I Robot...You Jane

Mark here...This episode is called "I Robot...You Jane" and it's a cool concept.  There's a demon who's been trapped inside a book.  He is inadvertently released onto the internet when the gang is scanning books in the library.  He seduces certain students, one of whom happens to be Willow.  The gang eventually catches on to what's going on and catches the demon again.  As I said the episode plays well...up until the end.  The demon finds his way out of the internet and into a conveniently ready demon shaped robot.  Its a bit of a stretch and after an otherwise interesting episode, its kind of corny and low budget.  Also, this episode introduces us to Jenny Calendar.  She's the new school computer science teacher and is clearly meant to be a bit of a foil for Giles.  She's also "hip" to the supernatural world, a "techno-pagan".  I seem to remember her being a popular character, but I never really liked her.  She's a bit too "Melrose Place" to come across as a cool nerd.  In any case, her computer skills help save the day here in the end.

Laurel here...I thought this episode had a really interesting concept, of the demon escaping into the internet.  I feel like it was a real sign of the times.  In the late 90s the internet was still super new, remember how people used to be afraid of shopping online because they had to enter their credit card numbers?  Anyway I thought it was an interesting idea to have a demon escape into the internet and wreak havoc.  In the show even after the demon incident the gang still seems to be ok with technology, except for Giles of course just wants to be alone with his books.

Another note about this episode.  Poor Willow!  The demon pretends to be an 18 year old boy from a town 80 miles away and seduces willow through online chat.  She thinks she has met the man of her dreams on the internet and he turns out to be a crazy, ancient, ugly monster turned robot.  wah wah.  This is why I don't do online dating!

I agree with Mark about "Jenny Calendar".  A of all, worst name ever, B of all I feel like as the teacher who is a computer expert and a pagan, she should be a little quirkier.  It's an opportunity for a really interesting character and she is just too normal and boring.