PRODUCTION/CULTURAL REFERENCES (written 1/21/19)
-I originally came up with the idea for this episode back in season three. It was going to be a Halloween episode with Sparky in the main role. Wade would invent a formula giving Sparky an evil twin, and making him a less "soft" person. However, the evil twin would have too much of an influence on Sparky and end up abandoning him, attempting to steal his identity and ruin his good name. This episode was going to be a part of a Halloween tripleheader entitled "Satan's Stories." However, I decided to not go through with the idea after all the work I put into writing "The Life and Times of Diana Katanova." I figured that the episode would end up overshadowing the other two, so I only wrote one Halloween show that season.
-When I was thinking about the Halloween episodes for season seven, "Thank You, Heavenly's Relapse" was really the only idea I had. However, I knew the chances of that episode not being finished were high, so I had to have a backup plan in place. I thought about the idea I came up with in season three of Sparky having an evil twin, but I decided to replace Sparky with Buster because he was more believable in the role. This also goes to show how different the series was back then because had that episode went through, Buster would have been the one teasing Sparky for being too soft. The backup plan was to have "Thank You, Heavenly's Relapse" be a half hour and "I'm the Enemy" (the original episode title) follow it. That way, I would still have two Halloween episodes. Once "Thank You, Heavenly's Relapse" became a reality, I thought about having "I'm the Enemy" be in January because I was still a fan of the idea.
-I changed the title to "The Enemy" and placed it on the schedule for January 20. I was also considering calling it "Buster's Enemy" at one point. However, I once again changed it, this time to its current title.
-The original idea I had in 2014, along with the finished product, was based off the two-part Secret World of Alex Mack episode "The Other Side." I really liked watching that episode over the summer and wanted to write something inspired by it. I didn't really change anything from the basic idea other than have Buster take Sparky's place and the evil twin be a visual representation of Buster that only he and Wade can see. Of course, I thought about the episode differently than I would have in season three, so there would be some natural changes. I considered changing the title again, this time to "The Other Side of Buster Newman" but I felt like it was too much and I would have trouble remembering the name.
-The episode title is, of course, a reference to The Secret World of Alex Mack.
-Buster references the classic 1973 Bob Marley and the Wailers song "I Shot the Sheriff."
-The montage of Wade studying Buster was always supposed to have "On Fire" playing in the background. In fact, I had that song in my head for months. But then I thought about how "The Formula" sounded better in that montage so I replaced it, and instead used "On Fire" for the fight sequence.
-Part of this episode has some self-awareness to it due to Wade having a history with inventions that have unintended consequences, like in "Night of the Radioactive Hamsters," "The Homework Machine," and "You're Welcome, Hellish." This is why Wade says that he has prepared himself for every possible contingency, and when Buster 3.0 tells Buster that he kidnapped Wade, Buster barely has a reaction because he knew something like that would happen.
-Before Buster takes the formula, he references lyrics from "Metalingus" by Alter Bridge.
-Buster references his clone from "You're Welcome, Hellish." Despite Buster not being the smartest person in the world, his clone was so cartoonishly stupid that he grew to hate him.
-RK references Buster's previous imaginary friend Rick from "KG the Carnegie." RK was so annoyed by Rick's presence, he ended up "killing" him in front of Buster with an imaginary knife.
-Buster references the plot of the 2006 Cartoon Network live-action film Re-Animated.
-Buster makes two Daniel Bryan references in this episode: The first one references Bryan's heel turn in November 2018 and his character change into "The New Daniel Bryan," while the second one references Bryan's use of the heel hook after coming out of retirement in March 2018.
-The "Suckas Need Bodyguards" montage was always something I had planned, but due to the number of songs I used in this episode, there was a chance that it would have been taken out.
-This is at least the fourth appearance of Billy and his mother. The two characters normally show up when one of the characters is doing something weird. Billy acknowledges it, which causes his mother to warn him about the dangers of doing drugs. Their characters were taken from a bit in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Krusty Dogs," and as much as I can remember, their last appearance was in "When Satan Takes the Wheel" back in season four.