"Everyone Knows It's Bendy" is the second half of the third episode in the second season of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and the 16th episode of the series.
Plot[]
SPOILER: Plot details follow.
Bloo looking
A boy's parents explain that Bendy is misbehaving, which he continues to do at Foster's; however, Frankie and Mr. Herriman accuse Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco for framing Bendy's wrongdoings, including breaking a vase, eating chips while leaving the crumbs on the floor, touching a cake, getting Wilt's shoes all muddy and walking on the floor with them, and writing on the wall with a marker. Suddenly, Bloo comes up with a master plan to have Bendy flood up the house. Unfortunately, he reveals it and gets the blame. Mac shows up at the end asking what Bloo did, and he answers, "Bendy did it!", as Bendy sprays the screen with red spray paint as the episode ends.
During the credits, Wilt is seen walking down a hallway, and stops when he sees Bendy with a red marker who wrote “WILT CLEAN THIS UP! BENDY”, then Bendy runs off, as Wilt hangs his head in shame.
Spoilers end here.
Reception[]
This is usually classified by critics and fans as one of the worst episodes of the series, due to Bendy's unlikeable nature, the main cast being punished for things they didn't actually do, Mr. Herriman and Frankie acting way out-of-character (for reasons of siding with the episode's antagonist, unfair and unjust groundings towards Bloo and the others, putting blame on Gregory in the beginning for supposedly putting blame on Bendy, not wanting to look at a bigger picture of the situation as a whole, and many other aspects that ruin their characters), and the fact that Bendy gets away for all his actions scot-free with no punishment whatsoever.
Some critics even go as far as saying as this being one of the worst mean-spirited cartoon episodes of all time, and that Bendy is one of the worst mean-spirited characters to have ever existed.
The episode is also declared by Faust and McCracken in the story sense to also have never chronologically happened; declaring Bendy and even this episode as non-canonical to the rest of the series. This has even been one of the only poorly received episodes that Faust and McCracken have openly apologized for and have retconned. Both writers had even admitted guilt, and despisal for the episode; stating openly that it was a mistake on their end for greenlighting it and that there was no excuse for it.
Trivia[]
- This is the only appearance of Bendy.
- The family who adopted Bendy first appeared in "Adoptcalypse Now" seen in cameo only by their backs.
- Bendy may be based on Patches, an evil imaginary friend created by Mike, from the Powerpuff Girls episode "Imaginary Fiend" who also did bad things and then made everyone blame his owner Mike for them.
- While the episode is considered non-canon, one of the only times this episode was possibly, somewhat, referenced to was in the episode "Setting a President". It was when Mac had mentioned during the presidential debate that Bloo has caused large amounts of trouble since he came to Foster's, which included flooding the house. Whether or not Mac was actually talking about the incident from the episode "Everyone Knows It's Bendy", or an entirely different incident, is entirely uncertain. Besides this slight reference, Bendy was still ultimately declared as a non-canon character to the show, and the episode itself was still declared by the writers as non-canon to the series.
- This is the second time where Mac only appears at the end of an episode. The first was in "Phone Home". The final time is in "The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun That He's Not Invited To".
- This is one of the few episodes where Mr. Herriman refers to Bloo by his nickname as opposed to the usual "Master Blooregard". This is strange because he usually doesn't refer to Bloo in this manner.
- Interestingly, Bendy seems to know Bloo's name, as shown by him writing Bloo's name on the wall with the marker, despite not being told his name and Bloo not properly introducing himself to Bendy, though it is possible that he told him his name offscreen.
- This episode was supposed to originally be 22 minutes long with a better explained ending that explains why Bendy was framing every imaginary friend, and that he would have gotten his comeuppance once Frankie and Mr. Herriman found out what he was really doing. However, for unknown reasons, the writers were forced by Cartoon Network to shorten it to 13 to 14 minutes long, which resulted in forming the major plot holes and the rushed ending. Even so, the writers still say they regret this episode, so having that extended length would make little to no difference.
- Madame Foster is nowhere present in this episode for some unknown reason.
- Frankie is seen helping Mr. Herriman with punishing Bloo and the rest of the group. This is a really strange point because while Frankie may be a smaller-level rule enforcer (to a very small extent), she usually just gets aggravated with Bloo's stupid antics and just gives out small scoldings to him, or any other imaginary friend who is in the wrong. However, outside of this episode, she usually doesn't carry out the punishments such as groundings. Here, she is given that opportunity. That's usually Herriman's job. Being the head caretaker isn't the same as being the head enforcer or manager.
- For some reason, in this episode, Mr. Herriman is almost seemingly treating Frankie as an equal to him. This is strange because as previously stated, she's the head caretaker; not the manager.
Cultural references[]
- The title is a reference to the lyric "Everyone knows it's windy", from the song "Windy" by The Association.
- In the Mexican Spanish dub, after Mr. Herriman forbids Bloo of television and video games and asks him what else he likes, Bloo replies "My Tamagotchi!", and Mr. Herriman says, "No more Tamagotchi!", instead of mentioning paddle ball. This is a reference to the Japanese virtual pet handheld game brand of the same name by Bandai.