S03.E12: Helpless

[Joe Hellandback]

Helpless

The Good; Fabulous ep, really pulls the rug out from under you and puts Buffy in serious peril, very scary. Lovely Amy ref, love the final scene and Joyce's pride at Buffy's cleverness.

The Bad; The whole idea of the Cruciantanem is stupid. If the Slayer isn't up to the job then surely she just dies anyway and they get a new one? Surely Buffy would go to her friends for help? How does Kralik know that Buffy is aware where to come to when he sends her his invitation? Wouldn't it be better for the Council to have

 

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Wes standing by to relieve Giles

rather than leave it a fortnight? Willow's mustard yellow tights are awful,

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I think Tara threw them out as we don't see them past season 3.

Best line; No contest "Bite me!" but I do also like the Buffy/Angel exchange; Buffy; "That's beautiful...or taken literally really gross" Angel; "I was just thinking"

Character death; 2 humans and 2 vamps

Tied up; Joyce

Knocked out; No but Buffy mesmerised

Women good/men bad; Lots of it. Buffy is let down by her father and betrayed by her father figure (the scene where she dumps her father's present in the bin is particularly heartrending). Kralik killed and ate his own mother (hopefully after he became a vampire?) Kralik menacing Joyce is very scary and his idea of turning Buffy even more so (although would even a sired Slayer be evil?).

Kinky dinky; How long have you got? Buffy and Angel 'getting all sweaty' as Xander would say. Buffy refers to dating an older man who likes it when she calls him daddy, probably her father but Angel would like to be sure....Seeking arrangement.com? I must say I missed the whole 'phallic crystal fondling' first time around, David Fury had to point it out to me. You could even say that the whole Giles' drugs Buffy routine is tantamount to child abuse, he dopes her then penetrates her body with the needle. Kralik meanwhile actually seems to like pain from Buffy burning him with the cross

Calling Captain Subtext; If there were ever an ep where Cordy and Buffy were to get together this is it. Note Cordy's outraged pounding of the guy who pushes Buffy and her leaving Buff home.

Guantanamo Bay; The Watcher's Council show their true colours and they're pretty damn ruthless

Scoobies to the ER; Going to start a new topic because in virtually every ep one or more requires hospital treatment; Buffy pretty banged up and without Slayer healing for once

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Where's Dawn? Still at the house when Kralik snatches Joyce? At Kit's? Girl Scouts? After school classes? Or taken hostage with her mother?

Questions and observations Interesting to hear David Fury's initial story idea, that Buffy hallucinates the Scoobies and Joyce as vamps. Nice to hear he was a fan before he got to write it. I also heard they couldn't do it because Kristine Sutherland was allergic to the vamp makeup. No Faith this ep? A shame, liked to have seen her. Presumably Kralik's pills are for mental illness rather than for anything physical which would have been cured when he became a vamp like Spike's mum/Darla. The guy he turns is one of the crew from ST;ENTERPRISE. You always knew Buffy would beat him but her method is very ingenious (after all, Little Red Riding Hood defeats the big bad wolf). Presumably more time elapses between Buffy trying to untie Joyce and him breaking through the door than is shown onsecreen. Remember Buffy hasn't even seen Kralik wash down the pills so Joyce must have told her. Personally I always liked the eaten-away-from-within effect and it was always obvious to me. Cordy's paper is on Bosnia which dates this ep pretty accurately (nowadays kids would be writing about Darfur).

8/10, very, very good, almost a classic

[illdoc]

10 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

 

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Where's Dawn? Still at the house when Kralik snatches Joyce? At Kit's? Girl Scouts? After school classes? Or taken hostage with her mother?

 

 

Actually, 

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It wouldn't be Kit, since Dawn doesn't meet her until Season 7 at the new high school. I think you meant Janice, Dawn's friend until Season 7.

Edited July 10, 2018 by illdoc

[Halting Hex]

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Or at Melinda's, across the street.  Perhaps Joyce doesn't let Dawn wander too far at 13.

I'm mostly just bored by this one.  It's cool that the Council is testing Giles as much as Buffy, and assuming that 

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Spike isn't completely full of shit (for once) and Slayers do have a death wish, it makes sense to give them an excuse ("oh, no, my powers are gone! I'm HELPLESS!") and let them lie down and die when it won't get any civilians killed.  One slayer dies, the next one's called; if Buffy's ready to cash her chips and move on, who are the Council to stop her?

Nicely cold-blooded, IMO.

But it's slow and too dark and talky and I miss Willow and Xander.  Pass.

[Joe Hellandback]

15 hours ago, nosleepforme said:

That's my favorite line in the episode, I love how they undercut it to break the corniness of Angel's whole speech, which is beautiful, but also sort of creepy if you look at Angel as an older male who stalks a 15-year old teenager. 

 

That's also one of my favorite "highschool life"-scenes, ranking right behind the one from the last episode ("Gingerbread") in which Buffy's head pops up behind a bully's head before he can lay a hand on his victim. Someone on a podcast pointed out that it is kinda ridiculous that this guy assaults Cordelia and Buffy on the schoolyard in the middle of the day, but it works and I love how it brings out Cordelia's protectiveness. Even though she doesn't have to stand up against this guy, she does. Which pretty much proves that even in the highschool seasons she already had a sense of right and wrong, even if she sometimes carries out insults against the "losers" frequently. 

 

It is kind of an irresponsible test, especially considering that in the life of the slayer, every day is already a day where she can't just rely on her super strength and show intelligence. Otherwise Buffy would have never made it this far. I also find it kind of hilarious that the council just happens to have an insanely psychotic serial killer vamp on hold for the slayer's council challenge.

 

Kralik makes for a great villain though. Jeff Rack is generally good at playing villains.

 

David Fury's initial pitch for this episode was for Giles to only be temporarily fired and to be reinstated by the end of the episode. However, Joss liked it so much that they put the firing at the end of the episode and turned into a significant point point of the season.

With anyone else it would be metaphor but with Angel/Angelus he probably really did that at some stage?

Remember, this is SDH and the normal rules don't apply. I love that scene, it shows Buffy is the class protector in more ways than one and once again shows CC gradually starting to come back into the fold. Also shows she won't put up with male on female violence. 

I always figured Kralik was the one they used to initiate new Watchers as 

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Wes tells Giles later. 

Yes, Kober is good at that, when he's not selling Bacardi. He just has that look to him.  

15 hours ago, illdoc said:

Actually, 

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It wouldn't be Kit, since Dawn doesn't meet her until Season 7 at the new high school. I think you meant Janice, Dawn's friend until Season 7.

Yes, you're right,

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Janice is the girl from All the Way but she moves out of SD by season 7 according to Dawn, Kit is the one she meets at SDH and phones later in CWDP .

[Joe Hellandback]

5 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

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Or at Melinda's, across the street.  Perhaps Joyce doesn't let Dawn wander too far at 13.

I'm mostly just bored by this one.  It's cool that the Council is testing Giles as much as Buffy, and assuming that 

  Hide contents

Spike isn't completely full of shit (for once) and Slayers do have a death wish, it makes sense to give them an excuse ("oh, no, my powers are gone! I'm HELPLESS!") and let them lie down and die when it won't get any civilians killed.  One slayer dies, the next one's called; if Buffy's ready to cash her chips and move on, who are the Council to stop her?

Nicely cold-blooded, IMO.

But it's slow and too dark and talky and I miss Willow and Xander.  Pass.

In a town like Sunnydale do you blame her? That's an interesting theory, perhaps the whole idea of the Cruciantenam is to see if the Slayer already has

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the death wish and if they need to prepare. Also it might be they're always scared they'll turn to the dark side and this is to judge their character.  

Would have been nice to have more Xander and Willow but there's lots of great stuff here, it's a classic ep. 

[lembergwatcher]

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Buffy: Before I was the Slayer, I was... Well, I, I don't wanna say shallow, but... Let's say a certain person, who will remain nameless, we'll just call her Spordelia, looked like a classical philosopher next to me. Angel, if I'm not the Slayer, what do I do? What do I have to offer? Why would you like me?

I know it's a pure coincidence, but what if Buffy was a hidden Spike & Cordelia 'shipper?

[Joe Hellandback]

1 hour ago, lembergwatcher said:

I know it's a pure coincidence, but what if Buffy was a hidden Spike & Cordelia 'shipper?

Did she want to inflict him on her or her on him?

[Halting Hex]

This was before "mash-up" portmanteaux were a thing, though;  Buffy/Angel was known as "B+A", not "Bangel".

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The first time I saw the term "Spuffy", I thought it was somebody making a mockery of the 'shippers, treating them like middle-schoolers.  I was agog to discover that was actually a thing.

[lembergwatcher]

2 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Did she want to inflict him on her or her on him?

Option two, I guess.

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎13‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 7:31 PM, Halting Hex said:

This was before "mash-up" portmanteaux were a thing, though;  Buffy/Angel was known as "B+A", not "Bangel".

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The first time I saw the term "Spuffy", I thought it was somebody making a mockery of the 'shippers, treating them like middle-schoolers.  I was agog to discover that was actually a thing.

Oh was it ever a thing!

[lembergwatcher]

The whole "Cruciamentum" ordeal could've been a good opportunity for Buffy to appreciate her slayerettes (the ones who risk their lives without Slayer's superpowers) a little bit more. But that wasn't the case in the third season...   

[Halting Hex]

Well, the (primary) point of the Cruciamentum is to show the Slayer that she's capable enough through native skill, no powers or allies normally needed.  Wouldn't have made much sense for a flying battalion of Slayerettes to come save her bacon (unlike, say, Killed by Death, where Xander and Willow each save her twice and even Cordelia chips in) and while a "you guys rock!" would always be appreciated, it would be a bit odd to see in an episode where Willow and Xander are barely seen (and Oz doesn't even resurface for the tag), Cordelia's helpful transportation and Giles's belated slayage aside.

(I believe I not only shorted the G-Man out of his Blair kill here when I put up the slaying chart in the Xander thread, but also

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the Eliminati he decapitates two episodes hence

.  Whoops and whoops again.)

And, to be fair, Buffy thanked Xillow for both their physical support and contributing to her emotional survival just three episodes ago, in The Wish.  (Where the entire point of the episode was that she needs them as much as they need her.)  Considering that as of 3.09, it had been seven episodes since the previous time Buffy had showed gratitude towards Xander and six eps since she did likewise for Giles and Willow, I can't much complain about a three-episode pause as of now.  But JMO.

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(Giles gets after-the-fact props ["the bravest thing I've ever seen"] in our very next episode, and Willow gets them ["I need my Willow"] before the action even starts, as well as for the clouding spell in that episode's teaser.  Xander is but a "fray-adjacent" secret hero in The Zeppo, but that's rather the point…)

 

[lembergwatcher]

I see your point. Although that's not exactly what I meant. 

It's not about thanking X/W/G on every possible occasion. It's about actual respect for the job they perform. Yes, Buffy can express gratitude to her Slayerettes time after time, but some of her actions speak otherwise.

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Xillow aren't special enough to be privy to B/G/A plans of exposing Faith/Mayor connections in Enemies. And I don't understand how can Xander's "soldier memories" matter to Buffy on one occasion (Graduation Day, Pt. 2) and be considered "useless" on another (The Zeppo)?  

   

[Halting Hex]

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GILES: My role in this was specific... I was to administer the injections, then direct you to the old boarding house on Prescott Lane

BUFFY: I can't hear this, I can't...

But apparently she does hear it, well enough that she knows where to go when Kralik kidnaps Joyce.  Kralik's note on the photo merely said "come";  I didn't see any Mapquest printout attached.

Which makes it even more, er, convenient that Giles spills the precise address here, given that he's presumably trying to protect Buffy from the test and believes his actions have cancelled it.  

David Fury, I believe this is what's called "cheating".  Just saying.

Now the question becomes…how does Kralik, who encountered Buffy on the street, know where Buffy lives so he can grab Joyce?  Does Little Red Riding Buffy have her address pinned inside her coat?  "If found, please return daughter to Joyce Summers, 1630 Revello Drive?"  Huh.

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I'd say that this shows that all vampires have the same SuperNose that Spike shows in First Date and so Kralik not only can find where Buffy is but where she's regularly been…but Angel will show up at the Bronze "looking for Buffy" in both 3.13 and 3.16, so apparently not.

 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Halting Hex

[lembergwatcher]

1 hour ago, Halting Hex said:

given that he's presumably trying to protect Buffy from the test and believes his actions have cancelled it

Emphasis on "presumably". What if Giles is not what he pretends to be? After all, the whole "Quentin sacks Rupert" scene just reeks with staging. Travers says Giles "will be dealt with" in case he tries to interfere with the new Watcher.

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Then Wesley comes and Giles does exactly that and yet no repercussions follow. Why should the Watchers Councill be all talk, no walk? Besides, why does Council's team pay Giles a visit in This Year's Girl/Who Are You if the guy has nothing to do with the organization?

 

1 hour ago, Halting Hex said:

how does Kralik, who encountered Buffy on the street, know where Buffy lives so he can grab Joyce?

I guess it was common knowledge within Sunnydale's demonic community. What if Angel told everyone while drinking at the Willy's bar in the days of Angelus 2.0? "Guys, I'm tellin' you, this bitch worships Dorothy Hamill!.. And she has a stuffed pig with the stupid name Mr. Gordo. And she wears panties with "hello kitties". Yeah, and her Mommy fucked with a robot! What a freak family, those Summers are..." Something like that. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

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[Cordelia] turns to leave and [the Jerk] throws her against the tree.

CORDELIA Hey!

GUY:  I'm not through here.

A hand grabs his arm.

BUFFY
I beg to differ.

She pulls. His arm does NOT budge. Guy looks at her like she's a loon.

He thinks Buffy looks like a Canadian duck? Okay.

No, no, obviously he thinks it's so silly that dainty little Buffy can threaten a Big Strong Jerk like him. Understandable, I suppose.

But, uh, er…didn't we see just last episode that the guys around the school know Buffy?  That just her showing up and smiling was enought to get the bullies who were harassing Michael and Amy to back off and slink away?  They knew that Amy was a witch, but they didn't care…but just the fact of Buffy's presence was enough to stop the macho madness.

I mean, I'm sure they don't know about vampires and Slayers and such, but clearly the word is out:  "That Buffy chick is some kind of freak.  Don't mess with her."

I'm guessing that because this is a spec script from Go Fish co-writer David Fury, he might not have been aware of every detail of the script for 3.11.  But that's why upper management has final say, right?  Sloppy supervision, Joss.

Continuing:

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Buffy tries again with both hands, STRAINING. [The Guy] casually SHOVES her away - she slams into the wall and slides to the floor.

Er, David, this scene is outdoors.   Dickhead shoved Cordy into a tree, remember?  Embarrassing that nobody caught this, not that it affected anything.

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Willow immediately rushes to [Buffy's] side.

Cordelia stares aghast at the prone Buffy, then turns to Guy and RAINS BLOWS on his chest and shoulders. Guy cowers.

CORDELIA (to Guy):  What is wrong with you?

GUY: The chick started it.

As Guy continues to retreat from Cordelia's assault...

ANGLE ON WILLOW AND BUFFY

WILLOW (to Buffy): Are you okay?

Buffy stares up at her, looking very not.

INT. SCHOOL HALLWAY - MINUTES LATER (DAY)

Buffy catches up to Giles.

BUFFY: Okay, I just got swatted down by some no-neck and rescued by Cordelia. What the hell is happening, Giles?

GILES: All right. Calm yourself.

Well, I won't calm myself!  I want to know what happened to Willow!  Did she spontaneously combust?  Did she fall through a wormhole?  Where did she go?

Oh, right, she probably just went to class.  Because why should Willow care about Buffy being in a crisis?  She has to go think of new ways to worship Oz study, this "Scooby Gang" gig is just a sideline, right?

Sure.  If you ignore how S1 Willow would usually be a total mother hen and be frantically asking Giles for answers.  But that was a different Willow, apparently.

Just as how, in the tag, Xander's just sitting around as Willow frets about Giles being fired.  No reaction whatsoever to the news about Giles betraying and drugging Buffy and nearly getting her killed (unlike the icy stares and near-body-checks he gave to Jenny after she was exposed as a spy), nope, Xander's only purpose in the scene is to make a fool of himself by being unable to open the jar.  It's a new season and a new Xander!  Yay?

(Of course, one possible reason for Xander having no reaction Giles's betrayal is that Buffy hasn't told him about it.  Which would be completely in character for Lying Secret-Keeper S3 Buffy, I admit.  But Giles doesn't Brood so much, and his forehead is a normal size [and he hasn't left a trail of bodies that could stretch from here to Oklahoma], so maybe not…)

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Hey, isn't it pretty irresponsible for Giles to drug Buffy and then send her out to patrol without telling her?  I mean, never mind the danger to Buffy, but isn't her job to save innocents?  Who's going to do Buffy's job when Buffy can't?

I mean, why can't Giles and the Watchers just be upfront about the test?  "We're going to test your ability to fight vampires without relying on your powers.  This is a muscle-relaxant; the effects will fade by morning, but for tonight, you will only have your wits and your experience to depend on."

I know, I know…that would eliminate the possibility of DRAH-ma.  Shitty reason for stupid writing, though.
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So, why doesn't Buffy call Angel or Giles to give her a hand, rather than rushing over to face Kralik on her own?  Heck, why doesn't she call Cordelia so she can get to Prescott Lane more quickly?

Pride? It's more important for her to fight alone rather than admit she needs help?  

But if she's choosing to basically do the test as designed rather than use the fact she has people who would help her (even clowns like Willow and Xander), then doesn't this undercut Buffy's whole "how could you do this to me?" argument.  I'm kind of thinking Buffy can shove her Righteous Anger Riff in Ford's grave, at this point.

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And if Buffy never told the gang about Giles drugging her, how did she explain his getting fired, exactly?  What, he forgot to pay the licence fee on his Watchers' Council Secret Decoder Ring, was that it?

She does seem determined not to share, though.  I mean, would it have been so bad to do something like this, instead:

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BUFFY (to Giles):  I don't know you.

CORDELIA:  Did something take her memory? He's Gi—

BUFFY (annoyed):  My memory is fine, Cordelia!  I remember Giles drugging me and taking away my powers and nearly getting me killed completely accurately, thank you!

CORDELIA:  Oh. (beat). So do you need a ride home, then?
BUFFY (beat):  Yeah, okay.  Thanks.

CORDELIA:  No problem.  (to Giles as she goes). And I'm going to need a note.

But nah.  Cordelia (and Willow and Xander and Oz) merely risk their lives to help Buffy…why should she bother to keep them up to date?  I mean, really.

Edited January 29, 2022 by Halting Hex

[lembergwatcher]

14 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

But, uh, er…didn't we see just last episode that the guys around the school know Buffy?

What if the Jerk can't remember people's faces and names?

[mmecorday]

While watching this episode last night, I kept thinking to myself that the old boarding house would be a great project for Mina Starsiak from HGTV's "Good Bones."

[Halting Hex]

Given that the death rate (and subsequent plentiful vacancies) keeps Sunnydale housing costs down (as Xander notes in Witch), there are probably a good chunk of reno opportunities around town.  It's just that demand is probably low.

Yes, abandoned homes are attractive to squatters (as seen last season), but do vampires really invest in refurbishing so often?  Seems doubtful.