Home | About | Wallpapers | Links
Episode 2.05: Reptile Boy | Episode 2.07: Lie to Me
Characters:
| Buffy | Angel | Xander |
| Willow | Giles | Cordelia |
| Spike | Oz |
Overall (7/10)
Buffy:
Buffy has this annoying habit of running away whenever she gets wigged over something. When she sees Cordelia and Angel together at the Bronze, her first thought is to make a quick escape. She continues this trend for many years, and it gets a little tiresome.
However, it does highlight her own insecurities as to being a girl. She knows she's a good Slayer. But she feels that it's at the expense of her femininity. She doesn't see herself as attractive to guys, and when confronted with Cordelia, who is the dating queen, she feels woefully inadequate. In this episode, she tries to be as girly as possible as she is under the impression that that will capture Angel's attention.
We find out, once she turns into her costume, though, that the hyper-femininity that she was seeking is annoying and quite boring. Her whining is a little overdone for the sake of this, actually.
At the end, she is reassured by her sorta-boyfriend that he likes her the way she is. Much happiness abounds.
Angel:
Angel has got to stop letting Buffy run away when she's feeling all insecure. At the beginning, instead of going after her and assuring her that he wants to spend time with her, he stands there looking puzzled and spends the evening with Cordelia. A charmer this guy is not.
He seems rather annoyed and impatient with girly!Buffy which is explained at the end when he tells normal!Buffy that the girls from his time bored him. Finally, he does what he should have at the beginning and reassures her that he's interested in her. Buffy's insecurities run fairly deep, and Angel doesn't really do a good job of dealing with them.
Xander:
Xander must have it tough. His two best friends are girls. The only guy he has in his group is Giles, and, well, no comment there. It's natural that he would do what he can to display his abundant testosterone. He attempts to defend Buffy's honor against Larry, but promptly gets humiliated. His manly ego is bruised.
It's no wonder, then, that he would turn into the hyper-manly soldier. Just as Buffy turned into the hyper-feminine noblewoman. However, where girly!Buffy is whiny and annoying, manly!Xander is confident, cool, and quite charming. Even Cordelia notices his suaveness.
While he doesn't fully grasp the situation, he goes along with it because Willow firmly takes the leadership role. He even gets his own back by beating up pirate!Larry.
And let's not forget that that soldier training is used (as something of a plot device) later on.
Willow gets her chance to shine in this episode. Where she tries to cover herself up with a sheet, she ends up becoming a ghost version of herself in her skanky clothes. However, Willow rises to the occassion. When she realizes what's going on and realizes that she's the only one who's truly herself, she takes charge.
And does a marvelous job. This is just a hint of what's to come when Willow gains more confidence in herself. She even has soldier!Xander taking orders from her.
Giles' role in this episode is almost a direct lead in to The Dark Age. We get, through Ethan Rayne, hints of what Giles was when he was younger. And it's not what anybody was expecting. His nickname was "Ripper", which is telling in of itself. And he was somehow friends with Ethan, who worships chaos.
We see Giles brutally beat up Ethan in order to get the information needed to break the spell. We're then left hanging until The Dark Age to find out more about his past.
Cordelia acts as a foil for Buffy in this episode. She feeds into Buffy's insecurities and taunts her about Angel. She does end up helping the Scooby gang, though that's primarily for her own self-preservation.
Notice her reaction to soldier!Xander. Miss Chase is impressed!
Spike is used to further the threat here. He does show one of his most beloved qualities, though, in that he is very opportunistic. Even though demons usually take a break on Halloween, once he hears that the Slayer will be weakened, he goes out anyway. He never passes up a chance.
It seems a little strange that he would so willingly kill Buffy in her weakened state, though. We see later in the series that Spike fights Slayers to prove himself. Taking her out in such a fashion probably wouldn't be very gratifying for him. However, given that he's in Sunnydale primarily to cure Drusilla, I think it can be assumed that killing the Slayer is more of a way to keep her from interfering. When it comes to Dru, Spike will sacrifice much, even a decent fight with the Slayer.
Oz gets another minor appearance. Unfortunately, he doesn't get much to do. This is more of a lead-up to his final intro in What's My Line?
Everybody turns into their costumes. Wackiness ensues. It's a fun episode. The plot is secondary to the antics of the characters. It's a great show with lots of humor and, well, fun. Which is what Halloween's all about.
Ethan Rayne is the main baddie here. And he's a much beloved reoccurring villain. He's a comedic villain. He's not tough. Just devious and weasely. Personally, I'm an Ethan fan, and I love seeing him and Giles together.
Not really an arc episode. Spike and Dru do appear in it, but it doesn't really advance the arc of Angel's family any.
I'm quite fond of this episode. It starts the tradition of the even-seasoned Halloween episodes. It's funny and original. Special performance award goes to Nicholas Brendan. I don't normally swoon over Xander, but even I felt a rush of feminine desire when he turned into soldier!Xander.
7 out of 10. Solid episode.
Buffy's stalling tactics with Giles while Willow gets the diary. True, not very important to the episode, but it does show off the humor and charm of the series perfectly. And SMG is so adorable in the scene.
I was trying something different with this wallpaper. I'm not sure I like how it turned out. I'll get back to you on that.
Credits:
Caps: Screencap Paradise
Textures: Misplaced Moments, Radiance
Fonts: Footlight MT Light, Demon Night (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 2.05: Reptile Boy | Episode 2.07: Lie to Me
Home | About | Wallpapers | Links