“I was brought up to be a proper lady. I wasn’t meant to understand things.”
Another good ‘un, this. I rather enjoyed the conceit of Halloween being the one night of the year that things go a bit quiet in Sunnydale. Also, we have continuing arc stuff happening; Spike and Drusilla (who’s as mad ever) are back, while Oz (is director Bruce Seth Green the same as Seth Green? I bet he is!) continues to notice Willow while she’s dressed rather sexily. On that subject, incidentally, my reaction to seeing Alyson Hannigan in THAT outfit was the same as Buffy predicted for Xander and Angel.
Oh, and we’re introduced to Larry, and also to new baddie Ethan Rayne (surely the only British chap in all of history to be called Ethan…), who shares a mysterious past with Giles who, unlikely though it seems, has suddenly acquired a dark and mysterious past, along with the rather eyebrow-raising nickname of “Ripper”. He also proves to be rather better with his fists than hitherto suspected. I await further developments.
Incidentally, it’s established that Rayne worships the Roman god Janus, and his prayer seems to have real, magical effects. And yet Giles later describes Janus as “mythical”. What’s all that about, then?
Mostly, though, we have the conceit of people turning into the things represented by their Halloween costumes. I’m aware than Halloween costumes in Americas can be anything, and not just horror-themed stuff, but it still seems a little odd to see soldiers, pirates etc. Never mind that, though: this episode (by newcomer Carl Ellsworth) is basically using this conceit to examine gender roles, a fairly central theme for the show.
This is most obvious in what happens to Buffy, of course; Sarah Michelle Gellar shows what a great comic actress she is in playing a simpering, uneducated, fainting, frock-wearing damsel in distress who thinks a car is a demon and who is, rather obviously, the polar opposite of what Buffy’s character usually represents. Xander, meanwhile, finally gets to spend an episode as the alpha male and protector of the womenfolk. All this is nicely foreshadowed early on as Buffy somehow condemns Xander to social death by saving him from being beaten up by Larry. Boys are indeed fragile. All that said, though, I’m not sure the stuff about gender roles really goes any deeper than that. It’s fun, though.
Willow gets some character development, too. As Buffy points out (and this also happened in Inca Mummy Girl),whenever she dresses up she wants to hide as she’s too afraid and introverted to express herself although, of course, when she does, Oz fancies her like the clappers. Meanwhile, the Buffy / Angel romance continues to simmer.
And I should probably mention how good the comedy is, this being a comedy episode and all. I love the comic acting from Alyson Hannigan as Willow sneaks into the library to steal Giles’ diary.
No comments:
Post a Comment