Archive for the ‘Buffy Season 3’ Category
Monday, March 12th, 2007
Graduation Day I and II (Joss Whedon)
The yearbook thing and the graduation ceremony to the tune of Land of Hope and Glory (I mean, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1) is all a mystery to us on this side of the Atlantic. We just leave school after we finish our exams and that is it.
Anyway, poor Amy, as much as it sweet that Willow and Oz get it on at last, she hardly deserves to get to watch and listen. And it’s typical that Willow gets to spend most of the two episodes in a peach top but we do get to see her on a bike.
Buffy and Faith:
- Faith is now being portrayed as a cold-blooded killer and she does have an awful lot of redeeming to do. We get a glimpse of her past as she recalls her childhood: “You little firecracker”.
- “Faith has you at a disadvantage, Buffy.” “Cause I’m not crazy or cause I don’t kill people?” “Both, actually.” “I hear you. I can’t kill her, fun as it may sound.”
- “No, it’s perfect. Angel needs to drain a Slayer, then I’ll bring him one.” “Buffy, if Angel drains Faith’s blood, it’ll kill her.” “Not if she’s already dead.” One of the many strengths of BtVS is the moral ambiguity. Is Buffy right to even contemplate killing Faith to save Angel (who is actually a mass murderer rather than one making baby steps)? Do we think at this point that she actually will attempt kill Faith? I have to say I was shocked when she did.
- “Well, look at you. All dressed up in big sister’s clothes.” “You told me I was just like you. That I was holding it in.” “Ready to cut loose?” “Try me.” “Okay then. Give us a kiss.”
- Buffy kisses Faith: surely, Buffy realises she isn’t so different from Faith? Buffy denied Faith’s assertion in Consequences that “You know in your gut we don’t need the law. We are the law” but Buffy in the end did take the law into her own hands. Buffy did something that Faith may well have done even when there was an alternative (the one that lead to Buffy being in hospital). I believe that Buffy was guilty of attempted murder.
“Men like sports. I’m sure of it.” “Yes. Men like sports. Men watch the action movie, they eat of the beef, and enjoy to look at the bosoms. A thousand years of avenging our wrongs and that’s all you’ve learned?” “I’m trying, okay? You don’t need to take my head off.” Oh Anya, you have four more seasons of these patronising put-downs to put up with.
It happens a lot in BtVS when characters make decisions for others: in this case, Buffy decides for Joyce. This was probably so the writers didn’t have to write anything for Joyce to do.
I don’t really like the scene when Buffy mutinies partly because I dislike making somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong (except being annoying and pompous) into the bad guy and also have him say the only thing that makes sense. Buffy prevails in spite of all the bad decisions she is constantly makes.
Willow loses her ability to type as Oz plays with her hair. The same doesn’t happen with Tara in The Yoko Factor, which is either a very valuable pointer to the difference in their relationships or just the programme makers shying from making the latter relationship too blatant or maybe me trying too hard.
Faith is eating red vines and probably would be smoking too except maybe she isn’t as evil as Angelus. The mayor loves Faith. “Well, I’d get set for some weeping if I were you. I’d get set for a world of pain! Misery loves company, young man, and I’m looking to share that with you and your whore!”
Metaphors sometimes work…Buffy makes Angel drink her blood and this scene is way hotter than any soft focus heavy breathing nonsense we’ve had before (and have in the future).
When I don’t like Xander, I hate him: “Well, it’s just good to know that when the chips are down and things look grim you’ll feed off the girl who loves you to save your own ass.” – just, shut up, you don’t know anything.
“If I need someone to scream like a woman I’ll give you a call.” this sort of line really bugs me – Buffy screams like a woman in Hush.
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Sunday, March 4th, 2007
The Prom (Marti Noxon)
Sentimental or moving? Well, only one episode of BtVS made me cry and it wasn’t this or Seeing Red.
Anya: “You know, you can laugh, but I have witnessed a millennium of treachery and oppression from the males of the species and I have nothing but contempt for the whole libidinous lot of them.” “Then why you talking to me?” “I don’t have a date for the prom.”
What exactly is Wesley doing wandering around Sunnydale High? And, why would he be chaperoning a high school dance?
“It’s Buffy’s world, we just live in it” I do appreciate that sentiment but I care much more about Willow and her relationships ad Xander an his than I do about Buffy’s. Maybe it’s the drawn out masochistic nature of them.
“Look! Right there, zoom in on that.” “It’s a videotape.” “So? They do it on television all the time.” “Not with a regular VCR they don’t.” It’s a bit much making fun of this aspect of tv when BtVS’s computer skills leave a lot to be desired.
Xander buying Cordelia’s dress is a really nice touch. I will be happy to know differently but does he ever mention her again?
Buffy’s lonely fight with the hellhounds with almost no witnesses seems to be a sad moment but the students of SHS are not quite as blind as we thought.
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Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
Choices (David Fury)
The big question: is Willow worth “thousands of lives”?
With Willow getting accepted to Oxford (“tea-bag central), MIT, Yale, Harvard, Mars University, etc, I think they rather overdid the Willow is bright thing.
I’m assuming that Willow used a 9H pencil to dust the vampire because it would have needed to be extra hard to do what it did. Plus it is difficult to believe that someone as terrified and as new to witchcraft would have that sort of control. Remember what happens to her control at the beginning of Doppelgangland?
Her standing up to Faith is more likely: “Oh yeah? Give me the speech again, please. “Faith, we’re still your friends. We can help you. It’s not too late.”” “It’s way too late. You know, it didn’t have to be this way. But you made your choice. I know you had a tough life. I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boo hoo! Poor you. You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people. I mean, you had friends in your life like Buffy. Now you have no one. You were a Slayer and now you’re nothing. You’re just a big selfish, worthless waste.”
The mayor may be a bad guy but he’s on the nose about Angel and Buffy’s future: “Yeah, and that’s just one of the things you’re going to have to deal with. You’re immortal, he’s not. It’s not. I married my Edna May in ought-three and I was with her right until the end. Not a pretty picture. Wrinkled and senile and cursing me for my youth. Wasn’t our happiest time. And let’s not forget the fact that any moment of true happiness will turn you evil. I mean, come on. What kind of a life can you offer her? I don’t see a lot of Sunday picnics in the offing. I see skulking in the shadows, hiding from the sun. She’s a blossoming young girl and you want to keep her from the life she should have until it has passed her by. My God! I think that’s a little selfish. Is that what you came back from Hell for? Is that your greater purpose?”
You can also feel sorry for Snyder: “You. All of you. Why couldn’t you be dealing drugs like normal people?”
“Actually, this isn’t about you. Although I’m fond, don’t get me wrong, of you. The other night, you know, being captured and all, facing off with Faith. Things just, kind of, got clear. I mean, you’ve been fighting evil here for three years, and I’ve helped some, and now we’re supposed to decide what we want to do with our lives. And I just realized that that’s what I want to do. Fight evil, help people. I mean, I-I think it’s worth doing. And I don’t think you do it because you have to. It’s a good fight, Buffy, and I want in.” This does make sense and I do hope that she eventually graduated with honours (or the US equivalent).
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Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
Earshot (Jane Espenson)
A cracking episode with much to love except, nitpicking here, the misdirection with Jonathan using a hunting rifle to attempt suicide.
“Infect? Infect?”
“It was intense.” “Yeah, for a minute there I thought you’re gonna make an expression” “Well, I felt one coming on. I won’t lie.”
Strange for me to say this but the scene between Buffy and Angel was excellent. She really does need to ask rather than obsess because it isn’t healthy.
The scene when Buffy reads the thoughts of all the Scoobies is fantastic: Willow’s dismay at Buffy knowing more about her taciturn boyfriend than she does, Xander’s one track mind and Cordelia’s literal one is all very funny:
“I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist.” “Hmm…” “What am I gonna do? I think about sex all the time! Sex! Help! 4 times 5 is thirty. 5 times 6 is 32. Naked girls. Naked Women! Naked Buffy! Oh stop me!” “God Xander! Is that all you think about?” “Actually…bye.” “Look at Cordelia. No! Don’t look at Cordelia! She’s a student! Oh I am a bad man. I’m a bad, bad man!” Excuse me.” “What’s it like Buffy?” “I don’t know. It’s a little weird. But…look, please, don’t for a second think that I don’t need you, because I do. I want to share this with you. It’s like all these doors are opening to all these little worlds, and I can just walk right inside.” “No one else exists either. Buffy is all of us. We think. Therefore, she is.” “She knows so much. She knows what Oz is thinking. I never know that. Before long, she’ll know him better than I do.” “No, don’t think that.” “I can’t help it Buffy. I’m sorry, I just can’t.”
“On the hood of a police car?!?”
“You had sex with Giles?! You had sex with Giles?!” “It was the candy! We were teenagers!” “On the hood of a police car?!?” “I’ll be downstairs. You feel better.” “Twice!!!!”
Willow interrogates Jonathan again and the other investigations are also fun: I do like is sort of cutting from location to location while keeping the narrative thread (see also Checkpoint, Bushwhacked and De-clawed).
Hard to believe but when you’re not a beautiful one but true:
“You know what? I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it’s not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they’re too busy with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone.” “If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It’s not. It’s deafening.”
This is the perfect coda, Buffy had learned and grown as a person but even she’s not that gorgeous a person:
“Well, it’s nice to be able to help someone in a non-slaying capacity. Except, he’s starting to get that look, you know, like he’s gonna ask me to Prom.” “Well, it would probably be good for his self-esteem, if you…” “Oh come on! What am I, Saint Buffy? He’s like three feet tall!”
No, this is the perfect coda.
Obligatory pic of Willow in a hat
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Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Enemies (Doug Petrie)
How I felt watching this
A drama is in trouble when it uses the misinterpretation of an innocent incident when two characters are supposed to trust each other as a basis for the rest of the episode. Even when it jokes at this later on: “But it’s so clear the way he feels about you. Buffy, I too know the love of a taciturn man and you have to look at their actions.” “I was. “ “Well, what did he say?” “Say? You mean when I straightforwardly asked him what was going on?” “So you bailed?”
The first time I saw this when I didn’t know what was going on it was intriguing but second time it’s a bit dull plus the demon owing Giles a favour was a corny and cheaty device. I’m not intrigued by the Buffy and Angel angst and even Faith bored me.
“That could be hours. The girl makes Godot look punctual. I’ll just go myself.” – make up your mind folks, is Buffy pay-attention gal or not?
“You know how some people hate to say I told you so? Not me. I told you so. Angel’s back in the really bad sense, and uh, I told you so.” – I’ll let Xander off this time
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Saturday, February 17th, 2007
Doppelgangland (Joss Whedon)
The fiftieth episode of BtVS and it’s my number one so far. Andy said that he thought my summary of this would consist of a repeat of the script and that’s almost what this is.
“For a thousand years I wielded the powers of The Wish. I brought ruin to the heads of unfaithful men. I brought forth destruction and chaos for the pleasure of the lower beings. I was feared and worshipped across the mortal globe. And now I’m stuck at Sunnydale High. Mortal. Child. And I’m flunking math.”
Emma Caulfield (as the other non-Scoobies were) was generally wasted on the show with crass one-liners but when she was given something to get her teeth into she was smart and funny. I assume it’s calculus and trig she’s talking here and not arithmetic.
“Aren’t you sort of naturally buff, Buff?”
“I know Faith’s not gonna be on the cover of Sanity Fair, but…she had it rough. Different circumstances, that could be me.”
“Match? You want us to breed?”
First bit of over-analysis: Faith has just gone from being apprehended by the Council after being a majorly bad girl involving such incidents as killing a human and almost murdering Xander to training and bantering with the others. And it’s like there is a scene missing where it was explained how Faith was going to be rehabilitated and everybody said how they were going to behave as if nothing happened.
Even Wesley is amusing in this episode: “Oh, no, no, no. I’ll be fine. Just give me a minute. And some defibrillators, if it’s not too much trouble.”
Second bit of over-analysis: Oz has a gig in Monterey and doesn’t tell Willow? If Willow wasn’t so keen on tarring herself with the boring brush then she should have been asking why her boyfriend wasn’t sharing.
“See, I told you. Old Reliable.” “Oh, thanks.” “What?” “Old Reliable? Yeah, great. There’s a sexy nickname.” “Well, I didn’t mean it as…” “No, it’s fine. I’m Old Reliable” 
“She just means, you know, the geyser. You’re like a geyser of fun that goes off at regular intervals.” “That’s Old Faithful.” “Isn’t that the dog that, that the guy had to shoot…” “That’s Old Yeller.” “Xander, I beg you not to help me. Will, I didn’t mean it as a bad thing. I think it’s good to be reliable. “Well, maybe I don’t wanna be reliable all the time. Maybe I’m not just some doormat person. Homework gal.” … “Maybe I’ll change my look! Or cut class. You don’t know.” “And I’m eating this banana. Lunchtime be damned!”
Just everything is so right about this scene with Xander making things worse, Buffy getting in a tangle, Willow’s indignation and the banana finish.
“You heard right, mister! I-I-I’m always ready to work some dark mojo. So, tell me, is it dangerous?” “Oh, no.” “Well, could we pretend it is?”
“I believe these chicken feet are mine. Look, m-magic is dangerous, Anya, i-it’s, it’s not to be toyed with. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have someone else’s homework to do.”
These two exchanges with Anya summarize Willow so well. The idea that she’s missing out really annoys her but at the same time she wants to please and make people happy so she does things she shouldn’t and she ends up in all kinds of messes. And, of course, this is strong foreshadowing.
“Aren’t you gonna introduce me to your…Holy God, you’re Willow.” “You.” “You know what? I, I like the look. It’s, um… it’s, it’s extreme, but it, it, it looks good, you know, it’s a leather thing, and, uh…I said extreme already, right?”
Lots of people even after all these years want to see a Faith or Spike or even Willow spin-off but I just don’t think they would work (I mean have you seen Tru Calling? Eliza Dushku can’t carry a show) because BtVS works because of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s tremendous performance. She isn’t 100% all the time (who could be in over 140 episodes?) but in scenes like this, she is just hilarious and has perfect timing. And in other scenes she’s emoting like the Emmy winner she is and she is plain under-rated.
Third bit of over-analysis: the very least Buffy and Xander should do after realising Willow has been turned is to apprehend her rather than letting her go because their inaction directly leads to Sandy being vamped. However, I suppose they are in a state of shock…
“She was truly the finest of all of us.” “Way better than me.” “Much, much better.”
“Say, you all didn’t happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?”
Ok, I resisted just repeating the script here but I could have! Everything is great: the sadness of the Scoobies, Xander shaking his cross, the hugs (especially Giles’s), Willow’s confusion, Giles’s lack of anything constructive to say, etc.
“What a day. Gimme a beer.” “ID” “I’m eleven hundred and twenty years old! Just gimme a friggin’ beer!” “ID” “Gimme a Coke.”
I love Anya.
“It was exactly you, Will, every detail. Except for your not being a dominatrix. As far as we know.” “Oh, right. Me and Oz play Mistress of Pain every night.” “Did anyone else just go to a scary visual place?” “Oh, yeah.”
Oh yeah, indeed.
Fourth bit of over-analysis: why does Willow turn her back to Vamp Willow and what makes her say, “Would that mean we have to snuggle”? Unless she just knows what she wants.
“Bitch”
“It’s horrible! That’s me as a vampire? I’m so evil and… skanky. And I think I’m kinda gay.” “Willow, just remember, a vampire’s personality has nothing to do with the person it was.” “Well, actually…that’s a good point.”
She’s never skanky…
“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything that could be interpreted as brave.”
Except going into the Bronze!
The cutest moment of a very cute character is when Willow waves at Oz after entering the Bronze.
“She bothered me. She’s so weak and accommodating. She’s always letting people walk all over her, and then she gets cranky with her friends for no reason. I just couldn’t let her live.”
“Buffy! No!” “Nice reflexes.” “Well, I work out.” This world’s no fun.” “You noticed that, too?”
Faith kills Allan Finch because she couldn’t stop herself but Buffy is capable of stopping and that is the difference between them.
Fifth bit of over-analysis: “We send her back to her world, and she stands a chance. It’s the way it should be anyway.” I’d say not: she’s an evil vampire who is likely to be doing all kinds of unspeakable things in her own world and to send her back is morally wrong. Luckily, this only dawned on me after watching the episode several times so it never bothered me before. And, of course, the viewers know that she is going back to be poofed. Tara Incognita? by HonorH is an excellent work of fan fiction that deals with this misstep by the Scoobies.
“Hands! Hands!”
“Aw, f…
My final observation, that perhaps doesn’t need to be said, is that Alyson Hannigan is awesome in this episode as all three Willows.
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Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
Consequences (Marti Noxon)
This is a very dark episode in both theme and look. It has some emotional scenes in it with excellent acting particularly from Alyson Hannigan.
Faith pretends she doesn’t care or does she believe this?
“Anyway, how many people do you think we’ve saved by now? Thousands? And didn’t you stop the world from ending? Because in my book, that puts you and me in the plus column.” “We help people! It doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.” “Why not? The guy I offed was no Gandhi. I mean, we just saw he was mixed up in dirty dealings.” “Maybe, but what if he was coming to us for help?” “What if he was? You’re still not seeing the big picture, B. Something made us different. We’re warriors. We’re built to kill.” “To kill demons! But it does not mean that we get to pass judgment on people like we’re better than everybody else!” “We are better!”
The first time I saw the scene when Buffy thinks Giles believes Faith’s take on Allan’s death I was shocked and even now, I’m all agog by a stunning piece of cleverness by Faith and by Giles.
Oh Wesley, Wesley. I’m not sure I can like Angel; I mean Wesley is in it.
The scene in the cafeteria as the Scoobies decide what to do is just a marvellous opportunity for AH to shine. As Xander slowly reveals that he had sex with Faith and the others equally slowly cotton on, Willow sits there twisting her hands in her lap looking devastated but just in control. Xander did the thing and didn’t tell her. Life sucks for Willow in this episode and it doesn’t help that Oz is absent throughout.
Faith is in the process of murdering Xander when he is rescued by Angel. Maybe I missed it but this “incident” is not mentioned an awful lot in subsequent episodes. Willow dislikes Faith more than Xander ever seems to. For example, in this very episode: “I kind of have an issue with Faith sharing my people. But she murdered someone and accused Buffy. Then she hurt Xander. I hate to say it, but maybe she belongs behind bars.” Faith didn’t murder, she killed; but she was going to strangle Xander. However, the language used here seems to diminish Xander’s near death experience and Xander himself doesn’t have any more dialogue after Faith’s attack and, certainly, in the next three episodes the strangling isn’t mentioned.
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Tuesday, February 13th, 2007
Bad Girls (Doug Petrie)
The costume designers have gone mad again. In order to totally underline the contrast between Faith and Buffy, they book-end the episode with Buffy dressed like she is either going to church with her mother or she is her mother but in the middle of the episode when she is a bad girl, she’s in leather.
Wouldn’t you blow off a class
for someone who drew hearts on the window
and smiled like that?
Yeouch, that is one awful looking villain: yuck all round and boring too.
“Is he evil?” “Not in the strictest sense”: Wesley is treated very rudely at first as if the others already know what an irritant he is going to be. It might have been better if their behaviour towards him changed through the episode as he comes genuinely annoying with the added bonus of the unattractive trait of cowardice.
“I hate it when they drown me”: I didn’t like the drowning sequence; it seemed silly, pathetic and her hair isn’t wet enough.
The highlight of the episode is Xander’s twitching eye and he says “you know” in a sweet way.
As a mother, I totally get Joyce’s comment about things not being calorific if they are made for someone else: chips for Adam and just a few for me (no harm done).
Clearly, Buffy blowing off Willow for Faith is to show that if she deserts her oldest friends he is going to get into serious trouble; robbing a store is nothing compared with getting involved in aiding and abetting manslaughter. And it is manslaughter, not murder.
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Thursday, February 8th, 2007
The Zeppo (Dan Vebber)
My word, this is the second stinker of season three. Many fans rate this Xander centric episode quite highly but for me it is a demonstration of how badly wrong an episode can go if characters’ fail to behave in a consistent and believable manner. I don’t think it is unreasonable to compare this with Doppelgangland. Both are standalone, quirky, humorous in tone and deal with a character developing in self-awareness (Xander by the end of the episode knows he can handle himself in a crisis and that he isn’t any of the things Cordelia accused him of (and anyway, just what does a werewolf offer? He’s useless three nights a lunar month. Oh wait, he has a heightened sense of smell but that may just be Willow’s scent.)). However, Doppelgangland is brilliant while The Zeppo is appalling. One of my problems is that we (the viewer) know how brave he is and to see Xander humiliated as he is in the first scene and then throughout as his friends behave totally out of character (giving him the brush-off and patronising him) just to demonstrate his lack of self-belief is annoying. Then we have scenes where Xander behaves in such insanely stupid ways so he can keep on staying in trouble e.g. he doesn’t run away like Lysette in the cemetery and doesn’t take his opportunities to drive off outside the hardware store. Then we have Cordelia just being so bitchy and cruel that my teeth hurt listening to it (“‘Integral part’ of the group? Xander, you’re useless part of the group. You’re the Zeppo”). The apocalypse story is presumably played for laughs (I had to tell Andy that as we sat stony faced through it all) but it just clunks along (I guess the writers didn’t want to waste a good world ending story on this dreck) with wince-inducing scenes like Angel and Buffy’s angsty scene (the real ones we saw in Amends are bad enough). Finally, the finale of Xander’s own story doesn’t really make sense. I should say that I did laugh when werewolf Oz, like many dogs, ate some rotting meat.
The only thing that would induce me to watch this again would be to see the scene when Faith seduces (if seduces is quite the right word) Xander.
“A fight like that and…no kill…I’m about ready to pop.” “You up for it?” “Oh, I’m up. I’m suddenly very up. It’s just, um…I’ve never been up with people before.” “Don’t worry. I’ll steer you around the curves.” (later) “That was great. I gotta shower.”
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Thursday, February 8th, 2007
Helpless (David Fury)
This episode was rather annoying me at the beginning with Giles’s behaviour making him appear to be rather a hypocrite following his comments to Buffy in Revelations. I felt the time for Giles’s doubts as expressed to Travers should have been made before administering drugs to Buffy. However, when we see that Giles is as helpless as Buffy when it comes to the Council the episode does fall into place. But…I don’t really care about the machinations of the Council and its patriarchal attitudes. And I do care that Giles’s “father’s love for the child” results in Wesley turning up.
Jeff Kober was an exceptional villain; he has the right idea in wanting to turn Buffy rather than simply killing her and the chase in the house is tense and spooky.
Buffy playing with the long, thin crystal after her workout with Angel was amusing but unnecessary.
What were they on? It’s southern California not Nebraska. I find it unlikely but did AH have dandruff?
“You’re not getting the big picture here. I have no strength. I have no coordination. I throw knives like…” “A girl?” (what?)
Xander and Oz geek over Kryptonite.
“Cause I could see your heart. You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe. To warm it with my own.” “That’s beautiful. Or taken literally, incredibly gross.”
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Page 48 on 
Georgia, USA on 