The Dark Canine Rises

Splendid finally adopts a crime fighting canine. But who's side is this furry creature really on? Find out in this action packed, kick-ass episode!

Plot
The episode begins with Splendid shopping around at a pet store looking for a four legged companion to help him on his quest for justice. But to disguise himself from the general public Splendid is dressed in the costume of his new alter-ego, Splendorman. Splendorman is just Splendid with a white face mask on and a black tuxedo, Splendorman is his newfound clever way of attempting to keep his secret identity safe from criminals. As Splendid is walking down the "Dogs R Us" aisle, he comes across a little black and white Dalmatian puppy that makes an adorable face at him. Because Splendid can't resist a cute puppy face, he decides to choose the Dalmatian pup as his forthcoming sidekick. When he gets home he names his new puppy "Buster" and decides to already begin with his training by forcing him to partake in a long series of superheroic scenarios from learning how to bite an enemy in the face to helping Buster develop a deep, intimidating growl. Little did Splendid know however that working a puppy to exhaustion is a rather dangerous idea. The next day as he wakes up ready to train Buster some more, he sees Buster sitting at the end of his bed growling like a monster. This at first flatters Splendid as he assumes that the puppy is just showing off by demonstrating the growl his owner had taught him. But all that excitement turns to fear when the puppy bites Splendid hard in the arm. Splendid screams in pain as his hand is bit completely off. Buster then goes straight out the window and runs towards the unsuspecting townsfolk. The first citizens of Happy Tree Town to encounter Buster is none other than Pop and Cub, who were having an outdoor picnic. Cub is very excited to see an adorable puppy right next to him as any child would be. His father Pop is too busy browsing through his Twitter feed to even focus on what is going on. While browsing, Pop then hears a loud scream coming from behind him and sees the dog brutally mauling his child to death. Pop begins to cry at the death of his son but he isn't going to out without a fight. He picks up a nearby glass bottle out of a trashcan and smashes the villainous Buster over the head with it. The camera pans in on the dog's dead corpse and the credits start rolling.

Allusions
The episode's title is a parody of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises". Additionally, the episode was made as a tribute to the film as it recently celebrated it's 10th anniversary last month.

The Splendorman concept is an obvious parody of Slender-Man which was another purposely topical reference as it coincided with the release of the Slender-Man film.

When Pop is looking at his Twitter feed all that can be read is "Trump, trump, trump, trump, trump,". This is a reference to how president Donald J. Trump is obsessed with the social networking website.

Buster shares the name of episode writer, GizmotheMogwai17's dog in real life although he is a Pitbull rather than a Dalmatian.