Skip to content

The Big Damn Buffy Rewatch S02E15: “Phases”

Posted in Uncategorized

In every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will make a Sim of herself and a Sim of Rupert Giles and force them to be neighbors and fall in love and do woo-hoo. 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.

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 realize that I’m only in the middle of the second season and I have five more seasons to go, but I just heard of a dude who’s been recapping the Left Behind books for ELEVEN YEARS so I don’t feel bad about this at all.

I’m putting a content warning up because there’s a lot of talk about rape and sexual harassment in here.

The episode begins with Oz intently examining the cheerleading trophy that poor Amy’s mom is eternally trapped in. Willow comes up and they start talking in their stilted, quirky way about the date they recently went on. It gets awkward, so Willow sees Buffy and uses her as an excuse to run off, leaving Oz to deal with that Larry guy nobody likes. Larry is, as usual, in full-on sexual harassment mode, but Oz is gentleman, so he won’t kiss and tell when Larry asks how far he’s gotten with Willow.

He’s apparently not going to kiss, either, because after a cutaway set up worth of an Archer episode, Willow complains to Buffy that Oz hasn’t made a single move. Willow laments the fact that she’ll be the “only girl in school without a real boyfriend,” and that gives Buffy sad face, because, you know, her boyfriend turned evil.

Oh! That reminds me! A commenter on the previous recap pointed out that I missed the opportunity to use #1 in reference to Angel losing his soul to the nookie. I haven’t overlooked it, it’s just such a long, ongoing plot point that I wanted to save it to the end of that arc, so it wasn’t like beating a dead horse.

I’m also slowly amassing a collection of “1” related .gifs for an explosive celebration of the anti-sex season two theme that will freeze the ever-living fuck out of your phone if you try to read it on there.

Willow instantly feels bad for her remark, and Buffy is very forgiving. That’s what I like about this show, and Buffy’s character in particular. She doesn’t get so wrapped up in her own misery that she can’t care about and feel happy for her friends. And they care about her, too. Even though Willow and Xander both have love interests, they’re going to get together to share Buffy’s heartache.

Willow: “Great, I’ll give Xander a call. What’s his number? 1-800-I’m-dating-a-skanky ho?”

Buffy: “Meow.”

Willow: “Really? Thanks. I’ve never gotten a meow before.”

Teen girls talk like this with their teen girl friends. I get that. But it’s such a bummer that I have to slap a #6 on here because of something that happened in a scene that only a moment before was showing a nice moment of supportive female friendship, free from insecure competition.

Speaking of insecurity, after Willow wonders aloud what Xander could possibly see in Cordelia, we cut to Cordelia and Xander making out in a car. Xander pulls away to fume about what Willow could possibly see in Oz, and the whole thing grosses me out. In the first place, Xander never wanted Willow or cared about guys being interested in her until he couldn’t have her anymore. The only way she has become attractive to him is because she’s no longer on standby for him (#5). In the second place, the cut to this scene juxtaposed with Willows remark about what Xander sees in Cordelia tells the audience that the only thing Xander is interested in with Cordelia is physical pleasure. And yeah, sure, that’s pretty much what we’ve seen from them on both sides so far, but it makes me mad that we can have Willow wanting to have an intimate physical relationship with her boyfriend in a positive, healthy way, and that’s good because it’s Willow, but Cordelia’s sexuality is a punchline, and the only positive angle of being in a relationship with her, apparently (#6).

And I feel bad for Cordelia, because as she points out to Xander, most of the time he spends with her, he’s talking about Willow or Buffy. So it does bother her:

Cordelia: “Look around. We’re in my daddy’s car. It’s just the two of us. There is a beautiful, big full moon outside tonight, it doesn’t get more romantic than this. So shut up!”

Then, because this is Sunnydale, they start to make out and the camera pans back and of course there’s a werewolf. Why wouldn’t there be a werewolf?

werewolf lurking

Here is a case of the kids, the actual Scoobies, falling prey to #8. You know you live in a town full of demons, vampires, and assorted shitty gross monsters. So why on earth would you think, “Hey, I’ve never heard any kind of campfire stories or urban legends about a guy and his gal up at make-out point meeting some kind of horrible, grisly end. Since our town is full of monsters, let’s drive into the woods and make out!”

But that’s what Xander and Cordelia have elected to do, and after the opening credits, everything goes exactly as you would expect such a scenario to go in Sunnydale. Xander hears something outside the car, and Cordelia, finally at her bullshit limit for the night, tells him that they’re leaving because he’s been so distracted by his Willow thoughts. But before she can turn on the car, the werewolf punches through the roof, she fumbles the keys, there’s screaming, but she eventually gets the thing turned on and they drive off, throwing the werewolf from the roof of the car in the process.

If I lived in Sunnydale, I would keep my keys on one of those springy plastic bracelets around my wrist.

The next day, Xander and Cordelia brief the rest of the Scoobies on their werewolf encounter. Giles tells them there were a lot of mutilated animal carcasses found the night before. While everyone kind of assumes they have until the next full moon to check this shit out, Willow points out that last night was the night before the full moon; the real full moon isn’t until tonight. This flies in the face of what Giles knows about werewolves, and he is psyched to do some researching.

Buffy: “Looks like Giles has some schoolin’ to do.”

Giles: “Yes, I must admit I’m intrigued. Werewolves–it’s one of the classics. I’m sure my books and I are in for a fascinating afternoon.”

Buffy: “He needs to get a pet.”

In gym class, the teacher warns the kids that Sunnydale is getting more and more dangerous, so she’s going to teach them some self defense maneuvers so they can protect themselves.

Buffy: “Here’s a suggestion: move away from the Hellmouth.”

Yes, Buffy. You are correct. Here we have the odd moment of a Sunnydale adult not engaging in #8, though she doesn’t bring wooden stakes into the equation and I just feel like vampires are such common knowledge that they should at least have an assembly explaining how to fight them off.

While they move into groups to practice their self-defense, Xander notices that Larry is wearing a bandage around his arm. Larry tells him that he was attacked by a big dog that jumped out of the bushes and bit him, and Oz says:

Oz: “I’ve been there man. My cousin Jordy just got his grown up teeth in. Does not like to be tickled.”

And he holds up his finger to show that he’s been bitten by Jordy.

Larry menaces a girl in his assigned group, so Buffy comes up and menaces him, until Willow reminds her, hey, you’re supposed to be a normal human girl who is unable to punch through Larry’s chest and rip out his still-beating heart.

Because the gym teacher has never met a teenage boy before, she lines up all the girls in front of the boys to teach the girls how to defend themselves if they’re attacked “from behind.” Buffy is paired with Larry, and tries to downplay her strength, struggling to flip him over her shoulder until Larry grabs her ass and says she’s turning him on. She slams him into the fucking ground. Good for Buffy.

sexual predator

I’m sure teenage girls go through this same kind of bullshit at school still, which pisses me off. I remember guys saying some pretty disgusting shit and getting away with it. I remember specifically when I was a freshman in high school, a kid in my math class would say the most disturbing sexual shit to me. “I want to rape you with that pencil,” is the one that sticks out most in my memory. And there was a girl in my class who was a junior who lost it over that remark. I was fourteen, just transferred to a new school where I didn’t know anyone and was painfully shy, so I tried to keep my head down and ignore this kid. Junior girl stood up and shouted, “The way Ben is talking to this girl is disgusting, and he needs to be thrown out of class before I kick his ass!” I bring this all up because in this scene, Larry is first making sexual threats to this mousy, timid girl before Buffy steps in, and now Buffy is paired up with him. And it just reminded me of that incident, and the way that girls will sometimes put themselves at risk to protect other girls from disgusting guys, and it starts as early as high school. And this whole thing has just brought up how shitty teen girls have it, because in school they’re forced to go everyday into this environment where they’re trapped with people who sexualize them, from administrators (your bra strap is showing!) to their fellow students, and there’s absolutely no recourse to escape it.

That’s a fucking bummer, and this show was tackling it back when I was in high school. And that makes me feel vindicated, but also sad, because why the fuck haven’t we learned anything after all this time?

In the library, Giles is lecturing the gang about what the moon does:

Giles: “And, uh, while there’s absolutely no scientific explanation for lunar effect on the human psyche, the phases of the moon do seem to exert a great deal of psychological influence. And the full moon seems to bring out our darkest qualities.”

Xander: “And ironically led to the invention of the moon pie.”

Giles. “Oh. Yes, moon pie.”

Giles thinks this joke is hilarious. While he laughs like a dork (an adorable, adorable dork), Buffy and Willow make these faces:

can you believe this guy 2 can you believe this guy

Giles explains that the werewolf is so powerful or something that it comes out for three nights, the full moon and the night on either side of it.

Giles: “And it acts on pure instinct. No conscience. Predatory and aggressive.”

Buffy: “In other words, your typical male.”

Xander: “On behalf of my gender, hey.”

Giles: “Yes, let’s not jump to any conclusions.”

Buffy: “I didn’t jump. I took a tiny step and there conclusions were.”

Yeah, Buffy, knocking down a “Not All Men” protest with awesome snarkery!

The werewolf could be anybody who’s been bitten by a werewolf, and they can’t use silver bullets to hunt it, because it’s a person and might not even know what they’re doing. Cut to Buffy and Giles at make-out point–no, this isn’t a fanfic–looking for the werewolf in the hopes of capturing it. Giles’s stellar plan is to knock on car windows and ask if anyone has seen anything, and Buffy is like, obviously not because everyone is making out and also I saw a guy cheating on his girlfriend.

As Buffy walks through the woods, she stops on a snare trigger and gets jerked into the air in a big net. I guess that’s considered a kind of dangerous stunt because of a potential for neck and back injuries, so good going, stunt!Buffy. A guy with a shotgun is standing like, three feet from her, ready to shoot. She shouts for Giles, and he confronts gun dude, who is like, I have the gun so I ask the questions or whatever. He lets Buffy out of the net and then things go straight to statutory land:

Gun dude: “I gotta say, I’m impressed.”

Giles: “Excuse me?”

Gun dude: “Well, it’s good to get the fruit while it’s fresh.”

Giles: “You’d be wise to take that back.”

Gun dude: “Hey, what a man and a girl do at lover’s lane at night is nobody’s–”

And then Giles lunges at him, and Buffy has to hold him back.

Gun dude is a professional werewolf hunter. He doesn’t give a shit if they’re people, he hunts them down and sells their pelts on the black market. He also tells them that werewolves are going to be drawn to places where there’s a lot of sexual energy.

Hey, werewolves are drawn to sexual energy…I bet they get a shitload of werewolves at creepy child abuse sex house from season four.

But let’s back up for a minute. I’ve noted before that Buffy spends a lot of time with Giles, and there are adults who know about it. She spends late nights in the library with him, sometimes doing aerobics. Nobody in Sunnydale seems bothered by what, to those who don’t know the Slayer situation, would appear to be an inappropriately close relationship between a grown man who is the school librarian and a teen girl who is a student. UNTIL WEREWOLF HUNTER MAN SHOWS UP. It takes somebody coming in from outside of the town to point out that the dynamic looks suspicious, backing up my assertion of #8.

Somewhere else in Sunnydale, a girl is walking down the street when a werewolf jumps out and attacks her. JUST KIDDING! It’s Angelus. He jumps out and acts super nice to her, offering to walk her home. So everything is going to go just fine for her, you’ll see.

At the Bronze, Willow and Cordelia are sitting on a couch, having a surprisingly supportive conversation about dating Xander and Oz. And then the werewolf attacks them.

The werewolf that is draw to sexual heat.

Attacks Willow and Cordelia.

OMG YOU GUYS FEMSLASH ALL THE FEMSLASH!

(Yes, I know why the werewolf attacked them specifically. Just let me have my dreams).

Buffy and Giles arrive as the Bronze is emptied of screaming people. Buffy fights the werewolf and gets a chain around its neck, but it gets away, anyway.

Well… actually, it just kind of strolls away:

makin my way downtown
Makin’ my way downtown/walkin’ fast/faces passin’/I’m homebound

The werewolf follows a blood trail where he finds–OH! Now I recognize her! It’s the girl from gym class! Theresa? Or something? The one who was afraid of Larry the Bully. I totally missed this literally every single time I’ve watched this episode. I thought I knew everything about Buffy. I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.

Anyway, she’s dead now. Angel kind of looms over her dead body, growling at the werewolf, and they have an animal contest until Angel recedes into the shadows. I don’t know what it’s all about, because her blood is all over the ground, and Angel dropped her so I assume he was finished with her. So why do the alpha male posturing over a dead body you can’t use anymore?

Buffy finds Giles sleeping in his car in the woods, which is super safe when there’s a rampaging werewolf. They hear about Theresa’s death on the car radio–what the fuck, how did I miss that for years?–and Giles promises they’ll find the werewolf. They have a whole night still.

Meanwhile, after sun-up, the werewolf shifts back into human form with all the small screen magic the 1990’s can provide. It’s Oz, who wakes up naked in the woods, and has the most chill reaction to being a werewolf anyone has ever had:

Oz: “Huh.”

Back at home, Oz gives his aunt a call:

Oz: “Aunt Maureen, hey, it’s me. Um, what? Oh, it’s, uh, actually it’s healing okay. That’s pretty much the reason I called. Um, I wanted to ask you something. Is Jordy a werewolf? …uh-huh. …And how long has that been going on?”

So Oz has been turned into a werewolf in the most ridiculous way possible: he was bitten by a child werewolf.

At school the next day, Oz is visibly freaked out. Which is odd for him. He goes to the library, where he hears Buffy lamenting the fact that she didn’t kill the werewolf when she had the chance. Oz asks if anyone was bitten or scratched, and they’re like, nah, oh but BTdubs, Theresa’s dead. Buffy talks a tough game about how she’s going to murder the werewolf, but Oz hadn’t realized there’s still one more night to go.

Xander tells them that he’s the expert on werewolves, because he remembers exactly what it was like to be a hyena. And Buffy reminds him that he said he didn’t remember, which Xander laughs off. So…ha ha, remember when I said I didn’t remember trying to rape you, and I’ve been living my life in a blissful cone of not feeling guilty at all, while you have to remember every single time you see me that I, you know, tried to rape you? And of course it’s played for laughs, because there’s nothing funnier than a Nice Guy getting away with his shitty behavior without any consequences (#6#5).

But as Xander rambles on about how he understands the predator instinct, he remembers that Larry had a dog bite, and he’s also a huge dick, so he must be the werewolf. Buffy remembers how he threatened Theresa–seriously? How was she this big a part of this episode and I couldn’t remember her?–and assumes that links him the werewolf murder. Oz half-heartedly tries to defend Larry, but he can’t do much without outing himself as the werewolf, especially after Willow points out that Oz knew Theresa, too. When Willow suggests Oz can hang out and do research with her, he turns her down, and she’s perplexed and a little hurt looking.

In the men’s room, Xander confronts Larry. He tells him he knows his secret, and Larry is about to bash him good when Xander tells him that he knows what Larry is going through and he wants to help.

Larry: “Look, if this gets out, it’s over for me. I mean, forget about playing football. They’ll run me out of this town. I mean, come on, how are people going to look at me after they find out I’m gay?”

The punchline of this scene is that now Larry thinks Xander is gay, and of course Xander isn’t gay and isn’t it funny how uncomfortable Xander is with the idea of someone thinking he’s gay ha ha, #23: Despite praise for its positive portrayal of non-straight sexualities, some of this shit is homophobic as fuck.

Back at the library, Willow is still trying to find out who the werewolf is, and the only suspect she can come up with is a student with a history of violent incidents and disciplinary actions, but they both already know that Buffy isn’t a werewolf, so they have to keep looking. Willow is trying to understand why Oz acted so distant from her. The thing is, they know that Oz knew a student who died. Why isn’t that reason enough for him to want to be alone for a little while?

Willow goes off to help Cordelia with her homework, and Xander notes how odd it is that the two of them are hanging out together and how scary he finds it. Shut up, Xander. Buffy ask him if he found out if Larry is the werewolf, but Xander is super defensive, because again, the joke is that Xander is uncomfortable with homosexuality.

I read somewhere once that Joss wasn’t sure if Xander or Willow would come out as gay during the show’s run. I contend that neither of them should have, nor should Buffy have been described as a lesbian in the comics. They should have come out as bisexual. But god forbid we upset the homosexual/heterosexual binary when we can instead ignore canon relationships in which characters desired sexual relations with members of a different gender.

Anyway, since I read about that, I wondered if this wasn’t supposed to be foreshadowing, and suddenly, ha ha, Xander is boning Spike in season four (you know that would have been awesome). Xander does eventually seem to grow out of his “ew, boys!” phase in that season, but right now it’s getting on my last nerve, because “Guy who acts like he loves girls and is super tough but is actually gay” was played for so much comedic effect in the 90’s that my jaw aches from clenching. (23)

Anyway. Buffy is blaming herself for letting Theresa get killed, then she realizes that the news stories never said she was mauled. Sure enough, when Buffy and Xander visit Theresa at the funeral home, she’s a vampire. She tells Buffy:

Theresa: “Angel sends his love.”

and Xander kills Theresa in the scene from the opening credits. He comforts Buffy, reminding her that Angel isn’t the same person she knew, and they have a charged moment where it seems like they’re going to kiss, but they don’t.

It’s after dark now, and hunter douche is in his van, making silver bullets. Ah, remember those simple days, when people were just using vans for nefarious purposes related to violence, and not to make meth? The moon is coming up, and Oz is at home trying on some shackles. Which, it seems like he should have figured out how they work before this late. Willow pounds on the door and barges in when he opens it. She’s mad, and she’s going to get it all out, until she sees Oz’s chains and shackles on the dining room table, and learns the horrifying truth:

werewolf oz
Her boyfriend has horrible taste in Halloween costumes.

Willow runs away, while the hunter comes after Oz. In the library, Giles is just casually putting together a fucking huge rifle:

wtf are you doing Giles

Like, he’s totally confident, and he’s doing it really fast. And obviously this is a skill he must have learned at Watcher school, but this is another case of Giles being able to do some weird, random thing, and nobody comments on it. Buffy comes up and instead of being like, “Holy shit, how are you so good at assembling and handling serious fucking rifles?” she’s like, “There was a vampire,” instead.

Back at the chase scene, Willow falls and is trapped between WereOz and a log. But WereOz doesn’t attack her. He waves his rubbery snout in the air, then runs off.

And now, a magic trick!

glasses 1

As they prepare to hunt, Giles has taken off his glasses.

Willow runs in and tells them that Oz is the werewolf, and when the camera angle changes, his glasses are suddenly back on:

glasses 4

Giles tries to roll out, and Willow grabs him and spins him around. Apparently she grabs him so hard that his glasses come off, because when the camera angle changes, no glasses:

glasses 3

Clark Kent:

glasses 6

Superman:

glasses 5

Willow is afraid that Giles is going to use that huge gun to kill Oz, but he assures her it’s just a tranquilizer. Actually, he says it’s enough tranquilizer to put out a small elephant, which shouldn’t be reassuring, considering the fact that Oz isn’t an elephant and too much tranquilizer has this nasty side effect of causing death.

Meanwhile, in the woods, hunter douche is so worried about spitting cliches, he delays his shot until Buffy kicks him aside. Buffy and the WereOz fight, and knock over Giles and Willow. Willow manages to grab the gun and shoot Oz, and hunter douche makes a comment about nobody in town being man enough to kill monsters. Then Buffy bends the barrel of the hunter’s gun because strength = man. (#6)

Willow asks if Oz is going to be okay, and Giles is like, he’ll be a little sore in the morning, and I think, gosh, what does he mean by that? Does he mean Oz is going to be sore because he was shot with a tranquilizer dart out of a high-powered rifle? Or because he got beat up by the Slayer? Or because Giles has been tranquilized before and knows the after-effects? It could reasonably be any of those, and I’m perplexed.

At school the next day, Xander is asking Buffy how he should react when he sees “him” again, knowing what he knows about him. Turns out, Xander is talking about Larry, not Oz. Because, you know. How do you possibly talk to a gay person? And of course, Larry comes down the stairs and assists a female student whose books have been cruelly smacked to the floor by another dude. Because for some reason, the media seems to have this obsession (and it was certainly worse in the 90’s) with making it seem like gay men are, by virtue of their homosexuality, incapable of misogyny and feel a strong kinship with and protectiveness for women. I’m not saying all gay men are awful to women, but I find that when it comes to cis men treating women like human garbage, the straight dudes aren’t the only ones throwing their hats into the ring.

Anyway, Larry comes over and offers Xander his heart-felt thanks for helping him come to terms with his sexuality in a two minute conversation (I mean, he doesn’t say that, it’s just what the scene is) and the show actually makes a pretty stunning choice here: Xander doesn’t out Larry. Buffy asks why he and Larry are acting so weird, and Xander could have easily said, “Because when I thought Larry was a werewolf, he was actually just gay, thank god.” But he doesn’t. He just gives her a nervous, jabbering response that might have put the pieces together for her if they weren’t more concerned about the fact that Oz is a werewolf. I think Xander might out Larry in a later episode, but I can’t remember and I’m leaning toward “he does not.” Let’s marvel that in the 90’s, this show knew the importance of not outing someone’s sexuality on their behalf. So, that’s good, but overall the Larry-is-gay story arc gets a #23.

Xander’s brief moment of sensitivity is erased when he suggests that of course Willow and Oz don’t have a future, because she’s destined to become werewolf chow or something. But Buffy shoots him down and tells him it’s not up to him what Willow chooses to do. We cut to Willow meeting Oz in in the courtyard, where she apologizes for shooting him, and he apologizes for almost eating her. He’s apparently practiced getting tied up by Giles in preparation for the next full moon (and that remark launched what I feel is the stupidest, most unfounded ship in the entire fandom, no apologies). Oz feels like he should stay away from Willow, so he doesn’t hurt her, but Willow isn’t having it:

Willow: “Well, I like you. You’re nice, and you’re funny, and you don’t smoke. Yeah, okay, werewolf. But that’s not all the time. I mean, three days out of the month, I’m not much fun to be around, either.”

I’m so tempted to flag that as anti-feminist, because equating menstruation with becoming a rampaging violence machine every month is one of those bad jokes about how crazy and irrational women get when they have their period, but it’s a girl character self-referencing to make someone feel better, so I’m on the fence.

Willow gives Oz a kiss, and as she leaves, he watches her go and utters what I consider to be, if not the single most clunky line of the show, at least in the top three:

Oz: “A werewolf in love.”

Even Seth Green can’t pull it off, and it’s just the most bizarre and WTF? worthy line, like the writer didn’t know how to end the episode, so they just had Oz say some random thing. Like, was this the working title of the episode or something? I don’t get it. Seth Green is such a good actor, he could have conveyed that line without saying the badly written words.

So, here’s a thing I find comforting about this episode, even though I’ve never connected Theresa the attacked and vampirized student with Theresa in gym class, even though it is explicitly laid out for the viewer: the writers could have made Theresa Oz’s victim. They could have given him so much man pain, and a darker depth to his character. But they didn’t. They let the character go on from this episode without a body count, without killing someone he cared about. In fact, I don’t remember anyone Oz ever kills in werewolf form who wasn’t evil.

Overall, this is one of my favorite episodes. Werewolf Oz becomes such an integral part of the season and season three, so I’m glad he’s finally shown up.

Did you enjoy this post?

Trout Nation content is always free, but you can help keep things going by making a small donation via Ko-fi!

Or, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Here for the first time because you’re in quarantine and someone on Reddit recommended my Fifty Shades of Grey recaps? Welcome! Consider checking out my own take on the Billionaire BDSM genre, The Boss. Find it on AmazonB&NSmashwords, iBooks, and Radish!

54 Comments

  1. And, again, Willow and Oz have some of my favorite lines from the entire season.

    Willow: Oz said he was going through all these changes and then … he went through all these changes!

    I love those two.

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
  2. ” I’m not saying all gay men are awful to women, but I find that when it comes to cis men treating women like human garbage, the straight dudes”

    I think there was more to this sentence that got eaten?

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      Ugh. Yes. Thanks for the heads up, I went back and put it back in. I was working on reconfiguring the sentence during proofing and then apparently zoned out.

      March 30, 2015
      |Reply
      • I feel like this particular character’s misogyny, though, was overcompensation because he was so far in the closet and afraid of being discovered. His character going forward shows a lot of that.

        I can’t remember if Xander accidentally outs him to the Scoobies, but he definitely doesn’t out him to the entire school. Larry does come out later, but it’s an off-stage kind of thing and everyone ends up being cool with it. I want to say it happens in season 3.

        March 30, 2015
        |Reply
        • JennyTrout
          JennyTrout

          That’s absolutely where Larry’s misogyny came from, I just don’t believe that it would disappear overnight, no matter what was driving it.

          March 30, 2015
          |Reply
    • Yamichan2
      Yamichan2

      Agreed. I’m wondering what she meant to say.

      March 30, 2015
      |Reply
  3. Ilex
    Ilex

    Jen, whoever that junior girl was who spoke up in your math class, she is my heroine.

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
    • Candy Apple
      Candy Apple

      I know. There are so many times I kept my mouth shut when I should have said something. I wish I could go back to every one of those times and be that girl.

      March 30, 2015
      |Reply
      • Lieke
        Lieke

        I am that girl and it sucks. Most of the time, it turns into basically the situation Buffy finds herself in with Larry. She stands up for Theresa and then Larry starts to harass her. Well, that happened to me all the time and, unfortunately, I don’t have Slayer strength.

        I mean, I still totally stand up for people. I couldn’t really change that about myself even if I wanted to. I just don’t have the patience to sit there and watch that bullshit. But, it seriously blows that some douchenozzle then almost invariably turns his attention to me.

        March 30, 2015
        |Reply
        • Jessica
          Jessica

          I remember an incident when I was in my early 20’s and at a night club with a group of friends. I was the DD, which inevitably also meant the protector of my friends. My one friend was VERY drunk, and we were walking through the crowded club single file. A guy intercepted her, realized she was extremely drunk, and put his hand down the front of her low-cut shirt. I immediately stepped in, and abruptly removed his hand. And, surprise, surprise, the group of guys he was with with start aggressively calling me a bitch and threatened me. For trying to protect my friend from sexual assault.

          So yes, it is a very f-ed up world young women must navigate, where the expectation of sexual assault should apparently be considered the norm. (She was, after all, wearing sexy clothes, so she should have expected that, right? sarcasm) Although, lately, I see more stories in the media about young women challenging this expectation, through initiatives like slut-walks and turning cat-calling back on men to highlight what it really feels like. I’d love to think that times are a-changing?

          March 30, 2015
          |Reply
          • Jessica
            Jessica

            And I should say that this encounter was pretty typical for a girl’s night out. Also, at the time, it did not strike me as offensive/disturbing as it should have.

            March 30, 2015
          • Lieke
            Lieke

            Looking back, I also didn’t use to regard that sort of dickish behaviour as out of the ordinary. It was just the way it was, which is super sad.

            March 31, 2015
  4. Ilex
    Ilex

    Oz’s discussion with his aunt is one of the things I found most confounding about this show.

    On the one hand, we have Rule #8, which pretty much requires everyone to be completely oblivious to the fact that they’re living on a Hellmouth, and seem blissfully unaware of the dangers of Sunnydale.

    But then every so often the writers will spin something as though “everyone knows about it,” so it’s played as funny that Oz can have this mundane conversation about werewolves with his aunt. (And later, Aimee Mann gets the line about “I hate playing vampire towns.”)

    And then I’m left wondering, “well, which is it? Everyone knows, or no one knows?” And yet somehow, Buffy-the-show manages to play it both ways to some extent.

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
  5. Kim
    Kim

    Larry comes out off-camera. As he tells Xander in the school shooting episode where Buffy can hear everyone’s thoughts. Xander thought maybe the shooter would be him, so he was asking Larry if it was difficult to live a lie, if he ever got really angry about it, like angry enough to want to hurt someone. To which Larry said “I’m out. I’m so out I have my grandma setting me up with guys” But now he thinks Xander is still closeted and clearly not dealing with it well and offers to send a very tasteful “Xander Harris is gay” press release into the school paper on his behalf.

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
  6. I have always read the gun as ” if according to you all men can do with strength is kill, I am going to try and help”?

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
  7. I can’t for certain if I would have known Theresea is the same person or not, because I remember the episode though it’s been so long the deets like that are cloudy. I always enjoy the Buffy recaps. I like being able to look at something I love through a more critical lens. I am looking forward to the gif-splosion, I’ll be over here rubbing my hands together and hoping I remember to not try and read it on my phone.

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
    • Person
      Person

      I can still remember being sad and a little angry that the girl we’d only seen being harassed in school then got slaughtered, vamped and dusted. Specifically, when she got killed for the first time. Victim in school, victim in the streets. It pained me to see.

      March 31, 2015
      |Reply
      • Person
        Person

        Also, I’m surprised Willow’s thing about Buffy being meant to be a delicate flower “like the rest of us” didn’t draw up flames on the side of your face – it sure does for me! That wasn’t “you’re supposed to be a human teen” phrasing, that was “you’re supposed to be one of us defenseless cream puff ~little girls~” phrasing and nobody try to defend it as something Willow believed because somebody *wrote* her believing that shit. HATE.

        March 31, 2015
        |Reply
        • Person
          Person

          Also the show did nothing to indicate disagreement. Okay, I’m done.

          March 31, 2015
          |Reply
  8. Pansy Petal
    Pansy Petal

    Do we really ever remember the “red shirts?” Oops wrong show, but the premise holds. So don’t feel bad. Red shirts come, red shirts die. Just the way the show goes. Really, no matter what show one is watching.

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
  9. “I took a tiny step and there conclusions were” is hands-down one of my favorite lines from the series. Also one of the most useful.

    I would never have considered Willow/Cordelia on my own but I find myself very okay with the idea.

    March 30, 2015
    |Reply
  10. Jemmy
    Jemmy

    I’ve just realised I’ve always assumed Oz’s relatives were out of town. I love his conversation with his aunt, and took his calm response not as an indicator the oddness of Sunnydale is known but as another calm acceptence of Oz’s just like when they told him vampires were real. But I’ve always assumed Jordy was not living in Sunnydale.

    Xander is a total jerk in this epsiode and Cordelia should have dumped him. I like how she calls him on his BS, and at the end Buffy tells him Willow isn’t his to order around. His whole approach was really blah.

    March 31, 2015
    |Reply
  11. Chris Borgars-Smith
    Chris Borgars-Smith

    “when it comes to cis men treating women like human garbage, the straight dudes aren’t the only ones throwing their hats into the ring.”
    Oh I promise, cis men aren’t the only ones throwing their hats into the ring either.

    March 31, 2015
    |Reply
    • Lululala
      Lululala

      Well cis and straight women also don’t have the best record when it comes to queer men, no don’t they? ( and they are certainly more numerous and politically powerful) but its good you are going after the real villains: gay and trans men!

      April 15, 2015
      |Reply
      • Casey
        Casey

        You can tell when I’m rereading old blog posts by when I reply to comments that are over 5 years old, but I can’t resist: pointing out that there’s an issue of misogyny in the LGBT+ community doesn’t exonerate homo- or transphobia among women. We can care about more than one thing, especially when multiple issues crisscrossing can leave certain people (like trans women) vulnerable to both. I’m uncomfortable with your comment because it implies that we can’t criticize misogyny within our communities because there are people who treat us poorly from without.

        November 24, 2020
        |Reply
  12. Jon
    Jon

    I am curious at where you think the line is between characters expressing offensive veiws (which may be culutrally normative to some degree or other) and the writer/show enodrsing such things. This is particularly with regards to number 6 but 12 and 23 also come under this.

    March 31, 2015
    |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      Well, considering that the characters’ views are written by the writers, I don’t think there really is a line. A lot of people have defended Xander by saying, “But teen boys really act that way!” but…this is a show about vampires. We can somehow take it as written that a teen girl could be a vampire slayer, but not that a teen boy could be mature and take responsibility for his own behavior.

      That’s not to say that this show is “endorsing” any of these things, but reinforcing cultural tropes that, in the rosy glow of hindsight, fans (like me) don’t remember being present in the show.

      March 31, 2015
      |Reply
      • Jon
        Jon

        I can’t say I noticed these tropes either (but I wouldn’t). I am told though that a fantasy breaks if it demands the viewer/reader accept to many changes from reality.

        How do you go about writing characters who hold problematic views and live in problematic cultures in a way that doesn’t reinforce the problematic tropes?

        April 1, 2015
        |Reply
  13. Bryn
    Bryn

    Oz finding out he’s a werewolf is my favorite moment of the series. Not only because of Seth Green’s delivery of “Oh. How long has that been going on?” But because the moment is just something that happens. We don’t need a mini-arc where we hunt down the werewolf who bit Oz, or to make it this big angsty moment where he contemplates his lost humanity. He just learns this new fact about himself and accepts it, and I only wish I could be as Zen as he is in that moment.

    Also, without getting too spoilery, Oz was my favorite character, and my favorite Buffy relationship was him and Willow. I am still unreasonably pissed about how it all goes down at the end, and I will never forgive the writers for it.

    March 31, 2015
    |Reply
    • I agree with all of this, but especially that last part.

      That was a moment of super crappy writing in this series. It didn’t make sense at all.

      March 31, 2015
      |Reply
    • Candy Apple
      Candy Apple

      Bryn wrote: I am still unreasonably pissed about how it all goes down at the end, and I will never forgive the writers for it.

      Seth Green asked to leave the show. The writers, fellow actors and crew were all broken up about it when it happened. They didn’t write him out on purpose. They mention how heartbroken they were on one of the episode commentaries on the DVD.

      March 31, 2015
      |Reply
      • Alison
        Alison

        I’m not mad that he left, I’m mad at how he treated Willow.

        March 31, 2015
        |Reply
  14. Alias Wuint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK
    Alias Wuint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK

    + Renee, + Kim. Xander never outed Larry, plus Larry remained popular and on the team, which was nice, and made Graduation pt. 2 sad in one of many ways. I will again take up for Xander a bit–I think he was the “average” character, not enlightened, not super-sensitive or aware, who becomes more so (except that wedding thing, which still irritates the hell out of me). I mean, it’s pretty obvious in whichever later season that he and Spike got it on at least once.

    Willow’s telling Buffy to tone it down in gym class was one of those pretend-you-have-a-secret-identity thing (which, at Prom, we realize the school knew, I mean, duh). But that’s what I get from it. Buffy also got the pretend-you’re-a-regular-girl in the Swim Team ep, I think, from Jonathan (angrily). I’d say high school is THE time when the sexes are shoved into genderized roles the hardest, and the writers used those memories to define how different Buffy was (physically) and how even she bought into what being a “girl” is supposed to be. Larry pretending to be super-annoying macho dude goes along with that. I agree about the picking up of the books–some of the most sexist guys I’ve met have been gay.

    The werewolf/vampire staredown I took as classic “I’m the bigger monster!”

    April 1, 2015
    |Reply
    • Jemmy
      Jemmy

      Yeah I took the vampire/wolf snarl off as the werewolf considering if he could take out the vampire and the vampire saying ‘oh hell no, don’t even think about it’.

      April 1, 2015
      |Reply
  15. Alias Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK
    Alias Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK

    Lordy, I don’t know how to spell my own alias.

    April 1, 2015
    |Reply
  16. noisyninja
    noisyninja

    1. Oz waking up in the woods is amazing, as are pretty much all his scenes. He is one of the best characters on the show. Also: nipples!!
    2. First thing I thought when I saw the werewolf hunter with the Bunsen burner was “ooh, meth!”
    3. I totally ship willow and Cordelia. That scene was dripping with sexual tension! “Boys suck!” “Yeah, let’s make out!” Also I love that Cordy can be mad at Xander for obsessing about willow without being mad at willow. She is probably doing the most for female positivity on the show right now.
    4. Thank you for the Xander/spike fantasy!

    April 2, 2015
    |Reply
  17. Brag & Bounce
    Brag & Bounce

    Now that I’ve seen Giles’ Amazing Vanishing Glasses act, I cannot unsee it. It bothers me more than is reasonable; losing/breaking my glasses is one of the most 100% foolproof ways of sending me into a panic attack, so now that’s stuck in my craw 😛

    I love Oz so much. In high school, I aspired to be Oz. I kind of still do 😉

    April 6, 2015
    |Reply
  18. Lululala
    Lululala

    So I guess gender essentialism is okay when it denigrates men? As disgusting as Xander is, why would you defend Buffy’s comments with glee? Tell me: is men’s innate predation and agression biological (which would include trans women and dmab people) or socialized ( which would include other marginalized men)? As a genderqueer person of color who loved your 50shades recaps I am curious. So please educate me , oh wise cis straight white woman!

    April 15, 2015
    |Reply
    • Lululala
      Lululala

      Its so much fun to laugh at men for being upset for being referred to as predatory and animalistic! Its not like men of color and gay men are called that all the time! Its not like it not like it could hurt and trigger a young male fan who is gay or of color! Its not only like it also hurts women (like trans women)! Its not like a middle class thin straight cis white woman like Buffy has privilege over thousands of men, has no idea what their struggles are and is in no position to be making that kind of joke! Its so much fun! What a hoot! Hahaha!

      April 15, 2015
      |Reply
      • JennyTrout
        JennyTrout

        Again, since I’m cis, I’m obviously not seeing this from your perspective. All of that makes absolute sense.

        April 16, 2015
        |Reply
  19. Lululala
    Lululala

    I guess this is what happens when straight people write about queer issues. I appreciate the effort, but your recap only scratches what makes this episode homophobic( and larry as a character in general or the show itself) but your biggest issue is that it portrays gay men as not mysogynistic? Its true that many gay men are mysogynistic to a point that could make you vomit, however I don’t understand why so many feminist lately have felt it necessary to disscuss as though it was the most pressing issue in the world. Everybody is talking about gay misogyny as a rampant problem, but gay men are not voting to restrict who hetero women can marry, if they can adopt, donate blood, or throwing them out of their houses. Is there a gay Michele Bachman or Anyta Bryant? Why is no one talking about “female homophobia” or something like that. You usually are aware of your white privilege, so you probably would not make a comment about black or latino misogyny in specific, so why are gay men not afforded the same courtesy? You should know this issues are better dealt with internally. I admit this is a tirade about straight feminist in general, but I actually like you Jenny. I guess it’s understandable for cishet writers not to catch all that is homophobic, biphobic and transphobic, but for you to miss it and take more of an issue with an “sympathetic” (HA HA!) yet unrealistic portrayal of gay men is pretty fucking offensive. So the real issue is not the homophobia of the episode but to remind everyone that gay can be awful to women too? Do you really think its your place to do that? Awesome priorities!

    April 15, 2015
    |Reply
    • Lululala
      Lululala

      Not to mention gay men ( and queer people in general) are usually in the receiving end of harrasment instead of the giving end but whatever.

      April 15, 2015
      |Reply
    • JennyTrout
      JennyTrout

      I’m not straight, I just want to be clear on that going out, because you keep calling me straight and I’m trying to make an effort to correct people lately. But you’re right, I’m absolutely not a gay man.

      What I saw in this episode was the violent misogyny of a toxic, supposedly heterosexual male, excused as a cover for the secret of his homosexuality. Instead of the throw-away comment I made in the post, I should have gone into more depth with regards to why I was pointing it out, and I definitely shouldn’t have written it the way I did. This isn’t an excuse, by any means, but the night before I wrote this, I got into this really shitty twitter argument with man who kept making comments about how I was too fat to find my own pussy and just really awful shit like that, and TBH, I assumed he was a straight guy, until he made some crack to someone else about how butch dykes (presumably me) were the reason he was gay, and then it turned into this whole giant thing about how my vagina is disgusting and I’m too fat to find it or whatever. Like I said, isn’t an excuse, but when I first read your comment, I was like, “WTF, I didn’t say anything… Oh shit, I totally did.”

      So, let me try this again, in a way that hopefully isn’t shitty, but definitely isn’t going to be me taking out my disgust at a single gay men on all gay men. I definitely harbor prejudices against gay men and I’m catching that about myself more and more often lately (probably because I’ve come out and I’m actually thinking about this stuff more), when it’s not being rightfully pointed out by others. So thanks for that. Everybody needs the “you’re being an a-hole” stick now and then.

      With the character of Larry, misogyny and toxic masculinity are the result of his stress as he denies his sexuality. Fair enough. But when it’s revealed that he’s gay, suddenly all that behavior stops, he starts being nice to girls, and…then what? He forgets all that toxic conditioning? Coming out is the cure and now he’s this great guy (especially only days later, there’s no emotional upheaval at all, he’s just totally fine)? I don’t buy it, not because all gay men are horrible misogynists and it’s my priority to go after them before fixing any other problem in the world, but because it doesn’t make sense to me that as an audience member, the cue, the proof that he’s gay and changed his ways, from is the fact that he’s nice to a woman. It takes Larry from the extreme stereotype of misogynist jock to the other extreme stereotype of the gay man who is a friend to women everywhere, in a single day, without another thought to the fact that it was using a lazy stereotype to keep the homophobic joke of “LOL Larry thinks Xander is gay” going.

      It’s possible I’m just saying the same thing over, but with more words, in which case I apologize for wasting your time. But as you’ve pointed out, I’m not a gay man, and I’m not going to see it from a gay man’s perspective. From the perspective of a queer, cis white woman, the writing on this episode, and basically future appearances of Larry and any other gay character (including Willow and Tara) tend to be very shallow, trope laden portrayals. In this case, that was Larry and his 180 where women were concerned.

      As for why we’re not talking about female homophobia, I’m totally down to talk about it, any time.

      April 16, 2015
      |Reply
      • Lululala
        Lululala

        Thank you for replying Jenny, I do appreciate it. I was angry when I wrote this, but the fact that you answered it in a coherent and respectful manner fills me with relief, because it tells me that my admiration and respect for you are not misplaced. I’m sorry if I was too abrassive, is just that seeing some feminists laugh at anti-male jokes while ignoring their own privilege over those men and how those jokes hurt gender variant people is infuriating, and coming from you felt like a betrayal. I’m sorry I called you straight but I really thought you were, I have read all your book and tv recaps as well as other posts, and never caught anything to suggest otherwise, I don’t use twitter so maybe I missed it there? Are you bi, pan? I must admit am a little excited about this, the fact that someone like you is queer makes me very happy. Im sorry about your experience with that gay man, he sounds like an asshole. Gay men who are willful mysogynists feel like a dissapointment and again a betrayal. Its foolish to idealize a minority, but sometimes you do expect better. On the subject of Larry and gay people in general this show is a mess. He (as Tara) ends up dead, Andrew (implied)is a joke and a sniveling misogynyst and coward and Willow is a rapist. Now that you explained your point about the episode I understand where you were coming from better regarding the sloppy and steriotyped writing. On “female homophobia”: I am angry because it seems like many (mostly straight) feminists are lately shiting on gay men disproportianetly for their misogyny while completly ignoring the other side of the coin, and worst minimazing and ridiculing their struggle. Its they who are controlling the conversation, and even straight men are gleefully joining in.I have been abused by female family members and mistreated by female friends but I am not writing an article called: Why are women so homophobic? Or : how women betrayed gay people. And I wouldn’t because to me it doesn’t make sense. Its not female homophobia its just homophobia. I’m sorry again if I was too agressive, I usually don’t comment on the internet (its mostly pointless) but seeing it here was so upsetting, i had too. I apologize again for calling you straight and thank you for your reply.

        April 16, 2015
        |Reply
        • JennyTrout
          JennyTrout

          No problem! I didn’t do a big coming out post, I just stopped pretending to not be bi. Or pan. To be perfectly honest, I don’t understand the full sexual politics separation between the two, but I like people of the same and different genders, and we called that bisexual in my day *shakes cane* *orders kids off the lawn*. I actually will still sometimes go, “As a straight woman,” and have to stop my self and go, “Uh, no.” I got into such a hard habit of being like, “Well, I’m not REALLY bisexual because I married a man, so I’m straight,” that it’s hard to break. I assume the same would be true if I were in a committed relationship with a woman, I would be like, “Well, I’m not REALLY bisexual, because I’m with a woman, so I’m a lesbian.”

          I haven’t noticed the “gay men are misogynists” theme as strongly with the straight white feminists I’m running into on the internet, but probably because it’s being lost under the avalanche of transmisogyny and anti-black racism that has become a hallmark of mainstream feminism, and I’m just not reading the same people out there. Now I’m sure it will appear like Beetlejuice, since we’ve talked about it. The idea of a straight man thinking he has a horse in any race where misogyny is concerned is laughable. That’s like the inventor of the toaster joining the fight against breakfast.

          April 16, 2015
          |Reply
          • OK, I just had to comment on this, even though it’s months and months later. I’m a bisexual (or pansexual, ditto on the not being clear on the difference except that maybe it’s about not having a binary construct of gender) married to a woman, and I’m always referring to myself as a lesbian, and lately have started saying, “Well, actually -” Sometimes it seems like it’s TMI and sometimes it just feels like I’m not being honest with myself or other people.

            ANYWAY. It was a relief to see that I’m not the only one. And I really appreciate how you handled Lululala’s comments on this, because I totally would have gotten all defensive and shit.

            August 11, 2015
  20. Lululala
    Lululala

    Oh of course that anti-blackness and transphobia are as rampant as ever, but now some (obviously not all) feminists are also shiting on gay and trans men and other MoC. I don’t believe they represent the entirety of feminism but it’s still pretty aggravating. Regarding straight men, personally I don’t mind privileged people talking about issues that affect marginalized people as long that its done with respect and open ears and mind, and remembering their privilege. But the way those straight men talked about gay men pretending as though they had the same experience, dismissing their opression as less serious than others was infuriating. Congratulations on your self discovery about your sexuality Jenny! If you ever decide to write a post about it (its of course a very personal thing to do, so it is completely up to you) I will be first in line to read it!

    April 16, 2015
    |Reply
  21. Anon123
    Anon123

    I’d almost be tempted to say that Xander’s homophobia isn’t exactly #23–that if we’re meant to be laughing at him for his homophobia, *he’s* the butt of the joke for his bigotry–if he weren’t also portrayed as an everyman.

    The part about the terrible kid in your math class and the accompanying discussion is super-sad and super-true. Also, in that screen-cap of the ass-grabbing, it looks to me like the actor has his fingers dug in *ridiculously* far, way more than is necessary to convey an ass-grab for the scene. Like, what the fuck is with that? Sarah Michelle Geller probably had bruises for weeks afterward. “Let’s make an episode about young women combating sexual harassment by having our young women actors get actually sexually harassed.” Ugh.

    April 26, 2015
    |Reply
  22. Anon123
    Anon123

    Actually, when you bring up “cis men treating women like garbage” to point out it’s not a straight man’s monopoly…there can be a really disturbing misogyny element among trans men, too. I still struggle with knowing how much of what I hated about my childhood as a girl is because of gender socialization (i.e., issues that would apply to many women in our culture), how much is my not liking being a girl and my mom’s messages that all women hate being women because it’s horrible (i.e. things that really only apply to me), and how much is general emotional abuse (i.e. things that relate to other abuse survivors but have no significant gender element).

    For example, trying to be helpful, I once wrote a piece on how women might benefit from unpacking elements of gender socialization for themselves. But the piece wound up being horrible and sexist, in part because I conflated a lot of “things that were horrible for me specifically” with “things that are common to most women and people raised as girls.” I made it sound like everywhere all around the world, all the women and none of the men have my exact set of character flaws. Not cool, both because projection, and because woman are not a bunch of identical clone-robots.

    So the storal of the mory is, if you want to marry a pransome hince, remember that he could be an asshole regardless of his cis/trans status. (He could also be a shameful serial double-commenter who thinks what he has to say is so important he can’t ever seem to read to the end of a post before putting it.)

    April 26, 2015
    |Reply
  23. Jass
    Jass

    I don’t know if this is a #21, but I always loved the concern Willow has for bunnies in this episode and Oz says something like, “they don’t look tough but can take care of themselves.” I just found it very funny in retrospect. Poor Anya.

    September 29, 2015
    |Reply
  24. Jelly Bean
    Jelly Bean

    I’m a little late with this comment, but I was rewatchimg this episode and noticed something. When Willow and Buffy leave the library, Willow says “it used to be so much easier to tell if a boy liked you. He’d just punch you on the arm and run back to his friends.” Xander joins them there, and the first thing he does is hit Buffy on the arm. The look she gives him there is priceless.

    April 21, 2016
    |Reply
  25. Avi
    Avi

    “I read somewhere once that Joss wasn’t sure if Xander or Willow would come out as gay during the show’s run. I contend that neither of them should have, nor should Buffy have been described as a lesbian in the comics. They should have come out as bisexual. But god forbid we upset the homosexual/heterosexual binary when we can instead ignore canon relationships in which characters desired sexual relations with members of a different gender.”
    …..did you really just say that? Like, typed it and thought it was a good idea to publish? Even if you think the whole Willow coming out storyline is bi erasure(which I’ve been on the fence about since I watched the show initially), being gay is nowhere near normative, and to be honest, I’m not sure where you get off implying it is, especially seeing as afaik you’re straight.

    December 7, 2017
    |Reply
    • Jenny Trout
      Jenny Trout

      I’m bi and I broke down crying yesterday because a character on a major television show actually said the words “I’m bi.” That’s the representation we don’t get. I’m 37 and that’s the first time I heard a character say that on mainstream television. So pardon me for criticizing a straight man’s shitty portrayal of queer sexuality flipping between two poles like a light switch. I’ll shut the fuck up and stay invisible for your convenience.

      December 7, 2017
      |Reply
  26. Jorge A Farelas
    Jorge A Farelas

    An adult hanging out with a high schooler wasnt seen as odd or suspicious in the 80s and 90s. It’s only with modern eyes that we look back at shows and movies and think people should have been suspicious about that kind of thing. Look at the movie the karate Kid with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. Daniel’s mother allowed her son to spend alone time with a much older man and even let him go alone with him to Okinawa when he was just 16 years old. Looking at it with modern eyes we would probably judge Daniel’s mom for being an awful mother and suspect Mr. Miyagi as being a pervert. No one thought like that back then. In fact people think Daniel and Mr. Miyagi’s relationship was a beautiful father/son type relationship. When I watched Buffy I didnt see Buffy and Giles as being anything but a father/daughter like relationship. However, today’s society has dirty minds so people will take innocent relationships and make them dirty.

    October 19, 2021
    |Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *