#i cant remember if ive been tagging stuff with specific episode titles but i guess i should be doing that

[nastyburger]

Can you talk more about the episode "ghosts don't need babysitters"?

ghosts dont need babysitters is basically meant to explore the concept of being accepting of someone on paper vs actually handling that in practice.

it takes place recently after danny and jazz are on the same page with the whole identity reveal thing. she knows and understands her brother is phantom, shes seen him transform to fly off into the night, and she whole heartedly accepts him for who he is and all that junk of course. and now danny knows that she knows, so hes more open with his abilities and natural state of being rather than hiding it.

but watching from afar vs actually interacting, navigating, and living with the whole ghost thing is a whole different battle jazz has to work through. ESPECIALLY when its coming from her little brother who, from her perspective, has changed extremely suddenly and randomly. as cool as it would be to just very easily roll with the punches on this kind of thing, the more realistic scenario is that you gotta have time to adjust to it. like what do you do when you wake up one day and suddenly your little brother youve known all your life is just casually floating upside-down vacuuming the ceiling. even if you like conceptually understand he can do that, its gonna be a trip seeing that for the first time lmao.

the episode premise is basically jack and maddie have to leave town for some ghost sciences exhibition for a weekend so jazz is in charge of the house and danny while they’re away. because there’s no one else in the house who doesnt know danny’s secret, he basically goes all in on metaphorically having it all hang out. hes got nothing to hide! he starts being a whole lot more ghostly and does a lot of random stuff that makes no sense to jazz out of context more openly (like doing experiments on how his newer powers work, trying to figure out or hone specific skills, sticking his head into some ghost invention for whatever reason).

its mostly a comedic thing, where we’re looking through jazz’s outside perspective lens on the whole situation, but the more serious note is that she genuinely struggles trying to be supportive of whatever weird thing danny is doing and act normal around it. but you know, its hard and jazz is putting too much pressure on herself to not make her brother feel like a freak over this very precious piece of information she was trusted with. eventually, at after the series of kinda funny/awkward interactions, danny kinda catches onto why jazz is being all weird and isnt happy about it.

he sits her down and basically tells jazz that its okay to ask him questions about the whole ghost thing, its okay to be a little weirded out and show any reaction other than positive, he wont be hurt as long as she just for the love of god talked to him about like a normal person instead of trying to pretend he’s a normal person. at this point, danny has fully come to terms that hes different both socially and literally, he doesnt need this whole song and dance jazz is doing to spare his feelings. its who he is! he knows people arent used to it, thats his normal so its okay if people need to ask questions about it to understand him.

 the episode is meant to show that you’re allowed to make mistakes when getting used to something about someone and how being overly considerate can actually be alienating more than it is allying. some people just arent normal, its okay to recognize and embrace that instead of trying to make if feel normal for that person!

in all honesty though, the heart of the episode is essentially “jazz keeps walking in on danny doing a lot of weird ghost shit and is kinda weirded out by it”. the whole deeper meaning and message is there but its still overall a light hearted laugh and jazz learning the lesson to not overthink how she should interact with her brother just cause hes different.