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tori_reviewsBuffy the Vampire Slayer: 2x01 – When She was Bad
I’m a little all over the place with this one. There are things I like about it; things I like about it in theory but don’t think were done super well; I guess not a lot that I just don’t like, but there are a few things.
This episode just has a weird vibe to it. And while I don’t think this is the reason, it reads to me like it probably should have been a two-parter. In some ways it almost feels like the season finale of a summer series of episodes. Where we see Buffy withdraw more into herself, spend more time pushing people away, show her trauma in a more rounded way, because I’m not sure I know what emotion they’re going for in this one on its own, so the catharsis at the end doesn’t feel that earned.
Now, it could be okay that Buffy’s trauma and reaction to it isn’t clearly defined in anger or fear or anything specific, but for as nuanced as this is in theory, it doesn’t have enough time to come through in practice. Especially since they decided to start the episode with a fun welcome back to Buffy sequence. Yes she’s a little off, but that cuts into the time the story has to show her as isolated.
Also, the performance at the Bronze really cuts into the time they have. The dance scene at least has something character relevant going on during the drawn-out song segment, but that’s the decent capper on an awkward amount of time spent on it (along with very forced and awkward setup of Willow being super into the band).
On a better note, the humor in this episode really worked for me. Admittedly Snyder is the source of a good chunk of it, but I did get several good chuckles at it.
I do think this is good movement on Cordelia’s development. They’re still beating her shallowness a little hard, but we starting to get her seeing more of what’s going on, and dealing with it in her own way.
I’m sort of torn on Angel. In a lot of ways I think he gets the shortest end of the stick with how compressed Buffy’s arc feels. He gets more screen time than most, but he just kind of seems confused during most of it instead of offering anything to the story. I actually think this could have been a really good episode for their relationship if her getting mean in keeping her distance had been played out more. It’s one of the catharsis bits that feels too abrupt; if we had seen him dealing with her pushing him away, then him still being there at the end would have had more meaning.
That also applies to the Scoobies reconnecting at the end. It wasn’t given enough time to sour for the full weight of the repair to come through. It’s part of what feels the most out of place about this episode, the way it lingers on them in the end feels more like a disconnected finale than setup for the season to come. Most of the episode could go either way, but I didn’t respond to that scene the way I’m sure I should have.
Because I’m me I do need to talk about Giles for a bit (this will probably be a recurring thing). After I sang the praises of Buffy and Giles’ relationship in the previous episode, here they aren’t in sync. And if I just meant in the plot/character way I’d actually praise it because they probably should be out of sync. But the writing of their reactions to what’s happened doesn’t click.
We really don’t ever see Buffy pushing Giles away, only as part of the gang rather than him specifically. And yet her dream makes me think she does have issues where Giles is connected to what happened. Which makes perfect sense considering how it all went down, but again, it’s never expanded on. Giles seems fairly untroubled by what happened, considering the state he was in during PG; if anything, I think he should be the one thinking he’s guilty of getting Buffy killed.
A lot of these problems come from having to do the time skip over the summer. They did it about as well as they could, but it ends up seeming like Buffy’s whole arc of dealing with the Master was crammed into one episode, when it canonically has been going on for months.
The scene where Buffy tortures vampire lady is weird. I can tell it’s trying to be telling about her state of mind, I’ve seen TV before, this is the kind of thing heroes do when they’re not quite right in the head, but it only works in theory. The scene doesn’t really focus on it as a bad thing she’s doing, it’s not disturbing, it’s just kind of a little extra cruel to someone she’s going to kill anyway. I don’t know if it needed more leading background music, or more shots of Angel and Xander looking on at her behavior, or what; but something was missing.
Not a bad episode by any means, but it didn’t work for me as well as it could have. Then again, I’m not sure I ever found this episode all that good.
What am I shipping?
I cannot get my head around what Whedon was going for with Willow/Xander here. This is basically catnip for my shipping tastes, and yet I’m not jumping on board. Xander does not come off well for most of this plot; and then his line about how he’ll kill Buffy if Willow dies comes out of nowhere. I know they’re friends independent of whether or not they could be a couple, but we’ve never seen him have that kind of passionate response to anything Willow does.
Giles and Jenny are fairly cute this episode, though I’m still not sure what they see in each other. I mean, for Giles, she is a woman of legal age that he’s attracted to and is in the know about what his actual job is. And Jenny is worth crushing on. But as much as I love Giles, I’m not sure what Jenny sees in him.
I have…thoughts about Buffy/Angel here. But it’s a choice between ‘not my taste’ and ‘I hate it.’ They’re both pretty terrible to each other and I don’t see them getting much done working together.
I’m a little all over the place with this one. There are things I like about it; things I like about it in theory but don’t think were done super well; I guess not a lot that I just don’t like, but there are a few things.
This episode just has a weird vibe to it. And while I don’t think this is the reason, it reads to me like it probably should have been a two-parter. In some ways it almost feels like the season finale of a summer series of episodes. Where we see Buffy withdraw more into herself, spend more time pushing people away, show her trauma in a more rounded way, because I’m not sure I know what emotion they’re going for in this one on its own, so the catharsis at the end doesn’t feel that earned.
Now, it could be okay that Buffy’s trauma and reaction to it isn’t clearly defined in anger or fear or anything specific, but for as nuanced as this is in theory, it doesn’t have enough time to come through in practice. Especially since they decided to start the episode with a fun welcome back to Buffy sequence. Yes she’s a little off, but that cuts into the time the story has to show her as isolated.
Also, the performance at the Bronze really cuts into the time they have. The dance scene at least has something character relevant going on during the drawn-out song segment, but that’s the decent capper on an awkward amount of time spent on it (along with very forced and awkward setup of Willow being super into the band).
On a better note, the humor in this episode really worked for me. Admittedly Snyder is the source of a good chunk of it, but I did get several good chuckles at it.
I do think this is good movement on Cordelia’s development. They’re still beating her shallowness a little hard, but we starting to get her seeing more of what’s going on, and dealing with it in her own way.
I’m sort of torn on Angel. In a lot of ways I think he gets the shortest end of the stick with how compressed Buffy’s arc feels. He gets more screen time than most, but he just kind of seems confused during most of it instead of offering anything to the story. I actually think this could have been a really good episode for their relationship if her getting mean in keeping her distance had been played out more. It’s one of the catharsis bits that feels too abrupt; if we had seen him dealing with her pushing him away, then him still being there at the end would have had more meaning.
That also applies to the Scoobies reconnecting at the end. It wasn’t given enough time to sour for the full weight of the repair to come through. It’s part of what feels the most out of place about this episode, the way it lingers on them in the end feels more like a disconnected finale than setup for the season to come. Most of the episode could go either way, but I didn’t respond to that scene the way I’m sure I should have.
Because I’m me I do need to talk about Giles for a bit (this will probably be a recurring thing). After I sang the praises of Buffy and Giles’ relationship in the previous episode, here they aren’t in sync. And if I just meant in the plot/character way I’d actually praise it because they probably should be out of sync. But the writing of their reactions to what’s happened doesn’t click.
We really don’t ever see Buffy pushing Giles away, only as part of the gang rather than him specifically. And yet her dream makes me think she does have issues where Giles is connected to what happened. Which makes perfect sense considering how it all went down, but again, it’s never expanded on. Giles seems fairly untroubled by what happened, considering the state he was in during PG; if anything, I think he should be the one thinking he’s guilty of getting Buffy killed.
A lot of these problems come from having to do the time skip over the summer. They did it about as well as they could, but it ends up seeming like Buffy’s whole arc of dealing with the Master was crammed into one episode, when it canonically has been going on for months.
The scene where Buffy tortures vampire lady is weird. I can tell it’s trying to be telling about her state of mind, I’ve seen TV before, this is the kind of thing heroes do when they’re not quite right in the head, but it only works in theory. The scene doesn’t really focus on it as a bad thing she’s doing, it’s not disturbing, it’s just kind of a little extra cruel to someone she’s going to kill anyway. I don’t know if it needed more leading background music, or more shots of Angel and Xander looking on at her behavior, or what; but something was missing.
Not a bad episode by any means, but it didn’t work for me as well as it could have. Then again, I’m not sure I ever found this episode all that good.
What am I shipping?
I cannot get my head around what Whedon was going for with Willow/Xander here. This is basically catnip for my shipping tastes, and yet I’m not jumping on board. Xander does not come off well for most of this plot; and then his line about how he’ll kill Buffy if Willow dies comes out of nowhere. I know they’re friends independent of whether or not they could be a couple, but we’ve never seen him have that kind of passionate response to anything Willow does.
Giles and Jenny are fairly cute this episode, though I’m still not sure what they see in each other. I mean, for Giles, she is a woman of legal age that he’s attracted to and is in the know about what his actual job is. And Jenny is worth crushing on. But as much as I love Giles, I’m not sure what Jenny sees in him.
I have…thoughts about Buffy/Angel here. But it’s a choice between ‘not my taste’ and ‘I hate it.’ They’re both pretty terrible to each other and I don’t see them getting much done working together.
