The Ultimate Enemy

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"The Ultimate Enemy" *Danny Phantom episode*
The Ultimate Enemy title card "It's time to SCREAM!"
Season	2
Number	28/29
Prod. code	-
Airdate	September 16, 2005
Special Guest(s)	David Carradine as Clockwork Eric Roberts as Dark Danny
Writer(s)	Marty Isenberg, Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress
Directors	Wincat Alcala, Butch Hartman, Kevin Petrilak
Ghost Appearances	Dark Danny (1st), Clockwork (1st)
Abbreviation	TUE

Previous episode The Fenton Menace
Next episode The Fright Before Christmas

"The Ultimate Enemy" is episode twenty eight and twenty nine as well as the second TV movie of Danny Phantom. Danny gets caught up in a time traveling adventure. There he discovers a future where his family and friends are dead and he has become the most powerful and evil ghost in the world.

1 Episode Recap
2 Allusion
3 Trivia
4 Goofs
5 Links

[edit] Episode Recap

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Ten years in the future, Amity Park is a bustling future metropolis protected by a large ghost shield, operated and run by Damon Gray while his 24 year old daughter, Valerie Gray serves as the city's sole protector from ghosts, particularly one who uses his newest power, the Ghostly Wail to easily break the ghost shield and conquer the world. Valerie flies away on her hoverboard, only to be further ambushed by the Fright Knight who's now in servitude to the ghost that broke the ghost shield. She heads to safety in the Fenton house, now occupied by her and her father. Unfortunately, the powerful ghost gets through from below and blows up the entire house. All this is being watched by Clockwork, ghost master of time as the mysterious Observants explain to him that the powerful ghost is Danny Phantom ten years into the future. Clockwork's job is to destroy Danny Phantom to ensure he never grows up to be the world's most evil ghost.

Amity Park in an Alternate Future.

Back in present time, Lancer makes a public announcement to everyone in school about the CAT (Career Aptitude Test) which will help determine their future, one test Danny takes seriously. Jazz already passed with flying colors while another classmate failed, later defending his work job in the Nasty Burger, saying if the boiler is messed in the wrong way, the entire place would blow, something none of the students care for. Lancer then locks the test answers in his briefcase, going as far as handcuffing himself to it. Clockwork watches all this from his headquarter while the Observants pushes him to destroy Danny (since the two only observe, never act upon their actions). Clockwork obliges.

Back home, Jazz tries hard to help Danny succeed, but he's more frustrated that she's smarter then he ever will be and how little success he feels he will gain. He is then hit by the boooooo-merang, a boomerang Fenton device designed to hone into a ghost's signature ecto, something which it keeps doing with Danny. He's parents grow confused on why it keeps targeting Danny, then takes off with it.

Afterwards, Clockwork comes and freezes time, then sends Box Lunch (daughter of the Box Ghost and Lunch Lady) after giving her a time medallion to ensure her stay in another time period from the future to destroy Danny. Jazz quickly leaves upon seeing the ghost to let Danny handle the battle and the two fight, eventually flying all the way to the Nasty Burger where his friends and teacher is. Battling inside, Danny remembers Irving's words and sends a condiment towards Box Lunch, causing the Nasty Burger to blow up halfway (and the boiler room inside slowly to rise in heat), sending Danny back where he goes straight through Lancer's briefcase (upon turning intangible for safety). Once everyone runs away in panic, Danny finds the time medallion Box Lunch had (who has since been sent to her own time period upon losing it) as well as the answers to the CAT test. As a result, with the Observant's pushing him, Clockwork sends another ghost to fight, even though he's future is sealed or so he claims.

Danny meets his older evil self.

The next day in school, Tucker and Sam berate Danny for his possible plans to cheat on the CAT, something Lancer overhears. Opening his suitcase to find his test answers gone, he calls for Jazz to talk with after school where he reveals to her that Danny stole the answers. Jazz tries to defend him, stating he has no proof, so Lancer gives Danny until the day of the test to return it.

Back in the Fenton household, Tucker tries to figure out the time medallion, but gets no results. Danny then gets ready to look at the answers to the test (much to his friend's dismay) until he meets another ghost from the future: the combined force of Skulker and Technus, the SkulkTech 9.9. A long battle between the two ends when Danny's powers are shorted out by Skulktech and then captured by a mechanical claw by the two. Tucker hacks a way into their system, causing them to fall onto a lamp post, their time medallion slipping off as well, sending Skulktech as well as Danny, Sam, and Tucker (when the latter two tried to pry the claw off of him) to Clockwork's lair.

Inside, the trio finds the only portal to the future, witnessing the destruction Danny's future self is causing over there. Clockwork then appears with seeming intentions to kill Danny and with his advantage of controlling time on his side, it's a one-sided battle he nearly wins. Luckily, Tucker has managed to figure out how the time medallion works, protecting them from all sorts of time-based altercation. Giving one to Sam and Danny, the latter takes his two friends to the future portal to get away from Clockwork.

The future already proves grim for the three and even more so when future Valerie catches (young) Danny, ready to exterminate him. Sam and Tucker step in to stop her, only for her to be shocked at the prospect that they are alive. Dark Danny then appears and sends Valerie away, rescued only by Danny. In the meantime, Sam and Tucker runs away, only for Dark Danny to drop the rubble of the Fenton household on them through his Ghostly Wail. Luckily, they took off their time medallions, safely returning them to their own time period. Unfortunately, Dark Danny places Danny's time medallion inside of him, unreachable by either ghosts or human.

Sam and Tucker ends up in an alley near the Nasty Burger where Jazz confronts them, having discover Danny indeed had the test answers. She warns them both that Danny better fess up or else. Afterwards, Sam theorizes Danny cheating is what will lead him to become his evil self. Back in the future, Danny finds out his family, friends, and Mr. Lancer were all killed when the boiler exploded with them inside. Dark Danny afterwards comes to him, telling his past self that he plans to ensure his future still exists, so after he sends his past self to the Ghost Zone to keep him from causing any further distraction, he uses one of the time medallions to travel back into the past. Elsewhere, Clockwork reassures the Observants that everything has worked out fine...

In the present time period, Dark Danny (disguised as his 14 year old past self) reunites with his former friends, telling them both he has beaten his evil half and that the Nasty Burger boiler is also taken care of (when in reality, it's still ready to blow). Back in the future Ghost Zone, Danny meets up with all the ghosts he has defeated previously, all the worse after having encountered Dark Danny. As an act of revenge, they gang up on him.

Danny meets the now repentant Vlad of the future.

Back in the present, Dark Danny returns to his room (where the boooo-merang is also located) and meets Jazz who confronts him on his cheating, later confessing she knows he is half ghost, and proud of what he does, until now. A bit shocked she knew, Dark Danny turns into his normal form, prompting Jazz to finally figure out he isn't Danny, seeing as how even the boooo-merang wouldn't hone in on his ecto signature. Dark Danny mentions his plans to destroy the other ghost portal that Vlad has as well as make sure nothing gets in his path to solidify his future. He then blasts her unconscious and turns back into his past self.

Jazz wakes up the next day to find Dark Danny had already left to take the test. Quickly, Jazz takes the booo-merang and ties on a note she hasitly wrote with her headband, sending it to the Ghost Zone in hopes it'll reach Danny in 10 years. Back in the future, frustrated with the massive wave of ghost attacks, Danny suddenly gains the ability to use the Ghostly Wail, knocking them all unconscious. Afterwards, the booo-merange finds him. Danny reads the note, seeing Vlad is involved and goes to track him down. Meanwhile, Dark Danny starts to cheat on his test, something his friends still are livid over. Jazz watches from afar, ready to destroy him with the Fenton Ghost Peeler, only for Dark Danny to notice, sending an invisible duplicate of himself to knock her unconscious and drag her away.

Danny manages to find the portal to Vlad's manor, but upon entering, the manor has since been long gone and the once proud billionaire is now a depressed old hermit. Seeing Danny, he relates the story of how Dark Danny was born: After the death of his loved ones, Danny moved in with Vlad, seeing as he was the only other who could understand his pain. Wanting to make the hurt go away, he ordered Vlad to remove his ghost half, something Vlad honored, pulling it out with Ghost Gauntlets. However, once freed from his human self, Ghost Danny takes the gloves and rips Vlad and his ghost half apart. He then possess Vlad's ghost, his evil side ultimately taking control of him and turning him into the evil incarnate he is now. Blowing up Vlad's manor, and supposedly killing his human half, Dark Danny left to begin his ten year rampage of world destruction. With the story over, Vlad laments that he spent the ten long years stuck in regret and guilt for all the damage he had caused. Danny, in a rare moment, forgives him, then asks for his help to take out the medallion inside of him using the Ghost Gauntlets.

Dark Danny has finished his test and walks off, prompting Lancer to call his parents and meet them at the Nasty Burger. There he reveals Danny cheated which shocks the parents. Sam and Tucker then come over to warn them the boiler is about to explode while Jazz, complete in Fenton Ghost Peeler gear reveals Dark Danny's true form to the others. Already his parents are on the offensive, demanding to know where their son is, only for Dark Danny to reveal himself as their child. He then ties up his family, friends, and Mr. Lancer to the boiler where the explosion would kill them. Danny then comes from the future with a gear of Fenton gadgets, ready to duke it out with his darker future self.

Danny's family and friends (and Mr. Lancer) tied to the boiler, about to explode.

A battle rages, Dark Phantom ensuring the battle drags out long enough for Danny's friends and family to die, believing that the fact he still exists is proof that he shall be Danny's future. However, he grossly underestimates his past self, as proved when Danny suddenly uses the Ghostly Wail on him. Shocked he gained a power he would not receive for another ten years, Dark Danny is struck by another Ghostly Wail, causing him to crash into a building. Danny then sucks him up with the Fenton Thermos. Unfortunately, with the last wail taking a lot of his energy, Danny cannot transform back into his ghost half, making him too late to stop the explosion.

Time freezes however and Danny finds him next to Clockwork who had saved his entire family and friends, now knowing that the time master knew everything that was to happen. Giving him a second chance, Clockwork sends Danny back into the past before the start of the test where Danny confesses he was going to cheat, much to the relief of his friends and sister. Given another chance to take the test, he goes out to the front of the school where he gets Jazz to confess that she knows his secret. With that said, the two embrace, Jazz now part of Danny's team. He then goes off to fight off a giant ghost nearby.

Back in Clockwork's home, the observers cries out to Clockwork, stating he cheated to get Danny to influence his choice. Clockwork answers, stating Danny made up his own mind despite his little cheat. The observants then make a note that he is to be the sole guardian of Dark Danny now that he exists outside of time. Clockwork merely agrees, knowing everything that has happened and will happen, then he places the thermos away where Dark Danny struggles in vain to escape...

[edit] Allusion

The "pole thing" (where Danny and then SkulkTech are falling to only catch a pole to break their fall) is a reference to the Spiderman comic series. Both times, the protagonist loses his powers before catching onto the pole.

[edit] Trivia

Introduced Ghost Powers: Ghostly Wail

This is the third time in the series where Danny's ghostly and human halves are separted. The first two are in "What You Want" (which was purely accidental) and "Identity Crisis" (where Danny did the separation himself).

This episode is tied with "Maternal Instincts" as Butch Hartman's favorite Danny Phantom episode.

This is the second Butch Hartman TV movie in which the protagonist meets his older self from an alternate future. The first was "Channel Chasers", a Fairly OddParents 90 minutes-long TV movie.

Clockwork, Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Dark Danny, the Observants, and Jazz are the only beings that know that Danny's family and friends would have died in an explosion and Danny would become Dark Danny.

There is a major time travel logic flaw. Danny turning evil is dependent on his friends and family being killed in the explosion, yet he (his future self) causes them to be killed. It would be illogical for someone's evil form to cause the event that caused them to turn evil, although this could be seen as an example of predestination paradox. Further, because Danny had discovered the full story of Dark Danny's origins from talking to Vlad in the future, it is likely he would know not to go to Wisconsin and undergo the procedure of having his ghost half removed. However since the Observants have asked Clockwork to prevent this future it's possible that the original explosion was caused by a different event thus Dark Danny trying to undo Clockworks attempts to prevent it.

The Ultimate Enemy is typically considered the best of the Danny Phantom TV movies, usually cited for its more mature storyline and shockingly dark consequences of Danny's transgressions. Similarly, Dark Danny has risen to be one of the most popular villains of the Danny Phantom series.

The future monument to the Fenton family, Sam, and Tucker says "Gone, But Not Forgotten". Lancer's monument, meanwhile, has partially sunk into the ground so that the visible part just says, "Gone".

[edit] Goofs

When Danny is forced back to human form by Skulktech 9.9 and is falling down, you see his eyes are still green.

Clockwork's medallions disappear and reappear throughout various scenes and from characters when they're supposed to be constantly worn (Such as Skulktech 9.9 not seen wearing one until it falls off).

When Danny is fighting Dark Danny for the 2nd time, he puts the Spector Deflector on his evil self, but amazingly the gloves stay on the belt when he lets go.

A close-up on Danny's face when he says, "Time's up!" shows him in his ghost form, even though he was forced out of it (by using his ghostly wail) a moment before. In the shot immediately afterwards, (when he uses the Fenton Thermos on Dark Danny) he is in his human form.

At the beginning, Dark Danny destroys FentonWorks, but later on when Danny, Sam, and Tucker end up in the future, right before Sam and Tucker go back in time, the building is fixed, though the op-center still retains the crack in the middle as it did earlier.

When the family and friends are first shown to be killed by the explosion:
- Maddie has her hood on, yet later on when the same event occurs at the end of the episode, her hood is down.
- Danny says "NOOO!" after the explosion but when the events occur near the end of the show, he says it before the explosion, though it could most likely be because he knew it would happen.
- The form of the explosion is similar to the form of an atomic bomb explosion, but when the events occur, the form is more of an outward explosion.

When Danny and Clockwork go back in time to when the test was being taken and Danny was to confess to Lancer that he stole the test answers, the clock shows that it's five to nine. Lancer had asked to meet the Fentons at 5, and the clock should've read 3 since Clockwork brought Danny back two hours earlier.

If Clockwork set everything back the way it was before the explosion as he brought Danny back, then that means that the Nasty Burger was still going to blow. How they prevented it from doing so when Danny was given a second chance was never examined.

When Clockwork says, "You must be eliminated before you permanently alter the timestream." he is in his old form. Immediatly afterwards (when he makes other versions of himself appear), he is in his adult form. Right after that, he is in his old form again.