7 Of My Favorite Courage The Cowardly Dog Episodes

7) The Demon In The Mattress

In this episode, Muriel is sick of sleeping on the old, uncomfortable mattress, so she calls a sketchy salesperson to get a new one. Afterwards, two scary-looking characters deliver it to the house, one of them scaring Courage with unfriendly hisses and glares. Once the mattress was set up, Muriel immediately takes a nap on it. Being the cautious dog that he is, Courage checks to see if everything is okay, but to his horror, he discovers Muriel being possessed by a demon that was in the mattress. With Muriel, along with the whole room, presenting a green and chilling atmosphere, Courage tries to find ways to exorcise her, from challenging the demon to a thumb war to getting Eustace to chant a weird incantation while wearing Muriel's sleepwear, this being the funniest part of the episode so far due to the results. Once Courage does the incantation himself, Muriel is successfully exorcised but the demon ends up possessing Eustace. Unsatisfied with the mattress, Muriel has it returned with a possessed Eustace still restrained in it. It goes to show that the series has that genuine mix of horror and comedy.

6) Night Of The Weremole

With Muriel just planting and collecting Carrots that she grew during a pleasant night, she ends up getting bitten by a "weremole" and the jump scare that came with it when the creature plunges out of a hole was just spectacular. This leads to Muriel having to go to the doctor with a swollen hand, only to hear that it was nothing serious. However, one night during the full moon, Courage finds Muriel in a feral and inhuman state, leaving him so terrified and shocked that he ends up getting a heart attack and is hospitalized. Quickly recovered, he takes the doctor to the farm so he can see what's wrong with her, only provoking her transformation further. It's one of the many moments Courage, despite of his timid demeanor, would go to great lengths to protect Muriel from a terrible fate. While Eustace tries to hit his weremole wife with a big mallet in a hilarious, unintentional game of whac-a-mole, Courage goes face-to-face with the weremole to pluck out of strand of his fur instructed by his sarcastic computer. He comes to Eustace's rescue only for the farmer to hate on the poor dog as usual. Muriel turns back to normal, but Eustace gets bitten and dragged away by the doctor who is now a weremole, much to Courage's shock. Note that Eustace is often the one that ends up with well-deserved bad luck by the end of an episode, which is always satisfying to see.

5) The Tower Of Dr. Zalost

After the mayor refuses to pay him, the townspeople of nowhere turn to depressed zombies when they get hit by cannonballs made by the sinister Dr. Zalost, a bitter man who will not allow anyone to be happy as long as he is not. Muriel and Courage are in the kitchen making happy plums, while Eustace is whining. When Dr. Zalost comes over to the farm with his moving tower, he hits Muriel and Eustace with his cannonballs. Though it did not have any effect on Eustace (considering that he is already pitiful), Muriel becomes an empty, depressed version of herself. Courage goes after Dr. Zalost and sneaks into his tower with Eustace's help and ends up finding a vat of green lector that gives the cannonballs the effect. He gets caught by Dr. Zalost's rat assistant who goes into literal beast mode when he is hit by a cannonball himself, until Courage feeds him happy plums that turns him into an infant. Dr. Z finds him and has him defenseless, but the dog drops more happy plums into the vat, causing a powerful reaction to make the tower fall apart. Angered by what Courage has done, he chases after him. However, after finding happy plums that Muriel was preparing earlier in the kitchen and eating them, he suddenly turns into a more calm and cheerful man, someone who he always wanted to be.

4) The House Of Discontent

When the main trio is trying to grow plants to find no valued results, Eustace becomes frustrated, saying nothing grows in the farm and nothing ever will before stomping on an already dead plant and blaming the soil. This shows one of Eustace's flaws, aside from his constant ridicule and mistreatment against Courage, he is stubborn. Later on, they are visited by a spirit in the form of a floating somewhat realistic talking head that would be considered nightmare fuel, I mean forget King Ramses, the harvest moon ghost takes the cake. The spirit gives Eustace until midnight to grow something, if he fails, they will have to leave the farm for good, but he refuses, much to Muriel's frustration. Courage tries to find a way to bring a flower to life, while Eustace is arguing with his wife AND having the audacity to pick a petty fight with the nightmarish being threatening their lives, denying the fact that he is stubborn and "not a farmer". With time running and Eustace and Muriel suffering from heat strokes, Courage brings the flower to them and it suddenly comes to life from coming into contact with Eustace's sweat. The ghost is satisfied with the results and allows them to continue living in the farm, he disappears never to be seen again.

3) A Night At The Katz Motel

Being the first episode in the first season, this is where we are introduced to one of the series' recurring villains, Katz. Katz is a cool but dog-hating cat. In this episode, the family is on vacation, they meet Katz who immediately tells them that dogs are not allowed, causing them to leave the Courage alone outside the entrance. Afterwards, they are attacked by giant spiders that are hungry for flesh, they are so ferocious that it will remind you of the movie Arachnophobia (1990). It is revealed that Katz is a deranged psychopath that feeds the motel's tenants to his pet spiders. After almost being attacked by one of them, Courage hears Muriel's scream and finds her being attacked by another spider in the bathtub and Eustace is heavily sleeping. Unable to find Katz for help, he stumbles upon a room and finds a giant spider web with a sleeping Eustace trapped in it, about to get eaten. He smashes the spider with a wooden plank and saves Eustace. As he is about to leave with him, Katz finds him and closes the door behind him. In a panic, Courage throws Eustace at him and immediately finds a room to hide in, only to find jars containing terrifying spiders. He runs out and ends up in a dead end with Katz having him cornered. Katz challenges Courage to a sport game. Getting exhausted, Courage is defenseless and Katz grabs him by the throat while he is about to feed him to a spider. However, Muriel saves him by hitting Katz in the head with a tennis racket. What makes this hilarious is that she says she wants leave all because the motel service is terrible.

2) Perfect

After Eustace cruelly criticizes him for messing up, Courage begins to suffer from low self-esteem. All of that negativity takes the form of a strange woman who is a strict teacher. When Courage is trying help Muriel in the kitchen, she starts showing up. The woman does whatever she can to make Courage do everything he does “perfectly”, which starts to cause him stress. The whole thing starts to affect Courage’s mental health, starting with his frequent nightmares while trying to have a good night’s rest, each one more upsetting than the last. One specifically with a blue embryo-like creature, saying “you’re not perfect”, is what really set him off. After hearing the wise words of a talking fish swimming in the bathtub, Courage is determined to do his lessons in his own unique way, which drives the teacher on edge, and she melts away like the wicked witch from the wizard of Oz. The episode ends with a positive note with Courage being more comfortable of who he is, bringing a satisfying finale to the series.

1) The Mask

This episode was pretty bold when it came to certain depictions. You know when kids’ shows deal with certain issues, depicting things that are reflecting or are similar to what happens in the real world. While Courage the Cowardly Dog has had it’s scary and suspenseful moments, this episode takes things into a realistic level, no ghosts, no monsters, no aliens, not even the average Snidely Whiplash-type of villain. This episode had depicted with two topics: domestic violence and same-sex relationships. A strange woman named Kitty, all in white and wearing a mask, shows up to the farm and just starts attacking Courage for no reason. Muriel, being so oblivious to this, invites her over for lunch. As she sits down with everyone in the table, Kitty tells them she is from “the wrong side of the tracks”, and that her best friend named Bunny, who she loves and cherishes, fell in love with a ruthless gangster named Mad Dog. Knowing that he is toxic towards her, she tries to get Bunny away from him. Unfortunately, he threatens to kill Kitty and chases her out of town. While she is telling her story, she shows more prejudice against dogs when describing Mad Dog, which explains why she assaults Courage at every chance she gets. She even starts to make Eustace and Muriel insecure when she suddenly brings up their embarrassing secrets. When she stays in for the night, Courage notices her carrying a little toy mouse that was a gift from Bunny and when he sees her take off her mask, he goes into a panic and locks the door so she won't get out, worried that she might hurt Eustace and Muriel. When he voices his concerns to the couple, Muriel simply tells him to try to understand where Kitty is coming from, but it doesn't make him feel better. So, he goes on his own mission. He locks Eustace and Muriel in their room, steals Kitty's toy mouse and takes Eustace's truck to find help. Waking up to find her mouse missing, Kitty goes into a fit of rage, with Eustace and Muriel trying to get out of their room. When Courage meets a guy named Charlie who knows Kitty and Bunny, he states that Mad Dog didn't like them being "so friendly-like" and that he is "one nasty piece of jealousy", which may imply that Kitty and Bunny are more than friends. After Charlie tells him where Mad Dog is, Courage goes to his location. He is petrified once he sees Mad Dog and his lackies, along with Bunny. This is where we see the ordeal that Bunny faces; being trapped in an abusive relationship. Realizing that she still misses Kitty, Mad Dog threatens her that if Kitty is anywhere near, he will bury them both. When Bunny tries to escape, Mad Dog's underlings stop her from leaving, causing a struggle. Courage witnesses all of this, making him even more anxious. Finding Bunny in a room buried up to neck in a giant flower pot, Courage gets her out right after fighting the underlings. They run away from Mad Dog, who is chasing them in his car. When he gives the toy mouse to Bunny and directs her to run the other way, Courage breaks into his car and they fight over the wheel, causing them to swerve onto the tracks with a train approaching. Courage jumps out of the car, leaving Mad Dog to almost die. After Bunny thanks him for saving her, She sees Kitty on the train and she runs after her, Kitty grabs her hand and helps her jump on board. Happily reunited, Kitty thanks Courage for everything he has done.