When Honker sees what he thinks is a meteor, it's actually a hat box-shaped spaceship containing a trio of hat-like alien parasites. When the alien leader takes Honker as his host, it's up to Gosalyn to save him.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: The Muddlefoot parents and Drake Mallard completely ignore Honker's warnings about the spaceship crashing from the sky. It's up to the two children, Honker and Gosalyn, to stop the alien invaders.
- And I Must Scream: The Brainteasers' hosts are fully aware but forced to do whatever the Brainteasers make them do.Honker: It was horrible! I had to do whatever he wanted! ...It was worse than Tank.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: And then Gosalyn was a Brainteaser host. After spending most of the episode as the only member of the main cast to not be controlled by one of the Brianteasers, after Gosalyn manages to finally save Honker, Flarg almost immediately takes over her instead in the last act, forcing Honker to save everyone on his own.
- Artistic License – Biology: Nikto, being a Big Eater, is happy to take over the body of a cow with four stomachs. When Flarg forces him to switch to a sheep's body, he complains that now he has only one stomach. Sheep are ruminants with four stomachs just like cows.
- Aww Choo: As Gosalyn is praising Honker as the hero of Earth as a warning to any possible future alien invaders, Honker lets out a tiny, adorable sneeze and then smiles bashfully.
- Big Eater: Nikto is a Brainteaser with a huge appetite. Honker takes advantage of this in the climax, throwing him a metal can full of pepper.
- Brick Joke: When Honker gets back home at the end of the episode, Herb sympathizes that his televised "take over the world" plan didn't work out.
- Bullying a Dragon: Tank at one point attempts to bully Honker, not knowing that Flarg is controlling him, and thus enhancing his physical strength. Cue a Curbstomp Battle as Flarg/Honker beats Tank with zero effort.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody but Gosalyn believes Honker when he tells them that he saw a fire ball falling from the sky, and later they don't believe them when they tell them about the Brainteasers.
- Comically Missing the Point: Flarg, controlling Honker's body, interrupts a live television feed to announce his conquest for world domination, declaring that if the world leaders do not accept him as their ruler he will begin firing nukes. When the Muddlefoots see his broadcast, Herb and Binkie's response is to be proud of their own son for having so much drive that he could potentially take over the entire planet.
- Decoy Protagonist: Most of the episode focuses on Gosalyn trying to save Honker, Darkwing, and Launchpad after they're taken over by hat-like alien beings who are seeking to achieve world domination. Near the end of the episode, Honker is freed from Flarg's control, but Gosalyn is then immediately taken over by him instead, leaving Honker on his own and setting him up as the real hero.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Flarg hijack all the TV stations to deliver his ultimatum to the world.
- Hypnotic Eyes: The Brainteasers are able to mesmerize people this way.
- Kitchen Sink Included: When Gosalyn discovers the Brainteasers she runs home and baricades the door with a table, chairs, the refrigerator and finally a kitchen sink.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Honker, not Darkwing, is the one who gets dangerous.
- Metal Muncher: The Brainteasers' diet is comprised entirely of metal, which thankfully doesn't seem to have an adverse affect on their hosts.
- Motive Decay: Nefariously inverted. Flarg initially couldn't care less about Earth, and only wants to use Honker, Drake and Launchpad's bodies to contact his allies to rescue him - with Gosalyn being mostly concerned with him taking the three of them with him off planet as hosts when he leaves. This changes when Flarg gets a look at Earth's destructive military potential, at which point his goals change dramatically from leaving to conquering Earth so he could use it against his enemies, turning the stakes into a race to stop him before he blows up a bunch of cities to send a message.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Launchpad initially doesn't believe Gosalyn that hats have taken over Drake and Honker's bodies. He spots them, with the hats on their heads and talking in different voices, and doesn't see anything odd... Until Drake transforms into Darkwing. "You're right, DW would never wear a hat that clashes with his outfit."
- Planet of Hats: The Brainteasers are the most literal example of this trope, being actual sentient alien hats who hop onto other beings' heads to control them.
- Puppeteer Parasite: The Brainteasers are able to control people after latching onto their heads.
- Shout-Out: Flarg at one point says that he and his crew "need to phone home."
- So Proud of You: As noted above, it's Played for Laughs with Herb and Binkie, who view Flarg's broadcast threatening the planet with nuclear annihilation if they do not bow down to him, and are overjoyed at Honker making something of himself so much that he could end up taking over the Earth.
- Take Over the World: After crash-landing on the planet, Flarg's initial interest was to just leave the Earth, taking the hosts his gang had taken with them. However, when he found out the planet had nuclear missiles, he changed his plan, deciding to take over the world and add it to his empire.
- Villainous Plan Inertia: Even though Honker managed to free everyone from Flarg and his crew, the missiles they activated still launched. Fortunately, a ship of peaceful Brainteasers arrived in time to stop them before they hit anything.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Pepper and dust easily causes the Brainteasers to sneeze, which in turn will force them to lose control of their hosts.
- Willing Channeler: When Honker realizes the Brainteasers that arrived at the end are friendlies, given they vaporize the nuclear warheads Flarg launched but leave the protagonists be, he willingly dons the Girdist Revolutionaries' leader, Klaatu II, to give him a literal and figurative platform to speak.
