Ranking the Over the Garden Wall Episodes

 

As we move closer from the transition of Autumn to Winter I wanted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Over the Garden Wall with a quick blog ranking the episodes. I've seen numerous of these rankings and wanted to give my feelings. Obviously spoilers for OTGW. 

OTGW is a great show. It's not my favorite cartoon but it is the one I have the least amount of problems and I don't dislike any of its episodes (which is good because there's only ten), but some of them I do definitely like more than others. If I was to give what I'm looking for in an OTGW episode

1: Atmosphere. The thing Over the Garden Wall does so well is set atmosphere and evoke a tone and spirit through it. Specifically the Atmosphere Over the Garden Wall is evoking is the Autumn-y mixture of lightness and darkness, beautifully colored leaves blown by a cold dark wind. 

2: Related to that, a balance of the two sides of the show. I love the dynamic between the two main characters Greg and Wirt, and the show is at its balance I think when the two sides are balanced. The show is a horror-comedy cartoon about Classic Americana with Greg representing the cartoonish comedic side and Wirt representing the horror somber side. I love when two opposite things can mesh and come together, it's arguably my favorite thing in fiction, and just like Halloween, Over the Garden Wall just doesn't feel right if it has only one aspect or the other. 

3: Plot Relevance. Some episodes of Over the Garden Wall kinda feel like sidetracking and disconnected from things. No episode is filler, every episode does advance the plot at least a little and has SOME thematic relevance, I wouldn't like it as much as I do otherwise, but some episodes are definitely a lot more connected than others. 

#10: Episode 8: Babes in the Wood:

This episode is definitely the biggest misstep for me in the series. I do like the beginning and end of the episode but the middle 8 minutes of this 11 minute episode are a fantastical dream sequence of Greg's. I definitely get the thematic relevance and it's sweet the creators wanted to reference these older cartoon styles, but this doesn't connect on any of the three dimensions I like. It's pretty much pure Greg energy without any Wirt-iness and it's only connected to the plot via being a metaphor for their current situation. But more than anything this happens right before the final two episodes and significantly messes with the tone that has been masterfully been building since Episode 6 at least. 

 

#9: Episode 3: Schooltown Follies:

This is another ep that tends to be ranked lower and for me it's fairly similar to the above. Like Greg it's funny and cute but it lacks a lot of Wirtiness or plot relevance. It's funnier and cuter than Episode 8 for me and a lot less tonally breaking but it still doesn't strike the right balance for me. I will say it's very iconically Over the Garden Wall and it has some really funny lines and back and forths, particularly between Wirt and Beatrice. Unlike the gap between 10 and 9, there isn't a large gap between this and the next 3 eps.

The next 3 eps were hard to place and could go in any order, and I do really enjoy all three but the next one would be

#8: Episode 5: Mad Love: 

This episode is another one that's ranked lower usually and I hate to contribute to it because it's fun. Endicott's being so casual in his dropping of implied terrible deeds to achieve his wealth strikes just the right tone for the series, it's a fairly unique locale for it being set in an enormous mansion, its got a fun mystery and sideplot of Wirt and Beatrice looking for chance. Fred gets funny lines, Greg gets an adorable pun at the end. The only real problem I have with it is how disconnected it feels from the plot. We get some more details about Wirt and Beatrice but they don't even get the change for the Frog Ferry they're after the whole ep. Even ignoring that the shift in scenery and the focus on characterss that are not in most of the series make it feel fairly unrelated to most of the series. 

#7: Episode 7: The Ringing of the Bell:

So this episode is really cool and I initially had it even higher. It's got a great plot and plot twist, is darkly evocative and has themes that run more serious than normal, good lines, and has a lot of thematic relevance beyond what first appears. I will admit it does lack a bit of Greg-iness being not the funniest or cutest episode, and it's not most connected to the plot, which is why it's one of the bottom half eps.

#6: Episode 1: The Old Grist Mill:

The first episode of Over the Garden Wall has a lot to establish and I think it does a great job. Wirt and Greg's duality is first established and it forms the emotional core of the entire series. We get the establishment of running gags like Greg's Rock Facts and the varying names for his frog. We have the beautiful opening sequence and the establishment of the atmosphere. The episode is great and I'd love to move it higher. I really don't have any flaws to say with this ep outside the fact that it's maybe a little cramped with just an 11 minute timeframe, though even that somewhat works to its benefit keeping the plot moving fast. It also MAYBE verges too much on the Wirt-y side. The creator wanted it to not take place at night as it kept the viewer from seeing the Autumn Colors clearly and made the tone a bit too dark and I agree. The episode is consistently tense in a way that maybe primes the viewer in a way that might keep them from appreciating the more light-hearted sequences in later episodes. 

#5: Episode 6: Lullaby in Frogland:

Moving into the top 5 and this is an ep that I think just hits all the right notes. It's an episode that has plot development, atmosphere, exploration, comedy, tension, Autumn-vibes, and character development. It sets up the plot for the entire second half of the series while never feeling cramped. This is an ep that consistently gets high in rankings and I can definitely see why, it's an episode that really captures the feel of the series and is importance in the narrative. We have the resolution of the Adelaide plot that covers most of the first half and the revelation of Beatrice's motivation. It has a combination of fun fairy tail logic like clipping the wings off blue birds to make them humans again or the frog ferry while also having Wirt and Beatrice's seriousness providing contrast. I like it more than the first ep because while both are great, Episode 6 has better balance of the two sides of the series and has Beatrice at some of her best as opposed to basically not being in it. 

#4: Episode 2: Hard Times at the Huskin Bee:

When you think of OTGW I GUARANTEE you think of this ep. This ep is probably the most iconic of the series and if you were to show one episode to people to explain what the series is, it would have to be this ep. It's similar to Episode 6 in its incredible balance of every aspect of the series but where in Episode 6 these aspects were all divided into sections which made it feel maybe a little unfocused, in Ep 2 the darkness and light-heartedness, the festiveness and somberness, the Greg-ness and Wirt-ness flow into each other casually and without clear markers. It feels like an episode that best evokes the spirit of what Over the Garden Wall represents. The citizens of Pottsfield aren't just festive skeletons wearing pumpkins, the parts where they are threatening and somber representations of death and the parts where they are silly and light-hearted are never clear and the ep has plenty of parts you don't know whether to take as foreboding or funny such as when they find the mayor office having nothing but a turkey. This is the episode that the show really clicked for me, particularly when it was revealed that Greg and Wirt's few hours of manual labor were digging their own graves, only for that to be double twisted as really digging someone else's so the skeletons resting in them can join the festival.  The episode also ends with an amazing visual metaphor where a falling leaf gets stuck on a fence, a dead thing trapped on a borderway unable to move on, a metaphor for the Unknown in general. This episode consistently ranks highly, often being number 1 and with good reason.

#3: Episode 4: Songs of the Dark Lantern:

This is another ep that really made the series click for me.  Episode 4 is an episode that once again contains both the elements of the series but where Ep 2 wasn't the most connected to the overall plot, this is the ep that really begins Wirt and Beatrice's character development, establishes that the series have an overall plot and direction with the re-establishment of the Woodsman and the first appearance of the Beast and in a meta way expresses that plot with the song about Wirt's nature as the Pilgrim. It does this without sacrificing the humor and fun of the ep with it being mostly a sequence of interrupted songs about character roles and archetypes that is humorous and fun and yet ever so slightly off-kilter in the way everyone is just their roles rather than a named person. This ep is one of my favorite kinds of episodes, an episode that recontextualizes the rest of the series with it in mind. I love how it recontextualizes Greg and Wirt's relationship when it reveals they're half-brothers explaining Wirt's tension. I love how the revelation of the the Woodsman and the Beast's relationship recontextualizes episode 1. I love how the people living out their lives as just their roles recontextualizes the Unknown as being more Archetypal. Just a lot of great things this ep. Plus I'm really fond of when Wirt sings the song of his and Greg's situation one of the people listening says "That's not a love song!" and another crying says "It's a metaphor..." I think that joke's really funny.

I went back and forth between the top 2 episodes a lot but I eventually decided to rank them this way. 

#2: Episode 9: Into the Unknown

An episode that is surprisingly all over the place in various rankings. I don't get this at all, this was almost my favorite episode and I went back and forth between it for first. I said I love episodes that recontextualizes things and this episode does it as well any other episode of any show I've seen.  It is the infamous reveal episode that reveals Greg and Wirt are the modern real world fallen into the Unknown after nearly drowning. But more than that this episode like Episode 10 of Madoka recontextualizes the protagonist of the series and their emotional journey. For this episode that means showing in a way that's wholesome, funny, and relatable expressing something important for the viewers. It shows Wirt's fatal character flaw and it how led Wirt and Greg, a moment built up since Ep 1 where Wirt tries to blame Greg only for the Woodsman to scold him, and leads to the moment of Wirt's character progression both this ep and the next. This episode makes so many inspired decisions like showing how the "Jason Funderburker" Wirt has been negatively comparing himself to all series you expect to be some alpha jock is just some dweeby kid like him, reflecting Wirt's lack of confidence and getting in his own way in classic Byronic Hero fashion. I've said that the interaction between Wirt and Greg's personalities and energies form the emotional core of the series and this episode has the bst in the series as Greg keeps guiding Wirt with his childlike optimism much as Wirt gets angry to him (without Greg even realizing.) It's those interactions that made me REALLY wanna put this episode at number 1. Though I do concede outside Episode 8 it is maybe the ep whose plot least feels OTGW-y, set in contemporary America rather than the Unknown. 

#1: Episode 10: The Unknown

This is probably the most common ep to put as the number one spot and seems to be in at least everyone's top 5 and it's easy to see why. Episode 9 has my favorite Greg/Wirt interactions and that is the core of the series to me, but OTGW isn't a series just about the best character interactions overall are in Episode 10. Just seeing Greg and The Beast interact is that strange blend of light-hearted and funny as well as dark and somber that OTGW does so well as Greg uses tricks to solve the Beast's challenges. There's great interactions between Wirt/Beatrice, Wirt/The Beast, and The Beast/The Woodsman. Everyone is at theit best this ep. Greg isn't that funny but he is his most wholesome most pure power of childish hope and optimism. Wirt is at his final developed state having both the self-awareness that always guides him and the sense of hope that he needed to learn from Greg, The Beast is simultaneously at his strongest and weakest, The Woosdman and Beatrice complete their character journeys and the epilogue is full of wholesome sweetness. A fantastic finale and I can very well see why everyone puts it high in their ranking as it's not just my favorite for one reason but because like the show itself it doesn't falter in any dimension. Much like the brothers it is well considered, consistent, internally coherent and interconnected yet also imaginative and full of wonder. Like the show itself and the Autumnal Season it explores the world of the dark and the dead and the damned to find the beauty of life and fun and hope being renewed.