Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited: Series 2 - Bounder

After Dreamer and Mrs. Hare’s deaths, Fox resolves to play Scarface at his own game and bump him off using stealth tactics, so he brings in a hired assassin in the form of Adder.  Weasel and Measly (Weasel's new mate) are tasked with delivering to her the message that, “whoever rids me of the blue fox will be doing me a favour”.  Unfortunately, the weasels’ delivery of the message is a little slipshod, and Adder ends up thinking that she’s being asked to kill off any random member of Scarface’s clan.  So she lies low and delivers a fatal bite to the very first blue fox who happens to pass her by – and that unlucky fox happens to be Bounder, one of Scarface’s sons.

We don't see first-hand how Scarface receives the news (beyond a very brief reaction shot to the sounds of Bounder screaming) but it's probably safe to assume that the loss of yet another son comes as a massive blow to him (from this point onward Ranger appears to be the only son that he has left, or at least the only one who's ever brought up in relation to the plot).  When word of the bungled assassination reaches the Farthing clan, they are properly horrified, fearing that reprisals from Scarface will be coming very shortly.  Charmer, Fox and Vixen’s surviving daughter, is also horrified, albeit coming from a different angle to the others – she’s more concerned about the identity of the blue fox that Adder did kill (only Vixen is able to pick up on the significance of this).

Side note: given that Weasel and Measly had saved Fox and Friendly’s lives in episode 7, I was frankly always disappointed at how quick the Farthing animals were to assume, a mere episode later, that they had given Adder the wrong message maliciously.  I mean, Weasel had repeatedly demonstrated her loyalty to the Farthing animals during the first half of the series - she'd refused to spy on Fox during the winter, despite being severely threatened by Scarface, AND she'd tried to warn Vixen and the red fox cubs about Scarface lurking nearby in the bushes - so her allegiance really shouldn't have been open to question at this point.  There's no denying that Weasel has a particularly rough time of it in Series 2, and the fact that her so-called friends are always so eager to accuse her of treachery doesn't help in that regard.

HORROR FACTOR: 9.  Dear god, that is one unpleasant noise that Bounder makes when Adder delivers her fatal strike.  It's not a particularly graphic death, but the brief glimpse we get of Bounder staggering feebly away, struggling just to lift his body off the ground, leaves no doubt as to the horror of his situation.

NOBILITY FACTOR: 5. Purely unintentional, but he bought his father extra time by dying in his place.  Which wasn’t a good thing from the Farthing Wood menagerie’s perspective, mind.

TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 1. Who was Bounder?  We never find out.  All that matters is that he wasn’t Scarface (unfortunately for the Farthing animals) or Ranger (fortunately for Charmer).

RATING: 15