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The Big Damn Buffy Rewatch S03E02, “Dead Man’s Party”

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In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone ordered way too many Girl Scout cookies this year. She will also recap every episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer with an eye to the following themes:

  1. Sex is the real villain of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe.
  2. Giles is totally in love with Buffy.
  3. Joyce is a fucking terrible parent.
  4. Willow’s magic is utterly useless (this one won’t be an issue until season 2, when she gets a chance to become a witch)
  5. Xander is a textbook Nice Guy.
  6. The show isn’t as feminist as people claim.
  7. All the monsters look like wieners.
  8. If ambivalence to possible danger were an Olympic sport, Team Sunnydale would take the gold.
  9. Angel is a dick.
  10. Harmony is the strongest female character on the show.
  11. Team sports are portrayed in an extremely negative light.
  12. Some of this shit is racist as fuck.
  13. Science and technology are not to be trusted.
  14. Mental illness is stigmatized.
  15. Only Willow can use a computer.
  16. Buffy’s strength is flexible at the plot’s convenience.
  17. Cheap laughs and desperate grabs at plot plausibility are made through Xenophobia.
  18. Oz is the Anti-Xander
  19. Spike is capable of love despite his lack of soul
  20. Don’t freaking tell me the vampires don’t need to breathe because they’re constantly out of frickin’ breath.
  21. The foreshadowing on this show is freaking amazing.
  22. Smoking is evil.
  23. Despite praise for its positive portrayal of non-straight sexualities, some of this shit is homophobic as fuck.
  24. How do these kids know all these outdated references, anyway?
  25. Technology is used inconsistently as per its convenience in the script.
  26. Sunnydale residents are no longer shocked by supernatural attacks.
  27. Casual rape dismissal/victim blaming a-go-go
  28. Snyder believes Buffy is a demon or other evil entity.
  29. The Scoobies kind of help turn Jonathan into a bad guy.
  30. This show caters to the straight female gaze like whoa.
  31. Sunnydale General is the worst hospital in the world.

Have I missed any that were added in past recaps? Let me know in the comments.  Even though I might forget that you mentioned it.

WARNING: Some people have mentioned they’re watching along with me, and that’s awesome, but I’ve seen the entire series already and I’ll probably mention things that happen in later seasons. So… you know, take that under consideration, if you’re a person who can’t enjoy something if you know future details about it. 

Buffy’s back home, unpacking in her room, and she doesn’t look happy about it. She goes into her mom’s room, where Joyce is hanging something up:

A wooden mask with angry eyes and sharp teeth

Joyce: “We got a very exciting shipment in at the gallery. I, um, thought I’d hang a few pieces in here. Cheers up the room.”

Buffy: “It’s angry at the room, Mom. It wants the room to suffer.”

“You have no appreciation of primitive art.”

And you have no clue on how to be a good parent, so I guess you’re both even, huh?

So, let’s talk about this mask in relation to #17 and #12. Joyce says the mask is Nigerian. Okay, but it’s like, supposed to be a tribal mask, right? Which tribe? Nigeria has a ton of people in it, and I’m going to assume that because of this, indigenous cultures are probably as diverse there as indigenous cultures in North America. Just a quick Google check said there were over three hundred distinct tribes in Nigeria alone. When a season four (equally problematic) episode involved the Chumash people, the tribe was specifically mentioned, and was geographically correct. So, North American indigenous peoples get their own distinct identities, but not indigenous African people. It’s just “Nigerian.” We run into the same issue later with the First Slayer. She’s just “African.” So we’ve got the entire plot of this episode hinging on some scary, foreign culture that doesn’t even get a specific name (#17), but we also have the added flavor of knowing exactly why that dynamic exists and persists with regards to American perception of African countries (#12).

So back to the episode. Buffy wants to go out and find Willow and Xander, but Joyce is understandably gun shy. Still, she says she wants to put the whole thing behind them, and lets Buffy go out.

Cut to Buffy, walking alone and sad down some alleys. She runs into a shadowy figure, which is Xander, you can tell from his ears, but it’s supposed to be like, a tense moment. Buffy steps on a can to get his attention, and he whirls around, ready to stake her. He’s stunned to see her, but what could have been a touching reunion is interrupted by a vampire bursting out of a crate.

They’re apparently shipping vampires into Sunnydale now.

Buffy and Xander fight the vampire, while over a walkie-talkie Cordelia reveals Xander’s embarrassing handle: Night Hawk. Seriously, that’s the name they picked for Xander’s super awesome vampire hunter name.

Oz, Willow, and Cordelia run in to help, and to be fair, until they’re all knocked down in the alley and Buffy stakes the vamp herself, they’re doing pretty good for humans against a creature of the night. While they’re all sprawled on the concrete, Buffy greets them with “hey, guys,” and the opening credits roll.

The Scoobies immediately take Buffy to Giles’s house:

Buffy: “You know, maybe it’s too late. Maybe we should just come back tomorrow. What if he’s mad?”

Xander: “Mad? Just because you ran away and abandoned your post and your friends and your mom and made him lay awake every night worrying about you? Maybe we should wait out here.”

Buffy knocks on the door, and when Giles answers, he’s just as stunned as the rest of them were. Xander tries to joke, because he’s a jackass, and Giles shuts him up. Then just says, “Welcome home, Buffy.” Which tells us, the viewer, what we already know: Giles isn’t mad at Buffy. He’s just glad she’s back.

Oz: “Hey, so you’re not wanted for murder anymore.”

Buffy: “Good. That was such a drag.”

I love the understatement here, as well as the easy way the narrative moves along without lingering on the question of what will happen to Buffy now that she’s back and was a fugitive at the end of last season. There’s no need to explain why Buffy’s been cleared of the murder charges. There will have been an autopsy on Kendra, that sort of thing, and evidence that comes to light or what have you. Since this isn’t Law & Order (donk donk) we don’t have to know all those details. Those aren’t what’s important. Which is a good tip for your writing; if something is important, but you can plausibly gloss past it, go ahead, if it feels realistic or the reader/viewer can put the pieces together in their minds.

As the kids talk, Giles goes to the kitchen for tea. He stops for a minute to listen to them, and does this:

Giles leaning against a cupboard, his eyes closed, smiling.

I love this Giles moment, because it not only shows that he missed Buffy and is relieved at her return, but it’s very clear that he’s missed the sound of these goofy, obnoxious kids that drive him crazy all the time with their inane chatter. Now they’re all together again, and things are right in his world.

But for some reason, he wears a tie even when he’s just sitting around at home.

Xander asks Buffy to tell them what she’s been up to, but Giles thinks she probably needs some decompression time. He’s right; she’s not interested in telling them what happened in L.A.. In fact, I’m not sure she ever does, that I can remember. I guess I’ll find out as the season goes along.

Buffy compliments the gang’s Slayer abilities, and they tell her they’ve actually managed to take down six out of ten vampires. Which is pretty impressive. And none of them died in their failed attempts, so that’s also impressive. They offer to take over vamp dusting duties for a while, but Buffy says she wants to get back to her normal life. When she suggests they all hang out the next day, everyone is busy, but Willow reluctantly says she’ll change her plans. Giles reminds Buffy that she’s still expelled from school. Buffy says that her mom is going to see Snyder, and she’ll definitely be returning to Sunnydale High.

But when we cut to the next day, in Snyder’s office, his answer is a definite no. Joyce tells him he doesn’t have the right to keep Buffy out of school, since all the charges against her were dropped:

Snyder: “I have not only the right, but also a nearly physical sensation of pleasure at the thought of keeping her out of school. I’d describe myself as ‘tingly’.”

Snyder is the best non-supernatural villain on this show. He’s so much fun to hate. He cites Buffy’s penchant for violence, property damage, and her horrible grades as enough to keep her from re-enrolling, and suggests she look into a career in fast food.

Buffy and Joyce leave, but not before Joyce threatens to go “all the way to the mayor” to fight for Buffy’s rights. Snyder smirks and says:

Snyder: “Wouldn’t that be interesting.”

Season two had several moments of foreshadowing regarding the mayor, so the viewer gets the idea that maybe there’s something up that we need to worry about there. Snyder bringing up this line is more foreshadowing, and really neatly reminds the viewer of all those past moments when the little weasel mentioned the mayor.

Joyce reassures Buffy that everything is going to be okay, they could send her to private school. Buffy recoils at this idea, and suggests homeschooling, to which Joyce answers that they’ll work something out. She drops Buffy off at the Espresso Pump. This is the first appearance of what will become a new and often used setting in seasons three and four, and to a lesser extent, seasons five, six, and seven. Buffy waits for Willow, who doesn’t show.

When Buffy gets home, she runs into an art-teacher-looking lady, Pat, coming out of the house. Pat is Joyce’s friend from book club. She tells Buffy that she’s glad she’s home, since Joyce was so torn up about Buffy’s disappearance.

Inside, Joyce tells Buffy that Willow tried to call to tell her that she was “hung up”, but that she didn’t leave a message. Joyce suggests inviting the whole gang over for dinner, then tells Buffy that she already did, so basically it’s on. She sends Buffy to the basement for the “company plates”, where Buffy finds a dead cat. Like you do, in your basement. Thanks to the internet, I know that finding random cats in one’s house is pretty common, but this episode has baffled me for years. How the fuck do you not smell a dead cat rotting in your basement?

Buffy and her mom bury the cat in the yard:

Buffy: “Next time, I get to pick the mother-daughter bonding activity.”

Joyce: “Do you want to say something?”

Buffy: “Like what? Thanks for stopping by and dying?”

Joyce: “How about, um, goodbye, stray cat who lost its way. We hope you find it.”

Because there’s nothing more comforting than being compared to a rotting stray cat.

In the night, the mask in Joyce’s room does this:

The mask, now with glowing red eyes.

Which is probably not a great thing for it to be doing. Meanwhile, outside, the dirt on the cat’s grave starts moving, and the zombie cat claws its way up, very much alive.

I wonder if the two things could be related.

Buffy dreams that she’s walking through the entirely empty halls of Sunnydale high. When she reaches the courtyard, Angel appears. Buffy tells him that she’s afraid, and he responds that she should be. Buffy’s alarm goes off, and it is the most annoying alarm anyone has ever heard.

You know, I vaguely remember Buffy having that cool moon and stars horoscope alarm clock in her room before. That had a nice beep. Why not use that?

In the kitchen, Buffy’s just trying to get some breakfast while Joyce goes on and on about school. She’s been on the phone to the superintendent, and calls Snyder a “nasty little bigoted rodent man.” I’m not sure where bigoted comes in, but she says it. You know how people (usually people who’ve just put their foot in their mouth when commenting on one or more oppressed groups) will say, “I don’t see color, I hate everyone equally”? I feel like Synder is possibly the only person I could actually believe that of.

But I still like him way better than this Snyder:

Picture of MI Governor Rick Snyder in front of a banner that reads "Reinventing Michigan: Getting it right. Getting it done."
This is the Snyder I want to see eaten by a giant penis monster at the end of season 3.

Joyce also mentions that she checked out a private school for girls:

Buffy: “So now it’s jackets, kilts, and no boys? Care to throw in a little foot binding?”

Joyce: “Buffy, you made some bad choices. You must might have to live with some consequences.”

I’m so torn on this one. Because while the side of me that firmly believes Joyce is to blame for Buffy running away (you know, on top of all the other circumstances), Buffy is being a whiny little brat here and then makes a crack about having to “ride the little bus”, so I think she does need to be called on how melodramatic she’s being. Comparing private school to foot binding? Come on, Buffy.

That said, Buffy didn’t actually make any bad choices. She didn’t have any choices. She was wanted for murder but had to run from the police to stop her evil ex from destroying the world. She couldn’t have gone home even if she’d wanted to, because the cops were after her. And one thing I wish they would have explored more was if there would have been a consequence to people finding out she’s the Slayer. Joyce was ready to tell anyone and everyone, and probably would have if Buffy had turned herself in. We wouldn’t have known it at the time, but there is a big, shadowy organization rounding up supernatural creatures. Telling local law enforcement that Buffy is a Slayer would likely not gone well for her.

Anyway, Joyce opens the kitchen door and in runs the should-be-dead cat. She and Buffy look at each other in horror before we cut to Giles at the front door, bearing a cage. The cat has conveniently run into Joyce’s bedroom, where Giles notices the mask. He comments on it, and Buffy interrupts the discussion of ancient art that’s about to ensue by reminding Giles that they need to research zombie cats. Giles reminds her that she’s not allowed on school property. He tells Buffy he’ll call her as soon as he has an idea what’s going on with the cat

In the library, Oz gets up close and personal with undead Garfield:

Oz leaning real close to the cage with the dead cat in it. That cat, by the way, is super dirty and gross and has blood coming out of its ears.

Oz: “It looks dead. It smells dead. Yet it’s moving around. That’s interesting.”

Cordelia: “Nice pet, Giles. Don’t you like anything regular? Golf, USA Today? Anything?”

Giles: “We’re trying to find out how and why it rose from the grave. It’s not as if I’m going to take it home and offer it a saucer of warm milk.”

Oz: “Well, I like it. I think you should call it ‘Patches’.”

You can’t see it well here, but Oz is wearing blue nail polish. In the mid-to-late 1990’s, previously scarce nail polish colors like blue and black and gray were suddenly everywhere, leading to more guys painting their nails. It was a novelty thing that seems to have faded out; I don’t see it in the wild as much anymore. But at the time it was like, “Oh my god, our generation is so hip and amazing.”

Baby boomers had Woodstock, Gen X had dudes wearing nail polish. What a time to be alive.

Willow reminds everyone that they’re supposed to be going to Buffy’s house for dinner, and that they should all help out and bring things, which quickly devolves into them turning the dinner into a party, because they don’t want to face actually having to talk to Buffy. Giles says he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to involve a band and a whole bunch of people, but he’s overruled by the social anxiety of four teenagers. As they discuss things, Giles flips right past a page in his book that bears a picture of the exact mask he just saw at Joyce’s house.

At dinner time, Buffy’s setting the table with the company plates, which basically should have been thrown in a garbage fire because they were near a dead zombie cat, so I’m glad they don’t actually eat off of them. The doorbell rings, and it’s Pat, Joyce’s friend who looks like she’s about to lead a workshop on some culturally appropriative workshop about spirit guides at a new age store whose logo is supposed to be a butterfly but suspiciously looks like a lavender vulva.

No, seriously, tell me she doesn’t:

This woman has a shoulder-length blonde bob with bangs, a pink blouse with puffy sleeves, an orange batik silk vest on over that, a necklace that's like, multiple ropes of either small shell or wood beads, and a copper bracelet.

Buffy asks if she wants to see Joyce, then shouts a panicked “MOM!” up the stairs, the way we all do when our parents’ friends want to interact with us. The next guest to arrive is Dingoes Ate My Baby, who ask where to set up. Buffy is confused.

The party is in full swing, leaving the Scoobies to do their own thing and generally ignore Buffy, as they planned. Buffy tells Willow she’d rather it was just the the gang, not this huge rager, but Willow acts like she can’t hear her. So Buffy drags Willow off to ask her if everything is okay between them. Willow insists it is, but immediately runs off again.

In Joyce’s room, the mask does its glowy-eye thing. Elsewhere in Sunnydale, a seemingly dead accident victim lying in the road amongst police and EMTs suddenly opens his eyes.

At the party, Xander and Cordelia are making out. Buffy tries to sneak past them, but Xander says it’s great that so many people are there to welcome her back. Buffy points out that many people at the party don’t even know her, but Xander and Cordelia get too caught up in talking about how hot it was to kill vampires together, and they start making out again. Buffy, sensing her presence is no longer needed, leaves them to it.

In the emergency room, a burn victim has just flatlined. The doctor declares him dead, and the patient sits up. The sound of attacking ensues.

As Buffy grows increasingly suspicious of the motive of the party, she walks past some dudes who appear to be smoking weed. They’re talking about how the party is for a chick who just came back from rehab. I’m not sure they understand how rehab works. In the kitchen, Joyce and Pat are getting loaded on clear alcohol and talking about how Joyce is coping with the return of her runaway daughter:

Joyce: “Really? I’m…I don’t know. While Buffy was gone, all I could think about was getting her home. I just knew that if I could put my arms around her and tell her how much I loved her, everything would be okay.”

Pat: “But?”

Joyce: “Having Buffy home, I thought it was going to make it all better. But in some ways, it’s almost worse.”

And this is what Buffy overhears.

Now fully convinced that everyone was happier without her, Buffy goes to her room and starts packing her bags to leave again. As the mask glows, zombies from all over Sunnydale are beginning to converge on the Summers house.

Giles finally gets back to that page about the mask. He tries to call Buffy, but the stoned guy from before answers the phone. He doesn’t even know who Buffy is. He actually answers the phone, “Party villa, can I rock you?” which is officially the way I’m going to answer the phone from now on. The guy is too messed up and interested in people doing shots to bother with Giles’s phone call.

So, here’s another thing that I think pretty well qualifies as #3. There are teenagers having a huge, loud party with free flowing alcohol and at least one loady smoking up in the living room. Joyce, you are the parent. It is your job to make sure there isn’t like, underaged drinking and drug use going on in your house. But you’re too busy talking to your pottery teacher friend about how awful it is to have your daughter safe at home to even notice that all this is going on.

Upstairs, Willow catches Buffy packing and flips out. Buffy says she’s trying, that Willow doesn’t know how hard things are for her, and that everyone was doing fine when Buffy was out of the picture. Willow just wants Buffy to talk to her, but Buffy points out that Willow has been avoiding doing just that. And while I normally love Willow, she is super selfish in this scene:

Willow: “This isn’t easy, Buffy. I know you’re going through stuff, but so am I.”

Buffy: “I know that you were worried about me–”

Willow: “No, I don’t just mean that. I mean, my life. You know? I’m having all sorts of…I’m dating. I’m having serious dating, with a werewolf. And I’m studying witchcraft and, and killing vampires, and I didn’t have anyone to talk to about all this scary life stuff. And you were my best friend.”

Okay. So, you’re dating. That’s hardly as big a deal as being suspected of murder and having to kill your own boyfriend. You’re studying witchcraft and killing vampires, and you didn’t have anyone to talk to? Not, you know, Xander or Cordelia or Oz or Giles? Giles is like, the number one most perfect person to talk to about your teenage witchcraft, because he definitely has experience in the teen witch department. Meanwhile, Buffy had literally no one, and now she’s come back to a life she’s been cleanly cut out of. It’s one thing to be angry with someone for running away; that’s totally normal and understandable. But maybe instead of going, “Hey, here’s how your sudden disappearance affected me,” Willow could have actually asked Buffy about why she left and what she was going through. But she doesn’t. She gives excuses for why she couldn’t do that, why it’s Buffy’s fault that she couldn’t, then basically calls her a neglectful friend.

Giles is on his way to the Summers house, and he’s had just about enough of Joyce (and it’s only episode two of this season), compelling him to utter one of the most famous and often-quoted lines of the entire series:

Giles: “Unbelievable. Do you like my mask? Isn’t it pretty? It raises the dead. Americans.”

He’s so busy bitching about the whole zombie mask thing that he accidentally hits a pedestrian. He gets out of the car to check on the guy, only to find that it’s a zombie. It grabs Giles, and other zombies are shambling his way.

In Buffy’s room, Willow is still on the whole I’m-not-going-to-be-at-all-forgiving-or-understanding kick, when Joyce comes in. So now Buffy has two people, who are supposed to care about her and who have been acting like they don’t, yelling in her face and telling her how terrible she is. Overwhelmed, Buffy runs downstairs.

This is such a weird story to share, but I have to. I used to know this person who, in hindsight I realized, took every single part of their personality and made all their decisions based on some kind of jumbled pastiche of entertainment stuff they liked. And I’m not talking about when people are really, really into a movie and they quote it all the time, or you think of them and go, “Oh, Mike. The Star Wars guy.” I mean like, I’m almost 100% sure her divorce was the result of her wanting to live out The Last Five Years. She was super toxic, beyond anything I’ve ever experienced. I should write about her sometime, but nobody would believe me, she was that bad. Anyway, when she got upset about something, anything, she would do the whole I’m-so-overwhelmed thing almost instantly, and she would do it in this super precise imitation of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s delivery of her “Stop it, please, I don’t know, I can’t” etc. lines from Buffy. Just watching this scene gives me this hard physical reaction because of that. My neck is doing a thing. A terrible, terrible thing.

Joyce, empowered by the schnapps she drank earlier, lays into Buffy, bringing the house party to a screeching halt as party goers find themselves trapped in that most awkward of teen situations: being at someone’s house while they fight with their parents:

Joyce: “You can’t imagine. Months, of not know. Not knowing whether you were lying dead in a ditch somewhere or, I don’t know, living it up?”

Buffy: “But you told me! You’re the one who said I should go. You said if I leave this house, don’t come back. You found out who I really was and you couldn’t deal, don’t you remember?”

Joyce: “Buffy, you didn’t give me time. You just dumped this thing on me and you expected me to get it. Well guess what? Mom’s not perfect, okay? I handled it badly. But that doesn’t give you the right to punish me by running away.”

Buffy: “Punish you? I didn’t do this to punish you.”

Xander: “Well you did. You should have seen what you put her through.”

Buffy: “Great, thanks. Anybody else want to weigh in here? How ’bout you, by the dip?”

The “you by the dip,” by the way, is Jonathan, a recurring character whose importance throughout the show continues to grow all the way into season seven, where his blood is used to open the seal of the Hellmouth, setting in motion the major arc of the last season. We’ll talk about this more as the recaps continue, but I just wanted to point out that he’s still consistently showing up since his first appearances last season.

I also think it bears mentioning that the actor who portrayed him, Danny Strong, adapted the screenplays for both parts of Mockingjay and also co-created the series Empire. So, good job, Danny.

Xander: “You know, maybe you don’t want to hear it, Buffy, but taking off like you did was incredibly selfish, and stupid.”

Okay, so while we’re trapped in this shit show of blame, can I point just one teeny thing out, here?

Nobody has asked Buffy why she ran away.

Which Buffy points out:

Buffy: “Okay, okay! I screwed up! I know this. But you have no idea! You have, you have no idea what happened to me or what I was feeling.”

Xander: “Did you even try talking to anybody?”

Buffy: “There was nothing that anybody could do. Okay? I just had to deal with this on my own.”

Xander: “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.”

So, Buffy didn’t try talking to anybody. She’s there now. She’s been there. And not a single one of her friends or her mom has wanted to talk to her about running away. Not even Giles, who is arguably the only person in Sunnydale who could possibly understand how horrific things could have gotten inside Angel’s house of torture and demon conjuring.

Let’s just examine the actions of the characters in the season two finale, shall we? Willow, knowing full well that Buffy is headed over to kill Angel, decides to try her spell, anyway, because as we will see throughout the series, Willow is rarely as concerned with the outcome and ramifications of her spells as she is with the ego boost she gets from just seeing if she can pull them off (#4). Xander, knowing that Willow is trying to do the spell, tells Buffy to kill Angel, anyway, a decision that is probably equal parts “If I tell her, she might endanger herself and the world waiting to see if the spell worked,” and “I hate Angel anyway and with him out of the picture I might win a prize.” (#5) And Joyce told her daughter to never come home (#3). So I’m really confused as to why Buffy’s actions were considered selfish here.

Xander’s last line about not burying stuff annoys me in two ways: one, it’s the Scoobies who have been trying as hard as they can to avoid one-on-one time with Buffy so that they don’t have to talk to her–something they continue to insist that they want to do–, and it’s a cheap set up for a cutaway to Giles fighting the zombies. Under other circumstances, the line might be clever, but here it just feels like, whoa, dude. Humor? Not appropriate right now.

Giles fights off the zombies and manages to get back inside his car. As the undead hoard beat on the windows and roof, Giles realizes that he’s dropped his car keys outside. Bemoaning his stupidity, he hurriedly hot wires the car. To which he says:

Giles: “Like riding a bloody bicycle.”

So, on top of this being yet another example of weird skills Giles has that go pretty much unremarked upon in the series, we’re meant to infer that Giles has also hot wired cars many times.

This is exactly why we need a spin-off show about Watchers. At this point, I don’t even care if Anthony Head is involved. I just want to see what the fuck they’re teaching at the academy.

Back at the party, Buffy points out that she couldn’t actually talk to Xander, anyway, since he was so anti-Angel in the first place. Xander replies with all the grace and tact that one would expect of him:

Xander: “Look, I’m sorry that your honey was a demon, but most girls don’t hop a Greyhound over boy troubles.”

Thanks for proving her point, dickhead.

Cordelia even calls him on this:

Cordelia: “Time out, Xander. Put yourself in Buffy’s shoes for just a minute, okay? I’m Buffy, freak of nature, right? Naturally, I pick a freak for a boyfriend, and then he turns into Mr. Killing Spree, which is pretty much my fault–”

Buffy: “Cordy! Get out of my shoes.”

Even though she’s doing it in an extremely Cordelia way, Cordelia does have a point. Nobody has tried to sympathize with Buffy at all.

What I find interesting is that they’re talking about demons (which, granted, could be taken figuratively) and killing sprees (a little less likely to be interpreted as a figure of speech), and there’s absolutely no reaction from the other party goers. Probably because of #26, but it could also be because they’re trying to figure out an escape plan.

The fight continues, with Oz stepping in to try to calm the situation. Actually, if anyone could be a good mediator here, it’s Oz. He’s a supernatural creature himself, and has had to deal with the fallout from that, but he was also probably worried about Buffy in her absence. This entire episode could have just been Oz counseling everyone calmly through this.

Willow: “No, let ’em go, Oz. Talking about it isn’t helping, we might as well try some violence.”

And on cue, zombies burst through every ground-floor window of the house.

Willow: “I was being sarcastic!”

The zombies don’t seem to be of the people-eating variety; they bust in and just start fighting and breaking necks. Joyce asks if they’re vampires, and after Buffy stakes one and nothing happens, it’s apparent that they are not. Which means all the staking the other Scoobies are doing is also not working. They try to wrestle a zombie outside, while Pat is dragged off, screaming, by another one.

Willow, Xander, Joyce, and Buffy run upstairs, just like Cici in Scream 2, but this time it’s obviously going to work out better for Sarah Michelle Gellar. They find Pat unconscious in the hallway, but it’s only after they wrestle her into Joyce’s bedroom that they realize she’s dead. As they try to keep the zombies out of Joyce’s room, where they all seem to be headed, the mask falls off the wall and Pat’s eyes open.

Downstairs, Oz and Cordelia emerge from their hiding place to find a mostly empty house. When Giles appears around a corner, they nearly kill him with ski poles by accident. Then Oz says:

Oz: “Looks like the dead man’s party’s moved upstairs.”

OMG THEY SAID THE TITLE OF THE THING IN THE THING!

Giles tells them that the zombies are after the mask in Joyce’s bedroom, which is tied to the zombie demon called Ovu Mobani, or “evil eye”. Just for shits and giggles, I looked up Igbo and Yoruba to English translators and learned that Mobani means basically nothing in either and Ovu means “moss” and “youth” respectively. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I had to be a pedant, as it is the nature of these recaps. It could mean evil eye in another language used in Nigeria, I have no idea.

Anyway, the mask, when put on by a zombie, makes the zombie into the zombie demon itself. Which isn’t awesome, because Pat is like, thirty inches from the mask. She gets up, shoves Joyce, and puts the mask on.

Pat, exactly as I described before, but now with the fanged tribal mask fused to her face.
This is the part of the crystal healing workshop where I usually skip out.

Demon-Pat’s main power seems to be super strength and eyes that blind you like a camera flash. Buffy pushes her out the window, and they both tumble into the backyard while Joyce bludgeons the living ass out of a zombie with a baseball bat. I like that Joyce’s home defense system is a baseball bat.

Battling with a zombie on the stairs, Giles tells Oz to go to Buffy and let her know that the source of the demon’s power is its eyes. Oz makes it out there just in time to see Buffy stab “Pat” in the eyes with a shovel. Because Buffy isn’t stupid, Giles. Once Pat is vanquished, all the zombies disappear. Oz, in his Oz way, tells Buffy:

Oz: “Never mind.”

In the aftermath, Joyce asks Buffy if this is what she usually does, and Buffy assures her that this was pretty tame. Then everyone hugs, and all is forgiven, still without anyone asking Buffy a damn thing about why she disappeared. Let’s just ignore this, they seem to say with their embracing arms, and move on. Giles, looking on, seems just as confused as I am.

It’s daytime again, and Snyder is in his office, getting ready for a meeting with the mayor. Giles pays Snyder a visit, attempting to reason with him about Buffy returning to school. Snyder won’t budge, and says Giles can take it up with the city council. Giles fires back that he plans to take it up with the state supreme court, which…you know, Giles, you can’t start with the supreme court. You actually do have to start with the school board, sue them, and go from there. But whatever. Giles tells Snyder that if Buffy isn’t allowed back at school, he’ll make life difficult for Snyder in a professional capacity. When Snyder still isn’t swayed, Giles grabs him by the tie and shoves him into a filing cabinet, all with a very threatening, very cheerful smile.

At the Espresso Pump, Willow is telling Buffy about her progress with witchcraft, and forgives Buffy for running away.

Buffy: “You’re really enjoying this whole moral superiority thing, aren’t you?”

Willow: “It’s like a drug!”

Buffy: “Fine, okay. I’m the bad. I can take my lumps…for a while.”

This devolves into a playful exchange of sometimes misogynist insults, and the episode closes with everyone still blaming Buffy for running away.

Okay, it might seem like I’m being hard on everyone here, and not taking into account how worried people are when someone runs away. Having witnessed and experienced the fallout of a young relative who ran away for just a few days, I can only imagine that a loved one going missing for months is an even more hellish nightmare. But in this episode it wasn’t a case of Buffy just running off because she was sad or mad. She ran away because she was told she didn’t have a home anymore. She felt responsible for the deaths of Angel and Ms. Calendar, and she’d endangered the lives of her friends just by being around them. To Buffy’s mind, being close to her friends would hurt them. She was facing a murder charge, and had no idea that she’d been cleared. Support from her mother was no longer an option. Buffy did what she thought she had to, and her hand was pretty much forced.

The fact that her loved ones knew this, and either wouldn’t acknowledge it or, in Joyce’s case, flat out disavowed any responsibility, makes this episode pretty hard to watch. The only real support Buffy gets from anyone is from Cordelia and Giles, and they’re mostly silent on the subject.

This episode is one I don’t rewatch often, because it bums me out.

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51 Comments

  1. Laina
    Laina

    Hold on, I need to go make a giant cardboard glittery 3 sign.

    This is a GREAT Buffy/Giles episode, really. I don’t ship them myself, but the closeness and him basically being the only one who isn’t terrible to her is my favourite, you know? And is why I hate his characterization in season six, man.

    I like to think Buffy regularly breaks alarm clocks like that one preview for Jessica Jones. She seems to go through a few.

    This episode is like a preview for my anger in season six. YOU ARE ALL TERRIBLE AND SHOULD FEEL ASHAMED OF YOURSELF. I also think this is pretty close to a preview of Buffy’s depression/mental illness issues. She has a few of them where looking back, they kind of look like red flags and not just normal teen issues, in my opinion.

    If Oz had given Buffy the Angel message, things probably would have turned out a lot differently.

    Actually, can I just say the Oz/Buffy relationship/friendship/whatever could have been really interesting to explore???

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      I don’t ship them until season 4, but this is definitely an example of a time when he’s legitimately her only friend in the room.

      But I also see his season 6 characterization as being a part of my belief that he ultimately falls in love when her when she’s an adult.

      January 28, 2016
      |Reply
  2. Quelaag
    Quelaag

    This episode angered me a lot. Xander in particular. I kind of wanted the zombies to eat Xander.

    I liked the concept, and I think it was good that they showed the Scoobies being angry and selfish because they’re teenagers, and I wouldn’t expect teenagers to be able to cope well with those sorts of emotions or see past themselves when they’re that afraid. It made them seem more realistic. But I hated the way they handled it. Months spent in mental anguish, and then they’re all buddies again after ten minutes of fighting off a zombie horde? It was like the writers noticed that they were running out of episode space and couldn’t figure out how to resolve the issue, so they just gave up and said “zombies solve everything!”

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
  3. Jass
    Jass

    I don’t watch this episode often either. I just start yelling at the TV in frustration, because no one lets Buffy talk and the gaslighting is off the charts. This whole episode could be done with Buffy and The Rock (playing all the Scoobies+Joy) Buffy: My feelings were- Rock: It doesn’t matter what your feelings were! Now I’m going to lay the snackdown on your candy-ass!

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
  4. Jo
    Jo

    Everyone is terrible to Buffy this episode and I hate it. I like that Giles understands her, Oz attempts to moderate the situation and Cordelia at least tries to defend her, but everyone else was just downright shitty. I’ve come to expect this from Joyce, but Willow and Xander have been with Buffy since episode one, they should know what she was going through.

    Anyway, I do like it that no one is reacting at having to listen to their weird argument because they’re too busy trying to escape. “Dude, did they just say her boyfriend went on a killing spree?” – “Who cares, they’re blocking door…”

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
  5. Jon
    Jon

    I think Hausa is also spoken in Nigeria.

    I once read a description by of who the further away from home the author got the more generally and generically he was perceived until in Cairo he was seen as Nigerian and in Europe or America he was African. I guess that one could argue the mask did a bit better although I am willing to bet it has no relationship to any culture from Nigeria or anywhere else.

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
  6. kokairu
    kokairu

    Oh! I never got that her friends turned the gathering into a house party because they were avoiding talking to her… I just thought they were being really tactless… whoops!

    I agree with another commenter in that it’s good to see these characters acting like teenagers, but I hate the fact that no one apart from Buffy is called out on their behaviour. It’s really uncomfortable to watch.

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
  7. One, if you ordered too many girl scout cookies I’ll take some off your hands, lol
    Two, yeah, I love Oz in this season in general. Not as much in future seasons, but here he’s great.

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
  8. Jemmy
    Jemmy

    Yeah this episode is kind of awful. No one seems to care about what Buffy has been through. Joyce is utterly awful.

    Re Giles and hot wiring the car, I saw that as foreshadowing the rebellious phase he went through, as seen in Band Candy

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
  9. Jilliterate
    Jilliterate

    This fucking episode. It feels like there should have been a magic spell on everyone (Maybe from that mask) causing them to act like irrational jerks. Instead of the episode ending with Buffy having to apologize for being a teenager upset after the death of her first serious boyfriend.

    And fuck Joyce. Kristine Sutherland’s portrayal of her makes me like the character so much more than she deserves to, because Joyce is a fucking monster in this episode. Her daughter — her child — confronts her with what she did, and instead of immediately apologizing, all Joyce does is make excuses, attempting to pivot the blame back onto Buffy. It doesn’t matter how upset you are, you don’t cut your child off — the human being you brought into the world, who’s entire viewpoint is shaped by you, who depends on you to live. I’m so irritated with the writers for not giving Joyce a better response to Buffy’s accusations, or at least, better excuses.

    Thanks so much for reviewing these episodes, Jenny. They’re wholly entertaining, and your critiques express my rage so well!

    January 28, 2016
    |Reply
    • sexiersadie
      sexiersadie

      “Her daughter — her child — confronts her with what she did, and instead of immediately apologizing, all Joyce does is make excuses, attempting to pivot the blame back onto Buffy. It doesn’t matter how upset you are, you don’t cut your child off — the human being you brought into the world, who’s entire viewpoint is shaped by you, who depends on you to live.”

      Clearly, you haven’t met my mother. I was trying to explain my absolute addiction to Buffy to my therapist once. I was like, “It’s so weird because her mother is hypercritical and never gets her point of view, and she barely even has a father.”

      And my therapist was like, “Uh-huh. You don’t see any similarities there at all?”

      April 25, 2017
      |Reply
    • Bibli
      Bibli

      Jilliterate! Yes! you have pointed out the exact right reason I am unhappy with Joyce here.

      The *actress* does an amazing job of making her character believable and likeable- which makes the *character’s* actions seem reasonable and justified.

      But really, another comment I’m compelled to make? #3. I’m in luuurve with this #3 trope shorthand: I wish I could use it at work. “Oh did you see A- most recent #73? He is a living stereotype, isn’t he?!” Because “ugh get over yourself, you are not that special “

      Btw I found this blog yesterday and I’m enjoying it immensely. So I’m reviving comment threads like a badass / witch.

      May 17, 2019
      |Reply
  10. Alisha
    Alisha

    I was originally watching along with the recaps, but I got impatient so I’m on season six now. I keep thinking “Oh damn, I can’t wait to see what Jenny has to say about THAT!” etc. 🙂 Always glad to see another recap!

    (P.S. This episode makes me rage out.)

    January 29, 2016
    |Reply
  11. Lindsay
    Lindsay

    Yeah, but you know what the worst part of this episode was? Joyce stealing the Museum’s property. Excuse me Joyce, but they didn’t ship those cultural artifacts to the Museum to HANG AROUND YOUR HOUSE.

    January 29, 2016
    |Reply
    • Meli
      Meli

      Joyce doesn’t work at a museum. She owns(?) an art gallery. So the mask is technically her own property.

      January 29, 2016
      |Reply
        • Lindsay
          Lindsay

          ohhh ok, for some reason I thought she worked at that museum that had the Inca princess from that other season. I bow to your superior knowledge of the buffyverse.

          February 1, 2016
          |Reply
  12. This is the episode where I had completely had it with this show and most of its characters. I watched the whole series, because I wanted to have seen the cult phenomenon, but this episode hammered for me (which kept being confirmed in later seasons) that the writers wanted their main character to suffer. And not just suffer as in, it makes for interesting characterisation. No suffer as in, she is never allowed to be happy, always has to eat other people’s shit, always has to take the blame for other people’s crap and is always supposed to be perfect while the people are allowed to keep fucking up in the most horrible ways and just blame Buffy for it. I already didn’t like Joyce. From here on I hated her. This is the episode where I started hating Willow, she is so selfish from this season on. I have always hated Xander, and later I’ve come to hate Giles too. Which sucks, because there’s so much fun and cool stories in this show, but its insistence on letting shitty people get away with everything and the narrative always saying they’re right, while their protagonist always gets dumped on and the narrative always saying she’s wrong, really soured this show for me.

    January 29, 2016
    |Reply
    • Jemmy
      Jemmy

      Yeah, I can see that. I really think the show should have stopped at the end of season 3, season 5 at the absolute latest. One of my favourite episodes is in Season 5 where she decides she’s not taking it any more from the Watcher’s Council. It’s a brief moment of Buffy being the powerful person she is. I think that’s why I like ‘Anne’ too. She owns being the Slayer in a way she doesn’t always when she’s with her friends.

      January 30, 2016
      |Reply
      • Yes, definitely season 5 at the latest. Season 6 was one of the biggest bummers of tv show seasons ever. But also, I felt so incredibly sad for Buffy when they brought her back to life and she was so unhappy.

        January 30, 2016
        |Reply
        • JennyTrout
          JennyTrout

          Yeah, when we get to season six, I bet I mention, “They should have stopped at 5” more than once.

          January 30, 2016
          |Reply
          • Haha! Glad we’re all in agreement about that.

            January 31, 2016
        • Mel
          Mel

          Yet another instance of her friends being completely and utterly selfish. Sure, they thought she was in hell, but if they’d thought about it for a minute, they’d realize there is no reason for Buffy to be in hell despite having jumped into a swirling vortex. She did nothing but save the world – a lot, as it said on her tombstone – and they think she went to hell for it?! What she deserved was to be left alone for once. She did her job and got nothing but pain, misery and blame heaped on her for it. Season six is also when I really started to hate Willow.

          January 31, 2016
          |Reply
      • Mel
        Mel

        I agree, I wish they’d ended Buffy on Season 5. It goes downhill after The Gift. And I’ve always wanted to ask Joss why a new Slayer wasn’t called when Buffy died the second time. I don’t buy the Sexbot-as-substitute excuse at all. It’s lazy writing. In the first season, Buffy is dead for maybe a minute, if that, and a new Slayer (Kendra) is called, so why not this time?! It doesn’t make sense and is one of the biggest plot holes in the series as far as I’m concerned.

        January 31, 2016
        |Reply
        • Laina
          Laina

          Buffy had already died. Faith is the “active” Slayer. There’s not supposed to be two Slayers, so another one wasn’t called because Faith was still alive.

          January 31, 2016
          |Reply
        • Courtney
          Courtney

          Yeah, what Laina said. I figured the mythology of the Slayer worked in that once Buffy died and Kendra was Called in S1, the only ‘new’ Slayers emerge from Kendra onward. Which explains why we get Faith when Kendra dies but no new Slayer when Buffy dies again in S5. Buffy is essentially like having an ace up your sleeve in a game of poker– if you play that card you don’t get dealt a replacement because you weren’t supposed to have that card in the first place.

          February 1, 2016
          |Reply
      • Casey
        Casey

        Okay, so I’m insanely late to the party (reading these after the most recent recap), and I’m just curious: Am I the only one who likes S7? Season 6 is pretty mediocre save a few good episodes — well, I really can only think of the musical one, but I assume there must have been a few others — but I actually really enjoyed the way S7 played out. This is a SUPER unpopular opinion, and I’m sure once Jenny starts doing those episodes I’ll better realize why, but I thought the finale in particular was a really sweet way for it to go out.

        And as hinted before, I can never wish it ended earlier, because there’s at least one episode a season that makes all the shitty episodes worth it for me. Like, where would we be without Hush?

        August 2, 2016
        |Reply
        • Angie
          Angie

          I also enjoyed S7. I thought it did a decent job mitigating a lot of the garbage given to us by S6.

          I also didn’t interpret Willow’s attempt to reinstate Angel’s soul in S2 as a selfish act trying to see if she could do it. I saw her as the only person who was trying to look out for Buffy where he was concerned, trying to give her back the person she loved when everyone else had given up on him. I thought it was a selfless act done out of love for Buffy.

          But maybe I’m giving her too much credit.

          November 1, 2016
          |Reply
    • Zweisatz
      Zweisatz

      Well said. I got more and more frustrated with Buffy’s “friends” (except Cordelia, she’s great) and Joyce has always been terrible.

      April 24, 2016
      |Reply
  13. I have actually been a person who makes all her decisions based on entertainment stuff I liked, it’s just I was fourteen at the time and it only took me a few years to figure out that this impulse is better expressed by being a writer, because in stories you can actually make it come out the way it looks in your head.

    January 29, 2016
    |Reply
  14. Trynn
    Trynn

    It is my headcanon that this episode never happened. I was raging so hard at the tv my friend had to leave the room till I calmed down.

    The characterization is consistent for Joyce, and maybe kind of so for Xander, who I barely tolerate. But I never really saw Willow as being this much of a jerk. So in my head, at least, this episode pretty much never happened.

    Or at the very least, everyone in this episode was possessed by demons that disappeared after this episode.

    January 30, 2016
    |Reply
  15. Mel
    Mel

    “The doorbell rings, and it’s Pat, Joyce’s friend who looks like she’s about to lead a workshop on some culturally appropriative workshop about spirit guides at a new age store whose logo is supposed to be a butterfly but suspiciously looks like a lavender vulva.”

    – This is oddly specific, LOL.

    January 31, 2016
    |Reply
  16. The Unicorner
    The Unicorner

    Jenny, I find this episode hard to watch now for the same reason. I thought her friends were being really callous at the time and that opinion has not changed. But Cordy’s defense of Buffy was one of the many times I just loved Cordelia. It’s also a nice moment of irony that the most seemingly self-centered of the scoobies is actually being the least self-centered here.

    I’ve been recapping Freeform’s Shadowhunters series, based on the books by Cassie Claire of Harry Potter fandom notoriety, and the latest episode of that series was also titled “Dead Man’s Party.” Like, make it more obvious how heavily Buffy-inspired this series is, lol. (Yes, I know this episode title did not originate with Buffy, but in addition to the numerous other similarities to Buffy in Shadowhunters, it jumped out at me)

    February 1, 2016
    |Reply
    • Halan Lore
      Halan Lore

      Cassie Claire was a huge Buffy fan. Her fanworks were littered with ‘unmarked’ Buffy quotes.

      I mean… How horrible right? But definitely not an accident.

      April 23, 2017
      |Reply
  17. TwoDaysTooLate
    TwoDaysTooLate

    Ugh, this episode upsets me for numerous reasons (and makes me Hate Xander possibly the most), but the mask sends me over the edge.
    I can possibly buy Joyce knowing it was from Nigeria because it could have shipped from there to the art gallery. However, I know the line about Giles recognizing the country of origin was only put in here to show how smart and cultured he is, but it would be nearly impossible to recognize the country. The country lines in Africa (for the most part) were drawn up by the Europeans who took over, not by Culture (like was done in Asia). The masks could have been identified as Nok, Yoruba, Benin, Igbo, or a variety of other cultures present in the area, and still not be Nigeria. There is no one Nigerian style. It’s also implausible that something from Nigeria would create Zombies, as that’s more of an Afro-Caribbean thing (from Vodun, which is heavily influenced by Catholicism). The mask incorporating teeth honestly looks more Polynesian than African, but I’m certain they were going for a generic “tribal” thing. This is honestly worse than “The Pack” when it comes to making stuff up

    February 1, 2016
    |Reply
  18. Crystal
    Crystal

    I’m rewatching Buffy for the no idea what number time and hit this episode and remembered the rage and jumped on here to see if you posted the recap. Then read along with the episode. I love that we have the same feels.

    Also, Danny wrote Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Everytime he pops up on something else for writing credits I get so happy because Jonathan’s all grown up.

    February 2, 2016
    |Reply
  19. bewalsh7
    bewalsh7

    My husband is Igbo, I’ll have to ask him about the name “Ovu Mobani” and what he thinks about the mask in general.

    February 2, 2016
    |Reply
  20. “So, let’s talk about this mask in relation to #17 and #12. Joyce says the mask is Nigerian. Okay, but it’s like, supposed to be a tribal mask, right? Which tribe? Nigeria has a ton of people in it, and I’m going to assume that because of this, indigenous cultures are probably as diverse there as indigenous cultures in North America.”

    I’m late to the party, so someone may have already said this, but the border of countries in modern Africa are the borders Europeans (mostly the Brits) drew when they left, which is a big part of why there’s so much strife there because those borders often encompass tribes that hate each other that the Europeans decided were now going to be one big, happy nation! And we get nations like Nigeria (which has been in near-constant war) and Sudan, to name a couple. Fun fun!

    The actual definition of “bigot,” which I think fits Snyder just fine:

    bigot
    [big-uh t]
    Spell Syllables
    Examples Word Origin
    noun
    1.
    a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.

    February 2, 2016
    |Reply
  21. Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK
    Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK

    Ah, yes, the episode of Incredible Raging at the TV. Joyce is so completely awful here that it’s a tribute to Sutherland that I was actually sad during The Body.

    February 2, 2016
    |Reply
  22. Alex
    Alex

    This episode pisses me off so so so much. And no one ever gets any kind of consequences for it. Willow’s, Xander’s, and Joyce’s parts in Buffy running away are never called out. Except for once, and when it happens it’s forgotten almost immediately after. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but yeah I’d worried if my loved one ran away. There might be some anger, I guess, but I would want to know why. I would want to know what happened. One of the first things I’d say, “When you’re ready, we can talk about why”. I kind of stopped liking Willow as much after this episode. Xander and Joyce made their places on my shit list permanent.

    February 5, 2016
    |Reply
  23. Sigyn Wisch
    Sigyn Wisch

    I would totally believe you if you wrote about the toxic person who took all her reactions from movies. I’ve had former friends who were the exact same way. I mean, my own personality was sort of cobbled together from various books and movies when I was younger because autism, but then I grew up and
    developed a personality of my own. Also, Giles threatening Snyder just made Thankless Job pop into my head, so that’s fabulous.

    Usually my dad is super harsh on Buffy, but we were both completely on her side in this episode, and keep in mind that I’ve run away from home a bunch of times and my dad has also done the “if you walk out that door” thing. Course, he never bought a death mask, so we had to work out or ignore our issues the old fashioned way.

    February 6, 2016
    |Reply
  24. I’m late with my thoughts, but here they are.

    Not naming the Nigerian tribe: It’s not necessary. Naming an actual tribe and saying that they’re a part of something evil isn’t cool. It would have maligned an entire people. I think maybe you’re trying too hard to be show how liberal and “accepting” of black culture you are.

    Glossing over the murder charge: so sometimes it’s ok to skip details, but not the exact name of a Nigerian tribe where a mask came from? I would have much rather had known how the charges got dropped, than know a specific Nigerian tribe. But really, not knowing either one, is just fine as neither one adds anything remotely relevant to the story.

    The theme of everyone behaving selfishly is one of the things that was great about Buffy; it shows teenagers behaving like actual teenagers. None of this Mary Sue garbage where everyone is graceful and sweet and no one does anything wrong. And we see the same disregard for Buffy as an actual person (as opposed to the Slayer) in “Once More With Feeling” when they bring her back against her wishes. And they’re all horrified when they realize it.

    February 11, 2016
    |Reply
    • Li
      Li

      What the hell is “black culture”? I’d rather be too liberal than have your mindset where every black person in the world fits into an amorphous black culture. Because yes, that’s incredibly racist.

      August 3, 2016
      |Reply
  25. Eva Kenieva
    Eva Kenieva

    THANK YOU SO MUCH. This episode made me so mad. Thank you for pointing out everything wrong with it.

    May 20, 2016
    |Reply
  26. Toove
    Toove

    Some comments on the show in total. I am now on season six. Spoilers ahead. I agree with almost everything you wrote in this post.

    Spike and Xander: They keep talking about how evil he is, Xander says “when did you ever help us?” etc, but he helped them a lot, several times, saved the world from the apocalypse and their life and so on, and we hardly ever in the later seasons gets to see any actual evil done. Apart from the trying to rape Buffy + the eggs. The rape is totally out of character if we look at how he behaved with Drusilla.
    This is why many defend him, not because they excuse rape. But I saw a site where someone wrote “I jerked off to this scene som many times” A scene without much nudity, just the “no”. There are creepy people out there, girls, and they look just like anyone else!
    I don´t know why Xander would guess rape from seeing Buffy´s mark on her legs: She fights all the time and sometimes it does leave marks.
    Her life is in danger every day.
    The invisible Buffy: I can t see that as a rape attempt. The two of them are special and enjoy fighting. Immediately when Spike understands that it is Buffy he is into it. She can be pretty certain he would be into it before she goes there.

    In general I think it is fine that teenagers are portrayed as selfish, but it is terrible that Xander is supposed to be this comic relief guy, since he is such a douchebag, and I cringe thinking about what teenage girls and boys learn from him. The show would hav improved so much if someone now and then said something against Xander.

    Willow: That she is smart isn´t shown in hardly any of her lines. I guess it is difficult to write smart lines when you aren ´t smart yourself?
    That she is in love with Xander after puberty is very unlikely, given their close history as friends like siblings. And given how stupid he is.

    I miss shows that show that the lovers actually have something in common and something to talk about, other than life itself. (El sexo debil, for adults among you)

    The mask thing: Silly, but the most racist thing in the show is how white the cast is. I had trouble distinguishing between various blonde girls sometimes.
    The original slayer: That she is called “African” I honestly saw as fine, because I saw her as having lived so long ago, close to homo erectus time. Based on how she walks and her body paints. We alle stem from those people. But I guess people who believe we were created six thousand years ago wouldn ´t think that?

    June 1, 2016
    |Reply
    • Angie
      Angie

      Late comment is late.

      I hated that attempted rape scene involving Spike. I have never been able to reconcile it with the character, and I feel it’s really just shitty writing, and it should never have been allowed to air.

      November 1, 2016
      |Reply
  27. Rachel
    Rachel

    More please! Beauty and the Beasts and Dopplegangland are two of my favorite episodes and I’m eagerly awaiting your takes on both. Also, this season (3) is so much about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Buffy throughout the series says, ‘it’s wrong’. I first remember her saying it in season 2 when she and willow are discussing plumbing the watcher diaries for dirt on Angel, in Lie to Me, and then very obviously when Faith switches their bodies in season 4. And probably again in season 6 with Spike (I haven’t gotten there yet). and, ooo in season 7 when the original men try to rape her to give her more power. Anyway, it’s a theme about her power and how it should and shouldn’t be used, not just as the super human demon fighter but also as a woman.

    June 2, 2016
    |Reply
  28. Centi
    Centi

    Thanks for your recaps!
    I am now watching the series for the first time ever (I’m obviously okay with spoilers). Yesterday I watched this episode and I am still totally mad at their reaction to Buffy coming home. When they all started blaming her for everything I totally thought this was a nightmare Buffy would soon wake up from. The scoobies were not just behaving like “normal” teenagers – not all teenagers are the same and I know enough that are more mature than some of the adults I know. Plus we are still supposed to like them, right? (I just caaaan’t.)
    Ugh, I’m still so angry! There are so many villains in this show, the friends should imo be supportive all the time and not making it harder for Buffy. To me, that does nothing good, I’m not more excited to watch the next episode, I’m more bored and tired.

    So thanks again for your recaps and thanks to the people in the comments, you all make me feel less alone in my anger.

    June 13, 2016
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  29. Hollykim
    Hollykim

    It is a lot like the season-6-mutiny-but-oh-wait-never-mind-because-explosion+spike-monologue=we-trust-you-again-Buffy! Isn’t it?
    Apparently Xander and Willow only feel safe enough to unload their respective stockpiles of sidekick-based resentment (passive agressive middle child here, I know that pile too well) when they’re buffered by the tacit approval of strangers ?

    August 10, 2016
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  30. There’s a great moment in the last season when she’s fighting with Xander over having to potentially slay Anya because she summoned something that massacred a whole frat. And she cuts across Xander’s ranting on how convenient it is for her, how the rule on putting down their demonic significant other is clearly different for her with “I KILLED ANGEL” followed by this quieter, slightly broken question, “do you even remember that?!” And I’ve loved that moment, but now after this recap I’m wondering how much they even know about.

    April 1, 2019
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  31. Bibli
    Bibli

    ***THIS IN THE RECAP
    You can’t see it well here, but Oz is wearing blue nail polish. In the mid-to-late 1990’s, previously scarce nail polish colors like blue and black and gray were suddenly everywhere, leading to more guys painting their nails. It was a novelty thing that seems to have faded out; I don’t see it in the wild as much anymore. But at the time it was like, “Oh my god, our generation is so hip and amazing.”

    Baby boomers had Woodstock, Gen X had dudes wearing nail polish. What a time to be alive.

    Because hey! My younger sister’s boyfriend when I first met him? He had on orange nail polish and my sister ‘had done it ‘. August 2000. Yes, you, blankie museum girl, if you weren’t already sure this was me talking about you two.

    May 17, 2019
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