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

Duchess of Wails is an episode from mh:besttvshows: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, so Mac and Bloo must get Duchess back to Foster’s.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) This episode is notorious for being an incredibly cruel Mac torture episode, and even Bloo gets the torture moment near the end of the episode (which will be talked about later).
 * 2) 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.
 * 3) 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 to expel Duchess and now "we can't expel an imaginary friend because it's against our policies", which is incredible hypocritical.
 * 4) *That could have worked if they had mentioned the Duchess' sanction in the pilot movie, "House of Bloo's".
 * 5) Mac's mother is unlikable as she wants to move all because she does not like Duchess' behavior.
 * 6) This episode has three plot-holes:
 * 7) Instead of moving, why can't Mac's mother just have a talk with Duchess, or get law enforcement to handle her?
 * 8) Terrence somehow made it to Fosters, despite Mac and Bloo being in front of him and Terrence falling in the mud.
 * 9) Biggest Plot-Hole: Frankie, Mr. Herriman and Maddam Foster believes Terrence and sides with him, despite his actions in the Pilot Movie, "House of Bloo's".
 * 10) For some buzzard reason, after finding about about Mac's mother's plan to move, Mac and/or Bloo never tells any of the Foster Residents that the reason that they want Duchess back in Fosters is to prevent Mac from moving, if they said something about it, then ether Frankie, Mr. Herriman and Madam Foster could have understand them and then take Duchess back to Fosters.
 * 11) Even if Mac or Bloo didn't want to worry 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.
 * 12) Terrence is super unlikable and is in his absolute worst here, he 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, he even adds the Foster Residents during the climax by throwing food at Mac and Bloo.
 * 13) Unnecessary filler, such as the segment were poor Mac gets tormented in his room by Duchess' attitude, as well as the Applebee Segment.
 * 14) 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, Madam Foster and the other Residents declares war on Mac and Bloo for trying to bring Duchess back to Fosters, 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 Fosters.
 * 15) This episode can get very dark, one noticeable example is the climax were Mac and Bloo desperately try to get Duchess back in Fosters, 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 show like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Voltron: Legendary Defender, not an episodic, comedy show like Foster’s.
 * 16) *Granted, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends on some occasion does have dark moments, but those aren't uselessly that dark.
 * 17) 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.
 * 18) Mac and Bloo never berates Mr. Herriman, Frankie, Madam Fosters or any of the Foster Residents for their actions agents Mac and Bloo, as well as berates them for believing Terrence.
 * 19) Duchess and Terrence never get punished for their actions. All Terrence gets is a glare from Foster’s residents after they find out that Mac was gonna move and Terrence was lying.
 * 20) 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).
 * 21) Incredible Horrible 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, 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 punish for no reason.
 * 22) 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?

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Despite how dark 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 Madam Foster making the Bugs Bunny references.
 * 3) 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' behaver, Madam Foster and the other Foster Residents do apologized for their actions for how they attack Mac and Bloo.
 * 4) The Applebee Family are likeable, and are also neat spoof versions of the Flanders from The Simpsons.
 * 5) Later episodes show Mac and Bloo doing their daily things and not being Duchess' slave.

Reception
"Duchess of Wails" is known for being one of the most controversial episodes in the entire Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series, and received mixed-to-largely negative reviews by Critics and Fans alike, mainly 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-characters and believing Terrence, the very dark climax, and the completely unfair ending. Al-tho not nearly as university panned as Imposter's Home for Um... Make Em Up Pals previously, it's considered the second worst episode of season 3, and also one of the worst episodes in the Foster Home for Imaginary Friends series, it was later declared non-cannon to the rest of the Foster Home for Imaginary Friends series.