Season 3, Ep 5
Added 2021-11-24 16:28:20 +0000 UTCthank you so much for your understanding of the late post!
this was.... an interesting one so hopefully worth the wait. :)
Comments
First the shoes and now the hidden hand cast. I have seen this show dozens of times and you keep pointing out things I have NEVER noticed.
Calvin Allen
2022-07-21 12:40:04 +0000 UTCOh and a quick final note: Willow and Xander kiss. I get it, we love Oz, some people like Cordy, cheating is wrong. But. Willow and Xander have known each other THEIR WHOLE LIVES. They've only known Oz and Cordy for a few months. So. When they're in the room together, and especially because they're reminiscing about something that happened in like 7th or 8th grade, they are falling into Willow/Xander mode. They aren't thinking about Oz or Cordy or the dance or ANYTHING ELSE. All they are thinking about is the feeling of being close to each other, sinking into that feeling that they've had (or at least Willow has had) so strongly for pretty much her whole life. There is no part of me that thinks they were intentionally doing something wrong. I think they just got swept up in that feeling and forgot that the rest of the world existed for a moment. It's certainly UNFORTUNATE that when they finally kiss there are other people involved, but I don't put FAULT on them for that. Especially since you can see that as soon as Willow DOES remember that she's dating someone else, she breaks the kiss and they spend the rest of the episode specifically not kissing and trying to figure out what's really going on between them.
RNR
2022-02-05 21:40:12 +0000 UTCAlso, just because it's important to Cordy doesn't mean Buffy isn't allowed to care about it too. Cordy gets ALL the normal high school girl stuff. She's ALWAYS the queen of the dance, or voted Ms. Popular, or dating the football quarterback type of stuff. This is ONE time where Buffy wanted to care about something that wasn't risking her life. Also, none of them really consider Cordy their friend. Every time they introduce Cordy to someone, they say something like "oh this is our friend...well...sort of." They think of Cordy just as Xander's girlfriend, someone who wasn't really invited or accepted into the group but gets to hang around because she's with Xander. Add onto that how Willow feels about Xander, how Buffy is Willow's best friend, how "tiresome" Giles finds her, and the fact that NONE of them can even figure out why they're dating in the first place, how they're always at each others throats, insulting each other and yeah, I really don't get the sense that Buffy is somehow betraying a friendship with Cordy or trying to take away her spotlight. They just simply are not friends, and this is something that Buffy cares a lot about. This is her last year of high school. The last year she gets to be SEEN as a kid to society and is SUPPOSED to be caring about high school stuff. Once senior year is over, she'll never have that chance again to just be a kid, even for a second. There just aren't any opportunities like that after high school, so this is quite literally her last chance to ever do something normal and just for the fun of it.
RNR
2022-02-05 21:30:26 +0000 UTCNot much to say for this episode other than I think it's mainly here for some much needed character development. It's a bit fun once you get past the homecoming nonsense. The rest, I will leave for later. Other than, this is one of the most hated events to have taken place in the Buffyverse. To have finally been given something most fans wished for for over a season at exactly the worst time. The awful kiss nobody wants anymore. Then they just have to twist that knife with Cordelia's admission of her love for Xander. Her first love. Damn you Buffy writers.
Jordan Haddow
2021-12-26 02:41:54 +0000 UTCI don't know. She crushed the bottle in her other hand. Plus, it looks like she had a compression bandage on her wrist. My guess is she may have sprained her wrist at some point was was supposed to keep her arm out fo the sightline, but couldn't help emphatically gesturing.
Jordan Haddow
2021-12-26 02:32:23 +0000 UTCI'm on Scott's side. If someone is not happy in a romantic relationship, it's better to end it, than be unhappy.
Thom Purdy
2021-12-17 04:27:15 +0000 UTCBTW, I have NO idea what to make about Buffy covering her left arm with her sleeve (in the whiteboard scene). I never saw that before. My first guess would be that Sarah cut herself "crushing" the Snapple™ bottle on a previous take and there's a bandage that's being covered. But you're REALLY not supposed to be able to cut yourself on prop glass ("The Amazing Race" has had tasks when competitors break DOZENS of prop bottles on their partners' heads) and I don't know why SMG would have used her left hand anyway, as she's right-handed. I'm sure there's a story; I just don't know it. Odd. (And well-spotted!)
Jessica Roth
2021-11-30 02:13:53 +0000 UTCSo here are the mini-quiz answers: 1. …you’ll never get to destroy the world. —Spike to Angel, “Becoming, part 2” 2. …I know my name… —Willow to Buffy (via phone), “Becoming, part 2” 3. You’re the lameness. —Cordelia to Xander, “What’s My Line, part 1” 4. I just want to go on a date. —Buffy to Giles, “Never Kill a Boy, yada-yada” So congrats to ghost! But this was only the beginning… Once all the quotes in a quiz were identified, players were then asked to look at the surrounding (or “contextual”) text (two sentences in either direction) to see if they could spot connections to an overall “theme”. Which was usually a particular scene, although not always. One person did the contents of Buffy’s whiteboard here as a theme. (I wish I could remember the connection they used to prompt “dandruff”, which is listed as one of Michelle’s weaknesses…poor girl!). The person who won the round got to host the next one, and so forth. So, as I got to be fairly good at this, I did my share of hosting, and I tended to choose as my themes scenes that I enjoyed. Usually, this just involved matching dialogue. For example, when I chose the “I Quit” scene in “Prophecy Girl”, I used this connection: Everything is life and death when you’re a 16-year-old girl. —Joyce to Buffy, “The Harvest” BUFFY: Giles, I-I’m 16. I don’t want to die. (And then I got very sad. But I digress…) So, one time I was hosting and I got more adventurous, and it went a little like this… 1. SPIKE: …you’ll never get to destroy the world. And I DON’T FANCY spending the next month trying to get Librarian out of the carpet. FASTBALL (singing): WELL, I DON’T WANT… 2. WILLOW: …I know my name and WHO’S PRESIDENT… FASTBALL: …TO BE PRESIDENT… 3. CORDELIA: [Buffy’s] the SUPERCHICK or whatever. You’re the lameness FASTBALL: SUPERMAN… 4. BUFFY: CLARK KENT has a job. I just want to go on a date. FASTBALL: …OR CLARK KENT. And so on, connecting to both the song lyrics and the dialogue (Angel telling Buffy “I heard you were on the hunt” in 2.02 matches Scott telling her “I heard you were doing this” here, for example) until the whole montage was done. Which I guess is a VERY longwinded way of saying that I spend way too much time on this series, and I really love the montage scene here. And a lot of the episode. I just wish that Willow/Xander wasn’t being so blatantly sacrificed on the altar of “Angel’s back! Yay!” by making it “okay” that Buffy is LYING to EVERYBODY. Buffy: hiding the mass-murdering demon who tried to END THE WORLD only four months ago. Willow: OMG SHE KISSED A BOY WHO ISN’T OZ!!! Yeah, totally equivalent. The audience just HAS to give Buffy a pass, right? Ugh. (Yeah, he has his soul again, he found it in his other pants, I know. But all I can think that he had the soul in January, too…how did THAT work out, exactly? Maybe I should ask Jenny?)
Jessica Roth
2021-11-29 16:55:07 +0000 UTCBoth. Don't want to spoil anything until the season concludes.
Chas Summers
2021-11-29 16:52:17 +0000 UTCThat's "Wraal", of course. j=w, and w=j. I would edit, but Patreon has made me afraid to do so, lol.
Jessica Roth
2021-11-29 15:50:19 +0000 UTCYeah, "rot13" is code used to avoid spoilers in comment sections. Since the alphabet is 26 letters long, you write the letter that's 13 letters after what you mean. Thus "a" becomes "n" and "n" becomes "a" and so forth. ("Ab" means "no", for example.) The time is was most exposed to this was on the "MarkWatches" site, which wasn't reaction videos per se (although he did sell them because this was before Patreon existed) but him liveblogging comments and people responding to them. Using rot13 to avoid spoilers. One unspoiled commenter there was a sweet and lovely English girl named Anne (aka "EnigmaticAgentScully"). Naturally, her FAVORITE character was Jenny (or "Vraal", if you would.) and whenever she would post something optimistic about her, the rot13 below would be a FOREST of people cringing in advance. Sigh.
Jessica Roth
2021-11-29 15:43:44 +0000 UTCshitty reasons like behind the scenes you mean? or like that ill understand more in upcoming eps?!
darciesnothere
2021-11-29 02:16:05 +0000 UTComg i dont know that i will remember lines from episodes LOL BUT IM DYING at ghosts coded answers!!
darciesnothere
2021-11-29 02:10:22 +0000 UTCi have found so much of the conversation around this episode super interesting too!
darciesnothere
2021-11-29 02:09:24 +0000 UTCLOLOLOL oops!
darciesnothere
2021-11-29 02:08:38 +0000 UTCi liked it too it was funny!
darciesnothere
2021-11-29 02:08:30 +0000 UTCThink I know two of them. Going to rot13 the answers so as not to give them away for Darcie or anyone else who sees this haha. 4 vf qrsvavgryl sebz Arire Xvyy n Obl ba gur Svefg Qngr, Ohssl gb Tvyrf. "Pynex Xrag unf n wbo! V whfg jnag gb tb ba n qngr." V'z yrff pbasvqrag nobhg 1, ohg V guvax vg'f Fcvxr gb Natryhf va Orpbzvat cneg 2 jura ur'f gelvat gb xrrc Tvyrf nyvir. Pna'g cynpr gur bgure gjb.
ghostofdurruti
2021-11-28 19:50:33 +0000 UTCMy ongoing character crtiques (Buffy is horribly selfish and self-involved, and the show is trying to cover for this by loading the dice in her favor) aside, this is a very good episode. In fact, years ago, I used to play a deeply-complicated trivia game built around identifying particular lines of dialogue. There was more to it than just this, but let me give you a taste before showing how it relates to this particular episode. Identify who's speaking, whom they're speaking to, and which episode, please. (No checking the transcripts; that's cheating lol.): 1. …you'll never get to destroy the world. 2. …I know my name… 3. You're the lameness. 4. I just want to go on a date. (An ellipsis indicates the sentence is larger than the fragment I provided.). Fire away! (Or not [/soft sell])
Jessica Roth
2021-11-28 02:03:51 +0000 UTCAs I've written, David Greenwalt is doing stronger work than Joss and Marti so far this year, IMO. His plots in both 3.03 and this are tight (this ep is a fine blend of "The Most Dangerous Game" and a "Rogues Gallery" episode) and he's kept Buffy heroic, whereas Joss had her leaving HUNDREDS of slaves in HELL and Marti had her not caring about people dying IN HER OWN HOUSE. ("Oooh, too bad about your best friend, Mom. This is a slow night, ha-ha.") But…he's failed to fix other problems with Buffy. And his idea of Cordelia is Season 1 Bitca, and very little more. Sigh.
Jessica Roth
2021-11-28 01:54:45 +0000 UTCThe commentary on Buffy vs. Cordelia is all interesting. I”m not sure where I land. But I do think this is one of the episodes that most clearly shows that there was some ambivalence still on the show as to whether Cordy is a classic “mean girl” or something more. It feels like one more attempt to say to an audience that mostly enjoyed Cordila, “Hey, she’s kind of a bad person!” The fact that it doesn’t work really demonstrates how fictional characters can take on a life of their own … and be very successful with audiences while NOT being what the writer originally intended.
Andrew Pulrang
2021-11-27 23:52:25 +0000 UTC"I spend my days praying that we'll get another hyena" said nobody ever (until now) :D
David Meadows
2021-11-27 21:23:46 +0000 UTCAnd who calls him that? Oh, right…Ms. Buffy. Way to go, "pal". Grrr.
Jessica Roth
2021-11-26 18:22:21 +0000 UTCI like on the strengths/weaknesses white board, Xander is under Cordelia's weaknesses.
Chas Summers
2021-11-25 13:34:17 +0000 UTCThere are shitty reasons for this subplot that can be explained later on.
Chas Summers
2021-11-25 12:29:00 +0000 UTC
