DuckTales, Season 2 Episode 19: "A Nightmare on Kilmotor Hill!"

Episode: 219 "A Nightmare on Kilmotor Hill!" 9/5/19
Starring: Lena, Magica De Spell, Webby Vanderquack, Dewey Duck, Huey Duck, Louie Duck, and Violet Sabrewing
Costarring: Mrs. Beakley, Sword Horse, and Emily Quackfaster
Introducing: Phooey Duck
Appearances by: Scrooge McDuck (voice only), Launchpad McQuack (as a whale), Johnny Ottoman, and Randy Ottoman
Setting: Duckburg (McDuck Manor)

PlotTales
The kids at McDuck Manor are hosting yet another slumber party… will the FOURTH  time (“Jaw$!” (S1, E14), “The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!” (S1, E19), and “Friendship Hates Magic!” (S2, E14)) be the charm in avoiding supernatural shenanigans?  Nope.  And once again, Lena and her wacky relationship to Magica De Spell proves to be the catalyst.   

The kids manage to stay up until 4 a.m. but fall asleep shortly thereafter and almost immediately enter into “a lucid dream state shared by Lena’s magic”... or so Violet theorizes.  Either way, each of the party goers subconsciously create a whimsically benign dreamworld of their own based around their hopes and desires that they all must navigate.  Even still, the specter of Magica De Spell has found a way to insert herself into each dream and haunt Lena along the way.  

Unbeknownst to her friends, poor Lena has been having bad dreams all week and is using her One-Year-Friendaversary with Webby as an excuse for a sleepover so she could avoid sleep.  As the corporeal manifestation of Magica’s shadow (or something like that), Lena has suffered through some major abuse and trauma.  Because of this, her fears of becoming Magica have understandably overwhelmed her and she’s grown tired of fighting it.  Magica feeds off this insecurity and uses it against Lena during her hellscape of a dreamworld.     

It’s here that Magica makes her intentions known in attempting to manipulate and emotionally wear Lena down to the point that she willingly cedes her powers back over to her.  But Webby sees through the ruse and attempts to convince Lena that she’s “been good all along” and needs to “stop being so hard on herself.”  The rest of the slumber party jumps in to help Lena and, in doing so, defeat Magica and wake up from their dream.

Lena is not Magica.  All that “you know, you, me, same, evil, etc.” is a bunch of poppycock.  And, as we learn by episode’s end, Magica is barely even Magica - she’s been reduced to a mangy old loon, creeping outside the gates of McDuck Manor with squirrels living in her.  Magica doesn’t have any magic either, she’s just using some busted up telepathic helmet to enter their dreams.  But it’s Webby who best characterizes her: “Lena, you’re the living shadow of Magica De Spell, Scrooge’s greatest enemy, and you still turned out good.  That makes you extra-super good, right?”  Right.  And let’s hope that going forward the show follows its own message in allowing Lena to exist outside the shadow of Magica De Spell.                  

Quacking Points

In this incarnation of DuckTales, Killmotor Hill is where McDuck Manor is located.  But in Carl Barks’ comicverse, Killmotor Hill is the location upon which the Money Bin is built.  The origin of its name comes from Humperdink and Elvira Duck who first named it “Killamule Hill” but renamed it once Scrooge’s car broke down on said hill when first arriving in Duckburg.  Get it?  Kill motor! 

Among various mentions relating to Lena and Magica, Webby’s bulletin board includes a picture of Hortense who is Scrooge’s sister as well as Donald’s and Della’s mother (although, her identity is still unconfirmed in-show).

Baggle Kids makes another appearance as does Scroogeopoly of which the family played in “The Most Dangerous Game… Night!” (S2, E1).

In an attempt to stave off any supernatural occurrences, they have Mrs. Beakley stationed as a bodyguard at the door.

While Lena implores that “not everything I say is sarcastic and mean,” Violet concedes that she’s “found it’s clearer to convey no emotion whatsoever”

Each kid creates their own, unique dreamworld.  Here are the details of each:

• Webby’s locale is a tropical, deserted island where she has another encounter with the Sword Horse from “The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck” (S1, E20) whereupon it refers to Webby as the “chosen one.” She also briefly morphs into a version of Scrooge.
• Dewey’s dream takes place at a highschool called Dewey High where he’s the veritable Big Man on Campus and star of various song and dance numbers.  At one point, an amorphous blob pops up as his romantic interest but he’s “too threatened by the concept for it to ever take shape.”  An image of Dewey also appears of him being cradled by a moon of his own tears which he admits is “in all of his dreams.”
• In Louie’s dream, he’s taken the shape of a fat green cat who is “even lazier,” “naps all day,” and enjoys being “shamelessly pampered.”
• Huey’s lack of imagination doesn’t yield much other than comically long legs and out-of-control noodle arms.
• Dewey once again takes control and brings the gang along on a crackin’ montage.  He seems to be in the most control and comfortable with the dreamworld. 
• Violet’s dream takes them to a library because she just wants “to read more.” 

Violet astutely diagnoses Lena’s transformation into a wolf as being indicative of “outsider syndrome, perhaps a violent, feral instinct.”  Also, Lena’s form holds a strong resemblance to the wolf from The Sword in the Stone (1963).

During Dewey’s montage, we get our first appearance from the legendary Phooey Duck wearing a yellow tee-shirt and beanie.  

Also during the montage, Lena picks up an apple that transforms into the spitting image of the one that the Evil Queen conjures from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

Everyone’s collected disgust with Huey is hilarious as he, ironically, creates some of the best humour of the episode.

Magica’s telepathic helmet could be a reference to Don Rosa’s Donald Duck comic, “The Dream of a Lifetime” (2002), where the Beagle Boys invade Scrooge’s dreams using a helmet-like device invented by Gyro Gearloose.