Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited: Series 2 - Mrs. Rabbit

It's been a while since I last covered one of these.  We're actually nearing the end of this particular retrospective (as stated, I do not intend to cover Series 3), so I've been purposely looking to spread out the last remaining entries a bit.

We've reached the final episode of Series 2, and we've actually gone for quite a significant stretch of time in which no character deaths have occurred (two whole episodes, which frankly says something about the kind of mortality rate we've been experiencing for Series 2).  Episode 13 compensates for this by managing to pack in no less three more deaths before the series is through.  There are a whole lot of loose ends to be tied up here, and by now it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that two of the major character arcs are going to result in the deaths of the characters in question.  But before we get to those, we haven't killed off a random Missus in a long, long time (four whole episodes in fact), and there are at least three of them left standing, so let's all tip our hats to what appears to have been a bizarre tradition for this particular series for the very last time.

Episode 12 climaxes with the long-awaited showdown between Fox and Scarface.  Despite Scarface getting an early lead, it is Fox who finally emerges as the victor – but of course, he cannot actually kill Scarface because that would make him no better than he.  Ultimately, Fox has to take the higher moral ground and let Scarface go, and while Fox is able to preserve his integrity in doing so, it comes at a cost to Mrs. Rabbit.  Once Scarface has recovered from his battle injuries, he falls back into his old habits of stalking the outskirts of Farthing land in search of easy prey.  It seems that Scarface has long since crossed the point from which he could have backed down from the conflict with Fox, and that he now intends to carry on with his vendetta with the Farthing animals until it leads, inevitably, to his destruction (which won't be very far from now).

Now, Mrs. Rabbit was something of an iconic character, at least as far as the supporting characters went - she was considered important enough to get her own plastic figure among a series of Farthing Wood toys manufactured by Hornby (no other minor character received this honour), and her whole "Don't panic!" shtick (as totally unoriginal as it was - see Clive Dunn's character from Dad's Army) was frequently quoted and referenced by fans of the series.  The Farthing Wood Friends tie-in magazine also featured her quite prominently, in always including an image of her and her catchphrase above the bit where they told you how to order back issues. So I was frankly rather surprised to see her killed off in as abrupt a fashion as this.  But kill her off they did.

HORROR FACTOR: 6.  The execution here is more or less identical to Mrs. Vole’s death, only Mrs. Rabbit goes down a lot more noisily than did Mrs. Vole.  Hearing her cry out for help might make this death seem more horrific to some, although in my view it was a little ill-judged for them to slip in one final "Don't panic!" before Scarface dashes off with her.  On the one hand, it seems only appropriate that those should be her final words - it has, after all, been her character's running gag.  On the other, she says it right after Scarface looks to have already broken her neck, which makes the line seem awkwardly pasted on and, consequently, robs the moment of a lot of its potential horror.  Maybe I’m just getting tired of this particular manner of death, and of the fact that Series 2 had such a transparent and totally inexplicable preference for killing off the female supporting characters (even when, as was the case with the Rabbits, the female was clearly the more popular of the pairing).  Honestly, it vexed me as a nine year old and it still vexes me today.

NOBILITY FACTOR: 1. This death is a drag through and through, its sole purpose being to demonstrate that Scarface is beyond redemption.  It does at least lead onto one of my all-time favourite Owlisms - "Even a fool can be wise after the event.  But can he then be called wise?"

TEAR-JERKER FACTOR: 4. Not really played for tears, although the shots of Mr. Rabbit fretting and later mourning for his wife are enough to drive home a sense of what a loss this is for the rabbits.

RATING: 11