Things Only Adults Notice In Rainbow Brite
By Christopher Ramos
Audiences learned Murky's secret origin in an episode titled "Mom." Murky's mother shows up, and he pretends to be the ruler of Rainbow Land to impress her. At one point, his overbearing mother reminisces on Murky's early love for color, and we are treated to a surreal flashback that explains his entire backstory.
It's brief and played for laughs, but it actually gives incredible insight into Murky's character. We see a very young Murky, who is already sporting a mustache, painting and drawing all over the walls as his mother does the dishes. When she enters the room and discovers the mess he has created, she loses it. She gets down in his face and says that he is going to get rid of all this color, even "if it takes you the rest of your life!"
The shame he feels while suffering his mother's wrath sets him down a very dark path. Although she didn't mean to traumatize him, she is clearly responsible for the terrible things he's done. Strangely, this is never addressed at any point. Instead, Mom teams up with Rainbow Brite to defeat Murky, calling him her "no good son." Kids may have sympathized with her actions, but to older viewers, her toxic treatment of her son makes her the true villain of the series.
