From my own dismal memory, I would say it has been at least five years - if not more - since I last saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I might have seen an episode here and there, but even that probably isn’t true. The closest I’ve come is watching @Torchwood Boy react videos on YouTube and joining Buffy Boards. That being said, I have watched it so much in the past that I don’t have memory issues; however I’ve gotten older and will undoubtedly see it through different eyes.
Let’s see how it goes.
We start where we should; with the pilot episode. I’ve decided to forgo the unaired pilot, as none of us actually count it as an episode, just a fun little fact to our show.
(Any knowledge, summaries and such are taken from IMDB, photographs/gifs from Google Search)
1.1. Welcome to the Hellmouth.
Written by Joss Wedon.
Directed by Charles Martin Smith (uncredited: Joss Whedon).
We open on a very nice shot of the high school at night, moving directly into establishing shots of the interior; the hallways, the library doors, and finally a classroom. This was a very nice choice by the director/editor. Next up, the boy-victim (literally named Boy in the script) and his soon-to-be killer, Darla. I have to say, the acting in this scene was… mediocre, and that’s me being generous. The boy - played by Carmine Giovinazzo - was wooden and trying too hard to come off as the bad guy, while the writing for Darla - you’ll never hear me say that Julie is a bad actress - was poor and cliche.
What wasn't cliche, obviously, was the twist no one saw coming back in ‘97; that Darla was the monster. More specifically, a vampire. The makeup job, by the way, was very good for its time, and even holds up rather well by today’s standards as well. Go makeup team!
I’m mostly going to gloss over the opening credits, as this isn’t my first watch and so I don’t have much to say, however I find it interesting that Nicholas Brendon is billed immediately after Sarah Michelle Gellar, instead of Alyson Hannigan.
The credits end and we’re treated to the first ever foreshadowing from Joss and his team; Buffy’s Slayer dream, which consists of plenty of images from future episodes. I caught Malcolm’s monster form, the demon from The Puppet Show, the vampire ‘army’ (which was either from The Harvest or Prophecy Girl) and, of course, the Master and his cave. It’s certainly a much more fun scene on a second watch.
Almost immediately we switch scenes again, heading to the high school - now in broad daylight - and a very nice music cue; it all feels very 90s, but then it’s supposed to. From the outfits, to the chatter, even to the way the camera captured it all. My poor heart was feeling very nostalgic in this moment, more than anywhere else in the episode.
We also get something that almost made me laugh out loud - a fun hat-trick, if you will; a baby-faced Buffy, complete with fat cheeks, a skateboarding Xander with his hair falling into his eyes, and a flat-chested Willow in her first of many atrocious outfits. Maybe that was part of my nostalgia?
Xander and Willow share a very nice talk as they walk towards the school doors, where they meet Jesse, the boy you allow yourself to forget almost immediately after he’s gone, because the show (and characters) forgot him. But try to forget him now:
As I watch Buffy listening to a very strange speech from Principal Flutie, I realize that already - in contrast to the opening scene - the main cast have proven very capable of acting their roles believable. That includes Ken Lerner as the ‘touchy-feely’ leader of the high school. We also get a very nice and iconic line from Buffy. “It was full of vampir…asbestos.”
Buffy moves out into the hallway, almost immediately knocked into by a female student, who proceeds to laugh it off and leave, not even offering to help the blonde pick up the things that were spilled out of her bag; rude, much? Children those days, I swear…
“Can I have you?” Xander, ever the ‘gentleman’, crouches down to help Buffy with her things, but it does not get off to a great start (or end) for the awkward, inexperienced boy. He is so adorable with those bangs, though, so I forgive him pretty easily. What I don't forgive is Buffy’s bad hairstyle, though admittedly the barrette is very cute.
Next up; The Black Death. Buffy is in History class and doesn’t have a book to keep up with the others, so a brunette girl sitting beside her offers her to peek over her shoulder. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Maybe not on your first watch. Why is Cordelia being nice to a stranger? Sure, she’s heard rumors of the interesting girl from the big city, but if the girl we meet later knows that Buffy was kicked out of Hemery, surely the Queen C of Sunnydale High would know as well? Unfortunately, I came to learn that this episode has a lot of glaring errors, there just for the sake of exposition.
Cordelia was needed to get Buffy, a new student, to the library to meet Giles - with a detour to meet Willow - and it didn’t matter to the writers that it was completely out of character for the rich mean girl. Fine, I’ll swallow it…this once.
Side note: Charisma looks beyond gorgeous in her first scene and I’m loving those green pants.
As the two girls move through the halls, we have one of the most dated conversations of the whole show - I’m guessing - in order to test Buffy’s coolness factor. This is our cross to bear in a show that predates all teenagers. I will commend Charisma on her acting, though, she switches from nice to Buffy to mean to Willow and back quite effortlessly and that can’t be an easy thing.
The girls say ‘see ya later’ and Buffy enters the library; cue some very nice orchestral music - courtesy of Walter Murphy - that sets up the stage very nicely. Mr. Giles enters the scene and immediately Anthony Stewart Head impresses as the strongest actor on the show. With just a few lines, we’re suspicious, we’re charmed, and we’re sure he’s a very awkward person not used to dealing with teenage girls.
This is also the moment I notice just how many layers of make up Sarah is caked in; makeup team, you failed on this one, shame on you!
We take a moment to appreciate this dated but hilarious exchange; “Neg.” “Pos.” “Negly.”
(Who names their child Aphrodisia, anyway?)
My notes have a question on them; why is Willow eating outside? I don’t know why I got stuck on this, maybe because of later scenes in the cafeteria? Xander and Jesse find her there easily, so it doesn’t appear to be out of character for her, but still… just seems weird.
Willow mentions the rumors of where Mr. Giles used to work; a cover concocted by the Council, perhaps?
Buffy returns to the library after checking out the body in the locker room, and I realize something. From the vantage point of where Giles is first standing when she enters, he can see Xander. Yet he just forgets that there is a student there when he starts discussing Buffy’s secret identity with her. Second example of bad writing for the sake of exposition. *sigh*
The dialogue itself is also very exposition heavy, in hindsight we know it’s for the sake of Xander; very annoying. On the other hand, however, the Buffy/Giles scene and chemistry is there from the beginning and is one of the best parts of the episode.
Side note: Mr. Giles mentions succubi and incubi, one of the few monsters we never had on the show. I wonder why that is, could have made a nice story in either the third or sixth season, if you ask me.
Also, the lighting in the library is very nice, especially in the last minute of the scene.
As the librarian follows the new student out into the busy hallway - really? - we get our first instance of a really bad mic-job on ASH and SMG, tinny voices that grate on the viewer. However, once again it’s somewhat saved by a nice segue to the Master’s cave below the earth.
We hear Luke speaking for almost a full thirty seconds before we first lay eyes on him - nice touch, Mr. Director/Writer - but the scene feels a bit too short and should have probably been combined with the later one, or shown earlier in the episode. But that’s just me, though.
Buffy is getting ready for the Bronze and we get another atrocious scene and dialogue; Buffy would never own a black, shiny cat-suit, nor an outfit for a middle-aged church lady. Those outfits are there only to give us a funny line and segue into Joyce entering the room. Also, there is no way Joyce would allow her sixteen year old daughter to own something as racy as the first outfit, I’m not buying it.
Moving on to, quite possibly, my biggest annoyance with this episode; the Angel retcon. In S2 flashbacks, we note that Angel was brought to see Buffy when she was newly Chosen, he also followed her from afar at least once, watching her through the window of her LA home. And yet in this episode we get this line. “I thought you’d be taller.” Huh?
This Angel also had a very different personality from who he is later, like, say, the episode Angel? Some have tried to argue that the reason is that Angel is putting up a strong front, not wanting to show weakness. I call it bad writing, or at least non-consistent writing for later in the show. This irritates me because I’d actually have liked to see more of this Angel, instead of the brooding, melodramatic version we got after the retcon.
The acting is also mediocre and Angel’s outfit is… what were they thinking in the wardrobe department?
He does get a very nice final line, though. “I didn’t say I was yours.”
Buffy and the camera move into the Bronze and we get some really bad dubbing/lip-syncing from the band onstage, but we ignore it - wish it away, wish it away - and instead get a nice scene with Buffy waving to a stranger, thinking he was first waving at her. It’s a very realistic view of what it can be like to be the new person in a place of strangers and SMG did a good job coming off as awkward as she put her hand in her hair.
She finds Willow at the bar - and the wardrobe department have put the beautiful Alyson Hannigan in another atrocious outfit, possibly worse than the first - and Buffy shines under the fluorescent light as she has much better hair than in her daylight, high school scenes.
Another show of ignoring character for the sake of exposition follows; after one short conversation with a near stranger, painfully shy Willow - who admits her inability to even speak with a boy - goes off to ‘seize the day’ and finds herself chatting up a cute boy with a smile on her face. Yeah, cause that's believable. Right.
In contrast to that, Buffy and Giles share another great moment on the balcony, with ASH once again shining in his delivery of Giles’ lines. Prancing clown hair, interesting imagery…
We take a moment to appreciate Cordelia’s outfit…and then we move on.
We take a moment to appreciate Buffy casually breaking that chair leg…and then we move on.
Cordelia has a cell! There’s a cell in the pilot! Ha, take that, everyone who says it’s terribly dated!
Side note: Darla gets to have two nice reveals in the same episode, not bad for a character that was admittedly very minor in the first season. But again, the acting is mediocre, and I again place the blame for that at the feet of the writer. *cough* Joss *cough*
We return to the underground cave/sunken church and get some abysmal special effects when the Master rises from a pool of blood, followed by really great makeup job on both Luke and the Master. So, you could say it evens itself out fairly nicely, right? I’d say the makeup jobs, so far, have aged surprisingly well.
We then get a very weird, choppy editing job, where the scene cuts to black as Luke kisses the Master’s hand… only to cut right back in to that same scene. Obviously it was a commercial break… but it really shouldn’t be that obvious on the dvd release. And I had such faith in the editor before this, too…
Don’t even get me started on the sound effects when the Master reaches out to touch the invisible border. It sounds like pulling rubber and it made me laugh, which I don’t think was the point of the shot.
I will, however, leave this scene with one positive note; Mark Metcalf’s acting was much better than I remembered.
And then we move on to the terrible acting from Willow’s vampire date - portrayed by J. Patrick Lawlor - made only slightly more tolerable by Alyson’s great job in giving us the redheaded computer nerd we’d all come to adore very quickly as the show progressed.
Once again I’m hit with the heavy anvil of exposition, though; Willow goes off with him alone. Again, after just one ‘seize the moment’ talk with a near stranger, who had been hanging with Cordelia and, for all she knew, was being mean on the sly. She agrees to head off with this dude she doesn’t know, in the dark, enters a cemetery…how does this fit season one Willow, in any way?
Buffy wants Xander to tell her where Willow might go and we get our first weak acting from Nicholas, though again it could be blamed on the writing, it was a particularly lame line. I’ve already forgotten it, but something about Willow ‘scoring at the Bronze’. Ugh, we all know you can do better than that, writers!
We’re now in the mausoleum and I find the only two cheesy moments in the episode that I didn't enjoy; Darla says, “You’re not going anywhere, until we’ve fed.” And then vamps out on the last word. Super cheesy and had me shaking my head in shame. The same can be said for the following ‘speech’ from Buffy before the fight begins, but at least that has a bit more charm than the previous moment. Unfortunately, not enough to save it, for me.
Angel is not the only one to get the retcon treatment, though at least I’m grateful they did it with Darla. This version is practically shaking in the presence of a strong girl - seemingly with no clue that she’s a Slayer - and she’s just a bit too quick in bowing to what Luke says and what Luke wants. So glad she becomes a much stronger female character later on, I don’t know what Joss was thinking with this one, especially when he claimed to be a feminist.
We get another bit of cheese, but as I mentioned, I like the rest of the cheese. I particularly enjoy this line - and the delivery - from Luke. “You’re strong.” He slaps her with an open palm. “I’m stronger.”
Unfortunately a following scene has Luke crushing a very obvious prop stake in his hand and we’re reminded, once again, that this show is two decades old.
We finish off the episode with a nice sound effect, as Luke throws Buffy hard onto the corner of the stone coffin and we wince in response; because it sounds like it hurt. A lot.
All in all, I’m sorry to admit that this was not as good as I remembered, though it certainly had it’s strong moments, which I give to the Buffy/Giles scenes - in the library and on the balcony - the acting from most of the main cast, and the nostalgia my poor heart can’t help but feel for this aging show.
Unfortunately I absolutely loathe exposition heavy writing, which it suffers heavily from.
Final rating: 6/10.
Favorite lines
“Pepper spray is just so passé.” - Buffy Summers.
“How keen.” - Buffy Summers.
“I hate to interrupt your downward mobility.” - Cordelia Chase.
“So not just a little dead, then?”
”Don’t you have an elsewhere to be?” - Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase.
“Morbid much?” - Cordelia Chase.
“It’s like falling off a log.” - Buffy Summers.
“Prepare me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead! Prepare me.” - Buffy Summers.
“But you didn’t…hone.” - Rupert Giles.
“God! What is your childhood trauma?” - Cordelia Chase.
Best dressed
Worst dressed
Best acting
Worst acting
(Boy, not Julie)
Stay tuned for my Harvest review in the next few days.
Let’s see how it goes.
We start where we should; with the pilot episode. I’ve decided to forgo the unaired pilot, as none of us actually count it as an episode, just a fun little fact to our show.
(Any knowledge, summaries and such are taken from IMDB, photographs/gifs from Google Search)
1.1. Welcome to the Hellmouth.
Written by Joss Wedon.
Directed by Charles Martin Smith (uncredited: Joss Whedon).
We open on a very nice shot of the high school at night, moving directly into establishing shots of the interior; the hallways, the library doors, and finally a classroom. This was a very nice choice by the director/editor. Next up, the boy-victim (literally named Boy in the script) and his soon-to-be killer, Darla. I have to say, the acting in this scene was… mediocre, and that’s me being generous. The boy - played by Carmine Giovinazzo - was wooden and trying too hard to come off as the bad guy, while the writing for Darla - you’ll never hear me say that Julie is a bad actress - was poor and cliche.
What wasn't cliche, obviously, was the twist no one saw coming back in ‘97; that Darla was the monster. More specifically, a vampire. The makeup job, by the way, was very good for its time, and even holds up rather well by today’s standards as well. Go makeup team!
I’m mostly going to gloss over the opening credits, as this isn’t my first watch and so I don’t have much to say, however I find it interesting that Nicholas Brendon is billed immediately after Sarah Michelle Gellar, instead of Alyson Hannigan.
The credits end and we’re treated to the first ever foreshadowing from Joss and his team; Buffy’s Slayer dream, which consists of plenty of images from future episodes. I caught Malcolm’s monster form, the demon from The Puppet Show, the vampire ‘army’ (which was either from The Harvest or Prophecy Girl) and, of course, the Master and his cave. It’s certainly a much more fun scene on a second watch.
Almost immediately we switch scenes again, heading to the high school - now in broad daylight - and a very nice music cue; it all feels very 90s, but then it’s supposed to. From the outfits, to the chatter, even to the way the camera captured it all. My poor heart was feeling very nostalgic in this moment, more than anywhere else in the episode.
We also get something that almost made me laugh out loud - a fun hat-trick, if you will; a baby-faced Buffy, complete with fat cheeks, a skateboarding Xander with his hair falling into his eyes, and a flat-chested Willow in her first of many atrocious outfits. Maybe that was part of my nostalgia?
Xander and Willow share a very nice talk as they walk towards the school doors, where they meet Jesse, the boy you allow yourself to forget almost immediately after he’s gone, because the show (and characters) forgot him. But try to forget him now:
As I watch Buffy listening to a very strange speech from Principal Flutie, I realize that already - in contrast to the opening scene - the main cast have proven very capable of acting their roles believable. That includes Ken Lerner as the ‘touchy-feely’ leader of the high school. We also get a very nice and iconic line from Buffy. “It was full of vampir…asbestos.”
Buffy moves out into the hallway, almost immediately knocked into by a female student, who proceeds to laugh it off and leave, not even offering to help the blonde pick up the things that were spilled out of her bag; rude, much? Children those days, I swear…
“Can I have you?” Xander, ever the ‘gentleman’, crouches down to help Buffy with her things, but it does not get off to a great start (or end) for the awkward, inexperienced boy. He is so adorable with those bangs, though, so I forgive him pretty easily. What I don't forgive is Buffy’s bad hairstyle, though admittedly the barrette is very cute.
Next up; The Black Death. Buffy is in History class and doesn’t have a book to keep up with the others, so a brunette girl sitting beside her offers her to peek over her shoulder. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Maybe not on your first watch. Why is Cordelia being nice to a stranger? Sure, she’s heard rumors of the interesting girl from the big city, but if the girl we meet later knows that Buffy was kicked out of Hemery, surely the Queen C of Sunnydale High would know as well? Unfortunately, I came to learn that this episode has a lot of glaring errors, there just for the sake of exposition.
Cordelia was needed to get Buffy, a new student, to the library to meet Giles - with a detour to meet Willow - and it didn’t matter to the writers that it was completely out of character for the rich mean girl. Fine, I’ll swallow it…this once.
Side note: Charisma looks beyond gorgeous in her first scene and I’m loving those green pants.
As the two girls move through the halls, we have one of the most dated conversations of the whole show - I’m guessing - in order to test Buffy’s coolness factor. This is our cross to bear in a show that predates all teenagers. I will commend Charisma on her acting, though, she switches from nice to Buffy to mean to Willow and back quite effortlessly and that can’t be an easy thing.
The girls say ‘see ya later’ and Buffy enters the library; cue some very nice orchestral music - courtesy of Walter Murphy - that sets up the stage very nicely. Mr. Giles enters the scene and immediately Anthony Stewart Head impresses as the strongest actor on the show. With just a few lines, we’re suspicious, we’re charmed, and we’re sure he’s a very awkward person not used to dealing with teenage girls.
This is also the moment I notice just how many layers of make up Sarah is caked in; makeup team, you failed on this one, shame on you!
We take a moment to appreciate this dated but hilarious exchange; “Neg.” “Pos.” “Negly.”
(Who names their child Aphrodisia, anyway?)
My notes have a question on them; why is Willow eating outside? I don’t know why I got stuck on this, maybe because of later scenes in the cafeteria? Xander and Jesse find her there easily, so it doesn’t appear to be out of character for her, but still… just seems weird.
Willow mentions the rumors of where Mr. Giles used to work; a cover concocted by the Council, perhaps?
Buffy returns to the library after checking out the body in the locker room, and I realize something. From the vantage point of where Giles is first standing when she enters, he can see Xander. Yet he just forgets that there is a student there when he starts discussing Buffy’s secret identity with her. Second example of bad writing for the sake of exposition. *sigh*
The dialogue itself is also very exposition heavy, in hindsight we know it’s for the sake of Xander; very annoying. On the other hand, however, the Buffy/Giles scene and chemistry is there from the beginning and is one of the best parts of the episode.
Side note: Mr. Giles mentions succubi and incubi, one of the few monsters we never had on the show. I wonder why that is, could have made a nice story in either the third or sixth season, if you ask me.
Also, the lighting in the library is very nice, especially in the last minute of the scene.
As the librarian follows the new student out into the busy hallway - really? - we get our first instance of a really bad mic-job on ASH and SMG, tinny voices that grate on the viewer. However, once again it’s somewhat saved by a nice segue to the Master’s cave below the earth.
We hear Luke speaking for almost a full thirty seconds before we first lay eyes on him - nice touch, Mr. Director/Writer - but the scene feels a bit too short and should have probably been combined with the later one, or shown earlier in the episode. But that’s just me, though.
Buffy is getting ready for the Bronze and we get another atrocious scene and dialogue; Buffy would never own a black, shiny cat-suit, nor an outfit for a middle-aged church lady. Those outfits are there only to give us a funny line and segue into Joyce entering the room. Also, there is no way Joyce would allow her sixteen year old daughter to own something as racy as the first outfit, I’m not buying it.
Moving on to, quite possibly, my biggest annoyance with this episode; the Angel retcon. In S2 flashbacks, we note that Angel was brought to see Buffy when she was newly Chosen, he also followed her from afar at least once, watching her through the window of her LA home. And yet in this episode we get this line. “I thought you’d be taller.” Huh?
This Angel also had a very different personality from who he is later, like, say, the episode Angel? Some have tried to argue that the reason is that Angel is putting up a strong front, not wanting to show weakness. I call it bad writing, or at least non-consistent writing for later in the show. This irritates me because I’d actually have liked to see more of this Angel, instead of the brooding, melodramatic version we got after the retcon.
The acting is also mediocre and Angel’s outfit is… what were they thinking in the wardrobe department?
He does get a very nice final line, though. “I didn’t say I was yours.”
Buffy and the camera move into the Bronze and we get some really bad dubbing/lip-syncing from the band onstage, but we ignore it - wish it away, wish it away - and instead get a nice scene with Buffy waving to a stranger, thinking he was first waving at her. It’s a very realistic view of what it can be like to be the new person in a place of strangers and SMG did a good job coming off as awkward as she put her hand in her hair.
She finds Willow at the bar - and the wardrobe department have put the beautiful Alyson Hannigan in another atrocious outfit, possibly worse than the first - and Buffy shines under the fluorescent light as she has much better hair than in her daylight, high school scenes.
Another show of ignoring character for the sake of exposition follows; after one short conversation with a near stranger, painfully shy Willow - who admits her inability to even speak with a boy - goes off to ‘seize the day’ and finds herself chatting up a cute boy with a smile on her face. Yeah, cause that's believable. Right.
In contrast to that, Buffy and Giles share another great moment on the balcony, with ASH once again shining in his delivery of Giles’ lines. Prancing clown hair, interesting imagery…
We take a moment to appreciate Cordelia’s outfit…and then we move on.
We take a moment to appreciate Buffy casually breaking that chair leg…and then we move on.
Cordelia has a cell! There’s a cell in the pilot! Ha, take that, everyone who says it’s terribly dated!
Side note: Darla gets to have two nice reveals in the same episode, not bad for a character that was admittedly very minor in the first season. But again, the acting is mediocre, and I again place the blame for that at the feet of the writer. *cough* Joss *cough*
We return to the underground cave/sunken church and get some abysmal special effects when the Master rises from a pool of blood, followed by really great makeup job on both Luke and the Master. So, you could say it evens itself out fairly nicely, right? I’d say the makeup jobs, so far, have aged surprisingly well.
We then get a very weird, choppy editing job, where the scene cuts to black as Luke kisses the Master’s hand… only to cut right back in to that same scene. Obviously it was a commercial break… but it really shouldn’t be that obvious on the dvd release. And I had such faith in the editor before this, too…
Don’t even get me started on the sound effects when the Master reaches out to touch the invisible border. It sounds like pulling rubber and it made me laugh, which I don’t think was the point of the shot.
I will, however, leave this scene with one positive note; Mark Metcalf’s acting was much better than I remembered.
And then we move on to the terrible acting from Willow’s vampire date - portrayed by J. Patrick Lawlor - made only slightly more tolerable by Alyson’s great job in giving us the redheaded computer nerd we’d all come to adore very quickly as the show progressed.
Once again I’m hit with the heavy anvil of exposition, though; Willow goes off with him alone. Again, after just one ‘seize the moment’ talk with a near stranger, who had been hanging with Cordelia and, for all she knew, was being mean on the sly. She agrees to head off with this dude she doesn’t know, in the dark, enters a cemetery…how does this fit season one Willow, in any way?
Buffy wants Xander to tell her where Willow might go and we get our first weak acting from Nicholas, though again it could be blamed on the writing, it was a particularly lame line. I’ve already forgotten it, but something about Willow ‘scoring at the Bronze’. Ugh, we all know you can do better than that, writers!
We’re now in the mausoleum and I find the only two cheesy moments in the episode that I didn't enjoy; Darla says, “You’re not going anywhere, until we’ve fed.” And then vamps out on the last word. Super cheesy and had me shaking my head in shame. The same can be said for the following ‘speech’ from Buffy before the fight begins, but at least that has a bit more charm than the previous moment. Unfortunately, not enough to save it, for me.
Angel is not the only one to get the retcon treatment, though at least I’m grateful they did it with Darla. This version is practically shaking in the presence of a strong girl - seemingly with no clue that she’s a Slayer - and she’s just a bit too quick in bowing to what Luke says and what Luke wants. So glad she becomes a much stronger female character later on, I don’t know what Joss was thinking with this one, especially when he claimed to be a feminist.
We get another bit of cheese, but as I mentioned, I like the rest of the cheese. I particularly enjoy this line - and the delivery - from Luke. “You’re strong.” He slaps her with an open palm. “I’m stronger.”
Unfortunately a following scene has Luke crushing a very obvious prop stake in his hand and we’re reminded, once again, that this show is two decades old.
We finish off the episode with a nice sound effect, as Luke throws Buffy hard onto the corner of the stone coffin and we wince in response; because it sounds like it hurt. A lot.
All in all, I’m sorry to admit that this was not as good as I remembered, though it certainly had it’s strong moments, which I give to the Buffy/Giles scenes - in the library and on the balcony - the acting from most of the main cast, and the nostalgia my poor heart can’t help but feel for this aging show.
Unfortunately I absolutely loathe exposition heavy writing, which it suffers heavily from.
Final rating: 6/10.
Favorite lines
“Pepper spray is just so passé.” - Buffy Summers.
“How keen.” - Buffy Summers.
“I hate to interrupt your downward mobility.” - Cordelia Chase.
“So not just a little dead, then?”
”Don’t you have an elsewhere to be?” - Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase.
“Morbid much?” - Cordelia Chase.
“It’s like falling off a log.” - Buffy Summers.
“Prepare me for what? For getting kicked out of school? For losing all of my friends? For having to spend all of my time fighting for my life and never getting to tell anyone because I might endanger them? Go ahead! Prepare me.” - Buffy Summers.
“But you didn’t…hone.” - Rupert Giles.
“God! What is your childhood trauma?” - Cordelia Chase.
Best dressed
Worst dressed
Best acting
Worst acting
(Boy, not Julie)
Stay tuned for my Harvest review in the next few days.
