S04.E02: Living Conditions

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; Kathy is a wonderful character and I wish we'd seen her again (the actress later turns up as recurring character in Desperate Housewives, the nurse who accidentally kills Carlos' mother). I was genuinely surprised that she was a demon, I thought Buffy was going nuts (great performance from SMG, amazing what a little eye-shadow can do). The fight between the 2 at the end and the argument between Kathy and her dad is terrific. The final gag is excellent too although Buffy's scarf makes her look a lot like Joyce

Spoiler

when she's had her operation.

The Bad; Exactly how long would it have taken the demons to work out that Buffy wasn't Kathy?

Best line; Kathy; "I just wanted to make sure we didn't have a thief or something?" Buffy; "Like who? Sid the wily dairy gnome?" but I also like Oz; "On the plus side you killed the bench which was looking shifty" and "No one deserves mime"

Character death; none

Tied up; Buffy is netted and tied up by Xander, Oz and Giles. They need to work on their Boy Scout skills though (Buffy's been tied up and escaped countless times and I'm sure escapology must be part of Slayer training?)

Knocked out; Yep, Oz and Xander by Buffy

Women good/men bad; Patriarchical demons not letting their daughters go to college. On the other hand it seems that Hank still helps out with Buffy's tuition.

Jeez!; Kathy slamming the phone into Buffy's face is gruesome yet oddly funny

Kinky dinky; Xander wonders why Giles doesn't have any manacles like any self-respecting bachelor? Both Oz and Xander admire Parker's 'driveby' hitting on Buffy.

Calling Captain Subtext; Kathy puts the moves on Parker much to Buffy chagrin. Buffy and Willow end up in the end being roommates. And here is Veruca for the first time, the little scene between her and Oz subtle but incredibly significant. Willow refers to Parker as the cutie-patootie once again casting her as Bi rather than gay. Willow refers to Giles as their 'grown up friend' but not in a creepy way.

Scoobies to the ER; Buffy isn't hurt despite the no-holds barred thrashing she and Kathy give each other

Spoiler

Where's Dawn? Kathy comments that Buffy has always been an only child, well not always. She also says she and Buffy are like sisters, well Dawn and Buff fight too and Dawn turns out not to be what she seems
 

Questions and observations; Giles reads Scooter and Motorbike magazine, did he sell Wes his? A funny but pretty slight ep with some good performances from the leads. I think season 4 is just taking a little time to find it's feet.

Marks out of 10; 6/10, a slight ep but a cracker, funny and interesting.

[satrunrose]

While it really isn't the most impressive of Buffy episode, I really love Living Conditions. Although silly, it was really true to my experience of freshmen friends who were convinced that their roommates were sent from Hell to torment them. With Living Conditions and The Freshmen, it seemed like they were going to extend the High School is Hell metaphor to college and I was really excited to see that because my college experience was certainly that the decisions were bigger and the safety net was smaller.

Spoiler

Alas, they ditched that for the Initiative. Oh well.

Edited July 28, 2018 by satrunrose

[Joe Hellandback]

16 hours ago, satrunrose said:

While it really isn't the most impressive of Buffy episode, I really love living conditions. Although silly, it was really true to my experience of freshmen friends who were convinced that their roommates were sent from Hell to torment them. With Living Conditions and The Freshmen, it seemed like they were going to extend the High School is Hell metaphor to college and I was really excited to see that because my college experience was certainly that the decisions were bigger and the safety net was smaller.

  Hide contents

Alas, they ditched that for the Initiative. Oh well.

You make a good point although you couldn't have stretched that out over the season, you had to have something else

Spoiler

and the Initiative was it

. College can't be the same hell as high school is for some because there's a greater freedom and not everyone is forced to go there. 

[Halting Hex]

Liam Duke reviewed this IMO tiresome un-favorite episode, and all I can think to say is: "Seriously?  Giles doesn't have shackles or handcuffs to use on Buffy, they have to rely on Xander's knot-making skills?  Wow, Ethan will be so disappointed if he ever visits."

Spoiler

Chains were, of course, much in evidence when Spike was bound in Something Blue, but Giles could have acquired those between this episode and that one, naturally.  It just seems to be very poor preparation skills on our Mod Jogger's part, IMO.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Halting Hex

[lembergwatcher]

The Scoobs believe Buffy is possessed. And maybe Giles is too sensitive to remind his Slayer of the times Faith played the dungeon mistress (Enemies) in order not to shatter her allegedly shattered psyche even more. Or he doesn't know how long the whole thing will last while he needs those chains and handcuffs to have some quality time with his girlfriend.

[Halting Hex]

On 4/25/2019 at 3:52 AM, lembergwatcher said:

maybe Giles is too sensitive to remind his Slayer of the times Faith played the dungeon mistress (Enemies) in order not to shatter her allegedly shattered psyche even more.

Well, that's a lovely thought…but given that the whole setup in Enemies turned out to be Buffy's (and Angel's and Giles's) idea and Buffy actually wasn't handcuffed ("Psych!"), I doubt it did that much damage.  All I can think is that Giles was so busy rescuing all the books from the Library before he blew it up that he somehow forgot to take the weapons and chains and such out of the book cage.

Sloppy work, Ripper, sloppy.  And Ethan must be like "why didn't you have them at home to begin with?  And you're wondering why I never come over?  Dear, dear…"