BtVS Episode Review: Enemies
The short? Three words: Poor plot execution. What a way to muck up an essential arc episode. Full review below the cut.
Characters:
Buffy Angel Xander Willow Giles Cordelia Oz
Plot
Bad Guy
Arc
Overall (4/10)
Best Moment
Buffy:
The sibling rivalry between Buffy and Faith comes to a head in this episode. Angel's involved, of course.
First off, we get another hint of the difficulty of the Buffy/Angel relationship at this point. They can't have sex, otherwise Angel goes all evil. And while it may seem nice and noble to be chaste, it's a little unrealistic to expect a teenage girl to do so while in a committed relationship (Statistically speaking, that's the reason the "abstinence-only" philosophy just doesn't work). This is, of course, setting up for Angel's leaving at the end of the season.
We also get another obstacle coming up in this episode in the form of unsouled Angel. Or...a supposedly unsouled Angel. Even knowing it's all an act, Buffy is shaken by the mere reminder of what Angel is capable of. It is these fears that kept her from resuming their relationship immediately at the beginning of the season. While she overcame them midway through, but this episode reminds her of them.
So she wants to take a break, understandably.
I'm slightly irked that the next episode will focus more on Buffy's jealousy issues in seeing Angel with Faith than on the issue of Buffy seeing Angel acting evil. Yes, I think that there's definitely jealousy there. But that can easily be smoothed over (And is by Angel in Earshot). However, the underlying fear Buffy has for what Angel is without his soul is something that can't be so easily resolved.
To switch from the Angel side of things, we see Buffy and Faith finally become enemies. Buffy does that annoying thing where she runs off when seeing Angel in a compromising position (Note to Buffy: Stop it!). Then she's (offscreen) given the heads up that Faith may not be on the up and up. So she, Giles, and Angel concoct an elaborate scheme (also offscreen) to find out exactly what Faith is up to.
Buffy's...uh...faith in Faith is shattered in this episode as she realizes that Faith is now the Mayor's right-hand gal.
Angel:
I feel badly for Buffy in the Buffy/Angel relationship because it's probably very awkward not being able to have sex because your boyfriend would go evil. But I feel doubly badly for Angel because...well....Buffy can find somebody else. Angel will always have that curse, no matter who he's with (Well, there's some wiggle-room on the "perfect happiness" part, but still).
Anyway, he's getting some inkling that their relationship may not be all daisies and puppies. And then Faith comes a calling.
I gotta say, I didn't expect Angel to be a good actor. Must be another of those skills he picked up in Hell.
And let me say as a note on the narrative here that I severely did not like them pulling out the "Angelus" card in this episode. Angel losing his soul last season was such an important, devastating event, that to have it used as a plot device in this episode seems a little cheap. I understand that it has the secondary purpose of reminding Buffy of what Angel is without his soul, but I think they could have found a better way to reveal Faith's treachery than to try to fool the audience into thinking Angelus is back. Don't toy with us about that.
Xander:
Xander shows his jealousy again. This time in relation to Cordelia's fawning over Wesley. Would somebody kindly remind Xander that he cheated on her and then made no attempt to get back together (Well, past the one episode afterward)?
Unfortunately, this is a trait we'll see echoed in S6 when Xander goes into a murderous, jealous rage after seeing Anya and Spike sleeping together in Entropy...after he's left Anya at the altar. Xander is remarkably possessive of the women in his life, whether or not he has the justification for it.
Willow:
Willow gets to play the supportive best friend in this episode. It's cute.
Giles:
While we have the main sibling rivalry of the Buffy/Faith dynamic, we also have the lesser rivalry of Giles/Wesley. This is made apparent at the end when Wesley complains that he's going to tell on Giles to the Council.
Obviously, Giles is still very hands-on in the Slaying business. Even though he's not supposed to be. He's essential in forming the plan to catch Faith (offscreen).
Cordelia:
Cordelia is back in with the Scoobies. But now she's joined them because of Wesley, who's her current object of interest.
Oz:
And Oz plays research-guy in this episode. Well, at least he does something.
Plot:
Something about the plot in this just doesn't work. I don't like the Angelus fake-out as I feel it's almost trivializing a fairly epochal event from last season.
But the plot, itself, just isn't set up very well. We have the scene with Willow reassuring Buffy that Angel wants her, and then Buffy saying she's going to see Angel. Then we cut directly to Angel and Faith and Faith "taking" Angel's soul. Obviously, between these two scenes is where Giles and Buffy plan what to do about Faith and Buffy talks to Angel. We need something in there to pad it out and at least give us a hint that something is going on. I know that the point is to not reveal it to us, the audience, but it makes rewatching the episode seem very contrived as you realize how they twisted the story to try to fool us.
I don't like to be played. How about a scene with Buffy approaching Angel, saying she needed to talk to him about something important? Then, before seeing what she had to say, cut to the Angel/Faith scene. That would leave us thinking "Huh...wonder what she said to him", so we could have that in the back of our mind during the rest of the episode.
Instead, we're left to be manipulated for the sake of the emotional impact of the story. At the end, we feel just as tricked as Faith and not in the good way.
I guess to sum up my issue with that is that I don't mind twist endings. However, there needs to be some signs along the way that tell me what's going to happen even without the big reveal. Nothing major. Just enough so that when I go back to rewatch it, I'm left kicking myself that I didn't put the pieces together. In this episode, we're left blind with no way to know what's going to happen, and that's just not fair.
Bad Guy:
Faith is finally revealed as the baddie.
Arc:
And our Scoobies find out about Ascension. They also find out that the Mayor is fairly old and that he created Sunnydale for demons. Additionally, they find out about Faith's association with the Mayor, and she goes off to stay with him.
Overall:
This episode could have been so much better. Even without changing the basic plot, it could have been better executed. I would prefer they find another way, though, to show the Scoobies that Faith is bad. I'm afraid I can't rate this one too highly, despite how important it is to the arc. It fails on almost all levels for me.
Special performance award goes to Harry Groener who plays the Mayor! Cause he amuses the shit out of me.
4 out of 10. Major disappointment. But the performances and snappy dialogue keep it from getting a lower score.
( About my scoring system)
Best Moment:
I'm loath to pick a best moment, as I'm not overly fond of this episode. However, I do love the scene at the beginning with the Mayor and Faith. We see the formation of their father/daughter relationship that will be important later on.