I noted that the last three Farthing Wood deaths I covered back in November all involved extremely minor characters - that is, animals who were trotted on screen purely for the purpose of having them die less than two seconds later. This death, however, was right at the opposite end of the spectrum, as it marked the very first time that a major character had been killed off within the show. Series 1 initially had eight characters whom I would regard as being "major" players - Fox, Badger, Owl, Weasel, Mole, Toad, Adder and Kestrel - with Vixen and Whistler joining that list toward the end. Deaths in Series 1 were reserved strictly for members of the supporting cast, but here's where that particular barrier came crashing down and the original eight lost one of their ranks.
In fairness, Mole's prominence in the series had already been on the wane since Series 2 - he'd had a decent-sized role in an earlier arc involving Badger's disappearance, but once that had concluded he was barely seen at all. He largely kept his nose out of the poacher arc, but what little we did see of him revealed that he'd shacked up with a female mole of half his age (well, it's implied).
Badger, who had been very close to Mole in Series 1, is concerned when the thaw arrives and Mole remains unaccounted for. Fox begins to suspect that Mole didn't make it through the harsh winter months, but is reluctant to raise the possibility with Badger. Come the spring, when Fox and Vixen's attentions have turned to bringing up their own litter of cubs, they are visited by the female mole, who delivers the sad news - Mole died in his sleep during the winter. He didn't depart without spreading his seed a little though - the female mole (her official name is Mateless, but I personally think that's a bit cruel) is accompanied by two youngsters, one of whom will never be seen again (making me wonder why they bothered to include her at all) and the other of whom, Mossy, is the spitting image of his father, and primed to succeed him as Farthing Land's resident mole. So yes, despite killing Mole off, he wasn't truly being axed from the series, as his son, who looked and sounded exactly like him, would effectively be filling the void. Mossy doesn't quite have the same personality as his father (whereas Mole was sensitive and soft-hearted, Mossy tended to show annoyance more frequently) but he served much the same purpose.
Readers of the original Colin Dann novels may have anticipated this death at some point, but odds are that this development would still have caught them off-guard, as Mole's literary counterpart died a lot later on in the Farthing Wood timeline (after the Scarface arc had concluded). I suspect that his death was shuffled forward in anticipation of another major character death that would be happening quite shortly down the road, one which had no basis in any of Dann's novels and represented rather a bold liberty on the part of the TV series. But we're getting ahead of ourselves there.
HORROR FACTOR: 5. An off-screen death and implied to be one of the more peaceful in the Farthing Wood canon. The "horror" here relates to the pure shock of learning that one of the major characters had died, which, despite some foreshadowing in the previous episode, still packs quite a heavy blow.
NOBILITY FACTOR: 10. It was cold and Mole was old. His time had simply come.
TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 10. You know what makes this death particularly heart-breaking? Badger's reaction. He isn't around when Mateless makes her formal announcement about his old friend's passing, but when he later shows up and Vixen tries to break the news to him, he retreats sharply into denial. When, subsequently, he encounters Mossy, he takes him for Mole and refuses to hear otherwise, to the extent that Vixen convinces the reluctant Mossy to play along in order to spare Badger's feelings. As a kid, I recall being rather frustrated with Badger's behaviour here, as his obstinacy on this matter seemed very out-of-character, but now that I'm older I have a different perspective. It's evident that Badger knew along that Mossy wasn't really Mole, he just wasn't prepared to look the matter straight in the face. Perhaps it can also be attributed to a slight onset of senility - much like Mole, Badger was getting on in years.
RATING: 25
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