I always thought that Wabbit was a big step up from the other Looney Tunes reboots, like Loonatics Unleashed and The Looney Tunes Show. However, it only lasted long enough for me to get into it enough before it got suddenly canceled here in the US.
As disappointed as I was, months later, I decided to go online to watch some episodes.
I had an account on a torrent website where people could manage to upload things that went well past the copyright laws that YouTube and Vimeo are bombarded with. I thought that someone would have some episodes. When I typed in "wabbit," there was only one result. It read "OTHER NON-US WABBIT EPISODES." Intrigued by the "non-US" part, I clicked on it.
The description that preceded the torrent download was a strange one. It read:
"What up doc? Wabbit new episode here along with special lost one never seen anywhere else. Do not watch or you die."
I passed this off as some bull crap. Little did I know that this terribly written message was serious.
I started the download. It took a really long time, with about 2 GB of my hard drive gone. Seeing as I would probably frack up my system if I used uTorrent on it right then, I put a blank SD card in and then transferred the torrent to my SD card.
The result was great. I got what seemed to be 26 more episodes than we got in the US. They were all in English, which was downright awesome. The humor and animation seemed stronger than it was in the US ones (probably because Erik Kuska, the creator of Wabbit, left after the first 26 episodes.) I spent hours binge-watching the show, taking any free opportunity possible, whether it be in the library, at the park, or on my lunch break during my full-time job at Wendy's.
Eventually, though, as the saying goes, all good things must come to end, meaning I finished all the episodes. Well, all except for one, which was the missing episode that the description on the site told me not to watch. Seeing it as bogus, I did it anyway.
The episode started with the Wabbit intro, with the Bluegrass-like music. Strangely enough, the footage that played during the intro was from the first episode (Buddha Bugs/Now and Zen.) If that wasn't confusing enough, when the theme song ended, the logo just froze there for a few seconds.
The episode title read "DeAtH iS nOt An OpTiOn." I didn't understand what was up with the weird text and the morbid title, but I shoved it off, thinking it was a joke that the editors threw in at the last second. Little did I know it wasn't.
Bugs Bunny was pacing his living room. His expression looked worried. He seemed to be mumbling to himself, as if he had committed a crime and was hoping the police didn't show up. I knew, from watching Wabbit and the classic Looney Tunes, that this was behavior that Bugs wouldnt normally have. This pacing got slightly faster over the next 30 seconds.
Then, he turned to the screen. He began to say, "Something bad's about to happen, doc. I know it." This voice sounded terrible, definitely not Jeff Bergman, but rather a terrible imitator, as if the producers were on a really tight budget. I began to think this was a bad idea, but I pressed onward, because, to be honest, I wanted to see how this would turn out.
A knock on Bugs' door indicated trouble, and as he opened it, he managed to dodge a sword. Sir Littlechin (a new knight character from the show), became a hunter for the king, and the king had requested some Louisiana Back-bay Bayou Bunny Bordelaise (a callback to the classic cartoon "French Rarebit" of course.)
The next few minutes revolved around Bugs messing with Sir Littlechin, in the classic Looney Tunes matter. However, something was different. Every injury Sir Littlechin sustained stayed with him thoughout the episode. I found this absurd, because Looney Tunes characters usually shake off their injuries through a scene change.
By the end of the few minutes, Sir Littlechin was slowly walking around, his outfit battered and his face bruised, teeth were missing, and some blood came dripping down his nose. Bugs walked over to Sir Littlechin, where the poor knight begged Bugs to stop. However, Bugs replied, "You think I'm gonna stop just because you tell me to? Not happening, sweetheart." Now I knew this was out of character, even for Bugs. And the terrible voice acting wasn't helping, either.
Bugs took Sir Littlechin's sword, and swiftly decapitated the knight. The sword now had a crimson blade, as Sir Littlechin continued to bleed while Bugs walked away, chewing a carrot. In surprise, I paused the show. I asked myself, "Why the hell did I decide to watch this?" I decided to finish what I started, though, even though, right then, I didn't really want to.
The episode continued as Bugs attempted to go to sleep that night. His eyes were wide open, as he continued to lay in bed. He began tossing and turning, while the sound of a deep laugh began to ring in through my computer speakers. As the sound got louder, Bugs' tossing and turning got more and more violent. After 40 seconds, it looked like Bugs was spazzing out, and the laughing was loud enough that it was hurting my ears. I thanked myself that my roommate was out of the house and that he didn't have to hear this.
All of a sudden, everything just stopped. Bugs just sat there in bed. He looked over at the bloody sword he kept on the wall, and now said "I can't do this anymore. I just can't." As Bugs walked into the next room, he continued "I know what I do is wrong, but there are some jerky people in the world. All I wanted to do was get rid of them. But I went too far this time." He pulled out a shotgun, looking similar to Elmer Fudd's. The final words that came out of Bugs' mouth were "Daffy, this is for you."
Daffy? Daffy?! As much as I know the two were rivals in the classic shorts, Daffy only appeared once in Wabbit, and even then, not with Bugs. Thus, the mentioning of this character felt strange and unusual.
Bugs put the shotgun to his head, and pulled the trigger, blowing his head off into a chunky mess on the floor. His brain was slightly visible and his eyes were heavily mangled, with one eye still moving, fixated on the bloody mess on the ground. The scene faded out slowly.
I was ready to shut the episode off, but it continued with a "The Next Day" card. Squeaks the Squirrel showed up at Bugs' house to play cards, but there was no answer as he knocked on the door. He began to knock on it louder, his movements becoming realistically desperate. It faded back to Bugs' dead body, as Squeaks pounded on the door. You could hear Squeaks crying as the episode faded out to black.
Immediately, I yanked the SD card out of my laptop, stuffed it in a safe I got for Christmas, and put in a random mix of numbers, intending to not remember. I went to the torrent site, demanding an explanation, but the torrent was gone, and so was the profile behind it.
All that was left was an anonymous message, saying "I'm so sorry."
Since then, I made sure to stay off that torrent site as much as possible, only watching classic shorts from www.supercartoons.net, because at least I knew I could trust the classic Bugs Bunny. If you ever find a copy of this Wabbit episode, do NOT watch it in full. The outcome makes death look like a happy thing.