TITLE: Shades of Gray...Can Vlad be Giles?
LOGO: “In Spectre Scope”
EPISODE #: 10
SEASON: 1
AIRDATE: Sept. 24, 2004
DIRECTOR: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Juli Hashiguchi
STORY: Steve Marmel
WRITERS: Sib Ventress
STORYBOARD: Ian Graham, Erik Wiese
ART DIRECTIONS: Bob Boyle
MUSIC: Guy Moon
APPEARANCE: Damon Gray, Damon’s Boss, Dumpty Humpty (1st appearance), Main Trio, Valerie, Dash, Kwan, Paulina, Vlad (cameo), oh, and a lunch lady
GHOST APPEARANCE: Cujo (1st appearance)
FENTON GADGET APPEARANCE: Fenton Ghost Fisher
LESSON: Sing with me, Who let the dogs out? (Who, who, who, who?!) Who let the dogs out? (Who, who, who, who?!)
SUMMARY: Casper High, so at peace--until a screaming Danny runs down the hallway, evading Dash who, having gotten a D on his spelling test decides to beat up his frustrations on the poor kid. How's that for poor justice? As that fiansco plays out, Paulina and Kwan greets fellow popular student Valerie. You remember her? That chick Tucker briefly managed to score as a date in “Parental Bonding” (a story expanded here) and chatting with Kwan and Paulina just last episode. Well, here she is again (complete with new voice actor now that she’s taking center stage) donning a new lavender top, wasting a good $500+ dollars better spent on a look-alike that could just as easily cost less then HALF that amount, but of course, a materialistic kid like Val would care less. She does care when Danny bumps into Paulina by accident, causing her cup of coffee to spill all over Val. Man, even in her pre-ghost hunting days, she has a low tolerance for pain considering how friggin’ hot coffee can be. Valerie basically makes Kwan, her boy bitch put the smack down on Danny. Interestingly, Kwan proclaims it was only an accident. A bit of foreshadowing to his more “human” personality he gains in “Lucky in Love”? Val’s death glare quickly changes his mind and he promptly gives chase, so now Danny has two bullies heading his way with him playing the middle man. Finally realizing he has ghost powers, Danny turns intangible and flies off, Kwan and Dash colliding with each other. The ghost kid flies over to the school parking lot where he relaxes till his ghost sense comes off. Luckily for him, the ghost this time around is a friendly puppy who playfully licks him upon being picked up. Sporting a collar with the Axion Lab symbol, the green ghost pup suddenly grows as big as a friggin’ semi-trunk. Whuh-Oh.
Later in Axion Lab, Valerie (still wearing her coffee stained shirt instead of being reasonable enough to change into something else) walks alongside her father, a top employee there, head of security, apparently. He shows off the latest in state of art technology security, something his snooty boss is impressed with (whom also states that the security dogs of Axion Lab are rid of in favor of said security). You can get a note already that Valerie lives a luxuriously rich lifestyle. That moment of happiness for the Gray family stops when BIG GIANT GHOST DOG parades in and slobbers everyone with its drool before running around the entire lab, destroying everything. Danny runs in, trying in vain to stop, not even THINKING of flying to the dog until it already created a pathway of destruction. By the time Danny gets a hold of the pup, the dog keeps running. Apparently Danny’s super strength must be broken since he can stop a friggin’ ghost dragon, but a ghost dog nearly about the same size is unstoppable. Eh, then again, the dog is acting pretty damn rabid. Damon steps in and unleashes his security, but it gets all but a “pasty faced teenager and his dog.” Damon, you are SOOOO fired.
Danny and his friends arrive to Valerie’s house via their motorized scooters, stating both Valerie (now back to her regular attired and how--that lavender top does NOT match with orange) and Damon’s poor status, them selling everything they got in a yard sale while moving their personal belongings to the moving van. Tucker takes Valerie’s sadness as advantage to horn in on her, expressing his condolences and of course, being the bitch that she is, Valerie is less then please, “Words already ooze down to the bottom of the social grapevine.” Ouch. Gotta hand it to her, she’s brutally honest. Danny’s ghost sense lets loos, so he drives off and turns ghost by the time ghost dog in giant form pops out from the ground like some big, green Hulkin’ zombie. Danny quickly arrives and calms the pup down by scratching it’s chin, turning the mutt back into it’s smaller form, then promptly steps on invisible dog poo. Valerie cries out for Danny to leave with his dog, pissed towards the two for ruining her life. The pup proceeds to do more of that by grabbing Danny by the legs and dragging him around until he drags him inside the moving van, destroying all the properties before Danny manages to get a hold off the dog and fly off with him. Naturally Valerie is even more peeved, but now she decides to do something about it. Danny in the meanwhile tosses “Cujo” into the Ghost Portal, sarcastically joking of owning a hamster instead. Ahaha, well, Tucker did mention Danny had a gerbil back in 6th grade, so it's sorta the same. Any who, that stated, now that Danny has officially nicknamed the puppy, from now on here, I will refer to that dog as Cujo just for convenience purposes. I know it’s not the dog’s actual name, but it’ll be easier for me.
By school the next day and one swift change in animation style, the popular kids discuss the Dumpty Humpty concert and their general excitement for it. Valerie arrives, ashamed that she had to sell her ticket to pay for the moving van, so the three diss her. Valerie, upset and angry, sits alone in an empty cafeteria table. Ahh, I know that feeling of eating alone. I was one of those “bottom social grape vines” she mentioned earlier, although people knew me enough to point and declare me the “kid who can draw”. Tucker comes over to comfort Valerie, but stutters by the time he eyes the giant Cujo outside the school windows, who had already turned invisible by the time Valerie yells back at him. Then there’s just plain yelling and screaming when Cujo terrorizes the entire cafeteria. Danny makes a joke on the freakishly popular “Who let the dogs out” song (man, the days when this was on every single radio station) before stepping in to stop him--her--whatever gender the dog is. The lone lunch lady tries to be brave up sending some gelatinous goop of what she passes for food it’s way via ice cream scooper, but Cujo nearly lays the smack down on the poor lady until Danny distracts him. Happy to see he's or her “master”, Cujo glomps Danny while Tucker laments that what they just witness seeing was a ghost, something Valerie is shocked about.
Now we cut to the town of Elmerton (“We’re getting better”) where we see Damon and Valerie’s new rundown apartment home. There, the father expresses how his boss is giving him a second chance by guarding Axion Lab, only this time as a lowly security guard. Then he dumps a giant package on Valerie, which arrived for her from Wisconsin, and we all know just who lives in Wisconsin that poses a central story to the overall series of Danny Phantom. After Damon leaves (And not even questioning why his daughter has a huge package), Valerie opens the box to find a note from Vlad, “Heard of your recent ghost troubles, hope this help.” Digging further, she takes out an Ecto gun, then puts on a massive grin.
At the park near sunset-ish time (love the pink/lavender/white skies), Sam states the only way to stop Cujo (who keeps digging it's way out the Ghost Zone) is to train the puppy. Giving him a dog obedience book and walking away (she can’t be seen with a ghost kid), Danny reads it’s content and whistles for Cujo. Right on cue, it comes, stopping when Danny tells it to. He acknowledges that the pup is already trained, then Cujo playfully tackles him down in what I declare the cutest scene in this episode ever. I love dogs, period. Sam as well as someone else is watching all this...Indeed, a missile comes out of nowhere and nearly BBQ’s Danny and Cujo should they have not evaded in time. He tells the pup to stay and checks the crater the missile caused, “What the heck was that?!” He gets his answer in the form of Valerie in a red suit and hoverboard, plus assloads of weapons. She gives chase after Danny who easily dodges her ambushes while Valerie struggles with her new toys (including accidentally falling off the hoverboard at one point till the board manage to find her and save her from falling to her death). By the time she has him cornered on a tree, she throws buzz cut shurikens or whatever, neither one getting Danny despite throwing it like RIGHT in front of him. Bad aimer indeed as Danny, too notices until one of the buzz saw comes from above and cuts his arm. Noticing that the weapon actually hurts (anything prior I believe the only pain he probably received were from ghosts themselves), Valerie aims her giant ass gun towards Danny who now proceeds to give off a feared look. Luckily giant Cujo comes to the rescue and again drags him by the leg. Valerie, too gives chase, basically at this point shooting repeatedly like a broken record. Geez, kid! At this rate, you’ll destroy the entire park! Danny quickly flies over to Sam after sending Cujo away from harm (by getting it to fetch his Ecto Ball) and panicky asks for Sam’s help. With little time, she tackles him down behind the bushes. Valerie drops in on Sam planting a big one on Danny, now human. After grossing out (and insulting them), Valerie flies away, causing Sam to figure out Valerie is the ghost hunter while Danny briefly takes in that kiss with a blissful look on his face.
Of course, by the next day, when Tucker notes the kiss the two shared when they explained to him on Danny’s current dire situation, they denied it’s anything romantic, stating it’s only a “fake-out, make-out”, a word that’s entered the DP fandom like nobody’s business, right there with “halfa”. Tucker then bumps into Valerie and tells the others to scat as he mooches off of her and her sudden interest in ghosts. Stating Danny’s parents are ghost hunters, Valerie decides to mooch off Tucker now by playing sweet to him, much to his happiness and Danny and Sam’s unhappiness. I also just noticed the animation shifted again, sheesh.
During a basketball game later, complete with Harlem Globetrotter-ish music and even a black guy with a giant afro with a stuck pick, Danny worries about both Cujo and Valerie until Tucker arrives with ghost hunter gal herself. Naturally Danny and Sam are displeased with her joining them, but Tucker insists. There, she cozies up to Danny to pry any ghost info out of him, obviously something he doesn’t like. Giant Cujo reappears and again wrecks havoc around till Danny arrives, turning giant pup into small mode. Cujo digs around, looking for something, something Danny notices until Valerie shoots the dog with some sticky Ecto bubble or something. Then she proceeds to try and thermos both of them--if her thermos actually opened up. Funny, are thermoses all the rage to entrap ghosts with or is Vlad just not as clever as we see him as? Tucker, spotting Valerie from above the bleachers and declaring what a cool job she has, dives down to help her, distracting her long enough for Danny to literally slam dunk her into a basketball net till he can take Cujo away.
By Chemistry class, Tucker still harbors for Valerie despite Danny and Sam’s warning. This is truly amazing how the opposite will fall by time of “Reign Storm”. Cujo again arrives and again Danny struggles to save the pup from her, “279 girls at our school and he’s gotta have a crush on the one with the weapons and the grudge.” Driving Val away, he decides to finally end and help Valerie’s problem (to which he sorta blames himself on) by telling Cujo to fetch it's item. The dog does so and lures him to it's once home of Axion Lab. Danny also spots Damon inside where his job rides on this one night shift. Later taking his friends during nightfall (Tucker having taken down the security cameras) and Cujo with him, he ties the mutt with the Fenton Fisher acting as a leash and gets his friends to watch over him or her while Danny dives in to find Cujo’s whatever it is s/he was searching for. Damon meanwhile heads off to get a snack while Valerie is busy with homework. Anyone wanna tell me if some lazy worker forgot to switch the calendars because as of “Prisoners of Love”, it’s NOT suppose to be April.
Valerie later appears in ghost hunting mode to dish more damage towards Danny. Sensing the trouble from afar, Cujo uses all it’s strength to pull the tree out of its roots and drag Tucker and Sam as it heads off to rescue Danny. Valerie’s proven she’s gotten better with the weapons, despite still having yet to actually hit Danny with one. After the obligatory Matrix parody (I'm serious, they do a bullet time sequence), Danny tries to subdue Valerie long enough to talk with her, she stubbornly proclaims though, “You’re a pretty lousy shot!” News flash, kid, you ain’t so good with those fancy ass weapons yourself. In Danny's defense, he isn't aiming for her at all, trying to take a more passive approach, unleashing Ecto Rays as a means of defense. After much more fighting, one of her weapons accidentally sounds the alarm off, one Damon hears. Valerie finally proceeds to get in a shot at Danny by the time giant Cujo arrives, ready to--I don’t know--chew her up and spit her out, I guess. Despite the wide arsenal of weapons and her trying to destroy Cujo beforehand, she’s apparently too helpless to do anything here but panic. Danny meanwhile was thrown off to an old kennel where he found what Cujo has been looking for: his/her squeaky toy. Yep, all that trouble for just a toy to which Danny hands over and Cujo disappears happily away with.
Danny tries to apologize to Valerie and state all ghosts aren’t evil, but she refuses to believe it and gives him a flip as a demonstration. Damon waltzes in at this point after Danny leaves Valerie with him, “Sorry, can’t help you there”. Ahaha, his own little revenge for that backflip she gave him. Tucker can however as he inputs the security back. Wait, earlier on, he stated he ONLY got rid of the security cameras and now his PDA shows he’s set the entire security systems off? Gah. Any who, Tucker purposely captures himself by the time Valerie changes back into her normal attire, helping her secure her secret from her father and taking the blame. Damon’s job is fortunately safe, but he’s still treading on thin ice.
By school the next day, Danny makes note Cujo is gone and that he’s gonna be more cautious whenever "Valerie the Ghost Slayer" is around. Still shunned by the popular girls, Valerie walks off to find a package labeled for her by Vlad (who makes a quick visit before vanishing away), much to her pleasure. Unknown on where she got her suit and weapons, Sam theorizes the possible reason she got the money for it was due to her buying off her tickets for the Dumpty Humpty concert. Wait? How many tickets did she buy? Considering I feel her former friends already have tickets for the concert, why the shit would Valerie need three? Bah, that point aside, Danny and friends enjoys said concert as the rest of the popular kids mull over in sadness over having to be seated next to them. *points* HA! HA!
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Article written in: Somewhere in Feb. 2007
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