Buffy the Vampire Slayer
If you are a regular follower of my blog, first off, bless you, secondly, you probably know that usually it would be time for a Star Wars post, but I haven't quit finished the SW book I'm reading, so we are going to shuffle things up. We are going to check in with Buffy and see how she's doing post break up. Let's get to it.
"Phases"
Buffy Summers: "In other words, your typical male."
Xander Harris: "On behalf of my gender "Hey!"
Rupert Giles: "Yes, let's not jump to any conclusions."
Buffy Summers: "I didn't jump. I took a tiny step and there conclusions were."
Buffy and the gang are still reeling from Angel becoming Angelus when Cordelia and Xander are attacked by a werewolf at make out point. Buffy and Giles want to take the werewolf alive since he is human but Cain, a werewolf hunter, has other plans. The stakes are raised even higher when its revealed that the werewolf is one of their friends. And at the same time, Angelus is still coming after Buffy.
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| Normal family conversations. |
Let's get one thing out of the way at the top of this recap. That werewolf suit is real bad. I've seen more realistic looking werewolf costumes at the theatrical shop in the town that I live in. I get it. It was the late '90's. They definitely weren't pumping in the money for practical effects. They had to save that for the vampire dusting effects. But damn. The face just looks exactly like a rubber mask. It shows no expression at al. I don't even think that the mouth opens.It was a different time. And I do think the later appearances of Oz's wolf form are better than this, or I've just blocked them completely out of my memory. I guess we will find out as we continue this journey.
This is the episode that really cements Oz as a member of the Scooby Gang. I think he's been a solid addition so far. He's non plussed about everything. He takes everything in stride. He's sardonic but also really sincere. His chemistry with Alyson Hannigan is wonderful. They are adorable together. And it's their scenes together which stop Oz from being too cool. It's fun to see him awkward and unsure. It's not a huge shock that Oz turns out to be the werewolf. You know it's not going to be Larry. It's great how it all ties back to a seeming throwaway line about Oz getting his finger bitten by his baby cousin. The conversation between Oz and his aunt about how Jordy is a werewolf is very funny and to this day, I want some more backstory on this.
This is like the misogyny episode of "Buffy." Honestly. Is there an episode where multiple men are this awful? First there's Larry. A seemingly dumb jock who is just openly knocking girls books out of their hands so he can watch them bend over. Or grabbing Buffy's ass when they are doing self defense in gym class. It's been a long time since I was in high school, but I don't remember anyone, even the worst dudes, being this blatant. Did you go to school with guys like Larry? Sound off in the comments. He's, of course, the teams first suspect when it comes to who's the werewolf, but he's actually gay. So all that misogyny? It's actually just internalized homophobia coming out. There's a lot to unpack there.
We meet werewolf hunter, Cain, who feels less like a fully realized character and more like a caricature from a badly written comic book. Like did Rob Liefeld create this guy? He's wearing a necklace full of werewolf teeth. He doesn't care that they are humans most of the time. He's still lamenting that he can't hunt elephants for ivory anymore. He's constantly shiting on Buffy for being a woman and he thinks that she and Giles are fucking. Ew. This just kind of feels like too many cooks in the kitchen. Cain doesn't add anything to the episode. He's completely superfluous. I do enjoy Buffy bending the barrel of his gun, but that moment isn't enough to justify how terrible he is.
Speaking of being terrible, there's Xander. Being awful. He lets slip that he remembers all the things that he did when he was possessed by the hyena spirt. When he meets Larry, Larry assumes that Xander is gay and that is what they are talking about. Xander freaks out because the worst thing that can happen to someone like Xander is to assume that he's gay. He goes into full gay panic mode and not the fun kind. The offensive kind. This whole Larry being gay storyline is just so bad. It's extremely late '90's in the absolute worst way. I hate how it's even brought up again at the end of the episode. Then there is Xander consistently meddling in Willow's relationship. Like, Xander never wanted Willow but now he thinks he can degrade her new boyfriend like he did Angel but he tried to deride Angel because Buffy wouldn't fuck him.
The relationship between Cordelia and Willow is up and down here. At the beginning of the episode, Willow is calling Cordelia a skanky ho, but then in the Bronze they are commiserating over men even though Cordelia is complaining about Willow to Willow. It's very strange. Like, I am glad that Willow has stopped calling Cordy a skanky ho. It's not her fault that Xander never reciprocated Willow's feelings and she has a much better guy in her life now. It's just really clear a dude wrote this episode. And if you weren't sure about that, it should be apparent when Willow compares her period to Oz's lycanthropy.
The show reminds us that Angelus is still out there by having him attack and turn one of Buffy's classmates. They initially think that the werewolf is responsible until Buffy heads to the funeral home and she sees the puncture wounds in Theresa's neck. This is actually a really great way to weave the ongoing story into this more standalone episode. What's that you say? There seemed like there was a moment where Xander and Buffy almost kissed? I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't see that.
Grade: B
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
Cordelia Chase: "Do you know what you are, Harmony? You're a sheep."
Harmony Kendall: "I'm not a sheep."
Cordelia Chase: "You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does, just so you can say you did it first. And here I am scrambling for your approval, when I'm way cooler than you are 'cause I'm not a sheep. I do what I wanna do and I wear what I wanna wear. And you know what? I'll date whoever the hell I wanna date. No matter how lame he is."
It's Valentine's Day in Sunnydale and Xander is ready to kind of be a halfway decent boyfriend to Cordelia. But, bowing to pressure from her friends, Cordelia breaks up with Xander. Brokenhearted and humiliated, Xander reaches out to Sunnydale's resident witch, Amy, to cast a love spell on Cordelia so he can break up with and humiliate her. Amy agrees but the spell goes haywire and every woman in Sunnydale aside from Cordelia become obsessed with Xander. And it's a deadly obsession.
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| Maybe just let them kill Xander. |
Do people like this episode? I generally thought that people hated this episode particularly as time has gone on. I get that I'm biased because I hate Xander and any Xander based episode is already going to be low on my list. But I genuinely thought this was a bad episode, so imagine my surprise when I was on iMDb and saw that it was rated an 8.7. Is Joss Whedon creating multiple accounts and then rating this episode high?
The reason we get a Xander themed episode this late in the season is because Sarah Michelle Gellar was hosting Saturday Night Live at the time that this episode was filming. So they wrote this episode where Buffy has minimal involvement to accommodate her hosting the show. If you haven't seen the SNL episode that she missed this episode for, you should go watch it. It aired in January 1998. It has an all time great sketch with SMG being the teenage daughter of Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer.
It's unfortunate that Sarah Michelle Gellar had to miss the Valentine's episode because I feel like a full episode of Angelus tormenting Buffy as his "present" to her would have been amazing. They really pump up how malicious Angelus is to the people he's tormenting on Valentine's Day. He even talks about it with Drusilla and Spike after he one ups Spike's gift to Dru by giving her a still warm human heart. Even Giles is freaking out. At first he doesn't want to tell Buffy all the things that Angelus has done on Valentine's Day because they are too horrific. And all he does is send her a dozen red roses with a card that says "Soon." And he tries to kill Xander, but Dru saves him because she's affected by the love spell too. It's kind of lame. In an alternate reality, there's a better episode that is all about Angelus psychologically tormenting Buffy on Valentine's Day and it's way better than this.
Instead, we get Xander not being mature enough to handle a break up and blackmailing a female student into casting a love spell. It's wild. I will say there are some funny moments in the episode. Particularly, the moments with Drusilla and Xander. I wouldn't have even thought that female vampires would be affected by this spell. So, when she protects him from Angelus and is ready to turn him into a vampire so that they can be together forever, it is genuinely funny. I love her in vamp face with the mob of women. She even breaks down the door to the Summer's home to pursue him.
This is a great episode for Oz too. He punches Xander in the face because he had to listen to Willow cry to him about Xander all night. And look, violence isn't the answer but Xander has this coming. In fact, I think that Oz forgives Xander a little too easily. He is in charge of chasing down the Buffy Rat. Oh yeah, to explain away Buffy's absence, Amy turns Buffy into a rat. So... sure.
This whole episode just irritates me. Buffy and Willow throwing themselves at Xander is gross. And I hate how the episode acts like Xander is some saint because he didn't take advantage of them after he magically roofied them. Like, why are we cheering Xander on for doing the bare minimum. It's so stupid. Like, I think Buffy forgives him too easily. I think Willow has the right idea. In fact, I think that a month of groveling is too little time. He should grovel for the rest of his life.
The end of this episode kind of baffles me, too. Why would Cordelia get back together with Xander? I appreciate Cordelia standing up for herself with Harmony and her other minions, because seriously. Cordelia is the queen and none of these other girls can hold a candle to her. Honestly, Cordelia could make dating lame ass losers like Xander Harris cool. But even if she was regretting breaking up with Xander pre-spell, why would she decide to take him back after he tried to violate her consent in such a gross way. It's mind boggling. Why are they trying to make Xander Harris happen. Ugh.
Let's end this on a more positive note. I appreciated the callbacks to previous episodes particularly season one's "The Witch," the episode that introduced Amy. Oz notices the cheerleading trophy that Amy's mom got trapped in and that the eyes are following him. It's also nice to check back in with Amy and there is definitely some foreshadowing happening here for future Amy appearances.
Grade: C-
Next up, Jenny Calendar tries to find a way to re-soul Angel and while sick with the flu, Buffy confronts a demon that is killing sick children.
What did you all think? Are you an Oz fan? When you first watched the episode did you know that Oz was the wolf? Are there fans of "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" out there? Let me know in the comments.
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