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tori_reviewsKind of an odd pairing of episodes to post together as it still splits up the two-parter, but each of those parts was enough review, while Bad Eggs was not.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 2x12 – Bad Eggs
This episode is a mess. Which is especially annoying since the last one was so surprisingly good and I’d formerly thought of these two as being on par with each other at middling.
This episode does not know what it wants the tone to be. And sometimes, a little bit of everything works, but it doesn’t in this case. Sometimes it’s a comedy farce, sometimes it’s a creepy body-snatcher episode, sometimes it’s a family drama, sometimes it’s an instance of using high school tropes for a Buffy prompt, sometimes an excuse for people to make out a lot, sometimes it tries to combine things in really awkward ways.
And sometimes, it’s trying to be the high water mark of Buffy and Angel’s relationship before everything falls apart. I remember the last time I watched this episode that was the impression I came away with. That this is setup for them having sex and having one last chance to sell us on this as a decent relationship and…wow is it not working for me. It’s not even that awful, but if this is the high point then these two stood no chance.
The interesting thing with their talk about her not giving thought to children is that it makes complete sense on two different levels, and yet I’m not sure this episode knows it works on either. She’s 16, no she hasn’t thought about whether she wants kids or made any firm decision on when or whether she might want them down the road. But it also makes sense because she’s the Slayer, and -well- thinking too much about her future is not high on the priority list. I’m shocked to realize this was written by Noxon since she just wrote What’s My Line where Buffy’s lack of future prospects was such a central theme.
(I’m also not surprised, because my old memories of paying attention to who wrote episodes of this show say that Noxon is very hit or miss, and even the hits are rarely home runs.)
You know, I could go into how this plot makes absolutely no sense; that it’s not just in the tone that can’t decide what this story is. The motives and intent for what the Bezoar is doing and how it plans to get there seems to change constantly. Otherwise why was Giles staying in the library until he infected Joyce but then left? It doesn’t make sense.
But really, this episode is kind of an exception to the rule where I so often find more to talk about (complain about) in bad episodes than I get into detail about the good ones. Then again, body snatch episodes don’t leave a ton of room for character since people are out of character so much.
Although, casting my brain back, school being done at 2:30 seems early. Especially since they don’t seem to start first thing in the morning either. I find that my brain has purged the information about my high school schedule, but I’m sure we didn’t get out before 3:00.
What am I shipping?
…my limited Buffy/Xander shipping perked up for a second when they team up at the end, but basically nothing.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 2x13 – Surprise
As will likely surprise no one, this is a good episode. I didn’t remember this one as well as the next part but I was pretty sure they were both good episodes and a good two-parter. As it is a two-parter, I’m going to hold over some of my thoughts to do in part 2 when I’ve seen how it plays out, but there’s a decent amount to talk about here.
The opening stuff with the various teenage talks is really well written. And even though it doesn’t resemble what I remember from high school, it manages to feel very authentic and natural.
Where last episode was all high for Buffy/Angel, this episode is the high before the fall, and it’s better for it. If their relationship always had this much that I could think about, then I might ship them a bit more than I do. I think it also helps me a lot when Angel actually seems like part of Buffy’s life instead of this weird unnecessary appendage to it. Plus I just like Angel in group scenes, which may be why I like him better with the Fang Gang, on his own show, and when he’s not spending 90% of his screen time around Buffy alone. (It’s probably also why the people I *do* ship Buffy with are people that are part of the group at large instead of just in it for her. Probably also applies to other Scoobies come to think of it, it’s just the most obvious with Buffy.)
I’ll give this episode some props on the Buffy/Angel front, but I will not give any props for the dock scene, that scene is bad and way to melodramatic. It kind of undercuts the end scene, which is also a bit melodramatic but is better and would be better still if there wasn’t the former melodramatic scene.
I like this Dru so much better than the one we’ve gotten so far. She’s a crazy bitch instead of a crazy mopey lady, and crazy bitch is way more interesting. I also notice that the parallels between Buffy and Dru continue to be pretty strong; it’s not stated whether this is a birthday or deathday or whatever for Dur, but something’s up with her, and she’s having dreams too. And I’m far more likely to be invested in Spike/Dru when crazy bitch Dur still chooses Spike (for now, until Angelus comes back).
However, since when do the Scoobs know where the vamp factory is? If they’ve known for a while, why haven’t they gone before; and also why don’t they go around after this? Eventually the vamps move camp, but there’s time when things should happen.
(On reflection, this is the same factory from the beginning of the season, they just must not have known there were still vamps there. But I guess Buffy’s dream was detailed enough to ID it.)
I don’t know if I like what this episode does with Jenny. I don’t think it fits with what we’ve seen of her so far. Partly because she becomes very overt very quickly once the audience knows this new information. It’s not helped by the story contriving a reason for her to seem creepy like she’s going to do something to Buffy and therefore drawing attention to the fact that she’s looking different to us in the audience.
And that scene is weirder the more you think about it. To start with, Jenny keeps calling Giles…well, Giles. She does know that that’s what Buffy calls him, and I could believe that unless she’s talking to him as Rupert she could fall in with calling him Giles, but it sounds off from her. It’s also just weirdly put together; and it kind of works for people who are not great at planning surprise parties, but I feel like Buffy should have twigged that something was up (even if it was just a surprise party). I guess it speaks to them having pretty much accepted Jenny as part of the group at this point, so that it hurts when she isn’t on their side in the Angel thing. But that would probably be better if the scene wasn’t played as if she was already being creepy about Buffy when she actually isn’t.
And, not to put too much point on it, because it wasn’t Jenny’s plan anyway, but Giles would kill her if she was planning on taking Buffy out of the picture to make Angel suffer. Which Jenny knows. Threats to his own life, Giles will run away and hide; threats to Buffy’s life, Buffy becomes the only one who can hold him back.
I’m not sure how they would have gotten through that party without Oz finding out something was up. Everybody else in the room knows, and at some point he’s going to ask about the weird assortment of guests (and limited guest list) of Buffy’s party. I mean, who invites the school librarian to a party at a club?
I’ll get to overall structure more part 2 I think, because it’s always a question of sticking the landing (but I’m pretty sure this does). For now, this is a really good part 1. It’s paced like a two-parter, in that it has time for a slow build and rising tension. And then, because it’s paced like a two-parter, the fact that it doesn’t end with the Judge coming to life actually keeps the tension up; because if that’s not your mid-story cliffhanger, what is?
And this episode doesn’t quite tell you straight away what the cliffhanger is. Something is up with Angel. We’ve been told he’s not allowed to be happy but we’re not told what the consequences would be if he was.
What am I shipping?
This is the Buffy/Angel that while I don’t ship it, I’m okay with it in a high school/teenage first love plot. They wouldn’t work long term, not the way they are, but I understand them in a way I often have found I don’t.
Willow and Oz are quite cute as usual; however this episode also pinged my Willow/Xander feelings, so I’m already confused about who I’m shipping these days.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 2x12 – Bad Eggs
This episode is a mess. Which is especially annoying since the last one was so surprisingly good and I’d formerly thought of these two as being on par with each other at middling.
This episode does not know what it wants the tone to be. And sometimes, a little bit of everything works, but it doesn’t in this case. Sometimes it’s a comedy farce, sometimes it’s a creepy body-snatcher episode, sometimes it’s a family drama, sometimes it’s an instance of using high school tropes for a Buffy prompt, sometimes an excuse for people to make out a lot, sometimes it tries to combine things in really awkward ways.
And sometimes, it’s trying to be the high water mark of Buffy and Angel’s relationship before everything falls apart. I remember the last time I watched this episode that was the impression I came away with. That this is setup for them having sex and having one last chance to sell us on this as a decent relationship and…wow is it not working for me. It’s not even that awful, but if this is the high point then these two stood no chance.
The interesting thing with their talk about her not giving thought to children is that it makes complete sense on two different levels, and yet I’m not sure this episode knows it works on either. She’s 16, no she hasn’t thought about whether she wants kids or made any firm decision on when or whether she might want them down the road. But it also makes sense because she’s the Slayer, and -well- thinking too much about her future is not high on the priority list. I’m shocked to realize this was written by Noxon since she just wrote What’s My Line where Buffy’s lack of future prospects was such a central theme.
(I’m also not surprised, because my old memories of paying attention to who wrote episodes of this show say that Noxon is very hit or miss, and even the hits are rarely home runs.)
You know, I could go into how this plot makes absolutely no sense; that it’s not just in the tone that can’t decide what this story is. The motives and intent for what the Bezoar is doing and how it plans to get there seems to change constantly. Otherwise why was Giles staying in the library until he infected Joyce but then left? It doesn’t make sense.
But really, this episode is kind of an exception to the rule where I so often find more to talk about (complain about) in bad episodes than I get into detail about the good ones. Then again, body snatch episodes don’t leave a ton of room for character since people are out of character so much.
Although, casting my brain back, school being done at 2:30 seems early. Especially since they don’t seem to start first thing in the morning either. I find that my brain has purged the information about my high school schedule, but I’m sure we didn’t get out before 3:00.
What am I shipping?
…my limited Buffy/Xander shipping perked up for a second when they team up at the end, but basically nothing.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 2x13 – Surprise
As will likely surprise no one, this is a good episode. I didn’t remember this one as well as the next part but I was pretty sure they were both good episodes and a good two-parter. As it is a two-parter, I’m going to hold over some of my thoughts to do in part 2 when I’ve seen how it plays out, but there’s a decent amount to talk about here.
The opening stuff with the various teenage talks is really well written. And even though it doesn’t resemble what I remember from high school, it manages to feel very authentic and natural.
Where last episode was all high for Buffy/Angel, this episode is the high before the fall, and it’s better for it. If their relationship always had this much that I could think about, then I might ship them a bit more than I do. I think it also helps me a lot when Angel actually seems like part of Buffy’s life instead of this weird unnecessary appendage to it. Plus I just like Angel in group scenes, which may be why I like him better with the Fang Gang, on his own show, and when he’s not spending 90% of his screen time around Buffy alone. (It’s probably also why the people I *do* ship Buffy with are people that are part of the group at large instead of just in it for her. Probably also applies to other Scoobies come to think of it, it’s just the most obvious with Buffy.)
I’ll give this episode some props on the Buffy/Angel front, but I will not give any props for the dock scene, that scene is bad and way to melodramatic. It kind of undercuts the end scene, which is also a bit melodramatic but is better and would be better still if there wasn’t the former melodramatic scene.
I like this Dru so much better than the one we’ve gotten so far. She’s a crazy bitch instead of a crazy mopey lady, and crazy bitch is way more interesting. I also notice that the parallels between Buffy and Dru continue to be pretty strong; it’s not stated whether this is a birthday or deathday or whatever for Dur, but something’s up with her, and she’s having dreams too. And I’m far more likely to be invested in Spike/Dru when crazy bitch Dur still chooses Spike (for now, until Angelus comes back).
However, since when do the Scoobs know where the vamp factory is? If they’ve known for a while, why haven’t they gone before; and also why don’t they go around after this? Eventually the vamps move camp, but there’s time when things should happen.
(On reflection, this is the same factory from the beginning of the season, they just must not have known there were still vamps there. But I guess Buffy’s dream was detailed enough to ID it.)
I don’t know if I like what this episode does with Jenny. I don’t think it fits with what we’ve seen of her so far. Partly because she becomes very overt very quickly once the audience knows this new information. It’s not helped by the story contriving a reason for her to seem creepy like she’s going to do something to Buffy and therefore drawing attention to the fact that she’s looking different to us in the audience.
And that scene is weirder the more you think about it. To start with, Jenny keeps calling Giles…well, Giles. She does know that that’s what Buffy calls him, and I could believe that unless she’s talking to him as Rupert she could fall in with calling him Giles, but it sounds off from her. It’s also just weirdly put together; and it kind of works for people who are not great at planning surprise parties, but I feel like Buffy should have twigged that something was up (even if it was just a surprise party). I guess it speaks to them having pretty much accepted Jenny as part of the group at this point, so that it hurts when she isn’t on their side in the Angel thing. But that would probably be better if the scene wasn’t played as if she was already being creepy about Buffy when she actually isn’t.
And, not to put too much point on it, because it wasn’t Jenny’s plan anyway, but Giles would kill her if she was planning on taking Buffy out of the picture to make Angel suffer. Which Jenny knows. Threats to his own life, Giles will run away and hide; threats to Buffy’s life, Buffy becomes the only one who can hold him back.
I’m not sure how they would have gotten through that party without Oz finding out something was up. Everybody else in the room knows, and at some point he’s going to ask about the weird assortment of guests (and limited guest list) of Buffy’s party. I mean, who invites the school librarian to a party at a club?
I’ll get to overall structure more part 2 I think, because it’s always a question of sticking the landing (but I’m pretty sure this does). For now, this is a really good part 1. It’s paced like a two-parter, in that it has time for a slow build and rising tension. And then, because it’s paced like a two-parter, the fact that it doesn’t end with the Judge coming to life actually keeps the tension up; because if that’s not your mid-story cliffhanger, what is?
And this episode doesn’t quite tell you straight away what the cliffhanger is. Something is up with Angel. We’ve been told he’s not allowed to be happy but we’re not told what the consequences would be if he was.
What am I shipping?
This is the Buffy/Angel that while I don’t ship it, I’m okay with it in a high school/teenage first love plot. They wouldn’t work long term, not the way they are, but I understand them in a way I often have found I don’t.
Willow and Oz are quite cute as usual; however this episode also pinged my Willow/Xander feelings, so I’m already confused about who I’m shipping these days.
