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| Writer: | Joss Whedon |
| Director: | Joss Whedon |
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| - | Review |
This episode has two strikingly large problems, one being the fact that Ford is an extremely boring character until the very end of the episode, and two being that there are some pacing problems. As I was watching this again I was thinking that it wasn't going to score very high, but then the fantastic foreshadowing and slowly building character development began to win me over. The end, of course, is also fantastic.
The episode begins at night as we see Drusilla, in her creepy white dress, approach a little boy waiting for his mom to pick him up (his mom must be really late). Angel arrives in a knick of time to spare the kid's life and have a little chat with Drusilla. This conversation is actually one of the highlights of the first half of this season. A truck full of foreshadowing is unleashed in the dialog between these two (which is stated below). This is the kind of stuff I eat up. Buffy comes in on the end of the meeting and sees Drusilla close to Angel then runs off looking hurt because she makes dumb assumptions about what was going on. This is one thing I don't like about Buffy's character consistently through the earlier seasons. She always overreacts to things she sees without knowing the context of the situation or the facts.
Anyway, at school the following day Buffy and Willow are amusingly passing notes in class discussing what Buffy saw. Buffy seems to have a cooler head about the situation now. Then Ford arrives out of nowhere and is introduced as a character we know isn't going to be on the show after this episode. I'm glad in one respect, because I really don't like Ford.
Ford being thrown into the group dynamic does create some interesting interaction. Angel lies to Buffy about his whereabouts which in turn causes her to give him the cold shoulder. That makes her eager to leave The Bronze with Ford because of all the romantic tension directed at Buffy by Angel, Xander, and Ford. All of this is too much for Buffy so she does end up leaving the building. I can't say I blame any of the guys for having the hots for Buffy.
There's a few extremely powerful scenes towards the end that really make up for the lackluster first half. One involves finally getting some hard facts about Angel's past. We discover that he killed all of Drusilla's loved ones and then mentally tortured her, all before turning her into a vampire. This naturally creeps Buffy out a bit, even though she wanted to hear it.
Another fantastic scene is when Ford reveals his cancer problem to Buffy. She reacts perfectly to this news, "You have a choice. You don't have a good choice, but you have a choice! You're opting for mass murder here, and nothing you say is gonna make that okay!" I also respect the writers for having a character who sticks to his guns and doesn't give into the "good guy emotionally moving speech." Ford decided not to help Buffy, even after she desparately tries to convince him otherwise.
All of this leads to the moving final scene where Buffy matter-of-factly kills Ford as a vampire and then asks Giles if life gets any easier or any less confusing (see final quote below). The dialog between these two really causes some thought. As you grow up things become more complicated. It's not as clear who's your ally and who's your enemy anymore. There certainly isn't lacking interesting discussion here. So while I don't particularly love this episode, I must admit that it has some truly golden scenes and a lot of beautiful foreshadowing.
| - | Minor Pros/Cons (+/-) |
| Pros: | |
| + | Good to see the show touch on the topic of goths and vampires worshipers. |
| + | Willow being all jittery when Angel ("a boy") comes into her bedroom. |
| + | Jenny took Giles to a monster truck show! Wow, poor Giles. The extremes he'll go to for love. |
| + | Buffy and Angel working out their couple-issues. Buffy says to Angel, "I love you. I don't know if I can trust you." Angel replies with, "maybe you shouldn't do either." |
| + | Spike's unconditional love for Drusilla is really great to see in a villain. |
| - | Foreshadowing |
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| - | Quotes |
| BUFFY: | We're going to the Bronze, it's the local club, and you have to come. |
| FORD: | I'd love to! But if you guys already had plans... Would I be imposing? |
| XANDER: | No, only in the literal sense. |
| WILLOW: | Okay. But if there isn't anything weird... Hey, that's weird. |
| BUFFY: | Do you wanna hang? We're cafeteria-bound. |
| WILLOW: | (jumpy) I-I-I'm gonna do work in the computer lab on school work that I have, so I cannot hang just now. |
| BUFFY: | Okay, Will, fess up. |
| WILLOW: | What? |
| BUFFY: | Are you drinking coffee again? 'Cause we've talked about this. |
| WILLOW: | It makes me jumpy. I have to go. Away. (hurries off) |
| FORD: | Nice girl! |
| BUFFY: | There aren't two of those in the world. |
| XANDER: | In no way do we stick out like sore thumbs. |
| WILLOW: | Okay, but do they really stick out? |
| XANDER: | What? |
| WILLOW: | Sore thumbs. Do they stick out? I mean, have you ever seen a thumb and gone, 'Wow! That baby is sore!' |
| XANDER: | You have too many thoughts. |
| SPIKE: | Do I have anyone on watch here? It's called security, people. Are you all asleep? Or did we finally find a restaurant that delivers? |
| XANDER: | Angel was in your bedroom? |
| WILLOW: | Ours is a forbidden love. |
| BUFFY: | Nothing's ever simple anymore. I'm constantly trying to work it out. Who to love or hate. Who to trust. It's just, like, the more I know, the more confused I get. |
| GILES: | I believe that's called growing up. |
| BUFFY: | I'd like to stop then, okay? |
| GILES: | I know the feeling. |
| BUFFY: | Does it ever get easy? |
| : | (casually stakes Ford who rises from a grave behind her) |
| GILES: | You mean life? |
| BUFFY: | Yeah. Does it get easy? |
| GILES: | What do you want me to say? |
| BUFFY: | Lie to me. |
| GILES: | Yes, it's terribly simple. The good guys are always stalwart and true, the bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns or black hats, and, uh, we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after. |
| BUFFY: | Liar. |
| - | Score |
| 85/100 | B+ |
Just misses the mark of excellence. Essentially, a great episode that's rough around the edges and/or slightly flawed. Extremely fun to watch.
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| - | Screencaps |
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| - | Comments (25) |
| 1. | JoOct 18, 2006 (Wed) | |
| This episode has, as you said, a lot of boring scenes and some major flaw yet it remains one of my favorite because of the last dialogue between Giles and Buffy. Gives me goosebumps every time I watch it. Really powerful and really... true. |
| 2. | robgnowApr 9, 2007 (Mon) | |
| I'm wondering if the last scene with Buffy and Giles wouldn't count as 'foreshadowing' as well. Especially Giles' "No one ever dies and everybody lives happily ever after." And Buffy's follow up "Liar." As we come to know... a lot of people die, including Jenny in this season precluding her and Giles 'living happily ever after'. Just a thought- Rob |
| 3. | MrBApr 16, 2007 (Mon) | |
| I loved in this episode how long the writers let the DiVynls reference to "I touch myself" sink in with Willow. It's about 30 seconds - an eternity in TV time. Most shows would have has the reference, two beats, reaction. This again shows how the show respects the audience and the references. |
| 4. | LatoyaMay 1, 2007 (Tue) | |
| I understood Buffy immediately jumping to conclusions about Angel and Drusilla. Buffy may be The Greatest Slayer of All Time but she is a very insecure person. Angel was her first real boyfriend. She was sixteen years old. Not to mention that Angel and Drusilla WERE lovers/dating back in the day. Maybe a part of Buffy could sense/feel this in some way. I loved Ford. I think it is because I was a fan of Roswell. I thought that Buffy/Ford looked cute together. I loved how Buffy let it slip she used to pleasure herself while thinking about Ford (lying in her bedroom listening to "I touch myself") and then realizing she just told them something very personal/private and tried to backtrack with "Of course, I didn't know what the song was about". Sure you didn't. ;) Buffy never felt comfortable talking about the sexual side of her. Like in Hope, Faith, and Trick when Faith said "Isn't it funny how slaying always makes you hungry and horny?" and the gang all look at Buffy with an inquiring minds want to know expression on their faces. Or in Fool For Love when Buffy acted all disusted that Spike got off on fighting and he says "Are you telling me you don't?" We all know she does. |
| 5. | buffyholicOct 10, 2007 (Wed) | |
| It´s funny how the same show attracts different opinions. I like Ford, I think he´s an interesting character. I like how everyone is uncomfortable with him there. The vampire cult is very interesting and I like how Angel is explaining that things is not how they say but then another guy appears wearing the same outfit as him. And the last scenes are just priceless. Very good one. |
| 6. | OtterBearJan 6, 2008 (Sun) | |
| It is true that in the early seasons, Buffy tends to be insecure when she finds a guy that she likes talking to another girl. However, there was definitely just cause for her to be suspicious here. At the moment that she arrived on the conversation, Dru was leaning towards Angel as if they were about to kiss, and Buffy hears Angel say "This can't go on Drusilla, it has got to end." Obviously, something more is between these two than just being trapped into a cup of coffee with Cordy. |
| 7. | AndrewJan 7, 2008 (Mon) | |
| This was mere inches away from being a truly great episode. Like you say, it had the odd minor flaw that got in the way. Actually I didn't dislike Ford too much. He's certainly better than Owen (Never Kill a Boy on a First Date). Mabye not the best character ever, but fine for a one-off. Willow was truly amazing in this episode. I'm somewhat at a loss to understand a) Why Ford, apparently a reasonably intelligent individual, thought that Spike would bother to keep his promise about turning him into a vampire (Had I been Ford, I'd have demanded to be turned into a vampire *first*) b) Why Spike actually did keep his promise, particularly after the disastrous raid. Perhaps he saw that buffy was just going to stake him anyway and thought it sufficiently ironic to go ahead with it, though it still seems a bit of a pointless risk. |
| 8. | NixJan 11, 2008 (Fri) | |
| Where's the risk? If Spike sires Ford and Ford somehow avoids being slayed, sticks around, and is annoying, Spike can always kill him. (Or perhaps Ford would kill Spike. Yeah, right.) Conversely, if Spike *doesn't* sire Ford, after promising to in front of his henchvamps, well, the henchvamps might cease trusting him: they might even turn on him --- although Drusilla alone could prevent this later on through sheer terror, she's still weak in this ep and the other vamps might not be sufficiently frightened of her. |
| 9. | AndrewJan 21, 2008 (Mon) | |
| Mmmmm, I suppose so. I'd think Spike's vampire minions might regard keeping a promise to human as really not a big deal. But I admit I hadn't thought of that. |
| 10. | wilpy1Feb 22, 2008 (Fri) | |
| Mike, I'm not sure you analysed this episode as acutely as it deserved (from a structural standpoint). There are seeds planted in the entire episode that lead Buffy to the conclusion she comes to in the final scene. Her trust issues - the ones that explain why she is who she is in later seasons - arguably start in this very episode (though she has a lot more hurt and pain to go through yet to get to the defensive, closed-off Buffy she is in s7). Angel lies about seeing Drusilla in the graveyard, and he, Willow and Xander go behind Buffy's back in order to investigate Ford. After finding out her boyfriend and friends have lied to her, Buffy's fed up and demands from Angel that he fesses up about his past, saying quite pointedly "don't lie to me". In her mind at this point, telling the truth is the virtue she admires and appreciates above all else, but this is completely turned on its head when Angel tells her everything, and more than she expected! From then on, she begins to realise that the truth sometimes hurts a lot more than she'd like. This is reinforced when she finds out that Ford lied to her about staking the book-stealing vampire. She gets some perspective when she's trapped in the bomb shelter with the vampire-loving goths, who have clear delusions about vampires and get rude awakenings when Spike and his gang show themselves for what they really are (see Chanterelle/Lily/Anne's face when they approach). This again reinforces to Buffy, and us, that ignorance and lying is often bliss. The big blow for Buffy that cements this idea is when Ford tells her he has cancer and has 6 months to live. At first thinking Ford is just crazy, she's suddenly faced with a villain whose motives are far more human and personal than the "I want to kill the Slayer" motives she's been used to ever since the series began. She says at the end of the episode that Ford probably pretended to be the bad guy just to make things easier for him - but it was easier for HER, too, that he pretended to be the bad guy. She wasn't used to grey area, she'd always had this black-and-white, good-vs-evil view until now. And this is what leads her to wanting Giles to lie to her, as she clearly grasps for this childhood view again. Unfortnately, from here on out, she's never looking back. That's why it's such a beautiful scene, such a tremendously important and beautiful episode. I usually roughly agree with your episode grades, but I'm afraid I can't in this case. Your reasoning for giving LTM a B+ surprises me. You complain about a slow pace, but it didn't stop you giving 'The Gift' and 'Afterlife' perfect scores, and they were even slower! Also, I can't understand why you think it's such an importance to an episode that one-off characters like Ford (and Tara's family in 'Family', another episode I think you graded rather too low) have should be interesting as characters in and of themselves. Like most plots in the show, these one-off characters are only written to develop the main characters, who are, after all, our main concern. I personally think 'Lie To Me' deserves a perfect score for its resonant effect on Buffy's character, and its vital purpose in this progressive series. I simply can't see anything wrong with it. |
| 11. | wilpy1Feb 22, 2008 (Fri) | |
| Another instance of learning truth is near the beginning when Ford reveals to Buffy that he knows she's the Slayer. Of course, this revelation was well before Angel's revelation about Drusilla, and subsequent revelations, so Buffy's realisation about the nasty effects of truth don't come into play yet. On the contrary, Ford's revelation excites and intrigues Buffy. A great parallel there. |
| 12. | AnonDKJun 2, 2008 (Mon) | |
| I agree with Wilpy1. While Ford lacks an emotional connection to the audience, his reasonsings and motives make him a compelling and sympathetic character, and not once do you agree with him. It's Buffy's first step into the adult world, the conflicted world, and I think it performs brilliantly. I even like Angel in this episode! It's my favourite ep and, I believe, justifiably so. It's absolutely marvellously done. |
| 13. | PaulaSep 3, 2008 (Wed) | |
| Responding to a pretty old comment here, but: Buffy never felt comfortable talking about the sexual side of her. Here I must say that I can relate... And I feel for Buffy for everybody around her pretty much always knowing all about her sex life. I think I'd be majorly uncomfortable in such a situation. |
| 14. | PaulaSep 3, 2008 (Wed) | |
| Also re: I loved how Buffy let it slip she used to pleasure herself while thinking about Ford (lying in her bedroom listening to "I touch myself") and then realizing she just told them something very personal/private and tried to backtrack with "Of course, I didn't know what the song was about". Sure you didn't. ;) The way that bit came across to me, actually, was that Buffy had listened to that song a lot back then because it fit her mood but she genuinely didn't fully understand the lyrics at the time (like e.g. Willow obviously hadn't, either). And now when she reminisces aloud she suddenly realizes what the whole thing must sound like, and backtracks in an amusing fashion. Being female myself, I just plain doubt that someone like Buffy would accidentally let something that personal just slip out, in mixed company no less. The above has happened to myself a few times, though. |
| 15. | bigmoneygripOct 2, 2008 (Thu) | |
| I can see why Spike is such a great addition to this show. A recurring (and amusing) theme seems to be Spike's problems with his "employees". I had one of my biggest laughs of the series when Spike railed about nobody being on watch. |
| 16. | PaulaNov 12, 2008 (Wed) | |
| Having just re-watched this on my second round of the whole show, I appreciate the little (and not-so-little) ways in which Whedon makes the show's tone turn darker at this point already. One detail I only thought of just now: surely that graveyard at the end of the episode is in LA, since that's where Ford is from there and would certainly be buried too? I mean, he was lying about father having been transferred to Sunnydale and all that stuff. (And it would make sense for Giles to be there with Buffy, as she'd have needed someone to give her a ride.) |
| 17. | EmilyFeb 15, 2009 (Sun) | |
| Quick question: Why couldn't Angel smell Buffy at the playground in the beginning? Had they still not figured out the whole super power thing by now?
I love the interaction between Angel and Willow- I think that if they were given more screen time together they would be cute friends. I also think that this- their semi-friendship- leads to Willow being more optimistic about giving Angel his soul back in Becoming. I love the continuity of coffee in this and the last couple of episodes lol. The scene with Willow being nervous to talk to Buffy- because she's scared that she'll blurt out what they're doing behind her back- is so funny, and its's so well done by Alyson Hannigan. Then there's the scene where Dru and Spike talk about how she saw and spoke to Angel. I think most see this as Spike being angry that she's talking to Angel because he's the "enemy and all." But I see this as a foreshadow to his jealousy over Angel and Dru when Angel becomes evil. This scene also happens to be very funny lol: "The bird's dead, Dru. You left it in the cage and you didn't feed it, and now it's all dead, just like the last one...." and "I'm a bad, rude man." Gotta love Spike. |
| 18. | JQJun 27, 2009 (Sat) | |
| This is my first comment here at the site. On the advice of two friends I watched Firefly earlier this year and loved it. I’d suspected I would take to Buffy since its original airings never gave it the time until recently. I’m watching the series on DVD now. It took about 15 episodes for it to sink in but now I find I really love it. Big thumbs up on the site here as well. We are not always of the same mind, but reading your reviews and the comments adds to my enjoyment of the episodes. Anyway, regarding this specific episode,…
I’m surprised you gave it this rating. I loved it and thought it deserved higher than a B . I thought Ford was a very interesting character. I thought Jason Behr did a good job making him likable and unlikable in different scenes, and I thought his monologue at the end was well delivered. I loved the “buffet of morons� element. Whedon’s acknowledgement of that sub-sub culture was well handled. The portrayal was funny but not to the point of caricature. I liked Willow and Angel’s scene. Dru and Spike are great, and I loved Angel’s story about his past with Dru. James Marsters and Juliet Landau both add so much to the show. Dru really creeps me out. Landau hits this character perfectly. My only complaint is that Whedon was trying to get too much into this one episode. I think it would have been improved if he had drawn out a few scenes and perhaps eliminated the Giles/Calendar date tangent. In particular I would have liked more back story on the “we heart the lonely ones� society. I would have also liked to see the final scene paced a bit differently. It would have been nice to see realization come to Ford before he was staked. The event did come as a surprise to me and I think it would have worked better being played out rather than rushed. |
| 19. | SunburnSep 18, 2009 (Fri) | |
| Good review as far as it went, but I must take my hat off to Wilpy for his/her high level of further analysis. I agree that the episode was occasionally slow-paced but Wilpy's analysis show how deep the themes run. Also, I thought the fan-club were hilariously irritating and it's a shame not to have had Mike's thoughts about them. The Lonely Ones... arrrgghh. I would also have been pretty pissed off about the Angel/Dru scene if I were Buffy - that was very intimate IMO. And yes, I didn't think Buffy *actually* touched herself while listening to a song called 'I Touch Myself'... she's not THAT cheesy, is she!? Thanks again for the generally excellent reviews, Mike; I discovered them after watching the entire show on DVD for the first time over about 2-3 months, and now me and my boyfriend are on our second rewatch (his third), I'm coming back here daily to see your takes on the previous night's episodes! |
| 20. | mikejerSep 18, 2009 (Fri) | |
| @Sunburn: I think you'll find my reviews improve with time. My earlier reviews were a little rough around the edges and weren't nearly as thorough. Someday I hope to touch up these older ones a bit to bring them up closer to the quality of my later ones. But I'm glad you're enjoying them so far. :) |
| 21. | SunburnSep 30, 2009 (Wed) @ 3:30pm | |
| Touching up the older ones (which sounds a bit dodgy to us English types! ;-) ) sounds amazing, but even (even!) better would be to get the last reviews of season seven. But I don't mean to nag, just to say: Go Mike!, as I believe you might put it. :-) |
| 22. | CirrusNov 30, 2009 (Mon) @ 5:11am | |
| I have to say that I disagree with wilpy1. I don't think this episode deserved anywhere near a perfect score; I was even a bit surprised at the grade Mike gave this.
It's just way too jarringly paced, and the main plot was a little weak, in my opinion. It WAS interesting to see the vampire worshippers, but I feel like they should either have been focused on a lot more or else not really included at all, because it was annoying. Ford was one of the lamest stand-alone characters ever, especially how suddenly he knew she was the Slayer. That was one of the weakest points of the entire episode -- how exactly did he find out, what is his opinion on it, when did it become a vampire worshipper? And how exactly did all this just *happen* to him? Very convenient, and slightly sloppy writing. This is also the case with the Angel and Drusilla moment earlier on in the episode, because seriously, Buffy just *happened* to be there the exact moment Angel and Drusilla meet? Buffy and Angel were both there but hadn't met so far during the evening/night? All this convenience isn't really what I'd expect from a Buffy episode. Spike and Angel really did make the episode worth watching, as did the interesting foreshadowing, specific continuity and the underlying themes, as accentuated by Buffy and Giles' conversation at the end. But for me, those things were only enough to keep this episode out of the D area... (which is the opposite with The Dark Age, I think that episode was much, much better than this episode and basically did many of the same things, just a whole lot better) |
| 23. | ZdravkoJan 12, 2010 (Tue) @ 3:39pm | |
| This episode is a fine example of Whedon's faulty storytelling (and he admitted it as much when discussing the sudden easy killing of Turok-Hans in Chosen) where he seems to sacrifice plot to improve on character development and the overall social theme. When it comes to the two latter things, this episode includes some great foreshadowing to the moral grayness the series will depict more and more as the time will pass by, as depicted in that wonderful last scene with Buffy and Giles. I have to applaud the score here, which is a vast improvement from the earlier episodes. Angel seems here more like his later self than usual - his scenes are pretty impressive all the way through. In terms of plot, this one is a disaster. First of all, no one bothers to question Ford how the hell does he know that Buffy is the Slayer. Secondly, I find it hard to believe that everybody bought that Ford went to Sunnydale High, since he was at school every day, but didn't attend squat. Buffy even walks him to the Admission's office regarding his matriculation but Whedon doesn't bother to explain how did Ford get out of that one. Further on, why oh why did Spike turn Ford into a vampire in the end, despite Buffy getting away? The only thing that was so wrong about that last scene was the vampire Ford. So corny. |
| 24. | Smallprint84Mar 7, 2010 (Sun) @ 8:14pm | |
| @MrB. You're right! And later the same happens with Xander when Willow tells him Angel went to see her.
Xander: (He thinks, wait a while) and says "Angel was in your bedroom?!!?". Willow: We have a forbidden love. And don't we all adore Willow's computer-geek-laugh. We see it again in "Ted". |
| 25. | Smallprint84Mar 7, 2010 (Sun) @ 8:37pm | |
| hey you guys, this is also the cameo appearance of the beautiful Julia Lee. Later in AtS she has find herself and has her own teen-shelter. We see her back in S3-Anne when Buffy helpes her to have a new identity and a confident boost. She learns there to take care for herself. So this why Anne sets up the teen shelter. |
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