Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

Warrior Woman Wednesday
***½

Buffy puts her date in danger when the two of them are targeted by the Anointed One, Master's new apprentice.

The review for "Teacher's Pet" can be read here.

While her interactions with other students have lead to close encounters in the past, this is the first time that one of Buffy's (Sarah Michelle Gellar) acquaintances actively welcomes the threat of danger. What's interesting to note is that it is the fear of death, the active desire to remain living, that solidifies Buffy's decision to allow her friends to help her in her more precarious situations, the lack of fear displayed by Owen (Christopher Wiehl) that causes her pause, despite the usefulness that said trait might be in a war against vampires.

Owen very clearly has a death wish, jumping at the chance to put himself in danger and leave behind the life of quiet contemplation he has trapped himself in. Buffy had spent the greater part of the episode trying to keep him in line, ensuring that he would survive until morning and feeling responsible for having brought this danger upon him. When Buffy realizes the full extent to which Owen has glorified her battle, the excitement he feels not to fight back the darkness but to taste the thrill of risk, she cuts him loose. Her friends have chosen to support her war in a show of solidarity and are careful of the risks they take in the field, but Owen is in it for himself, hoping to break free of his shell and is likely to run head-first into danger without considering the consequences. His would be a death that Buffy would not be accountable for, which is precisely why she can't welcome him into her small army.

While it's been made clear that Buffy shares a close trust with her mentor Giles (Anthony Stewart Head,) it is here that we see a genuine bond forming between them for the first time. Being the slayer is a life that she never chose, and a burden that only she can understand, but here we learn that being a watcher was not a choice for Giles, as he, too, had been destined to take the position. As they talk there's an understanding that they will have to make a compromise in regards to how they approach their relationship, with Giles perhaps taking a greater role in the field in order to mesh together their techniques.

Giles warns Buffy that her identity as a slayer puts those around her in danger, an it's a discussion that should have been had when they first met, or, likelier still, when she met her original watcher. She's well aware of the danger her friendship poses, having lost Jesse (Eric Balfour) in her first week of school, and to repeat the warning now implies that she's unable to interact with anyone at all. Were she to simply live as the slayer, he should be encouraging her to drop out of school and focus all of her energies on demon hunting, but his determination that she should continue her education, despite knowing she'll be unlikely to survive beyond graduation, is disrespectful to her if he plans to eschew every relationship she tries to develop within the realm of her social circle.

Owen is an extremely sensitive personality, and the way that Buffy treats him as she leaves the Bronze makes it fairly clear that he's not welcome to follow. Rather than acting in accordance with the clues she has given him, he chooses to follow Buffy and her friends when he should have simply licked his wounds and retreated home. The narrative requires that he be present for the story's climax, but he acts completely against who he is in order to get there, and it just doesn't sit right. In a real situation, Owen would have felt rejected and likely would have refused a third attempt with Buffy, but here he remains completely infatuated with her and asks after her once more, creating a completely inauthentic scenario.

Geoff Meed's portrayal of the vampire Borba is somewhat over-the-top, but it's completely enjoyable and he poses exactly the kind of threat intended for the character. Alyson Hannigan's Willow is somewhat affected here, as though she was trying a little too hard to mimic the proper emotions and missed the mark by a bit. The rest of the cast is largely fantastic, with Nicholas Brendon (Xander) playing his jealousy very authentically, Mark Metcalf (the Master) remaining menacingly delightful, and the chemistry between Head and Gellar is phenomenal.

Director David Semel has a good handle on Joss Whedon's style here, as he chooses to slowly close in on Giles while he gives an intense speech to Buffy about her grander duty, only to smash cut to their boredom as they wait in the cemetery to no result. The episode's closing revelation as to who the Master's Anointed One truly is was very well-done, the story of which was handled quite well during this episode. The fact that a vampire's clothes turn to dust had been a non-issue until the moment Giles pilfered a ring from the ashes, which only brought on questions as to why some pieces of paraphernalia disappear with the corpse, while others, usually plot-related, stay intact.

Rob Des Hotel & Dean Batali keep a good balance of humor and drama in this story as they have Giles being quick to criticize Buffy's techniques in the field, judging her abilities while his own are nowhere near comparable, only to counter-balance that by Buffy's recognition of the symbol of the Order of Aurelius while Giles had initially dismissed it entirely. The way that the Master talks to his minions is, at once, funny and terrifying. On the one hand, his dialogue could clearly be taken as though he's mocking his followers, bonding with them through their failures, but every word doubles as a veiled threat and it's very clear why people fear him. It's an interesting choice that a girl as attractive as Buffy, who had formerly been extremely popular with boys, still manages to get tongue-tied when talking to a boy she sees as above her station. Her fumbling of her words in discussion of Emily Dickinson is very endearing and extremely relatable. While there are a few missteps in the script, the one moment that truly gave me pause was Borba's body being taken directly to the funeral home rather than the morgue. Considering he had been a serial killer in life, and had only come to town on a bus the night before, I imagine the police would have wanted to examine his body, and any funeral he might have had likely would not have been in Sunnydale.

The love triangle between Buffy, Xander and Willow continues to be exploited, with no end in sight, but a romance between Buffy and Angel (David Boreanaz) is clearly on the horizon as well. In playing a romantic foil to Buffy, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) may also play into the slayer's relationship with Angel.

The review for "the Pack" can be read here.

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