Flintheart Glomgold is a grade A sociopath in this adaptation, being willing to MURDER people to get richer than Scrooge, even kids.
The mer-ducks that the ducks encounter on the way to Atlantis after taking Dewey's shortcut have a rather unsettling design, with scaly skin, blank eyes and fangs in their beaks.
In Atlantis, there are a lot of skeletons in many of the trapped rooms, implying the Atlanteans didn't last that long after the city sank. Nor any would-be treasure hunters.
Donald's terror, given his three nephews are in a VERY dangerous place.
Launchpad getting bitten by multiple rattlesnakes which, as everybody knows, are venomous. He manages to get better by walking it off though, but still.
Daytrip of Doom!
Webby when she's in her attack mode.
In the Cold Open, she easily curbstomps the boys during a game of harmless darts by setting traps and using her nightvision goggles. She even ignores Huey's attempts to surrender when he goes to the foyer and claims it's the safe zone, shooting him in the tailbone.
When she takes on Ma Beagle, Webby turns off the lights, chants the Funsos slogan in a mock singsong, and lures her into a trap in the ballpit. As the triplets later put it, they would rather be on Webby's team when she's dangerous.
The Beagle Boys' plot to kidnap the triplets and Webby. They mug a mascot for his disguise at Funsos, and they try to grab Webby while she's playing Uke or Puke. Webby's reaction, to kick him in the face, was actually a justified one considering it was a kidnapping attempt in public. Small wonder that at the end of the episode, Funsos rescinds their lifetime ban on the quartet for fear of a lawsuit because of the potential bad publicity. And Scrooge McDuck's wrath.
Webby also casually mentions that the Beagle Boys may toss one of the nephews off a cliff to "persuade" Scrooge to pay the ransom demands.
Her exact words were "throw one of us off a cliff". She was including herself in that equation. And why not? She's no family to Scrooge, and what better way to show that they Would Hurt a Child, but avoid incurring his wrath by hurting one of his family, than to toss Webby off the cliff.
Webby's reaction to the ballpit as she starts sinking in it. She freaks out and calls it a trap. It also looks very claustrophobic.
And her reaction to it is shooting her grappling hook, knocking up a palm tree decoration with it, endangering the lives of the patrons of the Fun Zone.
Donald's horror when he gets the ransom note from the Beagle Boys. His worst fear, that the boys have sneaked out and are in danger, has come true, and it makes him run to Beakley for help.
Then on the Beagle Boys side, Donald delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to two of them before Beakley can even recite a strategy. It's a reminder that Donald was once a daring adventurer, and he hasn't lost his edge or temper.
And then Louie tries to do it again, after having been warned about the very real possibility of incurring a fatal injury. He's so sure of himself that he completely disregards Scrooge's warnings. If Scrooge hadn't been paying attention, and caught him the second time, we'd be short one nephew.
Webby describing that Della Duck seems to be a majorBerserk Button for Scrooge. According to her, he bought a post office that delivered junk mail with Della's name on it, and the mailman never came to the house again. "Bad things happen to people that talk about Della Duck."
In the last scene, Gyro, in his dimly lit laboratory, goes into a Mad Scientist monologue: "Gyro creates robot, robot turns on Gyro, Gyro controls robot...Gyro is robot." The look on his face as he says this last part just adds to the creepiness.
The Beagle Birthday Massacre!
Just how many Beagles there are. And they all want revenge on Webby for Ma...
One trio of the Beagle Boys, the "Tumblebums", have a Monster Clown theme. They wear creepy clown makeup and move around with unnatural-looking tumbles.
Well, two of them move unnaturally. The other moves verynaturally. Not that that's much better.
The ending scene of the episode. Lena contacts her aunt, Magica DeSpell, who appears as a terrifying Living Shadow.
Given Magica's previous incarnation, you'd expect her to ham it up. Instead, she says absolutely nothing and just gives a Slasher Smile in response to Lena's Mole-related success with Webby.
Huey spells out the full horror of Nothing Is Scarier, that the reason he clings so much to what's documented in the Junior Woodchuck Handbook is the idea of something being out there he has no idea about and can't protect himself from is too terrifying to even think about.
Magica tells Lena to leave Mrs. Beakley pinned under a subway car, implicitly to leave her to die so she won't be in their way anymore. Lena saves her anyway by levitating the car, but then trips and loses control of it, and just barely manages to pull Mrs. Beakley to safety before she's crushed.
It's also worth noting that earlier, Magica De Spell manifests herself from Lena's shadow without any approval from the latter, and was seemingly about to attack Mrs. Beakley before Lena thwarts her by moving away and taking Magica with her. Just because she's Sealed Evil in a Can doesn't necessarily mean that Magica has to entirely rely on others to do her dirty work...
The train crash and the structural collapses in the subways are very real dangers, in direct contrast to the series' usual cartoony perils of demons, ghosts, evil robots, and monsters. This goes a long way to giving this episode a Darker and Edgier feel compared to the rest of the episodes aired so far.
At the end, Magica doesn't look too happy about her niece's continual disobedience and willingness to get emotionally close with the McDuck Family.
The House of the Lucky Gander!
The episode actually has a bit of a creepy vibe to it, that kicks off with the scene with Gladstone at the beginning. When asked why he called Donald and Scrooge for help, Gladstone tries to answer, but then receives a suspicious glance from one of the casino workers, which leads to him immediately backtracking. After that, Scrooge and the kids discover that they have immense difficulty locating the exit of the casino and find themselves looping back to the exact same place. Then we have the introduction of Toad Liu Hai, who seems a bit too obsessed with making sure the McDuck family stay in the casino for as long as possible. All these events provide the episode with a rather creepy atmosphere, like you get that something is off about the place but it isn't clear what.
Liu Hai reveals himself in a pretty creepy way: everything turns dark, the walls of the casino turn into cards and Liu Hai himself turns jade-colored and grows to gigantic size.
All the patrons of the casino are transformed into cards, who may or may not have been once innocent people lured in like Gladstone was.
The fact that, for an unspecified amount of time, Gladstone was the prisoner of a luck vampire, who was feeding off his natural luck, is creepy by itself.
It's played for laughs with how Mark Beaks treats his time as a hostage, but the way Falcon Graves just strolls through heavy security with no thought for stealth or subterfuge and kidnaps Mark right from his office is pretty scary.
Perhaps our one look at the true Mark Beaks when Dewey brings his coffee a minute early, resulting in a chilling speech about how he's risen above the "commoners" and shouldn't ever have any wish denied.
Despite his plan being ridiculously over-the-top, the fact remains that Flintheart Glomgold still wants to murder Mark Beaks (and Scrooge). And the ending of the episode implies that Beaks accepts the invitation to the yacht tour that is Step One in Glomgold's Evil Plan. Lightened by the fact that Beaks returns in later episodes, so we know that Glomgold's plan failed.
The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!
Pretty much the entire premise of the underground society in Toth-Ra's pyramid. They've lived toiling like slaves in squalor a homeless person would object to for thousands of years...based on a lie.
Webby’s given a little too much thought towards how she would like to die...
Once the mummy of Toth-Ra crosses the seal, he comes to life. He’s a near-invulnerable undead monster with extreme strength and Eye Beams, sweeping away anyone who stands in his way with ease. And, rather than the Large Ham manner he talks when he's just used as a puppet, he only screeches... except for one word, when Louie asks him what can he do to serve him: "Die".
The Impossible Summit of Mount Neverest!
The implication that the invisible wormholes dotting Mt. Neverrest are fully capable of Tele Fragging an unsuspecting climber. Combine that knowledge with blinding snowstorms and you're fully capable of dying without ever having a clue you're in any sort of danger.
Even if you manage to avoid Tele Fragging, it's very difficult to find your way down the mountain due to the wormholes, and you might wander aimlessly until you just die from the cold and starvation, which is most likely what happened to Mallardy.
It's played for laughs, but... How many enemies have cursed Scrooge with their dying breath?
The Spear of Selene!
Storkules is put under mind control and forced to attack the Duck family (including the kids) by the will of his own father, all while remaining fully aware and begging his father to stop.
Anyone who knows anything about Greek mythology can understand why Donald and Scrooge are eager to get off the island quickly. There's never any upshot to challenging a Greek God to any sort of contest. They tend to be sore losers, and the fates of the victors is the stuff of legend (literally).
Beware the BUDDY System!
When Gyro finds out that Fenton posted some of the inventor's private blueprints on the Internet, resulting in Mark making his BUDDY robots from Bulbtech, he’s furious. The way both Scrooge and Dewey have to hold Gyro back makes it look like he's trying to beat Fenton to a pulp.
Dewey nearly falling to his death. It was just pure luck that Gizmoduck was there in time to save him.
Mark Beaks vowing to steal the Gizmoduck armor, thus proving here on out that he’s not such a harmless villain after all. This is the final scene just before the credits, with some very creepy music added on top.
The Missing Links of Moorshire!
The statues of golfers who failed to leave.
The main cast actually suffer the fate of becoming statues themselves. What saves them from an eternal And I Must Scream fate is Dewey winning the golfing game right at the last second.
Even though they're not as successful as they'd like to be, the Kelpies did mention having other victims. Also when the mist finally comes around they offer to drown the main cast rather than suffer the fate of being turned to stone. How many other people chose to take their offer?
McMystery at McDuck McManor!
The guests Louie invites to Scrooge's birthday party are all his mortal enemies - with one of them, Flintheart Glomgold, trying to kill him.
Nik Nokturne successfully summons a ghastly, skull-headed demonic creature that attacks the children. Fortunately, it's just the Friendly Ghost of Duckworth.
Jaw$!
Dewey was actually doing what Scrooge prevented Louie from doing in the Great Dime Chase: Jumping into the Money Bin. And, if you don't remember, doing so without Scrooge's years of training would almost certainly mean a cracked skull at best, as illustrated here. In a way, Tiffany saved his life by eating him!
The money shark. Not only is it gigantic and glows hellish red on the inside, it also succeeds in eating all of the protagonistsnote Fortunately for them, Getting Eaten Is Harmless. After that, it sprouts spider-like legs and heads towards Duckburg!
Why is Lena working for her aunt? Because the two are bound to each other; Magica can and willexert control over her niece until she gets what she wants. It's not known yet what the extent of Magica's ability to control Lena's body is yet, but geez...
Making it worse is that she spends the whole episode being unusually hammy and much more in line with Catherine Tate's usual performances, but then immediately snaps back into the former ice cold evil when Lena starts talking back to her, giving the impression that it's always just lurking under the surface and can be brought out at any moment.
There's a lot of parental abuse subtext with Lena and Magica, but Lena's statement that if they tell Scrooge that they snuck into the Money Bin, he would feed them to the shark himself implies that Magica may have been lying to her, feeding her nightmare tales to overplay the darker aspects of Scrooge.
Until now, Magica has only been seen as a shadow on the wall. Now, we see that she is actually three dimensional, and at least semi-corporeal. That's frightening...
The Golden Lagoon of Agony Plains!
During their first expedition to Agony Plains, Scrooge and Goldie ended up frozen in a glacierfor fiveyears. And they were completely conscious throughout it!
During the climax, Goldie falls into a pool of molten gold. And then Glomgold shows a gold cast of her where she seems to be screaming in agony. Granted, she survives due to her demonic medal, but the audience doesn't learn that for several minutes.
The fact that, after being treated as a Harmless Villain for several episodes, Glomgold manages to pull a Near-Villain Victory where he almost manages to murder both Goldie and Scrooge.
The Day of the Only Child!
Everything about Doofus Drake. He's a sociopathic Creepy Child with absolutely unpredictable behavior, who somehow managed to scare his own parents into becoming his obedient servants (not to mention he was probably planning on doing the same to Louie). Louie's discomfort around him is completely understandable.
Louie tries to convince Doofus's parents to help him come up with an escape plan. But when Doofus reenters the room, his dad immediately gives Louie up to save his own feathers, which even his own wife finds pathetic. His own son has broken him that badly.
From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!
The fight between Beakley and Black Heron in the Cold Open. Beakley is not holding back, and even that isn't enough to stop Black Heron from knocking her out.
Beakley's anger at Scrooge getting Webby involved in Heron's revenge plot. It's the angriest we've ever seen her.
Turns out to be justified too, as just after that Black Heron holds Webby at gunpoint to coerce Beakley into surrendering information.
In the flashback, Black Heron loses her arm in an acidic explosion - a Gory Discretion Shot comes just in time to spare the audience.
Though her death is not directly shown, Black Heron meets her apparent end at Webby's hands - with the latter sending her off a cliff into the ocean.
Who is Gizmoduck!?
When the Beagle Boys attempt a bank robbery, they recognize Huey and try to take him hostage.
Not to mention Donald was there watching the whole thing unfold, but can't do anything about it.
For the first time in the series, Mark Beaks is actually intimidating. Perhaps the biggest sign of this is the utterly demented look he gives when Fenton tries to quit.
Huey, Fenton's mother, and Mark Beaks nearly getting crushed by a falling billboard.
Mark Beaks basically enslaves Fenton.
The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!
The unicorn nearly impaling Webby on its horn.
Magica is freed thanks to Lena finally getting the Number One Dime, and proves to still be a dark shadow monster, just in three dimensions. When Webby catches them, Magica turns her into a doll and uses her to attack Lena to make her give up the dime, all while shouting about her betrayal. Then Lena's amulet automatically activates against the threat, and turns Webby to ash onscreen. Luckily, this then all turns out to be a vision from a magic dreamcatcher, but it's still clearly what will happen if Magica gets free, causing Lena to finally turn on her aunt for good. But just as she's about to spill the beans, it turns out the approaching eclipse has made Magica powerful enough to completely take over her body, and take up the search herself.
Even worse, try not to think about how Magica will get the dime with Lena no longer able to resist her; she's going to pry it off Scrooge, painfully. She's last heard asking Scrooge where she can get some knives...
Magica's Large Ham tendencies and the frequent shifts in tone in her scenes have made it unclear just what type of threat she is supposed to be in this series. This episode though seems to cement her as a Joker-style villain, equally goofy and cruel, with a definite sadistic streak as Magica remarks on how she misses being able to inflict carnage (since she can't interact much with the physical world anymore), and now that she possesses Lena, she can finally do so again.
Doubles as a Tear Jerker. Remove the magical elements and this episode was a disturbingly good depiction of what it's like to grow up in an abusive relationship. You feel like a hostage, the adult in your life manipulates you and constantly shows you their disdain, you dig yourself deeper and deeper with lies covering for them, and worst of all, you feel completely alone. Nobody but you knows how miserable you are because you feel like you can't tell them, in fear of retaliation. Ordinary kids do have the option of running away when they get old enough but Lena is magically tethered to Magica, and the final minutes take the abusive relationship one messed-up, supernatural step further when her aunt hijacks her body to ensure her silence. Out of the many antagonists in DuckTales (2017), Magica is the most loathsome one yet.
Want to know the extent of Magica's abuse towards Lena? The poor child starts crying when Magica merely hugs her in her dream.
"Where do you keep the sharp knives?" asks a Magica-possessed Lena at the very end...
The Louie vs. Bigfoot subplot is also pretty creepy. A bigfoot named Gavin tricks Huey into thinking he's a dumb animal so Huey and Dewey will let him live in the mansion as a "pet" when really Gavin is taking advantage of them. When Louie finds out, his first instinct is to call on Uncle Scrooge to help...only for Gavin to threaten to hurt Louie's family if Louie outs him, raking his claws across a portrait of Donald and the brothers to prove his point. A terrified Louie quickly gets rid of Scrooge after that. Worse, Louie's brothers wouldn't believe him anyway because of Louie's tendency to lie, meaning he's backed into a corner as to how to deal with things until he finally has his big idea to get rid of Gavin.
Sky Pirates...in the Sky!
After the episode's opening portrays Don Karnage as Laughably Evil in the same vein as the original version, it's quite a shock when he berates the crew on screwing up their musical number and kicks one of them out of the plane. While we quickly see he had a parachute and landed safely, there's no evidence of this in the initial shot and it very much comes off as something rushed into the episode so the network would let them do the scene. Especially since he does later say he kills anyone who can't measure up.
Throughout the first half of the episode, Don Karnage is shown with human-like teeth. After getting back on the Iron Vulture and regaining control, he's shown with visible fangs.
Just how quick this crew is turn against their captains, first Don Karnage and then Dewey. It's clear there is not much loyalty there. Then, they plan on sending Dewey and his family to their deaths. This part of the episode makes it clear that no matter how silly they may seem at first, these pirates really are pirates. And dangerous
The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!
The dungeons of Castle McDuck are patrolled by an enormous, terrifying demon dog that was summoned by one of Scrooge's ancestors. The beast gets very close to killing the triplets.
The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!
The plane is speared at its midpoint by a narrow mountain peak, resulting in everyone having to be very careful not to put too much weight on either end. The episode takes care to keep the realistic physics throughout the whole story, never letting us forget just how precarious the situation is.
Dewey is the source of much duress for Scrooge - and everyone else. Desperate to get the final piece of the puzzle, Dewey climbs out on top of the Sunchaser and heads towards the tip of the wing. Scrooge can only trail behind and plead with him not to put himself in anymore danger. The rest of the family begs Dewey to let it go... only for their pleas to fall on deaf ears as Dewey angrily throws away his radio and continues his pursuit.
Della's fate. She takes an experimental rocket for a test drive and and got lost in a cosmic storm. Even though (as we later learn) she's still alive, she has been lost in space for around a decade,completely alone, devoid of communication.
The Shadow War!
Lena vommiting up/crying out Magica's essence is rather disturbing: the way Magica's shadow pours out of Lena's eye sockets and mouth like a stream of inky blackness would be right at home in the Silent Hill franchise. Lena is visibly ill from the effect, and the shadow is still attached to her eyes by painful-looking tendrils.
Magica was trapped inside Scrooge's dime the whole time and traps Scrooge in there when she’s freed.
Lena turns out to be a part of Magica's shadow given life, and she does obviously not like going back into Magica's full shadow.
Lena: (As Magica forces her back into being a shadow) No! Not again! Don't send me back! Nooooooooooo-!!
The revelation that Magica created Lena to be her literal slave puppet that she could toss away at a moment's notice re-contextualizes all the previous Magica and Lena episodes and somehow makes them even more disturbing than they already were (particularly "The Other Bin Of Scrooge McDuck"). The recurring themes of shadows, abusive parents, people using other people as tools and a lack of free will have suddenly become a lot more chilling.
Magica turning everyone's shadows into her minions.
What's worse is Fenton's shadow, who ACTUALLY STOLE THE GIZMODUCK SUIT as well. Shadow Gizmoduck does not look pretty at all, and looks very dangerous and intimidating.
There's also the fact that no matter where you are, even hidden underground, you are not safe from getting your shadow taken.
Given the context it can escape someone's attention, but a furious Donald is just plain unstoppable. Just ask the shadow with the Gizmoduck suit. Oh, wait, he wiped that out.
Magica seemingly vaporizing Lena, much in the way Lena vaporized Webby in her nightmare in "The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck". Only mitigated by the fact that Lena was able to survive inside of Webby's shadow.
While also a Moment of Awesome, Webby fights Magica more brutally than she did Black Heron. And damn, did Webby give Magica a pounding. Losing Lena really pissed Webby off.
A blast from Magica's staff blasts through a pile of coins inches from Dewey's head at one point, visibly melting them.
Just how malicious Magica de Spell is upon seeing that the triplets and Webby have made it all the way to where she's waiting:
Magica de Spell:(Brightly, before switching to a cruel smile) Ah, look! Children.(She levitates off her throne and lands before the kids, showing off the Number One Dime with Scrooge trapped inside it) Looking for this? (She brandishes her staff. its focusing gem crackling with energy)Come and get it.
. In a way, Tiffany saved his life by eating him!