![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsBuffy the Vampire Slayer: 2x02 – Some Assembly Required
If I’m not mistaken, nobody actually died in this episode. At least not from supernatural causes, and not anyone who wasn’t already dead. Only one person was even put in danger, independently at least, more people were in danger on the rescue mission. Giles is right, this was a quiet night.
Considering I remembered just a hair above nothing about this episode (basically the only thing I remembered was the bit at the game when Willow and Xander crashed Giles and Jenny’s date), it wasn’t that hard to figure out what was going on. Although I had it a little backwards for a bit, thinking that Chris wanted to ultimately bring his brother back and for some reason this was turning into a test run.
I’m still not clear on what Erik’s part in this was. I think he might have been a bit miscast/misdirected and maybe he was supposed to be more Mengala and just in it for the new science; but he was cast and directed as just a regular sort of creepy guy. He was on the list Willow made of people who could pull this sort of thing off, and he doesn’t come across that way at all. Or maybe they needed to make him more outright repulsive and he did want to be able to make a girlfriend eventually. Or he needed to have some connection to Chris and/or Daryl that would motivate him to be part of this. It’s a little wobbly is all I’m saying.
By contrast, Chris’ motivation mostly works. He had a stake in why they were doing this, but he also wasn’t willing to take it the next step. Still a bit wobbly though, because if he was able to bring back Daryl two years ago are they saying that in Sunnydale there haven’t been any other dead girls that could be used in the experiment? It wouldn’t seem that hard to get whole girls; Daryl was basically whole it seemed, just stitched back together, there were probably some ladies in a similar state over the last couple years.
What did happen to Chris and Erik after this? They did both assault Cordelia initially, and Erik was definitely down for attempted murder. It being Cordy makes this a particularly interesting question; because she is in the know about the kind of stuff that happens in Sunnydale, but she’s not completely folded into the circle of secrecy that I would assume the others would adopt. This can be prosecuted as a human crime; especially if people assume Chris was kind of crazy after his brother died and thought he could play Frankenstein. They may or may not have any proof that he did it, but you don’t need a court that believes in the supernatural to find a way to explain what happened.
This is probably a better ‘bringing Cordy into the group’ episode than what they did in s1. It couldn’t exist as it does if she wasn’t already in the know, but I kind of wish we could have had basically this episode last season in a slightly different form. That said, now that Cordy is in on all the secrets, I’m surprised she isn’t more afraid walking around on her own at night.
(Also, nerd alert: vegetables don’t exist. What are colloquially called vegetables can botanically be leaves, stems, roots, buds, seeds, or yes fruits. Tomatoes are botanically a fruit yes, but given that vegetables are different matter of designation, they might as well also be on that list. Cordy could have learned something on that project actually, although it would have been more of a history report on why certain plants we eat are classified as vegetables and some aren’t.)
But you may notice something I don’t have much to say about this episode, the main characters. They have some decent moments, but they’re kind of incidental to the episode. Giles gets the most actual development, and while I have feelings about that, it’s not a lot of thoughts. Buffy is good with Chris, but otherwise her personal focus is with Angel and I do not have thoughts or feelings about that. And beyond that it probably goes in an extended shipping segment.
So, what am I shipping?
We have the show’s six main characters in the library at one point. There are a lot of possibilities among that sextet that I can find myself shipping at various times. For that matter, throughout the episode I can ship Buffy with four of the people in that room; the fifth being Angel.
Once more there are some very deliberate things done with Xander that I’m not sure how to take. Him talking about the unattainable desires, while Willow looks on in the background; then the way he reacts to Cordy at the end, which is kind of funny, but also kind of weird. I know they will be dating within a few episodes, but what happened here isn’t something he should have been paying attention to. Maybe he could have been less dismissive, but the implication that maybe he should have made/accepted a move there seems weird. It just means he doesn’t see her as someone he’d be interested in yet, and considering they’ve known each other for years presumably and have only started tolerating each other recently, I don’t see a problem with that. If the line was supposed to be another reflection on Willow/Xander (who are quite coupley in this episode I would say), that’s a bit more fitting, but it also doesn’t seem that sure of itself on that front.
That library scene was almost distracting to me, because I’m looking around going ‘I can just pair all of you off.’ I ship Angel/Cordy, Willow/Xander, and Buffy/Giles (even if for this episode I’m a bit back on femslash Buffy options).
And of those three, Angel/Cordy is the most currently awkward. There’s not a lot there yet to work with, which is fine, there shouldn’t really be (I’m not even sure she knows he’s a vampire yet). I can’t exactly say I ship them right now, but I can’t quite take off my hindsight glasses and not see this as at least a little shippy for down the road. Still, for all Angel turned into a whiny child around Buffy, his presentation is older right now, and I guess it is bugging me in this case.
Okay, I’ll admit it, Giles and Jenny are cute. I’m still not sure I’d say I ship it exactly, but I’m open to the possibility more than I expected to be. I can see that it could be done in a way that I would ship, I just don’t remember that it will.
If I’m not mistaken, nobody actually died in this episode. At least not from supernatural causes, and not anyone who wasn’t already dead. Only one person was even put in danger, independently at least, more people were in danger on the rescue mission. Giles is right, this was a quiet night.
Considering I remembered just a hair above nothing about this episode (basically the only thing I remembered was the bit at the game when Willow and Xander crashed Giles and Jenny’s date), it wasn’t that hard to figure out what was going on. Although I had it a little backwards for a bit, thinking that Chris wanted to ultimately bring his brother back and for some reason this was turning into a test run.
I’m still not clear on what Erik’s part in this was. I think he might have been a bit miscast/misdirected and maybe he was supposed to be more Mengala and just in it for the new science; but he was cast and directed as just a regular sort of creepy guy. He was on the list Willow made of people who could pull this sort of thing off, and he doesn’t come across that way at all. Or maybe they needed to make him more outright repulsive and he did want to be able to make a girlfriend eventually. Or he needed to have some connection to Chris and/or Daryl that would motivate him to be part of this. It’s a little wobbly is all I’m saying.
By contrast, Chris’ motivation mostly works. He had a stake in why they were doing this, but he also wasn’t willing to take it the next step. Still a bit wobbly though, because if he was able to bring back Daryl two years ago are they saying that in Sunnydale there haven’t been any other dead girls that could be used in the experiment? It wouldn’t seem that hard to get whole girls; Daryl was basically whole it seemed, just stitched back together, there were probably some ladies in a similar state over the last couple years.
What did happen to Chris and Erik after this? They did both assault Cordelia initially, and Erik was definitely down for attempted murder. It being Cordy makes this a particularly interesting question; because she is in the know about the kind of stuff that happens in Sunnydale, but she’s not completely folded into the circle of secrecy that I would assume the others would adopt. This can be prosecuted as a human crime; especially if people assume Chris was kind of crazy after his brother died and thought he could play Frankenstein. They may or may not have any proof that he did it, but you don’t need a court that believes in the supernatural to find a way to explain what happened.
This is probably a better ‘bringing Cordy into the group’ episode than what they did in s1. It couldn’t exist as it does if she wasn’t already in the know, but I kind of wish we could have had basically this episode last season in a slightly different form. That said, now that Cordy is in on all the secrets, I’m surprised she isn’t more afraid walking around on her own at night.
(Also, nerd alert: vegetables don’t exist. What are colloquially called vegetables can botanically be leaves, stems, roots, buds, seeds, or yes fruits. Tomatoes are botanically a fruit yes, but given that vegetables are different matter of designation, they might as well also be on that list. Cordy could have learned something on that project actually, although it would have been more of a history report on why certain plants we eat are classified as vegetables and some aren’t.)
But you may notice something I don’t have much to say about this episode, the main characters. They have some decent moments, but they’re kind of incidental to the episode. Giles gets the most actual development, and while I have feelings about that, it’s not a lot of thoughts. Buffy is good with Chris, but otherwise her personal focus is with Angel and I do not have thoughts or feelings about that. And beyond that it probably goes in an extended shipping segment.
So, what am I shipping?
We have the show’s six main characters in the library at one point. There are a lot of possibilities among that sextet that I can find myself shipping at various times. For that matter, throughout the episode I can ship Buffy with four of the people in that room; the fifth being Angel.
Once more there are some very deliberate things done with Xander that I’m not sure how to take. Him talking about the unattainable desires, while Willow looks on in the background; then the way he reacts to Cordy at the end, which is kind of funny, but also kind of weird. I know they will be dating within a few episodes, but what happened here isn’t something he should have been paying attention to. Maybe he could have been less dismissive, but the implication that maybe he should have made/accepted a move there seems weird. It just means he doesn’t see her as someone he’d be interested in yet, and considering they’ve known each other for years presumably and have only started tolerating each other recently, I don’t see a problem with that. If the line was supposed to be another reflection on Willow/Xander (who are quite coupley in this episode I would say), that’s a bit more fitting, but it also doesn’t seem that sure of itself on that front.
That library scene was almost distracting to me, because I’m looking around going ‘I can just pair all of you off.’ I ship Angel/Cordy, Willow/Xander, and Buffy/Giles (even if for this episode I’m a bit back on femslash Buffy options).
And of those three, Angel/Cordy is the most currently awkward. There’s not a lot there yet to work with, which is fine, there shouldn’t really be (I’m not even sure she knows he’s a vampire yet). I can’t exactly say I ship them right now, but I can’t quite take off my hindsight glasses and not see this as at least a little shippy for down the road. Still, for all Angel turned into a whiny child around Buffy, his presentation is older right now, and I guess it is bugging me in this case.
Okay, I’ll admit it, Giles and Jenny are cute. I’m still not sure I’d say I ship it exactly, but I’m open to the possibility more than I expected to be. I can see that it could be done in a way that I would ship, I just don’t remember that it will.
