S02.E03: School Hard

[Lisin]

From Wikipedia:

The Night of St. Vigeous is fast approaching, when the power of all vampires will be at its peak. Spike and Drusilla blast into town and learn that Sunnydale has its very own Slayer. Impatient to add a third notch to his tally of Slayer-kills, Spike attacks Buffy at Sunnydale High on Parent Teacher Night—with disastrous results.

 

Spike and Dru! Spike and Dru! Spike and Dru! Ok, I love this episode. It's funny without being corny and I'm not sure if you had noticed but I'm pretty excited about Spike and Dru showing up! 

[Dianthus]

Lisin: I share your excitement! I have so much love for this ep.

Accused of jinxing things by suggesting "nothing bad" will happen before Sunnydale High's Parent - Teacher night, he responds,

"Well, you guys don't know. Maybe this time it'll be different."

Oh Yeah! It's different, all right.

 

Dru scratches Spike's left cheek, leaving a red smear. We cut to Buffy, who has a similar smear of red paint on her left cheek. This is not, IMO, a coincidence.

This episode neatly sets up other parallels between Buffy and Spike:

* They both take over their worlds.

*They're both rebels.

*They're both unconventional.

*They're both in their prime, and at their peak.

 

The first time Spike sees Buffy, she isn't fighting, she's dancing. Dancing is a metaphor we'll see again for these two.

Also -

Sheila (to Spike): "Who are you?"

Spike (in reply, low and seductive): "Who do you want me to be?"

me (fanning self): Guh!

This one line pretty much tells you exactly how Spike relates to women, and how he ensnares them.

Edited June 10, 2014 by Dianthus

[CletusMusashi]

So many great things about that episode. Spike and Dru being awesome. The Annointed One being removed from the show. But, also, the Annointed One still being on the show until the end of the ep. Because as I said on another episode thread, I loved that Season Two started out as an epilogue of Season 1 and evolved out of that. The tattered remnants of the Church of Aurelius trying to stay in control until a Better Bad moved into the power vacuum was not what we expected as viewers. Spike coining the nickname "Annoying One." The reveal that there was a big cover-up going on in City Hall. Joyce confirming that everyone hates Snyder. Not only so many great moments, but a well-crafted script that served a pivotal role in a well-crafted story arc. God, I miss Joss having an attention span...

[buffyjunkie]

 

"Well, you guys don't know. Maybe this time it'll be different."

Oh Yeah! It's different, all right.

Did you notice how Xander sort of hugs his book satchell too as he says this Dianthus?  One of many things that makes me feel NB's acting was under-rated.

[Dianthus]

buffyjunkie: Yeah, that was a nice touch. The Zeppo is one of my favorite non-Spike eps.

[DAngelus]

And so the nightmare begins.

 

Seriously, watching S1 and the first two eps of this season fills me with such joy, simply because Spike doesn't exist yet.  There's something so pure and delightful in a World Without Spike.  

Spoiler

Not that Cheekbones becomes a series deficit until, say, Lovers Walk, but still.

 

Also, a pretty bad ep by Season 2 standards.  Yes, the first half has more comedy bits and Great Scooby Moments than any five UPN episodes, but the second half is nothing but an endless runaround in the dark.  As someone who can't stand Joyce Summers, I can tell you that watching her and Snyder snap at each other is right up there with rectal surgery as pleasures go, and the presence of the whiny idiot who gets killed hardly bolsters those scenes.  And the less said about Angel's stupid plan to get Spike to bite Xander, the better.

 

What I'm waiting to see, what the episode has sold me on, is Buffy versus Spike.  And the 11 minutes I have to wait to see it drags like 11 hours, every time.

 

It is Marsters's best acting, though.  The actual subtle menace he exudes is a wonderful change from the hammy crap he'll descend into later.  

Spoiler

(I can only cringe imagining how S6 James would handle the "biggest wrinklies" line…"Any of YHEWWW wanna see WHOZE gawt the BIG-est WRRRRRRINKLIES [head tilt, "seductive' glance], step! on! up!"  The Angel-torture sequence in What's My Line part 2 is pretty nicely restrained, too, but this is Spike at his coolest, IMO.)

 And the Angel/Spike confrontation and Spike stopping suddenly when he senses Buffy after that do play much better on the page than on the screen, I'll admit. As I wrote before, apparently that was the first day of shooting and Joss fired director John T. Kretchmer and ghost-directed the ep himself after that.  So I shouldn't hold the episode to blame for a few poorly-shot sequences.

 

Quote

 

We cut to Buffy, who has a similar smear of red paint on her left cheek.

 

No, when we cut to Buffy, she's looking very cute in her silk pyjamas, struggling to comb her hair on account of her neither-creamy-nor-rinse-y creme rinse.  The sign-painting comes later.

 

And, by the way, there's not a mention of the paint on Buffy's cheek in the shooting script.  She's got a few dabs of paint on her, it's probably nothing more than a coincidence.  

Spoiler

Again, there was no Spuffy plan in place back in the days when James wasn't supposed to even be around for the full sesson, no matter what the 'shippers want to see.

 Sometimes a dab of paint is just a dab of paint.

 

OTOH, Spike lurking at the Bronze watching Buffy is a delberate call-back to Angel doing the same thing in Angel, IMO.  A warning that, as kind and protective as Angel seemed back in 1.07, lurking vampires are not really a good thing?  (In Angel, Angel leaves by the time Buffy looks in his direction, but he's still nearby and protects her from the Three.  Here, Spike's reaction to seeing Buffy dancing happily is to lure her into the alleyway, to test her and prepare for his killing her two days later.)  

Spoiler

And thus, the contrast drawn between Angel and his "normal" childe foreshadows Angel's own turn, leading to Passion, where Buffy is once again dancing at the Bronze, but the Angel who observes is no longer the gentle protector of S1,  but the vengefully scowling tormentor who now prepares to break Buffy's spirit.

 

And I can't forget my favorite under-appreciated joke of the episode, which happens right after that:

 

Quote

 

Buffy and Big Ugly are fighting.  Buffy is winning.

 

BIG UGLY (calling, off): Spike! Give me a hand!

 

Nothing happens.  Punch-stake-dust. Spike steps out of the shadows, applauding.

 

What can I say?  I like them subtle.

 

(And Xander only made a conditional statement, that they'd be fine if nothing happened.  He didn't state or predict that nothing was going to happen; any cries of "jinx" are IMO unfair.)

[Joe Hellandback]

On 6/9/2014 at 11:15 PM, Dianthus said:

Lisin: I share your excitement! I have so much love for this ep.

Accused of jinxing things by suggesting "nothing bad" will happen before Sunnydale High's Parent - Teacher night, he responds,

"Well, you guys don't know. Maybe this time it'll be different."

Oh Yeah! It's different, all right.

 

Dru scratches Spike's left cheek, leaving a red smear. We cut to Buffy, who has a similar smear of red paint on her left cheek. This is not, IMO, a coincidence.

This episode neatly sets up other parallels between Buffy and Spike:

* They both take over their worlds.

*They're both rebels.

*They're both unconventional.

*They're both in their prime, and at their peak.

 

The first time Spike sees Buffy, she isn't fighting, she's dancing. Dancing is a metaphor we'll see again for these two.

Also -

Sheila (to Spike): "Who are you?"

Spike (in reply, low and seductive): "Who do you want me to be?"

me (fanning self): Guh!

This one line pretty much tells you exactly how Spike relates to women, and how he ensnares them.

 

Personally I always saw the attraction there from the beginning, when he see her at the Bronze. 

 

On 6/10/2014 at 3:59 PM, CletusMusashi said:

So many great things about that episode. Spike and Dru being awesome. The Annointed One being removed from the show. But, also, the Annointed One still being on the show until the end of the ep. Because as I said on another episode thread, I loved that Season Two started out as an epilogue of Season 1 and evolved out of that. The tattered remnants of the Church of Aurelius trying to stay in control until a Better Bad moved into the power vacuum was not what we expected as viewers. Spike coining the nickname "Annoying One." The reveal that there was a big cover-up going on in City Hall. Joyce confirming that everyone hates Snyder. Not only so many great moments, but a well-crafted script that served a pivotal role in a well-crafted story arc. God, I miss Joss having an attention span...

Really Buffy takes off at this point, it becomes a whole new show. 

 

On 6/13/2014 at 4:43 AM, DAngelus said:

And so the nightmare begins.

 

Seriously, watching S1 and the first two eps of this season fills me with such joy, simply because Spike doesn't exist yet.  There's something so pure and delightful in a World Without Spike.  

Spoiler

Not that Cheekbones becomes a series deficit until, say, Lovers Walk, but still.

 

Also, a pretty bad ep by Season 2 standards.  Yes, the first half has more comedy bits and Great Scooby Moments than any five UPN episodes, but the second half is nothing but an endless runaround in the dark.  As someone who can't stand Joyce Summers, I can tell you that watching her and Snyder snap at each other is right up there with rectal surgery as pleasures go, and the presence of the whiny idiot who gets killed hardly bolsters those scenes.  And the less said about Angel's stupid plan to get Spike to bite Xander, the better.

 

What I'm waiting to see, what the episode has sold me on, is Buffy versus Spike.  And the 11 minutes I have to wait to see it drags like 11 hours, every time.

 

It is Marsters's best acting, though.  The actual subtle menace he exudes is a wonderful change from the hammy crap he'll descend into later.  

Spoiler

(I can only cringe imagining how S6 James would handle the "biggest wrinklies" line…"Any of YHEWWW wanna see WHOZE gawt the BIG-est WRRRRRRINKLIES [head tilt, "seductive' glance], step! on! up!"  The Angel-torture sequence in What's My Line part 2 is pretty nicely restrained, too, but this is Spike at his coolest, IMO.)  

And the Angel/Spike confrontation and Spike stopping suddenly when he senses Buffy after that do play much better on the page than on the screen, I'll admit. As I wrote before, apparently that was the first day of shooting and Joss fired director John T. Kretchmer and ghost-directed the ep himself after that.  So I shouldn't hold the episode to blame for a few poorly-shot sequences.

 

 

No, when we cut to Buffy, she's looking very cute in her silk pyjamas, struggling to comb her hair on account of her neither-creamy-nor-rinse-y creme rinse.  The sign-painting comes later.

 

And, by the way, there's not a mention of the paint on Buffy's cheek in the shooting script.  She's got a few dabs of paint on her, it's probably nothing more than a coincidence.  

Spoiler

Again, there was no Spuffy plan in place back in the days when James wasn't supposed to even be around for the full sesson, no matter what the 'shippers want to see.

 Sometimes a dab of paint is just a dab of paint.

 

OTOH, Spike lurking at the Bronze watching Buffy is a delberate call-back to Angel doing the same thing in Angel, IMO.  A warning that, as kind and protective as Angel seemed back in 1.07, lurking vampires are not really a good thing?  (In Angel, Angel leaves by the time Buffy looks in his direction, but he's still nearby and protects her from the Three.  Here, Spike's reaction to seeing Buffy dancing happily is to lure her into the alleyway, to test her and prepare for his killing her two days later.)  

Spoiler

And thus, the contrast drawn between Angel and his "normal" childe foreshadows Angel's own turn, leading to Passion, where Buffy is once again dancing at the Bronze, but the Angel who observes is no longer the gentle protector of S1,  but the vengefully scowling tormentor who now prepares to break Buffy's spirit.

 

And I can't forget my favorite under-appreciated joke of the episode, which happens right after that:

 

 

What can I say?  I like them subtle.

 

(And Xander only made a conditional statement, that they'd be fine if nothing happened.  He didn't state or predict that nothing was going to happen; any cries of "jinx" are IMO unfair.)

 

Bangler?

School Hard;

A whole new era begins as Spike and Dru explode onto the scene!

The Good; Pretty much everything. Spike and Dru spark right from the beginning, you get their swagger mixed with their very real affection for one another. Julia Landua did her 'Look at all the people' line once for me and it chilled me to the bone. I often think the secret of a successful show is to make the villains as interesting as the heroes and here Buffy does it in spades. Also a great ep if you're a fan of the the Joyce/Buffy relationship (and face it, who isn't?)

The Bad; Not much!

Best line; Xander; "Does anyone remember when Saturday night was date night?" Cordy; "You sure don't!"

Observations and questions; First meeting between Cordy and Joyce, Cordy seeming to be appreciative of Joyce's milfiness, as Snyder comments, a mother/daughter resemblance (certainly when she hits Spike with the axe). First hints that Snyder and the SDPD are aware of the truth about Sunnydale. For the record only 3 people died at Woodstock although Spike never says he killed, just fed. The very subtle handbag joke reminiscent of 'The Young Ones'. 

Spoiler

Ironically whilst Spike later teases the Trio for their nerdiness he refers to Angel as 'My yoda'.

Angel's 'Anne Rice routine' is so convincing you almost buy it for a second. Listening to Spike mocking the 'I'm so tortured' brigade you can't help think of 'Twilight' and laugh. Spike's fascination with Buffy could almost be there from the beginning, check out the way he looks at her in the Bronze. The first Spike/Joyce scene which are something to look forward to in the seasons ahead. It almost goes unnoticed amongst all the excitement but this is the first time Cordy is a full official Scooby, she's in the library making stakes with everyone else without any form of back story, she's simply an accepted part of the gang. The crucifixion is mentioned, confirming Giles' assertion that demons and vampires predate Christianity but also confirming it as historical fact. Interestingly at the end of this ep Cordy and Willow end up in the closet together. Will's out, how about Cordy? Also in Shelia do we have a prototype for Faith? Utterly fabulous 10/10

[lembergwatcher]

That was Cordy I loved. Still I felt very sorry for Willow... She wasn't happy with her company...

[Halting Hex]

Spoiler

It's true, Angel's "skill" at "planning dumbly" will actually be cited on an episode of his own series (First Impressions), 

…but that still doesn't make his offering Spike a free shot at Xander's neck any more sensible.

And major, major demerits to Buffy for apparently forgetting all about Willow and Cordelia and leaving them stuck in that closet, too terrified to come out.  Some "best friend" you are, Slayer.  I wonder what Joyce would say about how Buffy is "brave and resourceful and thinks of others in a crisis" if she knew about this brain fart.

(Hell, why doesn't Joyce wonder where Willow is?  She knows Willow and she knows Willow was at the school; Willow practically gave her the guided tour earlier in the evening.  Summers women, both dead from the neck up.  Seriously.)

6/10, if I'm generous.  One of the worst episodes of the season, IMO, despite a strong first half. 

Spoiler

(Above only What's My Line, Part 1 and I Only Have Eyes For You, I'd say.)

Edited August 29, 2018 by Halting Hex

[lembergwatcher]

9 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

And the less said about Angel's Incredibly Stupid Plan to get Spike to bite Xander, the better.

I guess that jealous (as can be seen in Some Assembly Required) Angel simply wanted to get rid of the annoying boy.

Spoiler

Then, judging from his future stint as a head of Angel Investigations and Wolfram & Hart's L.A. office, strategy and planning weren't Angel's things)

And from the first episode we encounter Captain Peroxide he seems to be full of his usual shit:
 

Quote

Spike: You think you can fool me?! You were my sire, man! You were my... Yoda!

[Halting Hex]

As much as I complain about Buffy forgetting to check on Willow and leaving her stuck in that closet (both upthread and elsewhere), I'll admit that because I love Willow so much, my standards for how IMO Buffy should be treating her best friend are Pretty Darn High.  So you might argue that I'm being unfair to Buffy because of this.  (I'd dispute your argument, but I could see where you're coming from.)

But let's move it closer to a level playing field and leave Willow out of it.  Simply considering that Cordelia was also imperiled, Buffy's still quite derelict.  Well, leaving even a civilian behind would be poor Slayer form, but I mean moreso because Cordy is, by now, part of the group.  She may have annoyed Buffy with her complaining and her teasing, and they may get along like "oil and water…and a third unmixable thing", but CC did help Buffy prepare for Parent-Teacher Night (which is a Snyder mandate that is hanging over Buffy's head) and she was making weapons for Buffy in the Library for almost three hours, to judge by the shots of the clock.  That might merit a check-in to see if she's been eaten, I'm just saying.

And besides, Cordelia is Buffy's most consistent damsel at this point;  Buffy has had to save CC's (scrumptious) bod in the past four consecutive eps, as of now.  You'd think it would be verging on habit for Buffy to make sure that Cordy is okay, rather than leaving it in God's hands, as it were.  Ugh.

(BTW, was God listening?  Did anyone actually come to get Willow and Cordelia out of the closet, or were they stuck in there all night long? Did the custodian get the wrong impression about what they were up to?  Are they in trouble with Snyder now?)

I just get overly annoyed by this, it's true.  Two episodes ago, Cordelia was the Voice of Truth, with her "Bitch of the Year" speech.  Now she's forgotten and abandoned, just so she can be comically assaulted by Willow, of all people. (And off-screen, at that.)  And again I go with "ugh".

(Or, possibly, "blech".  I haven't decided, yet.)

[lembergwatcher]

Well, right. But who cares about such "small and insignificant" details? Willow? Cordelia? Who are they? This is King Spike's

Spoiler

the Whedonites' future darling

episode! W/X/C or anyone else whose name isn't Spike, Buffy or Joyce, are as significant in School Hard as Sheila,

Spoiler

whom we'll never see again AFAIK,

or Dwayne and Dell or those poor parents/teachers for whom Snyder's parent-teacher night turned out to be their last.

Edited February 19, 2019 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

On 8/28/2018 at 9:18 PM, Halting Hex said:

that still doesn't make [Angel's] offering Spike a free shot at Xander's neck any more sensible.

Seriously, what is Angel's ideal outcome here?  Spike bites Xander and Angel…what?  Gets a free shot at Spike, is that the plan? Does Angel really think he can knock Spike out with one punch?

I mean, when Spike sees through Angel's plan*, he takes the first shot…and doesn't come close to finishing Angel.  So why should Angel assume things will be different?  He's known Spike for a good long time, apparently; does he not know that Spike (whose relentless determination Angel himself praised earlier in the ep) isn't the type to go down that easily?

Soon after this, Buffy (who is stronger than Angel) will (finally) fight Spike.  She doesn't knock him out with her first punch, either.

Honestly, that "Angel's trying to get rid of the competition, because of the whole 'he gets to see you in the sunshine' issue" theory is almost starting to make sense.  Almost.

*-We don't have a reliable read on Spike's intelligence as yet (he gained the advantage of surprise by attacking ahead of schedule, but OTOH he threw away whatever "power" St. Vigeous would have granted to the vamps, and it does seem as though he fucked up big time in Prague, what with Drusilla nearly getting killed by that mob…so perhaps Spike shouldn't be quite so confident in his scheme?), but apparently even he isn't stupid enough as to be fooled by Angel, here.  Nice going, Forehead.  Yeesh.

[lembergwatcher]

1 hour ago, Halting Hex said:

Honestly, that "Angel's trying to get rid of the competition, because of the whole 'he gets to see you in the sunshine' issue" theory is almost starting to make sense.  Almost.

Why is it such a taboo to think Forehead did indeed want the Sunshine Boy dead? Ensouled beast is still the beast no matter what ("I can walk like a man, but I'm not one. I wanted to kill you tonight" - Angel) and all his killer instincts are there regardless of soul or feelings for Buffy. He may truly love the Slayer and even Giles/Willow to some extent due to their importance for Buffy and because they're generally ok with Angel's presence both in the gang and Buffy's life alike, but Xander?.. Why not try to remove the Xander-shaped "threat" to B/A happiness?

Besides, for someone born and raised in the 18th century violence was a pretty natural thing in dealing with love rivals. I believe Angel considered killing Xander and the boy's dislike of Mr. Pedo wasn't because of only jealousy or other teenage issues.

[Halting Hex]

Well, the argument is that Angel is so wracked by guilt over all his murders due to his returned soul that he'd hardly be looking to add another to the pile, increased shot at Buffy-muffy aside.

Then again, Xander had just shamed him into action against the Master and

Spoiler

"that guy just bugs me" to quote a possible truth-in-lies moment from the lips of "Angelus" in Enemies.

  So…maybe.  Although I'm still inclined to give Angel a bit of the doubt, and come down on the side of merely stupid, rather than fully evil.  But JMO.

[Loandbehold]

14 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

So…maybe.  Although I'm still inclined to give Angel a bit of the doubt, and come down on the side of merely stupid, rather than fully evil.  But JMO.

I don't know if Angel wanted Xander dead here or not. It doesn't seem that he had any sort of plan. Maybe he thought the worst that could happen was Spike bites and kills Xander and Angel tells Buffy it was Spike who did the dirty deed. But, for the life of me, I can't see what he thought the best thing that could happen was. In any event, there's no doubt that he offered Xander up to Spike. Which is reason enough for me for Xander to continue hating him whether or not he was jealous of Angel and Buffy. 

[Joe Hellandback]

17 hours ago, Loandbehold said:

I don't know if Angel wanted Xander dead here or not. It doesn't seem that he had any sort of plan. Maybe he thought the worst that could happen was Spike bites and kills Xander and Angel tells Buffy it was Spike who did the dirty deed. But, for the life of me, I can't see what he thought the best thing that could happen was. In any event, there's no doubt that he offered Xander up to Spike. Which is reason enough for me for Xander to continue hating him whether or not he was jealous of Angel and Buffy. 

It is a tough one, it does seem very realistic but no, I don't think Angel was offering Xander up as a sacrificial snack. 

[lembergwatcher]

I won't be surprised if neither Willow and Giles nor Buffy have ever learned about the whole A/X/S incident. Would that knowledge change aforementioned characters' perception of Angel and the relationship between the ensouled vampire and the group in general?

Honestly, I don't understand Xander's (bad) habit of keeping everything bottled up. If he really wants Angel to stay away as far as possible from Buffy/Willow (and it seems he does), why play the silence game? That's a serious thing, after all.

We, the viewers, know about Angel's guilt trip, but I don't think all that stuff should matter to Xander considering his near-death experience. Anyway, there are some big holes in Bangel sect's favorite theory of "bad" Xander hating "good" Angel's guts to such an extent he wanted the Broody Boy dead 24/7.

[lembergwatcher]

44 minutes ago, Joe Hellandback said:

I don't think Angel was offering Xander up as a sacrificial snack

That's what we like/want to believe. It could have been the other way around though. The reason why the vast majority of fans think of Angel as some sort of good guy is simply because he loved Buffy and the Slayer fell in love with him. But love and affection alone hardly make saints out of us (Spike/Dru being a shining example).

On 3/30/2019 at 1:31 AM, Halting Hex said:

Well, the argument is that Angel is so wracked by guilt over all his murders due to his returned soul that he'd hardly be looking to add another to the pile

True. But regardless of guilt he can (un)live with that. Even though Angel feels very bad for all the things he has done in the past he's still very far from doing the right thing like, say, staking himself. Sure, he would have felt very uncomfortable if Spike had sucked Xander's blood, but, like I said, he could (un)live with the whole thing.

Spoiler

Like he did after all those atrocities he's commited in the time span between Innocence and Becoming, Part 2. Giles and the rest forgave Angel for murdering Jenny and almost killing Willow on two occasions, after all. Why should Xander matter?

"Hey, I had no choice! I had to do something to make Spike buy my story! Yeah, I feel sorry for the poor boy and I know Willow had a crush on him, and he was your friend and meant a lot to you, but... why not think positively? Why not think... about how many lives have been saved yesterday and the fact that Buffy has defeated Spike, and thus there'll be no Saint Vigeous Night Massacre? Think more broadly" (Angel in my AU-headcanon).

[Halting Hex]

6 hours ago, lembergwatcher said:



Spoiler

Like he did after all those atrocities he's commited in the time span between Innocence and Becoming, Part 2. Giles and the rest forgave Angel for murdering Jenny and almost killing Willow on two occasions, after all. 

To be fair, as the spoilered events take place in the future (hence the spoiler bar), we can't really blame them for not factoring into Angel's decision-making here.  Not unless clairvoyance is an as-yet-unmentioned vampire power. 

Spoiler

And, as we later learn, Drusilla always had "the sight", even before she was turned.

[lembergwatcher]

Did I say I love Willow's green dress? She looks very fragile, feminine and sexy wearing that thing.

Spoiler

Well, apparently not as sexy as in the Ghost!Hooker's or Vamp!Willow's outfits, but still...

Damn, Xander, don't be such a wuss! If I were you, I'd grab the redhead, dragged her to the nearby janitor's closet and started to kiss her like the world was going to end, and got Willow out of that dress, of course...  

Edited April 4, 2019 by lembergwatcher

[Halting Hex]

Eh, green is my favorite color (I'm a forest critter, at heart) but neither Willow's olive-drab nor Buffy's toothpaste-mint do much for me, I'm afraid.  Cordelia's Chinese-style black floral print laps them both, IMO.

Even Jenny's cannabis top (okay, okay, it's probably not cannabis, I'm kidding) looks better, I say.

[lembergwatcher]

18 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

Cordelia's Chinese-style black floral print laps them both, IMO.

Well, maybe Cordelia's fashion sense is superior to those of Buffy and Willow but somehow I get the urge to undress Willow in her olive outfit. I have no desire to do anything like that with Cordy. 

[Halting Hex]

Quote

JOYCE:  Look, we moved once because of you getting in trouble…

Jeez, Joyce!  Would it kill you to use proper grammar?  That's "your getting"…words that end in "-ing" require possessive pronouns!  How did you get your Masters in Art History (or whatever degree enables you to run that gallery) without being able to speak English?

Any more of this, and I'll stop being grateful that your name was finally said on air (it's been in the scripts since the pilot) and I can stop calling you "Buffy's mom" all the time.  Sheesh.

(It is nice that Joyce gives Snyder the "I'm Joyce Summers" polite introduction that she failed to offer to either Angel or Darla in Angel, I'll admit.  I'd say that perhaps she's biased against Undead-Americans, but as she didn't know about the fangs in either of those cases, likely not.)

To be fair to Joyce, Giles has also let Buffy down on this front, in Never Kill a Title by Making It So Long:

Quote

GILES:  Buffy, while the mere fact of you wanting to check out a book…

Damn it, Tweed Boy, that's "your wanting" there!  Pronoun-gerund agreement shouldn't be this tough!  Why can't the English speak the English, to quote 'Enery 'Iggins?  Gah!  Poor Buffy, no decent adult role models anywhere in her life.  No wonder she's having trouble in school…

Yes, it's nice that Xander can raise sophisticated topics such as "deconstructing segues" last episode.  But Xander shouldn't have to be Buffy's tutor, ffs.  Sigh.

(Giles is really freaking useless about this.  I went through the Angel transcript, because I thought I remembered Angel doing gerund agreement properly and I found…this:

Quote

GILES [regarding Angel's history]: …there's no record of him hunting…

"His", G-man.  "His hunting".  And to think Jenny thinks you're snobbish.  Sheesh.)

[Halting Hex]

So I watched this one with a new reactor (Riley Lynn) and I still really hate it.  Part of it is just how much of the audience is captivated by James Marsters as Spike (Riley is in love with Angel and B/A, but she admits Spike's really pretty…she even allows she might be attracted to Juliet Landau as well), which great, casting did its job.  (And James and Juliet found nice chemistry in their audition together.)  But that doesn't excuse the stuff that just gets swept under the rug.

As I see it, the episode's problem is that it's nothing but an exercise in empty hype.  Witness:

• "On the Night of St. Vigeous, our power with be at its greatest", or whatever Big Ugly says.  Sounds ominous, how does it work, what can Buffy do to stop it?

Nope, that's completely irrelevant.  The episode is over before we even get to Saturday.

• Big Ugly himself (Gregory Scott Cummins) looks like an impressive foe, a possible test for Buffy.  (While Riley thought Marsters was pretty, she did note that when Spike tells Big Ugly to "find something to eat" at the Bronze, it makes JM look really short.)  Cool, we've got lots of new and important vampires!

Nope, Big Ugly gets dissed and punked by Spike, used as cannon fodder; he's dust before the first commercial.

•  Spike and Dru are swooning towards each other;  are they going to kiss in front of all the vampires?

Nope, it's just a tease;  she draws some blood and sucks it, instead.

• Spike and Dru are doing it again, is this the kiss?

Nope, they just turn heads together (the move JM/JL worked out in auditions) and look at the Anointed.  Fooled you!

• When Spike and Dru (and Miss Edith and the dolls) get a scene to themselves in Act 2, and they fall to the bed, Riley was wondering if they were going to boink in front of the captive Sheila?

Nope.  Spike's getting less action than Xander, FFS.  He goes upstairs to "get chanty with the boys" and Dru "eats something".  You want vampire romance?   Maybe Angel found "some other nice girl" as Xander suggested he might in Act 1.  Nothing happening here.

• Hey, so Buffy and Spike are going to totally fight, right?  Spike asked for the scouting report on Buffy from Colin, he shows up at the Bronze, he tells her they're going to fight "on Saturday" (oh, you little sneak, Spike!), he surprise-attacks two nights early because he couldn't wait…

…and then we get to wait for eleven goddamn minutes while Buffy fights everybody but Spike and Spike is just roaming the halls idly yapping and I'm about to fall asleep and we get to sit through scenes with Joyce and Snyder and that Stan Karsch idiot who gets eaten and oh, such lovely people.  YAWN.

(You know how I mentioned that Joss and Greenwalt try to "get Spike over" with the audience by fluffing his rep [see below] and by having him kill the Anointed and such?  Well, what is this episode but an attempt to sell us on Joyce Summers?

Let's face it, it's nice that Joyce and Buffy love each other, but Joyce has been nothing but a negative Nancy and a pain in Buffy's life, so far.  She's constantly [gently] blaming Buffy for messing up her [Joyce's] life, in the pilot and in Witch and again in Act 1 of this episode; she downplays Buffy's stress ["everything is life-and-death when you're a 16-year-old girl" in The Harvest, this episode's "wait until you get a job"], she doesn't know what Buffy's trying to do (cheerleading in Witch), she cold-shoulders Buffy's desperate plea to get out of town in Prophecy Girl, but she's all snarky about Buffy not opening up to her in WSWB.  Even when it's something relatively minor, such as Buffy's complaint that she ended up wasting her (limited) income on "this creme rinse and it's neither creamy nor rinse-y", does Joyce try to figure out what went wrong, check the ingredients, share her own experience and knowledge?  Nah, all Buffy gets is "life is hard", because Joyce wants to chastise Buffy about not telling her about Parent-Teacher Night.  Which is fair enough, but maybe if Joyce was a bit more helpful, Buffy might be a bit more open?

So, the way they try to make us forget that Joyce has been essentially an antagonist is to put her in conflict with the overtly-antagonistic Snyder.  Meh.  I'd rather Joyce and Snyder fell in love and ran off together than have to watch them snipe at each other, honestly.)

• Hey, so Spike is a total badass, right?  He's killed two Slayers, did you know that?  And then Angel shows up in the Library to basically act as Spike's press agent, and then Giles finds Spike's name in the book and guess what?  Spike's killed two Slayers!  (Riley, disappointed: "we already knew that, though") And when he and Buffy finally have the showdown, what does Spike do?  Brag about "the last Slayer I killed", of course.

So after all this relentless hype about the slayer of Slayers, what happens?  He get bonked by JOYCE, of all people, and, essentially, runs away.  If you thought this would be about Buffy showing her inner resolve against a fierce foe, if you thought it would be about Buffy and Angel's love helping them work together as one, if you thought it would be about Buffy's friends giving her crucial assistance and moral support…you were wrong. The key element is that somebody who has absolutely no idea what is going on wanders someplace she really shouldn't be (nice job taking care of Buffy's mom, which she asked you to do, Giles!), picks up a weapon that Buffy conveniently put down, and gets in one surprise attack.  (Do we think Joyce would have been able to chop Spike up if he'd growled and leapt at her rather than scampering off?  I don't.)  Talk about your anti-climax.  Sheesh.

So, yeah, Spike killed a teacher and took out the Anointed.  Big deal.  The Master was tough on his minions, too.  (He even maimed/killed a "Colin" of his own, in The Harvest.)  But his encounters with Buffy ended with his killing her (the prophetic dream in Nightmares), his burying her alive (Nightmares), his killing her for real (Prophecy Girl) and her needing to rise from the dead, fight off his hypnotic power, and throw him through a building to finish him off.  I don't remember his getting bonked over the head by (effectively) a NPC, beating a hasty retreat home, and sulking until his girlfriend cheered him up.  Sheesh.

* Hey, wasn't Angel a badass in his past, too?  The Master called him "the most vicious creature I ever knew" in Angel, remember?  He could have "rule[d] in the Master's court for 1000 years", if he'd wanted to do so, or so Darla claimed.

So, when Angel pretends to be "evil Angel" here, what does he do?  Never mind that David B. can't portray "menace" to save his ass, IMO, what does "Angelus" say?  

Quote

"ANGELUS" :  She's cute. Not too bright, though. I gave her the puppy dog, "I'm-all-tortured" act. Keeps her off my back when I feed.

So, "evil Angel" just pretends to be weak and emotional so he can snag an occasional bite behind Buffy's back?  Oooh, scary!  Except not.  If this really is what Angel was like in the bad old days, the Master is wayyyyy too easily impressed.

(Probably this weak attempt at "evil" is part of why Spike sees through the act so easily.)

• And of course, Joyce tells us that Buffy "thinks of others in a crisis" but Buffy didn't bother to see if her "best friend" was still alive.  I do always like the minor note of sadness the SMG puts in when she tells Giles [and Jenny] that she doesn't know what happened to Willow and Cordelia, but that's really not a lot, is it?  Riley said "be more worried!" and I think she was right.  Buffy seemed a lot more shaken by seeing Willow safely at home in her bedroom after finding the corpses in Prophecy Girl than by Willow possibly being chomped on by Spike.  Why doesn't Buffy try to find Willow rather than just ambushing random vampires?  You know which direction she went, and the school isn't that big, ffs.  It's not as if Buffy has to worry if a vampire or two spots her;  she can fight or take evasive action as needed.

But no, she's all focused on getting the vamps away from the science lab, so she can save Joyce, blah blah blah.  Because this is the Joyce episode, and Buffy can only think of one person at a time (I'm not saying she should forget Joyce, I'm just saying she might spare a thought for her friends, too), and besides, Buffy read the script and knows Willow is perfectly safe and is just having comedy scenes with Cordelia.  Just rescue Joyce and let everybody else take care of themselves, I guess.

Not that Buffy's alone in this, mind you.  It's been a whole two episodes since Xander was all "If they've hurt Willow, I'll kill you."  Does he go checking to see what's become of his "best buddy"?  Nope, he's too interested in trying to dig out the details of Angel and Spike's past sex life. "What's a sire?"  What does it matter?  Shouldn't you be checking to be sure Willow isn't lying dead in a pool of blood somewhere?  But Xander read the script too, it seems.

And how about Responsible Adult Giles, for that matter?  Does he check on Willow?  Does he wonder what's become of Xander?  Does he make sure Joyce is okay, given that Buffy told him to do that and he rather flubbed that job and Buffy might kick his ass for it?  No, no, and no again.  He's just strolling off with Jenny, which is nice, but there'll be time enough for that later on.

Spoiler

I mean, not as much time to date Jenny as we'd like, but still.

For that matter, does Buffy wonder what's become of her swains?  She was what, 20 feet away when Angel and Xander fled from Spike's minions?  Might want to find out how many potential boyfriends you've got left, Buff.

But Buffy's just having a shit night all around, let's be honest.  How the heck does she need Giles to shout "Buffy, look out!' in order to save her from VampSheila?  Is the ol' Vamp-Dar on the fritz, again??  Yes, Giles complained she hadn't "honed" her skills in the pilot, but since then she sensed the Three in Angel (although Angel himself still didn't set off the alarm, it's true), she was able track the Master after Xander revived her in Prophecy Girl, and she sensed Angel twice in WSWB…it looked as if things were getting better on that front.  But here's Sheila, able to get within fire-axe distance of decapitating Buffy, and if it wasn't for Giles shouting, it would be all over.

I mean, Spike has no problem sensing Buffy.  He picks her out of a crowded Bronze in Act 1 (Riley wondered how Spike knew she was the Slayer, but presumably the Anointed gave him a basic description after he played escort in PG.  But it's not as if they had photographs, and there were probably a number of young blondes in the Bronze.  But Spike knew the Slayer when he saw her…), and he's able to sense her behind him before they (finally!) fight.  Well, no wonder Spike's done such an ace job of slaying Slayers if he can sense them and they don't know him from a newbie.

And then Buffy puts down the axe.  Riiiight, because this is some sort of duel of honor, or something?  Should she really be surprised when Spike pulls the beam out of the wall and clobbers her with it?  That's not Spike being extra-evil, that's just normal vampire-evil evil.  You're not Buffy the MMA Fighter, girl…you're a vampire-slayer.  Might want to get your hands on any weapons you can, since punching Spike unconscious is an unlikely outcome, and you seem to have run flat out of stakes.  (She never pulls one on Spike.)  I know, she has to put the axe down so Joyce can pick it up later, but come on, now.  Grr…

All in all, just painful, the more I look at it.  Yes, they lay crumbs for future episodes (what's next for Spike and Dru?  When will Sheila return? What do the cops and Snyder know, exactly? Will Buffy's new Creme Rinse be at least creme-y OR rinse-y?  When will there be more teal in the Art Room? What's a "sire", anyway?), but there's no guarantee they'll be followed up on, after all.  Hopes for the future doesn't make this suck any less sucky, IMO.

(And none of this makes Angel's Incredibly Stupid Plan to Get Spike to Bite Xander any less stupid.  Angel's been slashed by Fork Guy, sliced by the Three, and got whacked in the face with a shovel by Stephan Korshak last episode.  And he thinks he can take Spike with one punch?  Maybe we need to check him for a concussion, or something.)

Quote

SPIKE: (attempting an apology) …and if I had the chance to do it all over again—who am I kidding?  If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would do it exactly the same way—

Really, Spike…really?  In case you didn't notice, pal…you lost.  I'm not saying the whole "sacrifice the power of St. Vigeous in order to get the advantage of surprise" concept was a terrible idea, necessarily…but it didn't work.  Learn from your mistakes, bucko.  Or do we need to check you for a concussion, too?

Lines You'll Never Hear on BtVS (a fresh one!): 

Quote

DRUSILLA:  The Slayer!  I can't see her! It's dark where she is!

SPIKE:  That's because it's night, you ninny.  You remember, the reason you walked from the car to inside here without bursting into flames?  (muttering, to himself)  I can't believe I didn't ditch this nutter in Prague when I had the chance…

And, actually, once we cut to Buffy, we see she's in a perfectly-well-lit bedroom.  Not "dark" at all.  So why can't Drusilla "see" her, exactly?

Does Buffy's bedroom have some sort of anti-psychic-probe force-field working, or something like that?  That would be useful.

Except that the Master made mystic contact with her in her sleep on multiple occasions. (WttH, Nightmares.)  So that can't be the explanation.  Perhaps Dru's just faking the whole "psychic powers" bit and Spike's too dense to catch on?  I mean, being able to see through Angel's "acting" doesn't make you a Rhodes Scholar, all by itself, I shouldn't think.

All JMO, dontcha know?

Edited January 24, 2021 by Halting Hex

[Joe Hellandback]

4 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

So I watched this one with a new reactor (Riley Lynn) and I still really hate it.  Part of it is just how much of the audience is captivated by James Marsters as Spike (Riley is in love with Angel and B/A, but she admits Spike's really pretty…she even allows she might be attracted to Juliet Landau as well), which great, casting did its job.  (And James and Juliet found nice chemistry in their audition together.)  But that doesn't excuse the stuff that just gets swept under the rug.

As I see it, the episode's problem is that it's nothing but an exercise in empty hype.  Witness:

• "On the Night of St. Vigeous, our power with be at its greatest", or whatever Big Ugly says.  Sounds ominous, how does it work, what can Buffy do to stop it?

Nope, that's completely irrelevant.  The episode is over before we even get to Saturday.

• Big Ugly himself (Gregory Scott Cummins) looks like an impressive foe, a possible test for Buffy.  (While Riley thought Marsters was pretty, she did note that when Spike tells Big Ugly to "find something to eat" at the Bronze, it makes JM look really short.)  Cool, we've got lots of new and important vampires!

Nope, Big Ugly gets dissed and punked by Spike, used as cannon fodder; he's dust before the first commercial.

•  Spike and Dru are swooning towards each other;  are they going to kiss in front of all the vampires?

Nope, it's just a tease;  she draws some blood and sucks it, instead.

• Spike and Dru are doing it again, is this the kiss?

Nope, they just turn heads together (the move JM/JL worked out in auditions) and look at the Anointed.  Fooled you!

• When Spike and Dru (and Miss Edith and the dolls) get a scene to themselves in Act 2, and they fall to the bed, Riley was wondering if they were going to boink in front of the captive Sheila?

Nope.  Spike's getting less action than Xander, FFS.  He goes upstairs to "get chanty with the boys" and Dru "eats something".  You want vampire romance?   Maybe Angel found "some other nice girl" as Xander suggested he might in Act 1.  Nothing happening here.

• Hey, so Buffy and Spike are going to totally fight, right?  Spike asked for the scouting report on Buffy from Colin, he shows up at the Bronze, he tells her they're going to fight "on Saturday" (oh, you little sneak, Spike!), he surprise-attacks two nights early because he couldn't wait…

…and then we get to wait for eleven goddamn minutes while Buffy fights everybody but Spike and Spike is just roaming the halls idly yapping and I'm about to fall asleep and we get to sit through scenes with Joyce and Snyder and that Stan Karsch idiot who gets eaten and oh, such lovely people.  YAWN.

(You know how I mentioned that Joss and Greenwalt try to "get Spike over" with the audience by fluffing his rep [see below] and by having him kill the Anointed and such?  Well, what is this episode but an attempt to sell us on Joyce Summers?

Let's face it, it's nice that Joyce and Buffy love each other, but Joyce has been nothing but a negative Nancy and a pain in Buffy's life, so far.  She's constantly [gently] blaming Buffy for messing up her [Joyce's] life, in the pilot and in Witch and again in Act 1 of this episode; she downplays Buffy's stress ["everything is life-and-death when you're a 16-year-old girl" in The Harvest, this episode's "wait until you get a job"], she doesn't know what Buffy's trying to do (cheerleading in Witch), she cold-shoulders Buffy's desperate plea to get out of town in Prophecy Girl, but she's all snarky about Buffy not opening up to her in WSWB.  Even when it's something relatively minor, such as Buffy's complaint that she ended up wasting her (limited) income on "this creme rinse and it's neither creamy nor rinse-y", does Joyce try to figure out what went wrong, check the ingredients, share her own experience and knowledge?  Nah, all Buffy gets is "life is hard", because Joyce wants to chastise Buffy about not telling her about Parent-Teacher Night.  Which is fair enough, but maybe if Joyce was a bit more helpful, Buffy might be a bit more open?

So, the way they try to make us forget that Joyce has been essentially an antagonist is to put her in conflict with the overtly-antagonistic Snyder.  Meh.  I'd rather Joyce and Snyder fell in love and ran off together than have to watch them snipe at each other, honestly.)

• Hey, so Spike is a total badass, right?  He's killed two Slayers, did you know that?  And then Angel shows up in the Library to basically act as Spike's press agent, and then Giles finds Spike's name in the book and guess what?  Spike's killed two Slayers!  (Riley, disappointed: "we already knew that, though") And when he and Buffy finally have the showdown, what does Spike do?  Brag about "the last Slayer I killed", of course.

So after all this relentless hype about the slayer of Slayers, what happens?  He get bonked by JOYCE, of all people, and, essentially, runs away.  If you thought this would be about Buffy showing her inner resolve against a fierce foe, if you thought it would be about Buffy and Angel's love helping them work together as one, if you thought it would be about Buffy's friends giving her crucial assistance and moral support…you were wrong. The key element is that somebody who has absolutely no idea what is going on wanders someplace she really shouldn't be (nice job taking care of Buffy's mom, which she asked you to do, Giles!), picks up a weapon that Buffy conveniently put down, and gets in one surprise attack.  (Do we think Joyce would have been able to chop Spike up if he'd growled and leapt at her rather than scampering off?  I don't.)  Talk about your anti-climax.  Sheesh.

So, yeah, Spike killed a teacher and took out the Anointed.  Big deal.  The Master was tough on his minions, too.  (He even maimed/killed a "Colin" of his own, in The Harvest.)  But his encounters with Buffy ended with his killing her (the prophetic dream in Nightmares), his burying her alive (Nightmares), his killing her for real (Prophecy Girl) and her needing to rise from the dead, fight off his hypnotic power, and throw him through a building to finish him off.  I don't remember his getting bonked over the head by (effectively) a NPC, beating a hasty retreat home, and sulking until his girlfriend cheered him up.  Sheesh.

* Hey, wasn't Angel a badass in his past, too?  The Master called him "the most vicious creature I ever knew" in Angel, remember?  He could have "rule[d] in the Master's court for 1000 years", if he'd wanted to do so, or so Darla claimed.

So, when Angel pretends to be "evil Angel" here, what does he do?  Never mind that David B. can't portray "menace" to save his ass, IMO, what does "Angelus" say?  

So, "evil Angel" just pretends to be weak and emotional so he can snag an occasional bite behind Buffy's back?  Oooh, impressive!  Except not.  If this really is what Angel was like in the bad old days, the Master is wayyyyy too easily impressed.

(Probably this weak attempt at "evil" is part of why Spike sees through the act so easily.)

• And of course, Joyce tells us that Buffy "thinks of others in a crisis" but Buffy didn't bother to see if her "best friend" was still alive.  I do always like the minor note of sadness the SMG puts in when she tells Giles [and Jenny] that she doesn't know what happened to Willow and Cordelia, but that's really not a lot, is it?  Riley said "be more worried!" and I think she was right.  Buffy seemed a lot more shaken by seeing Willow safely at home in her bedroom after finding the corpses in Prophecy Girl than by Willow possibly being chomped on by Spike.  Why doesn't Buffy try to find Willow rather than just ambushing random vampires?  You know which direction she went, and the school isn't that big, ffs.  It's not as if Buffy has to worry if a vampire or two spots her;  she can fight or take evasive action as needed.

But no, she's all focused on getting the vamps away from the science lab, so she can save Joyce, blah blah blah.  Because this is the Joyce episode, and Buffy can only think of one person at a time (I'm not saying she should forget Joyce, I'm just saying she might spare a thought for her friends, too), and besides, Buffy read the script and knows Willow is perfectly safe and is just having comedy scenes with Cordelia.  Just rescue Joyce and let everybody else take care of themselves, I guess.

Not that Buffy's alone in this, mind you.  It's been a whole two episodes since Xander was all "If they've hurt Willow, I'll kill you."  Does he go checking to see what's become of his "best buddy"?  Nope, he's too interested in trying to dig out the details of Angel and Spike's past sex life. "What's a sire?"  What does it matter?  Shouldn't you be checking to be sure Willow isn't lying dead in a pool of blood somewhere?  But Xander read the script too, it seems.

And how about Responsible Adult Giles, for that matter?  Does he check on Willow?  Does he wonder what's become of Xander?  Does he make sure Joyce is okay, given that Buffy told him to do that and he rather flubbed that job and Buffy might kick his ass for it?  No, no, and no again.  He's just strolling off with Jenny, which is nice, but there'll be time enough for that later on.

  Reveal spoiler

I mean, not as much time to date Jenny as we'd like, but still.

For that matter, does Buffy wonder what's become of her swains?  She was what, 20 feet away when Angel and Xander fled from Spike's minions?  Might want to find out how many potential boyfriends you've got left, Buff.

But Buffy's just having a shit night all around, let's be honest.  How the heck does she need Giles to shout "Buffy, look out!' in order to save her from VampSheila?  Is the ol' Vamp-Dar on the fritz, again??  Yes, Giles complained she hadn't "honed" her skills in the pilot, but since then she sensed the Three in Angel (although Angel himself still didn't set off the alarm, it's true), she was able track the Master after Xander revived her in Prophecy Girl, and she sensed Angel twice in WSWB…it looked as if things were getting better on that front.  But here's Sheila, able to get within fire-axe distance of decapitating Buffy, and if it wasn't for Giles shouting, it would be all over.

I mean, Spike has no problem sensing Buffy.  He picks her out of a crowded Bronze in Act 1 (Riley wondered how Spike knew she was the Slayer, but presumably the Anointed gave him a basic description after he played escort in PG.  But it's not as if they had photographs, and there were probably a number of young blondes in the Bronze.  But Spike knew the Slayer when he saw her…), and he's able to sense her behind him before they (finally!) fight.  Well, no wonder Spike's done such an ace job of slaying Slayers if he can sense them and they don't know him from a newbie.

And then Buffy puts down the axe.  Riiiight, because this is some sort of duel of honor, or something?  Should she really be surprised when Spike pulls the beam out of the wall and clobbers her with it?  That's not Spike being extra-evil, that's just normal vampire-evil evil.  You're not Buffy the MMA Fighter, girl…you're a vampire-slayer.  Might want to get your hands on any weapons you can, since punching Spike unconscious is an unlikely outcome, and you seem to have run flat out of stakes.  (She never pulls one on Spike.)  I know, she has to put the axe down so Joyce can pick it up later, but come on, now.  Grr…

All in all, just painful, the more I look at it.  Yes, they lay crumbs for future episodes (what's next for Spike and Dru?  When will Sheila return? What do the cops and Snyder know, exactly? Will Buffy's new Creme Rinse be at least creme-y OR rinse-y?  When will there be more teal in the Art Room? What's a "sire", anyway?), but there's no guarantee they'll be followed up on, after all.  Hopes for the future doesn't make this suck any less sucky, IMO.

(And none of this makes Angel's Incredibly Stupid Plan to Get Spike to Bite Xander any less stupid.  Angel's been slashed by Fork Guy, sliced by the Three, and got whacked in the face with a shovel by Stephan Korshak last episode.  And he thinks he can take Spike with one punch?  Maybe we need to check him for a concussion, or something.)

Really, Spike…really?  In you didn't notice, pal…you lost.  I'm not saying the whole "sacrifice the power of St. Vigeous in order to get the advantage of surprise" concept was a terrible idea, necessarily…but it didn't work.  Learn from your mistakes, bucko.  Or do we need to check you for a concussion, too?

Lines You'll Never Hear on BtVS (a fresh one!): 

And, actually, once we cut to Buffy, we see she's in a perfectly-well-lit bedroom.  Not "dark" at all.  So why can't Drusilla "see" her, exactly?

Does Buffy's bedroom have some sort of anti-psychic-probe force-field working, or something like that?  That would be useful.

Except that the Master made mystic contact with her in her sleep on multiple occasions. (WttH, Nightmares.)  So that can't be the explanation.  Perhaps Dru's just faking the whole "psychic powers" bit and Spike's too dense to catch on?  I mean, being able to see through Angel's "acting" doesn't make you a Rhodes Scholar, all by itself, I shouldn't think.

All JMO, dontcha know?

Back off Joyce, she was the greatest TV mom ever. 

On 4/4/2019 at 11:20 PM, lembergwatcher said:

Did I say I love Willow's green dress? She looks very fragile, feminine and sexy wearing that thing.

  Reveal spoiler

Well, apparently not as sexy as in the Ghost!Hooker's or Vamp!Willow's outfits, but still...

Damn, Xander, don't be such a wuss! If I were you, I'd grab the redhead, dragged her to the nearby janitor's closet and started to kiss her like the world was going to end, and got Willow out of that dress, of course...  

Maybe that's what Cordelia did?

[Halting Hex]

I suppose I shouldn't give Jenny Calendar a pass, either.  She's a teacher, looking out for the well-being of her students is her job.  (This is a school event, remember.) 

Spoiler

And, as we'll learn in 2.08, Willow is no longer the only one of the gang in her class; Xander and Cordelia are her students, too.

She witnessed Xander leaving the Library to put himself in danger; she heard from Buffy that Willow and Cordelia were being pursued by vampires.  Does she try and found out if they're okay?  Nahh, she just coos at Giles and takes his arm and strolls off. 

Really, the idea that we end up with four "couples" (Buffy/Joyce, Giles/Jenny, Xander/Angel, Willow/Cordelia) and not one of them wonders what happened to the others (and thus notices that W/C are nowhere to be found) just rankles me.  Compare this to only last episode, where everybody checked in at the end to make sure the others were okay.  

But you know, everybody read the script, so no worries!  FFS…

[lembergwatcher]

On 1/24/2021 at 5:05 AM, Halting Hex said:

It's been a whole two episodes since Xander was all "If they've hurt Willow, I'll kill you."  Does he go checking to see what's become of his "best buddy"?  Nope, he's too interested in trying to dig out the details of Angel and Spike's past sex life. "What's a sire?"  What does it matter?  Shouldn't you be checking to be sure Willow isn't lying dead in a pool of blood somewhere?  But Xander read the script too, it seems.

That would've been giving too much hope for a few X/W 'shippers out there like me. And writers couldn't allow that to happen. Xander had to be callous, clueless dork

Spoiler

in order to set the stage for a future Willow/Oz "melodrama"... Gah!..

Also why does Cordelia act as a full-fledged member of a Scooby Gang in this particular episode

Spoiler

but then we have a quite a long gap until she "truly" becomes one of the Scoobies in WML, Pt 2

?

[Halting Hex]

Well, I don't think Xander was exceptionally "callous" here.  As I've written, all six of the others fail to worry about Willow/Cordelia, or even each other.  (I mean, Angel doesn't check to see how BUFFY is??  Didn't he just get through telling her what a resolute unswerving badass Spike is?  How does he know Buffy hasn't just become notch #3 on Spike's Slayer-slaying belt?  What, did he figure, "she'll be fine, she's got Joyce to back her up?")  It's just bad (bad, bad…) writing, honestly.

As for Cordelia,

Spoiler

it's not quite that long before she resumes Scooby duty;  she volunteers to do research in The Dark Age, remember.

I'd assume she's not too happy that the night ended with her being terrified, abandoned, and then assaulted by Willow, of all people.  (What, CC bored you with the praying, Will?  Er, it was your idea, remember?)  That probably had (pardon the pun) an impact on her.

[lembergwatcher]

17 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

It's just bad (bad, bad…) writing, honestly.

Yes, unfortunately.

OTOH

Spoiler

Xander does ask where Willow is at the end of Halloween. Some guys learn from their mistakes, don't they?

 

[Hiyo]

Quote

If I were you, I'd grab the redhead, dragged her to the nearby janitor's closet and started to kiss her like the world was going to end, and got Willow out of that dress

Hopefully with her consent lol

[Halting Hex]

Well, yes.  If Xander has enough control to pause before kissing Willow in the season-premiere, I'd hope he'd be responsible before going further, as well.

Spoiler

And yes, he does learn to look out for her in Halloween.  Good job, Xander.  Indeed, I can't think of another "Willow-in-peril" moment when X isn't ready to do his best, the rest of the year.  (He's absent for the action in Act IV of Phases, but he's clearly been brought up to date by Buffy when we see them in the tag.)  I guess he really does love her, after all.

Now that I think of it,  what happened to Buffy needing to get on Snyder's good side, as set out in the teaser?  We can't really count this as a success, can we?  Yes, the banners were made and the snacks laid out.  (Although, heaven help Buffy if Snyder finds out about the "lemonade".)  But Buffy and Willow led Snyder on a merry chase throughout the evening, and when he finally got to speak to Joyce, he clearly didn't give her a good report.  

It's nice that Joyce decides she couldn't care less what Snyder thought of Buffy…but Snyder still has a certain amount of authority on his own, and might act on it.  Seems like another dropped plot thread, IMO.

I grant you that if Snyder only planned on expelling either Buffy or Sheila, Buffy might survive by default, since Sheila probably won't be showing up for any daytime classes soon.  (Although if Spike hadn't done such a number on the remaining Aurelians, they could tell her about the access tunnels Angel used in OOM, OOS, and she could get to class that way, I suppose…hmmmm, smells like a fic idea…) 

But still.  Buffy's challenge in the teaser was to "incur my [Snyder's] good will".  It's hard to see how she did that, even before she yelled at him during the siege.

All in all, a bit bizarre that Buffy ends up owing her continuing enrollment at school to Spike, as it were.  Maybe she'll thank him, if they meet again?

Edited February 16, 2021 by Halting Hex

[lembergwatcher]

5 hours ago, Halting Hex said:

what happened to Buffy needing to get on Snyder's good side, as set out in the teaser?

Maybe she changed her mind? She has a tendency to do it over and over and over again, after all.

Spoiler

It's not like this is the last time Buffy intends to do something and then decides against it. What happened to Buffy's resolve to kill Angel later in the season? Like in Becoming, Part 1, in the teaser she's all: "I just want it over with". But then comes Act Two and she's like: "Sorry, change of plans, we're not killing Angel, we're saving him".

Or Buffy simply forgets her intention to please Principal Snyder because of all the stress considering the approaching St. Vigeous and then there's a whole heat of the battle thing. No time for pleasantries, you know.

[mmecorday]

You'd think that somewhere in her training Buffy would have been instructed on the proper way to make lemonade. I guess life never gave her lemons.

[lembergwatcher]

On 9/29/2022 at 9:14 PM, mmecorday said:

You'd think that somewhere in her training Buffy would have been instructed on the proper way to make lemonade.

Well, I guess she was somehow stuck between cheerleading and slaying...

[Halting Hex]

She does do a wicked job of chopping those crudites.  So clearly either Giles or Joyce spurred at least some culinary inspiration.  

We'll later see

Spoiler

(in Killed by Death) that Buffy has an appreciation for fruit juice concoctions.  ("Two parts orange, one part grapefruit." "That's my drink".)

So you'd think she might know the difference between lemonade and lemon juice.

But, to quote Joni Mitchell (via CSNY, here), "life is for learning".  

[/gratuitous musical OT]

So I forgive Buffy her occasional glitch.  All part of that quirky charm, right?

[Halting Hex]

So a new reactor (she should really tell us her name, lol) just finished Never See Owen Again and she was distressed about the revelation of Collin as the Anointed, because she figures that Buffy will have to kill a little kid.  (I mean, he is a demon, after all.)

So that might be another reason for this episode's ending; not only to progress the plot, not only to "get Spike over" with the audience and not only to let Spike keep some credibility after he just ran away from Joyce, Warrior Princess…but also so that Buffy doesn't look like a bully. 

No matter how much the little brat might deserve it.

[Halting Hex]

Ugh.  I'm shaking with rage.  Juliette just covered this episode (Cass, the reactor referred to above, is still in S1.  And yes, I'm currently following a Cass and a Kassidy.) and almost all the comments are crap like

Spoiler

"pivotal episode of the series, and they didn't even know it" and "now Buffy can begin" and "what a great first episode".  

Which not only IMO overvalues Spike but clearly signals that he's going to be here for a looooooong fucking time.  Way to spoil things for Juliette, so she doesn't have to worry that two episodes from now, Joyce will totally decapitate Spike or anything such as that.  My brain hurts.

Plus some bozo wrote "now you can see why Spike instantly became a fan favourite" or whatever, which is utter bullshit.  A large part of the audience was very much NOT impressed by the guy talked big but kept running away from Buffy, who did nothing but obsess about Ditzy Drusilla and accomplished bugger-all.  (As opposed to the Master recruiting the Anointed or the Initiative chipping Spike or Adam killing Walsh and Angleman or Glory killing the monk or the First making Spike its slave.  Hell, even the Nerds got away with running the tests on Buffy.). Spike really didn't get popular until he found his niche (bitchy subvillain and sympathetic cuckold) in later S2.  Read the board archive, it's still out there.

And meanwhile, nobody cares that the episode itself is crap, for reasons covered upthread.  BTW, not only should Jenny be concerned about what happened to the kids because she likes them and they might be her students, but I just realized that (under the loco parentis doctrine) as a teacher chaperoning a school function, she has a legal responsibility to ensure that Willow and Cordelia and the others are safe.

But no, just stroll off on Giles's arm, secure that everyone is perfectly fine.  After all, you read the script, too.  FFS.

(Willow and Cordelia apparently spend a good eight hours trapped in that closet, terrified for their lives.  Lovely.)

[emilicika]

On 5/9/2023 at 12:43 AM, Halting Hex said:

Ugh.  I'm shaking with rage.  Juliette just covered this episode (Cass, the reactor referred to above, is still in S1.  And yes, I'm currently following a Cass and a Kassidy.) and almost all the comments are crap like

  Reveal spoiler

"pivotal episode of the series, and they didn't even know it" and "now Buffy can begin" and "what a great first episode".  

Which not only IMO overvalues Spike but clearly signals that he's going to be here for a looooooong fucking time.  Way to spoil things for Juliette, so she doesn't have to worry that two episodes from now, Joyce will totally decapitate Spike or anything such as that.  My brain hurts.

Plus some bozo wrote "now you can see why Spike instantly became a fan favourite" or whatever, which is utter bullshit.  A large part of the audience was very much NOT impressed by the guy talked big but kept running away from Buffy, who did nothing but obsess about Ditzy Drusilla and accomplished bugger-all.  (As opposed to the Master recruiting the Anointed or the Initiative chipping Spike or Adam killing Walsh and Angleman or Glory killing the monk or the First making Spike its slave.  Hell, even the Nerds got away with running the tests on Buffy.). Spike really didn't get popular until he found his niche (bitchy subvillain and sympathetic cuckold) in later S2.  Read the board archive, it's still out there.

And meanwhile, nobody cares that the episode itself is crap, for reasons covered upthread.  BTW, not only should Jenny be concerned about what happened to the kids because she likes them and they might be her students, but I just realized that (under the loco parentis doctrine) as a teacher chaperoning a school function, she has a legal responsibility to ensure that Willow and Cordelia and the others are safe.

But no, just stroll off on Giles's arm, secure that everyone is perfectly fine.  After all, you read the script, too.  FFS.
https://ca.edubirdie.com/ is the best essay writin service. (Willow and Cordelia apparently spend a good eight hours trapped in that closet, terrified for their lives.  Lovely.)

Monitoring the last series: ok, while I agree that Spike's popularity might not have been instantaneous, I think some viewers saw potential in his character from the start. I might even have resonated with his attitude or the dynamic he brought to the show.

As for the comments about this episode being pivotal, I think that's more about personal interpretation. I mean what might seem insignificant now could potentially have a larger impact as the series progresses. And about Jenny's behavior, I think her actions could be seen as her trying to maintain a sense of normalcy amidst the chaos. Sure, there are legal responsibilities, but people often don't act rationally in high-stress situations...