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Episode 2.01: When She Was Bad | Episode 2.03: School Hard
Characters:
| Buffy | Angel | Xander |
| Willow | Giles | Cordelia |
Overall (4/10)
Buffy:
Buffy fights with Angel. Buffy gives some love advice to Giles. And Buffy consoles Unibrow - er - Chris. She's quite a busy little Slayer in this ep. Unfortunately, we don't learn too much more than we already know. This episode pretty much has Buffy acting just like, well, Buffy.
Angel:
Angel appears to have regressed to some bizarre 16-year-old version of himself. He is amazingly jealous of Xander. Now I'm assuming that after the whole "comfort Buffy" thing he did last episode, they talked out the issues that she'd had. If they didn't, him being a mature couple-centuries-old guy surely must have put 2 and 2 together (it's 4, btw). But instead of cutting her some slack for her trauma, he lashes out against her. Yeah, real mature.
He does the stalker guy thing again, prowling around the school and giving Cordelia a scare. And I do know that Cordelia can be rather pushy, but Angel seems almost pleased that he has her on his arm in the library when he sees Buffy. Bit of payback, I suppose.
To his credit, he apologizes at the end and admits that he acted stupidly. Good job, Angel.
Xander:
Xander manages to break out of the comic relief role a couple times in this ep. First, he has a rather nice speech to Willow and Buffy about how funny love can be. He shows a wisdom that reappears sporadically throughout the series.
Alternately, at the end, he rather rudely cuts off Cordelia's thanks. Xander may speak pretty words about love, but it's obvious he actually doesn't know much about it.
Can I just say that I love any and all Cordelia/Willow bonding? I don't know why. Just do. We get a small bit in this ep with Willow graciously helping Cordelia with her science fair project.
Willow shows off her researchy and sciencey skills, as well. She's geek girl to the max and has an in with the baddie of the week.
Giles gets a social life! It's rather ironic that Giles is hesitant to do anything slayer-related to interrupt his date. Especially considering how often he expects Buffy to put her life on hold.
I would love to know what Giles has been doing between his confident Ripper-years and present-day. Something happened to turn him into a rather pathetic tweed-clad man who can't even stutter out an invitation on a date. Fortunately, Jenny picks up the slack and does it for him. I love Jenny so much for Giles.
Cordelia gets an actual sincere moment at the end where she tries to thank Xander for saving her life. It's a surprising gesture from Cordelia, and one I think foreshadows their upcoming relationship.
Cordy also finds herself latching on to Angel as her studmuffin. And why not? He's attractive enough and he's there. All Cordelia really needs.
At its heart this episode is about men forcing women into their own idealized reality. The stereotypical guy, a football jock, who's quite literally a monster, is having a woman created for him to his specifications. This will kill the woman as she becomes nothing more than a possession of his.
Still, the whole plot reeks of cheesy Frankenstein-type story to me. Unibrow - er - Chris ressurects his brother and then gets his friend to help build a woman for him....I know Buffy has out-there plots, but something about this particular one doesn't do it for me.
Well, we have Stitches, Unibrow, and Camera as the main villains. The only one who's portrayed as being really bad, though, is Camera (also known as Eric). All in all, not too interesting as far as antagonists go.
Not an arc ep. Not even in the slightest.
Okay, I don't like the episode. It had its moments. But I can't stand the actual plot. So, not loving it. Special performance award goes to Charisma Carpenter for her lovely dumpster acting. Go Charisma!
My subjective score is a 4. Much less than I expect from Buffy.
This is a revised wallpaper. I improved the blending and reworked some of the layering and colors. It still has the same basic concept though in that it shows Giles' elation at his first date with Jenny.
Credits:
Caps: Screencap Paradise
Textures: Misplaced Moments, Ugly Business
Fonts: Beyond Wonderland (Link)
Brushes: Unknown
*Some resources were used that I can't identify. All resources are generally linked to on the links page, but if you recognize an uncredited resource let me know so I can note it with the actual wallpaper.
Episode 2.01: When She Was Bad | Episode 2.03: School Hard
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