“Gingerbread”

I always enjoy watching shows take on fairytales and giving them a modern-day twist.  Charmed did it on more than one occasion, and while I can’t think of any non-Charmed examples at the moment, I know there are some.

This episode is also the first one in which it is clear that Willow has moved on from computer geek to witch.  She’s obviously been doing spells since Ms. Calendar died, but now we see that she is part of a witch community (I hesitate to say coven, as I don’t believe that Willow is actually in a “coven”) – something she tries to find again in college.  And, since this episode centers around witches, Amy’s back!  One episode in season 1, one episode in season 2, one episode in season 3.  I’m sensing a pattern, which gets broken after this.  We also meet a new witch – a male witch.  Some don’t like the word “warlock” even though that is the word typically assigned to a male witch, so I won’t use it.  If Harry Potter isn’t a warlock neither is new character Michael, played by Blake Soper from Boy Meets World and Salute Your Shorts.  These three witches are working together to perform a protection spell for Buffy’s birthday, but it all goes horribly awry when the latest demon comes to town.

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  Blake Soper as Michael on BtVS

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  Boy Meets World

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  The cast of Salute Your Shorts

But this episode is about more than witches and demons.  It’s about how communities deal with tragedy, and more importantly, about mothers and daughters.  Joyce is heavily featured in this episode.  She tries so hard to be a good mother, but just doesn’t get it.  She’s clueless, despite knowing Buffy’s secret.  I mean, she wants to watch Buffy work (a.k.a. slay).  Doesn’t she get that it’s dangerous?  Juxtapose that with Willow’s mom, who we finally meet, who doesn’t even pay attention to her daughter.  She doesn’t realize that Willow changed her hair months ago and refers to Willow’s best friend as “Bunny.” She seems to care, but only when Willow is doing something wrong.  Because Willow has been so perfect all these years, her mom has ceased to pay her any attention and thinks her new interest in witchcraft is a phase that can be related to a paper she just published.  This all definitely paints Joyce in a better light, despite her well-meaning cluelessness.  On the subject of Joyce, I have to mention how adorably awkward she and Giles are together.

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  Willow and Buffy’s moms unite for a common cause.

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  MOO headquarters

Joyce ends up spearheading the MOO (Mothers Opposed the Occult) movement in the wake of the death of two young children.  The community rallies around this tragedy, trying to cause good, but inadvertently prevents Buffy from doing her job.  This whole storyline actually reminds me of the witch finder general, who I was unfamiliar with when first viewing this episode. In the wake of Malleus Maleficarum and James VI and I writings on witchcraft, a man named Matthew Hopkins took it upon himself to track down witches and bring them to justice.  His methods were sketchy at best and he became rich by exploiting superstitious, 17^th century, English folk.  He was eventually found out and things did not end well for him, but there is a sort of pop-culture mythos that has built around the idea of the witch finder general in the same way that one thinks of Van Helsing.  So having an episode dedicated to a witch hunt certainly reminds me of that now.

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  Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins

It is worth noting that, according to BtVS, the type of demon responsible for the chaos in Sunnydale is probably the same type of demon that started the Salem Witch Trials.  Growing up in Massachusetts and loving all things witches you know I know my Salem Witch Trial history, so I appreciated this reference.  I also appreciated that Buffy didn’t say any more than just that.  Cuz that would have ruined it.  BTW – totally in Salem as I’m writing this blog, but that’s just a coincidence – I promise.

Since I’ve mentioned Salem, I should make sure that you all know that no witches were burned at the stake in America – not in Salem, Connecticut (where there was an outbreak around the same time), or anywhere else.  Why mention this fact?  Well, a lot of people think that witches in Salem were burned at the stake and I find that super annoying, but more importantly, because in Sunnydale, the plan is to burn the witches at the stake.  Why would they do this in Sunnydale in 1999 though?  Isn’t there a more modern, and more efficient way of killing witches?  It seems a little odd to me.  Also, who would burn anyone at the stake indoors?  That’s just unsafe – I’m sorry, but it is.

Now, any true witch would find a way to escape this predicament, and Amy, having been at the witch thing for a lot longer than Willow, does just that.  She turns herself into a rat and escapes.  Don’t worry – she becomes Willow’s pet, because Willow can’t figure out how to change her back… so yeah, Amy the rat is here folks!  And as such, technically, Amy will be appearing in more than one episode per season now.

Amy the rat

A more troubling feature of this episode, you know, other than the witch hunt itself, and burning teenagers at the stake, is how the parents of these witches are reacting.  These are your children people! How are you less concerned about them than about the murdered children?  And that’s how you know that the town is once again under a spell.  I mean, Joyce, who knows exactly what’s going on thinks that Buffy’s the problem?!  That’s insane!  And, as Buffy points out, no one even knows who these children are.  They appear out of nowhere, dead, and the entire community goes bonkers.  Parents are choosing children that don’t exist over their own children!  This episode is extremely disturbing for this reason, and this reason alone.

Not disturbing? Cordelia and Giles forced to work together.  These two are hilarious.  I mean, can we get more of this please? (I know we won’t, but a girl can still dream, right?)  Also, toad stool.  It’s the little things that make me laugh.

“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.

“Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”

I sang this song when I took voice lessons in high school. That’s right – it’s not just a cute episode title, it’s also a song!

Anyway… Amy is back and is – surprise! – a witch. Just like her mother. Who was evil. It turns out that Amy isn’t evil (well, not yet), just using magic to get out of things like homework. She clearly hasn’t mastered the craft yet, as we find out when she helps (er, is blackmailed into helping) Xander with a love spell. By the way, do love spells ever turn out for the best?

From “The Witch”

Season 2

This episode is very funny, but also really heartbreaking. You have Buffy still dealing with the whole Angelus thing. And he sends her creepy messages on Valentine’s Day. You have Angelus getting in between Spike and Drusilla. And then you have Cordelia feeling like she has to break up with Xander, leaving them both somewhat heartbroken. And then, as if that’s not enough, throw Ms. Calendar in the mix and have the love spell mess with Willow’s real feelings for Xander. Yeeesh. This episode clearly focuses on Xander and Cordelia, but all of Sunnydale is feeling the heartbreak in this one.   Thankfully, Willow gets a cute non-heartbreak moment at the beginning of the episode when she gleefully tells Amy that her boyfriend’s in the band playing at the Bronze.

Before focusing on the Xan Man and Cordy I want to check in on our villains for a moment. The rivalry between Angelus and Spike has been turned up a notch. Spike is sick of Angelus’ antics when it comes to Buffy, and on top of that, he and Dru are constantly flirting. You know, in a sexy, seems like they’re getting it on, kind of way. Clearly, before his soul, Angelus was not a great guy. However, through all of this we see yet another glimpse at Spike’s human side, making him somewhat unique in the Buffyverse. Not to say that Spike’s a great guy either, but at least he’s not a dick. We also get a glimpse at Spike’s poetry, which is only funny in retrospect. He makes up a sarcastic poem for Angelus to give Buffy. It’s not meant to be good, but before becoming a vampire, Spike was already known as William the Bloody. Why? Unlike the Gorch brothers from “Bad Eggs” he wasn’t going around killing people, making him a human monster. Oh no, he wrote “bloody bad” poetry. This made me chuckle.

To Angelus’s credit, he does finally decide to kill Buffy in this episode, but has no idea that Buffy’s a rat wandering around the school, or that Xander would be hiding in her bedroom. (By the way, Buffy was turned into a rat to free SMG up to be on Saturday Night Live.) That’s okay, Angelus is fine killing her friends instead. Of course, the one good thing about the love spell that makes every single woman in Sunnydale (except for Cordelia) fall in love with Xander is that he is rescued, first by Drusilla, and then by a horde of love-struck women.  Only good thing.  And Dru saving him still wasn’t great because she wanted to turn him. Hence the horde of women – who were violently trying to kill him for toying with their emotions, plus the whole if-I-can’t-have-him-no-one-can thing. So, yeah, love spells are not a good thing here.

Dru protects Xander from Angelus

angry mob featuring Willow and Jenny

However, it does bring Xander and Cordelia back together. So let’s take a deeper look at their relationship. First, they sneak around because they are ashamed of their attraction to each other. Then Xander’s friends find out, so they decide to date openly and Cordelia hasn’t been seen hanging out with her own friends in a really long time. Then Harmony comes back and has become the new Queen Bee, making Cordelia feel less than for dating Xander, who is a loser by popular girl standards. Meanwhile, Xander is stressing out about the perfect gift to get Cordelia for Valentine’s Day and he picks a really nice heart-shaped necklace. Cordelia, not knowing this, decides to dump Xander. She does it publicly, at the Bronze, on Valentine’s Day, right after getting (and keeping) Xander’s gift. Albeit, she does admit that the necklace makes it harder. So she doesn’t really want to dump him, but is peer-pressured into it in order to keep her status and her “friends.”

The next day at school, neither of them is happy. Cordelia still hasn’t regained her Queen Bee status and Xander is being pitied and mocked by everyone at school.   Cordelia is wearing the necklace Xander got from her and looks pained at the way Xander’s being treated, but doesn’t do anything about it, because, again, peer pressure.

So when Xander casts the spell, it is meant to be a revenge spell. He wants Cordelia to take him back so that he can dump her. He uses the necklace, which he demands back, to cast the spell, but the necklace ends up shielding her from the spell instead. The next day, Harmony and all of the popular girls are mad at Cordelia for dumping Xander. Cordelia finally starts to realize that you shouldn’t do things just because you’re friends tell you to. Xander still doesn’t get what he wants and the two end up trapped together while the entire female population of Sunnydale tries to kill them. Finally, Xander admits that he cast a love spell on Cordy, but that it didn’t work. Cordy is impressed that he tried to get her to love him again, and boom, just like that things are going to be okay with these two.

When the spell’s over, Cordelia basically tells her friends to f@!* off and stop being sheep before getting back together with Xander. Cordelia has learned a valuable lesson here about peer pressure, but has Xander learned anything? No. Not really. He still ends up with Cordelia and should be learning the ultimate lesson in wish-fulfillment. The only problem is, the next time wish fulfillment rears its ugly head (I mean, Anya’s pretty, don’t get me wrong…) Xander isn’t the one targeted. So he doesn’t have to learn this lesson.

This episode is great. It’s funny, it moves plot along for all characters in some way. Yet, is it okay for a teenage boy to play with the emotions of so many people and come away unscathed? If it weren’t magic – if Xander were a player, we would hate him. So why is he able to escape without learning a lesson? Or maybe I’ve been watching the episode all wrong. It was never about Xander. It was about Cordelia accepting herself and not caring what her friends think.  With that framework in mind, this is definitely an easier pill to swallow.

“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.

“The Dark Age”

For any fans of the Buffy movie, Giles utterance of “And the rest is silence” will surely delight you. Of course, it’s also a famous Hamlet quote. If you haven’t figured it out by now, Joss Whedon likes his Shakespeare.

Of course, this extremely light opening scene of Buffy working out to loud music that annoys Giles to no end is juxtaposed with our first glimpse of the monster of the week. And right off the bat, we know that it has something to do with Giles. This is our first glimpse of Giles’s back story and it’s a doozy. His past literally comes back to haunt him and reeks some serious havoc.

One thing that Joss Whedon is really good at is being evil. At this point in the series I hadn’t quite caught on to the pattern yet, in part because this the first sign of his happily-ever-after-actually-equals-misery storylines. So, re-watching this now I can’t help thinking, “Of course Jenny breaks up with Giles in this episode, I mean they’re happy and making sex plans. Damn Joss Whedon.” That last sentence was said while shaking my fist at the tv. I was trained to look out for these sorts of situations because of BtVS. Whenever there is a perfectly happy television couple (on a drama, not a sitcom) I start to worry. The other shoe will drop because no one wants to watch a happy couple (I mean I think I do, but I guess it would be boring, right?).

This episode serves as a reminder that adults were once stupid kids, too. Speaking of stupid kids… oh Cordelia… the scene with the cops in the library and Cordelia trying to get out of a ticket. I actually use this sentence all the time: “I mean, I was going one way.” I don’t go down one-way streets the wrong way, I just think it’s hilarious.

Cordelia does more than that in this episode. She’s basically a member of the Scooby Gang at this point. I mean, it’s not official, but she’s getting there. She happens to be in the right place at the right time (Saturday computer class) and prevents Ethan Rayne from escaping by kneeing him. Yes, she has redeemed herself.

This episode also features a couple more great Xander-Cordelia moments. The first occurs when Xander protects Cordelia from the oozy-dead guy. Normally that chivalry would be preserved for Willow… Later in the episode the two are fighting – the same kind of fighting that will soon lead to them kissing. However, they are in front of Willow and she yells at them, proving once again that she is a natural born leader who is capable of being assertive when necessary. This moment is actually pretty awesome.

Willow gets the chance to shine in this episode, just as she did in “Halloween” (another Ethan Rayne episode). In this case though, Giles is unavailable and Willow gets to show just how smart and clever she can be. Her solution to use Angel to fight the demon is brilliant. I love when Willow gets to show off her brainy skills!

I suppose though, that I should talk about this demon. Eyghon knew Giles when he was younger and going through his “Ripper” phase. Eyghon manages to take hold of Jenny (I specifically remember watching this during the original airing and thinking, didn’t the ooze touch her, shouldn’t we be concerned?) and uses her to say some not great things to Giles. Eyghon taunts Giles, specifically about his masculinity. Now, Giles is from a different time period, and so is this show, to some extent, but these insults are not okay. Giles doesn’t want to take advantage of Jenny (thinking her hurt, not possessed), and possessed Jenny tells him that he should be more manly and take advantage of her. Eyghon says that Giles is like a woman. I mean, the demon is basically telling Giles to man up and rape her! Not okay! And yet, as part of our culture, we understand that sensitive men are not as manly. Giles is plenty manly and Eyghon, who Angel kills, is a dick.

Eyghon possessing Ms. Calendar

 

So is the metaphor about grownups sowing their wild oats in the past (and it catching up to them) or about fighting toxic masculinity? I’m going with both. While it’s enjoyable/terrifying to see that Giles is capable of being a badass, the way this whole thing manifests is terrible. We have to stop teaching boys to be manly and comparing them to women/girls in order to get them to do things that fall under the “boys will be boys” category. This topic comes up a lot (like in “Halloween” when Xander is offended when Buffy stops him from getting pummeled), but in this case it’s just really icky. Luckily, our guys are on the side of right and the demon is the one encouraging bad behavior. The problem is that the demon speaks what is considered to be a universal truth by many, and we are just now starting to correct that in our society.

“I Robot, You Jane”

This episode is important for two main reasons and they are all tied up in the same person: Jenny Calendar. Ms. Calendar is introduced as a foil for Giles and mentor for Willow. Her relationships with these two people become extremely important for the show. She and Giles start dating and manage to break each other’s hearts, and she is our first good witch (ahem, techno-pagan) – foreshadowing of Willow’s future?

Robia LaMorte as Jenny Calendar

First, Giles and Jenny are adorable and you can see their spark right from the get-go. I know that I’m going to be talking about them more in the future, but this is the starting point so I have to talk about their adorableness now. Giles, who is far stuffier in the first season than in subsequent years, is all about books and Jenny is the modern, computer using, “cool” teacher. She teases him about this constantly, but understands where Giles is coming from and turns out to be amazingly understanding about all the demon-y stuff, and already in the know. This means that she can enter into the Scooby Gang’s lives without them having to hide any thing from her, allowing her to become an ally faster than the viewer might expect.

She’s also a techno-pagan. In other words, she does magic, but doesn’t have the “kind of power” that a witch possesses. Willow is a computer geek, a gifted computer geek. She likes Ms. Calendar and is a good student. Although Willow doesn’t attempt to do magic until the end of season 2, the fact that our first resident “witch” is a computer loving teacher/mentor to Willow says a lot, “if you know what you’re looking for” (which is a line from a future episode of Buffy, in which Buffy has a dream that leads her to Jenny and to Jenny’s secret… now I might cry).

So these are the things that continue on throughout the series (and yes, I’m avoiding talking too much about Ms. Calendar in the future, in part because it’s a huge spoiler, but mostly because I might cry thinking too hard about it). However, this episode was also ahead of its time in terms of how it dealt with technology.

Back in 1997 (or 1996 when the episode was probably actually filmed), the whole internet thing was still pretty new. For some people this next thing is going to be hard to swallow – not everyone had the internet or an email address. What?!?! I know, get over it. I don’t even think MySpace was a thing back then. There were some movies that came out shortly after this episode about computer viruses as a huge threat and of course, who can forget Y2K, in which way too many people thought the world would end when computers would be unable to recognize the year 2000 and would automatically start dating things as 1900? The world didn’t end and most computers, if not all, figured out the date pretty easily.

This really was a huge fear for some reason.

What this episode did with the demon in the internet (and amusingly disturbing previews of what that meant as student records were changing and student papers started changing to neo-Nazi themes) was fresh, but maybe not 100 percent original. For many of us though, it seemed original because this was a theme (not the demon part, just the evil internet part) that was still new to popular culture. BtVS took this a step further though and introduced our generation to catfishing. Everyone knows about catfishing now and people are told to look out for it on a regular basis. I mean, you know, there’s a whole MTV show dedicated to helping people out who may be getting catfished (and possibly where the term “catfish” comes from). Back in 1997, sure, Buffy and Xander speculating about who Malcolm could actually be was a conversation that other online chatters/daters were talking about in the real world, but I don’t know if any one on television had yet to actually be catfished. It used to be that pervs would catfish young girls (or guys) online, but now catfishing is done by mean teens to one another in a new form of cyber-bullying (which this episode also shows to some extent, cyber-bullying that is).

Willow being catfished of course isn’t mean and “Malcolm” singles Willow out in order to thank her because she unknowingly brought him back to life, but she is catfished nonetheless. Could you imagine this episode now? It would have to use snapchat and instagram and other forms of social media that I am way too old and uncool to know anything about.

The real Malcolm

The original thing about this episode though, is that despite a demon getting into the internet and causing much ado, computers and the internet aren’t the “bad guy.” Despite all of Giles’ protests and the lack of understanding from Buffy and Xander, technology isn’t the thing that’s painted as evil. It’s not the fault of the evil internet that these things start happening, it’s the fault of the demon. I don’t think anyone watching this show thought to themselves, “Wow, I better stop using chat rooms and avoid the internet.” Rather, I think this episode served as yet another warning that people are people and you have to keep living your life despite that. I mean if computers were meant to be evil, Willow wouldn’t have been the computer geek and Jenny Calendar would not have turned into an ally by episodes end. At episode’s end, Willow still uses the computer on a regular basis and Jenny Calendar’s banter with Giles is seen as sweet.

Sure, if you only want to watch necessary Buffy episodes, this one can easily be skipped, but I say watch it. It’s like a museum piece now – a highly entertaining and still relevant museum piece. Watch this episode and then amuse yourself thinking about Giles and his reaction to instagram. I dare you.