"A woman in Tibet traded it to me for the Radiohead record."
So, Oz liked Kid A. I approve. It's by far my favourite Radiohead album. Well, In Rainbows is close. Anyway, after last week's lacklustre and skippable episode, this one was both very good and hugely significant.
We'd forgotten about Oz, but he's back, he's done the whole Jack Kerouac thing that Xander didn't (although more The Dharma Bums than On the Road, it seems), and it's really, really awkward. Then he's off again. This episode is a useful reminder to heterosexual people, like me, of the many, many awkwardnesses that gay people have to face in a world that assumes people are straight until told otherwise, having to constantly out themselves throughout their entire lives. I don't blame Willow for not telling Oz about Tara- it's still not fair on Oz, but it's still not Willow's fault that society's heteronormative assumptions make these things so difficult.
There's a nice parallel drawn, albeit a little too blatantly, between Buffy's awkward reaction to discovering Willow is in a gay relationship (I assumed everybody knew) and Riley's instinctive reaction to Oz being a werewolf. It doesn't necessarily make either of them any more racist or homophobic than most well-meaning liberals are deep down in their subconscious. I suppose I'm a bit surprised by Buffy's reaction, though- surely being gay wasn't that bit a deal in Southern California at the turn of the Millennium? To be fair, I suppose that being part of Doctor Who fandom has made me rather more casually accepting of homosexuality than the average person.
Arc stuff happens too, this time with Riley well and truly deciding which side he's on. It was inevitable that the Scoobies and the Initiative were eventually going to end up at daggers drawn, and Riley was always the person with the most to lose when it happens. He's given up everything for Buffy, tragically, I think. Yes, it's an important moment that Buffy now feel able to tell him all her deepest, darkest secrets (i.e. about Angel), but I still get the impression that the two of them are not soulmates. Buffy loves Riley only for as long as the initial passion lasts. After that, she'll discard him.
I'm glad the show has finally decided that the Initiative are not very nice people. What they do to Oz- a citizen of their country, who should have legal rights- is horribly, unspeakably Orwellian. And the "medical" experiments have overtones of, well, you know. And watching it now, in the context of Guantanamo and the "War on Terror", it's even more disturbing.
In other news, the Scoobies are now fugitives, presumably, with the weight of the US government after them, something that can't just be solved by a reset button. And Spike makes some sort of deal with Adam which is to unfold in a future episode, of which there are only three more this season. Why do I get the impression I'd have Adam far more figured out if I'd read Frankenstein…?
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