Buffy S2 “Inca Mummy Girl”

18 Aug 2010 2 Comments

by Jonathan Thompson in Project Buffy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “You’re not a praying mantis, are you? Sorry, someone else.”

Xander: “Buffy, I love Willow, and she’s my best friend, which makes her not the kind of girl who I think about her lips that much. She’s the kind of girl that I’m best friends with.”

You know, Xander confuses me. There are clearly times when Xander is not interested in Willow, like when he glares at Angel everytime he’s around, getting Buffy’s attention. There are also times when he and Willow have a great connection — like the very beginning of Season 2, with all the ice cream. He may not think about Willow’s lips, but he sure as hell thought about her nose! I’m not trying to express any personal feelings about Xander and Willow, but he’s giving off mixed signals — which I’m sure Willow is having trouble with, too. What makes it worse is that these feelings aren’t a secret. Buffy knows that Willow likes Xander. Xander acknowledges that he knows also by wanting Buffy to join them to the dance, so that he and Willow aren’t alone together. Willow knows that he isn’t interested. When Xander confronted Buffy, she was frank and told him she didn’t feel the same way. I think Xander should do the same, instead of letting Willow wallow in hope and disappointment.

This episode introduces two new characters! I had forgotten that Oz (Seth Green) was introduced so soon. We see him as the lead guitar player of a band, who should be getting all the girls but is apparently really picky. That being said, it may surprise us that he, from the stage, sees Eskimo Willow and is fascinated by her. After he sees her from the stage, he tries to talk to her, but he keeps missing her, sometimes saying, “Who is that girl?” Willow’s ship to getting over Xander may just be arriving. The other character is Jonathan (Danny Strong), my namesake, though, he is not introduced by name. We’ll just keep seeing him around Sunnydale.

This episode is about another Chosen One, an Incan princess who was chosen as a sacrifice. It’s interesting to put Ampata (Ara Celi) and Buffy together. Joyce commented that Ampata’s been there for only a couple of days and she’s fitting right in — which is exactly what Buffy would be like if she didn’t have to honor her responsibilities. Ampata gets to live out what Buffy longs for: a normal life. So when Buffy finds out exactly who Ampata is, she’s slightly sympathetic. She understands what it’s like to be 16 years old and have to confront responsibility and death — the difference is that Buffy actually confronted destiny, but she got to defy it, too.

This marks another vampire-less episode, showing the extent to the mystical beings the gang has to confront, and prolonging continuation of Spike’s plans and Principal Synder’s secrets.

Buffy S2 “School Hard”

17 Aug 2010 2 Comments

by Jonathan Thompson in Project Buffy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Quotes of the Episode:
Spike: “I fed off a flower person, and I spent the next six hours watching my hand move.”

Joyce: “You get the hell away from my daughter!”

ENTER Spike and Drusilla! What an exciting episode this is! (Boy, did Joss get a lot of mileage from Spike.)

With the advent of Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau), the vampire quadrumvirate is complete! While we don’t know it yet, the entourage consists of Darla, Angel, Drusilla, and Spike. Some of my favorite Buffy and Angel episodes deal with back stories about the four of them.

Spike rolls in as a badass rocker vampire, with bleach-blonde hair, a sexy accent, and intense aggression. But his hostile demeanor suddenly fades when the white-clad and dainty (seemingly so) Drusilla enters the picture. Spike fades from vamp-face and he speaks so attentively and lovingly to her. But these two characters are such villains. Spike is crass and rash, playing by his rules, and Dru is creepy and chilling (Juliet Landau is perfect as Drusilla!) Spike’s name comes from his use of railroad spikes in his killings, and he’s killed the past two Slayers. We don’t know much about Drusilla yet, but we already know she can be merciless, as she devours Sheila (Alexandra Johnes) in full view of her dolls. Even at the end of the episode, after Spike decides to stop playing nice with the Anointed One, he cages the child and lets the sunlight kill him. Spike’s now in charge, with Drusilla at his side.

This episode also shines some light on the relationship between Buffy and her mother. Buffy’s worried that her mother won’t be happy with what she hears at Parent/Teacher Night, and Joyce tells her that she doesn’t want to be disappointed with her again. It was very frank of her to say, and I think it’s clear that Buffy never wanted to hurt or disappoint her mother back in L.A. Once the dreaded night arrives, Willow helps Buffy by leading Joyce around the school, away from Principal Synder, but their paths finally cross, and he leads her to his office to have what promises to be a stern talk. Joyce seems very upset with Buffy, but then vampires attack. Buffy, as the Slayer, takes charge, and herds people to shelter and barks orders to the civilians to stay put, something which Principal Synder doesn’t enjoy hearing. But seeing Buffy act with such strength and confidence, Joyce reassesses how she thought of Buffy. She trusts Buffy with her life, which is the most profound kind of trust. Though, against Buffy’s wishes, Joyce sticks around a little bit and actually saves Buffy from Spike. I had completely forgotten this happened, and I was very excited to see how brave and strong Joyce is. As the two walk home after the ordeal, Joyce talks about how much peace of mind it gives her to know that Buffy can take care of herself and handle a crisis with such selflessness. While Buffy can’t tell her mom she’s the Slayer, she’s glad to know that her mother can see a little bit into her real self.

The last thing to address is Principal Snyder. After the ordeal, he’s speaking with a police officer about what to tell the papers had happened. The officer asks if he wants to go with “the usual story” of gang-related trouble, and Snyder replies, “What do you have in mind, the truth?” Then the officer decides to go with “gang-related PCP”. This brief scene shows us that not only does at least one police officer (possibly others) know that there are vampires, but so does Principal Snyder. This deserves one, maybe two, raised eyebrows. We’ll have to keep our eyes on that one.

Buffy S1 “Prophecy Girl”

02 Aug 2010 4 Comments

by Jonathan Thompson in Project Buffy Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

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 “Angel”

19 Jul 2010 4 Comments

by Jonathan Thompson in Project Buffy Tags: , , , , , ,

Quotes of the Episode:
Joyce: “It’s a little late for tutoring.”

Willow: “No speaking up. That way leads to madness and sweaty palms.”

 

Wow, in hindsight, this episode is intense. I’m sure it’s less intense when you’re watching the Buffy series for the first time, but after watching Buffy and Angel, this episode really shook me.

This episode starts in the Master’s lair. The Master is treating the Anointed child as an adopted child — teaching him the ways of a family. The Master’s family, though, is a very twisted one, and the child is not child-like at all, which is unsettling. The plot continues as the Master sets “The Three” to kill the Slayer.

“The Three” are armored vampires, and they sneak up and attack Buffy as she’s headed home. Luckily, Angel had been watching, and he helps her; they escape and run to Buffy’s house. Enter sexual tension. Angel’s hurt and Buffy nurses his wound. They head upstairs and he stays the night. She feels very safe with him (though — and I’ll only say this once…hopefully — he does exude some Twilight/Edward vibes, he does actually have a personality and is a deep character). The next night, she comes home and they talk again. He expresses that he likes her, and they begin kissing; the kissing is very intense, but then he pulls away quickly — and we see him in Vamp Face. Angel is a vampire!

Joss has mentioned in a commentary that he was surprised that many viewers didn’t see that Angel was a vampire. I, myself, already knew about the Angel spin-off series and knew that he was a vampire, so I do wonder what it would have been like to watch it without that knowledge. Though, before this episode, we had absolutely no knowledge about him as a character — so there wasn’t too much to go off of. This episode is all about him; this is the episode that opens up so many backstories. It’s exciting to watch it with all the knowledge I have now.

There is a lot of conflict in this episode. Buffy, apparently, loves Angel, but she has to kill him. Angel is a vampire, but doesn’t want to feed. He cares for Buffy but wants to kill her. There are a lot of feelings going around. It’s a little too explosive, because if Angel had only told her that Darla bit her mom and not him, things would’ve been a little easier, or if he had told her about the curse earlier, she wouldn’t have had to plan on killing him. That being said, their conflicts are pretty much rested by the end of the episode, not resolved, just rested for now.

What made this episode extremely intense for me is Darla’s death. In the episode, we learn that Darla sired Angel. They lived a few generations together, and Darla expressed her jealousy that the one she loves was in love with another. From the information learned in this episode alone, Angel’s killing Darla isn’t all that profound, but after watching Buffy and Angel, this moment is poignant. I didn’t remember how her death happened exactly, so I was very surprised when Angel dusted Darla. I actually gasped out loud, because I knew all the stuff that was going on in Angel’s head — the stuff that the viewers would only learn much later.

The episode ends with the Master, mourning the loss of his favorite disciple, Darla. As he laments her loss, the Anointed child then takes the role of the adult, and encourages the Master with the plan of killing the Slayer and the traitorous Angel. Then they walk back into the darkness, pleased with the thought.


Buffy S1 “Witch”

08 Jul 2010 4 Comments

by Jonathan Thompson in Project Buffy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Buffy S1 “The Harvest”

07 Jul 2010 4 Comments

by Jonathan Thompson in Project Buffy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I apologize for taking so long continuing Project Buffy; the holiday weekend ended up being unexpectedly busy!

Quotes of the episode:
Joyce: “I know. If you don’t go out it’ll be the end of the world. Everything is life or death when you’re a sixteen year-old girl.”

Cordelia: “It’s like when I go shopping. I have to have the most expensive thing. Not because it’s expensive, but because it costs more.”

This episode picks up where the pilot left off. Buffy is trapped in a tomb by Luke, who is about to finish her off. She escapes when he brushes his hand on the cross hanging from her neck — a gift from the mysterious and *handsome* stranger, who we now know is named Angel (David Boreanaz). Though, after this episode, we still don’t know anything else about him.

This episode explains the origin of vampires (which I had completely forgotten when I had watched the entire series): Earth was dominated by demons in the beginning, and the last demon possessed a human form and exchanged blood with a human. Ever since, vampires have fed on humans and turned others to keep their breed alive. I find it important to remember, because many vampire stories never bother to explain how vampires came into being.

Like the pilot episode that alluded to the deep threads of thought underneath the witty banter and funny dialogue, this episode also presents a different point of view that one doesn’t expect in a superhero setting. After the gang (Giles, Willow, Xander, and Buffy) discuss what the vampires’ plans are and Buffy comes up with a mission, she sets out to complete it. As she’s walking off campus, she’s stopped by Principal Flutie (Ken Lerner). While the Slayers of the past have been able to focus on only slaying (I presume), Buffy’s life is in modern America, and she just can’t tell her Principal that she’s off to save the world — which is clearly more important than going to class. The same kind of thing happens later that evening when Buffy stops by her house to get supplies. Joyce tells Buffy that the Principal called again and she’s starting to get worried that Buffy is doing the same kinds of things that got her kicked out of her LA school. It’s in this scene that Joyce delivers the insanely funny quote about the end of the world. How could Buffy actually tell her mom that it *is* the end of world if she doesn’t go out? You can bet that there will be more superhero-meets-real-life scenarios in Buffy’s future.

This episode also shows a little bit of growth in Xander and Willow. As soon as the three escape from the vampires at the beginning of the episode, Xander’s already kicking himself about useless he feels. He wants to help and be involved, but Buffy doesn’t want him to get hurt. Understandably, Buffy is a super-being, and Xander’s an average high school boy, so her worries are reasonable, but this feeling of uselessness will definitely thrive throughout the series. On the other hand, Willow finds her nook in helping out in technology and intelligence. She hacked into the city’s web account and was able to bring Giles some helpful information about the Harvest.

Willow also shows a little bit of defiance in a scene with Cordelia and Harmony (Mercedes McNab). The two popular girls are talking about how weird Buffy is, and Willow timidly speaks up in Buffy’s defense. After Cordelia cruelly puts her down, Willow manages to trick Cordelia into deleting her entire assignment — again showing Willow’s technological prowess. We’ve always seen Willow accept the bullying Cordelia gives her, but now she’s kicking back!

While the gang was able to stop the vampires’ plans of resurrecting their master, Giles alludes to the fact that there will be many more situations to face in the future, dealing with vampires and even other beings. This ending to the episode wets our appetite for the many exciting things to come!

Let me know what you liked/didn’t like about this episode! Quotes, characters, anything!

Buffy S1 “Welcome to the Hellmouth”

03 Jul 2010 4 Comments

by Jonathan Thompson in Project Buffy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Quote of the Episode:
Buffy: “So, you like to party with the students. Isn’t that kinda skanky?” 

I’m very excited to begin Project Buffy! I finished S5 of Angel last night (but I’ll get to that way later), and now I can start an episode by episode commentary through the entire series. I’m hoping that Buffy fans and passersby both can stop by and let me know what you all like about the episode, the characters, the writing, what you all don’t like, anything! I want you all to start discussions, disagree with me, agree with me, let me know who your favorite character is, anything and everything. I want to create a space for readers to congregate and talk about movies and TV! And if you’re a newbie to the Buffy world, please feel free to comment as you journey through the series episode by episode!!

So let’s begin.
I’ve seen the pilot episode of Buffy four times now. I must admit that the first time I saw it, I was somehow unimpressed and I didn’t continue watching past it. I think about a year later, I watched it again, and I thought it was brilliant, and I ended up continuing and watching the entire series. I then watched it again to celebrate Joss Whedon’s birthday, and I watched it again today.

I love that the entire series starts off with Darla (Julie Benz) on the hunt. From the way it’s shot and from the way Darla acts at the beginning, we think that the guy is the dangerous one, but boy are we wrong!

The first half of the episode or so is pretty much just an introduction to this world and to Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar). It’s all pretty much fun and games, as we meet the nerdy Willow (Alyson Hannigan), the funny and popular Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), the girl-crazy Xander (Nicholas Brendon), and the, at first, creepy librarian Mr. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head). There’s even a hint of levity as Buffy’s mom, Joyce (Kristine Sutherland), tells her “not to get kicked out” of school on her first day. Though, there is a point where it’s made clear that, while there will be plenty of witty banter and funny situations, there will definitely be some deeper threads running underneath. As Buffy and Mr. Giles talk in the library about his being a Watcher who’s supposed to train her, she retorts back asking if he’s supposed to prepare her “for getting kicked out of school, for losing all of her friends, for having to spend all of [her] time fighting for [her] life and never getting to tell anybody because [she] might endanger them.” There’s definitely more to slaying vampires than meets the eye!

Though, it looks like Buffy’s wish for friends to know about her vampire slaying comes true when Xander, who was probably in the library (“where the books live!”) for the second time in his high school career, overheard the mystical conversation between Buffy and Giles. And then Willow gets kidnapped by a vampire. So that kind of worked out for Buffy, sort of.

But before the climax of the episode, some brooding and handsome stranger follows Buffy. We don’t get a name yet, but he introduces the evil plan of the season: The Harvest. Buffy *really* doesn’t like him, which is hysterically ironic in hindsight.

Once Willow’s taken away from the Bronze, we see Buffy in action for the first time. She’s cool and collected — and she’s super strong. She’s so strong that it makes Darla, who’s been pretty much in control of her surroundings the entire episode (and probably for decades now), incredibly scared. Buffy’s got game. She already dusts one vampire, but Joss ends this first episode on a cliffhanger as Luke (Brian Thompson) tries to take Buffy out.

This first episode does a good job introducing this world of vampires. It shows us how vampires look exactly like humans until they transform into their vampire forms. It’s even interesting that it’s set in Sunnydale outside of Los Angeles, out in the suburbs — where Giles hints at the idea that it has a mystical magnetism for the fantastical. Buffy’s clever, strong, and kind — to hang out with the “lowly” Willow and Xander over the popular Cordelia. And with the climactic “To be Continued” at the end, we’re definitely wanting to see more.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.