Last night's party sure was rough.
After being offered a lot of money, Doc allows a group of engineers to use the caves underneath the workshop as a waste-disposal site. This poisons the Fraggles' and Gorgs' water supply. Boober, the only one not infected, goes to the hole to Outer Space and pleads for the ceasing of the water contamination, not knowing Doc and Sprocket have stepped out for a while. Thinking the Fraggles made Doc angry by taking the postcards from Uncle Matt, Boober leaves all the postcards for him. Realizing that there are creatures of some sort living underground, Doc cancels the contract, returns the postcards, and arranges for fresh spring water to be poured underground, flushing out the poison and restoring the water supply of the Gorgs and the Fraggles.This episode contains examples of:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Boober gets down on his knees and does this in the hole to Doc's workshop, not realizing no one's there.Boober: On behalf of the Fraggles and the Gorgs, I hereby beg you to stop contaminating our water. I'm on my knees, begging for that right now. Okay? Oh, please, please stop poisoning us! We're just helpless little creatures who mean you no harm. We don't wanna die. I've... I've tried to think about why you want to hurt us, but it doesn't make any sense. We've never done anything to you, have we? [A Beat.] Taken anything from you?
- Cassandra Truth: Sprocket tries to warn Doc not to use the caverns beneath the workshop for waste disposal. Doc refuses to believe him... until he sees the postcards.
- Cool, Clear Water: Subverted. All the Fraggles but Boober swim in the Fraggle Pond, seeing as how the water looks fine. Only Boober, noticing a strange smell, stays out of the water. He winds up being the only one who doesn't get sick.
- Cowardly Lion: Boober, overcoming his fear of Outer Space to plead for the ceasing of the water contamination.
- Credits Montage: The episode ends with the Fraggles singing "We're Part of Each Other," then changes to the Gorgs drinking water, then Doc and Sprocket returning the postcards, then back to the Fraggles as the credits play.
- Crisis Catch-and-Carry: Mokey carries Red when she faints, and Gobo does the same for Wembley.
- Fainting: This happens to Red and Wembley when they get throat rot.
- Friendly Enemy: Boober, after a talk with the Gorgs, agrees to go to Outer Space and ask the Silly Creatures to stop poisoning the water.
- Green Aesop: Don't poison the environment.
- Healing Factor: Once fresh water is poured down the hole, the Fraggles regain their health instantaneously.
- Heat Wave: A heat wave dries up the pond. Per Uncle Matt's suggestion, the Fraggles fetch water from Waterwheel Cavern to top off the pond, not realizing all the water has been poisoned.
- Ill-Fated Flowerbed: Or radish patch. The contaminated water causes the Gorgs' radishes to shrivel and rot.
- Instant Illness: All the Fraggles but Boober swim in the contaminated pond. Within minutes, every Fraggle but Boober has throat rot.
- Kneel Before Zod: Boober does this in the hole to Outer Space, not knowing the workshop is empty.
- Lap Pillow: At one point, after the Fraggles have gotten sick, Wembley is lying with his head in Mokey's lap.
- Lost Voice Plot: Downplayed and justified. After getting throat rot, Boober's friends can still talk, but their voices are hoarse.
- Melancholy Musical Number: Boober, after pleading for an end to the contamination of the water, goes back to the Rock and sings "It Makes You Cry", about the fear of saying "the long goodbye."
- Musical Chores: The Fraggles sing "River Roll On" while fetching water from Waterwheel Cavern.
- Must Make Amends: After realizing that there's life down there, Doc not only cancels the contract but arranges for fresh water to be poured underground.
- The Nose Knows: At the beginning of the episode, Boober detects a strange odor, which the others don't notice. Later, he smells it again when his friends are about to swim. This alerts him to the fact that the water is contaminated.Boober: [sniffing] Huh? What's that smell?
Mokey: What?
[Red and Mokey sniff as well.]
Mokey: Gee, I don't smell anything. Do you, Red?
Red: No.
Boober: Well, it's kind of a tiny odor, with a bitter sort of edge. It's very weird. - The Only One: Boober is the only Fraggle who hasn't been infected and can reach Outer Space.
- Plank Gag: A Fraggle carrying a pole with a bucket on either end accidentally knocks Matt down with one of the buckets.
- Sexual Euphemism: Early on, Pa tells Junior that he and Ma are going to frolic in the creek.Ma: Cooling the ankles cools the mind!
Junior: Oh, well, my ankles could use some cooling, too. I'll come along!
Pa: [quickly] Uh, no! No, no! Not... not until you finish watering the garden. - Sick Episode: Every Fraggle except Boober gets throat rot from the contaminated water.
- Title Drop:The Trash Heap: If there's a problem with the river of life, it gets passed along, and everybody suffers!
- Triumphant Reprise: At the end, over the credits, the Fraggles sing "We're Part of Each Other", a triumphant, upbeat version of "It Makes You Cry".
- Water Source Tampering: The engineers poison the Fraggles' and Gorgs' water supply, though unintentionally, since they don't know about the Fraggles or the Gorgs. They think they're just disposing of waste, and they tell Doc that what they're doing is perfectly safe.
- Wham Episode: In addition to being one of the darkest episodes of the show, this is the first episode where Doc, after four seasons of cheerful ignorance of their existence, starts to realize there's something in the odd hole in the workshop.
- The X of Y: The episode's title.
- You Are Too Late: Boober, on realizing the water is contaminated, runs toward the other Fraggles to warn them to stay out of the pond. By the time, he gets there, though, they're already swimming.
