Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Amends

"Where are you going?"

"No, I'm not going. Just a… dramatic gesture."

If you're from Northern Europe, as I am, there's something oddly unthinkable about spending Christmas in a hot climate. But this, the Christmas episode, forces me to face the fact that in Sunnydale, Southern California, Yuletide is to happen in temperatures of seventy degrees (or about twenty degrees in real money). Fake snow is sprayed on trees, Joyce insists on both a fire and air conditioning(!), and Xander is able to sleep outdoors. Also, it's interesting to learn that, instead of heading down the pub, it's traditional in America to have a big posh dinner on Christmas Eve.

All this is fascinating, but it's a relief to get a flashback to a proper, wintry, Victorian Christmas in early Victorian Dublin, and a scene right out of A Christmas Carol. But this is one of Angel's flashbacks, something we haven't seen for a while, and generally a clue that this is an Angel episode. The later flashback scene in which Angelus metaphorically rapes a maid who, if caught would, in a case of double cruelty, be thrown on to the streets with her child if she was caught. It's not just sexual abuse but class abuse too, and makes me think of The Crimson Petal and the White, a recent-ish read of mine, which deals a lot with this sort of thing.

Still, away from such tangents and, in fact, away from Angel, there are some nice little character moments here. Xander quietly admits that he hasn't been a very good friend to Buffy over the Angel thing. Joyce and Buffy include Faith in their Christmas. And, well, Oz turns out to be such a mature and wonderful person. He still loves Willow ("It's like I lost an arm. Or, worse, a torso.") and they get back together, although there's awkwardness. He also gently declines Willow's offer of sex during her rather hilariously over-the-top romantic preparations, which not only involve Barry White but also a bottle of fizzy pop, in a bucket, on ice. Classy.

He doesn't want her to just give herself to him; it has to be meaningful, and mutual. There's a theme of not having sex, and of making amends, that echoes the main plot with Buffy and Angel. Essentially we have Angel being tempted by the First Evil (pretty much the Devil- the temptation thing is a bit of a giveaway) to shag Buffy again, turn evil, and be free of the guilt. He resists, but can't bear the thought that one day he might be weak and give in to this temptation that will never go away. So he attempts suicide, but is thwarted by a miraculous snowfall. And a miracle is an interesting choice, especially in an episode written and directed by atheist Joss Whedon.

Those are the bare bones, but there's a lot more to it than that, not least the heartbreaking argument between Buffy and Angel near the end. It's about Angel showing deep, deep remorse so that the audience can begin to like him again, something which is deeply necessary, and it's important that it's Giles who stands for the doubting viewers but comes to accept Angel, though not without reservations. Even more important, perhaps, is the welcome return of Robia LaMorte. This episode really, really, had to happen. Also, we get to hear Joyce saying "So, Angel's on top again?" which is, like, the best thing in all television ever.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Becoming, Part Two

“Mom… I’m a vampire slayer.”

That was…. intense. That Joss Whedon certainly knows how to emotionally torture us, but this finale is deeply satisfying in so many ways. There are so, so many beautiful little character moments- I love the fact that Willow revives from her coma when Xander tells her that he loves her, but her first word is “Oz”. There’s very little of Whedon’s trademark wit here. This is bleak, and beautiful.

As Buffy mentions to Snyder, the police (“In case you haven’t noticed, the police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid”, he says to her, pretty much revealing he knows more than he lets on) will eventually realise she isn’t the killer; in  itself her arrest and fugitive status is just a temporary annoyance. But the consequences, as Snyder expels her (taking great pleasure in doing so and, interestingly, reporting to the mysterious Mayor) and she’s forced to, er, come out as a Slayer to Joyce, are devastating.

Joyce’s reaction is perfect, especially as this scene by its very nature had the potential to be deeply annoying. She’s realistically bewildered, and never loses the audience’s sympathies, but she’s forced to accept that her daughter is the Slayer as she turns a vampire to dust before her eyes. The heartbreak is leavened by the comedy of her awkward polite chit-chat with Spike (who reminds me here of Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious with Nancy Spungeon’s very respectable family in Sid and Nancy), but the conversation doesn’t go well. Joyce is quite right to demand an explanation, but her acceptance of the facts doesn’t translate into an acceptance that her daughter should be the Slayer. Buffy doesn’t eventually decide to leave Sunnydale because of her mother’s parting words (“You walk out if this house, don’t even think about coming back.”), but, horribly, Joyce is bound to think so. These are heart-rending scenes.

And then there’s Spike, who unexpectedly, but for perfectly logical reasons, teams up with Buffy against Angel. He’s still evil- he abandons Buffy to her fate as he leaves the climactic scene with the unconscious Drusilla- but he has his reasons, and they’re perfect. Back in his first appearance, we learned that he much preferred having fun to boring old rituals, and this is taken to its logical conclusion. He doesn’t want the word to end: it has “dog racing, Manchester United, and you’ve got people, billions of people walking around like Happy Meals with legs”. I should have known he’d support Man U. Typical bloody southerner.

There are other character moments- Giles resists torture bravely but is tricked, Willow does some powerful magic and speaks in tongues (watch this space)- but it’s all about Buffy, who has a horrible, horrible time. As she says outright to Whistler, this is no time for her usual wisecracks. Sarah Michelle Gellar puts in an extraordinary performance.

Whistler tells Buffy that she’s by herself, and that she has to be alone, which is a direct challenge to what has been the series’ central message- that Buffy’s friends and family make her stronger. But alone is how she ends up, forced to send Angel to Hell moments after his soul has returned and while he’s still confused, disoriented and innocent-seeming. The kiss seems to make it worse. The season ends with Buffy utterly alone, heartbroken and with no home, no school and an uncertain future.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Passion

“It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe we'd know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow. Empty rooms, shuttered and dank... without passion, we'd be truly dead.”

This episode is so, so devastating. It’s emotionally draining. It’s also very, very, very clever in the way it uses structure to deliver its massive emotional punch. It’s probably best to talk about these things separately, and to get the structural stuff out of the way first.

The first we hear is Angel’s voice, as narrator, and we hear this narration throughout. This immediately shows us just how much control Angel has over Buffy and the Scoobies; a narrator has authorial, omnipotent, godlike powers. Connected with this is his absolute power over space- he’s able to enter anyone’s private spaces whenever he wants, leaving tokens to show he’s been by the bedsides of Buffy, Willow and even Joyce. All this is just to mentally torture Buffy.

In this context, the scene in which Jonathan and another student essentially evict Giles and the Scoobies from the School Library (such effrontery to want to actually use it as a library!) is a massive contrast. While Angel has absolute control over everyone’s space, the Scoobies have no control even over their own.

Things don’t continue this way, though; Buffy manages to assume at least some limited control over space (Giles’ spell, which “changes the locks”) and over the narrative (the closing narration is hers). But she most certainly doesn’t win.

Jenny’s horrible murder, just as she and Giles are about to be reconciled and just after she’s admitted that she loves him, is the most devastating thing. Angel’s cruel taunting of Giles, with the roses, the Puccini and the champagne, perversely seems even more horrible than the murder itself. And Anthony Head’s performance sells the devastation utterly. But the worst thing for me is Alyson Hannigan’s reaction to receiving the phone call. This whole succession of scenes is very, very powerful. And that’s why the final hug between Buffy and Giles after the fight at the factory is so very, very important. Our surrogate father and daughter still have each other, and they’re so very, very close.

Speaking of parental relations, Joyce is wonderfully supportive of Buffy here, and it’s a joy that the character has consistently avoided being pigeonholed into being the obstructive authority figure. She gives Buffy a bit of grief for sleeping with Angel, but everything she says is quite correct, and she knows when to stop. It’s very clear (as Buffy pretty much acknowledges early on) that she needs to be told everything, and soon. I can’t remember from my previous viewing of the series when exactly it is that she finds out, but the narrative impetus strongly suggests that it must be soon.

So… deep breath. This episode is emotionally draining, very clever and absolutely pivotal- Buffy is now left in no doubt that Angel has to die. But could he be re-souled? That final shot of the disk, lodged between the tables, reminds me of something Raymond Chandler is once reputed to have said about guns and first scenes…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered

“Blackmail is such an ugly word.”

“I didn’t mention blackmail.”

“Yeah, but I’m about to blackmail you, so I thought I’d bring it up.”

This is essentially a farce, well-performed by the cast and well-crafted by the increasingly impressive Marti Noxon; clearly a second comedy episode in a row to leaven the heavy stuff surrounding it on either side. And yes, it has a nice subtext about the violent possessiveness of men towards women and its extreme consequences. But there’s a problem. Xander is one of the central characters of the show, someone whom it’s essential that we like. And yet I’m trying to find a way of not seeing him as being essentially guilty of something awkwardly close to attempted rape here. I can’t. That’s a big problem.

The thing is, the spell which Xander gets Amy to cast seems to be a mind control spell, and a cruel one; he wants Cordelia to love him so he can reject her and break her heart. That’s nasty. Yes, I know there’s no implication of actual sex here, but we’re still talking the supernatural equivalent of rohypnol. We’re not talking something which is effectively just pheromones (that, I think, is what more-or-less lets Owen off the hook in the first episode of Torchwood, although even that is problematic). I’m glad to see Giles making it clear how disgusted he is, but even he doesn’t really get the point, and Xander gets off far too lightly. Buffy actually seems grateful that he didn’t take sexual advantage of her- surely that sort of thing should be taken for granted. Worse, Cordelia actually takes him back after dumping him (and makes the huge sacrifice of giving up her place in the social hierarchy) because she realises the spell was meant for her, and somehow finds this romantic as opposed to incredibly creepy and controlling.

All this is a huge problem for the series. What Xander has done is not ok, and Whedon & co simply can’t expect us to suddenly like him again.

Cordelia, on the other hand, I like a lot. She’s still as cluelessly tactless as ever (dumping Xander, in public, on Valentine’s Day!) but I just melted when I say that she was still wearing her gift from Xander, and her angry sheep accusing Harmony and co of being sheep is the best thing ever. Xander had better be very, very nice to her, or else. Her being so lovely deep down just makes him look even worse.

Oh, and I like Oz, too, because he punched Xander for making Willow cry. And Willow, of course, for the axe, and for that look on her face while telling everyone that “My boyfriend’s in the band”. And Joyce, for the sheer pricelessness. There are other couples on this Valentine’s Day, too; Angel is still gradually prising Drusilla away from Spike, while Giles is still unable to forgive Jenny.

It’s good to see Amy again, off course, this time as a witch in her own right. And I suppose that Buffy being turned into a rat allows Sarah Michelle Gellar to have a bit of a rest. The comedy farce element is well directed (I particularly love that slow-mo shot of Xander walking through a school corridor as all the girls perv at him) and performed, but there’ll always be a problem with the premised of this episode for me. Right now, I don’t like Xander much at all. The character is aged goods. He’d better bleeding well redeem himself.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Innocence

“You got a lot to learn about men, kiddo.”

Again, wow. So much to talk about. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s performance is… more wow. Joss Whedon writes and directs but, for once, the dialogue is (mostly) deadly serious and the camerawork is (mostly) unshowy. Buffy, Willow and Giles all have their hearts broken, and things will never be the same again. But, for Buffy, it’s worse: not only is her heat broken, but terrible things are happening and it’s all her fault. That’ll teach her to be a woman and actually enjoy sex, eh?

Dramatic though these events are, though, this is a development of last episode’s themes as well as its events- namely relationships and their different stages. There’s an obvious three-way parallel between Buffy (who gets her heart broken by Angel, who suddenly turns bad after she shags him), Willow (who gets her heart broken by seeing Xander, her long-time crush, locking lips with Cordelia of all people and says “You’d rather be with someone you hate than with me”- ouch) and Jenny (whose conflict between family and friends causes her to betray Buffy and be brusquely rejected by Giles, who is very protective of his surrogate daughter). But the theme broadens out. Willow (oh, and Alyson Hannigan is extraordinary, too) continues to develop her relationship with Oz, who shows how much he thinks of her by waiting to kiss her until it’s right for them both).

Oh, and there’s Drusilla, and the symbolically emasculated Spike. Angelus suddenly walking in and joining them is simply huge: it was only a couple of episodes ago that Angel was goading Spike about his ability to sexually satisfy Drusilla. There’s already an incipient triangle developing, and Spike isn’t going to be able to compete. Oh, and if all this isn’t enough, Angel’s torment of Buffy is explicitly paralleled with what he did to Drusilla, a century ago. This whole situation has been cleverly foreshadowed right through the season. Joss Whedon is a clever man.

Angel is deliciously evil here, as he has to be- not only does he kill a woman during the opening teaser, but he (gasp) smokes a cigarette. Yes, David Boreanaz is superb in this too. And he’s clearly playing a long game, and a game it is. He (and for that matter Spike and Dru) has very little time for the old-fashioned, moustache-twirling villainy of the Judge, whom the script rather amusingly mocks throughout. I love his death scene, and Xander’s plan, and the fact that he gets to use his military skills from Halloween. Xander now has superpowers, sort of.

There’s only slight problem with this episode, though; I’m a bit uncomfortable with its portrayal of gypsies. They’re portrayed as mysterious, magical, “other”. I suppose, as far as popular culture goes where gypsies are concerned, that it could be much worse, but there’s an awkwardness.

This aside, though, this is probably the most extraordinary episode yet. I remember watching this for the first time with my mate Dave (hi if you’re reading this!) who introduced me to the series for the first time, and him telling me that Angelus was in fact to be the season’s Big Bad. And that’s made clear by the ending: Buffy can’t bring herself to kill him, but it’s rather appropriate that she should kick him in the bollocks.

Buffy goes through the wringer here, in ways she never has before. But at least we end with Buffy receiving support from both her surrogate father, Giles, and her mother.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Surprise

“Surprise me, Angel.”

“OK, I will…”

Oh dear. Things are, indeed, about to get bad. Very bad. This is an extraordinary episode, and nothing will ever be the same again.

As usual there’s a theme: relationships, and their various stages. For Willow and Oz, things are only just beginning, and all is fluffy and lovely and nice. The scene where Oz asks Willow out is heartwarming and witty and perfect, and even Oz’s deadpan reaction to seeing Buffy slaying a vampire in the library (“Actually, it explains a lot.”) is a signal that this could be the start of something good, for the foreseeable future, anyway. For Cordelia and Xander, though, there’s little but foreboding? Things aren’t working out, there’s never been anything between them but animal instincts, and the secret can’t be kept for ever. Cordy’s refusal of Xander’s request that they go to Buffy’s birthday party as a couple (well, obviously they can’t) is pretty much the confirmation that their relationship can’t develop any more. Dramatically, something has to happen, and it won’t be nice. As for the third couple… let’s talk about them, shall we?

It’s Buffy’s birthday. She’s seventeen. Is that the age of consent in California? It would make sense in context. I could Google that, but I’d rather not. If Big Brother is indeed watching me then I’d rather not be watched Googling the age of consent in various territories. It could seem rather creepy.

Anyway… the episode is basically about Buffy having sex with Angel for the first time and, in fact, popping her actual cherry. That’s clear from the opening dream sequence (I love the French monkey!) in which Joyce asks Buffy whether she’s ready. And their relationship continues to get more and more intense, as it has of late. There’s one thing after another: the prospect of enforced separation, Angel (after much skirting around the issue) finally telling Buffy that he loves her as he gives her a Claddagh ring, and the intensity of their recent escape from Drusilla and Spike. There’s a short scene, charged with eroticism, and it’s implied that, overnight, the deed is done. We’ll leave the consequences for next episode’s review, but it’s very, very clear that the recent status quo is no more. And Buffy is going to get hurt. Badly.

It’s very noticeable that, in the very first scene where Buffy accidentally alludes to the possibility of sex, she then tells Angel that she’s off to school. This reminds us that she is, in fact, a schoolgirl, and that a relationship with someone much, much older is, to say the least, problematic, and so it’s clear that we’re not exactly supposed to approve. On the other hand, though, I wouldn’t accuse the episode of a more general Puritanism, as I did the last time I saw it, perhaps now because I’m old enough to be very conscious that Buffy is not an adult. In fact, there may even be a subtext that making such a big deal out of the popping of one’s cherry is not exactly healthy: you’ll probably enjoy it more if you lose the awkward self-consciousness and just do it.

Er, there’s one thing that’s been bothering me, though. Vampires don’t have blood, right? So how can he possibly get an erection? Sorry. These questions have to be asked.

There are other things to be mentioned too, of course. I love the camerawork as Willow approaches Oz early on, the unsteady movement of the camera reflecting Willow’s nerves. And also, of course, we get a revelation about Jenny (or “Janna Kalderash”); she’s a member of the very Gypsy tribe that cursed Angel, and a visit by her uncle (guest star Vincent Schiavelli) reminds her that she must act against them to destroy their relationship. I’m, er, not entirely sure that this is a sensitive portrayal of Gypsy culture, but it’s yet another sign of a broken status quo. Jenny, unbeknownst to Giles or anyone else, has an agenda which is antagonistic to that of the Scoobies. There’s going to be conflict. This is a drama, after all.

The final couple is Drusilla and Spike, who have now reversed roles fully. Spike is obviously scarred and confined to a wheelchair while Drusilla, while still as mad as a pincushion, is clearly the one in charge, taking over the henchman-threatening duties. There is potential for drama here, too. We’ve already seen Angel, Drusilla’s former lover (and tormentor) goading Spike over his sexual performance, and it looks as though further gradual emasculation is on the cards. He’s still the alpha male at this point, but much diminished.

Oh, and he says the word “wanker”, something which British characters often say in American TV shows, comics, etc. Note to all American writers: this is a rather strong swear word, about on a par with “shit”, and if you include it then we Brits have to watch a censored version on television, which is well annoying. Still, it’s certainly the sort of thing that Spike would say.

 

I’m a bit nervous about the next episode, which should be up tomorrow.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ted

“Hey, Freud would have said the exact same thing. Except he might not have done that little dance.”

Wow. That was a beautifully done piece of television, packing so much subtext about patriarchal attitudes and abusive relationships (parental and spousal) in to forty-two minutes. We’re looking here at something so finely crafted that it features the perfect ending: a mother / daughter viewing of Thelma and Louise. Take that, patriarchy. This episode filled me with a sense of feminist fellow-feeling, and I have a y-chromosome. And not only that: we have wit too. Aren’t Joss Whedon scripts great?

The clever thing is how the episode starts by showing Ted as a charming, nice, likeable guy who cooks, and is therefore symbolically in touch with his feminine side, and only gradually reveals his nasty, authoritarian tendencies. First he seduces Joyce, a vulnerable single mother, by turning on the charm, and then he charms all of Buffy’s friends. At first it’s only Buffy who’s the target of his abuse, but the final scenes between him and Joyce show him in all of his violent, controlling ways. He is- literally, as it turns out- a man from the 1950s as far as gender roles are concerned.

Of course, there’s a deliberate contrast with Giles, Buffy’s real father figure, who is shown as being particularly understanding here. His reconciliation with Jenny is incredibly sweet, and very fitting for this episode as his behaviour endorses a very different kind of masculinity. Guys may wear the tweed, but he’s not too old-fashioned to let Jenny wear the trousers. He also gets one of the best lines in all of television, ever: “Er, Buffy… I believe the subtext here is rapidly becoming a… a text.”

This episode is very noticeably lacking in the supernatural element, other than the occasional perfunctory vampire, but it’s great how that gets used. At the moment where Buffy is most alone, with everyone liking Ted except her, she desperately wants some vampires to use as punchbags. But none appear.

The apparent climax comes as Ted discovers Buffy’s slaying paraphernalia, and is clearly just about to completely ruin her life. Buffy snaps, and kills him. What’s nice is that Buffy’s moral responsibility for what’s happened- and what she’s done to her mother- isn’t ducked, but the metaphor here seems to be the homicide of an abusive partner, which leads to many women being controversially imprisoned.

There’s a nice bit of contrast at this point, though. Buffy may have lied earlier about the frivolous matter of her hole-in-one at miniature golf. But when it comes to important matters, she’s honest. She confesses to the killing in spite of her mother offering her a way out. This is terrible for Joyce; she has a boyfriend to mourn and a daughter who may be going to prison.

Kristine Sutherland is simply extraordinary here, and the silent scene of her driving Buffy home is very, very powerful. Now it’s her life that’s potentially ruined, yet never is she anything other than a loving and well-meaning parent.

There’s another metaphor, I suppose, in the fact that the embodiment of 1950’s masculinity should turn out to be a robot: without feelings or any true empathy, and probably not the greatest of sexual partners because of this. Normally, I’d protest at the use of a kind of science fiction which, unlike in the case of Some Assembly Required, doesn’t belong to the horror aesthetic, but the subtext is so powerful that it hardly matters.

Oh, and aren’t Cordy and Xander adorable? Their relationship is great fun, which means that very serious things must be about to happen. And that kiss between Giles and Jenny… aaah!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Dark Age

“I’m so used to you being a grown-up, and then I find out that you’re a person.”

Well, well, well! It’s only a couple of episodes since we were introduced to Ethan Rayne and hints of Giles’ “Ripper” past, and it’s paying off already. This is a great episode, and a necessary one: things had reached the point where the character of Giles needed to acquire some hinterland if he was going to show any depths beyond his function as father figure to Buffy. I could have done without the tiresome line about British people allegedly having bad teeth, mind.

Oh, and we get zombies for the first time in Buffy, although the episode doesn’t really focus on them much. The script is far more interested in Giles, and the effect of all these revelations on those around with him. Notably, it first brings Jenny much closer to him- it’s clear that their relationship is about to get physical and Jenny is happy to share even the troubling things about Giles’ life- but then she’s possessed by Eghyon. This has to be traumatic, and understandably she feels she has to push Giles away, at least for a while. This establishes, of course, that Giles may be a dangerous person with whom to have a relationship. Foreshadowing, anyone?

His powerful bond with his more-or-less adoptive daughter, on the other hand, is made even stronger. Buffy’s caring and understanding reaction to her surrogate father is lovely to see, and the final scene is the sweetest thing ever.

Of course, this being Buffy, the whole thing’s a metaphor, and this time it’s about the fact that our parents were young once, and may have done stuff. We’re told that the young Giles, in an obvious parallel with Buffy, became frustrated at the life that had already been planned out for him (I’ve just started playing Green Day’s “She” on iTunes as I write this, one of the comfort records of my teenage years), and dropped out of Oxford in frustration. Not much different from Buffy so far, except that he was a little older and didn’t have a Watcher to look after him. But then he fell in with the wrong crowd and started playing around with magic to get high. It was fun for a while, until someone OD’d and died. Gosh, do you reckon this might be a metaphor for something? And then there’s the photo, with the leather jacket and leather jacket. Surely that can’t possibly be a photo of a pyjama-wearing Bay City Rollers fan?

There are other great character moments, too. Cordelia is getting really quite integrated into the Scooby gang, although she’s as oblivious as ever. I loved her “He seemed perfectly normal yesterday when I saw him talking to the police.” There’s also a wonderful moment in the library as Willow shouts at Xander and Cordelia for wasting time with silly arguments while their friends are in danger, only to revert to her normal, diffident self. This is part of a definite process; Willow is slowly growing in confidence before our eyes.

This is a great run of episodes; we’re now some way into Season Two and it’s clear that plates are shifting and all sorts of arcs are underway. It’s all rather exciting

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Lie to Me

“Everybody lies.”

Interesting, isn’t it, how Joss Whedon can take a fairly ho-hum premise for an episode and, in both scripting and helming the thing, turn it into a sublime thing of beauty? This episode is, at first glance, a fairly standard brief; everybody lies to Buffy and there’s a bit of subtext about how vampires being evil is far cooler and less dorky than any of that Anne Rice stuff (and, I’d imagine, Whedon would probably apply such thinking to Twilight today, not that I’m likely to ever experience that particular series of novels / movies).

Even the opening shot, with the abandoned playground in the dark, is utterly gorgeous. As is Ford, Buffy’s curiously never-before-mentioned old flame / friend from LA. He’s a good looking man. I probably might, and I’m not even gay. He’s certainly a cuckoo in the Scooby nest though; I love Xanders’s comment that he’s imposing himself “only in the literal sense”. Still holding that long-extinguished candle for Buffy, I see.

The basic theme of this episode, which ties right into the character stuff, is that everyone lies to Buffy, and none of them for the best of reasons. Ford is plotting to betray and incidentally kill her from the start. Angel lies about speaking to Drusilla, because (arrogantly making the decision for her about what she needs to know) he doesn’t want to know that it was he who originally drove Drusilla mad by psychological torture, finally turning her into a vampire on the day she becomes a nun. That’s some fairly heavy shit, and most definitely is the sort of thing that a girl ought to know about a potential boyfriend.

You have to give him credit for the best line in the episode, though: “A hundred years just hanging out, feeling guilty. Really honed my breeding skills.” I love Joss Whedon scripts. The only trouble is that everyone else’s scripts just seem so unwitty by comparison.

Angel, Willow and Xander all lie to Buffy as they keep her out of the loop while investigating Ford’s dodgy dealings. Xander, in particular, doesn’t exactly have the best of motives. Even Giles lies to Jenny Callendar about enjoying their date with the, er, monster trucks, although in his case he can hardly do otherwise.

The naïve kids in the goth / metal club are also liars of a sort, especially as it’s themselves they’re lying to. Deluding themselves into thinking that vampires are drippy, handsome, cute fluffy bunnies who will make them immortal. I’m loving the dig at a popular culture idea of vampirism that has since become annoyingly ubiquitous, although I’m a little annoyed at the negative portrayal of goths / metalheads; aside from their dorky leader, Ford’s friends are rather sexily-dressed, attractive and look like the sort of people you’d find in a perfectly normal late ‘90s rock club. I mean, this place is the spitting image of Nottingham Rock City back in its ‘90s heyday. (I don’t mean to say that Rock City has declined in any way, just that I no longer frequent the place, being nearly 35 and no longer living in Nottingham). Oh, and this is the first time we meet Chanterelle.

Ford comes across as quite fun in his meeting with Spike; we have the lovely metatextual joke that he demands clichés while Spike finds them utterly tiresome. But, just as we think he’s a fully-fledged, black hat-wearing baddy, he pulls the rug from under us; within six months he’ll be dead from brain cancer at seventeen. And he genuinely missed Buffy. That doesn’t, as Buffy says, excuse mass murder, but suddenly there are shades of grey and Buffy learns again that life is complicated.

There’s a nice ending for Giles, who really shows what a great father figure he can be now that he’s seemingly decided to cut Buffy a bit of slack after the events of Reptile Boy. We end on another of his lies but, again, it’s a little white one.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer : Some Assembly Required

“Sorry, but I'm an old-fashioned gal. I was raised to believe that men dig up the corpses and the women have the babies.”

So, we get the inevitable Buffy take on Frankenstein. A pretty good one too, really, although I don’t think this is exactly the best or most significant episode. It’s interesting in the sense that Frankenstein is pretty much science fiction, but it’s pretty much the only piece of sci-fi as opposed to fantasy (aside from Out of Mind, Out of Sight which it now occurs to me long after the fact, was a rather neat take on The Invisible Man) that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with its horror aesthetic, is allowed to do.

There are a few little nods to the source material, aside from the basic plot: Cordelia’s scream at the sight of Darryl reminds me very much of Bride of Frankenstein, while the whole thing inevitably ends with a burning building. Even the scientific basis for re-animating a corpse maintains a charmingly early nineteenth-century reliance on that exotic phenomenon, electricity.

There’s also a bit of social commentary here, in that some men, who surely can’t possibly get anything out of sex that they don’t get from masturbation with this attitude, just want women to be pliable sex objects (Darryl), hence rape, abuse and such things. Also there’s a general “laddish” culture which leads lots of other men to acquiesce in this (our two teenage Victor Frankensteins). This isn’t made much of, but it’s there.

Back to Buffy itself, though… as the dialogue towards the end implies, this is the episode where people start to pair off in proto-relationships, which all feels like setting-up for later in the season. Giles and Jenny are now a couple, and Buffy is beginning to re-connect with Angel. Only Xander and Willow, significantly, are not involved with anyone, and their own “will-they-won’t-they” thing is definitely stuck on the “won’t-they” part of the dial at the moment. And Cordelia seems genuinely grateful to Xander for saving her life in a way which genuinely is “brave and heroic”. It’s almost as though she sees him in a new light, in spite of the rather rude rebuff. Of course, nothing will come of it. And the relationships which are being set up are bound to end up happily. That always happens in Joss Whedon shows, right?

I like that it’s Jenny, completely unflustered, who asks out a stuttering Giles. Odd to invite him to a game of American Football, though; trust me, I’m a countryman of his. He won’t have a clue what’s going on. Although I have to say that, amusing though Giles comment comparing American football to Rugby may be, I’m going to fail the patriotism test on this one, I’m afraid. Rugby is rubbish, and overcomplicated, and boring. It keeps stopping and starting, it doesn’t flow properly, it’s really boring to watch and it totally lacks the elegance of cricket or football. Oh, and both the oval “ball” and the silly h-shaped goal are both blatantly just being different for the sake of it.

Having said that, though, all sport is boring. Except for the Olympics. And sometimes cricket. If I happen to be in the mood. Everything else is rubbish, so nyaaah.

Next up is a rather significant episode, so I expect to be spending much more time actually talking about it...!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: When She Was Bad

"There are some things I can just smell. It's like a sixth sense."

"No, actually that would be one of the five."

This is a bit of a perfunctory season opener, I suppose. It isn’t much to write home about, but it does what it’s supposed to, namely remind us what this series is about in case we’ve forgotten during the gap since the first season ended.

Buffy acting like a bit of a bitch because of her unresolved “issues” over “dying” don’t exactly ring very true, mainly because the reset button is pressed at the end and none of this can exactly be classed as character development. Nevertheless, there’s cool stuff in you look for it. The first seeds of the inevitable Willow / Xander relationship are sown, while Snyder continues to be hilarious, once again balancing menace and comic relief perfectly. It’s also nice to see that Cordelia, while still very much the vacuous queen bee on the surface, has enough intelligence not to go into denial about what happened just before the summer. It’s also nice that she should reveal a glimpse of her not-vacuous inner self as she calls out Buffy for her behaviour outside the Bronze. There’s actually a deeper and more likeable character inside, although of course we all love the surface Cordelia’s dialogue. Long may she reign.

There are a couple of very nice bits of metatextual fun in this episode, too. For a start, Buffy pretty much says out loud that the vampires and demons have taken the Summer off, out of sheer plot convenience, so that she can stay in LA with her dad! And the last shot leaves us in no doubt that Joss Whedon is well aware that the Anointed One is a rubbish villain. We shall have to look elsewhere for our Big Bad of the season.

Speaking of whom… I notice that David Boreanaz has now made it into the opening titles. Robia LaMorte hasn’t, but it still seems as though the expanded Scooby Gang is here to stay. And it’s very, very obvious that there are now sparks flying between Jenny and Giles.

Other than that, there isn’t much to say about this episode. I suppose Buffy’s “journey” (much though I hate to use the word like that!) is a bit of a microcosm of her character arc from last season in that she rejects the help of her civilian friends only to prevail by accepting them. I trust she’ll be back to normal this episode, although her out-of-character behaviour was cool for one thing; I love the bit where she goes all Batman and starts beating up random vampires for details on where her friends are being held!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Prophecy Girl

“I may be dead, but I’m still pretty.”

Let’s talk about first seasons, shall we? Because I’m well aware that this season doesn’t have too good a reputation among fans, and I don’t think this is fair. First seasons are different, and they’re not quite doing the same job as subsequent seasons. The show’s premise has to be established, we have to get to know the characters, and everything which we will later take for granted has to be set up. This season does all of that brilliantly.

It’s very obvious, watching this season finale, that all the stuff about the Master, the prophecy, the Anointed One, etc, is more than a little perfunctory and predictable- as the show will cheerfully admit in about three episodes’ time. But it would be a mistake to see this as a problem. It’s actually a wise move for the season arc to take a back seat while we learn about this show, its rules and its tropes, and get to know and love these brilliant characters.

So yes, the Master is an off-the-shelf villain, but he’s supposed to be. And, wonderfully, he knows he is, as the end of this episode’s teaser makes clear. And yes, the nature of his plan is a bit ho-hum, but it’s supposed to be. Because this series finale is essentially about the characters- pulling them apart from each other and then finishing off with the gang as strong as before.

One by one they all alienate each other. Xander asks Buffy to the “Spring Thing” (another of these traditional events which seem to punctuate life in an American High School!) and she turns him down. He takes it badly. He’s unreasonable, of course, but rejection is a lot more crushing when you’re a teenage boy. I know; I was one. As I keep saying, being a teenager is horrible.

Things now get even worse as Xander unthinkingly asks Willow to go with him instead as an obvious second choice. Oops. And, just to ensure that all the Scoobies are alienated from each other completely, Buffy overhears Giles and Angel discussing the prophecy of her imminent death. She, er, doesn’t take the news at all well.

We get a nice scene with Joyce here which makes it clear what the metaphor is; stress about who to go to the prom with is, like, the end of the world if you’re a teenager. Er, how subtle. But it was right that Joyce should appear (all the other semi-regulars are present and correct; Jenny Callendar gets her second appearance and is seemingly integrated properly into the team), and this is probably the best way to do it.

It’s Willow’s upset at seeing the world of the vampires invade her own sanctuary, killing two boys she knows in a place she knows well, that leads Buffy to snap out of her state of denial and decide to go ahead and do the hero thing. Giles, bless him, insists in going in her place, but there was only one person who was going to win that argument.

It’s fascinating that Xander and Angel, rivals for Buffy’s affections, should be thrust together and should find Buffy’s body once she’s been killed by the Master. Interesting, too that Angel as a vampire is unable to perform CPR and that Xander has to do it. I can’t help thinking that there are… other things… that a vampire may not be able to do and that they might not quite be able to cut it as sexual partners. There are things like, er, blood circulation to consider…

Anyway, Buffy is revived. Which is a bit of a problem, really. If she can be revived by CPR then she was never actually dead and it’s a bit of a cop-out to treat this as the fulfilment of the prophecy. She didn’t die, simple as.

We get a nice, epic finale, though, with loads of vampires and the school library under siege from a Muppet Hellmouth. The Master is dead and everyone is off to the Bronze. Including Jenny (who clearly has something going with Giles) and Cordelia, who is now definitely a full semi-member of the gang.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I, Robot... You, Jane

“My Spider-Sense is tingling.”

“Your… Spider-Sense?”

“Pop culture reference. Sorry.”

I really, really love the title to this one. It isn’t just the coolness; it’s the metatextual comment that it’s making, and long-time readers of this blog will know how much I love that sort of thing. The title mixes the title of a very well-known science fiction novel with a reference from early Twentieth Century cult magazine culture- two genres in collision, none of which belong in the modern-day horror / fantasy / teen drama series which is Buffy. We have a provocative clash of genres, both with each other and with the show.

Except… cool though that sounds, it isn’t what we end up getting, not quite. Yes, the story has a robot in it, but the sense of threat is strictly occult- and our first “proper” non-vampire demon story to boot. It feels very Buffy. No, the trappings of science and technology are merely the medium through which a tale of evil demonic seduction can take place, much as though the medium is indeed the message in this case, with the Internet being this episode’s theme.

That the Internet is pretty much just a medium through which human beings do the same old stuff, albeit more quickly and with a more globalised bunch of people than before, is something which both Giles, with his rather silly and exaggerated technophobia, and new character Jenny Callendar, with her rather more realistically drawn technophilia, fail to realise, so caught up are they in their increasingly absurd and hyperbolic claims.

Robia LaMorte is great, incidentally, and so is the character; strong, forceful, but also very likeable and able to undercut her own forcefulness with humour. I like her. I’m sure she’ll enjoy a long and happy time on the show. The sexual chemistry between her and Giles is there from the start, although at this point they haven’t progressed much further than, er, arranging the sexual test tubes.

Anyway… the opening spiel is present and correct, but then we launch straight into a flashback from centuries past which establishes the supernatural threat we are soon to face in a modern context; thus a trope is born. We have a demon who exists as text in a book, waiting to be read and brought into physical being, but rather fortunately vulnerable to a binding spell which turns him right back into ink. That must be a fairly boring way to spend 579 years. Unfortunately, the book has reached the library of Sunnydale High, which has a scanner. Yep, there’s a demon loose inside the internet. Metaphor much?

Let’s pause for a moment and remember that it’s 1997. This is not very long ago, really. I was twenty that year. But, in terms of the Internet, it was the Dark Ages. I’m no Luddite, and I was three years away from properly using the Internet. You can tell how long ago it is here- Buffy, who is young, mentions an “e-letter” and fails to understand the word “online”. It’s clear that the Internet is seen by her and most of the students as something for “nerds”. So we shouldn’t be surprised if some of the obvious real life metaphors- online romances ending in axe murdering tragedy, or the hilariously literal “demon” let loose within the Internet. But, alongside the quaintness, there’s stuff that still speaks to us. Willow skips classes because of the time she spends online- this sort of reminds me of World of Warcraft and the like. The fact that Moloch cannot simply be “deleted” seems particularly redolent today, when we all leave so much personal stuff in all sorts of places online. And chatting to people you haven’t met online can still be just as self-conscious as it is for Willow.

The revelation that Jenny Callendar knows all about demons and stuff, and that the mystical can be modern, is a great moment. It turns out that she, and what she represents, are the medium through which demons can be defeated- a nice little message there, I think. In spite of the occasional quaintness, the story’s attitude towards the Internet is not reactionary.

We obviously have a new semi-member of the semi-Scooby gang, which is nice. This episode is great, possibly the best since the opening two-parter; kudos to the newcomers Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swynden. It’s just a shame that Giles comes across as a bit too fuddy-duddy; he would definitely get the Spider-Man reference.

The final scene (“Let’s face it, none of us are ever going to have a normal, happy relationship”) is an even more fantastic moment of metatextuality, as our three Scoobies suddenly realise that they are trapped inside a drama for which Joss Whedon is showrunner. They are, indeed, doomed.