The Maple Syrup Mystery

The Maple Syrup Mystery
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Episode #	27
Air Date	Feb 10th, 2010
Previous Episode	The Mysterious Snow Rolls
Next Episode	The Mysterious Itch

The Maple Syrup Mystery is episode 27 of The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog. It first aired on February 10th, 2010.

Premise[]

The upcoming pancake breakfast is coming up and Victor nervously anticipates a visit from a Maple Syrup tester. But when the syrup seems wrong, Alfred helps Victor by determining what happened to it.

Summary[]

Spoiler warning!
Warning! Following text contains plot details and may spoil the storyline.

Milo asks Victor how long it will take for him to finish his maple syrup for breakfast, impatiently waiting to eat. He then curiously asks about the man at the end of the table, as he doesn't recognize him. Camille explains that he is a maple syrup tester and Victor wants the title of Best Maple Syrup maker for Gnarly Woods, it's a title they had for many years. She then explains how the process works; he studies the scent, taste and texture.

The syrup tester is displeased with the end result, and he criticizes the syrup and takes off. Victor cries in dismay and the trio try to cheer him up. Victor admits that he didn't really make maple syrup, he couldn't get any sap, so he had to make do with molasses and a pinch of paprika. Alfred promises to find out what happened to the sap and the trio leave to investigate. They walk around until a weird noise distracts them, but they are unable to trace it to anything. Alfred makes a recording of it, and suddenly the nearby tree falls over.

The trio head off to look at Victor's equipment to see that everything looks fine. Alfred then finds clue 2, a bunch of holes on Victor's trees. He notices they still have tiny amounts of sap. Camille tries to determine how the tree sap thief could have escaped without being detected, when Milo suddenly runs into a tree. Another tree falls down but luckily misses him, and he panics to the point of nearly crying, thinking that he killed the tree. Alfred assures him that he isn't to blame, and they point out that the tree in question is a "pine tree". It's not a maple tree.

With their third clue, the trio return to Hedgequarters to review the clues. They listen to the sound and Alfred deduces it isn't an echo of some kind. Camille remarks that if something is tapped enough, it can leave a mark. They start to look over the pictures again and Milo asks if the thief wanted sap so badly, why not just take them from the buckets directly. Alfred states that maybe the thief can't.

Alfred's mother shows up with drinks and cookies for the trio just then. She says something that ends up inspiring Alfred, and she leaves to let them resume work. Alfred points out that each time they found a clue, there's been a bird. They bring Victor back to the trees, stating that they'll catch the thief in action. They point out the wood-pecker that shows up and Camille compliments how cute it is. Alfred explains that they were the sap thieves, a specific breed of wood-pecker that steals sap.

Victor then asks what he can do about that and Alfred gets an idea. They put up a bunch of noise makers in order to scare the birds away in a way that won't harm them, and allow him to collect his sap. Victor retries to make his syrup and he manages to get the judge back to test it again. This time he loves it and he gives Victor the first place award as everyone cheers.

Quotes[]

Milo: "My favourite!"
Mrs. Hedgehog: "Whoa, slow down, boy. Save some for Camille."

Trivia[]

This is one of the few episodes that Cynthia does not appear in.
The species of woodpecker in the episode is the Yellow-bellied Sap sucker.
This is one of the few episodes that only Gabby and Tina appear in together.
This is the first episode where a character was on the verge of crying. The character who almost cries is Milo when he bumps into the tree thinking he killed it.

Goofs[]

As the group look through the binoculars, Camille is missing her nose.
Oddly all of the maple jugs have a symbol on them. But while mixing the syrup, one of the jugs behind Victor lacks this symbol. At the end of the episode, a symbol appears on the jug like the others.
At the end of the episode, not everyone was present until the very end, when they started cheering for Victor.
Snow appears throughout the forest, but at the beginning of the episode, there was no snow.
Milo's hair is shown to be mostly white during the scene when they find the final clue.