Oh man, this episode. You should see the first review I gave after the first airing. Oh, what a naïve fool I was. The plot errors I mentioned, the character development that didn’t occur, the anger I felt on how this episode treated Vlad as if he was some vile, unforgiving bastard completely overshadowed my better reasoning and understanding of what this episode was conveying instead. That and I was younger and still relatively new to the DP fandom. This was also before "Kindred Spirits" aired; an episode that did sympathize Vlad. But my initial score for "MoAT" was a degrading four out of ten.
It's not without its set of problems (plenty of which I mentioned in the summary alone). Danny’s sudden embarrassment over his family’s creditability as ghost hunter derides previous episodes such as "the Million Dollar Ghost" and "Maternal Instinct". What better source to find a cure for Ecto-Acne then a lab filled with Ecto-products? For all intents and purposes, it’s not a recommendation, but outright mandatory! And oh, the animation! The thing is this episode is achingly beautiful. It has great color combination (check out the lavender and gray exposed by the sunset in Vlad’s manor and the electric pink and blue of the Material Grill) and some of the smoothest and solid character models ever. Did anyone else notice this is the only episode where Vlad’s eyes aren’t eyeliner...ed? I can’t be the only one making a symbolic twist with this: the thinner eye lines could be used as a rouse to disguise the AU Vlad from the true monster he hides as oppose to Canon Vlad's thicker, eviler surroundings (never mind that Canon Vlad did possess it)...or maybe I’m reading too much into this.
But the problem (and irony) is that the results are so solid, so secure that the minor mistakes stand out like sore thumbs. I pointed out animation errors far quicker then any of the other episodes, none of which comes even close to the travesty that lasted for minutes in the end. Younger 1980’s Jack in current present time period. I cannot believe for the life of me that no one spotted this before finishing the scene. No one. This should not be. NO ONE. It also doesn't matter that Jack is suffering single awareness jealously; him donning a Vlad Plasmius outfit doesn’t fit him AT ALL. The cape? No. The hair? No. The goatee? NO. All the dramatic flair that works for charismatic Vlad fails on a more humble Jack. Also, I can't for the life of me see Maddie's secret lab covered in pink, let alone a giant heart on the Ghost Portal. She's all woman, but she's not cutesy-girly.
I was clouded with fangirlism to Vlad on my first initial review. "The Ultimate Enemy" opened up a new perspective in Vlad and emphasized the humanity in him. "Secret Weapons" diverted back to his villainous role, but his quest for love remained. "Masters of All Time" took the concept and bashed it to the ground; his entire role is malicious. I wondered where the sympathy had gone. Why he suddenly became a conniving bastard. But he IS a conniving bastard; it's what he does best. To understand Vlad’s heart, this episode had to portray him in this ugly manner. It was the only way to help viewers realize just how sad and pathetic his life really is.
In an alternate timeline, Vlad gets the wish he so desired: Maddie. No children in the future; he never thought of such a concept until Danny waltzed into his life. She was all he needed and he was content. To ensure his happiness, everything in the universe that affected him had to be trifled with. Jack now remains bitter and alone, Maddie lives in fear of her dominating husband, and Danny and Jazz aren’t even real. But changing the past doesn’t necessary abandon everything the canon present bestowed; even in an AU, Jack graces the house where Fenton Works thrived, Vlad inherits the same manor that he would buy off in real time, Jack’s cat’s name is Jasmine, and Jack’s half-ghost outfit is Vlad’s! Everything that felt like coincidence feels familiar or perhaps, destined, hammering the tragedy even further in Danny’s head. He created a desolate present that may be emotionally worse then "TUE"'s future. At least his loved ones are dead and not suffocating as they are here! Clockwork must be grinning from ear to ear.
This includes personality. Vlad’s addiction to Maddie is as clear here as it was in canon time. Danny only changed the past; he did not alter Vlad’s personality. The twenty-something man still believed he loved Maddie as he did when he wasn’t married to her. But it’s not love, it’s an obsession. In an alternate world where the two are wedded, Maddie lives in constant agitation and stress; forced to hide her ghostly habits from her "dear old husband" out of fear of his verbal abuse. He may have no intention of physically hurting his wife, but he commands her. What he says goes. What he does goes. Who he is and what he wants matter more then what Maddie desires. He’ll lie to her to keep him within his thumb. Maddie isn’t his love; she’s an object he desires. She’s as much equivalent to that football he cradled in "Bitter Reunions". Vlad was never in love with Maddie, he was in love with what he thought he saw in her. What she did back in college, she doesn’t have now, but he’s too disillusioned to accept harsh reality’s bitter emptiness. Like the canon present time, Vlad is selfish and completely unaware of how damaging his pride is. And as it would do so in canon, it backfires on him when karma bites him in the ass.
I’m not saying he isn’t capable of love or that he doesn’t desire it. He does because the thought of him living alone for the reminder of his life scares the pants out of him. In simple terms, he just wants someone to comfort and live in co-existential peace with him. He’s so desperate he steals, murders, and commits other means of atrocities to justify himself. "You think I care? I like it this way!" The words echoing off of AU Vlad’s lips are eerily similar to that of his canon counterpart. There are no coincidences, there is only hitsuzen.
Because he goes about it in the wrong way, he got what he deserved. And it’s through this episode that the universe’s harsh treatment of him makes us realize he truly is a sad sack, that this episode enhances his morbid life by making an ass out of him, that he does have needs that cater to the heartstrings of the viewers—it was just subtle about it.
9/10
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Article written in: Mar. 8, 2009
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