Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited: Series 2 - Mrs. Hare

Mrs. Hare’s death had been set-up from the very first episode of Series 2, when the hares, having already settled in a spot that was to their liking, declined to go with the others to live upon Farthing Land.  Surely this had to backfire in some way?

In fairness, Scarface was always quite happy to break the rules of Farthing Land when no one was looking, so maybe it wouldn’t have worked out for the hares either way.  Nevertheless, it did make it difficult for Fox to take any kind of overt action against Scarface for Mrs. Hare’s death – while there was no doubt in Fox’s mind that Scarface had done it purely to spite him, the fact remained that, technically, Scarface was within his rights on this one.

HORROR FACTOR: 10.  The animation in this particular scene is really bad for some reason, although that actually ends up working both ways.  On the one hand, the face Mr. Hare pulls when he sees his wife struggling in Scarface's jaws is cartoonishly goofy, but the off-model rendering of Mrs. Hare does make her terror and desperation seem all the more convincing.  Although somewhat similar in execution to Mrs. Vole's death, this one always struck me as being a heck of a lot nastier for the fact that, unlike Mrs. Vole, we never actually see Mrs. Hare die onscreen - she's still alive at the moment that Scarface runs off with her.  Horrifying.

NOBILITY FACTOR: 3. Scarface technically did nothing out of bounds on this particular occasion, so you could argue that this was really no more than business as usual within the everyday predator-prey cycle of White Deer Park.  Still, one is inclined to agree with Fox's suspicions that Scarface's primary motivation was simply to send another round of acid his way.

TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 5. The sight of Hare holding his two leverets close, utterly powerless to do anything to save their mother, is certainly an affecting one.  Although I do have admit that it’s somewhat mitigated by the ghost of a long-dead Mr. Pheasant lurking nearby and crying “Karma!” for the manner in which Hare mocked and belittled him after the loss of his own mate.

RATING: 18