Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Some Assembly Required

Warrior Woman Wednesday
**½

Giles takes the night off and attends Sunnydale's football game on a date with Ms. Calendar, but that's not the only romance brewing as Cordelia's former flame Daryl also comes back into the picture.

The review for "When She Was Bad" can be read here.

Having discouraged Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) from dating in the past, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) finally relents and takes her advice for once, giving in to his feelings for Ms. Calendar (Robia LaMorte) and taking a night to himself. What makes his relationship with Calendar slightly different is that she is already well accustomed to the world of the occult, where Buffy had been choosing boys that were unfamiliar with the dangers her life possessed, and, as such, there's a much better chance that Giles could find happiness here.

Buffy and Angel (David Boreanaz) have a discussion about what it is to wake up as a vampire for the first time, with Angel describing the disorientation of breaking out of a coffin and crawling up through the earth. While Buffy has herself experienced during the events of "Nightmares" what it is to be trapped in a casket and fight her way back to the land of the living, she hadn't had the confusion of not knowing where she was or what was happening to her. It's this strange bond between them, of having experienced the impossible and unimaginable, that opens both of them up to each other, allowing them to openly flirt for the first time without any real reservations. Through her gentle chiding Buffy not only learns that Angel's jealous of Xander (Nicholas Brendon,) but she also apologizes for her actions in the previous episode, and the two of them are able to start on level ground with each other. In the end, after a good night's fight, Angel laments that the sun will soon rise and he'll have to head home before it happens, with Buffy offering to walk him home to keep him safe, and it's a great role reversal of the strong man walking the waif of a damsel home, showcasing that it is she that will always have his back in this relationship.

As the discussion turns to romance, Xander muses that nobody wants what's right in front of them, instead wanting the unattainable dream, the perfect vision of what they think they want, and it's clear that he's speaking from his experience of being attracted to Buffy without a mutual response. Buffy, for one, is thinking on Angel, and how it's her sworn duty to rid the world of his kind, while Willow (Alyson Hannigan) is still torn up over her feelings for Xander and the fact that he completely ignores her in favor of Buffy. Daryl (Ingo Neuhaus,) too, is hung up on his impossible relationship to Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter,) who will never be able to return his affection. The only couple that appears to have a steady chance in this story is Giles and Jenny, who attend the football game together, but despite their maturity, their date is sabotaged by the appearance of their students.

Buffy explains to the group the danger posed by Chris (Angelo Spizziri) and Eric (Michael Bacall,) stating that Cordelia will be the next target and that they have very little time. Giles' response is that he has a date with Ms. Calendar, and asks that he be allowed to attend while Buffy and her friends take care of the villains. One could argue that Buffy is far more equipped than her Watcher to tackle evil, but Giles sends Xander and Willow with her, who are far less trained than even he. With a student's life in danger, he should be focusing his attention on that, and with Ms. Calendar being well aware of the occult, having helped Buffy and her friends on two separate occasions already, it's irresponsible for him to ignore the threats to people's lives in order to make time with a woman he's attracted to. Not only does Giles show poor prioritizing here, but he had previously rebuked Buffy for making the same choice during the events of "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date," and also had told her that people in their line of work had no time for social lives in the episode "Witch." His hypocrisy here is out of hand, and it's unfair of him to expect more of Buffy than he would of himself, especially when the people both of them have sworn to protect are in grave danger.

Cordelia is attacked, tied up with a bag thrown over her head, and immediately after Buffy has rescued her, she rushes off to participate in her cheer without seeming shaken at all. Not only does she appear perfectly collected moments later, but she even wanders off to get a drink of water alone when, in reality, it would feel much more genuine had she asked another cheerleader to accompany her so that she wouldn't be completely vulnerable. Her second abduction feels disingenuous, caused by the writer's lack of forethought, and Buffy having saved her previously adds nothing to the plot, as the only new information she gains is the existence of Daryl, whom she would have run into later anyway.

Neuhaus and Spizziri are well cast as brothers Daryl and Chris, having enough physical resemblance to make believable siblings while also maintaining a relatively believable chemistry given their character's situations here. The only drawback of the episode is Boreanaz, who seems largely unable to deliver a passable line as he makes attempts to be mysterious whilst instead playing things somewhat more smug than he should have.

Bruce Seth Green's direction of this episode has it's ups and downs, with the highlights being the opening argument between Buffy and Angel, which is interrupted by their fighting and killing of a vampire, only to continue without missing a beat as soon as the dust settles. As Buffy searches through Chris' basement in an attempt to figure out who the next victim is, we see Daryl silently creeping up behind her, very threatening and dangerous, and incredibly well done in that moment. As for the negatives, at one point Cordelia drops her car keys directly downward, and the camera shows them land by her feet, after which point they somehow end up underneath her car and beyond her reach in an effort to amp up tension that feels very forced and contrived. An oddity of this episode is Eric's involvement in the plot, as he has no real connection to Daryl, and it's never once explained why he is so intent on creating his patchwork girl since he seemingly will get nothing from having included himself here.

While there are a couple of good one-liners within Ty King's script, the episode itself is largely lackluster, with the only well-thought storyline being that of Chris always feeling that he's in his brother Daryl's shadow, doing anything for him in an effort to gain acceptance not only from him but from the mother who has neglected him since his brother's death. Buffy and Xander walking in on Giles as he practices asking Ms. Calendar on a date is somewhat funny, but the rest of the story is filled with infuriating moments such as Giles telling Buffy and Xander to get "Willow to fire [the computer] up" as though she's the only one capable of using the internet.

Buffy and Angel's relationship, as well as that between Giles and Jenny, is confirmed at the close of this story, setting up what should be big love stories for this season, while Xander and Willow's relationship seems to have stalled entirely.

The review for "School Hard" can be read here.

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