Odette Owl

  Odette Owl first appears in 1940's Joey Drew Studio's production entitled "Bendy in 'Ode to Odette'!". The short was commissioned by the American Public Education office to show the dangers of drug and alcohol use. The short stars Odette Owl speaking with Bendy about her time as a flapper girl 20 years prior. The use of surreal imagery during flashbacks and cases of disturbing subject matter forced the studio to revamp the short several times before release. 

  [EPISODE SYNOPSIS]

  The episode starts with Bendy and Boris in a bar, performing on stage. Boris plays the piano while Bendy sings and dances to the delight of the crowd. As the song continues, patrons buy increasing amounts of alcohol. An upturned hat on stage overflows with coins thrown in from off-screen. A man, the bar owner, watches how business is booming as dollar signs appear in his eyes. He starts to gleefully pour beers for Bendy and Boris with a huge grin on his face. He hands the drinks to Bendy and Boris almost faster than they can drink them mid-performance.

  At the end of the night, the owner claps Bendy on the shoulder and invites him back the next week with a smile on his face. Bendy and Boris are both drunk, swaying on their feet, with matching goofy grins. Bendy agrees and the two performers start walking home. On the way back, Bendy trips down a ditch as Boris stumbles on home. As bubbles start to form around Bendy's head, submerged in the gutter, a wing grabs his shoulder and hauls him up.

  An Owl woman fusses over Bendy while he coughs up water then scolds him for getting so drunk. Bendy tells her not to worry, that he can usually handle his alcohol, and that he's getting back from a 'swell party'. She claims to know a thing or two about partying, and Bendy looks curious, so she invites him in for tea. She introduces herself as 'Odette the Owl'. Bendy addresses her as 'Ms. Owl' for the rest of the episode.

  The two of them sit in Odette's kitchen drinking tea while Odette explains. A flashback starts with Odette dancing and singing up on stage. Men whistle at her and she bats her eyes at them before heading back behind the curtain as the song ends. Odette recalls feeling 'on top of the world' as she walked towards the bar. She accepts drink after drink from different patrons until she, along with the background, wobble nauseously. A cat wearing shades takes her by the arm and leads her to a different room, telling her she should sit down. A few of the patrons laugh.

  Once she sits, he offers her a pill that she takes without hesitation.

  "That wasn't very wise!" Bendy jokes and laughs. Odette grumbles and shushes him.

  As her eyes begin to close, he warps into a more monstrous form and tries to put an arm around her. She shoves him away and knocks off his glasses. His deep-set, beady eyes and disturbing wrinkly face jumpscares the audience. She screams and runs back to the main room. The patrons all turn into surreal monsters, laughing at her and pushing her around. Several objects animate to scare her including the door which refuses to open. The crowd drag Odette in before morphing into a churning black sea. In the distance she sees a lifeboat and someone calling her name -"ma and pa" Odette recalls tearfully- but the water drags her under before she can reach it.

  Back in the present, she hangs her head with shame sitting across a disturbed looking Bendy.

  "Oh, but that was twenty years ago. Twenty years ago and boys and girls aren't any smarter, it seems," she tells him as she pours them more tea.

  "But you don't look a day over 20, Ms. Owl," Bendy tells her, "and how did you get out of there?"

  Odette chuckles and looks up at Bendy, face rapidly aging. "I didn't."

  The tea she's pouring turns into black water that starts to fill the entire apartment. Bendy screams and runs. The last glimpse we have of Odette is a cartoon skeleton sinking under the waves. Once Bendy is inside, he looks back at what is now an abandoned building.

  "Man, I'm never drinking again. I'm wising up right now!" he exclaims, turns tail, and runs home.

 ANIMATA UNIVERSE

  Two days after 'Ode to Odette!' was published, Odette became real. Despite the short revealing at the end that she had either grown old or died, Odette appeared in the studio in her younger form walking the halls in a daze. She responded to her new sentience with distress and was bedridden for several weeks. Once the confusion passed she joined the other Joey Drew toons in their daily activities. 

  Odette's personality was somewhere between her true form and backstory form. She liked to sing and dance, but seemed almost terrified of doing so. She tended to mother the other toons, even knowing their shenanigans couldn't hurt them, because of her cartoonish nature biting her in her origin short. In place of decadence, Odette overcompensated into repression.

  After the toons abandoned Joey Drew Studios, she sought out medical help for her anxieties and was put into therapy. She flourished after learning healthy moderation. The help she received motivated her to help others, leading her to go to school and get a degree in psychology. She now works as a social worker/counselor for at-risk youth and toons.

  She can be found at the Vivace Club on Fridays, having her weekly drink and talking to the regulars.