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Episode 3.06: Band Candy | Episode 3.08: Lover's Walk
Characters:
| Buffy | Angel | Xander |
| Willow | Giles | Cordelia |
| Oz |
Overall (8/10)
Buffy:
Wow, this episode packs a lot in. Fortunately, it does so quite well.
Let's start with the Angel thing, shall we?
In this episode, we finally come to the root of the problem as far as Angel's return is concerned. Can Angel be forgiven for what he did to the gang as Angelus? Does getting his soul back automatically get him a "Get out of jail free" card? Should he be trusted again and welcomed back with open arms?
That's the question before the court. And it's a question that Buffy's been struggling with ever since she found out Angel was back. I think, in her head, Buffy doesn't think she should just forget all the evil things he did. But in her heart, she already has. In her heart, she's already forgiven him. The soul, to her, is assurance that he's better and will do no more evil. Moreso, having his soul means that she can, again have a relationship with him.
However, she's currently combating what her heart wants with what her head feels it should believe.
Was Buffy right to hide Angel's return? No. I know why she did so. But she should have, at least, told Giles. As he informed her, he had a right to know that Angel was back.
That being said, I really didn't like the intervention staged by the Scoobies in the library. It had the effect of ganging up on Buffy and put her immediately on the defensive (to the point where she lashes out at Xander). I think the Scoobies could have handled this much better.
Now let's move on to the issue of Faith. This entire season is about Buffy's battle with authority. This is, first and foremost, shown through the Mayor. However, she also ends up going against the Watcher's Council. This episode, with the faux Watcher, is the first hint of the struggle against authority.
Notice what Faith says when Mrs. Post shows up. She doesn't do well with authority figures. However, she eventually accepts Mrs. Post fairly eagerly. Though Faith may protest against it, I'd argue that she actually wants an authority figure in her life to give her some guidance. But now she's been burned as she trusted Mrs. Post and was betrayed. It isn't until the end of the season that she'll latch onto the Mayor and will find in him the guidance that she's been seeking.
This episode, though, serves to show the beginning of her alienation from the Scoobies. She isn't invited to the intervention, and she's made a complete fool by the faux Watcher. Poor Faith.
Angel:
Angel has truly grown from his S2 self. He takes the initiative and not only retrieves the glove but sets to work on destroying it. All on his own. Wow. No more skulking in the shadows for Angel.
Angel is actually going through the same struggle that Buffy is. Can he be forgiven? This is actually directly addressed in the episode Amends. For now, though, he realizes that a relationship with Buffy isn't the smart thing to do. However, like Buffy, his heart feels differently, and he's drawn to her.
Course, then he and Buffy get caught making with the smoochies and things just kinda go downhill from there.
Xander:
It would probably help if you read what I wrote about Xander in S2's Becoming Pt. 1 as I try to figure out his motivation behind his anti-Angel actions.
Let's get straight to the central question as seen by Xander. Should Angel be forgiven? To Xander, the answer is a firm "no". Angel has killed people. Angel has tortured their own. Angel tried to end the world. A soul doesn't change anything that happened. In Xander's mind, Angel should die in atonement for what he did.
Harsh? Yes. But, keep in mind, this is the boy who dusted his friend in the series premiere.
The soul means very little to Xander. It's not a "Get out of jail free" card.
As to Buffy's accusation that Xander's arguing out of jealousy here, I'd have to disagree. Last year, yes, I believe that Angel-jealousy was a major factor in Xander's viewpoints. But this year, I think it has more to do with how Xander sees the world and how that doesn't mesh with Buffy's own viewpoint.
Let's take a look at S7 when Spike returns. Of the Scoobies, Xander is the most dead-set against having Spike around for any reason. Even though Spike had gained his soul at this point, Xander doesn't feel that that means he should be forgiven for past misdeeds (And keep in mind that Spike actually did a lot of good without a soul, whereas unsouled Angel was just plain evil).
Let's take the soul out of the equation and come up with a hypothetical situation here. Say a guy murders someone and gets away with it. Afterward, the guy feels so guilty that he atones by living on the straight and narrow. He does charity work, helps old ladies cross the street, the whole nine yards. Years later, his murder is uncovered. Given the good he's done since, and the fact that he's firmly in the "good" category now, should he be forgiven?
I'd be willing to be that Buffy would lean towards "yes". She may not think she should, but she has a compassionate heart that would end up forgiving him in the end.
Xander, though, would not.
Is any one viewpoint more valid than the other? Not really. They're both valid opinions that just come from two different people. And it's one of those issues you can debate till the end of time and never get a "right" answer.
Now that I've totally analyzed Xander to death here, is Xander justified in encouraging Faith to kill Angel? He knew that telling her about Angel would set her off on his trail. And he wants to go with her.
It's this type of underhandedness that I really don't like about Xander. We see another example of this in Becoming Pt. 2 where he lies to Buffy about Willow's message. He does this in the thought that his viewpoint is right without any regard for anybody else's opinion.
He does this again at the end of this episode when he gets with Faith to kill Angel. That, in my mind, is inexcusable.
To his credit, when he finds Giles knocked unconscious, he attempts to keep Faith from going straight for Angel. Xander can at least recognize that something isn't quite right.
The ending, itself, was wrapped up fairly neatly with everybody saying that there are no hard feelings. But it seems obvious that that's not entirely true.
I really hate discussing the Willow/Xander thing, you know?
In this episode, they draw parallels between Buffy's secret and Willow's secret. Willow almost even confides in Buffy as to what's happening, but decides not to at the last minute.
Personally, I find the Willow/Xander stuff hurts every episode it shows its ugly head in, this one is no exception. I just can't see Willow doing this.
However, her guilt over the Xander thing does make her easily forgive Buffy for her deception. And, as we saw last year, Willow eagerly supports Buffy's decision regarding Angel.
Giles is perhaps the person who was affected the most by Angel last year. The woman he loved was murdered, and he was tortured. As such, Giles has the most reason to not forgive Angel now that he's returned.
Soul or not, every time Giles looks at Angel, he's going to see the creature that tortured him for hours. It's an emotional reaction, but it's completely valid. Giles does confront Buffy about this and about her lack of consideration for him in that she would hide Angel from him. He is completely on the ball here, and Buffy knows it.
Putting aside the Angel issue, it's interesting that Mrs. Post comes in and calls Gile's methods into question. This is the faux Watcher making accusations as to the effectiveness of Gile's guidance.
However, it's also an ominous hint of what's to come in Helpless when the real Council does come in and fire Giles because they do not approve of how he handles Buffy.
Cordelia gets very little to do, again. She supports Xander during the intervention with Buffy, though.
And, like Cordelia, Oz doesn't get much screentime. Sigh.
There's a glove thing and an evil ex-Watcher chick. Really, the plot's not near as important as all the character stuff that goes on.
Mrs. Post is the surface baddie. However, the real baddie is the memory of Angelus and how the Scooby gang reacts to Angel's return.
Not an arc episode in that it doesn't deal with the Mayor.
However, it does set into motion Faith's estrangement from the Scoobies. Additionally, it introduces the fight against authority that becomes the main theme of the season.
This is a wonderfully complex episode where Angel's return is finally revealed to all. The plot is relatively unimportant, as the main meat of the story is in the reactions of our characters to Angel now that he's back. We get the absolutely fabulous Buffy/Xander head-to-head, and we even get a hint as to the central theme of the season. All in all, it's a very worthy episode.
Special performance award goes to Anthony Stewart Head. Okay, last episode, he made me laugh. This episode, he made me cry. Good show.
8 out of 10.
Buffy's confrontation with Giles after the intervention. As ineffective as the intervention was in getting through to Buffy, Giles is able to cut through the heart of the matter and tell her exactly what she doesn't want to hear, but needs to hear anyway. Wonderfully acted.
I knew I had to do a wallpaper for this scene where Giles confronts Buffy on what she did. I love the images in this wallpaper, and I tried to give it a stark, contrasty look to reflect on the feeling of the scene.
Unfortunately, Giles had a huge light shining on his face and, try as I might, I couldn't shadow that up properly. Oh well.
Credits:
Caps: Screencap Paradise
Textures: Misplaced Moments
Fonts: Lainie Day SH
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 3.06: Band Candy | Episode 3.08: Lover's Walk
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