Finger Fries
S1 E3: Secret of the Ghost Rig
Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, 2010.
Some towns are built on bedrock. Crystal Cove, by contrast, is built on secrets, fraud, and approximately three metric tons of stolen municipal hardware.
In “The Secret of the Ghost Rig,” we find ourselves once again riding shotgun with Mystery Incorporated as they navigate that treacherous intersection of civic dysfunction, adolescent yearning, and vehicular phantasm.
It begins, as it often does, with a teenager nearly dying. A cop warns a speeder to slow down, but before we can even hear the excuse, a glowing truck blazes by—driverless, remorseless, and deeply committed to the bit. The cop gives chase, only to end up hanging off a cliff, clinging to a branch, watching his career (and motorcycle) plummet into the sea.
Back in town, Fred and the gang are campaigning for Mayor Jones, a man whose reelection strategy involves blaming all citywide inconveniences on a rival named George Avocados (a name that practically comes pre-smeared on toast). Daphne is notably absent, engaged in the sort of subplot that involves high expectations and heartbreak served with ketchup: she’s waiting for Rung Ladderton at a restaurant called The Bloody Stake, snacking her way through what she calls “twelve hands worth of Finger Fries”—a metric that raises questions about both portion size and emotional hunger.
Fred, meanwhile, remains oblivious—emotionally unflappable in a way that suggests he’s been concussed one too many times by his own booby traps. When Daphne finally confesses her date, Fred is delighted—by Rung’s ascot. He even trades for it, which is maybe the most chilling twist in the episode.
As the gang begins investigating the mysterious theft of the town’s crystal doorknobs—yes, really—they’re attacked by the Ghost Truck themselves. The chase scenes are genuinely harrowing, complete with cliffs, tunnels, and Fred narrowly steering the Mystery Machine out of oblivion with the calm of a teen who’s never filed a police report. Velma, ever the realist, points out that this could all be a political distraction: steal the knobs, discredit the mayor, and ride a wave of knob-related rage to electoral victory.
Eventually, all roads—literal and metaphorical—lead to a secret cavern filled with pilfered doorknobs and a confession scrawled in the journal of Theodore Avocados (George’s father, disgraced and imprisoned for diamond theft, as one is). The Ghost Truck is lured into a trap involving a comically large spatula, and the driver is revealed: Rung Ladderton himself.
His motive? Not heartbreak. Not revenge. Just…family ladder debt. The Ladderton Ladder Company was broke, and Rung needed to find the doorknob that was secretly a diamond. And so he dressed up a big rig in spectral glow paint and terrorized a town.
Crystal Cove takes it in stride. The mayor shrugs off the trauma. The gang dusts off their knees. Daphne, one hopes, moves on to better appetizers.
And in the end, the only thing more haunting than a ghost truck barreling toward you in the dark… is watching someone you almost liked turn out to be a trust fund ladder criminal with no wallet, no manners, and absolutely no business eating at The Bloody Stake.