Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Zeppo

"Boy, of all the humiliations you've had that I've witnessed… that was the latest."

Yep, just as I thought: after last week's traversal of the emotional wringer we get a nice little comedy episode. And it's rather good. It also addresses head-on what's becoming a troubling part of the structure of the series: everyone else has superpowers or abilities, so what's Xander's role? Fortunately it's one of those questions which can't be ignored but doesn't really need to be answered. We just need to know that the writers are aware of it. As long as that's so, then Jimmy Olsen jokes are enough.

Probably the funniest thing about this episode, though, is the "b" plot, with Buffy, Angel, Willow, Faith (properly in this episode) and Giles (now redeemed, at least in the eyes of the Scoobies) facing the biggest threat they've ever faced in scenes of hilarious, po-faced melodrama. The scene between Buffy and Angel is particularly funny and shows just how amazing Sarah Michelle Gellar is. Not many people have the ability to portray real anguish and heartbreak with a comic subtext, but she does. And I love the glimpses of the terrible monsters, fleshed out by the descriptions of unseen things. It's wonderful that we know these characters well enough by now to do something like this.

Oh, and Xander pops his cherry, of course ("Oh, I'm up!"), courtesy of Faith feeling horny after a fight. It's rather amusing that she should chuck him out once she's used him, just like Saga in The Bridge, this blog's other series of the moment.

The "a" plot baddies, essentially zombies without the shuffling, are the perfect metaphor for macho, laddish wankers. They might not seem to act any differently as zombies that they did when alive, but the implication is that people like that are zombies to start with. And the fact that Xander is almost killed as part of an initiation ceremony is also rather symbolic about that kind of lifestyle, a lifestyle which has made the leap from laddishness to gangs. Equally symbolic is the fact that they're all dead in the first place.

The climax sees Xander not only overcoming his fear and being brave, but showing himself to be braver, more in control, and ultimately more of an alpha male than O'Toole, who then proceeds to be randomly killed as his usefulness to the plot is now at an end. I love that kind of wink to the viewer. The shortest ever "Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer…" runs it a close second, though. Right from the opening moments we know this episode is going to be funny.

I suppose I ought to mention Oz's werewolf suit- it's bloody awful in this episode- but that's the only real flaw. This series is on fire at the moment.