Season 2, Ep 9
Added 2021-08-10 16:29:03 +0000 UTCooooh a two parter! :D
note! part 2 will be up tomorrow so if you'd like to wait and watch both together just one more day. :)
have fun!
Comments
in this case am i grateful that hollywood were not obsessed with diversity during the casting because buffy/willow/xander/giles has the perfect chemistry ;) however, i am not against diversity :) i support diversity by watching korean/japanese/indian shows all the time!
Jess Jeansson
2021-09-18 14:55:47 +0000 UTCHaha. Buffy twists are the best!
Shayne-Ark
2021-08-11 20:28:21 +0000 UTCLOL just making me question everything i had known haha
darciesnothere
2021-08-11 18:33:09 +0000 UTCoh interesting! its always so cool to hear SO much goes on behind the scenes just for us to experience this 40 minutes of media. kinda neat!
darciesnothere
2021-08-11 18:32:39 +0000 UTCagreed i liked it! i knew i was in for something come part 2!
darciesnothere
2021-08-11 18:31:56 +0000 UTCyeah part 1s are always just usually building things up so i knew part 2 was going to be where the meat was! LOVE skating, that scene had me missing winter so much! i love all the seasons but winter holds a special place for me hehe.
darciesnothere
2021-08-11 18:31:35 +0000 UTCthank you andrew!! hahaha yeah i think this is kinda fun this way! its tough for me not to talk too much in the comments about what i thought about part 2 but i think this format will work moving forward hehe! and thank you! mausoleum i think was what i was looking for and rupe was talking about the reliquary which made sense. thanks for clarifying this! also ps - its tomorrow :D
darciesnothere
2021-08-11 18:30:29 +0000 UTCworld domination is always top of mind.... 😌😌
darciesnothere
2021-08-11 18:29:13 +0000 UTCI forgot to say how much I loved Buffy's outfit in the first part of the episode, the sweater/skirt combo and those killer boots.
Melissa
2021-08-11 15:57:04 +0000 UTCI'm Kendra the vampire slayer. 😯🤔🤨🤯
Shayne-Ark
2021-08-11 11:44:20 +0000 UTCFinal notes: "The whole nine yards" apparently refers to the length of a bolt of cloth. If a tailor had to make a particularly fancy outfit, they used "the whole nine yards". At least we see outside Angel's apartment, so we have confirmation he lives in a basement. (We've suspected it before, but it's nice to know.) But why does Buffy have to break in? Didn't he give her a key? I know we talk about Angel's bad manners, but he just got Buffy to admit she loves him (and didn't say it back, btw); I think that deserves a key. (And maybe even a drawer?) And when Buffy kills Octaurus (one-eyed demon) with the skate-slice and he falls to the ground, Marti Noxon envisioned a pool of blood slowly spreading out on the ice from his throat. Uh, no. Welcome to the WB, Marti. We've got kids watching here. (To be fair, Buffy kissing Angel in the middle of a pool of blood might have been a BIT much, I'll admit.)
Jessica Roth
2021-08-11 07:34:45 +0000 UTCHere's how I might tighten it up: TEASER: Buffy fights the vamps, but Dalton runs away with whatever he took. Buffy is confused. Factory. Dalton gives Spike the Cross, but complains about Buffy. "She killed Marcus; I barely got away." Spike rants in frustration, Drusilla whimpers in pain, Spike rushes to comfort her. Spike decides they're too close to take any risks, says he's calling in the Big Guns. DALTON: The Order of Taraka? Isn't that overkill? SPIKE: No, I think it's just enough kill. Credits. Buffy's Theme plays. ACT I School. Career Fair signs. Kids mill about. Buffy sits alone, clearly in A Mood. Xander and Willow approach. WILLOW (happy): Hi, Buffy. BUFFY (anything but): Hey. Willow and Xander sit. They all have paper packets. XANDER: I see you got your Career Fair results. Bad news? BUFFY (glares): Law Enforcement. As if I don't spend enough time beating people up. WILLOW: I don't think police are supposed to do that. BUFFY: Whatever. XANDER: Cheer up, it's still better than mine. (Mock pride) Prison guard. You bag 'em, I tag 'em. We can look forward to lots of bitter dinners at the local diner, complaining about how much our lives suck. BUFFY (sarcasm): Yay. WILLOW: I got computers, of course. (Considers) I don't think the Career people are doing their best work, honestly. BUFFY: Why should they? It's all mootville in my case. Stake-stake-stake, a Slayer's life for me. And nothing else. XANDER: I don't know; you're starting to sound like you'd fit right in at the DMV. Buffy glares. WILLOW (trying to lighten the mood): What about tomorrow? Are you still on? XANDER: What's tomorrow? WILLOW: She's got a date with Angel. XANDER (sarcasm): How exciting. BUFFY (brightening): Yeah, he's taking me ice-skating. XANDER: Angel on ice? That might actually be exciting. BUFFY: He'll probably just watch me. WILLOW: But isn't the rink closed on Tuesdays? BUFFY: Yeah, we're sneaking in. That whole "go on dates in public, like a normal person" thing is still a work-in-progress. XANDER: Hey, give Angel a break. He's only 241 years old. One century at a time. Cordelia comes up, beaming and waving her packet. CORDELIA: Guess what I got for Career Fair? XANDER: South American dictator? C.I.A. torture specialist? Cordelia starts to look at him, decides he's not worth it. CORDELIA (proudly): Personal shopper or motivational speaker! XANDER: Motivational speaker? On what, "Ten Ways to a More Annoying You"? Now Cordy glares at him. Big mistake, Xander. CORDELIA: I know YOU'RE happy being a useless loser, but some people have actual goals. She moves off, imperiously. XANDER (whipped): Is murder always a crime? BUFFY (looking at the clock): I guess I'll find out. I'm late for Giles. (leaves) See, we can cut like five scenes now. (Including that utterly pointless Xander/Snyder scene. Sorry, Armin, we need to save the paycheck.) And now we have room for better stuff. Willow and Oz having a real chat. Giles trying to make it up with Jenny. More background on Dru's cure. Angel passionately making out with Spike. (Oops, too much fanfic. Sorry.) Whatever. Anything's better than "Xander makes the same bad joke so many times that Giles snaps at him." If ever there was an admission by Marti that she was out of ideas, that's it. But JMO. And again, once Marti has proper time to write Part 2 all on her own, things get IMO much better. I mostly spend this one savoring the occasional good line ("I'm a teen! I have yet to mature!") and looking at the clothes. (Two nice sweaters on Buffy, and I love Willow's black floral print.)
Jessica Roth
2021-08-11 06:47:37 +0000 UTCAnd as I wrote, it's padded and slow. (Marti even admits to padding on the DVD commentary, where she has so little to say that she runs on about how hot James Marsters [Spike] is. Easy, girl…he's married.) Spike should hire the assassins at the end of the teaser, not spend Act I farting around with Dru's tarot cards and stuff. And the Career Fair looks like a big stall. They're juniors, they're probably not taking internships out of town. We don't see any actual meetings, just a lot of talk. Okay, Willow meets Oz, but you don't need the Fair for that; they go to the same school. (They actually already ran into each other in "Halloween", you'll remember.) It's nice that Angel and Buffy have a chat (they're the lead romantic pair, you want to give them depth), but you can almost see Marti spackling up the cracks in that scene. Marti wants Buffy to come in the window and surprise Angel. Fine, but it makes no sense with Joyce not in the episode.. Thus…"Habit." Cute line, but… Marti wants them to talk Career Fair, but how would Angel know about that? "I lurk." Again, cute line, but still. (Does Angel REALLY take the tunnels to the school,, hang around lurking and listening to high schoolers talking about Career Fair? Sheesh. Get a life, dude. Go buy something beige.) Buffy wants to talk about being a normal kid, but Angel can never relate to either half of that. It's good that we see Angel feeling excluded and Buffy acknowledging the problems with their romance, but this feels more like a break-up convo than a happy, "let's make a date" one.
Jessica Roth
2021-08-11 06:41:16 +0000 UTCSo, Joss was up the creek and turned to new hire Marti Noxon, an off-Broadway playwright known for her ability to write angsty romance (good for Buffy/Angel) and to write quickly (good for TV work). He basically gave her Gordon's general plot (including the triple-cliffhanger) and said "Write. Quickly!" Problem was, Marti wasn't quite up to speed on the backstory, (Allegedly, even to this day, she's NEVER seen Season 1. Which I think is silly; it's only 12 episodes, just take a weekend.) So we get some slightly character-regressive moments, which damage the ep a bit. For example, Angel is all smiles about taking Buffy to the ice rink…but only when it's closed. Hey, wait, it's only been four episodes since "Reptile Boy", when Buffy wanted Angel to act like a normal guy, take her for coffee, hang out around humans. What's with the "we must be alone in the darkness" Twilight crap, dude? Don't undo your growth arc. (Obviously part of this is that somebody decided that they'd shot the episode's budget for extras on the school scenes. The director is David Solomon, who's also the "Line Producer", the guy in charge of the budget. Maybe it was him. And ice rinks are a bear to light properly, because ice gives you glare. Maybe Solomon decided he didn't need a crowd, too. But that's outside the story. In the show, it's a step back for Buffy and Angel, IMO.) And in "Reptile Boy", Willow is upset because Buffy lied to Giles in order to go on a date. Here, Willow…helps Buffy lie to Giles in order to go on a date. Say what? (I guess Marti didn't see "Reptile Boy", either? Ugh.) And everybody is like "Buffy just fights, she never helps with the research." What? In S1, Buffy was usually the one to figure out the plot., and she enjoyed it. ("Two points for the Slayer, while the Watcher has yet to score.") It was just last week when Buffy took charge of the research, organizing duties and helping Willow with the books before going to interrogate Giles. Again, character-regression. You want to watch that; character depth, such as Buffy NOT just being "Destructo-Girl", is the show's strength, IMO.
Jessica Roth
2021-08-11 06:26:51 +0000 UTCThe episode is "Written by Howard Gordon & Marti Noxon", but they did NOT work as a team. What happened was that Howard Gordon had been a success writing for "The X-Files", so Joss brought him in as #3. (Behind Joss and David Greenwalt.) Howard was listed as a "consulting producer" and his job was to run the writing staff, supervise freelancers like Carl Ellsworth ("Halloween") and write occasionally on his own. He'd just started this episode when Something Happened between him and Joss and Gordon quit. (There's probably an interview, somewhere. Howard Gordon went on to be a key producer for the Kiefer Sutherland thriller series, "24", a few years later.)
Jessica Roth
2021-08-11 05:59:16 +0000 UTCI think most part one episodes are usually a little weak, especially compared to the corresponding part two because they are usually mostly build-up. I also agree it was a little padded. I wonder if maybe the story was too big for one episode but not quite enough for two. (hence the padding). This is still a great episode though.
palisade
2021-08-11 00:29:03 +0000 UTCI'm so happy it's Tuesday! And now I'm even happier since we get another episode tomorrow. :) This Part 1 is definitely the weaker of the two parts, but that just means that Part 2 is going to be even better! I took ice skating lessons when I was little, like 5 years old. My skill level is very similar to Buffy's here. Able to skate backwards and sort of do little spins and turns. I've always loved figure skating but it never went anywhere. Sometimes I'll go somewhere at Christmas but that's very infrequent. Yay for Willow and Oz meeting, Willow's frog fear "don't warn the tadpoles", Angel holding stuffed animal Mr. Gordo, Spike being sweet to Dru, Cordy and Xander developing, and Buffy getting to do something normal. Can't wait for Part 2!
Melissa
2021-08-10 22:30:10 +0000 UTCHey Darcie, I've been super busy so I'm catching up on your last three episodes. As always you are a tremendously bright spot in my week. 😁 I voted for you doing one longer episode but now I think that this is actually better because even though we have to wait a day for part two, overall we end up getting more commentary from you and really that's the best part. FYI: The hidden area the cross was in is called a reliquary (a place to keep relics), the building it is in, which also contains coffins (and dead people) is called a mausoleum. Looking forward to tomorrow. (tic, toc, tic, tok... "are we there yet?")
palisade
2021-08-10 21:37:17 +0000 UTCCan’t wait for part 2 😭 Also Oz finally being able to talk Willow 👀 Really love how when the possibility of multiple slayers comes up your first thought is world domination.
Sarah
2021-08-10 21:12:39 +0000 UTC
