Innocence

Mark here... this episode of Buffy is called , "Innocence", and whoa! It was much better than the last! This episode had much more of the emotion involved in Buffy's choice to sleep with Angel and was much less of the young adult fawning.

So essentially this episode starts with Angel's curse being broken. He runs out of the bedroom with Buffy and it soon becomes clear he has lost his soul and become Angelus.  Angelus eventually confronts Buffy and tells her that sex essentially meant nothing and she wasn't that good.  This would be awful for anyone but for a teenager, so tough!  Buffy eventually realizes what's up.  She also realizes that Jenny Calendar is not what she seems, thanks to a prophetic dream.  She confronts Jenny and the curse is revealed,  and the fact that it's broken.  Willow figures it out first and shows the first signs of adult Willow.  Willow up until now had been portrayed as the mousy nerd, and now she's starting to show a more complex side.  For instance, she is very upset on discovering the Xander-Cordelia romance, but she starts to realize the appeal of Oz, who genuinely likes her.  Of course, this may not be the best choice long term for Oz... but he's awesome!

Anyway, the episode ends and changes the status quo.  Angelus is now evil...

Hi Laurel here...Nothing much to add except I am also super excited about signs of life from Willow.  She is obviously a genius and there's no reason for her to act so mousy and insecure all the time.  I know she has not found her witchy power potential yet but it's nice to see her start believing in herself at least a little.  You go Willow!

We give this one 4 stakes! Just because the writing was better at conveying emotion and we got the inkling of more complexity in Willow's personality.

Surprise

Mark here... we've just watched the next episode of Buffy.  This episode, "Surprise" is about the Buffy-Angel romance...like heavily.  It's interesting to watch this post Twilight and all the other vampire related stuff thats come after.  The whole episode hinges on the romance between 200-year old Angel and now 17 year old virgin Buffy.  At the time and to a teenage audience, I'm sure it played out differently.  As it is now, it was sort of entertaining, but also a little bit boring? I mean I guess part of it, is that I'm not buying the Angel Buffy chemistry.  In any case, the gang finds out that Drusilla is still alive and intent on reviving this super demon, The Judge.  His body parts have been separated and Drusilla has put the parts back together by the end of the episode.

The bigger plot points are that we find out that Jenny Calendar is not what she seems, as an uncle of hers shows up and reminds her of her duty.  Jenny being a gypsy who's job is to ensure that Angel's gypsy curse is never broken. What breaks this curse? A moment of true happiness.  And what could make a 200-year old vampire happier than doing it with a 17 year old virgin?!

It's funny because, when the event inevitably happens, Angel of course tells Buffy he loves her.  Which is clearly what a young teenage girl wants to hear. To my cynical older self though, I'm like, oh, he just wants to do it with you!  I get the whole Young Adult appeal, and this was clearly ground breaking at the time, but I'm a little jaded I guess.  It's not that I don't like Angel, but...  In any case, the episode ends on a cliffhanger, as Buffy and Angel have obviously spent the night and Angel awakes in pain....

Hey Laurel here...not much to add except that I totally agree with Mark!  I know we are watching this with 40 year old eyes.  Also 2014 eyes.  That being said, I can't help but to compare this to "True Blood"  I know they have the benefit of hindsight, but I feel like true blood does a pretty good job of acknowledging that the vampires on the show are hundreds of years old.  They are still in love with 20-something humans, but they address the fact that it's unlikely and find ways to make the relationships a little more plausible.  I know, Buffy is the first show of it's kind, it was the 90s, etc etc...but I can't unsee what I have seen and I really wish they would treat Angel like the 200 year old he really is.

Also I hate Drusilla so much!  Any episode she's in I totally stop paying attention as soon as she's on screen, then Mark has to explain to me what happens.  But this happens to Mark all the time, not just when Drusilla shows up.  I'm sorry Mark.

Also just a quick note that "the judge" who ends up getting re-assembled is totally a 90s raver demon. He's muscle bound with a blue face and baby horns.   I kind of miss 90s rave culture, both because I kind of believe in and and at the same time I love making fun of it.  Pacifers?  Come the fuck on!  but also I lost my virginity at burning man.  You can see why I am conflicted.

This one gets 3 stakes.  barely.  It wasn't the worst but not the best.

Bad Eggs

Hi Laurel here...we're back at it!  Mark made us an awesome dinner of stuffed squash...Acorn squash stuffed with sausage and quinoa topped with cheese.  Yum!  I know what you're thinking, the theme of the blog for this season of Buffy was supposed to be "bloodless"  aka all vegetarian.  Mark was going to make this recipe with veggie sausage but we both decided that would be a crime, so we made an exception to the vegetarian theme for tonight.  We are rebels that way.

So this episode was pretty good!  It borrowed HEAVILY from Alien, specifically Aliens (the sequel) but I'll let Mark fill you in on that, since he actually still has a functioning memory.  As you know, these days mine is not what it used to be.

The gang has the classic assignment in school to take care of an egg baby for a week.  Mark said he never had this assignment, but I did and I failed.  I think I put my egg in the fridge and Barb ate it. Sign from the universe?

Anyway it's Buffy so it turns out there's something fishy about these eggs...They are full of creatures that hatch and take over your body, in service of their queen.  Everyone gets taken over by them except for Buffy and Xander.  Willow and Cordelia end up clocking both of them and knocking them out, which was oddly satisfying.  But like I said I'll let Mark tell you the rest.

Also of note this episode, Xander and Cordelia are hooking up on the reg...but they still hate each other.

Mark here... I liked this episode too.  As Laurel said, it's sort of an "homage" to Aliens and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  The whole thing as a B-movie feel, mostly due to the special effects.  Not that that's a bad thing,  but some scenes are clearly direct from Aliens, except in a high school.  The demons/aliens that are in the eggs are clearly just like the aliens from the movie.  The scenes also play out pretty similarly.  The scene where Buffy confronts her alien from the egg in her room plays out exactly like Ripley and Newt confronting the alien in the med lab in Aliens.  Also, the dissection scene is similar to Aliens dissection.

Once the gang is "infected", it moves into Body Snatchers territory.  I think even though it might not be the most original it's a fun twist, setting this all in a high school, similar to the movie, "The Faculty" which I also enjoyed.

Separately, Buffy's mom is starting to lay down the law with Buffy and tell her to be more responsible.  Of course we know she's not really as irresponsible as she lets on, it's just all the vampire slaying.

All in all, we'd give this episode 3 and a half stakes.  It wasn't brilliant plotwise, but the writing was fun and it played out fun....