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Overview


Don't Yank My Chain is episode number 2.3 of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

HTF Episode Description[]

Falsely arrested by Officer Lumpy, Handy and The Mole go on the lam and dragging a heavy ball to their chain.

Falsely arrested by Sheriff Lumpy, The Mole and Handy go on the lam. (DVD)

Plot[]

As a lone car swerves down the highway we go inside to find Handy driving, while The Mole holds a map in the passenger seat. The car's fuel gauge quickly reaches empty and while the duo stops at a gas station to fill up, Lifty and Shifty emerge from the bushes to steal their car. Not long after taking off, they are stopped by Lumpy, a state trooper. The brothers begins to panic at the thought of being arrested, but they quickly come up with a plan upon gazing at Handy and The Mole's luggage.

Lumpy walks up to the car as a state trooper and takes Handy and The Mole's driver's licenses from Shifty, who now wears one of Handy's hard hats while Lifty wears a pair of The Mole's sunglasses and one of his turtlenecks. Lumpy glances into the backseat of the car to see both suitcases open with hard hats, canes and turtlenecks strewn about the car. Handy and The Mole come running up to the car, out of breath, and explain to Lumpy what happened. Lumpy looks at both groups and the licenses several times, trying to decide which group is the rightful owner of the car.

Escapees

Handy and The Mole are on the run!

The scene changes to Handy and The Mole, badly beaten up by Lumpy, being locked up in jail due to Lumpy's stupidity and their protests going unheeded. Handy sees the keys to the cell and tries to grab them unsuccessfully, only to find that the cell door is unlocked. The two try to run away, but they are pulled back into the room by a heavy ball, attached by a chain to their legs. Later, Lumpy discovers they're gone and sounds the alarm, as Handy and The Mole flee the prison with The Mole carrying the heavy ball in his hands. They rest for a moment at the top of a hill, but The Mole sets down the ball towards the edge of a cliff. The ball rolls forwards, and both are dragged down a sharp, rocky cliff, where they are bruised and cut even further. During their tumble, a small portion of The Mole's turtleneck is ripped off by a sharp branch.

The duo land at a tree stump where a sledgehammer and a spike sit. While Handy holds the spike in his teeth above the chain, The Mole raises the sledgehammer above his head. He loses his balance, however, and stumbles back into a well, dragging Handy and the ball along with him. Back at the top of the cliff, Lumpy tracks Handy and The Mole using a bloodhound. The bloodhound gets their scent and takes off down the cliff, dragging Lumpy along behind him.

Meanwhile, Cuddles hums & approaches the well that Handy and The Mole fell into, and begins turning the handle to raise the bucket. When he sees Handy emerge from the well, he gets scared and runs away screaming, allowing the bucket to fall and sending Handy plummeting back into the well. Elsewhere, the bloodhound finds the piece of The Mole's turtleneck on the branch that ripped it off, and instead of letting the dog sniff it, Lumpy grabs it and he uses it to blow his nose, then he confiscates the piece, then congratulates the dog.

Handy and The Mole finally make it out of the well and run away as they hear the bloodhound howling in the distance. Cuddles comes back to the well and calls out to whoever may be inside. He almost falls in, however, and clutches to the side of the well for dear life. The bloodhound approaches the well and looks in. Lumpy, not even looking into the well, drops and breaks the bucket on Cuddles' head. Cuddles begins falling and when he reaches the end of the rope, he is decapitated forcefully and his head and spine remain in the bucket. Lumpy pulls the bucket back up to find Cuddles' head floating in a pool of blood. He then throws it back down the well in disgust.

Handy and The Mole continue running, until they come upon a rowboat docked in a river. They begin rowing away just as Lumpy approaches, shouting after them. Handy finds a hacksaw in a toolbox on the boat, but as The Mole tries to cut the chain, he accidentally cuts the boat in half. The two almost drown from being pulled down by the ball, but they manage to pull themselves up on a log floating in the river.

Stv1e2

Things get only worse for our blind, handless, unlucky duo.

Handy thinks that all is well, until he looks over and sees they are headed for a sawmill. They attempt running away, but a bunched up group of logs blocks their path. Handy tells The Mole to get in the water and leave the ball on the log so when the log goes up the ramp to the saw, the ball will be cut in half. Unfortunately, the ball falls in the water, dragging The Mole down and sending him straight into the buzz saw where he silently flails as his head is sawed in half. Handy, realizing he's next, spots the controls and dives at the off button with his head, managing to deactivate the saw. Handy briefly mourns The Mole's death, but he flees again, hearing the bloodhound howling not far off.

Things are incredibly difficult now, as Handy must pull the ball as well as The Mole's body, without any hands to aid in the process. This leads to his leg being worn away by the shackle around his ankle. He sees that he's next to a set of railroad tracks and upon hearing a train approaching, he gets an idea. He lays the ball and The Mole's body on one side of the tracks, while lying himself on the other side of the tracks, with the chains running over the middle, hoping that the train will break the chain. When the train comes, however, he gets dragged along by the train because the chain gets caught on a cowcatcher.

With the chain now latched onto the cowcatcher, Handy's tail and body start to file down from the extreme friction. Inside the train, Pop and Cub are passengers. Cub sees Handy getting tossed around, and he seems to enjoy watching him, seemingly ignoring his pleas for help. Up ahead, the train is about to enter a tunnel. With all hope seeming lost, Handy begins to scream at the top of his lungs, just before his face slams onto the side of the tunnel, which kills him, and ends his suffering/false imprisonment. At the other side of the tunnel, Cub waves goodbye to Handy, and when he turns around, it is revealed that Handy's severed eyes have landed on Cub's face, which as a pair of googly eyes/gag glasses. The sight of this is enough to horrify Pop.

HTF Moments - Cub's new eye ! (TV S01 E02

Cub gets an eyeful of Handy.

Meanwhile, down a road, Lifty and Shifty laugh at their victory for stealing Handy's car, that's until they realize the car runs out of gas. As the two brothers argue about this situation, they're completely unaware that the car stopped on the railroad tracks, where upon the crossing guards come down. Hearing the bells ringing and the train approaching, the brothers let out an utter "uh-oh" just before the speeding train rams into the car, obliterating the vehicle and killing the two raccoons.

Back at the tunnel, Handy and The Mole's ball weight comes bouncing out along the tracks and bounces down a cliff. Lumpy stands below, still looking for the fugitives. Suddenly, the ball lands on Lumpy's head, which smashes his skull. Right before the episode ends, the bloodhound sniffs the undamaged ball.

Moral[]

"A chain is only as strong as its weakest link!"

Deaths[]

  1. Cuddles gets his lower body ripped off by the bucket of a well, decapitating him, leaving only his head and spine.
  2. The Mole's head is sliced in half by a buzzsaw.
  3. Handy is slammed into the side of a tunnel when he gets dragged along by a train.
  4. Lifty and Shifty are run over by the train that killed Handy.
  5. Lumpy's skull gets crushed when Handy and The Mole's ball weight falls on top of him.

Injuries[]

  1. Handy and The Mole are beaten up by Lumpy. (Not seen)
  2. Handy and The Mole fall down a mountain.
  3. Handy and possibly The Mole are nearly suffocated by their chain.
  4. Handy is hit in the chin right before falling down a well.
  5. Lumpy falls down a mountain.
  6. Cuddles gets bruises and scrapes on his face when a bucket hits him in the head.
  7. Handy and The Mole nearly drown.
  8. Handy's leg is shredded when he walks a lot.
  9. Handy is injured when the train catches the chain.
  10. Handy's back and tail are shredded off his body.

Survival Rate[]

  • Amount of surviving main characters: 2
  • Amount of dead main characters: 6
  • Total rate: 25%

Destruction[]

  1. Handy's hat and The Mole's turtleneck and glasses get repeatedly roughed up throughout the episode.
  2. The bottom of the bucket on Cuddles' well breaks when Lumpy drops it on him.
  3. The Mole accidentally saws a boat in half.
  4. Numerous trees were cut down as stumps can be seen surrounding the sawmill.
  5. The Mole's glasses and the top part of his turtleneck are sawed in half by a buzz saw.
  6. The train (somehow) breaks the chain attaching Handy, The Mole and the ball.
  7. The train destroys the car the Lifty and Shifty were riding in.
  8. Lumpy's sunglasses break in half when the weight ball kills him.

Goofs[]

  1. Cuddles had more of a featuring role than an appearance role.
  2. The steering wheel in Handy's car at the beginning of the episode can be seen moving, even though Handy's stumps are clearly not touching it.
  3. A small statuette of a hula dancing Giggles on Handy's car faces the viewer even when changing angles.
  4. The directions of Lumpy's antlers change numerous times throughout the episode, sometimes in continuous shots.
  5. Handy and The Mole's ID pictures have their designs from the first two seasons of the internet series (However, this may have been intentional as to represent them in their youths).
  6. The positions of Handy's tools on his toolbelt change several times.
  7. Handy's black eye changes from his right eye to his left eye after he realizes the cell door is open.
  8. There are several instances in this episode when Handy's hat should've fallen off his head.
    1. When he's pulled back into the cell because of the ball.
    2. When he falls down the rocky hill.
    3. When he fell in the water after The Mole sawed the boat in two.
    4. When he was being dragged by the train.
    5. Lumpy also should've lost his hat when he was pulled down the rocky hill by his hound.
  9. The keys on the wall to the right of the cell disappear when Lumpy returns.
  10. The Mole's mole switches places on his face several times.
  11. The positions of the barn and farm house near the well change several times.
  12. As Handy is falling down the well in one frame he has crooked teeth and his normal buckteeth at the same time.
  13. After Handy and The Mole fell down the cliff and into the well, the two looked beaten and were covered in scratches from head to toe. But after the two climb out of the well after Cuddles runs away, the two are completely scratch-free and well-looking.
    1. Likewise, all of their injuries from being beaten up by Lumpy disappeared when they escaped the prison.
  14. The small statuette mentioned above disappears when Lifty and Shifty are in the car.
  15. Cuddles' watering can disappears when he runs away from Handy.
  16. The arc in the middle of Lumpy's sunglasses quickly goes from being dislocated, to disappearing, to reappearing when he finds a piece of The Mole's turtleneck.
  17. The bucket isn't at the end of the rope when Cuddles is turning the handle, but when Handy and The Mole are seen out of the well the bucket is at the end of the rope again.
  18. Considering the size of Cuddles' head when it broke the bottom of the bucket, the blood in the bucket should've drained when Cuddles' head began to float.
  19. When Cuddles fell into the well, he had a black eye and splinters all over his face. But when Lumpy brings the bucket up, the splinters and black eye are gone.
  20. When Lumpy brings the bucket up, Cuddles' head is seen floating in his pool of blood, but his head isn't bloody at all.
  21. The leg that Handy's shackle is on changes a few times in the episode.
  22. If you look closely at the scene where The Mole saws the boat Handy and The Mole were on, you can see that Handy's chain isn't connected to The Mole's leg.
    Stv1e2

    Handy is free?

  23. Handy is frustrated when he realizes he will have to pull The Mole and the ball along. However, he should have already realized that when moving The Mole's body off the log and onto the deck.
  24. The Mole's body stops trailing blood when Handy pulls The Mole's body next to some train tracks.
  25. The blood surrounding Handy's foot disappears when he gets the idea to break the chain with the train.
  26. After The Mole's death, he isn't holding his cane, but he is seen holding it after Handy puts his body alongside the railroad tracks.
  27. The length of the chain becomes longer when Handy lays it on the railroad tracks.
  28. Handy's hat stays on his head when he is being dragged by the train.
  29. Handy's tool belt disappears when he is dragged along by the train (though it may have fallen off, it is more likely his helmet would have fallen off first, which might be another goof).
  30. In the shot where the train was going to enter the tunnel, The Mole didn't appear at the side of the train.
  31. The Mole's corpse should've suffered a similar fate like Handy's, but his blood is not seen splattered across the windows on the other side of the train.
  32. Cub's safety pin switches positions once.
  33. In the scene where Cub is wearing Handy's eyes, the Pac-Man shape of the eyes are the wrong way round. (facing left instead of right)
  34. When Pop reacts to Cub wearing Handy's eyes, his pipe doesn't fall out of his open mouth.
  35. If you look very closely when the scene fades in after Handy's death, there is a frame jump involving Pop's and Cub's position in their chairs.
    1. Also when the frame jump happens, the background all of a sudden starts moving in the opposite direction, along with the trees all tilting the other way around.
    2. Along with that when all of a sudden you see Pop with the shocked look on his face, the background moves in the right direction again.
  36. The symbols for "full" and "empty" on the same automobile's fuel gauge are somewhat different at the end from how they look at the beginning.
  37. When Handy is killed, his blood is smeared all over the right side of the train. But when the train runs over Lifty and Shifty, the right side of the train is completely clean.
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