“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.

 

“Consequences”

This episode starts off with Buffy dreaming about drowning and the death of Deputy Mayor Alan (I know he has a last name, but it’s only said once or twice, whereas he’s usually just referred to by his first name). This could be a guilt dream, but slayers do have psychic dreams and considering the fact that Alan’s body will be discovered, despite Faith dumping him into a body of water, maybe that’s what this dream is. After season 2, the show doesn’t really talk too much about Buffy and her psychic dream ability (in the every day sense), but maybe the dreams she has that seem normal, aren’t. And this is the perfect example of that – maybe. It’s also entirely possible that Buffy is just feeling guilty over the events in “Bad Girls.”

This episode continues down the same moral path as the last one. I almost thought about writing one blog for the two episodes, since they do go together, but decided not to as there is no cliff hanger at the end of “Bad Girls.” The episode ends, and this one just happens to pick up the next morning. Either way, we are still dealing with Buffy vs. Faith and what it means to have power. Buffy and Faith have a whole conversation discussing this. Buffy contributes to the conversation by saying, “We help people, it doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.” But then Faith counters by saying that slayers are better than everyone else because they have power. Her ultimate point is sort of a messed-up version of kill one to save many. Faith’s lack of morality is pretty much summed up when she says, “nobody’s gonna cry over a random bystander who got caught in the crossfire.” Here is where our two girls differ dramatically.

Faith does make a really good point. The argument between both slayers is valid on both sides. Being the slayer means that you kill things in order to save humanity and that it is possible that every now and again a person is killed or sacrificed in the line of duty. It happens. How is that different from being delayed on the way to stop a vampire attack and the vamps end up killing one or two people before the slayer is able to put a stop to those vampires? Sure, in this case the slayer isn’t the one doing the killing of people, but the outcome is the same. Should the slayer feel responsible for this or is it just part of the job?

And that is a perfect example of how Buffy and Faith are different. Buffy would take it personally if her being late meant that she couldn’t save a couple of people. Faith, on the other hand, would forget about the casualties and focus, instead, on the number of people she did save. Again, both arguments are correct in their own way. Unfortunately, Faith takes her argument too far. As I said in the last blog, how she deals with Alan’s death is part of her lack of humanity. Buffy wants to turn herself in and face the music. Faith won’t even let Buffy tell Giles (who remember, isn’t even their watcher anymore).

Faith is so sure that she didn’t do anything wrong, that she refuses to accept any guilt. That’s why she pressures Buffy into not saying anything. But Faith also knows that Buffy is good and that she will say something. So, in what can only be considered a villainous turn, Faith goes behind Buffy’s back, to Giles, to sell Buffy out and put the blame squarely on her shoulders. This may backfire, but it shows the lack of Faith’s character, and again, her lack of morality, bordering on the lack of humanity. Faith is clearly a survivor – whatever that means and by all costs.

Faith’s behavior in this episode, and in others, leads me to believe that she was abused by a man (or maybe more than one) prior to becoming the slayer. Whether she was beaten, molested, or raped I don’t know, but there is something in her past. She has trouble connecting with guys and really doesn’t trust anyone, but is more willing to trust women than men. When Xander reaches out to help her in this episode she uses him in the worst way, almost killing him in the process. I don’t think that this is proof that Faith is a monster, I think it’s proof that a monster twisted Faith into what she becomes during the course of these two episodes.

Also, I mean, Xander is trying really hard to be noble here. He wants to do the right thing and he is too naïve to understand that not everyone has the same perspective. He knows that the sex that he and Faith had meant nothing, and yet he still thinks that it meant something, that he can be the one to get through to her because of what he envisions them sharing. This must be quite the wake-up call to him on some level. And while we’re on the subject, I would be remiss not to be somewhat heartbroken seeing Willow crying in the bathroom after finding out that Xander lost his virginity to Faith. And yet, adult me wants to yell at her to get over him! I’m just glad that Oz is conveniently out of town for this episode.

Angel is next to try to help Faith. He actually ties her up and tries to appeal to her, monster to monster. It’s possible that he is breaking through to her, but Wesley manages to mess this up thoroughly by getting the Watchers’ Council involved. They show up, grab Faith and take her away. But she of course escapes, much to Wesley’s chagrin. This will set up Wesley’s new dynamic as he is clearly a crappy watcher. Last week he showed this with his lack of experience, now he shows it by adhering strictly to the rules (and letting jealousy get in the way of his job).

These two plot points – Angel helping Faith and then Wesley essentially kidnapping her – set things up for the Angel spinoff in the following years. Angel does get through to Faith, and will do so again in the future, eventually leading to her turning herself in and going to jail. Before she gets there though, she tortures Wesley. Interesting turn of events then, when Wesley helps in breaking her out of jail so that she can help save Angel when he, once again, loses his soul. This arc, then allows her to be a major part of Buffy’s final season. The damage done to her and Buffy’s friendship will never be repaired, but they will learn to work together once again.

Back in this episode, it seems like things are working out that way when the two slayers are forced to team up to fight Mr. Trick and company. Faith even stakes Mr. Trick, rescuing Buffy from possible death. Things seem to be looking up for these two, but then Faith goes to the Mayor and offers her services, knowing that right-hand man Trick is dead. Now she is evil, or at least officially on evil’s side. She’ll pretend that she’s not bad, but that won’t last long and with this one move, her rehabilitation is stymied and the slayers’ friendship halted for good.

Of note in this episode, a reminder that this show has continuity in the form of Willow discussing plans to meet up with Michael from “Gingerbread” to try to de-rat Amy. Also, Cordelia and Wesley meet for the first time and flirt. Leading Faith to say, “First word – jail, second word – bait.” Although, in fairness, it’s entirely possible that Cordelia is 18 by this point in the story… And on that light note I will leave you.

 

 

“The Zeppo”

This is one of my favorite episodes of the series.  It might even be my favorite episode of season 3.  Why?  Well, for starters it is Xander-centric, but it also turns the regular Buffy formula on its head by telling a B-story as the A-story and relegating the A-story to the B-story for the week.  It’s just a fun episode!

There are so many little things from this episode that I could talk about, like that fact that all television pastry boxes are pink for some reason.  Or the fact that I appreciate Willow’s marshmallow joke when the other characters don’t seem to.  Not to mention, who names their knife, “Katie”?  Who names a knife, period? And – wait, Sunnydale has gangs? And while I could go on to talk about these insignificant things a little longer – this episode has so much meat to it.  It’s different than “Helpless,” which was certainly a meaty episode, as well.  This one is so much lighter, despite the episode featuring yet another apocalypse.

Xander is threatened by “Katie”

Okay, I honestly don’t know where to start with this episode, so I guess I’ll throw a dart and land at… Xander and Cordelia.  Surprisingly, Cordelia is still talking to Xander, even after the whole cheating thing (although, Oz and Xander seem to be friends again and Oz forgave Willow and got back together with her, so this isn’t so far-fetched) – of course she’s mostly just taunting him which is classic Cordelia. However, her teasing strikes a particular chord in this episode.  She compares him to Jimmy Olsen, which is down on Xander’s level, he even made a joke about the same subject with Giles, who just didn’t get it (oh, if only Oz had been there).  When Cordelia says it though, it is suddenly an insult. She also says, “Can you say “expendable”?” – which I find particularly funny since she ended up being in a movie called The Expendables.  This all leads to Xander obsessing over being cool.  Here’s the thing though, although Cordy was being mean, when compared with Jack O’Toole’s threats moments earlier, one can see that at least Cordelia still cares.  Her taunting comes from a place of wanting to hurt Xander for what he did to her, sure, but re-watching this makes me certain that these two can be friends again (and they will be before she moves on to L.A. and the spin-off series).

It’s also fun to compare this scene at the beginning of the episode, with the scene at the end when Xander does find his cool.  He leaves Cordelia hanging, as he walks away with a big smile on his face.  What a great ending!  Xander really grows during this episode and it shows.

Okay, we have to talk about one more thing having to do with these two former love birds, and I know I’ve mentioned it before.  Xander loses his virginity in this episode, which I think is proof that Cordelia is a virgin.  I know, this shouldn’t matter, but it does because of certain events in Angel’s first season.  Xander may have been Cordelia’s first love.  She is never shown, before or after Xander, having another committed relationship on the series.  The one possible exception to this is Darryl, who we find out about in “Some Assembly Required.” She loved him, he treated her badly, then he died.  And then he became Frankenstein’s monster and tried to make her his bride.  He died while Cordelia was a high school freshman, when she was maybe 15 years old.  Now it’s completely possible that she lost her virginity to him, but if she did, it stands to reason that she would have had sex with Xander, too.  Likewise, if she had had sex with any of the other random guys she dated in season 1, there’s almost no good reason for her not to have also had sex with Xander.  Since they didn’t have sex, Cordelia must have lost her virginity to that guy on Angel who impregnated her with a demon baby.  Which again, means that Cordelia’s first time having sex got her pregnant!  Can you imagine – that must have been so traumatizing.  Yet, Angel, being a more grown-up show and making Cordelia seem more like a twenty-something than a 19-year-old (if not 18-year-old) glosses over her loss of virginity, which is a really big deal.  I understand that there wasn’t really room in that episode for this discussion, but at the same time – can you imagine?

Alright, I’m done, so back to the Xander portion of this conversation.  Yep, Xander manages to help Faith out of a jam, she has some energy she needs to get out and they have sex.  It’s actually kind of funny how one second, they’re shown in post-coital bliss with the cuddling and the next minute she’s kicking him out of her motel room without any emotion.  I wonder if Cordelia ever found out about this and what her reaction was.  We see Willow’s reaction in a couple of episodes, but never Cordelia’s.

So, jumping all over the place, I want to go back to talking about Xander’s search for how to be cool.  It reminds me of this episode of Beverly Hills 90201 when Valerie was going to be written up in some magazine for being cool and she kept asking about it (and therefore, being uncool).  Xander’s obsession with it is very similar.  The more you think about being cool and ask questions about how to be cool, the less cool you are apparently.  I mean, take Oz.  He has hardly anything to say on the matter and doesn’t even know that he is cool when Xander asks him about it.  And so Xander, in his quest to be cool, ends up looking for a thing – which ends up being a car (and some penis jokes).  And that car is what ends up getting him in trouble and eventually leads him to finding his cool – without the aid of a “thing.” But the car isn’t what makes him cool at all.

The other thing that leads Xander towards his strange night is the abandonment of his friends.  I mean, I get it, they want to keep him safe, but why now?  I mean it’s great that Faith is in the mix and working well with Buffy, but that doesn’t mean that Xander can’t be useful (in a non-snack capacity way). What his friends do to him in this episode is actually kind of mean. Also, Xander is actually pretty good at staying cool and collected in the face of danger. He doesn’t buckle under pressure. Sure, over the years he has his moments and sometimes runs away screaming (only in “Go Fish” though) or gets pummeled, but overall, he keeps his cool when it really counts. Sure, by not running away he is a liability as much as he is an asset, but what does Willow contribute?  Can’t she do her spells from a safer room/distance?  Xander could at least work to protect her during these tense moments. And honestly, his cool head in these matters is what allows him to save Faith.  He sees that she is in trouble and maneuvers the car just so, without missing a beat, to hit one of the demons and allow Faith a quick get-a-way.  Clearly, he is being underestimated in this episode by those who know him best. And, after this episode, without his friends ever finding out about his own adventures, he’s back in the mix without a question.  Weird, no?

After all is said and done, this episode is a zombie episode. I am not a zombie fan, but here they are used for comedy and are completely different from the zombies seen in “Dead Man’s Party” – thank goodness!  One of them is even played by Michael Cudlitz – one of those actors that you’ve definitely seen in at least one other thing between the 90s and now. The majority of the Xander-centric episode is played for laughs.  Sometimes it is in the physical humor (see Xander accidentally decapitate a zombie with a mailbox), and sometimes it is through the typical Xander method of talking.  For example, “Two guys wrasslin, but not in a gay way “– oh Xander.  I don’t think this would fly anymore, but it is amusing to hear Xander try to be cool and then have to backtrack and say too much.

• 

  MIchael Cudlitz on Buffy

• 

  Michael Cudlitz in real life
  

This is juxtaposed with the overly dramatic apocalypse scenes sprinkled throughout the episode. The most obvious example of this is, of course, the Buffy-Angel scene.  It seems pretty typical, but then once Xander interrupts we see how the over-dramatic can be played for laughs.  Especially since, as soon as Xander leaves, the romantic music swells up once again – right where it left off.

Imagine this with dramatic music swelling

Music actually plays a really important part in this episode.  As soon as Xander’s scenes get serious, there is no music.  The apocalypse battle has music and is very loud, but Xander’s scenes are quiet. This signals a change, both in tone and in Xander. The lack of music shows Xander’s inner-calm (or, cool, if you will) – the music stops, the rest is silence. It is in these moments that we see just how much Xander is worth.  After all, unbeknownst to his friends, he is the one saving those who save the world. If not for Xander (with an assist from werewolf Oz that he doesn’t know about), anyone in the high school would have been killed in an explosion.  Xander stops a bomb from going off and rescues his friends – and the world. No wonder he’s my favorite guy on this show!

I do wonder though why Jack isn’t a better fighter.  I mean, you’re telling me that he can’t take Xander? Or maybe, against regular threats, Xander can hold his own? Last season Xander almost got pummeled by Larry, but maybe he would have been okay without Buffy’s interference.  Or maybe he’s learned some fighting over the past 2 years. Or maybe Jack’s not as tough as he seems.

It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Xander is cool and he gains some much-needed confidence through his own hero’s journey in this episode.  Also, Oz is strangely full the next day. 

“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.

• 

  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.

• 

  Jeff Kober as Kralik

• 

• 

  Jeff Kober as Rack (season 6)

• 

  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.

• 

  I was raised on reruns like this classic.

• 

  This show was in syndication when I was young.

• 

  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)

“The Wish”

This may very well be my favorite season 3 episode. I think alternate reality episodes/doppelgänger episodes and the like tend to me my favorites across the board. For example, two of my favorite Roswell episodes are “Summer of ‘47,” in which the actors play different characters as a veteran tells Michael about what he saw when the spaceship crashed and the aftermath that followed over the next few days and “I Married an Alien,” which re-imagines Roswell as Bewitched. (There are also some alien doppelgänger episodes, btw.) And let’s not forget the Supernatural episodes “The French Mistake” and “Changing Channels.” The former has the Winchesters sucked into a world where they are actors on a tv show called Supernatural playing themselves, and the latter has them featured as part of other television shows, like a Grey’s Anatomy parody. But the Supernatural sitcom is my favorite. My point is, “The Wish” is right up my alley.

Roswell’s “I Married an Alien”

“Changing Channels” envisions Supernatural as a sticom

This episode is also the first one with Anya, played by Emma Caulfield. I remember seeing her when this episode originally aired and thinking, “oh, that’s Brandon Walsh’s girlfriend.” I wasn’t even allowed to watch Beverly Hills 90210, but I knew that much. Now, as I’m watching that entire series all the way through for the first time, seeing Susan, I think, “it’s Anya!” It’s just kind of funny how things change. It’s also funny seeing Anya as the monster of the week, with no indication that she will return, knowing that she actually becomes a huge part of the show.

Emma Caulfield

Meet Anya

Beverly Hills 90210

Jonathan’s back in this episode as well. And it’s scenes like this that explain his entire trajectory as we get closer and closer to “Earshot.” Poor Cordelia, I honestly don’t know if I feel worse for her or for Jonathan. She found out her boyfriend was cheating on her, got impaled, gets back to school and finds that vapid Harmony is now the queen b (despite Cordy’s “Queen C” license plate), and then Harmony, who is supposed to be her friend is just totally mean and uses Jonathan to show Cordelia how far she’s fallen in the eyes of Harmony and the popular girls. It’s like that time in middle school where a boy made fun of me for wearing sweatpants out in public (clearly, I was ahead of my time) by comparing me to an uncool boy who also wore sweatpants. The mean boy was making fun of me and this other kid, but using the other kid to show me how uncool I was. I think I won in the end though. The other “uncool” kid and I became friends in high school and ended up going to prom together. But this blog isn’t about me… sigh.

And of course, while Cordelia’s having a rough go of it, so are Buffy, Willow, and Xander. When Buffy’s asked how she makes it through after heartache she says, “I have you guys.” Buffy is wise and this friendship triangle (or triumvirate?) is very strong. We also see how Oz is dealing with everything. Or rather, we see another example of what a great guy he is. He’s heartbroken as well and is mad at Willow and Xander, but when confronted by Willow he’s still really nice. I mean he tells her the truth, but he could be a jerk about it, and he just isn’t. Which considering everything that happened is really big of him.

This episode isn’t about any of them, though. It’s about Cordelia and what she’s going through. And that is how we get the wish dimension. Anya is new, popular, and the only one that isn’t judging Cordelia. So, of course, Cordelia opens up to her, not realizing that Anya is actually a demon that’s pretty much targeted Cordelia. As we find out later, Anya specializes in spurned women. (Side note: isn’t it interesting that Anya ends up with Xander, who is the reason that Cordelia is vulnerable to Anya in the first place?)

So Cordelia wishes that Buffy never came to Sunnydale and then she is magically transported to a Buffy-less Sunnydale, completely unaware of how bad things are about to get.

Now at this point we need to talk about the events from the very first episode of Buffy. Yes, let’s go back to “Welcome to the Hellmouth” and “The Harvest.” In those episodes Willow and Jesse get taken by vampires. They are to be brought to the Master. Xander ends up going after Willow, solely because of Buffy. We know that Jesse became a vampire and that Xander ended up killing him, but without Buffy he would not have been turned into a vampire at all (he was Buffy bait), and so we can assume that Willow would not have been either. Now, if Willow had been turned, it is entirely possible that she would have turned Xander, but I think, realistically, Willow, along with Jesse, would have just been brought to the Master and killed.

When the Harvest starts at the Bronze, Cordelia is the person chosen by Luke to die first. Meaning that, technically, Cordelia would be dead in this world. However, since this world exists because of her wish, I suppose things would have been altered just enough for her to have survived. And I guess if I really take the time to think about it, she ended up on Luke’s radar because Jesse was dancing with her. Vampire Jesse, who would have just been killed if not for Buffy. So maybe she would have somehow survived the Harvest.

That being said, considering that this wish world is based pretty much entirely on a what if scenario from the first two episodes, it’s a shame that neither Jesse (Eric Balfour) nor Darla (Julie Benz) was in this episode. Oh well. One person that is in this episode that we haven’t seen since the beginning is Cordelia’s friend who was also in Bring it On, Nicole Bilderback. She dies pretty early on though…

Eric Balfour as Jesse

Julie Benz as Darla

unaired pilot

Nicole Bilderback as background Cordette

and in Bring it On

Okay, one other thing, and this isn’t an early BtVS history lesson – Vamp Willow is affected by crosses. She’s Jewish. Why would a cross affect her? Are you telling me that Jesus is the only figure that vampires would be afraid of? I think not! This is where I once again talk about how at least on Being Human, both the British and American versions, the writers understood that a Star of David (or another non-Christian religious symbol) can be just as effective. That just bugs me, I’m sorry. Moving on.

Speaking of Vamp Willow… she’s pretty awesome, right? I mean, she does get brought back this season, so obviously Alyson Hannigan did a good job being a completely different version of Willow. And kudos to Marti Noxon for writing the character in the first place. I love when she says, “Bored now.” I sometimes say that in life. Of course, she also says, “Willow’s going to make you bark” to Angel, which is just… ew! The whole Angel part of the wish world is weird. And Willow and Xander’s, um, fondness for playing with him is just, ew!

I don’t know off the top of my head when Charlaine Harris’s first Sookie Stackhouse novel was published, but the Master’s plan in this episode is very True Blood, don’t you think? Obviously, I had never heard of Sookie Stackhouse when this episode first aired (and I doubt that the first book had been published yet), but it is quite the coincidence. RIP first victim Cordette, as played by Nicole Bilderback…

Alright, also in this world are the White Hats, run by Giles. Oz is a member, as well as Larry (yes, Larry! – this is the first time we truly see him as a good guy). Nancy is also a member – I can’t recall if she appears in the real world at all though. These are the vampire fighting people and Cordelia gets their attention when she runs to Giles looking for Buffy (and also because she’s wearing a bright color – apparently you don’t want to call attention to yourself, even in bright daylight). The fact that she knows about Buffy is the thing that ultimately saves the world and brings everything back to normal, but she just seems crazy to everyone other than Giles. Sadly, the White Hats aren’t as effective as a slayer and Cordelia is killed by Willow and Xander together, right in front of Giles. Geez, even in this world Cordelia has to deal with the two of them being together – as they are killing her.

The White Hats

By the way – why do people still live in Sunnydale in this world? If you know you have to wear all dull earth tones in order to not be spotted and be inside by a certain time of night or be eaten, wouldn’t you move? Yet Sunnydale High is functioning normally and there are still plenty of people living there. Are the adults in Sunnydale really that stupid? Or lazy? I just don’t get it, but if no one lived there then this episode would be over pretty quickly so I will let it go.

Alright, so Cordelia is dead, but Giles is trying to track down Buffy, who finally arrives in Sunnydale and makes quite the entrance. Because, you know, when does Buffy not make an entrance? She is scarred and clearly not the same person, but she does go to fight the Master. Then just about everyone dies. We see Buffy beating up Vamp Xander, he in turn stakes Angel, then Buffy stakes Xander. Willow, in the meantime, is staked by Oz and then the Master kills Buffy. As far as we know Oz lives, but if this world were to continue, I’m not so sure that he’d be around much longer.

Giles, while all this is happening, summons Anyanka (Anya’s full demon name) and figures out how to get things back to how they were meant to be. This then leads to a great ending as Cordelia cluelessly drones on to Anya about all the things she wishes, while Anya tries to figure out why she is unable to grant any of those wishes. And that’s that… until “Dopplegängland.” Dun dun dun!

“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. 

“Revelations”

I had to watch this episode twice before being ready to sit down and write this blog.  Why, you may ask? I think it’s because the plot is inconsequential. Everything that happens is about moving the greater story and character arc forward.  In “Band Candy” everything is based around the plot of the spelled band candy.  In “Homecoming” the larger plot revolves around the Homecoming dance.  In this episode, the plot doesn’t feel as important.  Instead it allows major other plots to come forward. 

For example, this episode brings Angel’s existence to life.  When Xander goes in search of the Glove of Myhneghon on his own (because he was feeling guilty about almost getting caught with Willow by Giles) he discovers Angel, follows him, and then sees Angel and Buffy making out.  This seems like the B plot, but the entire plot ends up pivoting on the fact that Angel is back and whether or not characters trust him. 

Trust issues are the other major character development that comes out of this episode and Gwendolyn Post is just the vehicle for this within Faith.  Before I go too far into this though, we need to rewind, I think.  

Just who is Mrs. Post exactly?

Faith knows very little about Angel.  She knows the basic outline: Buffy was in love with him, they had sex, he turned evil and she had to kill him.  There are nuances missing, along with the fact that Willow’s spell worked and he was “cured” before Buffy killed him.  At the beginning of the episode, Buffy actually refuses to talk to Faith about Angel at all.  Faith interprets this as Buffy not wanting to open up to her, not trusting her, when in reality, Buffy is having trouble discussing Angel, at least in part, because he’s alive and well and Buffy has secretly been “training” with him. Here, Buffy is allowing Faith’s trust issues to take hold before we even get to the part where Gwendolyn Post completely uses Faith and basically breaks her trust.  

On top of this you have Xander, who never liked Angel, influencing Faith.  Now, part of this hatred stems from the fact that Angel is a vampire, but his hatred of Angel started with their mutual affection for Buffy.  His hatred (and mistrust) has always been fueled by jealousy.  Sure, Angel turned evil and then Xander’s vocal hatred was what Buffy needed to remind her that the Angel she knew was gone, but Angel’s not evil now, and Xander knows it.  So his hatred at this point is somewhat misguided.  That being said, he also makes some really good points about how many people Angel/Angelus has killed in the past and invokes the name of Jenny Calendar in doing so.  It’s worth mentioning that Giles also had to remind Buffy (along with the audience) that Angelus tortured him last season – so Xander isn’t the only bitter one. 

So now you have Faith, who thinks Buffy can’t trust her and is keeping secrets, basically being egged on to fight Angel because of Xander’s jealousy and hatred. With that misinformation, Faith rushes off to kill Angel.  

While trust is definitely a major theme of this episode, so too is misinformation and miscommunication. Faith goes to kill Angel because Xander didn’t tell her the whole story.  He basically fed her his hatred rather than tell her that Angel’s probably good.  I don’t know how he thought this whole thing would work out in the end, but the fact that he wasn’t there to stop her in time almost got Angel killed.  Now add to this that Mrs. Post got into Faith’s head before she revealed herself to be evil and we have the ingredients for a huge fight scene.  And of course, Angel has to defend himself and might not even realize who Faith is when she attacks him.  All he knows is that she is defending the woman who tried to kill him over the Glove of Myhneghon.    

And then of course Buffy shows up. And she has to stop Faith from killing Angel, which leads to their first real fight.  The first of many.  Which is too bad because the beginning of this episode has them participating in some “synchronized slaying” – Olympics ready and all.  And now their relationship will never be the same.  All because of misinformation, miscommunication, and deep-seated trust issues.  

From synchronized slaying…

…to fighting each other

The good news here is that Angel proves himself to everyone by saving Willow from evil Mrs. Post.  The bad news is that Faith will never truly recover from the events of this episode. Even in season 7 when she is back and reformed, she and Buffy just cannot seem to trust each other.  That is the true evil of Gwendolyn Post. After Mrs. Post’s first scene, Buffy kids Giles about them having to kill her, little did they know that by episode’s end, that’s exactly what would happen.   

By the way – what exactly was she planning on doing with the Glove of Myhneghon? Was she going to kill her way through the world?  I mean, I get that she wanted power, but the glove’s power didn’t seem to be helpful at all.  I would much rather have a magic genie in my back pocket or a magic necklace that let me influence people or something.  The glove can never come off, you need to chant to get its energies to flow, and all it seems to do is cause destruction.  What about love or money?  I just don’t think the glove is worth it, so I’m curious about her entire backstory and her reasoning for why that glove is what she really wants to get power.  And what is her husband like?  Or maybe she killed him… 

But I digress.  While I clearly have many questions surrounding the watcher-turned-evil, this episode isn’t about her.  It’s about Buffy’s relationships with all the other characters.  And it’s about Faith.  Knowing how the season turns out for her, it’s clear that this is where her evil road starts. Thanks Gwendolyn Post.