Recently, it dawned on me...
The episode ‘The Fenton Menace’, Where Jazz thinks Danny is going insane but really it’s just Youngblood using his powers to make it look like Danny is fighting no one, always rubbed me the wrong way. The entire conflict of the episode could have easily been avoided if Jazz just remembered the most basics things about ghosts and Danny’s powers. That her brother fighting someone who’s using invisibility is the most obvious answer to what’s going on.
Then it dawned on me. This episode shouldn’t have been in the middle of season 2. With minor re-writes, it fits PERFECTLY between episodes 8 and 9 of the first season.
Episode 8 is ‘Prisoners of Love’ where Jazz is stressed out over being proven wrong and Episode 9 is ‘My brother’s keeper’ where she discovers her brothers secret.
Here’s the idea~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Prisoners of Love’ ends with Jazz saying she’d “Rather be right and embarrassed, over being wrong, every time.” Not a good message to internalize. But that’s what she did.
Starting the next episode she’s still in that mindset. She still doesn’t believe in ghosts and hand waves any evidence that’s been shown to her thus far. (Confirmation bias and all that) Of course she won’t admit her parents were correct about ghosts and that she was wrong. So when Danny starts yelling about a ghost she can’t see, it makes 100% more sense that she thinks Danny is going crazy. To her, Ghosts arn’t real, and she doesn’t know about Danny’s powers at this point.
The episode goes roughly the same, The minor changes are that this is the episode where Youngblood is first introduced and he gives a quick explanation of who he is. (I don’t think it changes much. I think he’s a bratty kid who’d do this to Danny for a funny joke, regardless of any revenge. Maybe instead of the Fentons finding him at the bottom of a lake, they find him somewhere else. Just to avoid the ‘How did he get there?’ question)
Also when ghosts show up, instead of Jazz trying to cover for Danny, she’s trying to come up with explanations as to why those can’t really be ghosts. (They’re in the desert. It’s probably a mirage, or She was up too late last night and her sleep deprived brain is playing tricks) She’s still not ready to admit that she’s wrong, until finally Danny gets her to see Youngblood. She’s out of excuses. Ghosts are real.
Of course she freaks out. What a twist, now SHE’S the one on the verge of going crazy. (To me I feel like we were robbed of a Jazz finally admitting ghosts are real moment. This is it). Danny calms her down. He’s convinces her that everything’ll be okay, and in that moment she see’s something in Danny. He’s different, somehow. He’s not acting like the little kid she’s always known him to be their whole lives and it scares her that she doesn’t know what this is.
Danny defeats Youngblood and when they get home Jazz’s thoughts turn to her brother, not that he’s crazy but that he’s been though SOMETHING worrying that’s changed him. She determined to get to the bottom of it, leading us into the next episode ‘My brother’s keeper’. Where she thinks Danny is depressed. After the last episode she wonders if maybe she’s not the best person to be acting like Danny’s therapist, and insists he talks to a councilor for professional help.
BOOM! There you go! Three episodes, each with an effect on the next one, creating an arc for Jazz and all it took was a little bit of shuffling around the episode order.