av Mr Chase » tis mar 09, 2004 22:24
Mr Chase går trick or treating:
18. Halloween
In the immortal words of a certain character "well, this was just... neat!" Indeed it was. The idea of people turning into their Halloween costumes is great and the execution was more than fine, except for the whining 18th century Lady Buffy. G. I. Xander and Willow the friendly ghost were just awesome.
It was nice for the emasculated Xander to come back like a super soldier. Cordelia must almost certainly dig it, especially when he took his shirt off and gave it to her. The look on her face said "hel-lo, where have you been hiding", and she wasn't even turned into her costume.
Spoiler s2 What's My Line, pt 2 onwards:
Another nice little bit of continuity (not to mention foreshadowing) is that Xander stated that he liked women in spandex, when Cordelia in the previous episode told Buffy that spandex was one of her trademarks. And of course her nice catsuit (meow!) was in spandex.
But it was Willow who almost stole the show, both with her stunningly sexy bad girl costume and her way of taking charge. My oh my, she sure isn't like she used to be! Alyson Hannigan must be one of the most unlikely sex symbols in the business but this episode shows that she really can be a little sex kitten when she puts her mind to it.
I said 'almost stole the show' because it was Giles, sorry... Ripper who accomplished that feat. Who knew that behind the reserved and stuffy exterior lurked something much more menacing? This guy has layers and we don't get to know all of them just yet. His calculated and yet absolutely calm "interrogation" of his old friend Ethan Rayne was way scarier than anything else that transpired in Sunnydale on that Halloween. That Ethan more than deserved getting thoroughly beaten up does not change that fact. And Ethan knows all about the slayer/watcher part. Who is he?
Spike gets to have some fun and we see why he's more dangerous than any other of Buffy's baddies. The use of a vidcam tells us he is a very determined vampire and tries to accomplish his task of slayer slaying with more intelligence than I suspect the entire vampire population in Sunnydale represents (him excluded) put together.
Cordelia is so much in denial about Angel's true nature. She doesn't believe it when Buffy and Willow spells the beans "a vampire, the cuddly kind, like a care bear with fangs!" She tries to put the moves on Angel but he has only eyes for Buffy despite Cordelia's insistence that "when it comes to dating, I'm the slayer." Well, not quite.
Buffy and Angels still find it hard to come to terms with their relationship, if you can call it that. Her dressing up like a woman from Angel's century was a way of trying to please him but afterwards he reveals to her that he just couldn't stand his contemporary women. Seeing how helpless Lady Buffy was I couldn't agree more. Angel is drawn to more exciting women so, go figure!
The funniest part in this episode was when Buffy distracted Giles so that Willow could, hrrm, *borrow* the 'Watchers Diaries'. Her desperate line "Ms Calendar said you were a babe" was the best, and Giles's stuttering reaction together with Willow's expression, ROTFL.
As a holiday I never liked Halloween, mainly because it is a completely foreign concept to me that has just recently been imported into my country by clever businessmen. It was never around when I grew up. I can so understand that vampires also dislike the thing. They obviously find it cheesy and silly. I suspect that Buffy was right when she said that "How come Halloween is such a yawner? I mean do the demons just hate how commercial it has become?" Indeed.
Rupert Giles: "I'll be back in the Middle Ages."
Miss Calendar: "Did you ever leave?"