Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice! is the third episode of Season 3 and the 50th episode overall of DuckTales 2017. It aired on April 11, 2020 on Disney XD.
Synopsis[]
A spy video game turns dangerously real as Launchpad and Dewey must stop F.O.W.L. agent Steelbeak's plan to destroy Duckburg.
Summary[]
At a high class styled party, Launchpad is seen entering the room as Dewey radios to him about his mission objective of finding agent Red Feather, while saying the password "cold pastrami on rye, hold the mustard" to her. In the meantime, Dewey performs a song on stage for the other guests, giving Launchpad the opportunity to locate Red Feather. However, a Mysterious man known as Odduck secretly follows Launchpad, and just as he's about to ambush him, Dewey disarms the man with his microphone. Launchpad then greets himself to Red Feathers, but he unluckily says the wrong password, causing Red Feather to knock him unconscious with gas coming from her spy bracelet.
Dewey is angered that they once again lost the game, as he and Launchpad take off their virtual reality glasses and leave the game room within Funso's Fun Zone. They then meet up with Scrooge and Webby, as they plead to Scrooge to let them play the game one last time, but Scrooge shows his discontent by refusing to stay somewhere he despises, especially since he only came to pick them up. Luckily for Dewey and Launchpad, Webby decides to keep Scrooge distracted by escorting Scrooge to check out the arcade while Dewey and Launchpad get back in line for one more round.
Meanwhile beneath Funso's Fun Zone and the sea, Bradford Buzzard contacts F.O.W.L. agents Steelbeak and Black Heron, positioned within a secret laboratory, to notify them about Scrooge's current presence at Funso's Fun Zone. This surprises both Heron and Steelbeak, as they knew F.O.W.L. chose the location of the laboratory to be under Funso's in the first place because they assumed Scrooge would never step foot in there. While Steelbeak reminisces about about an old lair named the Sate-lighthouse, Bradford orders both him and Heron to escort Scrooge and his family away from the premises without causing any suspicion.
Heron agrees with Bradford's orders, worrying that Scrooge and his family may stumble upon her Intelli-Ray if they snoop around too much. With Steelbeak unsure about the device's function, Heron shows him a crystal inside the device known as The Third Eye Diamond, a mystical artifact from the F.O.W.L. archives that is said to increase the intellect of its target. Heron then shows Steelbeak an experiment recording she did with originally a simple rodent, but when zapped with her Intelli-Ray, it increases its intelligence along with other nearby rodents.
Heron then explains that if she could manage to reverse the ray's function, it would allow her to take away Scrooge's intelligence, leaving him defenseless. After a few pointless questions by Steelbeak, Heron orders him to get rid of the family while she gets to work on reversing the Intelli-Ray. Back at Funso's, Webby continues to show Scrooge how to play some of the arcade games, but many of them leave him uninterested. As a last minute effort, Webby introduces Scrooge to a nearby skee ball machine involving a gold rush theme. This instinctively motivates Scrooge, believing every ball thrown in each point hole would give him more and more pieces of gold, and encouraging him to begin placing coins in the slot and throwing ball after ball.
Meanwhile as Launchpad tries to motivate himself in the line before he enters the game room again, unbeknownst to him and Dewey, Steelbeak sneaks into the line and follows them into the game room. In the virtual world, Dewey claims to have Launchpad's back this time to assure no failure occurs, with their first order of business being taking out the main villain Odduck. Launchpad then bumps into Red Feather once more, but this time Dewey manages to give her the correct password. After introducing one another, Red Feather shows them to the card table where they meet their competitor Steelbeak, much to Dewey's surprise since he's never seen him in the game before.
After Steelbeak greets himself, the dealer hands them their cards even though neither of them are sure of what it is they're playing. After a bunch of random card plays played by Launchpad and Steelbeak, Launchpad ultimately beats him, but Steelbeak nevertheless begins to attack him. This soon leads to a scuffle between Launchpad, Dewey and Steelbeak, with Dewey managing to send Steelbeak to crash through a wall using a nearby cart. Meanwhile, Scrooge is still continuing his run on skee ball, and although Webby offers to show him some trick shots, Scrooge prefers she doesn't distract him while on his roll.
Meanwhile, Launchpad and Steelbeak are now engaging in a fist brawl, unaware they have left the game room already and are currently fighting in front of everyone else at the Fun Zone. Moments later, Steelbeak manages to knock them both into a ball pit which ends up sending both Dewey and Launchpad into a secret hole at the bottom. Once they drop back on the ground, they unknowingly enter the secret F.O.W.L. laboratory, and soon after Steelbeak drops in on them and knocks them unconscious. Once Dewey and Launchpad awaken, they immediately realize they're stuck in two separate cells, but they assume it's because they made it to the next level since they're both still wearing the virtual reality glasses.
Meanwhile, Steelbeak returns to Heron's lab room where he arrives just in time to witness Heron testing the Intelli-Ray on two Egghead minions, and it successfully turns them both into dummies. Heron then asks for confirmation on the Scrooge and his family conflict, with Steelbeak assuring Heron that they still believe they're in a simulation and he currently has them in the holding cells. Heron is baffled that Steelbeak would allow Scrooge's family into their laboratory while wondering why she's surrounded with dummies, leaving Steelbeak irritated by her comments.
Meanwhile as Launchpad is still trying to come up with a way for them to escape, the rodents from Heron's experiment recording appear through a crack in the wall behind Launchpad. They then set up their own floating machine using some of the disassembled parts in Launchpad's cell. After some help from Launchpad to bring them in the air, they shoot a small projectile at a release button on a nearby control panel, Allowing Launchpad and Dewey to be released from their cells. Meanwhile, as Heron continues to insult Steelbeak's intelligence and threatens to report his screw ups to high command, Steelbeak turns on Heron by stealing her Intelli-Ray and knocking her to the ground.
He then shoots Heron with the ray that soon turns her dumb as well, as Steelbeak announces to the Egghead minions that he's now in charge. Meanwhile, Scrooge is now celebrating all of his ticket winnings, but although Webby informs him to now exchange his tickets for prizes, Scrooge's greed causes him to hoard all the tickets for himself to the point where he swims in it similar to how he would at his money bin. Meanwhile as Launchpad and Dewey make their way around the laboratory, they notice Heron in her dumb state, leading Launchpad to immediately run and fight her.
However as soon as he gets close enough, Steelbeak arrives with his Eggheads while holding the Intelli-Ray. Even so, Launchpad and Dewey manage to hold off the Eggheads, as it soon leads to Steelbeak accidentally dropping the Intelli-Ray and setting its function back to super smart. Steelbeak then manages to take aim and fires at Dewey, unbeknownst to him that the device's settings have changed. Instead, Launchpad shoves Dewey aside at the last second to protect him, causing him to get hit by the ray. With Launchpad unconscious, Steelbeak is able to capture Dewey and take him away from the room.
Launchpad soon awakens, now with a new persona due to his increased intelligence, as he then disguises himself as an Egghead minion using one of the unconscious Egghead's outfits to find out more on Dewey's whereabouts. Once he takes care of the other Eggheads in a computer system room, he uses the computer to discover that not only is F.O.W.L. plotting something against Scrooge, but he notices a camera monitor showing Steelbeak taking Dewey away on a speedboat from the surface. Meanwhile as Steelbeak is making his way further on the sea with a tied up Dewey, Dewey notices Launchpad on another speedboat coming right up on his tail.
Launchpad then tries to phone Scrooge about his current predicament, but Scrooge currently is too busy counting all his winning tickets at the arcade prize counter to notice his phone ringing. Scrooge then asks Webby why he needs to spend the tickets now when he can save them up to eventually be rich with tickets, but Webby claims he's unable to considering the tickets expire by tomorrow. Although the clerk is about to correct her by saying the tickets don't actually expire, Webby then gives the clerk a threatening face while implying to keep his mouth shut.
Meanwhile, Launchpad is able to catch up with Steelbeak's speedboat as he tries to warn Dewey that what he's seeing isn't actually a part of the game, but unfortunately Dewey can't hear him due to the loud splashing sounds the speedboat's engine is making on the water. Launchpad and Steelbeak soon collide with each other's speedboats back and forth, but it leads Launchpad's boat to crash into a pile of rocks sticking above the surface beneath the pier. Nevertheless, Launchpad manages to jump from the boat just before it crashes, as he then uses a grappling hook he equipped earlier to hook himself onto Steelbeak's speedboat, while using broken planks from his destroyed speedboat as skiing boards to keep himself steady.
Regardless, Steelbeak makes his way toward the back of his speedboat, grabs a hold of the grappling hook's rope and chops it using his steal beak, causing Launchpad to lose control and sink into the water. This allows Steelbeak to arrive at the previously mentioned Sate-lighthouse with Dewey, as he then opens the top of the structure up to reveal a satellite beacon. He then ties Dewey up to the top of the beacon, while Launchpad meanwhile below manages to swim his way towards the Sate-lighthouse using a bamboo stick to help with breathing.
Stealbeek then places the Intelli-Ray inside the beacon, as he activates the satellite just as he notices Launchpad standing behind him. Steelbeak then attempts to engage in another fist fight with Launchpad, but this time Launchpad outmaneuvers him, leading Steelbeak to realize the ray he shot Launchpad with actually made him smarter instead of dumber. Nevertheless, Steelbeak proceeds to adjust the satellite to aim at the entire city of Duckburg. Launchpad attempts to reason with Steelbeak by stating the device may very well make every citizen so dumb they'll even forget how to breathe.
Steelbeak claims that was still his intention to begin with as he tackles Launchpad to the ground, but luckily the rodents from earlier fly over towards Steelbeak and disarm him by knocking him unconscious with electric wires. After Launchpad thanks them for their assistance and they fly away once more, he makes his way to the control panel to find a way to disable the satellite, but to no avail. However, once he manages to untie Dewey from the beacon, Launchpad decides to sacrifice himself by using his body to block the beacon, believing he's the only one who can still be incredibly dumb and survive from the Intelli-Ray's effects.
However, Launchpad begins to contemplate his decision, to which Dewey questions why he is, with Launchpad admitting he wishes to be good enough for Dewey himself. Dewey then assures Launchpad he is in fact good enough for him since he's his best friend, which gives Launchpad the courage and confidence to hang in front of the beacon and be shot with the ray. This causes Launchpad to fall from the beacon, leading Dewey to jump down with him in an attempt to save him, as they both fall into the water unconscious. Suddenly, both of them awaken back inside Funso's Fun Zone, with Launchpad back to his original persona and Dewey celebrating with the assumption that they beat the game.
Just as Dewey celebrates the victory with Launchpad, they're both approached by Webby and Scrooge once more, as Dewey asks them about Scrooge's poor state. Scrooge shows them a moustache comb that cost him three million tickets, as he then falls to his knees and cries when asked by Dewey about how much he spent to get the tickets. Webby then states how it's best they don't bring Scrooge to Funso's anymore, as Scrooge agrees while trying to make use of his new comb and Dewey trying to hold in his laughter. Suddenly, Launchpad's smart persona calls out to him from within his mind to get him to tell the family about F.O.W.L.'s plotting intentions against Scrooge.
Unfortunately Launchpad instead tells Scrooge that he likes the color purple, as the group leaves with Launchpad's smart persona still trying to call out to him, but eventually giving up. Meanwhile back at the laboratory, Heron awakens alongside Steelbeak with not only her smartness regained, but also noticing Bradford now standing in front of them. Bradford then belittles them for having to clean up their mess including bringing Dewey and Launchpad back to Funso's to make it seem like nothing happened. He then restricts Heron from using any more rays and keeping Steelbeak silent by remote controlling his beak, as he reminds them that they're a part of F.O.W.L. and they should be smarter than causing the events they let happen. He then claims they're not trying to destroy the world, but instead steal it from right under Scrooge's nose. The episode ends as Bradford touches a rubik's cube, but then drops it as it was wet.
Cast[]
- David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
- Ben Schwartz as Dewey Duck
- Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack
- Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack
- Jason Mantzoukas as Steelbeak
- April Winchell as Black Heron, Red Feather
- Marc Evan Jackson as Bradford Buzzard
- Eric Bauza as Prospector Paul, Ticket Stand Clerk, Dealer
- Keith Ferguson as Eggheads
- Jeff Bennett as Rescue Rangers, Eggheads
Trivia[]
- Main Cast Absences: Huey, Louie, Donald, Della, and Mrs. Beakley.
- This is the first episode in which Della has been absent since joining the main cast.
- This episode is named after the DuckTales (1987 TV series) episode, Double-O-Duck.
- It is implied during the episode that Scrooge not only has an obsession over money but he has an obsession in collecting things that can be considered as currency overall.
- This episode is also named after the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice.
- The Double-O-Duck augmented reality game is based on the 1987 series episode, Double-O-Duck. The characters featured in the game, Odduck and Red Feather, are based on the characters, Odduck and Feathers Galore who were featured on that episode.
- The scene where Launchpad first fights Steelbeak pays tribute to the first fighting scene between James Bond and Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me.
- Before intending to sacrifice his enhanced intelligence to save the world and falling from the antenna, Launchpad says: "For Dewey and Duckburg."; a reference to James Bond and Alec Trevelyan's famous last words to each other from GoldenEye before the latter's death after falling.
- An instrumental score of the Rescue Rangers Theme can be heard in the background 2 times during the episode. The first time was when the Rescue Rangers escape their cells with the help of Launchpad and later again when the Rescue Rangers rescue Launchpad and defeat Steelbeak.
- This is the first episode in which Bradford appears without Bentley or the third Vulture.
- This episode features The Third Eye Diamond which was among the many unsolved mysteries of Isabella Finch shown in the previous episode, "Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!".
- Initially, Disney executives wouldn't allow the show crew to use the Rescue Rangers, because a project featuring them (possibly the announced live-action movie) was in the very early stages of development. The writers managed to sneak in Gadget Hackwrench, identifying her in storyboards only as "intelligent rodent", and eventually the rest of the rangers. When the executives eventually caught on, they allowed it.[2]
