Buffy the Vampire Slayer
So, if you're looking to do a quick binge on season one, the first episode in this re-watch is required viewing. The second one... you could skip. But still read my recap. Let's get to it.
"Never Kill a Boy on the First Date"
Rupert Giles: "All right. I'll just jump into my time machine, go back to the 12th century and ask the vampires to postpone their ancient prophecy for a few days while you take in dinner and a show."
Buffy Summers: "Okay, at this point, you're abusing sarcasm."
Buffy Summers is crushing hard on sensitive, poetry loving Owen Thurman and he seems to be crushing right back. He asks her out on a date but sadly an ancient prophecy involving the Master's new ally, the Anointed One, keeps interrupting them. Can Buffy be the Slayer and still have a social life?
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| This vampire shouldn't be this hot. |
Early on in the series, they really hit the "Buffy just wants to be a normal teenage girl' button hard. And sometimes it worked really well and sometimes it didn't. I think in this episode, it is a little from column A and a little from column B.
They really lean hard in to the Buffy is just a normal teenage girl and I think they maybe lean a little too hard into it. Buffy being this like giggly school girl is not when she really shines. Also, why are these girls so into this Owen guy? I mean, sure, he's attractive, but like don't they see that he's just a giant douchebag? Who cares about Emily Dickinson? I am not sure if I noticed this when I watched it the many times before, but it really rubbed me the wrong way when Owen complained about how girls care about such frivolous things. Come on, dude. You're not above it all because you're into Emily Dickinson. Give me a break.
When the dichotomy of Buffy as a normal teen girl vs Buffy as a Slayer really works is when Owen starts to put himself in danger. When Buffy heads to the funeral home to try to save Giles, Owen tags along because apparently what he's really missing in his life is the danger that Buffy deals with every night. The episode really picks up when Buffy makes it to the funeral home. This is the Buffy that we love. She's take charge. Protecting her friends and her date. Also, one of the coolest vamp kills in "Buffy" history is when she tosses the newly turned preacher vamp into the open crematorium.
The end of the episode is where it really shines. Owen comes to Buffy and he's ready to throw himself into danger that will end up getting himself and/or both of them killed and you have to hand it to Sarah Michelle Gellar. Her expression completely changes when she realizes what she has to do here. She lets him down and then she's soon joined by her Watcher. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Anthony Stewart Head have this really phenomenal father/daughter chemistry and you really see it here. Giles doesn't rub it in her face that he was right about how being a Slayer will impact her social life. She's learned the lesson. He empathizes with her and he feels for her but he's also proud of her. It's a really great scene. Maybe one of the best in this first season.
The subplot with the Anointed One is just OK. I don't think that they show is being as clever as it thinks it is. It's pretty obvious from the moment they spend a little too much time focusing on that little kid that he is going to turn out to be the Anointed One. Little kid vampires are creepy and there is no way that the show was going to leave an opportunity to have a child vampire on the table.
In this episode's installment of "Xander is a Creepy Perv," he watches Buffy change in the mirror of a music box on her dresser. He really sucks.
Grade: B-
"The Pack"
Xander Harris: "We just saw the zebras mating. Thank you. Very exciting."
Willow Rosenberg: "It was like the Heimlich with stripes."
On a field trip to the zoo, Xander and some problem children stumble in to the closed hyena exhibit. While they are in there, they are seemingly possessed by hyena spirits. Soon, Xander is acting strangely and it's up to Buffy and Willow to help their friend before he does something that he can't come back from.
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| This actually happened. |
I've watched "The Pack" more times than I can count, and I have never bothered to learn the names of the four malcontent teenagers who make up the titular pack. For a while, I thought the short haired girl was also the actress who played Buffy's roommate Kathy in the season for premiere, "The Freshmen." She is not. The main dude in the pack is Eion Bailey who played August aka Pinocchio in "Once Upon a Time." So, that's something. I guess.
I think that is one of the biggest issues with "The Pack" in general. You just don't care at all about the four delinquent kids. They are so generic and cliché. You should care what happens to them even if Xander isn't infected with this hyena spirit and join them, but you don't. It's all just a giant "who cares?"
This entire episode is just one giant installment of "Xander is a Creepy Perv." They really pushed Xander in this first episode. I think part of it is that Xander is clearly a cipher for Joss Whedon, so it's not a huge shocker that he would want to put him front and center. But two Xander focused episodes in a short amount of time is too much. And I think when they broke season two, they realized that Xander worked better in smaller doses and they let him kind of embrace that supporting role. But here, it's just too much Xander and he's extremely unlikable here. Which is the point, but when you are five episodes in to a brand new series, you don't want an episode where your male lead is threatening to sexually assault the other two main female characters.
If there is one aspect of the whole Xander is possessed thing that works, it's the scene in the library between Willow and Xander when he's locked in the library cage. I love how Willow baits Xander to learn that he is still possessed. It makes Willow look really good and really smart and we love that.
I guess we have to talk about the zookeeper. I don't want to. When you watch things that you enjoyed in your younger days sometimes you just have to remind yourself that it really was a different time. It's not an excuse. It doesn't make it ok. The lily white zookeeper putting on full African face paint and trying to do this ritual while African sounding tribal music plays in the background is excruciatingly tone deaf and I hated watching it. And I'm shocked that it flew back then and I'm happy that there is a much higher likelihood that it would never fly today. I can't say that it definitely wouldn't because lots of dumb shit still happens, but it feels like there are more checks and balances around today to stop it.
Another smaller issue with the zookeeper reveal is that it feels so obvious that he's behind this. He's way too cool with the whole trans possession thing. A high school librarian and a teenage Valley girl are saying what amounts to nonsense and he's immediately on board. That should have been a a huge red flag from the start, but both Giles and Buffy completely ignore it.
The thing that this episode is most known for though is the death of Principal Flutie. He is killed and eaten by the possessed pack. Ken, we hardly knew ya. And if I cared more about these kids, I'd worry more about how they are dealing with the fact that they are basically cannibals particularly since its revealed at the end that Xander remembers everything that he did while he was possessed. So... there's that.
Grade: D
Next up, we learn the truth about Angel's past and Willow releases a demon on to the internet.
What do you all think of these episodes? Did you feel like "Never" was a little schizophrenic? Is "The Pack" just really terrible? Let me know in the comments.
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