Full recap
Scrooge takes his family to explore the lost pyramid of the pharaoh Toth-Ra. When entering the pyramid, Louie and Webby get separated from the rest of the group, ending up in the pharaoh's treasure chamber. Scrooge, Launchpad, Huey and Dewey encounter a group of living mummies - actually a hidden civilization of living people, dressed as mummies. The leader of the mummies, a woman named Amunet, explains that they live in the darkness, with the mighty pharaoh Toth-Ra showing them the sunlight for a few minutes when they please him. Scrooge gets upset with their enslavement, and encourages them to rebel against the pharaoh to see the outside world. The mummies are reluctant at first, but a taste of the burrito Launchpad brought with him motivates them to start a rebellion so that they can get out from the pyramid and eat more burritos.
Louie and Webby explore the treasure chamber, where they find a prophecy written on the wall. Webby translates the prophecy, according to which the great pharaoh Toth-Ra will bring golden riches to his people, but beware, those who cross Toth-Ra... but she can't decipher the ending. Louie gets thrilled by the idea of golden riches, but they get caught by Sabaf, a guard of Toth-Ra, who intends to throw them in a pit full of spikes. The two children talk their way out from the execution, and get away from Sabaf through a secret passage. The passage leads back to the treasure room, where they encounter... Toth-Ra himself! However, the menacing mummy suddenly starts to fall apart, and the children find out that Toth-Ra isn't actually alive, only Sabaf controls his mummy as a puppet. The guard explains that he descended from a bodyguard of the pharaoh, and his family has used Toth-Ra's body to manipulate the rest of his civilization into enslavement.
In the meantime, Scrooge and his family trains Toth-Ra's servants how to fight the pharaoh... and how to roll burritos. The mob storms the treasure room, where the pharaoh, now controlled by Louie, orders the mob to seize Sabaf. Webby shows the prophecy to Scrooge, who translates the end of the prophecy as "beware, those who cross Toth-Ra past this point", with a picture of a sigil at the end. As Louie pushes Toth-Ra's mummy, it falls on the floor, crossing the sigil from the prophecy... and comes alive!
The undead mummy attacks the people, but focuses on Louie after spotting that he stole from his treasure. Louie, cornered by the mummy, kneels down to offer his services to the Toth-Ra and do what he commands... and Toth-Ra tells him what to do: "DIE". Webby, however, figures out a way to defeat Toth-Ra. They weaken the mummy by opening the pyramid's cupola and letting in the sunlight, then roll him up in a blanket like a burrito and push him behind the sigil, which makes the mummy return to the dead. Toth-Ra's servants, after millenia, come to the surface the first time in their lives and celebrate with a feast of burritos.
Tropes:
- Aliens Love Human Food: Ancient Egyptians love Mexican food so much that it convinces them to rebel against Toth-Ra.
- All There in the Script: The name of Toth-Ra's servant-guard, Sabaf, is never mentioned during the episode and only seen in the credits.
- And Your Reward Is Edible: Toth-Ra's liberated followers give Scrooge a burrito to thank him for his help. While he's certainly not amused by this, he decides to go along and eat it, even admitting that it was very good.
- An Aesop: Being a constant wildcard isn't a good idea, while listening to the advice of others can be a good idea.
- Artistic License – Biology: The pyramid's community has lived sealed off from the world for thousands of years, but only seems to have about a hundred people. In real life, a self-contained population needs thousands for their population to remain genetically viable for an indefinite period of time.
- Artistic License – Religion: Louie and Webby finding a kidney in a jar. Kidneys were not removed during mummification as they were not considered to be important.
- Blatant Lies: Louie claims that he's a more powerful pharaoh than Toth-Ra a few times. It never works.
- Brick Joke: Huey, when creating a strategy to take down Toth-Ra, is warned by the leader that he has "laser eyes and a scarab spy network". When his mummy awakens at the end, it turns out everything she says was right.
- Build Like an Egyptian: Well, they are exploring an ancient Egyptian pyramid.
- Call-Back: Webby spouts her greeting line from "Daytrip of Doom!" (I'm Webby!) in a sheepish attempt to try and get Sabaf to show mercy on her and Louie when he catches them in Toth-Ra's chamber.
- Casting Gag: This is not the first time that Cree Summer was cast as an ancient, butt-kicking mummy in modern day.
- Chekhov's Skill: The burrito-wrapping skills Launchpad teaches Toth-Ra's servants are used at the end to incapacitate him.
- Contrived Coincidence: The mechanics turning Toth-Ra into a puppet all just happen to start breaking right now after thousands of years. Possibly justified as it's implied they've never been used so much all at once before.
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: When Huey tells Toth-Ra's people that their pharaoh keeps the sunlight from them as opposed to giving it to them, a jackal woman gasps and covers her child's ears.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right:
- Amunet claims Toth-Ra has laser vision and an army of scarab spies, much to Huey's skepticism. He does indeed.
- The only thing Launchpad teaches Toth-Ra's servants is how to wrap burritos, which becomes useful in restraining Toth-Ra.
- Dated History: Huey claims that mummification was an expensive process and only the very wealthy such as the pharaoh could access it. Modern historians point out that mummification was a technique that in different periods were made available to different classes. The richest and most elite could afford the best processes, but the middle-classes and lower-classes could access mummification techniques as well, only not as good as the rich.
- Didn't Think This Through: Dewey teaches the Living Mummies how to imitate pop culture monsters (like a shambling zombie army, Frankenstein, and finally a a zombie dance in an attempt to intimidate Toth-Ra. Funny enough, Scrooge tries to warn him that Toth-Ra is an undead monster himself, but Dewey doesn't listen until it's too late.Dewey: This was a terrible idea, and I see that now. RUN!
- Do Wrong, Right: Webby berates Sabaf for not doing the proper ceremony before sacrificing her and Louie.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite his role as Toth-Ra's enforcer and puppeteer, Sabaf's in line for a burrito with the rest of his people.
- Eternal English: HOW exactly did the people living in a giant tomb in Egypt learn English again?
- Exact Words: Webby reads the prophecy as "Beware those who cross Toth-Ra..." and can't decipher the rest. She believes it means "cross" like angering someone, though Louie is undaunted, as "cross" could mean anything. At the end, Louie accidentally crosses Toth-Ra out of the circle he's in and Scrooge finishes the prophecy, which reads "Beware those who cross Toth-Ra... past this point."
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
- Scrooge's inspirational speech to the servants of Toth-Ra is interrupted by Launchpad eating a burrito. Launchpad explains that he "didn't want my belly to grumble and interrupt your big speech... like I am right now."
- When Toth-Ra comes to life, Webby celebrates the fact that the mummy's real... then sees it attacking the citizens of the pyramid and remembers that it's a bad thing.
- Eye of Horus Means Egypt: Surprisingly it appears to averted with a possible case of Shown Their Work since the hieroglyph not only appears near a image of Toth-Ra, but next to what is probably meant to be Toth-Ra's written name.
- Food as Bribe: An accidental example. One taste of Launchpad's burritos, and Toth-Ra's followers are more than ready to rebel for the first time in millennia.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Sabaf discovers the secret passage Webby and Louie took, he smiles as if he knows where it was headed.
- Webby attempts to translate a prophecy, but is unable to read anything after "Beware those who cross Toth-Ra". What follows next becomes important later.
- Hidden Elf Village: The Lost Pyramid of Toth-Ra has an entire living civilization inside it. Irregular sunlight is used for terraced farming inside the pyramid.
- Hope Spot: For a moment it seems like Louie has soothed Toth-Ra's rage by his sincere offer of service. Except it turns out all Toth-Ra wants is for Louie to die.
- Horrifying the Horror: When Training the Peaceful Villagers, Dewey teaches them to moan and shamble, believing that the act would terrify Toth-Ra. Scrooge points out the flaw in this: Toth-Ra, an undead mummy himself, wouldn't be fooled by an undead mummy act. Dewey suggest that they should act like Frankenstein's Monsters instead.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After getting separated from the others, Webby wants to leave the treasure room to rejoin the group. Louie convinces her that the better option is to stay put because, in his words, "it's a room full of treasure. Scroogey's gonna find it."
- Large and in Charge: Toth-Ra is several heads taller than his subjects, and at least twice the size of Launchpad.
- Luck-Based Search Technique: While hiding from the guard, Webby reads some hieroglyphs and finds that one of the symbols is facing the wrong way. When she touches it, it opens a secret passage that she and Louie use to escape.
- Malevolent Architecture: Averted, despite Scrooge anticipating it at every turn. The tomb is full of secret passages, but the only thing resembling a trap is the curse. This may be justified by the presence of an army of living servants inside; traps would be more likely to kill Toth-Ra's followers than tomb raiders.
- The Man Behind the Curtain: The mummy of Toth-Ra is controlled by the guard Sabaf to keep the people in fear, following a family tradition. Later, Louie also pulls the same trick, controlling the mummy to command the people to seize Sabaf.
- Michael Jackson's Thriller Parody: Dewey teaches the servants the zombie dance.
- Mummy: Toth-Ra is the only actual mummy in the episode, but his followers also wear bandages in honor of him.
- Nepharious Pharaoh: Toth-Ra (at least when used as a puppet by Sabaf) is a greedy, oppressive pharaoh. His true, undead self is more like a murderous monster.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As Webby and Louie lampshade at the end, Louie causes a lot of trouble in the episode by not following the rules and focusing more on stealing the treasure.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Apparently Webby always dreamed of dying by being thrown to a pit of spikes, but gets upset when it doesn't come with appropriate ceremony.
- Noodle Incident: When the revolt on Toth-Ra is started because of the mummies wanting more burritos, Scrooge aggravatedly notes that this is "the dumbest rebellion [he's] ever been a part of", suggesting he's been part of at least one other rebellion.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: After Toth-Ra failed to awaken, Sabaf's ancestors made the mummy into a puppet to fool the others into thinking the Pharaoh is alive, keeping up the ruse for millennia.
- Our Monsters Are Different: Most of the "mummies" we see in this episode are just people wrapped in bandages. The only real mummy is Toth-Ra, who also has laser eyes and a scarab spy network.
- Pun: Louie refers to Sabaf's Puppet King con as a "pyramid scheme".
- Puppet King: When Toth-Ra failed to awaken, his guard turned him into a literal puppet, he and his descendants used this to con and rule the people for centuries.
- Quicksand Sucks: The episode starts with the group going through some quicksand to get inside the pyramid.
- Running Gag:
- Scrooge's inspirational speeches being upstaged by Launchpad and his burrito.
- Webby talking about how to die properly.
- Rousing Speech: After Scrooge's attempt trying to make the same speech as Launchpad gives towards The Living Mummies failed. Amunet steps up and gives a proper one towards them although it still has wished for a burrito.Scrooge: Don't lose hope. Remember the burritos. When a burrito falls apart you got to put it in a bowl and eat it with a fork. (everyone getting confused with Scrooge's speech) Or, uh, grab some tortilla chips and make nachos, I guess. Uh, is any of this making sense?
Amunet: This was never about burritos.
Scrooge: (surprised) It wasn't?
Amunet: It's about freedom to make a choice. A choice bigger than beef or veggies. We've lived our whole lives toiling in the service of the pharaoh. Now we get to choose for ourselves. And what do we want?
The Living Mummies: Burritos!!! (cheers ambitiously)
Scrooge: Wow. Okay, then. CHAAAAARGE! - "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Zig-zagged. On the one hand, Toth-Ra's mummy was being puppeted by the guard that was after Louie and Webby all along. On the other, once the mummy crosses a certain seal in his chambers, he wakes up and goes on a rampage.
- Shout-Out:
- The Curse of Toth-Ra strongly recalls the curse of the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
- And of course pay no attention to the man behind the throne room who tries to hide with a makeshift curtain.
- Dewey teaches the mummies a certain dance routine.
- This is not the first time someone has demanded that a Pharoah "let my [x] go"...
- Stealth Pun: Toth-Ra is defeated by getting turned into a burrito wrap.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After Scrooge fails to convince the villagers to rise up against Toth-Ra to gain freedom, they decide to rebel anyway so they can have more of Launchpad's burritos. Scrooge starts to argue, but then realizes any motivation is better than none and agrees to charge! For burritos!
- Surrounded by Idiots: Scrooge certainly felt this way when trying and failing to convince the pyramid inhabitants to rebel against Toth-Ra. Launchpad managed to rouse them up with promises of getting burritos.Scrooge: This is the dumbest rebellion I've ever been a part of.
- Tempting Fate: When preparing to storm Toth-Ra's chambers, Scrooge commends Launchpad for actually being serious about it... then realizes that he's teaching Toth-Ra's servants how to make a burrito.Scrooge: We're going to die down here.
- Training the Peaceful Villagers: Scrooge and his associates train Toth-Ra's servants to rebel against the pharaoh. Launchpad trains them in burrito-wrapping (which actually proves to be useful to restraining Toth-Ra), whereas Dewey teaches them a zombie dance (which doesn't work at all).
- Wallet Moths: Launchpad opens up his wallet to pay for the 200 burritos he ordered for the servants, but all that comes out is a couple of moths.
- What the Romans Have Done for Us: As the Living Mummies note, Toth-Ra, or the automaton of him, was actually a decent pharaoh, providing all basic necessities to his underlings. Most of Scrooge's arguments fall flat, and it is Launchpad's argument about the burrito that actually wins them over, much to Scrooge's chagrin.
- Would Hurt a Child: Sabaf tries to murder Louie and Webby after seeing them invade the tomb. Webby manages to buy them some time, but still.
- Toth-Ra similarly tries to kill Louie after awakening, even after the latter admits he's just a scared kid who got himself into a situation he can't talk himself out of, surrenders and apologizes, only for Toth-Ra to specifically order him to "Die."
