- "A Symphony of Doom!"
Produced 2003, aired in U.S. on 10/8/04
Production order: 11 (1-11)
Pop star Ember McClain is the hottest thing in music at the moment, but little does anyone know she's a ghost who is brainwashing the populace with her music. When Danny gets in her way, she decides to distract him by magically making him fall in love. With Sam!
Tropes found in this episode:
- Badass Family: If the spears are any indication, the Australian Aboriginal family qualifies.
- Break His Heart to Save Him: When Sam realizes there's no way she can convince Danny to go fight Ember while the latter's love spell makes him too focused on Sam to care about anything else, Sam resorts to breaking Danny's heart by kissing Dash in order to break the spell.
- The Cameo: An overweight guy dressed as the Crimson Chin can be seen in the crowd of Ember's concert.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Sam's Fenton Phones, which Danny once mentioned they filter out ghost noise to communicate easier.
- Tucker's horrible singing, which breaks the hypnosis off of Ember's "fans" and make them stop chanting her name, rendering her powerless.
- Dark Reprise: Or rather Tone-Deaf Reprise. Tucker's poorly sung rendition of "Remember," which frees everyone from Ember's spell.
- Foreshadowing: At the end of the opener, a pair of ghosts pop out, wondering what that "ghostly wail" is, after hearing some of Tucker's recording of Ember's song. That's the first major hint that Ember is a ghost.
- Everyone Can See It: Sam and Danny have to spend the entire episode telling everyone "We're not together!" and "We're not lovebirds!"
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After Tucker is entranced by Ember's music, Danny and Sam are forced to tie him up in the Cramtastic Mark 5 to "deprogram" him. Later on, when Ember puts a spell on Danny to make him fall in love with Sam, this happens.Sam: (To Danny) We're gonna have to deprogram you like we did Tucker. (Skids to a halt) Oh, my gosh! TUCKER!
(Cut back to the school where Tucker has been tied up for twelve hours) - Flight of Romance: Danny's and Sam's flight from school after Ember unexpectedly turns into this.
- Heartbroken Badass: Invoked. In order to free Danny from Ember's love spell, Sam kisses Dash in front of him.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Tucker is shown to sing horribly in this episode. It's later weaponized to free the populace from Ember's hypnosis.
- Immune to Mind Control: Ember's music hypnotizes the city, and her love spell affects Danny (who was able to resist her music until she grew powerful), but not Sam, because of the Fenton Phones she was wearing the entire time.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Lancer may be a Sadist Teacher, but his concern with his students being more focused on Ember than their studies is understandable, even if it's because of mass hypnosis.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Ember ends up trapped in the area of the Ghost Zone with the overly friendly Klemper, who keeps chanting her name. Since he's not a human, she can't feed off his chanting. She demands he stop saying her name.
- Laugh of Love: Sam giggles while asking Danny "You really think I'm smart?" after Danny compliments her individuality and intelligence.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Ember's love spell makes Danny unable to think or care about anything but Sam.
- Love Potion: In order to keep Danny distracted from stopping her, Ember uses her power to put a spell on Danny that makes him fall madly in love with Sam. Sam doesn't get affected because of the Fenton Phones she was wearing since the beginning, which blocked out Ember's music.
- Magic Music: Ember's music hypnotizes anyone who hears it.
- The Man Is Sticking It to the Man: As Sam points out, Ember's image of teen rebellion and individuality is a mass-marketed corporate brand meant to sell tickets, CD's, and merchandise.
- No-Sell: Because he's half-ghost, Ember's music can't affect Danny until a huge amount of chanting makes her powerful enough to place him under love enchantment. It doesn't affect Sam at all because she keeps wearing the Fenton Phones.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Even strait-laced preppy Jazz is obsessed with Ember.
- Popularity Power: Ember gets stronger the more people chant her name. She planned to broadcast her concert to the whole planet, which would effectively make her all-powerful.
- Save the Jerk: When Ember hypnotizes some students into attacking Mr. Lancer, Danny saves him, although he lampshades how poignant it is.Danny: Oh my gosh! I gotta save Lancer! Wow, this is bittersweet.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Ember is defeated, her band disappears, likely realizing they don't stand a chance against Danny.
- Shout-Out: Shortly after Danny comes to his senses, there's a brief shot of Ember imitating Gene Simmons.
- Something We Forgot: Sam and Danny try to free Tucker from the influence of Ember's music by strapping him into a Cramtastic Mark 5 A Clockwork Orange-style. When Sam happens to say his name 12 hours later, she realizes they left him there and never went back! At least those 12 hours of forced intensive studying did what she'd hoped.
- Stalker Shrine: Downplayed. After Danny is hit by Ember's love spell for Sam, he gathers every photo he has of her, a lock of her hair, a note from her, and a wad of her gum in a semi-circle around him and tries to use it to summon her. When Sam sees it, she admits that even the part of her that likes the attention is a little creeped out.
- Stealth Pun:Danny: Do you take requests? How 'bout "Beat it"?
- Supernatural Repellent: The Fenton Phones are headphone-like devices designed to repel spectral noise. Sam likes wearing them because she thinks they make cool earrings. They protect her from being affected by Ember's spell.
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Suspiciously Similar Song: Ember's "Remember" melody and lyrics sound remarkably similar to Céline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," complete with it being an insanely popular song that most people can't avoid if they tried. - Throw the Dog a Bone: Tucker manages to impress two girls from school with his newfound knowledge.
- Villain Song: "Remember," which essentially sheds light on Ember's backstory.
- Villainous Breakdown: Once Ember's spell wears off, she freaks out and begs everyone to say her name rendering her powerless.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Ember's concert was to occur at midnight.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The plot is a cross between The Real Ghostbusters episodes "Banshee Bake A Cherry Pie" (where a famous female singer is actually a ghost who tries to stop the heroes from interfering with the concert where her Evil Plan will go down by putting one of them under a love spell) and "Janine's Genie," where Janine wishes for Egon to fall in love with her, producing the exact same effect that Ember's spell has on Danny in this episode.Egon: (to Janine) You're beautiful when you're scared out of your gourd.Danny: (to Sam) You're beautiful when you're wracked with guilt.
