Frank Kogan

Liked Ritter's performance in this episode, but it sort of points to a problem that I think the series learns quickly to resolve, which is that they aren't "allowed" to do a full-blown "this is a metaphor for yr abusive step-dad" real-world connection, but in suggesting it they have an equally preposterous monster reveal. That is, the "realness" of the metaphor just makes the fantasy seem "fake" by comparison.

The magic of Buffy, which starts to become clear, I think, as this season goes on, is that it puts its characters in a kind of psychology-space that's more compelling than the "real" space (single mom! step-dad! etc.!) OR the "fantasy" space (vampires! demons! etc.!). The middle-ground, a kind of internal world that doesn't cleanly connect back to Real-World but also doesn't quite make it wholesale into a Sci Fi world. It starts to ride on pure character, and on pure(r?) emulation of a sort of teenaged mind-state (in this case junior year of high school -- senior year is VERY "senior year" feeling, tho, because the show's voice is more assured).

Kendra might be the moment where the show starts owning and embracing its own flaws and inconsistencies: rather than ripping a whole in the mythology, acknowledgment of gaps adds a new layer to the mythology, all moves become legal in the show's game. It's as if the show has given itself permission to take its chances, and by doing so those chances feel riskier and have much bigger pay-offs. Again, they're not there yet, but I think "Ted" is both a last gasp of the show not quite knowing what it wants to be and also in some ways a finger pointing to the future. "You can see that if this really worked, it would have been amazing." I'm not sure if, at this point in my watching the series a few months ago, I would have claimed I had a "favorite episode" yet, even if comparatively this would have to be technically true. I hadn't bought into the world yet.