#show thesis

OWCA’s fears are justified, as we see in multiple alternate timelines and alternate dimensions. When Candace messes with the timeline in “Phineas and Ferb’s Quantum Boogaloo,” one of Doofenshmirtz’s inventions puts Perry in a full body cast on the first day of summer, creating a new future where Doofenshmirtz has turned the tri-state area into a dystopian hellscape. In “Across the 2nd Dimension,” a crueler version of Doofenshmirtz has enacted a similar plan and managed to neutralize Perry as a threat by converting him to his cause. The equilibrium of Danville is very, very delicate, and it seems that the safest way to protect it is to keep Doofenshmirtz “busy” with minor problems that give him an outlet for his frustrations that are still easy for Perry to “reset” by the end of the day. Perry breaks Doofenshmirtz’s machines, or Doofenshmirtz breaks them himself, and they start over again the next day, no better or worse.

Phineas and Ferb takes on the challenge of creating interesting character development within its very fixed, episodic structure, and the relationship between Doofenshmirtz and Perry is the best, most dramatic example of how, even with the status quo of their battles carefully maintained, the personal changes in their relationship have huge, lasting consequences on the universe--and, of course, on each other. In broad strokes, Doofenshmirtz flourishes under anyone’s daily attention, starved as he has been for affection of any kind, but Perry in particular provides a patient, steady presence that won’t disappear--after all, it’s literally his job to listen. On the other hand, Perry is used to keeping a tight rein on his emotions; he values professionalism above all and has to be able to maintain his composure around his family, his boss, and his nemesis. But Doofenshmirtz gives so much emotion that it’s hard to keep a cool distance, and Perry learns to open up a bit and does more to assure Doofenshmirtz of his fondness for him than simply showing up every day. 

But even within that broad development, we still get major hitches in their relationship that tell us a lot about them as characters and the flaws they bring to any friendship or relationship they could develop. These flaws bring real stakes and heartaches to their rivalry, and I want to quickly go through their major fights and how those echoes have kept reverberating through Dan and Swampy’s newest show, Milo Murphy’s Law, which moves multiple characters out of the insular episodes of Phineas and Ferb and forces them into a world with more lasting consequences.

“It’s About Time,” Phineas and Ferb 

In this early episode, Doofenshmirtz steps out on Perry and starts fighting someone new (Peter the Panda). (This also happens to be the first episode where the time machine, which figures heavily in the lore of Milo Murphy’s Law, appears, which is a great little parallel.) This is also likely the first time that Perry realizes how much he values his time with Doofenshmirtz. When Perry finds out that Doofenshmirtz is not only swapping out nemeses but trying to hide it from Perry, he’s devastated. In this case, Perry has done nothing wrong, and it blindsides him to think that there is anything about their relationship that Doofenshmirtz isn’t satisfied with. Perry spends most of the episode wandering around in a teary-eyed stupor and quits his job rather than contemplate the idea of fighting someone else. Doofenshmirtz backtracks a bit and implies that it was all part of an elaborate plan to trap Perry, and that he didn’t realize the long con would hurt Perry in the wrong way. Doofenshmirtz recommits to Perry, and it’s the first time the two of them have been open about how much fighting each other really means to them. They both made the mistake of taking it for granted, and the sudden chasm of emotion that opens up between them when that routine gets upset is shocking to them both.

“Road to Danville,” Phineas and Ferb

I could unpack “Road to Danville” all day (and have), but this episode draws out a couple of key points in the dynamic of their relationship. 

1.) Perry’s lack of communication bugs Doofenshmirtz, who is needy enough to really want constant reassurance and is unnerved when Perry prefers to shut down instead of really expressing what’s bothering him. By now, Doofenshmirtz is excellent at reading Perry’s silences and can tell when he’s actually getting the cold shoulder as opposed to Perry’s usual quiet snark. Their relationship is big enough now that Doofenshmirtz wants to hear it, and when Perry withdraws further than usual into silence, it’s a sign that something is very, very wrong. It no longer feels like enough to know that Perry will never fail to show up for him; Doofenshmirtz wants to know that Perry wants to be there, and if he has a hard time getting that from Perry, he turns on his frustration and makes it personal in a way their fights usually aren’t.

2.) Doofenshmirtz’s recklessness and tendency to let his emotions drive him bugs Perry, especially when Doofenshmirtz doesn’t take responsibility for the mistakes he stumbles into. The episode kicks off with Doofenshmirtz ignoring Perry’s warnings and accidentally transporting them into the middle of nowhere, without an easy way home. It’s Perry’s job to prevent this kind of stuff from happening, and it reinforces the idea to Perry that things only go well when he’s in control. Perry has a hard time relinquishing his perfectionism when it comes to just about every aspect of his life, and it’s usually because he’s learned that any misstep could have really horrible consequences (his host family learning about his secret identity, thus forcing him to leave them forever), and Doofenshmirtz’s panicky, shoot-from-the-hip style of problem-solving absolutely freaks Perry out when he’s not in a position to manage and control it. 

Their fundamental differences become sharper and more stressful when they’re not running on a script, comfortable in their routine, and all their pent-up frustrations with each other come out. This leads to Doofenshmirtz explicitly blaming Perry for things going wrong for him. He says Perry is the only thing that’s been holding him back for years, that if Perry would just leave him alone and let him try, then he’d be a lot better off. Perry points the finger back at him, making it clear that Doofenshmirtz is responsible for his own troubles and that he needs someone like Perry just to be there to clean up the mess, something Perry is clearly sick of doing at the moment. Another big theme in “Road to Danville” is that Perry’s distance makes Doofenshmirtz feel isolated--he wants Perry to trust him to go it alone, but he also wants Perry to help. Doofenshmirtz is the one who comes up with ideas, and Perry just shoots them down. It’s an untenable dynamic, and Perry is the first to realize that he has been too hard on Doofenshmirtz and immediately goes to get him some water, but by then, Doofenshmirtz has picked up his wounded pride and gone on without him.

In this episode, Doofenshmirtz clearly wants to stand on his own two feet, if only to prove to Perry that he can. It’s his inferiority complex coming out in full force, an acknowledgement that everything he does is an attempt to be recognized as someone competent and important. But Doofenshmirtz’s brilliance and stubbornness never seems to turn into success for him. He can’t even manage to get a bus ticket on his own, which leads into the episode’s most gut-wrenching moment, when Doofenshmirtz breaks down, sobbing out “I’m a failure! I’m a failure!” over and over, as if the weight of every backstory is crashing down on him all at once. Nothing has ever gone right for him, and he seems incapable of even fixing his own mistakes (i.e., returning to the status quo is impossible for him to achieve on his own; it feels instead as if he just ends up digging himself into a deeper hole). If he cannot achieve anything, then why should Perry like him at all? 

And, of course, it’s at that very moment that Perry swoops in, bus tickets in hand, extending an apology. No matter what we do, no matter how we fight, I’m here.

“Oh, Perry the Platypus, you're a mensch! I know I can be testy and unpleasant. I know I tend to ramble on and on--to be fair, the burden of conversation is kinda all on me in our relationship. And I know that I haven't always given you the respect you deserve. Anyway. I want you to know that you are appreciated, Perry the Platypus. You. Are. Appreciated.”

When they get back to Danville, the episode ends on a note of almost-perfect balance. Both have hurt each other; both have apologized; both have taken concrete actions to make the other feel valued and understood. Even the whole pointing fingers at each other has come back around--instead of “this is your fault” it means “I trust you” or “you can do this.” I may be tearing up right now, but that’s the power of this episode. It says just about everything you need to know about not only why these two care for each other, but how they express it.

But how they express themselves without the other one around is also important. Without Doofenshmirtz right next to him, Perry breaks and is moved to do something kind, because Doofenshmirtz has shown him that wearing his heart on his sleeve isn’t always a bad thing. Without Perry there, Doofenshmirtz breaks down and admits he feels like a failure. And what’s great about this scene is that he’s right. He wouldn’t admit failure for most of the episode because, as we see, it’s hard for him to accept failure without it becoming really, really personal. If he fails at one thing, he’s ruined. With Perry, he is better able to accept that his self-worth isn’t directly tied into his success/failure rate because at least Perry will stick with him.

This is what we call foreshadowing.

“Meapless in Seattle” / “Sidetracked” / “Lost in Danville”

They hit another rocky patch when it turns out Doofenshmirtz developed more feelings for Peter than he really let on and is continuing their dalliance months later. Perry has a more muted response this time. He’s much more secure in their relationship now and isn’t devastated -- he’s just angry and disappointed. But Perry’s protectiveness when it comes to Doofenshmirtz overrides any rejection he feels, and he and Peter work together to save Doofenshmirtz from a bigger threat. Peter and Perry patch things up, and that seems to be the end of it. When Peter shows up again, Doofenshmirtz either ignores him or takes the time to make sure Peter’s spending quality time with his nemesis, because now Doofenshmirtz is in a stable enough place where he can advise Peter and Mystery on the importance of communication. Again, when Mystery kidnaps Doofenshmirtz to get back at him for “stealing” Peter, Perry is mostly worried about making sure Doofenshmirtz is okay and enlists Peter’s help without much of a second thought.

On a separate occasion (“Sidetracked”), Perry is forced to team up with another agent, which makes Doofenshmirtz very slightly jealous. Doofenshmirtz idly comments, 

“This is why I'd rather not make friends, they find someone else, and bam! You're alone.”

So while the immediate danger of the love quadrangle is muted, Doofenshmirtz, more than Perry, still worries about being abandoned. He often acts on his most deep-seated fear before he can get hurt by someone else. He’ll leave, he’ll find someone else, or he’ll choose to be alone rather than live with the uncertainty that Perry might wise up and leave him first. Perry can reassure him, but the anxiety is still there.

In spite of that glimpse into Doofenshmirtz’s still-unresolved fears, the episode ends with Peter showing up, and Doofenshmirtz and Perry’s relationship seems like it couldn’t be in a better place. They exchange the most pure, wordless endearments possible, and they are just so comfortable and settled, I’m going to die.

“Father’s Day”

This isn’t a fight, but I just want to mention it. Doofenshmirtz calls Perry “his rock” and “the one relationship in my life that has worked out.” With Perry behind him, Doofenshmirtz can do anything, even confront his abusive, emotionally withholding father. 

“The OWCA Files”

“The OWCA Files,” a special that came out after Phineas and Ferb officially ended, falls into a “soft canon” label. It’s not clear exactly when it takes place, and due to time travel shenanigans, it could be merely a possible future for the characters. The “future” episodes of Phineas and Ferb are all in a state of semi-flux, as the events of Milo Murphy’s Law have made at least slight alterations to any futures we’ve already seen. Regardless, “The OWCA Files” tells us a lot about how the differences between Doofenshmirtz and Perry are perennial, and no matter how committed they are to one another, they will still run into major conflict. 

“The OWCA Files” is another example of what happens when Perry is forcibly taken out of his comfort zone and asked to control an uncontrollable situation, and also how Doofenshmirtz reacts when he has to rely on someone besides Perry. It’s rough for both of them, but Perry has a much harder time adjusting to the new normal. He’s not a team player at the best of times, and we’ve already seen him butt heads with just about every agent he’s teamed up with--Lyla, Peter, Agent Double O-O. So when he’s forced to work with Doofenshmirtz, not against him, on a professional basis, it really throws their personal dynamic out of whack. With Doofenshmirtz constantly stepping into volatile situations without thinking, it’s too much for Perry. It’s the same reason he lashed out at Doofenshmirtz in “Road to Danville,” only this time, there’s no easy way to back out or let Doofenshmirtz do his own thing. Doofenshmirtz has to listen to him, and he won’t, and he’s bad at this, and Perry’s the only responsible one of the whole team, and it hits his absolute last nerve. He basically tells Doofenshmirtz to just sit on the sidelines. This feeds into Doofenshmirtz’s greatest fear, that he’s really, truly not good enough and that Perry only tolerates him because he has to, or because he’s just too polite to say no. But in the episode, Doofenshmirtz doesn’t dwell on it too much--there’s enough professional distance here that he realizes he’s trying to master in one day what Perry has spent his life perfecting. And it’s not just Doofenshmirtz--the whole team is straining Perry’s abilities, but they come together in a way that utilizes all their strengths and shows Perry that he really doesn’t always know best. Getting Perry to let go of that perfectionism in his actual job is a herculean task, and it shows that, like Doofenshmirtz, Perry puts a lot of his self-worth into how well he can perform. A lot of his sense of self is tied up in being the protector; he values the people he’s fighting for so much that he won’t let them make mistakes or take on anything on their own, not when he can do a better job at keeping them safe. Without knowing it, Perry can be stifling. 

More foreshadowing!

“Sick Day”

In Milo Murphy’s Law, Doofenshmirtz turns out to be the future inventor of time travel (the timeline suggests he would have invented it two years after “Act Your Age” without interference). For plot reasons, the Milo crew have to find Doofenshmirtz 12 years before he invents time travel to try to get the technology jumpstarted, so they can unstrand themselves and fix the future. In the process, Doofenshmirtz loses his penthouse lair and ends up staying with the Murphys while waiting on himself to invent time travel. Throughout season 2, Doofenshmirtz makes a concentrated effort to become a better person. Of course, he seemed to swear off evil in the finale of Phineas and Ferb, but now, for the first time, he’s having to imagine what comes next and what it will take to become this legendary inventor. It’s a lot, and Doofenshmirtz doesn’t have many tools at his disposal that can boost his confidence. But he tries. With the help of Milo’s bruisingly optimistic philosophy, Doofenshmirtz slowly learns that he can do good with his inventions, even when he’s as klutzy and prone to disaster as Milo. It’s a revelation that has taken him a long, long time to believe, and it’s still a fragile kind of self-esteem that’s pushing him along.

In “Sick Day,” and in “The Ticking Clock,” we learn that OWCA has no idea how to deal with Doofenshmirtz’s new stated goal. He’s far too accident-prone and far too brilliant to let loose, so Perry is officially tasked with keeping an eye on him and making sure he doesn’t inadvertently hurt anyone. As Perry agrees with this assessment, he accepts.

In “Sick Day,” Perry goes around sabotaging Doofenshmirtz’s machines as he tries to superhero his way around the city, hiding his efforts from Doofenshmirtz. It’s the first time Perry has hidden something from him, but because they’re both technically on the same “team” now, it’s a lot harder to justify working against him.

When Doofenshmirtz finds out, he’s crushed.

“Wait a minute, Perry the Platypus, are you working right now? But we were saving the city together, one good deed at a time, we were pals, we were ... I thought ... I thought you were my friend, Perry the Platypus, but you’re not. You’re ... you’re my babysitter. That’s it, Perry the Platypus, we are through! I mean, I know we’ve had our rough patches before, and everyone does, but this time ... you hurt me, Perry the Platypus! You hurt me!”

And it really is the first time that Doofenshmirtz didn’t share at least some of the blame for causing pain in their relationship. But here, all of his worst fears, which have come up again and again in the series, seem absolutely confirmed. Perry is now literally holding him back, sabotaging Doofenshmirtz’s good faith efforts to try to do something good for the world. Arguably this is the only time in Doofenshmirtz’s life that he hasn’t subconsciously self-sabotaged, baking failure into the overall plan. He wants it to work. He’s addressed some of the personal problems that have always come up: the fact that he has a “Heinz’ Law” in effect, the fact that he doesn’t tend to think things through very well, the fact that he’s scared about living up to a frighteningly competent future self. Doofenshmirtz has taken off his training wheels, and he wants to take these steps on his own. It’s his direction, not following Perry’s orders or shielding himself from pain. He’s made himself very, very vulnerable as he tries new things, and the one person that he thought would support him, the one person he thought wanted this for him all along, is undermining him. Perry doesn’t trust him. And there’s another sneaking fear buried under that. Doofenshmirtz thought they were simply hanging out, enjoying being together. To know that his greatest dream of working with Perry is also something Perry sees as an obligation? No. Unthinkable.

Perry would never, never do this to purposefully hurt Doofenshmirtz. He just wants to keep him safe. He wants to be there to support him, but not if it means Doofenshmirtz’s enthusiasm gets him killed. It’s always been Perry’s job to mitigate the potential harm to Doofenshmirtz and others, but it takes on wildly different dimensions when the end goal is something good. And it seems that no one, not even the people Doofenshmirtz thought he could count on for support, trusts that he can do this. And when he’s starting to take these first steps toward genuinely becoming a better person, that lack of confidence he feels from his best friend is shattering. The fact that he has enough backbone to tell Perry how deeply he’s been hurt and how he can’t afford to be around someone who doesn’t believe in him speaks volumes about how far Doofenshmirtz has come. When he has broken up with Perry before, it was always a defensive maneuver, pulling the plug before Perry had a chance to hurt him. Perry has always been the one who fought to stay with him, to remind him of how much he admires him. But right now, Doofenshmirtz can’t even trust that side of Perry. Doofenshmirtz won’t dull his dreams for Perry. He won’t settle for less. He won’t be pitied. He’s here to matter. For the first time in his life, he feels that’s within reach. And Perry wasn’t there for him in the way he needed.

Perry knows how much this hurts. He’s been there, feeling like he’s not enough for the person who matters most to him. Only, he didn’t know how much Doofenshmirtz wanted this, how much of an identity crisis Doofenshmirtz is going through. But Perry has made a mistake, for once, that he doesn’t know how to fix, or how to put back together. It’s heartbreaking from both ends. 

But this arc shows how Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy’s Law have both used their structures to push their characters; the shows actively put pressure on them simply by forcing the characters to operate in a new environment. In Milo Murphy’s Law, unlike in Phineas and Ferb, there’s no longer a safe routine to fall back on. Doofenshmirtz’s home is in ruins, he’s no longer directly opposed to OWCA, so there’s no reason for Perry to see him every day, which led to Doofenshmirtz thinking he must only be there out of friendship. Doofenshmirtz doesn’t even want to be evil anymore, so the old outlets for his frustration aren’t here. So where does that leave him? What do two nemeses do when they’re no longer allowed to be nemeses?

Where Phineas and Ferb emphasizes creation, construction, making the most out of every day, Milo Murphy’s Law explicitly divorces positivity and optimism from productivity and success. Doing things or doing things right is not the precursor to a happy life; instead, it’s about how to respond well to failure. Milo Murphy’s Law asks, “Say you do fail and can’t fix it -- what next?” With a show structure that doesn’t reset at the end of every episode, Milo Murphy’s Law forces us to linger in unresolved tension and experience the world the way Milo does (it’s my world, and we’re all living in it), something that’s a whole lot messier and less stable than the even-keel balance of Phineas and Ferb’s world. The second show is about picking yourself up again and again after you’ve fallen on your face a dozen, a hundred, a thousand times, It’s reckoning with the certainty that the baggage of your failures will keep piling up every time, but that you, somehow, can’t let that affect you. 

If anyone, anywhere, needs to hear that lesson, it’s Heinz Doofenshmirtz. His job in inventing time travel is to make the kind of successful, world-warping invention that falls into place for Phineas and Ferb in an environment that hasn’t been graced with their luck-defying gravity. It’s impossible, potentially soul-crushing, and “just a lot of pressure,” but he’s going to do it. He’s got to. The prospect of doing that without any of the support systems he’s used to must be terrifying, but how else can he prove to himself that he is strong enough on his own to decide who he will be? Perry cannot put it all back together for him, and more importantly, Doofenshmirtz doesn’t want him to, not when it’s something this important and personal to him, not when it really, really matters. Going all the way back to “Road to Danville,” Doofenshmirtz is pleading to Perry: “Just let me try.” Doofenshmirtz needs to finally start believing in himself, and when he does, Perry will believe in him, too (he does already, just not in the way Doofenshmirtz needed at that moment). If we break the Phineas and Ferb characters out of their hermetically sealed universe, in which all consequences seem to balance each other out, does their optimism still hold? It does! But Doofenshmirtz is finding a way to exist in both worlds, to take his own halting, dangerous steps into an unknown world without a safety net, and the strategies he uncovers to help him fail and live through it, to see himself failing without being a failure, is going to make him stronger. And those steps are enough to draw Perry further out of his shell, too, to rely not on comfortable routines but to go with someone else on a brand-new adventure. To experience something instead of controlling it. To build instead of destroy. To move forward instead of staying stuck. It’s absolutely beautiful to see, and these two are going to keep making each other better people forever. Bet! On! It!