Hermit Ren
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Hermit Ren is an episode of Ren & Stimpy in the 4th season.
Hermit Ren
Air date: October 1st, 1994.
Story by: Bob Camp, Jim Gomez, Chris Reccardi & Bill Wray
Storyboard by: Chris Reccardi
Background Color Design by: Bill Wray & Scott Wills
Directed by: Chris Reccardi
Ren returns home from an arduous day at work to Stimpy's incessant rendition of 'Kumbaya', as well as a dishevelled homestead and burnt dinner. When the various stresses of his life accumulate all at once, he snaps and decides to leave Stimpy for good, setting off for a new life of solitude.
Having joined the Hermit Union, Ren purchases his very own mountainside cave and swears off companionship, sunlight and bathing for the rest of his life. He sets up home inside the cave and makes the only friend he'll ever need - a long-deceased mummified bog man ("someone to talk to who can't talk back!"). Without Stimpy to bring him down, Ren plans out all his conquests for the following years.
Back at home, Stimpy is in a state of denial, convinced that at some point Ren will come home for dinner.
As time passes, Ren accomplishes little, finding himself growing hungrier and more desperate. Hallucinations set in, and he attempts to 'milk' one of the cave's resident bats, who promptly knocks him to the ground.
When Ren comes to, he sees a vision of his father, Old Man Farmer Hoek. Ren pleas for guidance from the vision, who gives him advice on how to scavenge but has to suppress his own amusement at the sight of Ren's attempts.
Meanwhile Stimpy, missing his old friend, disturbingly sculpts a Ren replica out of his own earwax for comfort.
The real Ren finds himself even further addled by loneliness. After an onslaught of nightmarish hallucinations, he panics and desperately searches for company, finding it in the form of a similar effigy - a Stimpy made from bat-droppings. He faces immediate scorn from his only other 'companion' - the bogman - who suggests Ren turn to his own fevered mind for better company. Ren's key personality facets - anger, fear and ignorance - are manifested and Ren is initially delighted for the company. This too turns hellish, though, when Ren realises that his new 'friends' are arrogant, spinless and imbecilic respectively. He loses patience after an attempt at a friendly game of Black Jack, and finally reaches the lowest ebb of his psychosis, attacking his imagined antagonists with the corpse of the bog-man. He is snapped back to reality when the Hermit Union Leader enters Ren's cave and dismisses him on the grounds of having imaginary friends, thus breaking the cardinal rule of no companionship. Stripped of his straggly beard, he is forced to leave the Union, taking his Stimpy replica home with him.
Ren returns to his old home to find that Stimpy has descended equally into madness, as well as experimenting with wearing women's clothing. After circumventing their jealousy in regard to one another's replicas, they are delighted to see one another again and both sets of Ren and Stimpy embrace.
Notes and Trivia:
- As the fourth season opener, this served to be perhaps one of the darkest episodes of Ren and Stimpy's original five season run, exploring in it some quite real elements of psychosis. From the fourth season onward, Ren & Stimpy had become pretty much entirely a product of Games animation, and each episode seemed to maintain its own distinctive look. In 'Hermit Ren', while a lot of the individual drawings and backgrounds are some of the best looking in any episode, the animation itself is noticeably more simplified than that of previous seasons.
- While most episodes of Ren & Stimpy relied heavily on the Capitol and Production Music Archives for the show's musical score, this episode featured original music by director Chris Reccardi during the psychosis scenes. Also the episode includes numerous interpretations of 'Kumbaya' a traditional hymn and renowned campfire dirge: Stimpy atonally sings it accompanied by a concertina; a jazzy, upbeat guitar rendition accompanies the scene where Stimpy is cooking the concertina and the final scene where Ren returns; a more melancholy version of the tune is played while Stimpy crafts the ear-wax Ren. The latter features a drab bassline titled 'Sven Blues' that previously appeared on its own in the episode 'Sven Hoek' and on the tie-in LP 'You Eediot'.
- This episode features the first incarnation of Ren Hoek's father, who appears as a burly, Wilbur Cobb-esque farmer. The 2003 'Adult Party Cartoon' episode 'Ren seeks Help' depicted Ren's dad in a far different way, as a stern, overbearing preacher.
- The mummified bog man with a rope around his neck that features in this episode most likely refers to the unusual phenomenon of the Lindow Man.
- When listing his goals for the coming years, Ren mentions he plans to listen to his Urethra Franklin records. This is a fairly shameless play on the name of legendary singer Aretha Franklin - a urethra is a tube used to expel urine, and plays a role in the reproductive system.
- Some elements of this episode expand on themes originally explored in the season one episode 'Stimpy's Big Day/The Big Shot', which also featured Ren going crazy with loneliness in the absence of Stimpy. Also there are portions of the season three episode 'Hard Times For Haggis' that are revisited: for example, the sequence in which Haggis is driven to the edge and screams out 'No!' with his head in hands is this time inflicted on Ren.
- 'Hey, It's That Guy!' - The salesman returns to sell Ren a cave, with a strap-on hermit beard and costume. The line 'Enjoy...loser!' is also said in the season five episode 'Feud For Sale'.
- The Hermit Union Leader is Jasper, who had previously appeared in episodes such as the pilot 'Big House Blues' and 'Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen'.
- When Ren reaches his breaking point at the beginning of the episode, the TV is broadcasting Stimpy's cartoon 'I Like Pink', from the season three episode 'Stimpy's Cartoon Show'.
- A glaring animation gaffe is present just before Ren pushes the rock to one side and discovers the mummified bog-man - for a second or so his body is just a shape which features no line detail.
Shorts:
'Untamed World: Field Guide
With Ren torn apart by bloodthirsty Peruvian Bootweasels, Stimpy sets off alone on an expedition to observe the peculiar and intriguing habits of the elderly, including the Wily Tree Geezer, the Blue-Crested Biddies, the Grey Tufted Old Fogey, the Grizzled Curmudgeon and everybody's favourite Bandy-Legged Codger, Wilbur Cobb.
Notes and Trivia:
- This is the third and last 'Untamed World', the other two being the ten-minute 'Untamed World' from season one and the double-length 'Lair Of The Lummox' from season three.
