av Mr Chase » sön mar 14, 2004 18:15
Mr Chase säger "Hasta la vista, baby!":
23. Ted
Despite the somewhat lame idea of a Terminator stepfather-from-hell this was quite an entertaining episode. Ted, Buffy's mother's new boyfriend (excellently played by the late John Ritter, RIP), is scary in his own right -- a virtual nightmare for all single-parent kids. Here comes Mr Smooth-talking perfect guy and invades your house, charms your friends and captivates your mother and you're the only one seeing that there this guy is creepy. As if the "Seeing my mother frenching a guy is definitely a ticket to therapyland"-thing wasn't bad enough!
Buffy's mom is definitely not helping and prefers to believe Ted over her own daughter. If it hadn't been for the drugged cookies and mini pizzas I'd never have forgiven her for that, no matter how much she cared about Ted.
When Buffy with her slayer powers accidentally kills him (even if he deserved to get his ass thoroughly kicked, beating up on a small sixteen year old girl) she's utterly devasted. She is the *vampire* slayer, not the stepfather slayer. She's not supposed to kill humans no matter how bad they are. She doesn't have a special licence to kill (you hear me, Cordelia!). Great angst-ridden acting from Sarah Michelle Gellar. But having delved too much into that would prematurely have taken "Buffy" into a darker realm so it is revealed that Ted is really a robot. A homicidal robot, but a robot nonetheless.
This is were it gets a bit silly. We are led to believe that this guy Ted all on his own made a machine duplicate of himself in the fifties. Do you know how big computers where back then? Requires serious suspension of disbelief.
A side story deals with Giles and Jenny Calendar getting back together again ('bout time IMO) after some vampire slaying resulting in Jenny accidentally shooting Giles with a crossbow, LOL. If she's going to take up being a Slayerette she should get better aim! But they're so cute, especially at the end.
Speaking of cute, Xander and Cordelia are so much fun to watch. Their hormones are taking them into some real unexpected places but they have to watch out. They're talking about it rather loudly in public. It is almost as if they want to get caught
(which of course they will *snicker*).
Cordelia: "What's wrong with you?"
Xander: "I gave you a compliment."
Cordelia: "In front of your friends! They're gonna know!"
Xander: "Know what?"
Cordelia: "Please! It's too traumatic for me to even say it!"
Xander: "That we kissed?"
Cordelia: "Uhhh!"
Xander: "Look, I'm not gonna tell, they're not gonna know. Not your friends, not my friends. You wanna go to the utility closet and make out?"
Cordelia: "God! Is that all you ever think about? (considers the offer) Okay."
Cordy is not running away and why does that amuse the hell out of me? In fact I wonder if she realizes just how much time she spends with the Scoobies. She's in the library with them, asks if she can help Giles, does research on her own and tags along with Xander and Willow to Ted's place without making any fuss. And she walks with them in the halls of Sunnydale High in broad daylight! What about protecting her image as Miss Popularity? I guess she's going to find out sooner or later and then she has to chose between being alone with fake friends or actually having real friends, not to mention a "loser" boyfriend.
Xander (with a pointed look at Cordelia): "I sometimes like things that are not good for me." Hm, I wonder...
Rupert Giles: "I'll be back in the Middle Ages."
Miss Calendar: "Did you ever leave?"