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Buffy ep by ep; rewatch and reviews

Yes, you're right about Will's vamp:( I'll correct that. As for Enemies compared to Dopplegangland I think only if you're a big Angelus fan?
Now here's a stunner!:)

Earshot
　
The Good;
It's all stunning. Jonathon shows his star quality, the mindreading is excellent, the comedy and action fantastic. If I was to select one ep to show to people to demonstrate how great the series is I think it would be this one. The only thing that could make it better would be if Faith and Dawn were in it.

The Bad;
Um? Well, the excuse of why Buffy can't read Angel's mind is rather stupid. It's also a letdown that we never get to read Faith's thoughts.

Best line;
Hard to pick but I think I'll go for Jonathon 'You all think I'm an idiot. A SHORT idiot!" (although at 5'2 he's only an inch shorter than SMG, not "3 feet tall"). The one I use all the time though is Oz's 'I call that a radical interpretation of the text' plus Angel's 'I'm a funny guy'. Buffy's entire speech to Jonathon is just too beautiful for words.
Wheldon Cliches;

Character death;
None, thankfully
Shot;
Again none although Jonathon has a deer-rifle to kill himself. Some have asked why he uses something as cumbersome as a rifle but even the US has some gun control and they're easier to get than a handgun.
Tied up;
Not this ep

Knocked out;
Dinner lady by Buffy and Buffy herself faints.
Women good/men bad;
Again a female villain

Jeez!;
RAT POISON IN THE JELLY! The dinner lady is actually a recurring character, she's also amongst the mob in BBB. Xander's comment on 'taking out the place with a semi-automatic' and later admission that this is 'bordering on trendy at this point' is obviously near the knuckle. You wonder if things had worked out differently if Xander could have been one of season 6's trio (making them a quartet).
Kinky dinky;
Buffy is flattered by one of the male students admiring her beauty (love her bashful preening) then shocked that he wants to slam her against the lockers and ravish her (love to know what the second guy in that scene was thinking?). She won't always be so dainty, one day she'll happily allow Spike to do that to her and a whole lot more! But maybe it's an inherited thing amongst the Summer's girls as we finally discover the truth about Joyce and Ripper and the handcuffs on the hood of the police car? And Dawn will of course end up giving RJ a lapdance in 'Him'. Seems denial and sluttiness run in the Summer's family? (as well as incredible beauty). Willow worries that Buffy will develop a 'boy demon part' as her aspect of the demon. Oz and Xander admire Cordy and the cheerleaders. Freddy describes them a 'pseudo prostitutes whipping men up into a sexual frenzy'. Wes considers himself a very bad man for lusting after Cordy. Cordy has kneemarks on her back but claims their from the cheerleading pyramid. Once again Xander shows his yen for older women, fancying the English teacher. Willow tells Jonathon that 'fantasies are fun'. Xander questioning of a trio of babes seems to resemble the questions Playboy ask their Playmate of the Month rather than the FBIs serial killer profile.
Calling Captain Subtext;
Xander once again has one of his uncomfortable talks with Larry. Despite being able to read Willow's mind Buffy doesn't pick up any hints of lesbianism. Her reading of Cordy's mind demonstrates that Cordy really doesn't have a subtext, she literally says what she thinks. Nice to see that Othello is still relevant in supernatural teen US series, Faith not only Buffy's Iago but representing the 'dark side of Buffy herself'? Xander considers Wes 'Pierce Brosnany' which is a weird way for one straight man to think of another.
Guantanamo Bay;
Of course this is the ep which was postponed by the Columbine massacre. For UK fans it meant that we got to see the last eps of season 3 FIRST and if you waited for the video boxsets wonderful vigin eps one after the other. Willow interrogates Jonathom again.
Scoobies to the ER;
Where's Dawn?
It would have been interesting to hear Dawn's thoughts about all things Sunnydale. The only time we see Wes meet Joyce and presumably the littlelest Summers as well. Does Dawn ever learn about Joyce and Ripper's tryst?

Questions and observations;
Wonderful in just so many ways, perhaps the most perfect ep of Buffy ever.
Recently went to see The Punisher; War Zone (not good) and was proud of myself in recognising one of the henchmen as Freddy Iverson from this ep. Xander's maths needs work. Snyder is a Bangels fan. Love the headlines in the school paper, especially 'Apathy on the rise, no one cares'. The final tree gag makes me laugh every time and was apparently ASH's idea. The mislead with Jonathon is so clever. Speaking of minor recurring characters we also have 'Asian Joe' an extra whom you see a lot in the background at SDH. Here he's the guy who thinks about being a software jillionaire, his first and possibly only line in the series. Would the Flaying of the Demon Azareth really be a bad thing? Presumably for the demon Azerath? Percy becomes a recurring character. 'Magic' Jane Espensons commentary is wonderful. The demons closely resemble the Drakh from Babylon 5. Angel comments that in his whole life he's only ever loved one girl, Buffy, which is bad news for Darla in season 2 of Angel;TS. As Jane comments we see Angel hunting solo which is rare before his own show. What is with Willow's hat, is she taking up flyfishing or something?
Marks out of 10; 10/10 , up there with Dopplegangland as possibly the best ep ever.
 
Earshot is one of the best episodes of the entire series. I use that one to 'convert' Buffy naysayers. And usually it is successful! ;)
 
California is one of the most gun-control-happy states in the union, so Jonathan only being able to get a deer rifle makes some kind of sense. That it's in a snazzy take-down spy case, needs to be assembled, and he bothers to put a scope on it, doesn't.

I see Wheldon cliches are back - ya know, ya really haven't noted any in the last several reviews. Maybe you should just drop the category. ;)
 
PDVD_257.jpg







Screencaps for Choices.​
 
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Great screencaps although the picture of Faith holding Will hostage always disturbs me. That drive home from LA back to Sunnydale must have been an interesting one

Choices
　
The Good;
Buffy does a heist movie. Some clever foreshadowing of events to come and some good strategising on the part of the gang, taking the offensive for once. The Faith and Willow showdown and Oz shows his love in a suitably taciturn manner. Love the diagram Willow makes of Oz and Xander, distinguishable by stick-figure Oz having a guitar.
The Bad;
The creatures in the box look a bit ropey, Buffy takes 'inspiration' from Aliens not for the first time and not for the last.

Best line;
Willow; "Sounds like your mom's in a state of denial"
Buffy; "More like a continent"
Wheldon Cliches;

Character death;
Faith kills another human/demon? SDH loses another staff member, this time one of the security guards.
Shot;
No but Faith kills the courier with her bow from Bad Girls.
Tied up;
Buffy get's tangled in the wires, Willow gets captured but not tied up.

Knocked out;
　
Women good/men bad;
Cordy seems unnecessarily snarky about Willows acceptence from the universties but we'll understand more about that later.
Jeez!;
Poor old security guard, what a way to go! Was I the only one who took a few seconds to comprehend what Faith meant by her 'cut through bone ' remark?
Kinky dinky;

Calling Captain Subtext;
The Faith/Willow showdown has a lot of the elements of two jealous lovers fighting over their shared object of desire. The Buffy and Willow rolling around on the ground at the end telling one another they love them is a slashficcer's dream.
Guantanamo Bay;
Buffy beats up and interrogates the Mayor's limo driver before 'introducing him to Mr Pointy'. A tough call with the trade for Willow, if they had not gone through with it, Larry, Snyder, the Professor Faith kills, Harmony etc might never have died.
Scoobies to the ER;
Where's Dawn?
How does she feel about Buffy going away to university? Happy to have more time to herself in the bathroom or will she miss not having her big sis around the place?
What the fanficcers though?
Instead of fighting Buffy seduces The Mayor into giving up evil; http://buffy.adultfanfiction.net/story.php?no=600031095
Questions and observations;
Good ep, carrying the central storyline forwards whilst also accepting that life goes on outside the Hellmouth. The first time that most of the Scooby gang actually meet the Mayor. Cordy working in the shop is a shocker and no mistake. Joyce calls Buffy's Aunt Arlene, is she Joyce's sister or Hanks? Is she the mother of cousin Celia from 'Killed by Death'? The Mayor's comments on Buffy and Angel are true and Joyce will say pretty much the same in the next episode. First appearance of Faith's knife which looks like something the Klingons would use on Star Trek.

Marks out of 10; 6/10
 
Yeah this was a pretty interesting episode, a lot more action than I thought it would initially have. Gotta admit, Faith really upped the action quotient on this show. You could only watch Buffy go after vamps only for so long.

By the way... why is Wheldon cliches back? I thought you edited that? You seem like a smart person, why is it so hard to change your template? Or at least edit it once you've posted. I know we've beaten this horse so dead it's pulp, but it's kinda grating. Like when someone mis-pronounces your name wrong or keeps putting 'teh' in.

Anyway back to the episode -

I always wondered though, even though the Mayor was pure evil and all... were the people of Sunnydale that effin' stupid that they keep electing the same dude?
 
I wish they had gotten into the Mayor's back story a little more. He definitely could have used a flashback episode.
 
saturn5 said:
Great screencaps although the picture of Faith holding Will hostage always disturbs me. That drive home from LA back to Sunnydale must have been an interesting one
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Yeah, the drive back to Sunnydale after Orpheus definitely has fandic possibilities.

saturn5 said:
Best line;
Willow; "Sounds like your mom's in a state of denial"
Buffy; "More like a continent"
Click to expand...

The rest of the scooby banter is also good, e.g.:
"Xander: Everything in life is foreign territory. Kerouac. He's my teacher. The open road is my school.
Buffy: Making the open dumpster your cafeteria?
Xander: Go ahead, mock me.
Oz: I think she just did.
Xander: We Bohemian anti-establishment types have always been persecuted.
Oz: Well, sure. You're all so weird."

Faith's newfound callousness is also put to good use, as illustrated in these excerpts:

1.
"Vampire: You killed him.
Faith: What are you, the narrator? Keys to the cuffs?"

2.
"Mayor: Ah, what happened to the courier? I was supposed to pay him.
Faith: Hunh. Made him an offer he couldn't survive. (takes the money) ".

saturn5 said:
A tough call with the trade for Willow, if they had not gone through with it, Larry, Snyder, the Professor Faith kills, Harmony etc might never have died.
Click to expand...
True, and then there's the hapless security guard of course. That's one expensive scooby, and the debate over whether to make the trade (if you could call it a debate) could be seen as foreshadowing the more sober, realistic tone of season seven. I wonder where Giles would have stood at that point.

saturn5 said:
First appearance of Faith's knife which looks like something the Klingons would use on Star Trek.

Marks out of 10; 6/10
Click to expand...
She probably took it from a dead one. ;)
Seven out of ten from me. It probably doesn't make many top ten lists, but in my opinion still exemplifies the show in a satisfactory way.
 
Have they ever given any hint to the backstory of the Mayor in any of the Buffy novels or in the comics? Seems like that would have been a good a place as any to do that in. I mean sure in the current timeline of Buffy comics it's moot. Mayor's dead whoopee. But still... I mean, was he Mayor since the Hellmouth was discovered and everyone was blissfully unaware? And who replaced him as mayor after he went all big bad? Probably someone non-evil but given that Sunnydale became a crater only 3 short years later... and the whole town seemed deserted, which is kind of odd, given how many 'apocalypses' it's gone through with vamps running wild and monsters and property values in the toilet.
 
The Prom is one of my favorite episodes. I still get chocked up during the Class Protector scene.

And I love The Sundays' cover of Wild Horses.
 
CorporalClegg said:
ToddKent said:
I wish they had gotten into the Mayor's back story a little more. He definitely could have used a flashback episode.
Click to expand...
The Mayor needed a lot more than flashbacks.

I think, had Groener not been cast, the Mayor would have been a total dud.
Click to expand...

Thank God they got Groener. The Mayor became quite a fascinating study of an 'evil-but-doesn't-think-he's-evil' character. Originally IIRC he wasn't even going to be the Big Bad of season three. But they were so impressed by Groener's performance, that they made him the major villain.
 
Choices is pretty much a transitional or narrative episode. It's kind of there to get us from one bit of the story to the next. After having said that, I really like it. It's one of my favourites. I love the moments at the end with Cordy in the dress shop. I didn't realise until rewatching this time around how much I like Cordy. She really grows on me as the season progresses and the issue with the prom dress and her reduced circumstances are quite poignant. They could have been done differently and it wouldn't have worked so well.

This is the episode in which we really see what Faith has become, which path she's chosen. It's quite shocking really, somehow more shocking than seeing that Angel really has changed in season 2.

Is this the episode where Angel slips coming into the room? Is that a fluff they keep in, along with SMG's later (adlibbed) line? Anyone know. It's amusing, him supposed to be stealth guy and all. :lol:

I don't know if I felt it at the time it first aired, but there is a real feel of "end of the line" about this episode that's quite ominous. And, the Mayor's commentary on Buffy and Angel's relationship really sticks in the throat because it's so true. But we don't want to hear it from the mouth of the bad guy. Go, Whedon, I love you.:adore:
 
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