Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Episode 2: A Clue For Scooby-Doo

The gang’s beach party gets interrupted by a yacht-stealing deep sea diver ghost.

Episode Summary

The Mystery Machine arrives at Rocky Point Beach and the teens hop out for fun and relaxation…on a foggy day with no one else in sight. Well, except for the glowy guy in a diving suit Scooby runs into while surfing. After scaring the dickens out of Shaggy, the glowy guy disappears whence he came.

Later at the teens’ hangout, The Malt Shop, Fred reads about disappearing yachts. A beach hermit named Ebenezer Shark claims the person responsible is the ghost of Captain Cutler. Is he the man in the glowy diving suit the gang saw earlier? (Yes)

Who is Captain Cutler?

The teens visit Mr. Shark and hear all about the tale of Captain Cutler, a sailor who died when his boat collided with a yacht. Before he disappeared, he shouted he would return to get his revenge. Cutler then tells the teens to visit Cutler’s widow at a lighthouse; Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma head over there, while Fred and Daphne keep an eye on Shark. Yeah, I bet they’ll keep an eye on him…!

Mrs. Cutler

Inside the lighthouse, the trio finds tons of occult-looking stuff in jars like ear of a newt and canned Hyena laughs. “It’s obvious,” says Velma, “she practices witchcraft.” Mrs. Cutler finally shows herself and in a matter-of-fact manner, says she’s the one who brought Cutler back to life.

Upon leaving the lighthouse, Velma and the others spot the ghost, who leaves behind a piece of phosphorescent seaweed, which is only found in the Graveyard of Ships.

Graveyard of Ships

The Scooby gang reunites and, now clad in diving gear, head off to the graveyard. Underwater, they have a brief encounter with the ghost; by following his footprints (and Shaggy serendipitously sitting on a rock-trigger), the teens find a secret passage. The passage leads to an underground cavern full of the stolen yachts, which are in the process of being repainted.

Catching the Ghost

Fred devises an overly complicated plan to capture the ghost, which involves spraying him with a fire hose connected to a bar of soap and some-such. It doesn’t matter because the plan goes awry, and Scooby gets stuck in a runaway motorboat that lands on and traps the ghost.

Now for the unmasking. The ghost’s diving helmet is removed to reveal…some old guy? Turns out it WAS Captain Cutler, only he never died. He and his wife are taken into custody on yacht-stealing charges.

Thoughts

This was a fairly standard Scooby adventure. Nothing too annoying happened, but nothing really great or memorable happened either, leaving me empty inside. I liked the gag where Scooby drinks Mrs. Cutler’s laundry water thinking it’s soup. Someone else must have thought it was funny because the gag was reused later in The New Scooby-Doo Movies’ Addams Family crossover, only with lizard bathwater.

I felt Shaggy seemed a bit more useful in this episode than I’m used to. I hope he finally ate those chocolate-covered hot dogs he was on about in the opening scene.

The monster design was pretty simple – a diving suit covered in glowy seaweed – but diving suits are already pretty creepy, so it works.