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Episode 2.08: The Dark Age | Episode 2.10: What's My Line? Pt. 2
Characters:
| Buffy | Angel | Xander |
| Willow | Giles | Cordelia |
| Spike | Oz |
Overall (7/10)
Buffy:
In this episode, we get equal parts bitter!Buffy and scared!Buffy. First off, with a career fair going on, Buffy is very much reminded how little freedom she has in her future. While others her age are figuring out what they're gonna do with their lives, Buffy already knows and has no way to change it. She's gonna fight vampires and get killed within a couple years.
That's her burden that leaves her bitter and more than a little envious of her friends. It's something that's also present all the way up to the very end of the series. So much, it's a central theme of the final episode, Chosen. Buffy's destiny, her inability to change it, and her reluctant acceptance of it is just barely introduced here. But it will come up again.
While Buffy grudgingly accepts that the career fair is useless to her, she knows that she at least has her calling as something she's good at. That is, until Giles lays into her for not investigating what Dalton was up to. Truthfully, we rarely see early-Buffy take much interest in those things. She tends to slay, and go back and let Giles know what's the what. Giles' lecture comes at the worst possible time. She knows that the only thing that she can do is slay, and yet her mentor is telling her that she did a poor job of it. No wonder she got peeved.
Her frustration is only exacerbated when the Order of Taraka show up. Immediately, Angel goes into protective mode, as does Giles. Both of them want Buffy to hide. This is a slap in the face to Buffy as it makes her feel that they're questioning her strength and ability as a Slayer, which is really all she has.
Personally, I gotta side with Buffy on this one. As we see in the second part of What's My Line?, Buffy is more than capable of handling the Order of Taraka. In this episode, we get the two older men in her life, Giles and Angel, trying to shelter her from something that she can handle on her own.
However, Buffy takes Giles' ominous warnings to heart and goes into panic mode. Eventually, she takes refuge at Angel's place, where she meets Kendra the Vampire Slayer. And to be continued!
Angel:
Somebody get this man a self-esteem boost, stat! Angel starts out doing the stalking thing, chilling in Buffy's room while she's not there. Ya know, normal Angel lurkage. Apparently, it's romantic, not creepy. Whatever.
Buffy, upset by the whole career fair ordeal, is unloading on Angel. And Angel's only thought is to feel hurt. He twists her meanings in the most self-deprecating way to make himself think that she doesn't like him in her life. Dear word, man. Your girlfriend needs your support right now, not some pathetic poor-me whining. Angel really needs to build up his confidence to have any semblance of a healthy relationship.
His insecurity comes out again at the ice rink when he doesn't want Buffy touching him while he's in vampface. Now, apparently Angel can't control his vampface as well as other vampires seem to (Say...Spike). He gets all self-loathing when he's stuck with his bumpies, and Buffy has to, again, reassure him. I hate to say it (actually, no I don't). Buffy is 16. It seems kinda mean to saddle her with a boyfriend who needs so much support. On the one hand, she has to constantly play the mature hand to give him that assurance he needs. On the other hand, he treats her like a child so often. They have a very strange, and not altogether ideal relationship.
Kudos to Angel, though, for asking her out to ice skate. That is a surprising gesture from the "woe is me" vampire to stick his head out of his self-obsessed, depressive pit for once and try to do something to cheer up his girlfriend. And he magically appears to grow some confidence when he confronts Willy. He needs that more often. It's far more interesting than the insecure loser we're often stuck watching.
Xander:
And Xander goes another week without any fits of jealousy. Could it be...is he over Buffy??
Well, of course not. I think the writers just let up a bit, thank goodness.
Instead, we get hints of what's to come. Notice how Xander is against the whole career test thing at the beginning. He doesn't want to be told what to do. Foreshadowing his meandering career path in S4, most likely. Xander generally doesn't think about the future. At most, he thinks as far ahead as the next day. This gets him into trouble (most noticeably in S6's Hell's Bells where...well...we all know what happens there).
And if Xander doesn't think about the future, than Willow is the complete opposite. She's eager to figure out what career she's suited for. Not surprisingly, she gets pulled aside by some suits from Microsoft (okay, they didn't say it. But we all know they meant it).
She finally meets Oz! Unfortunately, most of that first meeting is off-screen.
Aside from that, Willow is research girl in this episode, and doesn't have much of a chance for anything else.
Looks like Giles, feeling guilty for the events of The Dark Age, has gone into Watcher overdrive to compensate. I was surprised when he ragged on Buffy regarding the theft. True, Buffy took it harder than she should have given that it was very bad timing. But Buffy's never been known to investigate that sort of stuff while patrolling.
Additionally, we also get to see Giles go into protective mode upon hearing that the Order of Taraka is out to get Buffy.
And Cordelia, still hanging out with the Cordettes and pretending that she doesn't want anything to do with the Scoobies. But she still goes with Xander to Buffy's house. She may protest, but actions speak louder than words.
And again, we see a sign of the depth of Spike's devotion to Dru. Spike, the slayer of Slayers, forgoes killing this Slayer. Instead, he hires out the Order of Taraka to do it for him. That way, the Slayer is distracted while he gets Drusilla's cure worked out. As mentioned before, Drusilla always comes first.
Even when he snaps at her, he does so because she's interrupting him while he's researching her cure. He's immediately contrite, though, and tends to her.
Okay, Oz gets next to nothing to do here. As I said, we miss most of his first meeting with Willow. And then he's only in one other scene. But we'll get more in the next episode.
Spike calls out the Order of Taraka to take care of the Slayer so he can work on Drusilla's cure. Not the most complex of plots, but it works. This episode is, of course, largely set up for the next episode.
Spike is the main baddie. However, we do have the side bad guys in the Order of Taraka. This includes the classic Joss mislead of Kendra who, at first appearance, seems to be part of that order. However, it turns out she's just another confused Slayer.
Definitely an arc episode. Finally! We see exactly why Spike brought Dru to Sunnydale, and we finally get some action from them in the direction of Drusilla's cure.
Overall, I liked the episode. I like both parts, and this part does a good job of setting up what's to come. It also does a good job of setting up one of the major themes of the entire series. Kudos to it. Special performance award goes to James Marsters for getting to twirl Juliet Landau around. I'm not really sure who I'm more jealous of.... (Okay, I do know. I'd pay good money to be Juliet for that moment).
7 out of 10. Not perfect. Not great. But a good, solid episode.
The fight scene between Kendra and Buffy. It's noteworthy in that it's the first fight we see between two Slayers. The first...but not the last.
I wanted a Drusilla wallpaper. Cause I don't have many Dru wallpapers. So here's my attempt. I'm not overly fond of it, honestly. Came out a little too dark and "photoshopped". I found the poem while looking at some Victorian poetry and it seemed appropriate.
Credits:
Caps: Screencap Paradise
Textures: Misplaced Moments, Shattered
Fonts: Bell MT
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 2.08: The Dark Age | Episode 2.10: What's My Line? Pt. 2
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