As Buffy settles into her new life in Sunnydale, odd happenings begin taking place - the targets of which seem to be cheerleaders. Buffy and her friends soon discover that vampires are not all they will have to contend with; there's a witch on the prowl too.
The third episode of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer marks the beginning of the regular storylines, following on from the two-part pilot. Upon reading the title of the episode, it was pretty clear that Buffy wouldn't simply be facing another vampire this time around, but that the roster of villains would be expanding to encompass witches. This was an exciting prospect for me - how will the vampire slayer fend against a totally different breed of evil? Sadly, I don't think the episode quite lived up to its potential.
In my review of the second episode, I noted that Buffy "jumped over the school fence because she had to rescue Jesse, not because she wanted to become a cheerleader or something equally mundane." Therefore, I found it quite funny that the very next episode opened centreing around the character's cheerleading try-outs. What made for a nice surprise however, is that Buffy's abilities actually hindered her performance as a cheerleader (at one point, she accidentally threw a peer across the room). It's good to know that, even when conforming to the predictable or generic, the show can easily toy with one's expectations and produce fun and unique situations.
However, it became clear early in the episode that all was not well with the try-outs. The scene soon cut to that of a mysterious room, filled with a cauldron and voodoo dolls of some kind. One of the potential cheerleaders - and a good one at that - caught fire during her audition. Amy, a friend of Xander and Willow's, is soon established as a character who wishes to become a cheerleader simply to be like her mother - who herself still has a picture from her teenage days in the school's hallway. I enjoyed the way that this storyline was comparable to the dynamic of Buffy (who wishes to live her own life) and her mother (who wishes Buffy could join the yearbook club, like she did) throughout the episode. I feel as though Buffy and her mother have felt disconnected from one another up until this point, so it was nice to see their resolution with one another at the end of the episode.
From the initial try-outs, things quickly became more sinister once Buffy and Amy learnt that they had become alternates (replacements) on the cheerleading squad. The witch was shown to cast a spell on a doll representative of Cordelia (who I've found little to talk about since the beginning of the series). Calling upon the 'laughing Gods,' the spell caused Cordelia to gradually lose her sight. I'm glad that Cordelia became a target in this episode; I felt as though she needed to be humanised and developed to be more than simply a rude and egotistic peer of Buffy's. I'm hopeful that she will be drawn into Buffy's world much more in the future.
From the opening few minutes of the episode, I believed that I had figured out what was going on. I was convinced that it was Amy's mother (and not Amy herself, as Buffy suspected) that was causing all of the accidents to befall those who stood in her daughter's way - all in an attempt to enable Amy to live the life she had previously occupied. While I was mostly correct in my assumptions, the ultimate twist of the episode again took me entirely by surprise. The fact that Amy's mother had switched bodies with her daughter in order to relive her own life as a cheerleader made the episode far more intriguing and insidious. It was by far the best twist of the show so far, and I hope they can continue the trend of producing a shocking twist each episode.
Once Buffy herself had succumbed to the witch's vengeance spell, it became clear that she cannot fight the forces of evil alone. Willow and Giles both played a large role in her rescue, cementing them in their aforementioned 'jobs' - Giles found the spellbook and performed the reversal spell, while Willow gathered information on Amy and her mother on the school's database. Xander, however, simply spent much of the episode pining for Buffy (clueless to Willow's mild hints of interest in him). This led to the humourous announcement by a spellbound Buffy that she considers Xander to be "one of the girls." Speaking of relationships, I noted that Angel was missing-in-action throughout this episode. While he still seems to be a recurring star, rather than a regular cast member, I'm curious to see how David Boreanaz's character integrates himself among the tightly-knit group of friends.
I'm disappointed to say, however, that this episode simply didn't work very well for me. The storyline seems to be a definite stand-alone tale, in the scheme of something much larger. The episode established that other beings will be a frequent annoyance in Buffy's life, and that there will be far more than vampires to contend with, but it never truly gelled that well with the excitement of the previous episodes. To be blunt, it felt somewhat inconsequential. That's not to say that there was nothing to enjoy (a majority of the plotlines listed above were at least fun to watch), but I hope there will be a few more episodes which require Buffy to leave the school setting - this episode just felt a little too
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, although this is an admittedly silly comparison. Ironically, there was also a call-out to the
Sabrina series too:
"The test was positive, she's our Sabrina."
As always, here are a few of my thoughts which I couldn't incorporate into my review, although this time around they're not overly important:
- The cheerleading routines were an apt comparison to witchcraft - I felt as though the chants sounded exactly like a witch casting her spell. Whether this was intentional or not, I enjoyed that the crew added such moments.
- The black cat jumping out of the trunk offered the series' first legitimate fright, at least for me.
- I really enjoy Buffy's lines right before she begins fighting the antagonists ("Guess what, I feel better").
- In my notes for this episode, I mistakenly wrote "They make out" instead of "They make up" in relation to Buffy and her mother's argument.
Overall, I found that while the first true episode of Buffy was decent, I don't believe that it's the best the series can offer. I found the storyline to be a little too generic for my tastes - although, it was an introduction to a new evil being, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. I found the reveal of the witch's true identity to really escalate the episode above the mediocrity it was dwelling in for much of its run-time.
The character's are developing more as the series continues, and are becoming more interesting as time goes on. I look forward to Angel becoming more integral to the plot. I would, however, also like to see Xander getting a more active role in the proceedings - he simply didn't have much to do this episode. In the end, I'm looking forward to the next episode of Buffy, and hope it can bring the story back on track and up the ante slightly.
