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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 (14)
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| 1. | AustinAug 20, 2007 (Mon)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)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)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)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)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)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)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)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)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)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)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) @ 6:22amLink | |
| 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) @ 9:05amLink | |
| nallan, NOT CRAZY AT ALL. I feel the same way, lol. |
| 14. | NickFeb 11, 2010 (Thu) @ 8:00amLink | |
| 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. |
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