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| Writer: | Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali |
| Director: | Deran Serafian |
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| - | Review |
This is an interesting little episode. The cinematography really won me over here as the events are shot in a very creepy style. There's a lot of atmosphere, and as everyone knows by now, atmosphere ranks high on 'good' list. That still doesn't change the fact that nothing important happens and that it's very weak compared to the potent "Passion" (2x17). Nonetheless, like "Inca Mummy Girl" (2x04), I find this episode decent enough.
Like I mentioned before, I really love the camera work in this episode. It succeeds in displaying the hospital as an ugly and creepy place. Everything begins in the cemetary where Buffy passes out do to the flu. The Scoobies rush her into the hospital where chaos and uncertainty run wild. The gang is really scared that Buffy's not going to be okay. Giles and Joyce quickly make it to the hospital where Buffy is stabilized but still somewhat delusional. I've got to admit, it's scary seeing Buffy delirious like this and it reminds me of the frightening "Normal Again" (6x17). Also a nice little touch is how Cordelia "looks away" in anguish when they give Buffy a sedative shot.
Also worth noting is Angelus' creepy visit to the hospital. Xander stands up to him when Angelus says, "Buffy's White Knight. You still love her. It must just eat you up that I got there first." Xander replies with the perfect comeback, "You're gonna die. And I'm gonna be there." Both come true in "Becoming Pt. 2" (2x22), although Xander doesn't get to see Buffy actually kill him.
Later on the group is taking Buffy for a stroll in her wheelchair outside the hospital. During this moment, both Buffy and Spike are in wheelchairs. How funny is that? Look at where these two, who were fighting to the death back in "School Hard" (2x03), are now: crippled and helpless. Anyway, I love the reference to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal in the same scene. Xander says, "Ooo, if he asks you to play chess, don't even do it. The guy's, like, a whiz."
There's a couple other positives aspects to mention. One is that I'm really happy the doctor isn't the bad guy. Things stay somewhat unpredictable in every episode of this show. Another thing I liked is the final scene where Willow, Xander, and Buffy are all snuggled up on top of Buffy's bed eating snacks and watching TV. Very homely and cute.
There's only a few things I didn't care for. Even though the episode's got a creepy tone, the pace is a bit too slow in some places. The one huge complaint I have, though, is Buffy's flashbacks of her cousin's death. As soon as we find out her cousin was killed by the same demon, the said cousin then turns into a plot contrivance just there to make us more sympathetic to Buffy. This connection was completely unnecessary. Also, the young girl version of Buffy looks nothing like Buffy. So while this isn't a particularly complex or standout episode, it works well as a slow, creepy, and decent little outing with the Scoobies.
| - | Minor Pros/Cons (+/-) |
| Pros: | |
| + | Buffy getting the flu. It's good to know that she can get ill like the rest of us. |
| + | The Giles and Joyce conversation. What Joyce says is very touching. |
| + | The demon is pretty creepy. |
| + | Cordelia pointing out that Xander often looks at Buffy's ass. She then tells him that he should start looking at her ass instead. |
| + | Giles complaining about getting stuck with Cordelia as a research partner. |
| + | Buffy wanting to discuss the demon with Giles over the phone instead of Cordelia. |
| + | Willow's frog fear is put to clever use here. |
| + | The boy's drawing of Buffy killing the demon at the end. |
| Cons: | |
| - | How the kids initially just walk up to Buffy and tell her about what they saw. Why would they walk up to a random girl and say that? |
| - | Quotes |
| XANDER: | Man, Buffy! My whole life just flashed before my eyes! I gotta get me a life! |
| BUFFY: | The vampires! I need to kill the vampires! |
| GILES: | (smiling reassuringly) Yes, uh, well, we'll, uh, we'll get those, uh, vampires later. (laughs lightly, looks at Joyce) I hear it's best t-to play along. |
| XANDER: | (presenting five balloons) Flowers for milady. |
| BUFFY: | I think they call those balloons. |
| XANDER: | Yeah, stick 'em in water, maybe they'll grow. |
| CORDELIA: | Nobody told me I was supposed to bring a gift. I was out of the loop on gifts. |
| GILES: | It's, it's tradition among, um... people. |
| CORDELIA: | But you do know that you saw death. |
| XANDER: | Ooo, if he asks you to play chess, don't even do it. The guy's, like, a whiz. |
| BUFFY: | Maybe it wasn't death. Maybe it was something else. |
| CORDELIA: | So this isn't about you being afraid of hospitals 'cause your friend died and you wanna conjure up a monster that you can fight so you can save everybody and not feel so helpless? |
| GILES: | Cordelia, have you actually ever heard of tact? |
| XANDER: | Oh, oh, oh, (holds up an empty bag) and another bag of cheesy chips. |
| JOYCE: | Uh, you ate the last one. |
| XANDER: | No, there's another bag hidden behind the raisins. |
| JOYCE: | I'm on it. (leaves) |
| XANDER: | (to Buffy) Your mom's tryin' to Bogart the cheesy chips. What's that all about? |
| - | Score | Learn about the Grading Scale |
| 65/100 |
C ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ |
Noticeably flawed. The main plot is likely poor and/or hokey, but some chunks of character development and relevance make it worth watching.
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| - | Screencaps |
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Comments (20)
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| 1. | buffyholicJul 25, 2007 (Wed)Link | |
| I don`t like this episode very much either. I like some small scenes, like the last scene with the three of them together at Buffy`s house. I always like Angelus`s visit to the hospital and Joyce talking to Giles about Jenny. But I didn`t like the mosnter of the week and that flashback to Buffy`s cousin. I too felt that it came out of nowhere. One last thing: it creeps me out to see Buffy like that, so helpless and also the music surrounding the hospital.But still, this eepisode is watchable and deserves for me a 65 or 70. |
| 2. | AustinAug 20, 2007 (Mon)Link | |
| The Demon Reminds me of the Joker. I love the last scene with Joyce doing the typical mom-with-sick-girl routine, it's a breath of normality among the incredibly intense Angelus Saga. |
| 3. | AustinSep 20, 2007 (Thu)Link | |
| I like how they showed Buffy pretending to be a super heroine at a young age. I think it's interesting that Buffy was heroine, kind of a little extra foreshadowing that she'd always had the desire to be a heroine in her, maybe that is something that is in every potential, the desire to help and save people. That's weird to think about, that Buffy was at one point a potential. |
| 4. | buffyholicSep 29, 2007 (Sat)Link | |
| That was always something that intrigued me. Buffy pretending to be a superhero, like her subconcious was saying something about Buffy`s nature. |
| 5. | NixOct 3, 2007 (Wed)Link | |
| Um, I hate to burst your popular media bubble, but playing chess with Death is not necessarily a reference to _The Seventh Seal_. It's ancient folklore repeated in countless works of fiction on and off the screen. |
| 6. | NixJan 11, 2008 (Fri)Link | |
| ... but in this case, er, it *was* a reference to _The Seventh Seal_. I should have watched the episode again before making an idiot of myself. |
| 7. | SuzanneMay 17, 2008 (Sat)Link | |
| Ah, some high culture reference I'd missed. But what irked me most was the demon's name. The correct German would be "Kindertod" not "Kindestod". It refers to potential death of all children: der Kinder Tod (plural genitiv) instead of des Kindes Tod: (singular genitiv) the death of one child. Even if this is supposed to refer to any given child, the plural form is used in German. Again something missed by the English speaking Watcher's Council. Are they bragging about the modern language skills of their Watchers? I thought the same when Giles was unable to communicate with Cho Ahn about potential Slayers and Turok Han. Sure, she speaks Cantonese, but if he'd just written the thing down in Chinese characters, she would have understood him perfectly well, as written Chinese is understood by everyone in the country, or so I'm told. Oké, so the whedonverse writers don't speak every language on the planet... but they could try to check with someone before they use a language. They did that with the Chinese in Firefly. |
| 8. | AdastraAug 8, 2008 (Fri)Link | |
| I admit the reference to The Seventh Seal was pretty awesome, but somehow there's no way I could ever imagine Xander watching an Ingmar Bergman movie!? How the hell did that happen? Did Willow drag him to watch one? I mean, Bergman movies are incredibly slow and you need a lot of patience to watch them. Since Xander has the attention span of a house fly, he'd probably have fallen asleep 5 minutes in. I also have to correct Suzanne; "Der Kindestod" is correct German, though an uncommon phrase. There's a real cause of death for children called "plötzlicher Kindstod" ((sudden) crib death), which is probably what inspired the writers for this demon. Kindstod is a bit of a slang or old-fashioned word for "Kindestod". While "der Kinder Tod" is also correct German, it wouldn't make sense in this relation, because if translated it means "the Children's Death" or "the Death of the Children" and sounds quaint. German is a very complicated language. BTW, I think that this is possibly the creepiest Buffy episode ever in the "normal" creepy way. |
| 9. | PaulaNov 26, 2008 (Wed)Link | |
| I'd have far fewer issues with this episode if the portrayal of people seriously sick with a flu, complete with that high fever and whatnot, would be a little more realistic. I'll admit that e.g. lots of coughing and a seriously husky voice would not have made a very attractive Slayer, but still. (Yeah, OK, Buffy may have special healing powers, but the kids don't appear all that sick and weak either.) Gotta love Xander standing up to Angel at the hospital, though. That's quite a chilling scene. Angel not killing people a whole lot more does feel a bit contrived from time to time in the course of the second half of this season, but I guess that vampires on their own do avoid drawing attention to themselves by doing things like killing in public and crowded places. |
| 10. | EmilyMar 10, 2009 (Tue)Link | |
| I think there's some continuity here...I flash back to the episode "Ted" where there was a discussion in the review about how the episode storyline fits in with "Normal Again" and how Buffy was in a mental hospital....I think that it fits very well here that when the doctor says that Buffy should stay for a few days, she goes absolutely nuts and they have to sedate her. It shows her fear of being in a health institution, which doesn't only match with her cousin's death, but also matches to "Normal Again." I'm loving Willow and the frogs! lol |
| 11. | EmilyMar 10, 2009 (Tue)Link | |
| I think there's some continuity here...I flash back to the episode "Ted" where there was a discussion in the review about how the episode storyline fits in with "Normal Again" and how Buffy was in a mental hospital....I think that it fits very well here that when the doctor says that Buffy should stay for a few days, she goes absolutely nuts and they have to sedate her. It shows her fear of being in a health institution, which doesn't only match with her cousin's death, but also matches to "Normal Again." I'm loving Willow and the frogs! lol |
| 12. | IdaJul 26, 2009 (Sun)Link | |
| The demon was scary untill it did the thing with its eyes. That was just dumb. Anyway, I do like this episode, but I am quite disappointed of how they just 'forgot' about what happended in passion. Sure, they mention it and all, but my eyes still tear up when I think about it, and so I wish they would have payed more attention to it. |
| 13. | GuidoFeb 3, 2010 (Wed) @ 11:39pmLink | |
| This episode is a slap in the face to Passion. It's a contrived monster of the week throw-away that only serves to disrupt the momentum leading up to the finale. If I had my choice between this and I Robot, You Jane I'd pick the Season 1 flop because at least it wasn't such a big let down in the middle of a season. Also, Ryan, you left Cordelia's reply out of the Quotes, when she says, "Tact is saying stuff that isn't true, count me out." Leaving that part out is like forgetting the punchline. |
| 14. | MakiFeb 17, 2010 (Wed) @ 9:24amLink | |
| The first time, I saw this episode I was was scared to hell. The demon is nasty and the atmosphere at the nightly hospital was also creepy. For me - being German - it is very funny to hear the Scoobies say German words. BTW We would say "Kindertod". "Kindestod" is actually the term for sudden infant death syndrome. I liked this episode very much because of the hospital scenes. I really adore the unreal dark lights and (my favorite) disinterested housekeeper. That reminds me in a certain way of David Lynch. |
| 15. | Smallprint84Mar 11, 2010 (Thu) @ 4:22amLink | |
| I also liked this episode because of the creepy atmosphere and the demon, he reminded me a bit of Freddy Krueger, the way he moves, invisible for grown ups. |
| 16. | NixApr 16, 2010 (Fri) @ 3:55pmLink | |
| Maki: I suspect the SIDS reference was intentional, with this demon being the underlying cause. (Hey, the cause is mysterious, thus, in the Buffyverse, it's probably supernatural and horrible. I'm *so* glad I don't live there.) |
| 17. | fray-adjacentMay 16, 2010 (Sun) @ 11:44amLink | |
| I agree with Ida and Guido somewhat that this episode is a letdown after "Passion," but as far as MotW episodes go, this is a good one to follow "Passion," since the hospital setting, and the fact that Buffy has gotten sick (the only time in the series if I remember right) suggest how harmful the last few weeks have been and the healing that's needed. I agree that the creepy atmosphere in this episode is great (though it didn't help that the first time Buffy sees Kindestod I instantly recognized the music as being from the DVD menu). Also, for some reason this demon is one of very few in the whole series that I found creepy and/or gross enough to think about days after watching the episode. As I re-watch the series, it's funny to see how many opportunities both Angelus and Spike have to kill main characters and don't, as Paula points out. Obviously this is important from the perspective of the show -- even Joss can't kill off more than a few main characters in a single season, and it would also make it much more difficult to redeem Angel and Spike later on -- but it also could be read as a certain level of ambiguity in their characters. Angelus could've killed Buffy in her bedroom in "Passion," but he chose not to. Spike has a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness, but we rarely actually see that after "School Hard." The romantic side of his nature gets developed a lot more in comparison. I think this may be subtly setting the stage for Spike's soulless transformation (or cultivation of a soul, as I like to think of it) in later seasons. |
| 18. | NixMay 31, 2010 (Mon) @ 3:20pmLink | |
| "I instantly recognized the music as being from the DVD menu" --- they didn't use _Close your eyes_ as the DVD menu music? The fools! |
| 19. | LizzieJun 29, 2010 (Tue) @ 1:36pmLink | |
| Random observation, but I always thought of 'Death' as a 'she'. Great review, by the way. |
| 20. | nathan.taurusJul 29, 2010 (Thu) @ 10:21pmLink | |
| The Good:
Buffy's look to Giles as he tactfully gets Cordelia about her not bringing a gift. The Giles and Cordelia research session. "There's a demon for everything." Xander telling about him not being able to tell Willow they were playing 'Doctor' wrong. Willow's frog fear comes up again. Can you imagine if she dreamt of being onstage with frogs while being late for class and naked. The ending with the gang in Buffy's room. The drawing of a manly Buffy by Young Giles. The Bad: 8 year-old Buffy as a brunette. She is blonde in 'Weight of the World' when she is 4. Is she naturally blonde or brunette. Maybe she's a ginger:) The flashback scenes. Screaming children. The old Hollywood saying springs to mind. |
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