S06.E12: Doublemeat Palace

[Joe Hellandback]

Boy, I knew this run of eps would be unpopular but NO RESPONSE to the last 2 ep postings?

 

The Good; Very little, a very weak episode. Actually our first introduction to Halfyrek and the scene between her and Anya is wonderful. Also like Xander's advice to Dawn that if Buffy can't ever have a proper career outside Slaying Dawn can do it for her. Some nice comedy too with Xander eating the burger and the 'Hi, I'm Troy McClure' style corporate training video.

The Bad; The list goes on. I think if Xander had been working in the DMP everyone would have loved this but we don't like seeing Buffy humiliated.

Best line; Buffy; "The double meat medely is people. Well, probably not the chicken part but who knows! Who knows!"

Women good/men bad; Actually it's pretty disturbing that Halfyrek comments most of the time she's not even sure she's cursing the right guy. Love the way that every good point Anya states about Xander is twisted into a negative by Hally. Amy also shows her true colours implying that she's bitter at not having been deratted earlier.

Jeez!; The severed finger and Manny's severed foot. Note how Buffy is now quite happy to include Dawn in the emergency meeting and show her some of the nastier sights of life.

Kinky dinky; Actually I think Buffy and Spike against the trash trailer must rate as the most unerotic sex scene in the history of TV, even the most avid Spuffers must admit it's positively depressing. The Geeks (and Xander) also like the Vulcan woman from Enterprise, what a surprise. Nowadays it would be Summer Glau as The Big Bang Theory proves. Anya and Halfrek both comment on Xander's large upper arms which makes sense if you're a construction worker (Nic Brendon bulks up noticeably in the final 2 season but I prefer slimmer Xander from the earlier seasons). Again, a girl as beautiful as Buffy working in fast food? Can't she work at Hooters/Spearmint Rhino/Playboy/Pretty Woman/Belle Du Jour?

Captain Subtext;

As is commeted upon in a later ep the worm thing that emerges from the old lady's head is just one giant penis. It spits it's goo at the straight (or bi girl to judge by the comics)making her helpless but the lesbian sees it, screams and runs away before decapitating it with a vagina shaped cooking instrument. (Amber Benson will later make a TERRIBLE horror film called 'The One Eyed Monster' with a similar theme). And Buffy's new boss is called Lorena (Bobbit?)

Apocalypses; 6

Scoobies in bondage: Buffy: 8 Giles: 4 Cordy: 5 Will: 3 Jenny: 1 Angel: 4 Oz: 1 Faith: 3 Joyce: 1 Wes: 1 Xander; 1 Dawn; 3 Scoobies knocked out: Buffy: 17 Giles: 12 Cordy: 6 Xander: 11 Will: 8 Jenny: 2 Angel: 6 Oz: 3 Faith: 1 Joyce: 3 Wes: 1 Anya;3 Dawn; 2

Kills: one demon for Willow Buffy: 103 vamps, 41 demons, 6 monsters, 3 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 spirit warrior & a robot Giles: 8 vamps, 2 demon, 1 human, 1 god.

Cordy: 3 vamps, a demon Will: 6 vamps + 3 demons +1 fawn.

Angel: 3 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human Oz: 3 vamps, 1 zombie Faith: 16 vamps, 5 demons, 3 humans Xander: 6 vamps, 2 zombies, 1 a demon, Anya: 1 vamp and 1 a demon Riley; 18 vamps + 7 demons Spike; 8 vamps and 2 demon Buffybot; 2 vamps Tara; 1 demon Dawn; 1 vamp

Scoobies go evil: Giles: 1 Cordy: 1 Will: 2 Jenny: 1 Angel: 1 Oz: 1 Joyce: 1 Xander: 4 Anya; 1 Dawn; 1

Alternate scoobies: Buffy: 7 Giles: 4 Cordy: 1 Will: 3 Jenny: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 2 Joyce: 2 Xander: 4 Tara; 1 Dawn;1 Spike; 1

Recurring characters killed: 10 Jesse, Flutie, Jenny, Kendra, Larry, Snyder, Professor Walsh, Forrest, McNamara, Joyce

Sunnydale deaths; 2 guys from the DMP 95 Total number of scoobies: Xander, Willow, Buffy, Anya, Spike,

Xander demon magnet: 5(6?) Preying Mantis Lady, Inca Mummy Girl, Drusilla, VampWillow, Anya (arguably Buffy & Faith with their demon essences?), Dracula?

Scoobies shot: Giles: 2 Angel: 3 Oz: 4 Riley; 1

Notches on Scooby bedpost: Giles: 2; Joyce & Olivia, possibly Jenny and 3xDraccy babes? Cordy: 1? Buffy: 4 confirmed; Angel, Parker, Riley, Spike. 1 possible, Dracula(?) Angel: 1;Buffy Joyce: 1;Giles, 2 possible, Ted and Dracula(?) Oz: 3; Groupie, Willow & Verucca Faith:2 ;Xander, Riley Xander: 2; Faith, Anya Willow: 2;Oz and Tara Riley; 3; Buffy, Sandy and unnamed vampwhore Spike; 1 Buffy

Spike; good or bad?

Dawn in peril; 8

Dawn the bashful virgin; 6

Questions and observations; Surely the authorities must inspect the DMP's produce, don't they have a problem with false advertising? Considering how nicely the Geeks tricked out their headquarters with all the money they stole couldn't Buffy and co sell it to raise some cash? Doesn't Amy remember that she turned HERSELF into a rat and indeed left Buffy and Willow to burn at the stake to do so? Love Dawn's kitten t-shirt. Dawn says she's eaten a lot at the DMP, it doesn't show. I reckon Dawn should be a Doctor, that way she can patch up the other scoobs as necessary. Also note that the Yanus head from Halloween is still in the Magic Box.

Would Buffy have survived without Willow's arrival? I think so, Slayer headling was obviously dealing with the paralysing agent when she arrived. Anyone else think that Lorena reminds them a lot of Ellen Degenerees with a little of Lynette from Desperate Housewives? Marks out of 10; 3/10, pretty damn terrible compared to what Buffy can achieve

[illdoc]

9 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

Doesn't Amy remember that she turned HERSELF into a rat and indeed left Buffy and Willow to burn at the stake to do so?

I've always felt that Amy turned herself into a rat by accident. Just before, she says something like "You want to burn a witch? I'll show you a witch!" at which point she does the "Be a Rat" spell. I believe it's the same spell (same wording) as when she turned Buffy into a rat. I think her intention was to turn one of the parents into a rat at which point she would have said "Unless the rest of you want to be rats, you'll untie us". I think this is also why when Willow does the "Undo the Rat spell" spell at the end, it doesn't work--only the spellcaster can undo that spell (in BBB, Amy casts and cancels the spell), so only Amy can undo the spell. Over the years, Willow has probably just tried variations of the "Undo the Rat spell" spell ("let's replace this ingredient with that one", "let's use more of this", etc). It's only after Tara left that Willow thought of a completely different "undo" spell which "deratted" Amy. 

[Joe Hellandback]

13 hours ago, illdoc said:

I've always felt that Amy turned herself into a rat by accident. Just before, she says something like "You want to burn a witch? I'll show you a witch!" at which point she does the "Be a Rat" spell. I believe it's the same spell (same wording) as when she turned Buffy into a rat. I think her intention was to turn one of the parents into a rat at which point she would have said "Unless the rest of you want to be rats, you'll untie us". I think this is also why when Willow does the "Undo the Rat spell" spell at the end, it doesn't work--only the spellcaster can undo that spell (in BBB, Amy casts and cancels the spell), so only Amy can undo the spell. Over the years, Willow has probably just tried variations of the "Undo the Rat spell" spell ("let's replace this ingredient with that one", "let's use more of this", etc). It's only after Tara left that Willow thought of a completely different "undo" spell which "deratted" Amy. 

You could be right, I always took it from Buffy's "She couldn't have done us first?" remark that this was her way of escaping?

[illdoc]

7 hours ago, Joe Hellandback said:

You could be right, I always took it from Buffy's "She couldn't have done us first?" remark that this was her way of escaping

I think, from Buffy's (and probably Willow's) point of view, the thought was that Amy did deliberately change herself into a rat to escape, hence Buffy's comment. Willow wasn't there when Amy turned Buffy into a rat, so she wouldn't have realized that it was the same spell. Buffy, who of course was there, probably didn't remember the wording (being (a) a year ago and (b) traumatized by being a rat). So they both probably thought it was a "turn myself into a rat" spell.

[Halting Hex]

You have to remember that Amy needed to point to use her spells, just as Catherine did before her.  You can see the contrast in Gingerbread; the opening credits have the shot of her pointing at Buffy as she rats her in BB&B, but during the episode, her arms are bound and restrained and she's surprised to see the spell backfire on her.  It's not surprising that Buffy doesn't remember this distinction; she was already under Xander's love spell, and as she said, she really didn't remember too much about the whole "I was a rat" thing, other than "a sudden need for cheese".

And, as noted, Willow was busy sneaking into Xander's bed at the time, and missed the whole thing.

This episode is not as bad as generally thought, although obviously some might consider "lesbian slices the penis-monster" a bit too on the nose.  And Amy acting all bitter and evil is weak characterization, and I'm not terribly fond of Xander's whole "Buffy's life is going to suck, but she's doing it for you, Dawn!" riff.  I think he's selling out Buffy's potential and being a bad friend, albeit not as bad as his "somebody did a bad spell? It must be Willow! Not like we have a town full of spellcasters and our own personal Hellmouth or anything!" nonsense last ep.  I really wish they'd stop doing this to him; what makes it more annoying is that this sort of misguided "support" is because the writers perceive Xander as being a) a good friend and b) fucking stupid, which doesn't work so well in combination.

Also, his reaction to seeing Halfrek, while meant to be about "confronting your partner's past" makes him look a bit racist, IMO.  So not the best episode for Xander, unfortunately.  

At least we're Tara-free, and we lose Spike after our weekly dose of his attack on Buffy's self-esteem ("you shouldn't have a job! Let me steal for you!") and gross public sex.  Thank goodness she has a Slayer Healing factor; I hate to think what sort of diseases she could have got from being around that garbage.  To say nothing of the garbage that was in the bin!

(Ba-dum-dum!  I'll be here all week, folks! Enjoy the veal!)

Lastly, I think this episode suffers from a poor choice of director.  Nick Marck is great with active episodes, such as Something Blue or Fool For Love.  A mood piece, such as this, doesn't play to his strengths.  David Solomon, who was recently used on Wrecked, might have been a better choice, for example.

Still, I've seen worse episodes.  A good number of them this year.  3/10, maybe 4?  And somehow the film about the Doublemeat Medley ("like Sleepless in Seattle…if they'd been minced") puts me in mind of "the beautiful blending of two cultures", and anything that makes me think of Inca Mummy Girl gets some sort of bonus from me. So, not as bad as it could have been, IMO.