av Mr Chase » mån mar 15, 2004 3:55
Mr Chase är levande död:
36. Dead Man's Party
This is more like it. Granted, it too didn't quite live up to expectations, especially in the entirely redundant zombie attack. But we got a good character piece of how everyone reacted to Buffy's return. At moments it was rather painful to watch. They were just so mean to each other but everyone sure had issues they had to work through. The only one not really pissed off was Giles (at least not on screen). Instead he's so happy about his slayer's return that he almost cries.
Joyce and Buffy are carefully treading around each other, both fearful of sparking another heated argument. It doesn't last of course, and Ma Summers chooses the worst time to read her daughter the riot act -- right in the smacking middle of her homecoming party. Still, Buffy seemed on the verge of hitting the road again so it's perhaps understandable.
For all their worrying over the summer there is definitely a lot of residual resentment with the Slayerettes. They don't seem to be all that happy about seeing the slayer again. They're obviously relieved and all that, but they have after all been coping quite well on their own in her absence. At least six out of ten vamps (it was sort of cute the way Oz corrected Willow about that figure) have been dusted and they've even assigned each other code names ("Nighthawk" LOL).
What's really been bugging them, and building up over the last months, is that Buffy just left them to their own devices with no explanation whatsoever. She didn't even try to contact them for all that time. They were a team, the Scooby Gang, and then suddenly Buffy just bailed. She had her reasons of course, but she hasn't told anyone about her sending the resouled Angel to hell. So before you go on being mad at the Slayerettes for doing what they did, and saying the things they said, horrible as they were (especially Xander), remember that *they didn't know* and after this episode they still don't.
Sure I feel for Buffy. It's not the welcome she expected or deserved. But she has to learn that they're a team -- the slayer and the Slayerettes. And they're people. You can't just abandon them only to return some months later and expect that all is going to be like before. They've grown and changed in the meantime. And as Willow so aptly put it, it's not just about them missing her and worrying about her.
Willow: "I mean, my life! You know? I, um... I'm having all sorts of... I'm dating, I'm having serious dating with a werewolf, a-and I'm studying witchcraft and killing vampires, and I didn't have anyone to talk to about all this scary life stuff. And you were my best friend."
She's more to them than just the leader. She's their friend and she deserted them. Their anger is actually a product of that friendship. It's called tough love.
Xander has taken quite a beating with reviewers over his scolding of Buffy. It was a little nasty at times but he really didn't say anything that was factually wrong. He could have done it a bit smoother but perhaps he's been taking insensitivity lessons from Cordelia. Anyway, of the Slayerettes, his summer was probably the worst. Buffy, the centre figure of his substitute family, takes off and so does his girlfriend Cordelia. He's left with the cute couple of Willow and Oz to mind the slayage store. But he's also grown up. He's a more confident person and it shows. He's "Nighthawk", and Cordy really likes it.
Cordelia: "Except you were kinda turning me on with that whole Boy Slayer look."
Xander: "Was I now?"
Cordelia: You bet, Nighthawk."
Cordelia has now completely gotten over her anxieties about being with Xander. She's heavily making out with him in front of everyone at the party. I thought it was adorably cute but some have complained that they were just rubbing it in poor Buffy's face. Well, fiddlesticks I say! Cordy's attempt to see things from Buffy's point of view misfires but it's so in character. And despite what she says in the beginning, I think the Rambo style works for her.
What is frustrating is that in the end nothing is really resolved. Buffy still hasn't told anybody about Angel. But rest assure it will have to come out sooner or later, hopefully sooner. But there are no issues that a serious little zombie slaying can't help to cover up. They work on autopilot when the living dead crashes the party. It also helps gets rid of the extraneous partygoers one way or the other.
Other little tidbits include principal Snyder. First Joyce tries to face up to him in order to let Buffy come back to school, but he's not impressed with her threat to take it to the Mayor. Hm, I wonder why! And Joyce gets extra points for calling Snyder "that nasty, little, hard, bigoted rodent man", if not in front of him.
Secondly, when Giles threatens to take the case to the State Supreme Court Snyder loses his calm. But if Snyder has another tingling moment I'm gonna send in Giles in his Ripper persona again! What is it about Giles anyway? His remark "like riding a bloody bicycle" when he hot-wires the car again tells us there's more to the librarian than meets the eye. And the: "'Oh, look at my mask, isn't it pretty? It raises the dead!' Americans!" was ROTFL.
Oz gets to define different party categories: "Well, a gathering is brie, mellow song stylings; shindig: dip, less mellow song stylings, perhaps a large amount of malt beverage; and hootenanny, well, it's chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny."
And was I the only one that heard Phoebe from "Friends" singing "Smelly Cat" in my head when the living dead zombie cat appeared?
Senast redigerad av
Mr Chase fre mar 19, 2004 5:03, redigerad totalt 1 gång.
Rupert Giles: "I'll be back in the Middle Ages."
Miss Calendar: "Did you ever leave?"