“The sword is sunk, the die now cast; the sword removed shall signal fast, make reappear the ring thou hast or your next day shall be your last!” Dungeons n’ Dragons would be so proud. Fright Knight leaves them a fair warning after smacking Valerie unconscious. FK makes a dramatic exit (with bats), leaving the two to tend to Valerie. Not long enough, Maddie signals everyone to the Fenton RV. Vlad teleports away while Danny flies behind a tree to transform into his normal state. They take the injured Valerie back to Fenton Works, surrounded by it’s ghost shield.
The news reports the current hour of captivity and the eerie silence that’s followed. Lance Thunder complains a lot. Valerie is awake, but hurt. Vlad and Maddie are currently finishing up the Ecto-Suit, but the neuro-receptors are still unresponsive. I’m again interrupting to point out how cute Vlad looks in overalls. Makes it easier to claim my theory that he was a country cowboy/farmer in his youth before his billionaire status. I just like the irony of that concept. Jack volunteers to pilot the suit despite his current condition, but Maddie refuses to hear of it. Danny eggs on their love for one another to Vlad who surprisingly declare he has bigger worries. That doesn’t prevent him from tripping Jack. Valerie walks to where Sam and Tucker is upstairs where the two don’t bother with pleasant exchanges. When Danny arrives, Sam drags him and Tucker into the closet where they both warn Danny again over Valerie, including the Ring of Rage whom they believe is some sort of ghost detecting device. Danny correctly guesses it as Pariah’s ring. Left with no choice, he decides to fly off and find the story behind all this.
They find Skulker inside a sporting goods store. Wha--? He was in a hunting store last time, why the freak is he in the SPORTING goods store? *sigh* Danny uses the Fenton Thermos to suck up Skulker, but only finds it to be a slightly off-model cardboard piece of him. The real Skulker sneaks from behind to deliver the damage, though Danny has the last laugh when he rams into Specter Speeder, piloted by Sam and Tucker. Danny and Skulker exchange blows (Skulker in baseball gear--cute and also inspiration for Chess Piece) before Sidney interrupts again. He plays a pretty big part here. He manages to get Skulker to accept Danny’s help. Indeed, the heroes and ghosts sit around…an electrified campfire where Skulker tells the tale.
Long, loooooooooooooong ago, Pariah ruled over the Ghost Zone; the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire giving him copious amount of power that only he could control. A group of Ancient Ghosts banded together in a last-ditched effort to stop him. They removed his crown and ring (no finger cutting Sauron style), and placed him in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. Powerful with or without the ring, Danny asks all the ghosts to aid him in battle. Unfortunately they all laugh it off and walk away.
Danny returns home and seeks Vlad out. He tells Vlad to stop the madness, saying the ring was only given to Valerie in order to hide it, waiting till he can claim it back. It’s causing great damage to his town and people. Vlad insults Danny’s lack of abilities and threatens his secret to her. Danny destroys the street light above them, then punches Vlad out. They both turn ghosts and commence battle in the Casper High football field where Vlad quickly berates him, “Using your powers to get back at people you don’t like, throwing the first punch; you’re more like me then you know.” Then Vlad declares his love by pimp slapping him. And just because it warrants repeating, he PIMP SLAPS Danny. Pissed, Danny takes out Fright Knight’s sword in order for Vlad to forcefully give the ring back. Vlad warns him not to as it acts as a signal, but it’s too late. The two watch as the portal crumbles before them and their entire city is now in the Ghost Zone. The signal being a sign of surrender. Jack and Maddie announce their entrapment from the Amity Vision giant TV screen from inside their basement and their solution for the problem...also, Jazz is single. Free dibs, all you horny boys. Damon also resides where he sends out a Ghost Probe (which is then quickly forgotten for the rest of the episode--rest of the series, actually), then enhances the Fenton Ghost Shield to encircle the majority of the city...unless that's what the probe was built for, but the definition doesn't fit.
Valerie quickly leaves Fenton Works and heads off to deliver some damage at Pariah Dark and his minions, the ghost king surprised to see two humans as ghosts. Valerie tries to deliver a missile from her hand, but the weapon malfunctions, causing her to remove her glove and reveal the ring. Wait, wasn’t the ring on the other hand? Fright Knight demands it’s return, so Val does by launching it away via a rocket. Somehow replacing her missing glove, Valerie quickly takes the unconscious Vlad and Danny with relative ease. Okay, is the suit made to give her the strength of 20 men or is she just that strong? She manages to get pass the ghost shield, leaving Fright Knight futilely trying to slash his way through. Pariah ceases his action now that he has the ring. He puts it on and dramatic seizure-inducing flashes occur. Valerie sends Danny and Vlad to Danny’s room, then rests herself.
Vlad quickly wakes up and leaves via intangibility just in time for Jack to come in, reassuring Maddie the two are fine; assuming their unconsciousness is part of “hanging out”. He informs Sam and Tucker the same, both having tea in the basement, unaware of a passing Vlad (well, he is invisible). Sam drops her teacup the moment he announces Danny and Val in the same room. She and Tucker bolt to see Danny, dejected over all the mess that’s happening. It’s not his fault, but it is his responsibility, so he phases Tucker and Sam down where they witness the Fenton Folks reveal of the completed Ecto-Suit. The neuro-receptive are still incomplete, despite giving one’s power 100-fold. Everybody gets into an argument over who pilots it, basically smacking each other into unconsciousness. Yes, I am not making this up. It’s as stupid as it sounds. Danny decides to use the suit himself, but Sam objects to it. Tucker points out Valerie who just...umm...smacked the mayor or something (she’s grabbing him) in order to get the suit. Dude, isn’t there a law against that kind of assault? Val and Danny argue over the use of the suit; fortunately Damon arrives in time for Danny to remove her mask to reveal herself as a ghost hunter to her pops. Danny makes off with the suit while Damon punishes Valerie for her secret job and I’ll tell you what, Mr. Mild-Mannered turned into Pissed-Up Peeves.
At the top of Fenton Works, Danny activates the suit (what th--the handles were up front before he grabs onto two separate ones that controls the arms; I must’ve pointed out like several animation errors today). Tucker and Sam quickly run in and express their concern. Danny, afraid, but confident tells them it ain’t easy, but he has to do it. Promising he’ll return, he adds a just in case and asks if the two have anything to say to him. Sam tries her might to express her feelings, but Pariah interrupts to announce a decree. Danny tells Tucker to unleash the Ghost Shield for him to exit while Sam gives off a sorrowed look before running off, too. Danny transforms to Phantom and that includes the suit. Awesome design. He flies off with Tucker and Sam giving their own scared, but confident look. The rest of the humans cheer for him, declaring him “Inviso-Bill” before Danny finally corrects them with his true hero name.
He marches and sees an army waiting for him. And whoo boy, it's one dozy of an army. Danny decides to take it slow and sends a tiny blue speck. It creates a massive BIG DAMN EXPLOSION, taking some of the soldiers. He sends a bigger one which makes an even BIGGER DAMN EXPLOSION. Realizing the suit drains him depending on how much power he uses, Danny speaks to himself to be careful of his power usage. He creates a shield for himself and delivers much damage. Now my main question is this: is the suit designed to spew out powerful rays or is this a Danny Phantom thing? Considering neither Jazz nor Jack was able to utilize such, I wager it is a Danny thing, responding to his neurons or some form of science talk. Danny is still getting creamed, if not because of the power drain. Fortunately Sam and Tucker comes with the Specter Speeder to deliver Danny’s ghost villains before exiting, somehow able to squeeze them all into one vehicle. “Hey, you ever been inside your stupid thermos? Compare to that, it was the Taj Mahaj in there!” So they proceed to battle. A team-up between Box Ghost (now with bubble wrapping skills) and Klemper: the most underrated of all team-ups. The rest all join in and deliver their own brand of asskickery. They basically play as distraction, leaving Danny to sauté the main meat. I apologize for this horribly analogy.
Danny busts open the door where Pariah awaits. “A little ragged around the edges, ey, child?” Danny skips the witty banter and the battle begins. Danny’s struggling though as his suit is below 40%. “Having that much power, it’s a burden, isn’t it, child?!” Pariah brutally teases. Danny makes do with what he has and with it’s power 100-fold, manages to successfully duplicate in four. Pariah takes down two of them (as Sam and Tucker witness Amity Park’s sky changing from Ghost Zone to Earth and back), but Danny uses the other to open the Sarcophagus while the other rams him inside. The town returns to normal, the skeleton army is reduced to dust, and the people cheer. Vlad ultimately locks up Pariah’s sarcophagus, Crown of Fire in hand, and makes notes his Xanatos Gambit worked, all as Danny fades into unconsciousness, his power level below 10%.
“You gave us quite a scare there, little badger.” Vlad notes after Danny wakes up, finding himself in his room where his friends, family, Valerie and her dad, and Vlad surrounds him in sweet relief. Jack notes Vlad rescued him, a relief for even Maddie that she forgives Vlad from the incident that occurred in “Maternal Instinct”. Danny is irritated by his lie, but too weaken from the aftermath, he rests when Sam lays a gentle hand on him to indicate so. The news later reveals the town’s return to normalcy (or as normal as it can get) and the clean up of the gazillions of ghostly bones (same for the Ghost Zone). More importantly, the town of Amity Park’s approval of Danny Phantom (now aware of his true name) has reached 64% (and it only grows from there). Valerie (now with an arm cast--she has been through a lot) being among the 30% or so who still harbors a grudge against him, literally shooting her TV with her ghost gun, much to her father’s anger.
In school,, Danny rags on about the missing Ecto-Suit and Vlad’s apparent deal with the Fright Knight. Sam reduces his stress level and says he’s “beat the big bad guy and saved the town, that’s enough for one day, don‘t you think?” Dash arrives and Danny makes with the apology. He accepts...by hanging him to the flagpole. Danny’s undies snap and as he falls as a bored Sam and Tucker eye Valerie coming in their direction. “You know how I said I didn’t like Fenton? I kinda like him now.” She announces. Sam (and Tucker) vows to keep an eye on her, then as an act of revenge, they yell for Nathan, forcing her to run from his lovey-dovey behavior, flowers and candy included.
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Article written in: Jul. 2, 2008
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