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The Big Damn Buffy Rewatch S03E010 “Amends”

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In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone burned her hand very badly on a Pop Tart and is busting through the lidocaine spray so furiously that she might actually develop an addiction. 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 How do these kids know all these outdated references, anyway?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.
  32. Faith is hyper-sexualized needlessly.
  33. Slut shame!
  34. The Watchers have no fucking clue what they’re doing.
  35. Vampire bites, even very brief ones, are 99.8% fatal.

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.

I’m not super enthusiastic of this one, but only because I’m not super enthusiastic about Angel. At least, in Buffy. He’s too complex a character to be shoehorned into someone else’s story, and his compressed characterization (especially in one-off episodes like this) make him come off as a big ole bummer. He’s so much better in his own thing.

The episode begins in Dublin in 1893. A guy with impressive sideburns appears to be fleeing something in the snow. It’s Angel, with unfortunate facial hair:

Angel is rocking an old-fashioned ponytail, a teeny little soul patch, and a mustache the size of a push broom (and just as bristly). You could brush your teeth with it, hand to God.

Look at that. It’s like if Danny Trejo and Burt Reynolds had an ugly baby and it grew up to make poor grooming choices.

The guy apparently owes Angel money, so Angel kills him. Then we cut to Angel waking up from a dream, doing the shivery breathing thing he Always. Fucking. Does. Honestly, if I had noticed it sooner, I would have made a number for it, but he’s going to be gone at the end of the season, anyway.

It’s Christmas in Sunnydale, and Angel is out for a walk. He passes a store window where a television news broadcast is predicting a sunny, hot holiday.  Angel runs into Buffy, who has tragically short bangs:

Buffy's hair looks like a bad wig. There's no other way to describe it. Her bangs are way too short for her face.

That is such a ’90s move. That hair could only be more ’90s if it were The Rachel.

In the middle of their awkward post-breakup encounter, Angel hallucinates the dead guy from his dream standing in the street. Then the opening credits happen, and it’s a good time for me to ask: is the entirety of Sunnydale a pedestrian fucking mall? Buffy and Angel are downtown, during Christmas shopping season, and traffic is so light that they can just stand in the middle of the street chatting?

At school, Buffy tells Xander and Willow that Angel was acting weird.

Xander: “Angel? Weird? What are the odds?”

Shut up, Xander. You were a hyena once.

Willow suggests that Buffy talk to Giles about it.

Buffy: “No. I don’t wanna bug Giles. He’s still kind of twitchy when it comes to the subject of Angel.”

Xander: “Oh, it must be that whole ‘Angel killed his girlfriend and tortured him’ thing. And Giles is pretty petty when it comes to stuff like that.”

Buffy: “Xander, enough, okay?”

On second thought, Xander, keep going. Because I feel like this is a point that is generally treated as unreasonable by the storyline. Xander is one of the only people who ever consistently brings it up, so it’s easy for the viewer to be like, “Ugh, Xander is just saying that because he doesn’t like Angel.” And yeah, he doesn’t like Angel, but sometimes we have valid criticisms of people we don’t like. And sometimes, we can forgive a lot when we care about someone, and then that valid criticism sounds like just plain old being mean. I would have loved for Willow to, at some point, step in and be like, you know, Angel killed someone I cared about, and it’s okay for me to feel angry about that. Instead, this very valid point is treated like a symptom of Xander’s jealousy. Buffy doesn’t want to bring Angel stuff up to Giles? That’s fine, and it’s sensitive of Giles’s feelings. Buffy doesn’t want anyone to bring up the fact that Angel very recently murdered and tortured their friends? That’s not.

Willow suggests that Angel might just be suffering some holiday depression. The subject changes to Christmas plans:

Buffy: “What are you doing for Christmas?”

Willow: “Being Jewish. Remember, people? Not everybody worships Santa.”

I really like this part, because I like to see characters call out erasure of their identities. It’s an amazing tool in fandom arguments, and gives people an example of how it’s not the end of the world if your friends call you out.

Xander accidentally makes eye contact with Cordelia, and quickly tries to avoid any more. He tells Willow and Buffy that he’s going to be camping out on Christmas because he likes nature, and Cordelia fires one right through the mast:

Cordelia: “I thought you slept outside to avoid your family’s drunken Christmas fights.”

Xander: “Yes. And was a confidence I was hoping that you would share with everyone.”

I hate how often Xander’s truly sad experiences in what sounds like a neglectful, if not openly abusive, home are played up for laughs. If you really sit down and think about it, his always-on personality and his inability to forgive people probably stem from being raised in that home environment, but that’s never really explored. Missed opportunity, there.

Maybe that’s what makes me so frustrated with this episode. It highlights all the places where more could have been done to give these characters added dimension. All we really needed was one vulnerable human moment from Xander, about Xander, and he would have been a totally different (and less irritating) character.

Cordelia gloats about going on vacation to Aspen for Christmas break, and taunts Buffy and Willow and Xander about being poor. When she leaves, Buffy remarks that Cordy is back to her old self, and Willow points out that Cordy has a legitimate reason to dislike them. She also gets another chance to scold her friends for dismissing her identity as a Jewish person, so go, Willow!

Oz warily approaches like the adorable little mouse he is and asks Willow if they can go somewhere and talk. So cut to a totally empty classroom in the middle of the school day, where they have this long conversation undisturbed.

You know, now that I think about it, that’s happened before. Giles and Ms. Calendar had a sexually charged conversation about books in a classroom that wasn’t either of theirs, and nobody walked in or thought it was odd.

Anyway, while Willow insists that everything with Xander is over and begs Oz to believe her, it becomes pretty clear that whether he believes her or forgives her doesn’t matter:

Oz: “This is what I do know. I miss you. Like, every second. I mean, it’s like I lost an arm, or worse, a torso. So, I think I’d be willing to give it a shot.”

Then they make-up hug and the horrible knot in my chest can finally loosen.

Later that night, Joyce and Buffy are shopping for a Christmas tree. Because why not enjoy the outdoors in Sunnydale after dark? Joyce suggests that they invite Faith over for Christmas, and Buffy tells her mom that she and Faith aren’t really talking to each other anymore. But Joyce is concerned about a teenager spending Christmas alone in a dirty motel, and Buffy agrees to ask her. Then Buffy asks about inviting Giles, and Joyce is like, absolutely no way.

Cue the spooky music! Buffy walks through the mini-forest of Christmas trees and finds a whole bunch of dead ones. The Christmas tree guy tells her that the trees died suddenly, and offers her a deal on a dead one. You know, normally I would find this odd, but it is Sunnydale. Maybe this is like, the one guy in town who actually gives a damn that vampires and demons are around, and he’s like, “Might as well sell one a Christmas tree.”

Meanwhile, Angel is having another nightmare, and we get a glimpse of what will later become a pretty important villain:

A dude in a hooded robe, with no eyes and big scars of nordic runes over where his eyes should be.

That handsome fella right there is a Bringer, and they show up again in season seven.  Now, according to this divination book I have (because I actually have a pretty extensive collection of divination oracles like tarot, runes, stones, etc. and I bet you didn’t know that about me until right now),  those runes carved into dude’s face are protection from evil (on the left) and fertility (on the right).  I’m certain that’s a bunch of New Age fiddle-faddle, but it’s still kind of funny to me, because this show usually pays pretty good attention to New Age fiddle-faddle, and likely this was picked because it looked spooky and arcane.

This is all in another one of Angel’s nightmares, from which he wakes, gasping for air. (#20). So, now Angel has had a dream about killing a dude who owed him money, and one about scary no-eyes cut-up face dudes doing some kind of ritual with bones.

Buffy goes to Faith’s motel to invite her to dinner, but Faith claims to have been invited to a big party. It’s clearly a lie, but Buffy leaves the invite open, anyway. She also compliments Faith’s Christmas lights.

Cut to Giles’s house. Where he is cooking dinner. With the top buttons of his shirt unbuttoned. And he licks his fingers. And I write like sixteen short fanfics about exactly this scene. My actual work is suffering. I need to talk to my doctor to see if there’s any sort of treatment program for unreasonable attraction to a fictional character.

There’s a knock at the door, and Giles is in a super good mood until he opens it and sees Angel there.

Angel: “I’m sorry to bother you.”

Giles: “Sorry, coming from you, that phrase strikes me as rather funny. Sorry to bother me.”

Angel. “I need your help.”

Giles: “And the funny keeps coming.”

One thing I like about this show is that the characters who spend a lot of time together start to talk like each other. You could argue that it’s actually a bad thing, and a sign that the writers couldn’t give the characters their own voices, but that’s not what’s happening. “And the funny keeps coming” is easily something you could hear Xander or Buffy say, but not Joyce or Snyder or Angel. It’s interesting to me how the core group has their own little language pieced together from each other’s speech patterns. I wonder if that was a conscious thing on the writers’ parts, or if happened organically.

Giles agrees to help Angel, and walks away from the door. Angel reminds him that vampires can’t enter a home unless they’re invited, and Giles is like:

Giles, holding a crossbow with an expression that clearly displays that he's out of fucks.
Welcome to my beautiful home.

He does invite Angel in, though. Angel tells him about the dreams he’s been having about the past. He says that he can’t understand why he’s back on Earth when he should be in a hell dimension. Then Jenny Calendar appears behind Giles, wearing the same clothes she died in. Angel freaks out, but Giles can’t see Jenny. So Angel ends up running out. He goes back to the Mansion, and into another dream sequence. He’s in London, with the same terrible hair, at a Christmas party. He manhandles a serving woman and eats her, right there under a staircase while people are like, ten feet away. And nobody seems to notice? Like, seriously? Also, he bites her and she shrieks, then she’s like, immediately dead. From just the quickest, tiniest bite. She can’t call out for anyone? She doesn’t scream?

I know this is a dream sequence, but Angel tells Giles that he’s having dreams of the past that are very vivid, so these are more like flashbacks, right? Why did nobody notice? And why is even a brief vampire bite fatal? He just bites her and throws her down, and she’s dead. What’s going on with that?

You know what, that happens enough in the Buffyverse that I  think it needs a number.  #35: Vampire bites, even very brief ones, are 99.8% fatal. Which doesn’t make any sense, because people get bitten in this series and don’t die. What is making these people instantly die? Weak constitutions?

When Angel looks up, he sees Buffy standing there, watching him in horror. He wakes up, breathing heavily (#20), and we cut to Buffy, also waking up, because they were having the same dream. Which, by the way, actually happens to people, and if it’s never happened to you, I hope it doesn’t because it’s eerie as fuck. Anyway, when Buffy wakes up, she isn’t gasping for air. So, the human being isn’t out of breath, but the vampire who doesn’t breathe is. I just find it awfully convenient that Angel doesn’t breathe when the plot when requires it (there’s a gas leak, Buffy needs CPR, etc.), but the rest of the time he’s huffing and puffing like a three-pack-a-day smoker running a 10k they haven’t trained for.

Angel gets out of bed and is confronted by a really angry Ms. Calendar:

Angel: “What do you want?”

Jenny: “I wanna die in bed surrounded by fat grandchildren, but I guess that’s off the menu.”

Sidebar: Can you just imagine how adorable Jenny and Giles’s children would have been? I’m picturing a little dark-haired, pedantic girl in pigtail braids and glasses like Molly, the American Girl doll, but capable of withering sarcasm, and a little boy who has to have his screen time drastically limited because he’s just so into computers and doesn’t like to read at all and it drives his father crazy, the way his father drove his father crazy by wanting to be a fighter pilot.

YOU HAVE ROBBED ME OF THIS, ANGEL. YOU HAVE ROBBED US ALL OF THIS BEAUTIFUL FUTURE.

Anyway, Jenny torments Angel, then turns into the dude he killed for money back in Ireland. He tells Angel that he’s not trying to hurt him, he just wants to show him who he really is.

Buffy tells Giles about her dream, or specifically, about being inside Angel’s dream, and Giles reluctantly admits that he’s already spoken to Angel and is working on the case. Buffy wants to help. She tells Giles it’s going to be difficult to get over Angel if she’s constantly hanging out in his dreams, so Giles agrees. Xander steps in out of nowhere and volunteers to help, as well, citing “the Hanukkah spirit” as his reasoning. Giles gives them books and tells them to start researching. Buffy asks Xander if he really wants to spend his Christmas break working on demon stuff, and he tells her that it’s really all that he’s got going on, and asks who else has such a pathetic social life? Enter Willow, who gets there just in time for a montage of researching and eating pizza.

When Xander and Giles are out of the room, Buffy and Willow have a talk about Oz. Willow doesn’t know how to make Oz trust her again. Buffy says that Xander has a piece of Willow Oz can never have, so building that trust is what’s important. They reach a dead end in their research, which isn’t very convenient, since Angel is still being tortured by his past.

His current tormenter is reminding Angel how he arranged the man’s children like they were sleeping after he killed them. Angel is surrounded on all sides by people he’s killed. They tell him that he’s nothing but a sadistic killer, and that when he was a man he was a worthless drunk who disappointed his parents. Jenny keeps telling him that she doesn’t want to hurt him, she just wants to make him realize that the only thing he’s good at is being a murderer.

In the library, everyone is falling asleep researching. And I never noticed this detail before, but it’s adorable:

A Christmas stocking that says "Mr. Giles" on it.

We only see it blurry like this, in passing, but it’s a sweet touch. And I’m 100% certain it came from Willow.

Buffy is asleep on the floor in the stacks, and Angel is asleep on his coffee table. Buffy wakes in her bed, with Angel over her. They start getting frisky in the dream, so basically Buffy is having a wet dream in the library. Awwwwwkward. A Bringer appears in the dream room, and Angel gets vamp face and bites Buffy. They both wake from the dream, and Angel is once again visited by Jenny, who tells him he should just give in and become evil again. She tells him that he has to kill Buffy. That’s why he was brought back.

At the library, Giles has found information about the Bringers and The First, as in, the very first evil. Buffy says she saw a Bringer in her dream, and Giles is all like, what else happened in your dream? and Buffy changes the subject real quick. He explains that the Bringers are probably haunting Angel, and that there’s no way to fight The First, because it’s not a physical being. She decides she’s going to track down the Bringers and kill them, instead.

Buffy goes to the demon bar where Willy the slimeball works. After Xander ineffectually threatens him, Willy tells them that something is scaring the monsters out of Sunnydale. Which is bad, because monsters aren’t usually scared. Because they’re monsters.

Willy: “Hey, you did great by the way. I was very intimidated by you.”

Xander: “Really? Thanks!”

As they leave the bar, I notice that there’s an actual sign above the door. This is a bar that’s basically only catering to demons. When you walk in, it’s all demons, and vampires in full vamp face. And this bar is located near what sounds like a busy street. This is not a secret bar. People in Sunnydale know about vampires. Why are they all not wearing garlic and not carrying stakes? (#8)

Back at Willow’s house, her parents are out of town. Oz comes over to watch videos, but he finds Willow dressed all sexy, with candles lit and a romantic fire started and Barry White playing.

Oz: “You ever have that dream where you’re in a play, and it’s the middle of the play and you really don’t know your lines, and you kind of don’t know the plot?”

Willow: “Well, we’re alone and…we’re together. I just wanted it to be special.”

Oz: “How special are we talking?”

Willow tells Oz that she’s ready to have sex, but he is clearly not. He lets her down gently, telling her that he’s not ready to have sex with her. He’s had sex before, but he wants to wait until Willow isn’t trying to prove anything to him.

Hey, guess what this is? It’s amazing. I mean, it’s also an example of #18, because you know Xander wouldn’t take such a nuanced approach here. But what gets me about this scene is that it’s showing young guys that they can say no. It runs counter to the expectation that all guys should be out there striving to get laid. It also shows young women that if a guy rejects them, it’s not because they did something wrong. Willow tries to initiate sex, and it doesn’t work out. Now she (and by extension, the audience) knows that it’s not true that guys are just sex crazed and willing to get it on at any time, and that a man declining sex isn’t a rejection of them as a person. This is a great and important scene in the series.

At Buffy’s house, Joyce has started a fire in the fireplace and is about to turn on the air conditioning, because it’s  super hot in Sunnydale. So when Faith shows up, obviously she’s wearing a jacket. Did the costume people even read the script? Because later, Buffy is wearing a full-on winter coat. Anyway, Buffy goes upstairs to get presents, but Angel is there waiting for her. Jenny appears behind her and tries to goad him into having sex with Buffy. Or eat her. Or both. He dives out of the window instead.

Faith stays to protect Joyce while Buffy goes out to find the Bringers. She goes to Giles and begs him for help, and he tells her that if Angel actually does get dark-sided, she’s going to have to kill him again.

Back at the mansion, Jenny is still trying to get Angel to kill Buffy. He decides instead to go outside and wait for sunrise. And at this point, it’s pretty clear that Jenny is not actually Jenny. So we can all breathe a sigh of relief because it would be pretty fucking horrible if she was looking for vengeance from beyond the grave after all that talk about vengeance not being cool while she was alive.

Giles and Buffy are still researching the Bringers, but they’re not getting far, because they’ve been so aggrandized in arcane literature:

 Giles: “Yes, but more posturing, I’m afraid. ‘For they are the harbingers of death, nothing shall grow above or below them, no seed shall flower neither in man nor,’ uh… they’re rebels and they’ll never, ever be any good.”

But Buffy recognizes something in the text. The dead Christmas trees are her clue to where the Bringers are. So goes to the Christmas tree lot and hacks her way into their lair. They’re gathered around their altar, droning in Latin.

Buffy: “All right, ten more minutes of chanting and then you guys have to go to bed.”

The Bringers flee, and Buffy destroys their altar. The First appears as Jenny and warns Buffy that fighting is futile:

The First: “You think you can fight me? I’m not a demon, little girl, I am something that you cannot even conceive. The first evil. Beyond sin. Beyond death. I am the thing that darkness fears. You’ll never see me, but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate–”

Buffy: “All right, I get it, you’re evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?”

But Buffy isn’t as cocky when The First tells her that Angel is going to die, then transforms into a huge crab looking thing before disappearing. Buffy goes to the mansion to find him. He’s standing on a bluff overlooking Sunnydale. He tells her that The First brought him back to kill again. She argues with him that it’s foolish to listen to some random evil thing, but he doesn’t care about that so much as what the thing wanted him to do.

Angel: “It told me to kill you. You were in the dream. You know. It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again.”

Buffy: “I know what it told you. What does it matter–”

Angel: “Because I wanted to! Because I want you so badly. I want to take comfort in you, and I know it will cost me my soul, and a part of me doesn’t care.”

He tells Buffy that he’s weak, and it’s not him as a vampire who needs to die, but him as a person. She pleads with him to go back inside, and says that if he dies, all he’ll ever have been is a monster. She tries to drag him away, and he pushes her. She hits him, and he punches her, knocking her down. As she cries, he shakes her and tells her that the world wants him to go. She asks him if she doesn’t count, because she wants him around. She says that even killing him didn’t make her stop loving him. She tells him that she hates how hard it is to be around him and how much he hurts her. Also, that she doesn’t need to know everything he did in his past, because he did a bunch of that stuff to her.

Back up the abuse train. Remember back in season two, when the guy was abusing his girlfriend and Buffy was like, criticizing her for not leaving? We just literally saw Angel punch Buffy and shake her. We know he murdered someone he cared about, and both physically and psychologically tortured her friends. And all of this is being presented as part of their tragic love story, with Buffy telling Angel how he has to stay with her and they’ll get through all of the pain and tragedy together. This is gross, and straight up #6. It’s also one of the reasons I’ll never understand why this is considered a great love story, or why everyone felt Buffy should have wound up with Angel. He’s not evil now, and he’s still willing to hit her. Even if your girlfriend is the super-tough Slayer, that’s not okay.

A cold front has apparently moved in, and that’s good, because Buffy is already conveniently wearing a winter coat. Gentle snowflakes start drifting down, ending their argument as they look at each other in wonder at the Christmas miracle. Quick, everybody, forgive that unresolved fight! Pretend we never saw it! We see everyone experiencing the snowfall. Oz and Willow cuddling in Willow’s room, Joyce and Faith coming outside to stand on the porch, poor Giles all alone in his house, and worst of all, Xander, carrying out his sad childhood tradition of sleeping on his fucking lawn because his family is so terrible, and now he’s covered in snow.

You know what I think would have been cool for this episode? If Giles knew about Xander’s horrible home life and invited him to spend Christmas at his house. I mean, Xander annoys the fuck out of Giles, but I can’t imagine that he would just let the poor kid sleep on the ground outdoors on Christmas Eve. It’s the first time there’s ever been snow in Sunnydale, and there’s a lot of it. Also, the sun isn’t going to come out, apparently. That leaves Buffy and Angel free to walk hand in hand down the snow-covered street as the episode ends.

Honestly, this episode would be one I could enjoy, if it didn’t end the way it did. There was no reason at all that Angel needed to punch Buffy in the face. There was no reason he had to shake her and shout at her while she cried. And there’s definitely no reason that the scene was supposed to be passionate and proof of their true love. The “love hurts” theme in our entertainment media confuses all of us, I think. It’s not even a matter of “think of the children.” It happens with adults, too. Look at some of the great love stories we’ve seen in books lately, and who the audience for those stories was. As a fan of this show, as someone who loves almost everything about it, the amount of violence equated to love in the scripts disappoints me.

The only things I really like about this episode are the scenes with Willow and Oz, and the fact that it kicks off Angels character arc for the show Angel. He’s consumed with knowing his purpose now, and that leads into him going to L.A. and becoming a vigilante. We’ve finally reached the point in his arc where he’s not feeling obligated to fight the forces of evil to atone for his sins, but because he wants to fulfill his destiny.

Oh, and also, Giles is ridiculously hot with a crossbow.

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66 Comments

  1. Susan
    Susan

    Are you planning on reviewing Angel at some point? I’ve been rewatching it and I think you’d have a lot of great things to say about the show.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • Siona Larsen
      Siona Larsen

      I agree. I had been considering doing Jenny like recaps of Angel for the very reason. Because man the homophobia in that show….

      September 23, 2016
      |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      I don’t know. I’ve kicked around the idea, but Buffy is such a big, long project. It wouldn’t be until I finished the Grey recaps, that’s for sure.

      September 23, 2016
      |Reply
      • Susan
        Susan

        My friend and I did a Buffy/Angel rewatch and we watched them in air-date order (ie, S04-01 of Buffy, then S01-01 of Angel, followed by S04-02 of Buffy). It was cool, often the two episodes were linked thematically.

        Maybe you could do that? It’d push your Buffy recaps out further so I guess your readers might not appreciate it. I would though! 🙂

        September 23, 2016
        |Reply
  2. Devil's Kitchen
    Devil's Kitchen

    Jenny,

    Long-time reader (my wife introduced me to you) and a long-time reader. So… um… hi.

    I have a couple of questions from this review, if I may…?

    She also gets another chance to scold her friends for dismissing her identity as a Jewish person, so go, Willow!

    Why is it OK for Willow’s parents / family to impose a Jewish identity on her (from birth, when she cannot even consent to said identity being put on her), but bad that her friends do not acknowledge that imposed identity?

    And why is even a brief vampire bite fatal? He just bites her and throws her down, and she’s dead. What’s going on with that?

    Vampire bites increase the probability of anaphylactic shock, perhaps? That can be pretty quick (and no one really understands why it happens).

    Regards,

    DK

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      It’s bad that her friends don’t acknowledge her identity because she wants them to and repeatedly reminds them to acknowledge it.

      September 23, 2016
      |Reply
    • Kikibu
      Kikibu

      Are you seriously asking why it’s okay that Willow’s parents raised her to be Jewish? Why is it okay that all the Christian kids’ parents raised them in that tradition without consent? Why is it okay that all these non-consenting Christians be allowed to impose the identities that were chosen for them them onto Willow? What makes their forced identities more valid than hers?

      As did all the other parents, Willow’s parents raised her the way they felt was right, which, for them, included participating in their religion. Guiding your child in the best way you know is the responsibility and natural path of parenting. No one teaches their children in a way, to be, or believe something they consider wrong. The Rosenbergs were being, objectively, good parents.

      From her exasperation, and the fact that it happened twice in one conversation, it’s not a stretch to think she has to remind them of her Jewish identity at every Christian holiday. If it’s important enough to her to mention (especially more than once or in passing), it should be important enough for them to remember. Asserting their Christian worldview on their Jewish friend is disrespectful and diminishes her as a person and as their friend. Buffy and Xander were being bad friends.

      Also, at her age, it’s likely Willow already had her bat mitzvah. She would have knowingly and with intent claimed her faith and her responsibility in and to her religious community, while her Christian friends were still unquestioningly believing whatever they had been told.

      September 23, 2016
      |Reply
      • Isn’t this the first time Willow’s belief was mentioned? So I don’t believe her friends were being mean when they wished her happy christmas. If the writers wanted her to be jewish they might have mentioned that more times in the course of 7 seasons (for example the OC didn’t let us forget why they celebrate Chrismukkah). Also it’s a pity we don’t see more of willow’s parents considering the show had enough space for that.

        September 23, 2016
        |Reply
        • Anna
          Anna

          I thought it was mentioned earlier when Angel went all evil. When Buffy and Willow were doing the spell to un-invite him from Willow’s house after he killed her fish, and Willow makes a comment about her parents wondering why their Jewish daughter is putting up crossed around her room.

          September 23, 2016
          |Reply
        • JennyTrout
          JennyTrout

          I believe she mentions it for the first time in “Passion”, when she says something about having to go to Xander’s house to watch Christmas movies. In season 4 she becomes a witch and describes herself as a Wiccan, but at least culturally she’s referenced as Jewish several times throughout the series. She had a Bat Mitzvah, she puts stones on Tara’s grave, etc., I think at one point she refers to herself as a skinny Jewish Santa, but I can’t remember the line. Of all the characters, Willow is kind of the only one who’s directly described as having a religion, but it only really comes up when Christmas is mentioned. Aside from people wearing crosses for protection, religion doesn’t come up very much in Buffy. Which is weird, considering Sunnydale has 43 churches.

          I would have liked to see Buffy vampires be more like the vampires on Forever Knight in regards to symbols of faith, i.e., when Nick Knight couldn’t go into a house with a Mezuzah (if I’m remembering that episode correctly. It’s been a while). That could have been fun. Maybe Willow would have started out with a Star of David to repel vamps, but then when she became a witch, suddenly it doesn’t work anymore and she’s got a pentagram. Maybe Anya’s thing to repel vampires would be a dollar sign, and Giles’s would be a book. Maybe Xander’s would be a yellow crayon, since he believes in Willow so much. That would have been really cool.

          September 23, 2016
          |Reply
          • Quint&Jessel
            Quint&Jessel

            Hey, Jenny, that was an idea in an X-Men/Dracula crossover, when Kitty Pryde held up a cross at Drac and he struck it down because she doesn’t believe in it, and Kurt Wagner can use the cross because he does believe!

            I always felt there was so much backstory to Xander’s malsocialization and Willow’s intense fear of abandonment. Don’t really know that much about Willow, except her parents are college profs and she’s expected to be brilliant, but it’s intimated/shown Xander’s parents are beset by alcoholism and a terrible marriage. Our guys are so flawed and yet they can rise above it.

            Yeah, Angel fits in his own world so much better than in Buffy’s. He’s way too jacked up to be a hero in Sunnydale, and that’s sayin’ somethin’.

            September 23, 2016
          • Mia
            Mia

            There was a similiar scene in the UK version of Being Human, when George used his star of David to repel a vamp. I would have liked something like that in Buffy the vampire slayer.

            September 24, 2016
          • Elisabeth
            Elisabeth

            On Buffy, symbols of faith only seem to work against vampires if the vampire is of that particular faith, not the person who’s using that symbol. I seem to recall someone trying to use a cross against vampire Willow (later this season?) and she laughs it off.

            September 24, 2016
          • Suzy
            Suzy

            I really liked the Star of David choice on Being Human. What I loved about it was that it worked for George on vampires, but it didn’t hurt Mitchell. The explanation was that it mattered to George, George mattered to Mitchell, so it couldn’t hurt Mitchell. Respect for a friend’s beliefs. That was well played by the writers.

            September 24, 2016
          • Hollykim
            Hollykim

            in Practical Magic they make a big deal about curses and symbols only having power if you actually believe, and Aidan Quinn’s detective character burns the demon with his badge. It was nice to see that done with a nonreligious symbol

            September 25, 2016
          • Laina
            Laina

            Kinda like that scene in the Mummy where Beni just starts going through his giant necklace of different faith symbols? XD

            September 26, 2016
          • Laura
            Laura

            She actually mentions it before that in the episode “Bad Eggs.” Xander makes some
            Joke about teaching their eggs good Christian values and she replies that she’s Jewish.

            P.s – just recently found your reviews and I’m loving them! It drives me crazy when people get too defensive of media they love to acknowledge problematic aspects of it.

            June 21, 2017
      • Kikibu–

        Thank you for writing this response, which saved me a lot of time. Also, I believe you were far more eloquent than I would’ve been.
        ~~vka

        September 25, 2016
        |Reply
    • Neurite
      Neurite

      To be fair to Devil’s Kitchen, they may be just as critical of Christian parents imposing their identity on their kids.

      But for what it’s worth, I was born to Jewish parents, and they never imposed a Jewish identity on me. They made sure I was familiar with my Jewish heritage but let me know about other religions as well, they took me to synagogue with them *if and when I wanted to*, we celebrated Jewish holidays (but when my siblings and I were young they let us have a Christmas tree and Easter eggs too, so we wouldn’t feel left out among our friends), and they made it clear to us that our religious identity was for us to decide.

      I ended up not having a Bat Mitzvah, and indeed flirting pretty heavily with Christianity around that time, to the point of preparing to have a Protestant Confirmation. I decided against it with only weeks left to go. Only years later did I find out how hard this was on my parents – they never once let it on, because they wanted to let me make my own decision without pressure from them. Today I identify as Jewish and practice Judaism (to a degree), but that’s because I chose to.

      So. You know. It’s entirely not clear that Willow’s parents imposed her identity on her from birth, without her having any input. It is, however, clear from the story that now, as an older teen/young adult, she does indeed identify as Jewish, and indeed seems to have moderately strong feelings about it. So yeah, it is only right that her friends should acknowledge and respect that.

      October 2, 2016
      |Reply
  3. Sushi
    Sushi

    Angel wakes up from nightmares gasping for breath so many times, I thought for a minute you’d accidentally copy-pasted half of a Grey review.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • Casey
      Casey

      And likely for the same reasons: Angst is hot, character (or actor) is hot*, character is usually shirtless (and shirtlessness is hot), so we get to see all their pec-rising, sweaty hotness.

      I assume. Not that I was a teenage girl when watching these and had a massive crush on Angel or anything . . .

      *Okay, YMMV on that one

      September 26, 2016
      |Reply
  4. Jon
    Jon

    According to the British Commando training chart from World War II a ruptured carotid artery results in unconsciousness in 5 seconds and death in 12. Not sure that answers the question about the bites though as there would be A LOT of blood.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      Yeah, like, wouldn’t we see some kind of arterial spray? Also, they don’t always bit on the carotid side. I think the only visual media that’s ever gotten it right was What We Do In The Shadows.

      September 23, 2016
      |Reply
      • Nim
        Nim

        “Are you talking about the red couch?”

        “Well it’s red now… yes.”

        September 26, 2016
        |Reply
  5. Bryn
    Bryn

    Unrelated to Buffy, but relevant because of Anthony Head: he stars in a British show called You, Me, & Them. He’s the boyfriend of a much younger woman (played by the actress who played Gwen in Torchwood), and it’s all about them navigating their relationship and their crazy families (her parents and sister, his ex-wife and his brother).

    There’s one line where Head’s character is accused of being a sexual deviant who likes to have sex with fruit. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard him say, “Whether it’s because of the age gap or because I like having casual sex with fruit” with a straight face.

    Also, his ex is played by the actress who played Servilla in Rome!

    I highly recommend the show for anyone who hasn’t seen it; it’s hysterical.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • Aletheia
      Aletheia

      He was also in series (season?) 6 of Monarch of the Glen! He played a cocky, always-has-to-win arsehole who liked to get a liiiittle too close to guys he’s trying to intimidate. Oh, the fanfics one could write, if so inclined. (Especially fueled by other subtext in that season and the next from the guy he pits himself up against. Plenty of bi shipping opportunities there. XD;; )

      September 27, 2016
      |Reply
  6. Jo
    Jo

    Awesome review as always! (That crossbow. <3)

    Totally unrelated, but next time Pop Tarts attack, I suggest an aloe plant. You can usually even find them cheap in the flower section of a grocery store, and they're easy to grow. As a chronic Hand and Arm Burner, nothing gives more relief than slapping the guts of a leaf on a burn. Apologies for the unsolicited life advice, but I haven't had any blisters or scars since I got a plant and it's wonderful and I need to share.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • Tessany
      Tessany

      You know what also works? Egg white. My friend who is a nurse recommended it to me after I got a really bad grease splatter burn. It took the sting out immediately. Did have to reply a few times, but man did it work.

      September 23, 2016
      |Reply
      • Jo
        Jo

        I did not know that – that is great to know! Thank you! Right now I have a veritable army of aloe at home, but egg is often easier to come by.

        September 25, 2016
        |Reply
  7. Elisabeth
    Elisabeth

    “The “love hurts” theme in our entertainment media confuses all of us, I think. It’s not even a matter of “think of the children.” It happens with adults, too.”
    It does, even with those of us who should know better! I read a novel recently (Uprooted by Naomi Novik) where the love interest is both physically and emotionally abusive to the heroine – he pushes and drags her around physically, threatens her, yells at her, calls her stupid and worthless – and I think that if I hadn’t read a critical review of it before reading the book myself, I might have only really noticed the physical cruelty. I’ve read and watched enough abusive romances that yelling and name-calling might not stand out that much to me. And despite the abusive romance, I still ended up mostly liking the book (although I wish the heroine had gotten together with her BFF Kaisa instead, because their relationship was based on mutual caring and respect). Societal programming is really hard to shake.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • Bryn
      Bryn

      I JUST FINISHED THAT BOOK!!!

      Ahem. Sorry. No one else I know has read it yet and I got excited.

      Anyway, yes. I was pretty tuned-in to the verbal abuse, but I had almost glossed over the physical stuff because I’m so used to seeing it in fiction. Totally forgot how much he pushed her arounder until you said it.

      I was legitimately surprised when the MC ended up with the male love interest. It felt like the author was planting road signs for a f/f romance the whole time. It’s probably the first time in my reading life that I felt the canon pairing was completely off-base. And antagonistic m/f romances are sort of my guilty pleasure.

      But I, too, really liked the book overall. I wonder if the author has more planned for that universe?

      September 26, 2016
      |Reply
    • Aletheia
      Aletheia

      Uuugh, no, really? I love her Temeraire series*, but there’s so many problematic things throughout it. I’ve been trying to determine if it’s because of her writing and what she thinks is good characterization, or if it’s because of the viewpoint of the main character (a white, privileged guy from early 1800s England) and how he “translates” other cultures in his mind. But if there’s that type of problematic stuff in her other books, then… I’ll have to lean towards the former possibility instead of the latter. :/

      *Except for the BS that is the last book’s ending, but that’s besides the point.

      September 27, 2016
      |Reply
  8. Quelaag
    Quelaag

    “Now, according to this divination book I have (because I actually have a pretty extensive collection of divination oracles like tarot, runes, stones, etc. and I bet you didn’t know that about me until right now…”

    I bet you don’t know how jealous I am right now. 😛 I used to have some tarot cards and such, but water leaked onto my box of arcane goodies and all my stuff got ruined.

    Re: Vampire bites and dying immediately.

    If the vamp is aiming for the carotid artery, I could see the victim dying very quickly and not really being able to scream for help due to extreme dizziness or loss of consciousness. If I remember correctly, it only takes a few seconds from someone to be affected by a severed carotid (e.g. dizziness or blacking out), and they’ll die in about 4 minutes if they don’t get immediate medical attention. It would be a really bloody affair, though, so I would think it’d still be pretty noticeable.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
  9. Anna
    Anna

    OMG it always bothered the HELL out of me when Buffy and co. would be wandering around in winter coats. Like, yes, I know they’re trying to tell the audience that its December. But for fuck’s sake, she lives in southern California and it’s like 60 degrees. There is no reason for Buffy to wear a down parka. >.>

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • arctic_hare
      arctic_hare

      60? If their complaints about it being so warm are to be believed, it’s more like 80, at least. Which is a thing that sadly happens in winter in southern California sometimes, so I do believe it. What I don’t believe, though, is that anyone would be dressing the way they all are in this episode with temps like that. You’d fucking ROAST! Honestly, between that, the lack of traffic, and the general lack of racial diversity, Sunnydale just does NOT feel like a real southern California town.

      September 23, 2016
      |Reply
  10. Quint&Jessel
    Quint&Jessel

    Having lived in Malibu for a couple of years, I can tell you that, weirdly, California people will dress for winter during the Holiday season. I could not figure out why. I’d be out in a sundress, and my friend would be in jeans, a sweater, and a leather jacket, saying, “Oh, it’s so cold today,” and the temp would be a nippy 79.

    September 23, 2016
    |Reply
    • arctic_hare
      arctic_hare

      Oh man, I’ve lived in southern California all my life, and I’M baffled by your friend. Those kinds of clothes at 79 degrees?! Why?! That’s something I never do, and I don’t know anyone else who does. Maybe people who live right on the coast are just strange. IDK.

      September 24, 2016
      |Reply
      • Quint&Jessel
        Quint&Jessel

        Heh, I remember Santa in board shorts and his elves in bikinis at the mall in Santa Monica!

        September 24, 2016
        |Reply
  11. Lieju
    Lieju

    The reason I do like Angel/Buffy as a love story is because I see it as unhealthy (but believable) relationship that didn’t work out in the end.

    I don’t see it as True Love though, but a passionate relationship that didn’t work out.

    September 24, 2016
    |Reply
  12. Hollykim
    Hollykim

    I guess there’s some symmetry to only meeting Willow and Xander’s parents one time each, but it is odd how little we see of his clearly terrible home life. Basically the wedding, and hey, remember in the dream episode where we only see a shadow of his dad yelling at him because his mom was crying and Xander looked really scared?!

    September 24, 2016
    |Reply
  13. Mel
    Mel

    “Hey, guess what this is? It’s amazing. I mean, it’s also an example of #18, because you know Xander wouldn’t take such a nuanced approach here.” – yeah, I loved that scene too, but I hate to kill your buzz, Jenny! I know you’re not fond of Xander but the one time he actually did have a chance with Buffy (during the love spell Amy worked to make Cordelia love him again in Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered) he turned her down because it would have been taking advantage, as she was under a spell. I know, not quite the same situation, but Buffy was coming onto him pretty strongly, and he’d always had a thing for her, so I was proud of him for being able to turn her down. Would he have done the same thing as Oz in the exact same situation? Who knows. I hope so. Xander may be super annoying at times but he has his moments of clarity and decency.

    September 25, 2016
    |Reply
  14. Nocturnal Queen
    Nocturnal Queen

    I really felt for Xander in this episode. Growing up with a dad who was sometimes abscent and other times too high to be able to talk or walk or hold anything, Christmas is connected to anxiety and fights to me. I still feel a lot of sadness when I remember how I had to spend the night before Christmas alone, cleaning up my dad’s mess and making sure that he didn’t OD or fall asleep on his back in case he would vomit.

    September 25, 2016
    |Reply
  15. A
    A

    Can’t wait till you review Misfits! Love your recaps

    September 25, 2016
    |Reply
  16. Oh man, Angel punching Buffy in that scene really disturbed when watching it. And I agree, abusive ‘love hurts’ storylines are way too many in our world. And the romanticizing of them, ugh! It’s exactly the same, imo, with the Phoebe and Cole romance in Charmed.

    September 25, 2016
    |Reply
    • Laina
      Laina

      *twitches* Do you know. How sick I got of Phoebe and Cole. And I was marathoning those suckers. If that had actually been drawn out over real season time as an adult, I think I would have screamed.

      September 26, 2016
      |Reply
  17. candy apple
    candy apple

    UGH. Angel didn’t kill Jenny. ANGELUS KILLED JENNY. Angel was gone. Angel, the soul that inhabits Angel’s body, WAS GONE. In its place, the demon, Angelus, took over. Angelus used Angel’s body to kill Jenny. ANGEL DIDN’T KILL JENNY. XANDER IS WRONG. Willow doesn’t ever bring up “Angel killing Jenny” because Willow has a brain and has figured this out.

    I hate Angel. But Angel didn’t kill Jenny, ANGELUS KILLED JENNY. If you want to blame Angel for what happened when his body was possessed by a demon, fine, but just know that’s stupid.

    September 25, 2016
    |Reply
    • Quelaag
      Quelaag

      Yeah, it’s kind of like blaming Reagan because the demon possessing her murdered the director and the priest.

      September 25, 2016
      |Reply
      • Casey
        Casey

        I don’t know what this is referencing but all I’m thinking of is Ronald Reagan and like . . . I bet I could probably blame him for murdering a priest. Somehow.

        November 24, 2020
        |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      Every character on the show who had past demonic leanings gets treated that way, though. When Spike gets his soul back, it’s once again only Buffy who sees the distinction. Anya loses her demon powers, but the main cast never stops reminding each other that she used to be a dangerous demon. Even Willow going evil gets treated like, well, at any minute she could skin someone with her mind powers again. When Harmony becomes a vampire, she’s a joke to everyone because she’s Harmony (even though they fear the fact that she’s a vampire). The only time the show approaches any main character as though their supernatural bent is wholly separate from themselves is in the case of Angel.
      I mean, Angel’s whole backstory is that he feels guilty for the things he did when he was an evil vampire. It doesn’t make sense to me that the one character who feels remorse over his vampiric actions is the one character we’re supposed to not blame for those actions. I’ve never once seen a fandom argument of, “Spike didn’t do that! WILLIAM THE BLOODY did that!”

      September 26, 2016
      |Reply
      • Casey
        Casey

        Honestly, you’re right that Angel and Drusilla are the only two characters I can think of whose demon selves are nothing like their ensouled (I don’t think that’s a word) selves. Spike gets moderately more badass, but it’s really more like William going through a rebellious teenage phase and his maudlin sensitivity are channeled into violence and obsession. But with Angel and Dru, I don’t think there’s really any connection.

        Of course, I don’t know if this is a defense of Angel, a critique of him, or a critique of the show; it’s just weird. (But I love Angel. Can’t help it; he just pushes too many of my giggly-tween buttons.)

        September 26, 2016
        |Reply
        • Quelaag
          Quelaag

          I think it’s a critique of the show. They’re very inconsistent with how vampirism works with regards to the whole soul thing. Buffy has stated (to that kid who had cancer and who was trying to get Spike to change him) that becoming a vampire is akin to being possessed by a demon. And Angel’s changing back and forth in both “BtVS” and “Angel” is portrayed as such. He even argues with Angelus at one point in “Angel.” Angel’s remorse could just be because he’s a very broody person and he feels responsible in spite of having no control over Angelus.

          On the other hand, Spike still had an emotional connection to his mom after he became a vampire, which wouldn’t make any sense if William and Spike were essentially two different beings.

          Basically, it seems like the writers change the mechanics of vampirism and “ensoulling” to fit the plot.

          September 26, 2016
          |Reply
          • Casey
            Casey

            You’re probably right. I think they just got too attached to Spike and made him less of a shit than he was supposed to be. Or they just decided not to care. (I do think they tried to change it near the end of the series into “feeling bad about killing n whatnot” to explain (spoilers for s7) spike getting his soul back and breaking down (end spoilers), but it doesn’t totally hold water.

            Can’t complain too much, though; I really love spike and I like angel’s arc, and I’m not sure there’s a way to be consistent and keep both.

            September 26, 2016
  18. Casey
    Casey

    Anyone else read these recaps, nod and agree — for the most part; I’m still on the Angelus-is-not-Angel side of things — with Jenny’s points, feel disturbed by the unhealthy aspects of the relationship like the ones in this episode . . . and still REALLY like both Angel and his relationship with Buffy? I don’t root for it, but I feel it in the “isn’t this tragic romance so tragic and romantic?” way I think it was intended. At this point I don’t even know why; just curious if anyone else was reading and having the same thoughts/fangirl feels.

    September 26, 2016
    |Reply
  19. Laina
    Laina

    Oz: “You ever have that dream where you’re in a play, and it’s the middle of the play and you really don’t know your lines, and you kind of don’t know the plot?”

    …no, but Willow will at one point. Either number 21, or a good callback, either way.

    September 26, 2016
    |Reply
  20. Anon123
    Anon123

    Spot-on as always! Keep up the good work both calling out things and praising them as needed. 🙂

    September 26, 2016
    |Reply
  21. New Age fiddle-faddle aside, the runes did have magical meanings to the people who used them. Each rune had a verse (and the verses varied from language to language somewhat) that indicated its meaning, as well as serving as a mnemonic. I happen to have books which are NOT fiddle-faddle. I can’t find the book that has three different sets of rune poems, but here’s what I’ve got.

    The Germanic name of the rune on the left is Algiz, and the Anglo-Saxon name is Eolh. It does indeed mean protection. The Old English rune poem translates, “On the outside, the Yew is a rough tree, strong and fast in the earth, guardian against fire, a joy to the home.” It can also mean death, since the yew is quite poisonous, and of course was also used to make longbows, but that’s secondary.

    The rune on the right is a variation on the rune Inguz or Ing. It’s the rune of the god Freyr, which means Lord, whose proper name is Yngvi or Ing. Freyr is a god of fertility, and so that’s one of the meanings of that rune. It has some others, and can be used for protection of the home as well. The OE poem reads, “Originally, the Eastern Danes saw Ing, departing across the sea with his wagon. So the Heardings called this champion.”

    Interestingly, while runes were definitely used for magic, the use of them for divination is quite recent. The Greek alphabet, on the other hand, was definitely used for divination.

    I wish I knew where the hell my book with three sets of poems (it had Anglo-Saxen, Icelandic, and one other that I forget) has gone. I know I used to have one, because I calligraphed a hand-bound book with the poems for a friend who followed the Northern gods. It took FOREVER. But that was fifteen years, three moves and one state ago, and it may be gone forever.

    September 28, 2016
    |Reply
  22. Neurite
    Neurite

    “It’s like if Danny Trejo and Burt Reynolds had an ugly baby and it grew up to make poor grooming choices.”

    ::looks at picture::
    ::reads description::
    ::looks at picture again::
    ::reads description again::

    This may be the most perfect description of a character’s look I have ever read. It is so, so spot-on. And hilarious.

    October 2, 2016
    |Reply
  23. Lucy
    Lucy

    To be fair, doesn’t Buffy physically assault Angel as well (or do I remember it wrong)? And she has Slayer strength, so I believe they are equals and can both hurt eachother.

    October 3, 2016
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      She tries to grab his arm to drag him away inside (and out of the sunlight), which I think is a little different than physical assault. Later in the series, she beats the hell out of Spike, which is a different (and much worse) scenario.

      October 3, 2016
      |Reply
      • Lucy
        Lucy

        Ah then I remembered it wrong, my bad.

        October 6, 2016
        |Reply
      • Emma
        Emma

        I actually just re-watched this part because I also remembered Buffy hitting Angel first. She grabs him to pull him inside, he breaks her grip, then she smacks him across the face and he punches her back. Not that hitting your romantic partner (or anyone, in fact) is okay, but Buffy definitely assaults him first.

        June 22, 2020
        |Reply
        • Emma
          Emma

          * “back” as in “in return”, not that he punches her spine. He actually punches her in the face. Which is awful to watch. It’s also awful to watch her haul off an hit him in the face as well. The whole thing is a mess, and I definitely agree that there is way too much violence = passion/love in BtVS.

          June 22, 2020
          |Reply
          • Jules
            Jules

            “The whole thing is a mess, and I definitely agree that there is way too much violence = passion/love in BtVS.”

            I think they thought it was “empowering” for the woman to 1) start the hitting, and 2) be able to hold her own in a fight with her BF. Because, apparently feminism just means women are as physically strong as men which UGH, whatever Joss you misogynistic jackass.

            I think it’s empowering for a woman to be strong without being the “chosen one” and get the hell out of a relationship in which punches are being thrown,

            June 22, 2020
  24. oblomov
    oblomov

    Man, this was one of my favorite episodes in season 3 and I guess most people don’t share that opinion? It might have been a bit heavy handed with the redemption themes, but I guess I like that sometimes and it was the first time they really explored Angel as a protagonist in a satisfying way. That final moment with the snow really got me and there wasn’t an Angel episode this strong until at least halfway through season 2 of his own show.

    October 10, 2016
    |Reply
  25. Jess
    Jess

    Not sure if anyone else mentioned it, (my eyes hurt too much for the amount of reading), but kinda surprised you didn’t make a point for #2 with Buffy’s outfit in the library being a knee-length version of Jenny’s outfit.

    February 22, 2018
    |Reply
  26. Jane Doe
    Jane Doe

    He is a vampire! This is a show about vampires and a slayer who slays them. Their love story is not to be seen as everyday regular human to human – person to person love story. Their life is a violent, not normal life. They have superpowers. He, as a vampire, has a soul and regrets everything he has done and is in pain because of that. He loves her and wants her. She has a duty she didn’t ask for and she loves and wants him and can’t have him either. That would be difficult in every reality.

    If the story would have been about regular people, it would have been whole different one like e.g. falling in love with a married coworker with children in a big tech company where relationships are forbidden. Different story. Different reality. Different outcome. Perhaps even a happy one.

    It would have been so boring to think about the normal life scenario and think that Angel couldn’t hit and shove off Buffy who hit him back AND is stronger than him. In a real world if a weaker person hits a person back (like e.g. a woman), what would you say? Hurrah? In my opinion Angel hitting her was not about violence. It was to show the strength of emotions that sometimes can rule us all. That is what makes us people in good and bad.

    I like lot of your opinions about this episode but for me this episode and the end scene makes so much more sense that I hope no one would ever understand in their lifetime. In a lighter note, I love the writing in this scene. It’s very powerful and brilliant.

    June 29, 2021
    |Reply

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