of this episode. The teacher is all in Courage's mind, a manifestation. Murial doesn't see her and only Courage can. Another detail is how She is one of the few villains we're not given a name in the only episode she appears in. Fandom decided to name her Perfectionist.

The dream with the paper drawings could simply symbolize future threats. We’ve seen throughout the series all of the different monsters, villains, freaks and weirdos that cross paths with Courage, Muriel and Eustace. At this point though, I think Courage has been through the ringer enough to know that the next one will always be not too far away. He’s got no clue who or what it could be (hence why all of those drawings seem so abstract) so he’s barely got any real way to prepare for any of it. Even if he ever did try to prepare for something, he’d just make himself look like a fool when it inevitably blindsides them all, hence the following dream with the pies. One of the oldest fears of mankind is the fear of the unknown. It’s why we’re afraid of the dark, or of death, or in this case the future: we don’t know what’s beyond it. That’s why that final picture in the dream is so much clearer than the rest, because before you even know it, the future is already here. Right now.

This episode always bring a tear to my eyes, especially the quote the barracuda says. I love the episode before this one where we learn about Courage’s parents. That episode is also really heavy, but powerful by the end as well.

when you talked about courage being beaten down so badly by Eustis i felt that. when i was 12 my mother told me that if i put on a bikini that summer i would look like a BEACHED WHALE. that was close to 20 years ago and it still effects me to this day. She has since apologized for it and blames herself for that but it just shows how fair one comment can effect you forever.

This episode is why the series doesn’t really need a revival. It’s the perfect show. I’d love to see a prequel focusing on Eustace and Muriel’s relationship before meeting Courage though. How they got together is the show’s biggest mystery.

My guess is that the dream is meant to symbolize Courage facing a near constant barrage of imperfection, manifested as weird drawings flying by his face.

His fear of not being perfect kinda hit me suddenly- because “inner demons” can truly be that. Inner demons. They are relentless liars that trick you into thinking that they are you. Every negative thought that hits MUST be you. Overcoming them can be a horrid endeavor- but thoughts that are negative about yourself are often nothing but flimsy fear we somehow take as fact. After having a really bad time a month or so ago with anxiety- hearing that barracuda reminded me of the Voice of God. Don’t worry about the past. It’s gone. Don’t even worry about the future- as that’s it’s own time. Pray and just keep going. One step at a time. The storms pass and often you look back at what bothered you and you’re like- really? For anyone out there having a bad time- you’ll be ok, Sib. Keep going. You are strong and perfect in a way that is you. 💙🙏🏼🌌🙏🏼💙 God bless you all.

Following the 'manifestation' idea, Di Lung almost certainly has something messed up going on with him, between his obsessive need to be better than everyone else and what we've seen of his aunt (well the evil one), so it'd make sense that he'd get caught up in the 'teacher's' nonsense too. As for the final dream you discussed, as others have said, I think the idea is all the figures in the pictures are imperfect/misshapen (a man with no head, a duck with too many legs, a pirate missing two legs/an arm and with too many eyes, etc.). Honestly the dream sequences were probably my favorite part of this episode because I've always been a sucker for shows experimenting with different animation styles to convey different feelings or create an 'otherworldly' atmosphere and drive home that whatever is going on isn't in the 'real world' as it were, or to just emphasize the strangeness of things.

The trippy dream reminds me of the one episode where courage used ink blots to help Murial and Ustic process their feelings as a married couple and Courage is the therapist. Some of those images came out in those ink blotsThe amount of eyes could also mean paranoia. Love your discussion of this amazing episode.

another lesson from this episode is to just be happy with who you are

The drawings falling from the sky dream is the one that unnerved me the most watching this episode. I didn't feel the same with the blue monster and just thought of it as "eh". But the ones with the drawings falling from the sky? That still sends shivers throughout my body. The unnerving looking drawings on old paper which don't make much sense, the sudden quiet and soft sound of wind that slowly gets louder as the last page with a birdman thing hitting the camera and the sudden pause of the animation before cutting away. That just hits something in me. I've had dreams like this where something at a glance looks soo off and weird that I end up waking myself up from being freaked out. And I feel that's just the case.

For some reason I was more creeped out by the lady, not the trumpet creature. Somehow my child brain found the blue thing more mesmerizing/fascinating than scary. Edit: I think the strangeness of the "drawings" dream is the point in itself. That Courage's mind is full of random, weird, nonsensical things, so the teacher probably would say that he can't even dream "perfectly".

The way that I see it, people are like precious gems. We have our imperfections that make each of us unique and far more valuable than if we were perfect. Perfection is mundane, boring. Embrace your imperfections as they make you who you are!

The "you're not perfect" moment never really creeped me out. It was weird and jarring, but I thought it was cool. Best explanation I could have is that when this episode aired I was first getting really into the band Tool, and this feels on par with some of the weird stuff in their music videos and album art. Sorta on par with weird imagery i was seeing a lot as a developing metal head This episode and its sister episode are some of my least favorites to watch. Not because they're bad but because they just are absolutely devastating for Courage who is legit my single favorite cartoon character ever. Remeberance of Courage's Past is heart-wrenching and unlike this one, it didnt have as satisfying an ending or honestly one of the most beautiful bits of dialogue ever written for a kids cartoon. This episode does. Now that I'm in my adult years, fast approaching 30 years old, I appteciate this episode and the Hunchback of Nowhere on greater levels because it managed to tell a story with a strong message while still feeling another episode of courage. I love that they can do more than just be creepy kinda creepy. It showed the value of being kind and being yourself even when one is afraid. Even when the world is scary. This show felt like a representation of my own fears and anxieties, but episodes like this showed what it's like to exorcise those demons, and while fear is a part of it, that doesn't stop you from overcoming it This was a weird ramble but this show and this episode really strike quite the cord with me