Recap / Danny Phantom S 3 E 9 Frightmare

Produced 2006, aired in U.S. on 8/22/07

Production order: 46 (3-9)

Danny wakes up to find himself stranded in the middle of the Ghost Zone with no clear memory of how he got there. He returns to Earth to find all of Amity Park has been put to sleep by Nocturn, a ghost that feeds on dreams and intends to keep the world sleeping forever, supplying him with dreams so he'll be all-powerful. Danny has one thing to say to that: "Dream on!"

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This episode provides examples of:

• Battle in the Center of the Mind: This is where Danny decides to take the Final Battle against Nocturn. It backfires but, fortunately, Tucker and Jazz are able to stop him on the outside.
• Catapult Nightmare: All 4 members of Team Phantom wake up this way.
• Clingy MacGuffin/Self-Guarding Phlebotinum: Nocturn's helmets give anyone who tries to physically remove them from his victims a painful electric shock.
• Continuity Nod: Tucker's favorite dream (being rich and popular with Danny stuck working as his janitor) is pretty consistent with his jealousy of Danny's powers and the attention he gets as a hero seen in previous episodes like "What You Want" and "King Tuck."
• Didn't Think This Through: During the climax, Danny decides to go into Nocturn's dream to wake him up and stop him from absorbing the dream energy that's making him stronger. Shockingly, going into the dream of a being with power over dreams puts you entirely at his mercy.
• Dream Emergency Exit: Nocturn's victims wake up when something shocking happens in their ideal dream, so Danny has to do this for his friends and sister.
• Dream Intro: Opens with Danny's dream.
• Dream Stealer: Nocturn is of the "dream eater" variety.
• Dream Sue: Danny's and Tucker's dreams are both of this type.
• Dream Walker: Danny discovers his overshadowing ability allows him to do this, which is how he wakes up his teammates.
• Evil Gloating: Exploited — after he has Danny apparently trapped, Nocturn politely takes the time to explain who he is and exactly what he's doing. Once Danny knows what he's up to, he breaks free with his ice powers — obviously, he could have done that earlier but let Nocturn think he was trapped until he revealed his Evil Plan.
• Her Boyfriend's Jacket: In Danny and Sam's shared dream, in which Sam is his girlfriend, she is wearing his varsity jacket.
• How We Got Here: We see Danny's introduction to Nocturn and brief subsequent battle in a flashback a few minutes into the episode.
• Hurricane of Puns: Danny's and Nocturn's banter manages to hit just about every sleep-related phrase or metaphor in the English language.
• I Am Not Shazam: The name of the villain is often misremembered as "Frightmare," the title of the episode, which is never said in the episode itself.
• Implied Love Interest: While Tucker's crush on Star and Danny's on Paulina are a given, Danny's dream has Paulina and Star crushing on him despite having never shown an interest in the latter before.
• In Medias Res: The episode starts with everyone, including Danny, already trapped by Nocturn.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Nocturn's helmets give everyone the happiest, most idyllic dreams possible for them, where they have what they desire most.
• The Minion Master: Nocturn makes all of his Sleepwalkers.
• The Nicknamer: Jazz apparently hasn't gotten over her habit of naming ghosts seen in "Secret Weapons," as she decides "Creepwalkers" is a more accurate name for Nocturn's Sleepwalkers.
  Jazz: You call them what you want, I'll call them what I want.
• Non-Protagonist Resolver: Tucker saves the day by shutting down Nocturn's machine.
• Noodle Incident: Jazz is the one member of Team Phantom whose dream we don't get to see.
  Jazz: Did I just dream that I was a professor at Yale? And married to Dash?!
• Not Me This Time: Danny's first suspect for who's behind this is Vlad. When Danny finds him asleep, too, that rules him out.
• One-Man Army: For the first half of the episode, Danny's all on his own fighting Nocturn and his army of Sleepwalkers. He wins over and over again.
• Or Was It a Dream?: When he first wakes up, Danny has a few vague memories of fighting an unfamiliar ghost, but can't be sure if they're from a real memory or another dream.
• Ship Tease: Tucker saving Jazz (and the inexplicable awkward exchange the two have afterward) led to the birth of a few Jazz/Tucker shippers.
• This Is the Part Where...: Becomes an Ironic Echo.
  Danny: This is where I say, "Dream on!"
  Later
  Nocturn: I believe this is where I say, "Dream on!"
• Whole-Plot Reference: To The Real Ghostbusters episode "Mr. Sandman, Dream Me A Dream." In both episodes, the villain is a ghost trying to put the world to sleep, and the African-American member and red-haired female auxiliary member of the heroes' team are soon the only ones able to stop him. The only difference is that the Ghostbusters' Sandman was a Well-Intentioned Extremist, which Nocturn definitely isn't.