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tori_reviewsBuffy the Vampire Slayer: 3x02 – Dead Man’s Party
Well, this episode wasn’t quite as good as my memory had made it out to be. It’s not bad, and has some definite good to great moments, but it’s more muddled than I was remembering.
I think a little of that reaction is down to how rushed this has been. The rush to get Buffy back the Sunnydale and the rush to cover as much ground on getting back to normal as possible in one episode. I can only speak for myself I suppose, but I feel like it’s a lot easier to understand what Buffy has been going through than with the other characters. Because we only got the one-episode sub-plot of them without Buffy and it was treated fairly comically, we don’t have a great read on how they have been feeling. In a kind of superficial way I do get that they don’t know how to act because they’re all jumbled up inside whether to be angry or upset or just happy to have Buffy back. But I also feel like this episode kind of needs them to feel different ways at different times, and yet all of it at the same time so that nothing takes solid form.
(I’m tabling all the ways Giles is different for now, because I’m pretty much on Giles’ side and in his head all episode. Have I mentioned Giles is my favorite?)
Buffy herself is kind of the same way. In pieces I understand pretty much any of her reactions to what happens, but they don’t come together in a clear picture. I get her feeling guilty for having left; or guilty that maybe coming back didn’t help anyone; I get her feeling overwhelmed at coming back; I get her feeling adrift that life went on without her (which is where it would have been nice to see more of life going without her) and that maybe she wasn’t needed; I get her wanting things to go back to the way they were and not wanting to face any more consequences of what happened. I even kind of feel like part of the implication is that while she didn’t want to run anymore, she wasn’t really ready to come home either. I get all of that, but in getting all of it, there’s kind of too much for a single episode.
The episode gets off to a bit of a wrong foot in that regard. I can’t tell how Buffy feels about coming home and then deciding to go back out. Joyce doesn’t strike me as particularly realistic in her treatment of it, but I kind of accept it as her trying to act as positive as possible. I just have a sneaking suspicion that if I had ever run away from home as a teenager, my parents would not have let me out of their sight, much less the house, for a while. Admittedly there are many differences between me and Buffy, and between Joyce and my parents, but my point stands.
Then we rush past her meeting up with the Scoobies so that only Xander gets to have an emotional reaction to her return. Then, aside from a bit of concern when they first arrive, Buffy’s managing to be pretty chill while they’re all having tea. I feel like everyone should be either more hyped up at Buffy’s return, or more awkward about everything (aside from Giles, because Giles’ reaction is perfect, but that’s for later). And while I could probably reread Buffy’s behavior as trying to seem like everything is normal even if it’s not, it doesn’t feel as forced as I think it should be in that case.
Probably my most random feeling about the episode is that I was bothered that they were burying the cat in a plastic bag; that’s not biodegradable and now you just have stinky plastic in your garden. But then also, how did the cat get out of the plastic bag when it was brought back to life?
I feel super bad for Joyce that one day in Buffy’s world got what appears to be her only friend killed. That said, I think inviting Pat in the first place makes no sense when they were expecting to have a gathering. The Scoobies get weird when they have to make conversation amongst themselves in front of people who don’t know the whole score; especially when all of that stuff is a big part of what needs to be said between them. Imagine Pat asks what the gang does for extracurricular activities? Amateur vampire slaying and learning witchcraft. Is Pat going to sit at dinner with them and not ask how Giles fits into this club?
The party should have always been a shindig. You can invite a few extra people who aren’t in the know, including people that have been helping Joyce out. There are some buffers as needed, but it’s also acceptable to settle in if some real talk gets going. A gathering was probably the wrong call especially with the guest list they had, but giant hootenanny was definitely the wrong call.
But I do sympathize with Joyce wanting someone who is hers to be at this dinner. Joyce is still the newbie when it comes to the Scoobie group dynamic, so she’d probably be left out, and she clearly does need someone who can sympathize with her difficulties with everything. Especially how Buffy being back hasn’t set everything to right the way she had told herself it would. She doesn’t know how anyone else is feeling on that subject.
The somewhat ironic part is that most of them are Joyce’s side…or rather Xander and Willow are on her side with Oz being mostly detached from it and Cordy not really having a dog in the fight (she wasn’t around for the summer to have to deal with Buffy not being there). So when it comes to the fight it’s Buffy who’s more or less alone.
I wish the fight hadn’t happened in front of the school crowd. It causes there to be questions about what other people think is going on when there’s talk about Angel being a demon and a psycho killer. I also kind of think that if there hadn’t been a crowd, they would have gotten pretty close to the truth of what happened to Angel and about the Lie. Because I feel like Buffy wants to tell them that huge part of what made her run away, but all the stress gets in the way of her being able to say what needs to be said.
As far as my memory of this episode was concerned, I remembered this one very fondly, and I think a lot of that has to do with Giles’ role in it. In fact, as I reflect on it, Giles may a little too perfect this episode. And the more I think about it, the better it is on that front. I even think Giles may have the best character arc out of anyone in this episode, strange though that probably sounds.
This episode seems to have been written with a very clear take on Giles’ history, especially his Ripper days. Because, as I’ve consider it, I think part of the reason he is so in tune with Buffy’s feelings is because he’s been there. They’re the two who are tied to the wheel of destiny and sometimes that gets to be too much. Plus, given next episode or the one after (I know it’s soon) he probably already has some idea of what happened with Angel for Buffy to save the world. And so for Giles, Buffy coming home can be enough for at least a little while, because it’s already a big step. I think he knows better than the rest of them, that if they push too hard, Buffy will just bolt again (although now I want a version of things where Giles is at the party - maybe they already dealt with the mask earlier - and can pull Buffy aside when it’s getting to be too much for her. Great, more plot bunnies).
The other way this is working in some more of Giles’ past in, and what I mean by an oddly complete arc, is how Giles seems to have almost made peace with his Ripper persona. He remembers he knows how to hotwire a car and the next thing he’s shoving Snyder into things with clear threat implications. The ‘would you like me to convince you?’ moment has lived in my brain for years, it’s pretty…I don’t quite want to say sexy, but it also kind of is. Really that whole scene is a hoot, because Giles is just in control the whole time, and it’s a good look on him.
I can’t quite tell yet if I think these two ways that the episode plays on Giles’ backstory actually play off of each other in any specific way, but they do exist side by side well.
And in any case, Giles at least is moving on from acorns to trees. As I’ve been rewatching, Buffy’s return was always in the back of my head as the point when Giles worked out that he was in love with her. Or at least it was a very real possibility given how much he does love her. I think I thought that 20 years ago, and it turns out I still pretty much do now. I just didn’t have such a concise term for it back then.
What am I shipping?
This episode is actually not bad for my Buffy/Giles, Buffy/Willow, or even Buffy/Xander aspects. The reunions with Xander and Giles are both lovely, and once things start spiraling, all the stuff with Willow is gold.
I have this memory of a fic or two back in the day where B/G was the main pairing with a side of Xander/Joyce and this episode kind of reminds me of that. I’ll never truly ship it by any means, but the ship carved a very small corner out in my mind that apparently is still there.
Well, this episode wasn’t quite as good as my memory had made it out to be. It’s not bad, and has some definite good to great moments, but it’s more muddled than I was remembering.
I think a little of that reaction is down to how rushed this has been. The rush to get Buffy back the Sunnydale and the rush to cover as much ground on getting back to normal as possible in one episode. I can only speak for myself I suppose, but I feel like it’s a lot easier to understand what Buffy has been going through than with the other characters. Because we only got the one-episode sub-plot of them without Buffy and it was treated fairly comically, we don’t have a great read on how they have been feeling. In a kind of superficial way I do get that they don’t know how to act because they’re all jumbled up inside whether to be angry or upset or just happy to have Buffy back. But I also feel like this episode kind of needs them to feel different ways at different times, and yet all of it at the same time so that nothing takes solid form.
(I’m tabling all the ways Giles is different for now, because I’m pretty much on Giles’ side and in his head all episode. Have I mentioned Giles is my favorite?)
Buffy herself is kind of the same way. In pieces I understand pretty much any of her reactions to what happens, but they don’t come together in a clear picture. I get her feeling guilty for having left; or guilty that maybe coming back didn’t help anyone; I get her feeling overwhelmed at coming back; I get her feeling adrift that life went on without her (which is where it would have been nice to see more of life going without her) and that maybe she wasn’t needed; I get her wanting things to go back to the way they were and not wanting to face any more consequences of what happened. I even kind of feel like part of the implication is that while she didn’t want to run anymore, she wasn’t really ready to come home either. I get all of that, but in getting all of it, there’s kind of too much for a single episode.
The episode gets off to a bit of a wrong foot in that regard. I can’t tell how Buffy feels about coming home and then deciding to go back out. Joyce doesn’t strike me as particularly realistic in her treatment of it, but I kind of accept it as her trying to act as positive as possible. I just have a sneaking suspicion that if I had ever run away from home as a teenager, my parents would not have let me out of their sight, much less the house, for a while. Admittedly there are many differences between me and Buffy, and between Joyce and my parents, but my point stands.
Then we rush past her meeting up with the Scoobies so that only Xander gets to have an emotional reaction to her return. Then, aside from a bit of concern when they first arrive, Buffy’s managing to be pretty chill while they’re all having tea. I feel like everyone should be either more hyped up at Buffy’s return, or more awkward about everything (aside from Giles, because Giles’ reaction is perfect, but that’s for later). And while I could probably reread Buffy’s behavior as trying to seem like everything is normal even if it’s not, it doesn’t feel as forced as I think it should be in that case.
Probably my most random feeling about the episode is that I was bothered that they were burying the cat in a plastic bag; that’s not biodegradable and now you just have stinky plastic in your garden. But then also, how did the cat get out of the plastic bag when it was brought back to life?
I feel super bad for Joyce that one day in Buffy’s world got what appears to be her only friend killed. That said, I think inviting Pat in the first place makes no sense when they were expecting to have a gathering. The Scoobies get weird when they have to make conversation amongst themselves in front of people who don’t know the whole score; especially when all of that stuff is a big part of what needs to be said between them. Imagine Pat asks what the gang does for extracurricular activities? Amateur vampire slaying and learning witchcraft. Is Pat going to sit at dinner with them and not ask how Giles fits into this club?
The party should have always been a shindig. You can invite a few extra people who aren’t in the know, including people that have been helping Joyce out. There are some buffers as needed, but it’s also acceptable to settle in if some real talk gets going. A gathering was probably the wrong call especially with the guest list they had, but giant hootenanny was definitely the wrong call.
But I do sympathize with Joyce wanting someone who is hers to be at this dinner. Joyce is still the newbie when it comes to the Scoobie group dynamic, so she’d probably be left out, and she clearly does need someone who can sympathize with her difficulties with everything. Especially how Buffy being back hasn’t set everything to right the way she had told herself it would. She doesn’t know how anyone else is feeling on that subject.
The somewhat ironic part is that most of them are Joyce’s side…or rather Xander and Willow are on her side with Oz being mostly detached from it and Cordy not really having a dog in the fight (she wasn’t around for the summer to have to deal with Buffy not being there). So when it comes to the fight it’s Buffy who’s more or less alone.
I wish the fight hadn’t happened in front of the school crowd. It causes there to be questions about what other people think is going on when there’s talk about Angel being a demon and a psycho killer. I also kind of think that if there hadn’t been a crowd, they would have gotten pretty close to the truth of what happened to Angel and about the Lie. Because I feel like Buffy wants to tell them that huge part of what made her run away, but all the stress gets in the way of her being able to say what needs to be said.
As far as my memory of this episode was concerned, I remembered this one very fondly, and I think a lot of that has to do with Giles’ role in it. In fact, as I reflect on it, Giles may a little too perfect this episode. And the more I think about it, the better it is on that front. I even think Giles may have the best character arc out of anyone in this episode, strange though that probably sounds.
This episode seems to have been written with a very clear take on Giles’ history, especially his Ripper days. Because, as I’ve consider it, I think part of the reason he is so in tune with Buffy’s feelings is because he’s been there. They’re the two who are tied to the wheel of destiny and sometimes that gets to be too much. Plus, given next episode or the one after (I know it’s soon) he probably already has some idea of what happened with Angel for Buffy to save the world. And so for Giles, Buffy coming home can be enough for at least a little while, because it’s already a big step. I think he knows better than the rest of them, that if they push too hard, Buffy will just bolt again (although now I want a version of things where Giles is at the party - maybe they already dealt with the mask earlier - and can pull Buffy aside when it’s getting to be too much for her. Great, more plot bunnies).
The other way this is working in some more of Giles’ past in, and what I mean by an oddly complete arc, is how Giles seems to have almost made peace with his Ripper persona. He remembers he knows how to hotwire a car and the next thing he’s shoving Snyder into things with clear threat implications. The ‘would you like me to convince you?’ moment has lived in my brain for years, it’s pretty…I don’t quite want to say sexy, but it also kind of is. Really that whole scene is a hoot, because Giles is just in control the whole time, and it’s a good look on him.
I can’t quite tell yet if I think these two ways that the episode plays on Giles’ backstory actually play off of each other in any specific way, but they do exist side by side well.
And in any case, Giles at least is moving on from acorns to trees. As I’ve been rewatching, Buffy’s return was always in the back of my head as the point when Giles worked out that he was in love with her. Or at least it was a very real possibility given how much he does love her. I think I thought that 20 years ago, and it turns out I still pretty much do now. I just didn’t have such a concise term for it back then.
What am I shipping?
This episode is actually not bad for my Buffy/Giles, Buffy/Willow, or even Buffy/Xander aspects. The reunions with Xander and Giles are both lovely, and once things start spiraling, all the stuff with Willow is gold.
I have this memory of a fic or two back in the day where B/G was the main pairing with a side of Xander/Joyce and this episode kind of reminds me of that. I’ll never truly ship it by any means, but the ship carved a very small corner out in my mind that apparently is still there.
