| The Bone Identity | Gallery | Transcript |
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”The Bone Identity” is the twenty-second segment of the second season and the sixty-first segment of The Mighty B! that aired on November 30, 2010.
Summary
Happy receives a package and it contains a photo of his missing ear, resulting in his secret past being revealed.
Plot
Bessie and Happy are playing "Bite Club" (biting food and a table). Bessie tells Happy to bite her arm next, but he refuses as he does not bite women or children. Just then, a package addressed to Happy is delivered on the doorstep. Upon opening it, Happy closes all the curtains.
Curious, Bessie reads the note that came with the package, which also has a picture of Happy's torn ear. As Happy pretends to nap, Bessie doesn't understand why Happy isn't at all interested in getting his ear back. After Bessie leaves the room, Happy proceeds to eat the note and uses Identity B*gone to remove his belongings and pictures from existence. However, he hesitates to erase a picture of him and Bessie. As he hears Bessie nearby, Happy escapes through the dog door.
Bessie, noticing Happy's belongings are gone, runs after him. Happy does his best to ignore her while Bessie tries to catch up to Happy. Eventually, Bessie gives up and returns home. After stepping in Happy's droppings, she rearranges the shredded paper to reveal the note from earlier. Reading it, Bessie believes Happy simply lost his ear at Doggie Stylz Groomers in a haircut accident, and believes it explains his strange behavior.
Now at the Doggie Stylz Groomers, Bessie meets a woman with red hair. The lady states she was expecting Happy, but notes Bessie will be a good substitute. Bessie sees Happy's ear being used as a necklace by the woman, and shortly after the lady blows a dog whistle, causing the previously docile dogs to turn into muscular attack dogs.
She introduces herself as K.G. Bianca, the owner of S.H.A.D.O.W. (Seriously Hardcore Attack Dogs Operating Worldwide). K.G. states Happy was her best agent at the organization, under the name Agent Stray. She trained Happy to bite others, and claimed he was the greatest bite dog she ever had. On his final mission, an explosion occurred, and all that seemingly remained of Happy was his torn ear, as Happy had faked his death. K.G. and the dogs fell for it at first, but quickly realized they had been tricked.
Back in the present, K.G. yells that she wants Happy back. She asks Bessie to tell her everything the girl knows about Happy. Obliging, Bessie proceeds to talk about how she and Happy met in the very first episode. Meanwhile, Happy is gazing at the sky and remembering his time as a S.H.A.D.O.W. agent. In another flashback, K.G. instructs Happy to bite a certain girl scout: his future owner Bessie. Happy states he cannot bite women or children, but K.G. insists that he go through with this mission, lest she say "the word."
It is shown how Happy staged his death: he built a dummy likeness of Bessie, ripped his right ear off and used a nearly identical warehouse to crush the real one, simulating the explosion. Happy is shown driving off in a motorcycle. Now in the present, Happy looks at the picture of him and Bessie together from earlier, but ultimately throws it on the ground.
At S.H.A.D.O.W., Bessie is still recounting the events of the first episode, but realizes K.G. and the dogs have fallen asleep due to boredom. Bessie takes this opportunity to steal K.G.'s necklace. Bessie escapes as quietly as possible, and nearly succeeds, until everyone wakes up just as she is about to leave.
With K.G. and the dogs hot on her trail, Bessie runs as fast as possible, before meeting a dead end. Just when it seems Bessie is done for, Happy comes to the rescue and uses parkour to escape. This works, that is until hitting a nearby pelican causes Bessie and Happy to fall on the ground.
K.G. states to Happy, "We meet again, Agent Stray. Or, do you prefer Happy?" Happy insists on being called the name Bessie gave him, but K.G. still calls him Agent Stray anyway. She demands Happy finish what he started, with Bessie confused on what K.G. is talking about. K.G. explains the Nougat Lobby hired Happy to bite Bessie because of her taffy selling outdoing the nougat sales.
As Happy still refuses to bite Bessie, K.G. once again warns him of "the word." Bessie wonders aloud what it could be, but gets her answer when K.G. says "Pavlov." Just then, Happy's eyes start glowing red and he begins snarling at Bessie. Bessie shows Happy her BFFAEAE (best friends forever and ever and ever) tattoo in hopes it will snap Happy out of it. He does hesitate, but ultimately Happy bites Bessie, to K.G.'s joy.
K.G. proceeds to welcome Happy back to S.H.A.D.O.W., but upon seeing balloon replicas of Happy biting Bessie, realizes she's been tricked by Happy once more. Bessie and Happy are shown speeding away on a boat, hugging each other. Now on the Golden Gate Bridge, Bessie shows Happy she saved his torn ear from the encounter. After looking at it for a couple seconds, Happy ultimately decides to throw it into the ocean. As Bessie and Happy leave to go home, the ear is shown floating down into the ocean, when a mysterious dog's paw is seen catching it.
Cast
| Voice actor | Roles |
|---|---|
| Amy Poehler | Bessie |
| Dee Bradley Baker | Happy, Dogs & Computer |
| Grey DeLisle | K.G. Bianca |
Trivia
General
- Happy's balloon animal skills from "Super Secret Weakness" are utilized in this episode.
- K.G. Bianca claims Happy is a black belt in jujitsu and Krav Maga.
- Bessie states it was 78 degrees when she met Happy in "So Happy Together."
- Happy can speak twelve languages, including: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Swahili and even Pomeranian.
- K.G. states she trained Happy for 48 dog years.
- Bessie and Happy's second day together started out with smoothies.
- K.G. yells out the word "babushka" (Russian for grandmother).
- Happy claims to be allergic to kiwis, but Bessie believes he just doesn't like the taste of the fruit.
- It is not known who the dog snatching Happy's torn ear is; it is probable their identity would have been revealed had the series lasted longer.
Cultural references
- The episode's title is a reference to the film The Bourne Identity. Even the episode's title card is modeled after the movie's poster.[2]
- It is likely "Bite Club" is a pun on the 1999 film Fight Club.
- The name of S.H.A.D.O.W.'s grooming service, Doggie Stylz Groomers, is referencing the sex position doggy style.
- Two dogs at Doggie Stylz bear striking resemblances to cartoon dogs Mister Peabody and Scooby-Doo.
- The word "Pavlov" is referencing Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, known for his work with dogs.
Production information
- Through email correspondence with a crew member, John Paul Cassidy confirmed this episode was nearly shelved due to Nickelodeon executives viewing the plot as too similar to fellow Nicktoon T.U.F.F. Puppy. Mighty B! crew members fought hard to keep the episode in production, and it was ultimately produced.[3]
References
- ↑ tuesday, november 30, 2010. The Futon Critic. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- ↑ Rauch Bros. Animation (November 30, 2011). The Mighty B! - "The Bone Identity" (2010). Tumblr. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
- ↑ Cassidy, John Paul (January 4, 2021). "@NoConTheMightyB And just think: This episode almost didn't get made! (Nickelodeon thought it was too close in genre to Butch Hartman's T.U.F.F. PUPPY.) The crew of the series fought tooth and nail to get this episode made. I prefer it over T.U.F.F. PUPPY a zillion times. :)". Twitter. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
External links
- Production drawings, courtesy of Miles Thompson
