Episode 505: The River of Life

Doc is offered a lot of money to allow engineers to use the supposedly empty caves below his workshop as a waste disposal technique. Sprocket, knowing the caves are inhabited, tries to convince Doc not to but has no luck. During the trial process, the waste disposal pollutes the water supply in Fraggle Rock during its heat wave. Upon smelling the tainted water, Boober Fraggle tries to warn the other Fraggles, but it is too late and those that were in the water start to become sick. The polluted water also reaches the stream near The Gorgs' Garden where Ma Gorg and Pa Gorg were frolicking, giving them itchy ankles. After some convincing from Marjory the Trash Heap and Pa Gorg, Boober intervenes and gives all of Uncle Travelling Matt's postcards to Doc, thinking the Fraggles made him angry by taking them. Unsettled by finding all the postcards he had thrown away by the hole in the wall, Doc finally acknowledges that there may be something living in the caves under his property and calls off the experiment. Doc also arranges for fresh spring water to be pumped through the cave system, allowing the Fraggles and Gorgs to recover from their sicknesses, as well as returning Uncle Matt's postcards.
==Notes==
* This is the second episode in the series with different closing credits. Instead of the regular theme song, the Fraggles sing "We're Part of Each Other" while enjoying the results of the happy end. The other two episodes are "The Bells of Fraggle Rock" and "Change of Address." On a related note, this is the first alternate ending to feature the Fraggle Rock logo before the credits.
* In the UK co-production, this episode could be considered the beginning of the series' end-game, followed up by the second-to-last episode, "The Honk of Honks" which fully confirmed Fraggles to the human character.
==Songs==
* "River Roll On"
* "It Makes You Cry"
* "We're Part of Each Other"
==Video releases==
* Fraggle Rock: Complete Series Collection (HIT!, 2008)
* Fraggle Rock: The Complete Final Season (Lions Gate Entertainment, 2009)
* The Song of the Cloud Forest and Other Earth Stories (Lions Gate Entertainment, 2010)
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505
Category:Environmentalism