My eyes grew as wide as saucers, my hands limp to the top of my thighs, and my jaws dropped in utter shock after having sat through this episode on its first initial airing. Having recently watched the newly aired “Reign Storm” and a bunch of episodes I saw at random prior, I slowly began to grow as a Danny Phantom fan, seeing a side of potential I have not seen in a cartoon in over six years; a cartoon that works in story, character, action, and humor in a satisfying package. I almost dismissed cartoons all together outside of The Simpsons (and a rare few others) before this due to uninspired concepts or tiring sugar-coatings. I honestly thought DP wouldn't be able to carry that potential and while this is strictly a kid’s show, “The Ultimate Enemy” proved me wrong. Dead wrong. Grabbing me with it’s surprisingly dark plot, characterization, and deep revelation, it lured me hook, line, and sinker and not only turned me into a Danny Phantom fan, but made me rediscover my love for cartoons.
This episode is that good.
Picture this, Danny Phantom: Amity Park’s hero, recently fresh from the good he worked hard on to gain the favors of his people after much struggle. He’s the ideal role model; little boys want to grow up to be him, girls swoon all over him, and parents approve of his family friendly image. He’s the Superman of his universe and while it isn't always rainbows and sunshine, life—for the first time in the longest—feels good. Suddenly, just as he was getting used to such a lifestyle, he is thrown into a future where his assumed predication of a hero of justice is subverted in the hardest way. No, in just ten significant years, Danny turned into the one person he vowed (especially to Vlad) he would never become: Pure Evil. What we get is—even after series end—the biggest struggle, the biggest obstacle, and the biggest impact Danny has and most likely will ever face. After all, nobody is your worst enemy better then your own self; everything Phantom is and then some. Right from the engaging intro where he mysteriously, but immediately makes his introduction (and it's truly a BANG! opener) does he submits us to a bleak future. It managed to capture my attention in less then five minutes and foreshadow Danny's path.
The theme of darkness has been a recurring Arc throughout the series, triggered in “Splitting Images” and further emphasized in future offerings. Slowly, it became clear to him that it’s sucking him in, Vlad constantly the culprit that eggs him on. In “TUE”’s his own selfish desire to cheat to better his future creates a karmic chain of events that he cannot get out of, coming full circle by end. The level of stress he feels towards his darker half and the outcomes that affect everyone around him is trying for the boy and for the audience as we get from one insane scene to the next, each filled with enough drama and revelations to support an eternal therapy trip. The point of the episode is that what you do is what you deserve, specifically on how Danny cannot, could not escape Phantom—his true self—if not for Clockwork’s cheat. “I’m still here, I still exist, that means you still turn into me.” Phantom bluntly shouts this to his past self because it’s true. It’s inevitable. By giving it an extra dose of darkness other DP episodes doesn’t have, the hectic storyline of death, manipulation, consequences, emotions, and struggle all play so brilliantly that even the small inappropriate comedic scenes and unexplained portions/potential plotholes of others are almost absent from my mind. Children's cartoon have long since been a mixed gateway on the rights and wrongs of morals and questionable contents, but this episode proved it can concoct mash complications of death, deep meanings, and utterly dark complications without toning it down nor betraying it's All-Ages content. And while everything turned happy by end, the fact that fate can be a bitch with results turning out in ways you did not expect is a testimony to many. Oh, and the creators threw in some time traveling while we’re at it.
I’ve always been a fan of the Back to the Future trilogy before I even started school. It in turn set a path where I adore time traveling tales. What the creators produce here is marginally solid and affective. It's not perfect, but they manage to bound by their own rules and delighted us with a straight story covered in excessive time jumps. Other cartoons seem so hell-bent to get from Point A to Point B by making time travel as simple as possible, usually without explanation or constantly breaking their own rules to convenient the plot. "TUE" is far from perfect, but it holds an underlying theme that even something as cheap as a time Deus Ex Machina, Danny still had a hard time escaping the inevitable. Sure, they can have tried a simpler approach (there's nothing wrong with it if the story works out right), but it would lose the metaphor; nothing is easy, life is an ambiguous mess that requires us to make the proper decisions to benefit in the most fortunate outcome. One of the problems of time-traveling stories is their tendency to do away and reset everything to proper Status Quo. Reset buttons are some of the worst devices I've come across and is one of the prime reasons why I was so disappointed with "Reality Trip", but it never feels that way here. With the overall tone of the episode, Jazz's secret reveal, a definite growth and conclusion of Danny's Dark Arc, and Clockwork's continuous contribution fully justified that action.
With a plot this large, character development is key and aside from Danny, no one plays it better then Jazz and Vlad. The former now struggles with her biggest challenge since "The Fenton Menace", either keep her secret of Danny’s double identity or reveal it to him in order to get him to stop his heinous action of cheating his possible future. Oh, sure, Sam and Tucker played their role, but this time around, it’s not Danny’s friends who helped him, it’s his sister. Out of everyone in Danny's life, he has the most emotional ties to her and is why her role is significantly bigger then the rest here. Danny cannot tell his parents, his peers hate him, and his friends don't provide the kind of comfort his sister gives. Mature and well-meaning, she plays the Angel conscience to Phantom’s Devil, taking a more active role then usual; her meddling noticeably benefit to the fate of the world and with, a much adored respect from her brother...and vice versa. In its touching conclusion, the two siblings hug, bringing a major, lasting change in their relationship.
Danny’s maturity is central to this thriller. Starting off with an immature move on the CAT cheat, that decision ultimately lead him to make the most mature decision of his lifetime. Lisa Simpson said it best: one usually gains a soul through trial and tribulations. Danny gains his by doing exactly the same and he becomes all the better for it. If "13" started his gradual path to maturity and "Pirate Radio" triggered it, then “The Ultimate Enemy” completes it, a behavior he connects himself to for the reminder of the series, baring a few hiccups in mind. Nothing speaks it better then his moments of gray between the black and white when he witnesses Future Vlad. In the desolate years, Vlad has become the opposite of what he once was: disgraced and downtrodden. For that, he took pity and forgave him for the atrocities of his past actions. It's a favorite scene of mine; one where the two work not out of forced objection, but because they want to.
Vlad, once a sneaky man who hid his desperate pleas with a prideful exterior now pulls all his inner desires out, living life as a recluse hermit, punishing himself for the diabolical life he led and for bringing about the birth of Phantom...and the tragic death of Danny. It is not just Maddie, Vlad regrets his actions towards Jack and misses him just as much. He would love nothing more then to welcome death, but knows it to be too great a gift to accept. While it is kept short and underdeveloped, for a brief moment, Vlad and Danny shared the same thoughts. They were essentially father and son. Danny, for the first time, trusted Vlad and came to him for understanding and comfort. Vlad, for the first time, did not treat Danny like a prized trophy, but instead place a loving hand on his shoulder. Should the matters of which played out hadn't come, the two could have slowly, but surely worked on a loving relationship beyond what each other perceives of themselves in the canon timeline.
The new characters, too have their own sense of depth and character (Box Lunch is truly the best of both her parents). I quickly came to believe and accept Clockwork, the Master of Time—seer of all past, present, and future as a character and due to all the mystery, as a potential villain, too. Most deities or powerful beings portrayed in cartoons are blatantly categorized between Good and Evil. The writers were clever and brilliant for complicating Clockwork's personality; willing to end Danny's life almost [calmy] sadistically before revealing he is merely a neutral being who has everyone's best intentions at heart. This is what I see as the ideal portrayal of divine beings with omni-level powers; creatures with their own moral code who can make or break the heroes. Just because he was on Danny's side today doesn't mean he will in others. With a killer design (his constant aging is brilliant) and a hypnotizing voice, Clockwork remains one of the best characters in DP. The Observants, not so much. I never really cared about them.
And of course, Phantom, that magnificent bastard. He’s manipulative, powerful, insane, confident, and above all, unstoppable. He is Danny’s biggest nightmare come to life. Armed with nothing but his ghost abilities and a cunning mind, Phantom aggressively wasted the world in a mere ten years, not even recurring hero Valerie Gray could stop him, let alone slow him down. His loved ones and teacher dead in his hands, Valerie barely a match for him, Amity Park and the world his plaything, Vlad reduced to a lowly hermit, and Danny emotionally mind-raped, Phantom has everyone under his thumb. His birth is a unique one in that he IS Danny and Vlad, the best of both. His wily planning to selfishly support his own existence remains Vlad while his gumption and spunk is all Danny. He brings out the worst in both Danny and Vlad. He wastes no time and does not let anyone get in his way; he’s cold, he’s ruthless, he’s a bastard in every true sense of words and that’s what makes him so appealing. His last scene isn't a defeat for him, but a hunger for revenge. Even if he were to never escape the pressures of the thermos, the fact that he still exists, that he is still out there, that Danny can still become this wretched creature, is enough to create a hauntingly lasting affect on everyone.
There are many plotholes and unknown conclusions. Why did Danny's ghost half did what he did? what happened to Valerie’s father? What did Future Vlad do to Danny before the latter ended up back in his present time period? Where are Danny’s ghostly loved ones? With important questions like these, it almost makes me wish the episode had been an hour and a half, but in retrospective, these are concerns that doesn't necessary need answers. We don't need to see the Fentons, Sam and Tucker, and Lancer's ghost. Their absolute absence triggers the dire seriousness of the situation at hand. The story flows fine on it's own.
I only wish the animation was as good as this episode. It's not horrible, but the flaws tend to show up in spades; ugly color combos (big red boiler over an olive sky, ick) and Phantom who suffers constant off-modeling when he reverts from steroid-bounded muscle freak to a big torso guy with scrawny limbs (though his cape is rendered beautifully). But there's plenty to love: Clockwork’s character design and the layout/color scheme of his beautiful headquarter, the incredible intro, etc. The musical score also suffers the same by providing appropriate pieces that really sets the tone while not being too terribly memorable. Thankfully, the dialogues and one-liners are beautifully written (I had a fun time quoting so much from this episode) and the acting was superb as always; everything from Danny’s sincere pity for Vlad to Phantom’s calm, yet demolishing villainous role to Vlad’s sorrow are all perfect. The only complaint is Danny who handles this situation surprisingly well. For an emotional boy, this should be traumatic; is it so hard to make him kneel down and cry?
For all it's flaw and it's utter complication, no other DP episodes comes anywhere near as close to the magnitude and depth (and impact) as this. For all the bad Danny Phantom has done, “TUE” rises as an standing ovation of what is possible DP’s highest peak of greatness.
10/10
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Article written revised in: Jun. 15, 2007
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