There was a small rumor going on before this episode first initial airing. It centered around a plot where Sam, Valerie, and Paulina were stuck with one another during a camping trip. Despite the limited description, I thought it had potential, a prime chance for the girls to gain some form of character development, not to mention possibly tie up any loose angles concerning their romantic interest with Danny between Valerie and Sam. After seeing this version of "Girls' Night Out", I still wished we had gotten that one instead of what we got. This is one of the most blatantly annoying "feminist" episode I’ve ever had the displeasure of seeing.
I have a significant problem with the media portraying females as though their gender is a big deal. We get Aesop-inspired episodes where the usual male protagonist uncharacteristically declares their pigheaded view only for his gal pal to kick his ass. To them, it's meant to signal "girl power", to me, it's like a giant arrow hovering over her head, telling everyone out there in BIG. BOLD. CAPITAL LETTERS to respect her right as a female. As a woman, I found this annoying and offensive. There’s certain things men can’t do and certain things women can’t do, but when it comes to a situation where they can equally handle a problem, why is it automatically an issue that girls have to make a ruckus about their genders to justify themselves to the opposite sex? This usually results in them pointing out their obvious features and less about portraying them as characters. We’re not just women, we’re human. Equals. At this point in time, this should be a dead horse. The fact that this is still a requirement in most TV shows (especially children's series) is troubling, which is why I couldn't stick up to Spectra, Ember, and Kitty's vagina-empowered takeover. The bigger insult is that the entire episode is driven because of men. Why is it that radical portrayals of "feminist" automatically blame men for everything wrong in society? It's not only unnecessary, it doesn't fit their characters at all. I wonder if there were any female editors during the scripting of this episode, because if there wasn’t, Mr. Sullivan clearly could have used one.
I wish I could say this is the only problem the episode has, but despite the admirable amount of chemistry both the good and bad guys have (as well as some funny one-liners), none of them were remotely in-character. Kitty comes the closest, but the rest are hellishly derailed. Spectra mistreats her previously respected partner Bertrand, Ember’s sudden acquirement of Skulker as a boyfriend comes completely out of the blue—prior and later episodes never indicate any clue that this happened—and only gets worse when neither of them interact whatsoever to built any kind of tension in their relationship issues. It’s clear their dilemma was added to give them a justification for creating a men-free world, but it’s bad-writing when you make things up on the spot that had nothing to do with their characters. I can think of at least two other girls to join Kitty’s ensemble: Desiree and Dora. The former has been burned by the man she loved and declares other men unworthy unless she wishes it. Dora had to suffer 1600 years under her brother’s service because it was tradition during her time; two valid reasons for them to want to join up and get rid of all the XY chromosomes. True, Desiree is a flying Dues Ex Machina, but a quick wish from either Kitty or Dora to keep her immune from a wayward wish from either Sam, Maddie, or Jazz could have kept the heroes busy for 22 minutes when they finally find a loophole around it. Kitty's power is interesting, but not well-explored; an opportunity to see how the men were doing in a dimension we never see would have helped. We just have to take for granted that they're alright.
The goodies aren't much better either; Maddie, Jazz, and Sam’s incredible stupidity in the field of battle is an insult to their previous experience, especially the first. The woman keeps a constant eye on clumsy Jack and expertly fights ghost, but suddenly, she fucks up because she’s too busy encountering her human nemesis? What? The real below-the-belt kicker is Sam and her unnecessary rude and inexcusable behavior. Since I find it hard to believe that Danny didn’t tell her and Tucker that Jazz became a member back in "Secret Weapons", hearing Sam constantly whine otherwise got tiresome. Throughout the entire episode, she was egotistical, blunt, and downright aggressive to a well-meaning redhead who had her heart in the right place. It’s a pathetic display at conflict to give the two some form of character development that should have been a non-issue back in Season Two. On a side note, Valerie gets the axe again when she would have been appropriate for this episode. I would have gladly replaced Maddie with her because we're not learning anything beyond what we already knew about Mrs. Fenton.
It irritatingly makes sense that the subplot between the males Danny and Jack succeeds far better then the A story. It’s a simple premise that never outdoes or under weighs its general structure. Danny’s struggle to keep Jack’s knowledge away from Skulker and stop the ghost hunter from killing them both had an amusing sense of intensity. The only irk of note is Skulker’s feeble attempt versus a normal bird.
Animation for the most part is good. Despite the crude transition in color and animation during the first and second half, everything works beautifully. The pink and purple are stereotypical for the women-only Amity Park, but it just as much compliments Lake Eerie. Who said pink is only for gals? For that matter, Ember, Kitty, and Spectra’s mass of colors blends very well when the three are grouped together. Sam, Jazz, and Maddie are no less good, but a bit more minor due to a more limited pigmentation. There’s a few errors (Sam’s lavender oval on her tank top turns loopy sometimes, Maddie gains massive shoulders AND head at one point, Danny’s clothes should not be sticking to Sam like that, and Jazz at one point is as tall as her mother), but it’s an all around, decent eye-candy episode.
Despite the compliments, there’s still very little to recommend about this episode. The plot is revolting, the feminist issue is humiliating, and the characters’ personalities are aggravating. A pretty episode doesn’t fix the incompetent story.
4/10
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Article written revised in: Feb. 19, 2010
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