S04.E17: Superstar

[lembergwatcher]

Quote

When Jonathan appears as Sunnydale's newest superhero, it takes Adam and Buffy to figure out that something is amiss.

I remember the first time I saw the prologue and opening credits of that episode my initial reaction was: "What. The. Fuck". And then during the first half of the ep I tried to recall where have I seen that short young man known as Jonathan before.

Eventually I remembered a guy, who appeared occassionaly throughout two earlier seasons as a minor character, a regular buttmonkey (Cordelia "dating" him in Reptile Boy spoke volumes). Jonathan's only moments that stuck with me for a while were his attempt to shoot the fellow SHS students in Earshot (I kinda doubt he meant suicide because of, you know, very inconvenient weapon of choice) and him awarding Buffy the first ever Class Protector Award on behalf of Sunnydale High students in The Prom. It could have been his last appearance in the series on quite a hopeful note. Seems like Jane Espenson decided otherwise and turned Jonathan Levinson into actual villain...

Nothing in my previous experience with the character however explained why all of a sudden everyone started to live in the world of Wonder Jonathan. Some kinda dystopia-light where everyone worshiped Jonathan the Celebrity, Jonathan the Perfect Man in a way most dictators would have envied. It was a real cult of personality (only without repressive machinery to maintain it) and only then yours truly realized why the hell did Jonathan ask the books on Stalin more than a year before in Passion.

 

In the brave new world of his own making Jonathan was a demon hunter:

 

Initiative's tactical consultant:

 

The relationship counselor:

 

A notable performer, who excited even not-into-boys types like Tara (And Anya moaned his name while having heated sex with Xander, remember? Yuck):

 

Also it was revealed that Jonathan Almighty wrote books and played chess, starred in The Matrix (without leaving town), graduated from med school (before turning 18) and invented the Internet,
 

Quote

Buffy: "Well, I was just kind of wondering if maybe anyone thought that Jonathan was kind of too perfect?"

Xander: "No he's not! He's just perfect enough! He crushed the bones of the master, he blew up a big snake made out of mayor and he coached the U.S. women's soccer team to stunning World Cup victory! We saw him doing those things!"

And don't forget about Swedish blonde twins! It's pretty clear that in the world of Jonathan he was always the hero, while the Scoobies stuck with being his sidekicks (even Buffy admitted he was better than the Slayer).
 

 

Eventually the Scoobies got the secret behind the "Jonathan Levinson's success story". Magic, of course. Unlike Xander who did a love spell and turned every woman in SunnyD into his love bitch (except the one it was intended for) in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Jonathan had a more global approach and turned almost everyone around into his worshipper. Even the Scoobs themselves (they too had not escaped universal Jonathanomania):

 

Quote

Jonathan: "I do have a history with the creature. The monster. The problem is every time I face it my mind becomes sort of confused. There's some kind of power it possesses."

Xander: "Oh!!! oh! He's like your kryptonite."

Jonathan: "Maybe. I just knows it takes all my energy to try and fight the confusion. That's why I had his mark tattooed on me so that I wouldn't underestimate it next time."
Riley: "This does explain everything."
Xander: "I knew you wouldn't do anything on purpose.
Willow: "Me too! And that whole alternate universe thing was too freaky!"

 

There were just two problems. 1. Jonathan overestimated his abilities and made himself appear too perfect thus provoking Buffy into asking questions. 2. Magic in Sunnydale always had consequences.
 

Quote

Willow: "Hey I-I found the mark. It's part of an augmentation spell. Jonathan did an augmentation spell."

Riley: "What, uh, did he have, uh, you know?"

Willow: "Him! And how we see him. This spell turns the sorcerer into a sort of paragon, the best of everything, everyone's ideal. But-but there's a drawback."

Riley: "A drawback?"

Xander: "That happens a lot."

Giles: "Yes. In order to balance the new force of good the spell has to create the opposing force of evil, the worst of everything, everyone's nightmare."

Anya: "He created the monster."

Xander: "So we're saying he did a spell just to make us think he was cool?"

Giles: "Yes."

Xander: "That is so cool!"

Quote

Buffy: "Jonathan what do I do?"

Jonathan: "I think you're going to have to handle this one solo."

Buffy: "What? But I.."

Jonathan: "You'll know, you used to. And the more you hurt it the more I'll lose my.."

Suffice to say the episode didn't work for me. I didn't like the idea of Jonathan being turned into some first class mage mesmerizing everybody. I didn't like idea of making him a villain after he started to improve slightly at the end of previous season either.

Spoiler

And there was more to come unfortunately in season 6.

But I what I really hated was that once again the Scoobs proved to be very short-sighted and let him get away with everything. The fact that Tara got hurt in the process should have had some response from Willow at least (castrating the dork could be enough).


Probably the only moment in quite a sucky ep that I, the Xander fan, really liked, was the discovery of him having magical abilities (that scene in Giles apartment where Xander postulated that "you can't just go 'librum incendere'" and expect the spell to work, but it actually worked).

[Halting Hex]

Word to that last Jonathan picture.  We can go around and around in circles about whether what Jonathan did to the twins was "really" rape, or if they were just natural sluts who were attracted to rich and powerful dudes so if it wasn't him it would be someone else (or whatever the counter-argument here is; I'm inclined against it, so I may have missed a nuance or six), but nothing in this episode annoys me so much as Jonny using "the twins moved out" to try to gain Buffy's sympathy, as if whatever he had going with Inga and Ilsa was his natural due and we should all be sad for his loss.

Screw you, punk.  Go try to shoot yourself with a rifle or something.

[Loandbehold]

lembergwatcher, love the post, but I do disagree that Jane Espenson made Jonathan the villain. She actually made him the hero (and how sick is that). He ends up saving Buffy by pushing the monster into the pit, thus he was ultimately the hero of the episode. He is responsible for bringing Buffy and Riley back together. Whether someone actually favored this pair, TPTB wanted us to root for them. And, he "shows" that Adam has a uranium core, which leads to the way to ultimately defeat the season's Big Bad.*

Another major problem for the episode is that it comes right after the Faith two-parter. So, we never get to really see the fall-out from those episodes. Buffy and Riley separately speak to SuperJ, but not to each other. Grrr. 

*Given how poorly written the majority of the episode is, it's not clear if anyone actually remembers this or if it was just meant for the audience to know. Jonathan and the rest of Sunnydale were forgetting what happened, but I don't know if that also applied to Buffy, Riley, and the Scoobs. Still, this big reveal was pulled straight out of Jane's ass (if anyone's interested, my long rant is in the Sarah's Sober Second Thought Series: A Lot of Filing, and Giving Things Names thread).

Edited September 3, 2018 by Loandbehold
For the correct thread name.

[lembergwatcher]

27 minutes ago, Loandbehold said:

love the post, but I do disagree that Jane Espenson made Jonathan the villain. She actually made him the hero (and how sick is that). He ends up saving Buffy by pushing the monster into the pit, thus he was ultimately the hero of the episode.

Well, yeah, he was a hero in that ep in a way (though everything happened in the world Jonathan had created and that moment alone diminishes his heroism sufficiently). Maybe Jane's initial intention was to portray Jonathan as a hero and the whole exposure thing was purely inadvertent. And yes, he saved Buffy from the monster of his creation. Using the world "villain" I referred to what was underneath the surface in Jonathan's case. He appeared to be a hero, but turned out to be the villan in disguise (whether Jane Espenson intended it or no).

[Loandbehold]

1 hour ago, lembergwatcher said:

Well, yeah, he was a hero in that ep in a way (though everything happened in the world Jonathan had created and that moment alone diminishes his heroism sufficiently). Maybe Jane's initial intention was to portray Jonathan as a hero and the whole exposure thing was purely inadvertent. And yes, he saved Buffy from the monster of his creation. Using the world "villain" I referred to what was underneath the surface in Jonathan's case. He appeared to be a hero, but turned out to be the villan in disguise (whether Jane Espenson intended it or no).

I get what you're saying, and had this just been an episode where Jonathan creates the monster but finally shows some bravery at the end and saves Buffy knowing this would end his fantasy world, I would agree. Unfortunately, he also ends up actually saving the lead couple and provides the real answer to stopping Adam. As much as he should be considered the villain, the way it works out, he's anything but. This is even further emphasized b/c he suffers absolutely no consequences and Jane Espenson even reinforces at the end that he's the hero by having him give Buffy the final impetus to get back together w/ Riley. 

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎03‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 3:10 AM, lembergwatcher said:

I remember the first time I saw the prologue and opening credits of that episode my initial reaction was: "What. The. Fuck". And then during the first half of the ep I tried to recall where have I seen that short young man known as Jonathan before.

Eventually I remembered a guy, who appeared occassionaly throughout two earlier seasons as a minor character, a regular buttmonkey (Cordelia "dating" him in Reptile Boy spoke volumes). Jonathan's only moments that stuck with me for a while were his attempt to shoot the fellow SHS students in Earshot (I kinda doubt he meant suicide because of, you know, very inconvenient weapon of choice) and him awarding Buffy the first ever Class Protector Award on behalf of Sunnydale High students in The Prom. It could have been his last appearance in the series on quite a hopeful note. Seems like Jane Espenson decided otherwise and turned Jonathan Levinson into actual villain...

Nothing in my previous experience with the character however explained why all of a sudden everyone started to live in the world of Wonder Jonathan. Some kinda dystopia-light where everyone worshiped Jonathan the Celebrity, Jonathan the Perfect Man in a way most dictators would have envied. It was a real cult of personality (only without repressive machinery to maintain it) and only then yours truly realized why the hell did Jonathan ask the books on Stalin more than a year before in Passion.

 

In the brave new world of his own making Jonathan was a demon hunter:

 

Initiative's tactical consultant:

 

The relationship counselor:

 

A notable performer, who excited even not-into-boys types like Tara (And Anya moaned his name while having heated sex with Xander, remember? Yuck):

 

Also it was revealed that Jonathan Almighty wrote books and played chess, starred in The Matrix (without leaving town), graduated from med school (before turning 18) and invented the Internet,
 

And don't forget about Swedish blonde twins! It's pretty clear that in the world of Jonathan he was always the hero, while the Scoobies stuck with being his sidekicks (even Buffy admitted he was better than the Slayer).
 

 

Eventually the Scoobies got the secret behind the "Jonathan Levinson's success story". Magic, of course. Unlike Xander who did a love spell and turned every woman in SunnyD into his love bitch (except the one it was intended for) in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, Jonathan had a more global approach and turned almost everyone around into his worshipper. Even the Scoobs themselves (they too had not escaped universal Jonathanomania):

 

 

There were just two problems. 1. Jonathan overestimated his abilities and made himself appear too perfect thus provoking Buffy into asking questions. 2. Magic in Sunnydale always had consequences.
 

Suffice to say the episode didn't work for me. I didn't like the idea of Jonathan being turned into some first class mage mesmerizing everybody. I didn't like idea of making him a villain after he started to improve slightly at the end of previous season either.

  Hide contents

And there was more to come unfortunately in season 6.

But I what I really hated was that once again the Scoobs proved to be very short-sighted and let him get away with everything. The fact that Tara got hurt in the process should have had some response from Willow at least (castrating the dork could be enough).


Probably the only moment in quite a sucky ep that I, the Xander fan, really liked, was the discovery of him having magical abilities (that scene in Giles apartment where Xander postulated that "you can't just go 'librum incendere'" and expect the spell to work, but it actually worked).

No, look at all the screw ups the Scoobs have made over the years, BBB, Something Blue, The Wish, Giles with Eghyon, Buffy unleashing Angelus and then running off and leaving the Scoobs alone to fight evil, Joyce and her mask, Oz and Verruca? Everyone makes mistakes, as long as there's no malice they are forgiven, I  don't think Jonathon was actually every the 'villain' in any of this, he wasn't Stalin, he made himself wonderful without actually denigrating anyone else. Personally I loved that Tara and Willow had crushes on him, would they make a Jonathon 'sandwitch' if they had the chance? Read a great fanfic once where Faith is on the run and idly muses that if she ever had the chance she'd have to add 'that stud Jonathon' to the notches on her thong which was a clever little ref.  

I always just figured that magic works for non-magicians because they live on the Hellmouth? Plus it's her Slayer nature that allows Buffy to see through it all?

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎03‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 4:43 AM, Halting Hex said:

Word to that last Jonathan picture.  We can go around and around in circles about whether what Jonathan did to the twins was "really" rape, or if they were just natural sluts who were attracted to rich and powerful dudes so if it wasn't him it would be someone else (or whatever the counter-argument here is; I'm inclined against it, so I may have missed a nuance or six), but nothing in this episode annoys me so much as Jonny using "the twins moved out" to try to gain Buffy's sympathy, as if whatever he had going with Inga and Ilsa was his natural due and we should all be sad for his loss.

Screw you, punk.  Go try to shoot yourself with a rifle or something.

No, it was rape, I always said it wasn't but after discussing it here I realise it was, he didn't just make himself brilliant but he altered people's memories just as

Spoiler

Willow does with Tara

A little unkind to consider the twins 'natural sluts'? How are they any different to Tara and Willow? I think back to the Mythbusters where they had women rate guys by their attractiveness then showed the same pictures to a different group of women but gave them higher paying jobs. And the women rated them more attractive if they were richer. What they call the Billy Joel/Christie Brinkley effect, men who have riches/power/fame/talent/committed some heroic deed etc appeal to women. That South American rugby team who turned to cannibalism after crashing in the Andes were fighting girls off with a big stick when they returned. Doesn't work the other way around, Eliza Dushku could work as a toilet attendant and guys would want her just as much (as long as she took a bath).   

16 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

lembergwatcher, love the post, but I do disagree that Jane Espenson made Jonathan the villain. She actually made him the hero (and how sick is that). He ends up saving Buffy by pushing the monster into the pit, thus he was ultimately the hero of the episode. He is responsible for bringing Buffy and Riley back together. Whether someone actually favored this pair, TPTB wanted us to root for them. And, he "shows" that Adam has a uranium core, which leads to the way to ultimately defeat the season's Big Bad.*

Another major problem for the episode is that it comes right after the Faith two-parter. So, we never get to really see the fall-out from those episodes. Buffy and Riley separately speak to SuperJ, but not to each other. Grrr. 

*Given how poorly written the majority of the episode is, it's not clear if anyone actually remembers this or if it was just meant for the audience to know. Jonathan and the rest of Sunnydale were forgetting what happened, but I don't know if that also applied to Buffy, Riley, and the Scoobs. Still, this big reveal was pulled straight out of Jane's ass (if anyone's interested, my long rant is in the Sarah's Sober Second Thought Series: A Lot of Filing, and Giving Things Names thread).

 

Yes, he's the hero, he sacrifices all this wonderful life in order to save her as it's the right thing to do. And we do get the Riley/Buffy split, extending even into the next ep. 

13 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

I get what you're saying, and had this just been an episode where Jonathan creates the monster but finally shows some bravery at the end and saves Buffy knowing this would end his fantasy world, I would agree. Unfortunately, he also ends up actually saving the lead couple and provides the real answer to stopping Adam. As much as he should be considered the villain, the way it works out, he's anything but. This is even further emphasized b/c he suffers absolutely no consequences and Jane Espenson even reinforces at the end that he's the hero by having him give Buffy the final impetus to get back together w/ Riley. 

He suffers consequences, look what he had and lost? Really he just wanted to be part of Buffy's group, something we'll see referenced again later. 

Edited September 4, 2018 by Joe Hellandback

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; How brilliant is Danny Strong? So glad

Spoiler

we had him back in the 6&7 seasons.

His final talk with Buffy is a winner

The Bad; Monster looks a bit lame, aside from that, great ep

Best line; Graham;(upon seeing the Initiative's 'tactical consultant' Jonothan) "About time we brought out the big guns"

Women good/men bad; Actually in this case 'man' brilliant but it's hardly real

Jeez!; Poor Tara, you so feel for her

Kinky dinky; Anya moans Jonathan's name during sex and describes him as 'lickable' (as indeed does Buffy although she claims she was only joking). She also seems to find his trumpet playing a turn-on. Jonathan has a threesome with beautiful twins which appears to be an illicit yet universal male fantasy to judge by Austin Powers and all the Buffy/

Spoiler

Dawn

/Joyce or Charmed sisters incestfic on the net? ('Buffy the Streetwalking Hooker' , 'Thanks for taking care of my body Faith' and 'Don't Go' probably the most tasteful in a HIGHLY dubious genre if you're over 18). Seems to be a subtle yet recurring theme in Joss' work?

Calling Captain Subtext; Exactly why does Giles have a copy of the Jonathan swimsuit calendar to hand? Was it a gift? Tara and Willow seem infatuated with Jonathan, one wonders if he suggested it they might come 'running back to boys-town', at least for the night? Xander also seems alarmingly devoted to Jonathan. Spike strokes Buffy's cheek, their attraction evident. Note the evidence of Jonathon's heroism, no wonder

Spoiler

he comes good in season 6&7.

Guantanamo Bay; Buffy and Jonathan beat Spike up for info. The police seem quite content to just let Jonathan handle things without their help.

Scoobies to the ER; Poor Tara gets pretty banged up
 

Spoiler

Where's Dawn? Does she share in the Jonathan idolisation?

Scoobies in bondage: Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 5 Will: 3 Jenny: 1 Angel: 4 Oz: 1 Faith: 3 Joyce: 1 Wes: 1

Scoobies knocked out: no but Jonathan knocked unconscious by the beast. Buffy: 15 Giles: 10 Cordy: 6 Xander: 8 Will: 5 Jenny: 2 Angel: 6 Oz: 3 Faith: 1 Joyce: 2 Wes: 1

Kills: Buffy: 3 vamps for Buffy so 79 vamps, 26 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot Giles: 5 vamps, 1 demon Cordy: 3 vamps, a demon Will: 4 vamps Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans Xander: 5 vamps, 2 zombies, a demon, a demon Anya: a demon Jonathan; 2 vamps and 1 demon Riley; 11 vamps + 6 demons

Scoobies go evil: Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 2

Alternate scoobies: Buffy: 6 Giles: 3 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 3

Recurring characters killed: no but for a moment you really think Tara might go the same way as Jenny Calender Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh

Total number of scoobies: 7 Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Spike, Riley

Xander demon magnet: 5 Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?)

Scoobies shot: Giles: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 4

Notches on Scooby bedpost: Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny Cordy: 1? Buffy: 3; Angel, Parker, Riley Angel: 1;Buffy Joyce: 1;Giles, possibly Ted Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley Xander: 2; Faith, Anya Willow: 2;Oz and Tara

Questions and observations; The first mention of the world without shrimp as far as I know? Of course it's actually Jonathon who works out Adam's weakness although surely if you cut his head off it would slow him down a great deal? Note Buffy know's how to make Jonathon's coffee. Less Adam in this ep and it's all the better for it. An ep much beloved of fanfic writers as whatever has gone on before Jonathon can always put it right. We also see Buffy show her strength, able to see beyond the illusion and show her latent power. Riley begins to see beyond the Initiative and is introduced to magic. How great is magic Jane's commentary? Now of course this marks the halfway point of Buffy, 72 down, 72 to go. Jonathon's twins are actually some of the Juggy Girls from The Man Show.

Marks out of 10; 8/10 I think, bordering on the marvellous

Edited September 4, 2018 by Joe Hellandback

[Loandbehold]

8 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

He suffers consequences, look what he had and lost? Really he just wanted to be part of Buffy's group, something we'll see referenced again later.

I disagree b/c he lets us know at the end that he's forgetting everything that happened. If he doesn't remember, then he's suffered no consequences. It isn't even a dream for him. Super!J sacrificed his magical world, but real Jonathan suffers nothing. He goes back to his old life none the wiser.

[Joe Hellandback]

5 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

I disagree b/c he lets us know at the end that he's forgetting everything that happened. If he doesn't remember, then he's suffered no consequences. It isn't even a dream for him. Super!J sacrificed his magical world, but real Jonathan suffers nothing. He goes back to his old life none the wiser.

I think he does, he's certainly the most moral of the

Spoiler

3 geeks. You wonder if he would have gone ahead with Katrina. 

[Loandbehold]

3 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

I think he does

But, then again there's what he says:

Quote

JONATHAN
I, I wasn't sure you'd come over.
Everyone's mostly forgetting, but
I think some people are kinda angry.

and:

Quote

JONATHAN
Hey... Buffy? You remember,
I gave you some advice?

BUFFY
Um... Watch out for southpaws?

JONATHAN
No. About you and Riley. I mean,
things are kinda starting to blur,

Emphasis in both mine. It's clear from the script that he and the rest of the people on campus, w/ the possible exception of Buffy and the Scoobs (b/c Jane couldn't bother to make that clear in her horrible story), are forgetting about what happened. If Jonathan and everyone else forgets, then he's suffered no consequences. 

As for your spoilered comment, that's a longer discussion best left for the episode involved. 

[lembergwatcher]

Love that moment. Anya is so excited with watching pics of half-naked Jonathan, she doesn't seem to care about Xander and Willow standing so close, almost pressing against each other. Luckily Tara isn't there at the moment, so the girl's spared the pain of witnessing Xillow body language or whatever... 

[Halting Hex]

Hmm, that shirt looks as though Anya's been raiding Willow's wardrobe or something.  Did you leave that at Xander's after "hanging out", Will?  No wonder Tara sabotages your "find demons" spells…

[lembergwatcher]

As much as some of us dislike this episode, Jane Espenson and Jonathan, we cannot deny that the short guy was one of very few Buffyverse characters who could use obtained power and opportunities in a truly big way. It was kinda odd to see how many others before Jonathan made efforts for some trivial purposes. A classical case of "the cost so high - the gain so low".

Cathy Madison stole her daughter's body and abused some dark magic in order to become a part of the cheerleading squad. Was cheerleading alone worth it all, when she could have so much more?

Coach Carl Marin turned his swim team into sea monsters in the name of merely "a shot at the state championship".

Ethan's band candy transformed Sunnydale's adult populace into teenagers for the sake of stealing four babies from the hospital. Like there was no other way to get those kids without Ethan's involvement...

The Gentlemen made the entire town of Sunnydale voiceless, so that they were able to do... what? Collect seven hearts?

At least Jonathan could, as Mr. Trick once put it, see "the big picture". The guy knew how to really use benefits provided by his knowledge of the dark arts...

[Halting Hex]

On 3/16/2019 at 6:11 PM, lembergwatcher said:

Ethan's band candy transformed Sunnydale's adult populace into teenagers for the sake of stealing four babies from the hospital. Like there was no other way to get those kids without Ethan's involvement...

Yeah, but given what an utter failure (3 dead, 1 dusted, 1 maimed, Trick himself hauled away) SlayerFest had turned out to be the previous episode, it's not surprising that Mr. Trick was allured by the sweet, lazy dream of subcontracting.  Ethan was just doing work-for-hire; he wasn't setting the goals on this one.

On 3/16/2019 at 6:11 PM, lembergwatcher said:

The Gentlemen made the entire town of Sunnydale voiceless, so that they were able to do... what? Collect seven hearts?

"It's kind of our raison d'être," as Spike would say.  "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly," to quote Xander.  I don't get it, either, but they really like hearts, it seems.

[lembergwatcher]

Either the Augmentation spell is quite simple to perform or Jonathan himself turns out to be a proficient magician. Both options suck, but the way the guy found out about the spell (learning it from someone at therapy sessions) is much more disturbing... While the lack of proper reaction from Buffy & the Gang after revealing the truth is plain sickening.

It appears there are Joss knows how many people out there (nothing specifies the unnamed person Jonathan met while attending therapy sessions is the only one to know about the spell) who have the power to alter reality together with perceptions and memories of living beings plus create monsters as a bonus. There are zero proofs all those people are sane (Joe Schmoe Jonathan has mentioned did have some gross emotional problems, after all) and won't succumb to seduction to use it in the worst possible way. Megalomaniacs or other sick SOBs will stand in line to acquire such gift which will naturally lead to chaos. Besides, the monsters who come with the package may provoke destruction and loss of lives.

I don't know about you, but that's more dangerous than Adam or most of the other Big Bads the SG faced in the past.

[Halting Hex]

So, Anya's go-to example for alternate universes is the World Without Shrimp, and she repeats it from every angle, until Betty!Buffy tells her to stop doing that, she's doing it wrong.  (Actually, that's how she got you to comprehend the concept, Buffster, so…)

Jane, think.  Are you really sure that this is the episode where you want to have characters annoyed at the concept of "running a joke into the ground"?  I mean the ep as a whole, as Buffy might say, is pretty much running its joke into China.  Just saying.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Quote

RILEY: [Buffy] has to know that she's the one I l- …care about.

Oooh, I guess Riley hasn't told Buffy that he said his first "I love you" to Fuffy, not her.  And now, is he wondering if that means anything?  Did he say it too soon?  Interesting possibilities.

Spoiler

Which will, of course, be completely ignored, moving forward.   Writers' prerogative, but still.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

As gross as "Jonathan fixes Buffy and Riley's relationship" is, it's even more ridiculous because Wonder!Jonathan is a once-off created especially for this episode, because Jane doesn't trust those Pathetic Loser Scoobies to be able to solve Princess Buffy's Problems of the Heart.  So, sure, let's have an avatar of perfection show up, just to bless the relationship.   The audience will totally buy that! Oy.

It was bad enough when Buffy was taking "romantic advice" from Spike and The Mayor;  now she's relying on people who don't actually exist to do what Willow and Xander apparently can't.  Sigh.

(What's that you say?  Regular!Jonathan knew the answer, too?  He said it again in the tag?

Yeah, not sure I'm buying that one.   You'd think he'd be more occupied with "What am I going to do now?" and "everybody hates me" and "I hope I don't get in trouble over all that rape" and "Wait, does this mean rape is…wrong?" to be thinking about Buffy and Riley's love life.  Just saying.

Especially as Jonathan had never ever met Riley before.  Wowzers.)

[Halting Hex]

On 9/2/2018 at 10:10 PM, lembergwatcher said:

Willow: "Hey I-I found the mark. It's part of an augmentation spell. Jonathan did an augmentation spell."

Riley: "What, uh, did he have, uh, you know?"

Wait a second!  Did Riley's mind go where I thought it went?  Is Agent Finn suffering from "the Irish Curse", too?

Riley, Riley.  You don't need magic.  It's not the size of the "gun", it's the action of the trigger finger.

(Geez, is the whole Initiative overcompensating, then?  To quote

Spoiler

Mr. Finn himself, three episodes hence:

Yoicks!)

[Halting Hex]

My reference to the black-out final lines of Lie to Me and Doomed (in the Doomed thread) reminded me that this one was supposed to have one, as well.

Here's the aired end of the ep:

Quote

Buffy and Riley are sitting and smooching.

BUFFY: I'm glad we talked this all out.

RILEY: We haven't talked at all.

BUFFY: Oh. Well whatever we're doing, we're doing it great.

Smooching resumes.

BUFFY: Mmmmm... Jonathan.

Riley pulls back. Buffy is almost smiling.

Whereas in the script:

Quote

BUFFY: Oh, Jonathan...

Riley reacts, startled.

FADE TO BLACK.

BUFFY (V.0.): I was kidding.

I suppose somebody decided that seeing Buffy's smirk was a better way of allaying Riley's fears than just a voice-over blackout line.  (Maybe Jane wanted to leave some ambiguity about whether Buffy was sincere?)

Although, given what I wondered about in the previous post, I think Buffy might be lucky it wasn't Riley calling Jonathan's name…

Edited May 8, 2023 by Halting Hex