This also represents progress in the evolution of Danny’s parents, who are well along the way of their shift from eccentric scientists who just want to get a good look at a ghost to eccentric inventors of deadly ghost-fighting weapons. There are several chilling scenes with Jack and Maddie targeting their son with deadly intention. And Danny’s tactical error of using his own powers against his parents (thinking that they were overshadowed) drives this story arc forward. (Unfortunately, this wonderfully terrifying story arc was pretty much destroyed by the events of Reality Trip.)

However, I have to take off several points because Danny’s success in this episode is due in large part to simple, blind luck. If Walker’s grey-skinned deputy hadn’t disobeyed orders and tormented Wulf at the school, Danny would never have suspected that the creature could be an ally. For that matter, Wulf’s willingness to change sides is also very lucky. If Walker hadn’t called a staff meeting at the school, and if Danny hadn’t needed to go back to the school for a Thermos, he never would have gotten wind of Walker’s plot. Wulf and Maddie took out more of Walker’s crew than Danny himself did, and yet Maddie’s very effective weapon ran out of juice at just the right time.

Wulf was a very interesting character. It was never made clear what his motivations were, what he had done to get himself thrown into Walker’s prison in the first place, or why he switched sides. Is he truly a “good” ghost, or did he just take advantage of Danny’s “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” offer? The most telling moment may have been at Tucker’s house, when Tuck managed to remove the collar, possibly suffering injury in the process, and Wulf jumped out the window without so much as a “dankon” (thank you).

The whole Esperanto thing makes me scratch my head in confusion, and not just because I don’t understand what Wulf has to say. That he can’t be understood is actually an admirable detail; it is shown that Wulf is intelligent but forces the viewer to rely on his inflection and body language to try to figure out his motives and intentions. What I can’t fathom is why the writers assigned Wulf an artificial language, one that can be learned but that is not “native” anywhere. Then they demonstrated that Tucker knows enough Esperanto to ask Wulf a coherent question, but left Tucker unable to understand Wulf’s answer. Couldn’t they have achieved the same effect by making Wulf speak a nonsense language, or use Esperanto without identifying it as such?

Incidentally, the reason Tucker couldn’t understand Wulf’s answer might have been because he asked the wrong question. According to a Esperatnto translation website I found on the web, Tucker’s question, “Kio estas Walker?” means, “What is Walker?” He may have intended to ask, “What is Walker doing?” which translates as “Kio estas Walker faranta?”

I am intrigued by Walker’s minions. He has one deputy with a distinct identity, personality and appearance; all the others appear to be identical copies of one another. Which raises the question: are they unlucky ghosts who were fated to spend their afterlives in anonymous service to a stronger ghost? Or are they some different kind of spirit, naturally lacking in individuality?

I knew from other episodes that a ghost still has access to his powers while overshadowing a human (Vlad made Jack float in Bitter Reunions, for example) but it struck me as rather jarring that Danny would fight the overshadowed humans with the sort of force that could seriously injure or kill the hosts. Apparently they came to no harm, but it looked quite disturbing unless he had some way of knowing that the humans would not be harmed.

By: Bluemoonalto

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