Buffy - Season 3 impressions (episodes 1 - 4)

[thalia_seawood]

Overall impression
Buffy has pretty much grown up whereas her friends are still very young.
Whereas in the first season I liked Willow and Xander a bit more than Buffy this has now turned around. Buffy has conquered my heart, while I now find Xander and Willow exasparating at times. Giles, though, is still a big favorite with me.
And it's very good to have Seth Green (Oz) as a regular on the show.

I wasn't impressed with the demons in the first three episodes, but they all serve their purpose nicely. In fact, all the demons bring out deeper issues the characters have. Which is *very* neat.


Anne
The dream sequence that starts the show is nice. For a moment, you really think Buffy is spending some time on the beach to think things over, but the truth is much more depressing.

The main themes of this show are, IMO, hope & despair as well as finding out who you are. Both themes are nicely entwined, i.e. Buffy takes her first step out of despair when she no longer calls herself "Anne", but tells the demon in her familiar cocky manner that she is "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer". In contrast to this in her Anne persona, she doesn't speak out in one of the first scenes when some guy slaps her bottom. It's interesting that Buffy is never that far removed from what she is, after all the name she takes for a time is really her middle name.

Chanterelle/Lily is a nice contrast to this: We never get to know her real name. She picks new names in order to reinvent herself. The ending for her is only slightly hopeful. She does admit that she's bad at taking care of herself, but doesn't state that she *will* now take care of herself. The new identity she picks for herself is "Anne" which is more realistic than her former names, but still not her true name.

Whereas Buffy goes back to confront the "real life" she left behind in the end of the episode, Chanterelle/Lily/Anne is still avoiding reality.
On the plus side, Chanterelle/Lily/Anne has defended herself once during the course of the episode when she pushes the head-demon down the edge, so maybe she will remember that she can take care of herself as well.

I love the Xander/Cordelia scenes in this first episode. Also love it that once again their first passionate kiss of season 3 gets this overblown musical score. :-)

Also nice to see that Buffy's friend are trying to keep up the good fight while Buffy is gone. Have to say I'm impressed by their courage, because I probably wouldn't leave the house after sunset if I were to live in Sunnydale. Or I get really good equipment, i.e. wear a cross, always bring some stakes and holy water in a spray bottle and design a garlic parfume. :-)


Dead Man's Party

Once again the monsters are fitting the issues of Buffy and her friends/family perfectly. Things that have been buried come back to life and haunt everyone. This becomes very clear during Buffy's welcome back party where things go badly wrong. While all the open issues are discussed that everybody has been avoiding, the zombies are rising and intruding into the house.
Like Xander says: Yeah, and you see how well *that* one worked out. You can't just bury stuff, Buffy. It'll come right back up to get you. Of course, this word of advice goes for them all.

Xander telling Buffy that she has acted in an irresponsible way, is pretty funny coming from him. So far he's been by far the most irresponsible character and will continue in this vein. (Two examples are the love potion and him sleeping when he's supposed to watched werewolf Oz.)

Xander also hasn't forgiven Buffy that she fell in love with Angel and not with him:
Xander: Look. I'm sorry that your honey was a demon, but most girls don't hop a Greyhound over boy troubles.
Comments like these are unhelpful in the extreme.

In this episode, I was amazed by Willow. She's very good about avoiding direct confrontation. I have avoided confrontations in my time, but I'm fairly direct about it. I.e. I would have avoided Buffy directly or told her that I do not want to talk to her. Willow is way, way more subtle, however. She's saying that, yes, she will meet Buffy, and then doesn't show up. She calls with an excuse, but speaks to Buffy's mother and not to Buffy directly. She sets up a big surprise party for Buffy, but not because she's happy to have her back, but because this will allow her to avoid talking to her. Willow is a master of passive aggression all right.
During the confrontation between Buffy and Willow when they finally start talking, we see that Buffy really was Willow's best and apparently only female friend. Willow needs her.

What struck me as sad is that Buffy's friends expect her to be there for them, but noone of them takes the time to just be with her and listen to her. Even if they don't know the circumstances surrounding Angel's death, they should be aware that killing her first love would be deeply painful for her.
On the other hand, Buffy doesn't make it easy for them by first leaving town without a word and then not giving them any details.

My favorite lighter moment is Giles getting into Ripper mode when he gets the car to run: Like riding a bloody bicycle! I also love the way he convinces Principal Snyder.

Question: Does insurance pay when your house is wrecked by zombies? Not the first time that the Summers home is wrecked either. There was also the horde of lustful females trying to get to Xander.


Faith, Hope and Trick
In this episode, we see that everyone tries go back to normal, however, Buffy's life is still interrupted by nightmares and the arrival of Faith.

The nightmare sequence is once again quite powerful.

As for Faith:
I have to admit that I loathed her in the beginning. Which shows that her character is well-conceived or I wouldn't have had such a strong reaction to her. It's just: She takes up so much space, wherever she goes she seems to take the limelight.
The irony is, of course, that Buffy was a lot like that. Only Buffy drew everyone's attention by being girly whereas Faith does it by being tough.
Like with Buffy there's more behind Faith's facade than first meets the eye: Things come together when we learn that Faith has lost her watcher and was forced to observe her watcher's death.

I was very glad that by the end of this episode, Buffy tells Giles and Willow how Angel died. Her motivation for this is interesting:
Buffy: Good. She [Faith] really came through in the end. (slides off of the table) She had a lot to deal with, but she did it. She got it behind her.

I think Buffy is trying to be optimistic here. In my opinion, it's not that easy to get over traumatic experiences. Talking about things is a first step, but a first step only. So I don't think that Faith has got all her issues behind her. And Buffy talking about Angel's death is a *very* important step, but it will not mean that all her pain will just go away. Well, she's no doubt aware of this.

The ending of the episode is cool: Seems the ring provided a powerful connection to Angel, powerful enough to get him back from hell.


Beauty and the Beasts
My favorite season 3 episode so far.

I love the title.

I love the opening scene with the voiceover and Buffy/Willow reading from "Call of the Wild".
Buffy: 'One night after supper, the lead dog turned up a snowshoe rabbit. The dog lay down low to the race, his body flashing forward,
leap by leap.'

Cut to the library. Buffy's voice dissolves into that of Willow, who is walking around the area by the cage while reading from the book.

Willow: 'He was sounding the deeps of his nature and the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the wombs of time. The rabbit could not...'

The opening scene is nicely mirrored by the end:
Buffy: 'Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof were his...'

Cut to Angel. He moves slightly, and his face contorts in anguish and pain as he dreams.

Buffy: '...yet he retained his wildness and wiliness.'

Cut to Buffy. She is sitting on the floor leaning against the wall, watching him sleep and contemplating her life.

Buffy: 'And from the depths of the forest, a call still sounded.'


I like how the theme of the show (= the wildness within) is developed when Faith makes the bold claim that that all men are beasts.
Faith: It's not cynical. I mean, it's realistic. Every guy from... Manimal down to Mr. I-Love-The-English-Patient has beast in him. And I don't care how sensitive they act. They're all still just in it for the chase.

This theme is then explored when we are confronted with three very different monsters: Oz in were-wolf form, Angel as a vampire who has lost his mind and Pete whose experiments have brought out his darkest side.

The first difference between them is that neither Oz nor Angel chose what they are. Pete has actively tried to make himself more wild to please his girlfriend.

Oz is wild as a werewolf, but outside his werewolf form he's genuinely considerate and kind. It's very obvious that he feels a large amount of guilt and regret when he's faced with the possibility that he might have killed someone. (I'm *really* annoyed by Xander nonchalant attitude in this episode: First he doesn't keep watch and then he makes stupid remarks about it.)

Angel is a vampire who has gained his soul, but lost his mind. Still his love for Buffy calls for him. In this episode, he kills in order to defend Buffy.

Pete is in a different league than Oz and Angel. He's a monster of his own making who kills everyone who might have become to close to his girlfriend and is driven by jealousy only. (Soulless Angel has some similarities to him in as far as he also tries to hurt people close to Buffy.) He seems to relish being a monster. His biggest problem is that he doesn't confront his problems, he always always always blames Debbie. It's her fault he made the potion, it's her fault he hits her. It was this line that made me lost all sympathy with him:
Pete: (whispering) Hey, Debbie. (she turns away) Hey, listen. (quietly) You know you shouldn't make me mad. Huh? You know what happens.
He has just hit her repeatedly in the face and this is his apology. There's no regret. Only a warning for Debbie.

I really appreciate that this show deals with the issue of battered girlfriends/wives. I think it's overall well done.


Buffy finding Angel:
It made me sad that she cannot talk about this to any of her friends.
She obviously can't talk to Giles, because Angel has killed Jenny and she doesn't want to hurt Giles. Xander is out of the question, as he has always been jealous about Angel. Faith wouldn't understand. Her mother would be horrified and worried for Buffy. So Willow would be her only option and it's interesting she doesn't talk to her. Seeing that Willow brought back Angel's soul, she might be helpful and/or sympathetic.
The saddest moment is when Buffy want to talk to Mr Platt about what happened and he's already dead...

And Angel recognising Buffy is very, very touching.

Comments

[the-dala.livejournal.com]

C/L/A will pop up again in the B/Averse, but I won't tell you where :)

The conversation between Buffy and Willow at the end of "Dead Man's Party" is one of my favorite exchanges in the whole series. I used to have it memorized.

Damn, I can't remember precisely why/how Angel came back from hell. Been too long, I guess.

[thalia-seawood.livejournal.com]

The technical background of how Angel came back hasn't been explained explicitly so far. Not sure it ever will be.
Buffy takes the ring that Angel gaves her and places it close to the spot from which Angel vanished. Some time later, this is the place where he reappears. Which gives the impression that it was the ring, i.e. his connection to Buffy, that made it possible for him to return.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yay, season 3! Love it. Coincidentally, it was around that time that Buffy went from "well-liked" to "favourite" with me as well.

The main themes of this show are, IMO, hope & despair as well as finding out who you are.

Yes. True for this episode and BTVS in general. You'll see Lily/Anne again, in Angel, where she shows up in some episodes as a neat recurring character. Fun trivia: a clip from Anne, the girl standing on the street, is also the sole BTVS clip that stays in the Angel credits right until the end of the show. Which is fitting in a way because Anne prefigures AtS atmospherically with its Los Angeles setting and the problems at hand.

(The clip from Anne that stayed in the BTVS credits for a while, otoh, is Buffy with the Hammer und Sichel in her hands, which amuses because it obviously went unnoticed by the American censors.*g*)

Xander, Willow and Buffy: observe and compare. The events of Prophecy Girl had her acting out agressively and not talking to her friends, but they got through that within the time frame of one episode. The events of Becoming and really all the Angelus months, however, have left serious communication difficulties that are going to last for much longer. The fault is on both sides - she doesn't tell them the truth, they expect her to be there for them and don't really take the time to be just there for her - but I tend to sympathize with Buffy somewhat more than with Xander and Willow because what happened to her was that much more serious, and while Buffy can be a bitch if she wants to be, she's not doing that in a passive-aggressive manner, or by making remarks like the greyhound bus one.

Insurance: season 6 actually answers that one. No, it does not. The Summers women have a lot of bills because of this.

Faith: is probably next to Spike the most popular character of the show. I like her, but it wasn't love at first sight for me, either. The Faith arc in this season, however, impressed me from the get-go. Also, the Buffy/Faith relationship is very well written and acted, and yes, that slash is there on purpose. The two have mad (and intentional) subtext. I do get defensive of Buffy in this relationship, though, because "Buffy was mean to Faith and didn't make her feel welcome enough in Sunnydale" is a popular accusation.

It made me sad that she cannot talk about this to any of her friends.

Me too. As you say, Willow would probably be the best option at this point. I think the fact Buffy doesn't tell Willow highlights the both sidedness, if that's a word, of the earlier mentioned communications difficulties.

[thalia-seawood.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, it was around that time that Buffy went from "well-liked" to "favourite" with me as well.

Yes, for me it's that she grows up so much. Before that I liked her, but I also wanted to shake her very often. E.g. when she tries to make Angel jealous. Just so immature. In Season 3, I can identify with her, because her choices very often would be mine under the same circumstances.

Regarding Prophecy Girl:
The aftermath of this episode is much easier to forgive. None of Buffy's friend has been put into continuous mortal danger (beyond the day to day Hellmouth activity risk *g*). None of her friends has been killed. She spends a short time being snotty, she's sorry about it and all is well.
The aftermath of the season 2 end is much more difficult to work through, because Buffy does feel guilt, but she couldn't have acted any differently either. Everybody has been dealt much deeper wounds. However, Buffy's friends can see themselves as victims whereas Buffy is as well victim as aggressor. And that's just part of the whole mess.

Like you I can understand where Willow and Xander are coming from, but I'm sympathizing more with Buffy.


Faith: is probably next to Spike the most popular character of the show. I like her, but it wasn't love at first sight for me, either. The Faith arc in this season, however, impressed me from the get-go. Also, the Buffy/Faith relationship is very well written and acted, and yes, that slash is there on purpose. The two have mad (and intentional) subtext. I do get defensive of Buffy in this relationship, though, because "Buffy was mean to Faith and didn't make her feel welcome enough in Sunnydale" is a popular accusation.

Well, I'm not too keen on super-extrovert people and that's the first impression we get of Faith. If she was real I would have avoided her like a disease. I've watched up to episode 8 by now (will write more about this, of course :-)) and Faith is growing on me. A lot of her super-girl attitude is a facade and I like the Faith we see in quieter moments.
Incidentally, she reminds me a lot of B'Elanna. Mostly regarding her looks, but the way she acts also has Klingon characteristics.

And yes, Buffy and Faith have interesting chemistry. (The subtext is rapidly becoming text. *g*)

Me too. As you say, Willow would probably be the best option at this point. I think the fact Buffy doesn't tell Willow highlights the both sidedness, if that's a word, of the earlier mentioned communications difficulties.

There is a lot of non-communication going on so far. E.g. Angel and Buffy do so not talk about what happened when Angel had lost his soul. Perfectly understandable, because, yes, these memories are painful. Somehow I still think it would be a good idea to at least talk about some of the things that happened.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Faith the Klingon: you'll love it when in season 7 a very geeky character sums up her life and at one point declares she.... but that would be telling.*g* Let's just say it's a joke Star Trek fans appreciate the most.*g* Because Joss and his fellow scribes are such fanboys, too. (She also has Be'lanna's self-esteem problem going, so your comparison is even more apt.)

E.g. Angel and Buffy do so not talk about what happened when Angel had lost his soul. Perfectly understandable, because, yes, these memories are painful. Somehow I still think it would be a good idea to at least talk about some of the things that happened.

You would be right. That's going to come up in an episode this season named Amends, and then later in another episode named Enemies. Among others.

[spikendru.livejournal.com]

Mostly regarding her looks, but the way she acts also has Klingon characteristics.

Bwahaha! I never thought of it that way - I actually wrote a BtVS/star Trek crossover for the scoobiesinspace ficathon, in which I made Faith a Romulan Commander, but she definitely has Kingon characteristics, too.

[thalia-seawood.livejournal.com]

There's definitely her love for a big shiny knife. *g*

Brilliant icon!