"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.
A boy (Gregory)'s parents explain that Bendy is misbehaving, however Frankie and Mr. Herriman accuse Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco framed for Bendy's wrongdoings. First, Bendy breaks a vase, eats chips while leaving the crumbs on the floor, touches a cake, gets Wilt's shoes all muddy and walks on the floor with them, and writes on the wall with a marker. Bendy will cry whenever he almost gets caught. Bloo comes up with his master plan. He has Bendy flood up the house. Unfortunately, he reveals it and gets the blame. Mac shows up in the end asking what Bloo did and he answers "Bendy did it!", as Bendy sprays the screen red 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”, which then Bendy runs off, as Wilt hangs his head in shame.
Spoilers end here.
Reception
This episode is regarded as one of the worst episodes, so much so that even writers Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust had regretted making it and airing it. It is often even cited by many fans and many critics as "the absolute worst episode of the show" and "one of the worst mean spirited episodes in a cartoon series."
Bendy would be regarded as one of the most despised characters in not only Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends history, but also cartoon character history.
Many critics and fans had cited immense hate and disgust not only to Bendy, but also towards Frankie and Mr. Herriman, often citing that they were too out of character and way too cruel to Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco. Grey DeLisle and Tom Kane, the voices to Frankie and Mr. Herriman, have admitted themselves to have had disgust voicing their parts in this negative manner. DeLisle even felt ashamed of the way her own role as Frankie was written into this episode, and felt sorry for the children and viewers who had watched that were upset.
Critics and fans were also bothered by the episode's abrupt ending, with Bloo taking the fall trying to get revenge on Bendy by flooding the house, only to have Bendy walking away scot-free with no punishment or guilt for his actions. Critics had stated that the ending ruins the episode even further since Frankie and Mr. Herriman don't learn from their mistakes and don't apologize to Bloo, Walt, Coco, and Eduardo; and also not hold Bendy accountable for all of his wrongdoings.
Due to Bendy's harsh backlash, the backlash towards Mr. Herriman and Frankie, and even the episode's extremely poor and hate from critics and fans alike; the decision for Craig McCracken, Lauren Faust, and other writers of the show would be unanimous... Bendy would be ultimately removed from the show and never be seen or mentioned again. Faust and McCracken even apologized in regards to the episode, the bad writing, and for making the concept Bendy's character. To make up for it, Bendy would ultimately be declared as a non-canon character and the episode, itself, was also declared as not canon to the rest of Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends series. The character would no longer exist on the show, and the negative actions and punishments enforced by Mr. Herriman and Frankie would be stated to have never happened.
Trivia
- Bendy's creator and his parents first came in Adoptcalypse Now seen in cameo only their backs.
- Bendy may be based on Patches, an evil imaginary friend created by Mike, from the Powerpuff Girls's episode Imaginary Fiend who also did bad things and then made everyone blame his owner Mike for them.
- This is the only episode to be considered as noncanonical to the whole series. Due to Bendy's and the episode's poor reviews by critics and fans alike, he was ultimately removed from the show and is never seen or mentioned of again. The episode is also declared by Faust and McCracken in the story sense to also have never chronologically happened.
- One of the only times this episode was somewhat referenced to was in the episode in the episode Setting a President, when Mac, during the presidential debate, mentioned 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 Everyone Knows It's Bendy, or an entirely different incident that was never seen before, 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 third time it happens is in Better Off Ed. And 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'.
- The attitudes of Mr. Herriman and Frankie are notably out of character in this episode, believing Bendy over the other imaginary friends who lived in the house longer than he has. They even believe Bendy over Wilt, who is a very nice, caring and kind imaginary friend who doesn't lie at all and hates lying. If they were only like this towards Bloo it would actually make sense since Bloo himself is a huge troublemaker and they would plausible doubt to not believe him. Another out of character moment for Mr. Herriman and Frankie is in the beginning when they blame Gregory for what could actually be Bendy's faults, and especially blaming him whole he is present and in front of his parents.
- Although Bendy does get away scot-free though normal means, a mass majority of Bloo's actions caused Bendy to get away scot-free while he gets in trouble, such as taking the marker that Bendy was using to draw on the walls just as Frankie and Mr. Herriman walk into the senory, picking up the bat Bendy use to break the window and have Coco accidentally take pictures of him holding the bat, and snatching the Intercom from Bendy, allowing him to escape and have Bloo get framed once again.
- This episode which was originally going to be 22 minutes long with a better explained ending, but the writers were forced to shorten it to 13 to 14 minutes long, which resulted in forming the major plot holes and the bad ending. The original time length would also suggest as to why Bendy frames all the imaginary friends in this episode and even show Mr. Herriman and Frankie realizing the error of their ways and realizing they were wrong for blaming Bloo, Wilt, Coco, and Eduardo. However, that original plan never came into fruition.
- Madame Foster is absent in this episode, although she makes a cameo appearance in a picture at the start of the episode.
- a user had got blocked in the nickelodeon wiki because a user blamed that he did bad stuff. It happened in real life on FANDOM to.