10/27/08 - 11/4/08 Episode Discussion: Earshot

[SpikedBuffy]

Season three


Time to discuss the episode Earshot. Thanks to all the participation last week in the discussions. You all rock!

What did you think of this episode? Do you remember that it was not aired as originally planned because of what had happened a few days earlier at Columbine High School?

 

[JenniferAlice]

Yeah, I remember it not being shown beause of Columbine, good thinking really, don't think that would have went down too well.

But the episode itself is great, my favourite of Season 3. I love getting to hear all the inner thought of the scoobies, hilarious, and Danny Strong is great in it, I really felt for him. Such a poignant episode, with the amount of gun violence happening now, and that.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Aye.. the only thing that ever really bugged me is that Angel and Buffy were 'immune' why didnt she just go and stay with him for some silence? I wont pick apart the episode for the mistakes which were made in terms of what Johnathon was REALLY planning on doing, but I will say there were some really great moments. The review of the Dingos playing style (with, I believe it was, plump polish sausages tied to their fingers) and Oz's reaction to said review was great.

The manner in which Buffy found about about Joyce and Giles- twice- was good too.

It was one of the few episodes that featured a helpless Buffy, which are special as well.

 

[Fake Shemp]

one of my fav tv episodes of all time not just in buffy... JANE ESPENSON rules my.... erm me! yep

cordelia in this episode steals it.... you cant argue with that oh noes.... "im not getting any warmer"

 

[Ripper 08]

ear shot was a great episode not only did it touch on a real serious note and do it well but there where also some comical moments in it too such as

WILLOW
Could you believe it? Right at the
buzzer! Three points for the win!


OZ
It was intense.


XANDER
Yeah, for a minute there I thought
you were gonna make an expression.


OZ
I felt one coming on, I won't lie...

and

XANDER (V.O.)
What am I going to do? I think about
sex all the time. Sex. Help. Four times
five is thirty. Five times six is thirty-two...
Naked girls. Naked women. Naked Buffy.
Oh, stop me.

and

GILES
Good to see you've emerged from
your psychic adventure more or less
intact. Feel up to some training?


BUFFY
Sure. We can work out after school.
You know, if you're not too busy
HAVING SEX WITH MY MOTHER!

the fact that giles (ripper) and joyce got found out in this episode was also a real good factor i thought any way

and was this also the episode where buffy said about snyder singin walk lika an egyptian? i found that quiet funny too lolz

all together in my opinion a very well put togeter episode touching sensative but important issues but at the same time as doing things on a serious note they where able to add in some humour without distracting too much from the sensative issues at hand

 

[Fake Shemp]

oh yeah the bandcandy gets brought back up (lol)

what a great way... i love how joyce is around buffy, practically running away from her (CUTE!) and then Giles, how stunned he is... again cuteness (as always with Giles)

 

[sk]

I absolutely love this episode.
It got me to keep an eye open for Jane Espenson episodes. I have never really cared about who wrote different episodes before Buffy.
Didn't watch it when it originally aired (or would had been). So I don't know much about that.

My main love for this episode is because of its humour, it has so many funny, classic, lines.

My latest favorite is this little exchange, I think it's hilarious.
Willow: The school paper is edging on depressing lately. You guys notice that?
Oz: I don't know. I always go straight to the obits.

And SMG delivery on Infect? Infect? Giles! INFECT?! is unbeatable.

Don't even have to mention her delivery on Twice!!
There is a reason I have it on my sig. 🙂

Otherwise I just got to mention Cordelia. Her always saying exactly what she is thinking cracks me up everytime.

Also a great joy see Willow taking charge when Buffy is out of business. Personalized assignments and everything, so sweet 🙂

And of course on the more serious side of the episode. Buffy's speach to Jonathan is so spot on and so true.

/SK
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Edit:
[br][/br]

Aye.. the only thing that ever really bugged me is that Angel and Buffy were 'immune' why didnt she just go and stay with him for some silence?

Don't think Angel's mansion is so isolated that it would helped for very long.
It might have saved Joyce and Giles from some embarrassment though 🙂

/SK

 

[Fake Shemp]

check out Shindig in firefly for a fantastic Jane Espenson episode

 

[Lyri]

I love this episode. I loved seeing Buffy as being helpless, it's one of the few times we've seen her completely out of her depth and no idea of what to do.

I loved hearing everyone's thoughts, and finding out how 'blonde' Cordelia is. Although, I think this is an unfair judgment of her character, especially as we know now how she turns out in LA.

I adored Buffy's speech to Jonathan in the bell tower, you can tell she's really speaking from the heart, and now knows how everyone is feeling. I think this is the moment when Buffy stops taking everything at face value, and starts looking for the deeper meaning behind peoples actions...at least until those actions got in the way of her own!! lmao.

Buffy finding out about Giles and Joyce was hilarious, as was Giles' reaction to her knowing.

I felt so sorry for Jonathan in this episode. I've been where he was, the person who always seemed to be on the outside. Granted, I made it past those feelings without resorting to attempted suicide, but I know what he was going through. And I can understand now why he joined up with Warren and Andrew in S6, because for the first time, he felt like part of the gang, and that gang needed something from him.

The episode being postponed didn't affect me, as I live in the UK, I think they were screened as normal the first time they aired. I heard about it years later when I got the Watcher Diaries. But I do think they did the right thing, the censor peoples. Ok, so Jonathan was only going to kill himself with the shot gun, and it was the lunchlady who was the actual killer, but the events in the ep might have been too close to home for some people, and I think they did the right thing.

BTW, Xander's reaction to seeing the lunchlady pouring the rat poison into the pot? Priceless!!!

Also, either Jane Epenson or Marti Noxon play a lunchlady in this ep, but I can never remember which one it was! :lmao:

 

[luckystar]

great episode always been one of my favourtes of season three, loving oz in this episode talking about the cheeleaders with xander oh and xanders jealousy over cordy and wesley was great pierce brosnan lol. strong episode with some great acting by smg, and it was the first and probably only time i felt sorry for johanthan, after this he just becomes annoying

 

[Fake Shemp]

jane espenson plays a lunchlady.... and how bad was the stunt double for lunch lady dorris (okay probs not her name, and probs the name of the lunchlady in the simpsons but meh!)

i love the whole, xander thinks hes caught stealing jello, and she thinks shes caught poisoning... and then he realizes what she is doing is far worse....

 

[caitaintdead]

Did anyone else think that Buffy's speech to Jonathan was a bit of an easy way out? People at high school don't pay attention to your pay because they're to busy focusing on theirs??? One of the few statements that Buffy has made that I could not disagree with more. The bullies and jocks at high school are horrible because they're horrible people. I understand what they were trying to say with her little speech, but do you really think it would have made any difference to Jonathan's decision to jump if she'd instead said 'I understand that people in high school are horrible, there's no excuse for it' and then made an effort to actually include him?
Other than that I really enjoy this episode for the comic appeal, obviously it was going to be a land mark episode because Buffy finds out that Giles and Joyce had sex. Gold.
I loved Oz's deep thought.
I loved the way Cordelia thinks what she says.

 

[luckystar]

i think buffy was just trying to see that most people hide behind some sort of image in highschool u know like the happy ones are sad at home or the tough guys are really soft inside etc, i see your point though but i do think partially that buffy was right in many ways of what she said plus a lot of highschool seems to be act for people this need to blend in and be popular etc

 

[Kean]

Did anyone else think that Buffy's speech to Jonathan was a bit of an easy way out? People at high school don't pay attention to your pay because they're to busy focusing on theirs??? One of the few statements that Buffy has made that I could not disagree with more. The bullies and jocks at high school are horrible because they're horrible people. I understand what they were trying to say with her little speech, but do you really think it would have made any difference to Jonathan's decision to jump if she'd instead said 'I understand that people in high school are horrible, there's no excuse for it' and then made an effort to actually include him?

I disagree with this. I don't think it's that cut and dry 'the people who pick on you are bad people'. I cannot stand bulling of any kind but being a bully at some stage of your life does not make someone a bad person at their core. Cordelia is the best example of this. If I was in Jonathon's position telling me some people are bad would mean nothing to me. What Buffy says is true. Every person is dealing with their own problems. Everyone has their own cross to bear. I think that was something that needed to be said because too many people get caught up in their own turmoil to see anybody else, that included Jonathon. He was so wrapped up in his pain he couldn't see anyone else's. That level of self awareness, that incellular look on one's self is just as damaging, if not more so, than what any bully could say or do. Jonathon needed to hear that and in some way get over it and himself. The pain he felt had become so familiar that it was all he knew. Buffy needed to enlighten him to the real world.

 

[cecini]

It was a really good eppy. I didn't see it when it originally aired so it didn't affect me at all that it was postponed.

 

[caitaintdead]

t being a bully at some stage of your life does not make someone a bad person at their core.

Firstly, I never stated this, and I know that this is completely true. The reason I know this? I was one of those horrible bullies at high school. I chose a girl at whim every term that I didn't like and made their lives hell.
This wasn't because I 'had issues' or 'my own pain', it was because I was a horrible, selfish little shit of a young teenager. The kids that I picked on and beat up were told many times to ignore it, that I had my own issues. But I didn't. I was just going through a nasty phase.
Hearing that I was a troubled teen putting on an act didn't help these people.
I understand exactly what was trying to be said in this episode, but I think it was made romantic and poetic, which attempted suicide, suicide, and high school bullying and depression is NOT. It is brutal, it is real and was not dealt with as well as many things on Buffy has been.

This is obviously an overly touchy subject to myself for person reasons and it this point I will subtly leave the thread.

 

[Kean]

Firstly, I never stated this, and I know that this is completely true. The reason I know this? I was one of those horrible bullies at high school. I chose a girl at whim every term that I didn't like and made their lives hell.
This wasn't because I 'had issues' or 'my own pain', it was because I was a horrible, selfish little shit of a young teenager. The kids that I picked on and beat up were told many times to ignore it, that I had my own issues. But I didn't. I was just going through a nasty phase.
Hearing that I was a troubled teen putting on an act didn't help these people.
I understand exactly what was trying to be said in this episode, but I think it was made romantic and poetic, which attempted suicide, suicide, and high school bullying and depression is NOT. It is brutal, it is real and was not dealt with as well as many things on Buffy has been.

This is obviously an overly touchy subject to myself for person reasons and it this point I will subtly leave the thread.

I agree with what you are saying but I really think it is important that the message behind what Buffy was telling Jonathon is put out there. Sometimes people are just crap, I will not contest that at all. At the same time I have had friends and family commit suicide and the common trait that united them all was their inability to see past their pain and to relate and share that pain with somebody else. When you're in a hole that dark your entire world is your pain realising that everyone is hurting is a huge deal that alot never get. It is too easy to get wrapped up in your own darkness, so much so that you cannot find a way out. In my opinion Buffy's message to Jonathon is possibliy the most important message ever to be shown on Buffy.

 

[caitaintdead]

In a way I love that Buffy can create these mixed, different feelings. Especially since Joss has always tried to convey that things are never black or white but always a shade of grey.
On a lighter note, and because I'm now embarrassed that I got so emotional, I really wish that we could have heard Angels thoughts...

Haha, or something incredibly silly like really bad knock knock jokes. Someone should write a fanfic about it!

 

[Karol]

I don´t remember this cause I didnt watch the show at TV u.u

But the episode is super funny!!
When she thinks she´ll have horns and tails cause of the demon.
She having fun at the begining, Xander thinking about sex and her face when Angel says to her that she can´t hear his thoughts!!
And the best part: Buffy discovering Joyce had sex with Giles! xD

I don´t really like the Jonathan part... Wasn´t funny and for me, wasn´t touching at all.

It´s not THE BEST episode ever, I think S3 was full of great episode, but it´s funny to watch once in a while and remember the "non-apocaliptic" Buffy

 

[Skanky Vamp]

The one scene which was most unsettling for me in this episode, and stuck with me the longest was when Buffy first started to 'hear' and it was all a game to her. Walking down the hall she hears a boy remark how good she looked. So she paused, did a few little poses to 'taunt' the guy, all the while his thoughts get darker and darker. I thought that was a very good scene, and it speaks on many issues.