Hello readers, and welcome once more to another thrilling and terrifying post about a scared little dog in a scary world. Today’s episode is “The Shadow of Courage“, which is a far more ominous and meaningful title than one might expect considering the rather goofy nature of this episode.

This episode begins with the origins of the Evil Shadow, who is of course the villain. He’s born when a greedy and miserly old man dies in his observatory, thus freeing his shadow from its corporeal form. The shadow, upset with his prior captivity and overjoyed with his freedom, goes on a tear of mayhem that eventually finds him at the Bagge’s farm in the middle of Nowhere.

Soon he wreaks havoc and chaos on the unsuspecting farm couple and of course their timid yet loyal dog, but even without having read any of my prior posts one can pretty quickly see that this is all a grand delusion of Courage’s fear-laden mind.

First and foremost, we have to establish early on that Courage is afraid of even his own shadow. This is actually confirmed even in the intro segment, well before this episode aired.

In a way this precludes all that I would have to say about this episode, but for both of our sake, I’ll go on. (You’re welcome.) Very early on in The Shadow of Courage, Courage sees the Evil Shadow enter the house and freaks out about it. This would be very likely to be something like, say, a shadow passing over the moon, because of course Eustace and Muriel don’t see anything when they check outside. Courage is brought up to the attic to spend the night there alone which should raise a few red flags in my more astute readers.

A rescue dog getting yelled at and forced to spend the night in the cold, dark attic all alone?

Seems awfully reminiscent of Courage’s earliest memories of abandonment, doesn’t it? Being left in an alley, cold, dark, and alone? If anything would trigger Courage to be afraid and to assume a ridiculous amount of danger and fear, this is it. Between his fear of the shadow he saw and now the fact that he’s all alone (and Muriel doesn’t even have him to protect her), it shouldn’t be surprising that Courage is scared and assumes the worst. So when he goes back down and finds Eustace missing, only to hear a scream from the kitchen, of course he figures this is what happens.

Ever the brave and loyal friend, Courage tells Muriel, “You stay here; I’ll go.” To be quite honest with you, for me this confirms the theory more than almost anything else. He obviously doesn’t have this conversation with Muriel but takes it upon himself to check on her behalf. It’s far more likely that Eustace stubbed his toe in the dark than screamed in blood-curdling terror; to Courage there would be very little difference. Hell, it could even have just been a grumbly groan while looking for a midnight snack. At this point, it becomes relevant to post a picture like this for reality’s sake.

Is Eustace really hiding in the fridge? Probably not, but Courage can almost certainly hear him open it from upstairs, and for him that’s enough to put this idea together. Remember that we are not seeing reality as much as we are seeing reality as it occurs to a terrified dog who regularly assumes the worst.

After “saving” Eustace and returning upstairs, they find that Muriel has gone missing as well – this largely constitutes the second act drama for this episode. Contrary to what you might expect of a husband who’s just found his wife to be missing, Eustace gets back into bed and goes to sleep. Courage however freaks out and decides to check the basement, because of course he does.

It’s also worth mentioning the nature of the reality with the computer in the attic as it applies to Courage. One can realistically assume he never actually uses the damn thing; it tells him very obvious facts that he doesn’t want to hear, and, have you ever paid attention to the way he uses it? His attempts at using the search function or entering information into the computer changes nearly every episode – sometimes he meditates next to it, sometimes he types furiously into it, sometimes he yips and barks at it, and still other times he attempts to put God damned monster body parts into the CD drive.

Guys. Girls. Readers. That’s not how computers work. Is that how your computer works? Because mine does not do any of that except for maybe responding to me typing furiously, and even that can be questionable. This, paired with the very snarky, critical, and obvious revelations of the computer, suggest that rather than using it that this is a reflection on his intellect and thought processes. Of course he’s critical of himself, and of course he knows an obvious solution that he doesn’t want to consider is still a solution. This however must be taken with a grain of salt as the solution to his made-up problems are largely fabricated and unnecessary as well.

Anyway, once in the basement, Courage is confronted by a litany of horrifying images of Muriel being killed, ripped apart, eaten, cooked, and otherwise suffering other generally unpleasant fates, prompting him (at the behest of the computer) to eventually strike up a conversation with the Evil Shadow. Before even a minute passes the Shadow leaves them forever to follow his dreams of literal stardom in the night sky. Courage returns home proud and safe, but there’s a nagging thought that something is missing; something forgotten.

Upon returning upstairs to the bedroom where Eustace is sleeping, our keen eye for detail is rewarded – Muriel is still missing.

But, alas, we of the theory that Courage is merely a normal and scared rescue dog are rewarded with the icing on the cake : the sound of a toilet flushing and this pleasant visage appearing in the doorway.

…which kind of instantly clears up what happened to Muriel; namely, nothing. Courage was just so amped up that when he didn’t see Eustace he thought the Evil Shadow got him, and clearly assumed the same thing when Muriel was also missing. For a rescue dog with a clear history of abandonment, it’s no surprise that these sudden absences would alarm him, especially paired with the whole “sleep in the attic” bit we discussed earlier. Of course this all scared the hell out of him, and combined with seeing a shadow move across the ground at night, he never had a chance. To him, this night was only going to go down one way – shadow monsters. We are what we know, and we only know our experiences.

Courage had not had very many good experiences before the Bagges cared for him, and as any rescue dog owner will tell you sometimes the fear doesn’t quite wear off. They’ll still love you – as I’ve mentioned, in some cases more fiercely and sweetly than any other kind of dog – but it doesn’t take much to bring them back to a dark and scary place. Courage the Cowardly Dog is essentially that issue, wrapped up in horror tropes and 90’s-era cartoon comedy.

I’ve had rescue dogs fear everything from garbage pails to plastic bags to the wind to a misplaced sheet of paper – can the idea of a rescue dog fearing its own shadow really be that surprising, then? I would think not.