Kevin, Gretel and Hamster are visited by aliens who bestow the latter two with superpowers to use for good. Soon enough, Hamster and Gretel become the talk of their hometown after saving a cat stuck in a well, while Kevin has to deal with being "superhero adjacent". Gretel is already eager on taking on some bad guys for the first time, and she gets her wish when a supervillain plans an attack on city hall on the night of a Duck Boyz concert.
Tropes:
- Batman Gambit:
- After trapping Gretel, Professor Exclamation reveals that his robot army were a mere distraction for Gretel, knowing that she would be so busy beating up the robots that trapping her would be a cinch.
- Gretel is stuck in Professor Exclamation's trap, which is unbreakable and powered by the city's power grid. What does Kevin do to save Gretel? Simple: Go back to the Duck Boyz concert and announce to the people watching the concert on TV to turn all of their appliances on and "overload the grid". Since everyone at home is watching the concert too, this means that the entire town has heard his announcement and just mindlessly obey his plea, causing the entire city to blackout, and in turn, Exclamation's trap to no longer work.
- Bookends: Two scenes from the cold open are paralleled with the ending scenes of "Empower Failure's" sister episode, "Oakey Dokey":
- Right before the intro theme, Kevin sighs in the driver's seat "Yep, this is my life", as the camera pans out to reveal Hamster and Gretel carrying the broken down minivan. Near the end of "Oakey Dokey", the same thing happens, except that Kevin, now accepting the events that have transpired, says "Yep, this is my life" in a much more content way while wearing sunglasses.
- In the cold open, Kevin and Gretel inspect the minivan's hood after it broke down, right before the aliens arrive to bestow Gretel and Hamster with superpowers to use for good. In the final scene of "Oakey Dokey", two adolescents called Lyle and Lauren inspect their car's hood after their car broke down, right before the very same aliens arrive to them as well, and to bestow them with superpowers too... except to use for evil instead.
- Captain Oblivious: Bailey, Gretel's best friend, notices that the new superhero not only looks just like her best friend, but also that she has the exact same name and a hamster named Hamster. Despite this, she doesn't realize that they are the same person.
- Double Meaning / Spoiler Title: At face value, one might assume the title "Empower Failure" concerns the fact that Kevin was skipped over in favor of Hamster when the aliens bestow him and Gretel with superpowers. It's also a pun on "power failure", aka a blackout, which Kevin manages to pull off for his Batman Gambit at the end of the episode to save Gretel and Hamster from Professor Exclamation's trap.
- Extra-Long Episode: "Empower Failure" is 15 minutes long, which is significantly longer than a regular segment in a lot of shows, including the previous works of Dan, Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law. Because of this, its sister episode "Oakey Dokey" is also significantly shorter (clocking in at 7 minutes), in order to keep the 22 minute runtime.
- Failed a Spot Check: Bailey, from her first scene, somehow treats superhero Gretel as a separate entity from normal Gretel, something she has to keep up appearances with. Doubles as Locked Out of the Loop.
- I Never Told You My Name: Despite not realizing Gretel and Super Gretel are the same person in spite of her noticing many similarities, Bailey did pick up on the fact that Super Gretel just casually called her by name. Gretel excuses it as part of her superpowers.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: While Bailey was pointing out that Superhero Gretel looks like Gretel, the latter starts to worry while smiling.
- Police Are Useless: Every police officer have been given the night off to enjoy the Duck Boyz concert, and Professor Exclamation is all too happy to take advantage of that by planning an attack on city hall that same night.
- Powers in the First Episode: Being the series premiere, Hamster and Gretel are bestowed their superpowers from space aliens.
- Secret-Keeper: Because Gretel and Hamster suddenly having superpowers now is quite a big revelation, Kevin has Gretel promise to keep it a secret from everyone, including her best friend Bailey, and the only other person who knows about it is Kevin and Gretel's cousin Fred. Kevin knew Fred would not spill the beans because of her "disdain for human society".
- Shipper on Deck: Fred realizes that Kevin has a crush on Hiromi, a girl that works at the local comic shop, and, noticing the Duck Boyz T-shirt she's wearing, decides to set the two up on a date at the Duck Boyz concert tonight, giving two tickets she received from a friend who's the band's guitarist to Kevin and Hiromi instead.
- Short Cuts Make Long Delays: Hamster and Gretel have to enter through a pipe to get to a cat trapped down a well. Kevin tries to guide them to the well, but Gretel prefers to punch right through the wall. Kevin warns her that she could break a water main and flood the well, but Gretel doesn't listen and just goes through the wall. She gets there right after Hamster, who followed the pipe like Kevin wanted, and predictably, a water main breaks and floods the well. Fortunately, Hamster swallows all the water and everyone is safe... except for Kevin when Hamster spits out all the water on him and the van.
- Stood Up: Hiromi ends up being stood up because Kevin had to leave due to an emergency concerning a supervillain planning an attack on city hall. Thankfully, Hiromi is quite forgiving of Kevin's tardiness.
- Timmy in a Well: A cat fell down a well and Hamster and Gretel have to rescue it. Gretel's habit of just punching things without foresight complicates the rescue.
