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"My Brother's Keeper" is the ninth episode in the TV series Danny Phantom.

Plot[]

The arrival of Penelope Spectra, Casper High's new guidance counselor, brings with it a chain reaction of depressed students. Meanwhile, Jazz tries to figure out her brother's strange behavior.

Synopsis[]

Spirit Week is coming to Casper High, and Mr. Lancer thrills over its glory, telling the nearby Jazz about his days as a male cheerleader when he attended Casper High. Jazz tries to change the subject to her concern for her brother Danny, whom she has noticed has been behaving strangely. She is worried that all his emotions might one day come out the wrong way. At the same time, Danny fights a blob-like ghost inside the new guidance counselor's office, but their fight completely wrecks the office and the ghost manages to get away. Danny transforms back, but just then, Lancer and Jazz spot him in the wrecked room, confirming what Jazz was saying about Danny, but all Danny is concerned about is his failure to capture the ghost. Danny gets in trouble once again.

The new guidance counselor, Penelope Spectra, retains an optimistic attitude despite her trashed office. The air conditioning in the room is so cold that everyone can see their own breath. Danny remains angry towards his sister for ratting him out, then Mr. Lancer orders him to leave while he decides on his punishment. He praises Jazz afterwards to Spectra, saying she is to give a speech for Spirit Week.

Spectra was given her job at Casper High as a motivational speaker and teen therapist to "pep up" the kids in Casper High in time for the speech on Wednesday. Spectra and her assistant Bertrand show Jazz their plans to topple a line of dominoes that spell "Casper Spirit," the last one of which will trigger the "Spirit Sparklers." Jazz, noting Spectra's overly-optimistic nature, thinks Danny will benefit from her.

With a push from Lancer, Danny is given a session with her. Only a few seconds into the session, Spectra already sees the complaints Danny keeps making and claims to him that Jazz called him both a "baby" and "loser," to which Danny retaliates in shock and anger. Spectra gives Danny a pep talk and sends him off.

After Danny leaves, Spectra delightedly sucks up Danny's depression as energy. She and Bertrand discuss that she absorbs the misery of teenagers to retain her youthful appearance, and to her, Danny is like a "walking spa treatment." Bertrand (revealing himself as the shapeshifting blob ghost Danny fought earlier) decides to up the ante. Turning into a giant hornet, he goes to wreck havoc.

Danny complains about his sister's insults to his friends, but Sam doesn't think that Jazz would ever say anything like that. Jazz comes over to counsel Danny, but he is too angry with her and, after his ghost sense goes off, making him shiver, runs off, concerning her further. Just then, Bertrand, in hornet form, comes in to attack and corners Jazz. Danny Phantom comes to the rescue and takes Bertrand outside the schoolyard to fight.

Danny again performs poorly and Bertrand gets away, causing Danny to doubt himself once more. Jazz, now having witnessed ghosts for the first time, is ecstatic to tell Danny. However, when she tells him about that night at home, Danny denies seeing anything. Still concerned for him, Jazz calls in her last resort: Jack and Maddie Fenton, who rush in to see what is the matter with Danny. Danny quickly changes the subject by mentioning that Jazz saw a ghost, prompting their parents to aim their attention at her and Jack to show off his latest invention, the Portable Fenton Ghost Peeler, a high-tech suit that "peels ghosts apart atom by atom".

At school the next day, Jazz confronts Danny's friends who, despite her urges, refuse to expose anything secret about Danny. Bertrand shows up again and wraps Danny's backpack strap around the fire alarm, causing Danny to accidentally pull it and landing him another session with Spectra instead of Mr. Lancer giving him a full month of detention every day. Spectra tries to help Danny overcome his fear of being called a baby by literally having him put on a baby costume with the use a items such as a diaper, a fancy hat and a sash being dressed as the "Casper High Spirit Baby," but Danny says he is more afraid of being called a loser.

Spectra suggests that his true problem is that he cares too much about what other people think. Just then, Dash and his friends see Danny in his baby costume, and Danny becomes a laughingstock, further lowering his self-esteem minutes before he gets lured out of the office to be seen by the rest of the students at the school.

At an ice cream parlor, Danny talks with his friends about his constant depression. He knows it started when he started seeing Spectra, but rather than feeling better because of her, he has only felt worse. Jazz comes over to comfort Danny, which makes Danny even more stressed. Bertrand shows up yet again, and Danny's ghost sense goes off, and he starts a fake argument with Jazz indicating she took his friends. He rushes out of the back door to go ghost. Jazz, concerned, follows him into the back of the parlor and suddenly sees him go ghost.

She quickly shouts this revelation to Sam and Tucker, but they falsely deny the existence of ghosts and suggest that her parents' craziness has rubbed off on her. Jazz is now more suspicious than ever of Danny, but now for a different reason ever since she witnessed his transformation to Danny Phantom. Meanwhile, Danny fights off Bertrand (now shapeshifted to a wolf), but Bertrand gets away once again.

Back home, Jazz tries to pinch Danny to make sure he's not a ghost. Danny reacts angrily, but she tells him compassionately that even though she knows Danny thinks she is pushy, she really cares for him. He nearly relents and tells him about his problems, but ultimately refuses.

At school the next day, nearly every student (except Jazz, Sam, and Tucker) who has had a session with Spectra is incredibly depressed. Danny in a depression explains that it would be more worse to sit through Jazz's speech about putting the letter "I" back in spirit. but when he realizes that Jazz was still happy filled with positivity as she passes by, Danny comes to a quick realization and views photos of him in the baby costume on Tucker's PDA, and notices that his breath really was his ghost sense trying to warn him and that Spectra had the air conditioning as cold as she did in order to throw him off.

Suspecting Spectra is the one responsible for all the teen depression and might be a ghost, Sam and Tucker volunteer for a session with her, only to come out depressed as well. Danny (as Danny Phantom) enters immediately after and witnesses Spectra sucking up Sam and Tucker's teenage depression and overhears her and Bertrand's plan to vaporize Jazz with the Spirit Sparklers, which would cause enough depression to keep the two youthful for all eternity.

Danny ambushes the two, fighting off both of them at the same time (with Spectra revealing her ghostly form). In the gym, Jazz makes her speech to a crowd of depressed teenagers, and Lancer starts the dominoes. Danny, now finally sick of doubting himself (and remarking on how his sister remained optimistic no matter how many times he gave her the cold shoulder), finally gets the edge in the fight, causing Spectra to lose some of her powers.

Bertrand intervenes, turning into a ninja to fight. Much to his dismay, Danny automatically aims and captures Bertrand in the Fenton Thermos, then races off to save Jazz just in time as the Spirit Sparklers started act berserk enough to vaporize her. He saves her then takes her to an empty room. Just before she could thank him, the moment was short-lived as Spectra takes and corners Danny, ready to finish him off, but Jazz comes in with the Fenton Ghost Peeler just in time. Using it to save her brother, she removes all the layers of skin full of good positive spirits Spectra has, reducing her into a shriveled old lady, making her an easy catch for Danny.

Jazz eyes Danny once more before faking a scare towards him, giving Danny an easy escape. Jazz smiles privately and thinks of telling Danny that she knows his secret but decides to wait until Danny is ready to tell her. She returns to the gymnasium, where all the teenagers have lost their depression and cheer for Jazz, happy she is unharmed. Mr. Lancer declares to Jazz that everybody has their spirit back and Jazz claims that "they're not the only ones".

The episode finishes with Jazz in her room at Fenton Works, watching Danny Phantom soar through the air with a content expression on his face, back in good spirits again.

Home Media[]

DVD[]

iTunes[]

  • Danny Phantom: Season 1

Credits[]

Series continuity[]

  • At the beginning of the episode, Jazz mentions that Danny's behavior changed after "the accident." This likely refers to the Ghost Portal accident that took place before the series (as described in the intro) and implies that Jazz knew about Danny's portal accident and has been monitoring him since then.
  • In this episode, Jazz finds out Danny's secret, but decides not to tell Danny or his friends about it until Danny is ready to tell her. This eventually happens (and is specifically referred to) in "The Ultimate Enemy."
  • This episode establishes that Valerie worries about material possessions, which comes into play in "Shades of Gray" when Danny and Cujo inadvertently cause her to lose her rich lifestyle.

Trivia[]

  • Allusions: See List of allusions
  • Goofs: See List of goofs
  • First appearance: Penelope Spectra, Bertrand
  • A clip of this episode appears in the interactive board game, Nick Scene It?
  • Danny breaks the fourth wall by looking directly at the viewers after Jazz kisses his head. He then promptly becomes grossed out.
  • This is the last episode where Valerie is voiced by Grey DeLisle before being replaced by Cree Summer onward.
  • This is also the last episode where Kwan is voiced by Dat Phan before being replaced by James Sie onward.
  • This episode reveals that Mr. Lancer used to be a male cheerleader when he was a student at Casper High.

References

Site navigation

V - E - H - DDanny Phantom episodes
Season 1
1. Mystery Meat | 2. Parental Bonding | 3. One of a Kind | 4. Attack of the Killer Garage Sale | 5. Splitting Images | 6. What You Want | 7. Bitter Reunions | 8. Prisoners of Love | 9. My Brother's Keeper | 10. Shades of Gray | 11. Fanning the Flames | 12. Teacher of the Year | 13. Fright Night | 14. 13 | 15. Public Enemies | 16. Lucky in Love | 17. Maternal Instinct | 18. Life Lessons | 19. The Million Dollar Ghost | 20. Control Freaks
Season 2
1. Memory Blank | 2. Doctor's Disorders | 3. Pirate Radio | 4-5. Reign Storm | 6. Identity Crisis | 7. The Fenton Menace | 8-9. The Ultimate Enemy | 10. The Fright Before Christmas | 11. Secret Weapons | 12. Flirting With Disaster | 13. Micro Management | 14. Beauty Marked | 15. King Tuck | 16. Masters of All Time | 17. Kindred Spirits | 18. Double Cross My Heart | 19-20. Reality Trip
Season 3
1. Eye for an Eye | 2. Infinite Realms | 3. Girls' Night Out | 4. Torrent of Terror | 5. Forever Phantom | 6. Urban Jungle | 7. Livin' Large | 8. Boxed Up Fury | 9. Frightmare | 10. Claw of the Wild | 11. D-Stabilized | 12-13. Phantom Planet
Lists
Allusions | Goofs | Episode transcripts
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