Shadow (David Fury)
A gloomy, gloomy episode.
Dreg (Kevin Weisman, Marshall Flinkman in Alias – Alias two seasons of fun, fun, fun and then wtf?) fawning over Glory is amusing. “No! No, no, your terrifically smooth one, it is the epitome of ankles. To touch such an ankle would be – but I’m not touching. I’m backing away.”…”Dreg, is it?” “Yes. Dreg. Your creamy coolness has honored me by speaking my name. Your voice is like a thousand sweet songbirds that..” “Yeah, I never tire of hearing that…”
Spike is stalking Buffy and in any other show that would be disturbing but in the world of BtVS it seems relatively normal and funny. “Ah, that’s the stuff! Slayer musk, it’s bitter and aggravating!”
I’m not keen on Xander so patronising Xander is squirmy. “An, we talked about the employee-employer vocabulary no-nos. That was number five.”
Riley, Riley. I have tried to be supportive but he’s not helping himself at all. If I have learned one thing from BtVS it’s that you should talk to the person you have a problem with and not listen to their stalker or their little sister instead (and then extrapolate the worst).
“My god, are you guys okay though? I mean, did – no one got hurt, right?” “Oh no, thankfully, no, uh, no violence to speak of.” “Okay, so, that’s good…how did she get away with this bad mojo stuff?” “Giles sold it to her.” Anya’s whisper is very funny. I have just discovered that Emma Caulfield has a MySpace space and it’s interesting…
Riley is being a bit yucky now though it’s a nice touch having Sandy return from Doppelgängland before being cast aside in disgust.
The cgi monster is scarier than the animatronic one but that’s scary in the loosest sense.
The final shots: what are we supposed to be thinking here? Sorry for Riley? I don’t get why the last shot is of him looking forlorn as if he’s been deserted for no good reason.
Oh, Riley. You know, I really do feel sorry for him in “The Replacement” when he says that Buffy doesn’t love him. Even though Buffy says in “Into the Woods” that she gave him her heart, soul, and left pinky toe, she was never as invested in this relationship as she was with Angel. However, given Riley’s — what I think — accurate assessment of his relationship with Buffy, I cannot condone his behaviour in this episode, nor can I feel sorry for him as the director seems to want. Poor Riley because Buffy is blowing him off to be with her sick mother? Oh, yes. That Buffy. What a bitca. Oh, but I do like Riley’s scene with Dawn. Along with his scenes with Xander, I find Riley’s interactions with Dawn the most tolerable and endearing.
Speaking of relationships that never felt very substantial, I hate how condescending Xander can be to Anya and how embarrassed he is of her at times. At least when he was dating Cordelia he seemed to find her shallowness charming sometimes.
Spike’s “bitter and aggravating” line is probably the best piece of dialogue in the episode.
The beauty of Anya’s relationship with Xander is, up until now at least, how she ISN’T affected by the way he treats her – I love how matter of fact she can be and the way so many of Xander’s snarky comments just slide off her back. To be honest she is perfect for Xander because anyone else would have wanted to strangle him after a week or two – her demon background has clearly prepared her well and enables her to dismiss that side of him – he does have a good side after all.
But Xander really only has “that side” when dealing with Anya. Yes, he was consistently shown to have a jerky side when angry or hurt (“Prophecy Girl,” “Dead Man’s Party,” “Entropy”), but I can’t remember him being nearly as condescending with anyone else.
My problem with Xander’s behaviour is two-fold. One, the behaviour itself which literally makes me squirm and, two, his lack of respect for his partner – he humiliates her in front of others (well, it would be humiliation for anyone but Anya): it may be water off a duck’s back in this case but it is still disrespectful and not an attractive trait.
As an aside, I have noticed that Xander is a lot less popular with the ladies than he is with the gents. I’d love to see a poll to test that theory.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. I think Joss designed Xander to be basically him and to function as an everyman. I would imagine that most of the males who consider themselves Buffy fanatics were outsiders in high school and find Xander relatable. While I never really disliked him and Xander definitely has a sweet side, his wisecracks and charm began to wear thin after the first few seasons.
I find it very hard to consider Xander as an outsider. It was impossible for me to relate to anyone in Buffy maybe because our education systems are so different. I didn’t consider myself an outsider but in retrospect might have been a little outside of the norm (mostly because of my music). But to me the real outsiders at our school (and there were a few) were not nerdy, sweet, wisecracking charmers but shy, sad people who found social interaction difficult (did I just describe Jonathan?). The guys like Xander were the cool ones!
I agree that Xander’s treatment of Anya in public was often not good (but then so was his treatment of Cordy (and Cordy’s treatment of him)) the fact is that of the three central characters, Xander was the least fully developed and without a developed role in the show it was probably difficult for the writers to get a hook onto him. The biggest problem with Xander is the inconsistency of writing the character had.
(You know what was hard about writing this response? With Willow and Buffy I can pretty much reconcile everything they do into the storyline – with Xander I feel I have to keep coming out of the story and consider how the writers dealt with him – and that’s clearly the problem (did that make sense??))
But can you see Xander (and Buffy and Willow) as an outsider in the context of the show, during seasons one through three at least? Whether or not those type of people were actually outsiders in the average high school, I think that Joss really characterized them as such during the high school years of the show. My high school friends and I were a lot like Willow, Xander, and Buffy, and I wouldn’t consider us to be outsiders in the way that, say, the goths (depressed, angry kids in black clothes) were. I think these days even geeks are pretty integrated into the mainstream of American high schools, even though not all of them may be considered “cool,” whatever that means.
Poor Xander. I agree that the writers never really figured out what to do with him. For the first few seasons, it was enough to have him be funny and crush on Buffy, but he should have had more interesting storylines in season four on.
As for his relationship with Cordelia, the bad treatment kind of went both ways, so it didn’t feel as mean as his condescending attitude toward Anya. I’m not saying that reasoning makes sense.
Oh, and while I’m generally not a fan I think Marc Blucas looks quite fetching in his green turtleneck sweater of alienation and shame.
But to me the real outsiders at our school (and there were a few) were not nerdy, sweet, wisecracking charmers but shy, sad people who found social interaction difficult (did I just describe Jonathan?). The guys like Xander were the cool ones!
Andy, this is something John says all the time – he was definitely more the shy, sad person who found social interaction difficult.
I have to say that I like Xander a lot, despite the flaws you’ve all stated. I don’t disagree with any of you, but…I guess I just prize a sarcastic wit higher than most people (maybe because it is the kind of wit I am most likely to have).