At My Whit’s End: A Bite of Sinful Sauce (Blackgaard Saga Part 1)
(Photo: Connie and Eugene enjoy their last moments before Whit sends them to the shadow realm, Artist Unknown, Image courtesy of "The Complete Guide to Adventures in Odyssey”.)
There are stories, especially in long-running series, where listeners/watchers/readers go from casually enjoying it to becoming hardcore fans. Some of those most special of those occur in children’s media, which is usually supposed to be safe, nonthreatening, and just keep you quiet so your parents can get work done. Instead they ROCK your tiny little kid mind. They’re stories that make you reconsider what’s possible in fiction. They aren’t satisfied with simply being “good enough for kids.” They’re stories that transform both the series they’re a part of and the children experiencing them into something more.
(Photo: Hasbro)
For its first sixteen episodes, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was merely Saved by the Bell with superheroes. That changed when the five-part Green With Evil mini-series shattered the status quo. There’s an evil Green Ranger? He blew up their homebase? A story could last for more than one episode?! The Rangers nearly lose everything but they manage to turn the Green Ranger good and, despite his guilt, he joins the team!
(Photo: Playing With Time, Inc.)
Degrassi Junior High was nothing more than after-school specials with a consistent cast of characters. Until middle schooler Spike got pregnant and the ramifications of keeping the baby were explored across the next five seasons and beyond. Would she still attend school? What about relationships? Can she balance all that and hold down a job?
(Photo: Mainframe Studios)
It was all fun and games in ReBoot until the lead hero character was, more or less, killed off. Kid-identification character Enzo, forced to step up as the Guardian of his people, suffered permanent trauma, was cutoff from his home, and grew into a bitter man. If he returned home would his family even recognize him?
(Photo: David B. Mattingly, Scholastic Books.)
Animorphs, with its no-holds barred depiction of war and child soldiers, already stood apart from its contemporaries but it was in the depiction of loner Tobias, trapped in the body of red-tailed hawk, that made a generation of isolated children feel seen. A scene that’s always stuck with me was when Tobias was forced to eat roadkill to survive. As he rips and swallows it he’s spotted by his teammate (and crush), Rachel.
“She looked at me. Embarrassed for me. Wanting to say something that would make it all right. Not knowing what to say. Hurting for me. Feeling my humiliation.”¹
All of these stories did what the best kind of art does. Encourage and expand your imagination. How could that not turn you into a hardcore fan?
It doesn’t seem possible, especially with everything we’ve covered up to now, that Adventures in Odyssey could achieve anything like the above examples. This is a show whose primary goals are to guilt/shame you into becoming Christian and then guilt/shame you for not being Christian enough. Unless you’re a straight adult man, of course. The most unimpeachable of God’s creatures. How could this show get its head out of the never-ending ass of moralizing and become something more?
Against all odds, it did. This group of episodes we’ll be covering over the next few entries aren’t just the show’s first real story arc. It’s the start of an epic, one that weaves through episodes across over a decade of the franchise. None of the core cast are left the same. It full on created a mythology of the series. It’s held up by many, even lapsed fans, as the franchise’s peak. The hardcore fans it created still discuss it to this day. To those fans, this group of episodes are no different than any of the other examples above.
I know because I’m one of them.
As a little kid these episodes rocked my shit. Stories like these were still rare in kids media and to get it in Christian kids media? A story where the status quo was shattered? A story carried over multiple episodes that demanded you listen to them in order to fully understand what was happening? A story with honest-to-fuck stakes? Even at one point in my relisten notes, after two and a half years of subjecting myself to what an adult exvangelical lens reveals about the rotten heart of this franchise, I wrote,
“Man, this fucking rules.”
And what better way to start off this momentous period in AIO history than punishing Connie Kendall?
Classic.
Episode 73: A Bite of Applesauce
Whit reveals a secret computer program to Eugene but when Connie stumbles upon it she must resist the temptation to uncover what it’s meant for.
That computer program helps control all the activities and displays in Whit’s End so Whit, being the freak he is, only shares it with Eugene. Because of course, half your staff doesn’t need to know about a program that, if an error occurs, could make random parts of the shop switch off or stay on with no explanation! That happens exactly when Whit’s out for the day and Eugene’s forced to troubleshoot. Connie wants to understand what’s happening but Eugene evades her questions. Connie, unable to curb her understandable curiosity, uncovers the program and wrestles information out of Eugene. She’s particularly intrigued by a part of the program Whit instructed Eugene to never use, Applesauce.
Eugene doesn’t know anything about it but the way he avoids Connie’s questions sends her mind reeling. The following day Connie’s the only one on duty (one adult in a giant building full of kids?!?!?!?! I knew Whit was cheap, but damn!) and the program fails yet again. Rather than waiting for Whit or Eugene (probably fearing a reprimand) she fixes the program herself. She’s tempted to activate Applesauce and discover its secret, her mind swirling with possibilities.
Connie: “Maybe it's a file about me. Maybe it's one of those personnel files about how I'm doing. No. He'd tell me if I was doing something wrong, wouldn't he? What if he hasn't been happy about my work and doesn't have the heart to tell me? I mean, if it's about me, I should be allowed to see.”²
Connie’s concerned Whit’s secretly judging her? NO IDEA WHY SHE’D BE WORRIED ABOUT THAT. Not like he takes every opportunity to preach at her how she’s failing as a human being or why we’re all evil. If you thought that stopped when she converted, think again.
In Bad Company Connie excitedly tells Whit she’s going to a Bible study, clearly seeking his praise. Isn’t she being a good Christian now? This is what good Christians do, right? No, idiot. Whit isn’t thrilled and grills her about who’s teaching it and how. Not because it’s being held at the house of a stranger and she could be in danger. No, it’s because she might learn the Bible the wrong way (aka not how he’d teach it.)
She goes and the Bible study includes such radical topics as “keep an open mind.” When Whit hears that he goes full sicko mode.
Whit: “Oh, good grief, keep an open mind?! Open to what? Open to teachings that go against the Bible?”³
Go Ye Therefore has Connie sharing embarrassing attempts at “witnessing” to strangers and her classmates. Whit blows the stories off. They aren’t that bad. My brother in freak-itude, she is 16. Of course getting mercilessly mocked by her stoner classmates would be devastating. Have some compassion.
Connie can’t catch a break! You thought converting would stop God (and Whit’s) wrath? NOPE. GET BACK IN YOUR PLACE, FEMALE.
It’s no wonder Connie’s so curious about Applesauce. With all that judgement from Whit she’d be forgiven for thinking it was used to send all those Christians after her in California… Or worse. She’s about to activate it but stops herself… But that isn’t good enough. YOU ALREADY THOUGHT ABOUT SIN, IDIOT. The computer continually asks for a command but she, innocently, explains she wanted to load Applesauce but doesn’t anymore. The limited artificial intelligence of the computer can’t parse her full sentence and loads Applesauce. Level One.
Connie’s fate is sealed.
The entire building goes haywire. Displays and inventions fly out of control. Alarms blare. It’s so dangerous Connie evacuates all the kids out of the building. Eugene arrives as she struggles to shut down the computer but just then-
The system shuts down. The building returns to normal. The two breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe Whit will never find out what happened here.
“Applesauce proceeding to Level Two. Please enter your password now.”
The building descends into a cacophony worse than before, only interrupted by the computer’s demands for a password. The two try with all their might to guess but they only have ten seconds. The soundscape grows more and more disorienting. The two haphazardly yell over each other. They have to figure this out. They try every password they can think of. None work. The computer’s voice slows to a baritone crawl. Whit’s End completely shuts down. No sounds. No lights. The only thing left are their echoey voices filled with terror.
Connie and Eugene killed Whit’s End.
Whit finally arrives and demands to know what happened. Eugene and Connie awkwardly stumble over prolonging the inevitable but Whit presses them. “You’re both adults, what happened?” Let’s all remember that Connie is very much not an adult. She’s 16, Whit!
Eugene catches flack for letting Connie discover the computer existed, which… what? She needed to know! It was vital to running the shop! As we saw, there are times when she has to oversee all of Whit’s End alone. Not knowing about the program was inefficient at best and dangerously neglectful at worse.
(Speaking of dangerous, Whit’s End has so many areas and secret rooms where adults aren’t present. Including a virtual reality simulator where children are locked in a small space they can’t escape from. It’s not a safe place to send your kids!!!)
Connie defends herself. It was an accident (which it was) but Whit doesn’t bother to see his own mistake or understand Connie’s actions. He fires both of them and walks away, alone. Connie and Eugene are cast out from Whit’s End.
If it wasn’t obvious (or you really know nothing about the Bible,) this episode is based on the biblical story of Adam and Eve.⁴ The one where the first two people created by God are cast out from paradise, the Garden of Eden, for disobeying God. All they had to do was not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and they both did. Of course Eve gets most of the blame for the fall of humanity because she’s a woman and fell for the vile temptations of that sexy serpent. It probably sounded like Tim Curry (who deliciously voiced the character in a Hanna-Barbera animated series) so, like, same, girl. For this sin God instructs Eve that, “your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”⁵ Ladies, this is why you must submit to your husband and never question his authority. Or as a Focus on the Family article put it in 2025, women should be “beautifully fierce” in their roles as a “husband's ‘helper.’” Barf.
(I mean, if I could? I would. Photo: Hanna-Barbera Productions)
Hey, uh, God? Why not let your creations have knowledge? Why you hiding shit from them? If you love humans so much you sent your only to die for us why are you giving us the chance to fuck up that badly? Where do you get off seeing us suffer? If you really love sadomasochism that much why not create a kink club in the Garden of Eden? S&M nights would be POPPIN’! I bet that sexy snake would choke you soooo good if you asked very nicely.
Even though the Bible isn’t meant to be read as if everything in it literally happened (despite what AIO will tell you,) let’s, for the moment, say the Adam and Eve story really truly happened. Let’s say they were fully responsible for eating from the tree of knawwww-ledge in the Garden of Hollywood Hills in their new Lamborghini. They disobeyed an order from God. The big man! The sky daddy! The guy who probably saw the serpent’s legs and got so HORNT he had to take them away, coward. That guy who shows up at the kink club and hogs the cage all night. DAMMIT, I can only make small talk about hot cartoon characters with sexy people in leather FOR SO LONG, MY DUDE.
What was I saying?
Oh yeah, Adam and Eve were talking to God! Which, with A Bite of Applesauce being “loosely”⁶ based on their story, would make Whit a stand-in for God and Eugene/Connie a stand-in for Adam/Eve. But Whit is not God. He is a fallible (and freak) man. It doesn’t matter he’s their boss, Connie and Eugene shouldn’t unquestionably obey his commands. Especially when they don’t make sense and aren’t fair. Yet, of course, Whit is held up by AIO as God-like. I’m sure there’s no problem there. Not like the serpent tempted Eve by promising that by eating the fruit she’d “be like God.”⁷ That would make treating a human as God-like just as bad as Eve’s original sin, huh? Hmmm. Interesting.
I don’t agree with or enjoy the lesson about “disobedience”⁸ and biblical comparisons here, but the ending is a properly engaging shake-up of the show’s status quo. What will happen to Eugene and Connie now that they aren’t working at Whit’s End? Will Whit ever forgive them? What’s behind Applesauce Level Two? How many children can Whit abuse while he doesn’t have any employees around to narc on him to the cops?
This is the first time the show has dared to leave itself on such a big cliffhanger and Focus received, “letters in unprecedented numbers” in reaction to it.⁹ For the first time fans weren’t just willing to tune-in for the next episode. They were LOCKED IN.
And as we all know, you gotta give the fans what they want. They can’t just torture Connie, they gotta torture little girls too!
Yaaaaaaaaaaay.
Next Time: The Punished becomes the Punisher. AKA Connie goes full freak.
Note: Friendly reminder to all the readers, I have a Patreon where you can support the show! You can either pledge $1 a month or simply sign up for free to get reminders of when the blog updates in your email. I’ve also posted some exclusive mini essays, rambles, and other little tidbits there as well.
Sources:
Animorphs: The Pretender, Written by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, Scholastic Books, 1998.
(1) Page 11
A Bite of Applesauce: Written and Directed by Paul McCusker, Production Engineer Dave Arnold, Focus on the Family, 1989.
(2)
Bad Company: Written and Directed by Paul McCusker, Production Engineer Bob Luttrell, Focus on the Family, 1989.
(3)
“BONUS! The Inspiration for “A Bite of Applesauce”: Adventures in Odyssey #5: Daring Deeds, Sinister Schemes, Focus on the Family, 2004.
(4)
(6)
“The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version” Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990.
(5) Genesis Chapter 3 Verse 16
(7) Genesis Chapter 3 Verse 5
"The Complete Guide to Adventures in Odyssey” by Phil Lollar, Focus on the Family Publishing, 1997
(8) Page 83
“Adventures in Odyssey: The Official Guide 25th Birthday Edition” by Nathan Hoobler, Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 2012.
(9) Page 124