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timetravellingbunnyI remember these episodes as being among my favorite pre-Innocence episodes, and they are as enjoyable. They have cracking dialogue throughout, especially part 2, Xander and Cordy's hilarious first kiss, the wonderfully twisted Spike/Dru/Angel dynamic, some great Oz moments… and the introduction of a major new plot point – another Slayer, an opportunity to examine the questions what it means to be a Slayer, what kind of Slayer Buffy is, and how she feels about her calling.
Part 1
The title refers to another extracurricular school activity devised by Snyder, career week. It makes sense that the result of Buffy’s test is that her perfect career is to be a cop, since she's already a cop of the supernatural world. (Her second result – environmental architect?? – is, well, random.) Xander isn’t happy to get prison guard – another low paid, unglamorous job (but also another law enforcement job). Cordelia’s result, motivational speaker, is mocked by Xander, but motivational speaker is practically what she’ll be to Angel on AtS. Willow’s computer skills (which she’s going to put side later in the show as she starts using magic) have been noticed by a “leading software concern” (obviously not named), represented by two mysterious men in black suits (as every time that there are government or corporate representatives in the show). Which is really just an opportunity for the show to get her and Oz together, since he’s the only other student they've targeted (the first and only time we ever hear of Oz's computer skills) and have them have the first real conversation, after they've kind of met twice.
Spike and Drusilla are meanwhile trying to find out how to cure Dru, with the help of a bookish vampire called Dalton. Dalton is an interesting vampire – we only see him in vampface, but he seems very human, and very meek and shy. I guess not everyone has a strong dark, violent suppressed side that comes out when they become a vampire, the way it happened with Spike, who went from being a nerdy mild-mannered guy to one of the most notorious vampires ever. Dalton he even wears glasses (yeah, it’s a part of the cliché of what a bookish person looks like) – shouldn’t enhanced vampire strength and abilities include better eyesight?
Dru is not just psychic, she is also reading the future in Tarot cards (it seems to be a special version, nothing like the usual Tarot cards). It’s like the vampires have their own version of the Scooby gang, with the impulsive fighter/leader, the woman versed in magic and the bookish guy. They just need a Xander. Or on second thought, they don’t.
Just like in Lie to Me, when Spike, already cranky and mistreating Dalton because the translation of books isn’t working, snaps at Dru, she immediately reverts to her helpless little girl persona and whines, and he quickly apologizes and gets mushy and tender. Which seems to be the underlying dynamic of their relationship (and it won’t change much even after Dru gets strong and Spike gets in the wheelchair). It must be why they don’t get to argue much – she is both manipulative and has a much calmer temper than him. If it was Harmony, he’ll stay annoyed with her until they had sex, and if it was Buffy, the two of them would shout and snark and punch each other.
The introduction of the human weasel Willy the Snitch and his demon bar frequented by both shady humans and shady demons, feels like proto-AtS, with all the film noir cliches and Angel acting more violent and morally ambiguous than he does when he is around Buffy, even threatening Willy by saying that he might be killing him long and slow because he is rusty at killing humans.
It’s nice to see Buffy and Angel finally having a functional relationship, and acting like two people who are dating, instead of having awkward conversations in the graveyard and uttering weird OTT lines like “When you kiss me, I wanna die“. Just in a few episodes, everything is going to go horribly wrong, but Angel going evil wouldn't have such impact if he and Buffy didn't have anything good before that. We rarely see Angel's perspective on their relationship in S2, since he's mostly the mysterious brooding love interest, and we get a glimpse of it when Buffy gets back home through the window (which she actually didn't have to do, since her mother is out of town, but it's out of habit) and, in a reversal of their usual dynamics, startles him (usually it's him who comes and goes unexpectedly) while he's in her room, looking at her things and holding her childhood toy, Mr. Gordo the stuffed pig. (At this point it's still the endearing, if vaguely stalkerish, behavior of someone in love, but soon enough after he loses his soul, Angel coming into Buffy's room will become ultra-creepy.) She reassures Angel's insecurity about his vampirity, telling him he is „the one freaky thing in my freaky life that still makes sense to me“. She's found a way to have something „normal“ in her life (having a boyfriend) in a „freaky“ way (boyfriend is a vampire). Later on the ice, after Angel vamps out while helping her in a fight, she kisses him in his vampface for the first time and tries to reassure him „I haven't even noticed“.
Their kiss on the ice is their first onscreen kiss since Angel in season 1 and their first really romantic scene since that episode. Besides being a plot device to have Kendra see them and know that Angel is a vampire, it also seems to show Buffy has accepted him as a vampire (contrary to Darla's words to Angel in season 1 that Buffy will never kiss his vampface). But on the other hand, one could question if she has really accepted all of him – since she doesn't really know how bad Angel used to be, she knows he used to do awful things but has never seen it – or if she's just choosing to overlook things. Earlier in her room she told him she just wished they could be „normal kids“, before he reminded her that he can't ever be one. (In I Will Remember You, while Angel is human, Buffy herself will say that this is the kind of happiness she always wanted, to be the „normal“ girl with a „normal“ boyfriend.) Camera focuses on the mirror where it looks like Buffy is alone, which was, according to Marti Noxon's DVD commentary, meant to show that there is a gap between them, because he's a vampire, despite their love for each other. But, maybe because the scene reminds me of S6 „I can be alone with you here“, I feel it could as well be seen as a sign that one of the reasons why she feels like finding comfort with Angel (later in the seasons she'll say that she still feels like running to him when things are tough and that she feels he's the only one she can talk to) – he's on the outside, not one of her circle of friends, not one of the „normal“ people from school and her everyday life, and at the same time, not one of the monsters she has to fight (not yet...). Later after she learns that the Order of Taraka is after her, and starts feeling paranoid at school, she goes to Angel's place as a safe haven and lies on his bed (echoing Angel earlier coming to her room when she wasn't there). Angel in the meantime tried to protect her by going to Willy's bar to get info, but got thrown by Kendra in a cage, so Buffy will have to be saving him instead.
The fight between Kendra and Buffy is good, but the best part is when Buffy, about to lose to Kendra, says „Don't make me do the chick fight thing“ and then digs her nails into Kendra's hand. It's both a nice parody of the way that women fight on TV but also a sign that Buffy is the better fighter because she's more imaginative than by-the-book, rules-abiding Kendra.
A couple more observations:
Buffy reveals to Angel that her parents used to argue all the time for years before their divorce, while she was a child, and that ice skating was her way of escaping that.
Angel's place is really nice, way too nice for someone without a job, who was living in the alley and eating rats just a year ago, and it's furnished with way too many beautiful,old artefacts. He seems like a collector, but how did he afford them? The most likely guess is, stealing. Does he sell or pawn them occasionally to get money?
Recurring characters introduced: Kendra, Dalton, Willy the Snitch.
Best lines:
Cordelia: Oh, here I am. “Personal shopper or motivational speaker.” Neato!
Xander: Motivational speaker? On what? Ten ways to a more annoying you?
Dalton: The Order of Taraka? Isn’t that overkill?
Spike: No, it’s just enough kill.
Buffy (on being told what a reliquary is): Note to self: religion – freaky.
Best scene: Paranoid Buffy attacking Oz in the school hallway: his nonplussed reaction is a classic Oz moment:
Buffy (takes him by the neck and shoves him against the wall): Try it!
Oz (confused): Try what?
Buffy (lets go): Uh, I’m sorry.
Oz: Still not clear what I’m supposed to try.
And when she walks away, he comments to himself that she is a “tense person“ - not crazy bitch, lunatic, freak, like many others would. That was the moment when he became one of my favorite characters.
Worst scene: The extended, gratuitous scene of Buffy ice skating. I know that SMG wanted to show off her skills, but for a moment I was under the impression that I was watching some other TV programme.
Mythology: The Order of Taraka don’t ever appear after this two-parter, but it’s interesting that this order of super-bounty hunters who are 100% focused on their job is apparently made up of both humans and demons.
The cliffhanger is obviously a big shocker – for the first time, we have two Slayers at the same time.
Pop culture references: Scooby-Doo: Xander refers to Buffy, Willow, Giles and himself as “the Scooby gang”, which will become the popular fan name for them.What’s My Line - 1950s/1960s US game show where the contestants were trying to guess the guest’s profession.Tony Robbins, motivational speaker: Buffy says Giles is “on this Tony Robbins hyper-efficiency kick”. Buffy was a huge fan of ice-skater Dorothy Hamill, which is very anachronistic since she was active in the late 1970s before Buffy was even born.
Spike Badass-o-meter: Instead of fighting Buffy again, he’s sending super-assassins after her. But to be fair, he’s got more important concerns – curing Dru. Still, nothing that makes him particularly brave or badass. And bullying Dalton doesn’t get him any additional points, either.
Nicknames: Buffy calls Angel “Stealth Guy”. Spike’s terms of endearment for Dru, besides “pet” includes “kitten”.
Foreshadowing: Buffy thinks of her Slayerhood as a burden and says she didn’t choose to be a Slayer, she was chosen. But she’ll soon learn that there is another Slayer, which means that she really could give up being a Slayer and leave it to Kendra.
A setup with the real payoff to all the storylines coming in part 2, but still a really well written and entertaining episode.
Rating: 4
______________________________________________________________________
Part 1
The title refers to another extracurricular school activity devised by Snyder, career week. It makes sense that the result of Buffy’s test is that her perfect career is to be a cop, since she's already a cop of the supernatural world. (Her second result – environmental architect?? – is, well, random.) Xander isn’t happy to get prison guard – another low paid, unglamorous job (but also another law enforcement job). Cordelia’s result, motivational speaker, is mocked by Xander, but motivational speaker is practically what she’ll be to Angel on AtS. Willow’s computer skills (which she’s going to put side later in the show as she starts using magic) have been noticed by a “leading software concern” (obviously not named), represented by two mysterious men in black suits (as every time that there are government or corporate representatives in the show). Which is really just an opportunity for the show to get her and Oz together, since he’s the only other student they've targeted (the first and only time we ever hear of Oz's computer skills) and have them have the first real conversation, after they've kind of met twice.
Spike and Drusilla are meanwhile trying to find out how to cure Dru, with the help of a bookish vampire called Dalton. Dalton is an interesting vampire – we only see him in vampface, but he seems very human, and very meek and shy. I guess not everyone has a strong dark, violent suppressed side that comes out when they become a vampire, the way it happened with Spike, who went from being a nerdy mild-mannered guy to one of the most notorious vampires ever. Dalton he even wears glasses (yeah, it’s a part of the cliché of what a bookish person looks like) – shouldn’t enhanced vampire strength and abilities include better eyesight?
Dru is not just psychic, she is also reading the future in Tarot cards (it seems to be a special version, nothing like the usual Tarot cards). It’s like the vampires have their own version of the Scooby gang, with the impulsive fighter/leader, the woman versed in magic and the bookish guy. They just need a Xander. Or on second thought, they don’t.
Just like in Lie to Me, when Spike, already cranky and mistreating Dalton because the translation of books isn’t working, snaps at Dru, she immediately reverts to her helpless little girl persona and whines, and he quickly apologizes and gets mushy and tender. Which seems to be the underlying dynamic of their relationship (and it won’t change much even after Dru gets strong and Spike gets in the wheelchair). It must be why they don’t get to argue much – she is both manipulative and has a much calmer temper than him. If it was Harmony, he’ll stay annoyed with her until they had sex, and if it was Buffy, the two of them would shout and snark and punch each other.
The introduction of the human weasel Willy the Snitch and his demon bar frequented by both shady humans and shady demons, feels like proto-AtS, with all the film noir cliches and Angel acting more violent and morally ambiguous than he does when he is around Buffy, even threatening Willy by saying that he might be killing him long and slow because he is rusty at killing humans.
It’s nice to see Buffy and Angel finally having a functional relationship, and acting like two people who are dating, instead of having awkward conversations in the graveyard and uttering weird OTT lines like “When you kiss me, I wanna die“. Just in a few episodes, everything is going to go horribly wrong, but Angel going evil wouldn't have such impact if he and Buffy didn't have anything good before that. We rarely see Angel's perspective on their relationship in S2, since he's mostly the mysterious brooding love interest, and we get a glimpse of it when Buffy gets back home through the window (which she actually didn't have to do, since her mother is out of town, but it's out of habit) and, in a reversal of their usual dynamics, startles him (usually it's him who comes and goes unexpectedly) while he's in her room, looking at her things and holding her childhood toy, Mr. Gordo the stuffed pig. (At this point it's still the endearing, if vaguely stalkerish, behavior of someone in love, but soon enough after he loses his soul, Angel coming into Buffy's room will become ultra-creepy.) She reassures Angel's insecurity about his vampirity, telling him he is „the one freaky thing in my freaky life that still makes sense to me“. She's found a way to have something „normal“ in her life (having a boyfriend) in a „freaky“ way (boyfriend is a vampire). Later on the ice, after Angel vamps out while helping her in a fight, she kisses him in his vampface for the first time and tries to reassure him „I haven't even noticed“.
Their kiss on the ice is their first onscreen kiss since Angel in season 1 and their first really romantic scene since that episode. Besides being a plot device to have Kendra see them and know that Angel is a vampire, it also seems to show Buffy has accepted him as a vampire (contrary to Darla's words to Angel in season 1 that Buffy will never kiss his vampface). But on the other hand, one could question if she has really accepted all of him – since she doesn't really know how bad Angel used to be, she knows he used to do awful things but has never seen it – or if she's just choosing to overlook things. Earlier in her room she told him she just wished they could be „normal kids“, before he reminded her that he can't ever be one. (In I Will Remember You, while Angel is human, Buffy herself will say that this is the kind of happiness she always wanted, to be the „normal“ girl with a „normal“ boyfriend.) Camera focuses on the mirror where it looks like Buffy is alone, which was, according to Marti Noxon's DVD commentary, meant to show that there is a gap between them, because he's a vampire, despite their love for each other. But, maybe because the scene reminds me of S6 „I can be alone with you here“, I feel it could as well be seen as a sign that one of the reasons why she feels like finding comfort with Angel (later in the seasons she'll say that she still feels like running to him when things are tough and that she feels he's the only one she can talk to) – he's on the outside, not one of her circle of friends, not one of the „normal“ people from school and her everyday life, and at the same time, not one of the monsters she has to fight (not yet...). Later after she learns that the Order of Taraka is after her, and starts feeling paranoid at school, she goes to Angel's place as a safe haven and lies on his bed (echoing Angel earlier coming to her room when she wasn't there). Angel in the meantime tried to protect her by going to Willy's bar to get info, but got thrown by Kendra in a cage, so Buffy will have to be saving him instead.
The fight between Kendra and Buffy is good, but the best part is when Buffy, about to lose to Kendra, says „Don't make me do the chick fight thing“ and then digs her nails into Kendra's hand. It's both a nice parody of the way that women fight on TV but also a sign that Buffy is the better fighter because she's more imaginative than by-the-book, rules-abiding Kendra.
A couple more observations:
Buffy reveals to Angel that her parents used to argue all the time for years before their divorce, while she was a child, and that ice skating was her way of escaping that.
Angel's place is really nice, way too nice for someone without a job, who was living in the alley and eating rats just a year ago, and it's furnished with way too many beautiful,old artefacts. He seems like a collector, but how did he afford them? The most likely guess is, stealing. Does he sell or pawn them occasionally to get money?
Recurring characters introduced: Kendra, Dalton, Willy the Snitch.
Best lines:
Cordelia: Oh, here I am. “Personal shopper or motivational speaker.” Neato!
Xander: Motivational speaker? On what? Ten ways to a more annoying you?
Dalton: The Order of Taraka? Isn’t that overkill?
Spike: No, it’s just enough kill.
Buffy (on being told what a reliquary is): Note to self: religion – freaky.
Best scene: Paranoid Buffy attacking Oz in the school hallway: his nonplussed reaction is a classic Oz moment:
Buffy (takes him by the neck and shoves him against the wall): Try it!
Oz (confused): Try what?
Buffy (lets go): Uh, I’m sorry.
Oz: Still not clear what I’m supposed to try.
And when she walks away, he comments to himself that she is a “tense person“ - not crazy bitch, lunatic, freak, like many others would. That was the moment when he became one of my favorite characters.
Worst scene: The extended, gratuitous scene of Buffy ice skating. I know that SMG wanted to show off her skills, but for a moment I was under the impression that I was watching some other TV programme.
Mythology: The Order of Taraka don’t ever appear after this two-parter, but it’s interesting that this order of super-bounty hunters who are 100% focused on their job is apparently made up of both humans and demons.
The cliffhanger is obviously a big shocker – for the first time, we have two Slayers at the same time.
Pop culture references: Scooby-Doo: Xander refers to Buffy, Willow, Giles and himself as “the Scooby gang”, which will become the popular fan name for them.What’s My Line - 1950s/1960s US game show where the contestants were trying to guess the guest’s profession.Tony Robbins, motivational speaker: Buffy says Giles is “on this Tony Robbins hyper-efficiency kick”. Buffy was a huge fan of ice-skater Dorothy Hamill, which is very anachronistic since she was active in the late 1970s before Buffy was even born.
Spike Badass-o-meter: Instead of fighting Buffy again, he’s sending super-assassins after her. But to be fair, he’s got more important concerns – curing Dru. Still, nothing that makes him particularly brave or badass. And bullying Dalton doesn’t get him any additional points, either.
Nicknames: Buffy calls Angel “Stealth Guy”. Spike’s terms of endearment for Dru, besides “pet” includes “kitten”.
Foreshadowing: Buffy thinks of her Slayerhood as a burden and says she didn’t choose to be a Slayer, she was chosen. But she’ll soon learn that there is another Slayer, which means that she really could give up being a Slayer and leave it to Kendra.
A setup with the real payoff to all the storylines coming in part 2, but still a really well written and entertaining episode.
Rating: 4
______________________________________________________________________
Part 2
The only weak link in this episode is Kendra’s accent and Bianca Lawson’s overacting in general. For the first few minutes, I thought it was going to bug me for the rest of the ep wondered how come I liked this episode so much all those years ago that I first watched it. But I soon got used to it, or her acting got more tolerable as soon as Kendra starts getting friendlier to Buffy and acting a little more normal, or maybe it was just overshadowed by all the awesomeness of everything else in this episode – in any case, it didn’t really spoil my enjoyment.
(And another thing that doesn’t make sense about her, why is she dressed so sexily and in full makeup, if she is supposed to not talk to boys and not have friends or boyfriends or social life? To distract vampires? Or is her Watcher a total perv? Hm, I think it’s best to go with that explanation.)
This is the first time we get to see what a by-the-book Slayer who abides the Council’s rules is like, and the comparison shows just how unconventional a Slayer Buffy is. We’ve heard before that a Slayer isn’t supposed to have friends or family, and it is really the case with Kendra, whose family gave her away to her Watcher when she was a very young Potential (what would have happened if she never got called? Would she just waste her life away waiting for it?), and she even doesn’t use her last name. I assume this has been the standard procedure for most Slayers. She thinks she shouldn’t have any life outside of the Slaying, no school, no other job, no social life, no friends or boyfriends – she is even taught not to talk to boys, and looks down when Xander talks to her, showing an interest that goes away as soon as he sees her timid behavior. Being a Slayer doesn’t seem to be that much about female empowerment - the oppressive patriarchal aspect of it becomes more obvious, with Slayers being subjugated to the Council of Watchers and slaves to tradition.
Buffy even gets a bit jealous of Giles and Kendra getting along so fine and discussing the books – like a daughter jealous that the father likes another, more obedient and less rebellious daughter better (but Giles actually loves Buffy for being exactly as she is).
Kendra in season 2 and Faith in season 3 are both used to contrast Buffy in different ways and show different possibilities of what a Slayer can be like. Buffy makes clear that she doesn’t play by the rules, but she still has a strong sense of duty. Faith, who doesn’t have the support system and family and friends that Buffy has, is the opposite of Kendra – she represents the possibility that a Slayer could disregard duty and morality and decide to use her powers to do whatever she likes, and regard herself as a superhuman being who is exempt from any human laws. Kendra’s mindset is very limited, but Buffy is a better Slayer than Kendra because she is more imaginative, goes by the instinct, and because her emotions help her fight. Kendra thinks emotions are just a distraction and liability for a Slayer, Buffy on the other hand believes that her emotions are “total assets”. Buffy makes a point to Kendra when she makes Kendra lose temper – anger can be a powerful asset in fight. We see it time and again that Buffy often shows love by fighting to save and protect people she loves, as we see in this episode when Angel is kidnapped by Spike because the blood of Dru’s sire is needed to cure her, and Buffy makes the memorable statement: “You can attack me, you can send assassins after me, that's fine. But nobody messes with my boyfriend!” (Bad news for Spike in season 2; good news for Spike in season 7.)
This is exactly why, having learned the lesson that emotions can help in fight (Kendra fights off one of the Order of Taraka assassins, the policewoman, only when she gets really angry when the policewoman rips her only shirt), and having found a friend (in Buffy), Kendra teachers Buffy something as well: being a Slayer is not a job, it’s who you are, and contrary to what Buffy thinks at this point, being a Slayer is an integral part of Buffy’s personality. Buffy thought she wanted to stop being a Slayer and have a “normal life”, and the existence of another Slayer was a perfect opportunity to leave Slaying to someone else. Instead, it makes Buffy start realizing that she doesn’t want to quit, she wants to be a Slayer.
This episode marks the beginning of the Xander/Cordelia relationship, and a beginning of sorts of the Willow/Oz relationship. Xander and Cordy's first kiss is hilarious one of the most memorable moments, with the two of them insulting each other and shouting that they hate each other, until they suddenly kiss, to the intentionally cheesy background music. The first time I watched it, my mouth fell open. Now I think I should have seen it coming, with all the Belligerent Sexual Tension throughout the season. The best part is when they break away from the kiss and agree that they so need to get out of there. They're more freaked out by their attraction for each other than by the creepy demonic assassin!
The worm guy from the order of Taraka is probably the most disgusting monster on Buffy ever. (Come to think of it, he was kinda slimy even as a human.) But, somehow, the ickiness makes Xander/Cordy scenes fighting him all the funnier and more memorable.
Willow finally learns that Oz might be interested in her (Buffy had to tell her, since Willow doesn’t think anyone would be attracted to her), and she and Oz have their first real on-screen conversation. Oz gets another cool character moment during the shoot-out in the school, when the policewoman turns out to be there not for the career week but to kill Buffy – he jumps to push Willow and Buffy out of the way, and gets shot and lightly wounded, but still isn’t concerned about it and seems to see it as an interesting new experience.
Jonathan appears again, of course as a victim: this time he’s taken hostage by the policewoman from the Order of Taraka during the shoot-out at school, and seems typically oblivious to what is going on, asking if it all was a demonstration.
How ironic is it that it’s Spike who practically saves Angel in the episode from burning out in the cage Kendra put him in, just because he wants to kill him and use his blood to cure Dru?
The complicated and twisted dynamic in the Angel, Spike and Dru triangle get explored in this episode, and these may be the best parts of the ep. Drusilla is really a fascinating character – I’ve never been able to like her much, but I can appreciate that. Here she is childlike, sensual, creepy, dangerous, masochistic, cruel, insane but still strangely seductive. I’ve got to say that the love scene between her and Spike, kissing and whispering darkly romantic lines to each other (while Angel is in the background, tied up and about to be tortured and killed), is one of the sexiest in the show, partly because the actors have amazing chemistry, and because of the music and colors (there is a lot of deep red and black) contributing to the dark glamour of those scenes. Her relationship with Angel(us) is particularly complex – she tortures him not just physically, but making him feel guilty, talking to him about her human family, reminding him how he killed them – inflicting pain on him like he did on her. But is it revenge, or a part of the intimacy of their twisted relationship? If she’s resentful because he killed her family, why doesn’t she ever act that way with him when he’s soulless and evil? It seems that she despises his souled, good self, and loves his evil soulless self (the opposite of Buffy), and she resents him from leaving his vampire family and betraying them. (A dialogue from the original script that didn’t make it into the ep helps understand it: she is asking Angel if he remembers “that kind of hunger”: she wants him to turn back evil, and thinks that he still has the capacity for evil, despite the icky soul.)
And why does Angel turn his eyes away when Dru and Spike are making out in front of him? It’s pretty ambiguous. Does it just offend his sensibilities? Is he hurt to see how innocent, pure Dru has become the lecherous Dru, part of the evil vampire couple with violent lecherous Spike? Or how once-innocent William is now the violent evil Spike, giving his old self a run for his money? Or is there a hint of the old rivalry and jealousy, not because of Drusilla, but because there was “another rooster in the hen-house”?
Spike’s comment that he’s “not much for the pre-show”, meaning that he isn’t interested in prolonged torture of Angel and would rather get to the killing part, has been used by many fans to try to prove that Spike wasn’t a sadist with his victims like Angelus and Dru were, and that he was always a “nicer” vampire. I don’t think that’s the case. We’ve seen it plenty of times that Spike is not just ready to use torture for pragmatic reasons (like punching Dalton, when he said some people find pain inspirational), but that he really enjoys violence, and not just in a fight with a worthy opponent like the Slayers – see, for instance, snapping the neck of the No-Veal guy from School Hard for no reason at all, or how excited he was to see Buffy as a helpless, meek victim he would bite, in Halloween. I think he just has no patience for any long, over-drawn, ritualistic torture, or Angelus’ mental torture of Buffy in the second part of season 2. He is impulsive and direct, and doesn’t tend to think much about the feelings of his victims, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t like hurting people.
The fight in Spike and Dru’s mansion is quite spectacular, with Kendra and Buffy working together to fight Spike and the assassins, while Cordy and Xander are fighting in their own way, exterminating the worms that the other assassin is made of. It seems Spike also gain strength from his emotions: he’s fighting way better than in Halloween, now that it’s Dru on the line, but they can also be a hindrance, as when he forgets about Dru and Angel and Buffy for a moment to go after Willy because he’s so angry at him for what he sees as a double-cross – before noticing what’s going on and pulling Buffy from Angel and Dru so the process of her restoring could be complete. And talk about subtext: when Buffy and Kendra switch (they’re already working perfectly in unison), because Kendra was losing to Spike while Buffy was easily beating the policewoman, Spike and Buffy have this exchange: “I’d rather be fighting you.” - “Mutual.” Not only are they both snarky, impulsive, rebellious and both love a good fight, they are both devoted to those they love and fighting to save them. In the end they both got what they wanted, Angel was saved (just one of the instances of the gender inversion of Buffy being the hero who saves her boyfriends in peril), but the process went far enough to cure Dru. But Spike has an organ fall on him, and when the building collapses the Scoobies are left thinking Spike and Dru are dead, before the last scene reveals a healthy, super-strong Dru carrying unconscious Spike in her arms. Spike was originally meant to die in this episode, and this was a way to keep him on the show while still making it possible for Angelus to be the Big Bad.
Best scene: It’s difficult to choose. The Spike/Dru/Angel scenes are great, but Xander and Cordy’s first kiss is so memorable and funny, that I might do with it as the best scene. The 3rd place goes to the really fun scene where the gang try to explain the Angel situation to her. From an outside perspective, it really is weird. At this point, “He has a soul” still hasn’t become the catchphrase that justifies a vampire being treated differently, and pulling the soul card probably wouldn’t mean a thing to Kendra. (After all, there’s probably no footnote in the Slayer handbook that says “You should kill vampires… [but not the ones with the soul, they’re good]”). Instead, Buffy just ends up justifying her insistence that Angel is good with “You’ll just have to trust me on this one”. The funniest part is Willow starting to defend Buffy saying she would never kiss a vampire, then correcting herself that it would just be Angel, but then insecurely asking Buffy “Right?” Heh. Willow’s mind dirtier than it seems… And it’s a line that makes me giggle now, in hindsight.
Best lines:
Kendra: You talk about slaying like it's a job. It's not. It's who you
are.
Buffy: Did you get that from your handbook?
Kendra: From you.
Xander: Angel's our friend... except I don't like him.
Kendra: Angel? You mean Angelus? I've read about him. He is a monster.
Giles: No, no, no, he's, he's good now.
Willow: (smiles) Really!
Buffy He has a Gypsy curse.
Kendra: He has a what?
Mythology: The calling of the new Slayer is apparently an automatic process - Kendra got called because of Buffy’s temporary death in Prophecy Girl. The Slayer line now goes through Kendra rather than Buffy: if Kendra dies, another Slayer is called; if Buffy dies, no new Slayer is called.
Destroying English language: Buffy replies to Giles using the word“flummoxed” by asking “What’s the flum”. Buffy wonders about the origin of the expression “whole nine yards.” (I’ve wondered about it, too.)
Spike Badass-o-meter: He does much better in this episode, the last one before he ends up in a wheelchair and loses his Big Bad status. Maybe it’s because he feels a lot more motivated fighting for the woman he loves. He fights with two Slayers, was pretty much kicking Kendra’s ass (a much better showing than Angel in his fight with her in the previous episode), and does quite well in the fight against Buffy. He got wheelchaired mostly for not looking behind his back (Buffy threw on object at him to stop him, and then the organ fell on him).
Nicknames: Spike calls Drusilla “my Black Goddess” and “my ripe wicked plum” and refers to Buffy as “Little Rebecca of Sunnyhell Farm” (see Pop culture references), one of the many times he’ll mockingly compare her to fluffy, sunny teenage characters. Dru calls Angel “My Angel”, “Bad Daddy” and shuts him up with “bad dog”. Buffy calls Kendra “John Wayne”, “Pink Ranger” and “she-Giles”.
Pop culture references: Series of children/youth books Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. John Wayne. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Buffy plans to watch a romcom with Molly Ringwald. So I guess she liked James Spader from his role in Pretty In Pink?
Angel/Angelus: It never even occurs to Dru or Spike that they might be two different people, and Angel never says anything of the matter, either. And he’s way too good in acting Angelus-like when he’s taunting Spike.
Shirtless scene: Angel, shirtless, tied up and tortured. (Not for the last time…)
Ooh, kinky: And the level of kink goes way up with this episode, thanks to Marti Noxon, who makes her official writing debut with this two-parter (part 1 co-written with Howard Gordon), after being brought in to the show to overhaul the script for Halloween.
Drusilla dreamily tells Spike she dreamed they were in Paris and that he had a branding iron. It is the first mention of Dru’s sexual masochism. Here we also see some of her sadism, when she is torturing Angel with holy water and clearly enjoying it. We later learn from Spike in Lovers Walk that she likes to be tied up and tortured, but is the opposite also a part of their sex life? Judging by Spike’s behavior in this episode, it’s not – I imagine he wouldn’t be so happy letting her ‘play’ with Angel otherwise, if he thought her enjoyment was sexual, especially since he knows about their past relationship and he was already jealous that she was just going to meet him in Lie to Me. And here he doesn’t get jealous until Angel starts taunting him.
Angel taunts Spike that he remembers Drusilla likes the “pre-show” best of all, she likes to be “teased”. It’s not clear if there’s any truth to it or if it’s just something Angel has come up with to taunt Spike – Dru just quietly shut him up and says nothing, grinning. In Fool for Love she certainly didn’t seem unsatisfied, when the only foreplay she and Spike had besides a bit of passionate making out was Spike killing a Slayer and letting her taste her blood. Most likely she’s very satisfied with her sex life with Spike, but she would still like Angelus back, too, since she’s not big on monogamy, as Noxon says in her commentary.
Spike and Dru really seem to have a habit of making out in front of people they’ve got in the room tied up, don’t they? First Sheila, now Angel.
Willy proves his sleeze credentials (in a dialogue added by Whedon), asking Buffy and Kendra to pose for a friend of his who does “artistic” nude pictures.
What the slashy heck: Spangels must be having a field day with Spike’s sarcastic joke when Willy asked him what he wants to do with Angel: “I’m thinking, a dinner and a movie. I don’t want to rush things, I’ve been hurt, you know…”
Foreshadowing: Angel taunting Spike about Dru and getting him jealous foreshadows the Angelus/Dru/Spike triangle later in the season. Here Angel is doing it for noble reasons, to get himself killed so he wouldn’t unleash Dru on Sunnydale; without a soul he’ll do it simply to torment Spike (and with much less risk, with Spike in a wheelchair).
Xander says to Kendra that he’s attracted to Slayers. That will certainly be proven when he meets Faith.
Kendra has a point when she says emotions can also be a distraction and prevent a Slayer from doing her duty, which we’ll see with Buffy in just a few episodes.
Buffy does, after all, like being a Slayer, but she doesn’t like being the one and only: it’s good to have someone just like her, another Slayer who understands what it’s like. This could be seen foreshadowing for what she does in the series finale.
Rating: 4.5
The only weak link in this episode is Kendra’s accent and Bianca Lawson’s overacting in general. For the first few minutes, I thought it was going to bug me for the rest of the ep wondered how come I liked this episode so much all those years ago that I first watched it. But I soon got used to it, or her acting got more tolerable as soon as Kendra starts getting friendlier to Buffy and acting a little more normal, or maybe it was just overshadowed by all the awesomeness of everything else in this episode – in any case, it didn’t really spoil my enjoyment.
(And another thing that doesn’t make sense about her, why is she dressed so sexily and in full makeup, if she is supposed to not talk to boys and not have friends or boyfriends or social life? To distract vampires? Or is her Watcher a total perv? Hm, I think it’s best to go with that explanation.)
This is the first time we get to see what a by-the-book Slayer who abides the Council’s rules is like, and the comparison shows just how unconventional a Slayer Buffy is. We’ve heard before that a Slayer isn’t supposed to have friends or family, and it is really the case with Kendra, whose family gave her away to her Watcher when she was a very young Potential (what would have happened if she never got called? Would she just waste her life away waiting for it?), and she even doesn’t use her last name. I assume this has been the standard procedure for most Slayers. She thinks she shouldn’t have any life outside of the Slaying, no school, no other job, no social life, no friends or boyfriends – she is even taught not to talk to boys, and looks down when Xander talks to her, showing an interest that goes away as soon as he sees her timid behavior. Being a Slayer doesn’t seem to be that much about female empowerment - the oppressive patriarchal aspect of it becomes more obvious, with Slayers being subjugated to the Council of Watchers and slaves to tradition.
Buffy even gets a bit jealous of Giles and Kendra getting along so fine and discussing the books – like a daughter jealous that the father likes another, more obedient and less rebellious daughter better (but Giles actually loves Buffy for being exactly as she is).
Kendra in season 2 and Faith in season 3 are both used to contrast Buffy in different ways and show different possibilities of what a Slayer can be like. Buffy makes clear that she doesn’t play by the rules, but she still has a strong sense of duty. Faith, who doesn’t have the support system and family and friends that Buffy has, is the opposite of Kendra – she represents the possibility that a Slayer could disregard duty and morality and decide to use her powers to do whatever she likes, and regard herself as a superhuman being who is exempt from any human laws. Kendra’s mindset is very limited, but Buffy is a better Slayer than Kendra because she is more imaginative, goes by the instinct, and because her emotions help her fight. Kendra thinks emotions are just a distraction and liability for a Slayer, Buffy on the other hand believes that her emotions are “total assets”. Buffy makes a point to Kendra when she makes Kendra lose temper – anger can be a powerful asset in fight. We see it time and again that Buffy often shows love by fighting to save and protect people she loves, as we see in this episode when Angel is kidnapped by Spike because the blood of Dru’s sire is needed to cure her, and Buffy makes the memorable statement: “You can attack me, you can send assassins after me, that's fine. But nobody messes with my boyfriend!” (Bad news for Spike in season 2; good news for Spike in season 7.)
This is exactly why, having learned the lesson that emotions can help in fight (Kendra fights off one of the Order of Taraka assassins, the policewoman, only when she gets really angry when the policewoman rips her only shirt), and having found a friend (in Buffy), Kendra teachers Buffy something as well: being a Slayer is not a job, it’s who you are, and contrary to what Buffy thinks at this point, being a Slayer is an integral part of Buffy’s personality. Buffy thought she wanted to stop being a Slayer and have a “normal life”, and the existence of another Slayer was a perfect opportunity to leave Slaying to someone else. Instead, it makes Buffy start realizing that she doesn’t want to quit, she wants to be a Slayer.
This episode marks the beginning of the Xander/Cordelia relationship, and a beginning of sorts of the Willow/Oz relationship. Xander and Cordy's first kiss is hilarious one of the most memorable moments, with the two of them insulting each other and shouting that they hate each other, until they suddenly kiss, to the intentionally cheesy background music. The first time I watched it, my mouth fell open. Now I think I should have seen it coming, with all the Belligerent Sexual Tension throughout the season. The best part is when they break away from the kiss and agree that they so need to get out of there. They're more freaked out by their attraction for each other than by the creepy demonic assassin!
The worm guy from the order of Taraka is probably the most disgusting monster on Buffy ever. (Come to think of it, he was kinda slimy even as a human.) But, somehow, the ickiness makes Xander/Cordy scenes fighting him all the funnier and more memorable.
Willow finally learns that Oz might be interested in her (Buffy had to tell her, since Willow doesn’t think anyone would be attracted to her), and she and Oz have their first real on-screen conversation. Oz gets another cool character moment during the shoot-out in the school, when the policewoman turns out to be there not for the career week but to kill Buffy – he jumps to push Willow and Buffy out of the way, and gets shot and lightly wounded, but still isn’t concerned about it and seems to see it as an interesting new experience.
Jonathan appears again, of course as a victim: this time he’s taken hostage by the policewoman from the Order of Taraka during the shoot-out at school, and seems typically oblivious to what is going on, asking if it all was a demonstration.
How ironic is it that it’s Spike who practically saves Angel in the episode from burning out in the cage Kendra put him in, just because he wants to kill him and use his blood to cure Dru?
The complicated and twisted dynamic in the Angel, Spike and Dru triangle get explored in this episode, and these may be the best parts of the ep. Drusilla is really a fascinating character – I’ve never been able to like her much, but I can appreciate that. Here she is childlike, sensual, creepy, dangerous, masochistic, cruel, insane but still strangely seductive. I’ve got to say that the love scene between her and Spike, kissing and whispering darkly romantic lines to each other (while Angel is in the background, tied up and about to be tortured and killed), is one of the sexiest in the show, partly because the actors have amazing chemistry, and because of the music and colors (there is a lot of deep red and black) contributing to the dark glamour of those scenes. Her relationship with Angel(us) is particularly complex – she tortures him not just physically, but making him feel guilty, talking to him about her human family, reminding him how he killed them – inflicting pain on him like he did on her. But is it revenge, or a part of the intimacy of their twisted relationship? If she’s resentful because he killed her family, why doesn’t she ever act that way with him when he’s soulless and evil? It seems that she despises his souled, good self, and loves his evil soulless self (the opposite of Buffy), and she resents him from leaving his vampire family and betraying them. (A dialogue from the original script that didn’t make it into the ep helps understand it: she is asking Angel if he remembers “that kind of hunger”: she wants him to turn back evil, and thinks that he still has the capacity for evil, despite the icky soul.)
And why does Angel turn his eyes away when Dru and Spike are making out in front of him? It’s pretty ambiguous. Does it just offend his sensibilities? Is he hurt to see how innocent, pure Dru has become the lecherous Dru, part of the evil vampire couple with violent lecherous Spike? Or how once-innocent William is now the violent evil Spike, giving his old self a run for his money? Or is there a hint of the old rivalry and jealousy, not because of Drusilla, but because there was “another rooster in the hen-house”?
Spike’s comment that he’s “not much for the pre-show”, meaning that he isn’t interested in prolonged torture of Angel and would rather get to the killing part, has been used by many fans to try to prove that Spike wasn’t a sadist with his victims like Angelus and Dru were, and that he was always a “nicer” vampire. I don’t think that’s the case. We’ve seen it plenty of times that Spike is not just ready to use torture for pragmatic reasons (like punching Dalton, when he said some people find pain inspirational), but that he really enjoys violence, and not just in a fight with a worthy opponent like the Slayers – see, for instance, snapping the neck of the No-Veal guy from School Hard for no reason at all, or how excited he was to see Buffy as a helpless, meek victim he would bite, in Halloween. I think he just has no patience for any long, over-drawn, ritualistic torture, or Angelus’ mental torture of Buffy in the second part of season 2. He is impulsive and direct, and doesn’t tend to think much about the feelings of his victims, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t like hurting people.
The fight in Spike and Dru’s mansion is quite spectacular, with Kendra and Buffy working together to fight Spike and the assassins, while Cordy and Xander are fighting in their own way, exterminating the worms that the other assassin is made of. It seems Spike also gain strength from his emotions: he’s fighting way better than in Halloween, now that it’s Dru on the line, but they can also be a hindrance, as when he forgets about Dru and Angel and Buffy for a moment to go after Willy because he’s so angry at him for what he sees as a double-cross – before noticing what’s going on and pulling Buffy from Angel and Dru so the process of her restoring could be complete. And talk about subtext: when Buffy and Kendra switch (they’re already working perfectly in unison), because Kendra was losing to Spike while Buffy was easily beating the policewoman, Spike and Buffy have this exchange: “I’d rather be fighting you.” - “Mutual.” Not only are they both snarky, impulsive, rebellious and both love a good fight, they are both devoted to those they love and fighting to save them. In the end they both got what they wanted, Angel was saved (just one of the instances of the gender inversion of Buffy being the hero who saves her boyfriends in peril), but the process went far enough to cure Dru. But Spike has an organ fall on him, and when the building collapses the Scoobies are left thinking Spike and Dru are dead, before the last scene reveals a healthy, super-strong Dru carrying unconscious Spike in her arms. Spike was originally meant to die in this episode, and this was a way to keep him on the show while still making it possible for Angelus to be the Big Bad.
Best scene: It’s difficult to choose. The Spike/Dru/Angel scenes are great, but Xander and Cordy’s first kiss is so memorable and funny, that I might do with it as the best scene. The 3rd place goes to the really fun scene where the gang try to explain the Angel situation to her. From an outside perspective, it really is weird. At this point, “He has a soul” still hasn’t become the catchphrase that justifies a vampire being treated differently, and pulling the soul card probably wouldn’t mean a thing to Kendra. (After all, there’s probably no footnote in the Slayer handbook that says “You should kill vampires… [but not the ones with the soul, they’re good]”). Instead, Buffy just ends up justifying her insistence that Angel is good with “You’ll just have to trust me on this one”. The funniest part is Willow starting to defend Buffy saying she would never kiss a vampire, then correcting herself that it would just be Angel, but then insecurely asking Buffy “Right?” Heh. Willow’s mind dirtier than it seems… And it’s a line that makes me giggle now, in hindsight.
Best lines:
Kendra: You talk about slaying like it's a job. It's not. It's who you
are.
Buffy: Did you get that from your handbook?
Kendra: From you.
Xander: Angel's our friend... except I don't like him.
Kendra: Angel? You mean Angelus? I've read about him. He is a monster.
Giles: No, no, no, he's, he's good now.
Willow: (smiles) Really!
Buffy He has a Gypsy curse.
Kendra: He has a what?
Mythology: The calling of the new Slayer is apparently an automatic process - Kendra got called because of Buffy’s temporary death in Prophecy Girl. The Slayer line now goes through Kendra rather than Buffy: if Kendra dies, another Slayer is called; if Buffy dies, no new Slayer is called.
Destroying English language: Buffy replies to Giles using the word“flummoxed” by asking “What’s the flum”. Buffy wonders about the origin of the expression “whole nine yards.” (I’ve wondered about it, too.)
Spike Badass-o-meter: He does much better in this episode, the last one before he ends up in a wheelchair and loses his Big Bad status. Maybe it’s because he feels a lot more motivated fighting for the woman he loves. He fights with two Slayers, was pretty much kicking Kendra’s ass (a much better showing than Angel in his fight with her in the previous episode), and does quite well in the fight against Buffy. He got wheelchaired mostly for not looking behind his back (Buffy threw on object at him to stop him, and then the organ fell on him).
Nicknames: Spike calls Drusilla “my Black Goddess” and “my ripe wicked plum” and refers to Buffy as “Little Rebecca of Sunnyhell Farm” (see Pop culture references), one of the many times he’ll mockingly compare her to fluffy, sunny teenage characters. Dru calls Angel “My Angel”, “Bad Daddy” and shuts him up with “bad dog”. Buffy calls Kendra “John Wayne”, “Pink Ranger” and “she-Giles”.
Pop culture references: Series of children/youth books Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. John Wayne. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Buffy plans to watch a romcom with Molly Ringwald. So I guess she liked James Spader from his role in Pretty In Pink?
Angel/Angelus: It never even occurs to Dru or Spike that they might be two different people, and Angel never says anything of the matter, either. And he’s way too good in acting Angelus-like when he’s taunting Spike.
Shirtless scene: Angel, shirtless, tied up and tortured. (Not for the last time…)
Ooh, kinky: And the level of kink goes way up with this episode, thanks to Marti Noxon, who makes her official writing debut with this two-parter (part 1 co-written with Howard Gordon), after being brought in to the show to overhaul the script for Halloween.
Drusilla dreamily tells Spike she dreamed they were in Paris and that he had a branding iron. It is the first mention of Dru’s sexual masochism. Here we also see some of her sadism, when she is torturing Angel with holy water and clearly enjoying it. We later learn from Spike in Lovers Walk that she likes to be tied up and tortured, but is the opposite also a part of their sex life? Judging by Spike’s behavior in this episode, it’s not – I imagine he wouldn’t be so happy letting her ‘play’ with Angel otherwise, if he thought her enjoyment was sexual, especially since he knows about their past relationship and he was already jealous that she was just going to meet him in Lie to Me. And here he doesn’t get jealous until Angel starts taunting him.
Angel taunts Spike that he remembers Drusilla likes the “pre-show” best of all, she likes to be “teased”. It’s not clear if there’s any truth to it or if it’s just something Angel has come up with to taunt Spike – Dru just quietly shut him up and says nothing, grinning. In Fool for Love she certainly didn’t seem unsatisfied, when the only foreplay she and Spike had besides a bit of passionate making out was Spike killing a Slayer and letting her taste her blood. Most likely she’s very satisfied with her sex life with Spike, but she would still like Angelus back, too, since she’s not big on monogamy, as Noxon says in her commentary.
Spike and Dru really seem to have a habit of making out in front of people they’ve got in the room tied up, don’t they? First Sheila, now Angel.
Willy proves his sleeze credentials (in a dialogue added by Whedon), asking Buffy and Kendra to pose for a friend of his who does “artistic” nude pictures.
What the slashy heck: Spangels must be having a field day with Spike’s sarcastic joke when Willy asked him what he wants to do with Angel: “I’m thinking, a dinner and a movie. I don’t want to rush things, I’ve been hurt, you know…”
Foreshadowing: Angel taunting Spike about Dru and getting him jealous foreshadows the Angelus/Dru/Spike triangle later in the season. Here Angel is doing it for noble reasons, to get himself killed so he wouldn’t unleash Dru on Sunnydale; without a soul he’ll do it simply to torment Spike (and with much less risk, with Spike in a wheelchair).
Xander says to Kendra that he’s attracted to Slayers. That will certainly be proven when he meets Faith.
Kendra has a point when she says emotions can also be a distraction and prevent a Slayer from doing her duty, which we’ll see with Buffy in just a few episodes.
Buffy does, after all, like being a Slayer, but she doesn’t like being the one and only: it’s good to have someone just like her, another Slayer who understands what it’s like. This could be seen foreshadowing for what she does in the series finale.
Rating: 4.5
