After my latest break from it, we’re back with the third and final season of DuckTales. Honestly, this is a great show, and once I got rolling, I happily would’ve gone straight through all 60-something episodes of it. But I didn’t want to completely ignore the various Other Doctor Lives projects that have been released over the last year, along with Ncuti Gatwa’s stuff. But I’m hoping I’ll get through reviewing the last season without any interruptions. With this episode, it's off to a great start!
Huey is up for a coveted Senior Woodchuck position, but so is Webby’s friend Violet, and evidently, there can only be one. The two are sent off on a challenging nature competition, where Huey flails to keep his head during the pressure of the race. Meanwhile, Scrooge has found a map drawn by the founder of the Junior Woodchucks, the legendary explorer Isabella Finch. He’s bound and determined to follow her footsteps and find her hidden treasure, but everything seems to be getting in the way.
Before I get rolling, a quick note. I noted pretty early in season 1 that Huey was probably autistic-coded, and I recognized Webby somewhere in season 2. But over time, and particularly as I’ve started looking out for neurodivergent-coded characters that might be less intentional, I’ve gone from “Huey?” to “Huey and Webby?” to “practically all of them?” This might be the single most autistic episode of the show I’ve seen so far. I’ll get into it a lot more in the no-doubt numerous installments of Neurodivergent Alley that I’ll write after I finish the show, but this episode makes me very happy.
Huey’s love and devotion to the Junior Woodchuck guidebook is well-known, and this challenge isn’t just stressful for him due to its high stakes and danger (there’s a bear and a volcano involved!) It’s also stressful because he’s not allowed to consult the guidebook during it. Even though I’m sure he has huge swathes of it memorized, he has trouble accessing that knowledge when he doesn’t have the security of the guidebook there to reassure him. “Eh, who needs a big book of rules, am I right?” Dewey says when they hear about this condition. To which Huey frantically replies, “Huey! Huey needs a book of rules!” As Violet seems to excel at everything, Huey gets more and more worked up, cutting corners and getting foolhardy in his increasing panic to beat her.
A few other fun things I want to mention from this plot before I get to Scrooge’s. Lena cheering, “That’s my sister from a couple misters!” is a cute way to acknowledge that Violet has two dads. I love Webby attempting to show loyalty to both Huey and Violet ahead of the challenge, telling Huey, “You’re gonna win this easy!” before whispering to Violet, “He just needs more encouragement right now.” Also, apropos of nothing, there’s a random bit where we see Della hogtieing Donald in the background of a shot, which delights me.
It's no surprise that Scrooge idealizes Isabella Finch. He’s never really been one for the Junior Woodchucks—he doesn’t really like to follow any rules other than his own—but a legendary adventurer? A hidden map? A historical treasure? He is all over that! But while the rest of the family goes along with the adventure as they wait for Huey to complete his challenge, they’re not adventuring to Scrooge’s specifications.
Because he doesn’t want just any adventure. He wants Isabella Finch’s adventure, and any deviation from that upsets him. The chief disruptor in all this is a kooky bird that keeps getting in their way, first interrupting Scrooge with its unrelenting song—“Oi, do you mind? I’m speechifying!”—and then distracting Dewey and pulling everyone off course. Before the episode is out, Scrooge is fuming, “Vexatious bird! Stupid bird! Oh, I’m so mad, I can’t even alliterate!”
We often see Scrooge annoyed. It can be at the kids’ antics, at Launchpad’s incompetence, at Glomgold’s schemes. But it’s frequently mixed with an amused detachment, a blasé sort of “here we go again” attitude. It’s not often that we see him genuinely beside himself, which gives David Tennant a different angle to play here. But we do still get a bit of the deadpan routine from here. There’s a great moment where Scrooge is trying to urge the others on, saying, “Come now, we are walking in the footsteps of a giant!” Webby gasps excitedly, and without missing a beat, Scrooge adds, “Not a literal giant.” So fun!
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