S01.E05: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

[Lisin]

From Wikipedia:
 

Buffy's love life is looking up when she goes on a date with the normal Owen, but when Owen nearly gets killed during Buffy's battle to save Giles and the others from the Master's vampires, she decides that "normal" dating might be too dangerous after all.

I'm pretty "meh" about this one, it's not as terrible as I remember but it still isn't something I'd turn on to show someone if I was trying to get them into the show. 
 

Edited May 23, 2014 by Lisin

[Dianthus]

Looking back on it now, Owen kinda puts me in mind of William the Bloody (Awful Poet).

I've been following the Buffy commix (for my sins) and the dating thing is still an issue, if you can believe it. I swear I want to shake Buffy until her eyeballs roll right out of her d*mn fool head. Girlfriend does not get to b!tch about lacking a love-life when she's got Spike chillin' in the friend-zone!

[Eegah]

This was actually the first episode I saw, and it sat firmly in the "not that great but worth following" pile. So I did keep watching the show, and I have to thank it for that.

 

I probably would see the twist coming these days, but back then I was still young and inexperienced enough that it got me good.

[CletusMusashi]

I loved that crazy-ass killer preacher vamp who we thought was the Annointed one. He was comedy gold. I wish he'd survived a bit longer.

[Earl Is Dead]

Despite its flaws, I like how it set up the ongoing Buffy Wants A Normal Life conflict and also managed a villain who was part of the larger, Big Bad story arc rather than just a monster of the week.  It's a nice little preview of what the show would eventually become.

[KittenPokerCheater]

I'm kind of surprised that we never saw Owen again.  I was sure he'd be a recurring character when I first saw the episode.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

I wouldn't be surprised if they'd intended that to happen, then realized the casting was a misfire.

[taanja]

Season one is arguably my least favorite but "Never Kill a Boy On The First Date" is actually one of the better eps in my opinion.

 

Give me a Buffy pout and a tizzy fit any time and I will enjoy it! I liked her realizing that her world was dangerous and brutal and anyone in that world was in danger (though I never did understand how and why Willow and Xander were somehow exempt from this?) but whatever. Some things you just have to go with the flow on BTVS!

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎23‎/‎05‎/‎2014 at 9:00 PM, Lisin said:

From Wikipedia:
 

I'm pretty "meh" about this one, it's not as terrible as I remember but it still isn't something I'd turn on to show someone if I was trying to get them into the show. 
 

I like it, it shows the beginning of Buffy's eternal battle between her private life and job.

 

On ‎24‎/‎05‎/‎2014 at 4:34 AM, Dianthus said:

Looking back on it now, Owen kinda puts me in mind of William the Bloody (Awful Poet).

I've been following the Buffy commix (for my sins) and the dating thing is still an issue, if you can believe it. I swear I want to shake Buffy until her eyeballs roll right out of her d*mn fool head. Girlfriend does not get to b!tch about lacking a love-life when she's got Spike chillin' in the friend-zone!

Yeah she does have a thing for poetry fans, Owen, Spike, Angel, RJ?

 

On ‎27‎/‎05‎/‎2014 at 2:36 PM, KittenPokerCheater said:

I'm kind of surprised that we never saw Owen again.  I was sure he'd be a recurring character when I first saw the episode.

You do actually, when you look at the stock footage of Sunnydale High you can see him walking towards the school. 

 

On ‎29‎/‎05‎/‎2014 at 10:22 PM, taanja said:

Season one is arguably my least favorite but "Never Kill a Boy On The First Date" is actually one of the better eps in my opinion.

 

Give me a Buffy pout and a tizzy fit any time and I will enjoy it! I liked her realizing that her world was dangerous and brutal and anyone in that world was in danger (though I never did understand how and why Willow and Xander were somehow exempt from this?) but whatever. Some things you just have to go with the flow on BTVS!

Yeah, her flighty speech to Giles was a highlight. 

Never Kill a Boy on a First Date;

The Good; Great misdirection, you really never figure who the annointed is whilst Vorba is a truly frightening figure. Cordy and Buffy fighting over Owen is FANTASTIC! The fight at the funeral home is also excellent. And how often do you see 'Emily Dickenson' in a US teen show? (almost impresses Giles) The lovely scene between Buffy and Giles at the end. Buffy's green and white dress doesn't make her look fat but does make her look like a brazen hussy. The changing scene with Buffy, Willow and Xander is also funny

The bad; So, when a vamp dissolves why do it's clothes disintegrate and the ring etc doesn't? I always thought the idea was when a vamp dies the body returns to a natural state of decomposition but that doesn't seem the case as even newly made vamps dust. Buffy has a beeper? Not only does that terribly age the ep (see 30 Rock) even more than the computers they use but what's her excuse as a schoolgirl for carrying one unless she's a doctor, drug dealer or call girl?

Best line; (after Cordy knocks the cup over) "Boy, Cordelia's hips are wider than I thought!" OOOOOOOHHHH! The classic; "Bite me!" Cordy upon seeing Angel "Hello salty goodness!" (which are also her first words as an amnesiac in Spin the Bottle upon sighting Angel/Liam)

Observations and questions; We never see Owen again although he appears in a lot of the establishing shots of Sunnydale High. I guess the show only has room for one brooding loner guy? Check out Willow's expression when she and Xander pretend to be a couple. Also Willow digs Owen which is more grounds to assume she's bisexual rather than just lesbian. Someone actually borrows a book from the library? Giles must have had to sit down with shock. Being a Watcher seems to run in families

7/10

[wendyg]

On 02/06/2018 at 1:41 PM, Joe Hellandback said:

The bad; So, when a vamp dissolves why do it's clothes disintegrate and the ring etc doesn't?

Well, how come the Master's bones don't pouf?

[Joe Hellandback]

14 hours ago, wendyg said:

Well, how come the Master's bones don't pouf?

I always took it that it was because of his advanced age, much like Kakistos has cloven hoves and needs a bigger stake to kill him. 

[lembergwatcher]

Used to be one of my favorites back when I watched the show for the first time twenty years ago. Buffy's just adorable even when she's mad:
 

Quote

Buffy: (starts walking) I can't take this anymore. I feel like everyone is staring at me, the big, hideous, dateless monster. (to a passing student) What? Yeah, that's right, I have no life, c'mon, nothin' to see here, pal, move it along!

And Andrew Borba left me scared when I watched the whole ep for the first time. Those bus and mortuary office/morgue hall scenes are really creepy. Sure, the guy liked to talk a lot, but he was still menacing.

"Supervillain" Caleb with his senseless blathering? Nowhere near

If I live long enough and won't be as lazy as I am today I will try and write a fanfic about Buffy meeting Owen, or... Owen meeting Buffy ten years after

[Halting Hex]

On 6/2/2018 at 5:41 AM, Joe Hellandback said:

So, when a vamp dissolves why do it's clothes disintegrate and the ring etc doesn't?

I'll just assume he had the ring in his pocket and it fell out during the fight.  Thus free from pouf-age.  (Yes, that's a word.  Because I said so, that's why.)

[Halting Hex]

So I'm listening to the Unspoiled! podcast, because the idea of people being unspoiled gives me a Xander-sized happy.  And they're being harsh on Season 1, but you can tell it's growing on the unspoiled guy (the girl has fandom biases),  but it's still funny.  And one thing that happens (because our podcasters are both gay and stereotypes do sometimes exist) is that the guy is way more conscious of the clothes than the girl is, and he's been raging about the Season 1 wardrobe, which considering the $19.95 budget that S1 costumer Susanna Puisto had to make do with, is  quite understandable.  And I completely love that he accurately guessed Ross Dress-for-Less as one of Susanna's "resources".

But in this episode, he goes beyond that.  He says that Buffy's been getting her clothes from "the dumpster behind Marshall's".  Which, harsh, but not entirely unjustified.  Even though I somewhat oddly like the outfits on their own:

I mean, I like the rose coat (certainly more than the greasy shit they have Xander wearing), but it really doesn't go with what's under it:

Green-gold and rose? Oh, no.

And then there's this one:

I remember Buffy wearing this when she yells at the random kid, "What are you looking at?" (to which I always reply, "Your tits, of course!  What do you think I'm looking at??"), but I completely forgot she also wears it in this scene with Giles.  Is Buffy asking for Giles to throw her on the long table and teach her some new "combat techniques", or what?

Well, yes, but it's so much fun. And that Asian-floral top isn't improving my restraint.

And the piece de resistance, the Tiger hoodie.  I hope Marshall's tossed this in the dumpster before they ever put it on the floor.

I mean, it's no This Year's Girl, but it's definitely the most Season One of the S1 costuming.

[Joe Hellandback]

10 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

So I'm listening to the Unspoiled! podcast, because the idea of people being unspoiled gives me a Xander-sized happy.  And they're being harsh on Season 1, but you can tell it's growing on the unspoiled guy (the girl has fandom biases),  but it's still funny.  And one thing that happens (because our podcasters are both gay and stereotypes do sometimes exist) is that the guy is way more conscious of the clothes than the girl is, and he's been raging about the Season 1 wardrobe, which considering the $19.95 budget that S1 costumer Susanna Puisto had to make do with, is  quite understandable.  And I completely love that he accurately guessed Ross Dress-for-Less as one of Susanna's "resources".

But in this episode, he goes beyond that.  He says that Buffy's been getting her clothes from "the dumpster behind Marshall's".  Which, harsh, but not entirely unjustified.  Even though I somewhat oddly like the outfits on their own:

I mean, I like the rose coat (certainly more than the greasy shit they have Xander wearing), but it really doesn't go with what's under it:

Green-gold and rose? Oh, no.

And then there's this one:

I remember Buffy wearing this when she yells at the random kid, "What are you looking at?" (to which I always reply, "Your tits, of course!  What do you think I'm looking at??"), but I completely forgot she also wears it in this scene with Giles.  Is Buffy asking for Giles to throw her on the long table and teach her some new "combat techniques", or what?

Well, yes, but it's so much fun. And that Asian-floral top isn't improving my restraint.

And the piece de resistance, the Tiger hoodie.  I hope Marshall's tossed this in the dumpster before they ever put it on the floor.

I mean, it's no This Year's Girl, but it's definitely the most Season One of the S1 costuming.

They haven't seen the leopardskin mini-skirt from BBB yet! Buffy does dress very bimboish for the first 3 seasons, by 4 she sort of grows up which suits the character maturing.  

On ‎21‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 9:23 PM, lembergwatcher said:

Used to be one of my favorites back when I watched the show for the first time twenty years ago. Buffy's just adorable even when she's mad:
 

And Andrew Borba left me scared when I watched the whole ep for the first time. Those bus and mortuary office/morgue hall scenes are really creepy. Sure, the guy liked to talk a lot, but he was still menacing.

  Reveal hidden contents

"Supervillain" Caleb with his senseless blathering? Nowhere near

 

 

  Hide contents

If I live long enough and won't be as lazy as I am today I will try and write a fanfic about Buffy meeting Owen, or... Owen meeting Buffy ten years after

Maybe he became a stuntman?

[Halting Hex]

Georgia Corsby (a reactor) is completely fixated on the title of this one, thinking that perhaps the Anointed will try to date Buffy and she might have to slay him.  Err, not so much. 

It does point out the spoilery nature of the titles;  Riley Lynn is working from a source that only gives episode numbers and it's great…she had no idea Witch would involve a witch, for example. 

Spoiler

Nor will she know that Angel focuses on Angel or that 1.10 features nightmares, and so on.

But that's the exception, rather than the rule.

Her friend Aaron sees Giles being menaced outside of the funeral home, and wonders if Giles might get turned and become the Anointed, forgetting that the A1 has to be one of the "five" who already died.  Aaron doesn't think much of Giles, though;  he notices that Giles tends to say "I don't know" a lot before consulting his books, and is unimpressed.  (And they're English!  No love for the Watcher in his native land, it seems.)

Georgia does think ASH looks rather young ("ten years older than Buffy?") in the penultimate scene;  I wonder if she might become the first Buffy/Giles 'shipper I've found among reactors.   Well, it's not as if this episode didn't create a few of those, it's true…

Quote

AARON (during the fight scene):  The workers are going to come in [to the Funeral Home] tomorrow and be all "what the fuck happened here?"

Myself, I can't help noticing that young Collin's mom lets Andrew Borba spew a whole lot of crazy talk at her young son, and never tries to shut him up.  Yeeah, yeah, that's because she's an extra and they'd have to pay her if she had lines, but it takes me out of the scene.  Don't be cheap, Joss…if you keep her under five lines, she won't get residuals.

[lembergwatcher]

On 2/16/2021 at 9:10 AM, Halting Hex said:

Quote

AARON (during the fight scene):  The workers are going to come in [to the Funeral Home] tomorrow and be all "what the fuck happened here?"

Myself, I can't help noticing that young Collin's mom lets Andrew Borba spew a whole lot of crazy talk at her young son, and never tries to shut him up.  Yeeah, yeah, that's because she's an extra and they'd have to pay her if she had lines, but it takes me out of the scene.  Don't be cheap, Joss…if you keep her under five lines, she won't get residuals.

Good observations!
Don't the workers of the Funeral Home already know the "self-explanatory" excuse for whatever weird shit happening in good ol' SunnyD? It's some gang's on PCP fault. There's a whole lot of them hanging around.
 

Funeral Home is one thing.

Spoiler

For years I imagined the looks on Snyder's and the SHS staff's/students' faces the morning after the climactic action of Prophecy Girl. Like, why the hell there's a big-big hole in the wall where the entrance to the building used to be or whose car is in the school hall or what is that strange skeleton doing in the trashed library? And where the fuck is Rupert Giles? Or the morning after The Zeppo? Whose are those three mangled bodies lying scattered across the school and how did they even get there? And who did it to them? And (once again) what the fuck have happened in the library?

And yes, Collin's Mom's behavior is rather strange.

Edited February 17, 2021 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

Ir occurs to me that the vampires, instead of merely turning Andrew Borba into a false Anointed, could have turned the other bus victims (the driver, the two women) as well and had a virtual army waiting for Buffy.

But of course, that would mean Buffy wouldn't be as likely to think Borba was the Anointed and might even notice that the child was missing.  So the Master is smart enough to employ such stratagems, and respects Buffy enough to know that subterfuge might be necessary.  Good to know, on both counts.

Quote

Andrew Borba hits Owen with a metal door.  Owen falls to the ground.

BORBA (triumphant):  Dead!

Nope.  Not even "just a little dead".  Owen isn't even unconscious for two minutes.

Does this mean that Borba didn't actually commit the double-homicide the newspaper said he was suspected in?  Since, you'd assume, actual killers can tell dead bodies from those who are merely stunned.

Or is it that Borba's previous success at murder has made him overconfident in his power?  Rack up a few kills and you start seeing corpses everywhere, is that the idea?

Quote

BORBA (triumphant):  Dead!

GILES:  Actually, all you did was flick a stray hair off of my jacket's shoulder.  For which I'm grateful, don't get me wrong, but nevertheless…

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by Halting Hex

[lembergwatcher]

7 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Or is it that Borba's previous success at murder has made him overconfident in his power?  Rack up a few kills and you start seeing corpses everywhere, is that the idea?

Yes.

7 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

  Quote

BORBA (triumphant):  Dead!

GILES:  Actually, all you did was flick a stray hair off of my jacket's shoulder.  For which I'm grateful, don't get me wrong, but nevertheless…

Giles or Owen?

[Halting Hex]

I used Giles in my whimsical illustration, for variety's sake.  (And because I don't really have Owen's "voice" down.)

Of course, Borba mistreats Giles in the actual episode as welll;  he just doesn't brag about it as he does in re Owen.