*Episode premise spoilers.*
It’s a little wild to think we’re approaching the end of season 1 here. Only a few more to go! Understandably, that means important movement on a major arc storyline. Not the one about the triplets’ mom—the one about Webby’s friend Lena. Seriously, when I started this show, I would not have guessed that the DuckTales reboot features multiple ongoing arcs.
Webby’s friend Lena is conflicted. She took the overeager, socially-awkward Webby under her wing as a ploy, because her wicked aunt has an old score to settle with Scrooge and enlisted Lena to do her dirty work. But now that she’s on the brink of potentially fulfilling her secret mission, Lena worries about Webby getting hurt in the process. Elsewhere, Huey has befriended a Bigfoot and taken it into the mansion, but while Dewey helps him hide it from Scrooge, Louie is suspicious of the hairy beast.
Lena’s storyline, that of the spy/fake friend who has misgivings when she starts to develop real affection, is a tried-and-true one, but the story makes it work. Webby is a lot—when Lena professes an interest in the McDuck family history, Webby escalates from fan clubs to blood oaths with a quickness—but she’s so enthusiastic and sincere that it’s hard to resist her charms for long. Lena is in a bad spot, because her aunt is no one to mess around with, but when the truth inevitably comes out, hopefully it won’t take long from Webby to move from feeling betrayed to figuring out how to help Lena stop her aunt.
The storyline involves a new locale in Scrooge’s mansion, the “other bin” where he keeps all his most dangerous secrets and discoveries. Naturally, Webby’s reactions to all of this ranges from the ecstatically excited (“Sword horse!” she screams when she sees a unicorn) to the amusingly blasé (“Don’t worry,” she assures Lena, “it’s just some assorted zombie parts.”)
The triplets’ storyline is a definite B-plot, although they have more to do than they have in most of Lena’s episodes. Huey and Dewey’s gaga affection for Bigfoot contrasts amusingly with Louie’s irritation, but I like that it goes deeper than him just being annoyed by Huey’s new monster/pet. He quickly suspects that the Bigfoot’s aggravating ways aren’t just innocently unknowing. “Simple-minded?!” Louie protests to his brothers. “He’s making a sandwich on a panini press!” This is a good plot for Louie, who doesn’t really take the lead in storylines too often. But as someone who’s always trying to get something for nothing, it makes sense that he’d be the one to assume the Bigfoot might have an angle.
Since both storylines revolve around doing something behind Scrooge’s back, that means he stays more on the periphery of the action. He’s always coming around the corner right as Webby and Lena are trying to access the secret other bin, or entering a room just after the triplets have frantically stuffed the Bigfoot in a closet. This means there’s not a whole lot for David Tennant to do this week. I do like this line, though, which displays a very quintessentially-Scrooge brand of taking care of children: “What if you were lost? Or hurt? Or eaten by the dragon?” Hehe—never change, Scrooge!
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