Perfect is the second half of the series finale of Courage the Cowardly Dog, written by Billy Aronson.

The episode was produced in 2002 and premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on November 22 of that year, thus ending the series' run.

Synopsis

Courage is feeling out of place due to all of his imperfections. However, in an effort for him to become perfect, Eustace calls a ghostly schoolteacher to give him classes on perfection in the attic. Along the way, Courage must learn that his differences are what make him himself, and that he's perfect the way he is.

Plot

While working with Courage around the farm, Eustace cites Courage's incompetence, telling him that he cannot do anything right. While Courage is in the kitchen with Muriel and trying without success to perfectly make some baklava, a mysterious, elderly school teacher named the Perfectionist appears. Strangely, she can only be seen by Courage, implying that she may be imaginary. She claims that Courage is 'a disgrace' and, knowing of Courage's struggles, decides to train him strictly into becoming a perfect dog.

The Perfectionist tells Courage that he must prove that to her that he is "perfect" by going through several "perfection lessons". She first has Courage balance heavy books on his head while going up the farmhouse's stairs, saying that he needs to keep all books on his back while walking up the stairs in order to "walk perfectly". Courage, however, makes it up the stairs as all but one of the books start falling off his back. The Perfectionist harshly scolds Courage, who whimpers, teary-eyed.

Next, the Perfectionist has Courage try to "speak perfectly". She simply has Courage attempt to speak a tongue- twister, "The turkey in Albuquerque is positively perky," but Courage only speaks in gibberish. The Perfectionist tests Courage if he can "make something perfectly", and assigns him to make a model of the Eiffel Tower, but Courage fails, and the Perfectionist shows him the work of Di Lung, one of her past students, who has flawlessly made the Eiffel Tower model, much to Courage's disappointment. Since it is late, the Perfectionist has Courage go to bed and "sleep perfectly".

Courage goes to bed, but finds himself sleepless, plagued by nightmares with themes around imperfection. The first nightmare features a strange blue creature that resembles a deformed fetus telling Courage he isn't perfect. The second nightmare involves a walking parade that references the Wizard of Oz. A version of Courage as a scarecrow walks by, then a sign appears with a red "no" symbol over a brain. Another version of him walks by as a tin man, followed by another red "no" symbol, this time over a picture of a heart. The last is a regal, cowardly lion version of him with thick shaggy fur before the "no" symbol appears over a picture of a medal. The scene zooms out to show another version of him as a witch cackling at a crystal ball at the three's failures.

In the third dream, the background is a blue sky. A series of what appears to be old renaissance sketches of eldritch horrors sweep by before a final one shows what looks like a voodoo doll with arms forming wings connected by flesh and bristly hair like a broom. The fourth dream has Courage juggling pies as he notices an audience of monsters laughing at him. He then realizes that the lower half of his body is furless. Courage screams and covers his nude half before the pies he was juggling come crashing down onto him, leaving him humiliated. The final dream shows Muriel handing Courage an antique vase. Courage loses his grip and drops the vase but it doesn't break. Instead it bounces and Muriel catches it but doing so caused her to shatter into pieces. Courage screams until the dream itself shatters into pieces. Due to Courage's constant waking and screaming after each nightmare, Eustace kicks Courage out of the bedroom and is forced to sleep outside.

The next morning, Courage is told that he must go through one last examination; if he fails, he will be labeled as "imperfect" for the rest of his life. Courage is excused to go to the bathroom and is told to brush his teeth perfectly. A fish in the bathtub tells Courage that there is no such thing as being perfect, and that even with all of his imperfections, Courage can do anything. When Courage exits the bathroom, he notices that Eustace and Muriel also have imperfections with Eustace's broken bugle and Muriel's bubble gum-like baklava, with both proudly making the best of them.

Returning to the Perfectionist, Courage's final lesson is to draw a "perfect" number six. Courage scribbles something down on a paper, which resembles a cartoon, He folds the paper and turns it upside down; a surrealistic six is shown on the paper. The Perfectionist then angrily screams, smashes her yardstick on Courage's desk, shattering it into pieces and proceeds to aggressively pull her hair (consequently ruining her "perfect" hairdo) while melting into a puddle of nothing as she rants about Courage being imperfect in the process. She finally vanishes after uttering one last 'perfect', causing her chalkboard to explode into dust. Courage looks at the camera, and smiles while chuckling happily.

As the series ends, it is implied that Courage has accepted the fact that he is perfect the way he is, and eats at the dinner table with a happy Muriel and Eustace whilst wearing a tuxedo and top hat. The fish from before is shown cooked on the table, and he gives the audience a thumbs up before showing the ending sequence. The Perfectionist (despite her melting to death) shouts "Perfect!" off-screen, as if to give the series its "perfect" ending (no pun intended).

Characters

Main Characters:

• Courage 
• Muriel 
• Eustace 
• The Perfectionist

Minor Characters:

• Di Lung 
• Fish  
• Bugle Monster

Trivia

• The word "perfect" (and any word containing it) is seen and used 28 times throughout the episode.
• It's revealed that Di Lung was a past student of the Perfectionist in this episode. However, he is also proven to be not too perfect in the past, especially due to his lack of awareness, hence his constant "Watch where ya goin', ya fool!" outbursts.
• The Perfectionist's chalkboard replaced Courage's computer. Thankfully, once the Perfectionist vanished, her chalkboard vanished, too. The computer returns in the 2014 special, The Fog of Courage.
• Interestingly, Courage was asked if he speaks "perfectly" as he did in the first season where he had dialogue until the fact that it was limited in the later seasons.
• The music that plays during most of this episode is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or the Alphabet song. In some cases it was altered to give it a more sinister or foreboding tone.
  • Also, the music during this episode is "The Firebird" by Igor Stravinsky.
• This episode is widely regarded as one of the most unsettling episodes of the series due to the heavy subject matter, singularity, and primarily due to the vivid nightmare sequences.
• There are 5 nightmare scenes in rapid succession that all use differing animation styles. They are, as follows:
  • A blue, deformed humanoid which is meant to be Eustace's bugle (or called a fetus by fans), appears in a blue void while ominous music plays. It looks up at the screen and whispers "You're not perfect." which then echos a few times in the background. This creature was designed by Jim P. Dilworth, the late brother of creator John R. Dilworth, and was animated in CGI by Pacific Data Images animator Keith Chamberlain. This particular sequence is frequently considered to be among the show's creepiest moments by fans.
  • Courage dreams of himself as the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, showing how little faith he has in himself. The dream ends after the three Courages are shown being overseen by a fourth Courage as the Wicked Witch of the West. This sequence was animated in a simplistic Flash style.
  • Courage dreams of a series of disturbing images flashing by the screen before a final one, resembling a disturbing angelic figure, along with the words "RIGHT NOW", flies at the screen. This dream was likely made with simple animation and editing tools, though CGI is possible as well.
  • Courage is juggling pies for an audience, while jazz music plays in the background. Suddenly, the audience begins laughing discriminately at him. Courage realizes his lower body has been shaved bald, and, as the music becomes distorted and switches to out-of-tune accordion music, he rushes to cover himself, causing him to be hit in the head by the pies he was carrying. This scene was animated using stop-motion for Courage and CGI for the audience.
  • Courage dreams of Muriel handing him a vase only for him to drop it. Instead of the vase breaking, it bounces and lands in Muriel's arms, only for her to promptly shatter instead, followed by Courage, looking skyward and screaming, shattering as the entire environment breaks apart, ending the dream. This dream was animated in a paper puppet style with CGI and is otherwise crude and minimalistic.
• This episode marks the last appearance of Di Lung.
• This is one of the few times Eustace allows Courage to sit on the table showing he still cares for the dog, a change that presumably followed after the previous episode, "Remembrance of Courage Past".
  • In fact, Eustace took a level on kindness here. He happily plays his broken bugle and at the end, he laughs with Muriel about his imperfection, though at the beginning, he is still a bit mad at Courage, but this is probably because of what he did to his truck that make him angrier.
• This was one of few episodes where neither Muriel nor Eustace were in danger, though Courage had a nightmare about Muriel, but it should be noted that it did not happen for real. Courage himself was not either, but he was under pressure because of the perfectionist.

Goofs

• In this episode, the bathroom and bedroom switched places.

Gallery