DuckTales Season 3, Episode 11: The Forbidden Fountains of the Foreverglades"!

Episode: 311 "The Forbidden Fountains of the Foreverglades!” 10/12/20
Starring: Scrooge McDuck, Goldie O’Gilt, Huey Duck, Dewey Duck, Louie Duck, Webby Vanderquack, John D. Rockerduck, and Jeeves
Featuring: Ponce DeLeon
Setting: Florida (The Conquistador Inn and the Foreverglades)

PlotTales
“We’ve spent our whole lives at each other’s throats, Scroogey. But what if we could do it all over again, knowing everything we know now, avoiding the same mistakes? This is our chance at a fresh start!” This is Goldie O’Gilt’s plea to longtime rival and object of her flirtations, Scrooge McDuck. The pair, often at odds, have found common ground after wetting their beaks on the “youth juice” from the fabled waters of the Fountain of the Foreverglades. Now, as a couple of squirrely teenagers, Scrooge and Goldie attempt to make this change permanent as they thirst for more… and each other.

While both Scrooge and Goldie are starting to show signs of wear and tear from their advanced age, it’s the Richest Duck in the World whose deterioration is the most troubling. This is the second time we’ve been confronted with Scrooge’s mortality this season. After his creaky back kept him out of action in “The Rumble for Ragnarok!”(S3, E7!), that same injury is slowing him down once again. Lest we forget, he also floated the idea of finding his successor in that very same episode. Could we be heading for a point where Scrooge really does hang up his spats for good? This could explain why he’s so adamant in his attempts to stay young forever along with his wistfulness for time lost with Goldie.

Goldie’s intentions, while seemingly less urgent, are far more interesting. Up to this point, Goldie has been nothing more than a selfish tease who shamelessly uses her feminine wiles to take advantage of her male counterparts. While she has exhibited some real affection for Scrooge in the past, it’s never truly manifested itself into anything tangible or meaningful (as far as we’ve seen). That’s why this sudden change of heart is so compelling. Goldie refuses to let anyone get too close, keeping everyone between Scrooge and newly minted protege, Louie, at wing’s length.

But, with this newfound chance to be young again, Goldie sees this as an opportunity to right the wrongs of her past. Her life of solitude lies in stark contrast to that of Scrooge who is always flanked by a flock of ducks. To even acknowledge that she’s made mistakes is such a 180 from her usual cold, calculating, and cocksure veneer. Sure, there was evidence of it cracking when she proudly slips a photo of Louie into her wallet after their adventure in “Happy Birthday, Doofus Duck!” (S2, E18). Then, when things are going bad and she has a chance to steal and keep the rejuvenating waters for herself, she catches a glimpse of a tied up Louie and decides against it.

Every time we’ve seen Goldie, she always cuts bait and flees whenever the opportunity presents itself. She always chooses herself over others. But it’s different this time. Even once her hopes of staying young forever are dashed, she decides that “a fresh start isn’t worth it without (Scrooge).” And then, she even returns Isabella Finch’s journal that she pilfered earlier in the episode, grabs the “old coot,” and plants a long, wet one right on his kisser.

Sure Goldie is leaving again, off to do her own thing, but this time she stayed to the end and even consummated her hundred-years-long flirtation by taking Scrooge to first base. Will the two be following through on their intentions of “making the most of the time we’ve got?” I don’t see Goldie moving into McDuck Manor anytime soon, if ever, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the two galavanting along on more treasure hunts... not as rivals, but as dates.         

Quacking Points

The Fountain of Youth is the next Missing Mystery from Isabella Finch’s journal. Based on what we’ve seen from the book’s pages, the only Mystery left that we know of that we haven’t seen yet is The Stone of What Was. The gang tackled the Third Eye Diamond in “Double-O Duck in You Only Crash Twice!” (S3, E3) as well as the eponymous harp in “The Lost Harp of Mervana!” (S3, E4). 

Ponce de Leon is based on real life Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce De Leon, who discovered Florida while searching in vain for the Fountain of Youth.

As we learned back in “The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!” (S1, E15), Goldie’s youthful appearance is thanks in part to a Fountain of Youth she once drank from in Wronguway.

Figuring out Scrooge’s exact age involves some fuzzy arithmetic factoring in time spent in Demogorgana (a timeless demon dimension) as well as three years frozen in an iceberg. But, based on some other clues, he’s around 150-ish-years-old.

In yet another story detailing his grit and work ethic, Scrooge references working on his Uncle Pothole’s steamboat when he was a young lad. Pothole first appeared in a 1955 Uncle Scrooge comic and would continue as a recurring character throughout the series. A variation of Pothole, Catfish McDuck, also starred in the DT ‘87 episode, “One Upon a Dime” where Catfish appears in a flashback detailing how Scrooge won a silver dollar in a steamboat race.

After the Spring Breakers charge Scrooge because of Goldie’s claim that he’s giving away free t-shirts, many of the youths can be seen donning red frock coats thereafter.

Scrooge harkens back to the time Goldie stole his canteen while they were on Oak Island in ‘73. While not a Scrooge reference, Oak Island (a small isle of the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada) is a very popular locale in the world of treasure hunting. There have been numerous books published and television shows created detailing the mythos and pursuit of the famed treasure buried on the island. 

Rockerduck has thawed out from whence we last saw him literally on ice in “Moonvasion!” (S2, E24). It turns out that he’s been kept alive (though, not very well) by use of “millions of dollars in experimental freezing technology.” Jeeves, on the other hand, has been kept alive through Frankenstein-esque means.

As it happens, the waters from the Fountain don’t give youth, but transfer it.

Is this our first on-screen death? De Leon has his youth drained from him and decomposes right before our eyes (long curly nails included - yuck!).

By episode’s end, Rockerduck has had his “vim and vigor” restored while Franken-Jeeves has been transformed into a puppy (albeit, still stitched and bolted).