Johnny 13's Shadow returns. While fighting him off, Danny's secret is discovered by Paulina. Danny finds that Paulina is not only willing to keep his secret, but becomes his girlfriend! Life is good for Danny, but one night, he finds out that Paulina has
5.6
"Mediocre"
The show's Valentine's Day special, "Lucky in Love" gets Paulina hooked on one of the Danny's, and adds in a bit of complication between other relationships as well.
Johnny 13's Shadow returns one day, and while fighting him off, Danny's secret is discovered...by none other than Paulina! Though initially afraid of exposure, Danny finds that Paulina is not only willing to keep his secret, but becomes his girlfriend! Life takes a rather unpleasant turn for Sam, Tucker, and a few formerly popular students, but all is fine and good for Danny. But, one night, this perfect relationship goes bad when he finds out that Paulina has been overshadowed by Johnny's old girl Kitty...and Johnny wants her back!
I have to be honest here; I was disappointed in no small degree. It's definately not my least favourite episode, but, given how much I was looking forward to it, and what I saw... :(
I'll start with the opening...I was a few seconds behind in getting to the right channel, so I missed the first few bits, but I really liked the opening. I laughed, found it very exciting, loved the way Shadow returned, and really enjoyed the way it ended before the theme came up.
The theme came up, the episode went on, and I was still laughing. It was feeling a bit too fast-paced, even for me, but I was still enjoying myself.
Then the lunchroom scene came up.
A lot of people said SoG and FtF were too cartoony for a more seriously-tempered animation piece like DP. While I will still defend those eps to death, here, I found things far too over the top and cartoonish. The running around in the park; very overdone in my opinion. I loved seeing The Box Ghost again, but the way the rest of the scene went...bleh. The way the popularity circuit works in the building...OK, I love how Dash, Paulina, and the like are so stereotypical, as it gives the real, definate characters something to play off of, but this was way too cliched. Though I will say, I found Qwan rather funny as a loser ;) But, a few small moments aside (more on that later) that whole sequence up until the commercial felt like it was from FOP instead of DP. And I love both of Butch's shows, but when one takes the others style, things don't go over so well.
The commercials passed, and I was getting myself back together. Then they came on. Things seemed to improve a tad bit; the dialogue felt weak and Johnny's voice sounded different, but found it a bit of an improvement. The explanation as to what was going on was alright (more on this later also), but then things went back downhill. The Star character was just plain annoying, and Qwan stopped being funny. The romanticy, soap opera-like workings of many of the things in this ep bugged me, but in this moment, the dialogue is just horrible.
Then, the trio is reunited. I liked that. Danny begging Johnny for help didn't bug me. I thought it would; Johnny seems like one of the three ghosts Danny really seems to loathe. But I guess that, compared to a lot of other things in this ep, it was handled pretty well. Danny's actually hitting Johnny in their pretend fight kind of showed that not all was forgiven and forgotten, so that made up for the slight OOC-ness of this one situation.
After the pretend fight was over...I had to plug my ears during Kitty's lines. But again, Danny's playing not-so-nice with Johnny in The Ghost-Zone concerning their deal worked out well, and by the end, the trio was set all nice back into place, just as it has been (post-SoG anyway, and I mean this in a positive way), Paulina completely unaware of who Danny Phantom really is.
The ending, Danny's and Johnny's scenes (for the most part), and some other bits (still more on that later) were all wonderful, and elevated this episode for me. But the complete OTT and OOC-ness of the popular circuit and the handling of the romance/fake romance/pity/any kind of boy/girl interaction outside the trio really killed a lot of this ep for me. Dash's line about the contents of his gun "not being water, if you get my drift" was the third time gross-out humour as been utilised in the series, and I'm not happy about it.
And Lancer has expressed favouritism as far as contributions to the school are concerned, but would he really care about the popular circuit? The attempt at teenage slang was funny as always, but his reactions towards Danny's moving up the ladder really unnerved me.
Now, for what I did like ^_^ Again, Danny and Johnny still being at odds worked out well, though I thought Johnny was much more effective in 13. The trio working together was nice, and I liked everything going back to normal by the end. The ties into 13, PE, and FtF were nice.
Speaking of FtF...Sam's moments of jealousy were probably my favourite thing about the ep once the cartoonish nature set in. The flames aren't all cooled from being fanned, eh? ;) Danny's reaction to Kitty's comment on Sam was also great. D/S has been kept to the minimum since FtF, but this stuff was wonderful, subtle, and goes well with that particular plot point ;)
Those moments elevated the ep above the other truly cliched eps (my opinion); AotKGS, SI, and FN. But too much held it back, and again, I was really wanting to see this ep, so I felt really disappointed by it.
5.6 out of 10; I felt disappointed, but there was stuff that I liked, and I'm not going to think less of the show by any means.