- "Heart Aching Terror!"
Produced 2004, aired in U.S. on 2/11/05
Production order: 17 (1-17)
A Class Trip to a water park goes From Bad to Worse for Danny when, following a battle with Johnny 13's shadow, Paulina sees him transform. Just when Danny thinks he's doomed, however, Paulina not only promises to keep his secret but becomes his girlfriend! It's almost too good to be true... Which, of course, it is, as he soon learns that Paulina is being possessed by Kitty, who's using Danny to make Johnny jealous.
Danny: You realize you're gonna have to stop this, right?
Kitty: (in Paulina) Maybe... or maybe "Paulina" might slip up and tell the whole town that Danny Fenton is the Ghost Boy...
The good news is, by the time the episode's over, Paulina's genuinely madly in love with Danny. The bad news is, it's only with Danny Phantom. Welcome to the club of guys who are their own worst rival, young super hero!
This episode provides examples of:
- Atrocious Alias: Amity Park has dubbed the Ghost Boy "Inviso-Bill." Danny had the same reaction you just did.
- Continuity Nod:
- Johnny apparently stole one of the Fentons' portable ghost portals introduced in "Public Enemies" and wired it to his bike so he can open a portal in or out of the Ghost Zone any time he wants (until Danny destroys it, that is).
- There's also when Paulina mentions that Danny Phantom saved her twice, the first time was in "Public Enemies". In both these instances, Paulina was overshadowed.
- A Day in the Limelight: In most of her appearances, Star is just a background character, but the B-plot of this episode focuses on her. This is also the episode in which she's finally named.
- Enemy Mine: Danny and Johnny have to work together to get Kitty to take him back.
- Expy: Viewers were quick to notice that Star looks, talks, and acts exactly like an older Veronica from The Fairly OddParents!.
- Fake a Fight: Danny and Johnny do this to get Kitty back with Johnny. Danny does actually hit Johnny a few times, though.
- Homework Slave: Parodied; it's revealed that all the popular kids of Casper High have a nerd assigned to do all their homework for them. Everyone treats this as an obvious fact and perk, even the nerd in question.
- Ironic Echo Cut: When Danny goes to ask for Johnny’s help.Sam: Remember Danny; be cool. Play it close to the vest!
Danny: (frantically begging) You have got to take. Kitty. Back! (grabs Johnny’s jacket and pulls him close) She is suffocating me! I need my space! You gotta help me!
Johnny 13: Okay, okay! (pushes Danny off of him) But y’know, you might’ve wanted to play that a little closer to the vest. - It Was His Sled: What would have qualified for good twists have been nullified by time and by the episode's official summary prior to release.
- Love Dodecahedron:Danny: Kitty? Johnny? Paulina? Oh, great! I'm in the middle of a love rectangle!
- Loves My Alter Ego: Paulina fulfills this trope from now on.Danny: Can you believe that? Paulina's still in love. But with the wrong me!
- Operation: Jealousy: Kitty's plan.
- Pair the Spares: Done literally with Kwan and Star, who get together because all their friends are hooked up with someone else. (Well, they do seem to get along.)
- Pinned to the Ground: Danny's and Jonny's plan to get Jonny and Kitty back together sees Danny beating Jonny before pinning him down with his foot on his lower chest and raising his hand pretending to prepare to deliver the Coup de Grâce.
- Plot Hole: It's never explained why Kitty has no problem coming to Earth now, even though the conflict of her first episode centered around her inability to leave the Ghost Zone due to the malfunction in the Fenton portal. It was implied that the reason was said malfunction, since it trapped her in a no-man's-land between the Ghost Zone and the world of the living, and that her problem could be fixed by retreating to the Ghost Zone (she didn't do so at the time because they were being chased and she wanted to stay with Johnny). But how or why this was the case, or if she actually did so, is never addressed.
- Rescue Romance: Paulina falls for Danny Phantom after he saves her life for the second time (the first was in "Public Enemies").
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: With Danny moving into the cool kids' club, Kwan and Star have no one to hang out with. They latch onto Sam and Tucker "like gum on the bottom of a desk." Thankfully, near the end, Kwan and Star decide to start hanging out with each other and finally leave Sam and Tucker alone (to their relief).
- Trailers Always Spoil: The official episode summary released before it aired revealed everything that happened, from Paulina actually being possessed all along to falling for Danny Phantom at the end.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Danny gets Kitty to go back to Johnny by fighting him until she can't resist anymore and jumps to his defense.
- Wham Shot: Kitty suddenly coming out of Paulina before the commercial break. There was no hint before (within the episode itself, anyway) that it wasn't just Paulina herself the entire time.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Not too long prior, Teen Titans (2003) also had an episode ("Date With Destiny") where a villainess named Kitten blackmailed the hero into dating her to make her boyfriend jealous, to the increasing rage of his jealous love interest.
- Woman Scorned: Kitty's out to get revenge on Johnny for ogling every girl that crosses his path.
