S04.E05: Beer Bad

[Joe Hellandback]

Beer Bad

The Good; Okay there is some, Willow's Jerry Springer style confession (anyone ever read the hilarious Buffy Springer Show fanfic?) Much of the Xander the bartender stuff is funny. Giles describing caveBuffy as walking with a 'sideways limp'. Willow's confrontation with Parker. Buffy's great dream sequence (is that chocolate chip cookie dough fudge he's holding?)

The Bad; Everything else, possibly the worst Buffy episode ever?

Best line; Xander; "Nothing can defeat, THE PENIS!" (how true!)

Character death; Nope, no one dies at all

Knocked out Yep, Willow, Xander (and Parker)

Women good/men bad; The first thing the cavemen do is find a pair of pretty girls and drag them back to their 'cave'. Buffy's mooning after Parker does her no favours, he's treated her badly so she still wants him? When it comes to Parker and Buffy I always wonder what if the roles were reversed, if Buffy dumped Parker and then when she changes her mind and tries to apologise he knocks her out? What would we think then? And in fairness Parker does go to help Willow when the cavemen attack.

Kinky dinky; Is it just me or does anyone else deep down want Parker to succeed in 'jumping Willow's bones'? And then mid-coitus she should turn the tables on him American Pie style. "Say my name bitch!". Also Willow seems to think that Buffy had group sex with the 4 students, love the way her mind works! Buffy calls herself a slut, Veruca thinks Willow is a groupie.

Calling Captain Subtext; Willow tells Parker she's 'Tired of you men and your manliness'. CaveBuffy thinks Xander smells nice

Guantanamo Bay; Parker tries to apologise to Buffy so she bashes him over the head with a lump of wood
 

Spoiler

Where's Dawn? Apparently Joyce always said beer was evil which is weird when you see teenage Joyce in Band Candy and considering she wanted Buffy to be at a college with boys and keg parties?

Questions and observations; Quite possibly the worst ever episode of Buffy although rewatching it is does have some quite good humour in it and SMG gives a tremendous performance as Cavegirl Buffy. Feels like an ep of Charmed. Again, not sure about Parker, he doesn't actually do anything wrong, he just doesn't want a relationship with her as he explains to Willow (in many ways he reminds me of Barney from 'How I Met Your Mother'). Willow compares Veruca to Faith (not a compliment in her book) Oz's growing attraction to her is clear to see.

Marks out of 10; 4/10

[Loandbehold]

I have always liked Beer Bad. It is the most subversive PSA. The WB wanted to take advantage of a government program so its shows did these "Drugs/Alcohol/Unprotected Sex Bad" episodes. Buffy gets the money for the episode title, but, when you come down to it, what's the lesson learned? Beer: Foamy!

And I enjoy Cave!Slayer and Xander telling Giles not to make Cave!Slayer angry. Excellent advice.

Willow's smackdown of Parker was epic. Both well-delivered and well-deserved.

For me, far from being the worst episode of the series, in Season 4 alone it's better than just about any Initiative episode, and far, far better than Where the Wild Things Are and Superstar.

[DigitalCount]

I actually really liked the moment when Buffy said "Fire bad!" and then immediately ran toward it to rescue the people inside. That heroism is hard coded.

[Joe Hellandback]

On 8/1/2018 at 4:12 AM, nosleepforme said:

The best parts about this episode is how Willow realizes that Parker manipulates her too and how she calls him out on it.

 

But overall, it's a forgettable, very embarrassing episode with not a lot of redeeming features. 

 

That week on set must have been an interesting experience. "Hey this week, we're playing cave(wo)men!"

I would actually have liked him to have succeeded and then for her to turn the tables on him, after that he follows her around like a lovesick puppy in an act of revenge. I don't think any of cast ever thought they lacked for original roles in this show. 

On 7/31/2018 at 3:50 PM, DigitalCount said:

I actually really liked the moment when Buffy said "Fire bad!" and then immediately ran toward it to rescue the people inside. That heroism is hard coded.

She's still Buffy, just a little less 'evolved', she's like the first Slayer. 

On 7/31/2018 at 3:49 PM, Loandbehold said:

I have always liked Beer Bad. It is the most subversive PSA. The WB wanted to take advantage of a government program so its shows did these "Drugs/Alcohol/Unprotected Sex Bad" episodes. Buffy gets the money for the episode title, but, when you come down to it, what's the lesson learned? Beer: Foamy!

And I enjoy Cave!Slayer and Xander telling Giles not to make Cave!Slayer angry. Excellent advice.

Willow's smackdown of Parker was epic. Both well-delivered and well-deserved.

For me, far from being the worst episode of the series, in Season 4 alone it's better than just about any Initiative episode, and far, far better than Where the Wild Things Are and Superstar.

Spoiler

Where the Wild Things perhaps but Superstar is a classic, Jonathon rules. 

[Joe Hellandback]

34 minutes ago, Halting Hex said:

Who's "Jonathon"?  Jonathan, ffs!  From the Hebrew "Yo-Na-Tan", meaning "God Has Given". (The similar "Nathaniel" means "Given to me by God".)  The second and third vowels are the same.  Get it right.

(Yes, yes, pet peeve.  Wouldn't bother me so much if the misspelling wasn't so common, I suppose.)

Also, discussion of 4x17 should be spoilered in this thread, which is about 4x5.

Yes, you're right although we were talking in very vague terms. As for the rest it took me years to write Joss Whedon rather than Wheldon, possibly influenced by author Fay Weldon

[lembergwatcher]

On 31.07.2018 at 10:49 PM, Loandbehold said:

Willow's smackdown of Parker was epic. Both well-delivered and well-deserved.

Well, it was well-deserved, no doubt about it. Well-delivered? Not so much. At least few particular parts of that epic smackdown were somewhat inappropriate IMO.

Quote

Willow: I'm tired of you men and your manness.

Quote

Willow: I mean, you men. It's all about the sex! You find a woman, drag her to your den, do whatever's necessary just as long as you get the sex. I tell you men haven't changed since the dawn of time.

1. Parker was a prick, that's for sure. But did someone force Buffy to have sex with him at gun point? She did it of her own free will AFAIK. Blaming ALL men for Parker's assholism and Buffy's poor choices is kinda counterproductive, you know. Buffy's depression was Parker's fault but not entirely his fault, since their sex was consesnsual, whether we like it or not. And what's the point of the whole extrapolation thing? Buffy falling for some rat bastard is hardly an excuse to call each and every man inherently evil. And just because Willow herself has made a wrong decision to resume the relationship with a jerk (Amends) isn't enough of a reason to start ranting about "manness" or "toxic masculinity" or whatever. If girls choose assholes as their significant others, that's their problem first and foremost, not every other guy's on the planet. I might as well say something like "all girls are evil bitches" using Anya's example to prove my point. 

2. So it's all about sex? Will, are you serious? Really? Well, maybe you're totally right when it comes to your wolfy darling (since you obviously know him best), but... Giles? Xander? Jesse? It was all about sex in their case too? That's all they ever wanted from you either, right? Just sex... Hm... I rest my case here. Yes, men haven't changed since the dawn of time. And some young ladies having problems with growing up and adopting the more mature view of the world too, I guess. Girls good/guys bad? Not all the time. I love Willow but I cringe everytime I recall that part of her conversation with Parker. The rest of her response to his gibberish is brilliant though.

[Halting Hex]

I could get all serious here and deconstruct that argument, but nah.  I don't have the energy.  And I could take umbrage that Joe thinks one of my guilty pleasure episodes ("Tons of stupid fun", I like to say; an easy 7/10 on the grade) is the "worst episode of the series", but, again, nah.

What I'd rather do is note that

Spoiler

this is, essentially, the last episode before Spike becomes a permanent part of the series.  He doesn't join the cast until The Initiative, but he's captured next ep, and that leads right into the "chip" storyline/excuse.  And he's not in The Body, but still.

Given what Spike's main contribution to the series will be over the course of those 83 episodes (ugh!), should we be counting Xander's "NOTHING CAN DEFEAT THE PENIS!!" here as foreshadowing?  More proof that X is "the One Who Sees"?  Poor Xander, then.

So no wonder I love this one, then.  And not only because Riley tells Buffy that "I'm not saying you can't tunnel through me; it's just that most people go around."  Tracey Forbes may be something of a one-trick pony, it turns out, but she does the trick well enough here, IMO.

Edited November 13, 2018 by Halting Hex

[Halting Hex]

Liam Duke became one of the few reactors to cover this episode (anybody listening to a conventional "episode guide" for the "key episodes" scorns this one and yet wastes time on crap like 4.03) and one of his commenters pointed out that the Cave!Snobs deserve our scorn.

Not merely because they're jerks, but because they think they're the people who "run the world"…and they're attending UC-Sunnydale.  Yeah, that's a fast-track to the circles of power, no doubt.

Edited June 2, 2019 by Halting Hex

[Cranberry]

Sarah Z just released a very interesting video about how everyone's favorite Buffy episode came to be:

[Halting Hex]

"But unlike a lot of later Whedon…[BtVS] rarely demonstrates its humor at the expense of sincerity."  Well said; I just think she's being too kind in exempting the entirety of this series from the complaint.  TBQH, I think this is a problem beginning in Season 3, and while it's certainly not all due to Sitcom Jane Espenson, I do find it ironic that Ms. Zed praises Band Candy , which is IMO as blatant a case of disregarding characterization and show history for the sake of cheap "funnies" as one could find.

Spoiler

But then, this is a woman who apparently likes The Body and Once More, with Spuffy, is probably a Spuffy 'shipper (given her disdain for Angel and hatred of Xander) and praises the "maturity" of Season Sux while imagining it to be an "unexpected revival after the show's planned end", which is utter bullshit.  (Whedon was aggressively shopping the series, in an attempt to get more money out of the WB.  The fact that 5.22, Very Pretty Crap, might have served as a series finale had not UPN stepped up doesn't mean it was meant to be.  Virtually all season finales are possible end-points, as opposed to the "cliff-hanger" nonsense seen on other series.)

I didn't watch the entire video (as the spoiler indicates, I have some long-term issues with the vidder), but it was reasonably informative, from what I skimmed.  Thank you.

(Actually, I don't know if she ever touches on this [as I said, I only skimmed], but I think part of the problem in this episode being a rather insincere attempt at the anti-drinking $$$ is that the show had already done its "perils of alcohol" episode exactly two years previously, with Reptile Boy.  But the US government wanted fresh propaganda, apparently.  And it's just one snake-god to a customer, I suppose.)

***************************

Back to the episode itself…

So, we open with Buffy daydreaming about rescuing Parker…only to find him in her Psychology class, flirting away with some girl, Buffy a completely-forgotten issue.

Er, what?  Since when does Parker take Psych?  We didn't see him in 4.01, and when he meets Buffy in 4.02, there's no reference at all to Walsh's class.  (Walsh isn't even in that episode.)

Plus, Parker is a senior, and this is Introduction to Psychology.  Why would he be taking that?  (I guess he could have dropped in just to chase freshman girls, but I doubt Walsh would tolerate that, and besides, it's not as if Parker can't pick up floozies at lunch [Buffy], out on the campus [Katie Loomis], in bars [the girl Buffy sees him with in 4.04], or at the campus coffee house [Willow, this episode, attempted].  Hard to imagine his crashing a course he doesn't take just for that.)  Weak writing for convenience's sake, I'm sorry to say.

Spoiler

Parker is also not seen in class in The Initiative,  although we see both the class and Parker in that episode.  I guess Playa  moved on?

This must be very disappointing to Sarah Z, as both she and debuting writer Tracy Forbes are Canadian.  Blame Canada!

[moonshine71]

On 6/2/2019 at 3:03 AM, Halting Hex said:

Liam Duke became one of the few reactors to cover this episode (anybody listening to a conventional "episode guide" for the "key episodes" scorns this one and yet wastes time on crap like 4.03) and one of his commenters pointed out that the Cave!Snobs deserve our scorn.

Not merely because they're jerks, but because they think they're the people who "run the world"…and they're attending UC-Sunnydale.  Yeah, that's a fast-track to the circles of power, no doubt.

As someone who spent the 90's and early 00's as a bartender in campus area bars, two things I can say for certain.

 

1. If Xander had kept that job, he would have had a pipeline of college girls throwing themselves at him. 

 

2. The person that I can guarantee isn't picking up anyone in that bar is anyone who is discussing "the geopolitical ramifications of bioengineering" 

 

The whole premise of those goons believing that girls were showing up at a bar looking for blowhards spouting pseudo-intellectual bullshit is delusional. And bartenders, for whatever reason, seem to hold an uncanny allure for younger women. They don't even need to be particularly good looking or have much in the way of "pick up" skills. Xander is certainly a decent looking guy, he would have caught a lot of attention.

[Halting Hex]

Good point.  I'd guess a certain amount of college girls figure that there are worse reasons to cuddle up to a guy than cultivating a source of free drinks, huh?

And yes, who comes to the pub for intellectual discussion, exactly?  Maybe the coffee house, but dubious even then. 

Although, to be fair, Colm could simply be breaking out the college-speak to embarrass Xander.  When we see the gang actively pursuing a girl (Buffy) they confine themselves to talking about beer and Buffy (which are certainly acceptable subjects, as she's here to drink beer and is susceptible to flattery) and indeed, they ban anything pseudo-intellectual.  "There will be no Thomas Aquinas at this table!"

So yeah, "geopolitical ramifications" was never intended to be a pickup line, as Colm isn't intending to date Xander, after all.

(Resists urge to go hunting for the doubtless-inevitable Xander/Colm slashfic.  I know this fandom, after all.  The only question is whether Colm does Xander solo or whether Xan gets gang-Cave-banged by Hunt, Kip, and Roy as well.)

[MapleCourt]

I like Beer Bad. One of my favorite episodes from Season 4. I don't know why it gets so much hate. But then lots of my favorite episodes get a lot hate, like Ted and Bad Eggs. Some people are just snobs and want every episode to be Hush.

[Halting Hex]

Speaking of 4.10,

Spoiler

Joss's stuntier (yes, that's a word.  Because I say so.) stunt-eps aren't necessarily as awesome as his acolytes claim.  Yes, Hush is better than this episode…but I've been saying that its S2 precursor, Reptile Boy, is better than Hush for at least 15 years now.

Innovative ideas aren't the be-all some people imagine them to be.  Pacing and character-development and storytelling count, too. 

JMO.