What's My Line (Part 1)

_***½

Buffy tries to work out what the future has in store for her as Sunnydale High's career fair heats up; meanwhile, Spike hires a group of assassins to take care of the town's Slayer threat, potentially risking Angel's life in the process.

Previous: The Dark Age

Being chosen as the Slayer is a death sentence, and though Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has already died at the hands of the Master (Mark Metcalf), her role in saving the world is not yet complete. Imagining a future is no easy task for a girl who's told she has none, but things look even more bleak when a group of assassins is called to take Buffy out of the picture, cutting her already short future even shorter.

Though Willow (Alyson Hannigan) is excited at the prospect of a career fair, Buffy is instead bitter, resigned to the fact that she has no future outside of being the Slayer. The only thing that Buffy wants at this point is to have a normal life, and even a single moment of normalcy with boyfriend Angel (David Boreanaz) is clearly impossible as they stand in front of a mirror together ,but only she is reflected back, highlighting the extreme abnormalcy in which she lives. Buffy's inability to have an average life eventually gets the better of her as she deals with Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), stating that "if [he doesn't] like how [she's] doing [her] job, why [doesn't he] find someone else?" Buffy's right in that she's all that he's got, but there's also no other option for her, as she would be dooming the world were she to walk away from her calling. Outside of death she has no escape from the darkness, and this utter hopelessness in regards to a future is what causes her such strife. Not only has her duty as Slayer stolen her years to come, but here she can't even return home for fear that she may bring the assassins of Taraka down upon her mother, effectively putting those she loves at risk simply for knowing her. Buffy's struggle is perfectly understandable, she has the world on her shoulders and no one to take up the slack, her options are few, and none of them particularly good, and the fact of the matter is that none of this is all too fair for her.

Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) have a genuine love for one another, and no matter how evil they may be their romance is actually quite nice, supplanted by the great chemistry between the actors. Part of what makes them interesting as villains is that they aren't one-dimensional, but have an entire life outside of their Buffy-related plots, and it's their devotion to one another, and desire to keep the other safe, that really makes them a danger to Buffy and anyone else that would hunt them down. Spike and Drusilla's purpose in Sunnydale, at least in part, is to return Drusilla to health, and in order to do so Angel's life must be sacrificed.

During the career fair Willow is taken to a private booth by two men in suits, claiming that she'll be meeting with the head recruiter for the world's leading software concern; they go on to state that her aptitude test was irrelevant as they've been tracking her for some time, the only other student they've had any interest in being Oz (Seth Green). While it's not out-of-the-blue that Willow would attract the attention of computer-types, this entire scenario seems designed as a simple way to bring Willow and Oz together, despite his admitted lack of interest in computer technologies.

There is, at one point, a montage of Buffy ice skating, most of which consists of spinning, and while it's probably meant to display her ability to take small moments to herself to be a real person, it instead seems a little awkward and incredibly drawn out. This sequence feels very much like an attempt to fill space in order to turn this episode into a two-parter, and the story suffers for it.

The regular cast is good throughout the episode, but Green's expression when Oz recognizes Willow, realizing that they must have something in common since they're the only two selected, really conveys his excitement at finally being able to talk to her. The chemistry between Green and Hannigan is very good, and it helps to salvage the interaction between the characters despite the awkward setup of their meeting.

Director David Solomon does an effective job in introducing the members of the Order of Taraka, having all capable of passing as average humans, the first arriving by bus, the second posing as a traveling salesman, and framing Kendra's (Bianca Lawson) arrival in the cargo hold of a plane as though she's the third. Transitioning from a woman's screaming seamlessly into the sound of a plane's engines squealing through the air is a nice touch here, too. There is a sequence involving Buffy walking through the high school, a hand held camera following her progress, and it very effectively conveys her terror at the prospect of being hunted and killed. Kendra is shown to be stalking Buffy and Angel throughout the story, first at the ice rink and later attacking Angel on his own, locking him in a cage and leaving him to wait for the sunrise, and it is she who seems the most dangerous threat to Buffy and her friends.

Writers Howard Gordon and Marti Noxon have a lot of little details in this script that really add themselves to the universe created, Buffy noting that she skated as a child as an escape from her parents' constant fighting, and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Buffy's concerns over their aptitude results, a prison guard and a police officer, respectively. The romance between Buffy and Angel also takes another step forward as he flinches away from her touch wearing his vampiric face, stating that "[she] shouldn't have to touch [him] like this," to which she responds that "[she] didn't even notice." The threat posed by the Order of Taraka is never more evident than when both Angel and Giles warn Buffy to run and hide until they're taken care of, and though she had effortlessly disposed of the first assassin, she is given pause at their lack of faith in her victory here. The interplay between Buffy and Kendra is also good, as Buffy states that Kendra "must be number two," in reference to the number of assassins on her trail, but Kendra's response that she's the vampire slayer puts Buffy's comment in a new light. One of the negative aspects of the episode is the inclusion of Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), who is made to give a ride to Xander under the pretense that she wants to be a part of the group, but it feels very forced, especially since she states that she doesn't want to be a part of the group, and it seems that the writers simply wanted to play her off of Xander for comic effect.

Kendra's arrival opens up all kinds of possibilities for this series, not only in regards to the nature of identity, but for the mythology of the Slayer and Watchers themselves. Though there only ever was intended to be one Slayer, having a second here makes sense in regards to past events, and it provides Buffy with a constant ally when before she had none.

Next: What's My Line (Part Two)