Buffy Season Two Episode Five

[koganbot]

"Buffy, it's like we're sisters, with really different hair."

Frat party, with boring monster at the end, and boring attempt at human sacrifice. But up 'til then, this episode is relatively sure-handed, the "nice guy" frat guy doing a good job of attracting Buffy through his babbling hesitance and humility. In fact, if the script had been written around that, around Buffy's compassionate nature being both a strength and a potential vulnerability, we'd have a strong episode. The theme of Giles pushing Buffy too hard in training is pushed too hard, and there's still too much heavy sadness in the Buffy-Angel courtship (not that the sadness isn't plausible, given the situation, but plausibility doesn't make it art). But this is lightened in advance by superb Willow exposition of the sociological ramifications of asking someone for coffee:

Buffy: "I'm brainsick. I can't have a relationship with him."

Willow: "Not during the day, but you could ask him for coffee some night. It's the nonrelationship drink of choice. It's not a date; it's a caffeinated beverage. OK, sure, it's hot and bitter like a relationship, that way, but..."

So this makes coffee both amusing and potentially romantic for the rest of the story, as asking Buffy out for coffee recurs. The Willow-Buffy convo, like most of the best conversations, takes place in motion: Willow and Buffy walking in tandem down the hallway but Willow purposeful in her movement and speech, while Buffy next to her is sweetly uncertain and attentive, trying to find solace and insight in Willow's words, the two girls part of the hallway flow. I'm continuing to enjoy the school decor: down the stairs they go, landing next to bright sunny glass double doors, in bright sunny Sunnydale, then turning up a hallway lit by this brightness.

The Cordelia character is back to shtick, but the script suggests that she's slowly learning to need Buffy. Xander holds his own in outfront nastiness when confronting/engaging Cordelia, which works well this time, an edge to his character that he's going to have to figure out what to do with. (Or he can be like me and never figure it out.)

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

this is the first ep from series 2 i can remember from yr description -- which i think is a sign that series 2 began a bit scrappy and meagre

structurally i imagine that's because -- while they got commissioned for a second series, 22 ep rather than 12 -- they were still putting all the oomph into individuated per-week stories... the longer arc is there, as it always has been, but it has to be bent to very shortform ends (and weedy bogey-of-the-week stories)

this is the series where they begin to get confident that they will have a long arc to work in; the stories jump up a level as soon as this confidence appears, partly bcz it's confidence (which is always good) but partly bcz it formally matches the geometry of the underlying story... if monstrous villainy were always only on a by-week meagre and annoying basis, the world would not need a slayer

[koganbot]

Not so sure I agree with your last sentence. Cf. "if monstrous villainy were always on a by-week meagre and annoying basis, the world would not need Jesus." Not that I'm a Christian, but in fact I do think villainy is on a by-week basis, even if there are some long-run story arcs (class warfare, racism, improving health care, higher standards of living, but increasing chance of mass destruction owing to technology, and so forth). And some detective shows have done as well with very little in the way of story arcs (Magnum P.I. in particular), while week in and week out the characters need Thomas Magnum, and he them, to pull themselves together.

But anyhow, I'm sure you're right for how this particular show works. But except for episode two, they've already upped their game.

Also, my descriptions haven't been all that descriptive; partly this is intentional, partly it's that description has never been my forté.