“Earshot”

I’ve been dreading writing a blog about this episode. And yet, this is such a good episode – it checks all those Buffy boxes (humor, drama, romance, unexpected twist, and plenty of life lessons).

A week before the originally scheduled air date of this episode something horrible happened: Columbine. That one word says it all, and yet it shouldn’t. Columbine is a type of flower, it’s a town, it’s a high school. And it also sums of the following words: the shooting at Columbine High School. The world changed, and I didn’t even realize at the time how much it did so. As an adult this horrible event makes me want to cry. As a teacher I’ve been through so many drills on what to do if there’s ever a mass shooter in a school. These things weren’t part of my student experience in the 1990s. Columbine, along with 9/11, completely changed the world and how students experience high school and the world. While I’m very grateful to have had my high school experience before these events were felt (I was in 11^th grade for Columbine, in college for 9/11), I realize now that I can’t even imagine what it must like to be a high schooler now. In 20 years things have changed, and not because of various trends, but because of tragedies.

Buffy not airing “Earshot” made me really angry. It made Sarah Michelle Gellar angry, too. I remember both Joss Whedon and Seth Green, when interviewed, seemed to take it more in stride, their reactions were more compassionate. “Earshot” was only the first episode to be affected by the mass shooting. “Graduation Day Part 2” didn’t air until August, same as “Earshot” (or maybe one of them actually aired in September – I don’t remember the exact dates anymore), because the plot involved high school students taking up arms at graduation. This also made me angry – obviously they were taking up arms to fight evil, not to gun down their fellow students.

When the episode finally aired I remember thinking that Sarah Michelle Gellar was right – the episode was nothing like Columbine and actually centered around a suicide. Well, and an angry lunch lady with access to rat poison. How could The WB have pulled this episode? This episode may have helped us after Columbine. Now, as an adult I understand the decision that was made with both episodes. I’m not angry anymore – not about this at any rate.

Now I’m angry that the violence hasn’t stopped. At one point in the episode Cordelia and Oz are discussing school shootings, commenting that high school shootings are now trendy. I don’t remember a school shooting before Columbine. I know they happened, but I don’t remember when I found out that Columbine wasn’t the first. That conversation now is chilling. It seems timelier today than it did back in 1999. Not only are there more shootings in high schools, but in elementary schools – no one is safe from violence in this day and age. I don’t even want to think about the events of this magnitude that have taken place outside of a school building.

And so, writing this blog, 20 years later, is not easy. There are so many emotions tied up in it that have almost nothing whatsoever to do with the episode itself. I can’t watch this episode without thinking about Columbine. For a few years after I was able to pretend that I wasn’t thinking about Columbine, but then violence ramped up again and it hasn’t stopped.

As a result, this episode is almost a gem. You couldn’t even conceive of writing an episode like this today. And again, it isn’t even really about a mass shooting, but that is how this episode will always be perceived. Normally I would say something like, “and that’s the real tragedy,” but obviously it’s not. This episode is more of a casualty, a never-ending reminder that evil exists and it effects everyone, even if it is in small, seemingly unimportant, ways.

Okay, so now that I’ve bummed everyone out I’ll talk about the episode itself, as there are some really important things that happen. For starters, there are still ramifications from the previous episode, “Enemies,” and Angel’s charade. As Buffy and her classmates study Othello in their English class (yay for more Shakespeare!), we see that Buffy is still trying to wrap her head around Faith’s sort-of Iago-y turn (I mean, their story doesn’t quite fit the bill, but it’s just similar enough for Buffy to be able to relate to the story – just as Cordelia could relate to The Merchant of Venice back in season 1).

Here, the plots all get wrapped up together. As Buffy gains her aspect of the demon (more on that in a second), she’s able to hear everyone’s thoughts and hopes to hear Angel’s – to help reassure her that Angel does love her and is sorry about what happened. Then, as we hear Buffy explain in class that Iago is a dark reflection of Othello, we hear Angel explain that like a mirror, his thoughts have no reflection, meaning that Buffy can’t hear them. What can she hear though? A shadowy voice claiming that it will kill all the students tomorrow (I could clearly tell that it was a female voice, but Buffy was probably too caught up in all the thoughts to be able to hear gender clearly).

So let’s rewind. Buffy kills a demon and gets some blood on her that will give her an aspect of a demon. The demon has no mouth, so in retrospect, it makes perfect sense that she would get telepathy, but that aspect could be anything. Leading Willow to ask if it was a boy demon. And you thought all Buffy had to worry about were horns!

And so, she can hear thoughts, which at first is pretty neat, until she realizes that she can’t turn it off or control it. It’s actually pretty amusing for her to hear all her friends’ thoughts before the whole insanity thing happens. Cordelia says what she thinks, Xander can’t keep his mind off of sex, and Oz is afraid that if Buffy can hear his thoughts he might stop being him (in a very Oz-like philosophical manner), leading Willow to be jealous that Buffy can hear the thoughts of her reticent boyfriend.

In the midst of all this, Buffy hears the mystery voice threatening murder, but is confined to her bed while Giles and Angel come up with a cure for her. In the meantime, her friends all go around the school interviewing teachers and students, hoping to find out who is planning to kill all the students. Xander makes a crack about it being the lunch lady, having no idea how right he is. Willow is assigned to Jonathan – again! Xander has another heart to heart with Larry, and we finally see Nancy in the non “Wish” world. She is not nice in this world at all. Her white hat persona is a much better person.

As it turns out, Xander ends up saving the day when he goes into the lunchroom to get an extra pudding (or was it jello) and sees the lunch lady putting rat poison in the food. He screams at everyone in the lunch room and turns over everyone’s food, thwarting the evil lunch lady.

Buffy is cured just in time to go to the clock tower at the school (has this always existed?) and stop the person with a rifle. This is the heart of the story. Jonathan has a rifle and Buffy makes a beautiful speech explaining why Jonathan shouldn’t shoot everyone. She explains that everyone has pain – you just can’t always see it. Jonathan then explains that he brought the rifle to school only to shoot himself. (Why a rifle? How would you fatally shoot yourself with a long pointy gun?) Here is the twist and the reason that this episode is not at all like Columbine. Here is the reason why airing this episode would have helped heal the nation, but I digress (I promise I’m over it – I just can’t forget how I felt). Jonathan, a recurring character, suddenly becomes a real person. He knows he’s a loser and is hurt and unwilling to go on until Buffy saves his life by convincing him not to commit suicide.

We could all stand to learn a few things from Buffy.

There were a couple of things from this episode that I thought were worth noting: we see cheerleader Cordelia again, it’s been a while, and Angel makes a joke. He does this very rarely on BtVS, but is actually pretty funny on his spin-off. We get a little sneak peek of what’s to come.

Now while Buffy was home and incapacitated, she discovered a secret of her mother’s from “Band Candy.” You remember that time that Joyce and Giles had sex, right? Well, Joyce had a little trouble hiding certain thoughts from her daughter leading to this wonderful moment at the very, very end of the episode. As Buffy and Giles walk together, Buffy adds, “if you’re not too busy having sex with my mother.” The shock of this sends him straight into a tree. It’s so funny! And such a Buffy ending. And that is the ending I will leave you with as well.

Addendum: As wonderful as this episode is I decided not to add pictures out of respect for the seriousness of the topic it raises.

“Doppelgangland”

This is a classic episode of BtVS and is also, for the most part, a stand alone episode. The only season arc things that happen in this episode are small moments between the Mayor and Faith. He gets her an apartment, she tries to treat him like a sugar daddy and he shoots her down, thereby starting their strange father-daughter relationship instead. The rest of the plot has nothing to do with the Mayor or with Faith. (Although, I would be curious to see Faith’s reaction to vamp Willow…)

Instead, this episode is about Willow. And why not? Xander got “The Zeppo” recently, it’s only fair that Willow gets her own episode – and there will even be two Willows in this one!

The episode starts with Willow feeling like “doormat person, homework girl” as she is forced by Principal Snyder to tutor Percy West (who thinks Willow will just do his work for him). She continues to feel this way as both Buffy and Xander refer to her as reliable. She wants to do something dangerous and unexpected. Enter Anya.

Yes, Anya from “The Wish” who is trying to get back to the wish dimension from that episode. If she can get back, she can get her necklace back and then go back to being a demon, rather than a human teenage girl. She asks Willow to help her with a spell, which of course goes awry. Enter vamp Willow from the wish dimension.

And now, shenanigans! Vamp Willow doesn’t like our world and upon entering the Bronze, likes it even less. She manages to turn the tables on Percy though, which results in him being scared of Willow and finally doing his own work (and presenting her with an apple – it’s a great moment at the end of the episode). In the process, Xander (who sadly for vamp Willow is not vamp Xander) and Buffy think that Willow’s been turned and go to tell Giles.

It’s actually pretty funny when Willow walks in on the three mourning her. And then Xander uses a cross. I mean, I get it, classic vampire lore… but Willow’s Jewish, a cross had no meaning to her in life, so why would it scare her now? Instead of digressing, I invite you to read my “Passions” blog where I talk about this from my soap box. Before I end this topic, I will say that Willow also uses a cross on vamp Willow later in the episode. Ugh. (I forgive Wesley for using a cross because he might not realize that Willow is Jewish yet.)

Back at the Bronze, vamp Willow is “bored now” and ends up killing a girl named Sandy. The only reason I mention this is that the Sandy actress played Emma on several episodes of Dawson’s Creek during its final season. Vamp Willow also teams up with Anya (since they both want to get back to the other dimension) and several vampires. This Willow is exacting and cold, as we see when she gets said vampires on her side. “Who do you work for?,” she asks several times as she breaks their fingers, until they finally reply, “You.” Good strategy.

Also at the Bronze? Oz (and the rest of Dingoes Ate My Baby) and Angel, who don’t have many opportunities to hang out. But they do in this episode. They also think that Willow’s been turned, so Angel goes to tell Buffy and to get her help as there is clearly a vampire situation about to go down at the Bronze. When he finds Buffy, he also finds Willow and is confused, as one might be, and happy to find out that Willow has not been turned.

Hanging out at The Bronze

And then Vamp Willow walks in.

One great part of this episode is when Willow and vamp Willow are face to face. V.W. and Anya need Willow’s help with the spell, and V.W. wouldn’t mind turning Willow. This all prompts the “and I think I’m kinda gay” conversation that is a funny throw away line… or is it?

Okay, so I get that the writers don’t always have everything planned out seasons ahead, but sometimes they do. Seth Green left the show half way through season 4, in part because he felt that the writers didn’t know what to do with him anymore and that was leading to his character being somewhat out of, well, character. After a conversation with Joss Whedon, Oz was written out of the show. In the aftermath of that, Willow meets Tara and eventually starts a relationship with her, realizing that she’s gay. Part of me feels like if the plan at this stage was not to write Oz out of the show then there would be no reason to plan ahead for Willow to be gay, and yet, I wonder. Angel has a response to Willow’s comment where he starts to say that vampires are a reflection or enhanced version of their human selves, but stops after a look from Buffy tells him to.

So here we have a clue: the way Willow is as a human will be a little bit of a predictor of what she would be as a vampire. At this stage of the game, Willow is bad at being bad, as evidenced when she swaps places with her doppleganger, leaving V.W. in her classic fuzzy pink sweater, btw. However, anyone who’s watched through season 6, at least, knows that Willow can be very bad indeed. We also know, from “The Wish”, that vamp Willow and vamp Xander are a team, romantically involved, and that V.W. is clearly in charge of their relationship. Our Willow is really good at taking charge of a situation and we obviously know about her feelings for Xander. If Willow was turned into a vampire in the alternate dimension during the Harvest, which I think she would have been, she would not yet have realized she was gay, but her vamp self would still have acted on some of those impulses, making her vampire at least bisexual, which is what she seems based on the two episodes she appears in.

So, did Joss Whedon and company plan on making Willow gay all along? Okay, I don’t have an answer for that, but I suspect that, if nothing else, once they wrote it, they realized they had to do something with it. Or, maybe it was planned all along. No matter the answer, despite my love of Oz and sadness at his departure, I’m glad that Willow ended up being gay because of Tara. (It is also worth noting that the glimpses we see of Liam before he become Angelus and crazy Drusilla before she is turned are good predictors of the vampires they became. Even William had some Spike in him before he was turned.)

The other big thing this episode gives us is another chance for V.W. (you all got that this is short for vamp Willow by now I hope) to kill Cordelia. It’s pretty funny, especially since when Cordelia find her she’s been locked up. Cordy uses this as an opportunity to have girl talk with Willow after the whole cheating with Xander thing. Cordelia is totally right about this, by the way. The two of these girls had actually become friends, so Willow didn’t just betray Oz, she also betrayed Cordelia and it was time for them to have it out (I wonder if Cordy and real Willow ever do have this conversation now). Unfortunately for Cordelia, her timing is off and, as usual, she doesn’t really pay attention to other people and totally misses all signs that this is not her Willow. The only thing that prevents her from being eaten is Wesley showing up at the right time with a cross and V.W. deciding that they are not worth it. And then of course, these two think that Willow’s been turned – I wonder when they found out the truth. Was it the next day when Willow bounced into the library? Anyways, Wesley gets to actually be a hero in this episode, sort of – good for him.

Time for some girl talk

In the end, Giles and Willow are able to get V.W. back her dimension, just in time for her to be staked by Oz, as she was in “The Wish.” Anya gets nothing. Unless of course you count the fact that now the Scooby Gang knows who she really is. And that’s that.

This is a funny and very satisfying episode that is a break from the usual arc, but still fits in as it ties to a past episode and brings Anya into the fold for the first time (although she’s still a villain at this point).

Bored Now.

 

What Buffy Means to Me

This past weekend was the 22^nd anniversary of Buffy’s premiere, so I thought I’d take this week to reflect. Next week I’ll post another episode blog, don’t worry!

When Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted, I was a high school Freshman with very low self-esteem. I was smart, somewhat geeky, somewhat nerdy, and a theater kid. I wasn’t one of those theater kids though. I love theater and have been involved in theater since kindergarten, but when you picture the drama kids, you don’t picture me. I was an outsider, even when it came to the thing I loved most.

Don’t get me wrong – I had plenty of friends, many of whom did theater with me, but we were a small group and because we had each other I never felt like a total outsider, but I was.

When Buffy began, I was excited. I have always loved stories of vampires and witches and I really enjoyed the movie. So, I knew this show would be for me, even though my expectations were low (see my intro blog for that).

What I got was not just a show about vampires and the girl whose destiny it was to kill them. I got a friend. I got a show that got me. In some ways, it feels silly to write those last two sentences. I had plenty of friends and I was probably considered cooler than Willow or Xander. For starters, I had more than two friends and I didn’t have a Cordelia-like person constantly taunting and belittling me. And my high school was (and still is to this day) a lot more accepting than Sunnydale High was. And yet, despite that, I saw myself in Willow immediately. Sometimes I saw myself in Buffy, Xander, Giles, and even, on occasion, Cordelia.

What Joss Whedon created, and what the wonderful actors brought to life, spoke to me in a way that no other show had up to that point. Of course, I had completely missed watching My So-Called Life and tended to watch what my parents watched. Lois & Clark was my favorite show when Buffy started. So, I guess in some ways, of course Buffy spoke to me, but it was so much more than that.

I want to talk about how watching this show gave me confidence, and it did, but more importantly it brought me friends that allowed me to become confident. In high school, those of us that watched BtVS talked like we had a secret. Sophomore year I remember printing out pictures of Buffy from the internet and bringing them in. During history class I showed the other school’s Debbie because she was a fan. She was also a popular, blonde cheerleader that I didn’t socialize with. This bonded us. As soon as her best friend, one of the several Jens in our grade, asked her, “You watch that show?” our conversation ended out of what I perceived to be embarrassment on her part.

Junior year of high school we had to take a theme from The Scarlett Letter and compare it to something else. One of the most popular girls in high school and I both talked about Buffy. It’s been awhile, but I think she spoke about it in terms of how the vampires were hidden until they chose to reveal their true faces and I talked about how you think you’re watching a vampire show, but there is a hidden high school/life metaphor contained within each story. Either way, we both, and totally separately chose to compare the same theme to BtVS.

Senior year, we had to do a project on Macbeth. Someone I was friendly with was my partner and we decided to show how the themes of Macbeth are still prevalent in pop-culture. Our main example was the Faith storyline in season 3.

This just outlines how I made connections with people in class. The friends that I hung out with on a regular basis watched Buffy – well some friends. My friend Alana had a dream in which she was Buffy and she saved me from a vampire, who in real life, was a guy I had a crush on who also watched the show. There were a few others as well.

In college, I had many more friends who watched this gem of a show, and through them, and through the journey of both Buffy and Willow on the show, my confidence grew. My best friend, Amy, is the most important of these friendships, and in the early days it was Amy and Matt. I met both of them during orientation and quickly found out (specifically, during our ice cream social) that they were Buffy fans. Every Tuesday in college that Buffy was new, the two of them would come to my room, sometimes joined by others, to watch the show. Well, until Matt started dating Amy’s roommate.  She kind of stole him away from us. But that’s another story.

The other big Buffy friendship at this time is my friend, Charlotte. If you’re reading this, I miss you – we need to get together, catch up, and be in each other’s lives more. I mean it. Charlotte was not a fan – not yet. She was a good listener though and I talked about Buffy non-stop. When I talked about Spike she wanted to watch the show. Luckily for her I taped, and kept, every episode and lived 30 minutes away from college, so I could very easily drive home and get the old episodes for us to watch. I got her caught up to season 4 pretty quickly. I feel like that bonded us. We were both theater people (as were Amy and Matt – well Matt was until his girlfriend stopped him from doing that, too) and we both watched this amazing show, among other activities and similarities.

Another dear friend of mine from college is a Buffy fan as well. Shelby may not have watched the show with me while in college, but we knew we were fans and still to this day, many birthday presents from her are Buffy related. Junior or senior year I showed her the movie and she scoffed at it and kind of ruined it for me. That stung, but our friendship has endured.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended our junior year of college and Angel ended our senior year. The Buffyverse got me all the way through high school and college – no wonder my confidence grew watching this show. I was growing as I was watching and becoming the person I am today.

As I look back over the 15 years without new Buffy episodes I know that I have filled the hole it left as best I could. Supernatural comes close. The Vampire Diaries and The Originals (not to mention Twilight) did not. Surprisingly, the TVD/Originals spinoff, Legacies, is doing a pretty good job of filling that hole. Yet, re-watching this show continues to remind me that this show was special.  It was the first vampire show that showed pretty, young vampires as something other than villains (and, still as villains) that was relatively popular and not just a cult hit. It may have started that way, but it’s more than that now.

In the 22 years since the show debuted the world has changed. The feminism that was shown on Buffy is embraced by so many more people now. Toxic masculinity has been named. #MeToo, Time’s Up, and so many more things that have nothing to do with women becoming stronger. I’ve changed, too.

Could this show be as popular now? We might find out as a reboot is in the works at Fox. But that doesn’t count. Imagine if Buffy were a brand-new show, and not a reboot, this year. Would Buffy be the same? Technology has changed and everyone knows you shouldn’t say, “You throw like a girl,” and yet, I think it would still be something special. Of course, it would have to be on the CW or would risk getting cancelled if people don’t tune in by millions and millions in the first two weeks, but then again, Buffy helped to make the WB before moving to UPN, so it would have to be on the CW, right?

I can’t put into words what this show means to me, but I’ve tried. I continue to meet people who are fans, new and old and I hope that never stops. This show has connected me to people and informed who I am – and that’s almost as important as the show itself. I just hope that as new teenagers discover this show that it means as much to them as it did to me. I hope they are able to find themselves and be better people as a result of watching Buffy. If the next generation asks, “What would Buffy do?” this world will be okay.

 

“Helpless”

Buffy does not have good birthdays.  I mean, I get that the slayer doesn’t get a day off (although, with Faith around, why not?), but you can’t tell me that the world’s best secret superhero can’t have a nice quiet birthday at the very least.  But then, of course, where’s the drama in that?

This episode is pretty much about men trying to control Buffy while at the same time bringing up daddy issues.  Let’s start with the latter.

Hank Summers up until now has been a pretty good father for someone who lives an hour or so away.  He visits, Buffy spent a summer with him, and he genuinely seems concerned about her well-being.  The first time that his absence was odd was when Buffy runs away and he is nowhere to be found at the beginning of season 3.  That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care though.  Off camera it’s entirely possible that he and Joyce talked on the phone about Buffy while she was gone.  He may have even gone to Sunnydale for a few days.  Maybe Hank even talked to a bunch of Buffy’s former Los Angeles friends to see if they had heard from her.  We don’t know, but I’d like to think he was somewhat involved – even if we didn’t see it or hear about it.  And that brings us up to this episode where he cancels on Buffy on her birthday.  They had plans – and tickets – to go see an ice show and he flakes on her.  This is the first time that we start to see that Hank isn’t a great dad.  Maybe it was just easier for the writers to villainize him in order to help viewers forget his existence.  Maybe it was hard to schedule the actor to come back at any point in season 3.  My guess is that it was the former, which also allows for more drama. Besides, there is no doubt that Giles has become Buffy’s father figure, especially since “Band Candy” when he and Joyce, um, spent some quality time together.  So, having Hank Summers in the picture would just complicate that relationship and would make for some boring/non-existent drama.

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  Hank Summers last seen in season 2

• 

And that brings us to the other daddy issues that Buffy has in this episode with Giles.  So, first, Buffy’s actual dad cancels on her and then Giles, seeming very distant, is oblivious to all of Buffy’s hints that he should take her to the ice show.  Her purpose in asking him is that he is like a father to her, but Giles seems to be not paying attention.  The sad reality is that he is trying very hard to follow through with his duties as her Watcher and feels the need to make himself more distant and colder in order to protect himself, as he does see Buffy as a sort of daughter.  What results in this episode leads to the betrayal of two fathers.  The only thing that redeems him is his firing from the Watchers’ Council for disobedience.

Speaking of the Watchers’ Council… as we find out later in the series, this entire operation is a bunch of men using and controlling women to do their dirty work for them. On one hand, it’s very empowering that men in ancient times chose a woman to be the first slayer, but in order to do so, they had to first put her in chains.  That’s the irony of the slayer – this woman seemingly has all the power, but is always doing the bidding a man, her Watcher.  Now, of course we know that there are female Watchers, but at this point the only one we know of was evil (see “Revelations”), and that sends quite a message. Also, the majority of Watchers and members of the Council that we know about, from the beginning of the series through the end of season 3, are all men with that one evil exception.  Buffy’s 1^st Watcher was a man (both according to show and movie lore), as is her current Watcher (obviously).  The members of the Watchers’ Council that we meet in this episode are all men, as was Kendra’s Watcher.  I will admit to not remembering what Faith said about her Watcher back in Boston, so perhaps she had a female Watcher, but the fact that I don’t remember also says volumes about this issue.  And finally, the new Watcher we meet after the events of this episode is also, you guessed it – a man.

Now I don’t want you to think that I have a huge problem with this.  The Council is an ancient order (and a secret one at that) and probably only started bringing women aboard in more recent times.  Also, BtVS is from the 90s and while I’d love to say that the 90s were a wonderful time, clearly, we still had a lot to learn then, as we do now, about gender relations.  We’ve come a long way, but not far enough.  A few years ago, I watched a documentary about Anita Hill, who is a wonderfully nice and intelligent human being (yes, I met her and spoke with her back when I worked at the same university where she teaches, which also happens to be my alma mater).  I was shocked by exactly what went down between her and Clarence Thomas, as I was too young to know or understand the details of those hearings as they were happening.  What was even more shocking to me though, was that “pubic hair” was not a common thing to say aloud.  Not that I say this out loud on a regular basis, but it has definitely lost its shock value, in part because Anita Hill was forced to talk about it on Capitol Hill.  My point being, that a lot has changed since the 90s.  A lot changed in the 90s, and Buffy was a direct cause and effect of that.  So, having an almost all-male Watchers’ Council doesn’t bother me – what bothers me is the control they assert over their all female slayers.

In this episode, that control is deadly, mean, and just the worst.  And Giles, as an instrument of the Council, goes along with it – mostly.  What he does to Buffy leading up to the Tento di Cruciamentum (or slayer rite of passage) is despicable and horribly controlling.  He basically hypnotizes her in order to inject her with something that slowly takes away her slayer powers.  And then, he continues to send her out hunting by herself!  I mean, she could have died before the stupid Cruciamentum test!  But that’s missing the point.  He hypnotizes her to put her in a trance where she doesn’t see or feel anything and then drugs her – literally taking away her power.  What?  As a high schooler I didn’t see the full implications of this, but now it’s just awful.  Giles is following ancient orders. This has been done, as Quentin makes clear, to every slayer upon her 18^th birthday – assuming she lives that long in the first place.  (Side note: there is at least one slayer that we hear about who was older – if you are called when you are over 18 does that mean that you are spared this barbaric ritual or is there one for when you turn 30, too?)

• 

  Giles hypnotizes Buffy

• 

  and then drugs her…

Before continuing, I think it’s important to note that this is the first episode in which we meet anyone else from the Council, and more importantly, the first episode in which we meet Quentin Travers, who is the head of the Council.  He actually, and surprisingly, becomes a beloved character in the future.

Quentin Travers played by Harris Yulin

Okay, back to what I was saying before.  Giles is going along with his orders, taking away Buffy’s powers and sending her out to slay, knowing that she is getting weaker and weaker.  When Buffy finally says something to him about it, on the heels of Cordelia having to rescue her (which is actually really funny – don’t mess with Queen C guys), he appears unsympathetic as he plays his part in Buffy’s test.  When Buffy says to him, “I throw knives like a…”, Giles tries to finish her sentence by saying, “girl?”  Luckily for us, Buffy gives him an evil look and finishes her own sentence with, “slayer.”  Giles is certainly from another time, and as such, his perspective is colored by the same sexism that keeps the Council in control.

This whole test that Buffy goes through is a way of controlling slayers, but why and how?  At 18, children become adults, but not so in ancient times.  This is a relatively new concept.  Teenagers are also a relatively new concept. Perhaps, at some point, the Council realized that women are capable of learning and controlling their own lives and this test was a convenient way to get rid of problematic (aka non-controllable) women.  Of course, those who survive, like Buffy, do so because they are resourceful and able to think for themselves, but perhaps it is the rare slayer who survives, which is the whole point.  Or maybe, 18 was convenient for Joss Whedon and he just went with it.  Either way, this story shows that Buffy is now an adult, she is resourceful (remember that time she killed a vamp with a pencil? Even Spike admired this quality in her), and she is better than the Council and will not be controlled.

Giles, who does care for Buffy, eventually does break the rules of this test and goes to try to save Buffy from death.  He is too late as Buffy doesn’t need a man to save her.  However, in doing this, Giles is fired from the Council.  This just isn’t okay as he is clearly a better person than all the other men in the Watchers’ Council, but again, future drama.

A couple casting notes from this episode: Zachary Kralik is the first character that Jeff Kober plays on Buffy.  He will back for multiple episodes in season 6 as a different character.  Also, David Hayden-Jones is one of the men that Quentin brings to help prepare for the test.  He is now a recurring character, Mr. Ketch, on Supernatural where he also uses a very real sounding British accent.  Thanks to DVD commentaries, I now know that he is, in fact, American.

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  Jeff Kober as Kralik

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  Jeff Kober as Rack (season 6)

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  David Hayden-Jones now and then

On another note, before Joyce is kidnapped by Kralik in order to get Buffy to play along, Buffy is wearing a red coat with a hood that makes her look very much like Little Red Riding Hood, which Kralik acknowledges when he sees her wearing it.  In season 4, Buffy will dress up as Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween.

In more episodic connections, Amy the rat is officially Willow’s pet, with a wheel in her cage and everything.  If only Willow knew how to reverse the spell to make Amy a human again.

A fun moment in this episode is a kryptonite conversation between Oz and Xander. This is a true geek conversation, as I had never heard of gold kryptonite before and I had been watching Superman, Superboy, and Supergirl since I was a child and read plenty of comic books. Buffy wouldn’t be Buffy without these geeky moments.

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  I was raised on reruns like this classic.

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  This show was in syndication when I was young.

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  This movie might be considered bad, but I love it.

And finally, speaking of Xander, while bringing the conversation back to male control… the end of the episode when Xander tries to help weak Buffy out by opening a peanut butter jar and can’t is priceless.  I mean, he means well, but this is such a stereotypical thing for a man to do.  But, of course, on Buffy, women are always the strong ones, and so Xander can’t open it either, and that’s what makes this moment okay.

I feel like a said a whole lot in this blog, and most of it was kind of depressing.  However, it’s important for me to also say that when I first saw this episode, I was unable to even think about many of these things and was able to enjoy this on a much simpler scale.  Because of this blog, sometimes I say a lot, especially as the world continues to change around me.  At its core, this episode is wonderfully dramatic, opens up the Buffyverse, and has wonderful character arcs.  At the end of the day (and this blog), that’s what I want to remember.

“Amends”

Ah, the Buffy Christmas episode… while the show does reference the holiday in the future this is the one and only Buffy Christmas.  As such, it’s not bad, and many even things it’s great.  I don’t know… it’s okay.

There is a lot to unpack though.  First of all, I completely forgot that there were flashbacks in this episode, but that’s pretty much the point of the episode.  It’s a whole, let’s-remind-Angel-how-awful-he-used-to-be episode.  He’s basically being haunted.  And this is important as it allows Angel to a) be accepted back into the group again and b) to introduce us to The First.  The first what you ask?  The First Evil who comes complete with his (or her) very own henchmen – the Bringers.  The bringers of what?  I don’t know – evil tidings?

One of the Bringers

The First will obviously become super important in season 7, but for now, the idea of the First Evil starts and ends with this episode.  The First has a plan for Angel and suggests that there is a bigger plan for him.  What is this plan?  It’s unclear, but if you end up watching his spinoff, called Angel, you can certainly see by the end of that series that The First was right about him being important.

The First is using Angel’s memories against him and that brings me to a very important question: How does Angel/Angelus have a mustache in these flashbacks?  I mean, can vampires grow hair?  I feel like the answer is no, but then again, despite not having the breath available to give Buffy CPR, Angel is able to smoke (Spike, too), so who knows what the vampire rules are?  I personally think this was a mistake of someone behind the scenes.  Clearly this is the most important question that this episode poses. Forget all about the whole, will Angel be evil again thing… so not important when considering his throwback Thursday ‘stache.

Another important question: is giving Angel nightmares and watching him wake up from them just an excuse to see David Boreanaz shirtless?  I mean, these are the questions that I think we all need answered, am I right?

In all seriousness though, one great outcome of Angel’s past coming back to haunt him is the return of Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar.  Or, actually, as The First wearing a Jenny Calendar suit.  Boy, do I miss her.  Watching her taunt Angel in front of Giles who can’t see her is great.  It’s also great to remind us all that Giles is no longer an Angel fan.  He knows that Angel is good again, but he makes it clear that he’ll never trust him the way he used to.  Long gone are the season 1 days when Angel delivering the Codex will bring him a Watcher friend.

Of course, the Angel story isn’t the only thing going on in this episode.  The Scoobies are still dealing with the fallout from Willow and Xander’s messing around.  Cordelia is pretty mean to Xander and reveals a deep, painful secret to his friends.  This is mean, and she does break a confidence, but are you really telling me that Willow (if not Buffy) doesn’t know that every Christmas, Xander has to sleep outside in order to avoid his drunk father?  That seems like a best friend secret.  I mean, I guess if you’re in love with someone you might reveal this secret for the first time, but Willow’s known him so long… also, poor Xander.  Every time we get information about his parents it makes me feel so bad for him.

During this conversation, people are discussing what they are going to do for Christmas.  My girl, and fellow Jew, Willow Rosenberg, takes offense at this question – as any good Jew whose friends know she is Jewish should.  Look, I get it – Christmas is a day off from school, but no one asks, “What are your plans for Boxing Day?”  Buffy and Xander know that she is Jewish.  If they don’t think to ask about Hanukkah, they could at least ask her about winter break, or vacation rather than using the word “Christmas.”  I’m not declaring war on the holiday – I just don’t understand why a Jew’s closest friends have to ask about Christmas.  That would be like a Jew asking a friend, “What are you doing for Yom Kippur?” when the school gives that day off.  Non-Jews usually don’t even know why they have that day off, or at least, what the holiday is called.  “We would say, what are you doing on your day off?”  Why can’t we get the same respect?

And soap box gone.

Willow does have a much more important storyline in this episode – she and Oz get back together!  Yay.  She offers to have sex with him (aka – lose her virginity), and Oz, being the smart and wonderful gentleman that he is, declines for all the right reasons.  But they do make out a lot.  Yay.  I love Oz.  I’m so glad that he’s able to forgive her.

Willow romances Oz – yay!

Speaking of people getting it on… Joyce and Giles are awkwardly avoiding each other after the whole “Band Candy” thing.  Joyce is actually pretty hilarious in how much she is trying to avoid him.  If only Buffy knew…

Okay, back to our main storyline.  I have another question: Why does Buffy have to dig her way to the Bringers? I mean, there are a kajillion tunnels in Sunnydale and none of them are anywhere near where these guys have made their home?  I don’t know…

We also have to talk about snow.  Snow is a very important plot device at the end of this episode.  The snow prevents the sun from coming up and destroying Angel (who was basically getting ready to commit suicide by sun), cause, you know, snow and sun never go hand in hand…  It’s a beautiful moment, but as a Massachusetts girl I am so sick of tv shows making snow seem miraculous.  Why is it a cleanser for characters?  Snow is such a nuisance in real life!  Yes, I get it, Sunnydale probably only gets a coating of snow once every one-hundred years, but still… and BtVS is not the only tv show guilty of this.  Roswell did it too, although in that case the aliens caused the snow.

So, since this snow is miraculous, and keeps Angel alive so that he can continue to be a force for good (and it stops the First Evil’s plans), who caused the snow?  Was it a fluke or was it a higher power?  Joss Whedon made sure to never bring religion and God into the show, even when talking about Heaven and Hell, but this sure does seem like a godly miracle.  So, did God save Angel?  That is my final question, but I think it’s the most important.  Even more important than the mustache one.

Look, it’s snowing! I guess that means Angel will be okay now and The First has been defeated (…for now)

“Lovers Walk”

This is the one season 3 episode with Spike, which means there is lots of comedy along with the usual brand of heartbreak. Just to recap all that said heartbreak we have 1) Buffy and Angel trying to stay away from each other and only marginally succeeding, with Giles, Xander, and Cordelia unhappy about Angel being back, then there’s 2) Willow and Xander having secret make-out sessions despite dating Oz and Cordelia, respectively, and of course 3) Faith and Buffy are now somewhat estranged thanks to Gwendolyn Post (although that really has nothing to do with this particular episode). Basically, there are a lot of unhappy people around Sunnydale these days.  Now throw Spike into that mix, and well, I think you see where I’m going with this…  

It’s worth mentioning that Spike enters Sunnydale the same way he did in his first episode, only drunker, as he knocks down the “Welcome to Sunnydale” sign. Spike, as it turns out, is also heartbroken as Drusilla dumped him after he chose Buffy over Angelus at the end of last season. And so, naturally, he’s returned to the scene of the crime.  

I feel like, as an adult watching this show, I like Xander less than I did as a teenager.  Not to say I don’t like him, but I certainly recognize his negative traits more now than I did then.  Of course, not only have I grown up since this show originally aired, but the world itself has grown up, especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement and Time’s Up.  Having said that, I am actually really happy that Xander shows some maturity in this episode.  Sure, he and Willow are still sneaking around and I hate that – a lot.  Even more than I did when I was a teenager, but when Willow attempts to do a de-lusting spell to help them out, Xander is the one who tells her it’s a bad idea (ooh, foreshadowing to season 6).  He even sites the events of “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” showing that he learns from his mistakes and that this show has a memory.  That memory is a lot more common on tv now than it was in the 90s, making this that much more impressive. And so, I have to give props to Xander here. 

Also, despite how upset their affair makes me, the fact that Willow and Xander are making out after Spike locks them in a room together and they think they are going to die is still forgivable to me.  The only thing I wonder is, why did they not consider the fact that people would be looking for them?  I get it, you think you’re going to die, so why not give in to temptation?  But, a) by being kidnapped right before a double date means that Oz and Cordelia are going to know something bad has happened and b) your best friend is the Slayer.  Do you really think Buffy wouldn’t be able to find you?  And I’m sure both Willow and Xander know that it will take more than 48 hours for them to starve to death, right? At least Willow knows that, I’m sure.  But of course, when being kidnapped by a drunk and psychotic vampire, I’m guessing that you’re not exactly thinking everything through.  So I forgive them for this particular discretion. 

And of course, Oz and Cordy catch them in the act.  But again, should Oz and Cordy have reacted so badly right away? Don’t they realize that dire circumstances lead to these sorts of reactions? It’s kind of a double standard though, because anyone, and especially teenagers, upon finding their girlfriend/boyfriend making-out with someone else isn’t going to stop to think about why they are doing this.  And, as it turns out, this wasn’t a one-time thing, which seems to come to light (offscreen) pretty quickly.  And for Oz, at least, he knew that there were feelings involved between these two.  So for him, although upsetting, he probably wasn’t as surprised as Cordelia was.  And poor Cordelia, getting impaled.  But we’ll talk more about her in the next episode. 

Before I start talking about Buffy I just want to mention that Spike and Willow together are quite amusing. It gives me a reason to look forward to season 4 when they have their impotence conversation! 

Okay, so Buffy. And Angel.  And Spike. Yep, pretty hilarious.  Buffy and Angel are forced to help Spike out in his misguided quest to use Willow to perform a love spell to win Drusilla back.  

In the midst of all this, Spike goes to talk to Joyce.  They are pretty friendly and Joyce is really nice to him.  Of course, she mainly knows Spike from him helping Buffy out in “Becoming” last year, so she doesn’t see any harm in being friendly.  Angel on the other hand… well Joyce doesn’t know that he’s back, or that he’s good, so when he shows up to try to save Joyce from Spike, hilarity ensues.  I mean, could Spike be any funnier behind Joyce, pretending to bite her while Angel can’t do anything about it because he hasn’t been invited inside (I don’t know why this episode is causing me to write long run on sentences, but go with it). Her shock when Buffy finally invites him in is funny, too. These moments make the show. 

Spike, taunting Angel

Now in the midst of the Buffy-Angel-Spike team up Spike is able to observe Buffy and Angel. And he has some words of advice: He tells them that they’re not just friends and then says, “I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.” They don’t want to hear it, but Spike’s right. These two can’t be just friends.  And with that, Spike feels better about himself and realizes that he doesn’t need a spell to win Drusilla back and leaves town. 

In his wake Spike leaves a bunch of heartbroken single people. Buffy and Angel realize they have to pull back, Oz and Willow are no longer together, nor are Xander and Cordelia. Everyone is back to being single and miserable.  And that is a Joss Whedon specialty, right there. 

“Anne”

This episode opens with a good old session of vampire hunting. Only, without Buffy. It’s just Willow, Xander, and Oz. And for a moment it looks as though it could be Buffy, but as the camera pans up the viewer is disappointed/amused to see that it’s only Willow. Don’t get me wrong, I love Willow, but after how last season ended wouldn’t it be nice if everything were back to normal?

But, alas, things are not normal. Our Scoobies are trying to make it normal, even with Willow quipping, “That’s right big boy, come and get it,” in an attempt to sound like Buffy. But she’s not Buffy and the vampire escapes, even as Oz throws a not-even-close stake at the vamp. Where is Buffy? Not in Sunnydale that’s for sure.

Buffy has moved to LA, which is a known place to her and she is waitressing, taking care of herself, and squashing down all her slayer instincts. All of this begs a few questions: Where is her dad? Surely he knows that she ran away from home. He lives in LA. and he and Joyce must have told the police that they all used to live in LA, so why aren’t the cops out in the city looking for her? I mean, yes, Buffy can avoid people when she needs to, but she can’t avoid everyone and wouldn’t she be on a milk carton somewhere? Or did Joyce not fill Hank Summers or the police in? I mean, Giles is the one going everywhere, following up on leads in hopes of finding Buffy. But she’s only an hour or so away, not far from where she grew up and where her dad still lives (we assume based on the fact that she spent the previous summer with him in LA).

Buffy, I mean, Anne the Waitress

So after all of this rambling here’s what I’m assuming must have happened: Joyce never told her ex-husband about anything that went down in Sunnydale. Somehow she was able to keep the truth from him about her arrest warrant, and she definitely did not tell him about Buffy’s extracurricular activities. Therefore, he has no idea that she’s missing and has no reason to be looking for her. Buffy is obviously hanging out on the poorer side of town in order to avoid her dad and any old friends she may have had from Hemery. And as for the police, now that Buffy is no longer wanted for Kendra’s murder, they have no reason to look for Buffy (although wouldn’t they still want to see her for evading arrest and assaulting a police officer?).

And so there Buffy is, in LA, seemingly alone and forgotten despite the heartbreak of her friends and her mom back in Sunnydale. Until Lily orders food from Buffy. Who’s Lily (or is it Lilly)? Well, we all know her as Chanterelle from “Lie to Me.” Here she is with a different look and a different name, but she still remembers her past and recognizes Buffy, hunting her down when her boyfriend goes missing. As it turns out, this episode is almost more about her, than it is about Buffy, we just don’t know it yet.

Chanterelle

Lily

Anne (on Angel)

In helping Lily out (reluctantly, as all heroes are at the beginning of their journeys) Buffy stumbles across a conspiracy of sorts. Homeless and broke young adults who donate blood (to a nurse who I saw in a production of Bye Bye Birdie at North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, MA) are handed over to Ken. Ken (Joss Whedon hat trick actor also known as Carlos Jacott) seems like a nice guy, but he’s actually a demon in charge of a hell dimension. The entire purpose of this dimension seems to be to force people to work (without a seeming end result) until they are too old to do so. And because time works differently, after decades of toil, they are spit back out into our world a few days later, as old men and woman who are assumed to be crazy, old, homeless people who soon die in their own filth. No one looks for those that have gone missing, and no one would recognize them when they return. Except for Buffy.

seemingly nice Ken

demon Ken

In trying to save Lily, Buffy gets sucked into the hell dimension and starts fighting back, forcing Lily to be her lieutenant. When Ken tries to stop Buffy, and hope looks like it might be lost for the humans, he asks Buffy who she is. As if reawakening, she answers, “I’m Buffy the vampire slayer, and you are?” And just like that she’s back.

After rescuing all the humans and killing Ken we see her with Lily back in her apartment. Buffy gifts the apartment to Lily (it’s paid up to a certain point in time) and also puts things in motion for Lily to take Buffy’s waitressing job. At that point, Lily asks Buffy if she can take the name Buffy’s been using – Anne. Anne, by the way, is Buffy’s middle name. To Lily, it signifies strength and will serve as a reminder for her to never stop fighting. We assume that we will never see this character again. However, a few years later she pops up on Angel, still using the name Anne. She runs a homeless shelter and occasionally aids in the fight against vamps – by keeping her charges safe. Buffy may have reawakened to her own calling in this episode, but Chanterelle/Lily/Anne discovers her potential and starts down a path of helping others find their strength, the way Buffy helped her find hers.

One last thing to note about this episode – after all the heartbreak we see back in Sunnydale, it’s nice to end this episode not only with Buffy’s return to her real hometown, but with Joyce welcoming her back home. Now things can go back to normal – sort of.

“Passion”

First things first – I cannot get through this episode without crying. In fact, knowing what will happen in this episode makes me cry at the beginning of it. Writing a sentence about how this episode makes me cry makes me cry. Seriously, it’s not a good look. This episode is amazing; it is my favorite one from this season and my second favorite episode of the entire series. There’s one scene in particular, at the end that seals the deal for me in terms of how I pick my favorites, but overall, this is just a stellar episode.

In order to not cry while writing this entire blog, I am going to write about some amusing things from the episode. After all, even the saddest and most dramatic BtVS episodes are still funny at times. So, here we go. Jonathan and another student are actually using the library. The Scoobies get wigged and leave them there so that they can talk in private – it’s pretty hilarious. Cordelia worrying about Angel getting in her car whenever he wants is classic Cordelia. Also classic Cordelia, her thinking about switching cars with her grandmother so that Angel can’t get to her. Um, Cordelia… what about your grandmother’s safety? I mean, assuming we think the car thing is even an issue, which I’m thinking it’s not.

Other non-cry inducing things from this episode: The Magic Shop looks different every season. This particular one is the only underground one, all others appear to be at street level. Or maybe there are several magic shops in town. We obviously find out about The Magic Box in a couple of seasons and that will become the Scooby home base, but maybe there are others? It would make sense. I mean, if Salem, Massachusetts gets tourists because 19 non-witches were hanged over 300 years ago, why wouldn’t a place on a Hellmouth with legit witches only have one store to shop at? Also, why didn’t Willow become a teacher? We only get a short glimpse of her teaching/prepping to sub for Ms. Calendar in this episode, but knowing that she teaches for the rest of the season (what school allows a peer to teach and grade her fellow students?) it’s at the forefront of my mind. She seems to enjoy it and is really good at it, too. Buffy’s mom is awesome, she is stern with Buffy, but is stern because she cares. Kudos to Kristine Sutherland (and the writers). I mean, Buffy kind of lays a lot on her with the whole my-ex-is-stalking-me-now thing, and Joyce has the most perfect reaction.

Willow’s first day subbing for Ms. Calendar

Okay, I think everything else I have to say ties into the storyline that will make me cry buckets. Angelus is a creepy stalker in this episode. He has a voiceover and a lot of scenes are shown from his perspective of watching Buffy and her friends. Of course, we know that he’s more than just a stalker, and he takes the stalking to the next degree in this episode. He is actually beyond disturbing in this episode. His cruelness signals that there really is no going back for Angel. Even though we all are rooting for his soul to be restored, is there any true way for Angel to be redeemed? It seems that he must be killed when this episode ends. And, as it turns out, Angel never truly gets full redemption. Giles never truly forgives him, nor does Xander (although, he never liked him anyway). Angel has to leave Sunnydale and get his own spinoff in order to find true redemption. And this episode leads straight to that happening.

One has to wonder, with all of Angelus’ antics up to this point, how does Buffy manage to sleep so soundly (you know, with her slayer super powers) that Angel can sneak into her bedroom and draw a picture of her sleeping for him to leave for her to find in the morning. And, Buffy knows that he can come into her house whenever he wants because she invited him in. You’d think she’d be smarter. She’s clearly concerned for her mother, shouldn’t she be guarding her mom’s room or suggesting that they stay in a hotel or something (not that a hotel would keep Angelus out, but they’d be harder to find at least)? This boggles the mind.

Buffy’s room isn’t the only one that Angelus has been sneaking into. He also goes into Willow’s room, takes her fish out of the aquarium, and leaves them for her in an envelope. Angelus is a sociopath – I mean, really. No wonder Willow doesn’t want to stay in her own house after that. By the way, in a line that was cut, Willow mentions that she got the fish for Hanukkah, which is why they hadn’t had time to bond yet. This is my segue into discussing crosses as repellents for vampires. In order to reverse the home invitation, crosses must be hung, which is a problem for Jewish Willow who is afraid of her father (with the very Jewish sounding name of Ira Rosenberg) seeing crosses in his only child’s room. Of course I don’t actually think this family is very Jewish in practice, but it raises an interesting point. Why just crosses? Are vampires only afraid of Jesus? Don’t they probably pre-date Christianity? I have a theory, which is that crosses represent God, and therefore, any religious symbol that represents a god or wards off the evil eye should do the trick, right? On the show Being Human, both the British and American versions, werewolf George (British)/ Josh (American) wears a Star of David necklace (otherwise known as the Shield of King David). That necklace works on enemy vampires the same way that Buffy’s cross necklace does. So shouldn’t Willow be able to hang a Star of David, or a hamsa on her wall instead? I’m sure that it’s just easier to go with crosses because there is less explaining to do and it is traditional vampire repellant, but I call BS. And now I’m done ranting.

BBC’s Being Human

SyFy’s Being Human

Star of David

Hamsa

This episode is very important for the show’s mythology because Jenny Calendar figures out how to restore Angel’s soul. No one knows this yet, except for Angelus, but it will play an important part in the finale and shows that, technically, anyone can put a soul back into a vampire (hiya Spike, what are you up to in season 6?). We also see the Orb of Thessela for the first time, which gives me chills. Of course, a lot of people buy these as paperweights, which is the set up for a joke in “Becoming, Part 1.”

Okay, okay, it’s time. Jenny and Giles might actually get back together. She has been working tirelessly to make the whole Angelus thing right again and has made amends with Buffy and Willow, and therefore Giles. Then Drusilla gets visions about her. And now Angel is on her trail. He kills her at the school, breaking her back – clearly this is not about feeding/surviving – this is fun. He then moves her body to Giles’ apartment and lays out a whole romantic setting for them. And poor Giles, thinking that the two are about to rekindle their romance falls for it. Angelus even leaves his calling card, a picture of Jenny, for Giles to find, but he thinks it’s from Jenny. And then he goes up the stairs and finds her dead in his bed. It’s horrifying. Like I said, Angelus has crossed a line and nothing will ever be the same again. This is also when viewers realize that just when you think someone will get a happy ending that they are doomed.

At the end of the episode, Angelus is outside Buffy’s house. He watches as she gets a phone call from Giles, telling her that Ms. Calendar was killed. We watch from his perspective as she goes numb and hands the phone to Willow who cries out. (Interesting note: Anthony Stewart Head is actually telling Alyson Hannigan what happened over the phone, making this scene all the more real.)  We watch as Joyce comes in to find out what’s wrong and tries to console both girls. And then we see Angelus again, watching. This scene is heartbreaking, but it’s brilliant. We don’t need to hear the dialogue, we just need to watch these fine actors show how their characters grieve.

Joyce runs to comfort Willow

Nothing will ever be the same again. RIP Jenny Calendar – you will be missed.

“Phases”

Well, it’s a good thing that Oz adjusted so well to the whole vampires-are-real-thing because in this episode Oz becomes a werewolf. And takes it in stride like he does just about everything else.

This episode also serves as a continuation of the bullying PSA from “Halloween” with the reintroduction of Larry. Xander automatically suspects that he is the werewolf because he is not only a bully, but also a perv. Yet, as it turns out, not only is he not a werewolf, but we discover the reason behind all of Larry’s bad behavior – he’s hiding the fact that he’s gay. This sets up some pretty funny moments for Xander, here, and in the future when he tries to convince Larry that he knows what Larry’s been up to and what’s it like because he’s been through it, too. Of course, what Larry doesn’t know is that Xander is actually referring to the time that he was possessed by a hyena. So Larry now things that Xander’s a closet case, but is really nice to him because he also helped Larry come out. It’s kind of sweet actually.

Buffy wondering why Larry is suddenly being nice and what Xander has to do with it.

Of course while Larry is still in jerk/bully mode, he teases Oz for dating a junior, insinuating that Willow must be putting out (which is so wrong and not at all a sign of dating someone a year younger than you). In doing so he also makes it sound like he is, himself, a senior. Yet, Larry graduates with everyone else, making him a junior, and therefore super judgy. (Oz, we find out in season 3 was in fact a senior, but by not attending summer school, and generally not caring about school at all, he ends up repeating his senior year and graduating with the rest of the gang).

Also while in jerk mode, we have the self-defense gym class. Buffy is supposed to be “a meek little girly girl” but when Larry makes comments about her and grabs her ass she can’t help it when she let’s the slayer out and topples him to the ground (you know, over her shoulder, through the air). It’s pretty funny actually and Willow is super annoyed with Buffy. Teresa on the other hand, doesn’t look all too surprised…

Larry was bit by a dog.

Don’t piss off the slayer.

Poor Teresa, we hardly knew you. We are introduced to this classmate in gym class and she seems to be on good terms with Buffy and Willow. So of course Angelus finds her and uses her to send a message to Buffy, you know, by turning her into a vampire that Buffy then needs to kill. I really like this character. The writers and the actress did a good job of fleshing out this character and giving her a personality. It felt like she had been around a lot longer than this one episode, and re-watching the episode as soon as I saw her I was excited, the way I am when Amy or Larry or Jonathan are in an episode. RIP Teresa.

By the way, after the whole having to stake Teresa thing, Buffy and Xander have a moment. Clearly Buffy is in need of comfort and she almost kisses Xander before thinking better of it and walking away.

Xander is very confused in this episode. There’s the almost Buffy-kiss, and his jealousy of Oz (he’s so used to just having Willow around and crushing on him, that he’s taken a lot for granted), and he has a real girlfriend for the first time ever. Yes, he and Cordelia are out in the open and not just making out in closets and basements now. When it rains it pours for Xander I guess.

Xander’s jealousy is actually discussed by Cordelia and Willow in a funny scene at the Bronze (before being interrupted by the werewolf). Cordelia is the one who gives Willow advice that will eventually lead her to finding out that Oz is the werewolf.   These two gals together are very funny and now that they are joined by Xander they have actual stuff to talk about. Unlike that time in “School Hard” when they were hiding in a closet together and Willow looked like she might want to kill Cordelia. How far they’ve come…

One theme of this episode is underestimating Buffy. First Larry does it and then Cain, the traveling werewolf hunter, does it. Boy is he sorry when she bends his gun at the end of this episode. Interesting note: the actor playing Cain reappears as a demon in several episodes towards the end of Angel’s run. Joss Whedon is usually pretty good about not reusing actors to play different characters, but when he does it, they are always in different make up. Luke from the first couple of episodes just reappeared as the Judge in “Surprise” and “Innocence” and Ken from “Anne” – the 3^rd season opener – is on Angel and Firefly (okay, the latter is a different universe altogether, but still).

Jack Conley as Cain

… and Sahjhan on Angel.

Back to Cain though. He is all about killing werewolves and wearing their teeth as trophies. Buffy and Giles make it very clear that you can’t kill a werewolf because they are a person for the majority of their time on earth. Cain refuses to see that and clearly lacks morals. Buffy and Giles taking the high ground shows the viewer a human monster in the form of Cain. Forget that Oz turns out to be the werewolf. The werewolf could be a complete stranger and Buffy and Giles are dedicated to keeping that person alive, whereas Cain is all about killing the beast, no questions asked. It’s been a little while since we’ve had a morality episode, so here you go.

On a different note, we learn that vampires are afraid of werewolves.   In fact, Oz and Angelus have a bit of face off, with Angelus leaving first – interesting… Of course, if he knew that the werewolf was a friend of Buffy’s maybe he would have been braver in an effort to give her yet another message. Angelus is a really mean jerk.

Back to werewolf Oz. When he realizes that he is the werewolf, he becomes distant and Willow doesn’t know what to do. So, taking Cordelia’s advice, and understanding that making the first move doesn’t make you a slut (ugh, slut shaming – Willow got all the male messages growing up apparently), she goes to Oz’s house to talk to him and in a really funny scene is assertive and sweet and then you know, Oz turns into a werewolf and tries to kill her. Together they make it through (she ends up being the one to shoot him with the tranquilizer gun) and in the end she kisses him and their couple-hood becomes even more official than it was when the episode started. It’s all very sweet and somewhat light-hearted considering what the last two episodes brought us. One question though, knowing that Buffy’s the slayer: is that what made Oz decide to deal with the whole thing on his own? I mean, wouldn’t being in the slayer’s inner circle make you want to share this newfound werewolf thing, rather than go it alone? Yes, yes, I know: it’s all designed for the drama.

“Surprise” and “Innocence”

Ah, another two-parter that I am combining. I mean, if I tried to separate these two out it would be really hard. These two episodes are Buffy canon. They are so important to everything. When you talk about television mythology, this is it, right here.

Of course, when these episodes originally aired the WB put them on two nights in a row. Monday night at 9pm was the usual time slot, but the network wanted to move the show to Tuesdays at 8pm (where it would be for the rest of its run, even when on UPN) and use it as a launching pad for Dawson’s Creek, which would air after Buffy the Vampire Slayer during its first season. Those two nights were highly memorable for me. First, these episodes are really good. Second, I couldn’t wait for Dawson’s Creek to start because I had a crush on Joshua Jackson. Third, I was studying for midterms while watching the WB. To this day I still remember the word “histrionic” because there was so much going on during these episodes that I ran downstairs to my parents during a commercial break and histrionically told them what was going on before running back upstairs to get more studying in before BtVS was back. Yes, I’m weird, but you are, too.

So much happens in this episode, I’m not sure where to start. What I will say is that I don’t need to re-watch this episode very closely in order to cry. And knowing what’s coming next makes me cry – I know this show too well for my own good. One specific place where I annoyed myself with my over sensitivity was during Buffy and Angel’s really romantic moment at the end of “Surprise” right before they have sex. It’s just this beautiful moment that should make any person with a heart squeal with delight. But, since I know what happens next, it just makes me cry. Honestly, I couldn’t even enjoy this wonderful moment and the love between these two characters because I know how tragic it is about to become. Since I referenced Romeo and Juliet in my last post (I mean, Buffy and Angel are very much like them) I will say this of my crying: it would be like going to see Romeo & Juliet and crying during the balcony scene because I know what tragedy awaits the two characters and who’s about to die. Of course, I don’t know that I’ve ever actually cried watching this specific play, but you get my point. My reactions, though, show the impact that these episodes continue to have on me. Credit to SMG, David Boreanaz, and Joss Whedon must be given.

Another Buffy/Angel moment worth mentioning is the giving of the cladagh ring. This didn’t make me cry, but it’s such a special moment and it brought a smile to my face. When this episode aired I didn’t know what a cladagh ring was, and I think a lot of people my age would say the same thing. To this day whenever I see one in the store or on a person’s finger, I think of this moment – when Angel thinks he’s going on a long trip in order to protect Buffy and the world and he gives Buffy the ring as a sign that they belong together. That’s the love that every teenage girl (and adult woman) would swoon for – how did Buffy get so lucky? (I mean, sure I don’t like Angel, but I still swoon during this episode.)

Buffy and Angel aren’t the only ones making me cry in this episode. Can we talk about Jenny Calendar for a minute? She and Giles just got back together and are finally piecing their relationship back together when we, the audience, find out that Ms. Calendar has a huge secret. By the end of the two hours her secret has split her and Giles up and has had a massive impact on Buffy and the Scoobies by extension. We found out that Angel was cursed with a soul by Romani gypsies. Now we know that Ms. Calendar is one and that she is basically working undercover to watch Angel and to keep Buffy and Angel apart (which she clearly is not doing well). If she had just told everyone what was going on… but she didn’t. Angel and Buffy got together, he experienced a moment of true happiness and lost his soul. As a result of Ms. Calendar’s role in all of this, she lost the trust of everyone, including Giles. And then Angelus kills her uncle. If the episode isn’t heartbreaking enough, let’s just tear Jenny and Giles apart again, shall we? I mean, come on!

Jenny & her uncle

Buffy confronts Jenny

Not everything in these episodes were a downer though. Let’s talk about Buffy’s surprise birthday party. Sure it was interrupted by vampires, but it wouldn’t be BtVS if she had a regular party. Does anyone else watch this and wonder why Cordelia is there? No one knows that she and Xander are together yet, so she’s not there to be friend-adjacent, making her an actual friend of Buffy’s. But are they friends? Enough that Cordelia would waste her time going to a party instead of hanging out at the Bronze with Harmony? Just a thought. The more important party guest here is Oz, who when the party starts does not know about the dark side of Sunnydale. When Buffy shows up and stakes a vamp he isn’t all that surprised to learn that the supernatural exist and is really cool about the whole thing (which is very Oz-like).

Surprise?

More great Oz moments? Well, the van scene comes to mind. Willow asks him to make out with her and he says no. He then gives her a speech, proving that he is a gentleman and watching this interaction between him and Willow guaranteed that my Xander crush was about to become my Oz crush. And he and Willow are so adorable together!

Question though: Does Oz finding out about vampires and the Hellmouth automatically seal his fate as the next Scooby? I mean, the fact that he sticks around after finding that out means he can’t go do his own thing, right? Sure, he likes Willow, but most people wouldn’t be able to handle that sort of information and that would be it. Of course, soon he’ll become a werewolf, but even then, he doesn’t need to be Buffy’s friend to lock himself up in the library when there’s a full moon. My guess is that he’d be friends with Buffy anyways, but him finding out about vampires at the beginning of his relationship with Willow certainly makes his transition to being a Scooby easier.

Of course, the rocket launcher is one of the best moments of this entire series. Or if not, best, certainly iconic. I’m surprised there isn’t a Buffy POP figurine with her holding one yet. Thank you to Xander and his military know-how. And her fight with Angel in the mall after the fire alarm goes off shows that she is strong enough to take him and kill him, but her kicking him in the balls is so much more satisfying.

Best birthday present ever

Angel becoming Angelus sets up a whole new dynamic with Spike and Drusilla as well. Spike, who is wheelchair bound, can’t seem to stop Angelus from shamelessly flirting with his girlfriend. All of this serves to show us viewers that Angelus really and truly is different from the Angel we’ve all come to love (or, in my case, like). With Angelus acting like a dick, his fate becomes sealed. Anyone who knows how this season ends, knows that Spike is driven by Angelus to team up with Buffy – that all starts here.

And last, but not least, poor Willow. I mean, she has Oz now, yes, but poor Willow. I remember watching Xander and Cordelia kissing in the library and I just thought, “Willow’s going to be right there when they pull away,” and sure enough, there she was. Even though she has Oz, she still clearly has a crush on Xander, who is her best friend. For her to find out that he’s been smooching with Cordelia that way is awful – and then she almost gets killed by Angelus right after that discovery. Another heartbreak. But, on the flip side, at least Xander and Cordelia don’t have to hide their relationship any longer. And in fact, in the next episode, they are, officially, a couple. Unlike Buffy and Angel. Or Giles and Jenny.