TITLE: King Tuck
LOGO: "Wrapped in Terror!"
EPISODE #: 35
SEASON: 2
AIRDATE: Mar. 17, 2006
DIRECTOR: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak
WRITERS: Sib Ventress
STORYBOARD: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Ray Angrum, Bob Pratt
ART DIRECTIONS: George Goodchild
MUSIC: Guy Moon
APPEARANCE: Tucker, Danny and Sam, Lancer, Dash, Kwan, Paulina, Star, and other school kids
GHOST APPEARANCE: Hotep-Ra, Egyptian Servants, Giant Egyptian-Related Animals/Mystic Beasts (1st)
FENTON GADGET APPEARANCE: None. Absolutely none. WHAT. A. SHOCKER.
LESSON: *beeeeep* Welcome to the Casper High website hot line. If you want to hear a moral lesson for today's episode, press one. If you want to hear a joke about the Vlad/Danny pairing, press two. If you want to see the webmistress throw a fit, press three. *beep* You have pressed one. *pause* I'm sorry, but today's moral lesson has been canceled due to this episode's contradictions and confusion, leaving the webmistress incoherent and unable to perform proper sentence structures. Please try again. *beeeeep*
SUMMARY: :Ahhh, the election week for school president. It's in no way a drive to pick the most popular student to represent the student body, whether they’re fully capable or indefinitely vapid. Oh, no siree. Bottom of the rung Tucker Foley is out on his luck when he tries to run, using technology as his gimmick (hey, isn't that the same speedometer from "Maternal Instincts"?) and Danny and Sam as his silent monkey—I mean—supporters, wearing election hats and handing out flyers. They speak after Tucker annoyingly grips about his lack of attention, including from his own peers.
Sam, possessing a natural for stirring up a crowd (awww, just like her parents), suggests something besides his campaign for "machine over men" (because that doesn't sound creepy enough). Nah, something like graffiti art class, rage against the PTA, and mini-skirt Fridays. That was Danny’s. Duh. Though he approves of the latter, Tucker wants his own voice heard, not his friends'. So Danny and Sam busy themselves with Tucker's vision while Mr. Politician seeks out to see how his opponent's doing. Dash, the unlovable idiot maneuvers his way by physical threatening. Always the surefire method. Then a giant tongue licks him.
A panicking Tucker runs to warn Danny, but he’s too busy writing his campaign ("A little more nerd and a little less suave") and inattentively ignoring him. Too late, teenagers scream when a one-eyed walking green people eater iguana makes his way onto school grounds. Before Danny can transform, the iguana smacks him (and a tree) aside, causing Tucker and Sam to turn tail and chicken their way out. Geez, Danny, transform already!
Sam: Wow, I never saw that coming.Tucker: *angry* I did!
Danny: *irritated* Well, geez, Tuck, why didn’t you say anything?
"The treasures of the Pharaoh Duulaman, which you see before you, date back over 4,000 years." Lancer explains for the school trip to the museum. Wait, wha—?! What happened to the giant iguana?! Did the kids get eaten? Did Danny fail? Did—oh, never mind, this is a flash forward. The characters don't even mention the iguana in any scenes after, but I guess I should take this as a good thing; the writer decided not to dumb down the audience by making the cast point out that they're hours/days past the first scene. Moving past Lancer and the school's inability to fund an actual museum employee to supply information to the Egyptian display, Tucker cracks a pun joke. It sucks. Dash says the same thing. It sucks, but you damn well better laugh now or be pulverized. Sam and Danny are playing good buddies as they try to find ways to benefit Tucker's campaign. Not the least bit appreciative, Tucker bitches at their lack of support on his goals, then gets further angry when the two walk out in a seemingly entranced state.
The source? Duulaman himself who after years of scientific computer graphics research is narrowed down to form a ruler who coincidentally resemble Tucker. Right down to the glasses. Or what I can assume passes for glasses, an invention that hasn't been made. Then again, the Egyptians were so revolutionary, maybe Duulaman just took two pieces of glass and tape them to his eyes. Lancer further explains his Scarab Scepter and the tomb of his "minion" (ooh, harsh); Hotep-Ra. Legends say he will rise again when the face of Duulaman shows up on his mirror. Guess what happens? Hotep-Ra bellows, "I AM RISEN" while the trio looks on in shock (the rest of the class has moved on prior). A mummy ghost. Eh, why not? Maybe his ghostly soul just repossessed his mummified form...or something. Guess he didn’t wanted his heart to be judged by Osiris and devoured by a hybrid crocodile beast. See kids, this is educational! Duulaman would also be known as a Nubian Pharaoh. Danny immediately goes ghost. B-But the ghost didn’t even go anything yet. How you be sure he’s evil? Ghost Boy got lucky, Hotep-Ra immediately engages in battle, kicking Danny’s ass with his mastery mummified bandage wraps, and trapping Sam inside his tomb. Tucker pops in and saves the day. Okay, he halts him long enough for Danny to smack him away. And just when Tucker was beginning to relish the idea of having his very own servant. Even worse, Danny just walks away with Tucker instead of finding the ghost and putting him in a thermos!
On the rare side, Sam is the one who gets Butt Monkey role when both Danny and Tucker walks off, forgetting that she’s trapped underneath ("Guys, I like a good coffin as much as the next Goth, but the novelty’s wearing thin.")
The trio strolls to Casper High the next day when something catches poor Tucker's eyes: Danny and Sam's posters of him, "You can’t spell "Foley" without "F", designed to gain the idiot-fringe votes. Tucker screams at them with the same argument he made several times already, and then orders them to take down the posters. Annoyed, Danny and Sam obliged. Once they're out of listening range, Hotep-Ra makes another dramatic entrance by climbing out of the ground, zombie-style. Oh, yeah, Danny and Sam being twenty feet away automatically makes them deaf towards the sound of the earth violently being torn apart by a steroid mummy. It seems Tucker has taken in Hotep-Ra as his willing slave and predictably, he takes it for all it’s worth.
Hotep-Ra feeds Tucker on his drive to rule Casper High (and grapes). Witnessing Dash and Kwan putting their poster over Tucker's, Hotep asked if he can smite them. Tempting, but nah, he'd rather you scare 'em. Come back ten minutes later into the episode, and then Tucker might be corrupted enough to order such. Hotep turns into a group of locusts and freaks out the duo successfully; leaving Tucker with a happier streak then yesterday’s record breaking ignorance. Hotep-Ra takes the time to pull of a soliloquy, desiring to usurp the throne from Tucker, the Scarab Scepter now in his hands. How many saw this planned betrayal coming? Epic story telling this is not.
Hotep-Ra pops in from Tucker's locker later on and hands him the Scepter, causing Tucker to get a bit of what Duulaman is like...and Egyptian-style eyes. Danny and Sam, having learned nothing from their meddling gives him cue cards on what he should say for his debate. Tucker, posing and speaking in a deceivingly arrogant, royal manner smacks it away and exits stage right. Noticing the scepter, Danny and Sam...do nothing but sit and listen to Tucker's speech. What?! But he doesn’t even get in thirty seconds in before he loses it, what with all the students and an overweight teacher talking, phoning, and nail filing. Okay, NOW the stakes go to 11; Tucker splits the podium in half with the scepter. Unlike his joke, this method works and gets everyone's attention. I guess violence really is the answer.
Enter Danny Phantom who tugs-o-war the scepter from Tucker. Failing, Tucker whisks him off to Ancient Egypt where his arms are tied to an Ecto-rope manhandling the horses who are running the chariot he's on...in a coliseum...fighting against a Roman warrior. ......What?! Where the living jimmies did he get a friggin' coliseum!? Was it on loan from the Roman museum?! Tucker sends the rest of the class to the same place, all of them in Egyptian garbs (Sam's is a personal favorite). Oh, and just for atmosphere, he makes thunder and lightning. Oooooh. Tucker then abuses child labor laws and sends Sam and the others off to work. Hotep-Ra then informs him of "two warriors" fighting to grace upon Tucker's lordship…ness. Also, nobody calls Sam "Samantha", damn it! Imported-warrior-from-Rome remains the better driver and mace smacker. Fortunately it frees Danny from his ropes. He makes a leap of faith and tries to get the warrior off his chariot ride or maybe psychotically twist his head off cuz' he's really a homicidal kid.. As always, the two are halted not by one another, but a wall. Tucker meanwhile makes laws and apparently ignores showering; look at his feet! Does he wear his boots when he takes a bath? Hotep-Ra is just binding his time till the sphinx is completed.
Tucker is taken to the near completed sphinx, just in time for the warrior to arrive victorious over Danny's defeat. Sam immediately expresses concern, but is dragged away and gagged in the process by an unwavering Tucker. Fortunately the warrior is Danny in disguise, wearing his enemy's armor to gain the element of surprise. Dude, what if what Danny is really wearing is the Roman Warrior himself. What if he never had a body inside that armor and what Danny is essentially donning is his own skin? I...I....Danny, why are you so psychotic!? WHY? WHHHHY!?!? And he even leaps out of the suit so carelessly, too! He snatches the scepter, but drops it when Tucker's henchmen sling-shots him. Well, at least those were accurately drawn. The scepter falls and zaps the last piece of the Sphinx, completing it. Tucker at this point phases back to normal, realizing all the horror he has done. Hotep spring-punches Danny for the scepter and brings the Sphinx to life. Big and powerful, not even the Ghostly Wail has any effect on him. To make matters worse, Hotep-Ra brings out a giant scorpion, bird, and jackal. They pick one him on at a time, each seemingly trying to get their hands on him for a tiny meal (I thought Danny's outfit was a one-piece), but Danny zaps them dead. They just blow the shit up. Holy Crap. Hotep-Ra meanwhile plans genocide-a one-person genocide, Tucker who runs and screams like a pussy. Sam and even Paulina leap on Hotep-Ra to stop his path (sadly not as dirty as it sounds), pulling the bandage out of him, leaving him as a skeleton, and then dust. But he got better. HE HAS RISEN again. "Do you say that every time you wake up?" Tuck, he only said it once before, stop making such a big deal.
Unable to stop the Sphinx, Danny tells Tucker to use his kingly position to get it to listen. Tucker agrees, using Danny's words against him in order to install today's moral lesson. Danny apologizes before Tucker timidly, then confidentially tells his Sphinx to stop acting like he got rabies. See? Look at that! They got Danny apologizing, but they didn't get Sam who's also equally in this atrocity of Tucker-abuse? What did I tell ya? The writers are clearly favoring her. After a rather painful demonstration of a Sphinx playing house pet, Tucker sends it to maul Hotep-Ra. It does, destroying chunks of glorious [fake] civilization on its wake. Tucker then takes the scepter and just when it seems he hasn't learned his lesson, he instead returns everything back to normal, memories erased except him and his buddies.
Danny takes the scepter to return to the museum while Lancer orders him and Sam off stage. Nothing is made note of the scepter from his end. ...................What?! Tucker hops on stage and concedes from the election, causing Dash to win by default. His first act, "Nerd whaling Fridays". Danny and Sam proceed to apologize again, "We’ll do a better job from now on." Well, it's as good as it's gonna get from Sam's end, so I'll take it. Tucker concurs and proceeds to typically talk proudly off himself and his technology, "It was hand made in Japan." Paulina and Star overhears and assumes "Hand made in" equals "Hand Maiden", a term Pharaoh Tucker used on the two when they were scrubbing his nightmare-inducing feet. Unaware why that word is making them angry, the bitches proceeds to chase Tucker away regardless. Aren’t we just repeating last episode's ending? Take a shot. Take several.
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Article written in: Dec. 28, 2008
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