Warning: Spoilers below for The Santa Clauses episode 5!The Santa Clauses finally revealed what happened to Bernard the Elf after his disappearance from the Santa Clause franchise. The Santa Clauses takes Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) through a whole new challenge when he decides to retire as Santa. Unfortunately, his chosen successor, Simon Choski (Kal Penn), makes a series of well-meaning but ill-considered decisions that threaten to destroy the world’s Christmas spirit for good.
In The Santa Clauses episode 5, “Chapter Five: Across the Yule-Verse,” Scott Calvin’s Santa retirement is interrupted when his former most trusted elf, Bernard (David Krumholtz), unexpectedly shows up. With Bernard’s last appearance in the franchise being in 2002’s The Santa Clause 2, his return is as much of a surprise to Scott as it is to the audience. Fortunately, The Santa Clauses fills both Scott and viewers in on what Bernard has been up to since The Santa Clause 2.
Santa Clause’s Bernard The Elf Left The North Pole To Marry A Human
Upon Bernard’s arrival in The Santa Clauses episode 5, Scott comments that the elf had previously vanished without explanation and never returned. Bernard reveals, “I met someone, a human,” indicating that he voluntarily chose to give up being an elf for a life as a married man. This reveals a fair amount about what being an elf entails.
With Bernard leaving the North Pole to get married, it seems that elves have the same option to retire that Scott did as Santa Claus. Bernard’s sudden departure also seems to suggest that elves do not need to go through the same kinds of channels as Santa when they do retire. Given that there are hundreds of elves at the North Pole, one elf deciding to leave does not throw the whole operation into upheaval.
Why Bernard The Elf Has Aged In The Santa Clauses
Retirement for elves does also seem to come at a price, with Scott commenting in The Santa Clauses episode 5 that Bernard is visibly much older than he had been. Bernard explains that by getting married, “I gave up eternal youth as an elf,” leading to his older appearance. Though Bernard is technically 1600 years old, as he reveals, it seems that by getting married, he has effectively become human and aged.
While The Santa Clauses‘ elves are very old, Bernard already stood out in the movies by resembling a teenager while the other elves looked like children, as actor David Krumholtz was 15 and 16 years old when he made the first Santa Clause and 23 during the production of The Santa Clause 2. Bernard’s marriage and his older age work as a plot device to explain Krumholtz now looking his present age of 45 in The Santa Clauses. In any case, fans of the Santa Clause series will likely just delight in the wise-cracking, beloved elf Bernard being back again, in The Santa Clauses.
