Thoughts on "Out of Mind, Out of Sight"

[gryfndor_godess]

You know what's neat? When you haven’t seen a BtVS episode in so long that you actually don’t remember the details. I liked this episode a lot the first time around, but I’d never rewatched it until today.

Comments

[snickfic]

The later seasons gear so much more toward season-long arcs and run-of-the-mill monsters, rather than the “mystery-of-the-week” episodes more common in S1, that I’d forgotten how involved Buffy can get in the “searching for clues” aspect of cases (and see how easy it is to use the word ‘case’? I can’t do that much in later seasons).

Yes. One thing I've learned from watching SPN is that I actually really enjoy those kinds of stories. In Buffy S1 (and, let's be honest, quite often on SPN) the case is pretty cheesy and logic is optional, but the basic, "helping people, killing things" storyline is one I enjoy a lot. It's the reason I like "Killed by Death" so much that I put it in my top ten - it's Buffy being heroic while feeling yucky, which is like heroism squared.

boy does Xander’s comment about using invisibility to guard the girls’ locker room annoy me more now than I'm sure it did five years ago.

I have nothing good to say about Xander until probably mid-S5. And the show's ongoing misapprehension that hormones = humor pretty much drives me batty. I was going to talk about SPN a whole bunch here, because it also develops that misapprehension later on, but you haven't really seen it yet. OTOH, we just had an episode where Sam bawls a kid out for spying on the women's locker room while invisible, so the show gets it right sometimes. :)

Buffy concentrating really hard on Marcie and willing her to go Technicolor makes more sense to me than the silly “goes calm and listens” bit at the end.

Yeah. Seems like that would have been neater all around than the FBI thing, which never, ever gets brought up again.

[gryfndor_godess]

It's the reason I like "Killed by Death" so much

That episode scared me more than any BtVS episode other than "Hush," but I really like it too. Buffy is brave and strong and won't give up, the villain is cleverly executed and creative, and the the episode has that "creepy-scary" vibe similar to S1. Plus, not a lot of Angel. Maybe I'll rewatch that episode sometime too...

I think I start liking Xander in S4. He's insecure about his place in life (not going to college, etc.), but he doesn't shy away from his decisions or blame others for them. Sadly, I think he's also a better person when Angel's not around. Anya and Spike both bring so much comedy to their scenes with him that I think I like Xander more by default. The hormones = humor thing can go so badly so easily. Frex, "I'm a seventeen-year-old male; linoleum makes me think of sex" is funny, un-insulting, and makes sense. But locker room comments are horrible. Ooh, that's nice about Sam. Good on him.

Arguably, the Initiative, the fact that the gov knows about and is actively involved in the demon world, is a recall to the FBI thing. At least it's not as relevant as those eggs in "Teacher's Pet" that get completely ignored.