Jenny Calendar: What the Hell is a Technopagan?

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[Halting Hex]

I adore Jenny/Buffy interaction beyond all measure. 

"When he wakes up…think of something cool. Tell him I said it."  "You face the Master and he'll kill you."  "Maybe.  But maybe I'll take him with me."

"He misses you.  And I don't want him to be lonely.  I don't want anyone to."

In many ways I find them very similar. (I know it's easy to compare Jenny to Willow, what with the computers and later the magic, but I always thought Buffy was the better match.)  The rhythms of their speech seem similar to me, and just as Buffy pulls Giles out of his books and gets him to live again, so does Jenny get him to love.

The difference being that Buffy probably wouldn't have tried to take him to monster trucks.  But even so. ;)

[lembergwatcher]

I think a technopagan is someone who worships technical progress and all the things related to it in the very same regard as actual pagans worship the forces of nature. The follower of a new religion that's somehow reminiscent of an older, more archaic cults.

I love Jenny Calendar. The fact that she spent so little time on the show is one of the few flaws considering Buffy's first two seasons. I wanted more of her background story and to this day I think her romance with Giles was way too short (in fact I wanted them to get married, have six kids and move to English countryside). True, she had secrets, that almost destroyed her friendship with the Scoobs, and her blissful ignorance of Buffy and Angel heading for a big bang was somehow strange. After all it was Jenny's duty to watch out those lovesick puppies and yours truly still can't understand why didn't she sound the alarm, when things started to get, uh, serious between the two? She hanged around with the gang for most of the season 2 and there's no indication the Scoobs kept the whole B/A stuff a secret deliberately, Willow might have mentioned it inadvertently since she was soooooo excited... 

Slightly OT, but considering that screenshot from Innocence: dunno 'bout the plot device or emotional effect, but assaulting the teacher in front of other students should have some repercussions for Buffy (both from school authorities and Giles himself since this was a clear violation of the rules not to harm civilians). Try to perform your job better next time, G-Man, and hold your freaking Slayer. And, yes, I love this particular scene.

Edited August 23, 2018 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

3 hours ago, lembergwatcher said:

True, [Jenny] had secrets that almost destroyed her friendship with the Scoobs, and her blissful ignorance of Buffy and Angel heading for a big bang was somehow strange. After all it was Jenny's duty to watch out those lovesick puppies and yours truly still can't understand why didn't she sound the alarm, when things started to get, uh, serious between the two?

She tries to broach the subject, in one of the cut scenes from Surprise:

Quote

JENNY:  What? You really think Buffy's having premonitions?

GILES: It's possible-

INT. LIBRARY - DAY

Calendar and Giles enter - continuing their talk.

JENNY:  I guess it makes sense. I mean, all of Buffy's senses are heightened.  Why should her intuition be different?

GILES: Precisely. It's not unheard of for the Slayer to start having prophetic dreams  and visions as she approaches adulthood-

JENNY: Adulthood? Buffy's seventeen tomorrow, Giles. Don't rush her.

GILES: I'm not the one rushing her. While I'm loathe to say it, the fact is -  the Slayer rarely lives into her mid-twenties. It follows that she'd  exhibit signs of maturity early on. Her whole life-cycle is accelerated.

JENNY: Still, you should be careful about treating her like a grown-up. Like -  this thing with Angel. Have you even talked to her about it?

GILES: I - I suppose I try not to pry.

JENNY: Maybe you should, a little. The way she talks - it's clear she has intense feelings for him

GILES: Well, yes. They're friends-

JENNY: They're more than friends and you know it.

A beat as this sinks in.

GILES: I'm not her father, Jenny.

JENNY: She looks up to you. She'll never actually say that, but she does.  And I just think, at her age, it's easy to get in. over your head. 
She could make some bad choices here. Trust me on this one.

GILES: I'll keep an eye to it. Right now I'm worried enough trying to think of the right birthday present.

So despite that explicit "I'm not her father" (which would have thrilled the Buffy/Giles 'shippers no end, it's true), it's clear that Jenny is raising a red flag about Bangel, but Giles is rather paternally indulging his Slayer, presumably to work off the guilt he feels from knowing that he's going to get her killed (again) soon.  (It's only been seven months since the last time Buffy died, after all.)

So Jenny backs off, having nothing but generalized anxiety going on here.  (It's early in the episode, right after the scene with Buffy and Xander where Buffy told Giles about her dream.) But once Uncle Enyos shows up, all "the girl and him, it ends now!" Jenny springs into action and nearly has Angel on a slow boat to Tibet by night's end.  And she still doesn't have all the details, because Enyos was a jerk; he only fills her in during the scene at the hotel in Innocence. (To be fair to Enyos, he's pretty clearly just an exposition device.  So it would make no sense for him to have told Jenny off-screen, because then the audience couldn't get the information, too. But even so.)

So Jenny was worried about B/A "seizing the day", she did try to warn Giles, and once she had specific marching orders, she went to work pretty quickly.  She just hesitated a bit because Angel did save her life, twice.  (Three times, if you count his helping to defeat the vampires in School Hard, but those vamps never make a serious effort to penetrate the Library, so I don't know if you can truly count Jenny as "endangered" there.) 

But it definitely was on her radar and she definitely did try to "sound the alarm".

Edited August 23, 2018 by Halting Hex

[lembergwatcher]

Kudos to you for paying attention ) OK, you're right, she did try to raise a red flag, but I dare say it was a little too late in Surprise. And if I get it right judging from Jenny's own words in Innocence 

Quote

You told me to watch Angel. You told me to keep him from the Slayer.

Quote

I was sent here to watch you. They told me to keep you and Angel apart.

watching either Buffy or her brooding boyfriend was Miss Calendar's top priority even before she appeared on a scene in I, Robot...You, Jane. It was the main reason she came to Sunnydale, wasn't it? Maybe I miss something important, but I guess watching those two actually required watching, i. e. doing some detective work, survelliance. Sure, Jenny didn't have to do it all by herself (teaching classes and dating Giles were good distractions), but a year in Sunnydale was more than enough to create some kinda network of informants, who could watch the two, follow them around day (in B's case) and night - at the places both were most likely to be. Jenny was smart enough to put two and two together. Watching Buffy and Angel might help noticing things getting serious (him coming to her house and vise versa). Anyway the lovebirds weren't hiding: the Gorch brothers saw the smoochies back in the Bad Eggs. Why wasn't there someone else at the cemetery - watchin' everything on Jenny's behalf? If she spotted something earlier, she could take action by herself or report to her clan.

Whatever, I don't blame Jenny here. Clan Calderash was an utter failure in that case.

[TheView]

Knowing what Robia LaMorte does now, I can't see Jenny the same anymore. 

[akerso]

Great instructing figures out how to show itself regardless of Snyder's unforgiving strategies. Season One's "Prude" includes a science educator who sees past Buffy's notoriety, yet demands discipline.

Kodi Lucky Patcher nox

Edited November 6, 2019 by akerso

[Joe Hellandback]

On 5/6/2019 at 4:03 AM, TheView said:

Knowing what Robia LaMorte does now, I can't see Jenny the same anymore. 

How so?

On 11/4/2019 at 8:30 AM, akerso said:

Great instructing figures out how to show itself regardless of Snyder's unforgiving strategies. Season One's "Prude" includes a science educator who sees past Buffy's notoriety, yet demands discipline.

Kodi Lucky Patcher nox

I liked Dr Gregory, he was the first of the 'adversarial character comes around to Buffy's way of thinking then dies' trope. Or perhaps Merrick was?

[Loandbehold]

Robia became very religious. I dimly recall her saying that she wouldn't play evil again. Or something like that.

[lembergwatcher]

I feel bad for Jenny. And not only because her life ended so abruptly or because of the way it ended. Since Buffy spared her ex-boyfriend in 2x14 that was more or less inevitable, we should have seen this coming. It's the fact that she's never mentioned after season 3 that adds insult to injury. Judging from Buffy's reaction every time the topic was raised (Revelations, Amends) the Scoobs chose to act like Jenny's never existed in order not to hurt Slayer's precious feelings and make her first boyfriend look bad. Because whitewashing Angel is more important, you know. It's kinda ironic in the saddest fashion: Jenny sacrifices her life to make it up to Buffy and save countless lives, yet Buffy can't stand hearing her name.

I'm not too happy with Giles using Jenny's memory to justify Buffy's backing down and shifting from "let's defeat and kill Angel" mood to "let's restore Angel's soul so we can save Dear Forehead and I can have my boyfriend back" in Becoming, Part 1 either (because I did like Giles/Jenny 'ship since it was the most normal relationship in S.02 [while B/A was a travesty and X/C/W/O were big fucking jokes], and one of the very few likable canon 'ships). And the way the Deadboy was forgiven and accepted "back into the family" post 3x07 equates to almost murdering Miss Calender for the second time. Angel was worth saving while Jenny apparently wasn't. 

Anyway it seems easier to discuss how dares "immature" and "bad" Xander throw Jenny's memory in Buffy's face rather than to ask oneself whether it's totally OK for the main protagonist to resume her relationship with certain vampire considering how "nice" the things ended the previous time and considering Jenny, Enyos, Theresa and lots of other dead bodies. 

[watcher1006]

 

On 8/23/2018 at 9:21 AM, lembergwatcher said:

Kudos to you for paying attention ) OK, you're right, she did try to raise a red flag, but I dare say it was a little too late in Surprise. And if I get it right judging from Jenny's own words in Innocence 

watching either Buffy or her brooding boyfriend was Miss Calendar's top priority even before she appeared on a scene in I, Robot...You, Jane. It was the main reason she came to Sunnydale, wasn't it? Maybe I miss something important, but I guess watching those two actually required watching, i. e. doing some detective work, survelliance. Sure, Jenny didn't have to do it all by herself (teaching classes and dating Giles were good distractions), but a year in Sunnydale was more than enough to create some kinda network of informants, who could watch the two, follow them around day (in B's case) and night - at the places both were most likely to be. Jenny was smart enough to put two and two together. Watching Buffy and Angel might help noticing things getting serious (him coming to her house and vise versa). Anyway the lovebirds weren't hiding: the Gorch brothers saw the smoochies back in the Bad Eggs. Why wasn't there someone else at the cemetery - watchin' everything on Jenny's behalf? If she spotted something earlier, she could take action by herself or report to her clan.

Whatever, I don't blame Jenny here. Clan Calderash was an utter failure in that case.

I wonder how much of Jenny Calendar's story they created between her introduction in Season 1 and her exit in S2. In Season 1 "Prophecy Girl" she demands that Rupert Giles explain what is going on then professes that she doesn't get the part about Buffy being the Vampire Slayer. Later on, it seems that Jenny was in the know all the time.

On 2/5/2020 at 5:28 AM, lembergwatcher said:

Anyway it seems easier to discuss how dares "immature" and "bad" Xander throw Jenny's memory in Buffy's face rather than to ask oneself whether it's totally OK for the main protagonist to resume her relationship with certain vampire considering how "nice" the things ended the previous time and considering Jenny, Enyos, Theresa and lots of other dead bodies. 

A lot of fans criticize Xander for being a jerk or having his own agenda or whatever in his conviction that they had to do away with Angel. It always seemed to me that Xander had the most logical, understandable reaction in the whole group given the dangerous situation they had on their hands. I think it's puzzling that Giles would have so quickly gotten over his rage over Jenny's death in "Passion" to support the idea of trying to save Angel.

[lembergwatcher]

13 hours ago, watcher1006 said:

I wonder how much of Jenny Calendar's story they created between her introduction in Season 1 and her exit in S2. In Season 1 "Prophecy Girl" she demands that Rupert Giles explain what is going on then professes that she doesn't get the part about Buffy being the Vampire Slayer. Later on, it seems that Jenny was in the know all the time.

I think they created most of Jenny's story prior to Surprise because I can hardly find any evidence of her being on some sort of secret mission watching Angel & Buffy in all previous eight episodes featuring JC. OTOH Jenny could have simply pulled some James Bond-esque trick as of Prophecy Girl, pretending she knew nothing about Buffy and the slayers since she wasn't too close to Giles and the Scooby Gang back then.

13 hours ago, watcher1006 said:

It always seemed to me that Xander had the most logical, understandable reaction in the whole group given the dangerous situation they had on their hands. I think it's puzzling that Giles would have so quickly gotten over his rage over Jenny's death in "Passion" to support the idea of trying to save Angel.

Well, yes, Xander did have the most logical reaction wrt Angel, but:

1. He expressed his POV in not too mature way. Even though Xander had a point, lots of fans chose to ignore it all because of seemingly inappropriate manner of telling others saving Angel didn't have to be the gang's top priority. Which seems hypocritical 'cause when it comes to immaturity Buffy beats Xander 5:0;
2. Laws of formal logic never work in the Buffyverse. Hence Xander was fighting a losing battle. Buffy wanted her boyfriend back, Giles and Willow wanted to help Buffy. Despite the absurdity of the whole "give Angel his soul back so the trail of corpses he's left wouldn't be such a big deal" shtick, it's where all three of them seemed to stand.
3. Angel was fans' and writers' pet. Besides he was a "cool" guy and Buffy loved him (none of which applies to Xander). Also Joss Whedon was probably too afraid to upset legions of Buffy/Angel 'shippers, hence Xander not only fought a losing battle but almost turned into the show's biggest "villain" himself (at least in the eyes of B/A fans).

As for Giles... He did love Jenny, but apparently not as much as Buffy loved Angel and Giles himself loved Buffy. And even though he had a right to have fatherly or whatever feelings for his Slayer, letting those feelings cloud his judgement wasn't so much puzzling, as outrageous. Like I said, it's not about Giles getting over Jenny's death so quiclky, it's about him trying to use her and her memory just to pander to Buffy. Yes, Jenny wanted to restore Angel's soul and had been working on it until the very last minutes of her life. Still her gruesome death at the hands of the one Miss Calender tried to save was reason enough not to turn the whole Acathla operation into "saving private Angel". JMO, of course.

Edited February 12, 2020 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

Jenny can hardly rely on traditional surveillance methods, since Angel is only out at night and vampires have all sorts of advantages then, from better night vision to being able to hear her following him.  So what she does is set up operations in the most logical place (the Slayer is a young girl, she gets a job at young girl central) and try to keep up with anything that might be a clue.  Note how quickly she gathers the news of the "portents" in Prophecy Girl.

Then, when Giles lets her know he's involved with the supernatural, she uses him as a connection as well.  And, lo and behold, he's a Watcher and Buffy's the Slayer…what luck!  She's briefly spun (she was expecting somebody more Kristy Swanson-esque, I guess), but deals.

Now, before you know it, she's getting access to (breathless) reports of (pretty much all of) Angel's activities.  She's even invited to the same social events as him.  Not bad for a one-teacher operation, I'd say.

[Joe Hellandback]

On 2/11/2020 at 10:22 PM, watcher1006 said:

 

I wonder how much of Jenny Calendar's story they created between her introduction in Season 1 and her exit in S2. In Season 1 "Prophecy Girl" she demands that Rupert Giles explain what is going on then professes that she doesn't get the part about Buffy being the Vampire Slayer. Later on, it seems that Jenny was in the know all the time.

A lot of fans criticize Xander for being a jerk or having his own agenda or whatever in his conviction that they had to do away with Angel. It always seemed to me that Xander had the most logical, understandable reaction in the whole group given the dangerous situation they had on their hands. I think it's puzzling that Giles would have so quickly gotten over his rage over Jenny's death in "Passion" to support the idea of trying to save Angel.

From 'Vampires and Slayers' it seems that it was never intended for Jenny to be anything other than her role in season 1, making her a gypsy was a convenient retcon.  

[Halting Hex]

New reactor Jay is a pretty strong BAngel fan, but they're not his #1 'ship.  Here's his wrap-up at the end of Some Assembly Required:

Quote

JAY: I love them, but we love Giles and Ms. Calendar even more!  Ms. Calendar, she is…once again, just literally perfection, and her and Giles are a match made in Heaven. God!  Uh, but it was a very strong episode for them, they had that date, going to the football game, they're gonna have MANY MORE…um, and yeah, we love it all.

Having only seen Jenny in retrospect for the most part (she wasn't in the first two eps I saw [Inca Mummy Girl, What's My Line Part 1] and while I must have seen her in Innocence and BB&B, it didn't make much of an impression), since I only started watching regularly in S3 and Jenny was nothing but a memory by then, I'm constantly surprised by how swiftly and how hard reactors fall for her.  I mean, this is literally only her 4th episode.  She only has 5 scenes in the episode.  (I did a count once, because I thought one of the strengths of SAR is how well it used the supporting cast:  Giles has 13 scenes, Willow and Xander 12 each, Cordelia has 11…but Angel and Jenny only have 5 apiece.)

And yet, to quote Willow, "feel the passion!"  Whedon really hit gold here.  (Jay is also the 2nd or 3rd reactor to nearly freak out when Cordelia comes across the unconscious Ms. Calendar in When She Was Bad, although logically if the vampires haven't killed Cordelia as yet they wouldn't have killed Jenny either; clearly there's a unifying purpose at work.  But the Calendar-lovers are in the moment, so this counts as a scare for them, a precursor to The Dark Age as far as testing the waters to see how protective fandom is of Jana.  Pretty damn, apparently.)

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

On a more-prosaic note, SAR is the 2nd and final appearance of the word "technopagan":

Quote

BUFFY (to Giles):  She's a technopagan, right?  Ask her to bless your laptop.