Ah, an episode tentatively dealing with my favourite relationship of the show, Buffy and Giles. Sweet.
Beyond Slayer & Watcher
On the surface this is an episode about Buffy once again aiming for normality, this time in the form of a proper date. However beneath all of this it is a study in the slow blurring of boundaries between Buffy and Giles. The episode starts off with Giles critiquing Buffy’s slaying technique clearly stressing their Watcher/Slayer relationship. As the episode progresses that notion is tampered with and blurred. Officially Giles is playing the role of librarian, unofficially he is her Watcher. Both roles are slowly pushed to the side by something else, something more. In the pilot Giles already stepped over the boundary for physical proximity by invading Buffy’s personal sphere twice. In this episode he steps beyond yet another boundary by coming to her house.
At the end of the episode Giles uses a story from his own childhood referring to his relationship with his own father in order to comfort, but also show Buffy that he can relate to her. It is especially interesting that he uses the story containing his father, thereby ever so tentatively establishing a similar father/daughter relation between them. Rather than to take the teacher’s/Watcher’s role of guided improvement, her offers her unconditional support and comfort.
Buffy the Teenage Girl
So, Buffy and the boy. The boy of this week is a morbid brooder (apparently she has a type) by the name of Owen. Her reaction to him are equal parts adorable, predictable and painful. She becomes the bubbly blonde who fakes interests and rambles pointlessly in Owen’s proximity. There’s not much to say about Owen himself, or her reaction to him, other than they’re both rather typical. What else is typical, but more interesting is Cordelia’s strange reaction. For some reason after having spotted Buffy’s interest and approach to the silent brooder, Cordelia throws herself on the poor unsuspecting boy. Why, is a very good question, but feels strangely accurate to “female” behaviour, as a type of alpha-female squabbling and “outdoing”.
While an age old prophecy speaking of the Masters ascension is being fulfilled, Buffy tries to juggle “normal” teenage life with slaying. Thereby ending up taking her boy for a nice tour of the Funeral Home (and the autopsy room looks strangely similar to the science lab from The Witch). As the morbid little fella Owen is, he gets a total kick out of it until the dead turn undead. A lot of running and chasing results in the Armageddon spouting vamp catching and smashing Owen into the wall causing Buffy to believe he’s killed him. This sets Buffy off and she goes on to pummel the vamp. This is actually quite interesting, there seems to be a possible enjoyment in the violence for her. And Giles critique from the teaser of this episode, where he scolds her for lingering to long before going in for the kill, only works to emphasis this. It is also interesting to point out that she appears to prefer to fight without weapons, the weapons only show up at the end when it‘s time to dust. If this is a matter of inexperience or simply a personal preference I shall eager wait and see.
The episode ends on a very mixed note. Buffy having to sacrifice the normality she seeks, but meanwhile believing she succeeded “professionally”. Unfortunately she failed without realising it, which only helps to make her so much more human. You do not always beat the evil, and more importantly, you don’t always know you’ve failed. This also highlights the incredible consistency of storytelling this show has. From the first to the last episode with stops during the season we are told one story. It is one story-arch containing both success and failure. It is very good.
Conclusion
Once again the show’s themes as well as overall feel is firmly established. A wild ride between the mundane ponderings of the pubertal teenager mixed up with demons and all other types of devil spawn. Human timeless emotions mixed up with ancient prophecies regarding ultimate destruction and the demise of the human race.
Buffy herself gets to enjoy smashing demon ass while being allowed to throw pubertal temper tantrums and fawn over the boy-crush of the week. Meanwhile her relationship with Giles takes on a slightly more emotional side.
It was actually a quite enjoyable episode. Even though the characters of Xander and Willow felt somewhat overlooked, and Angel’s random appearance with a superfluous warning and a look of jealousy of Buffy’s date, felt both conspicuous and unnecessary.
Randomness & Memorable
- “At this point you’re abusing sarcasm.”
- Xander’s Tweety Bird watch.
- Sunnydale Airport Shuttle.
- Cordelia’s reaction to seeing Angel for the first time, “Hello, Salty Goodness”.
- Discussing the cafeteria’s “mystery green” and slaying all within the span of two sentences.
- Buffy & Giles looking through body boxes at the morgue, “Eww, parts”.
- The vamp with euphemism-Tourettes, “Pork and Beans”.
- The incredibly dated fashion.
Next Up:
The Path Not Taken (XWP)
No comments:
Post a Comment