S05.E15: I Was Made To Love You

[Joe Hellandback]

The Good; All the scenes with Buffy and April are wonderful plus the Scoobies robot humour and Giles babysitting Dawn. A nice lightweight episode before some of the heaviest story lines in the show's history.

The Bad; A fairly slight tale but fun. How does Spike know about Warren? Jane comments on Buffy's self-involvement which is true but understandable. She says it's Tara who shows sympathy with Warren but actually surely it's Willow?

Best line; Buffy; "I've had it with superstrong little women who aren't me!"

Women good/men bad; Warren the sleazoid shows his ugly face. Hate the way that when April doesn't answer him it actually causes her pain? That said he does have some redeeming features, preferring a human girl over his ideal sexbot due to her humour and intellect. Him redirecting April's rage onto Buffy hints at his ruthlessness to come. Buffy thinks that she should try to please men by laughing at their jokes (much as CC used to) but Xander assures her she doesn't need to, again the one who sees. The boys at the coffee shop are horrible to April. Buffy wonders if she is to blame for Spike's attraction to her. Buffy decides she doesn't want a guy right now. Warren programmed April not to cry as 'Crying is blackmail' (jeeez!). Note even though she's walked out from Warren when she meets April, Katrina still tells him to stay away from her man. Also see Captain Subtext.

Jeez!; April picking up Katrina and breaking her ribs is cringe-worthy (although you can see how the perspective gag is done)

Kinky dinky; April is probably what every 14 year old boy/Xander dreams off (or is that Britney Spears who was rumoured to be lined up for the role? Apparently she didn't want to play a sexbot so ended up on Sabrina/HIMYM instead) What exactly did Spike whisper in her ear to make him chuck him through a window? Joyce has a date with Brian and claims that it went so well she left her bra on the dessert cart (we hope she's joking but after Band Candy...?). Her dress is the same one as she wore in Ted and Buffy believes it cries 'Randy sex kitten' (Dawn also remembers Ted and suspects there may have been more of him about). April is programmed for fetishism's, positions and sex. Ben cross dresses. Buffy says that her secret to attracting men is to 'Slap them around a bit, torture them, make their lives a living hell" which she actually has done to all her boyfriends. Giles comments that Buffy is attractive. Dawn wonders if Bryan is a gigolo and thinks they can be spotted by their shiny shirts? Buffy says she's had 2 boyfriends so I guess she doesn't count Owen, Parker, Dracula, Scott or Jeffrey from her LA days. Spike tells Buffy he wants her to put her hands on his 'hot tight little body'. Tara tries the spicy talk saying April has 'Genuine molded plastic stamped on her ass'. Warren programmes April to growl?

Captain Subtext; Glory seems genuinely disappointed that Buffy turned her/Ben down. Willow seems very appreciative of April which suggests that it's not just Tara who does it for her. It's a lovely little scene where Magic Jane defies our expectations, Tara is jealous, Anya isn't. "Too many girls" moans Xander who misses Oz (wait until next season

Spoiler

when he doesn't even have Giles),

it would probably have been Riley but he doesn't want to mention his name in front of Buffy. Xander finally get's a nice big hug from Buffy but unfortunately he's in the training suit so can't really appreciate it. Xander says a good guy will come along for Buffy eventually. We're still waiting really. Is it just me or would anyone else have liked a scene where Buffy actually has sex with Ben only for him to turn into Glory half way through? Giles and Dawn talked about boys whilst he was babysitting?

Questions and observations; The return of Ripper threatening Spike. Note even Dawn has turned against Spike due to his treatment of Buffy. Another lovely Anya/Tara scene, the outsiders on the Scoobygang to a degree. Love Joyce's Wonder Woman spinning routine, if they were to make the movie she should be Queen of the Amazons (or Lynda Carter should be). Xander refers to his Uncle 'Dave the Plumber' (is he the one with money?) Note it's actually Willow who feels sympathy for Warren, so lonely he has to make himself a sex bot. Once again it seems Warren know's Buffy is the Slayer, it's an open secret. So what do they do with April? Is she too sitting in the basement of the Magic Shop? A fanfic staple is that if a Scooby dies the others bring their soul back and re-install it in the robot's body.

Marks out of 10; 8/10

[lembergwatcher]

April throwing Spike through a window is (and always will be) one of my favorite moments in the entire season. I love it when they hurt Captain Peroxide, you know :)


Also Tara and Anya discussing internet is pretty spectacular thing to watch.

 

Of course, Tara the jealous girlfriend and Giles the Ripper totally made my day. Considering that Giles' main role in the season was to be the gang's de facto buttmonkey, him nearly turning Spike to dust with his ripperish glare was a memorable sight.

 

And last but not least, Warren was a true genius, whether we like it or not...

Edited September 25, 2018 by lembergwatcher

[Joe Hellandback]

18 hours ago, lembergwatcher said:

April throwing Spike through a window is (and always will be) one of my favorite moments in the entire season. I love it when they hurt Captain Peroxide, you know :)


Also Tara and Anya discussing internet is pretty spectacular thing to watch.

 

Of course, Tara the jealous girlfriend and Giles the Ripper totally made my day. Considering that Giles' main role in the season was to be the gang's de facto buttmonkey, him nearly turning Spike to dust with his ripperish glare was a memorable sight.

 

And last but not least, Warren was a true genius, whether we like it or not...

It's nice when sometimes the characters defy your expectations. I always enjoy the Anya/Tara scenes, apparently Amber got a hard time from people when she first appeared so it may be an in joke. 

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎26‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 8:39 PM, nosleepforme said:

Honestly, I'm glad Britney Spears was kept off the show. As seen on HIMYM, she is a horrible horrible actress and the Buffy team actually lucked out in the casting of April who does a very fine job with what she's given.

 

Yeah, I think Amber was on a podcast really where she said that Buffy fans were generally very nice, but that there were a couple of mean comments about her weight, which is pretty dumb.

 

This episode is one of the most surprising episodes for me. It's a stand-alone, it introduces not only Warren (eeergh I hate him and the trio so much), but also sexbots, but yet I actually still really like it and find it enormously entertaining and I love the final scene with Buffy and April on the swing, when Buffy shows enormous compassion for a robot. And then of course....the end. 

I actually really liked Britney on Will and Grace, she was genuinely funny and ok on Sabrina too. 

[lembergwatcher]

Quote

BUFFY: Yeah, I was gonna say robot. What do you think she wants?
TARA: Warren, whoever that is.
XANDER: It's gotta be the guy that built her.
WILLOW: It's an unusual name. There's hardly any except ... Warren Beatty and, you know, President Harding. It-it's probably not either of them.

Also there was Warren Christopher who served as the 63rd Secretary of State during Bill Clinton's first term. Merrick approached Buffy while Christopher was still in the office. It's kinda odd Willow remembers President Harding who died 60 years before her birth, not the guy who was around while she & Xander went to school. OTOH they definitely told her about President Harding during history lessons.

[Halting Hex]

Not to mention Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world.  Check out the financial pages some time, Will.  Anya would approve.

(Which is arguably a reason to pass on the whole idea, but even so.)

[Halting Hex]

Discussing the timeline of The Body in that thread led me to thinking about this one:  when Buffy returns to find Joyce at the episode's end, she first notices the flowers from Brian (Joyce's dinner date).

But the date was at least two days before the tag, with all the April/Warren/Katrina hijinks occurring after that.  Was Brian slacking on the flowers?  It would seem to decrease his chances of a second date, even if Joyce's condition isn't as severe as it appears it might be. 

Boo, dude.  Poor form.

[Halting Hex]

On 9/25/2018 at 12:31 AM, Joe Hellandback said:

Best line; Buffy; "I've had it with superstrong little women who aren't me!"

While the show had worked to have a number of female antagonists (Glory, Harmony, Drusilla), I don't know that Clare Kramer, Mercedes McNab and Juliet Landau are Smidge-sized, necessarily.  Let's check.

Juliet is 5'6"

Clare is 5'4 1/2"

Mercedes is 5'4"

So none of them exactly tower over the 5'2" SMG, but I don't know if I'd say we'd been subjected to an Attack of the Teeny-Tinies, either.

(Nor would this have applied to the original casting choice for April-bot, the 5'4 1/2" Britney Spears.)