Recap / DuckTales (2017) S1 E18 "Who Is Gizmoduck?!"

As Fenton figures out how to be a hero, Mark Beaks offers to hire Gizmoduck and help him defend all of Duckburg.

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This episode contains the following tropes...

• Adaptation Personality Change: In the original series, Mrs. Crackshell lived in a trailer park, watching TV all day while wearing a housecoat and her hair in curlers. In this series, aside from the Race Lift, Mamá Cabrera is now a police officer (probably a detective, judging by her plain-clothed appearance) and lives in a nice house. She still has her TV addiction, though, in the form of Spanish soap operas.
• Aesop Amnesia: The last time he nearly died using Gyro's technology was clearly lost on Mark Beaks, as he gleefully uses it without considering the consequences.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Gizmoduck bulb tech processor isn't the most helpful overall. Not even elaborating on some of the functions the suit will give such as "venting excess energy" somehow meaning "self-destruct mode".
• Ascended Fanboy: When Mark Beaks dons the Gizmoduck suit, he undergoes a transformation sequence similar to that of your typical magical girl. He is also extremely excited to be a superhero, even if he doesn't know how the suit works.
• Bandage Mummy: Fenton ends up in a full-body cast after his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Basement-Dweller: Fenton still lives with his mother, who often complains about his lack of a "real" job. By the end, his job is now a paid position.
• Bilingual Bonus: Fenton's mother affectionately calls him "patito," which is Spanish for "duckling." Since it's the masculine form, it basically means "baby boy" within the setting. Awww...
• Broken Pedestal: Huey loses his faith in Gizmoduck after the superhero sells out to Waddle. His faith ends up restored by the end of the episode.
• The Cameo: Dewey and Louie only appear during the montage of Fenton's first day as "Waddleduck", and the former doesn't even speak a word. Flintheart Glomgold's only appearance also takes place during that montage.
• Child Prodigy: There's been hints of it through the series, but this episode firmly shows that Huey has some major potential as he's able to rewire the Gizmoduck suit relatively easy.
• Chew-Out Fake-Out: Fenton gets one from Scrooge when he shows up at hospital - at first it seems like Fenton has definitely been fired, but it turns out that Scrooge intends to make him a fully paid employee and the official pilot of the Gizmoduck suit.
• Company Cross References:
  • One of the "good memes" Mark Beaks mentions is a turtle eating a pancake, which is a reference to the end of "The Catastrophe" when said video becomes the new obsession of a planet instead of Sylvia's video of Amusing Injuries.
  • During the bank robbery, Bouncer Beagle is wearing a duck-shaped hockey mask that looks like the logo of The Mighty Ducks, while also wielding a hockey stick.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Donald wanting a loan to repair his houseboat no doubt calls back to when it got chewed up by Tiffany, Magica's Money Shark.
  • The kids are familiar enough to the Beagle Boys at this point that Bigtime Beagle greets Huey by name during the bank robbery.
  • When Gearloose is getting a drink from a vending machine, it jams, and he tells it "Don't you start with me today." It's the same vending machine he got angry at for jamming in "The Great Dime Chase!"
• Creative Closing Credits: "Waddleduck's" theme song plays over the closing credits.
• A Day in the Limelight: This episode focuses on Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera and his struggles with being a hero.
• Destructive Savior: Gizmoduck's attempt to interfere with the bank robbery ends up causing more damage than it prevents.
• Didn't Think This Through: Beaks immediately takes away Fenton's armor for himself without learning how to use it. This leads to him nearly self-destructing.
• Disney Death: Everyone assumes that Gizmoduck died saving the city from the exploding processors. Fenton manages to crawl onto the docks in normal clothes, before falling unconscious from his injuries.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mark Beaks' obsession with Gizmoduck sometimes comes off too much like a Stalker with a Crush. It's notable that the obsession is squarely with the Gizmoduck title and suit; he couldn't care less about Fenton (who he ends up discarding as unworthy of the suit).
• Double-Meaning Title: While the public does wonder who Gizmoduck is, the main reference to the title is Fenton figuring out who he wants to be both as a person and as a hero.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Fenton is no longer Gyro's unpaid intern as Scrooge makes him an official employee with paychecks.
• Finger Gun: Mark Beaks does them while wearing the Gizmosuit. Unfortunately, the suit’s fingers really do fire, and he narrowly avoids shooting several people.
• Foreshadowing: When Huey has Gizmoduck throw away a piece of paper with "My faith in you", Gizmoduck throws it in the recycling bin. The faith ends up being "recycled".
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • When Mark shows Fenton all the bad Gizmoduck memes, there's a message banner on his phone from M. A. Lawyer reading "Did you destroy another copter?"
  • Beaks' selfie with the rebranded Waddleduck has this comment attached to it: "This guy showed me a Whole New World and now he's gonna share that world to YOU! Get HYPED! #NewHeroInDuckburg #NewBestFriend?? #TheFutureIsNow #YOLO".
• Funny Background Event: Doubles as a Brick Joke. After the family gets mugged in front of Waddleduck, he slams his fist into the street, making everything shake. The guy in the car behind him (who had just called Waddleduck to help with the parallel parking) gives a thumb's up, since he just got the space in front of the car he needed.
• Hammerspace Hideaway: Lampshaded. Fenton openly wonders where the suit manages to store all the pies it launches.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: When Gizmoduck tries to warn Mark Beaks about the missile, Beaks cannot hear because of his headphones.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Gizmoduck's initial work creates a bad impression due to suit malfunctions, especially with the press going after this. He does little better when rebranded as Waddleduck, assisting only those who ask for help with the app and getting lots of bad reviews from those he did help.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Fenton takes the suit’s core out into the ocean away from Duckburg before it explodes. Fortunately, he survives the blast.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Since Fenton's only put on the armor once before this episode, he's still adjusting to how everything works.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Gyro's frustration with Fenton trying to be a hero with the Gizmoduck suit has merits given that it's still a prototype and prone to malfunctions that could endanger people (which did in fact happen during the bank robbery). Not to mention that messing with someone else's technology is a bad idea. When Gyro eventually fires Fenton for messing around with the suit too much, the latter tries to defend himself by saying he saved Beaks from a missile. Gyro rightfully retorts that Fenton was the one who launched that missile in the first place.
• Karma Houdini: Although the Beagle Boys were defeated in the bank robbery, they managed to successfully mug a family while Waddleduck watched helplessly.
• Literal Metaphor: Invoked by Huey. He uses the Waddleduck app to have Fenton throw away a piece of paper that reads "My faith in you", so he would be literally throwing away Huey's faith in him.
• Load-Bearing Hero: Fenton activates the Gizmosuit just in time to stop a falling wall from crushing Huey and Mamá Cabrera.
• Morality Pet: Li'l Bulb slaps Gyro when he gets distracted by an idea for glow-in-the-dark hay.
• Mundane Utility:
  • The people who order Waddleduck from the app usually do it for minor, non-heroic tasks, such as painting Glomgold's portrait, getting snacks for Louie and fitting into a parking space.
  • Gyro also apparently meant the suit for more mundane purposes than Fenton ended up using it for. For example, the Extendo-Abs were meant for reaching high shelves.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In stopping the bank robbery, Gizmoduck ends up destroying the bank and setting all the money on fire. Later, he saves Mark Beaks from a missile that he accidentally launched.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Mark Beaks is shown to be way darker than previous episodes, his casual attitude rendered quite creepy as he maintains it even when basically enslaving Fenton or stripping him of the armor. Coincides with either Dumbass No More or Obfuscating Stupidity, as this is the first episode in which Beaks displays any genuine technical ability, doing a lot of the work to take over the Gizmosuit by hand, onscreen. Previous episodes were consistent with him being a talentless hack who only takes credit for other people's work and applies social media buzz to it.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Gyro, being a Fatherly Scientist, equates Fenton tinkering with the Gizmoduck armour with someone roughhousing with one of his "darlings" and is appropriately incensed.
  • When the Beagle Boys threaten Huey, Donald instantly becomes this and yells at them to leave him alone. Unfortunately, he is tangled up in the wire connecting the pen to the desk and is unable to physically do anything.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The Beagles are wearing masks over their other masks, but it does not help keep their identities secret at all. It's even lampshaded by Bouncer.
• Pie in the Face: One of Gizmoduck’s abilities. However, he hit himself in the face 3 times in short order.
• Police Are Useless: Averted with Mamá Cabrera who quickly jumps into action when the Mark makes the Gizmoduck suit goes out of control. She manages to save Huey's life and shields his body with hers.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Subtle, but Beaks refers to Fenton as "Chico" and "Amigo" twice in the episode, with the latter having Fenton angrily state, "I am NOT your amigo." Word of God has stated this was done on purpose to emphasize what a bad person Beaks is.
• Punch-Clock Hero: Gizmoduck's rebranded "Waddleduck" is this: enslaved to the needs of an app and unable to resist overrides if he tries to help those without the waddle hero app.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Given all Fenton has done throughout the episode, Scrooge would have every right to press charges against him for the theft of company property by stealing the Gizmosuit after being fired, allowing it to be exploited and later worn by one of his business rivals, and finally putting one of his great-nephews in danger. However, he also acknowledges the fact that Fenton saved Duckburg (including Huey) and nearly died for it, and acknowledges that as a dedicated adventurer, he will not always be around to protect Duckburg, so he chooses to let Fenton continue to wear the Gizmosuit as a paid employee for McDuck Industries.
    • Even Gyro (grudgingly) aquiesces to Scrooge's edict that Fenton's role as Gizmoduck be made official, along with modifying the suit to run off of Fenton's brain as the core processor rather than Gyro's Bulbtech, which was itself notorious for dangerously malfunctioning.
  • Mamá Cabrera proves to be one; she wants her son to be more than a Basement-Dweller, and has a duty to Duckburg as a cop, as shown when she saves Huey's life. With that said, when she finds out her son's secret identity, she keeps a vigil by his hospital bed and doesn't chide him the minute he wakes up. Instead, she quietly has a So Proud of You expression as Scrooge makes his offer.
• Restraining Bolt: The device Mark installs on the Gizmoduck suit, which keeps Fenton from saving people who don't order his services from the app.
• Running Gag:
  • The suit's ability to produce an infinite amount of Pie in the Face.
  • This is the third time Gyro has tried to get a soda from the PEP machine. Each time, he has trouble.
• Shout-Out:
  • Before properly announcing his name, Roxanne derisively refers to Gizmoduck as Robocrook, calling out Gizmo's direct inspiration. Also serves as a nod to Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego, which actually had a bad guy named Robocrook.
    • The "Waddleduck Directive Failure" keeps this going, being a more effective shutdown than violating the secretive Directive Four.
  • Beaks donning the suit looks even more like a Magical Girl transformation than when Fenton did it the first time; in fact, it specifically resembles Sailor Moon's transformation sequence.
  • When Gizmoduck rescues Mark Beaks from the helicopter, the scene resembles the initial rescue of Lois Lane by Superman.
  • The initial prototype of the Gizmoduck suit has Bulby, who operates very similarly to the old paperclip assistant from Microsoft Word. The fact that he only offers to remove excess energy by self-destructing the core also alludes to how generally useless most people considered "Clippy".
  • The Waddleduck song appearing in this episode sounds similar to the song "I Need a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler.
  • Mark Beaks, a tech billionaire, revealing himself to be a superhero in a metal suit, harkens back to Iron Man when Tony Stark revealed his identity to the press.
  • At the end when Fenton races to carry the processor core out to sea before it explodes, the scene is very similar to the ending of The Dark Knight Rises, complete with a hero Disney Death.
• Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: The Gizmoduck suit is a bit overengineered for the tasks Gyro apparently had in mind when he built it.
• Take That!: People holding the fact that Mark Beaks and Gizmoduck look nothing alike (nor are they same species) as evidence that they aren't the same character serves as a take that to people in the previous series refusing to believe Launchpad isn't Gizmoduck in spite of the obvious differences.
• Telenovela: Mamá Cabrera seems to be a big fan of the genre, as she is seen watching it in her free time.
• Too Important to Walk: Discussed; Beaks phones in for a new helicopter to get off the Waddle HQ's roof, and is aghast when told to just take the stairs.
• Training Montage: To deal with the above trope on How Do I Shot Web?, Fenton takes time in a Glomgold construction site to know all the potential of his suit.
• Unbroken Vigil: Mamá Cabrera keeps one by her son's bed after he ends up in the hospital.
• Visual Pun:
  • One of Waddleduck's clients are a married pig couple who need counseling. They're both being pig-headed.
  • "Elbow Grease" literally shoots grease out of his elbows.
  • At one point, the Gizmoduck suit begins uncontrollably throwing pies in Gyro's lab, several of which splat on a blackboard with pie charts on it.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: Happens to Fenton twice. The first time is when the Gizmoduck suit runs out of energy and falls to the ground, then Fenton wakes up in Gyro's lab. The second time is when he collapses on the bay's docks after his Heroic Sacrifice and wakes up in the hospital.
• Wetware CPU: Huey rewires the suit to work off of Fenton's brain in the climax. After Scrooge officially makes Fenton Gizmoduck, Gyro keeps Huey's modification.
• You Monster!: Huey calls Fenton this as Waddleduck… for throwing the paper with "My faith in you" written on it in the trash rather than the recycling bin.

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