The Hand of Horror is the second half of the second episode of The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries and it originally aired on September 15, 1984. With a story by Jim Ryan, this episode sees the gang on a pizza run gone wrong.

The Hand of Horror – Episode Review

Shaggy is driving everyone to Louie’s Pizza Palace in the Mystery Machine, but is distracted by the toppings he will get and misses a detour sign, sending him down a closed road. Scrappy wants Onions and Meatballs, Shaggy wants all sausage while Scooby is happy with Pepperoni. Fortunately Daphne is paying attention to Shaggy’s driving and they stop just in time before hitting a brick wall.

Out in the streets, Shaggy realizes that they are lost. The gang also witness a man called the Great Ratfield emerge from a mansion and vows he’ll never go near the Von Gizmo estate ever again.  We learn as the Great Ratfield walks towards the gang that the Von Gizmo twins have fired him. The Great Ratfield warns the gang to leave at once as the Von Gizmo twins have gone mad.

Scrappy and Daphne off to investigate, while Scooby and Shaggy hop in the Mystery Machine where Shaggy calls up Louie from Louie’s Pizza Palace to have the pizza delivered to the Von Gizmo estate. Shaggy comments how he wants no Anchovies – and well this is odd considering anchovies were a key ingredient in the Shaggy Snack.

Entering the Von Gizmo estate, a floating hand let’s Daphne and Scrappy in. (they do not see the floating hand as it is behind the door it opened). Seconds later Scooby and Shaggy also enter followed by Pizza Louie who has delivered a pizza with anchovies. Noticing his mistake, Pizza Louie runs off and says he’ll be right back.

We then meet the Von Gizmo twins who accuse the gang of spying on them. One of the Von Gizmo twins tells the gang to get out while the other apologizes but also explains they’ll have to leave. Daphne, on the other hand, feels like they have to get to the bottom of Von Gizmo’s secret invention, so the gang split up to investigate the house.

Pizza Louie runs into the house, however the floating hand lassos the Pizza right out of his hands. Pizza Louie notices the pizza missing, so he runs back to his truck to get it. The floating hand then traps Scooby and Shaggy in a room with a bunch of remote controllers.

We get a few more gags with Pizza Louie and the floating hand and Shaggy soon figures out the floating hand is controlled by a remote control. After figuring this out, Shaggy abuses his power to get a free pizza from Pizza Louie’s hands.

After hearing some moaning noises, Shaggy finds a secret room where we find one of the Von Gizmo twins imprisoned.

Daphne and Scrappy then walk into the Von Gizmo lab where the twins are arguing as one of them wants to use the helping hand to commit crimes. This time the real Von Gizmo twin, who was locked up, shows up and we realize one of them is fake. Scrappy uses his powers of smell to unmask Ratfield as one of the twins.

Ratfield tries to use his helping hand to run away, by sending dozens of Helping Hands to attack the gang.  Scrappy rips the remote control out of Ratfield’s hands and then captures him for good until the police arrive.

The episode ends with Pizza Louie delivering one last pizza while the helping hands applaud his efforts.

My Thoughts

I give this episode a 6 out of 10. While mostly a comedy featuring a running pizza delivery gag, the episode did showcase a spooky setting and a fun mystery with the how/how dunnit and what the helping hand was.