Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Teacher's Pet

Warrior Woman Wednesday
*½

Xander's attraction to the new science teacher gets him into trouble when she turns out to be a man-eating demon.

The review for "Witch" can be read here.

As a series, Buffy is still trying to prove that it's about more than just fighting vampires, and while a vampiric foe does indeed appear during the story, it's all about the demon that Xander (Nicholas Brendon) gets himself involved with.

The fantasy that Xander has of himself as a rock star is done very well, and very realistically, and it's contrasted very well with the later scene where Ms. French (Musetta Vander) offers him a martini. In his dream, Xander is suave and attractive, completely comfortable telling Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) exactly how he feels about her and sweeping her off her feet. He imagines himself to be a veritable Casanova, whereas, in reality, he's unable to tell her how he feels, much less get up on stage and play her a song. When Ms. French begins seducing him he gets incredibly tongue-tied, and even though she's throwing herself at him and doing all the work, he grows reluctant because he doesn't know how to be the man he'd like to pretend to be for Buffy.

It's refreshing that Dr. Gregory (William Monaghan) believes so much in Buffy's abilities. He not only tells her how smart she is, but genuinely believes that she can excel in his class should she apply herself and stop focusing so much on the trivial things in life. When he tells her not to listen to the principal's opinion of her it's clear that he's made a connection and finally gotten through to the student in Buffy, and it's a shame that their relationship was unable to continue since so many of the authority figures in her life seem to be against her.

Willow (Alyson Hannigan) has a very virtuous take on virginity, praising the fact that Xander's "doing the right thing, the smart thing, by waiting" to have sex. It's an awkward discussion that could have been handled much better, and, while it's understandable that Xander's somewhat embarrassed about still being a virgin, it seems as though Willow, having been his friend for so long and having known that, outside of her, his relationships with women were non-existent, would already be well aware that he had not had sex.

Were the roles in this episode changed, with the teacher being male and Willow being used in Xander's place, the predatory student/teacher storyline wouldn't have been played for laughs as sexy or acceptable and instead would have been taken much more seriously. There seems to be an issue on television where the male student/female teacher hooking up is played sincerely as steamy, but it's a double standard that's awkward and ill-fitting. I understand that it's meant as something of a satire here, but it's still troublesome that these teenage boys see Ms. French as a sexy prospect instead of a sad and lonely woman.

All of the speaking parts in this episode are very well acted, the regulars seem to understand their place amongst each other, and the rest of the episode's cast do well to insert themselves without being awkward. Ken Lerner does a great job showcasing Principal Flutie's neuroses as he forces Buffy to sit down for her crisis counseling.

Director Bruce Seth Green may not have had the greatest material to work with here, but he doesn't do much to detract from the ridiculous villain. The police barge through the park in search of a killer, but somehow manage not to see Buffy when she's directly in front of them, fighting with the killer they're trying to find. The vampire Claw himself seems to move in a very slap-stick kind of manner, but it's no more absurd than the effect used when Ms. French turns her head all the way around. The fact that Buffy doesn't call out to Ms. French to warn her that there is a killer vampire coming up behind her, nor does she make any effort to save her, is somewhat disturbing, as is the fact that Ms. French finds it completely acceptable to rotate her head completely in a classroom full of students, who seem incapable of taking their eyes off of her in every moment outside of this one.

David Greenwalt writes this episode with a number of conveniences in order to further the plot, none of which make much sense when observed on their own. It's a wonder that a praying mantis demon would arrive on the day that she's meant to teach about praying mantises, and it's also convenient, for Buffy, that she would teach the group about their weaknesses, ultimately providing the protagonist with her own undoing. It seems very forced that Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) would find the body in the kitchen's fridge, as she seems the type to have gotten a meal off-campus, and it makes no sense that the entire cooking staff would have created an entire meal without needing to use the fridge before lunch hour was already well underway. Xander's obliviousness to the fact that the disappearance of Dr. Gregory might be a bad thing is insane, as is Buffy's later questioning as to why he wouldn't have picked up his glasses, since they've already assumed that he's dead. Buffy forces Claw to take her to Ms. French, having seen that he can sense who Ms. French really is, but she made no effort to remove the claw from his hand, essentially traveling with an armed hostage.

Buffy has proved herself to be mildly irritated by Angel in the past, but this is the first episode where she hints toward her attraction to him. More importantly, the closing moments of the episode reveal that several demon eggs have survived and are hatching in the Sunnydale High science lab, though a throw-away villain like this is not likely to be revisited any time soon.

The review for "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" can be read here.

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