"Let Your Hare Down" is the 13th episode of season 5 of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
Plot[]
SPOILER: Plot details follow.
Mr. Herriman's uptight agenda for strict scheduling starts to become a nuisance to the Foster's residence, from showering, to eating, to even adopting friends (he nearly allowed Bloo to be adopted due to Mac running a few minutes late). Eventually, Herriman's strict schedule becomes so much of a hassle that the gang decides that Herriman needs to calm down and have fun. The gang decides to approach Bloo, asking him to help them in having Herriman loosen up. Bloo however, in his stuck-up demeanor, refuses to help due to a lack of compensation. However, just as Bloo finally learns how to play paddle ball to his delight properly, his fun is cut short by Herriman, who takes away his paddle ball. Enraged that his moment has been ruined, Bloo agrees to make Herriman loosen up.
The next day, Bloo kidnaps Mr. Herriman and takes him to multiple places for Herriman to have fun with him. Mr. Herriman's participation is very minimal and thus acts stubborn in joining in with Bloo's fun. Suddenly, while arguing with Mr. Herriman, Bloo gets attacked by a flock of angry chickens. Finally, at the sight of Bloo being humiliated, and after various failures, Mr. Herriman finally snaps and strips down, shedding his strict lifestyle for that of a hippie and redubbing himself as "Harry". When Bloo and Harry return, everyone at Foster's is joyous of Mr. Herriman's personality change.
However, after three weeks pass, conditions at the home quickly deteriorate: Families move in and the house becomes messier. To make matters worse, Harry's new lack of responsibility makes him not take the situation seriously either. Realizing it's no use trying to make Harry listen to reason, the gang decides to try something new to snap him out of his lazy lifestyle: rolling with it.
Eventually, conditions at Foster's continue to get worse and worse: There's no hot water (and later, no water at all), the electricity gets cut off, and friends get lazier. When a tax collector arrives to collect money for Herriman's bills, Harry becomes frantic to try and set everything right, but the residence becomes so inactive that nothing works for him. When he tries to put out a fire caused by the friends, the gang (and the tax collector) argue with Harry to listen to them, which causes Harry to become stressed out.
Despite Bloo's yearning to Harry not to listen, Harry snaps and returns to his former self as Mr. Herriman. Setting things back to normal, Herriman orders the gang to clean the house and leave his office, the fire to go out, the tax collector to leave after giving him a check, and Bloo to stop calling him "Harry" and put some clothes on, much to Bloo's misfortune.
In the end credits scene, Bloo, now wearing a shirt and pants, complains about Mr. Herriman's old self, only to be told by Herriman that complaining is not on his schedule.
Spoilers end here.
Trivia[]
- Bloo's attempts at making Mr. Herriman have fun include:
- Various amusement park rides
- TP-ing a neighborhood
- Various outside recreational activities
- Go-karting
- Bungee jumping
- Bull-riding
- Going to a concert
- Chimney sweeping
- Joining the circus
- Forming a mariachi band
- This is the first episode since "Berry Scary" where Bloo makes the paddle hit the ball when playing with a paddle ball.
- This is the first episode to premiere in 2008.
- This is the only appearance of Chester and Cowboy Cow in season 5.
- This is the last episode to feature ZZ Pops, Captain Mayflower, Eyeborg and Witch Itch.
- This is the second time the series moved outside its geographical location; one scene takes place in Mexico. The first time being the end credits sequence in "Foster's Goes to Europe", which takes place in Europe.
- This episode reveals that Herriman did not hold to his word at the end of "Setting a President" where he tells Frankie that having his job back was the nicest thing anyone did for him, as this episode has him repeating the cycle of disliking her and referring to her as "The Help."
- This is the second time since "Setting a President" where everyone at Foster's is sick of Mr. Herriman's rules and wants something to be done about it.
- This is the second episode where the imaginary friends see someone in a different light and become lazier as a result, the first being "The Trouble With Scribbles".
- This is the second time Mr. Herriman attends a concert, the first being "Schlock Star".
- Mr. Herriman has trouble trying to imitate Coco's speech in "My So Called Wife", but in this episode, he is shown to do it perfectly (though it is possible that he may have been practising it off-screen in the meantime).
- During the drum circle scene, Hootin' Andy and Sassyfrass are seen doing the same dance moves they were doing in "The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato of Power!".
- Near the end of the episode, Mr. Herriman tells the campfire to go out, and it extinguishes automatically. It is unknown if the campfire is actually an imaginary friend or if this is just an example of cartoon physics.
- The scene where Bloo straps Mr. Herriman to the roller coaster with Herriman wanting to get out is edited out in the HBO Max version. It is, however, present on the DVD release.
Cultural references[]
- When Mr. Herriman becomes "Harry", he wears a hat similar to Dr. Seuss' The Cat In The Hat, much like Bloo did in "Partying Is Such Sweet Soiree".
- Coco sings "If You Knew Suzie", a song from the British drama film Distant Voices, Still Lives, in the shower.
- The TV show Misplaced is a parody of ABC's Lost.
- The scene where Bloo dances with chimney sweepers resembles a scene in Disney's Mary Poppins.
Goofs[]
- Before Mr. Herriman wakes Frankie up, his schedule reads "6:03 AM LAVATORY REGIMEN", and below that, "6:04 AM DRESS", but when in the bathroom, the times change to 6:15 and 6:31 respectively.
- The DVD release has several subtitle errors:
- When Mr. Herriman says, "The train will be returning to the station.", the subtitles read "The train will return to the station".
- When Frankie says, "Then we'll just have to make him have fun.", the subtitles omit the first word.
- The subtitles omit Bloo saying, "Trucitario!"
- When Frankie says, "Psst! Bloo, come here.", the subtitles omit "Bloo".
- The subtitles say that Mac says, "Well, whatever you did, boy, did it ever work.", when Frankie actually says it.
- The subtitles mislabel One Eye Cy as "Polo".
- When Frankie says "Here, you want to see something really scary?", the subtitles omit the first word.
- When Harry says, "Whatev", the subtitles read "Whatever".
- When William Collector tries to open the front door, the subtitles read "[doorknob rattles]". However, the front doors have handles, not knobs.
- During the search party scene, Frankie, who is in the background, overlaps Moptop, who is closer to the foreground.
- During the pool party, Jackie Khones and Fluffer Nutter are seen walking beside the pool, but both overlap a beach chair.
- Yogi Boo Boo can be seen participating in the hotdog eating contest, even though it has been stated (before and after the episode premiered) that he is a vegetarian.
- The Unknown Friend can be seen singing around the campfire in the dining room, yet his shadow does not contain the fake arrow he wears.
- When William Collector just arrives at the house, the doorway leading to the waiting room disappears, even though it was present two shots earlier.
- When Harry enters the kitchen with the bucket, he is not wearing any bracelets. When he approaches the sink, bracelets are shown, but they are not present when he leaves the kitchen.
- When Harry leaves the kitchen with the bucket, he is not wearing his necklace. The necklace is also absent when he tries to move though the crowded foyer. It reappears when Collector tells him about the water bill.