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| Writer: | Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer |
| Director: | Ellen S. Pressmen |
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| - | Review |
A lot of other people give this episode a hard time, but I actually kind of like it. Sure the main plot is mediocre, but at least the main characters have a bit of fun with it. Aside from the basic nature of the plot and the fact that Spike isn't in it, there's really nothing bad here. This is a decent episode that has a self-contained story and some interesting discussion about sacrifice in it.
One of the most notable things is the introduction of Oz though. Television writers everywhere should take notice here, because this is how you introduce a new main character into an already running show. Oz doesn't speak to one main character all episode long. It's also cute that he 'discovers' Willow when all covered up in that Eskimo costume. Oz is going to be slowly introduced to the main characters separately over the course of several episodes coming up, which is just really cool and so not contrived.
The rest of the episode is really about Xander and his running theme of always getting demon dates. It's amusing to know that this will never stop (see foreshadowing section). The mummy girl really does care about Xander and really doesn't want to hurt him. What happened to her was tragic and not her fault but, obviously, what she is doing is wrong. I also really like her conversation with Buffy in her room about sacrifice because it exactly paralells what Buffy went through in "Prophecy Girl" (1x12).
I also want to mention how much I liked the way Willow finally gave up on Xander romantically. Xander has not shown any kind of persistent interest in that kind of relationship with her from the start, so she wisely decides to move on. She isn't angry or bitter about this revelation either, which is nice. This sets up her emotional readiness to begin a relationship with Oz beginning in "What's My Line? Pt. 2" (2x10).
The production values are pretty good and the music was perfect to set the mood of the happenings. There's not really much else to say about this. I simply think it is an amiable stand-alone and nothing more.
| - | Minor Pros/Cons (+/-) |
| Pros: | |
| + | The early training scene where Buffy, very cutely, coerces Giles to let her go to the dress-up dance. |
| + | The conversation between Buffy and Xander about Willow kissage. |
| + | The mummy girl gets some cool special effects for her death kiss. |
| + | Xander's twinkie scene with the mummy girl is cute and amusing. |
| + | The bad demon dates for Xander keep on coming! |
| + | Buffy telling Giles to get a "grown up" car. He actually does in "Real Me" (5x02). |
| + | Poor Jonathan gets introduced on the show with bad luck. I love his frequent 'extra' appearances that will eventually lead to a more important role in S6. |
| - | Foreshadowing |
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| - | Quotes |
| BUFFY: | It's the uber-suck. |
| XANDER: | Hold on a sec. So, this person who's living with you for two weeks is a man. With man parts. This is a terrible idea. |
| WILLOW: | What about the beautiful melding of two cultures? |
| XANDER: | There's no melding, okay? He better keep his parts to himself. |
| XANDER: | Typical museum trick. Promise human sacrifice, deliver old pots and pans. |
| WILLOW: | On the other hand, maybe Rodney just stepped out for a smoke. |
| XANDER: | For twenty-one hours? |
| WILLOW: | It's addictive, you know. |
| WILLOW: | I shrugged. |
| XANDER: | Next time you should probably say 'shrug'. |
| WILLOW: | Sigh. |
| - | Score |
| 70/100 | C+ |
The main plot is likely problematic and/or hokey, but sharp humor and/or character development and relevance keep it afloat. A couple moments may be over-the-top in a bad way.
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| - | Screencaps |
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| - | Comments (13) |
| 1. | AngelusAug 21, 2006 (Mon) | |
| Ive always loved this episode. Xander is in full form in this one. |
| 2. | buffyholicOct 9, 2007 (Tue) | |
| I totally agree with your score, mike. I like this episode a lot, we can see the characters have fun with it and we have great dialogue and character interaction. And I like the mummy story. The story allows the characters to develop, like the talk about the Chosen One relating to both Buffy and Ampata. And of course, we meet Oz. Great character. |
| 3. | NixDec 10, 2007 (Mon) | |
| One thing's always bugged me: how does Ampata know English? How does she fit in so well? She fits in much better than I would, and I'm from Giles's native culture. (For that matter she fits in better than Giles does.) (I guess she must be extracting knowledge from the people she kisses or something.) |
| 4. | NixMay 24, 2008 (Sat) | |
| I just noticed something. They actually take the mickey out of the corny plot *in the episode*. So the writers *knew* the plot was corny... and went ahead with it anyway. With an attitude like that, I think I'm rather glad this was their last ep. |
| 5. | bigmoneygripSep 27, 2008 (Sat) | |
| Favorite quote: "You're not a praying mantis, are you?" |
| 6. | PaulaNov 8, 2008 (Sat) | |
| Okay, my big big BIG problem with this episode (and I have similar complaints with a lot of BtVS episodes, but never quite so bad as here): What did who tell Joyce after "Ampata" just disappeared? (At this point, the truth obviously wasn't an option. One season later in the show it would have been.) And what in the world did who tell the real Ampata's family?! ("Sorry, tell others over there not to send their kids over to Sunnydale since innocent kids just randomly disappear here, and no, we never even found his body?") Other than that, the introduction of both Jonathan and Oz in this one episode was obviously pretty cool. |
| 7. | EmilyFeb 15, 2009 (Sun) | |
| Nix, I think Ampata knows English because she's been sitting and rotting in that museum for so long. It's possible her soul or something was still around- that she wasn't necessarily dead- and she heard everyone speaking around her. Or maybe you're right and she was extracting info from people she kissed. |
| 8. | NixFeb 26, 2009 (Thu) | |
| Paula, the attitude to people killed by supernatural forces (but not *natural* forces) in _Buffy_ was well-expressed by the late great Douglas Adams, years before Buffy was thought of. He said in _The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts_ (actually copied off Slashdot but this quote is accurate: I'm just a lazy sod): "Ah yes, the whale. Well, this came about as a result of watching an episode of a dangerously insane TV detective show called _Cannon_, in which people got shot the whole time for incredibly little reason. They would just happen to be walking across the street, and they would simply get killed, regardless of what their own plans for the rest of the day might have been. "I began to find the sheer arbitrariness of this rather upsetting, not just because characters were getting killed, but because nobody ever seemed to care about it one way or another. Anybody who might have cared about any of these people -- family, friends, even the postman -- was kept firmly offstage. There was never any, 'Good night sweet Prince', or, 'She should have died hereafter', or even, 'Look you bastard, I was meant to be playing squash with this guy tonight', just bang, clear them out of the way, on to the next. They were merely, excuse me, Cannonfodder. "I thought I'd have a go at this. I'd write in a character whose sole function was to be killed for the sake of a small detail in the plot, and then damn well make the audience care about it, even if none of the other characters in the story did. I suppose I must have succeeded because I received quite a number of letters saying how cruel and callous this section was -- letters I certainly would not have received if I had simply mentioned the whale's fate incidentally and passed on. I probably wouldn't have received them if it had been a human either." -- Douglas Adams |
| 9. | NixFeb 28, 2009 (Sat) | |
| OK, I think I've found an example of mummy-knowledge that cannot be explained by my sucking-knowledge theory or by Emily's rather nice 'just listening in' theory. The mummy *calls Ampata's name* at the bus station. Unless it was a mind-reader (for which there is no other evidence and which seems rather unlikely) there's no *way* it could know that: Buffy doesn't so much as speak his name there, and nobody else knows it. So this must be a plot hole. |
| 10. | NixFeb 28, 2009 (Sat) | |
| Emily: we have textual proof of your hypothesis. She says: 'I have toured... I was taken to Atlanta, Boston, New York... I did not see so much.' These are all younger than 500 years (plus transcontinental travel sucked half a millennium ago). Thus this is a reference to her coffin being taken there (and all she saw was the insides of museums). |
| 11. | DevilfishAug 5, 2009 (Wed) | |
| Between the obviously cheesy plot, the introduction of the worst guarded museum ever, the assumption by generally intelligent people that every latino speaks and reads the Inca language (Giles should really know better) and another batch of kids disappearing without much worry or consequence, my suspension of disbelief was thouroughly shattered. At least the evryone-speaks-English trope is subverted here: Ampata seemingly remembers 'touring' the US as a museum piece, so she probably picked up English that way. One assumes. Seeing this episode for the first time (late to the party much?), for me it really ranks as badly as the one with the cheesy praying mantis storyline. Just... bad. |
| 12. | MichelleSep 25, 2009 (Fri) | |
| Eh. This is typical MOTW stuff. What irritates me is that Giles, a guy who speaks, I believe, six languages, hasn't mastered Spanish? Really? |
| 13. | LeeluSep 25, 2009 (Fri) | |
| @Michelle: I believe he pretty much is only learned in dead/ancient languages, as that's what is most relevant to his line of work. |
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