![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyBack in May of 2004, I wrote a detailed response to rewatching Welcome to the Hellmouth. In October, I wrote out my thoughts on The Harvest. The next episode in the line-up is Witch (no 'the' in the dvd menu or guide). I may rewrite this later to make it more thorough as my brain sorta gave out on me (it's still thinking about Vince and Stuart and QaF; gay porn trumps all).
The continuity of Buffy always amazes me.
In this episode, we get what seems like an normal MotW (Monster of the Week) episode. But the victim of the episode is someone that we will see several times over the next few years, until the entirety of her story plays out -- and it's a true tragedy, forewarned by this very episode. This is our first episode to deal with a human villain, so the way that that villain treated is very important and illustrates the general attitude that Buffy has toward human villains -- they are done to as they would do to others.
Witch
We open with a stock shot of Sunnydale High, to establish greater location. We almost immediately shift to the library, where Giles and Buffy are having one of their classic "Burden of Slayerness"/"What about being normal?" conversations. This episode is about resolving Buffy's immediate conflict with mind -- she's slayed the vamps, she's done her job, now can she just be a girl again?
To take, as the show occasionally does, Slayerhood as a metaphor for womanhood, the answer is, of course, 'no'. Once you've begun the process of growing up, you can't reverse it. You can stunt it or ignore it, but it's there and you are changed. The battle Buffy fights here is one that she will lose, because she's already grown past this particular thing -- she just doesn't want to admit it yet.
So, we start in the library, with Giles bemoaning the 'madness' that Buffy is chasing.
Giles: "This is madness! What can you have been thinking? You are the Slayer! Lives depend upon you! I make allowances for your youth, but I expect a certain amount of responsibility, and instead of which you enslave yourself to this, this... cult?"
With superb comic timing, we focus on Giles at first, shifting over to see Buffy when he says the word 'cult'... to reveal her in a cheerleading outfit.
What does cheerleading represent? It's the thing that Buffy loses because she becomes a Slayer, it's also something that Cordelia Chase is a part of her entire time at Sunnydale. Cheerleading itself is the act of being an observer (albeit an active and enthusiastic one). Buffy can't be a cheerleader because she's already in the game. Cordelia Chase, who is never truly a Scooby (definition of true Scooby -- one who fights with Buffy against the forces of darkness without needing a romantic attachment to one of the main three -- and Cordelia not being a Scooby is as much Xander's fault as it is Cordelia's), cheers until the end of school -- in Angel, she will be a main player and not merely an active observer.
Buffy has decided that 'cheerleading' = 'normality'. Interestingly enough, when Dawn tries out for the cheerleading team in Season Seven, it's for entirely different reasons, and because Dawn is not the same girl that Buffy was, cheerleading represents something else entirely. Dawn tries on Buffy's clothes (little sister dressing up) in order to impress a guy -- because she's seen the impact that Buffy has had on men and wishes to be as alluring (when she should be concentrating on being her own person, as she learns later on).
And the quick sum-up of all Buffy/Giles fights when she's determined enough:
Giles: "I forbid it."
Buffy: "And you'll be stopping me how?"
Buffy discovers here what so many other Slayers never have -- the Watcher only has power if you let him, if you listen to him and follow his lead. He can't force anything, because the Slayer is stronger. "This is the way women and men have behaved since the beginning... before time," Giles chides Dream!Buffy in Restless. The strength of Buffy is knowing that not taking that sort of thing seriously, not allowing yourself to be bound by other people's chains, is the only way to freedom.
Our first introduction to a witch's home is pretty dark -- this is as much of what a witch is in the Buffyverse as Tara is. Some people abuse their power, others use it responsibly. The possibility of losing yourself to your own darkness, your own power, is shown right in this episode.
At the Cheerleading Tryouts, we get a date -- season one is set in 1996. Buffy enters the gym with Willow and Xander in tow. Willow is there to provide motivating support (willpower) to Buffy, while Xander is there to check out girls (guy thing) and to express his love and emotional support for Buffy. We also get a glimpse of Buffy's age bias here -- "I'd say he should get a girlfriend, if he wasn't so old."
And here, we set up the triangle of Willow-Xander-Buffy. We already knew that Xander had a thing for Buffy and that Willow had a thing for Xander, but now is the time that we see the discordance that that brings to the trio. The bracelet that Xander gives to Buffy -- "yours, always" is a very true statement of his future path. Xander says, over and over, that the reason that they're there is to 'help Buffy'. Being Buffy's support, being 'hers', is a very real part of who Xander becomes. In his greatest fear, in Hell's Bells, he sees himself losing the will and ability to fight if Buffy is gone. When Buffy dies in The Gift, Xander puts his own life plans (marry Anya) on hold until they have her back. If Buffy should need him, he will be there for her.
More importantly, Buffy does accept the offer of the bracelet. And she shows, several times over the years, a slightly possessive worry over Xander. It isn't so much that she wants him (most of the time, her concentration is elsewhere), but that she accepts the responsibility of holding his life in her hands, even more than the others. More than that, metaphorically, Xander is letting Buffy know that her heart belongs to herself. Buffy owns herself, which is part of the message of the series.
Cordy comes up to the Scoobies to be petty about another prospective cheerleader. Cordelia is one of the victims of the episode, and she also neatly fills the role of red herring. We see her bitch about Amber, we see Amber start on fire. Cordelia is also the only character we don't see react with surprise to Amber's hands -- we only see her surprise when Buffy runs to save Amber. Clear-cut case of being set-up as a red herring.
Buffy is the only one with the presence of mind to help Amber -- everyone else is too busy going, "Fucking hell? That girl is on fire!"
After the credits, we open again in the library, this time to hear Buffy letting Giles in on what happened. And here we see the responses that each of them has to knowing that something unexplained has happened -- Willow concentrates on how Buffy helped, Xander dislikes that they don't know what caused it, and Giles is... excited about the many and varied types of evils that they can encounter on the Hellmouth.
Buffy and Xander show mild distaste for this response, heart rebelling against mind's focus on knowledge over potential harm. Buffy wants to get the facts. She wants to, and feels the need to, solve the mystery. Someone was hurt, this should be checked into. She asks smart questions and wants to get to the bottom of things. I love her.
Here is where Xander and Willow firmly establish themselves as Buffy's backup (Willow attempts to coin the term 'the Slayerettes' -- doesn't work). Willow, once again, will help by cutting corners and skipping over the edge of the law, while Xander's plan is to talk to people. Either way, they want to help Buffy.
Xander's joke, "I laugh in the face of danger, then I hide until it goes away," almost sounds like more a promise than a jab at himself. He and Buffy both know that he put himself in danger last time and that she wasn't thrilled. He's letting her know that he'll do his best not to get himself into trouble. Buffy accepts and confirms that idea when she says, "Walk softly," and she's looking right at Xander when she says it. Willow has shown willing to stay out of trouble if Buffy requests it, Xander hasn't yet. He doesn't say it like he's insulting himself -- we've seen Xander being self-depreciative, this isn't it.
Next we go to the Summers' house, to start off the Buffy-Joyce emotional subplot. Buffy goes into the kitchen to test her mom -- Mom fails, by having no clue about what Buffy was trying out for. "Some activity..." is the best she can do. Joyce is focusing on building back her own life after the move, distracted from paying attention to Buffy's. Despite evidence that Buffy may get involved in the wrong crowds, Joyce generally leaves Buffy to her own devices until she wants to 'make a point' by showing her parenting skills of saying 'no'. Joyce also shows a remarkable lack of faith in Buffy, by assuming that she will get in trouble. So, she doesn't trust Buffy's decisions, but at the same time, isn't involved enough in Buffy's life to understand them.
Great combination.
And in this scene, we get a good look at Buffy's legs. She's wearing these nylons that have white fluffy bits. It's very disturbing. I think they were going for 'adorable, yet quirky' but they landed in 'silly'. This is also the first time that we spend any amount of time in the Summers' kitchen, a place that we'll be getting to know very well over the years.
Buffy's "jeepers" over Joyce's fertility statue very much reminds me of Dawn's later "That's an interesting place for a horn... that's not a horn." The Summers' girls, they are cute.
The next scene opens with Cordelia putting her hair back -- the camera then pans over the rest of the hopefuls as the head cheerleader person or whoever gives a little speech about how Amber's flamage was tragic but won't stop them from trying tryouts again.
Shallow thoughts about the cheerleading -- Cordelia looks very pretty in this entire episode, free from the horrible clothes and lighting that she got in much of the premiere. Buffy corners the market on adorable, while Amy/Catherine is perky. She certainly can smile like a cheerleader, though, as we see, Catherine can't make Amy's body perform the way she could her own.
Okay, when Willow and Buffy talk after Amy leaves, check out the two overacting boys in the background. It's hilarious. Brown-patterned shirt notices blue-shirt in the hall, touches his arm and says "hey". Then a girl says 'hi' to blue-shirt but brown-shirt gives her this look so she goes on her way. Both boys turn to see her leave, and then start talk to each other animatedly, with many smiles. At the end of the scene, blue-shirt points off to the right with a grin, brown-shirt looks over that way and points questioningly, looking all serious. Brown-shirt is totally in love with blue-shirt, who isn't sure if he really want a relationship or just a good time.
The secret life of extras, man.
Shallow note: When Xander is 'prepping' to ask Buffy out, he raises his arms and we get a flash of tummy.
What the library scene confirms for me is that they really could have gone either way with Willow and Xander. Xander definitely could have ended up the gay witch.
This episode also highlights SMG's ability to play both comedy and drama. She's wonderful as 'looped' Buffy and just as wonderful after the devastating events of the spell are made clear.
"Look, I don't care why, I just care that you go on breathing." Have I mentioned recently how much I adore Xander? The boy has his faults, self-righteousness certainly being one of them, but he also has wonderful, unshakable loyalty and courage. And over and over, he shows his dedication to the people that he loves.
Here, we see Buffy at her best. She's dying from a spell and is still observant enough to figure out that 'Catherine' is really Amy.
And, of course, black eyes on a witch tapping into the darkest forces is also established right here. This episode foretells the dangers of witchcraft long before season six showed us that Willow was vulnerable to it.
And the off-hand way that Giles says, "It was my first casting. I may have gotten it wrong," feels like it can work with the retcon of his story later on with Ethan. He doesn't look at Buffy when he says it.
In the end, Catherine is consumed by her own casting. Human villains are very rarely killed outright by Buffy, instead, they bring about their own downfall when she turns their plots against them.
Willow's clothes continue to be a thousand shades of horrible in this episode.
Amy herself is an intriguing figure. We know that here, she disdains cheerleading. She never goes back on this. But she didn't know that her mother was a witch until the body-switching first occurred, so this was her introduction to witchcraft. Later, she will pick up witchcraft and will do so disturbingly quickly. Like Willow, Amy would seem to be a 'natural'. I wonder if that may not be related to growing up on the Hellmouth, personally. Xander accidentally causes a fire with a single word in a later episode, and so many of the MotW are created or brought forth by people who don't seem like the powerfully witchy type. We also have the example of Jonathan and of Andrew and his brother Tucker. Sunnydale is dense with magic and bad vibes that twist just about anything created. This is why I think it was so appropriate that Sunnydale, too, was consumed by its own evil, leaving its people the chance to go live somewhere that isn't over a Hellmouth.
The continuity of Buffy always amazes me.
In this episode, we get what seems like an normal MotW (Monster of the Week) episode. But the victim of the episode is someone that we will see several times over the next few years, until the entirety of her story plays out -- and it's a true tragedy, forewarned by this very episode. This is our first episode to deal with a human villain, so the way that that villain treated is very important and illustrates the general attitude that Buffy has toward human villains -- they are done to as they would do to others.
We open with a stock shot of Sunnydale High, to establish greater location. We almost immediately shift to the library, where Giles and Buffy are having one of their classic "Burden of Slayerness"/"What about being normal?" conversations. This episode is about resolving Buffy's immediate conflict with mind -- she's slayed the vamps, she's done her job, now can she just be a girl again?
To take, as the show occasionally does, Slayerhood as a metaphor for womanhood, the answer is, of course, 'no'. Once you've begun the process of growing up, you can't reverse it. You can stunt it or ignore it, but it's there and you are changed. The battle Buffy fights here is one that she will lose, because she's already grown past this particular thing -- she just doesn't want to admit it yet.
So, we start in the library, with Giles bemoaning the 'madness' that Buffy is chasing.
Giles: "This is madness! What can you have been thinking? You are the Slayer! Lives depend upon you! I make allowances for your youth, but I expect a certain amount of responsibility, and instead of which you enslave yourself to this, this... cult?"
With superb comic timing, we focus on Giles at first, shifting over to see Buffy when he says the word 'cult'... to reveal her in a cheerleading outfit.
What does cheerleading represent? It's the thing that Buffy loses because she becomes a Slayer, it's also something that Cordelia Chase is a part of her entire time at Sunnydale. Cheerleading itself is the act of being an observer (albeit an active and enthusiastic one). Buffy can't be a cheerleader because she's already in the game. Cordelia Chase, who is never truly a Scooby (definition of true Scooby -- one who fights with Buffy against the forces of darkness without needing a romantic attachment to one of the main three -- and Cordelia not being a Scooby is as much Xander's fault as it is Cordelia's), cheers until the end of school -- in Angel, she will be a main player and not merely an active observer.
Buffy has decided that 'cheerleading' = 'normality'. Interestingly enough, when Dawn tries out for the cheerleading team in Season Seven, it's for entirely different reasons, and because Dawn is not the same girl that Buffy was, cheerleading represents something else entirely. Dawn tries on Buffy's clothes (little sister dressing up) in order to impress a guy -- because she's seen the impact that Buffy has had on men and wishes to be as alluring (when she should be concentrating on being her own person, as she learns later on).
And the quick sum-up of all Buffy/Giles fights when she's determined enough:
Giles: "I forbid it."
Buffy: "And you'll be stopping me how?"
Buffy discovers here what so many other Slayers never have -- the Watcher only has power if you let him, if you listen to him and follow his lead. He can't force anything, because the Slayer is stronger. "This is the way women and men have behaved since the beginning... before time," Giles chides Dream!Buffy in Restless. The strength of Buffy is knowing that not taking that sort of thing seriously, not allowing yourself to be bound by other people's chains, is the only way to freedom.
Our first introduction to a witch's home is pretty dark -- this is as much of what a witch is in the Buffyverse as Tara is. Some people abuse their power, others use it responsibly. The possibility of losing yourself to your own darkness, your own power, is shown right in this episode.
At the Cheerleading Tryouts, we get a date -- season one is set in 1996. Buffy enters the gym with Willow and Xander in tow. Willow is there to provide motivating support (willpower) to Buffy, while Xander is there to check out girls (guy thing) and to express his love and emotional support for Buffy. We also get a glimpse of Buffy's age bias here -- "I'd say he should get a girlfriend, if he wasn't so old."
And here, we set up the triangle of Willow-Xander-Buffy. We already knew that Xander had a thing for Buffy and that Willow had a thing for Xander, but now is the time that we see the discordance that that brings to the trio. The bracelet that Xander gives to Buffy -- "yours, always" is a very true statement of his future path. Xander says, over and over, that the reason that they're there is to 'help Buffy'. Being Buffy's support, being 'hers', is a very real part of who Xander becomes. In his greatest fear, in Hell's Bells, he sees himself losing the will and ability to fight if Buffy is gone. When Buffy dies in The Gift, Xander puts his own life plans (marry Anya) on hold until they have her back. If Buffy should need him, he will be there for her.
More importantly, Buffy does accept the offer of the bracelet. And she shows, several times over the years, a slightly possessive worry over Xander. It isn't so much that she wants him (most of the time, her concentration is elsewhere), but that she accepts the responsibility of holding his life in her hands, even more than the others. More than that, metaphorically, Xander is letting Buffy know that her heart belongs to herself. Buffy owns herself, which is part of the message of the series.
Cordy comes up to the Scoobies to be petty about another prospective cheerleader. Cordelia is one of the victims of the episode, and she also neatly fills the role of red herring. We see her bitch about Amber, we see Amber start on fire. Cordelia is also the only character we don't see react with surprise to Amber's hands -- we only see her surprise when Buffy runs to save Amber. Clear-cut case of being set-up as a red herring.
Buffy is the only one with the presence of mind to help Amber -- everyone else is too busy going, "Fucking hell? That girl is on fire!"
After the credits, we open again in the library, this time to hear Buffy letting Giles in on what happened. And here we see the responses that each of them has to knowing that something unexplained has happened -- Willow concentrates on how Buffy helped, Xander dislikes that they don't know what caused it, and Giles is... excited about the many and varied types of evils that they can encounter on the Hellmouth.
Buffy and Xander show mild distaste for this response, heart rebelling against mind's focus on knowledge over potential harm. Buffy wants to get the facts. She wants to, and feels the need to, solve the mystery. Someone was hurt, this should be checked into. She asks smart questions and wants to get to the bottom of things. I love her.
Here is where Xander and Willow firmly establish themselves as Buffy's backup (Willow attempts to coin the term 'the Slayerettes' -- doesn't work). Willow, once again, will help by cutting corners and skipping over the edge of the law, while Xander's plan is to talk to people. Either way, they want to help Buffy.
Xander's joke, "I laugh in the face of danger, then I hide until it goes away," almost sounds like more a promise than a jab at himself. He and Buffy both know that he put himself in danger last time and that she wasn't thrilled. He's letting her know that he'll do his best not to get himself into trouble. Buffy accepts and confirms that idea when she says, "Walk softly," and she's looking right at Xander when she says it. Willow has shown willing to stay out of trouble if Buffy requests it, Xander hasn't yet. He doesn't say it like he's insulting himself -- we've seen Xander being self-depreciative, this isn't it.
Next we go to the Summers' house, to start off the Buffy-Joyce emotional subplot. Buffy goes into the kitchen to test her mom -- Mom fails, by having no clue about what Buffy was trying out for. "Some activity..." is the best she can do. Joyce is focusing on building back her own life after the move, distracted from paying attention to Buffy's. Despite evidence that Buffy may get involved in the wrong crowds, Joyce generally leaves Buffy to her own devices until she wants to 'make a point' by showing her parenting skills of saying 'no'. Joyce also shows a remarkable lack of faith in Buffy, by assuming that she will get in trouble. So, she doesn't trust Buffy's decisions, but at the same time, isn't involved enough in Buffy's life to understand them.
Great combination.
And in this scene, we get a good look at Buffy's legs. She's wearing these nylons that have white fluffy bits. It's very disturbing. I think they were going for 'adorable, yet quirky' but they landed in 'silly'. This is also the first time that we spend any amount of time in the Summers' kitchen, a place that we'll be getting to know very well over the years.
Buffy's "jeepers" over Joyce's fertility statue very much reminds me of Dawn's later "That's an interesting place for a horn... that's not a horn." The Summers' girls, they are cute.
The next scene opens with Cordelia putting her hair back -- the camera then pans over the rest of the hopefuls as the head cheerleader person or whoever gives a little speech about how Amber's flamage was tragic but won't stop them from trying tryouts again.
Shallow thoughts about the cheerleading -- Cordelia looks very pretty in this entire episode, free from the horrible clothes and lighting that she got in much of the premiere. Buffy corners the market on adorable, while Amy/Catherine is perky. She certainly can smile like a cheerleader, though, as we see, Catherine can't make Amy's body perform the way she could her own.
Okay, when Willow and Buffy talk after Amy leaves, check out the two overacting boys in the background. It's hilarious. Brown-patterned shirt notices blue-shirt in the hall, touches his arm and says "hey". Then a girl says 'hi' to blue-shirt but brown-shirt gives her this look so she goes on her way. Both boys turn to see her leave, and then start talk to each other animatedly, with many smiles. At the end of the scene, blue-shirt points off to the right with a grin, brown-shirt looks over that way and points questioningly, looking all serious. Brown-shirt is totally in love with blue-shirt, who isn't sure if he really want a relationship or just a good time.
The secret life of extras, man.
Shallow note: When Xander is 'prepping' to ask Buffy out, he raises his arms and we get a flash of tummy.
What the library scene confirms for me is that they really could have gone either way with Willow and Xander. Xander definitely could have ended up the gay witch.
This episode also highlights SMG's ability to play both comedy and drama. She's wonderful as 'looped' Buffy and just as wonderful after the devastating events of the spell are made clear.
"Look, I don't care why, I just care that you go on breathing." Have I mentioned recently how much I adore Xander? The boy has his faults, self-righteousness certainly being one of them, but he also has wonderful, unshakable loyalty and courage. And over and over, he shows his dedication to the people that he loves.
Here, we see Buffy at her best. She's dying from a spell and is still observant enough to figure out that 'Catherine' is really Amy.
And, of course, black eyes on a witch tapping into the darkest forces is also established right here. This episode foretells the dangers of witchcraft long before season six showed us that Willow was vulnerable to it.
And the off-hand way that Giles says, "It was my first casting. I may have gotten it wrong," feels like it can work with the retcon of his story later on with Ethan. He doesn't look at Buffy when he says it.
In the end, Catherine is consumed by her own casting. Human villains are very rarely killed outright by Buffy, instead, they bring about their own downfall when she turns their plots against them.
Willow's clothes continue to be a thousand shades of horrible in this episode.
Amy herself is an intriguing figure. We know that here, she disdains cheerleading. She never goes back on this. But she didn't know that her mother was a witch until the body-switching first occurred, so this was her introduction to witchcraft. Later, she will pick up witchcraft and will do so disturbingly quickly. Like Willow, Amy would seem to be a 'natural'. I wonder if that may not be related to growing up on the Hellmouth, personally. Xander accidentally causes a fire with a single word in a later episode, and so many of the MotW are created or brought forth by people who don't seem like the powerfully witchy type. We also have the example of Jonathan and of Andrew and his brother Tucker. Sunnydale is dense with magic and bad vibes that twist just about anything created. This is why I think it was so appropriate that Sunnydale, too, was consumed by its own evil, leaving its people the chance to go live somewhere that isn't over a Hellmouth.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 02:08 am (UTC)Also - Willow's clothes continue to be a thousand shades of horrible in this episode.
Heeeeeee.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 08:37 am (UTC)And eventually, Willow's clothes get better. A little. Though she then develops a problem where she dresses according to her love interest's interests. Willow really does have a side-kickian personality, though she grows to hate that part of herself for a time.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 02:45 am (UTC)Shallow note: When Xander is 'prepping' to ask Buffy out, he raises his arms and we get a flash of tummy.
Mmmm, show me the shallow!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 08:38 am (UTC)And they're all so young here! It's odd to watch them and think that, considering that their fake ages were a year older than me when the show started and the actors themselves older than that.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 02:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 08:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 03:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 08:40 am (UTC)And like so many of my best points, that one came out of nowhere. I was writing and suddenly -- oh! That makes sense.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 04:11 am (UTC)I like your reading of the cheerleading metaphor.
Xander definitely could have ended up the gay witch.
Man, that would've been awesome. (Though I can't quite see Willow as the Zeppo.)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 08:44 am (UTC)That is such a great compliment. Thank you.
Well, Willow would have still had her hacking skills to fall back on. And Xander with superpowers would be very different, because he has different issues. They're screwed up in very different ways.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 04:23 am (UTC)You are fantastic, you know that? I vaguely remember these two guys, because I think there was a lot of gesturing and I noticed, but I wouldn't have been able to read their silent script so well as you :)
I'm curious as to your opinion on Amy's arc throughout the series, particularly when she's de-ratted and we find out she was a regular customer of the local
crackmagic dealer. I remember watching "Smashed" and wondering how on earth they got from "Gingerbread" to here, but I suppose there's evidence to support that magic, and therefore magic-users, can easily be perverted by the bad vibes of the Hellmouth if they're not careful.(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 08:50 am (UTC)We don't see her at all between Witch and Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered. Possibly, this is when she met Rack, because she clearly knew him before she was ratted. He was a corrupting influence, we know that much from his interaction with Willow. He also handed out power trips like candy. After spending her life being controlled by her mother, having power of her own may have gotten to her.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 01:28 pm (UTC)But like you say, we can probably interpret Amy as having control issues, so I guess it's not so far-fetched.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-15 02:41 am (UTC)Of course, she was also dumb enough to do it without thinking that she might want to turn back at some point, so it's not like the girl was winning any brain contests to begin with. Plus, insane bitchitude seemed to run in the family.
I actually like Amy a lot. Elizabeth is a good actor and very pretty. But her character never came across as all that smart or brave. Which isn't all that hard for me to believe, considering her mom.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 04:36 am (UTC)He also summons the singing and dancing in "Once More, with Feeling." I wonder if summoning involves a different type of magic than regular spellcasting. Andrew seems to be more into summoning evil than actually casting spells. Hmmm.
Nice thoughts. I particularly like your attention to their outfits. Although there is one outfit Buffy wears in this episode that I don't quite understand. It is when they are all anxious to see the results. She is wearing this black and white dress over pants. Do you know the one? I don't know what she was going for.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 08:56 am (UTC)It may very well -- that may be why Giles could be telling the truth in this episode. If all he's done before is summon Eygon, and that's an entirely different type of magic, then this was his first 'casting'. He'd been a summoner, not a spell caster. I quite like that explanation, actually.
Although there is one outfit Buffy wears in this episode that I don't quite understand. It is when they are all anxious to see the results. She is wearing this black and white dress over pants. Do you know the one?
I thought about mentioning that, but it really was just too silly. Because at first, I thought that it was a perfectly good mini. But then we got a longer shot and... pants? Wha? It was so bizarre. Buffy can look wonderful sometimes, and sometimes she just goes too far.
It actually works very well in terms of the moral coding of the Trio
Date: 2005-02-13 11:24 am (UTC)Re: It actually works very well in terms of the moral coding of the Trio
Date: 2005-02-13 05:05 pm (UTC)*points at icon*
Re: It actually works very well in terms of the moral coding of the Trio
Date: 2005-02-15 02:45 am (UTC)Jonathan, someone who works directly with the forces he controls, is most aware of right and wrong. Andrew summons the magic he deals with, and he's wishy-washy and well, takes on the personality of those he spends time with. And Warren didn't understand or appreciate the powers that he was working with, and he was the one working the furthest away from what we might call 'true' magic (like the sort Giles 'infected' Willow with).
Very cool.
Leadership by consent
Date: 2005-02-13 07:46 am (UTC)Re: Leadership by consent
Date: 2005-02-13 09:00 am (UTC)She had to actually learn what she'd known only by instinct. She had to go the wrong road to realise that she'd been right the first time.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 04:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-15 02:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-13 09:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-15 02:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-21 02:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-02-21 08:34 am (UTC)Actually, I adore all the episodes -- even the ones that lack a good plot always have good character moments, and I fully admit that I'm in it for the character moments.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-12 10:36 pm (UTC)At the Cheerleading Tryouts, we get a date -- season one is set in 1996.
I think the date continuity was funky in season 1, but I was under the impression that it took place springish of 1997. After January, because Buffy had already turned 16. Oh, and it's basketball season in this episode. Like maybe the gym-burning incident was in the fall, then the mental institution stay, and then Buffy started at Sunnydale mid-year.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-03-15 07:56 pm (UTC)And thank you!