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Escape from Mystery Manor is the seventeenth episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Premise[]

When the gang investigates the Darrow's old mansion, someone keeps trying to trap them, referring to them by the names of the old Mystery Incorporated members.

Synopsis[]

Halloween, decades ago. A trick-or-treater calls at the Darrow Mansion to find the four members of the Darrow Family — mother, father, daughter and son — in Halloween costumes, fighting over a strange, gold, pizza slice-shaped object. The ground opens up and the mansion disappears.

At K-Ghoul, Velma summarizes the clues they have so far. Angel Dynamite says Mr. E left Cassidy Williams's diary on her doorstep last night. The last entry says they are leaving to search the site of the old Darrow Mansion, which is now the site of Darrow University.

From the boiler room, the lowest point of Darrow University, the gang find a chimney leading down. They jump down and find themselves in the Darrow Mansion — but the fireplace closes, blocking their escape. A voice from a radio welcomes them back, as Mystery Incorporated.

It becomes apparent that the speaker believes they are the members of the original Mystery Incorporated, Brad, Judy, Cassidy, Ricky and Pericles. Shaggy decides to leave, but triggers a trap: a pit of spikes. Fred calculates that the bypass switch must be behind a picture of a boy with an axe and a hat, but this releases a buzzsaw and triggers a net: the calabash gambit. Fred switches lights and drawers and eventually releases the net, allowing the gang to run out of the room, pursued by falling swords, spears and anvils. Entering the next room, they trigger a tripwire and fall into a pit.

When Fred comes to, he and Daphne in tied up in a swimming pool. The voice, still calling them Brad and Judy, says this trap is arranged around the theme of love. They have an eggbeater, a hammer, a screwdriver and a large rock. The water is rising and Judy/Daphne will drown while Brad/Fred will survive. Fred solves the trap and they escape, although Daphne thinks she might need some mouth-to-mouth CPR.

Shaggy, Scooby and Velma wake up inside a maze of wires attached to sharp objects above them. The voice tells them that only the smartest of them can figure out the trap. Velma uses the dainty eyebrow trimmers in her Swiss Army Grooming Kit to cut one of the wires and a dozen knives narrowly miss them. Scooby winds his way through the tripwires, lead by the smell of food. A note tells him to apply pressure to four grey floor tiles and the trap retracts.

The gang meet up and find their way to the kitchen, where they find a radio microphone and set of listening tubes. A wizened old man enters and says he is Danny Darrow. He attacks them but is easily stopped and pushed back through the door. Fred moves a cupboard to block the door and the strange piece drops from behind it. Danny breaks through the door and demands they give him back his treasure. A chase ensues and the gang fall through a chute which leads back to the room they started in. Fred builds a trap.

Scooby pretends to be Danny's mother and tricks him into falling down the laundry chute then up in the service lift to a spring board which deposits him in the grand piano. Danny admits that they don't look like the original Mystery Inc., especially the parrot, and tells them what happened that Halloween. The rest of the family eventually died while Danny played with his precious treasure, before the original Mystery Incorporated kids turned up. He booby-trapped the house, in ways that would pray on the kids weaknesses. The gang left and Danny has waited for them to return ever since.

Suddenly, the house starts to shake. All those traps being triggered has weakened the fault line and the house begins to slip down again. Danny gets trapped on the other half of the house. He tells the gang to keep the treasure and they escape as the ground closes. As the gang wonders if there are more pieces, Mayor Jones, who has been secretly watching them from a distance, drives off.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

Villains:

  • Demented speaker (only time heard)
  • Danny Darrow (first full appearance)(final appearance; presumed death)(main story and flashback)(redeemed)

Other characters:

  • Darrows (first full appearance)(final appearance)(flashback only)(deceased)
    • Cletus Darrow (first full appearance)(final appearance)(deceased)
    • Mrs. Darrow (first full appearance)(final appearance)(deceased)
    • Darrow daughter (first full appearance)(final appearance)(deceased)
  • Trick or treating girl (only appearance)(flashback only)
  • Original Mystery Incorporated (cameo)(no lines)(flashback only)
  • Fred Jones, Sr. (no lines)(cameo)

Locations[]

Objects[]

Vehicles[]

  • Mayor Jones's car

Suspects[]

  • None

Culprits[]

Culprit Motive
Danny Darrow as the demented speaker To kill intruders and to protect his treasure. He redeemed himself by finally parting with it (a disk piece) and making sure the gang made it out as his house finally gave way, sinking too deep to survive.

Cast[]

Frank Welker Scooby-Doo
Fred Jones, Jr.
Cletus Darrow
Matthew Lillard Shaggy Rogers
Grey DeLisle Daphne Blake
Costumed girl
Mindy Cohn Velma Dinkley
Vivica A. Fox Angel Dynamite
Dwight Schultz Older Danny Darrow
Will Shadley Younger Danny Darrow

Continuity[]

  • Angel Dynamite claims Mr. E left a diary of Cassidy Williams on her doorstep the night before. However, Daphne points out the Book doesn't have E's Signature Emblem on it, like the rest of his clues do. This was likely a lie by Angel, who is Cassidy Williams herself, and gave the diary to help the kids, while keeping her involvement a secret by blaming it on Mr. E.

Notes/trivia[]

  • This is one of the darkest episodes so far; but not as dark as the ones to follow.

Miscellaneous[]

Cultural references[]

  • This is an episode-long homage to the Saw film series with character-testing traps that can kill them.
  • Danny Darrow building traps inside his own house could be a reference to Kenny McCallister´s traps from Home Alone.
  • Danny Darrow's obsession with his treasure is like Gollum in Lord of the Rings.
  • The whole episode, especially the ending, is an allusion to Edgar Alan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher".

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • TBA

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

  • Angel Dynamite refers to Darrow University as "Darrow College". This could either be a writing error, or she could be referring to the school's name before it became a university.

In other languages[]

Languages Name Meaning
Spanish (Latin America) El Escape de la Mansion The Escape Of The Manor
Italy Fuga Dal Mistero Del Maniero Escape From The Mystery Of The Manor
Hungarian Menekülés a csapdák házából Escape From The House Of Traps
Greek Απόδραση από την Έπαυλη του Μυστηρίου Escape from the Mansion of Mystery
Turkish Gizemli Köşkten Kaçış Escape from the Mysterious Mansion

Home media[]

Quotes[]

Shaggy: Like dude, time to drop out of college.


Scooby: It looks like a chimney.
Shaggy: Yeah, and I don't think Santa's been down it for a while.


Fred: Everyone stay close. (Daphne hugs him from behind) Er, Daph, not that close.
Daphne: Er, sorry. It's just you get so swarthy when you take control. Like a trucker, with an ascot.


Fred: When history writes its final passage, and we are but dust, this day will be sung of in the musical of time! Two trap masters born of flesh but skilled by gods, facing each other with traps on the field of battle, the acrid air burning in their lungs.
Scooby: Uh, what's up with Freddy?
Daphne: Oh, he's just in the zone. It'll pass. If not we'll spray him with the hose.

External links[]


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Where Walks Aphrodite Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
Season 1
The Dragon's Secret
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