23 Year Old Never Saw How Show Ends - Wondering For Years - Please Help

[includingjudas]

At age 7 years old when I was watching the last episode of Fraggle Rock, the babysitter turned off the TV and took me to school right after Gobo emerges from the hole and yells "You can't leave the magic!"

It has haunted me for 16 years that I never knew if Doc and Sprocket heard or if they were already out of ear shot. I still hear those words echoing in my head now and then, and my stomach twists with worry that Doc just leaves and something horrible happens to the Fraggles.

Immediately afterwards, my family got rid of cable, so I never saw the reruns, and I don't have time to find someone with a VHS copy and trade tapes.

Would someone please summarize the last episode for me and tell me what happens? It's been 16 years of wishing and waiting, I feel like I deserve to know.

Did Sprocket's dog ears pick up the small, distant voice and did he drag Doc back? Did Doc pop his head in to check if he had forgotten something and see Gobo? Did they not hear him and broke the relationship off like that?

Please, I'm hyperventalating here! Someone, please, tell me what happened!

 

[Sylinde Bren]

...Gobo emerges from the hole and yells "You can't leave the magic!"

It turns out to be too late. The workshop is empty and Doc and Sprocket are gone. The silence is deafening, save for the distant, lonely sound of a fog horn outside. The other Fraggles wander out of the Fraggle hole to join Gobo and they discover a strange device on the floor: a tape player with a picture card of a Fraggle pressing the 'play' button. Gobo does so and he and his friends jump in alarm as Doc's voice emerges from this strange, magical device. Doc says how he's sorry that he frightened him away before; he just wanted to be friends with Gobo. He also says how his own friend, Ned Shimmelfinny, is very sick and how he and Sprocket have to go and be there for their friend. He says how he's sad that Gobo couldn't go with them but that "I suppose you have to be there with your friends, the same way that we have to be here with Ned." As the tape clicks off, Gobo whispers sadly, "Oh, Doc. You weren't supposed to leave the magic."

High in the air, a plane soars and we see Doc with his elderly grandfather - Sprocket - seated beside him. Sprocket ends up not having to fly baggage, after all.

Back in the workshop, Gobo stands there alone, looking around. "Well... I don't think I'll want to be coming up here much anymore." With one last sad look, he goes through the Fraggle hole where his friends are waiting to accompany him back to the Rock. None of them quite know what to say to each other. Gobo thanks them for coming up to the workshop with him. Red says that maybe the Silly Creatures would leave, but "we never would." The others agree and Wembley says, 'Yeah, we could never leave you, Gobo.' After a pause, Gobo perks up, piecing it together.

Gobo: "Wait a minute! Wembley just said you couldn't leave me! What is it the Trash Heap said I should tell the Silly Creature?"
Boober: "Uhm... that he mustn't leave."
Gobo: "No, not mustn't. Cannot."
Mokey: "Yes. That he 'cannot leave the magic'."
Gobo: "And, then she said we were magic. He can't leave us and we can't leave him. Maybe I'm not too late after all..."

Just as he comes to this realisation, a beautiful light fills one of the nearby tunnels, a tunnel that none of the others have ever noticed before. In awe, the Fraggle Five decide to enter and follow the light -- sweet, angelic voices singing all around them in this glistening place...

Magic, magic be with you each morning,
Each evening too,

For the magic, magic is in every moment,
Even in you.

Someday, treasure the moments you're given,
Feel how they flow.

For the magic lives in the moments you're living,
See how they go.

Mokey: "Do you think this tunnel is magic, Gobo?"
Gobo: "I'm beginning to think that everything's magic... if you see it that way."

Magic, magic be with you each morning,
Each evening too,

For the magic, magic is in every moment,
Even in you.

Someday, treasure the moments...

Doc and Sprocket have finally reached their new home in the desert and are looking around. The floor is scattered with some old boxes, very much like how they found the old workshop once upon a time... Sprocket sniffs around a bit, the smells new to him. Doc explains how once they settle in, it'll feel just like being in the old place. Sprocket whimpers and Doc understands... Except for the Fraggle. He starts to reminisce about how they had discovered the Fraggle Hole in the old place.

"There was a box up against the wall..." A box very much like the one across from them also against the wall... "...And I picked it up to move it out of the way and there was the Fraggle Hole." They both stare at the box, and then Sprocket looks up at him long in silent communication. Doc gets the message. "Oh, alright. I'll move the box. But, I feel silly." He picks up the box and moves it aside... Nothing. There's no hole at all... The disappointment is clear in both of their eyes.

He settles down on the floor with Sprocket. "You know something? Meeting that Fraggle, well that little furry creatures could be living behind the walls. Well, that's... magical." And then Doc realises that maybe other things could be magic as well and looks at Sprocket. "Maybe... you're magic. Maybe I'm magic. Maybe Ned and Fluffanella are magic. Maybe the whole world..." A pause, and then he looks at the box sitting against the wall. "And maybe if we really want there to be a Fraggle Hole behind that old cardboard box... Well, who knows?"

Both of them stare again at the cardboard box, silently wishing very hard and hoping. Then, all of a sudden, the box moves as if being nudged. It moves again. Then, with one last big push, Gobo appears, emerging from a Fraggle Hole in the wall where there wasn't one previously. Doc and Sprocket are astounded.

Gobo: "Hi!"
Doc: "Hi!"
Gobo: "I have a message for you. From the Trash Heap!"
Doc: "Trash Heap...?"
Gobo: "Well, she's our Oracle, knower of all our wisdom. She told me that I should tell you... You cannot leave the magic."
Doc: "Oh, thank you, Gobo! As a matter of fact, Sprocket and I just discovered that."

Happily, Sprocket barks and starts to give Gobo doggy kisses and the scene fades back to the other Fraggles - Mokey, Boober, Red and Wembley - still wandering in awe through the magnificent new tunnel.

Magic, magic be with you each morning,
Each evening too.

For the magic, magic is in every moment,
Magic is true...

The scene fades to the Trash Heap back in the Gorg's Garden. "You cannot leave the magic."

The show ends with everyone - Doozers, Fraggles, Gorgs - dancing and singing the theme song. You can see the Fraggle Five dancing and singing happily on the floor with Sprocket and Doc...

Dance your cares away,
Worry's for another day.
Let the music play,
Down at Fraggle Rock.
Down at Fraggle Rock.

Doc: "Down at Fraggle Rock!"
Sprocket: "Woof!"

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

thats was just beautiful i am crying it's been as long time

 

[ReneeLouvier]

Oh wow...I'm crying now just reading that description! I'd never seen the ending episode at all!! Thank you!

 

[Muppet Matt]

Thank you so much for posting that story. It does make you kind of sad. I've never seen it either, I hope I can find it somewhere. Does anyone know where to find it?

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

i saw it it was sad then

 

[superboober]

Now what I'm wondering is if this was the same ending for the various foreign co-productions as well, or if there was variation on it in different countries.

 

[includingjudas]

Thank you. I feel a real sense of resolution knowing the ending. It was such a thorough description too, I really appreciate it.

 

[Daylight]

I'd been thinking about responding to this question but then I thought I should let someone else because I couldn't remember the episode that well and thought some could do a better job. I was right. Great job, Sylinde. That's a wonderful description.

 

[Metacritter]

You have a gift for narrative! Your post inspired me to rewatch Honk of Honks and Change of Address last night, and I caught a Wembly quote that is now topping my list of favorite Fraggle quotes: "I never thought of us as magic... I thought they were magic."

Man, I love that show!