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The Big Damn Buffy Rewatch S04E01 “The Freshman”

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In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will probably die of sleep deprivation during this first week of school. 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 How do these kids know all these outdated references, anyway?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/bi 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.
  36. Economic inequality is humorized and oversimplified.
  37. Buffy is an abusive romantic partner.
  38. Riley is the worst.
  39. Joss Whedon has a problem with fat people.

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.

Sunnydale High is a cold crater in the ground and it’s time for us all to move on to Buffy: The College Years. Everyone is going to go through some new and exciting changes, and I think we’re all going to come out better for them.

Just not in this episode.

We open on a cemetery, where Buffy and Willow are trying to figure out Buffy’s class schedule for the upcoming semester. Buffy is considering dropping her psychology class in favor of something else, and Willow protests, saying it’s an interesting class and counts for a science credit. Also?

Willow: “Anyway, Professor Walsh is supposed to be great. She’s like, world-renowned.”

Boom. There we go. Big bad mentioned before the opening credit sequence. I think the only other time this happens is in season one, isn’t it?

Anyway, Buffy blames a summer of heavy slayage for putting off deciding on her courses for the semester. So, I can tell her right now for free that the pop culture class she wants is full. All the classes where you just watch TV or listen to music get snapped up immediately. While she and Willow talk about this stuff, a vampire rises from his grave behind them. He grins evilly to himself as he sneaks toward the girls, but stops when he sees the crossbow and stakes beside Buffy. He wisely chooses to hit the road while Buffy continues to talk about college:

Buffy: “I just can’t let it take the edge off of my slaying. I gotta stay sharp. Is this guy ever gonna wake up?”

After the credits, we join Buffy on the UC Sunnydale campus, where she’s overwhelmed by the crowd, the folder color orientation system, and vague, yet loud, protests.

A woman with a bullhorn stands in front of a bedsheet sign that reads "This must stop" while riled up students cheer her on.

I was thinking the other day about the whole thing with Joss Whedon being even more of a douchebag Male Feminist™ than we previously understood, and wondering how that would affect my analysis and enjoyment of Buffy. This throw-away moment is a great example of how Whedon’s real life actions have affected my consumption of the show. Why? Because in the past, I saw this as just a quick workaround wherein the audience could see an example of a campus activist group recruiting on the first day of classes, without highlighting a specific agenda or controversial issue, thus alienating viewers. “Look, it’s a campus group demonstrating. This is a different environment than Buffy is used to. No need to get into a bunch of details.” That’s all it was, in my mind. Now, having read the allegations of how Whedon treated the women he worked with, how he monetized feminist branding to benefit himself, I look at this moment differently. I see a dude bro making a crack about social justice warriors (though the term wasn’t really in use at the time, the stereotype existed), outraged women in particular. Whether or not he intended this as a mean-spirited joke about those hysterical Feminazis or whatever, I don’t know. But as Whedon wrote this episode, and as we now know more about his personal attitudes versus his public persona, it suddenly takes on a new possible meaning and makes me feel like I can’t trust the show anymore.

That’s not to say I don’t still have a lot of fondness for it. It just means that my feelings of betrayal are a lot deeper than I expected them to be, even after all these years of watching Whedon fuck up.

Anyway, as Buffy tries to find the right building, she’s inundated with flyers for like, more protests and getting saved by Jesus and a really gross party where they’re giving out Jell-o shots free to freshman girls. Ugh, why are dudes so gross?

Luckily, Buffy runs into Willow, who isn’t overwhelmed. She’s jacked up about all the school she’s about to do. She also has a bunch of flyers:

Willow: “I’ve heard about five different issues, and I’m angry about each and every one of them. What did you get?”

Buffy: “Jello-shots.”

Willow: “I didn’t get Jello-shots. I’ll trade you for a Take Back The Night.”

See above. I didn’t necessarily think this was cute before (ha ha, she’s trading a flyer about a campus anti-rape group for a flyer about a party where she’ll definitely get raped), but now it seems less clueless, more sinister. It doesn’t matter what the original intent was. Whedon’s actions now cast these little moments in a whole new light.

Willow is perhaps a little too excited about this next chapter in her academic life:

Willow: “It’s just, in high school, knowledge was pretty much frowned upon. You really had to work to learn anything. But here the energy, the collective intelligence, it’s like this force, this penetrating force, and I can just feel my mind opening up, you know? And letting this place just thrust into and spurt knowledge into… That sentence ended up in a different place than it started out in.”

Buffy is already feeling trepidation because she didn’t get to school on time to get her student ID without waiting in a line, and also because she’s not as excited about the spurting as Willow is. Buffy and Willow run into Oz, who mentions the chaotic busy-ness of the campus. Buffy is relieved that she’s not the only one who feels out of place, but as she’s saying so, an acquaintance of Oz’s stops to chat with him. Since he’s in a band, Oz is no stranger to UC Sunnydale (where Dingoes has played many times before) and knows people and his way around already. He confidently helps the guy with directions, while Buffy silently realizes that yup, she’s still alone in her doubts and worries.

Since one was a big part of their high school lives, Buffy and Willow check out the library. Buffy mentions that it’s too bad Giles couldn’t just become a librarian at the college.

Willow: “Well, he says he’s enjoying being a gentleman of leisure.”

Buffy: “Gentleman of leisure? Isn’t that just British for unemployed?”

Willow: “Uh-huh. He’s a slacker now.”

Slacker!Giles is my second favorite Giles.

The subject of slackers naturally turns to Xander, who’s still on his post high school road trip. He told Willow he wouldn’t return to Sunnydale until he’d driven to all fifty states. She didn’t have the heart to tell him about Hawaii. Buffy says it’ll be nice to have the gang back together and hanging out in the library again…until she sees that the library is roughly the size of a ninth century Spanish mosque. And of course, Willow has to compare it to the old Sunnydale High library, which wasn’t as big and didn’t have as many non-occult books in it. We definitely get the feeling that Willow’s litany of “high school sucked in comparison to this” is bringing Buffy down.

At the campus bookstore, we get some awful foreshadowing.

Buffy: “I can’t wait till mom gets the bill for these books. I hope it’s a funny anyeurism.”

OH MY GOD WHY?! WHY?! FUCK YOU #21!

While trying to reach for a book on a high shelf, Buffy knocks a bunch of very heavy textbooks onto the head of a handsome dude who stole Aaron Carter’s haircut:

Generically handsome white guy with a stupid center-part haircut.

This is Riley Finn. He is the worst. Now, even though he won’t do anything that’s the worst yet, I’m still going to add a number to the list in preparation. #38: Riley is the worst.

Riley is Dr. Walsh’s teaching assistant, and he’s just as psyched about her class as Willow is. Meanwhile, Buffy stumbles through the conversation. I assume this is due to her uncontrollable attraction to our generic white love interest.

Buffy goes to her dorm room and meets her roommate, Kathy. She’s very talkative and peppy and positive and she has great taste in music:

Cathy, hanging a giant poster of Celine Dion.

I know this is supposed to show that Kathy is tragically uncool, but I will brook no slander against my French-Canadian Goddess of Song.

That night, Buffy struggles to sleep through Kathy’s apnea snoring and dream giggling. The next morning finds Buffy in that pop culture class:

Profesor: “The point of this course is not to critique popular American culture. It is not to pick at it or look down upon it, and it is not to watch videos for credit […]”

Dude, I have already failed your class.

As the professor is talking, Buffy whispers to another student to ask if the class is full yet. And the professor, a nasty looking little ego-maniacal prick of a man who is clearly ready to take his superiority complex out on his female students, decides to make an example of her:

Professor: “And there are two people talking at once and I know that one of them is me and the other is…a blonde girl. You. Blonde girl. Stand up.”

“Now, Jenny,” you might be thinking, “this dude has every right to tell someone to stop talking in his class.” Sure he does. But he doesn’t have every right to embarrass and devalue a young female student by condescendingly referring to her as “Blonde Girl” and making her stand up in front of the entire lecture hall. That’s some shitty, sexist shit. Granted, I did not finish college, but I can think of twice in my entire time there that any instructor called someone out for whispering to their neighbor, and they managed to do it without being giant misogynists about it. One was like, “You realize this is an ASL class, but we’re not all actually Deaf?” which will never not be funny to me. Like, who talks out loud during a mostly-signed class?

Anyway, the professor asks Buffy what was so important that she needed to talk in his class, and she tries to explain that she didn’t know if there were openings left and she was told to just show up to find out. But the guy isn’t interested in hearing any of that. He tells her she’s sucking energy from everyone in the room and shouts at her to leave. So, Buffy’s first experience in college is being humiliated in front of like, a hundred people by a guy who probably went home and jerked off about it later.

Buffy runs into Riley in a hallway and asks him how his head is doing, but it takes him a minute to remember her and why she would ask him that. Then, when he does, he refers to her as Willow’s friend, and the sudden removal of Buffy’s identity makes her visibly uncomfortable. Riley walks her to psych class, where she meets up with Willow. When she asks Buffy how the pop culture class was, Buffy tells her she decided not to take it because it was dull.

Enter Professor Walsh:

Professor Walsh: “Okay, this is pysch 105, introduction to psychology. I’m Profesor Walsh. Those of you who fall into my good graces will come to know me as Maggie. Those of you who don’t will come to know me by the name my TAs use and think I don’t know about, The Evil Bitch Monster of Death.”

Is Ana Steele one her of TAs? Because that’s just like, a hop, skip and a jump away from “The Bitch Troll.”

Walsh tells the students that the class is going to be difficult and that if they want an easy class they should try Geology 101, because that’s “where the football players are.” (#11)

So, Buffy is strolling around campus at night and runs into another student, Eddie, who’s gotten lost. They walk together to their dorms and talk about Walsh’s psych class and how UC Sunnydale was supposed to be a party school. He tells her how much he loves Of Human Bondage, which she thinks is a porno, and they begin a tenuous friendship out of their mutual sense of being overwhelmed by the college experience. When they part ways to go to their separate buildings, Eddie watches Buffy go with a little smile. He’s so distracted by this pretty young woman that he’s easily ambushed by a group of vampires who have stepped right out of a post-grunge alternative music video:

Three vampires. In the background, a red-headed one with her hair half-up in bantu knots and a goateed, surfer-haired dude. In the foreground, a girl with long blonde hair also half up in knots, but not the tall pointy one the other chick is sporting.

After the break, the grunge vampires ransack Eddie’s dorm room, throwing things into boxes and emptying the place out. At psych the next day, Buffy is confused when she can’t find Eddie. She goes to his dorm and finds the place completely empty. An RA tells her that it’s normal, sometimes people bail during the first week. Besides a note explaining that school is just too much to handle, Eddie has also left behind his copy of Of Human Bondage, which he’d previously described as his security blanket he takes everywhere.

So, where is Eddie? Laying all gray on the floor of a room full of vampires, surrounded by piles of stuff. The main blonde-girl vampire is sorting through Eddie’s CDs, complaining that they’re not good enough and they need to kill cooler people. Shit, kill Kathy. I guarantee she’s got a whole STACK of Celine Dion cassettes.

Hey, ready for a killer moment of super original, never-before-heard comedy?

Red-head Vampire: “Does this sweater make me look fat?”

Blonde Vampire: “No, the fact that you’re fat makes you look fat. That sweater just makes you look purple.”

I direct you to TVTropes.com’s pages, “Does This Make Me Look Fat” , featuring not one, but THREE entries on Joss Whedon.

Actually, no. I direct you there after you finish this recap. Because once you get over there, that’s the rest of your day all used up.

The surfer-guy vampire gets everyone’s attention because he’s got a poster for their ongoing poster wall competition. It’s Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss,” which he staples on the wall over several others like it.

Surfer-Guy Vampire: “Big score for Klimt. Monet still well in the lead, but look out for Team Klimt, coming from behind.”

They’ve got a tally board and everything, and are apparently racing “The Kiss” against “Water Lilies” and it’s so painfully true, you guys. Everyone I knew who lived in a college dorm at this time had one or the other.

Blonde Vampire: “Freshman. Man, they’re so predictable.”

Surfer-Guy Vampire: “And you can never eat just one.”

Red-head Vampire: “Yeah, I’m hungry.”

Blonde Vampire: “What a shock.”

Do you guys want to see this tragically obese girl who deserves to be endlessly mocked for her weight?

A picture of a girl who isn't fat at all.

Buffy is on the few shows where I really don’t think of it as having a lot of fat shaming. There are definite instances, even besides this one, but it’s nothing on par with, say, 30 Rock, in which we are constantly told that size-four-at-best Tina Fey is grotesquely fat and unloveable because of it. If I were going to list the top ten worst TV fat-shaming offenders, Buffy wouldn’t make the cut. Which is what makes this scene stick out even more. There’s no need for it. The blonde vampire (I think her name is Sunday or Tuesday or something, I haven’t looked it up yet and they haven’t said it) is already unlikeable. She’s a vampire who kills students and steals their stuff. We don’t need the fat shaming on top of it. The only reason these lines are in here is to be cruel for cruelty’s sake.

The blonde vampire complains that she needs better minions, and the “fat” vampire tells her that if she’s going to act like that, she can have “Dead Eddie” hunt for their dinner. Blonde vampire says that was her plan, and Eddie’s eyes open.

If I were a vampire, I would for sure call myself Dead Eddie.

Meanwhile, at Giles’s house, Buffy lets herself right on in and…

There is a beautiful young black woman with no pants on, wearing one of Giles's shirts, standing outside of Giles's kitchen.

This is why people knock, Buffy.

She asks the stranger if Giles still lives there, and Giles emerges in his bathrobe. He introduces the woman as his “old friend” Olivia. Remember the “old friend” thing, because I’m gonna address it again in a later episode. Oh, also of note, she refers to him as “Ripper.” Again, keep that in mind, because I want to point out a glaring inconsistency when we get to “Hush”.

Anyway, Buffy tries to take off by saying it’s a bad time, but Giles insists that she tell him what she came to see him about.

Buffy: “This is a bad time.

Giles: “You keep saying that–”

Buffy: “Well, it looks pretty bad! I think someone had just a little too much free time on their hands!”

Giles: “I’m not supposed to have a private life?”

Buffy: “No! Because you’re very, very old and it’s gross.”

Obviously, this is thrilling news for Giles to hear.

I bet you’re wondering, “Jenny, why aren’t you posting a picture of Giles in his bathrobe? That seems like it would be right up your alley.” Well, because it’s a fucking hideous bathrobe, friends, and if I’m ever to find Giles attractive again, I have to avoid creating permanent memories of it. Ugh, it looks like it’s made of an unholy blend of microfiber and velvet or something.

Anyway, Buffy tells Giles that a student went missing and she found signs of a scuffle and an RA told her that students go missing all the time. Giles listens but points out that none of what Buffy is telling him is unusual or something that’s too big for her to handle.

Buffy: “Remember before you became Hugh Heffner, when you used to be a Watcher?”

Giles: “Well, officially you no longer have a Watcher. Buffy, you know I’ll always be here when you need me. Your safety is more important to me than anything. But you are going to have to take care of yourself. You’re out of school and I can’t always be there to guide you.”

Hey, friends. Can one of you help me out? When Buffy walks into Giles’s house, David Bowie’s “Memory Of A Free Festival” is playing in the background, but it’s not the version from Space Oddity. Instead of an electric organ backing the vocals, there are guitars. I wasted a lot of my time this morning trying to track it down. I went through all my albums and I tried Spotify and YouTube and I cannot find that version of the song and it’s driving me up a wall. It’s not the version on Bowie At The Beeb. If you can tell me where it’s from, even if it’s from a freaking bootleg or something, please let me know in the comments.

That night, Buffy patrols campus by herself. She spots Eddie and chases him down, only to find he’s all vamped out:

Buffy: “God, I was worried that something had happened to you and of course it has because you’re a vampire.”

She fights Eddie and stakes him, and the vampire gang steps out of the shadows. The main vampire, the blonde one, introduces herself:

Blonde Vampire: “I’m Sunday. I’ll be killing you here in a minute or so.”

Buffy: “You know, that threat gets more frightening every time I hear it.”

Surfer-Guy Vampire: “Uh, are we gonna fight, or is there just gonna be a monster sarcasm rally?”

Surfer-Guy should be leading this group. I would hang out with him.

Buffy and Sunday fight and Sunday really kicks Buffy’s ass. But, not without a little “look how I subvert misogyny!” misogyny:

Sunday: “Don’t take this the wrong way, but…you fight like a girl.”

Ha ha, see, if one girl says it to another it’s funny and I’m empowering women by writing it! See, it’s like, she’s saying, “You fight like a girl,” but she’s a girl and she can fight better, so using a “fight like a girl” as an insult to show that not fighting like a girl is superior is feminist! I didn’t subvert anything (I actually reinforced it) but I think I did, so I’m brilliant! (#6)

Yeah, okay. I’m going to be extra hard on Joss episodes in light of his nonsense. I see that now. We’re all just going to deal with it.

Buffy, realizing she’s outnumbered and that Sunday is stronger than her, runs from the fight. Because (#16). I’m not saying Buffy can never have an off day, or that no vampire is ever going to get the jump on her. But this isn’t like when the vampire stakes her in season five. She gets her ass fully handed to her, basically just to demoralize her further. We just saw her fight another Slayer two episodes ago. Maybe she needed to run from this fight, but the way she gets tossed around like a rag doll is unbelievable to me.

Part of me wonders (because Whedon) if Buffy getting beat up here isn’t supposed to be like, “Oh, look, she’s so sad and emotional, and being sad and emotional has made her physically weak because that’s how women work.” I mean, did you read his Wonder Woman screenplay?

Buffy goes back to her dorm room and nurses her injuries, and in the morning she spots Willow and Oz happily talking to another student, totally well-adjusted already somehow. In the vampire nest, the vamps are making fun of Buffy behind her back, mocking her outfit and talking about how weak she was. Sunday says Buffy won’t last the night and tells her minions to head to the tunnels below the town.

Discouraged, Buffy goes home, intending to stay there for a few nights, only to find that while she’s been gone, she’s basically lost her place there, too, as Joyce has filled her entire bedroom with crates full of artifacts.

Joyce: “You know, I didn’t think you’d be back for a couple of weeks. But I didn’t move anything. It’s still your room.”

Buffy: “You filled it with packing crates.”

Joyce: “Yeah, but I didn’t move anything.”

Buffy: “If it’s still my room, shouldn’t I be able to fit in it?”

Joyce: “Well, it’s just for a couple of weeks while we do inventory at the gallery. I just really didn’t think you’d be back so soon.”

Buffy: “Neither did I.”

Downstairs, the phone rings, and when Buffy answers, there’s no one there. Since there’s no place for her to sleep at home, she returns to her dorm to find her side of the room completely cleaned out, just like Eddie’s was, in preparation for her death. There’s even a note, saying basically the same thing as the note they left for Eddie.

If there’s one place that Buffy can count on, it’s the Bronze. Of course, her crowd isn’t there. Angel isn’t going to show up to be mysterious. Oz’s band isn’t playing. Cordelia isn’t slinking around being bitchy. For a moment, Buffy thinks she sees Angel, but it’s just a guy who looks like him. So, basically, a dude in his mid-to-late thirties hanging out with all the kids. This isn’t “Band Candy,” dude. Take a hike.

Just as Buffy is realizing that she’s lost in her last refuge from change, Xander’s there. He got into town a few days before, but he didn’t want to help Willow and Buffy move, so he laid low for a while. When Buffy asks how his great American road trip went, he tells her saw the Grand Canyon. The movie, Grand Canyon.

Xander: “Basically, I got as far as Oxnard and the engine fell out of my car. And that was literally. So, I ended up washing dishes at the fabulous Ladies’ Nightclub for about a month and a half while I tried to pay for the repairs. No one really bothered me, or even spoke to me, until one night when one of the male strippers called in sick, and no power on this earth will make me tell you the rest of that story. Suffice to say, I traded my car in for one that wasn’t entirely made of rust, came trundling back home to the arms of my loving parents where everything was exactly as it was except I sleep in the basement and I have to pay rent. How’s college?”

Damn, Xander! I’m not even going to label this #36, because it actually calls out Buffy’s economic privilege. While some people might see this story as a funny, “Oh, that Xander,” kind of moment, the “how’s college” at the end has me cheering every time. There will be plenty of opportunities to critique the show’s weird ideas of poverty, but “I’m stranded far from home, trying to get enough money to get back” is so real for so many people. I love the fact that Xander isn’t letting his friend forget that he lives in a much, much different world than she does.

Xander asks Buffy why she’s so down in the dumps, and she explains that her experience with the vampire gang was kind of demoralizing. In a humorous bit of unintentional foreshadowing of Joss’s life, Xander says:

Xander: “Then where’s the gang? Avengers assemble, let’s get it going!”

Buffy tells him that she doesn’t want to burden her friends with this nonsense.

Xander: “Buffy, I’ve gone through some fairly dark times in my life. Faced some scary things. Among them, the kitchen at the fabulous Ladies’ Nightclub. Let me tell you something: when it’s dark and I’m all alone and I’m scared or freaked out or whatever, I always think, ‘What would Buffy do?’ You’re my hero.”

This is the Xander I love. This is the side of him that makes him one of Buffy’s greatest allies. He doesn’t offer to help with magic or tell her what he thinks she should do. He really does try to think of what’s best for her in most cases, and he knows when to bust out the tough love and when love is all that’s needed.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop talking.

Xander: “Okay, sometimes, when it’s dark and I’m all alone I think, ‘what is Buffy wearing…”

God damnit, Xander. (#5)

But his pep talk is enough to get Buffy out of her slump, and he makes it clear he’s going to help her in any way she needs.

They break into an office at the college and look over records on the computer, subverting #15. So, I guess that one only applies if Willow is in the room when the scene takes place. Buffy finds that a number of students abruptly leave campus every year, but not enough that it ever raises any alarms. They find out that a zoning issue has kept a disbanded fraternity’s house vacant since the ’80s, when the disappearances first started. They decide that must be where the vampires are nesting and hoarding all the students’ stuff.

At the frat house, Buffy and Xander spy on the vampires through a skylight. The vamps are going through all of Buffy’s things and making fun of her. Sunday holds up some of Buffy’s clothes:

Buffy: “Oh! That’s my skirt! You’re never going to fit in it with those hips. We have to kill them.”

We have to kill them…because a girl with wider hips than mine dares think that my clothes could fit her.

You know what? I’m adding that number now. Just to be petty and spiteful. #39: Joss Whedon has a problem with fat people. And that’s not just me being too critical of a few lines of dialogue in this single episode. Later this season, when Tara is introduced, keep in mind that he had this to say about actress Amber Benson on the DVD commentary:

“I was thinking of somebody more physically like Alyson: smaller and… [long pause] less womanly than Amber. It was [executive producer] Marti Noxon, when Amber auditioned, who said – you know, she knew the physical type I was thinking of because I really wanted that vulnerability. […]”

In Joss’s worldview, women who aren’t delicate and sylphlike can’t be vulnerable. Because we’re all tanks, or something.

Lest you think, “Jenny, why are you saying ‘fat people’? Sunday isn’t fat! The red-headed vampire isn’t fat! Amber Benson isn’t fat, for Christ’s sakes!” let me assure you that I agree.  But if Whedon has a problem with the hips of a woman as slim as the actress playing Sunday, I guarantee that he has a problem with the hips of a person who’s actually fat. That fact that there are literally no fat people on Buffy, with the exception of a few demons depicted as fat to make them more hideous and disgusted (they were probably portrayed by thin actors in fat suits) makes these comments even more insulting; not only are extremely thin actresses mocked for their “fat” bodies in the script, actual fat people don’t exist in the Buffyverse. We might as well be invisible to Joss Whedon. He can’t even be bothered to put us on the screen to mock us.

Why yes, I have reached critical “FUCK THAT GUY.”

Buffy doesn’t see her weapons in the nest, so she sends Xander to get them from either her room or Willow’s. Then, leaning directly on the glass of the skylight, Buffy monologues:

Buffy: “Laugh all you want. This time, we play it my way. And the rules are gonna be just a little bit–”

The glass breaks mid-sentence, tumbling Buffy directly into the center of the vampire group. After a commercial break comes the pre-fight banter:

Buffy: “You got a nice setup here. But you made one mistake.”

Sunday: “What was that?”

Buffy: “Well, I’m not actually positive, but statistically speaking, people usually make at least–”

Sunday punches her in the face, and we cut to Buffy’s dorm room, where Kathy is showing Oz and Willow the note the vampires left behind. Willow says it’s not like Buffy to run away, except for the time she ran away, but they’re certain that something is fishy. Which makes Kathy feel real secure, knowing her roommate once ran away for months and changed her identity. Willow realizes that she and Oz have been so wrapped up in their own lives that they haven’t been paying attention to anything that’s going on with Buffy. As they try to figure out the problem, Xander shows up and tries to subtly clue them in on what’s happening without revealing anything to Kathy:

Xander: “Well, some friends of Buffy’s played a funny joke and they took her stuff, and now she wants our help to get it back from her friends who sleep all day and have no tans.”

Very slick, Xander.

Thinking Buffy is still just hanging out on the roof, Xander tells Willow and Oz they have a little time. In reality, Buffy is struggling hard. She spots her weapons chest and tries to crawl to it, but Sunday cuts her off. She mocks the Class Protector award from Buffy’s senior year and breaks it in half. That’s all Buffy needs to get her spirit back. Sunday twists Buffy’s hurt arm and says:

Sunday: “You know, this arm’s not looking so good. It might have to come off.”

Buffy: “You wanna know the truth? I only need one.”

BA-BAM! You do not fuck with the only symbol of recognition of Buffy’s sacrifice that she has ever received. Because that gets her going. She’s mopping in the floor with Sunday and the Red-Headed vampire, while the dude bro vampires decide to run. But then the doors burst open and in come Xander, Oz, and Willow, repelling the vamps with a cross and shooting them with a crossbow.

I wonder if just turning a crossbow sideways would repel a vampire. That would free up a hand.

Buffy and Sunday continue to banter, and the red-headed vampire flees. As Sunday gloats about breaking the Slayer’s arm, Buffy punches her square in the face to prove it’s not actually broken. Xander asks Buffy if she needes help, and she does a sassy little stake twirl as she declines. Then she throws Mr. Pointy right through Sunday’s chest. And rather than looking shocked or scared or anything, Sunday puts her hands on her hips, annoyed, as she crumbles to dust.

As the gang leaves the house, Xander asks what’s going to happen to all the stuff inside. While Oz feels that taking it would be wrong, Xander has no moral qualms about getting himself a new rowing machine. Then, Giles literally runs to Buffy, his arms full of weapons:

Giles: “I’ve been awake all night. I know I’m supposed to teach you self-reliance, but I can’t leave you out there to fight alone. To hell with what’s right. I’m ready to back you up. Let’s find the evil and fight it together.”

Cough, #2, cough. I told you season four is where this shit ramps up. Let’s think about the context of these lines in conjunction with new, casual Giles. Buffy is out of high school and ostensibly an adult. Angel is out of her life and she is currently boyfriendless. What does Giles do? Seemingly re-establishes a sexual relationship with a former lover and emotionally distances himself from Buffy, almost as if to ensure that one of them is unavailable in as many ways as possible, thus eliminating the chance that he might act on his essentially forbidden love for her. Then he changes his mind and runs to her and stammers through an impassioned speech about “To hell with what’s right” and fighting together and, oh yeah, lying awake all night thinking about her and the mistake he’s made in emotionally backing off from her. This is basically Giles declaring his love but framing it as his Watcher duties.

Buffy says thanks, real casual, and Willow asks Giles to carry a box as they all head back to Buffy’s dorm, her confidence in herself and her friends restored, ready to take on college life.

One of the vampires who escaped Sunday’s nest runs, panicked, across the campus. Suddenly, he’s tasered by a group of heavily armed soldiers who emerge from the bushes. They converge on him and we cut to the end titles.

In terms of Buffy season openers, this one is by far the weakest. It’s also high in the running for worst Buffy episode of all time. I would go so far as to say it’s the weakest Buffy episode that Whedon ever wrote himself. There are too many unanswered questions: who is Sunday? Why is she fixated on college kids, and the Sunnydale campus in particular? How can the same group of vampires get into the residence halls over and over again every year without anyone noticing, recognizing, or connecting them to the disappearances? How do they even get into the residence halls at all? To enter Sunnydale High, Angelus had to have an invite from the words over the door. Do “Welcome, students!” banners apply if the vampires themselves are former students? If so, why don’t welcome mats apply if vampires have ever been welcome anywhere?

Also, Sunday is the most obnoxious vampire in Buffy‘s entire run, and we don’t get as much satisfaction out of her death as we deserve.

All of that over-analyzing aside, this episode does show one of the major strengths in Whedon’s writing, which is his ability to directly communicate with the audience without being too obvious. In this episode, Buffy is an avatar for the viewer; we’re unsure of how the dynamic of the show is going to change while the characters are in college. We worry that our TV friends are going to change, but we know they have to, lest the story stagnates. But they all prove themselves to us in the end, and we’re ready for the new adventures ahead. “Don’t worry,” the script says. “We’re not going to abandon you after we’ve spent all these years together.”

Unfortunately, the episode’s theme isn’t enough to overcome the clunky characterization, fat hate, cartoonish depiction of college, and the just way, way too much plot and new character set up crammed into the fifty minute run time.

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43 Comments

  1. Atrista
    Atrista

    When I started reading these recaps and saw #2 up there, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. To me, Giles was always a father figure to Buffy and I just couldn’t conceive of there being any romantic tones to their relationship. Maybe that’s because I was young when I watched this series and older males (over 40….) were very out of my romance radar. Reading these recaps now, however, I see it. Boy do I see it now! In fact, #2 made me reevaluate Giles’ actions later in the show and his song in Once More With Feeling. I get it now.

    September 8, 2017
    |Reply
  2. Laina
    Laina

    Maybe “Joss Wheden is secretly a douchebag” should be a number, just to cover things that don’t fit in other numbers. VERY much agree with the Riley number. Thank you.

    I also kind of agree with Willow on the library though XD Big libraries just make me go “oh my”. The Class Protector moment (and kinda the end of this episode in general) is up there among my favourites, won’t lie. But I’m still with you on this episode being weak.

    Actually it’s kind of weird. This is not one of my favourite seasons. I think it’s one of my least, even, but this season has more of my favourite episodes than any other season.

    September 8, 2017
    |Reply
  3. Quelaag
    Quelaag

    “Yeah, okay. I’m going to be extra hard on Joss episodes in light of his nonsense. I see that now. We’re all just going to deal with it.”

    Or revel in it. 😀

    Another thing that bothered me about Sunday and her group of grunge band vampires was that the Initiative was apparently letting them snack on college students for so long. If the disappearances started in the 80s, why is it that the Initiative was just now getting around to capturing one of the vamps? Even if the Initiative wasn’t directly investigating the disappearances, one would assume they would be routinely clearing out abandoned buildings for vampire nests.

    September 8, 2017
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  4. sexiersadie
    sexiersadie

    Ugh, I hate this episode for so many reasons. For one, why aren’t Buffy and Willow roommates already? It makes no sense except as a flimsy plot device in episode two of this season.

    There are a couple of redeeming lines – Xander’s WWBD speech, definitely. And Willow’s and Buffy’s exchange, “How do you get to be renowned? Do you have to be nowned first?” “Yes, first there’s the painful nowning process” makes me laugh every time.

    I’m going to be an outlier here and say that I love Riley. Yes, he’s a generic white dude, but he’s probably Buffy’s most stable, reliable, and supportive boyfriend EVER.

    September 8, 2017
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    • Jemmy
      Jemmy

      I didn’t really see Riley as supportive. He doesn’t cope well with Buffy being stronger than he is, and I feel his choices in later seasons flow from insecurity. He’s always insecure and untrusting of his place in her life.

      Being the most stable boyfriend Buffy has isn’t really a high bar either….that girl has really bad romantic partners.

      September 11, 2017
      |Reply
  5. shel
    shel

    I don’t know if we get into it later as we get to know the initiative, but are they new to Sunnydale? Or are we supposed to think that they’ve been running around this whole time, but somehow only dealing with monsters on the UC campus?

    While I do enjoy chip spike later in the series (until it gets wierd anyway), I very much disliked all that was the initiative.

    September 8, 2017
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  6. Nocturnal Queen
    Nocturnal Queen

    Joss seems to have a problem with women who have bodies that aren’t of the waif type. Really skinny women fighting is a theme running through his productions. He seems to specifically like skinny, emotionally fragile women who have been through some sort of trauma leaving them childlike in speech and behaviour (Drusilla, Fred, River etc.). I often skip scenes with Fred or Dru because the infantalisation combined with fetishising creeps me out. The skinnier and more childlike in demeanor the character is, the more he seems to favour them. Notice how Amy Acker got a lot of screentime and more material on Angel compared to the other characters and how he seemed to favour Alyson Hannigan over the rest of the cast on Buffy. I’m in no way saying that they slept with him or that the actresses are at any fault, but I am saying that he fetishises the female characters with body types he finds attractive.

    Another thing I’ve noticed is how the nerdier male characters in Buffy and Angel gets the sexy waifs. Xander sort of got Willow, he got Anya and was the one to turn her down and in the comics he got Dawn. First Fred wanted Angel and then was in a relationship with Gunn. Two characters that are more macho like. But none of it lasted and instead she fell for the nerdier Wesley. I’m wondering if this is some sort of self insert and wish fulfillment.

    September 8, 2017
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    • Elisabeth
      Elisabeth

      This is dead on the mark. Even as a teenager watching Buffy, it bugged me that Buffy couldn’t be physically and emotionally capable at the same time. She’s physically strong, but she consistently makes bad impulse decisions based on her emotions. Same for Willow – the stronger her magic gets, the less emotionally stable she is. I understand that a show needs constant conflict to draw in the viewers, and that conflict can be internal as well as external, but couldn’t Xander have had an emotional breakdown for once?

      September 8, 2017
      |Reply
    • Kim
      Kim

      Xander gets Dawn in the comics?! That’s… disgusting.
      That creeps me out more than any #2 example Ms. Trout comes up with.
      Isn’t he basically the only father figure she ever had?! Other than weird fake implanted memories of Laura Ingall’s husband that don’t count at all? Giles was there, but didn’t love her the way he loved Buffy, was totally willing to sacrifice The Key, and totally bailed because Buffy’s gone, to hell with the recently orphaned mystical one year old!

      September 12, 2017
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    • Kim
      Kim

      “Because you’re very old and it’s gross!”
      So many points to Giles for repressing the obvious comeback of ‘You banged a 250 year old walking corpse!”

      September 12, 2017
      |Reply
  7. Cooper
    Cooper

    Two things!

    One, every time I rewatch this episode, my jaw drops when I realize that Eddie is Pedro Pascal, aka The Viper from Game of Thrones aka Javier Pena from Narcos. I feel the same way when I see Amy Adams as Tara’s country bumpkin cousin in Season 5.

    Two, if Joyce is doing inventory at the gallery, why in the world would she have all those artifacts stashed at home? Me thinks Joyce is deeply involved in a black market/smuggling ring.

    September 8, 2017
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    • Jellyfish
      Jellyfish

      I feel like this would actually explain a LOT about Joyce and I will be adding it to my headcanon in the future.

      September 9, 2017
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    • Artemis
      Artemis

      Yes. Joyce is definitely smuggling stolen artifacts. This makes so much sense I can’t believe it never occurred to me.

      September 11, 2017
      |Reply
  8. My friend D and I watched this recently. We were kind of amazed that Buffy could just keep a chest of weapons in her dorm room like that. Granted she probably wasn’t obvious about it, but still.

    And yes, there’s a lot about Riley that bothers me, but I still liked him better than Angel. At least Riley wasn’t constantly all ZOMG I HAVE TO PROTECT BUFFY DURING FIGHTS.

    Yes Riley helped her fight, but as an equal, not as her protector.

    I’m unaware of whatever information about Joss has come to light. I’m gonna have to do some googling. How badly should I be prepared to feel afterward?

    September 8, 2017
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    • Quelaag
      Quelaag

      “Yes Riley helped her fight, but as an equal, not as her protector.”

      I liked Riley for that aspect too, up until he realized how strong Buffy actually was and got super insecure about it.

      September 8, 2017
      |Reply
      • I haven’t gotten that far yet. But it sounds about right.

        September 9, 2017
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  9. TY
    TY

    I’m in the minority but…i like this episode. I didn’t think I needed more about Sunday because it wasn’t about Sunday. It was about Buffy finding her new place in the world. It’s about that time when you realize that you’re changing, that your friends are changing, and that life is different. But that it’s not THAT different. IDK.

    But Riley. Fucking HATE Riley. And, were going to get to use #37 a few times this season. And for every.season.left. He’s just so needy and insecure it make me mad.

    September 8, 2017
    |Reply
  10. Maril
    Maril

    I don’t really understand why Buffy and Willow are living in dorms. They’re going to school in the town they lived in already, did their parents kick them out or something? Isn’t living in the dorms super expensive?

    The ‘you fight like a girl’ comment made me think of this youtube video I saw recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-hOigoxHs about how writers in hollywood have a bad habit of writing sexist dialogue thinking that if they play it as funny, or it comes from a character we’re supposed to dislike or think of as pathetic, then it’s not actually sexist. The video focuses mainly on The Big Bang Theory but I think it works for this too.

    It would be really nice to have something like Buffy that just, didn’t notice she was a girl… I don’t mean people treat her like a guy, I mean, it just isn’t a thing that comes up. Treat her being female as something not even worth talking about because it’s no big deal. Don’t make sexist comments at her and have her then kick the persons ass proving them wrong, just have it seem NORMAL. I think that would do more to subvert tropes than anything else. For the record, I feel the same about a lot of other minority/marginalized groups. Include them without drawing attention to what it is that normally gets them excluded. Make it seem natural that they’re there. I am just kind of getting sick of shows/movies/comics/whatever thinking they’re being all edgy and inclusive by going ‘LOOK AT THIS TROPE THAT EXISTS!!! SEE THAT IT IS A THING, I’M POINTING AT IT RIGHT NOW!’ Just so they can feel awesome for not conforming to it. Especially when it’s only being subverted by someone with unnatural abilities. I know it’s not realistic to just have the characters never encountering bigotry but fuck realism. If we can believe a world with demons and vampires why can’t we believe a world that isn’t sexist?

    (btw if anyone knows any shows/movies like this, not just regarding women, but positive portrayals of any minority that doesn’t point at it going ‘LOOK AT US! AREN’T WE INCLUSIVE?!’ please tell me. I would legitimately love to check it out)

    September 9, 2017
    |Reply
    • AH
      AH

      Sadly what comes to me is a videogame saga (The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, Dreamfall Chapters) with the first game including the protagonist’s lesbian landladies talking about their romance with such naturality child me was sure both being girls was a mistranslation.

      Then you have that from the three main characters of the saga, one is a young chinese-spanish woman raised in Africa, other is a gay man of color (fantasy world, so race not stated) and the third is a woman coming from an abusive house.

      September 9, 2017
      |Reply
    • Rebecca
      Rebecca

      A lot of universities insist that freshmen live in dorms, regardless of if they’re home-town or not.

      September 9, 2017
      |Reply
    • Jellyfish
      Jellyfish

      I feel like the Harry Potter books are pretty OK about this… they still totally center white characters, which isn’t great, but non-white characters like Cho or the Patil twins are introduced casually and their ethnicity isn’t a really a thing one way or another. (The movies less so… remember how they whitewashed Lavender Brown?) It’s also a fairly low-sexism environment, with women equally represented in government, teaching, even among the villains.

      And of course, the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoons! Literally nobody is white, and it’s just kind of not a thing. Female characters do experience sexism sometimes, but the show doesn’t come off as sexist itself, and there are lots of plotlines that aren’t about that at all. The character with the most regressive views on girls gets completely schooled and ends the series much more enlightened. Everybody’s still pretty skinny, but they kinda fixed that in Legend of Korra.

      September 9, 2017
      |Reply
      • Jon
        Jon

        Always saw Harry Potter as multi-ethnic/racial but not multi-cultural. I guess there are challenges in writing to avoid tokenism and stereotype and I’m not sure if it was in the best place in that regard. It can be said that it explored race issues in other ways but that might be seen as a cop out.

        September 10, 2017
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        • Jon
          Jon

          Just realised that my comment about tokenism and stereotypes is rather unclear. I think that skill, knowledge and time can avoid both but not all authors have developed the skills needed when writing their earlier books.

          Be interested to know how Jenny approaches characters outside of her own cultural experience.

          September 10, 2017
          |Reply
    • Robyn Hoode
      Robyn Hoode

      Sense8 might be the show you are looking for. Genuinely diverse in terms of nationality, gender, sexuality, culture… But it’s also a pretty good idea played out well with excellent production values and a Big Bad that is so nebulous but powerful, it’s hard to tell what it is at first 🙂

      September 10, 2017
      |Reply
    • Neurite
      Neurite

      “Treat her being female as something not even worth talking about because it’s no big deal… just have it seem NORMAL. I think that would do more to subvert tropes than anything else. For the record, I feel the same about a lot of other minority/marginalized groups. Include them without drawing attention to what it is that normally gets them excluded. Make it seem natural that they’re there.”

      Ironically, this is how I feel about the way this episode handles fact that Giles’ “old friend” happens to be black. Interracial relationships, especially black/white interracial relationships, are still shown so rarely in mainstream media and still so fraught in this society that I found it so, so refreshing (and unexpected) that this gets treated as such a non-issue here.

      Buffy is freaked out that her mentor, who she never thought of in this way, has a sex life; she gets squicked by the thought of someone that “old” having sex; she’s embarrassed that she walked in at an inopportune moment. She has *plenty* of issues with the situation. But the fact that the person in question is black? She never mentions it, and by all appearances it is genuinely a non-issue to her.

      And yet the show, who could have put anyone in that small role, decided to cast a black actor. And then decided to handle that casting choice (and I am certain it was a conscious choice – the way the film/TV industry is, casting calls are rarely truly “race neutral,” and black actors have a hell of a time getting cast in roles, even tiny ones like this one, without that role being already preconceived as a “black role,” and often a stereotypical one) as a total non-issue in-show. It was such a brief moment, and yet I thought that was great.

      BtVS wasn’t exactly the most progressive show on race (case in point: Mr. Trick, as fantastic as a character as he was in some respects, was [a] also an offensive stereotype in other respects, and [b] so very, very alone in being an actual named black character), but this tiny blip was a nice touch, I thought.

      September 13, 2017
      |Reply
  11. MB
    MB

    Try watching “The 100”. It does a good job in portraying women in lead roles without pointing out that it’s “women” in lead roles (if that makes sense)

    September 9, 2017
    |Reply
  12. KR
    KR

    “Walsh tells the students that the class is going to be difficult and that if they want an easy class they should try Geology 101, because that’s “where the football players are.”

    I don’t get this? Why would all the football players be in Geology 101? Unless German and American basic geology classes are very different, why would they want to learn about, like, chemical and physical differences between magmatites and plutonites et cetera..

    September 9, 2017
    |Reply
    • EB
      EB

      In the US at least, it’s pretty common for some classes/professors to get a reputation for being more or less rigorous/”tough” in both workload and grading standards. It’s unrelated to subject, really just depends on the specific professor’s personality and choices. Walsh is saying that the class being favored by the jocks is a good indicator that is an easy science credit, since jocks are all dumb.

      September 9, 2017
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      • KR
        KR

        Thank you!

        September 10, 2017
        |Reply
    • Germany Geo 101 sounds more advanced. In US it covers the rock cycle and related processes, mineral and basic rock ID using hardness and physical properties, and then a little bit of history of the subject (Hutton, Wegner, plate tectonics). I took it in high school and then again in college because I’m a rock nerd, but it’s seen by most students as an easy pass because it’s mostly memorizing with no math, unlike bio or chemistry.

      September 10, 2017
      |Reply
      • KR
        KR

        Okay, see, plate tectonics and rock cycles et cetera were part of our *high school* geography curriculum (though it was also in college, but part of a different class called “Geodynamics”). On the other hand, our high school curriculum is infamously long – Germany school education* lasted thirteen years before it was revised to twelve fairly recently, and I definitely got the impression that we did some stuff that are college level in other places. My Geology 101 was part of the intro to a geosciences-based major rather than a generic free-for-all (which we don’t realy have in the first place, it’s not possible for us to be “undeclared”, for example), which probably reflected on the level, and involved a lot of memorising different mineral properties, how they originate, how they form, what their element contents are, looking at them under a jeweller’s magnifying glass and, of course, the occasional licking.

        *At least, the traditional type of school that gets you a diploma that lets you get a higher education. We have several alternate school branches, it’s a bit confusing.

        September 10, 2017
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    • Meg
      Meg

      I just received my doctorate in geology and was kind of like “Hey, that’s not… Oh wait. I did have to explain to a room full of college students that there are a million YEARS in a million years…”

      Upper level geology can be very difficult and requires an understanding of biology, chemist, and physics. Intro geology can be exciting and challenging and require lots of thinking, or it can be a “rocks for jocks” class. It really depends on the course, the instructor, and the students in the class.

      September 11, 2017
      |Reply
    • Aletheia
      Aletheia

      I know this is an old comment, and everyone else has actual, logical answers, but I took it as being a play on the idea that the football players are as dumb as rocks (and thus, in their own environment in Geology), which would be, like, #11^2. *sigh*

      November 15, 2017
      |Reply
  13. Monica
    Monica

    Also, for anyone who’s ever been a grad student, the whole “relationship with a student” is a BIG NO NO. Bad Riley! No stipend!

    September 10, 2017
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  14. Vivacia K. Ahwen
    Vivacia K. Ahwen

    “The Freshman” was one of my least favorite BtVS episodes, for reasons most of y’all have already covered. I’m truly looking forward to hearing you folks rag on Riley, who was just The Worst. Naturally, Xander ships them so hard because he finally has a fellow douchebag to hang with. (More on that, later.) Another issue: How is it that the University of California at Sunnydale could possibly have such a huge campus, the Initiative, thousands of students from Everywhere, and not ONE character ever mentioned its existence until Willow decided to join Buffy there? And why aren’t any of the UCS students asking them questions about the Mayor, graduation, paranormal activity in general? Why is there ANY mystery in a town known for supernatural danger especially of the drac variety regarding disappearing students Because Vampires. Anyone remember “A Different World,” the Lisa Bonet spin-off from “The Cosby Show?” Nah, me neither.

    September 10, 2017
    |Reply
  15. Jemmy
    Jemmy

    I felt the comments Buffy makes re her skirt / hips were to show she’s off kilter. That she’s not herself. Possibly because there isn’t usually a lot of them so it seems off when Buffy says stuff like that.

    It hasn’t been two episodes since Buffy beat up a Slayer (I’m assuming there’s a break between the end of high school and the start of college). here in Australia there would be a couple of months summer holidays. Even so, Buffy usually centres herself through beating things up, so losing her ability to beat up vamps just because she’s feeling a bit overwhelmed at college never made much sense.
    The vampire test where she’s temporarily lost her Slayer strength was at least as stressful, I would have thought, and she focused just fine.

    i have to say Season 4 isn’t high on my favourites. I think the show would have been best stopping at the end of Season 3. Season 5 is an improvement but after that it’s meh for me.

    Riley definitely is the worst.

    September 11, 2017
    |Reply
  16. Alisha
    Alisha

    OH MY GOD THE JOYCE FORESHADOWING *dies*

    Also, as a genuinely fat person, it saddens me to realize you’re exactly right about the fat hatred. 🙁

    September 12, 2017
    |Reply
  17. candy apple
    candy apple

    If I ever win the lottery, I’m building a lookalike replica of Giles’s apartment, perfect down to the last detail. It’s where I’ll go to watch Buffy reruns, for the rest of my life.

    You know, I never liked Whitebread Corn-fed Riley (#TeamSpike), until that episode (The Replacement), where he makes that statement out of nowhere that lets you know how self-aware he is of how much he lacks to inspire real, heartfelt love in Buffy:

    “Hey, I’m well aware of how lucky I am. Like, lottery lucky. Buffy’s like nobody else in the world. When I’m with her, it’s like… it’s like I’m split in two. Half of me is just on fire, going crazy if I’m not touching her. The other half is so still and peaceful, just perfectly content… just knows: this is the one.

    “But she doesn’t love me.”

    Oh, man, the feels. That last bit kills me every time, it’s so heartbreaking.

    September 12, 2017
    |Reply
  18. Riley is pretty bland, but considering the other guys Buffy’s dated, he isn’t “the worst” by a long shot. At least he never tried to kill her (poor Buffy, that’s a sentence I had to type.)

    September 13, 2017
    |Reply
  19. Heather
    Heather

    So, I read your 50 Shades of Grey recaps years ago and loved them so much, just now re-discovered your blog and see Buffy recaps, which means I *must* go back and read your Buffy recaps for all the previous episodes, and bookmark to read future recaps. Buffy was my *life* in my late teenage years.

    I am completely 100% in agreement about Riley, I never liked him and so many things about him rubbed me the wrong way, but reading this recap I realized I’d completely forgotten how insecure about Buffy’s strength he was. Which I think kinda ties in with #6… The show seems to portray that Buffy’s strength makes her boyfriend uncomfortable and insecure, implying (to me at least) that females in a relationship need to show the male that he’s strong/manly/etc, otherwise they get all butthurt.

    September 27, 2017
    |Reply
  20. Crystal
    Crystal

    But Buffy WAS sad and has said in the past that her emotions give her power. That her power is tied to her emotions. Being sad is a perfect reason to have her ass kicked.

    And the movie we actually got for Wonder Woman wasn’t that great either. Especially in the feminism column.

    And I know everyone will hate me for this, but I don’t see the fat comment as anything other than evil is evil. Ya know, vampires are bad. And that’s coming after finding out the owner of the club I work at wanted me fired for being too fat.

    November 9, 2017
    |Reply
    • Crystal
      Crystal

      Also, I like Riley. Just not with Buffy. Just like I like Angel and Spike, just not with Buffy.

      November 9, 2017
      |Reply
  21. Amber
    Amber

    Kind of late to the party (longtime lurker here, Jenny, your blog is awesome and your Buffy recaps are really great as a first time watcher, gives me heaps to think about in amidst fangirling), ANYWAY, did you ever work out the version of Bowie’s Memory Of A Free Festival”?

    In case you didn’t and are still interested, have you checked the two part versions on Re:Call 1, which is part of the Five Years (1969-1973) boxset?

    Otherwise, keep being ace!

    October 6, 2018
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