Back in 2001, I was an intern at Nickelodeon Studios who watched episodes of the show SpongeBob SquarePants before they were aired. But there was one episode in particular that was completed in 1995, but nobody at Nickelodeon saw it, and it was never aired on television. It was a VHS tape named "SpongeBob SquarePants - Episode 0". After previewing the episode "Band Geeks", I took this mysterious tape home and watched it without anyone else's consent.
The tape started with the theme song, as usual. However, it sounded lower pitched and everything was red and black. Painty the Pirate looked extremely creepy, and the kids didn't respond to him. After that, it cut to the episode. There was no title card.
The episode began with SpongeBob going to work. Like the theme song, everything was red and black. The audio track playing in the background sounded distorted and was full of static. SpongeBob looked very miserable, rather than his usual enthusiastic self.
When SpongeBob arrived at the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs and Squidward were nowhere to be seen. There were no customers. At the sight of this, SpongeBob began to cry. This wasn't the usual cartoon crying you would typically hear. Instead, this sounded like the voice actor was actually crying during the episode.
SpongeBob walked into the kitchen, and saw Mr. Krabs's dead body on the grill. His shell and eyes were pulled out, and he was bleeding all over the place. SpongeBob cried even more. Then he walked into Mr. Krabs's office, where he saw Squidward's bleeding corpse lying on the ground. SpongeBob cried even harder. He ran out of the Krusty Krab in tears.
All of the Bikini Bottomites and every main character on the show were also dead, making SpongeBob the only living resident left. He saw this, and said, "Oh dear. It's too late now. I guess it's time for me to die, too." He pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head. The screen faded to black after this scene.
Then, a bird's eye view of Bikini Bottom was shown. Everybody was lying on the ground, dead and bleeding everywhere. Every building was destroyed. The ocean was a bloody red color. The view lasted for about thirty seconds before fading to black again.
It cut to a distorted, red and black image of a SpongeBob toy. The music box from the end of Suicidemouse.avi was playing in the background. This scene lasted for twenty-seven seconds before cutting to black. The VHS tape ejected itself.
After I watched it a second time to take a couple of screenshots, I smashed it with a sledgehammer and never watched it again. The next day, I never told any of my other fellow interns about Episode 0, neither did I think about it again. Thankfully, I was safe from that demented tape for the rest of my life. And after I quit my job in 2004, I realized that all of the lost tapes in the boxes had to be watched and destroyed by just one intern at the studio.