Great Buffy Rewatch of 2015: Reptile Boy
We're at the fifth episode of S2 now, and it seems in some ways to be just another MOTW episode, with a cheesy snake monster. Somebody really should have warned Mutant Enemy about them - do they ever really work? However, there is rather more depth here than one might expect, though the Spikelessness is depressing for some.
Reptile Boy
Xander, Willow and Buffy are watching Bollywood TV (Indian soaps according to the commentary.), which they find confusing. Where does the water buffalo fit in anyway? They have no money, to the extent that Willow is even prepared to sneak a tea-bag into the Bronze. Living on the edge of criminality, our girl.
Meanwhile a girl is running from a posse of monks, as you do. Through a graveyard, because that’s going to be safe. She is stopped by a pretty boy in a scary robe, who hands her back.
Cordelia is training a Willow lookalike in how to interact with males. Not well. Buffy has been dreaming of Angel. Willow thinks they are “so right for each other” and so should go for coffee together.
Giles is cross; Buffy has not been trying hard enough of late. She should be honing. She has a duty, after all. This theme will recur in Band Candy, inter alia. On this occasion she swiftly demonstrates she is perfectly honed, thank you, then pouts her way out of further training.
Xander skipped three classes in a long day. (At 16? How feasible is this?) Cordelia meets some college boys in their car - they want her to bring Buffy to their party. One of them is scary robe guy from the opening scene. Tom and Richard like her a lot, it seems. Xander watches jealously - no change there, then.
Training with Giles leaves him beaten up as usual. Buffy patrols and finds a metal tag bracelet with blood on it; Angel appears to tell her he can smell it. Buffy feels it would be nice to see each other sometime without blood being involved. Angel is wary of dating, because he needs to protect her. “When you kiss me I wanna die.” Oh Buffy. So very young.
Cordelia is desperate to persuade Buffy to join her at the party. As if they are sisters, with really different hair.
The frat boys swear allegiance. To the fraternity, but also to the demon they worship. It’s all part of partying on, dudes. Older boys are dangerous, yo. There’s a high school girl in chains there too, just for atmosphere.
Buffy explains to Willow that she needs a guy who will talk to her, which is more than Angel seems to do. She tells Giles she’s not feeling well and should stay home with her mother, who is sick. Giles encourages her to do so. Willow is shocked and warns her away from wild things that happen at frat parties. Xander decides to go to the party to protect her, maybe catch an orgy.
Cordy drives herself and Buffy to the frat house. (She and Buffy have both ignored her earlier rules about what to wear.) Very swiftly Cordy allows herself to be led away. Xander breaks in and acts as if he belongs there. This is going to end well.
Tom rescues Buffy from a drunken lout and dances with her.
She worries about her responsibilities. Meanwhile the louts intercept Xander - new pledge time. Buffy finds broken glass, a clue she ignores, and takes a drink.
Bad idea, Buff. She is so woozy she doesn’t even spot Xander dancing in a bra and lipstick.
Think of the wasted blackmail opportunity right there. Instead she finds her way upstairs and lies down on a bed. A spinning bed, she thinks. Another really bright move. She and Cordy, passed out, are there for the pleasure of the One the frat boys they serve. Not at all a metaphor for rohypnol, or the dangers of mixing with people much older than you.
Willow has been doing research. The results are not reassuring. Willow works really hard to stop Giles trying to call Buffy, even going to the length of telling him to call Angel.
Our girls are chained up in the basement. The spooky basement. The previously-kidnapped girl fills them in on some of the gruesome details. Cordy is scared; abusing Buffy comes naturally to her at such times.
Angel comes to help. Willow asks a crucial question - how does he shave with no reflection? No-one ever answers this. She finally cracks, admits where Buffy is and berates Angel for the lack of time for caffeine. She turns on Giles too: the first time Willow actually tells other characters off and comes out of her shy nerd shell.
The frat boys are getting chanty and invocational. Not good. The girls are fresh offerings to the demon they summon. It duly arrives. Pity about the special FX. He’s a snaky type man. Buffy can’t rip the chains out of the roof.
Xander meets Angel, Giles and Willow, and what he has to tell them annoys the vampire to the point that he switches face. This allows them all to crash the house-party.
Buffy finally does rip her chains loose and attacks the monster. Willow sees enough to report back, while Xander is taking a lifetime’s revenge on a token frat boy. Eventually she is able to persuade the crew to follow her to the real action. They arrive in the nick of time, as Cordy is doing the screaming and Buffy the serious beating up of Chief Acolyte Fratboy. Mayhem ensues. Then Buffy kills the monster, smiling as she does so.
Giles goes all formal. “The words ‘Let that be a lesson’ are a tad redundant at this juncture.” Buffy is penitent. (One lie. One drink. What’s the big deal?) He has learned his lesson too; Willow’s words actually hit home. He won’t put pressure on her, just an inordinate amount of nudging. That resolution will last a long while, won't it?
Cordy has Jonathan tending to her. He is very eager to please. She seems cured of interest in The Older Man, for a little while at least.
We are in the Bronze, and Xander is reading about the bad news for the fraternity, past and present. Angel (finally) invites Buffy for coffee. She says she’ll let him know.
There’s a commentary for this on my DVD - David Greenwalt. It's not the most exciting of the commentaries, but there are a few good points. He mentions that the episode is about teenagers who feel they are not being treated as adults and what happens when they try to break away from restraint. Also that Buffy, even here, is telling us there can never be a real relationship with Angel. (Greenwalt actually teases that Xander just might have a relationship with her; they were shooting S5 as he did the commentary, but he was over on AtS.) Buffy is behaving like a kid as Angel explains why they can’t be together. The more she is treated like a kid, the more impossible the age-gap seems.
“Willow loves order in the world and thinks she can depend on it.” Interesting point, I think. Greenwalt says he relates most to Xander in the show. Hmmm. I think many of the male writers do, which may well be why he gets a free pass on occasion.
It was apparently really hard and expensive to film computer monitors.
One thing the commentary really draws attention to is the number of times in the frat house that Buffy and Xander nearly see each other. They have two entirely separate stories until right at the end, and nobody else even realises they might have a connection. Dry-run for The Zeppo, one might argue.
I find it interesting that Greenwalt finds it hard to tell the characters’ names from those of the actors. He consistently refers to “Charisma” and “Nicky”, much less to other actors. Machida, the monster, is “the giant phallic symbol”. Apparently they didn’t shoot the bit of the script when the snake came back and ate Tom - a little something for the road.
*****
Being eaten by a monster here seems to be a metaphor for losing one's virginity. A lot of that seems to go on in this season - metaphors, I mean. Obvs. The whole age/youth thing is played on a lot of different levels, from Giles, who is the only "old" character in this episode, but seems desperate when alone to prove he's as young and fit as ever, to Angel, old but with rather less maturity than many pastries we could mention, to Willow, who sees further than people several times her age, to Xander, trying to gatecrash the party and act like the student he never becomes, to Buffy and Cordelia, playing outside their usual league. I think the fact that the theme is handled through so many of the characters is something that save the episode from being too cheesy. And Buffy, playing hard to get at the end, is reasserting what we have been seeing throughout the episode - when it's important, she's the one in charge.
Forced maturity is important throughout this season, of course, and we see it play out through a wide range of episodes and relationships. Here, various touches remind us that the central characters are still only children - Buffy's age, 16, is explicitly mentioned at one point. I find it very touching the way they show that point when a young person is convinced they are "as good as" adult, yet any objective viewer can see just how very young they still are.
So, opinions? Is the theme handled well enough to excuse the monster? Are frat boys too easy a target; we don't have them here, so I'm never quite sure how far-fetched their representation is. The idea of an evil cult which leads to wealth and influence rings true, however, as one who has observed Business School students. I rather like the fact that when the monster dies so do the fortunes and power networks of graduates from the fraternity in question. I can think of a few bankers one might wish this had applied to.
Age and youth - not actually either/or, but a progression. The two oldest characters in this episode, Giles and Angel, have every bit as much to learn as the youngest. But one should definitely be wary of drinks from strangers at parties.
Comments, discussion, feedback?
Screencaps from Pretty as a Picture as usual.
Reptile Boy
Xander, Willow and Buffy are watching Bollywood TV (Indian soaps according to the commentary.), which they find confusing. Where does the water buffalo fit in anyway? They have no money, to the extent that Willow is even prepared to sneak a tea-bag into the Bronze. Living on the edge of criminality, our girl.
Meanwhile a girl is running from a posse of monks, as you do. Through a graveyard, because that’s going to be safe. She is stopped by a pretty boy in a scary robe, who hands her back.
Cordelia is training a Willow lookalike in how to interact with males. Not well. Buffy has been dreaming of Angel. Willow thinks they are “so right for each other” and so should go for coffee together.
Giles is cross; Buffy has not been trying hard enough of late. She should be honing. She has a duty, after all. This theme will recur in Band Candy, inter alia. On this occasion she swiftly demonstrates she is perfectly honed, thank you, then pouts her way out of further training.
Xander skipped three classes in a long day. (At 16? How feasible is this?) Cordelia meets some college boys in their car - they want her to bring Buffy to their party. One of them is scary robe guy from the opening scene. Tom and Richard like her a lot, it seems. Xander watches jealously - no change there, then.
Training with Giles leaves him beaten up as usual. Buffy patrols and finds a metal tag bracelet with blood on it; Angel appears to tell her he can smell it. Buffy feels it would be nice to see each other sometime without blood being involved. Angel is wary of dating, because he needs to protect her. “When you kiss me I wanna die.” Oh Buffy. So very young.
Cordelia is desperate to persuade Buffy to join her at the party. As if they are sisters, with really different hair.
The frat boys swear allegiance. To the fraternity, but also to the demon they worship. It’s all part of partying on, dudes. Older boys are dangerous, yo. There’s a high school girl in chains there too, just for atmosphere.
Buffy explains to Willow that she needs a guy who will talk to her, which is more than Angel seems to do. She tells Giles she’s not feeling well and should stay home with her mother, who is sick. Giles encourages her to do so. Willow is shocked and warns her away from wild things that happen at frat parties. Xander decides to go to the party to protect her, maybe catch an orgy.
Cordy drives herself and Buffy to the frat house. (She and Buffy have both ignored her earlier rules about what to wear.) Very swiftly Cordy allows herself to be led away. Xander breaks in and acts as if he belongs there. This is going to end well.
Tom rescues Buffy from a drunken lout and dances with her.
She worries about her responsibilities. Meanwhile the louts intercept Xander - new pledge time. Buffy finds broken glass, a clue she ignores, and takes a drink.
Bad idea, Buff. She is so woozy she doesn’t even spot Xander dancing in a bra and lipstick.
Think of the wasted blackmail opportunity right there. Instead she finds her way upstairs and lies down on a bed. A spinning bed, she thinks. Another really bright move. She and Cordy, passed out, are there for the pleasure of the One the frat boys they serve. Not at all a metaphor for rohypnol, or the dangers of mixing with people much older than you.
Willow has been doing research. The results are not reassuring. Willow works really hard to stop Giles trying to call Buffy, even going to the length of telling him to call Angel.
Our girls are chained up in the basement. The spooky basement. The previously-kidnapped girl fills them in on some of the gruesome details. Cordy is scared; abusing Buffy comes naturally to her at such times.
Angel comes to help. Willow asks a crucial question - how does he shave with no reflection? No-one ever answers this. She finally cracks, admits where Buffy is and berates Angel for the lack of time for caffeine. She turns on Giles too: the first time Willow actually tells other characters off and comes out of her shy nerd shell.
The frat boys are getting chanty and invocational. Not good. The girls are fresh offerings to the demon they summon. It duly arrives. Pity about the special FX. He’s a snaky type man. Buffy can’t rip the chains out of the roof.
Xander meets Angel, Giles and Willow, and what he has to tell them annoys the vampire to the point that he switches face. This allows them all to crash the house-party.
Buffy finally does rip her chains loose and attacks the monster. Willow sees enough to report back, while Xander is taking a lifetime’s revenge on a token frat boy. Eventually she is able to persuade the crew to follow her to the real action. They arrive in the nick of time, as Cordy is doing the screaming and Buffy the serious beating up of Chief Acolyte Fratboy. Mayhem ensues. Then Buffy kills the monster, smiling as she does so.
Giles goes all formal. “The words ‘Let that be a lesson’ are a tad redundant at this juncture.” Buffy is penitent. (One lie. One drink. What’s the big deal?) He has learned his lesson too; Willow’s words actually hit home. He won’t put pressure on her, just an inordinate amount of nudging. That resolution will last a long while, won't it?
Cordy has Jonathan tending to her. He is very eager to please. She seems cured of interest in The Older Man, for a little while at least.
We are in the Bronze, and Xander is reading about the bad news for the fraternity, past and present. Angel (finally) invites Buffy for coffee. She says she’ll let him know.
There’s a commentary for this on my DVD - David Greenwalt. It's not the most exciting of the commentaries, but there are a few good points. He mentions that the episode is about teenagers who feel they are not being treated as adults and what happens when they try to break away from restraint. Also that Buffy, even here, is telling us there can never be a real relationship with Angel. (Greenwalt actually teases that Xander just might have a relationship with her; they were shooting S5 as he did the commentary, but he was over on AtS.) Buffy is behaving like a kid as Angel explains why they can’t be together. The more she is treated like a kid, the more impossible the age-gap seems.
“Willow loves order in the world and thinks she can depend on it.” Interesting point, I think. Greenwalt says he relates most to Xander in the show. Hmmm. I think many of the male writers do, which may well be why he gets a free pass on occasion.
It was apparently really hard and expensive to film computer monitors.
One thing the commentary really draws attention to is the number of times in the frat house that Buffy and Xander nearly see each other. They have two entirely separate stories until right at the end, and nobody else even realises they might have a connection. Dry-run for The Zeppo, one might argue.
I find it interesting that Greenwalt finds it hard to tell the characters’ names from those of the actors. He consistently refers to “Charisma” and “Nicky”, much less to other actors. Machida, the monster, is “the giant phallic symbol”. Apparently they didn’t shoot the bit of the script when the snake came back and ate Tom - a little something for the road.
*****
Being eaten by a monster here seems to be a metaphor for losing one's virginity. A lot of that seems to go on in this season - metaphors, I mean. Obvs. The whole age/youth thing is played on a lot of different levels, from Giles, who is the only "old" character in this episode, but seems desperate when alone to prove he's as young and fit as ever, to Angel, old but with rather less maturity than many pastries we could mention, to Willow, who sees further than people several times her age, to Xander, trying to gatecrash the party and act like the student he never becomes, to Buffy and Cordelia, playing outside their usual league. I think the fact that the theme is handled through so many of the characters is something that save the episode from being too cheesy. And Buffy, playing hard to get at the end, is reasserting what we have been seeing throughout the episode - when it's important, she's the one in charge.
Forced maturity is important throughout this season, of course, and we see it play out through a wide range of episodes and relationships. Here, various touches remind us that the central characters are still only children - Buffy's age, 16, is explicitly mentioned at one point. I find it very touching the way they show that point when a young person is convinced they are "as good as" adult, yet any objective viewer can see just how very young they still are.
So, opinions? Is the theme handled well enough to excuse the monster? Are frat boys too easy a target; we don't have them here, so I'm never quite sure how far-fetched their representation is. The idea of an evil cult which leads to wealth and influence rings true, however, as one who has observed Business School students. I rather like the fact that when the monster dies so do the fortunes and power networks of graduates from the fraternity in question. I can think of a few bankers one might wish this had applied to.
Age and youth - not actually either/or, but a progression. The two oldest characters in this episode, Giles and Angel, have every bit as much to learn as the youngest. But one should definitely be wary of drinks from strangers at parties.
Comments, discussion, feedback?
Screencaps from Pretty as a Picture as usual.