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Episode 3.22: Graduation Day Pt 2 | Episode 4.02: Living Conditions
Characters:
| Buffy | Xander | Willow |
| Giles | Oz | Riley |
Overall (6/10)
Buffy:
Last season, Buffy overthrew the authority figures in her life in the ultimate act of independence. In this episode, she faces the consequences.
Buffy finds herself without Giles, her friends, her mom, and Angel in this episode. In some ways, it's a lot like S3's Anne in that several essential facets of her life are missing.
Giles decides to step back and let Buffy try to fight her own battles in this episode. This is an opportunity that Buffy fought for last year, but she now realizes that it's harder than she had originally thought.
Her friends are caught up in the college lifestyle, which Buffy doesn't quite fit into.
Her mom has moved on and used her room to store inventory. Buffy's "safe place" has been taken away.
And Angel, the last remnant of her youth that left last year, is noticeably missing. Whereas before, she'd be able to run to him for comfort, he's in LA now, and Buffy must learn to fight on her own.
And she does. With a lovely pep talk from Xander, she goes back to fight Sunday. It is with the destruction of her Class Protector Award, the symbol of her Slayerness, that she bounces back and wins the fight. Like in Anne, when Buffy has nothing left, she realizes that she is still the Slayer and gains strength from it.
Her friends eventually do come to help her, but she's pretty much done with the fight by then.
There are some gripes about how horribly Buffy was beaten in the first fight. I can understand the complaints, but I think this episode was showing that life stuff can interfere with Buffy's Slaying.
Take the opening scene in the graveyard. Buffy is so preoccupied with picking college classes that she doesn't even notice the vamp rise and walk away. Already, her Slaying is suffering.
And the disorientation Buffy feels at college is very well-done. She is the odd one of her friends who is not quite fitting in. She gets lost. She gets rather cruelly kicked out of a class by an evil professor (In all my years at college, I never once ran into a professor that would care that much that somebody was sitting in his class when she wasn't enrolled.) Plus, instead of being known as "Buffy", she's known as "Willow's friend" by Riley.
A bit self-centered? Yeah. But that's our Buffy. Sometimes, it's all about her.
So with her complete disorientation and lack of some essential elements in her life, yeah, she gets her ass kicked by Sunday. I don't have much of a problem with it.
The writers do a good job of portraying the college lifestyle, right down to the rallies and abundant flyers being handed out.
Oh, and I don't know if this was intentional, but anybody else feel a dark feeling of grief when Buffy jokes that she hopes her mom has a funny aneurysm when seeing the cost of the textbooks? Considering her mother dies from just that a little over a year from now, it's a little eerie.
Xander:
Xander makes good on his promise to not go to college. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite do the cross-country road trip that he had planned. And now he's back home living in his parent's basement.
He comes back just in time to give Buffy a self-esteem boost to get her back in the Slaying mode. The pep talk he gives her actually seems like a precursor to Spike's "you're the one" speech in S7's Touched. They both serve the same purpose (To motivate Buffy to fight when she's ready to give up. Heck, Spike even gets on his knees before Buffy like Xander does in this scene), and I like both of them.
Xander also lets it be known that his crush is still there, though he's first and foremost her friend. He rallies the troops and gets Buffy back to Slayerdom. Good job, Xander.
While Buffy is floundering in college, Willow is in hog's heaven (Which is a strange phrase that I promise to never use again). She is revelling in the knowledge and academic energy. She's revelling so much, she doesn't notice that Buffy is faltering.
This is actually a precursor to the estrangement of the Scoobies that occurs in this season. They each get invested in their own life and don't pay attention to each other.
At the end, though, Willow comes around and goes to help her.
Last year, Giles destroyed his livelihood. Now he's in full midlife crisis mode. He has his girlfriend, Olivia, with him, and he's urging Buffy to fight her own battles.
This is the first time that Giles tries to back off to let Buffy deal with things on her own. We'll see this again in S5's Buffy vs. Dracula where Giles actually plans to leave for England. Then he finally does leave in S6's Tabula Rasa.
It seems that Giles comes from the school of parenting that believes in throwing the baby bird of out the nest. However, his own affection for Buffy keeps him there and sends him to help her at the end. This is something he'll struggle with for the next few years.
Oz is never a fish out of water. Instead, he seems to be the most at ease at college, as his band had played there before, much to Buffy's dismay.
We get to see Riley for the first time!
Riley is obviously a "guy's guy", as opposed to Angel who was a "girl's guy". By that, I mean that the character of Angel seemed tailor-made to make teen girls swoon over him (and they did). Riley, on the other hand, exudes the commando, James Bondish, secret agent man vibe that guys like in their action heroes. Doubting me? Watch Doug Petrie's commentary on The Initiative. The guy has a major lustfest over Riley. And Xander, when seeing the Initiative base, expresses a desire to have sex with Riley.
Riley is a guy. For the guys. And for Buffy.
At the moment, though, we know nothing about the Initiative or that Riley's a soldier. We know he's a TA to Professor Walsh and that he's quite tall. I like Buffy's first meeting with him (Mainly cause I've had completely socially awkward moments a la Buffy where nothing I say comes out right).
The chemistry between the two is...well...not too noticeable. But that makes sense in the context of their relationship.
At the moment, though, Riley is just a background hunk who will become more prominent as the season progresses.
Buffy goes to college, feels awkward, gets beat up, then kicks some ass.
Sunday is the vamp baddie. But the real baddie is Buffy's feelings of insecurity and doubt of herself.
Not an arc episode, but we do get our first look at the Initiative at the end. It's actually very unusual to get any hint of the season arc this early on.
This episode gets a lot of criticism. I think it's difficult because the transition from S3 to S4 is very, very large and includes lots of cast members leaving, as well as a change in setting. As such, we're just as disoriented as Buffy is in this episode. I think it's better than people make it out to be, even though it does seem to be a more cheerful version of the themes expressed in S3's Anne.
Special performance award goes to Katharine Towne as Sunday for her fabulous pose after being staked. Always makes me laugh.
6 out of 10.
Xander's pep talk to Buffy. It's these moments where Xander shines, and it's wonderful to see him open up about his admiration of Buffy.
Episode 3.22: Graduation Day Pt 2 | Episode 4.02: Living Conditions
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