Recap / Adventures In Odyssey Album 5 Daring Deeds Sinister Schemes

The fifth album release of the Adventures in Odyssey radio series. This album marks the debut of a number of elements and characters that would go on to become main-stays in the series, particularly the Imagination Station and recurring villain Dr. Regis Blackgaard.

Episodes in this Album:

1. "The Imagination Station" (Parts 1 & 2)
2. "An Encounter With Mrs. Hooper"
3. "A Bite of Applesauce"
4. "Connie Goes to Camp" (Parts 1 & 2)
5. "Eugene's Dilemma"
6. "The Nemesis" (Parts 1 & 2)
7. "Our Best Vacation Ever"
8. "The Battle" (Parts 1 & 2)

By episode, this album provides examples of the following:

The Imagination Station

Whit meets a boy named Digger Digwillow, a boy from Tom Riley's Sunday School class who doesn't find his Sunday School classes or even the Bible very interesting. Fortunately, Whit has just completed his latest invention, the Imagination Station, and Digger becomes the first kid to try it; journeying to Jerusalem shortly before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• Fish out of Temporal Water: When Digger first finds himself in Jerusalem, the people he meets are quick to to comment on Digger's strange name and clothes:
  Digger: I'm Digger. Digger Digwillow.
  John Mark: "Digger Digger Digwillow"...strange name to match your strange clothing. (about Digger's jeans) Is this a new material?
  Digger: No, they're Levis. Levi Strauss.
  John Mark: Oh, a Jewish tailor. I should have guessed. Fine craftsmanship.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Chris announces a break that comes directly after the crucifixion itself; understandably, Chris is far more solemn than she ever gets.
• Repetitive Name: Digger Digwillow himself.
• Time Travel Episode: In a sense. The Imagination Station makes its debut in this episode.

An Encounter With Mrs. Hooper

On a Sunday School trip to the Odyssey Retirement Home, the kids are assigned with spending time with certain residents and getting to know them. Donna Barclay is assigned to visit the seemingly crabby Mrs. Hooper. After a disastrous first visit, Donna tries to figure out how to get past Mrs. Hooper's surliness with help from Whit.

• Chekhov's Gunman: Richard Maxwell first appears here in a brief appearance where he's working at the retirement home and has a brief conversation with Donna about Mrs. Hooper. Eventually, he would get bigger roles in "Eugene's Dilemma" and the "Nemesis" and "Battle" two-parters.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Mrs. Hooper eventually warms up to Donna through Donna's patience and kindness.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Mrs. Hooper's sharpness and surliness winds up scaring Donna away on her first visit.

A Bite of Applesauce

One day at Whit's End, Whit introduces Eugene to the new computer, called Mabel, he recently installed at Whit's End that controls much of the building from within a secret room. As Whit shows Eugene, Eugene takes notice of a program with the strange name of "Applesauce". Whit informs Eugene that he must never touch it or use it. Eugene is also to be the only one who should be aware of this room, not even Connie, so Eugene being shown this room and the computer and not telling anyone else about it is a matter of trust.

Later, at closing time, the train set at Whit's End won't turn off, so Eugene sets off for the computer room to shut it down. However, Connie, knowing that Whit has been acting strange lately (because he was spending a lot of time setting up Mabel) and feeling that Eugene knows something she doesn't, follows Eugene to the secret room and discovers the computer room. Connie forces Eugene to show her what Mabel can do, and it's here that Connie notices the Applesauce program. Eugene resists Connie's insistence on running the program, and they leave. However, Connie can't stop thinking about the program.

The next day, Whit is out, and Connie is informed by Donna Barclay that the train set isn't working correctly, and Connie sees the chance to run the computer. After turning the trains on, the temptation to run Applesauce comes back. She 'accidentally' runs Applesauce, and immediately regrets it when it causes Mabel to run a system check on the building, resulting in everything in the building going haywire. Eugene runs in to find Connie at the computer and they try to stop it, only for the system check to abruptly end, sending the program to the next level of the program and demand a password. Neither of them can provide one, so Mabel shuts down along with everything else in the building.

Later, Whit returns to Whit's End and finds out that Connie and Eugene ran Applesauce, to his shock. especially since Applesauce, as it turns out isn't just another program that runs an invention at Whit's End, having much more importance that that. Whit is very disappointed in both of them; Eugene for failing to keep the computer a secret, and Connie for not curbing her curiosity. As a result of breaking Whit's trust, Connie and Eugene are, effective immediately, fired from Whit's End.

• Allegory: This episode features some parallels to Adam and Eve's story. Authority figure tells his pair of employees (though in this case, it's first Whit to Eugene, then Eugene to Connie) not to touch or mess with something very important (in this case, the Applesauce program). The female character's temptation to see what it is gets the better of them and they experience the forbidden object. The male character does so with her, and as a result, both characters are sent away by their authority figure. While it doesn't hit the story of Adam and Eve note for note, once you know that this episode is an allegory for it, the parallels are easy to spot.
• Cliffhanger: The episode ends right on Connie and Eugene getting fired and their heartbroken reactions.
• Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Bad. Connie's curiosity leads to her and Eugene going against Whit's wishes and the termination of their jobs at Whit's End.
• Downer Ending: Because Connie discovered Mabel and ran Applesauce, and Eugene attempted to cover the mess up, Connie and Eugene are fired.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: If you listen closely, you'll notice that Eugene never once refers to Connie as "Ms. Kendall" like does in most episodes, instead going on a first-name basis.
• Foreshadowing: Whit is horrified when he finds out that Connie and Eugene ran the program; telling them that Applesauce is program that has importance to Whit that just being another program on his computer at Whit's End. Over the course of "The Nemesis" and "The Battle", we find out just why Whit was so horrified when Connie and Eugene ran the program and what the program actually is.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: The computer, Mabel, has some level of artificial intelligence and is able to respond to a greeting by Whit (or Eugene or Connie). Eugene's manner of speaking trips it up, though.
• I've Heard of That — What Is It?: A variation when Eugene explains to Connie that Mabel has some artificial intelligence:
  Connie: How does [the computer] do that? Talk, I mean
  Eugene: Artificial intelligence, something I'm sure you don't know anything about.
  Connie: I know about it! It's intelligence that's, um, that's....
  Eugene: Artificial?
  Connie: Exactly!
• Oh, Crap!: You can hear the panic (and later, horror) in Connie and Eugene's voices as Applesauce is run and Mabel shuts down the building.

Connie Goes to Camp

Following her firing from Whit's End, Connie goes to Camp-What-A-Nut as a camp counselor. At camp, fellow counselor Fred Zachary has his hands full attempting to teach Jimmy, Jack, and Oscar how to play various sports while Connie has trouble dealing with her own cabin which houses culture-shocked Donna and Robyn, TV-obsessed Allison, and Lucy, who is being drawn into disobeying camp rules by another girl named Jill.

• The Bet: During the second part, Robyn and Donna get tired of Allison talking about TV at every turn, while Allison gets tired of Robyn and Donna talking about clothes and make-up. The three girls make a bet that Robyn and Donna can't talk about clothes/make-up and Allison can't talk about television, with the first one to do so being the loser. Allison wins the bet during the relay race when Donna warns Allison not to get egg on her shoes.
• Battle of the Sexes: When the camp has a sports competition, the Odyssey boys wind up going up against the Odyssey girls in archery, canoeing, and an egg-carrying relay race. The competition ends in a draw when the boys win the archery tournament, the girls win the canoe competition, and both teams fail to finish the relay race with their eggs intact.
• Bittersweet Ending: In a sense. Connie has to send Lucy and Jill home from camp after they run away from camp multiple times. Connie realizes that this must have been how Whit felt when he had to fire she and Eugene. These emotions play a major factor in Connie getting her job back in "The Nemesis".
• Cliffhanger: The first part ends with Lucy and Jill missing, Connie and other counselors in the rain searching for them, and Robyn, Donna, and Allison panicking as something that sounds like the dreaded Goatman approaches their tent. The beginning of the second part reveals that what they thought was the Goatman was actually Lucy and Jill returning and playing a joke on them.
• Continuity Nod: Whit and Donny McCoy's encounter with a bear back in the episode "Camp-What-A-Nut" is mentioned by the girls during the tent trip.
• Failed a Spot Check: During the canoeing competition in the second part, the boys are setback tremendously when they forget to untie their canoe from their dock. By the time they realize this, the girls are so far ahead that they can't catch up with them.
• For Want Of A Nail: Connie's decision to send Lucy home from camp ends up causing a chain reaction that becomes a great source of grief for the next several episodes — namely, Lucy being bitter in the aftermath and following Richard Maxwell's dishonest orders.
• Framing Device: The events of the episode are told in flashback as Connie writes a letter to her mother from camp.
• Horrible Camping Trip: The camping trip as a whole has some bumps in it, but isn't terrible. Now the girl's-only tent trip, on the other hand, is washed out by a sudden rainstorm and Lucy and Jill going missing.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Jill to Lucy. Jill convinces Lucy to leave the campsite to explore the area outside of it, leading to everyone panicking when they go missing. Even after this, Jill learns nothing and continues to pull Lucy into her little excursions. Jill's influence on Lucy can still be felt in Lucy's characterization up to "The Battle", when Lucy has a Jerkass Realization.
• Urban Legend: The first part concludes with Allison telling Donna and Robyn about an escaped circus sideshow creature called the Goatman that supposedly haunts the woods around Camp-What-A-Nut.
• Verbal Tic: The boys...whatcha-call-it camp counselor Fred Zachary has one.

Eugene's Dilemma

Eugene returns to Campbell County Community College after losing his job at Whit's End. Here, he befriends a child prodigy named Nicolas Adamsworth from the local orphanage who is attending the college as part of a program to see if very intelligent kids like himself can adjust to being in college. However, Nicolas's status at the college is put in jeopardy when Eugene discovers that Nicolas is being forced by his college counselor, Richard Maxwell, to change students' grades at the college. Eugene inadvertently makes things worse when he and Nicolas try to change the grades back and are caught. What will happen when Eugene faces the board of trustees at the college? (Among them being former employee Whit?)

• Child Prodigy: Nicolas Adamsworth.
• Forced into Evil: Nicolas is being forced to change the students' grades at the college under the threat of Richard giving a bad report on Nick that will send him back to the orphanage.
• Taking the Heat: Eugene takes the fall for Nicolas so Nicolas won't have to go back to the orphanage, even though it means Eugene could get arrested. In the end, Nicolas tells Whit everything anyway, and Eugene's willingness to sacrifice his career opportunities to save Nicolas's ultimately gets Eugene his job at Whit's End back.
• We Will Meet Again: At the end, after Richard has been fired for being behind the grade-changing, he implies that he will meet with Whit again very soon....
  Whit: Well, maybe things will get back to normal around here!
  Richard: (to himself) I wouldn't count on it Mr. Whitaker, I wouldn't count on it.

The Nemesis

The episode opens in a city council meeting over whether a business license should be given to a man named Dr. Regis Blackgaard, who wants to build a mysterious building known only as "Blackgaard's Castle". While everyone seems willing to give it to Regis, Whit and Tom Riley are left with the deciding votes, and they are uncertain whether the license should be given to Regis. As Tom and Whit will cause the license not to be granted to Regis if Tom says no, Regis feels that he needs to make sure that Tom and Whit are not at the meeting when the decision will be made...

Meanwhile, Connie returns from Camp-What-A-Nut to find Eugene with his job at Whit's End back and Lucy hanging out with Richard Maxwell. Lucy has come to resent Connie sending her home from camp and gets in an argument with Connie before leaving. In the meantime, Connie leaves Whit's End and Richard offers to get Connie a job at his new place, which just so happens to be Regis Blackgaard's mysterious new establishment. It turns out that Regis knows about Whit's mysterious "Applesauce" program and is trying to get Connie to tell him about it. Fortunately, Connie balks, and decides not to get the job at Blackgaard's Castle. After this, Regis and Blackgaard decide that Connie is key to getting Whit away from the final council meeting, and they still have their plan for Tom to be carried out.

Richard convinces Lucy to tell Connie that Whit wants to meet her, and vice versa. Whit goes to meet Connie, and, after hearing her story at Camp-What-A-Nut, decides that Connie has learned her lesson and shown enough emotional maturity to be re-hired at Whit's End. However, before they can do anything else, they spot smoke coming from the direction of Tom Riley's farm. Tom's barn is on fire! Whit and Connie rush to the farm and rescue Tom and his two horses, who became trapped inside. Whit and Tom have no idea who lit Tom's barn on fire, but it doesn't seem like it was an accident. Meanwhile, the city council meeting carries on without them, and Regis Blackgaard is awarded the license to build Blackgaard's castle.

• The Bad Guy Wins: Regis (and Richard) succeed in getting Whit and Tom away from the city council meeting, and Regis is awarded his building license.
• Heroic Fire Rescue: When Whit and Connie arrive at Tom's farm to discover that his barn is on fire with Tom and his horses inside, they rush to rescue them; getting them out before the roof falls in.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Honestly, a name like Regis Blackgaard just screams untrustworthiness, doesn't it?

Our Best Vacation Ever

Budgetary problems leave the Barclays unable to take a vacation for the summer while seemingly everyone else is able to. When George takes his problems to Whit, Whit comments to George that they don't necessarily need to have to leave town to be able to have fun around Odyssey. This gives George the idea to have a stay-at-home vacation, and the Barclays prepare to have their best vacation ever.

• Barn Raising: The Barclays' vacation is capped off with one of these at Tom Riley's farm.
• Breather Episode: This more light-hearted episode occurs after the more serious "A Bite of Applesauce" through "Nemesis" and before the outright Darker and Edgier "Battle". The whole "Applesauce-Blackgaard-Firing" plot has very little to do with the plot beyond the Barclays attending the barn-raising for Tom's new barn. (After his old one was burned down in the previous episode.)
• Continuity Nod: Tom is building a new barn after his old one burned down in "The Nemesis".
• Running Gag: The "Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod" gag is introduced here, when Whit runs out of letters for his menu-board at Whit's End and has to abbreviate some of the items, including that of the "World Famous Chocolate Soda".
• Vacation Episode: Played with. The Barclays don't have enough money to go on a grandiose vacation...so they just have a vacation in Odyssey instead!

The Battle

Regis Blackgaard has built and opened Blackgaard's Castle, a large arcade that many of the kids in town are visiting. Whit and Eugene visit the place to find a loud, untidy building where the games have no substance and kids are running around unsupervised and getting in fights. Lucy continues to hang out with Richard Maxwell, which concerns Whit and Eugene. Whit and Eugene leave, concerned that Blackgaard's Castle is being a bad influence on the kids.

But Blackgaard's Castle is simply a cover-up so Regis and Richard can do their dirty work, namely trying to get into Whit's mysterious "Applesauce" program and using Lucy to do so with their own highly sophisticated computer that runs Blackgaard's Castle. They have found out about the computer at Whit's End that runs the building which Applesauce is on. Hacking into Mabel via a computer modem at Whit's End, they run Applesauce, inducing a technical freak-out at Whit's End that drives everyone out of the building in the process, then try to get into Applesauce's second stage. However, a safeguard is in place that prevents them from getting the password that will enable to.

Meanwhile, Whit and Eugene arrive back at Whit's End to find the building dark and empty save for Connie, who tells them about Applesauce unexpectedly running again. As Whit and Eugene go to investigate, Lucy comes in, having been sent by Richard to glean more information about the computer and Applesauce from Whit. Connie tries to rekindle their friendship again (as Lucy is still sore at Connie for getting sent home from camp), but leaves when Connie tries to tell Lucy that hanging out with Richard may not be a good idea.

Returning to Blackgaard's Castle, Lucy goes to find Richard, only to overhear them as they are hacking Whit's computer and trying to get into Applesauce. Lucy realizes that Connie was right and hurries to warn Whit about what's going on. Meanwhile, Regis decides that they need to buy he and Richard some time to figure out what the password is. He tells Richard to drain the power from the Imagination Station then immediately send a power surge through the invention and possibly make it explode. Richard has reservations about this as someone (likely Whit) would be in there when it does, but Regis throws Richard out of the way and sends the surge himself. At that moment, Whit is indeed in the Imagination Station when Lucy rushes in, trying to warn Whit about what's going on. The power surge comes in, and while Whit is able to get away in time, Lucy is not. The Imagination Station explodes right into Lucy!

Fortunately, despite significant injuries, Lucy will be okay but has to be sedated for several hours. Whit is shaken up by the fact that one of his inventions hurt a child instead of helping them. He closes Whit's End until further notice until he can figure out what happened and how he can prevent it again.

Meanwhile, Richard finds out about Lucy's injuries via the newspaper and is enraged at Dr. Blackgaard because their actions sent Lucy to the hospital. Regis' flippant attitude towards Lucy and the fact that Richard actually cares about what happened to Lucy makes Richard angrier, and he threatens to blow the whistle on their plans. Blackgaard then informs Richard that no one will believe him. Defeated, Richard sets off to the hospital to make amends with Lucy. In the meantime, Whit and Eugene deduce why the accidents at Whit's End occurred, namely that Regis (with assistance from Richard) was trying to get to Applesauce, which Whit reveals the true nature of and why Blackgaard would want it. Before they can do anything further though, Connie tells them that Lucy has awoken and wants to speak to Whit.

At the hospital, Lucy has made amends with Connie over her behavior over the summer when Richard steps in. Richard tries to apologize for what he put her through, but Lucy calls him out for all that he did, including manipulating her into helping Regis get his hands on Applesauce. His friendship with Lucy gone and unable to bring himself to face Whit when he arrives at the hospital, Richard leaves and decides that it's time to take Blackgaard down. He returns to Blackgaard's Castle, claiming to have gotten the password into level two of Applesauce. They get back to Blackgaard's computer and Richard tells Blackgaard to enter the word "destruct". Blackgaard eagerly puts it in, only for every machine in Blackgaard's to go haywire. Richard reveals that he hacked into Blackgaard's Castle's computer and made it so entering the word "destruct" into the computer would cause a power surge to hit every machine in the building and burn it to the ground. Enraged, Blackgaard traps Richard under an arcade machine and escapes, leaving Richard to die. Fortunately, Whit, implied to have seen the building on fire, runs in and rescues Richard in the nick of time.

In the aftermath, Richard tells the police everything and is arrested off-screen. Whit deletes Applesauce, as while it may have been made with good intentions, it had been used for nothing but evil over the entire summer, driving Whit to erase it. Lucy will be able to leave the hospital soon, but will Whit's End ever be re-opened? Whit says yes, and as Connie and Eugene begin tidying up and preparing for re-opening, Whit thanks the Lord for getting them through a rough summer and prays that things will soon return to normal.

• Cat Scare: Lucy makes noise and is nearly caught eavesdropping on Blackgaard and Richard's hacking of Whit's computer...but fortunately Blackgaard finds his pet cat Sasha in the hallway and thinks she was the one making noise instead of Lucy.
• Darker and Edgier: While not enough to receive a content warning, this episode is considerably more violent and more perilous than usual episodes. The crowning moment being a Lucy being injured in the Imagination Station exploding.
• "Eureka!" Moment: When Whit and Eugene discover that the random system check and the Imagination Station exploding may have been from someone hacking into Mabel.
• Everyone Has Standards: Richard's good side begins to shine through in this episode. Despite manipulating Lucy into following he and Blackgaard's plans, he does actually care about her. He has reservations (and later outright refuses) to send the power surge to Whit's End out of concern that someone will get badly injured. Later, when he finds out their actions have sent Lucy to the hospital, he is pissed and calls out Dr. Blackgaard about it. When Blackgaard shows that he doesn't care and that Richard has lost Lucy's respect as a result of the plans he was a part of and roped her into, he engineers the downfall of Blackgaard's plans and establishment.
• Heroic BSoD: Whit after the Imagination Station explosion injures Lucy. This is the deciding factor in him closing down Whit's End until he can figure out what happened and how he can prevent further incidents like this from occurring. At one point, Whit even wonders if he should just abandon Whit's End because of this and past problems he's encountered since he first bought the building.
• Heroic Fire Rescue: Another one, this time with Whit rescuing a trapped Richard from Blackgaard's Castle as it goes up in flames.
• It's All My Fault: Lucy takes on this attitude following the explosion, believing that her own desires brought upon everything that happened to both herself and everyone she knows since the events of "Connie Goes to Camp". Connie breaks her out of it.
• Meaningful Echo: A line from "Eugene's Dilemma" becomes this when Whit and Eugene realize that someone is hacking into Whit's End.
  Whit: A hacker? Do you think someone is trying to break in from the outside?"
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Blackgaard telling Richard that he can, and will, throw Richard under the bus if he tries to stop Blackgaard is what partially fuels Richard's eventual back-stabbing of the doctor, the other being losing Lucy's respect.
• Right-Hand Cat: Regis' pet cat Sasha.
• Shadow Archetype: Blackgaard's Castle to Whit's End itself. Whereas Whit's End is a quiet place for kids with inventions and activities that stimulate their imagination, creativity, and relationships, Blackgaard's Castle is a loud arcade where the kids run around unsupervised and the activities there have no substance.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Richard calls Blackgaard out when Blackgaard writes off Lucy's injuries as merely a sacrifice that had to be made to further their plans.
  Richard: "Sacrifices"?!? Don't talk to me about sacrifices, I have lied for you, I have manipulated people for you, I'm trying to steal a computer program for you, I even burned down Tom Riley's barn for you! But when it comes to putting kids in the hospital, that goes too far, especially Lucy!
• Villain Has a Point: Blackgaard gets the last word in his and Richard's argument after Lucy is injured by pointing out that Richard can't blow the whistle on Blackgaard without revealing that Richard himself took part in it.
• Wham Episode: The episode gives some insight to the nature of the mysterious Applesauce program and it turns out that Blackgaard has been after the program for five years. It also puts the events of episode 19, "Recollections", in a whole new light as it turns out that Blackgaard was behind the development that Whit and his wife Jenny were going against in that episode.