Buffy - More Season 3 impressions (episodes 5 - 7)
As I still got holidays, I had enough time to watch some more Buffy episodes.
Homecoming
When it comes to the demon plot, the episode isn't very impressive.
However, we do get the Mayor as a new character and he's a nice addition to the band of villains. A bit too clean, a bit too focused on keeping his metaphors straight and definitely dangerous. Before seeing the episode Band Candy I thought he was a demon himself, but right now it seems he's "only" made some profitable bargains with them. Which explains why Trick doesn't kill him; so far the Mayor is a very good client of the demon population.
The scene with Buffy and Angel in the beginning of the episode is lovely. His reaction to Buffy's declaration that she's now dating Scott is intense as is his realisation that he has no right to tell her not to date another guy.
The relationship with Scott is *very* short-lived, though, because Scott is looking for Fun!Buffy, and can't deal with GrownUpDueToGrief!Buffy. Good riddance. He was a shallow little weasel anyway. And the friends he had weren't a recommendation for him either. He totally deserves what Faith dishes out:
Behind Giles, Faith moves around the table, and the camera follows her over to Scott. He is dancing slow and close with his date.
Faith touches the couple, and they pull apart.
Faith: Scott? There you are, honey! Hey, good news. (with lots of gesturing) The doctor says that the itching and the swelling and the burning should clear up, (puts her hands on his chest) but we gotta keep using the ointment.
Yes, I know revenge is immature, but this scene made me chuckle quietly.
The most interesting theme of this episode is that Buffy is trying to reclaim her life as it was before she became the Slayer. She wants to be popular and glamerous, she wants to be a high school celebrity. Things don't work this way, however.
When we see the two girls who get crowned as Homecoming Queens, it's very clear that Buffy and Cordelia play in a totally different league. They're way more mature than the winners. Considering how silly they've acted over the last couple of weeks that says it all. :-)
This time around I wanted to shake Willow. I'm quite uncomfortable with how she tries to help both Cordelia and Buffy and in the course of this ends up not being loyal to either of them. Willow needs to learn to stand up for herself and most of all to say "no" to others once in a while.
Band Candy
Once again the plot isn't very strong. But I don't care; this show is fun!
The theme of the show is acting in a responsible way and it's lovely how this them is developed.
First we get Buffy behaving in a way that's understandable, but still causes her mother and Giles to worry. When eating candy bars transforms every adult in the town into teenagers, the roles get reversed. Now it's Buffy who has to make sure her mom and Giles don't cause more trouble than is good for them.
Joyce and Giles get the chance to be wild in this episode and you can see how much the actors enjoy this! I'm smiling just thinking about their scenes together. ("Oh Ripper, that was soo brave!" *g*)
Armin Shimmerman as Principal Snyder finally plays a bigger part in an episode and every scene with him in it is simply delightful. The way he wants to hang out with the cool guys, the way he is coming on to Joyce. Funny.
Seeing Joyce in this episode made me realise once more that Buffy has a lot in common with her mom. E.g. her facial expression when Snyder is putting the moves on her is Buffy all over again. And, of course, Buffy inherited her courage from her mother, too.
Nice to have Ethan Rayne back. It makes sense that he would do contract work for demons. All in all, his character is underused in this episode, though.
The ending of this episode made me laugh out loud. Giles and Joyce meet again after the effects of the candy have worn of:
Buffy walks around to the passenger's side to get in. Giles and Joyce both look at the pavement, embarrassed and not willing even to go there, but knowing what they did.
Joyce: Right.
Giles: Indeed.
Joyce: Y-yes.
They both quickly pivot and head off in opposite directions.
Revelations
One of my favorite shows in season 3. It had me on the edge of my seat at times. I knew that Angel would survive this episode, nevertheless the plot was so good that I got seriously worried for him anyway. :-)
General observation regarding Angel:
Joss loves his fangirls. Angel has been shirtless at least temporarily in every single episode so far. By now I expect to see Angel sans his shirt as least once. Quite a nice treat.
My advice for Buffy would be to get him to wear shirts more often, then accidental kissage would reduce. *g*
Gwendolyn Post:
While I knew that there would be more to her than met the eye at first, I expected her to develop in a positive manner. So yes, I was surprised when she hit Giles over the head repeatedly.
Xander:
I hated him in this episode. Many of his actions here piss me off. I want to like him, but this episode makes it very difficult for me.
I can understand that he follows Angel secretly; it must have been a shock for him to see him.
I can even understand that he then stays and watches when Buffy and Angel kiss. Must be an even bigger shock.
But then I get less understanding: Instead of confronting Buffy about what happened, he tells this not only to Giles, but also to Willow, Cordelia and Oz. And then Faith. In detail.
Then he assaults Buffy verbally. Comments like these are really unacceptable coming from a friend:
...you would stop him. Like you did last time with Ms. Calendar.
Right! Great plan. Leave tons of firepower with the Scary Guy, and leave us to clean up the mess.
And then he actively plots to go behind her back. Namely getting Faith on his side and planning to kill Angel together with Faith. And when he find the unconscious Giles he doesn't even try to looking for the truth, but shifts the blame on Angel.
I can understand that he doesn't trust Angel. But as Buffy's friend shouldn't he trust her jugdement? Or at least be loyal enough to not act behind her back?
And once again he gets away very easily. He apologizes and all is kind of well again.
Giles:
He's the one person who has plenty of reason to be angry with Buffy.
He's her watcher and Buffy shouldn't kept it from him that Angel is alive. I can totally understand why she did it considering that Angel killed Jenny and tortured Giles. So, yes, Giles has a lot of legitimate reasons to be upset and angry with Buffy.
Faith:
After being the center of attention in her first episode, this time around she is made to feel an outsider.
She isn't included in the meeting of Buffy's friends and all in all things go badly for her. She's beaten by Lagos (who's later on defeated by Buffy), Xander stirs her up and makes her fight his own fight, her watcher betrays her and calls her an idiot.
I really liked the conversation she and Buffy have in the end about trust.
Angel:
Good to see he can make up for some of his past actions by getting the glove and saving Willow's life.
All in all, this episode is about trust. About trusting the wrong people and trusting the right people and betrayal of all kinds.
This is definitely an episode I will watch again soon.
Homecoming
When it comes to the demon plot, the episode isn't very impressive.
However, we do get the Mayor as a new character and he's a nice addition to the band of villains. A bit too clean, a bit too focused on keeping his metaphors straight and definitely dangerous. Before seeing the episode Band Candy I thought he was a demon himself, but right now it seems he's "only" made some profitable bargains with them. Which explains why Trick doesn't kill him; so far the Mayor is a very good client of the demon population.
The scene with Buffy and Angel in the beginning of the episode is lovely. His reaction to Buffy's declaration that she's now dating Scott is intense as is his realisation that he has no right to tell her not to date another guy.
The relationship with Scott is *very* short-lived, though, because Scott is looking for Fun!Buffy, and can't deal with GrownUpDueToGrief!Buffy. Good riddance. He was a shallow little weasel anyway. And the friends he had weren't a recommendation for him either. He totally deserves what Faith dishes out:
Behind Giles, Faith moves around the table, and the camera follows her over to Scott. He is dancing slow and close with his date.
Faith touches the couple, and they pull apart.
Faith: Scott? There you are, honey! Hey, good news. (with lots of gesturing) The doctor says that the itching and the swelling and the burning should clear up, (puts her hands on his chest) but we gotta keep using the ointment.
Yes, I know revenge is immature, but this scene made me chuckle quietly.
The most interesting theme of this episode is that Buffy is trying to reclaim her life as it was before she became the Slayer. She wants to be popular and glamerous, she wants to be a high school celebrity. Things don't work this way, however.
When we see the two girls who get crowned as Homecoming Queens, it's very clear that Buffy and Cordelia play in a totally different league. They're way more mature than the winners. Considering how silly they've acted over the last couple of weeks that says it all. :-)
This time around I wanted to shake Willow. I'm quite uncomfortable with how she tries to help both Cordelia and Buffy and in the course of this ends up not being loyal to either of them. Willow needs to learn to stand up for herself and most of all to say "no" to others once in a while.
Band Candy
Once again the plot isn't very strong. But I don't care; this show is fun!
The theme of the show is acting in a responsible way and it's lovely how this them is developed.
First we get Buffy behaving in a way that's understandable, but still causes her mother and Giles to worry. When eating candy bars transforms every adult in the town into teenagers, the roles get reversed. Now it's Buffy who has to make sure her mom and Giles don't cause more trouble than is good for them.
Joyce and Giles get the chance to be wild in this episode and you can see how much the actors enjoy this! I'm smiling just thinking about their scenes together. ("Oh Ripper, that was soo brave!" *g*)
Armin Shimmerman as Principal Snyder finally plays a bigger part in an episode and every scene with him in it is simply delightful. The way he wants to hang out with the cool guys, the way he is coming on to Joyce. Funny.
Seeing Joyce in this episode made me realise once more that Buffy has a lot in common with her mom. E.g. her facial expression when Snyder is putting the moves on her is Buffy all over again. And, of course, Buffy inherited her courage from her mother, too.
Nice to have Ethan Rayne back. It makes sense that he would do contract work for demons. All in all, his character is underused in this episode, though.
The ending of this episode made me laugh out loud. Giles and Joyce meet again after the effects of the candy have worn of:
Buffy walks around to the passenger's side to get in. Giles and Joyce both look at the pavement, embarrassed and not willing even to go there, but knowing what they did.
Joyce: Right.
Giles: Indeed.
Joyce: Y-yes.
They both quickly pivot and head off in opposite directions.
Revelations
One of my favorite shows in season 3. It had me on the edge of my seat at times. I knew that Angel would survive this episode, nevertheless the plot was so good that I got seriously worried for him anyway. :-)
General observation regarding Angel:
Joss loves his fangirls. Angel has been shirtless at least temporarily in every single episode so far. By now I expect to see Angel sans his shirt as least once. Quite a nice treat.
My advice for Buffy would be to get him to wear shirts more often, then accidental kissage would reduce. *g*
Gwendolyn Post:
While I knew that there would be more to her than met the eye at first, I expected her to develop in a positive manner. So yes, I was surprised when she hit Giles over the head repeatedly.
Xander:
I hated him in this episode. Many of his actions here piss me off. I want to like him, but this episode makes it very difficult for me.
I can understand that he follows Angel secretly; it must have been a shock for him to see him.
I can even understand that he then stays and watches when Buffy and Angel kiss. Must be an even bigger shock.
But then I get less understanding: Instead of confronting Buffy about what happened, he tells this not only to Giles, but also to Willow, Cordelia and Oz. And then Faith. In detail.
Then he assaults Buffy verbally. Comments like these are really unacceptable coming from a friend:
...you would stop him. Like you did last time with Ms. Calendar.
Right! Great plan. Leave tons of firepower with the Scary Guy, and leave us to clean up the mess.
And then he actively plots to go behind her back. Namely getting Faith on his side and planning to kill Angel together with Faith. And when he find the unconscious Giles he doesn't even try to looking for the truth, but shifts the blame on Angel.
I can understand that he doesn't trust Angel. But as Buffy's friend shouldn't he trust her jugdement? Or at least be loyal enough to not act behind her back?
And once again he gets away very easily. He apologizes and all is kind of well again.
Giles:
He's the one person who has plenty of reason to be angry with Buffy.
He's her watcher and Buffy shouldn't kept it from him that Angel is alive. I can totally understand why she did it considering that Angel killed Jenny and tortured Giles. So, yes, Giles has a lot of legitimate reasons to be upset and angry with Buffy.
Faith:
After being the center of attention in her first episode, this time around she is made to feel an outsider.
She isn't included in the meeting of Buffy's friends and all in all things go badly for her. She's beaten by Lagos (who's later on defeated by Buffy), Xander stirs her up and makes her fight his own fight, her watcher betrays her and calls her an idiot.
I really liked the conversation she and Buffy have in the end about trust.
Angel:
Good to see he can make up for some of his past actions by getting the glove and saving Willow's life.
All in all, this episode is about trust. About trusting the wrong people and trusting the right people and betrayal of all kinds.
This is definitely an episode I will watch again soon.