Duchess of Wails (Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends)

"Duchess of Wails"
One step forward = two steps backwards.
Series: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Part of Season: 3 Episode Number: 5 Air Date: September 23, 2005 Writer: Adam Pava Amy Keating Rogers Director: Craig McCracken Previous episode: Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals Next episode: Foster’s Goes to Europe

Duchess of Wails is an episode from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It is the fifth episode of the third season and is overall the thirty-second episode of the series.

Summary

After waiting for so long, Duchess has finally been adopted, but the family that has adopted her turns out to be Mac's neighbors, and Mac's mother does not like Duchess' attitude, which makes her plan to move to Singapore (which Terrence lies about and makes Mac believe), so Mac and Bloo must get Duchess back to Foster’s.

Why It Took A Step Backwards

1. "Duchess of Wails" blatantly takes elements from the three-part season 1 pilot episode/movie "House of Bloo's", but without any of the fun charm that it previously had, with both episodes involving:
   • Mac being threaten by his mother that involves him not being able to see Bloo again.
   • Having Terrence and Duchess be the main villains.
   • A primary plot-point being about one of the main characters might leave.
   • The climax that takes place at night in front of Fosters.
2. While nowhere NEAR as bad as "Imposters Home for Um.. Make 'Em Up Pals" previous, this is still a very mean-spirited and unpleasant episode, due all of the cruel treatment both Mac and Bloo get though out most of the episode.
3. This episode is also very notorious for being an incredibly cruel Mac and Bloo torture episode, with Mac getting tormented during the first half of the episode and Bloo getting the torture moment near the end of the episode (which will be talked about later).
4. Duchess is at her worst in this episode as she acts like a total jerk early on in the episode to everyone for no reason.
5. In the season 2 episode "Beat with a Schtick", Mr. Herriman wants to expel Bloo after he stole his monocle, but in "Duchess of Wails", the Expulsion Sanction is not mentioned once to expel Duchess and now "we can't expel an imaginary friend because it's against our policies", which is incredibly hypocritical.
   • That could have worked if they had mentioned the Duchess' sanction in the pilot movie, "House of Bloo's".
6. Mac's mother is super unlikable in this episode, as she plans to move all because she does not like Duchess' behavior.
7. This episode has three noticeable plot-holes that are never explain:
   • Instead of moving, why can't Mac's mother just have a talk with Duchess as to better her behaver, or better yet, get ether the law enforcement or the cops to handle her?
   • Terrence somehow made it to Fosters, despite Mac and Bloo being in front of him and Terrence falling in the cement.
   • Biggest plot hole: Frankie, Mr. Herriman and Madame Foster all believe Terrence and sides with him, despite his actions in the Pilot Movie, "House of Bloo's".
8. For some bizarre reason, after finding about about Mac's mother's plan to move, Mac and/or Bloo never tells Mr. Herriman, Frankie, Madame Foster and/or any of the Foster Residents that the reason that they want Duchess back in Foster's is to prevent Mac from moving due to Duchess' behavior, and its only after the climax that both Mac and Bloo explain to Mr. Herriman, Frankie, Madame Foster or any of the Foster Residents of what's happening, if they just said something about it in the FIRST PLACE, then either Frankie, Mr. Herriman and/or Madame Foster could have understood them and then take Duchess back to Foster's.
   1. Even if Mac and/or Bloo didn't want to worry the Mr. Herriman, Frankie, Madame Foster or any of the Foster Residents about Mac potentially moving because of Duchess, they should have informed everyone about that anyway. This whole mess as well as the climax would have easily been avoided.
9. Terrence is super unlikable and is in his absolute worst in this episode, he mockery tells Mac that their gonna move then later on tells Foster’s staff that Bloo and Mac are bringing Duchess so that he can prevent Mac and Bloo from returning Duchess to Foster’s, Terrence even teams up with the Foster Residents during the climax by throwing food at Mac and Bloo.
10. Unnecessary filler, such as the segment were poor Mac gets tormented in his room by Duchess' attitude, as well as the Applebee Segment.
11. The Foster Residents are also unlikable and are in their absolute worst in this episode (and keep in mind, this is one episode before "Foster's Goes to Europe" and fifth-teen episodes before "I Only Have Surprise For You", the other two infamous episodes were the Foster Residents are even more unlikable), one infamous example is the scene were after hearing from Terrence that Mac and Bloo are trying to bring Duchess back to Fosters, Madame Foster and the other residents have sworn to declare war on Mac and Bloo for trying to bring Duchess back to Foster's, this part alone is overwhelmingly out-of-character for them to be like that, and is going WAY too extreme just to prevent Mac and Bloo from returning Duchess back to Foster's.
12. In addition to the episode's mean-spirited, it can also get surprisingly very dark and even graphical, tho not in a very good way, one noticeable example is the climax were Mac and Bloo desperately try to get Duchess back in Foster's, only for the Foster residents to block the path and later on throwing food at them, this climax in particular is very dark, not to mention out-of-place, and feels more like something in a serialized, action-oriented show like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Voltron: Legendary Defender, not an episodic, light-hearted comedy show like Foster’s.
    • Granted, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends on some occasion does have its fair share of dark moments, but those aren't uselessly that dark.
13. The scene near the end of the climax were Wilt throws carrots at Bloo and Mac as the latter attempts to bring Duchess back which defeats them is extremely mean-spirited, and out-of-character for Wilt.
14. Mr. Herriman, Frankie, Madame Foster or any of the Foster Residents never gets punish for how harshly they acted to Mac and Bloo and believing in Terrence, and al-tho they DO apologized after realizing why Mac and Bloo were attempting to take Duchess back to Fosters, it feels very forced.
15. Mac and Bloo never berates Mr. Herriman, Frankie, Madame Foster or any of the Foster Residents for their actions agents them, or even berating them for believing Terrence.
16. Duchess never get punished for her actions. And all Terrence gets is a glare from Foster’s residents after they find out that Mac was gonna move and Terrence was lying, which is a very lame punishment to give after what he put both Mac and Bloo though.
17. Mac states to Terrence that Singapore is in Malaysia, which is geographically and offensively incorrect because Singapore is an independent country off the coast of the Malay Peninsula (Although Singapore once was part of Malaysia before independence, so it was once correct).
18. Incredibly horrible and unsatisfying ending: After realizing that Mac was gonna move because of Duchess, Foster’s staff members agree to take her back in, but now Mac and Bloo become Duchess’ slaves while Duchess and Terrence(as stated in WITASB #16) get off scot-free, which not only is it a slap in the face after everything that Mac and Bloo went through, but also makes no sense as basically, Mac and Bloo are being punished for no reason.
    • This also leads to another plot hole: How the heck is Mac gonna be able to go to school if he has to be in Fosters to serve Duchess, won't that get him in trouble from not going to school, especially from his mother if she finds out?
19. Much like the previous two infamous episodes "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" and "Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals", this episode sends out some really bad moral that is taught to kids, which is you can get away for something you do and you will not be punish, while the Scape-Goat that you put the torment on gets punished, as shown by Duchess getting off scot-free from her actions and Terrence getting nothing more then a glare by the Fosters residents while Mac and Bloo, after everything that they went though, get the beat-down.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite how dark and out-of-place the climax is, it is a neat nod to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
2. There are a few funny moments, such as Madame Foster making the Bugs Bunny references.
3. Once again, Mac is a very likable character, and even Bloo is back to his likable self back in Season 1-2 and not utterly butchered unlike previously.
4. After finding out that the reason Mac and Bloo were trying to get Duchess back to Fosters is because Mac was moving due to Duchess' behavior, Madame Foster and the other Foster Residents do apologized for their actions for how they attack Mac and Bloo, which is a heartwarming scene, even if it feels a bit forced.
5. The Applebee Family are likable, and are also neat spoof versions of the Flanders from The Simpsons.
6. Thankfully, later episodes show Mac and Bloo doing their daily things and not being Duchess' slaves anymore.

Reception

Despite having more positive reviews, "Duchess of Wails" is known for being one of the more divisive/controversial episodes in the entire Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series, and received very mixed-to-largely negative reviews by critics and fans of the series alike. While many fans do agree that this episode is a step up from the previously infamous episode, and was praised for its humor and the Applebee Family as characters, "Duchess of Wails" was heavily criticized due to Duchess's poor behavior to the Foster Residents, Mac and Bloo unfairly getting mistreated through out the whole episode, the Foster Residents being overwhelmingly out-of-character and believing Terrence, the very dark and out-of-place climax, and the completely unfair ending.

Although not nearly as universally panned as "Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals" previously, it's considered the second worst episode of season 3 because of those statements, and also one of the worst episodes in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series. It was later declared non-canon to the series, meaning that fans could skip this episode right away.

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