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tori_reviewsBuffy the Vampire Slayer: 3x06 – Band Candy
Story time everyone. This was, I think, either the second or third episode of this show I ever saw, either way it was the first non-s6 episode I saw. Okay, it’s not much of a story, but it does have an impact on how I’m reviewing this one.
Because this is sort of the first time on this watch when I find myself thinking back on the first time I saw an episode. Most of those early thoughts have been lost to time (at least until we get to s6), but by virtue of being effectively first, some of this has managed to survive.
And my biggest take-away worth commenting on in that regard; I guess this speaks to just how much s6 was selling me on Buffy/Giles as ship that seeing this so early in watching did nothing to stop me from shipping them. I would say that by rights, I should not ship them the way I do since this was in my head so early. And yet…it also kind of says that without the prior context they really don’t read as parental here. They read as coworkers of different generations who form an unlikely friendship. I would say mentor-student at the outside; there are at least shades of it in an older person coaching a younger one to adulthood.
Alright, that digression done, how was this as an episode? A lot of the character stuff is good (and I have many things to say about Giles), the plot…is a stretch. The candy plot happens way to fast, and the rules are rather poorly developed. It’s also a waste of Ethan (who I’m pretty sure on that first watch I assumed was a recurring villain, and more recurring than he actually is).
I’m tempted to say that the plot would work a little better if you just leave off the initial scene between Trick and the Mayor. Because a plan like this would have had to have been in the works for a while, there has been a lot of candy made and shipped out for this to be something they’re just getting around to. Not helped by the fact that we know Trick hasn’t been working for the Mayor for all that long (less time than Buffy and Scott have been broken up). If it was the Mayor handing control of the project off to Trick, instead of Trick supposedly more or less seeming to just come up with the idea, that would probably have helped a bit.
It would probably even make more sense that the Mayor knows about Ethan. Not that Ethan can’t have a rep in the mythical underworld and other people contract him, but there would also be no problem with saying Ethan owed the Mayor a favor. Well…that would mean that Ethan could have pointed people at the Mayor, so okay, maybe it’s not as good an idea. Still, the opening should have been more ‘how’s the plan going’ than ‘so how you coming on getting ready with the plan?’
The timing is also an issue because…not everyone would be super into chocolate this way. People like me who don’t like chocolate, people who avoid it or very rarely eat it for health reasons, people who are saving them for diet cheat days, etc. Obviously they’re drugged, but you have get people the first hit, and that’s not all going to happen at the same time. Especially since the place it’s most needed is the hospital, specifically the maternity ward. And the cross section of that population with those who are buying band candy from Sunnydale High are far from a circle on the ven diagram.
And do I need to lay out how unclear the terms of this spell/drug trip are? I don’t actually know where to put the blame exactly, because some of it is on the writing for going in different directions with different characters; but I think part of it is on the directing for not getting the performances to line up. Whether people are regressed to themselves as teens, whether it’s an approximation of how they saw themselves as teens, whether it’s an extrapolation to if they were teens now, how much they connect to their adult selves and lives…
Weirdly, if this was just an Ethan plan, I might be able to roll with it a bit better. Ethan might have let the terms of the spell be a little vague. He’s also only one guy without much of an endgame (except possibly to mess with Ripper), and we know from Halloween that he can let spells sit and then activate a bunch of them all at once. But this one is a drug trip that comes on gradually, just too quickly for my brain to accept that it would work out so well.
I think I’ve always kind of wondered how much of this Snyder remembers. Because he definitely hears the group talking about demons and ritual sacrifices and spells. The staging is careful to find ways to show him there for some of the discussion, but he’s around at the hospital long enough that he would have picked up something. I think back on that first viewing I mostly assumed adults didn’t remember much; it would not be uncommon for this style of show; and if you’re not paying a ton of attention, that is an explanation for Snyder snapping back to form at the end. But we know people remember what happened under the candy influence. Which brings us back to the question of what he knows about Buffy. I kind of feel like it would have come out here if he knew her deal, but then what does he do with the extra knowledge he gets here?
The scene with Angel is pretty much just boring. Though it is boring in a way that I’m surprised didn’t appeal to me more when I was 18.
Alright, within the ambiguity of how the spell is affecting people, I think there’s a decent amount to say about Giles and Joyce. Though I think I’m comparing Joyce against Buffy, while I’m comparing Giles against himself.
Because, as much as this episode is about how irresponsible teenagers are, it’s actually painting Buffy as quite capable. Yes, she’s telling lies and sneaking off to take care of Angel…but at the same time, she’s taking care of Angel, not exactly irresponsible in a normal kind of way. Immensely irresponsible in specific ways seeing as it’s Angel; but that’s not the same as blowing things off which we get from the regressed adults in this one. Maybe in the broadest sense that she’s sneaking off to see her (semi) boyfriend that she knows people would disapprove of, but overall she’s less irresponsible and immature than Willow and Xander.
Both Joyce and Giles, but especially Joyce, feel like they’re playing parodies of who the characters might have been when they were younger. But that’s where the vague spell terms make me wonder how much of that is bad writing/not knowing how to portray them, and how much is good writing that’s going for an exaggerated version of their personalities because they’re not really teens but exaggerations of who they maybe were.
It’s actually kind of interesting to refocus a bit and imagine that, when she was 16 Joyce would never (and never have had the option to) go with a guy like Ripper. She kind of acts like she’s trying to seem cool enough for him, when she’s probably actually kind of a square. Possibly prone to slacking off if she thinks she can get away with it, but very concerned with seeming cool. Mostly with Giles, but also with Buffy herself concerning the car.
I’ve talked before in passing about how this Ripper doesn’t really seem like the dangerous guy that Ethan recognizes when Giles goes darker (or being prone to summon demons for orgies). We also know that *that* Ripper didn’t really form until Giles was in his early 20s, so that could be a reason. He actually doesn’t read as much teenager as Joyce or Snyder do; he’s a hoodlum, definitely immature and he doesn’t really care about anything it seems, but…
It's a little like aspects of Giles from the ages of 16-24 all got jumbled together. So that Ripper’s fuck the world attitude gets mixed up with a teenage Giles’ view of what it would be like if he was a rebel without a cause. He is a jackass at several points, and there are flashes of the dangerous side; but at other times it’s really try-hard and putting on every bad boy affect he can think of.
Basically, regressed Giles ends up being fun, but I’m not sure what character material to draw from it. I guess I have a few other thoughts that more fall under the umbrella of how I might use it in some fic, but that I’m not committed to saying is overall headcanon.
What am I shipping?
…I do love the footsie scene. Other than that…I could probably put together some Buffy/Giles feelings about how Giles treats her when he’s been regressed, but it’s not thought through enough to bother with.
Story time everyone. This was, I think, either the second or third episode of this show I ever saw, either way it was the first non-s6 episode I saw. Okay, it’s not much of a story, but it does have an impact on how I’m reviewing this one.
Because this is sort of the first time on this watch when I find myself thinking back on the first time I saw an episode. Most of those early thoughts have been lost to time (at least until we get to s6), but by virtue of being effectively first, some of this has managed to survive.
And my biggest take-away worth commenting on in that regard; I guess this speaks to just how much s6 was selling me on Buffy/Giles as ship that seeing this so early in watching did nothing to stop me from shipping them. I would say that by rights, I should not ship them the way I do since this was in my head so early. And yet…it also kind of says that without the prior context they really don’t read as parental here. They read as coworkers of different generations who form an unlikely friendship. I would say mentor-student at the outside; there are at least shades of it in an older person coaching a younger one to adulthood.
Alright, that digression done, how was this as an episode? A lot of the character stuff is good (and I have many things to say about Giles), the plot…is a stretch. The candy plot happens way to fast, and the rules are rather poorly developed. It’s also a waste of Ethan (who I’m pretty sure on that first watch I assumed was a recurring villain, and more recurring than he actually is).
I’m tempted to say that the plot would work a little better if you just leave off the initial scene between Trick and the Mayor. Because a plan like this would have had to have been in the works for a while, there has been a lot of candy made and shipped out for this to be something they’re just getting around to. Not helped by the fact that we know Trick hasn’t been working for the Mayor for all that long (less time than Buffy and Scott have been broken up). If it was the Mayor handing control of the project off to Trick, instead of Trick supposedly more or less seeming to just come up with the idea, that would probably have helped a bit.
It would probably even make more sense that the Mayor knows about Ethan. Not that Ethan can’t have a rep in the mythical underworld and other people contract him, but there would also be no problem with saying Ethan owed the Mayor a favor. Well…that would mean that Ethan could have pointed people at the Mayor, so okay, maybe it’s not as good an idea. Still, the opening should have been more ‘how’s the plan going’ than ‘so how you coming on getting ready with the plan?’
The timing is also an issue because…not everyone would be super into chocolate this way. People like me who don’t like chocolate, people who avoid it or very rarely eat it for health reasons, people who are saving them for diet cheat days, etc. Obviously they’re drugged, but you have get people the first hit, and that’s not all going to happen at the same time. Especially since the place it’s most needed is the hospital, specifically the maternity ward. And the cross section of that population with those who are buying band candy from Sunnydale High are far from a circle on the ven diagram.
And do I need to lay out how unclear the terms of this spell/drug trip are? I don’t actually know where to put the blame exactly, because some of it is on the writing for going in different directions with different characters; but I think part of it is on the directing for not getting the performances to line up. Whether people are regressed to themselves as teens, whether it’s an approximation of how they saw themselves as teens, whether it’s an extrapolation to if they were teens now, how much they connect to their adult selves and lives…
Weirdly, if this was just an Ethan plan, I might be able to roll with it a bit better. Ethan might have let the terms of the spell be a little vague. He’s also only one guy without much of an endgame (except possibly to mess with Ripper), and we know from Halloween that he can let spells sit and then activate a bunch of them all at once. But this one is a drug trip that comes on gradually, just too quickly for my brain to accept that it would work out so well.
I think I’ve always kind of wondered how much of this Snyder remembers. Because he definitely hears the group talking about demons and ritual sacrifices and spells. The staging is careful to find ways to show him there for some of the discussion, but he’s around at the hospital long enough that he would have picked up something. I think back on that first viewing I mostly assumed adults didn’t remember much; it would not be uncommon for this style of show; and if you’re not paying a ton of attention, that is an explanation for Snyder snapping back to form at the end. But we know people remember what happened under the candy influence. Which brings us back to the question of what he knows about Buffy. I kind of feel like it would have come out here if he knew her deal, but then what does he do with the extra knowledge he gets here?
The scene with Angel is pretty much just boring. Though it is boring in a way that I’m surprised didn’t appeal to me more when I was 18.
Alright, within the ambiguity of how the spell is affecting people, I think there’s a decent amount to say about Giles and Joyce. Though I think I’m comparing Joyce against Buffy, while I’m comparing Giles against himself.
Because, as much as this episode is about how irresponsible teenagers are, it’s actually painting Buffy as quite capable. Yes, she’s telling lies and sneaking off to take care of Angel…but at the same time, she’s taking care of Angel, not exactly irresponsible in a normal kind of way. Immensely irresponsible in specific ways seeing as it’s Angel; but that’s not the same as blowing things off which we get from the regressed adults in this one. Maybe in the broadest sense that she’s sneaking off to see her (semi) boyfriend that she knows people would disapprove of, but overall she’s less irresponsible and immature than Willow and Xander.
Both Joyce and Giles, but especially Joyce, feel like they’re playing parodies of who the characters might have been when they were younger. But that’s where the vague spell terms make me wonder how much of that is bad writing/not knowing how to portray them, and how much is good writing that’s going for an exaggerated version of their personalities because they’re not really teens but exaggerations of who they maybe were.
It’s actually kind of interesting to refocus a bit and imagine that, when she was 16 Joyce would never (and never have had the option to) go with a guy like Ripper. She kind of acts like she’s trying to seem cool enough for him, when she’s probably actually kind of a square. Possibly prone to slacking off if she thinks she can get away with it, but very concerned with seeming cool. Mostly with Giles, but also with Buffy herself concerning the car.
I’ve talked before in passing about how this Ripper doesn’t really seem like the dangerous guy that Ethan recognizes when Giles goes darker (or being prone to summon demons for orgies). We also know that *that* Ripper didn’t really form until Giles was in his early 20s, so that could be a reason. He actually doesn’t read as much teenager as Joyce or Snyder do; he’s a hoodlum, definitely immature and he doesn’t really care about anything it seems, but…
It's a little like aspects of Giles from the ages of 16-24 all got jumbled together. So that Ripper’s fuck the world attitude gets mixed up with a teenage Giles’ view of what it would be like if he was a rebel without a cause. He is a jackass at several points, and there are flashes of the dangerous side; but at other times it’s really try-hard and putting on every bad boy affect he can think of.
Basically, regressed Giles ends up being fun, but I’m not sure what character material to draw from it. I guess I have a few other thoughts that more fall under the umbrella of how I might use it in some fic, but that I’m not committed to saying is overall headcanon.
What am I shipping?
…I do love the footsie scene. Other than that…I could probably put together some Buffy/Giles feelings about how Giles treats her when he’s been regressed, but it’s not thought through enough to bother with.
