buffy the vampire slayer: part eleven

So, a couple of things. First, while Oz and Willow are back together that doesn't mean Oz and Xander are okay - and Xander knows this. He spends all of "Gingerbread" trying to figure out just where he stands with Oz and just how mad Oz is at him still. However, once Willow winds up in danger, the two of them team up without any awkwardness to save her. In the following episode "Helpless," Xander and Oz (while researching why Buffy has no powers) talk about Superman and kryptonite, firmly establishing that they are friends once again.

Also in "Helpless," Buffy discovers that she might no longer be the Slayer and this causes her to panic. She loses her identity and clearly doesn't know how to cope with it's lose. Not only is she afraid that she won't be able to fight the forces of darkness anymore, but she also acknowledges that she doesn't know what to do if she is no longer able to do this. This is such a contrast from last season where she constantly complained about being the Slayer. She's come much further since then, but now to her being the Slayer is who and what she is and no longer an inconvenience to complain about.

This episode also focuses on Giles and Buffy very much. The reveal that it is Giles who took her powers from her for a test that the Watchers Council traditionally runs hurts Buffy deeply. To Giles, the fact that he went against everything he believes in to put a stop to the test and save Buffy shows just how deeply he cares about her - and just what lengths he is willing to go to to save her. Their relationship is strained for the remainder of the episode but by the end of it they are getting back to okay. But Giles clearly sees Buffy as his daughter, not as his weapon - which is noted by Quentin as he removes Giles from his duties as Buffy's watcher.

However, before all of these reveals, Buffy was supposed to go out with her father for her birthday to the ice capades but he backed out, giving her tickets to go with someone else. Joyce offered to take Buffy but she turned her down. What is important here is that she tried to hint to Giles that he should take her - showing that she feels for Giles as a father. The affection is not just one-sided. This also marks the end of Buffy and her father. Up until now she has always looked forward to his visits - but also always feared they would end. From this moment forward he is no longer in her life. He is occasionally mentioned, but only mentioned as a dead beat dad who can't be bothered to even keep in touch with his daughters, let alone have a relationship with them.

As a side note about this episode, Cordelia comes into the library right after Giles confesses everything to Buffy. Buffy turns to Cordelia for help, asking for a ride home, and Cordelia not only does not turn her down but is kind to her. She might not have known what exactly was going on but she knew it was important and chose to be a friend to Buffy in that moment, instead of an enemy.

Then there is Xander - the only true human of the group (excluding Cordelia since she goes back and forth between being in the group and not). While yes, everyone else is human too, they are all more then human. Buffy is the Slayer, Willow is a witch, Oz is a werewolf, and Giles is a Watcher. Xander is just Xander - and he will always be "just Xander." Cordelia mocks him for his lack of superpowers as well as his uselessness because of this in the episode "The Zeppo," and everyone else seeks to shield him from the danger they are facing, but he goes on to have his own adventure stopping a group of dead high school students from blowing up the school. He even kills a couple of them (though the one was an accident) and solves the problem completely on his own, showing himself that he is an important member of the group and that you don't need superpowers to be a hero. Of course, Xander has slayed a ridiculous number of vampires for a "normal" human, but it doesn't help to remind yourself that you are good at what you do on your own.

Lastly we have Faith's downfall in "Bad Girls." I don't want to get into this much because it is going to turn into a main focus for the remainder of the season, but there are a couple of things to mention. One is that she spends the entire episode convincing Buffy to think less and act more - and to take more, which leads to them actually breaking into a store to steal weapons because they can. At first Buffy embraces Faith's policy but once the police arrest them she starts having second thoughts. Then Faith accidentally kills the deputy mayor - who is just human - and Buffy wants to tell someone. But Faith has no interest in that happening, hiding the body and insisting she gets a free pass for being the Slayer. As Buffy insists that this is something that needs to be dealt with Faith counters with the statement that she doesn't care she killed a human.

My favorite episode? "The Zeppo." It is always nice to see the story through someone else's eyes. And it was also nice to see Xander realize that it's okay that he's just a regular human, that there is nothing wrong with that.

The four:

Gingerbread - Season 3, Episode 11

Synopsis - Joyce falls under the influence of a demon after she finds two dead children.

Helpless - Season 3, Episode 12

Synopsis - On her 18th birthday, if she survives that long, the Slayer must defeat a vampire without her powers. But things go wrong with Buffy's test. This is Quinton's first appearance.

The Zeppo - Season 3, Episode 13

Synopsis - An apocalypse looms on the horizon... but Xander is not allowed to participate for his own safety. Instead he finds himself stopping a group of dead high school students from blowing up the school.

Bad Girls - Season 3, Episode 14

Synopsis - Buffy tries living on the wild side with Faith, but things go horribly wrong. This is Wesley's first appearance.

buffy the vampire slayer: part ten

Oh boy. There was so much here. But, then again, there always seems to be so much.

Let's go in order. First, Joyce and Giles. While under the influence of cursed candy (in "Band Candy") Joyce and Giles revert to teenagers and have a brief affair. This is kind of fitting since Joyce is Buffy's mother and Giles is Buffy's father figure. Their affair is over them moment the candy is out of their system. Also, while under the influence of the cursed candy, Joyce and Giles discover that Buffy is lying to them about where she is spending all of her time and that she is using them as an excuse to the other. They don't realize it is because Angel is alive, but Buffy does tell them that she feels that she had to lie to them because they won't give her a moments peace or let her make a single decision on her own. They finally acknowledge that she might be partly right - though this is probably the candy's influence - but by the episodes end they do start to back off of Buffy.

Moving on to "Revelations," Faith gets a new Watcher (Gwendolyn Post) who seems to be everything Giles isn't. She's cutting, snide, and belittling towards Giles and is more interested in Faith as a weapon then as a person. In all honesty, she is more of a real Watcher then Giles is - and she knows it. She is also a fake. She was kicked out of the Watcher's Council years ago for abusing magic, though no one knows this yet. She arrives in Sunnydale, ideally both to train Faith and to find the Glove of Myneghon. She claims she wants the glove destroyed but in actuality she wants it for herself.

Meanwhile, Xander makes the discovery that not only is Angel alive but that Buffy knows this and isn't telling anyone. Between the stress of Gwendolyn arriving, Buffy lying, and Xander being so angry some serious fractures appear in the group. Giles accuses Buffy of not respecting him as her Watcher, Xander convinces Faith to kill Angel (though in all honesty it didn't take much convincing), and Willow is freaking out over her affair with Xander but she feels like she can't talk to anyone - not even Buffy. Then to complicate things even more, it is revealed that Gwendolyn is evil when she attacks Giles and goes after the glove (which is in Angel's possession). Faith and Xander discover Giles further cementing Faith's belief that Angel needs to die. Xander acknowledges that the attack on Giles isn't Angel's style but he can't talk Faith out of her determination. Then Gwendolyn attacks Angel - but when Faith arrives she sees an evil vampire attacking her good Watcher, not a good vampire defending himself from an evil Watcher. Xander further complicates things by rubbing it in Buffy's face that Faith has gone to kill Angel. Buffy arrives to stop Faith and things get even uglier when they fight. Then the truth of the situation is revealed when Gwendolyn puts on the glove - and Angel saves Willow from an attack.

This episode puts some serious stress on the group. Xander and Buffy get into a serious fight over Angel - with Buffy accusing Xander of being jealous which makes things worse with Cordelia. Giles is incredibly angry with Buffy over Angel. Faith is left incredibly hurt - both by her fake Watcher for using her and by Buffy for not trusting her. And in typical Faith fashion she shuts down from the betrayals. Willow and Xander are starting to get sloppy in their affair - that both insist that they don't want - and is going to get them caught in the next episode. Our heroes are left broken here, and while they start to pick up the pieces the next episode shatters things further.

Angry at Spike for picking sides with Buffy against Angel, Drusilla has left him ("Lovers Walk"). Spike comes to Sunnydale a drunken wreck looking for a spell to make Drusilla love him again. He finds Willow, and abducts her and Xander to force her to do the spell for him. While Buffy and Angel try to make Spike tell them where Willow and Xander are, Oz and Cordelia show up to rescue them - and find them making out. This ends Cordelia and Xander's relationship. In all honesty, I feel so bad for Cordelia. She really gets the short end of the stick. She sacrifices everything for Xander, tries to fit in with a group that she can't stand and can't stand her in return, starts to become friends with them, starts to fall in love with Xander, knows that Xander has feelings for Buffy - just to find out that Xander is cheating on her with Willow. She has had one long, incredible, painful story arc. And then to top it all off, her old friends want nothing to do with her. I do feel a little for Xander. He finally realizes just how much Cordelia means to him but it's too late. Cordelia, meanwhile, has gone back to being hostile to the group.

She also blames everything on Buffy, which is interesting. While Anya tries to get Cordelia to curse Xander, she instead keeps harping about Buffy - even going so far as to say that she never would have dated Xander if it wasn't for Buffy's friendship with him. One day, far in the future, things will settle between Cordelia and Buffy, but it is interesting to note that if it wasn't for Buffy entering her life Cordelia would have had a much different path. And I don't just mean the alternate reality she sent everyone into with her wish that Buffy never came to Sunnydale. I mean that Buffy brought something out in Cordelia, something she didn't even realize she had. A desire to do good, a desire to fight evil - and a desire to pick personal happiness over being a rich, snotty bitch. Buffy was the L.A. version of Cordelia. She had no problem joining Cordelia's clique. But Buffy chose to break with that and to make real friends instead. I think a part of Cordelia resented that but was also jealous of that. And in the end she tried to make the same choice. And it must have been a deep hurt to have that choice not pan out exactly the way she hoped for it to.

As for Willow and Oz, things are better. Oz tells her that he needs space, and when she tries to push him he shuts her down. It was hard to watch, but one can't blame him for feeling the way he does. Willow is not the victim here. But they don't stay apart for long. In "Amends" Oz admits to Willow that he does miss her and wants her back. They resume dating, with Willow trying to convince Oz to sleep with her. Oz is caught completely off guard and turns her down, telling her that he wants their first time to be because they both want it for the same reasons - and not as a way for Willow to make things up to him.

And things do start to get better for everyone. (Well, everyone who is not Cordelia.) Buffy and Xander make up over their Angel fight, with Xander admitting that Angel makes him a bit crazy. The core group of Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles holds together. Angel even turns to Giles for help and as much as Giles hates Angel and distrusts him (which is hard to watch considering how much he once trusted him) he does try to help. Spike goes back to torture Drusilla into loving him again (which oddly enough is a happy ending for them - even though it won't last). Buffy and Angel (with Spike's help, again, oddly enough) acknowledge that they love each other, that they will always love each other, but that they can't be together. Oz and Willow start dating again. And even Faith and Buffy start to patch things up. Despite everything they were through, they went through it together and came out the other side stronger together because of it.

Spike even starts to build a good relationship with Joyce - which is very odd. The first time Joyce met him he was trying to kill Buffy. The second time Joyce met him she found out Buffy was a Slayer and had a meltdown. The third time Spike shows up on her doorstep crying about Drusilla dumping him. She knows Spike is a vampire, she knows Spike is not a "good guy," yet despite this she lets him in her life and starts to build a sort of relationship with him.

Lastly, a note about the alternate universe. In this universe Joyce isn't even mentioned - though one assumes that she knows Buffy is the Slayer since Buffy takes off for days at a time for Slayer duties. Buffy is also a true Slayer here. While her Watcher seems to have no real control over her, she is a weapon, plain and simple. Giles does not reveal to anyone that he is a Watcher but he, along with Oz, a random girl, and Larry (of all people) try to fight against the vampires of the town and save the people. Willow and Xander are vampires and together - and they kill Cordelia. Angel is a prisoner of the Master. Xander kills Angel, Buffy kills Xander, Oz kills Willow, and the Master kills Buffy. Every relationship is perverted and broken.

It is also my favorite episode of these five for that reason. Watching Oz kill Willow when you wish them together. Watching Xander kill Cordelia after the betrayal she just went through at his hands. Seeing Buffy as a weapon - and seeing her fall, just like Kendra, for it. Seeing Xander finally kill Angel just like you know he wants to. It was so hard to watch, yet so incredibly good.

The episodes:

Band Candy - Season 3, Episode 6

Synopsis - Ethan Rayne is back, doing a job for the mayor with cursed candy that turns adults into teenagers.

Revelations - Season 3, Episode 7

Synopsis - A new Watcher shows up for Faith, in search of a powerful weapon, and the knowledge that Angel is alive is revealed to the group.

Lovers Walk - Season 3, Episode 8

Synopsis - Spike abducts Willow and Xander to force Willow to do a love spell for him on Drusilla. Willow and Xander's affair is revealed.

The Wish - Season 3, Episode 9

Synopsis - Cordelia makes a new friend in Anya, a vengeance demon, and unknowingly makes a wish that Buffy never came to Sunnydale sending everyone into an alternate universe.

Amends - Season 3, Episode 10

Synopsis - It is revealed that The First saved Angel from the hell dimension he was trapped in so that he can kill Buffy.