Fright Wig

"I certainly did not! someone pressed it by accident!"

"Fright Wig" is the 29th episode of the first season of Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart, and the 29th episode overall.

Synopsis
When the King cannot overcome his fears, he abuses having the Sheriff’s Dept. on call.

Plot
One night, King Snugglemagne has his stomach growling, thus he takes out his cake and walks down the hallway, until he spots something terrifying and howls in horror, dropping his cake, ripping off his portrait and even fainting. Quinton then rings the special alarm to summon the Sheriff Department.

At the department's headquarters, Badgerclops is busy pulling an all-nighter by binge eating and gaming even it is already midnight. Mao Mao and Adorabat have woken up in tiredness and Mao Mao asks him how long has the king's emergency alarm has been ringing, but Badgerclops is still preoccupied on gaming with his online gamer friend. Impatient, Mao Mao and Adorabat destroy his console remote, so he is forced to cut off contact with his gamer friend and head to the palace with them.

After arriving at the palace, Adorabat assumes that the King summons them because of having a poopy problem, which amuses Badgerclops. However, the situation turns out to be quite serious; the ground is in a mess. King Snugglemagne denies anyway and pushes the blame of ringing the emergency alarm onto Quinton. When being interrogated by Mao Mao about his portrait tapestry and his cake, Snugglemagne makes up excuses, but Mao Mao vows to never leave until finish investigating. As usual, Snugglemagne shirks his fault onto Quinton who gets taken away by Ronald. Nevertheless, the trio of heroes are not convinced by the King, so they carry on their investigation anyway especially after the King orders all of the suspects to work. Snugglemagne almost exposes the truth to Mao Mao, thus he has to lie in order to divert Mao Mao's attention.

In the kitchen, Rhett is collecting eggs when he is startled by Mao Mao who soon interrogates him, which gives him the nerves. Unfortunately, Mao Mao has lost the piece of cake which is the evidence of this case, thanks to the gluttonous Adorabat and Badgerclops. But when Mao Mao is busy scolding his two friends, Rhett is snatched away by the King's paws, drops his eggs and gets replaced by a fruit dummy. This causes Mao Mao's suspicions to rise even more.

Mao Mao then proceeds to question the guards, but the guards begin to get distracted by candies that come out of nowhere. Mao Mao instantly notices that the King is the one who is disturbing the investigation.

On the other hand, the senile Camille is presenting a newly invented magic gun that will expose one's biggest fear. But Mao Mao is disgruntled at how Camille isn't answering his question regarding the King. Camille then tells him about the King, but then hallucinates and runs off, so Honey has to catch her. King Snugglemagne is initially relieved, until Mao Mao slices the smoke pipe and reveals that he has indeed caught Rhett and has candies that the guards eat. To further carry out the investigation, Badgerclops prompts the idea of exposure therapy so that he can apply what he has learned from TV shows.

Of course, the King is indignant on what the heroes have done to him with this traumatic "Hall of Horrors" experience, as he gets confined on a moving chair and has to be exposed to noises. In retaliation to the heroes, he still refuses to tell his secret fear, and even Adorabat's puppy eyes can't persuade him. Desperate, the heroes fires Camille's alleged magic gun, only to discover that they have turned King Snugglemagne's shadow into evil doppelgangers of themselves. The three of them quickly get into a fight with the doppelgangers, but to no avail. They begin to guess whether they are the ones behind Snugglemagne's fear.

King Snugglemagne then demands the three heroes to be nicer, much to their chagrin. He barges into his castle and plays the piano, even singing a song on how he is afraid others will shame him and treat him with disdain. Mao Mao attempts to apologize to no avail, but knows that this catchy song is reminding him and his friends for being too judgmental to Snugglemagne. Eventually, the heroes manage to eradicate their shadow clones. Quinton is also back to serve the King, returning the King his cape.

After the chaos, Mao Mao persists to figure out the King's deepest fear. King Snugglemagne denies the real reason by stating that he is afraid of their opinions, but after the heroes apologize, he chooses to be frank. As it turns out, the truth is...when he was going to have his cake as a midnight snack, he saw himself without his wig in the mirror, thus briefly passing out!

Adorabat is surprised by Snugglemagne's worst fear being wig-less, but Mao Mao shuts her mouth up. Badgerclops that tries to make the King feel better although his odor turns Snugglemagne off. Thankful for the heroes' help, Snugglemagne orders Ronald to get off, much to the heroes' confusion and Ronald's dismay.

Later, Snugglemagne wakes up again and walks down the aisle. His foot accidentally touches an infra-red ray and the lights are subsequently activated. He is initially startled, but then quickly finds out that the heroes have stuck cardboard onto his mirror and have cardboard versions of themselves repeating gorgeous, just to give him a confidence boost. Snugglemagne ends up having moved tears.

Characters

 * Adorabat
 * Badgerclops
 * Camille
 * Guards
 * Honey
 * King Snugglemagne
 * Mao Mao
 * Quinton
 * Rhett the Chef
 * Ronald (debut)
 * Shadow Adorabat (debut; death)
 * Shadow Badgerclops (debut; death)
 * Shadow Mao Mao (debut; death)
 * Sloth Smith
 * King Snugglemagne's mother (mentioned)

Locations

 * Pure Heart Valley
 * Sheriff Headquarters
 * The Dungeon

Song

 * I Will Survive

Trivia

 * This episode reveals that King Snugglemagne's worst fear is the sight of himself without his mane.
 * The title itself means a sticking-out or standing-up wig which is usually being worn by clowns or similar performers.
 * It is revealed that Mao Mao installed a coffee maker at Badgerclops' mechanical arm at some point.
 * Badgerclops is stated to be familiar with exposure therapy from television.

Cultural References

 * The song that King Snugglemagne sings is similar to "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor.

International premieres

 * June 16, 2020 (Poland)