Buffy Rewatch: 3.1 - 3.4

[dragonyphoenix]

Anne (3.1)

• On the first fight in the cemetery: if these disorganized bumpkins can survive a vamp, even a fledge, then I think anyone trained in fighting could fight vampires.


• “past tense rules” - Willow has a rules for everything.


• Willow: “Do you think Buffy knows school's starting tomorrow?” Oz: “Tomorrow. Right.” Isn't it awesome that Oz has no idea that school's starting the next day?


• Angel: If I was blind, I would see you. Aaaah! I'm so glad he only said that in a dream, but could Buffy's dream be more of a cliché?


• Buffy waking up in her apartment. Buffy sleeps with her makeup on? And it doesn't get smudged? Do you remember those nights when you got drunk and crashed with your makeup on and then you woke up the next morning and your makeup was all smudged and you were wondering if it got smudged while you were drunk or while you were sleeping? No, me either.


• The jerks at the table harassing Buffy: once when I was visiting family my Uncle Ralph picked me up at the airport and we stopped at a bar with a friend of his. I was so embarrassed by the way they treated the waitress that I left her a huge tip. Sadly I don't believe this made any impression on my uncle or his friend.


• Oh, and of course Anne is my all time favorite character on Angel, more for her later incarnation as runner of the shelter, but I like her here too.


• The library is full of students? The library never has students, well hardly ever. I get that they're all supposed to be picking up textbooks but it still looks odd. Sign of an apocalypse or something.


• Xander talking about seeing Cordy and how there's going to be heat, and then he calls himself geeky. No, Xander, the word you're looking for is creepy.


• The clatter inside the school vs. the silence of Buffy's room is really well done.


• Larry: If we can focus, keep discipline, and not have quite as many mysterious deaths, Sunnydale is gonna rule! Hmmm, I'm thinking this was added to set up the Class Protector award at the end of the season.


• Anne is Buffy's middle name? I think I'd seen that written someplace but I didn't realize where in the canon it came from. Just a heads up, but if I ever change my name, I am not calling myself Truesdell.


• The concerned pseudo-churchy guy? I think it's sort of obvious that he's the bad guy.


• I love it when Joyce blames Giles, and I think referring to Buffy as a child was something of a mistake. It doesn't support any kind of defense he could make to say he's been influencing a child without parental approval or knowledge.


• So this is the second nurse we've met on the series – am I correct there? - and the second nurse affiliated with evil. Aha! BtVS is saying all nurses are evil!


• Xander: you get your hope all up. Yesterday or today I saw a memorial bench with a quote about hope on it. The first name of the person it is a memorial for is Hope. Then I saw the dates. She was about a month old when she died. I didn't expect that. Most of the time they're for adults. That is so sad. ;-(


• So as Cordelia falls onto the vampire, the stake goes through its heart and it goes poof. Luckily the stake vanishes with it or that stake would have gone right through Cordy's heart. What is the rule for objects vanishing with vampires anyway?


• Buffy gets some of the kids out and the demons close the gate to their realm. Okay, so they still have humans imprisoned in their world and they have the technology to open another gate. I mean, great that she saved those she did but it doesn't seem like it's going to even slow them down much less stop them completely.


• Oh, and before the gate is closed, while they're still fighting, the one demon is freaking because somebody is fighting back? In all the time they've been doing this, not one person has fought back? Really?

Dead Man's Party: (3.2)

• Now this is how a bunch of untrained kids fighting a vamp should go. If Buffy hadn't shown up, at least one of them would have been dead. I mean, not saying I want them dead, but no injuries so far seems sort of unrealistic.


• Incorrect Buffy Quote for this episode because I want someone to be straight with Buffy: Dawn sees Joyce hugging Buffy. Dawn: So the prodigal son returns. Great. Buffy: I'm a girl. Dawn: Whatever. You hurt Mom. I don't forgive you.


• Oh joy, another dream sequence. Dreams in the Buffyverse are awfully spot on to what people are going through. My dreams are more like I'm driving a vehicle through someone's living room and nobody thinks it's odd at all.


• How did Giles get that cat out from under Joyce's bed without getting scratched. And later, when Giles is talking about the mask in Joyce's bedroom, Cordelia's question is “Mask?” Why isn't she asking “How do you know what's in Joyce's bedroom?”


• So what kind of animals would you expect to see in the Hellmouth Petting Zoo? Would you really want to pet them?


• Cordelia: Don't you like anything regular? Golf, USA Today? Come on. Who really likes USA Today?


• Why is every single one of them avoiding Buffy? Can't even one say “Hey, glad you're back?”


• When I look at that mask, I see this year's Halloween costume. I actually think I'm going to be the sun but that mask would make an excellent costume.


• Why didn't the mask raise zombies while it was on its way to Sunnydale? Is the power of a plywood box too much for the demon mask?


• So everyone's avoiding being alone with Buffy. Willow darts away as soon as she avoids Buffy's question. Joyce hides in the kitchen. Then why, suddenly, are they both in Buffy's room? Willow in particular went a complete 180-degrees from fingers in her ears “la la la I can't hear you” to “we have to talk and we have to talk now.” I don't buy it.


• I'm including this little vid because I just adore this scene that much.


• I really, really hate it when everyone gangs up on Buffy.


• I mean, honestly, Buffy's about to burst into tears and they keep piling on the anger. It's horrible.


• While I don't like Pat all that much, she was there for Joyce during a difficult time and she gets killed because, apparently, Joyce can't have nice things, er, friends of her own.


• Buffy to Willow: You're really enjoying this whole moral superiority thing, aren't you?” Not to whip a dead cat or anything but … what moral superiority. Willow and friends were horrible to Buffy throughout this whole episode. I don't believe Buffy acted worse than they did.


• The first time I saw this, I laughed and laughed and laughed.
  Watch on YouTube

Faith, Hope, and Trick (3.3)

• I love the scene where Oz and Xander carry/drag Willow off campus, and then “Hey, I'm walking here.”
  
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• Did you ever notice that Willow dates really cool people? Both Oz and Tara have that quiet thing going but in really cool ways. Then after Tara dies Willow turns it around 180-degrees and dates real “look at me” extroverts (Kennedy and that snake demon goddess)


• cluck-cluck sound? That would have gone better if we'd ever heard Giles make a cluck-cluck sound.


• Yay, Faith!


• Buffy on Faith saying Giles is young and cute: “Raise your hand if 'ew'.” Notice that Willow doesn't raise her hand. She just sits there smiling. ;-)


• Incorrect Buffy quotes: Buffy: I've got makeup tests to pass, missing people in Sunset Ridge, and a zesty new Slayer to feed. Giles: Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, you haven't' got anything.”


• So vamp healing hasn't kicked in to take care of Kakistos' scar. Right, so what exactly are the vamp healing rules?


• Kakistos: I don't care if there're a hundred Slayers! Do you think Joss was already anticipating season 7?


• I don't know how to include a whole set of those moving giffy things so these are Dawn meeting Faith in this episode. It's delightful. Go check it out.


• Joyce: It's probably good you were an only child. I first saw Buffy in reruns. Three episodes a week, all on the same night, one right after the other: season 3 of Buffy, I think season 4 of Buffy, and some season of Angel. That's where I first heard this line. I didn't know Dawn was on the way, but I did know something odd was going on. It was just such a weird thing to say.


• Giles knows Kakistos' name without doing any research and Buffy asks “Is that bad?” Um, yeah, if he knows the vampire off the top of his head, it's probably really, really bad.


• So Giles tells Buffy that Faith's Watcher is dead during the school day, but Buffy doesn't get to Faith's room until after dark? Granted dark is early because in the next episode Oz goes into the cage around – if I recall it correctly – 5:30 but still that gives Buffy a good two hours to find Faith before dark.


• Faith starts packing to get the hell out of Dodge. Is that the same bag Buffy was packing clothes into last episode?


• Do we ever learn who/what brought Angel back? Because that's a pretty big plotpoint to leave unexplained forever.

Beauty and the Beasts (3.4)

• Willow referring to werewolf Oz: Now, he's had his 2:00 feeding. Two o'clock feeding? What is he, a baby?


• Xander: We're doing crime here.
  
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• The Angel silhouette: are we saying Keith Haring was here?


• I was at first less than thrilled that Buffy wasn't sharing Angel's return with the gang. Oz is all worried that he might be the feral beast and this wouldn't say he's absolutely not, but it would suggest he might not be. But then Giles says a returned Angel would likely be a monster. Okay, so her friends aren't about to give Angel the benefit of the doubt. I can see her not sharing.


• So after Mr. Platt dies, Buffy doesn't have to see another psychologist? Her evaluation just drops off the agenda?


• I hate that scene where Debby comforts Pete. That is so creepy and disturbing. Good for the plot and all, but eeeegh!


• In the locker room where they find Debby, there is a poster behind Buffy's head: Most women aren't attracted to dead guys. ;-)

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Cordelia is so oblivious that I'm not surprised she didn't wonder about Giles in Joyce's bedroom. I'm not sure she thinks anyone but teenagers have sex. (And no, I'm pretty sure she doesn't wonder about how that impacts the whole 'how you were born' paradigm.)


Gabrielle

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

That's fair. I'm in my 50s and that whole parents/sex thing is something I still prefer to be in denial about.

[kerkevik-2014.livejournal.com]

It's been years, but I'm sure I saw that woman in the repo man clip in the S8 Buffy comics...

And no, I've never done that make-up thing either :-)

kerk

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh you're right. The Repo Man woman is also a Slayer who went bad. Huh.

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

What is the rule for objects vanishing with vampires anyway?
Now as you got me thinking about it, I wonder how no one in buffyverse ever made a business out of it.
Not even Initiative. Because, damn, the way you could use a vamp to dispose any kind of hazardous waste?
Or to dispose the bodies.
Or you could use vamps for making hole in any surface.

If you think about it, dusted vamps defy the first law of thermodynamics, how the Initiative scientists never noticed that?!

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Oh my Goddess, I could totally see someone like Willy having a business along those lines. ;-)

Of course capturing the vampires would make it a tad risky.

[kikimay]

THAT'S SO COOL! Nice idea!

It seemed to me that what does disappear it's what the vamp is wearing at the moment of death. Like, not even the objects in close proximity are affected by the "going poof" process, if I remember correctly.

So how they could dispose of any kind of hazardous waste anyway? They still can't make the near obejcts disappear in presence of the dusting vamp.

Say you want to dispose of a tank of fuel ... should you just submerge the vamp with all the fuel you can? And still I think that only the fuel on the vamp skin could disappear ... or not?

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Well, stakes seem to disappear if left in the vamp. Logically then, anything inside the vamp or inside the vamp's clothes should disappear. So if you wanted to dispose of a corpse, it'd have to be chopped up and possible dispersed over a number of vamps. Doesn't seem particularly efficient but for something quite difficult to get rid of, might be worth it.

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

What dragonyphoenix already said - in the show it seemed like anything that's put inside the vampire goes poof.
Everything else could be subjest of scientific experiment...
Like, if you put several vamps around an object, so they enclose it, would that objesct disappear when you kill the vamps?
Or if you dismember and slice the vamp in a very gruesome but non-lethal manner, so vampire's flesh encloses an object... (Yikes, I know.)

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I can totally see the Initiative doing just that, experimenting with it that is. This is getting gruesome.

[kikimay]

Ewww, that would be really, really cruel! Poor vampires! XDD I mean, they are evil and everything, but nobody deserves that.

(I think that they maybe need to eat the object to make it disappear? Or for the object to be implanted under their skin, like a chip, maybe. I don't think, given what we saw in the episodes, that a circle of vamps all around could dust stuff in the middle. But maybe I'm forgetting something? The show isn't really consistent with these stuff)

[rbfvid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, dusting there was extremely inconsistent - ometimes stakes dissapeared with the vamps, other times - no.

Like I said, if you think, the weirdest thing is - here is a creature which's death breaks the first law of thermodynamics. But Initiative scientists are studying what... vampire psychology?!

[kikimay]

Well, the Science Side of BtVS and AtS is really, really inconsistent.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

;-)

[kikimay]

Sometimes I think that the show just likes to make Buffy feel miserable and depressed. The whole gang VS Buffy scene is so awful! Poor Buffy! How can they be so mean to her after all she went through?

The show wants to make Faith "the younger and rebel sister" which, I guess, it's understandable. But also LOL at the sexual tension.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really hate the ganging up on Buffy meme.

And, yes, we are starting to see some Buffy/Faith. ;-)

[snogged.livejournal.com]

I love that Willow has rules and faces for things.

I like Anne too, especially when she gets involved in shelter work.

I agree that it does seem odd that Buffy's friends ignore her when she returns. It's a bit of parallel to "Same Time, Same Place" in BtVS Season 7. Sometimes, I think people on TV who are friends are not good friends to each other.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the rules are cool.

Anne is my favorite because of the shelter work as well. ;-)

I was also thinking of parallels to season 7.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Anne is Buffy's middle name? I think I'd seen that written someplace but I didn't realize where in the canon it came from.

It's on her headstone but I don't recall if it was mentioned prior to that.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Huh, I didn't recall it from her headstone but I did just google it and, yeah, it's there.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

One of my earliest posts on LJ was asking if "Elizabeth" was really Buffy's name because I'd seen it so often in fan fiction - and folks kindly pointed out that her headstone read "Buffy Anne Summers". So now it's well and truly burned in my brain. *lol*

That's an interesting question though, because we occasionally see closeups of her school record or drivers license, now I wonder if it is referenced earlier.

(Notice how I'm deftly avoiding actually talking about the episodes. (I love Buffy, ok? Moving on....)

I will say that Joyce demonstrates her facility for denial in these episodes (I don't blame myself I blame you...) It's very clear where Buffy gets it from.

Oh and I've seen that Dawn meets Faith gif set before and it's one of the most delightful things in the history of ever. :D

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

Buffy doesn't actually sound like a real first name. For argument's sake, if her first name were Elizabeth, her friends could have gone with Buffy because that's what they called her. On the other hand, if that were the case, I don't think they'd have put her middle name in.

I imagine Anne's on the headstone because Joss wanted a middle name for her to be using at the start of season 3. She may have had no middle name before then.

Oh, I think being good at denial is a human trait. Or maybe that's just my excuse because I'm so good at it. ;-)

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Buffy doesn't actually sound like a real first name.

Well that was Joss' original point wasn't it? Buffy isn't "real", she's "the blond girl in the alley" in horror movies, the cheerleader; she's a trope. (That she became something more than that is fairy remarkable. )


OT, it was weirded (and for me, not fun at all) seeing a clip from Scream 2 a couple of months ago with SMG playing the blond girl in the alley (or in this case the sorority house).

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

About Buffy being a trope: Good point. It then makes sense that her full name doesn't sound like a real name.

I missed the Scream 2 clip. Happily. I don't watch much horror. Too scary for me. I saw a preview for Crimson Peak last night and thought "Yeah, I'll wait for the DVD, if I watch it at all. That way I can fast forward through the scary parts."

Oh, but The Martian was surprisingly good. Not at all related to BtVS. I saw it last night.

[dragonyphoenix.livejournal.com]

I adore that gif. One Girl in all the world made some great ones.