Some Quality Time with Mr. Gordo

Sseason 2 EpisodeWhat’s My Line Part 1 and 2This episode is written with no consideration for plausibility and every consideration for forwarding character’s emotional storyarcs. Jane Espensen, a writer for Buffy, has a great website that gives advice to would-be TV writers on how to write a spec script to get into the business. In one post she advises that writers should start with an emotional moment or action that a character is not likely to have and then write the spec script to answer the question “what would have to happen for x to happen?” So, it seems like the script for this two part series was written sort of like that — there are a LOT Of payoffs in this episode in terms of the buffyverse mythology, characters emotional lives, and actions. Many many things happen and that kind of distracts you from the fact that it’s all just a little too neat.To my mind, the main story arc here, the one that doesn’t feel contrived — is that Spike finally figures out how to get Drusilla cured of her wasting sickness. Of course she needs the blood of Angel (her sire), thus emperiling Buffy’s main emotional support. We also find out that there’s a second slayer b/c of Buffy’s brief death. But the way they introduced her was completely contrived. It’s as though the question was: what would have to happen for the second slayer and Buffy to get in a fight? Make her think Buffy was a vampire which means Buffy has to kiss Angel in vamp face while Kendra (the 2nd slayer) sees them. Kendra is completely stiff and unbelievable and I’m glad they killed her off at the end of the season. I blame this on the fact that they were trying to show that slayers were a worldwide phenom while at the same time giving her this bookish character.  So they made her Jamaican (the actress had listed on her resume that she could do Jamaican accents) but also someone who only has one shirt.  Now, I found out recently that this actress was originally cast as Cordelia(!) but couldn’t take the part for whatever reason. I suppose she must actually be a good actress, and as I watched the episode again, I tried to imagine what her lines would have been like if they’d been played by someone more nerdy, someone not completely stilted b/c they were trying to stick to this crappy accent and it made the episode a lot better.2. Xander and Cordelia kiss — I actually love this, and I think that they set it up pretty well in some of the preceding episodes, having them seek each other out to bicker, almost, and also having them realize that the two people that they are actually really attracted to (Buffy and Angel) were completely into each other (in Halloween). Of course, the only thing that would make Cordelia and Xander kiss is to trap them in a basement after attacking them with a “man of bugs”. This actually foreshadows Buffy and Angel’s sexual encounter where they are so freaked out by their encounter with the Judge that they have to have sex (hey man, Joss said it, not me).3. Willow and Oz finally meet — and we find out that they are basically the two smartest people in the school and therefore, meant for each other.  I love Oz.  The final thing that I found annoying about this episode was that the Order of Tarraka, or whatever, was set up to be this enormous juggernaut that would never stop coming for Buffy. But then, they kill three of them, and they stop coming.  Why?  It’s one of the problems with the show is that each successive villain has to be so much more dangerous in order to get us to be afraid or to put Buffy in peril that when it is defeated, it’s a little of a let down.  Hence the brilliance of making the next villain be Angel. 

Why did he call him Ripper?

Season 2 Episode 8 — The Dark Age In this episode we learn about the dark side of Giles. In his youth — far from wearing tweed diapers Giles was a rebel. He didn’t want to be a watcher, he wanted to be a bad ass and so him and his other bad ass friends started to summon the demon Eyghon into themselves while they slept because it was a big high. Umm…. so, basically, they were drug addicts of a sort. It’s not like having Eyghon in them gave them power or anything, just a high.Anyway, present day, for some reason, Eyghon has managed to come back and is possessing and killing off (or rather, killing off and then possessing) all of Giles little clique. Eventually, the demon manages to spirit himself into Jenny Calender — who was knocked unconscious during a fight with the dead guy that was being possessed. You see, Eyghon can only possess people who are unconscious or dead.So the trick becomes how do they free Jenny Calender from a demon without killing her? And in this conundrum we learn a lot of things about Giles, about the power relationship between him and Buffy, and also we have, I believe, a masterful foreshadowing of the Angel turning evil arc.  Only this time instead of Buffy’s actions unintentionally turning Angel evil, Giles actions turn his love, Jenny, evil.  In this episode, instead of Angelus snapping Jenny’s neck, we have Angel wringing her throat to get the demon out of her.  And Angel reminds us, chillingly, that he’s got a demon inside him who has been waiting for a good fight. Giles remarks that this monster is different because he created it.   This realization gives him the perspective and compassion to understand Buffy’s plight only a few episode later when she unwittingly releases Angel’s soul and brings forth the evil Angelus.We also have a great instance of a very strong Willow stepping in to take Giles place — and also Buffy’s place — as someone who makes the plan, executes the plan, and is totally in charge.   

Die Young and Stay Pretty

Season Two Episode — uh — 7 Lie to Me

In this episode a friend of Buffy’s from her high school in LA comes to Sunnydale — but it turns out that he really has a brain tumor and is planning on using the Slayer as bait so that he can become a vampire and die young and stay pretty.

Here a couple of interesting character things happen. This is the first time that Buffy has an active reason to distrust Angel (except for the first episode where she finds out he’s a vampire)–she spots him in a park with Druscilla and when he lies to her about that meeting it throws their relationship off — setting up a situation where it seems like she can only turn to her old friend Ford for comfort. We also have Angel turning to Willow for help behind Buffy’s back thus heightening the betrayal from Buffy’s point of view.

And here’s the first inkling of what often becomes a problem on the show — as writer Jane Espensen remarked in her commentary on an episode in the 3rd season (earshot) Buffy being the Slayer is not just an all brawn no brains gig. The slayer is also the general — the strategist — she may not be the brains in the strictest sense, but she runs the show. And when her people start to act without her, or behind her back, or start to mistrust her judgement, well, that throws the whole thing out of whack.

But, as far as I’m concerned, the very best thing about this episode is that it introduces Chantarelle/Lily/Anne: an episodic character with a fantastic arc that lasts all the way into the last season of Angel.

Ford is a great villain (if annoying), yet another in a series of human beings who cooperate with evil out of some really misguided reason. We had Chris Epps who defied death and consented to kill for the love of his brother, we had the frat boys sacrificing to a demon out of greed and power lust, and here we have Ford plotting to feed an entire group of innocent of stupid and foolish kids to vampires so that he won’t have to get ugly as he dies a painful death. But, brain tumor and all, Ford is not excused for his evil actions. As Buffy says “you have a choice — okay, not a good one, but you have a choice.”

Okay, that is the guy you want to party with.

Am I the worst blogger or what? Now that I’ve lost my entire audience, I’ll continue. I should warn everyone that my buffy watching has far outpacd my Buffy writing (this is Mr. Elizabuffy’s fault — he always says ‘just one more’) so that my memory of episodes past is getting hazy. But, I soldier on.

Season 2 — episode 5: Reptile Boy

Reptile boy is a monster of the week episode that has lots of juicy turning points for character relationships. The plot is that a college fraternity worships a demon, who ensures the financial success of its members, forever. Once a year (or however long) the frat boys make a sacrifice of girls to the demon and also throw a keg party.

Of course, Cordelia, in her search for rich guys to date, gets her — and Buffy — invted to the party, where they are drugged, chained up, and offered to the phallic snake demon for his pleasure/lunch.

The best thing about the episode is that Willow has her first bust out moment where she lashes into both Giles and Angel for making Buffy miserable.

After eviscerating Giles for running Buffy raggedwith slayer training, se turns on Angel and says, “And you, you’re going to live forever, you don’t have time for coffee?”

The other thing about this episode is the way that Xander reacts to being hazed by the frat guys. During the actual hazing he is just totally blank, suffering the indignity of wearing a bra and wig with the resigned incomprehension of someone who knows that any action on hs part is futlie and all he can do is wait it out. Very understated moment of Xander vulnerability.

Next episode is Halloween — if you did a poll it probably ranks very high on every Buffy fans list of all tme best episodes. It was so clever, unexpected and just darn fun of an episode — it is one of those that makes the series stand out.

And While I’m Whittling, I Plan to Whistle a Jaunty tune

School Hard

Season 2 — Episode 3

You know, I’ve always been bothered with the title of this episode–School Hard? Is it missing a verb or is the entire phrase meant to be an adjective or what? I don’t get it.

But anyway. This episode introduces us to Spike and Drusilla, the preliminary big bads of the season (oh how I hate that terminology–the “big bad” lets just dump that shall we?). Spike is an important character–not just for what he becomes in later episodes, but for what he is in this very first appearance–he is to Vampires what Buffy is to Slayers–irreverant, rebellious, and disrespectful of tradition. He breaks all the vampire norms (the vampire ethos, one might say) the same way that Buffy breaks the Slayer ethos–and that makes him all the more powerful.

And he is attached to Drusilla who starts off as the classic lady-in-white Lucy character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula [not Francis Ford Copolla's Dracula, which was an utter travesty]–sick and weak, and therefore all the more creepy, she preys on children and puppies–also she’s crazy and psychic.

In this episode Buffy and another school troublemaker are assigned to host the parent/teacher night. At the same time, we learn that the feast of St. Vigeous (what exactly is a vampire saint? who sainted him? does he exist after death? or is it just meant to be shorthand for — “really tough vampire”) is coming up on Saturday and that vampires have more power than normal on that day. Spike, having come to sunnydale so that Drusilla could get well by being near the Hellmouth, proposes to the Annointed One that he will kill the Slayer on the night of St. Vigeous–but of course, being the Sid Vicious of vampires drops in on Buffy two days early–on parent/teacher night. Hijinks ensue.

In fighting Buffy for the first time, Spike correctly identifies the source of her power–the thing that she wrestles with interminably–”A slayer with family and friends” is powerful in a way that previous slayers, those who were isolated from the rest of humaniy were vulnerable. And, from this first episode, Spike is someone who “gets” Buffy in a way that many other people don’t.

Sorry about the long hiatus–I can’t promise it won’t happen again, but I can hope. Comment and let me know your still reading.

I have to go, I’m the apex!

Some Assembly Required — Season 2 Episode 2

In Some Assembly Required we meet the classic Frankenstein’s Monster horror story. Stephen King in his book Danse Macabre talks about the three models of horror, in to which all scary monsters fit. Now it’s been about 20 years since I’ve read the book, so I may be getting it wrong and I welcome correction from anyone who has a clearer memory. In a nutshell, King wrote that all horror monsters fall into one of three categories — Things that are human, but corrupted in some way, usually by death or magic — so witches, vampires, ghosts, and mummies would fall into this category. The next is things that are created by humans — Frankenstien’s monster or computers and machines that turn evil are of this sort. And finally there are things that are completely other, alien to humanity — demons, aliens, animals, the creature from the Black Lagoon — things like this. They all pose their own sort of moral conundrums.

In this episode, Frankenstein’s monster is the beloved older bother of a science genius who brings him back to life after he dies in an accident. The older brother recognizes that he is now something not really human, something so horrific that he would never be accepted in society and he has forced his brother, who is basically a decent person, to agree to create a companion — a girlfriend — for him, one just like him, raised from the dead. So Chris and his friend Eric dig up some corpses and cobble together a girl, but they still need a head. And so they cross the line from merely gross into actually evil as they contemplate killing a girl so they can have a fresh head. Cordelia is the girl they choose.

All of this plot is revealed to us bit by bit and some other minor story lines also come into play. First, Giles and Ms. Calender go on their first date; Cordy tries to make a move on Angel, and, at the very end, there is a hint that Cordelia could possibly bring herself to like Xander as she shows sincere gratitude that he risked his life to save her. His response, which is basically to brush her off, reminds us that Xander, in is own way, is just like Cordelia, he’s shallow, self-centered, and willing to poke fun at other people, and also can display a lack of tact. Which might be why he keeps being attracted to girls who have no tact.

The theme of bringing people back from the dead is revisited often on Buffy, and except when Buffy herself comes back from the dead, the people raised are always different and bad. But we are also made to understand the desperate loss and loneliness of people who want to bring others back to the dead — those people are almost always portrayed as sympathetic if misguided. Willow is the only person who succeeds in bringing someone back from the dead successfully in Season 6; but it’s not an accident that this marks the start of her own descent into darkness.

Spank Your Inner Moppet

Season 2 — Episode 1: When She Was Bad

Cordelia has the best line in the history of TV in this episode.

This episode is a great season opener and it demonstrates with great clarity the emotional state of everyone in the cast and shows how far they all are transformed by the end of the season — a subject that we are encourage to reflect on because this episode foreshadows almost everything that happens in the season, except maybe, Xander and Willow’s love lives.

First, though the bad guys in this episose are vampires, led by the cute but annoying Annointed one and the Master’s gang from the last season, the real enemy here is Buffy. We are shown how characters can transform in this show from nice to bitchy and from friend to foe and vice versa. Of course, she has a spat with Angel at one point and invites us all to imagine them in a fight — hinting quite strongly that there will be fight between them to come, only this time with him as the foe.

The other important thing that is foreshadowed is the gambit by Angel, Spike and Drusilla in the last episode to get Giles away from Buffy. Like this episode, vampires send a message to Buffy to get her alone somewhere, but, underestimating her friends resources and knowledge, she discounts the possibility that it could be a trap to lure her away from them because THEY are the ones needed. Buffy is a little bit enthralled by her own identity as the Chosen One. So when Willow says that the rest of the note says “P.S. it’s a trap!” Buffy can only conclude that the trap is for her, and that she will be able to handle it. It doesn’t occur to her or anyone that the trap is for everyone else. This is the exact same ploy that Angel uses to get Giles to figure out how to open Acathla in the final episode, and he notes with glee that Buffy falls for it every time.

Buffy also greivously insults Xander by doing a dirty dance with him, which is another of those scenes where emotions and character are developed not with dialogue but with long slow action set to music. The look on Xander’s and Willow’s and Angel’s faces as Buffy dances with Xander are all worth more than any line for emotional characerization and illustrate where each character is and where they have to go. This is more poignant for Willow as, before Buffy came back to town it seems like Willow was finally going to get somewhere with Xander — with the help of some ice cream on her nose. And I wonder as I think about it if Xander’s comment about Buffy’s timing being impeccable didn’t have an added conotation of not only did Buffy rescue them from a vampire, but also rescued Xander from a relationship with Willow, helped him to remember that it’s Buffy that he truly loves.

This is about my 4th or 5th time watching this episode but this was the first time I really got Buffy’s “issues” and was sympathetic to them. I finally noticed how important the dream is explaining how endangered Buffy felt by the Master and just how much she blamed Giles and her friends for putting her in danger and also for being useless in the fight against the demons. In the dream, Willow and Xander sit by in complete disinterest, while Giles attempts to strangle her before she rips off his face and reveals the face of the Master. She dreads the Master and resents her friends for not being powerful enough to help her.

And finally, the end of this episode underscores the fact that Angel is Buffy’s emotional protector in a way that no one else in the show can possibly be — maybe because, despite the fact that he is constantly placed in danger and Buffy has to save him — he is also the only person who doesn’t really need her protection on a day to day basis, in other words, he can stand up for himself in a fight. it’s only with Angel that she lets herself finally break down and cry.

I have so much more to say about this episode that I’m going to stop right here. If anyone has any comments leave them and I may do a second post on this episode and on an overview of the themes in Season two in general.

Range tops

Look for the first post on Season two Buffy tomorrow. In the meantime check out the comments on the wrap up posts for season one.

So, it’s really hot where I live right now–as most places and very hot weather often drives insects inside. The other morning at around 8, I came downstairs with the baby and sat down at my kitchen island to eat breakfast or work on the computer or whatever and I looked over and I saw a BIG COCKROACH.

This cockroach was not behaving in ways that cockroaches usually behave. It was just sauntering around the kitchen floor, un-disturbed by the light, it didn’t scurry or scuttle or anything. It was just like, “hey man, what’s up? Pretty hot outside, right? I thought I come in here and chill out for a few hours.”

So, I did a little silent freak out, went upstairs, deposited the baby in his crib and came back down with a shoe to squish the totally too-cool-for-you cockroach. It never attempted to run and hide. (Normally, I would have gotten my husband to squish him, but my husband, is, alas, allergic to cockroaches. I can’t wait for the baby to be old enough for the responsibility of cockroach squishing to be his job).

Now, after this, my husband pointed out that the area underneath the range top was a little dirty and could perhaps be a cockroach magnet. So I agreed to clean under it. Let me tell you–it was disgusting. You never know how much stuff jumps out of your pots and pans and through the cracks surrounding the flames in the range top. It was all in there–4 different shapes of dried pasta, shriveled up little bits of sauteed vegetables, drips from cooking oil, little mouse turds from when we had a mouse a couple of months ago (yes, I should have cleaned under there after we got rid of the mouse–but my husband isn’t allergic to mice so it didn’t seem as urgent).

My point here is to tell you, if you have a gas range, lift it up and clean under there right now, today, before any more stuff can build up in there. use clorox disinfecting wipes and a vacuum with the narrow hose attachment.

You’ll thank me later.

Season 1: favorites

Some great comments by luckycanucky on what Buffy meant for her as a viewer and also on favorite episodes. Be sure to check out the Season 1 wrap up post. I’ve had word that Chris plans to comment also but he needs time to review the episode and have deep thoughts or something.

My favorite episode, as I’ve said before, from Season one is The Pack, mostly because much of the angst of the characters and much of the drama of the relationships is communicated without any dialogue at all. The scenes of Xander and the pack skulking through the school glaring at people are mesmerizing and the absolutely masterful Dodge Ball game conveys more information in terms of characterization, plot, and emotional unfolding, than any sharp-witted tarentinoesque dialogue I’ve ever scene. Truly fabulous.

The other thing about the Pack that I like in retrospect is that it illuminates the dark side of Xander–a dark side which is present in his character all the time. He does tend to joke and make fun of people, he is annoyed by Willow’s crush on him and wishes that that part of their relationship was gone, and he is very attracted to Buffy. When people turn evil in the Buffyverse their evil always a deepening of their already everpresent garden variety sinfulness. Everyone turns evil in a way that is particular to their identity.

Out of Mind, Out of Sight continues to grow on me the more that I think about it. It is one instance (I think I said this before) of the show at its very best, when it shows you the difference between something that is really wrong and something that is just humanly flawed not through exposition but through storyarc, characterization, plot and contrast–like the difference between Marci and Cordelia’s reaction to feeling invisible. Cordelia hurts people with words and snobbishness and put downs, which is petty and annoying and somewhat cruel, but isn’t really evil, just shallow. Marci uses her invisibility to genuienely hurt and torture people–she crosses the line. And the show conveys the moral compass by showing us, not by preaching or having a character spout off or anything like that. It is a very subtle way to transfer Cordelia from a nemesis of the buffy gang to a condfidant. In the third season, this trick of showing rather than telling about the different points on the moral compass is done in what is to my mind the most important and tricky episode for this feminist show–Beauty and the Beasts–but that is a whole year away from now and I’ll explain more fully then.

Okay, after our fun visit to the early Monster of the Week years of Buffy, we are about to plunge into Buffy as the serial soap opera. But first some classic monsters–more vampires, frankenstein, and the mummy. But first, some great foreshadowing in “When she was bad.”

Buffy Season 1: The Wrap-up

So, we’ve fought vampires, witches, giant bugs, heart eating demons, invisible girls, demons that possessed the internet, and hyenas that possessed people, what did I forget? Oh yeah, boys in comas who make nightmares come true. Well, we didn’t really fight him, but we fought for him.

I have in revisiting this season discovered that while Buffy may bitch all the time about wanting to be a normal girl, she really does walk the walk. I mean, at least in high school, she got it (I think she became more bitter after she died and was brought back the second time). I liked Buffy better in highschool, I think we all did, because highschool just fits the whole Buffy story better. In highschool every thing is dramatic, everything is life or death, good and evil, everything is out of proportion, because you realize that actually, nothing in highschool really counts. Or at least, not necessarily, you can’t be sure what’s going to count, so you think everything could be life or death. Every day is potentially the end of the world. When you get out it’s just all death and taxes.

Or maybe that was just me.

The other thing I notice about Buffy as I reflect on the season is that she has a instinct for when something is up. Even when other people doubt, or when it seems like she could be making mountains out of molehills, she is usually right on target when she tells Giles to “get your books, look stuff up.” However, her confidence can mislead both her and us; which it does in the second season, and when we realize that she has a real blind spot about Angel (I mean, she’s the slayer, shouldn’t she have been able to sense he was a vampire?) And like her enemies, she often underestimates the importance of her friends–as luckycanuck mentioned in a recent comment. She’s kind of obssessed with her own role as the Chosen One, probably because she has such mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it must be great to be so powerful, on the other hand, it is hard to have such responsibilities–and she doesn’t see how her friends in their way take on almost as many responsibilities as she has as the seasons go on. They surround her and as they share in her duties they also share in her power.

Anyway, others please share your thoughts on Season One both profound and mundane. What was your favorite episode? Favorite character moment? Favorite joke?

I’ll say what mine were in a later post.