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| Writer: | Ty King |
| Director: | Bruce Seth Green |
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| - | Review |
This episode is frankly a pretty big letdown after all the drama of the last one. We get a dumb "monster of the week" plot with one-dimensional villains who comes out of nowhere. The only positive aspect to the plot here is that the pace is not slow! Things keep moving at a brisk pace so you rarely have the chance to contemplate just how poor the plot actually is.
Where the episode shines is no surprise: character development and interaction. Perhaps I should come up with an acronym for that phrase; I certainly use it often enough. We begin the episode with Buffy and Angel having a graveyard chat about her actions during the previous episode. The "sexy dance" in particular comes up. Buffy thankfully admits she just did it to make Angel jealous. Angel's wearing an ugly-looking light gray jacket most of this episode. Boy am I glad we don't see him in that thing again.
Giles and Jenny finally go out on a date, though I'm not sure 'date' is the appropiate term here. Giles accompanies Jenny to the football game, and it's wildly obvious Giles is not having a good time from the get-go. Jenny still shows interest, after the group stops Cordelia's head from being chopped off, in a second date. The continuing theme of their dates ending badly begins here. I'd also like to mention how much I adore the fact that Xander continues to stay in character with the jealousy of Angel, and that Cordelia's flirt-o-meter with Angel continues to rise from her S1 advances.
Its overall boring plot and poor execution combine to make this the worst episode in S2. I just really find this episode mostly pointless and kind of annoying. This definitely isn't a winner and feels like leftovers from S1 that aren't sitting well with me.
| - | Minor Pros/Cons (+/-) |
| Pros: | |
| + | Buffy playing with a yo-yo while waiting for a vampire to rise. |
| + | Giles practicing lines, alone, to use on Jenny to ask her out. |
| + | Cordelia's screams; they work here. |
| Cons: | |
| - | The science guy is a plot contrivance. He's only here because the plot needs him to be here, and it's a shame the writers act like Willow knew him really well. |
| - | There's no way high school students could possibly assemble a body like that. |
| - | The patched up brother (I'll call him 'patches') and his "photo guy" friend are unsympathetic and dumb. |
| - | There's no way 'patches' would beat Buffy in a fight. |
| - | Foreshadowing |
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| - | Quotes |
| BUFFY: | Being called an idiot tends to take people out of the dating mood. |
| XANDER: | Hmm, it actually kinda turns me on. |
| BUFFY: | (to Xander) I fear you. (to Giles) You also might wanna avoid words like 'amenable' and 'indecorous', y'know. Speak English, not whatever they speak in, um... |
| GILES: | England? |
| BUFFY: | Yeah. You just say, 'Hey, I got a thing, you maybe have a thing, maybe we could have a thing. |
| XANDER: | Y'know, this might go a lot faster if you femmes actually picked up a shovel, too. |
| GILES: | Here, here. |
| 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. |
| XANDER: | Well, I guess that makes it official. Everybody's paired off. Vampires get dates. Hell, even the school librarian sees more action than me. |
| - | Score | Learn about the Grading Scale |
| 50/100 |
D ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ |
Silly, useless plot. Poor execution of intended (if any) themes. No new important character development or insight. Offers no reason to bother rewatching it.
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Comments (25)
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| 1. | AustinAug 20, 2007 (Mon)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Aww, Boo,Hoo no comments yet :) Anyways I loved the banter between Giles and Jenny, I thought it was hilarious: Jenny: So this is how you start our first date, by insulting my nation's pass time? Giles: Did you just say date? Jenny: You noticed huh? |
| 2. | buffyholicSep 1, 2007 (Sat)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I´m sorry but I like this episode very much. I mean, the plot is weak but it´s very fast paced. but for me, the great thing is the dialogue, very witty and the interaction is great. |
| 3. | NixSep 2, 2007 (Sun)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| In regard to the `sensual' stuff, note that the only other episode Ty King wrote was the excellent _Passion_, which goes overboard in related areas. (That the same author came up with this dreck and then _Passion_ adds weight to your hypothesis: the problem here was reuse of S1 stock stuff, not authorship per se.) |
| 4. | AndrewJan 4, 2008 (Fri)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Have to agree here; this was just bad. Huge disappointment by comparison with the previous episode. The thing is, I think the main plot was actually not much worse than in When She Was Bad, but this time the focus was on the plot rather than the character development, and thus the episode as a whole ended up being a lot worse. Also, Jenny Calender really annoys me for some reason. She was particularly awful in IR,YJ (which of course was pretty much bad right through), but she came close to being as annoying here. She just comes across as consistently aggressive (in speech, that is, not physically). One ends up feeling rather sorry for Giles. Glad to here this is the worst in S2- I'm working through them now. |
| 5. | TonyApr 15, 2008 (Tue)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Hate to say but this was actually a good episode. Way better than that stupid mummy episode this season, |
| 6. | wilpy1Jun 14, 2008 (Sat)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I agree with buffyholic. I also enjoy this episode immensely. Its dialogue is so sharp (although Giles is painfully over-written as the stuffy English guy), and the story is plotted very well. I disagree that it's the worst of season 2 - not by a long shot. That's handed to 'Bad Eggs', followed by 'Reptile Boy'. |
| 7. | TonyJun 17, 2008 (Tue)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Thank you. It was a good episode. If you're not busy Mike, watch this again. You should change your mind a bit. |
| 8. | PaulaNov 8, 2008 (Sat)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Re-watched this just a few days ago. The plot is dumb and S1-ish, and oh man does Angel wear ugly clothes, but scenes like the one where Buffy and Xander tease Giles about the whole asking-Jenny-on-a-date thing (including Giles's eventual "You know, I'm suddenly deciding this is none of your business") simply crack me up. Oh, and I like Jenny Calendar. Way to handle stuffy British librarians. :-) |
| 9. | EmilyFeb 13, 2009 (Fri)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I kinda like this episode, though I agree with Mike that the plot is just AWFUL. I like how Buffy and Angel's relationship really begins to progress, from the opening scene to when Cordelia wants him to take her home, and Buffy gives him this disbelieving look. I interpret this look as, "I can't believe you're not going to tell her no." It's ironic to me that she wants him to admit he's jealous at the start of the episode, and in the end, it's she who's jealous.
One of the best parts of this episode- in terms of Buffy and Angel- is Angel's speech at the end. "He [Xander] gets to see you in the sunlight." This actually foreshadows his speech in "The Prom," where he tells Buffy, "You should be with someone who can take you into the light." I like Xander's line when he's holding the skeleton head: "For the love of God, can somebody scratch my nose?" Lol. I would feel bad for Chris if he wasn't, as Buffy said, "a ghoul." (That was a terrible line.) I've seen the episode a few times, and I still don't understand one thing: after Buffy figures out that Darryl is stilla live, she and Chris come back to his house to find that Eric and Darryl aren't there. But what was the point of them coming there? If Darryl had been there, what would they have done? It was a little bit of a pointless scene- a time-filler. I really like everything about this episode except for the plot line. |
| 10. | SeleneJul 25, 2009 (Sat)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| IMO, this was a horrendous episode! And I can hardly believe I'm sating that about any Buffy episode. The only worthwhile stuff in the entire episode are the Giles scenes. Otherwise it's just a waste of time and talent. |
| 11. | nallanSep 8, 2009 (Tue)View This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I agree with mikejer on this one for sure....plot = bad.....charater development and interaction = good :)
Loved the scenes with Angel, but I'm just a hopeless romantic. Although I know how this love story ends, I can't help feeling hopeful as I re-watch this season....crazy, eh? |
| 12. | vera@amsterdamNov 16, 2009 (Mon) @ 6:22amView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| One of the worst. Hate to say it but I did NOT like this episode.
But there is not any show in the history of television that has only great episodes. All's forgiven... |
| 13. | EmilyDec 13, 2009 (Sun) @ 9:05amView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| nallan, NOT CRAZY AT ALL. I feel the same way, lol. |
| 14. | NickFeb 11, 2010 (Thu) @ 8:00amView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| To Emily: Buffy has every right to call Chris a "ghoul". If you are capable of not only defiling the body but also the soul of your own brother, digging up and defiling the bodies of others and plotting to murder an innocent, I'd say "ghoul" is still a pretty loose term. "Madman" would be closer. But I do agree that, unlike the complete madman Eric, Chris can be redeemed. He was for the most part motivated by brotherly love and ultimately understood how wrong his actions were (including raising his brother). And Buffy recognized this at the end of the episode. |
| 15. | SeleneSep 5, 2010 (Sun) @ 5:03pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Lousy episode. Joss just couldn't do Frankenstein monsters (As witness Adam)However loved the line: She's a technopagan, right? Ask her to bless your laptop. Also the library scene where Cordelia is whining about her 'pain' and Giles just kind of absentmindedly pats her and says "There, there." while keeping his nose in the book. |
| 16. | John RobertsSep 14, 2010 (Tue) @ 7:28amView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Think of this episode as a breather, sandwiched between the emotionally fraught The Prophecy/When She Was Bad, and the series-changing School Hard. This episode serves to show off the newly matured Buffy, the person who survived both the Master and the Post Master Trauma (PMT).
Within those terms, the episode was OK. As usual, the show deftly subverts various cliched afterschool-special topics -- the HS football star who (quite literally) has no life after high school, the pining mother, the younger brother idol worshipping the hotshot older brother, the impressionable girl throwing herself at the cynical older stud. They're caricatures rather than characters but are so cleverly done that the effect is fun rather than a groaner. It's what BvTS does so well. And the plot moves quickly. It's kinda dumb and riddled with holes, but it blithely races along without fussing over its various silly bits, works for me. I wished for more Giles/Calendar. More Calendar period. Plus Buffy getting her butt whipped was foolish. Because now I realize that Sunnydale is in no danger at all. Three or four HS linebackers would clean out Hellmouth all by their lonesomes. But hey it's a breather episode and I'm actually trying to analyze the plot. Silly me. |
| 17. | EllieSep 16, 2010 (Thu) @ 1:57pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I always liked this episode. I never felt it was meant to be anything more than a fun romp before the heavy stuff. |
| 18. | CoyoteBuffyFanFeb 13, 2011 (Sun) @ 10:26amView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| This is definitely toward the bottom of my list of episodes but I didn't dislike it. There are only about 3 episodes that I don't like and only 1 episode that I despise to the point that I almost can't watch it again (yes, I'm talking about you Where The Wild Things Are) in the entire series. Damn fine series.
Giles/Jenny are cute and Angel/Buffy are awesome. They are definitely setting us up for Passion here. And they do so well at this. Even in plot driven episodes, there is always still such great character interaction. This is precisely why I love this series so much. Even if the plot is bad, there is enough character stuff that you want to watch the episode anyway. This is one of those. One thing that Buffy says in this episode struck me -- she tells Chris that she knows what it is like to lose someone you are close to. Do you think she is referring to her cousin Celia there? I can't think of anyone who Buffy was really close to that died up to this point. If so, this is a nice bit of continuity all the way through to Killed By Death! |
| 19. | fray-adjacentFeb 16, 2011 (Wed) @ 2:48pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| It could also be a reference to Buffy's original watcher being killed. That happened in the movie, which as far as I can tell isn't canon with respect to the TV show, but some aspects of the movie, like the name of her school in LA, make it into the show. So this early in S2 anyway the writers might have that in mind. Just conjecture though, and one without a lot of support since no one ever refers to this in the entire 7 seasons of the show. |
| 20. | deadlegoApr 18, 2011 (Mon) @ 1:08pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I think this episode has some foreshadowing related to season 6. It shows us that just because you bring someone back from the dead it doesn't mean they are going to be pleased about it. Chris tells himself he is saving his brother but is really being selfish in bringing him back, and actually damns his brother by resurrecting him as a monster. In season 6 when the scoobies bring buffy back they do it for selfish reasons and she, like Darryl, is less than impressed with being 'saved' and essentially dragged out of heaven to live again in a world that she feels disconnected from. |
| 21. | DanaMay 25, 2011 (Wed) @ 4:32pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I am so happy I found this site, I am re-re-watching the entire series on Much More Music right now and I really wanted to find someone else's perspective to go along with the series. This is my absolute favourite show and can watch every episode over and over again. It is the only series where the same scenes, lines and characters can make me laugh and cry even though I know what is coming!
So about this episode... definitely not great, especially after When She Was Bad, but I do love the relationship development between Angel and Buffy. It is so weird to see Angle on Buffy compared to his spin-off. He is a completely different person. For one thing, how did he survive 240 years with the sad display of fighting skills we see in the beginning of the series? I agree with you Mike in that they really do play up Buffy's "sensual" side in this season! I mean gosh, where the heck was her bra during the latter half of this episode?! Giles and Jenny don't really do it for me personally. I agree with the fact that Jenny is overly aggressive in speech and there isn't a whole lot to her character to make me root for those two together. I was more intrigued by pray mantis lady than I ever have been with Jenny. Giles on the other hand is adorable and the bumbling school boy crush act makes many of the scenes in this episode worth the reconstructed zombie bit. On a side note, I really don't like the direction Buffy's dialogue is still heading. In 'When She Was Bad' I understood the need for her moodiness and cruelty but I find that her snide comments, especially towards Cordelia were just uncalled for. I can't remember but I hope that doesn't keep |
| 22. | DaveAug 16, 2011 (Tue) @ 10:35pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| Disappointing episode, it's a shame to see Angel acting to jealous and petty. |
| 23. | Gemma Dec 7, 2011 (Wed) @ 2:36pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| I plan to watch the episode fully soon but i have a collection of thoughts i want to post on here before i forget them. Some foreshadowing moments i think worth noting is the idea behind this episode making or having what you want but can't get. In some manner this foreshadows Spike and the Buffy bot in season 5. He can't have the real thing so he compromises. On a small least prominent note the theme of zombies foreshadows the season 3 episode Dead Man's Party and The Zeppo. Cordy's inherent fixation with Angel (notable in season one also) foreshadows her relationship with him in Angel (the show) |
| 24. | Gemma Dec 8, 2011 (Thu) @ 2:37pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| The actual plot of this episode was certainly creepy, watching the characters reaction to the idea of dead bodies being chopped up and reassembled was portrayed well. Vampires and demons are removed from reality and so the dispatching of them doesn't affect the gang but the notion that a human being, a fellow student in fact messing around with the dead and then proposing and endeavouring to carry out murder is something else. The writers did a great job establishing the back story to this episode, done mainly through the use of character interaction especially Cordelia. It was palpable why Chris needed to do what he was doing and the the scene when he is explaining to Buffy in the girls locker room is touching but still disturbing. The interaction of the characters as i noted above was conducive to the story, Cordelia is now pretty much a fully fledged slayerette and Giles and Jenny's date added comedic value especially the library scene with Giles planning his asking out of Ms Calendar. The bad though is the sheer volley this episode had. Particularly with the character Daryl, it was unclear whether his character deserved sympathy or not. Erick was a character i felt that was also a deficient in this episode, was he just a creep or whether he was merely over eager? Some aspects of this episode were a little pointless, the picture cordelia's head on the diagram wasn't necessary. Daryl waddling back into the fire to save his build it yourself girlfriend. The ending of this episode served for some entertainment, for instance Xander pushing Cordelia to safety when she was strapped to the table. This was clearly the beginning of Cordelia seeing Xander in a new light. The speech Xander gave about people not falling in love with whats in front of them was apt in describing his feelings for Buffy. Best moment: When Xander and Willow are talking about why very never get dates and Cordelia comes up to him and starts to convey something to him, saying if she could do anything...and he cuts her off with a Do you mind we're talking...to Willow 'what were talking about?' Willow: Why we never get dates. Classic! |
| 25. | x factorDec 22, 2011 (Thu) @ 12:41pmView This Person's Comments | Link | |
| This episode is easily an A. The dialogue is outrageously witty and like Gemma said, the villains were jarringly creepy.
No forced contrived storylines? Check. No ridiculous character developments? Check. No mindnumbing boredom? Check. No sadomasichism or sadism? Check. |
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