Buffy S2 “What’s My Line?” Part 1
08 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Buffy, Project Buffy, TV Shows Tags: Angel, Buffy, Drusilla, Firefly, Giles, Kendra, Order of Taraka, River Tam, Slayer, Spike, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Willow: You and Angel are going skating? Alone?
Buffy: Unless some unforeseen evil pops up. But I’m in full see-no-evil mode.
Willow: Angel ice-skating…
Buffy: I know, two worlds collide.
Buffy: Do I like shrubs?
Xander: That’s between you and your god.
Whoa guys, I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to continue Project Buffy. I’ve been SO busy with school and auditioning for grad school, but now I can get back to the grind — especially now that I’ve finally purchased the entire series for myself 
So, this episode is the first part of two. Buffy and the gang are filling out questionnaires for Career Day, something Buffy is not very excited about. While Xander, Willow, and Cordelia have their entire futures ahead of them, Buffy’s fate is already sealed; she’s the Slayer. The gang tries to console her throughout the episode, but Buffy doesn’t have any of it. She wants to be a normal girl — a theme that will pop up time and time again.
Meanwhile, Spike has his minions steal an artifact from Du Lac’s tomb, which will help transcribe the text that will bring Drusilla back to full health. An interesting detail to note about Drusilla: at times, the music around her is plunky celeste notes, giving the feel of creepy dollhouse music. This music around her elludes to her innocence as well as to her strangeness. It’s interesting to also note how similar Drusilla is to River Tam from “Firefly”, disturbing and innocent individuals with great power.
This episode introduces the Order of Taraka, bounty hunters set loose by Spike on Buffy. Some are human, and some are not. Buffy becomes very scared when Giles describes them to her, saying that they have no care for earthly possessions. They pursue their goal until it is captured. Even if some are stricken down, more will come until their mission is complete. This causes Buffy to run away to Angel’s lair.
This episode also introduces Kendra. At first, she’s made to look like part of the Order of Taraka. They introduce the savage man getting off a bus at Los Angeles and the salesman who offers a woman free beauty samples both before introducing Kendra — who knocks out an airport worker when she exits the luggage section of an airplane. She’s also seen watching Buffy and Angel at the ice-skating rink. She later disables Angel, leaving him to fry in the soon-to-rise morning sun, and she attacks Buffy in Angel’s lair. The shocker comes when she reveals that she is Kendra, the Vampire Slayer.
I saw a similarity between Buffy in this episode and Buffy in the end of season one. She succumbs to fear. In the “Prophecy Girl”, she went to confront the Master, but her fear paralyzes her and leads to her demise. In “What’s My Line” Part 1, her fear causes her to run away to Angel. It’s not surprising that she would be scared, but I would have liked to see the resurrected Buffy from “Prophecy Girl” in this Buffy — a girl who isn’t going to let fear conquer her. Fear actually is something she struggles with during the season. I want the Buffy from “Nightmares” to realize that she is something to be feared, too.
An interesting cut happens in this episode: a match cut. A match cut is when one scene contains some image and then cuts to another scene with a similar image, thus creating some link between these (probably) dissimilar images. In this episode, there appears an aural match cut. When the salesman enters Buffy’s neighbor’s house, she lets loose a blood-curdling scream — such a high-pitched scream that it matches the pitch of a soaring airplane in the next scene. A cut like this encourages the mind to link the malicious man in the previous scene to the strange woman we see in the airplane — which then makes her revelation at the end of the episode that much more shocking.
Part Two will come pretty soon!
Buffy S2 “The Dark Age”
18 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Cordelia, Giles, Jenny Calendar, Mark of Eyghon, Slayer, Vampire, Wesley Pryce, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “Ooh, gang, did you hear that? A bonus day of school plus Cordelia, mix in a little rectal surgery and it’s my best day ever!”
Jenny Calendar/Eyghon: “Nothing’s safe in this world, Rupert. Don’t you know that by now?”
Buffy: “I’m not going to lie. It was scary. I’m used to you being, you know, the grown-up. And then I find out you’re a person.”
Giles: “Most grown-ups are.”
Let me start off this post with how strange the beginning is. This man hurriedly approaches a high school at night. He asks the janitor for Rupert Giles, and the janitor motions him over to the library. Even if the janitor knew that Giles was the librarian, wouldn’t it be weird to motion this man, at night, towards the library when the librarian probably isn’t there — because it’s night?
Anyways, this episode focuses on Giles. From the very beginning, with an unknown man trying to find him, this episode shines a mysterious light onto our lovable librarian. He’s not the predictably past-less man that he seems; he is a real person with real histories and experiences, just like everybody else. This episode also develops Giles in other ways as a person, for instance romantically with his relationship with Jenny Calendar. At this point, Jenny’s got him pretty much figured out, and she can make him “squirm” by joking about ruining an important book of his. Though, the dialogue takes us to another aspect of their relationship, where she hopes to “make him squirm” on a night-in. Things are taking off in their relationship, and we witness Giles’ actions and reactions to it.
For example, Giles tells Jenny that he never meant for her to “get involved in any of this”. I take it to mean that by “any of this”, Giles is referring to all the fantastical and otherworldly dangers that he, as a Watcher, has to face. Even though she is a techno-pagan, Giles doesn’t want her to ever have to face real danger — because he cares for her.
We see the same mark on Giles that we see earlier on the guy from the beginning of the episode. We find out that it’s the Mark of Eyghon, but when confronted about it, Giles doesn’t share any information. He says that it’s “his battle”. That introduces the idea that there is something that he is more suited to solving than the Slayer is. Buffy doesn’t see it that way; she sees this situation as something that endangers everybody, and everybody should know the details of this situation. At that point, Giles leaves, leaving Buffy to try to solve this problem on her own. Luckily, Buffy has Willow, and Willow is a BAMF.
It is striking, though, to see Giles in this episode. He has scruff; he’s all disheveled. The lighting is particularly involved in making him look so…different. The lighting’s dark with bright green and yellow hues. This gives him a very unnatural and eerie countenance — going along with this air of mystery that is hanging around him during the entire episode. And there are moments (for instance, when Jenny/Eyghon jump out of the window, when Giles knows that Jenny is possessed), when Giles looks strikingly similar to Wesley Pryce, who we haven’t met yet. But I look at him, and I see Wesley. There’s an uncanny Watcher-ness in the two.
Finally Giles spills the beans, and we get a glimpse into his past. He was a rebel in his youth, experimenting with magics. We find out that he and his comrades discovered how to summon Eyghon, but one day it took a hold of one of his gang and they killed him in the process of saving him. Now he’s stricken with the fear of losing Jenny — which shows his true and honest colors.
But due to Willow’s brilliance, Angel saves the day with his being dead.
Unfortunately, this experience — which Giles had hoped he could keep Jenny from — has shaken her. And she’s drawing back, coping, thinking.
Thought the conversation between Buffy and Giles at the end (as many conversations between them are) is poignant. Buffy, growing up, now realizes that adults have lives and experiences and issues. Once she graduates high school, she will realize that even more.
Buffy S2 “Lie to Me”
09 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Drusilla, Ford, Giles, Jason Behr, Jenny Calendar, Joss, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Buffy: “Are you drinking coffee again? ‘Cause we’ve talked about this.”
Xander: “Once more with tension.”
Buffy: “Lie to me.”
Hello all! Greetings from Ann Arbor, MI! I am here for a lesson, but I had some extra time on my hands and thought a blog post would be the best thing to do!
As the episode’s name implies, this episode is about honesty and trust. Even side stories deal with trust; Jenny asks Giles to trust her regarding the mysterious date she’s planning for them. Though it all mostly centers around Buffy’s trust. The events of the episode lead to those she trusts most hiding information from her. She sees Angel with Drusilla in the park, but he doesn’t tell her about it. Angel, Willow, and Xander all cooperate to find out information about Buffy’s LA friend Ford (Jason Behr) behind her back. Understandably, Buffy is upset.
Buffy sees Angel while she’s on patrol. She sees him speaking to a woman (Drusilla) in a park. She’s too late to see him stop Dru from preying on a child, but she’s right on time to see them speak really closely. Of course (and yet again) she’s overcome with jealousy and inadequacy. Sometimes I’m frustrated at Buffy’s jealousy. She was right there feeling insignificant in the last episode, and then at the end of the episode, she and Angel are making out and life is grand. But then we’re back to her being jealous. Enter trust issues! This just means that she doesn’t trust Angel yet, which she admits later on in the episode. Once she realizes that he does love her and that he is a vampire with a soul — meaning good — she will begin to trust him and she won’t succumb to jealousy. I don’t know how long that takes.
The next trust issue, which includes Angel, is more directed at her friends. They go behind her back to investigate Ford. They trust Angel’s feelings about him, but — understandably — Buffy’s history with this kid blinds her. When she discovers that they’ve been doing this, she feels betrayed, but I think this experience shows her that she should trust her friends (people who have saved her life various times already) more than some kid who she went to school with in LA. I think Buffy’s grown from the events in this episode, because she will start to realize that the friendship she has with Willow and Xander is deep and extremely trustworthy.
The last issue in this episode deals with the cult of vampire wannabes. Ford’s assembled a host of crazies who believe vampires exist and that they are not cruel killers; they believe that vampires are transcendent beings, almost divine creatures. This is, of course, B.S. We know from Buffy’s experiences that vampires, in Joss’ world, are human shells inhabited by evil demons. They hunger for human blood and kill blindly. On the one hand, they can’t really be blamed for this foolishness. They haven’t encountered a vampire in real life. They have a romantic ideal of a vampire, and they want to believe it. These are young people that thrive for things that even I want: immortality and youthfulness. I love immersing myself into fantasy stories with immortal beings and magical creatures, and I wish that was possible — so I can relate with these kids who are holding on to this idea that could transform their lives and achieve their deepest wish. But that’s not real life, and they almost die pursuing their dream.
Ford is different, though. He is sick, and he wants to become a vampire so that he can live. He has 6 months, and he wants more, even if that means living in a Ford-shell with Ford’s memories and a demon’s evil. And it’s a bit cruel that Ford is killed, while the other fools live. Ford actually had an actual reason to seek out vampiric immortality, yet he’s the one left lifeless.
As always, feel free to comment! I hope you enjoy this blog post all the way from Ann Arbor!
Buffy S2 “Some Assembly Required”
16 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Angelo Spizzirri, Buffy, Chris, Daryl, Giles, Ingo Neuhaus, Jenny Calendar, Joss, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Buffy: “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.“
Angel: “Yeah, but he’s in your life. He gets to be there when I can’t. Take your classes, eat your meals, hear your jokes and complaints. He gets to see you in the sunlight.”
This episode is extremely creepy at times. Joss is really good at creating creepy images and delivering creepy moments; sometimes I wonder how he sleeps at night. This episode revolves around the classic Frankenstein idea of creating a new person from dead flesh. The way Joss handles this episode is very interesting, because at first, we think that the boys who are doing these terrible deeds are sick freaks. After we get to know more about these boys, Chris (Angelo Spizzirri) in particular, we realize that Chris is fighting some conflicting emotions. He’s actually brought his brother, Daryl (Ingo Neuhaus), back from the dead after an unfortunate early death. Chris impulsively brought his brother back, only to realize that his brother could never go out in public; his brother would be alive again, but he would also be extremely lonely. So he’s pressured, by the brother he loves, to create him a beautiful woman to share his life with.
It was a lot easier when the kids just seemed like sick freaks — because what they were doing was clearly and undeniably wrong. Now that this complicated factor is in the mix, it blurs the lines a little bit. I mean, clearly it would still be wrong if the kids had taken a life in order to complete the woman — but was it that wrong to harness those dead parts after those cheerleaders had died? A brother just wants to do what he can to make up for a cheated life. The point is that I can clearly understand Chris’ motivations; they are noble and respectable, but life and death is an unavoidable cycle — and he learns this when Daryl, in an effort to save his woman’s body from the fire, dies again.
The other thing that I would like to indulge in is the absolute cuteness that is Giles and Jenny Calendar. What started as conflicting tensions between ideologies has turned into a very natural and logical attraction between the two. Giles is kicking himself trying to practice asking her out. He gets advice from Buffy — and later doesn’t even have to test out her ideas when Jenny asks him out! They are very much an example of opposites attract. He’s the more old-fashioned man with his roots in books and the past, and she’s the more forward-thinking woman, exploring the Internet. They are absolutely delightful, and I do look forward to revisiting this relationship. I really appreciate that Joss developed Giles’ character this way. In other shows similar to this, the high school kids would be seen as the main characters: Buffy, Willow, and Xander. They are the ones that the viewers relate to the most. A similar show could have an older guide or teacher who is there purely as a guide, with no other purpose at all — but Joss makes Giles more than just a Watcher. Giles is just as naive as they are, regarding dating, and he’s experiencing life just as the youngans are.
I’m sorry it took me so long to write about this. I am trying to become more diligent!
Buffy S1 “Prophecy Girl”
02 Aug 2010 4 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Cordelia, Giles, Joyce, Slayer, The Master, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “But I want more. I want to dance with you.”
Buffy: “I don’t care! I don’t care. Giles, I’m 16 years old. I don’t want to die.”
Master: “But prophecies are tricky creatures. They don’t tell you everything.”
Wow. I remember when I first watched the series, I went through the first season really enjoying it, but my clearest memory of this season was that the season finale was so far above the rest of the season. I remember finishing the first season and thinking, “Whoa, this reached a whole new level.” And the next season picked up from that higher level and kept going. Now that I’ve watched it again, this episode is an amazing way to end a season (it almost ended the series since it wasn’t known whether or not a second season would be offered or not), and it’s just a delicate way to develop the characters. Again I say, wow.
Let’s start with Xander. Xander is such a loving character. As the series goes on, I’ll touch on many instances of his compassion, but this episode shows such a clear example. He practices asking out Buffy with Willow, which is really cute. Even the way he asks out Buffy is so sweet (see the aforementioned quote). He is a pure and noble soul, which is pretty hard to find in high school-aged guys. But, of course, Buffy and Xander are not relationship material. We all know that, but Xander doesn’t yet. He puts himself out there, incredibly vulnerable, and then he’s shot down. He’s clearly disappointed and heartbroken, but even though Buffy rejected him, he still takes the initiative to round up his ‘enemy’, Angel, and look for Buffy — which ultimately saves Buffy! Xander is the sensitive soul who’s emotions fuel his actions, and that’s something I can relate to.
Next is Willow. Willow’s been growing in many ways this entire season. She started off as the dorkiest of the dorks, with no social skills and no fashion know-how. She’s found her place in the Buffy gang as the super smart technological girl. She no longer lets bullies, like Cordelia, walk all over her; she stands up and fights back in her own way. She’s helped fight demons and vampires, but she wasn’t ready for what happens in this episode. As she and Cordelia are walking into the AV room, they see slaughtered students, a terrible thing to ever have to witness. Willow later explains to Buffy that even though she’s seen giant bugs and vampires, she knew the guys who were dead in that room; only then did this strange world become real to her. It’s such a horrifying event for a loss of innocence, but that’s exactly what it is for Willow. She had plenty of innocence throughout this season, but this event pretty much drains it out from her. From this moment on, she’ll keep growing and becoming more rooted into reality.
Now to Buffy. This episode brings to light, again, the quirk of being a modern super hero. We’ve seen it before when Buffy wanted to go on a date instead of having to save the world — ending up in her realization that she may not be able to have a normal life in that respect. In this episode, it goes much further. She overhears Giles and Angel talking about the prophecy that says she will die. The way Joss handled this scene is pure genius. I had to watch it again after the episode was done just because of how spectacular and poignant it is. Her voice breaks as she talks to Giles about who the new Slayer might be. She asks if he’d train her. And about her dying, she — in complete vulnerability — asks, “Do you think it’ll hurt?” She goes through feelings of fear to feelings of anger. She yells at the two for not telling her and she yells at Giles for hiding behind his pile of books, trying to be helpful. She then drops all her defenses again and delivers such an honest statement: “I’m 16 years old. I don’t want to die.” And therein lies the unanticipated oddity of the modern super hero. Buffy goes home, tries to convince her mom to just get out of town for the weekend, but Joyce surprises her with a white dress that she bought for her. She ends up trying on the dress and wearing it for the rest of the episode. It symbolizes her quest for normalcy; she’d be wearing that dress to the Spring Fling if she were a regular high school girl. If she can’t wear it to a school dance, she’ll wear it to take on the Master. And even though she actually does die, all her self-doubt dies, too — and she comes back ready to kick ass and take names later.
I think it’s also important to touch on what the Master said before he drank from Buffy. He said that prophecies are tricky because they don’t tell you everything. All the prophecy said was that the Master and the Slayer would face, and she would die. What it doesn’t say is that she’ll come back and kick the Master’s ass. The incompleteness of prophecies is something that will come back time and time again through the series.
This episode is absolutely amazing. I was so blown away by the writing, the beautiful shots, the intensity building, etc. Joss closes the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in an extremely meaningful and impressive way, and it leaves the audience thirsting for more. Season 1 of Project Buffy is complete! Now we go onwards into Season 2!
Buffy S1 “Nightmares”
24 Jul 2010 3 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Billy, Buffy, Giles, Jeremy Foley, Nightmares, Slayer, The Master, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quote of the episode:
The Master: “Fear is a wonderful thing. It is the most powerful force in the human world. Not love, not hate…Fear! We are defined by the things we fear.”
Relevant episode is relevant.
I had the unique experience of watching this episode, devoted to fear, while dealing with one of my own fears: thunderstorms. It made watching this episode a little painful, as I’d see the flashes of lightning and hear the rolls of thunder while watching everybody succumb to their own fears. Though, knowing that the ultimate lesson of the episode would be to face one’s fear, I tried to release my fear every time I saw a flash of lightning. It’s a little harder in real life…
This episode, I would say, is the first in the series that takes a turn for the trivial. The preceding episodes outline a conflict and resolve that particular conflict. This episode, though, aims to highlight a particular theme, fear, and display how each of the beloved characters deals with that fear. This is the first venture into character development beyond the superficial; we go deep inside the minds of these characters, at their most vulnerable, and learn something about them.
Willow: Willow’s big fear shines a little insight on who she is. In the last episode, we saw how terrified she was when she had to perform in the Talent Show, and this episode follows that continuity and shows her worst nightmare as a performance. She has to sing on stage in front of a lot of people. Willow started off as a very geeky girl with a stunted sense of self-esteem. She’s grown since the beginning of the series into a much more confident and open person. One could argue that this fear of performance is just a fear of judgment. After all, whether acknowledged or not, audiences are at a performance to enjoy it and to judge it. Since Willow’s past has been plagued with bullying and cruel words, it comes as no surprise that she would be scared of what others thought of her. She definitely is on the right track to gaining more self-confidence, so hopefully her worst fear changes to something else soon.
Xander: He makes a remark earlier in the episode about how scary Nazis in his lap would be. As he enters his nightmare world, we see swastikas painted on the walls. We of course think that we’ll soon be dealing with Nazis, but (as Joss is oft to do) a twist happens and the camera focuses to a chocolate bar on the floor. Xander’s nightmare is free chocolate on the floor? If only. One chocolate bar, Chocolate Hurricane, reminds him of a terrifying clown at his 6th birthday party, and a clown — now donned with a huge knife — lunges for Xander. I won’t try to say that the clown stands for something deeper than a clown (because many people are scared of clowns), but it’s Xander’s reaction to the clown that is striking. He runs away from it at first, but after he meets up with Giles and Willow, instead of continuing to run, he faces it and punches it. He stands up and faces his fear. Xander, at least this far into the series, is not that brave a guy, but his facing a fear from his childhood suggests that he’s leaving childhood behind. He grows up in this scene, which shows you the kind of pull his past has on him, and that he’s prepared to step forward into the future.
Giles: Giles is shown to have a couple of fears in this episode. He fears not being able to read — in an earlier episode, we learned how connected he is to books. He also fears losing himself in the library stacks. But some of Buffy’s fears and his worst fear collide in the cemetery. His greatest fear is Buffy dead. Peculiarly enough, his feelings regarding her death are more focused on him; he says that would be his failure, to have never let her potential be met. At that moment we see that a Slayer’s success is also a Watcher’s success, which goes back to an earlier episode where Buffy and Giles understand each other and the sacrifices they make for the rest of society — this is another instance where their fates go hand-in-hand.
Buffy: Buffy has many fears in this episode. It starts with a nightmare where the Master kills her (or so we think). Another fear surfaces when she has to take a test she’s not prepared for (I’ve definitely encountered this fear, but I’ve luckily been able to leave it in the dust). She then fears that her parents’ divorce was actually because of her. That scene is very sensitive and it’s heartbreaking to see Buffy’s reactions. She also fears the Ugly Man, who is stronger than she can fight. She fears being buried alive; she fears The Master — she fears a lot. Her worst fear, though, is becoming a vampire. This realization connects right with the nightmare she has at the beginning of the episode; the Master doesn’t kill her in it, he makes her a vampire. This fear could also be seen as a fear of failure, since her duty is to kill vampires, not be sired into one. She overcomes her fear by facing the Ugly Man, knowing that she is something to be feared. She gains back her confidence and resumes kicking ass.
This episode is also reaches out to those suffering from abuse. The easiest thing to do in this situation (I can only imagine) is to hide — which is what Billy (Jeremy Foley) keeps doing from the Ugly Man. After Buffy faces her fear, she encourages him to do the same, which is facing his fear and recognizing his assailant’s identity. Is it harder to face one’s fear? I believe it is. It’s much easier for me to stay in my apartment and shudder at the thunder than it is to go outside and defy its power (though, to be clear, I am not trying to say that the fear from an abuser is equal to the fear of thunderstorms).
This is a really intense episode, and it definitely was made more intense by experiencing my fear along with the characters. Writing this post has been a bit therapeutic, which I’m thankful for. And this episode marks the first of many more mind-boggling episodes.
Buffy S1 “I Robot…You Jane”
22 Jul 2010 3 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Buffy, Giles, Jenny Calendar, Robia LaMorte, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “To read makes our speaking English good.”
Giles: “Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is. A certain flower or a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten. Books smell…musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer is…it has no texture, no context. It’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be, um…smelly.”
There are some interesting ideas that this episode addresses. Actually, something hit me just as I was watching this that concerns our dear Willow. Willow starts off as the geeky student who lacks self-confidence. I told myself I’d only mention it once, but Willow starts off as the exact demographic targeted by the wretched Twilight books. She’s a very weak and bland character, that just chills in the background. The difference between the Twilight protagonist, Bella, and our dear Willow is that during the course of the show, Willow grows into a strong, confident woman. She acknowledges her strengths (her intelligence, her compassion, her friendships), and she focuses on her weaknesses (self-confidence, social skills) — and she becomes a complete person. She doesn’t remain the personality-less bore of the Twilight saga; Willow becomes a crucial member of the team and somebody we’d all either hope to know or hope to be, maybe both! At this stage of the series, Willow is breaking out of her initial stage of weakness. She falls for the romantic words of an online woo-er, but after she realizes the truth, she breaks loose from her shell and taps into her fury and unleashes power and meaning.
Another exciting item about this episode is the advent of Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte). She is one of my favorite characters in the series. She’s the Computer Science teacher, and there’s immediate tension between Giles and herself — he being the old-fashioned older white man who wallows in piles of books and she being the younger, attractive woman who uses technology to access information. Their little spats seem like minor, humorous bits to listen to, but their arguments are very valid — and still very applicable to life today.
Giles advocates (per his aforementioned quote) that books provide a sensual experience for acquiring knowledge. You can smell and touch a book. Jenny argues that society is entering a new, unavoidable era where e-mails and internet searches reign. This argument is such a frustrating one because both sides are legitimate. I’m an Internet junkie — reading articles and getting my news from the Internet. I communicate with colleagues, teachers, family, and friends via e-mail and instant messages. But I do love the idea of the book. I love that I can open its pages and read the words in a computer-less world. I love smelling a new book and I love the feel of a broken-in book. I like being able to highlight my favorite quotes in the pages, and I love the idea of going to a library and finding the information you need.
Today is an age where you walk into Barnes and Noble and you see a stand selling the Nook for reading e-books. It seems so paradoxical at times. Some people love the e-book, but I wouldn’t want to read everything off a computer screen. First newspapers, then books, what next? Sheet music? Street signs?
Sorry to have strained a little far from Buffy, but it’s nice for Joss to have brought up this very relevant discussion in our changing world. And I really enjoy that Joss introduced Jenny Calendar into the Buffy-verse. This is yet another episode that veers off the vampire path; it shows that as there are many other kinds of villains to face (witches, giant bugs, etc), it also shows that there are also other ways of defeating bad guys. Usually there is chanting from an ancient text and it’s over, but now, with the advent of the techno-pagan, we see internet-network chanting. It’s a novel idea to accompany the super-hero-in-modern-life with crime fighting on the web.
It seems that even Giles still has some things to learn.
Buffy S1 “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date”
15 Jul 2010 2 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Christopher Wiehl, Cordelia, Giles, Joss, Master, Owen, Slayer, Vampire, Watcher, Willow, Xander
Quote of the Episode:
Giles: “All right, I-I’ll just jump in my time machine, go back to the twelfth century and ask the vampires to postpone their ancient prophecy for a few days while you take in dinner and a show.”
First off, I’d like to apologize for my latency here on the blog. This week has been a touch busy, but I’m glad to have made some time to watch and write about another episode!
So, after a couple of episodes with mystical beings not related to vampires, this episode brings us back to the vampire trajectory. The episode starts with Buffy taking out a vampire — and write after she finishes him off, Giles unexpectedly pops out from behind a tombstone and critiques her performance. This episode focuses on their relationship of Watcher and Slayer. At first, the two kind of bicker at each other, but the ending illuminates an understanding towards each other. We’ll get to that in a bit.
This episode also highlights the difficulties of being a modern superhero. Buffy tries to balance a social life with her Slayer life, and she ends up having trouble doing so. She’d love to put dating as the priority, but after she finds out that Giles is in danger, she realizes that her Slaying has to be the priority. She’s also dispirited by what happens with Owen (Christopher Wiehl). She really likes this guy, and she’s astonished that he likes her back. They’re supposed to go out on a date, and a vampire prophecy and Cordelia ruin it. Then he asks her out for the following night. She’s enjoying her time with him at the Bronze, but when Angel, Willow, and Xander show up with warnings, she has to run off to save Giles — but Owen follows! So she tries to protect everybody while also eliminating the Anointed One, from the prophecy. She kills the vampire and saves everyone, but Owen is a little freaked and goes home. The next day, he talks to her and tells her that he loved the exhilaration of danger and that he’d love to pursue more of it with her. Buffy realizes that 1) he’s only into the danger, not so much her and 2) she can’t let everybody into her Slaying posse because it could risk many people’s lives.
It’s at this point of the episode where Buffy and Giles come to understand each other better. Giles tells her that his father and his grandmother were Watchers; he found out when he was 10 years old that he was to be a Watcher, too. He tells her that his father talked to him about responsibility and sacrifice. While Xander and Willow will be important members of the Slaying gang, Giles and Buffy are really the two that are in it because they have to be. She’s this generation’s Slayer who has to dedicate her life to defeating vampires, and he’s this generation’s Slayer’s Watcher, who has to dedicate his life to training and guiding her. They’ve made — and will make — many sacrifices for the betterment of the world. It’s a tough responsibility to bear, but at least they know that they’re bearing that responsibility together.
Now, everything seems fine and dandy at the end; we think Buffy’s slain the Anointed One — and Giles infers that the Master is probably having a pretty bad day. But Joss is a trickster, and he gives us a twist at the end of the episode. The Anointed One is actually a child vampire, accompanied by creepy dollhouse music. We’d never expect the Anointed One to be a child, and that’ll make his role ever the more profound and disturbing — there’s nothing creepier than an intelligent and evil child character. And that’s where the episode leaves us, with great momentum moving forward.
Buffy S1 “Teacher’s Pet”
09 Jul 2010 1 Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Dr. Gregory, Giles, Joss, Musetta Vander, Natalie French, Slayer, Teacher's Pet, Vampire, William Monaghan, Willow, Xander
Quote of the Episode:
Bronze Band: “The first date’s the worst date, it’s hard to know just what to do. I take you to dinner, you don’t eat, you just play with your food. Then there’s something familiar, about the words you say. It’s hard to believe. This happened again. I already met you!!”
O man, those song lyrics killed me, haha!
I’m surprised at how much I’ve forgotten from these early episodes. I was really confused when the opening scene started, because I didn’t remember Xander being so brave and confrontational with vampires so early, and then I realized that it was a dream. Nice job Joss! Isn’t it funny how suave Xander is in his dreams? He should try learning from Dream-Xander.
There’s a really tender scene between Buffy and her biology teacher, Dr. Gregory (William Monaghan). The scene’s set up so that you think that Dr. Gregory is going to chastise her for not doing her homework. He starts talking about her record, but this time he talks about how she thinks quick and could really do great things. He tells her that they should make the rest of the faculty “eat that permanent record”. It shows how intuitive Dr. Gregory is with his students, and it’s definitely the pick-me-up that Buffy needed in school. O Joss, how quick you are to ruin nice things!
The next day Natalie French (Musetta Vander) substitutes for Dr. Gregory, and boy is she a substitute. I got a kick from the tribal music that played as she walked towards the school. She speaks so eloquently about insect life, primarily the praying mantis. She turns out to be a praying mantis, attracting all the virgin high school boys to fertilize her eggs. Eep!
That was an interesting little theme in this episode: virginity. Early in the episode some high school boys are trying to size themselves up by insinuating that they’ve had sex, and Xander tries to play along so that he comes across masculine. Though, at the end of the episode, Willow says that she thinks it’s sweet that Xander hasn’t given it up yet (Willow also earlier, in her panic that Miss Bug would devour Xander’s head, worried about how his head has his eyes and his hair and his smile). There is a triangle starting up. Xander likes Buffy. Willow likes Xander. And Buffy might be starting to like Angel.
Angel appears in this episode, and he acts as the only anchor to the basic storyline with vampires. This episode is like “Witch”, which showcases some other mystical danger, not associated with vampires. But Angel also gives Buffy his jacket, showing concern, and riling up jealousy from Xander. But really Xander, do you blame Buffy? Have you seen Angel?
It’s really too bad that Dr. Gregory had to go; he was Buffy’s only ally (besides Giles). But I have a feeling she’ll make more soon.
Buffy S1 “Witch”
08 Jul 2010 4 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Amy, Buffy, Cheerleading, Cordelia, Elizabeth Anne Allen, Giles, Joyce, Robin Riker, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Witch, Xander
Quote of the Episode:
Xander: “I laugh in the face of danger…then I hide until it goes away”.
Who would have thought that a Vampire Slayer’s first choice for an extra-curricular activity to feign normalcy would be cheerleading? Giles doesn’t believe it either, and he gives Buffy a hard time about her shrugging off her responsibilities in order to be a cheerleader. But Buffy wants to do something normal and safe.
In this episode, we meet Amy (Elizabeth Anne Allen) who is also trying out for the cheerleading squad, along with Cordelia (no surprise there). We find out through Buffy and Amy’s getting to know each other that both sets of parents split up, which is good to know for both characters’ developments.
But strange things are going on — every so often the scene cuts to a creepy place with dolls hanging from the ceiling and a cauldron stewing some kind of potion. At first we think it has something to do with the Master, but the twist in this episode is that there are no vampires involved! The whole plot has to do with mystical content, of course, but not vampire-related. Amy is too into cheerleading, and after talking to her mom (Robin Riker), we find out that they’ve switched bodies — witchcraft! Amy’s mom is the witch and she’s jealous of her daughter’s youth, so she takes it away. It is in this episode where we see Giles cast the first of many spells to come.
I’d like to point out that despite how much of a bully Cordelia is, she does have an innocent side to her. Amy casts a blindness spell on her, and Cordelia just roams around the halls, trying to find her locker. She stumbles, late, to her driving lesson, and is forced to drive. She can’t see and she almost kills herself. She has such a terrified look on her face, which shows she’s never really encountered fear.
There’s a little bit of character development for Xander and Willow, too. Xander likes Buffy, and he wants to ask her out — and he talks to Willow for advice. As Xander describes how Buffy probably just doesn’t ever notice him and dismisses him as a really good friend, there’s a subtle sense that Willow feels the same way about Xander. We’ll see where that goes as the season progresses.
There’s also something to comment on about Buffy and her mom’s relationship. Buffy tries to get her mom interested in her cheerleading endeavors, but her mom’s really focused on her museum stuff. Then Joyce tries to get Buffy interested in what she did when she was in high school, and Buffy dismisses it. But third time’s a charm, and they share a little moment at the end of the episode. Though, it’s also interesting to note that Joyce seems to be one of those parenting-book moms. In the last episode, she says that the books all say she needs to get used to saying “no”, and in this episode, after she brings up *again* that Buffy was kicked out and they had to move to Sunnydale, she says, “Great parenting form…little shaky on the dismount.” This just shows that Joyce is really concerned with how she raises Buffy. Instead of treating Buffy like a delinquent after being kicked out of HS, she’s being really supportive and nurturing — that says a lot about her!
This episode takes a step off the storyline path, which could be a way for Joss to show off all the mystical creatures his imagination has to offer. So it’s safe to assume that we’ll have more of these episodes.
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