Ducktales, Season One, Episode Fifty-Seven: "Spies in Their Eyes"

He's a DUCK--TALES--HERO, got spies in his eyes!

Sorry, but I fail to see how anyone can talk about this episode and not use that one.

Anyway, here's Donald! Let there be much rejoicing! Although he doesn't exactly have a lot of agency in the episode, which is a bit of a bummer. The idea is that he's on shore leave in Singapore (we're all as mad as hatters here!); the sinister spy Cinnamon Teal hypnotizes him into stealing the navy's experimental…submarine computer thing, for which he is arrested, until Scrooge and HDL can prove his innocence.

The place is crawling with spies, is the idea, and there's a very cool scene in which the hypnotized Donald visits a den of spies, the Cloak & Dagger, to drop off the stolen thing, and a whole bunch of unrelated spies try to accost him with various cryptic things. Nice and atmospheric, and the whole thing recalls Barks' "Dangerous Disguise" in a limited but pleasant way. 'Course, then the scene is reprised in the light of day by Scrooge and HDL to much lesser effect, but what the hey.

Cinnamon Teal is a pretty great femme fatale, and I like the fact that, in spite of the fact that she's pretty clearly villainous (even if she had reason to steal the thing, she did it to get back papers that would incriminate her, so she was clearly guilty of SOMETHING) she doesn't get taken down in the end. The pig-face spy who's blackmailing her is pretty cool at first, but he degenerates precipitously towards the end. Spies are supposed to steal information and sensitive items. They're not supposed to just go around blasting at ships for no stated reason. Be less stupid, Ducktales!

But you know, whatever; it's a pretty good episode all told.

Stray Observations

-Louie: "What's hypnosis?" Dewey: "It's when you walk around in a daze and don't know what you're doing!" "That sounds like Unca Donald, all right!" No, it sounds like the forced setup for a stupid joke at the expense of character. STOP DOING THAT.

-You know, I think that if Donald's actually been convicted of espionage, he's gonna get way worse than just being discharged…

-Grimitz doing a hypnotized ballerina act=pretty funny.

-"You tore up my contracts!" Scrooge rages at the end, Donald having confused them with his discharge papers. But dude, WHO CARES? If the navy wants to buy stuff from you, why would that possibly matter? RRRGH.