The Ballad of Duke Baloney! is the third episode of Season 2 of DuckTales 2017. It first aired on November 3, 2018, on Disney Channel.
Synopsis[]
After his disappearance, Glomgold resurfaces as anything but his ever-scheming self, while Webby and Louie try to uncover the truth behind who is Duke Baloney.
Plot[]
In a flashback to the events of "The Shadow War!", Glomgold is dumped into Audubon Bay while attempting to restrain his fleeing shadow. He is later pulled out by a fishing boat run by Fisher and Mann, only to find that he has no memory of who he is. Four months later, Glomgold Industries is being run by Zan Owlson, who is partnering with Scrooge to start a charity called "Dimes for Ducklilngs." Elsewhere, Webby and Louie go on a boat trip together, Webby looking to fish while Louie's chilling out, when they hear a familiar voice.
Investigating, they find Glomgold, now sporting a real black beard and a South African accent, and going by the name Duke Baloney. Fisher and Mann, who are now employing "Duke" on their boat, meet the kids and explain how they found him in the bay. Webby is convinced that Glomgold is suffering from amnesia, while Louie believes that he's faking it as part of some con attempt. Their attempts to jog his memory and/or expose his falsehood fail, though in the process they notice that he has a particularly fancy money clip.
However, Glomgold later spots a McDuck Enterprises fishing boat, and starts to feel resentful towards it after learning that is catching more fish than the boat he works on. He starts concocting insane schemes to outdo the other boat, much to the discomfort of his new friends. Webby and Louie, attempting to unravel the mystery, discover quickly that there's no record of Glomgold before he arrived in Duckburg and none at all of Duke Baloney. However, they then decide to seek help from the person who knows Glomgold the best, and persuade Scrooge to visit the tavern that Glomgold and his friends frequent.
After a brief interview, Scrooge confirms that Duke Baloney is Glomgold, but suggests that the kids not attempt to help him regain his memory. When asked why, he explains that he's never seen Glomgold happier in all the time he's known him, and expresses the opinion that amnesia is a step up from his usual self-inflicted injuries. However, during the night, Glomgold has a nightmare in which aspects of his old identity begin to manifest themselves. Upon waking, he dismisses it, and is pleased to learn that Fisher and Mann have officially made him a partner on their boat.
Just then, a storm rolls in, which Glomgold had previously hoped to exploit in order to one-up Scrooge's fishing boat. However, Webby and Louie are caught out in it on their rowboat, prompting Glomgold to prepare to enter the water to rescue them. Before he can do so, a crane hook swings around and strikes him in the back of the head, also knocking him into the water. As he sinks, Glomgold's memories start to return, beginning with his experience as a child working as a shoeshiner in South Africa.
One day, Scrooge turned up as a customer, and young Duke Baloney expressed his desire to become the richest duck in the world. However, he already displayed a penchant for overly complicated schemes, as well as a willingness to suffer injury for the sake of his goals. Seeking to share his own experience with young Duke, Scrooge attempts to pay him with a dime, but Duke feels he has been cheated. Unbeknownst to Scrooge, Duke steals his money clip, and sets out to take revenge by creating the persona of Flintheart Glomgold and outdoing Scrooge at everything.
Regaining consciousness, Glomgold swims to Webby and Louie's boat, only to pull Webby into the water and steal the fish she and Louie have caught. Reembracing his pseudo-Scottish persona, he then takes off and returns to Glomgold Industries. There he finds Scrooge in the midst of filling out paperwork with Zan Owlson, and challenges him to a contest to settle once and for all who is the richest duck in the world. Scrooge initially refuses, but upon finding that Glomgold has his long-missing money clip he angrily agrees. The two then agree that whichever of them makes the most money in the space of a year will also gain ownership of the other's company. Just as they had made the deal, Louie and Webby come barging into the room to warn Scrooge about Glomgold's return, only to see that Glomgold had beat them to it, with Louie believing they had just missed something important.
Cast[]
- David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck
- Bobby Moynihan as Louie Duck, Papaya Vendor (uncredited)
- Kate Micucci as Webbigail Vanderquack
- Keith Ferguson as Flintheart Glomgold/Duke Baloney
- Natasha Rothwell as Zan Owlson
- John DiMaggio as Fisher
- Grey Griffin as Mann
- Kari Wahlgren as Roxanne Featherly
Trivia[]
- Main Cast Absences: Huey, Dewey, Donald, Launchpad, and Mrs. Beakley.
- This is the first episode in which Dewey has not appeared.
- The community where Zan Owlson went to college, Mouseton, is a location from the Disney comics that is known for being home to Mickey Mouse and various related characters.
- It is revealed Glomgold's real name is Duke Baloney and he is from South Africa. These are both references to the classic Uncle Scrooge comics:
- Prior to the creation of Glomgold, Carl Barks introduced the character Duke of Baloni as the second-richest duck in the world.
- In the comics, Glomgold was of South African nationality and Scottish descent; the previous DuckTales series left out his South African connections.
- The plot could be a nod to that of "Blue Collar Scrooge", in which Scrooge loses his memory due to a head injury, goes missing, and, after adopting a new name, soon turns up as a humble worker in one of his own factories.
